I noticed all the way back in the beginning that there were two popular continuities from Bob Budiansky's Marvel Comics and then the Sunbow series. They started to diverge their continuities and canon right away. And past the 1986 movie, they diverged even more solidly. What that established to me as a kid was that there wasn't an "official" Transformers story. What YOU made up in your head was valid. And whatever the comics or the TV show did were telling a story in their own way that were just inspirations to our own head canons, whatever they were.
This is the correct perspective to have on Transformers and media like it. The most important canon is always, always *personal* canon. RIRFIB, the minutiae of toy-accuracy vs show-accuracy, what pleases you as a collector/fan of media… it’s all up to you. There’s something kind of beautiful ably that.
@@jadenova I've gone back and read the British Marvel material, which as everyone knows, was put out more frequently and padded out the American Marvel stories. It is interesting how they told more stories and were frequently (but not always) careful to keep the stories in continuity with the American comics. And also thread the needle to include post '86 characters but not break the Marvel continuity by using timelines and multiverse plotlines. Just furthers the complications that makes Transformers canon feel very pudding-like, anyway.
The main problem with Transformers now is that once again they play it too safe, with every new design of an old character basically being from G1 or Bayverse. They need to diversify like they did in the early 2000s and create more designs that are different from the past yet still identifiable. If they want to keep using older designs, then use others they have, like from the Unicron trilogy, Animated or maybe even from aligned, especially the cancelled designs & characters.
TJ: You got a toy car and a toy robot at the same time. Me: And if you don't follow the instructions like me you also get a toy puzzle at the same time. Of course that also means the best transformers for me are the ones that hit that sweet spot between being so easy to transform they barely even transform and so complex to Transform that I feel like I might break something if I don't check the instructions.
let us also never forget what failure for Transformers did in Japan. We got the Brave Series, an 8 series masterpiece of super robot magnificence, that also created multiple games, 2 of which could be paired with the Super Robot Wars genre of games. Brave is also seeing somewhat of a revival with a new saga series web comic. There are some articles saying its going to herald in a super robot genre renaissance and i cant wait to see if that's true!
Victory is so blatantly proto-brave. And when Brave ended...Transformers picked up right where it left off! RiD/Car Robots, Armada/Micron Legend, Energon/Superlink, and Cybertron/Galaxy Force are all so blatantly Super Robot it's AWESOME.
I think main issue with TF right now in terms of media is we've had so many retreads of G1, Prime Wars, War For Cybertron, live action reboots, and to an extent Cyberverse and Earthspark even if they are doing their own thing, still adhere very closely to g1 aesthetics. We need a new Beast Wars, Unicron Trilogy, Animated or Prime, where we do actually go with a completely new aesthetic and style, rather than G1 again (again).
Toy-wise Legacy has been doing this at the very least decently, just being able to look at my shelf and see the new Armada Optimus and Megatron figures is a fantastic experience even if they have the occasional flaw here or there. It makes me wish we could just get a new iteration of Transformers where it has all the classic hallmarks of the past deviations. New designs and alt modes we never considered yet work for the characters, strange name-dumps where a character has a name of someone that doesn't look like them at all in G1 (Armada Wheeljack just being a black, white, and yellow Sideswipe being an example) and just fun creativity. I of course hope Hasbro dips their toes into the Unicron trilogy, Beast Wars Transmetals, and if we're lucky maybe even the cancelled Transtech designs that look like they would have been so dang cool and fun, but all the same I hope we get something truly new again, soon.
I wholeheartedly agree, it's been too long since we had a visually-distinct series for Transformers not strictly aping: A] the live-action movies (Prime) B] G1/Authentics/Geewun (Earthspark, Cyberverse, Prime Wars & the Netflix which were sunk by the same set of writers) -or even Prime to a point considering some elements have been tried again or fumbled in Earthspark!- Bums me out that it's a decade since Rescue Bots debuted (the Odenathus of the Aligned Continuity experiment), the release of the High Moon Games, and the death of Animated because Stu Snyder thought CN Real & live-action was the future for *_CARTOON NETWORK_*
Hasbro is just trying to play off of adult nostalgia with all the G1 figures and it seems to have been working especially with the SS 86 line which is totally aimed at adults.I won't buy a figure unless it's G1 because that's what I watched and loved as a 7 year old child.
The main issue is the movie are written by talentless idiots who don't care about continuity and the cartoons are being made for only the youngest of children, we need something like Transformers Prime again, and more single player big budget games
I've noticed a three year pattern in another series I'm fond of, YuGiOh. Every 3 years the game has seen some innovation introduced, just recently a new monster faction and a tie in gimmick. So it's interesting to see that shared with Transformers.
lego also likes to do this, they’ll generally plan a theme to last three years, and then see how far that gets them. you can also see it in longer-running themes, like how bionicle is mostly split into two or three year arcs.
When you think about it Beast Wars also plays into that kind of gross 90's style with the organic blending with the robotic, but in it's own way without coming off as a ninja turtle knockoff. So you could say transformers had to get comfortable with the concept of transformation. Also Pokemon tend to run on a three year cycle between generations.
Fun Fact: When the White Ranger was introduced in Mighty Morphing Power Rangers The Rangers switched their Zords with that of the Super Sentai Serie where the White Ranger originated from But in a scrapped idea they asked the Japan Company to make new versions of the OG 5 MMPR's Zords that could combine with The White Tiger The Design where finished but Prototypes where never made This is the Closest Thing Mighty Morphing Power Ranger got to produce their OG Toys (at the time) Ask the OG Japan Company to produce them Well, there's also the White Ranger with the MMPR's Simbols under his Armor but that's only a slight change of the Original Mold and it's only a little bit of extra paint
“The transformers fandom was never up in arms like the DC fandom is now” Except back when Beast Wars was first released. There is a reason we still meme “TRUKK NOT MONKEH!” And the phrase “RUINED FOREVER!” In the fandom. XD
Also noteworthy is how much Japanese TF series embraced this approach. Hasbro is still reluctant to move beyond the Optimus/Megatron dynamic. I'm writing a project now where a combined team of Autobots and Decepticons join forces, only to be attacked by a new enemy. There are lots of new ways to spin the lore by branching out.
We didn't see that with GIJoe. They just kept with the gimics until it stopped in 1994. IIRC in their last year they had aliens and "bio armor" which was just play-doh and a mold that wrapped around the figure. Now they're just hitting the nostalga market. The last cartoon was Renegades which was an attempt at a reboot. I thought it was great, but I only saw it on TH-cam years after it ran and failed. I guess it was too story-heavy with not enough action. Let's hope the current reboot works better.
They got hit with the anti-gun lobby, on top of ratings that weren't great. That, coupled with live action movies that failed, because they couldn't capture the essence of GI Joe, is why Hasbro stopped trying. Until the latest attempt to make a cinematic universe, which somehow is also a prequel to the Bayverse, where characters that should have been the Joes were called NEST.
I find this a great take. I remember as a kid, hating some of the changes some series made, but as an adult I can appreciate it. In this franchise there's a little bit of everything for everyone. I may not like Beast Machines, Energon, or Cybertron; but that doesn't take away my love of G1, Beast Wars, Armada, and the War for Cybertron games. It's definitely the opposite effect that I feel towards the Marvel and Star Wars franchise. I love the Original and Prequel Trilogy for Star Wars, but I felt the Sequels robbed a lot from both and wasn't as great. I still love the OT and PT, but there is a sour note where you know where characters you love wind up. Where as if Michael Bay makes a crappy Transformers movie, it doesn't affect my enjoyment of Beast Wars because there's a separation. I know that wasn't super well written, but I think I got my point across.
The lack of a tv show really was down of the series. Kids wanted characters what were on TV but new toys were without any TV appears. Imagine if ironhide had new toy in 1988.
1990, the last japanese animation happened in July with the Zone ova and in September the last original UK script was published. Marvel US wouldn't end til summer of '91, sad.
