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A sequel to the much beloved Prime series, with everything you loved! Except 95% of the cast. And the art style. And a continuation of its storyline. And familiar villains. And the serious tone. And... how is this a sequel again?
​
Things are winding down with this: the 3rd last day of the project and a return to western-produced Transformers media in the form of the 2015 sequel-I-guess to Transformers: Prime, Robots in Disguise (not to be confused with Car Robots, which got changed to Robots in Disguise when it was imported from Japan).

Debuting 2 years after Prime wrapped up with the "Predacons Rising" movie, the series is set up as a continuation of that storyline, except that in a lot of ways it isn't. Spoilers for the end of Prime, but Optimus sacrifices himself to restart Cybertron's core and breathe life back into the planet. Apparently in that time (it's never clearly stated how long it's been in-universe when RiD starts up) Cybertronians have returned to their homeworld and life seems to be back to normal. Bumblebee, though recognized and lauded as a war hero for his part in the events of Prime, is essentially now a member of the Cybertronian police force, training a cadet named Strongarm. From there things take off into a larger plot that lands Bumblebee and a ragtag group of Autobots back on Earth, hunting down fugitive Decepticons who escaped from a crashed prison ship.

Unlike Prime, which essentially told the story of a crack team of elite Autobots trying to tip the scales in the war against an equally prestigious squad of Decepticons, a lot of focus in this series is spent on the fact that Bumblebee's team is one of happenstance and that he both struggles to lead given his inexperience and is frequently frustrated by given their wildly disparate personalities. This creates a lot more opportunities for comedy and light-hearted hi-jinks and means that the series lacks the much more grim and serious tone that most of its predecessor series had.

That tonal shift is a significant running thread for what this series represents. In spite of being an admitted and direct continuation of Prime, the fact that the previous series basically wrapped up with a concrete and definite conclusion makes this series' sequel status a little bit awkward. That awkwardness manifests in the fact that they could've simply made this a stand-alone work with very little effort and only a tiny appreciable impact on the plot and series as a whole. The tone is much lighter. Bumblebee is the only significant member of Team Prime from the previous series to be a regular (Optimus is a recurring character for the first season and a quasi regular for the next 2 seasons. Ratchet appears at the tail end of season 2 for a few episodes, and Bulkhead is there for the last couple episodes before the series finale. Arcee fails to show up at all and none of the 3 humans ever appear, or even get so much as a mention), Soundwave and Starscream appear eventually, but not before much of the series is spent on its own original villains. The look of the series is radically different, with a vibrant, bright, colorful cel-shaded animation style and simplified character models. If there's any real problem with this link, it's that the series is hurt by the fact that it gets to compared to Prime when it isn't. As a stand-alone series it probably would've gotten a better chance from the audience.


EPISODE 1: Pilot (Part 1)
  • The opening shot of the revived Cybertron is really pretty and sells the similar look from Prime, where backgrounds and major "sets" looked more painted than 3d rendered.
  • It's nice that Bumblebee remains voiced by Will Friedle, who was the voice for those final lines at the end of the series finale of Prime. He's best known as a cast member on Boy Meets World, as well as the voice of Terry McGinnis on Batman Beyond.
  • I'm going to question why Bumblebee and Strongarm have such earth-like vehicle modes with wheels when others (like Sideswipe) don't.
  • The cel-shaded look isn't bad, but its difference from Prime, with the much less complex and smoother faces make the difference from Prime (with its very metallic texturing) stand out.
  • I don't recall if they ever actually explain why Bumblebee is just a beat cop after being a war hero as a result of Prime.
  • No title sequence for this episode. Just a brief title card and major creators' credit.
  • You know what? I think it's the eyebrows that kind of throw me in terms of facial design. The Prime faces had eyebrows, but they weren't such thick, black cartoony lines.
  • Pretty sure you're breaking a ton of safety regulations by leaping out of your magnet crane thing and walking underneath the train car you have suspended from said magnet, Denny (the new adult human)
  • A bit of minor history in that the kid, Russell/Rusty is actually voice by a relative kid (Stuart Allan isn't as young as Russell, but he is at least a teenager)
  • Oh man, Bumblebee's totally freaking out.
  • For the things I complain about with the series in terms of it not following Prime, I do actually like Sideswipe and Strongarm as characters. Having Sideswipe as the brash young troublemaker is a reasonable evolution of his egocentric character bio and Strongarm is a fun counterpoint as the rules stickler and eager rookie (kind of like a more rigid classic version of Bumblebee when he was younger)
  • We're also getting introduced to Fixit, which brings Minicons into the Prime continuity. He does his job as the comic relief non-combat unit. It does beg the question of what he was ever supposed to transform into given his body style.
  • If there is something that's a bit of a let down in this series, it's that the major antagonists are almost-Predacons since they have animalistic "robot" modes instead of classic Decepticons.
  • We're not in Japan anymore, but if the west has learned anything, it's how to steal a useful idea, like stock transformation footage.
  • Sideswipe's Cybertronian alt mode having an interior cabin, seats, and seatbelts raises some serious questions about the nature of their alt modes on their home planet where they're the dominant (and as far as I know, only) inhabitants.
  • Fixit sort of looks like a segue
  • While I end up not minding him as a character, this series interpretation of Grimlock is kind of odd. I do kind of like the idea that he starts as apparently a Decepticon given his destructive nature and finds over time that he fits better on the Autobot side given that he's not a bloodthirsty, vicious person (erm, bot). Kind of like BW Dinobot
  • For a good chunk of season 1 they also have these kinda-stock sequences where Fixit displays the prisoner bios of whoever the villain of the week is.
  • And they do that right before the end of episode 1 as it's the very next line that leads into the credits (though it's reasonably possible this was originally aired as a 1 hour movie)


EPISODE 2: Pilot (Part 2)
  • Recap! Let's learn about the stuff I just saw 20 minutes ago!
  • The joke about Fixit not understanding the nature of human biological relationships is a nice touch on something that we take for granted but probably would seem weird to a race like Cybertronians without biological reproduction.
  • I don't mind Grimlock's robot mode, but I'm not a fan of his chunky, long-armed T-Rex mode.
  • The one thing this series really does have going for it is focusing on Bumblebee's growth into a leader. Sort of like Cheetor through (ugh) Beast Machines. Although at times they kind of ignore it in favor or more regular character dynamics. Or simply having Bumblebee be exasperated.
  • I don't know if they ever bother explaining how it is that these Decepticons have animal modes as their primary mode while still having vehicle alt modes. I mean, it's not out of the realm of reasonable things to have in the TF universe, but it's so strikingly different from the norm that I expected some kind of explanation for why it was that way.
  • So the Autobots are going to get alt modes from vehicles that Denny has in his scrap yard. This includes Strongarm's modern-looking SUV and... I guess possibly Sideswipe's exotic-looking sports car (even though he says he doesn't intend on changing his form right now)?
  • A running gag is born as Bumblebee desperately tries to figure out his own version of Optimus' iconic "Transformer and roll out!" call to action
  • The tiny bird that appears in teh forest looks almost hand animated
  • Yep, Sideswipe's sports car mode is from the junkyard. How the hell does Denny have a very Ferrari-looking sports car in a scrap yard?
  • So after his big talk about everyone finding alt modes, he just lets Grimlock keep being a dinosaur? Sure. I guess it shows he's not a stupendous leader yet?
  • So Bumblebee was all worried about staying in vehicle mode to avoid spooking the population, but everyone transforms and launches into a full-on fistfight right at the edge of the bridge, in full view of the city on the other side? OK?
  • While I'm at it, Prime made no secret of showing that it was set in Jasper, Nevada. To the best of my recollection, RiD never actually gets around to telling you where in the world it's taking place, other than the fact that it's in the US. I mean, Jasper wasn't a real city to begin with, but at least it was a specifically identified not-real city.
  • Optimus Prime, who's supposed to be very very, very dead again shows up to save everyone at the end of the episode. Then he delivers a bunch of clunky exposition that basically says "this is a series now. Deal with it." anoints Bumblebee a leader, and then vanishes. Even by the messy standards of Optimus dying a lot and Transformer death being very weird, this made no sense.
  • Bumblebee verbally doubts his team's ability to accomplish anything. Even with the others no more than 15-20 feet away. Smooth, Bumblebee. Real smooth.


