There were two toy lines that when I think of "80's toys" they epitomize that era and Star Wars was not one of them. Sure they had 2 movies released during that time but to me they would always be something of the 70's, maybe it's just me.
Transformers was my pick for this round, this line showed up at just the right time and helped propel the giant robot craze that was so predominant of the 80's. To me, transformers helped shape the 80's while Star Wars was a carry over from the previous decade.

I don't get it. Transformers hit in what 84? by 86 it was already jumping the shark by killing off everyone and going with Rodimus Prime.

And whoever said the Tf line had almost all the Cartoon characters needs to rethin k that order. The Cartoon was a 1/2 hour advertisement to sell toys. I'm fine with that but its a lot easier to make figures of everyone when the figures you make determine who everyone is first.

all the characters on the show were toys lol

While I'm not a fan of the cartoon, and outright hate some of the cartoon characters, that statement is definately incorrect.
The Autobot Girlfriends never got toys. Arcee never got a toy. Whats-is-name... defcon? That pointless guy never got a toy.
Not that I miss any of them. Save for arcee, none of them deserved to have a toy. But, point being, there are still characters in the show who never got toys that a lot of fans still crone over.

Mostly the ones who refuse to accept any TF fiction outside of the cartoon as valid. Namely the marvel haters.

What do you mean? I'm a Marvel and Transformer lover:P

Then you know there are faction wars amonst faction wars amongst faction wars in the TF fandom. One of them is Cartoon vs Marvel. A *lot* of G1 fans write of every other source of TF fiction as invalid and non-canon, especially the Marvel comics. If it didn't happen in the cartoon, it didn't happen at all. Shockwave was always Megatron's bitch, the dinobots were always stupid, and Ratbat never led the Decepticons.
Funny thing, a lot of these types cling to the Furman origin for Unicron though. Heh.

I don't like the cartoon, and I much prefer the marvel G1 over it. Make Mine Grimmy smart.
However, I have no problem with people liking the cartoon. But I've come across a lot of cartoon fans who have a problem with me liking the comics.

Your first problem is cohabiting with hardcore Tf fans. They are the ones who cannot be pleased of anything, always complaining about minute details.

Well I'm not one of those, although I've never read any of the TF comics, so not sure how different they are from the Cartoon.
Very true, they are so...they just need to relax and enjoy it, it's entertainment after all!!!

Hey, I'm a hardcore TF fan and I loved the Marvel run of Transformers. Especially since a lot of the Tech Specs were from the same writer as the comics.

There's actually quite a lot of differences between the comic and cartoon. Jetty touched on a few, like how Shockwave was completely subserviant to Megatron in the cartoon, but took control of the Decepticons (and quite easily, I might add) when he felt that Megatron was no longer fit to lead.

Also, in the comics Grimlock is just as smart and tactical as Prowl or even Optimus, but his vocal processor had a glitch that made him speak in that broken English style he's known for. The other Dinobots weren't particularily smart either, but certainly not the idiots that were portrayed in the cartoon. Also, in the comics the Dinobots were originally made on Cybertron and not Earth as the cartoon showed.

Ah ok thank you for that, and you guys mean the Marvel published Transformers, thought you guys meant the IDW ones. Cool.

Very much agreed. I used to be extremely hardcore (Although that's been waning do to the franchise going in directions that have no interest to me), but I've always been live and let live. You have every right to enjoy your favorite parts, and I'll enjoy mine.
The only thing that makes me irritable is when other people get beligerent towards those who think you need to enjoy the franchise exactly as they do.


Yeah, the marvel run gave us a lot of the fan favorites. Especially in the latter half. And there were a lot of great differences.
Grimlock and Fortress Maximus both lead the Autobots in Prime's absense.
Without Megatron, Ratbat, Shockwave, Scorponok, Thunderwing, and Bludgeon lead the decepticons.
The Marvel comics gave us Nightbeat, as well. And Skullgrin. As well as showing us how badass Ratchet can really be. Ratchet was really the first standout transformer thanks to that.

The only major thing I did not like about the Marvel run is that it seemed like just as soon as they introduced new characters, they would kill them off an issue or 2 later...if not the same issue, lol.

Transformers

I love the Star Wars now, but back in the 80's their lack of mobility killed it for me. My parents didn't buy any of the vehicles, so SW seemed second rate to Joes.

Transformers on the other hand, kicked Gobots' collective metal butts.

Part of that was due to pressure from Hasbro for Marvel to introduce the new toys they were putting out as characters in the comic. Killing them off was a way for Marvel to comply with Hasbro, but still keep the sheer number of characters down to a manageable level.

Introducing new toys and dropping discontinued ones was the main reason so many characters died in the 1986 film too (including Optimus).

Didnt get to vote but I woulda went with Transformers

Star Wars is way overated

Sadly Transformers .. tough one ...

Who made these brackets?

This should have beenlike a top 5 battle.......