I still fell sad about one thing that being Transformers Zone never being a full series on its own, like it was a good concept that came out too late, I mean at least we got the OVA and at least felt like a good ending to the Transformers G1 saga, at least before Beast Wars, but I still wished it was a full series It's just like what happend with the two italian liners SS Michelangelo and SS Raffaello great liners that at least served well, but came out on a time where oceanliners were being replaced by airplanes and their fates were very sad
@@Tfbrave well yeah, but a manga is a thing and an anime is another I mean there are many key differences between the two for example the appearence of Cain, his flying rabbit mascot and Akira
I do think we are reaching a point of overload in Hasbro's waxing nostalgia. We are now starting to dive into transformers failed lines. I dread seeing the pretenders lol. At some point they will have to go back to the drawing board. If they don't we will see shelves upon shelves of rehashed g1 figures. The only saving grace is that they are poking into IDW storylines and characters. They can probably ride that pony for a bit.
George Lucas knew of this issue, which is why every Star Wars movie had a vastly different aesthetic and setting from the previous one; desert and space station for A New Hope, snow field and cloud city and swamp for Empire Strikes Back, and a remix of the previous two plus jungle for Return of the Jedi. The sequels tried to do the same to a t, which is why it ended up feeling so uninspired. Meanwhile, the prequels had their own picks for settings and aesthetics for each movie which were vastly different from the ones in the original trilogy.
i was done with transformers by 1987 even though i was only 10.. i hated all the plastic ''lie down and turn into a plastic brick'' thing formers.. like omega supreme and metroplex and cybertronian dumb molds.. they looked stupid to me.. i missed the realistic looking vehicles
My fan films reimagined Trans Tech as Transformers meet Robotech, still up also on YT. It's the fourth season of g1 and the fourth of BW you never got.
A Jumping On Point is also a Jumping Off Point. A big risk. DC lost me in September 2011, when everyone but Wonder Woman (who had already vanished a year before) were replaced.
Here's a thought, if the OG toyline didn't end in North America, what new characters would've been added (Euro characters don't count)? The create your own toyline could help as a basis.
Weirdly I think Gundam learned similar lessons with Victory and G Gundam in the early 90s Now Gundam series generally run for 2 seasons with spinoffs and other stuff coming sparingly thereafter Only exception being UC simply for being the first and most well developed (to a point)
My fan films from that era do cover 1990. Till All Are One, on my channel, has a commentary by me decades later, over the original audio, which would not be used. It's the most popular current fan film upload on the channel. I also did fan films during Generation 1 and 2, and have been doing them for decades too.
Generation 2 was just them doing what Power Rangers later did, repackaging older stuff. But Power Rangers also woes its success to Super Sentai type stories before, like Voltron.
I agree. Thank you Hasbro for 40 years of Transformers. I started with the Transformers in 1984 and I have been a fan of it ever since. I am 54 years old and I strongly hope that it lasts another 40 years if not more.
Doctor Who follows a similar 3-year cycle: the current Doctor tends to do 3 seasons then move on. I feel like that franchise sits in quite a nice middle-ground between TF and Marvel/DC - it's still telling the same story but the episodic nature of that story means you don't need to know all the continuity (which is all over the place anyway because the writers never worry too much about keeping every minute detail consistent at all times, and there's no official Canon they're beholden to!) So every 3 or 4 years or so, they can just take it off in an all-new direction for a bit and do whatever they like until it's time to move on again 😊❤
I know this technically doesn't qualify but I really didn't like when TF Prime turned into Beast Hunters. The show and the toys just seemed to drop in quality. I totally agree with the rest. It's kind of cool that they re-boot every 3 years or so. It keeps the property fresh as well as gives them the opportunity to explore new options as well as keep the copyrights alive on some of the characters. And, if one doesn't work out, they were moving on anyway. I loved TF growing up, and collected since 84 as a child. I was cool with Pretenders. I liked Micro Masters a lot. But when Action Masters came out, I was out. I had already kind of shifted to G.I. Joe at that point, so non-transforming Transformers, as a product, not a gimmick, was of no interest to me. Money is not infinite, so I spent mine on the Joes at that time. ; ) I just dropped out of toys shortly after. Got into guitars instead ;-P I started buying/collecting toys again when Cybertron/Galaxy Force (the 3rd part of the Unicron Trilogy) came out. It started with, what it known as a Market 6 re-issue of Energon or Universe Arcee. It's a pink motorcycle with very Energon series type weapons. (I've picked up a few EG and Armada molds over the years ;) ) I didn't even know that an Arcee had ever been made and I saw her at a Dollar General for $5. And, that was when my current collection started. It was a love affair, between whoever I was dating and the robots. But, mostly the robots ;) I'm at somewhere between 400-450 products at the time of posting this. I collect mostly CHUG-Legacy-you know, the "collector's" main line. But that's by no means exclusive. I have almost a dozen of the US Masterpiece figures, and if I'm into the current TV show, I'll buy some of those. (Sad I didn't feel TF Animated but I loved TF Prime. Cybertron/Gal Force was running when I started collecting as an adult with money, so I have more than a few of those.) And I'm totally into the 86 SS line. I don't have any movieverse toys past DOTM and I probably only have 2 dozen or so movieverse toys. I tried real hard, but I just don't like the designs of the characters. That leader class Ironhide is an AMAZING figure though. And a lot of the engineering was incredible. But it got repetitive in a sense real quick. At least they applied some of that engineering to the "collector" line. Sorry to ramble on, but I never really noticed this trend. ANd now that you pointed it out, I too feel it's been beneficial to the franchise. Both for the toys and "TV" shows. Thanks a lot for this one ;)
This was great, but you got one thing wrong. Cyberverse did get a fourth season, it was the one thing to break the mold. But it's true, the franchise is trapped in a 3-year cycle.
With all of that said in this video, something to consider, after Beast Machines we stopped getting characters that weren't based off of G1 characters either by name or design. One could argue the Unicron trilogy had some original characters and/or design but no where near as unique and fresh as what Beast Wars was. I wonder if Beast Machines hasn't scared Hasbro in some ways.
Even Animated thru RID had a couple each. Cyberverse however favored deep cuts from G1 lore as opposed to truly new characters. Earthspark seems to be trying to revive this sort of thing.
Pretenders and Actionmaster was the worst. Didn’t bother to collect the 90s line. Just collected the 89 micromaster line. Didn’t like the 88 pretenders, but finished collecting it. I aged by then.
Quality (both perceived and real) arguably plays a larger part than rebooting franchises before they wear out their welcome. I'd argue Beast Wars didn't succeed because it was a reboot, it succeeded because the show was well written and the animation was at least acceptable. Beast Machines wasn't a failure because it didn't reboot; it failed in part because it *did* look like a reboot but primarily because it looked too cheaply made and terrible. It's not that Star Wars has worn out its welcome; the quality of the plotting and writing nosedived. (Which also happened in miniature with The Mandalorian, which saw a critically acclaimed first season followed by a problematic second season, which led to a dumpster fire of atrocious writing.) Marvel has worn thin to a degree, but many of its products also suffered very visible declines in quality, with the primary exception being Guardians 3.
My brother and I were into ninja turtles from the very beginning of 1988 and the toyline that broke us out of it was exosquad another playmates toyline. Very underappreciated toy and cartoon
I'm kind of suprised star wars hasn't used the old or high republic eras as a soft reboot. That seems like the perfect middle ground as you don't need to get rid of stuff and upset people but it's seperated enough to be it's own thing.