EPISODE 3: Trust Exercises
  • Aside before we jump into this episode: As I discussed when Go! was reviewed back on Day... 4 (I think), Japan never finished watching Prime. After the second season they simply stopped dubbing the series, and chose to "continue" the series by the 6-part short-form series that was the most Japanese thing ever made in franchise history. Curiously they then elected to dub this series in spite of its status as a continuation (though as discussed earlier, the links hardly matter in this series for the most part). And then, just like Prime, they eventually stopped after 2 seasons' worth of content, never dubbing the 3rd season or beyond. However, they did apparently have the time and access to the animation assets necessary to produce this bit of total insanity, which is every bit as weird as that Beast Wars II commercial about sausage. But enough about that. Let's see what's happening in the actual show.
  • Actually, before we get going, maybe I might as well run down the voice cast for this series (From what we see to this point in the rewatch).
    • As already noted, Bumblebee is veteran voice actor Will Friedle, reprising his role from Prime.
    • In the occasional instances where he shows up, Optimus is, as always, voiced by the incomparable Peter Cullen.
    • Strongarm is fairly notable character actor Constance Zimmer. She currently can be seen in both House of Cards and reality-show satire unREAL, but has also had guest or recurring roles on Agents of SHIELD, Entourage, and Boston Legal.
    • Sideswipe is Darren Criss a former cast member of Glee who initially rose to fame as part of the group behind the Harry Potter spoof internet video series "A Very Potter Musical"
    • Grimlock is Khary Payton, veteran voice actor who is in pretty much everything, but perhaps most notably Cyborg on the various incarnations of Teen Titans media. He also currently stars as Ezekiel in The Walking Dead.
    • Fixit is Mitchell Whitfield, largely a supporting voice actor who does a lot of background character work in shows instead of being a lead character. His biggest break was teaming with Ralph Macchio (aka the karate kid) as the defendands in the infamous ealry 90s comedy "My Cousin Vinny"). He also played Donatello in the early 2000s CGI Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.
    • Russell is kid actor Stuart Allen who I don't see anything particularly notable for.
    • Denny is Ted McGinley of Happy Days, The Love Boat, and Married With Children. His tendency to join shows already airing and see them suffer a swift demise not long after has also led to him being named as the "patron saint of jumping the shark." so perhaps it was a minor miracle that this series lasted as long as it did. :laugh:
  • In a nice touch, Grimlock retains the Decepticon badges that he had in the pilot since he was an apparent Decepticon imprisoned on the crashed ship Fixit was on
  • Ooh, actual title sequence. It's short, and features an abbrevaited take on the classic theme with text callouts for the members of Bumblebee's team. And a sick guitar riff at the end.
  • Fixit's admission that he has no idea if the weapons he's providing Bumblebee will work is a nice comedy delivery.
  • Bumblebee learned to drive a boat because he was stationed on earth before. In Nevada. A state that's mostly desert. I actually don't recall a large body of water ever strongly factoring into any episodes of Prime.
  • We get our first look at Steeljaw, the primary villain for most of hte first season and the most significant recurring villain in the series.
  • Our villain of the day is Hammerstrike, a Sharkticon (nice G1 reference) voiced by the one and only David Kaye.
  • Steeljaw's smooth, con-man style voice is prolific voice actor Troy Baker, who's done far too many things to mention
  • David Kaye puts on an Aussie accent because I guess why not?
  • Bumblebee once again shows a total disdain for the whole idea of the group not arousing the suspicion of humans as he has a knock-down, drag-out fight with Hammerstrike on the deck of the tanker he was attacking. There should, in theory, still be a crew on this ship. And what else are they gonna do except watch the giant bright yellow robot fight with the shark robot on their deck?
  • The stock footage prisoner profile graphic also gets to double as an encyclopedia of information on transformer physiology and subspecies traits.
  • Sideswipe's fake Decepticon act is both surprisingly funny and a really dumb plan.
  • That's a gigantic oil drum if it can fit a whole Decepticon inside.
  • And a strong one if it can actually restrict him.
  • As gorgeous as the backgrounds are, it's clear they weren't made for strong interaction. That cracking and falling tree looked really awkward.
  • It was never very clear if the whole deal with Sideswipe and Strongarm was supposed to be played like a sibling act or some sort of super chaste unresolved sexual tension. Sometimes their interactions seem almost flirtatious, and others it's more like mild contempt and teasing covering the idea that underneath everything they really do care about one another.
  • Overall this was a fun episode, but it really was a fairly light plot all around with some setup for the future. Not as much to snark about as I expected.

That wraps up RiD 2015. Tomorrow I'll be back with Youtubes of the penultimate batch of shows: the Prime Wars trilogy of short webisodes (we'll be watching 2 episodes apiece from Combiner Wars, Titans Return, and Power of the Primes. Given their <10 minute runtime per episode it works out to no longer than watching 3 full-length episodes of any other series)

also as a final note today, I found that not even Canada is safe from the oncoming Cybertronian war, as this panel from one of the many Transformers comics demonstrates :laugh:

RoadsEnd-Toronto.jpg
 
TFRewatch11-PWT.jpg

Proving that turning pre-release hype into disappointing results isn't just limited to Michael Bay and Japan.
​

It's the penultimate day of this rewatch and we close in on the end with the tie-in series for the most recent core toyline (I write this while pretending that War for Cybertron isn't really out in earnest yet.)

In 2016 Hasbro launched the Combiner Wars toyline as a sort of callback to G1. Focused on a lot of classic characters, a return to the old fashioned Autobots vs Decepticons great war, less Bayformers-y designs, and traditional gimmicks like combiner bots. To capitalize on that momentum, Hasbro partnered with Machinima and Japanese animation studio Tatsunoko Productions (creators of Samurai Pizza Cats, Macross, and Speed Racer) to launch what certainly felt like their most ambitious project yet in the realm of tie-in fiction: The Prime Wars Trilogy.

The debut of the series came with much fanfare. Producers made grand claims about the exciting, sophisticated story, advanced visuals, and deep, fan-friendly plot and design. Members of the staff even went as far as to call it "The Game of Thrones of animation." So after setting the bar that high, early visual looks revealed G1-accurate or inspired character designs and a wealth of familiar and new characters to pull from based on the toy line. The stage was set for it to take the fandom by storm.

And then it was released. And it was... not good. The series got a ton of scorn for basically every aspect of production and very quickly what was supposed to be a promising partnership and a new way for Hasbro to deliver the Transformers series that the hardcore fans want became an embarrassment. And then it just never recovered as two subsequent yearly series each failed to make any sort of improvement and by the end, the 3-part batch of shorts have become more of a footnote in Transformers history than a cornerstone of the modern franchise.

But does it really come off as badly as its reputation suggests? Let's find out.

Up first was the Combiner Wars series. *NOTE: Becuase I can't embed more than 3 YT videos into a single post, I'm going to embed the first episode of each series as an in-post YT and then provide a link to the second in its own spoiler tag.

