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[Duane Cunningham]

RID '15 is still part of Aligned, but they essentially threw out the universe bible they had and are just doing whatever now.

I just read up on it all at TFWiki and the Allspark forums. Good grief. The whole thing sucks. TFP wasn't perfect to me, but having a final, ongoing lore across media was great. Oh well. So I wonder what the future is?

I'm having trouble following all the acronyms.

I only understood War for Cybertron/Fall of Cybertron because I read a bit about the background.

BOR = Binder of Revelation, a huge story bible written in 2010, meant to provide an overall (brand new) continuity for everything going forward... novels, cartoon, games, everything (except Bay-formers, of course). However, it was a little shaky to begin with... the first novel, the first season of Prime and War for Cybertron all contradicted each other somewhat. The second incarnation of each of those three things was a little worse, and apparently it's all been thrown out now.

Actually, the third novel gave a pretty valiant effort of trying to clean up after everybody... it definitely acknowledges all of Prime as well as Fall of Cybertron. The third game, Rise of the Dark Spark kind of junks things up, though.

Basically, it's all over, it sounds like. It was a good idea, but none of the involved creative teams apparently had much interest in cooperating, and the corporate leadership didn't make it happen.

Anyway, other acronyms... RID '15 = Robots in Disguise: the brand new show that supposedly is a sequel to Prime. What else?

 

[BattleMonkey]

It wasn't going to work anyways, as soon as you have the main product fail, the whole thing falls apart. They aren't going to keep pushing an aligned continuity after that, they will wait and reboot/rebrand eventually.

it's not like Star Wars which is guaranteed to keep going with success of its big movie line to revolve around. Transformers only last so long before it gets cancelled, so that pretty much kills the project

 

[Lothars]

The best transformers media is Beast Wars followed by the G1 cartoon from the 80's

 

[New002]

Transformers: The Movie (1986) is the best piece of Transformers media ever produced,

Ran this through Teletraan I. It checks out.

 

[Soapbox Killer]

Transformers: The Movie (1986)

 

[Pop-O-Matic]

I'm having trouble following all the acronyms.

I only understood War for Cybertron/Fall of Cybertron because I read a bit about the background.

G1 = Generation 1, a nickname turned official name for the original 80s toys/cartoon/comics, along with any later works that draw heavily from said source material (such as Dreamwave and IDW's comics, or the recent Transformers: Devastation game).
BW = Beast Wars
TFP = Transformers Prime
RID = Robots in Disguise. Can refer to one of 3 series

1) The 2001 anime series
2) One of the ongoing comics by IDW before it had to drop the subtitle to avoid conflict with...
3) The 2015 CG animated series​

IDW = Comic company that currently has the transformers licence
MTMTE = More Than Meets The Eye, referring to IDW's other ongoing Transformers comic.

 

[TEJ]

Do games count? Transformers devastation is f'ing awesome.

 

[HammerOfThor]

Beast Wars disagrees with you.

Although Prime is damn amazing!

 

[nicanica]

Do games count? Transformers devastation is f'ing awesome.

I was playing this the other week and I asked my girlfriend if she liked this game and said: "No. It looks too cartoony."

me:

 

[Magnet_Man]

I'd agree if all momentum didn't die the second the human characters start doing or saying anything. Watching the Decepticons bicker, scheme, and fight is so interesting and entertaining. And then we get to the humans and they are and always will be terrible and annoying.

Also I felt that a lot of big moments ended in really lackluster way like dealing with Unicron or Optimus taking out literally everyone during his big upgrade debut. The series also had a big "storm trooper" problem of waves of incompetent henchmen that can't aim for crap and exist just for the heroes to style on.

The dialogue, acting, and animation was on goddamn point. Potentially the best and most consistent of any series. The timeless Frank Welker has done countless voices, imitations, and roles over the years but his Megatron in this series I would say is his best work yet. He's threatening, but intelligent. Ruthless, but charismatic. He sounds and behaves like someone who could garner such a following as the Decepticons.

