After more than two decades of collecting, Benson Yee, 31, of New Jersey, has 3,000 pieces in his Transformers treasure trove and is among the many men in their 20s and 30s anticipating the release of the 'Transformers' live-action movie July 4. - AP

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island (AP):

Benson Yee was a Star Wars-obsessed kid when something new caught his eye in a toy store during a family vacation: Transformers - 'robots in disguise' - that changed into vehicles or other objects.

"I didn't know what they were, but I wanted one," Yee said of the toy Hasbro introduced in 1984. His uncle bought him seven that day.

More than two decades later, Yee, 31, has 3,000 pieces in his Transformers collection and his own website, Ben's World of Transformers, www.bwtf.com.

Yee is one of many men now in their late 20s and early 30s who grew up surrounded by Transformers - the toys, the cartoon, the comic books - and who are experiencing childlike anticipation of the July 3 release of the Transformers live action movie. The film is being executive-produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Michael Bay of Armageddon and The Rock fame.

"If there is a way for them to reach into the core of me and bring out a piece of my childhood, I think they did that," said Yee, an information technology consultant from Elizabeth, New Jersey, who saw clips of the film at New York's Toy Fair this year and plans to see the whole thing six days early at BotCon, the annual Transformers convention being held in Provi dence, this month.

The toy line was one of the hottest toys in the 1980s for boys (and even some girls). It centred on the battle between the two factions of the robot race, Decepticons, which strive to dominate the universe, and Autobots, which believe in peaceful coexistence with humans.

It's that mythology, based on archetypes of good and evil, the highly developed characters, the complexity and uniqueness of the toys - even the catchy cartoon show theme song that now-grown men still remember.

For many, names like Optimus Prime, leader of the heroic Autobots, and Megatron, evil ruler of the Decepticons, are as burned into their consciousness as Luke Skywalker and G.I. Joe, said Chris Byrne, an independent toy consultant.

"It wasn't just part of their entertainment," Byrne said. "It was part of their social structure, the interaction around it."

Jules Washburn, 29, of Somer-ville, Massachusetts, had several of the toys when he was a kid and first heard about the movie last year when he was checking out Spielberg's projects online.

Completely awesome

"I saw the Transformers, and I was like 'What? OK, this could be completely awesome,'" he said. "Then you notice the director is Michael Bay, who is the king of over-the-top action like Armaged-don, and you're like 'This could be huge!"'

While Washburn and his friends aren't "the type of guys to go to opening night wearing robot outfits or anything", he said they're excited to see it.

Dylan Glassford, 26, an artist in Markham, Ontario, who goes by the name 'Ninjatron' in Transformer fan-dom circles, said the movie's release is validation for the hobby he's had since he was a teenager.

"It kind of justifies the fans and what we like and what we spend our time on and our money on.

"I hope that kids like it too, so that we can have a new generation of fans," Glassford said.