I think Transformers is both great and bad when it comes to reboots. The frequent hard reboots are great for bringing in new fans, and getting fans used to them for the most part, "trukk not munky" aside. The problem with DC's comics is that they are so waffly on what is and isn't canon and have a continuity go on for so long that people get very invested into one continuity, so there a lot of negative reaction when something is different. Which led to what DC are doing now where *everything* is canon even if it conflicts, which I guess is the best approach for superhero comics where there are so many creators on such storied characters, and individual creators' runs are kind of read as their own things for a lot of characters. But it just doesn't make for a particularly cohesive universe... which, again, works for superheroes. But Transformers isn't like that, and works a lot better when there's a cohesive vision for an entire continuity. I think where Transformers kind of falls down is how it can feel very repetitive, especially if we bring the the superhero comparison back. You want a kid-friendly Batman? Batman '66 or DCAU. Grittier-but-still-very-superhero Batman? Arkhamverse. Grounded Batman? Nolanverse. Angsty Batman? The Batman (movie). While Transformers has some variety too, when it comes to its frequent reboots (animation), tonally a lot of it can feel the same and like it's basing itself heavily on the same subject matter (G1). I think Transformers is most directly comparable to Spider-Man, which... also feels very repetitive at times (seeing Spider-Man try to balance high school and superheroing instantly makes me care less at this point). Both franchises still have great stories and there is room for creativity (I love Earthspark's focus on Terrans and family, and the Spider-Verse movies are some of my favourite of all time), but both are usually content to play it very safe when they're not aggressively trying to franchise build.
DCs problem isn't the reboots. Its the half assed, half hearted reboots that they don't fully commit to and then when the mouth breathers cry about it, they just go back to what was before the reboot....IF your going to reboot something be prepared to tell the toddlers to STFU and sit down, fully commit to it. Be willing to change everything not just what isn't selling while things that are selling kind of at best keep the previous continuity. They really need to stop listening to the entitled toddler hardcores, who are going to cry regardless. DC is the worst about being dedicated at trying to appeal to a wide general audience.
The ultimate problem with G1 is that Hasbro simply didn’t know how much the characters resonated with kids until they made the 1986 movie a glorified toy commercial/Star Wars knockoff/1984 Autobot massacre. They simply thought more characters and more gimmicks were better than keeping the mainstays of the cartoon and comics on shelves. They seemed to get the message after the outcry following Optimus’s death (see the return of Grimlock and Starscream as well as Goldbug reverting back to Bumblebee and Galvatron reverting back to Megatron by the time the Action Masters rolled out), but it was too little, too late. And there were STILL too many characters on shelves that kids who grew up with the first two seasons didn’t care about. What they should have done was revive as many ‘84 characters as they could utilizing the new gimmicks (Headmaster Ratchet! Targetmaster Thundercracker with Megatron! Pretender Hound!). But there’s ultimately a lot of fun in G1’s last few years. 1988 has some of my favorite color palettes (the Decepticon Targetmaster colors being applied to Axlegrease made her an instant want), some of my favorite C-listers, it reintroduced some mainstays, and it had some fun gimmicks. It’s probably the best of the last few years. 1989 is where I think things started to go off the rails. No returning characters from the toon, honing in on the gimmicks intended to compete with other toylines the most (Pretenders with TMNT, Micromasters with Micro Machines), and very little tie-in media to make the new characters matter. And that leads us to 1990, G1’s death knell. The Micromasters dominated this year by virtue of being the only TF things on shelves that could transform. Hot take: the Action Masters weren’t bad in concept, just in execution. They brought back a healthy amount of 84-86 guys, they introduced some fun new guys, they had actual articulation, but they were compromised by how they were handled. They should’ve been fully transforming figures, not action figures with transforming vehicles.
Would you hold it against me if I said that I Whished Transtech was greenlighted HAD Beast Machines been a more successful toyline and show, TJ? Because that's the direction that I wish Hasbro took with the franchise in Hindsight.
how exactly is it good, that terrible transformers shows get forced down our throat's for 3 years, while the rest gets canceled just after they started getting good.
I disagree on Star Wars in particular, since you've got an entire galaxy (literally) and 1000s of years of history to tell stories from. And I'm really looking forward to Ahsoka! But in general, yes, other franchises could learn a lot from Transformers. Instead of trying to continue the same story indefinitely at your peril, make a new version. We are so used to it in Transformers, it's become second nature. And yep, even in G1, the cartoons and comics weren't the same continuity!
Lego's done that plenty of times. With the 2010's namely, there's several themes like Chima, Nexo Knights, Atlantis, Mixels, etc etc that run 3 year periods then stop, only really reinventing things in the last year to see if it ever takes off again. The very thing happened with Bionicle, as with the 3rd year of 2003, the Rakhshi were so incredibly popular with their great designs and standardizing of the line's articulation that it made them go for much longer, spanning all the way to 2010 with the last wave Bionicle Stars. Yes, it's a controversal end to such a historic line of Lego's history, but it was something unlike most lines that get almost no ending. Ninjago also spanned from 2011 to 2022, a good 11 years but still didn't have much of an ending from what I recall.
atlantis? But it didn't lasted 3 years, just like mars mission, or power miners, or agents, or pharaoh's quest, or other themes. There was A LOT of themes in 2007-2013's, and it ended with chima and ninjago(which was supposed to die after season 3, or after season 7)
Regarding the whole 3 year thing... There are other long running franchises that have survived LONGER than 3 years without rebooting. Doctor Who has NEVER had a reboot and is about to have it's 60th anniversary. But Doctor Who even though it's one long continuous story they also still manage to keep things fresh with the Regeneration concept. Originally they did not have any plans for the Doctor to be able to regenerate. It was just William Hartnel and that was it. They hadn't even thought about how they were going to keep the show running or even if they wanted to keep the show going if he ever decided to leave the cast. Then they found out about his failing health issues and realized he couldn't keep doing this, they needed to replace him if they were going to keep the show going and it was either cancel the series right then and there or recast him. William Hartnel actually chose Patrick Troughton to replace him. Apparently being a fan of his other work and saying Troughton was the only actor he'd allow to take his place at the time. Then they came up with the idea of regeneration to explain away the change in casting and that's largely been why Doctor Who has lasted all this time. They get to have one long story and multiple jumping on points because honestly you could start with any new Doctor and still be able to follow the story. They rarely reference past events as the stories are pretty self contained. For that same reason I feel like the idea that Transformers needs to reboot every 3 years is wrong. Part of why Beast Wars worked so well is because it has it's own version of the Doctor Who regeneration. Every season of the show the characters would get upgraded into new bodies which kept the toy line fresh with new aesthetics. I think this is also part of the reason why Beast Machines tanked after the second season because what did Beast Machines change in the second season? Megatron got a new body TWICE and Jetstorm became Silverbolt again but no one else changed. That evolution of the characters stopped after the first season of Beast Machines. If they had continued to upgrade the characters with new designs I don't think Beast Machines would have failed. A lot of people actually feel like they missed out with Transtech because there would have been new designs for the characters that made them feel fresh again. In the same Regards, RID2001 also had that same problem where there characters just never evolved. The most we got were the Powerlinxs colored variants which most fans actually HATED because they were lazy recolors rather than new designs. Even G1 gave us an original mold for Galvatron but RID2001 started a four series streak of Gavltrons that are just Megatron repaints. RID2001 Galvatron was my preferred color scheme for that mold. Armada I preferred the original Megatron colors, Energon had the oddity of the Megatron colors being based on G1 Galvatron's toy colors while Galvatron was based on G1 Galvatron's animation colors, they were both Galvatron in Japan and shouldn't even have been called Megatron ever. I actually prefer the toy colors but I also prefer to call him Galvatron because of the obvious homage. Might be the only time I've ever had a preference for using the Japanese name of a character because it's Megatron in America. And Cybertron I prefer the Megatron colors only because he's molded to resemble Unicron and his original colors actually show off that molding while it gets washed out in his darker Galvatron color scheme. And I don't think upgrading the designs in the Unicron Trilogy worked as well as it did in Beast Wars for 2 reasons. 1. Each of those shows is about 52 episodes EACH. Except for Energon which is 1 episode short. This essentially means that the Beast Wars character would have upgraded their designs three times in the same amount of time that it took Armada to do it ONCE! Then you have to go through another 51 episodes of Energon before you get to see it happen for the second time. Beast Wars upgraded the first time after 26 episode and then again 13 episodes later... though not all at once, they kind of stagnated that second set of Transmetals. 