PART I: COMBINER WARS

EPISODE 1 (Combiner Wars): The Fall


  • We open on Caminus with a gorgeous starfield shot
  • Oh god, what's with these character models? The backgrounds are Prime-esque painted gorgeous. The characters are dull cell-shaded looking things with flat colors. It's jarring and awkward looking.
  • Not a great start with characterization and voice acting. Computron replicates the "datum: X, Conclusion: Y" style he used in G1, but the voice almost has too much emotion in it, plus some "I" references. Computron never spoke in the first person. Menasor's voice is just, weird. He carries himself with a sort of urban street punk style that just comes across as weird.
  • We also immediately get introduced to Windblade, a central character of the Prime Wars line as she was the result of a series of fan polls by Hasbro to create a new character. But her introduction comes with the following shining dialogue:
    • Menasor: "Oh look, it's the city speaker. You come to talk at me?"
    • Windblade: "I don't do that anymore."
    • Menasor: "Works for me! I never was much of a talker!"
    • Me: "What the **** is this ridiculous bull****?"
  • While I'm talking about the voice acting, let's address a possible reason that it's as bad as it is: With only 2-4 exceptions, the entire tiny cast is composed mostly of Youtube personalities and fandub style VAs. For example: Optimus Prime will be voiced by Jon Bailey, aka the "Epic Voice Guy" from Honest Trailers. Hip Hop Menasor is a YT Let's Play host. Megatron does voices for Screw Attack's Death Battle series, and so forth. I don't mean this as a total slight to people who put out content on Youtube, but there is often a reason that many of these sorts of content creators are doing this kind of material instead of working for larger studios doing more professionally-produced content.
  • The story basically begins in the middle of everything going on. Such "in medias res" starts are not a bad storytelling device if you don't need to know the background or you'll get around to telling it later, but here I feel like there are things I'm supposed to know but don't. I wonder if it was material from the toy packaging that was supposed to inform fans of the characters' backgrounds and the war history to this point in the story. If so, that's just lazy.
  • The framerate on this animation is brutal. Everything is constantly chugging and looks like it's missing frames.
  • Oh god, the dialogue continues to be horrible.
  • Also the talking has awful lip sync. The lip flaps are far too simplistic and badly aligned. If I didn't know better I'd swaer this was written for Japanese dialogue.
  • Seriously? What in god's name is going on here? It's like picking up a book and starting to read at chapter 9.
  • Alright then, so Windblade just killed Menasor and I guess Computron is dead too? But they're 5 individual bots, how does that work? If MEnasor got stabbed through the chest, shouldn't just Motormaster die? Why can't the others just separate off?
  • Computron's not dead? Or is the blinking just an automated signal?
  • I have a feeling this cut to Cybertron and look at Optimus emerging from the shadows is supposed to be dramatic and inspiring and a kind of audience freak-out moment, but instead I just sort of go "ok?" and then the episode ends. (These shorts are 5 minutes long. I originally debated going back and adding 2 more to make it 20 minutes' worth of CW material, but **** that now, I feel like watching 10 minutes is too much.


EPISODE 2 (Combiner Wars): The Council
Episode 2 link here


  • Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enter- Oh, wrong series. But man, that opening pan was right out of the start of TNG
  • And then we have to start again by showing the same look at Cybertron as the end of the last episode.
  • OH MY GOD THE FRAMERATE IS GETTING WORSE.
  • Why the hell does Starscream have his earth fighter jet alt mode on Cybertron? It's not like you guys don't already know what the classic cybertronian Seeker jet looked like.
  • And why is Starscream reporting to Rodimus? Why are they working together?
  • Who's the lady-bot with the hammer?
  • So there's a peace already between the factions? When did that happen?
  • Starscream's voice isn't... awful.
  • "I may not be Optimus Prime, but I can try." Way to inspire confidence Rodimus
  • Speaking of Rodimus, why does he look like Hot Rod? He's specifically being called Rodimus Prime. but his face is very obviously young looking
  • So episode 1 turned Windblade into a cold-blooded executioner with a sniper rifle? Just because that other femme-bot died? Sure.
  • Why do I suddenly have this feeling that I'm going to watch 2 whole episodes with no Optimus Prime showing up at all outside of that cameo at the end of episode 1.
  • None of the characters' faces can emote. This is like, Unicron Trilogy CGI bad.
  • Oh, ok, there's Optimus.
  • But he doesn't ****ing talk. again.
  • And then the episode is over. Again.
  • But hey, if you like this utter nonsense enough, you can get a blu-ray with the complete series as part of the Target exclusive release of Transformers: The Last Knight, Michael Bay's last abomination of the series. So you can buy one putrid rotted piece of the franchise and get another for free!

Holy balls, that was garbage.

PART II: TITANS RETURN

EPISODE 1 (Titans Return): Aftermath & Rebirth



  • Immediate thing as I look at the TFWiki page for Titans Return: They've already realized their mistake on the casting. Peter Cullen returns as Optimus, Judd Nelson picks up being Hot Rod/Rodimus for the first time since his cameo in Animated, Victor Caroli returns for the first time since G1 as the narrator, and veteran voice actors like Nolan North, Patrick Seitz, Kari Wahlgren, and Mark Hamill pick up slack as supporting characters with a couple of stunt casts like Wil Wheaton (who does have VA experience) and Power Rangers' Jason David Frank (Tommy Oliver, the original green ranger). It's a step up from some of the crap I saw in 10 minutes of the first series.
  • These episodes are also now 11-12 minutes long each, so everything hopefully shouldn't seem as rushed.
  • The opening pan of Cybertron is not promising. It's the same clunky model as in Combiner Wars. It looks more like a cracked ball of lava than the usually expertly rendered mechanical marvel from every other show that's shown Cybertron before.
  • Vic Caroli's voice has very audibly aged.
  • So the mysterious lady with the hammer is hte "Mistress of Flame" I have no idea who that's supposed to be.
  • We're also going to start with a lengthy narration to recap what's going on.
  • So Starscream takes the "Enigma of Combination" and turns himself into "the ultimate combiner" which looks nothing like the combiner form from his PoP figure. That's kind of dumb. Why bother making a Starscream combiner toy after the fact of this series if it's not going to tie back? Though I guess some of that is difficult given that his form in this show was a glowy energy Starscream with no combiner components visible.
  • Starscream doesn't get a new voice, but the same VA from the first series seems to have stepped up his game. He sounds a lot more like Latta's version.
  • Nope. The dialogue still sucks.
  • Reading up on the Mistress of Flame character, not only doesn't she get a toy, but I can't entirely understand what the point of her is. She's supposed to be a leader of the planet Caminus (an offshoot planet where apparently many of the female Autobots live) but she almost comes across more like the robot pope.
  • Oh my god, the dialogue...
  • The framerate is slightly better, but not good enough
  • Optimus transforms and drives off. As his earth-mode truck. Also said truck looks a lot smaller than it should given his robot mode size.
  • So Rodimus is missing an arm now, and he got to wherever the hell he was going by hanging onto the underside of a helicopter-mode Autobot? Sure?
  • Also why is there so much rocky terrain on Cybertron?
  • I complained that Judd Nelson's delivery in the original movie was a little stuff. 30 years later, little has changed.
  • So I guess Optimus is an outcast or chosen exile, and Rodimus is carrying the Matrix. Makes sense, but seems like the sort of thing we should've been told about
  • Stop mumbling, Rodimus.
  • So I guess Starscream is circling the planet as a disembodied spark. Nice callback, too bad it probably doesn't go anywhere good given how poor of a start this series is off to.
  • Starscream keeps vaguely referring to "The gods". But, uhhh, bro? You know who your gods are. By name. It's not like none of you have ever invoked Primus or Unicron before. I guess I shouldn't expect more given the writing on this series so far.
  • So Starscream is being sucked into a body that's not his. But the parts are too difficult to identify.
  • Farewell, Rodimus Prime. Welcome back Hot Rod who looks exactly the same except for some detailing on his shins (and weirdly split feet that Rodimus usually has but not Hot Rod.
  • Man, the animation of Hot Rod turning his arm into a gun is horrible. It just blinks from hand to gun in like 2 frames. There's no actual transforming going on.
  • So... Starscream's spark was shoved into Trypticon? OK?
  • I don't know if I can rightfully call this "Better" than Combiner Wars was. It's not worse, but what improvements exist don't seem sufficient to pick up the quality.

