Added: 3 years ago
From: EvilKingMacrocranios
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  • Then Prime realized just standing there wasn't going to light their darkest hour.

  • I still have that first "The Transformers" comic book, in which I had received as a Christmas present back in '84! :)

  • Technology of Animation, and commercials, have gone so far since then

  • i watch cartoons like this in the hub and im 14!

  • This Megatron was from Marvel Comics. thats why his head looks 'retarded'.

  • Megatron looks like a idiot xD

  • The rest is history :)

  • Wow look how Megtron's head was so different. Or am I seeing things?

  • GOBOTS RULE

  • was any 1 else scared of megatrons prototyped head form also?

  • Skywarp: "What's wrong with your head, Lord Megatron?"

    Megatron: "My helmet is in the cleaners, why?"

    Skywarp: "Erm... nothing boss... you look great... yeah..."

  • I knew it! Megatron's head was different from the final version. I somehow always knew this but could never remember why. Thanks for uploading this! :D

  • Loved them as a kid- it's also a great example of Triple Marketing- The Comic, Cartoon series and toys all helped sell each other. I probably still have a bunch of these in the attic at my folk's house. Thanks for uploading!

  • Wow, don't think I ever saw this 1 - and I grew up in the 80s

  • Haha, I still have this commercial on a Beta video tape plus the G.I. Joe toy commercial that introduced Duke as a mail-in offer.

  • so transformers is marvel?!?!?!

  • @gageepicness The original Transformers comic book was from Marvel. I have a collection of 'em. These days Transformers comics are distrubuted from other comic labels.

  • The most constant thing in the last 27 years of my life is plastic robots.

    Depressing.

  • I certainly miss the old-school days.

  • the first was the best .... why is evryone falling for shitty micheal bay?

  • I was almost too old for this stuff back then. This is back in the day where all the cartoons were just infomercials for the toys.

  • the sad or ironic part of this commercial is that every character shown here gets killed during the '86 movie....except for jazz

  • @AverageUsername ...and Sideswipe!!!

  • the sad or ironic part of this commercial is that every character shown here gets killed during the '86 movie....

  • What I wouldn't give for a TARDIS ride back to 1984 for those prices. Megatron is now $100-$130 for a re-issue. Optimus is $50, Seekers are now $30, Soundwave $75, and Jazz, Sideswipe, Prowl, and the like are all re-issued at $20.

  • transformers came into my life on the bozo show!!

  • Whats the deal with Meg's head at 0:18? Man I am glad they didnt keep that version.

  • @Doomsday971 that was from his days as a diaclone figure in japan i think, they have released a megatron with that head mold though, shattered glass megatron

  • I remember this commercial. I was about 12yrs old on my way to school. I thought this was the greatest thing ever. Jets turning (forever knows as transforming) into robots...fuckin awesome. I've been down with the decepticons ever since!

  • September 1984, marking it on my calendar.

  • Hello. i have an old Happy Meal Transformers toy.

    He has a red torso, black legs, black face with purple details and a white mouth. He has a transparent sphere covering.

    What is his name?

    Thank you

  • "This took me back to 7th grade! Thanks!"

  • When I was kid in the early 80's if you had Optimus Prime, you were the coolest kid on the block.

  • Autobots! ROLL OUT!

  • I remember this well....I was 10 at the time. The first appearance of the Transformers. I was an instant fan.....

  • Megatron sure went through a radical redesign within the cartoon.

  • Did they only have the prime,jazz,sideswipe,and prowl for the autobots.

  • Haha i made one out of paper too...in 2rd grade!

  • Cool but why are the Decepticon' heads different?

  • Comment removed

  • Thankx for posting. Brings me back to way better times. Boy being an adult blows. Being a kid in those times? Wish it never ended! Thankx again!

  • GO-BOTS RULE !!!!!

  • @Jackthemeat No-Vay. Optimus prime would kick Leader-1 and Cy-Kill's butt. Megatron is a far better villian than Cy-Kill. Gobot command center always looked gay. The Transformers had better headquarters.

  • Gotta give credit to Bob Budiansky; he's the Larry Hama of Transformers. He wrote all the tech specs and most of the Transformers comics.

  • "Autobots wage their battle to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons."

    That didn't really rhyme, but at least they managed to explain the story to me.

  • Classic

  • SIDESWIPE

  • is unfortunate that the kids now, do not enjoy cartoons like this...

