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G1 how I love thee, now Die


tentagil

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Hate to say it, but if you look at toys that are purely "Transformers," then you have to skip out on the toy waves before the Movie (Series 3 - with the exception of Ultra Magnus and the mini-spies remolds) - for example, Megatron, Soundwave, Starscream, the Dinobots, Optimus Prime, et cetera - they are all from other toy lines. If you look at the toys engineered exclusively for the Transformers franchise, you'll see that they were less than phenomenal (i.e. Throttlebots, Duocons, et cetera.) They tried to compensate by adding tons of gimmicks on top of the transformation gimmick (i.e. the "masters," Pretenders, and Firecons and the Sparkabots, et cetera) but this did not manage to buoy the interests of the majority of those who buy toys at the time.

 

If Hasbro/Takara sticks to making Transformers with innovative transformation schema (I am thinking of Beast Wars and Alternators), things can easily be a lot better than G1.

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I actually believe that the one way to deliver something new and do it successfully is not to let G1 die, but to embrace it.

 

A large part of G1's success was the fact that it had one solid continuity (well 2, but one in each medium) that didn't change with each line, they just built on top of it.

In that sense Transformers made it's name more like a comic or TV show than something like Gundam, which were characterless robots thrown into different universes every 5 minutes.

 

The line had become stale product wise, many fans were reaching the age where they no longer bought toys, but as the comic displayed by delievering things that the fans still want today (no Unicron, an enemy other than the 'Cons), a lot of potential remained.

 

Beast Wars was well written, but I believe that the reason it was so successful was because it was both new and embraced it's roots.

If you weren't a fan of G1, you could still enjoy the show and it's characters to the fullest, and if you were a fan of the original, you could see what happened in the continuity of the characters you grew up with and the show instantly had years of depth and history to it, a lineage.

 

Outside of those who only wanted nostalgia, it's appeal was universal.

 

This approach was used again in the War Within comics.

It re-told the beginning of the G1 Transformers, keeping aspects of both comic and cartoon whilst discarding others.

But with it being based before the G1 series, it was once again completely unneccessary to know about, or even like the G1 series.

 

But the approach of the other series' seems doomed to failure.

 

There are those who want to see G1's potential realised to it's fullest, something new, but instead they get offered homages to keep them buying.

At the same time, HasTak stick with what they know, so they just rehash the same old story in a different reality.

Which goes down well at first, but as they're now so keen on relaunching continuities, it means the story seldom really progresses and we just keep on getting new versions of existing characters.

Sales maybe flag a little, so homages are increased.

 

So Geewunners aren't actually getting G1, as a Cybertron figure or character recoloured and given a G1 name is still a Cybertron figure or character, yet the A/E/C crowd are claiming there's too much G1.

 

Seems very few are actually happy.

 

The way I see it, Hastak will not give up on what makes them money and the farther people pull from G1, the more samey things become.

But when they build on what went before, it seems to give them enough security to take risks and actually go into new directions.

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If Hasbro/Takara sticks to making Transformers with innovative transformation schema (I am thinking of Beast Wars and Alternators), things can easily be a lot better than G1.

There are and always have been better transforming robots than G1 out there.

The success has never been down to just the toys and never will be.

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I agree with tentagil.

 

I am thoroughly sick and tired of seeing G1 rehashes. No more Optimus Primes, no more Megatron, no more Starscreams...

 

We need something new, but still ties in with mainstream continuity - and by that I mean the G1 and BW/BM continuity. That way we can have something new and refreshing, but still embracing its roots, as joshlowe put it.

 

I would personally like to see one of the following:

A. Continuing where Beast Machines left off.

B. Telling more about early Cybertron. Come on, tell us the tale of Sentinel Prime with a young and brash Optimax as one of his warriors (who like Hot Rod, would be destined for greatness)

C. Telling the end of the Great War -- how did it end? We know that Rodimus was leading the Autobots and that Springer and his Wreckers played a major role - and in the end triumphed with the signing of the Pax Cybertronia treatise. The final battles in the Great War has a lot of good story telling potential, the least of which being the ultimate realisation of Rodimus Prime as the final Autobot hero. This series could lead into another series which tells about the transitional period between the end of the Great War and the early years of the Maximal Age. It would be an age where all Transformers would be rebuilt as more fuel-efficient Micromasters in the big "Maximal/Predacon Upgrade." The geek in me would use this as an excuse to introduce Star Convoy into the series (since he comes with Micromaster Rodimus, who becomes a pivotal character in Beast Machines Expanded U) - have Star Convoy somehow perform some incredibly noble sacrifice which brings about the absolute final end of the Great War, leaving the mantle of leadership with Micromaster Rodimus, as Rodimus leads Cybertron into a true new age of peace.

