Good:

- Gobots mold which later led to Spychangers

- Kept the franchise alive after G1 eventually lost steam

 

Bad:

- G1 repaints

- Some crap ass new molds

- Some crap ass gimmicks

 

Ugly:

- Colours choices

The comics were awesome. The toys for the most part were terrible as most were repaints which must have been done by designers on drugs.

Good: It was nice to see G1 TF's return, especially since Hasbro killed it not long before with a ton of crappy TF's.

 

 

Bad: I didn't like seeing the second wave of G2 TF's suck almost as badly as the stuff that led tot he death of th TF series in the first place.

Most of the toys were great (excluding some of the Euro ones. Powermasters in particular). Colours could have been better (namely the many instances of neon orange or aqua blue).

1 other thing i hated is that every toys legs were joined together in some way giving them no leg movement

1 other thing i hated is that every toys legs were joined together in some way giving them no leg movement

Er, I think that's G1 you're thinking of...

 

IMO the most vital contributions G2 made to the TF universe (in terms of figures) are Laser Rod Optimus Prime & "Green Tank" Megatron. It was really cool to see Hasbro go in a new direction with these classic characters. Optimus as a forward-engine tanker truck looked kickass (plus the headlights thing was really cool), and as anyone who has RiD Scourge knows, it's one of the most articulated figures out there. (And in case no one else mentioned it, light-pipe eyes started with G2 as well.) Megatron as a tank was similarly great. Okay, it may have been forced by the "no realistic guns" law, but it made a hell of a lot more sense for Megatron to be a tank than a handgun anyway. And really, a tank is just a big-ass gun on treads, so it fits.

 

But personally, the thing that draws me to G2 the most -- and in a way, the most important aspect of it today -- is the sheer over-the top craziness of it. Hasbro redesigned the Autobot and Decepticon symbols, painted everything in the brightest and least coordinated colors possible, and slapped a bunch of obnoxious-to-the-point-of-silly stickers on the figures. I fully understand why a lot of fans (probably most) would be put off by that, but to me it's just great -- it's part of the whole creative reimagining of the TF concept that happened at that time. I get the feeling that the Hasbro designers said, "oh, what the hell; Transformers is dead anyway -- what have we got to lose?" Which is always a great starting point. Whenever you start from a "we have to protect our market share" point of view, creativity and originality will suffer. To me, G2 and the first generation of BW were the high points of Hasbro's creativity (I don't include G1 b/c they didn't design any of the toys until '86!). Everything else has been derivative.

I for one loved the comic...even if they resigned the fact it would be short lived (Gee, ax us!). And yes, the tank Megatron and Laser Op do rule. I also liked some of the darker repaints (sideswipe in particular)...then though there were the rotor warriors...and the water troops...The yellow Devestator I could have done w/o...but the unreleased Stunticons did look pretty freakin cool.

I think G2 served its purpose, but could've been better (obviously). As for the garish color choices, take a look at other toys and trends of the time - the late 80s/early 90s proved to be one UGLY time in the world of design! Plus, the whole idea was to get people to notice TFs again. Who couldn't notice those things?? If even just to puke at the color choices, those TFs got seen, to be sure! I think it could've done much better, had they stayed the course on better articulation and molds instead of the G1 repaints and crappy gimmicks. Still, as everyone seems to agree on here, the comic ruled!

I think G2 served its purpose, but could've been better (obviously). As for the garish color choices, take a look at other toys and trends of the time - the late 80s/early 90s proved to be one UGLY time in the world of design! Plus, the whole idea was to get people to notice TFs again. Who couldn't notice those things?? If even just to puke at the color choices, those TFs got seen, to be sure! I think it could've done much better, had they stayed the course on better articulation and molds instead of the G1 repaints and crappy gimmicks. Still, as everyone seems to agree on here, the comic ruled!

G2 comic = lots of guns and explosions = good :mwahaha

Loved the comic, liked some of the G2 designs (the ones w/articulation), Laser Prime (later became RID Scourge) and Tank Megs (the smaller, articulated one-referred to as the "Hero" edition) were awesome aside from their colors (I would like to see Tank Megs in G1 colors- perhaps as a Universe figure...are you listening, Hasbro?!)....but what they did to most of the paintjobs on the G1 figures makes me ill (except Sideswipe-the black was cool.), as well as what they did to the paintjobs on most of the other figures. Oh well.