EPISODE 2 (Titans Return): Our Heroes Respond
YT for Episode 2


  • What a lazy title. Seriously, what a stupid, lazy title. I'll gladly take a pretentious nonsense title over this sort of crap.
  • There's a lot of weird metaphysical junk going on. With no explaination.
  • "I don't understand!" That makes 2 of us, Windblade.
  • So the Titans are apparently like life-seeders on different planets? So why is Metroplex on Cybertron? I don't think there's ever been a continuity where that wasn't the original Transformer home.
  • Windblade psychically knows who Trypticon is? Sure, I guess.
  • Sorry Metroplex. Your "astro-second" G1 reference isn't scoring you any brownie points.
  • The modern invention of the transformer cuss-word "Scrud" is emblematic of what's wrong with this writing. It's not real word. The traditional transformers curses (scrap, slag) make sense because they're actual words with connotations that make sense for a race of sentient machines. "Scrud" is just some lazy writer realizing that "scrap" sounds like "crap" with an s on the front and doing the same with "crud" to get a lighter curse. But it's dumb.
  • "What in the name of Red Alert's <inaudible> samples is going on." This is just lazy, bad fanservice attempts.
  • Now Mistress of Flame is dismissing Perceptor for his "theories" because she wants to know what's causing the tremors. Except Perceptor is there to tell her what's causing the tremors. Say it with me agian: This writing is awful.
  • Trypticon will pulverize Metroplex? Why? nothing has been said about why he can't fight. Except that now it's being said he's severely damaged. God this writing is awful
  • Oh my god, it's like each character is being written by a different staff member with no connection to the rest of the staff. Conversations have no flow because it feels like they don't actually listen to what' said and respond. Instead they just parrot singular lines of dialogue and if they fit together, great.
  • This Mistress of Flame VA is terrible. She's almost as wooden as Judd Nelson.
  • Speaking of whom, this is one of his longer exchanges and he sucks here too.
  • Clearly elements of the character models are specifically designed based on toys, even to a fault. The Seekers deployed to fight Trypticon have obviously visible robot mode arms pinned to their plane bellies under the wing, just like the real toys do. Toy accuracy is great, but you should still be cleaning up your models so that aren't bound by the limitations of toy design.

This isn't really getting any better. But the episodes are getting longer as each series progresses. Hooray...


PART III: POWER OF THE PRIMES

EPISODE 1 (Power of the Primes): The Swamp



  • The title card for this series is "Written" out of a laser beam from the eye of Unicron. I'm not sure if that's spoilers considering Unicron isn't listed on the Titans Return cast list. Because if he's not here at the start of this show, you've just given away that he will show up.
  • That aside, why make Unicron a figure in this series if you're not making a toy of him? If you're going to produce a cartoon to sell toys, be able to sell toys of the characters you use.
  • Good god, you guys. You've had 2 years to keep producing these mini-series and you can't improve the animation any more than it does in between sections of the trilogy?
  • So this is Megatronus? He looks like... I have no idea what. He's also clearly voiced by Mark Hamill. Who does a better job of spouting nonsense than most of the actors have to this point.
  • I guess this is a flashback to when the Primes were alive? Becuase here's Solus Prime too. Except they look like full-blown transformers rather than the miniature Prime Masters from the toy line.
  • Nope, the dialogue still sucks. LEARN TO WRITE BETTER.
  • And now a flash-forward to MEgatronus standing over a burning... whatever it is? Forest? Seriously, now what the hell is going on? You can't just tell half a story and figure fans will like it.
  • At least the animation is slightly smoother this time around.
  • This Megatron voice is... bland. It's like a bad impression of Frank Welker.
  • Yay, Gregg Berger!
  • Boo, Gregg Berger being forced to do clunky exposition to introduce characters!
  • Seriously, the difference between Berger and Kari Wahlgren (two legitimate VAs in this scene) and everyone else is stark. This is what happens when you have legit professionals mixed with Youtube wannabes.
  • Grimlock's animation model looks a lot better than his actual toy.
  • Slag's voice sucks. I miss the G1 Slag voice. Maybe it's because he doesn't even get to be "Slag" but "Slug" because.
  • Perceptor is apparently much older than most Transformers? but again he has a youthful face like Rodimus Prime. So this show sucks at animation, sucks at character design, sucks at dialogue, and sucks at casting. I'm kind of struggling to find a positive here.
  • Where are the Dinobots' Autobot insignia?
EPISODE 2 (Power of the Primes): Volcanicus
YT for Episode 2


  • Vocanicus in animated form looks a lot better than what you get when you actually combine the Dinobot figures. Real Volcanicus is awful.
    I think Victorion is supposed to be funny. And failing at it.
  • So... Computron is dead? Again?
  • And now we have evil Hot Rod. Presumably to justify the Rodimus Unicronus toy. Except that this Evil Hot Rod has a faceplate like Optimus Prime whereas the inner Hot Rod bot that's part of Unicronus is just Hot Rod's normal face.
  • Hey, it's Overlord. a full series after he was a relevant toy character. And he has a southern-y accent.
  • So Hot Rod now has the "Matrix of Chaos" and calls himself "Rodimus Cron" First, this sounds like some bad fanfiction nonsense (even though I know that the idea of there being some sort of Decepticon/Unicron Matrix equivalent is a reasonably long-held idea in canon materials). Second, why name the toy "Rodimus Unicronus" if you can't commit to that name in fiction?
  • Devastator seems to be functioning just fine in spite of the massive hole in his chest. So then why the hell did Computron bite it from a laser blast to the chest?
  • If I didn't know better, I'd say that was supposed to be a commercial break.
  • A "why are you looking at me like that" joke. Or should I say failed joke. It's hard to deliver good jokes with bad acting and worse dialogue.
  • Comedy here is cringey all over the place.
  • I realize now that the fact that Victorion is missing an arm is strangely glossed over considering it should mean that one of the 5 component transformers that makes her up is dead. Though it appears there's never actually any attention given to her individual component pieces, so we're supposed to just treat her as a single character.
  • And now Predaking shows up. Just because. and Victorion is terrified. Also just because. Note that Predaking is not on the cast list of any previous series. So any backstory or foundation for her horror is completely absent.
  • How is Overlord holding Menasor by the neck? He never has a neck to bend that way. And why does Menasor even care about Devastator? He's usually just an asshole in most continuities.
  • And now Devastator is dead.
  • And so is Menasor as Overlord... broke his neck? Does that even work for Transformers?
  • Wait a sec, why is a single spark rising up out of the dead bodies of the combiners? Once again, they're combiners. As in "made up of 5-6 bots"
  • And now this is over too. Yay?

Wow, that whole trilogy was worse than I was expecting. Collectively it's legitimately worse than a lot of the awful stuff I was railing about earlier in the re-watch.

