I’m sorry to crack your rose-tinted glasses, Gen Xers, but the cartoons of the 1980s aren’t as good as you remember them. Put something like Thundercats next to the 90s Batman or Gargoyles and it just looks like a toy commercial. But I will begrudgingly admit that the toys themselves were awesome, and none more so than the original Transformers. If covering your desk in die-cast robots isn’t enough to show your love for the franchise, now you can slide it under your keyboard and mouse, too.
Clackeys, a boutique supplier of artisan keycaps and other keyboard-themed tchotchkes, has managed to nab the official license for the first generation Transformers circa 1984 for a series of desk mats. We’re talking the real primo stuff, back when a 30-foot Megatron somehow turned into a tiny James Bond gun, and no one had ever heard the name “Shia LaBeouf.” The super-sized mats are 900mm by 400mm, with your choice of seven art styles, including two kick-ass painted battle scenes right off a Reagan-era lunchbox.
The mats are $25 each, more than reasonable for licensed gear, and up for pre-order now. They’ll start shipping sometime in April. Don’t be discouraged by the delay, and get an order in now if you want one: these explicitly “Limited Edition” mats have a tendency to disappear and never return.
