Well besides the Transformers Movie. Hot Rod also lead the autobots in the final episodes of the japanese version of G1 season 3. Optimus Prime had to go back to Cyberton I think because of a call from Vector Sigma, that huge working machine. lol But yeah, with him, who would it be? I don't see why not Ultra Magnus?

Scamble City Predates TFTM. :P

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

JAPANESE CONTINUITY IS NOT OFFICIAL!

Storm: The problem with Daniel and Wheelie isn't so much what they did in the movie, but Season 3... which would be next to nothing. The problem with these characters is that they hardly ever did anything of any importance in Season 3. You could almost run the entire third season without Daniel and Wheelie, and it wouldn't alter continuity. This is quite different from say, removing Jar Jar Binks from Star Wars, which would drastically alter continuity. But either way, it doesn't change the fact that Jar Jar, Daniel and Wheelie are all incredibly annoying characters. :P

 

Hornet: Japanese continuity is official. Anything licensed by Hasbro and/or Takara is considered official. And yes, it is in canon with US G1 cartoon continuity. It's an expansion of said continuity, just as BWII and BW Neo are expansions of BW (they are not separate continuities - the BW movie clearly ties them together) and as the G1 Marvel UK comics were an expansion of the G1 Marvel US comics - hence the visions of Deathbringer and the fact that Optimus Prime's body was found in a funeral barge in space in US continuity; all elements that lead from events in UK continuity. Heck, UK continuity helps explain all kinds of stuff, like how Megatron actually obtained Starscream's corpse and later had Ratchet rebuild him as a Pretender. I could go on, but I gotta get to work! :)

Have to agree with Hornet, the Japanese continuity is not official.

 

After Hasbro stopped making a cartoon, the Japanese did continue but as far as I know Hasbro did not have anything to do with them so I do not consider them canon.

 

Not to even mention that the Japanese shows do not even "feel" like G1 but that is an entirely different story.

 

The fact that the Japanese writers linked their series to Beast Wars says nothing to me as it was never acknowledged by the writers of Beast Wars. So I regard it as non canonical.

 

Metroplex did not transform in the movie because his transforming cog was damaged and had to be replaced (which happened during "Five Faces Of Darkness).

 

Did not care for Daniel much but Hot Rod was cool.

See I look at the Japanese cartoons as cannon, jsut a slightly different path.  And though they did tend to pay more attention to the humans (at least in Headmasters and Masterforce) I like them.  Victory is a sweet show in my opinion, and I honestly think it ranks up there with G1 and BW as one of the best TF series we've had.

They took a very different path.

 

To me it was not Transformers anymore and that was one of my main problems with the Japanese cartoons. When I watch Headmasters nothing that made the original cartoon so enoyable (despite the many flaws) is present.

 

If I do not compare it to the US G1 series but look at it as a completely different show (like Robots In Disguise) it is an acceptable show but with a little too much Japanese influences.

 

(When the Headmasters arrive none of the regular Transformers seem to be able to win any battle. When the Targetmasters arrive, the Headmasters take over. It feels like Power Rangers where the latest Zord is the most powerful.)

The same thing happened when the Combiners were interduesed

The combiners never played that big a role in the US G1 series. The Decepticons had Devastator as early as season 1.

 

Yet the Autobots continued to beat him even without a combiner of their own. There are plenty of G1 episodes that did not feature the combiners.

The japanese continuity is part of g1. deal with it.

 

In fact headmasters made Daniel more easy to cope with as he was vital in headmasters to some degree (not wheelie though. wheelie can die the prik)

The Japanese shows do not match Beast Machimes where it is established that Cybertron had an organic core.

 

Had Cybertron really been destroyed (or nearly destroyed and rebuilt) then the Transformers would have known about it.

 

Yet Optimus Primal and the Maximals did not know. They also rediscovered the Oracle which was also thought to be a myth. I find it hard that when one is rebuilding a planet, one would miss something like that.

 

Then again, there are plenty of other shows with continuity gaps so this does not prove anything.

 

Has Hasbro ever stated officaly that the Japanese cartoons are canonical? Just curious.