You and you random robot postings are starting to tempt me to give your other fandom a peek. Any suggestions on where to begin?
That’s a good question! ”Transformers fandom” covers a broad range, and so you have fans who are only interested in one or two continuities and fans who like the whole shebang. Both totally legit options.
Here are some of the more recent / popular Transformers continuities.
- RID (Robots in Disguise) - an ongoing G1 comic about post-war Decepticons, Autobots, and Neutrals struggling to rebuild their society on Cybertron. Lots of robot politics.
- MTMTE (More Than Meets the Eye) - an ongoing G1 comic about Rodimus leading a ship across the galaxy in an attempt to find the Knights of Cybertron, accompanied by stern, by-the-rules Ultra Magnus, ex-Decepticon-turned-hippie Drift, and other eclectic characters. It’s very, very funny and I highly recommend it. Sort of the comic version of a sitcom, but with adventure and danger too. You can purchase both ongoing comics (including backissues) digitally on Comixology if you want to try them out.
- G1 - The classic G1 cartoon still has plenty of fans. There are episodes on Youtube. It’s goofy fun, like “MLP ‘n Friends.” Oh no, Soundwave and Starscream have built an EVIL NIGHT CLUB THAT BRAINWASHES PEOPLE! OH NOOOO!
- Rescue Bots - The ongoing “ages 3 to 6” demographic show that lots of people love because it’s adorable and surprisingly well-written. No fighting Decepticons. The Autobots save people from natural disasters. One of the Autobots sounds like Spike from Cowboy Bebop, because he’s voiced by the same guy. Not on Youtube, but if you google “Rescue Bots online” you can probably find episodes.
- Transformers Prime - The recently ended “older kid” show, aka “the CGI one where the bots don’t have noses.” The show had its flaws (poor writing at times), but a really great cast of characters, IMO, including my favorite, Knock Out.
- Awesome character, I may post a little info on him sometime because I just love this guy. I really, really hope IDW starts using him in the comics. No complete episodes on Youtube, but there are clips. You may be able to find complete episodes elsewhere.
- The live-action movies - I really don’t know much about these, but they definitely have fans.
Personally, I use Tumblr as my Transformers hub. I follow blogs that reblog TF stuff that I like. And I’ve met some awesome friends that way! (Pro-tip, if you search for MTMTE you’ll find More Than Meets the Eye stuff and if you search for TFP you’ll find Transformers Prime stuff.)
There is Rule 34 of Transformers, as with anything, so don’t search at work; search at home and, if you don’t want Rule 34, find some blogs that don’t blog that kind of material and follow them. Or filter out posts tags “NSFW”. There’s a way to do that, right? I think there is, anyway.
If you like roleplaying, there are lots of Transformers ask-blogs, where someone pretends to be a character and answers questions as them. (You can ask them questions anonymously or as a human "character", usually.)
There are also TF message boards, but they are mostly male-dominated and … I don’t know. It’s not that I don’t feel welcomed on them, but I don’t feel like I fit in on them either. Like, I’m a-okay with slash and shipping and I feel like there’s a big “EWWWW” factor on the forums, even if you’re talking about shipping in the safe-for-work “giving your crush a flower and a cute peck on the cheek” sense.
So I prefer Tumblr. It’s where all the lady fans are at.