At least I'm confident it can't get worse than this. So join me tomorrow on Christmas Eve to see if I'm being too presumptuous as I watch the last piece of this project and the most recent series of Transformers fiction produced: Cyberverse.
 
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I just saw Transformers : Bumblebee.

It's was nice to see so many G1 characters be so easily recognizable.

Hopefully Hasbro will just make this a start of a full reboot and forget the Bay movies.

image


image


image


image
 
TFRewatch12a-Cyberverse.jpg


The one nobody really knows anything about because it's brand new.
​
Well, here we are. It's Christmas Eve, and thus day 12 of my 12 days of rewatching (or first-watching) Transformers series, and rightfully it's concluding with the series so new that it's still airing its first season.

Transformers: Cyberverse began airing in late August, 2018 on Cartoon Network's online platforms before premiering a TV run on September 1st. As of the time of writing this post, 17 of the show's planned 18 first season episodes have aired and a second season has already been greenlit for 2019.

The basic premise of the show is that Bumblebee was part of a team led by Optimus Prime who left earth in search of the AllSpark in order to put an end to the great war. However some time after landing on earth, Bumblebee suffers an injury that damages his memories, leaving him with amnesia and unable to remember much about his life or his mission. With the Decepticons hot on his trail in order to stop the mission and claim the AllSpark for himself, Windblade travels from Cybertron to Earth to try and help her friend put the pieces back together and figure out what he's supposed to be doing before it's too late.

Produced by Hasbro's television production arm, AllSpark Animation, and animated by Irish studio Boulder Media (animators for a number of recent Cartoon Network and Disney shows and now owned by Hasbro) Cyberverse bills itself as a series steeped in Transformers mythology and characterization, focusing on those aspects instead of a sprawling war plot. To that end it was conceived as an entirely new continuity for the series with no direct ties to any of the shows, comics, movies, games, or toys that came before it. Its art design borrows fom the colorful, cel-shaded look of Robots in Disguise (2015), but with a new aesthetic and character designs that are more cartoony and stylized, almost in a weird hybridization of G1 and Transformers Animated styling. The cast is also relatively small based on the billing sheet on TFWiki, and for the first time in a long time the voice actors are all brand new to the franchise without any returning actors from previous series or significant stunt-castings.

I have been assured by some that in spite of the animation style and character design, this is not necessarily a full-blown comedy series and that it does actually have some series and/or dramatic moments. Whether or not those show up in this viewing of the first 3 episodes remains to be seen.

Also it's worth noting that for the first time, this is a series that airs as half-block episodes (ie 11 minutes in length). So the 3 episodes we're watching today constitute just over 30 minutes of total run time as opposed to the hour or so that we might get out of a regular show. I'd do extra episodes to bump it up, but HF's media embedding limit is still just 3 YTs per post, so there's not much point.

Also I can't guarantee these episodes are all viewable through YT. Hasbro does have some of them region-locked on their YT channel, and I don't know if that just applies to Canada, to everywhere but the US, or in different fashion depending on which country you're viewing from.

EPISODE 1: Fractured


  • Immediately, the art style is, at the very least, interesting. Backgrounds are kind of flat but painted looking with stylized sharp, blocky shading. It does look a little "flat" though, like flash animation.
  • It's funny that the show explicitly says it's making use of "evergreen" character designs (that is, character designs that are generally iconic and unchanging across incarnations to make character recognizable) but that now that apparently means Bumblebee will always be a vaguely Camaro-esque modern muscle car instead of a beetle or similar sub-compact type car.
  • So losing his memory made Bumblebee a thrill-seeking adrenaline junkie?
  • A show with 11 minutes of runtime still has a 30 second title sequence. That's dubious
  • That said, the title sequence is cool in its minimalist, flat-colored style.
  • At least the show uses the classic transformation noise. Sort of. It's pitched and sped up.
  • Bumblebee's voice is.. distractingly young sounding.
  • I guess the reason his voice sounds the way it does is that they're still sort of mimicing the way he talks in the movies via voice clips and radio stuff. in spite of the fact that he has a single credited voice actor.
  • At the same time, Windblade's voice actress isn't a great actress. She sounds quite stiff.
  • At least the fight animation is nice and fluid and cool looking.
  • Bumblebee's non-speech speech is going to get annoying quickly. I hope they do plan on fixing it and not having this be a running gag the whole series. There's a reason that it was OK that Prime Bee just buzzed, and it was that he wasn't the character that was supposed to carry the show.
  • What the hell is this weapon Bumblebee has? It's just a giant energy dagger that emerges from his hand and paralyzes. I guess it makes sense as a "Stinger", but he should have a gun of some form.
  • It only took 30 years, but someone finally pointed out that "Deception" is the root word in "Decepticon" and thus makes a good case for their evil nature.
  • The episode basically ends on a cliffhanger. Why bother with an 11-minute format if you design the stories to link up into longer runs? Just make them 22 minutes...


EPISODE 2: Memory


  • They don't explain why Windblade using the psychic patch thing to link to Bumblebee's mind and overloading causes weird EMP effect before she collapses. That seems like the sort of thing you'd expect a safety feature to prevent.
  • Amnesiac Bumblebee is kind of a dick.
  • And 18 episodes of him acting this way because he doesn't trust Windblade is going to get extremely repetitive.
  • That is Thundercracker's voice? That's disappointing.
  • The sillier thing here is that in the middle of a fight, as he continues to clip-talk about whatever, he also constantly mugs and hand-emotes in the process. Because that's not leaving him open to getting attacked (and it does)
  • Already the show has a weird relationship with stock footage transformations. With limited time per episode, sometimes they use them, sometimes they don't. I'm not sure why they ever would. You have problems as a writer if you can't maintain a constantly moving plot for 11 minutes.
  • Windblade's sword is a deep fuschia on its blade. That, along with its jagged design, is usually a strong indicator in TF fiction of Dark Energon. Weird.
  • Somehow, having Bumblebee talk in radio clips is more annoying when it's one guy faking all the clips himself rather than actual clips.
  • And now, in his head, he gets a proper voice. Which totally doesn't sound exactly the same as his radio clips. Still, it's a decent enough voice for him.
  • I will grant that that visual of them being inside his mind is really cool.
  • Ok, seriously? the "test memory" they're using couldn't be something original? Instead it just plays about 20 seconds from the first episode? Boo.
  • They tie Windblade's ability to help Bumblebee telepathically is given a hand-wave as part of her "city-speaker" abilities that come from the Prime Wars fiction. Except instead of explaining it like that, she gives a long rambling explanation that sounds a whole lot more puffed up and self-important than it needs to be.
  • Oh dear god, that had better not be Optimus Prime's voice.
  • Starscream speaks over the radio at the end. That's not a bad take on things. It's like the difference being split beween the Latta starscream and the Steve Blum one from Prime.
  • And again, cliffhanger. Come on guys, learn how to format your shows..
  • Cast credits at the end indicate that voice I heard earlier wasn't Optimus. It seems to be most likely that it's Grimlock. That's more acceptable.


