Transformers: 30 years ago, the animation giant made China realize the commercial advertising mode of animation and toys.

Shanghai is the birthplace of Chinese cartoons (generally known as the art film before the 1980s) and the cradle of translating foreign cartoons. At 17:08 on July 30, 1988, Shanghai TV station broadcasted an American long-form cartoon that was introduced by the station and translated by the Shanghai Audiovisual Library. Since then, Shanghai has set off a national robot boom that has not been retired for 30 years. This is the classic cartoon "Transformers" (The Transformers), now commonly known as the first generation Miyou / G1 (Generation One) animation.

Unique commercial film

In 1984, the Japanese toy company TAKARA (now merged with Tomy into Takara Tomy) in order to open up the international market, so in cooperation with Hasbro, which has extensive access in the United States: TAKARA is responsible for toy supply, and Hasbro is responsible for sales strategy. TAKARA has two deformable robot products, namely "MSI Robot" and "Diamond Cyclone" (commonly known as transliteration in Asia). Their settings are as popular as many Japanese toys such as Gundam. They are robots that need to be manipulated by humans. The Hasbro, influenced by the government’s previous year’s Star Wars plan, is far less than the Japanese counterparts. Take a unique approach and set these toys directly into living robots. Hasbro has set these toys as two factions from the alien Cybertron: Autobots, who guard the universe and peace, and Decepticons, who are trying to dominate the universe, collectively called Transformers. ). Since then, a great commercial brand has been born.

Classic two-party logo conversion plot

In order to better promote the series of toys, Hasbro has produced a three-episode commercial cartoon for these robot toys. The content of the story is: In the distant universe, the Alpha Star of Centaurus is orbiting a huge metal planet Sebtern. The autos and the Decepticons competed for energy and launched a multi-million-year war that led to the exhaustion of the planet’s energy. Autobot leader Optimus Prime led some autobots to the outer planet to find energy, but was caught and attacked by the Decepticons leader Megatron. The two factions fought in the car man's spaceship Ark, causing the spacecraft to fall to prehistoric earth. Four million years later, the central computer image of the Ark was revived on the 1st, and the two bodies were repaired by the mechanical body on the earth. The two factions have waged a never-ending battle on the earth.

Ark 18 Warriors

These three episodes of cartoons have created a classic in the history of cartoons with grand and extraordinary creativity, magical and reasonable imagination, and unique thinking. As cartoons became the most popular animation in the United States, the sales of toys also reached a craze, and Hasbro also pursued the pursuit of new products while continuing to produce cartoons. The American sci-fi concept has also been fully embodied in this work. Megatron can shrink into a Walter P38 pistol, and the sound wave can become a Walkman, and the cannon can become an aircraft carrier.

Sonic Earth camouflage form is sound

Hasbro's plot design is far better than the Japanese anime of the year. Compared with the Japanese anime story, and the story is too concentrated on the protagonist's setting, Hasbro is good at using a single episode to describe the character of a character in a more detailed way, such as the traitor's "traitor", with steel lock as the main character. The "smart steel lock" has achieved the best results of commercial commercials.

Steel locks create the smartest combination of King Kong Computing King

With the development of the second season, cartoons gradually built up the "Transformers" cosmology, which made it out of the nature of the original toy advertisement. Familiar with the story of the wire, will find that the first season of digging tigers and machine dinosaurs are directly made on the earth, and the second season of the Flying Tigers, the Flying Taibao and the chariot team are to give life by giving fire. After the second season of "Magic God Ball" and "Back to the Past" and other episodes, the Transformers universe culture gradually formed.

The first combination of King Kong Hercules

Due to the success of the first two seasons, Hasbro launched the "Big Movie" and the third season in 1986. The "Big Movie" and the story of the third season jumped out of the earth, came to the universe, and joined third-party forces such as the cosmic emperor and the five-faced monster. Each episode of the tailed egg also explained the origin of the Transformers. According to today's eyes, the stage of the third season is broader and the epic is more heavy. But this has become the Hasbro's Waterloo, which was still in the 75s and 80s of the children. The deformation patterns of these new characters are often futuristic or extraterrestrial vehicle forms and weapon forms. The toy attraction is far less attractive than the previous realistic simulation vehicles.

The female car owner Alcy’s vehicle form is a futuristic sports car.