  • i have not seen this commercial sinse i was a kid and im happy to see it again i love the classic treasures of the good old days i apreciat it is super cool

  • Megatron sure had a different design in the comics.

  • Comment removed

  • The Transformers is one of the most 80s cartoons.

  • I remember thinking this was a Gobots commercial, whome were already out at this time (neighbor kids had them). This marvel comics commercial for TF ran quite a few times before the next TF commercial, the one that actually introduced the toys. It was only then that people realized that Transformers were better than Gobots.

  • @albatross1977 Had the same experience and thought the same thing

  • Wow! What was wrong with Megatron's head?

  • @Jimdlux

    The toy for Megatron was not made yet. I think this was a prototype sketch.

    Trouble was because it imitated a hand gun. The US toy had its legs painted red and japanese toy was blue inside

    Difference was one Japanese toy came with sword and plastic bullets which did fire - blue legs

    US toy had no sword and the springs were removed so it did not fire - red legs

  • That's not what I'm talking about. The cartoon was American made. Megatron's head is black (which I think looks cooler). I know the toy line was different from Japan to America. American kids are dumb and would blind themselves or choke on the plastic bullets.

  • Transformers Still going strong

  • Thank God somebody taped this on vhs so we could all enjoy it 25 years later. Cool!

  • i first got into tfs in 2006 when i was eight. i liked tf: cybertron, then iliked the bay film, then a breakthrough in my life when i saw the 1986 movie. ever since then ive been hooked to g1. and yes, call me kid all you want, i am 12.

  • Oh man I loved these commercials for the comic books, both for this and GI Joe. Great animation. This is what started my love for the "robots in disguise ".

  • YES!!! I remember they promoted the comic book FIRST!! Wow! They actually animated a commercial before they finalized the cartoon design!!

    The Ark is completely different, Megatron and the jets heads are too! This is gold!

  • I'm only 19 and I am just starting to get into the G1 series after getting shout factorys season 1 box set for my birthday. I have to say this cartoon is way better than the 2 michel bay movies

  • You got good taste, kid. You'll enjoy the ride ;)... God Gambit, Return of Optimus Prime, the Ultimate Doom, Prime Target are my personal faves...

  • @foxfamilychannel1989 So young, and yet so wise!

  • @foxfamilychannel1989 God bless you. <:)

  • Comment removed

  • @foxfamilychannel1989 The 3rrd movie is pretty good. I think the old toys are awesome....if you can afford them.

  • @foxfamilychannel1989 At least now you know what everyone else knows by now.

  • @foxfamilychannel1989

    That's an understatement. The whole G1 set is well worth the money rather than all three crappy movies combined.

  • As much as I love the toy, cartoon, and comic... the theme song was my favorite part of it!

  • When I saw this commercial when I was 8, I literally was like "Mom, Mom!!! YOU Should've seen this!!!! The rest was history for me :D.

  • That was awesome! That was supposed to be Megatrons head! This is classic! Where did you find this?

    Thanks

  • i remember seeing this commercial...then seeing a commercial for go-bots..

    i was like 'what the hell is this crap?' after seeing the go-bots...

    needless to say i think i made the right decision when it came to choosing between the two lol

  • I remember seeing the Go-Bots toys first and thinking this was a rip off. I soon became more fond of the these guys from Cybertron! I loved reading about the characters on the tech specs.

  • I read that in the early 80's, before the infamous Reagan deregulation on cartoon based on toys, Hasbro hatched an idea to bypass these laws by having animation shown in what were comic commericals but in effect were toy commercials, they did this with gi joe from 1982-1984. By 1984, the regs were gone and hasbro had free rein to make cartoons based on toys.

  • This was my favorite when I was kid!

  • When i saw this first i didnt know what to think

  • oh the good times

  • Bad ass cartoon for the time.

  • I remember when this was first aired. Thanks for uploading. It takes me back to my elementary school days.

  • This makes me wish I was born in the 80's XD

  • aw, that's cute

  • actually, you would have had to be born in the 70's have experienced this

  • @ElizabethScotty You would have to be born in the late 70's at least to see this commercial's first airing. First aired 1984.

  • This commercial got me into this series. At this time, I thought it was just a comic book - didn't realize it was a toy.

    Wow, I'm so glad you had this. Thank you!

  • Woah, I thought I knew what this was going to be- thought I'd seen them all- never seen this one!

