ABSTRACT
The sheer amount of new and collectible merchandise alongside the popularity of fan conventions across the globe intimates a continued fascination with and affection for popular media forms. Children’s media-films, television, comics, books, games-are part of this, with once-popular texts from childhood being recycled, re-imagined and re-appropriated by adults as they rediscover their favorite cartoons, series and films. Memories of a bygone childhood are being brought to life through the strategic mediation of nostalgia by Hollywood studios, television networks and toy manufacturers keen to exploit old and new markets. The most recent example of this is the Transformers franchise: the popular 1980s children’s toy range from Japan, with robots that transform into cars and planes, found success in America supported by an animated series, comics and a featurelength movie, and has been brought back with a new toy range, CGI series, and four blockbuster live-action films directed by Michael Bay. Fans who once watched the cartoons and played with the toys are now reconnecting with the franchise as it plays out its transmedia narrative across convergent media platforms-film, television, the Internet.