EPISODE 3: Allspark


  • Alright, Bumblebee's goofy thumbs-up after crashing the ship is funny.
  • and then they kill the joke immediately afterwards by having it drag on. "From now on, you'll do none of the flying." was a fine joke. But having Windblade add "and I'll do all of the flying" just sounds awkward.
  • So we go back into Bumblebee's mind so that he can talk normally and suddenly, in spite of having no memories of things, he says "I think I've got it figured out" and rattles off a reasonably succinct summary of the great war. Where did that come from? It feels like there's a scene that's been deleted.
  • In this continuity, the Allspark is... a 20-sided polyhedron? sure.
  • And now Grimlock talks again, except he has a vaguely accented voice that makes him sound intelligent, and cultured. That's almost disturbing.
  • Why the hell does Bumblebee have an earth car alt mode on Cybertron?
  • And now finally Optimus Speaks. It's kind of what you'd expect out of a Peter Cullen impersonator. Ok, but just different enough to give pause.
  • At least Optimus gets his classic rifle instead of a gun arm.
  • This is Grimlock? What the hell? He has a face.
  • Why in the 9 circles of hell does Megatron have an aussie accent? "ohhhhwptimus prye-muh." It might not entirely be an Aussie accent. It might be bad British. But it's something. Something ill-fitting.
  • Soundwave looks cool. But sounds like non-union Steve Blum. Where's the vocoder processing?
  • Optimus talks with weird William Shatner-esque pauses in his dialogue. "Cannot let Megatron corrupt... the Allspark."
  • Now's as good a time as any to bring up a weird bit I found out about the Cyberverse toyline. In a decision I can only describe as "baffling": They made toys that don't transform fully between modes. They turn from robot mode to... something halfway between their robot mode and alt mode. Seriously, it's like if you started following the instructions on figure and just stopped at the halfway point and said "yeah, that's good enough." Dubbed "transitional modes" by the packaging, you get nonsense like Grimlock turning into a t-rex upper body with robot legs, Windblade turning into a plane... with robot legs, and Megatron turning into his torso sitting on tank treads with big blocks behind him. It makes me think that they couldn't fully design the toys in time for the line launch and just threw these out there to stall for time while they figured out the rest of the mechanics of versions that actually worked.
  • As the episode actually ends on a reasonable "ending" point with the revelation that Bumblebee's memories are starting to repair themselves, I'll grant that this whole "journey to the center of his mind" plot is a nice way to info-dump a bunch of backstory without lengthy flashbacks that require some sort of narrative setup (like people saying "Remember the time that....") I could get used to a show that balanced the flashback aspects with current material.

On the whole, I feel like this show has some promise. It's not quite as kiddy as it looks out of the gate, but not as serious as some of the more stern series in the canon. I feel like given enough time they could strike a good balance of tones and make for an enjoyable show that trades in a new(ish) story with a fair amount of G1 fanservice for the older fans paying attention. Shame that the acting and voice direction is kind of spotty.

And that's that. Phew, that was a bit of a ride. I want to thank anyone who read these posts along the way, along with anyone who didn't and simply put up with me hijacking the thread for 2 weeks. Of course, now that I've plowed through basically everything I hadn't watched and reviewed before in terms of animated series (except Beast Machines, the young-viewer series Rescue Bots, and the yet-to-be-released fansubs of Beast Wars Neo) it leaves the question of what to do next year (provided this thread still exists and gets traffic). Oh well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I'd also love to hear any feedback anyone has, good or bad. Or even just tell me to stop doing this every year because it clogs up the thread.

In the mean time, I figure maybe I'll close out now by ranking every series in the TF animated canon that I've watched in the last 2 years in order of preference now that I've watched so much of it. Well, maybe not order of preference. More like tiers of preference. And doing so by counting the Prime Wars trilogy as a single entity and the Omni dubs of the Japanese trilogy as separate entities from their subtitled original versions.

The Nemesis' totally definitive and not at all arguable in any way because it's objectively perfect franchise TV series quality rankings

The "actually quite good" tier
Beast Wars
G1 (plus the Movie and I guess Scramble City)
Prime

The "not the best, but probably worth your time" tier
Animated
Cyberverse
Robots in Disguise (2015)

The "Watchable in the right frame of mind" tier
Victory (JP original)
Go!
Armda/Micron Legend

The "Not good enough to be watchable, not bad enough to be enjoyably bad, and not terrible enough to be a total trainwreck" tier
Robots in Disguise (2001)/Car Robots
Victory (Omni dub)

The "So bad its good" tier
RobotMasters (based on the fan-dub)
Headmasters (Omni dub)


The "So bad it's still bad" tier
Cybertron/Galaxy Force
Super-God Masterforce (Omni dub)
Beast Wars II
Headmasters (JP original)
Zone OVA

The "Oh my god, make it stop" tier
Energon/Super Link
Super-God Masterforce (JP original)
Prime Wars Trilogy

The "not really a tier because it's stuff I never watched for this project" tier
Beast Wars II
Rescue Bots
Beast Machines

This breakdown means that about 1/2 the franchise is watchable in some form or another and half of it is pretty bad. That's a reasonable ratio given 30 years of work.

I guess that's it for me for now. If I'm not back here in this thread for a bit, Merry Christmas everyone. And if I am, it'll likely be because I got a Transformer or two for christmas.
 
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Sorry, I've been AWOL thanks to the World Juniors, but I wanted to note that I got Predaking and a couple of War for Cybertron figures (Cog, Hound, and one of the Micromaster packs) for christmas. I might post some thoughts on those if I some free time. Which is probably not coming immediately because of the WJC schedule.

Basic initial thought: Predaking is ****ing massive. Not Fort Max big, but it's easily twice the size of the regular PoP combiners. because every single bot is the size of one of the big torso-bots (Grimlock, Elita-1, Hun-Grr, etc)
 
I love that the line between "for collectors" and "for kids" can generally be demarcated by how much work you have to do once the figure is out of the box.

figure for kids to play with? Ready to go as soon as you get the package open.

figure for collectors? Hope you've got 3 hours to apply the giant sticker sheet to it. And I hope you have steady hands!

Today I decided to finally put the stickers on my predaking. I'm over an hour and a bit into the job and all I've done are Divebomb and half of Rampage. And I've already screwed up a couple of them because you cant really position them and set. instead they static cling to the plastic as soon as you have it halfway down. and Divebomb's wings are ****ing garbage to get to align properly (not helped by the half-ass instruction sheet and nonsense numbering on the sheet itself)
 
Netflix announced today that they've partnered with production house Rooster Teeth (makers of online hipster-cool sorta-anime series RWBY) to produce a new animated series in the War for Cybertron imprint of the current toyline. It'll launch in 2020 (in spite of the fact that by then they're going to be at least halfway through what I suspect is another three-part toyline setup), apparently it's going to be animated "in a style like we've never seen before" and serve as an "origin story" and other curious, shallow marketing buzz-phrases that don't tell me anything other than the fact that the suits in marketing still think people fall for vacuous claptrap like that over actual quality.



still, I'd be down for some classic "actual fighting on Cybertron" Transformers war stories.

And then I hit the point in the press release where they said the showrunner is the guy responsible for two of the Prime Wars Trilogy shows.

And... well... let's just flash back to what I said about the Prime Wars Trilogy stuff when I watched it before Christmas: The Transformers thread (shows, comics, toys, all things TF)

Of the stuff I watched over 12 days, it was legitimately the worst of the bunch. Worse than the crappy bits of the Japanese G1 extension. Worse than the Unicron trilogy. Hell, it's worse than my memories of how awful Beast Machines was. It very well might be the worst bit of Transformers fiction ever made. And that potentially includes Kiss Players.
 
There's more info out there now on the War for Cybertron: Seige toyline's future components.

blurry, low-res images now exist for the forthcoming Titan Class Omega Supreme

Transformers-2-1.jpg


They're also introducing a new size tier called "Commander Class" that appears like it'll sit in between Leader and Titan and will feature Jetfire with a very cartoon accurate looking design to his G1 time when he was named "Skyfire", plus the easter egg of an altered robot mode that replicates the original toy's robot mode in all its Macross-themed legally dubious glory. It will also come with a gimmicked faction symbol on its chest to reference the fact that in his G1 debut waffled between which side to fight on.

