[Editor's Note: This is the latest entry in our annual "Summer of…" series, co-presented by Aaron Aradillas of Blog Talk Radio's Back By Midnight and Jamey DuVall and Jerry Dennis of Blog Talk Radio's Movie Geeks United! Transformers: The Movie was released in theaters on August 8th, 1986.]

I spent the better part of my pre-pubescent years collecting action figures and their respective war machines. After lining these miniature soldiers up in precise battalions, I'd orchestrate fantastical battles between the forces of G.I. Joe, M.A.S.K. (Mobile Air Strike Kommand), and He-Man. Malicious destruction of these toys was never my focus; it was the art of movement, sound, and slow motion that fascinated me to no end. Looking back, it seems like my 5-year-old self was trying to contemplate the power of the visceral image long before my rampant cinephilia blossomed in the early 1990s, an instinctual clue I never really recognized until now.

First developed by Japanese toy manufacturer Takara and made famous in the U.S. by Hasbro, the shape-shifting Transformers characters were common heroes in my vintage reenactments. Each character/machine had a distinct look and purpose, which allowed for endless scenarios during the heat of the battle. In fact, my love for Optimus Prime, Megatron, Bumblebee, and the rest of the multi-dimensional brood went beyond collecting just the figurines; there were definitely Transformers bed-sheets involved. So when Transformers: The Movie was released on August 8, 1986, it became my inaugural event film. The memories of this theatrical experience itself are brief—only striking flashes of color and light—but my hazy recollection made me even more curious about how Transformers: The Movie would play to my adult self made cynical by Michael Bay's manic and brutish handling of the same material some 25 years later. Continue Reading »