Unintentional translation of the film

In 1988, the Transformers of the United States and Japan, which lasted for four years, gradually subsided. Will the shrewd Hasbro stop here? They are targeting the Chinese mainland with huge market potential. At first they found CCTV and Guangdong, and they were rejected. They were considered to have a violent drama. In fact, Hasbro fully considered that this drama is facing minors. In addition to the big movies that have not been introduced, the characters in the drama are only injurious; on the contrary, domestic cartoons at the time, such as "Where is the sea?" "The Hulu Brothers" is a plot with a dead character. Finally, Hasbro found the Shanghai TV station. The savvy Americans said that as long as they can be broadcast, this nearly a hundred episodes of cartoons should not be a penny. Later facts proved that their business strategy was extremely correct, and the 30-year Chinese Transformers fever was unveiled. Of course, the success of Transformers in China must first be thanked to the older generation of literary and art workers in Shanghai. It is the wonderful translation and dubbing of these artists that have realized the Chineseization of the "Transformers" cartoons and made great contributions to the popularity of this work.

Transformers was the longest imported foreign cartoon in China at that time. At that time, it introduced 95 episodes from the first season to the third season. There were no big movies (the plot is between the second and third seasons) and the fourth season (3). set). The Shanghai Audiovisual Library was commissioned by Shanghai TV Station to undertake the translation task. Zou Ling and Huang Qun are the main translators. They attach great importance to the localization of translated names. Except for a few words such as "Cybertron", which are transliterated, hundreds of nouns are almost all freely translated or created. For example, Autobots are derived from the free translation of Auto and Robots. Decepticons, derived from deception fraud and contra opposition, but the translator did not translate literally. Most of the villain is transformed into a car that runs on the ground. Most of the villains fly in the air, and the translator translates it into a "Decepticon."

Zou Ling

What is most talked about today is the translation of the two bosses. Optimus Prime is intended to be a powerful leader. Translators can think of "Optimus Prime". It is a pillar of Chinese mythology that can support the sky. It is a metaphor for being able to turn to an important person in a difficult situation. In contrast, Hong Kong translation "Ke Baiwen", Taiwan translation "invincible iron bull" has a lot of slots. The villain is called Megatron, and mega is a "powerful" prefix that corresponds to optimus. Since the name of the "Qing Tianzhu" is being established, there is a "prestige" of relative resistance. After the name of the leader of this generation was confirmed, the translation of the next leader of the two factions was also solved. They were the Radimus Prime (Galvatron).

Master toy MP10 Optimus Prime and MP36 Megatron.

In addition to translation, another important job in translation is dubbing. "Transformers" is the first foreign cartoon that was directed by Mr. Chariot. He is a voice actor who has dubbed many of the classic art films of the Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio, including the Monkey Eagle in the 1984 Black Cat Sheriff and the scorpion in the 1986 Hulu Brothers. The chariot gave full play to his personal advantage in the Shanghai film and television circle, and invited more than 20 voice actors from Shanghai TV, Shanghai Film Translation Factory, Shanghai Children's Art, Shanghai People's Art Theatre, Shanghai Theatre Academy, Shanghai People's Broadcasting. Different units such as radio stations. Among them are Yang Wenyuan (Wei Zhentian), Chen Alcohol (narrator) and other dubbing circles, including Lei Changxi (Qing Tianzhu), Lin Dongyu (sound wave, iron sheet, steel lock), Yu Hong (Elita), etc. The backbone of the year, as well as Li Danqing (red spider, spring), Xia Zhiqing (jazz), Liu Qin (phantom) and other young people.

From left: Chariot, Lei Changxi, Yang Wenyuan

"Transformers" main voice actor

The leaders of the two factions, Optimus Prime and Megatron, were voiced by Lei Changxi and Yang Wenyuan respectively. Lei Changxi is a teacher at the School of Drama, and his voice gives a sense of majesty and firm eldership. "Automobile, deformation starts!" This line has become a classic in a generation. In 1990, Shanghai TV introduced another American animated feature film, Battlestar. The chariot was once again the director of the translation, and the dubbing team of "Transformers" was regrouped. Lei Changxi dubbed Captain Grover. Interestingly, Lei Changxi played in the famous mythical TV series "Feng Shen Bang" broadcast in the same year, but it was the anti-No. 1 Shen Gongbao, which shaped a classic image of treacherous treacherous.

Yang Wenyuan is from the Shanghai Film Translation Factory. He once dubbed many cartoons of the US factory, such as the Pig Bajie in the 1981 "Ginseng Fruit" and the elephant in the 1984 "Black Cat Sheriff" stealing red clay. Yang Wenyuan’s voice is low and generous, and he is domineering. It coincides with Lei Changxi’s Optimus Prime. The classic line is: “I will come back.”

