In 1984, Hasbro launched the Transformers on an unsuspecting public, resulting in a multimedia phenomenon which still thrives today. At the franchise’s heart was a toy with a simple idea behind it: miniature cars, planes and other familiar objects which could turn into action figures. Robots in disguise. It was an ingenious concept, and brilliantly marketed – so much so that the Transformers became a global best-seller for several years, and a franchise that still thrives 30 years later.

It’s unlikely Hasbro could have predicted the magnitude of its property’s success, much less its longevity. But then the story behind the Transformers‘ existence is perhaps even more surprising than the mass market phenomenon it would quickly become.

For one thing, the Transformers owe their existence, at least in part, to Ronald Reagan.

Before 1984, American television stations were closely regulated, and the promotion of any product within the body of a TV show was forbidden by the Federal Communications Commission. All that changed under the Reagan administration in 1984, when children’s television was deregulated as part of a wider bid to boost the American economy. In his first speech as president in 1981, Reagan famously said, “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to the problem. Government is the problem.”