746px-WFC-Siege-WFCS28-Commander-Jetfire.jpg


They've also announced a TBA store exclusive figure based on one of the background fembots on Elita-1's team in The Search for Alpha Trion (ie not Chromia, Moonracer, or Firestar. Think of it like all those times they made toys for the screaming neon colored seekers that appeared briefly in a couple of scenes on Cybertron in G1) and in a baffling move have made her out of the Power of the Primes Moonracer/Novastar mold instead of Siege's Chromia mold. This means there will now be a 3rd fembot with an identical body structure and capable of becoming a PoP combiner limb, but it's still not enough to make an all-fembot Elita-1 combiner because the Siege line has no combiner functionality.

800px-WFC-Siege-Deluxe-Greenlight-%26-Battle-Master-Dazlestrike-multipack.jpg


Lastly, in what will be a fantastic cost-saving measure for me (until I eventually break and cave in) I won't need to spend money on Wave 2's sole Leader Class figure because it's another Optimus Prime figure, remolded from Wave 1's Ultra Magnus (which I have and which is awesome) to vaguely resemble the very Gundam-esque super mode from one of the Unicron Trilogy anime series. It's cool and all, but I'm not sure I need more than 1 Optimus on my shelf (though I said the same thing about Rodimus Unicronus and I ended up caving in eventually and now I love having it standing back-to-back with Nemesis Prime)

800px-WFC-Siege-WFC-S40-Leader-Class-Galaxy-Upgrade-Optimus-Prime.jpg



Apparently Wave 2 is making its way into stores in the US now, which means I'll probably start seeing figures in like May. The wave consists of:

Battle Masters Pteraxadon (Autobot) and Aimless (Decepticon)

Micro Masters Ravage/Laserbeak (Decepticon) and Red Heat/Stakeout (Autobot)

Deluxe Class Chromia, Ironhide, Prowl, and Sixgun (all Autobots. Sixgun is the Weaponizer figure and is based off the mini bot that came with G1 Metroplex the way Cog was from Fort Max)

Voyager Class Starscream (Cybertronian pyramid jet mode) and Soundwave (both Decepticons, dur :laugh:)

Leader Class Galaxy Upgrade Optimus Prime (dur again)


Revealed future waves will have
  • Barricade (basically a G1-ified version of the Decepticon police car from the first couple of Bay movies),
  • Impactor (a character born of the UK Marvel comics in the 80s and who's become more prominent in modern fiction as the leader of the Wreckers, but has never had a wide-released G1 line figure before)
  • Mirage
  • Thundercracker (fittingly as a Starscream repaint)
  • Red Alert (fittingly as a Sideswipe repaint)
  • and Springer (with a janky, disappointing triple-change gimmick where he turns into a car and a car-like vehicle that has a helicopter rotor attached to its roof)
I have to assume there's more than just these, but I said that bout the thin looking waves 3 and 4 for PoP and that turned out to be all there was. So... :dunno:
 
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They've also announced a TBA store exclusive figure based on one of the background fembots on Elita-1's team in The Search for Alpha Trion (ie not Chromia, Moonracer, or Firestar. Think of it like all those times they made toys for the screaming neon colored seekers that appeared briefly in a couple of scenes on Cybertron in G1) and in a baffling move have made her out of the Power of the Primes Moonracer/Novastar mold instead of Siege's Chromia mold. This means there will now be a 3rd fembot with an identical body structure and capable of becoming a PoP combiner limb, but it's still not enough to make an all-fembot Elita-1 combiner because the Siege line has no combiner functionality.

800px-WFC-Siege-Deluxe-Greenlight-%26-Battle-Master-Dazlestrike-multipack.jpg
Click to expand...

I think that's the Autobot called Greenlight.

Greenlight - Transformers Wiki

300px-Femaleautobot_green.jpg
 
Guardian17 said:
I think that's the Autobot called Greenlight.

Greenlight - Transformers Wiki

300px-Femaleautobot_green.jpg
Click to expand...

It is. I just didn't want to use the name because most people won't remember the name of some ancillary, voiceless background character.

I should've remembered that we're all gigantic nerds :laugh:

Now they just need to release another remold painted up as Lancer and we'll have a complete Elita-Inifinte.

Also Toys R Us apparently is doing a "buy 1, get 1 half price" sale on a bunch of brands including Transformers for the next week. Of course this happens like 3 days after I picked up Ultra Magnus, so I wouldn't be able to get max value out of the sale since the only high price point figure I still want is Shockwave. But if anyone wants some Seige figures, I would say that out of wave 1 it'd be worth it for Megatron, Ultra Magnus, I presume Shockwave, Hound, Cog, and Sideswipe (basically the only ones I don't see as heavily worthwhile to get are Optimus, Skytread, and the Battle/Micro Master figures. Skytread is cool and all, but it's a weird rando character and I don't have any particularly strong tie to it the way I did with Battletrap in PoP.)
 
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Guys, can you help me out??? I grew up with Transformers and GI Joes, and Im trying to find certain episodes for the Transformers. These episodes took place in the late 80s/early 90s. What happened was, they took off the heads of the Autobots, and fixed them to where a human can go in it, and the head would transform into a mini robot. There was even an Autobot base station that trasformed into a robot, and the head would transform into a robot as well. I remember that base station well because I bought it for $100 from Toys R Us, with a gift certificate my brother got me for my birthday. Anyone remember these episodes? It wasnt a different series BTW.
 
pb1300 said:
Guys, can you help me out??? I grew up with Transformers and GI Joes, and Im trying to find certain episodes for the Transformers. These episodes took place in the late 80s/early 90s. What happened was, they took off the heads of the Autobots, and fixed them to where a human can go in it, and the head would transform into a mini robot. There was even an Autobot base station that trasformed into a robot, and the head would transform into a robot as well. I remember that base station well because I bought it for $100 from Toys R Us, with a gift certificate my brother got me for my birthday. Anyone remember these episodes? It wasnt a different series BTW.
Click to expand...

Transformers Headmasters DVD available on Amazon.com.

https://www.amazon.ca/Transformers-...248&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmrnull&tag=googcana-20

 
pb1300 said:
Guys, can you help me out??? I grew up with Transformers and GI Joes, and Im trying to find certain episodes for the Transformers. These episodes took place in the late 80s/early 90s. What happened was, they took off the heads of the Autobots, and fixed them to where a human can go in it, and the head would transform into a mini robot. There was even an Autobot base station that trasformed into a robot, and the head would transform into a robot as well. I remember that base station well because I bought it for $100 from Toys R Us, with a gift certificate my brother got me for my birthday. Anyone remember these episodes? It wasnt a different series BTW.
Click to expand...

Guardian17 said:
Transformers Headmasters DVD available on Amazon.com.

https://www.amazon.ca/Transformers-...248&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmrnull&tag=googcana-20

Click to expand...


Careful, that Amazon link is for the DVD for the Japanese series that followed the cartoon we got in North America. It's not what the poster is likely looking for unless they grew up in Japan or some nearby Asian countries like Singapore or Malaysia. I generally wouldn't recommend that to someone that's not really into The Transformers because it's.... super weird, quite different from the western show in tone/style, and at times very Japanese (though less so than the series that followed it :laugh:)

What he's almost certainly thinking of is the 3-part episode that formed the so-called "4th season" of the western cartoon, called "The Rebirth"

The Rebirth, Part 1 - Transformers Wiki
The Rebirth, Part 2 - Transformers Wiki
The Rebirth, Part 3 - Transformers Wiki

They originally aired November 9th through 11th, 1987 (ahh, the days of daily new cartoons on weekdays)

It's available in the last batch of DVDs from Shout Factory, comprising all of season 3 (set after Transformers: The Movie) and these 3 episodes as Season 4.

