A well written TF show would get on a major network, and despite the competition from video games, would get clamored for by kids (maybe not like '85, but pretty close). BW came out of nowhere, showed up on obscure channels at crappy times too. But by the second season Fox was clamoring to get it on their network. Well, by the time everything got worked out, BW had run its course. Fox reaired some of it and then it was now time for BM, that well-written but joyless, humorless, overly dramatic, preachy, kid-repellant show. The suits at Hasbro must of seen the poor performance of BM, been unable to see the difference between BW and BM and lumped them together and figured that shows like that (with respectable writers) just didn't work anymore, saw the popularity of Chimpokumon and its ilk, and decided that that direction would be best. RiD was a success (oddly enough, the sales were up drastically before the show even aired, so I'm not sure how much impact the show had on its success).

 

Not sure why Hasbro and Fox parted ways, but they did and CN got Armada. Now, Hasbro reps will non-specifically say that they were pleased with the ratings, but the one item I saw pertaining to the ratings of the show from CN (a top 100 list for Toonami) really didn't make it look like the show was doing too well. And then, realizing how bad Armada was, CN slowly started putting it into worse and worse time slots. Now Energon, a much better show than Armada, is suffering for Armada's suckitude.

 

I guess I kind of got of course here. Anyway, a show like BW could get on a major network like Fox Kids and get a good time slot. Hasbro just needs to put its foot down with Takara and insist that they hire a decent writing team. I still don't know what the hell they were smoking when they fired Forward and DiTillio.

Good points. I've never seen Energon, but I saw enough of Armada to make me run screaming (that'd be 5 minutes' worth, for those watching at home). The only problem is that quality costs $$$, and it's WAY cheaper for Hasbro to grab a Japanese cartoon and hire some voice actors to do ADR for $10.

 

My hope is that if the movie does well, we may see a TF cartoon renaissance (much like what happened with Batman: The Animated Series after Tim Burton's Batman flicks came out).

lets take a closer look at some of what spiked the poularity and sales figures over the years. in beast wars they had a direct tie in to g1. the eps where they find the crashed arc and the dormant g1 bots is the probably the saving grace of that series. ratings were up and the transformers were back.

 

bm took a bw story that was getting quite good and changed it into a cure for insomnia. ratings and toy sales alike slipped quite a bit.

 

for r.i.d. toy sales were up dramatically before the cartoon even aired because the toys were the best since g1 and the fans took notice. people were happy to see the autobots and decpticons again but the predacon tie in i think lost some people and the cartoon never lived up to peoples expectations and people lost interest fast.

 

then armada came along, one of the first previews for the toys was optimus and to many fans it was g1 prime reborn and that got fans excited. red alert, jetfire, starscream and of course unicron all got peoples hopes up for a more g1-like cartoon. again, the toy sales went up but then the cartoon failed to impress and the line lost some steam.

 

finally we came to energon. by now hasbro gets the idea that the interest in toys is in some way bound to g1 so we see a lot more obvious g1 homages. the toys are selling well but the cartoon is still doing poorly.

 

the moral of the story, a great deal of the success that the transformer line has enjoyed is still very much due to it's g1 heritage. so long as they continue to ignore that in the cartoons they will continue to do poorly. what made g1 good was each episode telling a seperate story rather than taking 50+ episodes to tell one long story. if they create new stories in manner that the g1 stories were told, then the lost fans might finally be interested again as well as new ones.

 

don't anyone turn that into remaking g1 all over again. thats not what i'm saying. merely get back to making each episode an individual story that plays off the overall premise rather than tying each episode together to make one looong somewhat boring story.

I wonder if people realize how easy it is to say that Armada is better than G1, even though they don't realize that G1 was built up from nothing and couldn't help being the way it was.

 

This is comparing watermelons to grapes people, enough already.

I wonder if people realize how easy it is to say that Armada is better than G1, even though they don't realize that G1 was built up from nothing and couldn't help being the way it was.

 

This is comparing watermelons to grapes people, enough already.

:pfx

lets take a closer look at some of what spiked the poularity and sales figures over the years. in beast wars they had a direct tie in to g1. the eps where they find the crashed arc and the dormant g1 bots is the probably the saving grace of that series. ratings were up and the transformers were back.

 

bm took a bw story that was getting quite good and changed it into a cure for insomnia. ratings and toy sales alike slipped quite a bit.

 

for r.i.d. toy sales were up dramatically before the cartoon even aired because the toys were the best since g1 and the fans took notice. people were happy to see the autobots and decpticons again but the predacon tie in i think lost some people and the cartoon never lived up to peoples expectations and people lost interest fast.

 

then armada came along, one of the first previews for the toys was optimus and to many fans it was g1 prime reborn and that got fans excited. red alert, jetfire, starscream and of course unicron all got peoples hopes up for a more g1-like cartoon. again, the toy sales went up but then the cartoon failed to impress and the line lost some steam.

 

finally we came to energon. by now hasbro gets the idea that the interest in toys is in some way bound to g1 so we see a lot more obvious g1 homages. the toys are selling well but the cartoon is still doing poorly.

 

the moral of the story, a great deal of the success that the transformer line has enjoyed is still very much due to it's g1 heritage. so long as they continue to ignore that in the cartoons they will continue to do poorly. what made g1 good was each episode telling a seperate story rather than taking 50+ episodes to tell one long story. if they create new stories in manner that the g1 stories were told, then the lost fans might finally be interested again as well as new ones.

 

don't anyone turn that into remaking g1 all over again. thats not what i'm saying. merely get back to making each episode an individual story that plays off the overall premise rather than tying each episode together to make one looong somewhat boring story.

and... :pfx

Okay everyone complains about Armada having too many repaints and remolds but G1 has 10X the repaints and remolds

Examples

infreno and Graple

Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker

Prowl, Smokescreen, Bluesteark along with many others.

Red alert and Side swipe

Part of Optimus and Magnus

Ironhide and Rachet and many more

Okay everyone complains about Armada having too many repaints and remolds but G1 has 10X the repaints and remolds

Examples

infreno and Graple

Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker

Prowl, Smokescreen, Bluesteark along with many others.

Red alert and Side swipe

Part of Optimus and Magnus

Ironhide and Rachet and many more

ppl don't care when there new charectors like G1, its when the repaints are

Energon super-duber-nito-turbo X-treem Pwerlinx Hotshot, they get mad.

Five words: Gl rules and Armada sucks.

Okay everyone complains about Armada having too many repaints and remolds but G1 has 10X the repaints and remolds

Examples

infreno and Graple

Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker

Prowl, Smokescreen, Bluesteark along with many others.

Red alert and Side swipe

Part of Optimus and Magnus

Ironhide and Rachet and many more

It's been said many times that people accepted the repaints in G1 because they were seperate individual characters.

BTW, when you say Prowl, Bluestreak, Smokescreen and many others. Who are the others?