10 Things You [Probably] Didn't Know About...Transformers

Transformer fans unite! To celebrate the release of our amazing new and exclusive Transformers clothing, we've been searching the interwebs high and low for some amazing nuggets of retro information about the coolest Alien robots around. We just love to keep you clued up huh! :)

For over three decades, our lives have been influenced, impacted, transformed by giant robots from the far away planet Cybertron.  For them, it has been millennia of civil war, fights and trouble, but for us, it has been decades (scary!) of watching, playing and loving these iconic Autobots and Decepticons.

However you came to love these guys, sit back and enjoy our perhaps slightly hidden treasures of some of the most iconic retro characters ever!

1. According to Bob Budiansky, the writer for the Marvel Comics series, Hasbro originally thought the name Megatron sounded too villainous. Budiansky pointed out that was the point and Hasbro went along with the suggestion. Thank you Bob. The evil Decepticon could be known as nothing else!2. Fans of the cartoon Robotech found an odd similarity between the Valkyrie jet-transforming-robot suits and the action figure of Autobot Skyfire. In Japan, they used the same model to produce both toys. In the cartoon, the Decepticon-turned Autobot giant jet didn’t look like the alien-killing Robotech vehicles. But when kids received Skyfire the toy, many little heads were scratched.

3. The Transformers began with the 1980s Japanese toy lines Microman and Diaclone.

4. Optimus Prime's original name before he became Autobot leader was Orion Pax in the television series. Orion is the mythological Greek hunter while Pax is Latin for peace. In Latin, Optimus means "best"; "Prime" comes from primus, meaning "first".

5. The first Transformer to appear on the series was Wheeljack.

6. Optimus Prime was killed during The Transformers: The Movie but came back to life for the episode Dark Awakening and returned for good in the episode The Return of Optimus Prime.

7. Transformer toys also invented the aspect of giving their Toys Trading card stat cards which kids could trade and collect. Even the boxes these toys came from were collectibles.

8. In Japan, the first Transformers series was called "Fight! Super Robot Life Form Transfomers".

9. Bumblebee was a VW Beetle in the original series but he's a Camaro in the live-action Transformers movie.

10. One man, actor Frank Welker, voiced more than half of the original decepticons.

Phew! Some (hopefully) pretty cool stuff here for all you fans out there. Hopefully you've learnt a little something new that you can dazzle your friends with as the next geeky pub quiz :)

Feeling inspired? Don't for get to take a quick peep at our amazing new and super excluisve Transformers T-Shirts...

xoxo