  • I remember seeing this commercial back in the days leading up to the first days of high school...Ahhh...the memories...this is a rare gem of a commercial indeed!

  • Wow. I've never seen this before. I like seeing those different animation models and colourschemes.

  • HOLY SMOKES!!!! In the 25 years I have been a fan of the Transformers...I don't think I have never seen this commercial!! The only commercial I remember seeing for the Marvel comic was the one announcing Optimus Prime's return as a Powermaster! The early animation models and color schemes used were pretty cool! However, in the case of Megatron...I am glad they changed him up a little bit. Having to hold his arm at a 45 degree angle and manually raise his cannon would have sucked in battle!

  • not to mention they changed megatron's head for the cartoon

  • Looking at the characters, you can tell that this commercial was made LONG before production of the television series was finished. Several of the color schemes are wrong, and they aren't even flying in the correct ships!!

    Thanks so much for uploading this!!

  • As far as I remember, the comic book was first, with the TV show airing several months later. The toys didn't appear on shelves until about 2 weeks prior to the first episode. When the toys were finally available, sales didn't pick up until after the 3-part mini-series aired. I remember the seeker jets going for $16.99, most mini-Autobots like Bumblebee were $4, Soundwave was like $20, Optimus and Megatron went sold for like $30 each. Ironhide, Jazz, Prowl, and those guys sold for $6 to $8.

  • I've found prices are very hard to approximate because retailers charged differently from market to market. I have a site with a list of '84 Transformer newspaper ads from different cities in the 1980s. From the research I've done, Optimus and Megatron were more often in the range of $19.99. It was Jetfire and Shockwave that sold in the range of $25-$30 in '84. Regular price on Autobot cars in '84 was usually $8.99 but sales would lower them to $6.99.

  • @TKE31 I think that's right dude. I remember the first time I saw this I was in sixth grade.

  • @TKE31 Good Memory, and you are 100% correct sir. I remembered all of that except for the prices.

  • @TKE31 I saw the comic commercials first. Never saw this video though. I see there's more footage of that different-looking Megatron. The first one I saw featured Starscream, an ad for the comic.

  • wait a minute the cartoon was first? or the comic was firts?

  • The comic debuted May 8 1984 and the cartoon first aired September 17th. The toys were first released in May of '84 although they may have lagged a little in some areas.

  • Wow. I never remember that one, and I remember most others. Nice find!

  • Fantastic find! If the original recording this video was encoded from still exists, it would be great to see a higher quality version.

  • All I have is a crappy little .RM from which I did the upload. I'll bet better quality video exists and it may just pop up in the upcoming DVD release of the G1 Transformers cartoon.

  • Ah, bummer. Here's hoping it does show up in the new release! Regardless, thanks a bunch for sharing - this is probably the rarest of all the TF commercials! :)

  • @EvilKingMacrocranios

    i would not count on that. Hasbro has tried very hard to delete Marvels part in the TFs creation.

  • Unbelievable someone was able to find this, I (thought) Id seen every commercial ever. Wow!

  • adde em too liste of ppl htat goode!!!!!

  • oh wow,I never knew that megs had a different head design

  • I was a G.I. Joe fan. But, when I saw Optimus transform in this commercial, I was like "Screw G.I. Joe- I want THAT!! The next day, Transformers was the topic of choice at school. After awhile if you didn't have one, you were a chump, in the eyes of the fellas. I'm proud to say that over 25 years later, I'm still a fan.

  • No doubt man. I had a ton of GI Joe but these were far better. My first one was Soundwave. Too bad most of them got destroyed when I was a kid.

  • My 1st one was Brawn, mainly cuz I couldn't afford very many. But think about how a generation of kids were changed forever due to this very commercial. Who knew that Optimus Prime would become the icon that he is? Who knew that 25 years later, it would lead to a 2nd live action, and 3rd movie overall? Who would've known it would lead to all the multi-universes, the conventions, and legions of fans from all walks of life? Who knew it would lead us all back here, where it all started? Awesome!!!

  • That's deep man! My first was Ironhide yeaah! I always wanted Omega Supreme... Grimlock was my favourite... My parents ditched my whole collection when I was about 14... I have since gotten back a few of the ones I had and some I never had (G1 Optimus, Devastator etc).

  • Word. I've been working on getting back some of the older G1 figures and restoring them. I'm currently working on Starscream, Jetfire, and Metroplex.

  • Who would have thought back in 1984 that this franchise would be such a juggernaut.

