This topic has surely been done dozens of times but I was just curious to see which show is your favorite. My favorite is Beast Wars with G1 and Beast Machines coming in 2nd and third.

 

Here is why I like Beast Wars so much (in no particular order):

 

 

1 The characters were well developed. In G1 we had distinct personalities but there was not really enough time to develop everyone of them. In Beast Wars there was a small cast allowing every character to be well developed.

 

2 The characters were pretty cool on top of that. Best characters seen in a Transformers show. Rattrap, my favorite for example is a chronic complainer but also one who actually took charge and resolved things. Then we had Dinobot, one of the best Transformer characters ever.

 

Rhinox was also interesting. Usually teams have one strong guy and one genius. Rhinox combined both stereo types. But the bad guys were also excellent. Megatron with his "yess" and his constant planning and plotting. Inferno thinking he is an ant and calling Megatron queen. Or Quickstrike, the western fanatic. :tftongue

 

3 Excellent story writing. There were loose episodes but they all had an underlying continuing storyline with the Vok. The show also tried to be more than just a cartoon, it was actually a sci-fi show.

 

4 Humor: mostly Waspinator related but there was a lot of laughs for most of the characters. Rattrap always had me rolling over floor with his "We're all gonna die."

 

5 The cultural references. From Optimus Primal doing an imitation of Superman (Victory) or him wearing sunglasses while saying "Hasta La Vista" (Bad Spark) to Rhinox and Inferno doing a Rocken'sockem robots imitation, it was all good.

 

(It is the humor, cultural references and the great characters that I am missing in the latest cartoons.)

 

6 The G1 references/tie in. Naturally the newer shows do not have any ties to G1 but it is still good to see it in Beast Wars. And well used unlike Beast Machines. I especially liked seeing Ravage and the use of the Ark. And who could forget the gues appereance of Starscream in "Bad Spark".

 

7 The characters would get upgrades but actually meaningful upgrades. Not only did they look different but they actually had different abilities. With all the Transformers just gaining a new "paint job" it does not do much for me. They all get stronger so from a tactical viewpoint it matters little. In BW the upgrades had use such as Megatron and Cheetor being able to fly and Rattrap and Turantulas gaining extra land speed abilities.

 

8 No kids/annoying humans! Just glorious Transformers action! (Except for the few episodes with the early humans. But that was so minor, I can forgive that.

 

9 And finally (cannot think of any other reasons why I liked the show so much) the animation. I recently downloaded the first Galaxy Force episode and nowadays download quality is excellent, unlike the time Beast Wars was only downloadable in poor quality avi files.

 

So I got a pretty good look at the GF animation. And I must that while it looks impressive it does not not "that" good. Especially when compared to Beast Wars which looks better while made almost 10 years ago. GF's Transformation sequences were well done but to me the colors seemed less vibrant than Beast Wars.

 

I also prefer the "shiney" look of the Beast Wars Transformers which especially worked well with the Transmetals. So I still think Beast Wars had the best animation. One must remember that it was made almost 10 years ago and that Mainfraime had a limited budget.

 

Galaxy Force does not really look significantly better to me, not so much that makes it look that it was made 8 years after Beast Wars. And I think that with the popularity of Transformers nowadays a better budget was available.

 

But Energon looked better on DVD so this will surely do too. But it has a hard time competing with Beast Wars. Because good animation is one thing but excellent stories another.

 

Anywhoo, this sums up why I liked Beast Wars so much. As for the other shows. Here is my short opinion on those as well (in case you wanted to know). Not that I have not seen much (if any) of the Japanese only shows:

 

Generation 1 One big nostalgia trip. Sure the animation and the stories were a bit lacking at times but it was still the show that started it all.

 

Generation 2 (With the added computer animations.) The added animations were actually making the show harder to watch. But if you have no access to G1 it is a good substitute.

 

Beast Machines was a good show with excellent animations and a good basic storyline. It also dared to be different :clap . To bad some of the characters were badly done (Rattrap) and we had to take a lot of things on face value because they were never explained.

 

Robots In Disguise- decent with a constant animation level. The show was a bit on the silly side but had humor. And when the Decepticons came into play it got a bit better. Of course Sky Byte and Scourge made the show worth watching.

 

Armada- The Mini-Con premise was excellent (in the PS2 game it was done perfectly) but the TV show could have done it better. If Mini-Cons were so important then why did they not accompany the Transformers on every mission?

 

Making the Mini-Cons simple Transformers unable to speak was not too cool either and it really made no sense when the Space Mini-Cons transformed into the Requiem blaster for Megatron so he could blast Smokescreen who had been protecting them all that time.

 

And naturally the animation which ranged from good to bad did not help matters either. The ending of the show (Unicron Battles) was great though and saved the show. :thumb

 

Energon - Very good animation, decent storylines but one (or more) plothole(s). Think about it, the Terrorcons are to gather Energon. But they can only take one star with them. And in the first few episodes an Energon star does not last all that long.