2. Beast Wars actually gave us in universe explanations for the upgraded designs every single time they got a new body. This is true for Beast Machines as well as little as it actually happens in that show. The Unicron Trilogy did not. The only character in all of the Unicron Trilogy Trilogy who we ever see upgraded in universe are Armada Smokescream to Hoist, Energon Inferno to Roadblock, Energon Wing Dagger (Who never even had a toy) to Wing Saber, Armada Cyclonus to Energon Snowcat, Armada Demolishor to Energon Demolisor, Armada Tidal Wave to Energon Mirage, and Cybertron Overhaul to Leobreaker. You could argue that Megatron and Starscream also have an explanation in Energon as they were both dead at the end of Armada and brought back with new bodies except Megatron specifically was given a sword that everyone recognized as his sword despite the fact that Armada Megatron never had a sword and it only ever existed as part of his Energon design so how does everyone know it's his? Also no one even acknowledges that Starscream is in a different body they just know it's him despite the fact he looks and acts completely differently from the Armada version. So it just feels like they're treating it as the same design even though it's not. Also I'm obviously not counting the straight repaints. I only included Inferno to Roadblock because that's a retool and not a straight repaint of the exact same mold. They do share parts but there's more of an upgrade than just changing his color scheme. And I've been annoyed for YEARS by shows continuing to do this with characters. It also happens in RID2015 with Bumblebee and Optimus being treated like that's how they've always looked but those aren't the designs they had during Prime. Optimus is only given that new body after his death in Prime but there are statues of him on Cybertron in that body which they shouldn't know about since he never looked like that before. We also see old video footage of Bumblebee in one episode using his current animation model but his design in Prime is an entirely different model... And they reused his old model recolored for Jazz, RID2015 has also reused Bulkhead, Ratchet, Soundwave, Starscream, the Vehicons, and the Insecticons from Prime so it's not a matter of they just couldn't use the model, they had it, they just choose not to use the correct model. It's confusing when they aren't consistent with their own design choices. Starscream at least had a line where they actually address that he is in fact in a different body from Prime and Soundwave originally shows up in his Prime design before returning in a new body. Having a character randomly show up in a new body with no explanation what so ever is the most "this is here to sell toys" thing they could ever do. At least make it make sense in universe, we know it's only happening to sell toys but having an in universe reason behind it makes it feel less like a toy commercial. Basically I feel like they OVER corrected and completely misunderstood where they went wrong with Beast Machines. I really think they just needed to keep updating the designs and they could have kept the same story going like they did with Doctor Who. The alternate rout would be to keep rebooting the series while keeping the designs basically the same but look how well that's working for Star Trek right now... or Digimon. Digimon Tri, Last Evolution, and 2020 haven't really been as well received as other Digimon series because they're banking on nostalgia with the original cast being back but not really doing anything really new with them. Their story already felt kind of done and over with so the only way you could ever reasonably bring them back would be to make them supporting characters in a new story that focused on their kids. The last shot of Adventure 02 did show us their children with Digimon of their own and that really should have been the jumping off point for any new Adventure story line instead the stories we've gotten have largely ignored that ending and the majority of 02 to focus on the original 8. I don't think there's anything more that can be done with the original 8 to keep them interesting. But I do see potential for a continuation of that story if the focus is on their kids with them only being supporting characters rather than the main focus. Playing homage to what came before while still doing something new. That's what seems to work best in every form of media. You can see the same thing in Star Trek where they use to shift from one cast to another that still existed in the same universe there's now been more of a focus on trying to recreate the original series and it just doesn't work because you can't recast those characters. I think they have some good actors that could work if they weren't playing the original series crew. That cast just isn't replaceable. You can put someone else in pointy ears and call him Spock but I'm just looking at him going, that's certainly a Vulcan but Spock he is not. Leonard Nimoy is Spock. There's a big difference between playing a Vulcan and playing Spock. Leonard Nimoy owns that role, he made it what it is, and no one can replicate that.
I guess if one counts the Brave series it also helps fill those years once Takara's Transformers series ran their course before beast wars took over. Super sentai and Gundam as well, in a way are the same. Victory Gundam FAILED. G-Reco FAILED, in both cases it taught Sunrise and Bandai to Not rely on Tomino storytelling as Yoshiyuki Tomino (on his own) is a bad storyteller more reliant on the writers hired for a project to get anything coherent, and to diversify beyond the original universal century gundam to maintain a survivability of the brand; with the Gundam series following Victory (G, Wing, X, Seed, 00) having a running theme between them of their stories being built on criticisms towards the shortcomings of the original UC timeline and how it handled things in the wrong way with regards to bringing about a better future due to UC's protagonists leaving in power those who lead to the problems in the setting that caused their conflicts; culminating in 00's big bad literally being played by Amuro's voice actor as a thematic climax to the running motif of the franchise needing to grow beyond and surpass it's own shortcommings...and then G-Reco happened which repeated many of the IP's worst story elements. And it's actually because of other projects of Sunrise's in 2014/2015 (Specifically Cross Ange Rondo of Angels and Dragons and Gundam Build Fighters Try) that G-Reco's Failure wasn't more finanically damaging, but it still stopped Sunrise from producing new IP's for several years Super sentai, as it tells a different *complete* story every year also allows it to fade in and out of prominence ever since 1975, give-or-take that gap year where the japanese Spiderman series acted as a hold-over. it's biggest Points of failure have come primarily when the same types of story engines are run into the ground. We saw this with Sentai's showa era series and the Hirohisa Soda run where he just hit burnout and almost ended the franchise had Toshiki Inoue, Kenichi Araki and Naruhisa Arakawa not created the hit that was Jetman. And then more recently of the 2010's sentai...There's only a handful of Genuinely good Post-Gokaiger sentai, with my list being just kyoryuger/Kiramager/King-Ohger of that count but personal choice will vary on that. And What helped with the recent uptick in Quality again to make King-Ohger having batted a current 22/22 good episodes at the time of this posting, is the complete failure of Zenkaiger. Though I personally hate that 'three year rule' thing, as it's built on a fallacy that children's brains are like goldfish and they completely forget the things they liked after three years so companies think they should no longer rely on them as a financial mark, instead of trying to maintain quality over time. They CAN go for longer than they do, but they choose not to. Hell, the unicorn tirlogy technially wasn't a three-year run itself, but was released over the course of Four and a half years.
I noticed all the way back in the beginning that there were two popular continuities from Bob Budiansky's Marvel Comics and then the Sunbow series. They started to diverge their continuities and canon right away. And past the 1986 movie, they diverged even more solidly. What that established to me as a kid was that there wasn't an "official" Transformers story. What YOU made up in your head was valid. And whatever the comics or the TV show did were telling a story in their own way that were just inspirations to our own head canons, whatever they were.
This is the correct perspective to have on Transformers and media like it. The most important canon is always, always *personal* canon. RIRFIB, the minutiae of toy-accuracy vs show-accuracy, what pleases you as a collector/fan of media… it’s all up to you.
There’s something kind of beautiful ably that.
@@theoneandonlyufomini-bot you mention the car wash to a geewunner and they have a meltdown
Do you include the British comics in the post-movie divergent? Because those diverged even more from the American comics.
@@jadenova I've gone back and read the British Marvel material, which as everyone knows, was put out more frequently and padded out the American Marvel stories. It is interesting how they told more stories and were frequently (but not always) careful to keep the stories in continuity with the American comics. And also thread the needle to include post '86 characters but not break the Marvel continuity by using timelines and multiverse plotlines. Just furthers the complications that makes Transformers canon feel very pudding-like, anyway.
The main problem with Transformers now is that once again they play it too safe, with every new design of an old character basically being from G1 or Bayverse. They need to diversify like they did in the early 2000s and create more designs that are different from the past yet still identifiable. If they want to keep using older designs, then use others they have, like from the Unicron trilogy, Animated or maybe even from aligned, especially the cancelled designs & characters.
