Transformers Turns 41: The Wyoming Connection You Probably Never Knew

The original 1984 Transformers cartoon celebrates their 41st anniversary today. The series first aired on September 17th, 1984. The franchise is one of the most successful and highest-grossing in the world, having generated more than 25 billion dollars in revenue.

I was almost 8-years old when it first aired, but I'll never forget it, because it was both iconic and amazing. Nowadays, you can't enter a toy aisle without some sort of converting toy (for both boys and girls), lining the shelves, but in 1984, this was a relatively new idea, at least in America.

As far as boy toys go, Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars were king during this time, but robots and action figures were also big, so the thought of having a robot that also turned into real-world vehicles, completely blew my young, adolescent mind!

Factor in that the cartoon series was way ahead of it's time as far as animation goes (following anime-like qualities, which were rarely seen in the U.S. in the '80s), and the Marvel comic book series, Transformers was literally like their tagline: "More than meets the eye".

Being the Transformers super-fan/nerd that I am, I semi-recently came across one of the original Marvel comics series from the '80s and found out (or was reminded), that there were a few issues that highlighted the bad guys (the Decepticons), had a base of operations in eastern Wyoming, Powder River Basin to be exact.

It's actually a quite interesting storyline (which you can get the synopsis for here). A friend sent me a copy of one of the issues from that run, and now I am on the hunt for the others, but they are considered grails among Transformers fandom, because of how old and rare they are, especially to find in pristine condition.

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There have been a myriad of live action films and numerous different animated series as well, but in my humble opinion, nothing will ever beat the original 1984 series. All four seasons of that series are available to stream for free on Tubi, but they're also available to watch for free on the Hasbro Pulse YouTube channel. Check out the iconic first episode below.