In typical fashion, it's also more expensive on Amazon.ca than it is on Amazon.com

https://www.amazon.com/Transformers...mers+season+3&qid=1552697146&s=gateway&sr=8-1

US price: about $12 and fulfilled by Amazon (so it can qualify for free shipping)

vs.

https://www.amazon.ca/Transformers-...mers+season+3&qid=1552697123&s=gateway&sr=8-1


Canadian price: about $20 Canadian, plus $3.49 shipping (mandatory as it's a marketplace seller)


If you're looking for the whole series, the complete Shout Factory print of the series is $60US/$80Cdn on their respective Amazons, giving you all 4 seasons (about 98 episodes). It does not include The Movie though. Unfortunately the movie is a little awkward to find at the moment as it looks like the 30th anniversary edition is no longer in print and is sold out on Amazon.com or is ludicrously expensive ($80+ factoring shipping with the usual 3rd party gouging) on Amazon.ca
 
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The Nemesis said:
Careful, that Amazon link is for the DVD for the Japanese series that followed the cartoon we got in North America. It's not what the poster is likely looking for unless they grew up in Japan or some nearby Asian countries like Singapore or Malaysia. I generally wouldn't recommend that to someone that's not really into The Transformers because it's.... super weird, quite different from the western show in tone/style, and at times very Japanese (though less so than the series that followed it :laugh:)

What he's almost certainly thinking of is the 3-part episode that formed the so-called "4th season" of the western cartoon, called "The Rebirth"

The Rebirth, Part 1 - Transformers Wiki
The Rebirth, Part 2 - Transformers Wiki
The Rebirth, Part 3 - Transformers Wiki

They originally aired November 9th through 11th, 1987 (ahh, the days of daily new cartoons on weekdays)

It's available in the last batch of DVDs from Shout Factory, comprising all of season 3 (set after Transformers: The Movie) and these 3 episodes as Season 4.

In typical fashion, it's also more expensive on Amazon.ca than it is on Amazon.com

https://www.amazon.com/Transformers...mers+season+3&qid=1552697146&s=gateway&sr=8-1

US price: about $12 and fulfilled by Amazon (so it can qualify for free shipping)

vs.

https://www.amazon.ca/Transformers-...mers+season+3&qid=1552697123&s=gateway&sr=8-1


Canadian price: about $20 Canadian, plus $3.49 shipping (mandatory as it's a marketplace seller)


If you're looking for the whole series, the complete Shout Factory print of the series is $60US/$80Cdn on their respective Amazons, giving you all 4 seasons (about 98 episodes). It does not include The Movie though. Unfortunately the movie is a little awkward to find at the moment as it looks like the 30th anniversary edition is no longer in print and is sold out on Amazon.com or is ludicrously expensive ($80+ factoring shipping with the usual 3rd party gouging) on Amazon.ca
Click to expand...

Yes, that’s it!! It was around the time you mentioned.

Fortress Maximus was the name of the base.

upload_2019-3-16_10-0-19.jpeg


His head would come off as well and transform.

Going to look in to getting these DVDs slowly. Thanks for the help you two.
 
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pb1300 said:
Yes, that’s it!! It was around the time you mentioned.

Fortress Maximus was the name of the base.

View attachment 200191

His head would come off as well and transform.

Going to look in to getting these DVDs slowly. Thanks for the help you two.
Click to expand...

No problem.

Also they made a new and updated Fortress Maximus figure a couple years ago which is largely faithful to the original design, just with the advantages of the last 30 years of technological improvements in toy making. It is literally the largest Transformer ever made, standing just over 2 feet tall in robot mode.

TitansReturntoy-FortressMaximus.jpg


I have one sitting on a shelf above my desk and it is glorious.The only thing that sucks is that my head bot doesn't have his robot mode's Autobot symbol on his chest because I lost it while trying to apply the sticker (because the thing you learn as a collector of Transformers is that the figures they sell for kids to play with are good to go right out of the package. The ones that you pay waaaay more for because they're marketed to collectors, you also get the "fun" of having to put pieces of them together and apply the stickers as you take them out of the box.:laugh:)

re: the cartoon - It's a fun nostalgia kick, and there are some really entertaining episodes, but as a word of warning, it doesn't always age that well in terms of how well crafted the stories are or how much they cared about the animation quality.
 
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The Nemesis said:
No problem.

Also they made a new and updated Fortress Maximus figure a couple years ago which is largely faithful to the original design, just with the advantages of the last 30 years of technological improvements in toy making. It is literally the largest Transformer ever made, standing just over 2 feet tall in robot mode.

TitansReturntoy-FortressMaximus.jpg


I have one sitting on a shelf above my desk and it is glorious.The only thing that sucks is that my head bot doesn't have his robot mode's Autobot symbol on his chest because I lost it while trying to apply the sticker (because the thing you learn as a collector of Transformers is that the figures they sell for kids to play with are good to go right out of the package. The ones that you pay waaaay more for because they're marketed to collectors, you also get the "fun" of having to put pieces of them together and apply the stickers as you take them out of the box.:laugh:)

re: the cartoon - It's a fun nostalgia kick, and there are some really entertaining episodes, but as a word of warning, it doesn't always age that well in terms of how well crafted the stories are or how much they cared about the animation quality.
Click to expand...

Man, I wish I had kept all my toys from the 80s, I would have made some pretty good coin. Transformers, GI Joes, Thundercats, and anything Star Wars. I even had a certificate from I think it was Hanes or Froot of the Loom, whoever did the Star Wars underwear, saying Darth Vader was my father lol.

I know the episodes are not going to be great, but I don’t care. I’m still going to enjoy them. Thanks for the help.
 
pb1300 said:
Yes, that’s it!! It was around the time you mentioned.

Fortress Maximus was the name of the base.

View attachment 200191

His head would come off as well and transform.

Going to look in to getting these DVDs slowly. Thanks for the help you two.
Click to expand...
I was watching these Headmaster episodes on YouTube and couldn't help but think how the Hell does Fortress Maximus fly. The writers clearly didn't give any thought towards it and they didn't care.
 
Baby Punisher said:
I was watching these Headmaster episodes on YouTube and couldn't help but think how the Hell does Fortress Maximus fly. The writers clearly didn't give any thought towards it and they didn't care.
Click to expand...

The Rebirth or the Japanese Headmasters series? I don't remember him flying much in the western episodes except to travel from Nebulos to Cybertron.

Headmasters, on the other hand, turns the "battlestation" mode into a spaceship/travel mode. And then the Omni dub goes the extra mile and names it "Spaceship Bruce"
 
Something I didn't notice until today:

On either March 15th or 16th (depending on the source), Larry DiTillio passed away from complications relating to Parkinson's Disease. He was 71.

DeTillio was one of the executive producers, story editors, and head writers on Beast Wars, including writing 12 episodes of the series (including "Other Voices" the two-part Season 1 finale with its epic cliffhanger conclusion and A+ Megatron gloat/rant, and several other Vok-centric episodes) and apparently co-writing or providing script doctoring work on most other episodes in the series.

Away from the Transformers, he was a credited co-creator for She-Ra in the 80s, was uncredited as a major scenario writer and concept designer on He-Man & The Masters of the Universe (he was described as being "the brains behind most of the He-Man mythos") and was an executive story editor for Babylon 5.

Larry DiTillio - Transformers Wiki

:(



(spoilers, but if you haven't seen a 25-year old episode of Transformers fiction, that's on you. :laugh:)
 
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