The gimmick Hasbro did not comprehend in the 80’s when they ran out of Takara products…good transformers.
Transformers vids are so relaxing to listen to these days. I can stop worrying a bit and just enjoy the toy history.
TJ: You got a toy car and a toy robot at the same time.
Me: And if you don't follow the instructions like me you also get a toy puzzle at the same time.
Of course that also means the best transformers for me are the ones that hit that sweet spot between being so easy to transform they barely even transform and so complex to Transform that I feel like I might break something if I don't check the instructions.
let us also never forget what failure for Transformers did in Japan. We got the Brave Series, an 8 series masterpiece of super robot magnificence, that also created multiple games, 2 of which could be paired with the Super Robot Wars genre of games.
Brave is also seeing somewhat of a revival with a new saga series web comic. There are some articles saying its going to herald in a super robot genre renaissance and i cant wait to see if that's true!
Victory is so blatantly proto-brave. And when Brave ended...Transformers picked up right where it left off! RiD/Car Robots, Armada/Micron Legend, Energon/Superlink, and Cybertron/Galaxy Force are all so blatantly Super Robot it's AWESOME.
I think main issue with TF right now in terms of media is we've had so many retreads of G1, Prime Wars, War For Cybertron, live action reboots, and to an extent Cyberverse and Earthspark even if they are doing their own thing, still adhere very closely to g1 aesthetics. We need a new Beast Wars, Unicron Trilogy, Animated or Prime, where we do actually go with a completely new aesthetic and style, rather than G1 again (again).
Toy-wise Legacy has been doing this at the very least decently, just being able to look at my shelf and see the new Armada Optimus and Megatron figures is a fantastic experience even if they have the occasional flaw here or there. It makes me wish we could just get a new iteration of Transformers where it has all the classic hallmarks of the past deviations. New designs and alt modes we never considered yet work for the characters, strange name-dumps where a character has a name of someone that doesn't look like them at all in G1 (Armada Wheeljack just being a black, white, and yellow Sideswipe being an example) and just fun creativity.
I of course hope Hasbro dips their toes into the Unicron trilogy, Beast Wars Transmetals, and if we're lucky maybe even the cancelled Transtech designs that look like they would have been so dang cool and fun, but all the same I hope we get something truly new again, soon.
I wholeheartedly agree, it's been too long since we had a visually-distinct series for Transformers not strictly aping:
A] the live-action movies (Prime)
B] G1/Authentics/Geewun (Earthspark, Cyberverse, Prime Wars & the Netflix which were sunk by the same set of writers) -or even Prime to a point considering some elements have been tried again or fumbled in Earthspark!-
Bums me out that it's a decade since Rescue Bots debuted (the Odenathus of the Aligned Continuity experiment), the release of the High Moon Games, and the death of Animated because Stu Snyder thought CN Real & live-action was the future for *_CARTOON NETWORK_*
There is Botbots though @@jaredhebert942
Hasbro is just trying to play off of adult nostalgia with all the G1 figures and it seems to have been working especially with the SS 86 line which is totally aimed at adults.I won't buy a figure unless it's G1 because that's what I watched and loved as a 7 year old child.
The main issue is the movie are written by talentless idiots who don't care about continuity and the cartoons are being made for only the youngest of children, we need something like Transformers Prime again, and more single player big budget games
I've noticed a three year pattern in another series I'm fond of, YuGiOh. Every 3 years the game has seen some innovation introduced, just recently a new monster faction and a tie in gimmick. So it's interesting to see that shared with Transformers.
lego also likes to do this, they’ll generally plan a theme to last three years, and then see how far that gets them. you can also see it in longer-running themes, like how bionicle is mostly split into two or three year arcs.
Disney did it with cartoons too. They technically did it by episode count, but that count amounted to three seasons.
When you think about it Beast Wars also plays into that kind of gross 90's style with the organic blending with the robotic, but in it's own way without coming off as a ninja turtle knockoff.
So you could say transformers had to get comfortable with the concept of transformation.
Also Pokemon tend to run on a three year cycle between generations.
Fun Fact:
When the White Ranger was introduced in Mighty Morphing Power Rangers
The Rangers switched their Zords with that of the Super Sentai Serie where the White Ranger originated from
But in a scrapped idea they asked the Japan Company to make new versions of the OG 5 MMPR's Zords that could combine with The White Tiger
The Design where finished but Prototypes where never made
This is the Closest Thing Mighty Morphing Power Ranger got to produce their OG Toys (at the time)
Ask the OG Japan Company to produce them
Well, there's also the White Ranger with the MMPR's Simbols under his Armor but that's only a slight change of the Original Mold and it's only a little bit of extra paint
“The transformers fandom was never up in arms like the DC fandom is now”
Except back when Beast Wars was first released. There is a reason we still meme “TRUKK NOT MONKEH!” And the phrase “RUINED FOREVER!” In the fandom. XD
Also, you forgot the change of one of the dinobots’ names because of it being constantly used in Beast Wars.
@matthewelliott7294 actually that was more a " Blame the British" moment
@@larrychilders6599 it was also used a lot in the entire Beast Wars series as well.
@@matthewelliott7294true but that was literally cus if it being offensive for Brit’s, it had nothing to do with being said in beast wars
Also noteworthy is how much Japanese TF series embraced this approach. Hasbro is still reluctant to move beyond the Optimus/Megatron dynamic. I'm writing a project now where a combined team of Autobots and Decepticons join forces, only to be attacked by a new enemy. There are lots of new ways to spin the lore by branching out.
We didn't see that with GIJoe. They just kept with the gimics until it stopped in 1994. IIRC in their last year they had aliens and "bio armor" which was just play-doh and a mold that wrapped around the figure. Now they're just hitting the nostalga market. The last cartoon was Renegades which was an attempt at a reboot. I thought it was great, but I only saw it on TH-cam years after it ran and failed. I guess it was too story-heavy with not enough action.
Let's hope the current reboot works better.
They got hit with the anti-gun lobby, on top of ratings that weren't great. That, coupled with live action movies that failed, because they couldn't capture the essence of GI Joe, is why Hasbro stopped trying. Until the latest attempt to make a cinematic universe, which somehow is also a prequel to the Bayverse, where characters that should have been the Joes were called NEST.
I find this a great take. I remember as a kid, hating some of the changes some series made, but as an adult I can appreciate it. In this franchise there's a little bit of everything for everyone. I may not like Beast Machines, Energon, or Cybertron; but that doesn't take away my love of G1, Beast Wars, Armada, and the War for Cybertron games.
It's definitely the opposite effect that I feel towards the Marvel and Star Wars franchise. I love the Original and Prequel Trilogy for Star Wars, but I felt the Sequels robbed a lot from both and wasn't as great. I still love the OT and PT, but there is a sour note where you know where characters you love wind up. Where as if Michael Bay makes a crappy Transformers movie, it doesn't affect my enjoyment of Beast Wars because there's a separation.
I know that wasn't super well written, but I think I got my point across.
The lack of a tv show really was down of the series. Kids wanted characters what were on TV but new toys were without any TV appears. Imagine if ironhide had new toy in 1988.
1990, the last japanese animation happened in July with the Zone ova and in September the last original UK script was published. Marvel US wouldn't end til summer of '91, sad.
I still fell sad about one thing that being Transformers Zone never being a full series on its own, like it was a good concept that came out too late, I mean at least we got the OVA and at least felt like a good ending to the Transformers G1 saga, at least before Beast Wars, but I still wished it was a full series
It's just like what happend with the two italian liners SS Michelangelo and SS Raffaello great liners that at least served well, but came out on a time where oceanliners were being replaced by airplanes and their fates were very sad
We didn't get a full anime- true, but it did become a full manga at least
@@Tfbrave well yeah, but a manga is a thing and an anime is another
I mean there are many key differences between the two for example the appearence of Cain, his flying rabbit mascot and Akira
The dissrespected towards Barnyard Commandos hit me right in the childhood 😢
Interesting that the entire concept of Battletoads came as a result of trying to cash in on the TMNT craze.
