September 1984.

With a crisp five dollar bill in my hand, I ventured on a 2 mile walk with only one goal in mind. To purchase my very first Transformer. The only place for an 8 year old to buy toys in my hometown without parental supervision was a small drugstore that carried knock off items of popular toy lines as well as a couple real deals. I quickly scanned the toy shelf for my newest recruit in my mish mash of GI Joe, Star Wars, A-Team, and He Man figures. I had two packages to pick from, a real deal Bumblebee or his clone (he still was an official transformer, but he was red and lame), the newly created cartoon taught me that even though Bumblebee was small, he was an important part of the autobot team; so I quickly purchased him and made the long trek back to my house where he would bring a message of hope from the planet cybertron to all the toys in my arsenal.

As soon as I got to my room, I ripped the clear plastic that had separated me from his plastic touch. I then flipped the box over and began to follow the detailed directions in how to transform this car into a mighty robot. This is where I learned a valuable lesson, they may be powerful robots in disguise, but they still are made of cheap plastic. Long story short: Bumblebee lost his legs. They managed to stay part of him for a couple of weeks but they were bound to be lost in the abyss of the sofa. With a birthday coming up, he spread the word that Optimus Prime would soon land and help fight the evil forces of Cobra and Skeletor (and for x-mas the bad guys got the pep talk for megatron). Oh the adventures and crazy story lines a child can create! They were awesome and I wish I could remember them all to pawn off to some Hollywood douchebag for millions.

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