I’m a huge Transformers fan (don’t mention Michael Bay because that’s NOT Transformers). I was about 11 or 12 when they first released here in the United States and my brother Cliff and I were still heavily into playing with toys at the time, even if it was considered uncool once you hit those middle school years. It didn’t matter to me. We started seeing the idea of transforming robots in Gobots. If you weren’t familiar with them, they were basically the MySpace of this area and Transformers became Facebook. Our neighbor collected Gobots but we saw Transformers in store at a place near my Mom’s clothing store she worked at. As an aside, she worked for a store called “Liss” and the guy who owned it was named Dick and Liss was his last name.

I got a black jet with purple accents called “Skywarp”. I believe Cliff got an Autobot called Sunstreaker. It’s still one of the coolest things I’ve ever owned in my life.

Transformers were robots that transformed into jets and semi-trucks and guns and cassette decks were incredible and captured our imagination.

Cliff and I were always tight growing up. We shared a room. Bunk beds and we played with all the 80s toys as they were released. He-Man, Thundercats, GI Joe. The key was that when we first decided to collect something, we’d choose which side we’d want to be. I was absolutely enamored with the cool quotient of the evil Decepticons. Mostly I loved jets and I thought the facial design of the Decepticons was way cooler than the more heroic Autobots. Thus became a lifelong war between my brother and I about who was better, the Decepticons or the Autobots (our wives can confirm this argument).

We hit peak Transformers geekdom in 1986 when our beloved franchise hit the big screen in Transformers: The Movie. Yesterday was apparently the 30-year anniversary of the movie being released in theaters. Also, if you’re a fan of the movie, here’s quite a few things you might not know about the movie.

It was a glorious story, the animation was light years ahead of the TV series, they actually KILLED Autobots in merciless fashion (keep in mind that in the series, no one EVER died so seeing Megatron murder Ironhide while he was crawling on the ground was earthshattering for my brother – and even I cringed a bit) and they dropped the “s” bomb when an evil planet was about to eat one of Cybertron’s moons.

Yes I happened to be 14 at the time and too old to play with toys, but I was smitten with these robots and I wasn’t ready to fully grow up. Here’s the thing when I look back on Transformers. There were lessons in there for management that I think anyone can apply to whatever they do in life.

Take the Decepticons for example. Megatron was unquestionably the most powerful Decepticon, unrivaled in power and merciless as they come. Yet he was still challenged, seemingly at every turn by his main subordinate warrior, Starscream. Starscream was open about his lust for the leadership of the Decepticons and Megatron never ever took him seriously. Maybe it was hubris on Megatron’s part that led him to believe that Starscream was all bark but no bite. Megatron must’ve needed Starscream for aerial supremacy over the Autobots to put up with his constant nagging, second-guessing of his leadership and sometimes outright treasonous behavior. I always HATED Starscream. I found him annoying, whiny and I was frustrated that Megatron would let him usurp the Decepticons chances for universal domination. I think somewhere in my subconscious I decided that if I was ever in a position of leadership, a Starscream would be the WORST kind of employee you could have, no matter what he brings to the table in value. In the movie, Starscream hits peak asshole when he kicks Megatron after Megatron’s battle with Optimus Prime.

“How do you feel, mighty Megatron?” he squeals as he kicks him in the metallic gut.

Now Soundwave, on the other hand, responds to Megatron as the Decepticon leader pleads, “Don’t leave me, Soundwave.”

“As you command, Megatron,” his loyal lieutenant replies. This leads to a funny moment as Soundwave is carrying Megatron’s beaten carcass back to Astrotrain while Soundwave’s minion Rumble is scurrying behind carrying Megatron’s massive arm cannon.

Soundwave was always a favorite of mine as well because he was always there for his leader. He had this cool robotic voice and he’d fire minions out of his chest to do his dirty work. It also helped that he had one of the coolest toys too. He was a cassette tape deck, which made sense for a communications expert back in the 80s, but being able to send a robotic panther, two robotic little dudes and a robotic bird out to do his bidding made him that much more appealing. But above all that, he acted on his leader’s orders to brutal effect with unfailing loyalty. He was the polar opposite of Starscream.

Looking back, I get why now I found Starscream so obnoxious. Being in a leadership position and having to constantly deal with people making snide comments or even worse, downright disrespectful in front of everyone was something I could empathize with. I wish I could go back and tell Starscream, “Hey dude, there’s a smarter way to approach this.” Your Game of Thrones subtlety game is way, way off man. There’s a way to chase power without openly chasing power. This attitude is gonna get you killed.

Of course it took Megatron being transformed in the movie by Unicron into a new being called Galvatron to have the right attitude towards Starscream and that was to ultimately destroy him (is it too late for a spoiler alert? – I suppose 30 years is enough of a buffer!).

Soundwave was someone who just went out and executed repeatedly. He falls right in under Galvatron to try and help Galvatron succeed where Megatron failed.

Sure Transformers as a cartoon was basically a half-hour advertisement for toys. And yeah, we were gullible enough to get sucked in but man, what a way to tap into imagination. How do you make an F-14 even cooler? Make it transform into a giant robot from a fictional planet. Include bright colors. Make some of the toys higher quality and include things beyond just plastic. I still have quite a few of those Decepticons and have since passed this passion onto my son. We’ve watched the movie many times together, he plays Transformers: Earth Wars on his iPad and I’m happy to report that I’ve given him many of the Transformers I collected growing up. Plastic doesn’t age well. The first time I tried to transform one of my favorites, the head snapped off.

So happy 30th anniversary Transformers: The Movie! Thanks for helping me realize that a Starscream doesn’t make for a good work companion whereas I’ll always go for the Soundwave any time. And thanks for helping me forget just how bad the TV series was. I’m off to order the remastered 30th anniversary edition.