 

Most people are getting sick of G1 in general and are longing for a change. I personally loved BW and see it as the savoir of the TF brand. It was a drastic change to the line that needed to be done. Couple that w/ a very well written cartoon and big advances in the quality of the figures and they had a success.

Well said.

 

The Transformers franchise was dying on its arse until Beast Wars came along and saved it. Countries like Japan and the U.S. even went through a whole year with NO Transformers on their shelves! Those poor bastards!

 

Beast Wars gave us:

+ New cutting-edge (and Emmy Award winning) 3D animation

+ New story direction that catered to different audiences at different levels - it could be enjoyed by audiences young and old, with or without prior TF knowledge - and forever enriching Transformers lore. I am forever grateful to Larry DiTillio and Bob Forward to the work they did on writing Beast Wars.

+ Improving toy quality; superior sculpting, superior durability, superior articulation. Innovations which had begun in late G2 came to full fruition in Beast Wars. Using stickers to cheaply add details to toys is a thing of the past now - Beast Wars gave introduced highly detailed exquisitely sculpted details, painted apps (including air-brushing in some figures, metallic paints etc) - an innovation which evolved into Car Robot which in turn evolved into Binaltech. The Armada figures seem to have taken a step backwards in this regard with Energon/Cybertron figures only now starting to reach back towards BW standards (but still not quite there when you look at the robot modes of Wing Sabre and Leobreaker).

 

I'd like Transformers to have more interaction with other aliens.  I want them to be a part of a larger alien universe.  There was an episode back in G1 that had, Cosmos I think, on another planet filled with aliens.  It was a Star Wars cantina type of situation.

As tentagil said, Season 3 attempted to do this.

 

The Marvel Comics did this moreso as we saw in stories like the Meccanibals, those giant Amazonian chicks that tried to do Shmoo-Shmoo with the Autobot Pretenders, the Matrix Quest and of course, everybody's favourite bounty hunter - Death's Head!

 

 

ukcov117.jpg

(above) Death's Head, hired by Rodimus Prime to hunt down Galvatron, who in turn took on...

drwho1.jpg<--...The Doctor, who shrunk Death's Head down to human size, after which... 

Death's Head encountered the Fantastic Four and was rebuilt by Reed Richards as... --->ReedNT_.jpgdhminion5.jpg<--...Death's Head II!

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I agree with what some people have said here. I think that only by revisiting the past and going back to the roots of G1 will they be able to move on. I don't mean totally rehashing the old series, but making a new series with heavy G1 elements with characters meant to be like their old-school counterparts. I'd like to see that with the post-movie TV series, and if they pull it off well, I think the next series after that will be able to move past the nostalgia, past the homages, and really revolutionize TFs as we know them. (Much as I wish that series would be TransTech, I know that ain't happening...) But I think it's a fair bet that the next real "BW/BM" is a ways off.

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I like G1. I wish Hasbro would stop dicking around and just redo G1 from scratch or make the new shows seriously tie into G1 like BW did. These other shows giving lame fan yanks doesn't count. There are several things they could do. The US toon ended so quick or they could pic up after BM, with Transtech or a whole new concept.

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As much as I love G1 a whole new concept like Beast Wars is the way to go.

 

I mean all the last few shows did is copy aspects from G1 and Beast Wars and often badly. Unicron was done before, Starscream being a ghosts was been there, done that and Megatron evolving into Galvatron, do not even get me started on that!

 

What we need is a fresh new comcept like a series taking place on Cyberton without any interaction with Earth or humans.

 

New factions and characters would be a very good idea. Sure people would hate it at first but soon they would accept it. We accepted Beast Wars as well.

 

I think this new should should not be made by the Japanese because they simply cannot handle a show without humans.  :tftongue Get Mainfraime to animate it and it could be excellent.

 

The show should not be about gimmicks. Sure the toys can have them but it should not be an aspect of the show. Just like Beast Wars and Beast Machines actual fighting and cunning in battle should be part of the show.

 

I am tired of Optimus Prime combining with whomever is near. He should have to use his battleskills instead. Of course Optimus would not even be in the new show.

 

It would also be interesting to see a sceming first officer. Not like Starscream in the fact that Starscream's ambitions were well know. This first officer is silently plotting to overthrow his leader and take his place. In the end he secretly sends enough info to his enemies to get his leader to fail several times which makes the troops question his leadership. Then he takes over.

 

Would be a nice twist indeed. I mean, Starscream is cool but I wish he would succeed. Especially during Cybertron when Starscream's toy was WAY cooler than Megatron's!

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