I do think we are reaching a point of overload in Hasbro's waxing nostalgia. We are now starting to dive into transformers failed lines. I dread seeing the pretenders lol.
At some point they will have to go back to the drawing board. If they don't we will see shelves upon shelves of rehashed g1 figures.
The only saving grace is that they are poking into IDW storylines and characters. They can probably ride that pony for a bit.
Technically a few pretenders have made it into Generations. They merged the shell and robot into a single design.
@@lynngreen7978 yes true
It's crazy to think that the 10th year of the Transformers franchise, a milestone anniversary year, was pretty bleak for them
George Lucas knew of this issue, which is why every Star Wars movie had a vastly different aesthetic and setting from the previous one; desert and space station for A New Hope, snow field and cloud city and swamp for Empire Strikes Back, and a remix of the previous two plus jungle for Return of the Jedi.
The sequels tried to do the same to a t, which is why it ended up feeling so uninspired. Meanwhile, the prequels had their own picks for settings and aesthetics for each movie which were vastly different from the ones in the original trilogy.
i was done with transformers by 1987 even though i was only 10.. i hated all the plastic ''lie down and turn into a plastic brick'' thing formers.. like omega supreme and metroplex and cybertronian dumb molds.. they looked stupid to me.. i missed the realistic looking vehicles
The three types are those that collect everything they see, what they like or just what they know/had as a child/growing up.
My fan films reimagined Trans Tech as Transformers meet Robotech, still up also on YT. It's the fourth season of g1 and the fourth of BW you never got.
I love the way the mic clips when TJ says “DOOMED”
A Jumping On Point is also a Jumping Off Point. A big risk. DC lost me in September 2011, when everyone but Wonder Woman (who had already vanished a year before) were replaced.
Transformers, my jam for nearly 40 years. Robotech, about 38. Star Trek, since reruns of TOS in the 70s.
The Micromasters did have a substantial part in the US Marvel G1 comics.
Here's a thought, if the OG toyline didn't end in North America, what new characters would've been added (Euro characters don't count)?
The create your own toyline could help as a basis.
Weirdly I think Gundam learned similar lessons with Victory and G Gundam in the early 90s
Now Gundam series generally run for 2 seasons with spinoffs and other stuff coming sparingly thereafter
Only exception being UC simply for being the first and most well developed (to a point)
So are you saying if they didn't cancel Beast war for S4, we will have a 4 yr cycle?😅
My fan films from that era do cover 1990. Till All Are One, on my channel, has a commentary by me decades later, over the original audio, which would not be used. It's the most popular current fan film upload on the channel. I also did fan films during Generation 1 and 2, and have been doing them for decades too.
Generation 2 was just them doing what Power Rangers later did, repackaging older stuff. But Power Rangers also woes its success to Super Sentai type stories before, like Voltron.
16:28/18:01 Doesn't Power Rangers fall in a middle ground of sorts between longevity and reinventing itself?
I agree. Thank you Hasbro for 40 years of Transformers. I started with the Transformers in 1984 and I have been a fan of it ever since. I am 54 years old and I strongly hope that it lasts another 40 years if not more.
I remember that year! Damn how did I get so old?
It also didn’t help that there wasn’t a g2 cartoon either.
That gave me a lot to chew on, thank you for sharing this.
This reminds me of digimon some seasons can be conected or rebooted but in general different shows are completely different
Being a licensed comic didn’t prevent G.I.Joe from briefly being the top seller at Marvel!
Doctor Who follows a similar 3-year cycle: the current Doctor tends to do 3 seasons then move on.
I feel like that franchise sits in quite a nice middle-ground between TF and Marvel/DC - it's still telling the same story but the episodic nature of that story means you don't need to know all the continuity (which is all over the place anyway because the writers never worry too much about keeping every minute detail consistent at all times, and there's no official Canon they're beholden to!) So every 3 or 4 years or so, they can just take it off in an all-new direction for a bit and do whatever they like until it's time to move on again 😊❤
Hear me out, what if they went back to a continuous plot but a new cast of characters every few years
I know this technically doesn't qualify but I really didn't like when TF Prime turned into Beast Hunters. The show and the toys just seemed to drop in quality. I totally agree with the rest. It's kind of cool that they re-boot every 3 years or so. It keeps the property fresh as well as gives them the opportunity to explore new options as well as keep the copyrights alive on some of the characters. And, if one doesn't work out, they were moving on anyway. I loved TF growing up, and collected since 84 as a child. I was cool with Pretenders. I liked Micro Masters a lot. But when Action Masters came out, I was out. I had already kind of shifted to G.I. Joe at that point, so non-transforming Transformers, as a product, not a gimmick, was of no interest to me. Money is not infinite, so I spent mine on the Joes at that time. ; ) I just dropped out of toys shortly after. Got into guitars instead ;-P
I started buying/collecting toys again when Cybertron/Galaxy Force (the 3rd part of the Unicron Trilogy) came out. It started with, what it known as a Market 6 re-issue of Energon or Universe Arcee. It's a pink motorcycle with very Energon series type weapons. (I've picked up a few EG and Armada molds over the years ;) ) I didn't even know that an Arcee had ever been made and I saw her at a Dollar General for $5. And, that was when my current collection started. It was a love affair, between whoever I was dating and the robots. But, mostly the robots ;) I'm at somewhere between 400-450 products at the time of posting this. I collect mostly CHUG-Legacy-you know, the "collector's" main line. But that's by no means exclusive.
I have almost a dozen of the US Masterpiece figures, and if I'm into the current TV show, I'll buy some of those. (Sad I didn't feel TF Animated but I loved TF Prime. Cybertron/Gal Force was running when I started collecting as an adult with money, so I have more than a few of those.) And I'm totally into the 86 SS line. I don't have any movieverse toys past DOTM and I probably only have 2 dozen or so movieverse toys. I tried real hard, but I just don't like the designs of the characters. That leader class Ironhide is an AMAZING figure though. And a lot of the engineering was incredible. But it got repetitive in a sense real quick. At least they applied some of that engineering to the "collector" line.
Sorry to ramble on, but I never really noticed this trend. ANd now that you pointed it out, I too feel it's been beneficial to the franchise. Both for the toys and "TV" shows. Thanks a lot for this one ;)
This was great, but you got one thing wrong. Cyberverse did get a fourth season, it was the one thing to break the mold. But it's true, the franchise is trapped in a 3-year cycle.
With all of that said in this video, something to consider, after Beast Machines we stopped getting characters that weren't based off of G1 characters either by name or design. One could argue the Unicron trilogy had some original characters and/or design but no where near as unique and fresh as what Beast Wars was. I wonder if Beast Machines hasn't scared Hasbro in some ways.
Even Animated thru RID had a couple each. Cyberverse however favored deep cuts from G1 lore as opposed to truly new characters. Earthspark seems to be trying to revive this sort of thing.
Pretenders and Actionmaster was the worst. Didn’t bother to collect the 90s line. Just collected the 89 micromaster line. Didn’t like the 88 pretenders, but finished collecting it. I aged by then.
Quality (both perceived and real) arguably plays a larger part than rebooting franchises before they wear out their welcome. I'd argue Beast Wars didn't succeed because it was a reboot, it succeeded because the show was well written and the animation was at least acceptable. Beast Machines wasn't a failure because it didn't reboot; it failed in part because it *did* look like a reboot but primarily because it looked too cheaply made and terrible. It's not that Star Wars has worn out its welcome; the quality of the plotting and writing nosedived. (Which also happened in miniature with The Mandalorian, which saw a critically acclaimed first season followed by a problematic second season, which led to a dumpster fire of atrocious writing.) Marvel has worn thin to a degree, but many of its products also suffered very visible declines in quality, with the primary exception being Guardians 3.
