Just like the subject sez,...what initailly did you see pertaining to the Transformers that interested you? What made you a fan afterward?

My very first introduction to TF was a Marvel comic book commercial for issue #2. Marvel for a short time, after doing stuff with Sunbow(?), did some promotional commercial for their comic books. In the commercial I was blown away by images of F-16's attacking a nuclear powerplant and seeing a handgun transform into a figure and blasting away with a bazooka type weapon. Images flashed and the ad ended with Megs blasting Optimus Prime and the image froze to the cover of issue #2. After that, I dropped my G.I.JOES and committed to collecting TF's!

Was 6 when they came out, basically saw the toon' and then saw toy cars that turned into robots! Is there anything better?

A war between Sentient Alien Robots. That idea absolutely captivated me. Near-immortal beings struggling for eternity with almost human hearts and minds really tickled my fancy.

Throw in Transforming, Giant Robot Carnage, and good charecters and storylines (I came in with BW, ok) and I was hooked.

Oh, and toys. Toys are awesome too.

Back in 1984 a kid in my street had a Sideswipe figure. I'd seen robots that changed into other things before, but this seemed cooler to me than those. A week later I saw the first issue of the comic and bought it without even connecting the two things in my mind. I was surprised to find that my friend's toy was a character in the comic.

I put my fandom of TF down to the Star Fleet series and the red Dai-X robot in that. Without that show I'd have probably not paid as much attention to the red car that changed into a robot. And on the cover of the first UK issue of TF was another red robot: Optimus Prime.

The cartoon showed up on television and the triumverate of TF was cemented in my head. Been here ever since.

Mostly I'm still interested in the toy designs and the clever mechanics they employ in transformation, but the comics and cartoon interested me with how they were both about the same thing and with the same characters, but went off in different directions.

I picked up a pencil and started drawing, and a pen and started writing. I suppose you could say Transformers gave me direction in my creativity, but I still have to give props to Star Fleet and the Dai-X. If only they'd put the show out on DVD.

I don't really see much 'clever' to them. Being complicated isn't always something I wanna see - simplicity can be just as smart in some cases.
And even though I'm mostly turned on by the mechanics of things, there are still other, baser considerations where I see Transformers as being done an injustice in places for reasons that are very much beyond my capabilty to properly explain. Other design choices could've served better in my opinion.

Here's the thing though: If I happen to have the cash handy when I come across one, I might just buy Bay Leader Optimus because a video I saw of someone transforming him intrigued me (mostly the way the feet worked). Unlike most others, I still greatly dislike the Bay Prime design and see hideousness all over him, but I can make an exception for the sake of toy curiosity. That said, if a friend gets him and I can check out how everything works on theirs, then I won't bother buying one for myself.

Like/dislike is always hard to explain, and is rarely able to be put in a neat little box of reasons.

There. And I didn't say 'Because it's not G1' either.

For me, it was the cartoon. I was born in '84, so I can't remember when exactly I first saw it, but I spent the better part of me early childhood watching it. Didn't really have that many Transformers toys as there were only a few of them on sale here (curiously enough, there was more of a MOTU and G.I. Joe craze, where toys were concerned). Most of the ones I had were stuff my folks bought abroad. Needless to say all of them either met a tragic death or were given away to other kids at some point, but I had a blast playing with them, so whatever.

When the cartoon stopped airing I was out of the loop and watching other shows for the longest time(no BW or anything in between here, apart from Cybertron which started airing fairly recently) until one day my mates and I started discussing the toons we watched as kids. Everyone remembered the TFs most fondly, so I thought I'd go online and try to find some DVDs or something. Sure enough, I stumble across TFL, find out about the movie and everything in between, and I've been checking it all out ever since. I'm thinking about starting a toy collection again, too. Saw some classics and a few Cybertron toys at the mall the other day. Didn't even know they've actually been ont he market here for quite some time.

I think for me I was immediately intrigued by the Ark crash, how they showed the passage of time and then the reawakening...that really fascinated me as a child, and it's why I'm pissed this origin story didn't make it into the film..there is so many possibilities with it. Of course, the whole idea of transforming robots was equally interesting and exciting to me, and I also liked the cast of voices, who were very distinctive and cool to listen to.