  • i love how the designs changed over time ^_^

  • Too bad the video it self is bad but so cool ^_^

  • cool...

  • That really brings back memories. I remember all my friends getting excited when that commercial came out. That was the talk of class the next day at school.

  • Oh, NO!!! That is not my Thundercracker!!!

  • If anyone does have a link or website of where I can find the American Soundwave commercial, email me.

  • Yeah, when this commercial came out the comic series launch and the Pre-Rub toys came out (The first three Transformer toys released in the US were Hound, Soundwave with Buzzsaw, and Jazz)And from June to September other toys were release like Optimus Prime, (Gray Version-Pre Rub)Megatron,Ironhide,Jazz and Sunstreaker and the other Autobots.

    But it was when the TV series came out on television when the Transformers were know worldwide and the Decepticon Jets were instroduce in the toy line.

  • cool info how do u know for sure that hound soundwave and jazz were the first to be released i thought it was the minicars and cassettes i could be wrong though

  • Thanks for the memories. When did this commercial come out? I am trying to determine if this came out before the Gobots commericlas because both came out in 1984.

  • The GoBots were first. Their television advertising campaign began February 2nd 1984 in ten cities after the toys had already been in stores a month. Transformers did not launch until May of 84.

  • Man I really appreciate this. I remember being in the spring semester of 3rd grade when I made my own jet transformer out of paper.

    EvilKingMacrocanios, do you know the 10 cities that the ad-campaign started with? In 1984,I know that they were already heavily advertised down south on channels WGNX 46 and WTTO 21 before kids were out for summer vacation.

  • Also WCIX 6 in Miami, lol. I thought I was the only person who tried to make Thundercracker out of paper, lol.

  • The original 10 cities that ran the GoBots promos? No, I don't have the complete list.

  • DO you know long I have been looking for this commercial. I can still remember seeing this when I was a kid. Man thank you for posting this. Thanks alot. It almost completes my child hood

  • Do you know somebody that does know how to upload it? And is there another website you can unload it to?

  • No, sorry. You could always try ebay.

  • Do you have the soundwave commercial? If you do, can you post it?

  • The only copy of the Soundwave commercial I have is on the 2003 Madman (Australian/New Zealand) DVD release of the Transformers animated movie. It's the one with the Don Figueroa cover of Megatron figthing Optimus Prime. I'm not smart enough about DVDs to figure out how to upload it here, though.

  • THANK YOU. I've been looking all over Youtube for this. Which link was it in?

  • Do a google search for "interview with Paul Kurnit".

  • this brings back memories taht's i don't have...i wasn't born in the 80's but if i was it's like old times. :)

  • I'm impressed with the animation in this commercial. The sleek shiney style is far better than anything seen in season 1. Hard to believe this is something like 1983 or 1984 when this was animated. Most other shows had a dulled down look to them at that point. (Look at Superfriends, Fantastic 4, and even He-man for example.)

    Great find. Thanks for posting it!

  • We can assume they spent a lot of time on this animation, since it was the first one. When you get into season production, the quality will tend to go down for some shows, since everything has to be rushed out, due to the number of shows in the queue. That means key frames will usually be sloppily drawn, and shading will sometimes be neglected.

  • you can def. tell that the animation for this is at its highest level.  When you fast forward to Years 2 and 3 the animation starts to go down hill fast!

  • That depends. If you want to refer to episodes like "City of Steel" or "Triple Takeover", I totally agree. But if you want to refer to episodes like "The God Gambit", or "The Golden Lagoon", I'd have to respectfully disagree.

  • I don't know if it's fair to compare the two because Sunbow's in house animation studio did the early commercials while the cartoon was done by another studio entirely.

  • @hellspreetube they had season 1 made before they advertised 

  • @KingTorrtera If you're saying they had produced season 1 before they produced the ad, then they obviously had separate production teams, since the ad used different character model sheets. I would also be surprised to know that they spent money on producing a whole season before advertising to know if they had an audience for it. If you're talking about the 3-part pilot, that wouldn't be considered season 1.

  • @hellspreetube all of season 1 they had air time bought already

  • Great to see this again, love the early design of Megatron!

  • Thanks! I have been looking for this one for years!

  • Michael Bay needs to put battles like this in Transformers Revenge of the Fallen. Decepticons where kicking but and Sideswipe,Prowl,and Jazz are fighting for there life.

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