My brother and I were into ninja turtles from the very beginning of 1988 and the toyline that broke us out of it was exosquad another playmates toyline. Very underappreciated toy and cartoon
I'm kind of suprised star wars hasn't used the old or high republic eras as a soft reboot. That seems like the perfect middle ground as you don't need to get rid of stuff and upset people but it's seperated enough to be it's own thing.
Ninja Turtles always bugged me back in the day because the story was awful.
I think Transformers is both great and bad when it comes to reboots.
The frequent hard reboots are great for bringing in new fans, and getting fans used to them for the most part, "trukk not munky" aside. The problem with DC's comics is that they are so waffly on what is and isn't canon and have a continuity go on for so long that people get very invested into one continuity, so there a lot of negative reaction when something is different. Which led to what DC are doing now where *everything* is canon even if it conflicts, which I guess is the best approach for superhero comics where there are so many creators on such storied characters, and individual creators' runs are kind of read as their own things for a lot of characters. But it just doesn't make for a particularly cohesive universe... which, again, works for superheroes. But Transformers isn't like that, and works a lot better when there's a cohesive vision for an entire continuity.
I think where Transformers kind of falls down is how it can feel very repetitive, especially if we bring the the superhero comparison back. You want a kid-friendly Batman? Batman '66 or DCAU. Grittier-but-still-very-superhero Batman? Arkhamverse. Grounded Batman? Nolanverse. Angsty Batman? The Batman (movie). While Transformers has some variety too, when it comes to its frequent reboots (animation), tonally a lot of it can feel the same and like it's basing itself heavily on the same subject matter (G1). I think Transformers is most directly comparable to Spider-Man, which... also feels very repetitive at times (seeing Spider-Man try to balance high school and superheroing instantly makes me care less at this point). Both franchises still have great stories and there is room for creativity (I love Earthspark's focus on Terrans and family, and the Spider-Verse movies are some of my favourite of all time), but both are usually content to play it very safe when they're not aggressively trying to franchise build.
DCs problem isn't the reboots. Its the half assed, half hearted reboots that they don't fully commit to and then when the mouth breathers cry about it, they just go back to what was before the reboot....IF your going to reboot something be prepared to tell the toddlers to STFU and sit down, fully commit to it. Be willing to change everything not just what isn't selling while things that are selling kind of at best keep the previous continuity.
They really need to stop listening to the entitled toddler hardcores, who are going to cry regardless. DC is the worst about being dedicated at trying to appeal to a wide general audience.
The ultimate problem with G1 is that Hasbro simply didn’t know how much the characters resonated with kids until they made the 1986 movie a glorified toy commercial/Star Wars knockoff/1984 Autobot massacre. They simply thought more characters and more gimmicks were better than keeping the mainstays of the cartoon and comics on shelves. They seemed to get the message after the outcry following Optimus’s death (see the return of Grimlock and Starscream as well as Goldbug reverting back to Bumblebee and Galvatron reverting back to Megatron by the time the Action Masters rolled out), but it was too little, too late. And there were STILL too many characters on shelves that kids who grew up with the first two seasons didn’t care about.
What they should have done was revive as many ‘84 characters as they could utilizing the new gimmicks (Headmaster Ratchet! Targetmaster Thundercracker with Megatron! Pretender Hound!).
But there’s ultimately a lot of fun in G1’s last few years. 1988 has some of my favorite color palettes (the Decepticon Targetmaster colors being applied to Axlegrease made her an instant want), some of my favorite C-listers, it reintroduced some mainstays, and it had some fun gimmicks. It’s probably the best of the last few years.
1989 is where I think things started to go off the rails. No returning characters from the toon, honing in on the gimmicks intended to compete with other toylines the most (Pretenders with TMNT, Micromasters with Micro Machines), and very little tie-in media to make the new characters matter. And that leads us to 1990, G1’s death knell.
The Micromasters dominated this year by virtue of being the only TF things on shelves that could transform. Hot take: the Action Masters weren’t bad in concept, just in execution. They brought back a healthy amount of 84-86 guys, they introduced some fun new guys, they had actual articulation, but they were compromised by how they were handled. They should’ve been fully transforming figures, not action figures with transforming vehicles.
Would you hold it against me if I said that I Whished Transtech was greenlighted HAD Beast Machines been a more successful toyline and show, TJ? Because that's the direction that I wish Hasbro took with the franchise in Hindsight.
how exactly is it good, that terrible transformers shows get forced down our throat's for 3 years, while the rest gets canceled just after they started getting good.
I disagree on Star Wars in particular, since you've got an entire galaxy (literally) and 1000s of years of history to tell stories from. And I'm really looking forward to Ahsoka!
But in general, yes, other franchises could learn a lot from Transformers. Instead of trying to continue the same story indefinitely at your peril, make a new version. We are so used to it in Transformers, it's become second nature.
And yep, even in G1, the cartoons and comics weren't the same continuity!
What happened to the Prime reviews?
Very enjoyable video
Hope you are having a wonderful day, and I hope you are ready for teenage mutant ninja turtle mutant mayhem
Beast Machines is amazing. Dark and Megatron won.
Lego's done that plenty of times. With the 2010's namely, there's several themes like Chima, Nexo Knights, Atlantis, Mixels, etc etc that run 3 year periods then stop, only really reinventing things in the last year to see if it ever takes off again. The very thing happened with Bionicle, as with the 3rd year of 2003, the Rakhshi were so incredibly popular with their great designs and standardizing of the line's articulation that it made them go for much longer, spanning all the way to 2010 with the last wave Bionicle Stars. Yes, it's a controversal end to such a historic line of Lego's history, but it was something unlike most lines that get almost no ending. Ninjago also spanned from 2011 to 2022, a good 11 years but still didn't have much of an ending from what I recall.
atlantis? But it didn't lasted 3 years, just like mars mission, or power miners, or agents, or pharaoh's quest, or other themes. There was A LOT of themes in 2007-2013's, and it ended with chima and ninjago(which was supposed to die after season 3, or after season 7)
Your Star Wars explanation is not exactly what has happened to the franchise. We all know what has happened with all Disney franchises.
Regarding the whole 3 year thing... There are other long running franchises that have survived LONGER than 3 years without rebooting. Doctor Who has NEVER had a reboot and is about to have it's 60th anniversary. But Doctor Who even though it's one long continuous story they also still manage to keep things fresh with the Regeneration concept. Originally they did not have any plans for the Doctor to be able to regenerate. It was just William Hartnel and that was it. They hadn't even thought about how they were going to keep the show running or even if they wanted to keep the show going if he ever decided to leave the cast. Then they found out about his failing health issues and realized he couldn't keep doing this, they needed to replace him if they were going to keep the show going and it was either cancel the series right then and there or recast him. William Hartnel actually chose Patrick Troughton to replace him. Apparently being a fan of his other work and saying Troughton was the only actor he'd allow to take his place at the time. Then they came up with the idea of regeneration to explain away the change in casting and that's largely been why Doctor Who has lasted all this time.
They get to have one long story and multiple jumping on points because honestly you could start with any new Doctor and still be able to follow the story. They rarely reference past events as the stories are pretty self contained.
For that same reason I feel like the idea that Transformers needs to reboot every 3 years is wrong. Part of why Beast Wars worked so well is because it has it's own version of the Doctor Who regeneration. Every season of the show the characters would get upgraded into new bodies which kept the toy line fresh with new aesthetics. I think this is also part of the reason why Beast Machines tanked after the second season because what did Beast Machines change in the second season? Megatron got a new body TWICE and Jetstorm became Silverbolt again but no one else changed. That evolution of the characters stopped after the first season of Beast Machines. If they had continued to upgrade the characters with new designs I don't think Beast Machines would have failed. A lot of people actually feel like they missed out with Transtech because there would have been new designs for the characters that made them feel fresh again.
