Classics is a "splinter continuity" off of the main Marvel US continuity where the events of Marvel UK and G2 never happened. Here's a chart from back in early 2006 of the Multiverse as established up to that point:

 

This chart precedes the Classics-verse, Movie-verse, TFA, etc. thus making it a bit outdated. If you were to add Classics in, it would branch off on its own from the main Marvel US line with no connection to either G2 or Marvel UK.

 

Wow, this is really cool, thanks. I think I might even have some of the G2 trades. Curious: do most fans accept the Japanese G1 toons (post-Rebirth)as canon?

 

P.S. I'd love for the next Transformers game to be a sequel to G1 & Beast Machines. Show us what happens next.

Everything officially produced under Hasbro and Takara license is canon.

Not neccesarily... it depends on the property, and Transformers fans may feel differently, but typically when the core fiction appears onscreen (be it television or movies), and supplemental materials appear in print, it's only the on-screen events that are considered canon. Take Star Wars or Star Trek, for example. The movies and TV series are generally held to be canon, whereas the novels, comics, video games, etc are not (and in many cases directly contradict events seen in film [see Boba Fett/Jango Fett/Jaster Maree]).

 

In the same way, it is often difficult or impossible to reconcile events that take place in Transformers comics or other media with what was already seen on film... and it's silly to even try, IMO. Supplemental sci-fi works to popular series will always just be fun little "what if" scenarios, and nothing to be taken too seriously.

 

Yeah, exactly. I'd think that the divergence of the US cartoon series ending while the Japanese one continued would be strange/hard to reconcile. (I was kind of bummed to learn that Prime died AGAIN and Ultra Magnus died. Man!)

That's just it, they don't have to reconcile because the Japanese continuity after Season Three is a branch continuity. It splits off from US cartoon continuity before Rebirth. In US continuity, the war ended with Rebirth and Beast Wars picks up about three hundred years later. In Japan, Rebirth never happens. Instead, they have Headmasters, and its sequels as its own branch off from Season three.

 

Think of the multiverse as a tree. Each continuity is a branch off of that tree that constantly diverge and (sometimes) converge at different points. The US and Japanese G1 continuities after season three are a prime example of this, as is Marvel with its divergent branches. All of them happen.

 

Right. So what would be, whether direct or indirect continuity, the latest comics to or toons to feature the G1 'bots (not meaning the IDW comics, but something that reflects what happened post-Beast Machines)? The Universe comic?

IF you look at the chart, the black arrows establish direct continuity the grey arrows establish indirect continuity.

Personally, I wouldn't consider the Japanese series (2010, Headmasters, whichever you wanna call it) part of the American G1 continuity. I'm not even sure I could consider 2010 based off of the 1986 movie. There's too many irregularities between them. The way I see it is like this:

 

G1 ended for the US airwaves with the Rebirth Season 4 pilot.

 

G1 ended for Japan with the Zone miniseries

 

TBH I refuse to consider BW/BM as part of the G1 universe. It's more of a prequel to me. I also think there are very many BM/BW and G1 fans that would argue that they should be kept separate. Just one man's opinion... rebuttal :)

Personally, I wouldn't consider the Japanese series (2010, Headmasters, whichever you wanna call it) part of the American G1 continuity. I'm not even sure I could consider 2010 based off of the 1986 movie. There's too many irregularities between them. The way I see it is like this:

 

G1 ended for the US airwaves with the Rebirth Season 4 pilot.

 

G1 ended for Japan with the Zone miniseries

 

TBH I refuse to consider BW/BM as part of the G1 universe. It's more of a prequel to me. I also think there are very many BM/BW and G1 fans that would argue that they should be kept separate. Just one man's opinion... rebuttal :)

That's why the Japanese and US continuites are separate branches. Up through Season three, they tell the same story, but after that, they diverge. The only real difference between Japanese and US cartoon continuity up until the end of Season three is the names and the year that Season three takes place (2006 in the US, and 2010 in Japan). As for the Beast era. the Maximals and Predacons didn't exist until three hundred years after the events of G1. They ended up traveling back in time via transwarp. That is how they ended up in the past. Beast Wars 2, Beast Wars Neo, and Beast Machines all take place securely in the future of the G1 continuity, as does Wreckers and Universe.

Are any/all of the Japanese cartoons available with English subtitles? (Has there ever been talk of them getting an official release here?)

Yes, though mainly "Fansubs". You can find a number of them, including Headmasters, Supergod Masterforce, and Victory on Youtube. Translated Mangas for these series are also up on TFArchive.

how does 1 episode equil a miniseries :P

 

Prequil or sequil I consider Beast Wars to be a compliment series to the origional. I don't consider it it's own affair. It's to tightly tied in. They were just telling a different story not reinventing anything.

 

Like Tramp stated, the story did move along well past the end of the shows. In the manga comics Zone did continue and led directly into BattleStars there where some club comics and strips also that continued Battlestars into G2.

 

The problem of course, to many different writers and ideas caused a muddle

 

The story did go on though. I believe one of the last G1 glimpses of Hot Rod was him announcing that he'd be keeping the name Rodimus even without the matrix and was going in to be reformated into a Maximal.

 

Someone has to have that comic pannel somewhere, I think 3H did that...

 

It is easy to get confused but G1 did keep going till the end of Beast Machines. It was RID (for me at least) that rehashed and killed the onrunning story.

I've read much of Wreckers, and he never reformatted, though he did retake the name Rodimus, later in life.

I've read much of Wreckers, and he never reformatted, though he did retake the name Rodimus, later in life.

 

Nerd question: what was the last to be seen of G1 Optimus and Ultra Magnus? Were they in Universe?

I've read much of Wreckers, and he never reformatted, though he did retake the name Rodimus, later in life.

 

Nerd question: what was the last to be seen of G1 Optimus and Ultra Magnus? Were they in Universe?

No, they weren't. Their Classics versions though are in Timelines, which is produced by Fun Publications for the OTFCC and BotCon.