I'm late to this thread and dont feel like reading past the first post. I know HotRod should have felt guilty that he got Prime killed but it was crazy that Hotrod was all confident and didn't second guess himself all thru the Movie but when he gets the Matrix He turn into Winnie the Pooh's Eyore.

Fun fact: Hasbro was originally NOT going to kill Optimus Prime in TF:TM, but decided to because they had done the same thing with Duke in the GI Joe movie (even though they ended up editing that to look like he hadn't died). They thought it'd be more EXTREEEEEEM or something.

 

 

And BTW let's not think that Hasbro intentionally decided to make Rodimus a lousy character. The problem was simply that he *was* one and they were like "crap we'd better bring back Optimus". The only episodes that bear the marks of Hasbro's change of mind are the edited Dark Awakening and (obviously) TRoOP.

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However, in TFTM, the final line is "And the greatest leader of them all, Optimus Prime, will return!"  So they always intended to bring back Optimus.

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:tflaugh You must have seen the movie on DVD. That wasn't in the original release.

I own the DVD, too.  And I have a DiVX of it on my HDD.  I checked it.  Maybe the Canadian VHS release?

Fun fact: Hasbro was originally NOT going to kill Optimus Prime in TF:TM, but decided to because they had done the same thing with Duke in the GI Joe movie (even though they ended up editing that to look like he hadn't died). They thought it'd be more EXTREEEEEEM or something.

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2 Things. One, I thought the GIJoe movie was after TF:TM. I have zero recollection of any Advertisements for it to be in the theater and I saw it like 2 Yrs after TF:TM.

Two, are you saying they originally intended to kill Duke off in the Movie? From What I recall he was in a coma and later returned as a basic soldier and wasn't in command *memory of GIJoe severly hazy, even though has the Movie on VHS*

 

I own the DVD, too.  And I have a DiVX of it on my HDD.  I checked it.  Maybe the Canadian VHS release?

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Maybe the Japan redub. Powerglide! I thought I was sad for being on this site after 3am.

Fun fact: Hasbro was originally NOT going to kill Optimus Prime in TF:TM, but decided to because they had done the same thing with Duke in the GI Joe movie (even though they ended up editing that to look like he hadn't died). They thought it'd be more EXTREEEEEEM or something.

 

 

And BTW let's not think that Hasbro intentionally decided to make Rodimus a lousy character. The problem was simply that he *was* one and they were like "crap we'd better bring back Optimus". The only episodes that bear the marks of Hasbro's change of mind are the edited Dark Awakening and (obviously) TRoOP.

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However, in TFTM, the final line is "And the greatest leader of them all, Optimus Prime, will return!"  So they always intended to bring back Optimus.

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:tflaugh You must have seen the movie on DVD. That wasn't in the original release.

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That was on the VHS and when they aired it on TV

Fun fact: Hasbro was originally NOT going to kill Optimus Prime in TF:TM, but decided to because they had done the same thing with Duke in the GI Joe movie (even though they ended up editing that to look like he hadn't died). They thought it'd be more EXTREEEEEEM or something.

 

 

And BTW let's not think that Hasbro intentionally decided to make Rodimus a lousy character. The problem was simply that he *was* one and they were like "crap we'd better bring back Optimus". The only episodes that bear the marks of Hasbro's change of mind are the edited Dark Awakening and (obviously) TRoOP.

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However, in TFTM, the final line is "And the greatest leader of them all, Optimus Prime, will return!"  So they always intended to bring back Optimus.

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:tflaugh You must have seen the movie on DVD. That wasn't in the original release.

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That was on the VHS and when they aired it on TV

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I watched it on TV a couple of times. I don't remember that. But that was back in like 1988.

Someone else meantioned Liono of the Thundercats as being a great leader. Well they must have forgoten that he too suffered from the inferiority to a previous leader syndrome. When they were leaving Thundara Jagga sent the ship off into space to prevent the enemies of the Thundercats from stopping the launch. Meanwhile Liono`s pod got cracked and he grew during his hyper sleep into an adult. In the first season he was far more wishy washy than Rodimus Prime ever was. Also lets not forget that Optimus was handed the Matrix by his commanding officer Sentinal Prime on his "death bed". So let`s just assume for a moment that Sentinal Prime hadn`t died in that battle. Well if he hadn`t died there then he would probably have been able to prevent Megs and his crew from over throwing the peacful leadership of the Autobots. As it happened though Sentinal did die and passed on the Matrix to his successor Orion Pax now Optimus Prime. And due to his in experience the Autobots were forced under by the more powerful and at that time better lead Decepticons. Over time Optimus learned leadership and became the compitent commander we`ve been celebrating him as for the last 21 yrs. That having been said if they would have given Rodimus Prime more time to develop he too would have become a greater leader like Optimus. Just look at his Energon counterpart. Now most ppl think there`s no connection between G1 and the newer series I however disagree. The newer series are kind of like the children and grandchildren of the warriors from the great war but for some reason every generation can only find conflict and never peace.

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There is no way whatsoever that Armada, Energon, or Cybertron could be a contuiation to G1 in any way, shape, or form.

The Transformers movie and the GI Joe movie were being made at the same time when the latter was delayed.

 

So Transformers was aired first and Optimus Prime died causing huge resentment amongst fans. Since Duke was also supposed to die, they changed that into a coma. So Optimus more or less saved him.  :tftongue

 

There are at least two versions of the movie. The first is the original one (the Rhino DVD release) where there is no announcement at the end about the return of Optimus Prime.

 

Also interesting to note that this is the uncensored version so Spike says the famous "Oh Blot, what are we gonna do now?" instead of "what are we gonna do now?".

 

The later version was uncensored and had a message attached saying Optimus Prime will return. By then Dark Awakening had also aired so that was edited as well and re-aired just before "The Return Of Optimus Prime".

The Rhino DVD is uncensored and doesn't have the message about Optimus returning, fyi.  The Canadian VHS was the first uncensored home release, as I understand it.

Personally I liked Rodimus Prime in both TFTM, and S3. He wasn't a clear cut everythings B/W character like Optimus Prime. I do have a lot of respect for G1 Optimus  for what he is, and represents in G1 but Rodimus was a lot more entertaining to watch characterwise.

 

I'll never understand why a hero/leader/character can't be imperfect. Without imperfection a character is just a one dimensional representation of either good or evil.  It worked fine for Optimus Prime, but at least Hasbro attempted to do something different with Rodimus. The concept may have missed it's mark during S3 but was eventially perfected later on with BW's Primal and to a lesser extent every OP incarnation to date.

 

Also reguarding HotRod, since TFTM, his character has carried over into every series since. In BWs/BMs he was Cheetor.  In Rid he was Sideburn. In the Armadaverse he was Hotshot. Anybody else think so  :schin

 

Oh, I never got a G1 Rodimus Prme, and though it clearly sucked and was under enginered it's still cool for what it is. Also the Altmode winabego ROXXOR'd. :thumb