In the same Regards, RID2001 also had that same problem where there characters just never evolved. The most we got were the Powerlinxs colored variants which most fans actually HATED because they were lazy recolors rather than new designs. Even G1 gave us an original mold for Galvatron but RID2001 started a four series streak of Gavltrons that are just Megatron repaints. RID2001 Galvatron was my preferred color scheme for that mold. Armada I preferred the original Megatron colors, Energon had the oddity of the Megatron colors being based on G1 Galvatron's toy colors while Galvatron was based on G1 Galvatron's animation colors, they were both Galvatron in Japan and shouldn't even have been called Megatron ever. I actually prefer the toy colors but I also prefer to call him Galvatron because of the obvious homage. Might be the only time I've ever had a preference for using the Japanese name of a character because it's Megatron in America. And Cybertron I prefer the Megatron colors only because he's molded to resemble Unicron and his original colors actually show off that molding while it gets washed out in his darker Galvatron color scheme.
And I don't think upgrading the designs in the Unicron Trilogy worked as well as it did in Beast Wars for 2 reasons.
1. Each of those shows is about 52 episodes EACH. Except for Energon which is 1 episode short.
This essentially means that the Beast Wars character would have upgraded their designs three times in the same amount of time that it took Armada to do it ONCE! Then you have to go through another 51 episodes of Energon before you get to see it happen for the second time.
Beast Wars upgraded the first time after 26 episode and then again 13 episodes later... though not all at once, they kind of stagnated that second set of Transmetals.
2. Beast Wars actually gave us in universe explanations for the upgraded designs every single time they got a new body. This is true for Beast Machines as well as little as it actually happens in that show.
The Unicron Trilogy did not. The only character in all of the Unicron Trilogy Trilogy who we ever see upgraded in universe are Armada Smokescream to Hoist, Energon Inferno to Roadblock, Energon Wing Dagger (Who never even had a toy) to Wing Saber, Armada Cyclonus to Energon Snowcat, Armada Demolishor to Energon Demolisor, Armada Tidal Wave to Energon Mirage, and Cybertron Overhaul to Leobreaker.
You could argue that Megatron and Starscream also have an explanation in Energon as they were both dead at the end of Armada and brought back with new bodies except Megatron specifically was given a sword that everyone recognized as his sword despite the fact that Armada Megatron never had a sword and it only ever existed as part of his Energon design so how does everyone know it's his? Also no one even acknowledges that Starscream is in a different body they just know it's him despite the fact he looks and acts completely differently from the Armada version. So it just feels like they're treating it as the same design even though it's not.
Also I'm obviously not counting the straight repaints. I only included Inferno to Roadblock because that's a retool and not a straight repaint of the exact same mold. They do share parts but there's more of an upgrade than just changing his color scheme.
And I've been annoyed for YEARS by shows continuing to do this with characters. It also happens in RID2015 with Bumblebee and Optimus being treated like that's how they've always looked but those aren't the designs they had during Prime. Optimus is only given that new body after his death in Prime but there are statues of him on Cybertron in that body which they shouldn't know about since he never looked like that before. We also see old video footage of Bumblebee in one episode using his current animation model but his design in Prime is an entirely different model... And they reused his old model recolored for Jazz, RID2015 has also reused Bulkhead, Ratchet, Soundwave, Starscream, the Vehicons, and the Insecticons from Prime so it's not a matter of they just couldn't use the model, they had it, they just choose not to use the correct model. It's confusing when they aren't consistent with their own design choices. Starscream at least had a line where they actually address that he is in fact in a different body from Prime and Soundwave originally shows up in his Prime design before returning in a new body.
Having a character randomly show up in a new body with no explanation what so ever is the most "this is here to sell toys" thing they could ever do. At least make it make sense in universe, we know it's only happening to sell toys but having an in universe reason behind it makes it feel less like a toy commercial.
Basically I feel like they OVER corrected and completely misunderstood where they went wrong with Beast Machines. I really think they just needed to keep updating the designs and they could have kept the same story going like they did with Doctor Who.
The alternate rout would be to keep rebooting the series while keeping the designs basically the same but look how well that's working for Star Trek right now... or Digimon. Digimon Tri, Last Evolution, and 2020 haven't really been as well received as other Digimon series because they're banking on nostalgia with the original cast being back but not really doing anything really new with them. Their story already felt kind of done and over with so the only way you could ever reasonably bring them back would be to make them supporting characters in a new story that focused on their kids. The last shot of Adventure 02 did show us their children with Digimon of their own and that really should have been the jumping off point for any new Adventure story line instead the stories we've gotten have largely ignored that ending and the majority of 02 to focus on the original 8. I don't think there's anything more that can be done with the original 8 to keep them interesting. But I do see potential for a continuation of that story if the focus is on their kids with them only being supporting characters rather than the main focus. Playing homage to what came before while still doing something new. That's what seems to work best in every form of media. You can see the same thing in Star Trek where they use to shift from one cast to another that still existed in the same universe there's now been more of a focus on trying to recreate the original series and it just doesn't work because you can't recast those characters. I think they have some good actors that could work if they weren't playing the original series crew. That cast just isn't replaceable. You can put someone else in pointy ears and call him Spock but I'm just looking at him going, that's certainly a Vulcan but Spock he is not. Leonard Nimoy is Spock. There's a big difference between playing a Vulcan and playing Spock. Leonard Nimoy owns that role, he made it what it is, and no one can replicate that.
Apparently that code won’t work unless you spend more than $70 a Entertainment Earth.
I guess if one counts the Brave series it also helps fill those years once Takara's Transformers series ran their course before beast wars took over.
Super sentai and Gundam as well, in a way are the same. Victory Gundam FAILED. G-Reco FAILED, in both cases it taught Sunrise and Bandai to Not rely on Tomino storytelling as Yoshiyuki Tomino (on his own) is a bad storyteller more reliant on the writers hired for a project to get anything coherent, and to diversify beyond the original universal century gundam to maintain a survivability of the brand; with the Gundam series following Victory (G, Wing, X, Seed, 00) having a running theme between them of their stories being built on criticisms towards the shortcomings of the original UC timeline and how it handled things in the wrong way with regards to bringing about a better future due to UC's protagonists leaving in power those who lead to the problems in the setting that caused their conflicts; culminating in 00's big bad literally being played by Amuro's voice actor as a thematic climax to the running motif of the franchise needing to grow beyond and surpass it's own shortcommings...and then G-Reco happened which repeated many of the IP's worst story elements. And it's actually because of other projects of Sunrise's in 2014/2015 (Specifically Cross Ange Rondo of Angels and Dragons and Gundam Build Fighters Try) that G-Reco's Failure wasn't more finanically damaging, but it still stopped Sunrise from producing new IP's for several years
Super sentai, as it tells a different *complete* story every year also allows it to fade in and out of prominence ever since 1975, give-or-take that gap year where the japanese Spiderman series acted as a hold-over. it's biggest Points of failure have come primarily when the same types of story engines are run into the ground. We saw this with Sentai's showa era series and the Hirohisa Soda run where he just hit burnout and almost ended the franchise had Toshiki Inoue, Kenichi Araki and Naruhisa Arakawa not created the hit that was Jetman. And then more recently of the 2010's sentai...There's only a handful of Genuinely good Post-Gokaiger sentai, with my list being just kyoryuger/Kiramager/King-Ohger of that count but personal choice will vary on that. And What helped with the recent uptick in Quality again to make King-Ohger having batted a current 22/22 good episodes at the time of this posting, is the complete failure of Zenkaiger.
Though I personally hate that 'three year rule' thing, as it's built on a fallacy that children's brains are like goldfish and they completely forget the things they liked after three years so companies think they should no longer rely on them as a financial mark, instead of trying to maintain quality over time. They CAN go for longer than they do, but they choose not to. Hell, the unicorn tirlogy technially wasn't a three-year run itself, but was released over the course of Four and a half years.
"nothing before nothing since has been lightning in the bottle like the turtles" clearly you slept through Power Rangers and Pokemon. 0.o
Hasbro failed with Bayverse.