Transformers changed by life ...
The first in a regular series, FPI discovers what makes a person become an obsessed fan. Be it TV show, movie, comic, book or videogame - we ask one such odsessive to tell us what started it all. This issue, Brett Reynolds tells us how he fell in love with Transformers ...
My attaction to Transformers began when I was growing up during the eighties. Sure there were other toys about, but Transformers were by far cooler than Centurians, M.A.S.K, Thundercats and the myriad of other boy's toys avaliable at the time. A lot of my love for Transformers came from reading the comics - the story arcs written by Simon Furman were among my favourites.
Then there came that time which we all face, the time we have to put aside our toys and our childhood so we can mature into adults. I did as such, but I kept the Transformers comics I had, as I didn't want to fully let go of my childhood or my love of Transformers. It's sad to admit, but I ended up pretending that I didn't care about Transformers anymore, just so I could fit in and be 'normal'. And that spark, that well of happiness I had, slowly began to dwindle, becoming a mere flicker of the roaring flame it had been. I became bitter and unhappy, even though outwardly I pretended I was happy. And for the life of me, I didn't know why I was feeling like that. Looking back now I honestly think I was heading for a serious emotional and mental breakdown. Except that never happened. Something else did, and it was going to force me to really look at what my life was at that time, and change it for the better.
There are always key events in anyone's life, which bring about a change. My Uncle, he died a month after my eighteenth birthday and when you're faced with death for the first time, it makes you question your own life, and the direction it is going. It was at his funeral, as we were all standing around the grave as his coffin was lowered downwards, that I remembered something he'd told me when I was younger. He told me that I may not have had a choice to have a life to live, but I did have the choice to live that life the way I wanted too. So that was what I did. I started to live for myself, and doing whatever it was that caught my interest.
The following six months were filled with new discoveries. I experienced a great deal in those months as I went out of my way to try everything I could, including what I had been told I shouldn't do. I'm sure it shocked and surprised a few of my family and friends. But I still hadn't found that something that made me truly happy.
It wasn't until one cold and wet Thursday morning that I found myself dropping in on Chelmsford's second hand market. One of the stallholders there sold old toys. I usually ignored the stall, but that Thursday I cast a curious eye over what he had for sale. Among the junk were two Transformers. Snapdragon and Apeface where the first I'd seen in over four or five years, and I felt like I'd bumped into old friends. So I bought them. £9 didn't seem like a bad prive for a couple of second-hand Transformers. Over the next year or so, that stall owner made a good deal of money out of me, as I bought any Transformers he had.
And that was when I rediscovered Transformers, I had finally found or at least, rediscovered what was missing from my life. And with Transformers came the fan community. Really they are such an amazing community of fans, many of who give up a lot of their own spare time to create and update their Transformers websites and message boards. And there are literately hundreds of Transformers websites and message board out there, where the countless herdes of fans can talk about Transformers and a variety of other subjects.
Sure, many of us could be considered geeks, nerds, or various other derogatory terms htat many of us have been labeled with over the years. No doubt some take it to heart, but htere are a few of us who readily admit that we are geeks or nerds. I'd have to raise my hand to that because as a writer of Transformers fan-fiction I have to know some of the more intimate detailing of the Transformers universe, because if you get the slightest detail wrong it will be noticed.
I always state that Transformers changed my life, but I do often wonder ig I would have changed at all had my uncle not died. Either way it's made me who I am today, and regardless of how certain people might feel I don't intend to change being who I am - I'm having too much fun. I don't fit in anywhere and I love that. I like being considered strange, weird or just down right crazy. I don't care because I'm happy.
That's the end of the article, re-typing it bought a lot of memories back. We didn't get a chance to read Brett's article whilst he was alive, so by re-publishing the article here we hope you, like us, can gain an insight into a great friends life.
Rest in peace Brett.
This part of Transformers At The Moon is dedicated to Brett Reynolds, lived 1979-2007.
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