I like Beast Wars more because of no human sidekicks and Dinobot's character arc was incredible, but TFP is right on its heels.

Tons of little clips are available on youtube. Some of my favorites:

Oh it'll be a miracle alright, Starscream...if you survive what I have planned for you!
Despite the extent of your injuries, my medical staff assures me you'll make a rapid recovery.
Orion Pax and Megatronnus (Jeffrey Combs needs to narrate everything everywhere)
Do not worry. If her mind does not survive the procedure, you will be next. (David Sobolov's Shockwave is AMAZING!)
Why was I left for scrap? Abandoned? ...Why?
Watch out for the quiet ones.
I am tempted to force you to share my perception of things. (I just love the Sobolov delivers his dialogue about using Earth technology to fix the Omegalock. It just sounds so natural and confident.)
Predaking VS Ultra Magnus and Wheel Jack.
Betraying my kind...is not the same as accepting yours. (Tony Todd the god)
Parasites! They, too, shall know my wrathful hand!

 

[DeaconKnowledge]

1) Because Transformers Animated was it's own interpretation of the franchise and therefor shouldn't be beholden to what was done before.

2) It was coming off the heels of Bayformers and they obviously wanted characters that were recognizable to audiences who had watched that (ex. how their kid-appeal yellow car character was originally Hot Shot before they changed it to Bumblebee to line up with the movie).

3) It probably would have turned off more viewers if there was no Optimus than if they just gave Optimus a different characterization.

4) To sell toys.



RID '15 is still part of Aligned, but they essentially threw out the universe bible they had and are just doing whatever now.

Yes I am aware of why they did it. What i'm saying is they shouldn't have.

Someone used Star Wars as an example. In all variations of Star Wars as a franchise Darth Vader is the same character. There have been hundreds of secondary and ancillary characters and tons of different media introduced since the OT, however the principal characters retain their core characteristics. Re imagining Optimus constantly makes no sense, especially now that Hasbro is insistent on establishing a contained universe. Also if Hasbro's main aim is to sell toys, it serve them well to introduce new characters rather than go to the Optimus well repeatedly.

I find it ironic that people compare Animated to G1 when the principal character of the entire series was nothing like his G1 counterpart. It was pandering, plain and simple.

Tons of little clips are available on youtube. Some of my favorites:

Orion Pax and Megatronnus (Jeffrey Combs needs to narrate everything everywhere)

One of my favorite parts of the show. Really drives home the animosity between the two. I watch that clip once a week or so.

One note that I appreciate about this is that it's the romanticized version - there are little details missing, namely that

Spoiler

Alpha Trion had instructed the council to name Orion Prime before the council meeting ever happened.
That made Smokescreen's debut in the show important, as he revealed a piece of information previously known only by Alpha Trion and Optimus.

 

[onadesertedisland]

86 movie is the best, no questions.

 

[Faiz]

TFP isn't better than Beast Wars, sorry. Way too much meandering in the first two seasons, whereas Beast Wars only meanders for one season.

And the best piece of TF media ever produced is and continues to be James Roberts' More Than Meets The Eye ongoing comic series.

Came to post this.

Not surprised Matt beat me to it!

Also: side note, strongly considering selling off all my TFP toys.

 

[Yabberwocky]

And the best piece of TF media ever produced is and continues to be James Roberts' More Than Meets The Eye ongoing comic series.

Hell yes, More Than Meets The Eye is incredible. Props to Last Stand of the Wreckers, too.

Transformers Animated is my second fav! Character development for everyone, plus a huge cast, and the Decepticons were an actual, continual threat with long-term goals. Megatron was genuinely terrifying, along with being quite tactical in comparison to the other versions of Megatron. It was an amazing cast all round, and Corey Burton as Megatron and Tom Kenny as Starscream had the most hilarious dynamic.

I really enjoyed Prime's Season 1, though! Knock Out now needs to be a staple in all continuities. Prime unfortunately just had a lot of pacing issues, and Season 2 fell apart.

