I'm specifically referring to the cartoons my son watches on the Fox Box. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, in my opinion, is MILES beyond Sonic, or Shaman King, or Kirby, or Ultimate Muscle. Those shows are just goofy and infantile. You can tell the difference. I am sick to death of Japanese cartoons.

 

This is the advantage that G1 and Beast Wars had. It was never SILLY. Ya know what I mean?

I get the feeling now that Hasbro has recognized that their formula WORKS financially, and they ain't gonna change it. While it's nice to see G1 homages, think about what that's saying. Which figures are the ones we're the most excited about? Armada Unicron. Energon Megatron. Rodimus. Arcee. Scorponok. Starscream. And so on. This, my friends, is not a Transformers renaissance (unless you're working for Hasbro). This is what STAGNATION looks like. Repackaging the old and selling it as something new. I remember the excitement of seeing the Stunticons for the first time, or Cyclonus and Scourge. I was blown away. I don't see that in the Transformers anymore. Now we're most excited about the figures that most resemble ones that came out twenty years ago. OUCH. Even the upcoming live-action movie is most likely going to be a variation of "More Than Meets The Eye."

 

As for me, I'm sticking with the Energon comics. At least Simon Furman knows what to do with the big bots.

Stagnation? For who? You and me, maybe.

 

However, these toys aren't made for you and me they're made for kids. Most of whom have never heard of any of the characters that you mentioned. Many of them probably feel the same sense of excitement that you did back in the day.

 

I do happen to think we're in a TF golden age. We older fans get nods to our favorites and kids get all new, to them anyway, toys.

Cursed E-prime power ranger rip off....

Actually, I've decided he looks more like a bad Voltron rip-off. :)

 

If I want Voltron, I'll order the "Masterpiece" version.

 

Last I knew, Energon is supposed to be the same length as Armada, which was 52 episodes. That's two seasons of 26.

 

So (assuming Cartoon Network ever airs the rest of Energon.. still no new eps since that 4-shot, and now it's not even on the schedule), that's this season, and next season, THEN Cybertron would start around (probably) the second half of 2005 or first half of 2006.

 

Anything after that wouldn't be starting till the end of 2007, possibly 2008.

 

They might consider changing their formula when this burns out. Because it will burn out. Then, maybe then, they might try creativity for a change. Oh well.

I'm specifically referring to the cartoons my son watches on the Fox Box. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, in my opinion, is MILES beyond Sonic, or Shaman King, or Kirby, or Ultimate Muscle. Those shows are just goofy and infantile. You can tell the difference. I am sick to death of Japanese cartoons.

 

This is the advantage that G1 and Beast Wars had. It was never SILLY. Ya know what I mean?

If you go back and watch G1 now, the shows are barely watchable. Their whole production quality is silly.

 

 

Beastwars was always fairly silly especially because of Rattrap and I loved it. It was a mature silly though.

 

Toons now are superior to yester years in production quality and time they are made.

 

The only excpetions to saturday morning toonage I can think of is the real Ghostbusters and the original TeenageMutant ninja turtles. Those were both good shows.

These new cartoons are just terrible, we had much better cartoons as kids.

 

No you didn't, nostalgia is just clouding your eyes. Kids today will be saying the same thing in 15 years.

Yes it did, I have to say that I had the same taste in television shows when I was 6 that I do now, and except for a few....i.e. TMNT, on the Fox Box, they suck....except for production quality as someone already stated...

I actually prefer G1 to Armada and Energon toons. And nostalgia has nothing to do with it.

 

Sure, Armada and Energon have that much-vaunted continuity everyone moans about, but that's incidental. A cartoon doesn't have to have a continuing storyline to be good.

 

Yes, G1 has lots of animation screw-ups. Yes, it lacks explanations for some things. BUT, the voice-acting and writing were, in general, much better than anything so far seen in Armada or Energon.

 

Beast Wars was good because, again, they had good writing and good voice-acting. Sure, it had some laughable moments in the animation, but I could overlook that because of the story and acting.

 

Beast Machines brought the art and animation up to par with the acting (except for those weird "solid fire" explosions..), but apparently got way off track with the writing.

 

Armada and Energon make it difficult to ignore the animation simply because it's compounded by the awful writing and stiff--often incredibly unnatural-sounding--voice-acting.

 

Energon is alot better than Armada, as far as the story goes, but it still has that bad dialogue and stiff voicing.

If you go back and watch G1 now, the shows are barely watchable. Their whole production quality is silly.

I'm not referring to production value. Of course the animation and artwork were wildly inconsistent from one episode to another, and even within episodes (that was even the case in TF:TM). I'm referring to tone. As I've said on another topic, G1 never had "sweating" robots, pratfalls, and all of the other goofy conventions of Japanese animation. When I watched RiD, it felt like Pokemon with robots.

 

The G1 show took itself seriously, and did so consistently. When I said that it was never "silly," that's what I meant.

 

And as has been mentioned, the voice talent was miles beyond anything in Armada or Energon or RiD. That helped to cover over a LOT of artistic sins.

Power Rangers is just ugh!$#@ It reminds me of some crazy movies my brother, his friends, and I made were we dubbed over the voices like an old karate movie. Granted I have only watched bits and pieces of maybe part of one show but it still is pure D awful. That new Energon Prime does look like some of that Power Rangers stuff or Voltron.

Power Rangers is just ugh!$#@ It reminds me of some crazy movies my brother, his friends, and I made were we dubbed over the voices like an old karate movie. Granted I have only watched bits and pieces of maybe part of one show but it still is pure D awful.

Totally. And you know they're making SICK $$$ -- they sure aren't spending any money on location shoots. :tflaugh

 

However, getting slightly back on-topic, my 5-year-old son LOVES Energon Prime because he's a megazord. He just thinks that's the best. Clever marketing on Hasbro's part.

 

You know, if Hasbro had taken a little more time with E. Prime's design, they could have made him more of a "combiner" than a "megazord." Kind of an extension of the Powermaster Prime idea. Or maybe they could have just NOT put numbers on the drones. :tfpuke