The chariot is uniquely eye-catching in arranging the actors. Everyone can perfectly reflect the characteristics of the characters who play the characters, and even let us hear the dubbing of the original English version. The most classic is the sound wave of Mr. Lin Dongjun. The camouflage form of the sound wave is the audio player. The original sound wave is a late electronic sound, no personal emotional color, Chinese dubbing is difficult to deal with. Lin Dong’s ingenuity, in the form of singing, unintentionally combined the character setting. At that time, he just thought about where to sing, just like the narrative in the opera. Inadvertently, Lin Dong was a hit, but he sang every day with a sling, and the damage to the scorpion was not small. Lin Dongying's wonderful play in the play is far more than this. It is hard for the audience to think of the loyal and straight iron, the cute and lovely steel lock and the sound of the city's haze. It will be an actor.

Lin Dongyu

From May to December 1988, the team spent more than half a year recording all of Transformers. Because it is a collection of one episodes per day, one episode of episodes will be released, and individual characters will change their names. For example, the first episode of Tape King Kongbeak is translated as "Laser Detective", and later the classic translation "Laser Bird". But on the whole, it doesn't hide, and the historical position of "Transformers" as a classic translation of brakes is not to be shaken.

Wan "Children" empty alley animation system

In 1988, Hasbro played "Transformers" in the first-tier cities of Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing. The following year, it was “bombing” in various city television stations. Compared to the unintentional translation of the translation system, Hasbro's strategy can be described as deliberate. In the 1980s, China's radio and television technology was no more than the current, home TV sets generally use antennas to receive signals, the farther the signal is worse. City TV is the most easily accepted TV station in all regions.

From 1988 to 1990, "Transformers" quickly occupied the prime time of each city TV station from 17 o'clock to 19 o'clock. Children and children stayed behind the TV for a long time and refused to leave. The previous cartoons, whether domestic or imported, were not human (such as 吒, 孙悟空), or anthropomorphic animals (such as Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse). In contrast, Transformers brings an understanding of the sci-fi concept and the way the future world is revealed, making robots the same intelligent creature as humans for the first time, and it can still be deformed. This is also the first time that foreign new things have had a huge visual impact on Chinese children and children after the reform and opening up.

Before, no one thought that a robot cartoon would be hot to such an extent. For a time, in the streets, in the school, filled with the sound of "qiqikakukuca" and "car people, deformation starting". All the items used by primary school students are equipped with Transformers, handkerchiefs, book covers, comic strips, foreign painting cards, pencil cases... Transformers not only captured the boy's heart, but also captured the girl. They fell in love with "Transformers", and their body and mind have been fully integrated into this sci-fi world. Taking Shanghai as an example, according to a sample survey news of the Xinmin Evening News on May 31, 1989, the children who were interviewed had a 98.7% preference for Transformers.

Transformers Ocean Painting Card

The toy designed with the original "Transformers" animation also quickly captured the psychology of many boys and became their favorite. It has the dream of becoming a boy with a genuine Transformers toy. What the boys are talking about at school is not an animated story, but a toy model. At that time, Shanghai's monthly salary was only a few tens of dollars, and many popular transformers were far beyond this number, such as Optimus Prime 98 yuan, Hercules 200 yuan, the largest base King Kong Fortune Ford reached 420 yuan. For a time, many people regarded Transformers as a beast, and some people even recommended that the "Transformers" be stopped.

The classic scene in the 80's shopping mall: boy staring at Optimus Prime

G1 Big Mac Ford

"Transformers" has obvious commercial purposes from the beginning, and at that time China did not touch the commercial advertising model such as "animation? toys". It can be said that this is also a lesson for Hasbro to give domestic toy manufacturers and advertisers a good lesson. China's cultural products have also been inspired by it, and now the US factory has begun to independently or authorized third parties to develop their own toy models.

After 2000, with the development of Internet technology in China, the Transformers culture first recovered in the network. In 2007, the "Transformers" live-action movie was released. When the huge red-blue robot in the screen said "My name is Optimus Prime", I don't know how many 75-year-old and 80-year-old boys left tears in the movie and even cried out. Transformers have grown up with this generation and become friends and partners with their lives.

Live movie "Transformers 1" poster

Mr. Lin Dongjun was interviewed by the media before the release of the live-action movie. He believed that his voice in Transformers was lacking and there was not much artistic value. "Those people did things at the time, people who did a little work for this thing, they never expected that one day, the show would be so popular." The older generation of artists did not expect that it was their contribution that made Today China has become the world's largest Transformers market; it has also made Shanghai the center of China's Transformers Cultural Center, Hasbro's China headquarters. Regrettably, the chariot, Lei Changxi, and Yang Wenyuan have left the vast steel wire.

After the transformation of the Transformers culture, Hasbro reset the G1 toy for the old mystery market, this is the classic series Hercules