 

[yami4ct]

I just read up on it all at TFWiki and the Allspark forums. Good grief. The whole thing sucks. TFP wasn't perfect to me, but having a final, ongoing lore across media was great. Oh well. So I wonder what the future is?

I think the future is pretty clear for the near term. Things are going to go as they are. IDW is their own thing, Bayverse is its own thing, and any future Transformers cartoon will be its own thing.

Seems IDW is going to be roped into doing whatever event Hasbro wants at least once a year. Maybe the Machinma tie-in will take off, but that sounds dreadful so I kind of doubt it. Will be interested to see where Hasbro goes once they end the Prime Wars trilogy of sub-lines.

 

[lethial]

Beast wars was great because it had no human element. Just transformers.

 

[Sou Da]

I think the future is pretty clear for the near term. Things are going to go as they are. IDW is their own thing, Bayverse is its own thing, and any future Transformers cartoon will be its own thing.

Seems IDW is going to be roped into doing whatever event Hasbro wants at least once a year. Maybe the Machinma tie-in will take off, but that sounds dreadful so I kind of doubt it. Will be interested to see where Hasbro goes once they end the Prime Wars trilogy of sub-lines.

Huh?

 

[AlStrong]

*acronymopedia*

thanks!

 

[yami4ct]

Huh?

I can see how someone could miss that news. Hasbro has been talking about it for a little while. Hasbro's teaming with Machinama to do an online animated series for the Combiner Wars line.

http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/news/nycc-2015-machinima-transformers-combiner-wars-details/34047/

All the interviews about it make it sound awful. Basically making it sound like grimdark, faux edgy, 'adult' storytelling.

 

[pixeldash]

Never read the comics, but TFP is certainly my favorite piece of transformers media. Had the best version of Starscream and a badass Megatron too. It was a shame that it ended on a rather lackluster note.

 

[Sou Da]

I can see how someone could miss that news. Hasbro has been talking about it for a little while. Hasbro's teaming with Machinama to do an online animated series for the Combiner Wars line.

http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/news/nycc-2015-machinima-transformers-combiner-wars-details/34047/

All the interviews about it make it sound awful. Basically making it sound like grimdark, faux edgy, 'adult' storytelling.

I'm guessing this ain't gonna be Last Stand of the Wreckers good.

 

[yami4ct]

I'm guessing this ain't gonna be Last Stand of the Wreckers good.

The few interviews they've given make it sound like "Let's take everything IDW has done right and do the exact opposite".

 

[Sou Da]

The few interviews they've given make it sound like "Let's take everything IDW has done right and do the exact opposite".

Welp. If people weren't dicks about Windblade before they will be now.

 

[Zeus Molecules]

IDW transformers is the best form of transformer media ever, followed by beast wars, the 1984 cartoon movie, The Fall of Cybertron series of games and then Transformer Prime.

It goes

1) IDW Transformer
2) Beast Wars
3) 1984 Cartoon Movie
4) the Fall of Cybertron Series
5) Transformer Prime

Honorable mention for weirdest interpertations of the original that work really well. Transformer animated (minus the organics bullshit), Transformer Armada/Energon

 

[Monocle]

Beast Wars tho.

OK, I should probably watch Prime at some point.

86 movie is the best, no questions.

It's definitely up there. A classic from beginning to end.

I think I might have memorized that whole movie.

 

[Anony]

hell yeah, beast wars

dinobot is the best written character

 

[BKatastrophe]

By saying 'media', are we including comics? If so, More than Meets the Eye beats it by miles. MTMTE isn't just great Transformers stuff, it's awesome sci-fi in general.

It's part of what has made More than Meets the Eye so refreshing. They actually have done new shit with Megs.

And the best piece of TF media ever produced is and continues to be James Roberts' More Than Meets The Eye ongoing comic series.

Came to post this.

Not surprised Matt beat me to it!

Hell yes, More Than Meets The Eye is incredible. Props to Last Stand of the Wreckers, too.

Yooooo just started reading this and it's radical. The Last Stand of the Wreckers and The Death of Optimus Prime are godlike on their own