 

The Terrorcons are cannon fodder, many are destroyed. I would say over half are destroyed from every attack force. So only half of them make it back. Even if it takes just one star to make an Terrorcon, one still does not gain additional Energon.

 

Surely someone else must have figured it out. And it is not as if this is a little plothole either in my opinion.

 

The other thing that drags Energon down a lot is Kicker. One only gets one chance for a first impression and he blew it big time for me in the first episode when he ranted to Optimus about earth being his planet. The sheer arrogance of it.

 

He may be more tolerable later on but I have not seen enough of Energon to judge it. It will be very hard for him to lose that first negative impression though but it is possible.

 

Cybertron- Animation looked good except for the non computer animated parts. There will be humans in the show so that drags the show down a bit. Depending on how annoying the humans are. But if Armada and Energon were any indication they are annoying.

 

Headmasters- Saw the first 15 (or so episodes). Good animation, decent stories but bad dub.

 

Victory & Masterforce- Did see an episode with the "Junior Headmasters". Do not know if that is Victory or Masterforce. Humans controlling Transformers is not Transformers anymore so that makes the show hard to swallow for me. What I loved about Transformers is that they are sentient robots. If you want human controlled robots, go watch Power Rangers. (And as sad as it may sound I like that too.) :tflaugh

 

Beast Wars Neo & Beast Wars The Second- Never seen that though I got a glimpse at the BW2 movie. That looked pretty decent. Both shows are human free so that is promising. :tftongue

 

So there you have it. My option on the various Transformers shows. Feel free to give your own opinion.

 

Do note that it is not my intention to bash anyone favorite show or to bash your opion. I respect everyone's opion but try to explain it well.

 

I do not like Kicker because I think he is arrogant. If you think he is not then you are well within your rights to do so. I would love to hear why you think he is not arrogant. I am open-minded so I will listen and change my views accordingly if nessecary.

 

Thanks for your input. :tfgrin :thumb

I beleive beast wars was the best and most coherant cartoon though have never seen it so cannot judge it. G1 was the most polished and well rounded otherwise despite its flaws, the rest just dont measure up and suffered from lack of investment/desire to produce a decent cartoon.

Beast wars followed closely by Beast Machines.

I for one voted G2. Oh and not the bad rehash of G1 but the series released by Marvel at roughly the same time to correspond with the toyline. Sure it isn't one of the cartoons but since I as an adult now find G1 meh, and the Armadaverse surprisingly lacking and have yet to see anything on Beastwars/machines I have to go the comics. Rid would probably be a close second because as campy/silly as it was it never stopped being fun and it didn't have to take itself too seriously to enjoy. :thumb

The G2 comics were interesting though really hard to get.

 

I did not care much for the artwork but the story was good. The body count was much higher though. :tftongue But that made it more realistic as well.

 

R.I.D. was a bit silly but that is fun. I too like a show that does not take itself to seriously.

I like Galaxy Force - it has a god balance of action and humour and the kids aren't annoying, they're very helpful, especially since the Transformers are portrayed as not understanding Earth culture. The plot is also intricate and complex. Hopefully, the translation will keep this intact rather than smash it up. We can hope.

BW is the best, but I'm not saying that the rest are bad.

Strange that the Autobots would not understand human culture after working with them in Energon. But I have yet to see Galaxy Force/Cybertron so I will reserve judgement for now.

 

The kids in Armada and Energon were annoying so I could only assume that the Cybertron kids were too. Hopefully I am wrong.

 

And of course if you vote for one show it does not make the other ones bad. I love G1 with all my heart but I just like Beast Wars better.

 

Most of the latter shows were good but could have been better. Armada could have used a better storyline but the end was rather cool. And a better dub as often the wrong names were used for characters. Even on the DVD case Sparkplug is referred to as Leader-One. :tfpuke

 

Energon could have been better with a better dub. And in my opinion less Kicker. :tfevil Unless a better dub would have made him tolerable. Then I would not mind.

I like G1 the most because its what I grew up watching, and it has the characters that I assosciate Trans Formers with.

 

However BW is very great show. The action is great and so are the story arcs. The show is probably of better quality than G1, great graphics and little to no plot holes. A very close second to G1, but G1 is still my favorite.

Strange that the Autobots would not understand human culture after working with them in Energon. But I have yet to see Galaxy Force/Cybertron so I will reserve judgement for now.

 

The kids in Armada and Energon were annoying so I could only assume that the Cybertron kids were too. Hopefully I am wrong.

 

And of course if you vote for one show it does not make the other ones bad. I love G1 with all my heart but I just like Beast Wars better.

 

Most of the latter shows were good but could have been better. Energon could have been better with a better dub. And in my opinion less Kicker. :tfevil Unless a better dub would have made him tolerable. Then I would not mind.

Cybertron is a totaly new story in Japan, it is uknown at the time if it will be a new story here.