Transformers Discussion Thread

[The first Galactic Republic]

The ‘86 movie makes no sense without some familiarity with the events of the original cartoon.

It’s a movie for Transformers fans, but it’s not a good jumping point.

It might help to watch the More than Meets the Eye three part online somewhere.

[HC Eredivisie]

The first one is quite good, they go downhill from there. I'd recommend watching the '86 movie first, then the first three Bay movies and then Bumblebee.

The '86 movie is great. I love the soundtrack.

Exactly. I also like they used lines from here in the live action movie.

[Pax Nerdvana]

The '86 movie is great. I love the soundtrack.

Exactly. I also like they used lines from here in the live action movie.

I need to get that movie on video, and the soundtrack as well.

The ‘86 movie makes no sense without some familiarity with the events of the original cartoon.

It’s a movie for Transformers fans, but it’s not a good jumping point.

It might help to watch the More than Meets the Eye three part online somewhere.

I would have to agree.

[Servilis]

autobots, lets fuck

[HC Eredivisie]

Exactly. I also like they used lines from here in the live action movie.

I need to get that movie on video, and the soundtrack as well.

The ‘86 movie makes no sense without some familiarity with the events of the original cartoon.

It’s a movie for Transformers fans, but it’s not a good jumping point.

It might help to watch the More than Meets the Eye three part online somewhere.

I would have to agree.

It's available on DVD, I bought it years ago for a few bucks.

I thought most G1 episodes were on Youtube, I've been watching them some while ago but they might have been removed now. Otherwise you could read up on TFWiki, that's at least as fun.

[Pax Nerdvana]

I need to get that movie on video, and the soundtrack as well.
I would have to agree.

It's available on DVD, I bought it years ago for a few bucks.

I thought most G1 episodes were on Youtube, I've been watching them some while ago but they might have been removed now. Otherwise you could read up on TFWiki, that's at least as fun.

I watched the cartoon on DVD from the local library. I think there are only one or two episodes of G1 on YouTube though.

[The first Galactic Republic]

autobots, lets fuck

Optimus learns about organic life cycles.

[Gandoor]

Honestly the 1986 Transformers movie isn't as good as the fans think it is BUT it's probably the best 1980s anime OVA that isn't a 1980s anime OVA.

[Pax Nerdvana]

Honestly the 1986 Transformers movie isn't as good as the fans think it is BUT it's probably the best 1980s anime OVA that isn't a 1980s anime OVA.

I'll admit it's not perfect, but it's better than Bayformers.

[HC Eredivisie]

Between two and three I'd say. Certainly better than the last ones, it at least had decent Dinobots. And whiny Starscream.

[Gandoor]

Honestly the 1986 Transformers movie isn't as good as the fans think it is BUT it's probably the best 1980s anime OVA that isn't a 1980s anime OVA.

I'll admit it's not perfect, but it's better than Bayformers.

Hot take: While I won't make any comment on the quality of the live-action films (having only seen the first one on Cartoon Network back in like 2013 or so), what they've done for the brand in terms of its overall brand recognition and what the massive financial success of the films (at least until The Last Knight became a box office disappointment) has done for the other aspects of the brand trumps whatever The Transformers: The Movie did to the franchise.

I mean think about it, regardless of your thoughts on the live-action franchise's quality or content, the fact that they are the reason Transformers went from being 'successful toyline by Hasbro' to 'worldwide multimedia phenomenon' is a lot more impressive than 'movie meant to sell the new toys to kids and also we killed all the old toys cause it's not like kids are attached to these characters or anything' (of course, to be fair to Hasbro, the notion that, yes, kids ARE attached to characters like Optimus Prime and don't think of them as just 'action figures' meant to be replaced by the shiny new guy after a couple of years was literally an unheard of concept back in 86, so not really gonna fully blame them for that, it was just how the market was)

[The Rich Port]

Watched Bumblebee, decent movie.

It's amazing the things you can do when Michael Bay isn't the director.

[The first Galactic Republic]

I'll admit it's not perfect, but it's better than Bayformers.

Hot take: While I won't make any comment on the quality of the live-action films (having only seen the first one on Cartoon Network back in like 2013 or so), what they've done for the brand in terms of its overall brand recognition and what the massive financial success of the films (at least until The Last Knight became a box office disappointment) has done for the other aspects of the brand trumps whatever The Transformers: The Movie did to the franchise.

I mean think about it, regardless of your thoughts on the live-action franchise's quality or content, the fact that they are the reason Transformers went from being 'successful toyline by Hasbro' to 'worldwide multimedia phenomenon' is a lot more impressive than 'movie meant to sell the new toys to kids and also we killed all the old toys cause it's not like kids are attached to these characters or anything' (of course, to be fair to Hasbro, the notion that, yes, kids ARE attached to characters like Optimus Prime and don't think of them as just 'action figures' meant to be replaced by the shiny new guy after a couple of years was literally an unheard of concept back in 86, so not really gonna fully blame them for that, it was just how the market was)

The 80’s movie was honestly pretty influential itself.

As you said, individual characters mattering and not being interchangeable wasn’t a staple of toylines back then. The reaction to the movie helped to change that and ultimately changed plot driven toy franchises forever.

[Gandoor]

I mean yeah that is true, although when you think about it, that didn't really start in Transformers fully until G2 came along.

I say fully cause of course you had things like Powermaster Optimus Prime, Goldbug (if he counts, being a rebuilt Bumblebee and all), the Classic Pretenders, and then like half the Action Masters being 1984 and 1985 guys in G1 but obviously Action Masters were the end of G1, in the US at least.

Whereas G2 was really the first toyline where they consciously tried to keep 'main' characters on the shelves for the kids to buy.

G2 was also where Hasbro started the old 'let's just apply names to toys that don't really fit the character but we need to keep usage of the trademark thing (Examples being: the Go-Bots Frenzy, Sideswipe, and Ironhide - but not Soundwave hilariously enough)

[Pax Nerdvana]

I mean yeah that is true, although when you think about it, that didn't really start in Transformers fully until G2 came along.

I say fully cause of course you had things like Powermaster Optimus Prime, Goldbug (if he counts, being a rebuilt Bumblebee and all), the Classic Pretenders, and then like half the Action Masters being 1984 and 1985 guys in G1 but obviously Action Masters were the end of G1, in the US at least.

Whereas G2 was really the first toyline where they consciously tried to keep 'main' characters on the shelves for the kids to buy.

G2 was also where Hasbro started the old 'let's just apply names to toys that don't really fit the character but we need to keep usage of the trademark thing (Examples being: the Go-Bots Frenzy, Sideswipe, and Ironhide - but not Soundwave hilariously enough)

G2 is hilarious and awesome. Have you seen the commercials? They are comedy gold.

[Gandoor]

RUN IT'S DREADWING.

God I still need to get some version of the Dreadwing and Smokescreen molds, personally leaning towards either the Beast Wars II BB and Starscream or the Robot Masters Gigant Bomb and Smokesniper ones.

Anyways speaking of -masters, went to Target yesterday and finally found some goddamn Battle Masters and Micromasters. Picked up Blowpipe so my Triggerhappy would have his old Targetmaster buddy and the Race Car Patrol.

Race Car Patrol's pretty cool, their 'weapon' mode sucks shit but I'm glad that, since they're so small and simple, the figures aren't compromised by the gimmick at all. Although I still love how Hasbro is pretending these two figures, which turn into what are very obviously a Pontiac Firebird and a DeLorean with the serial numbers filed off are actually 'Cybertronian' cars instead. Guess you could say the same for a lot of the Autobots in the line though (I mean you're fooling nobody here Sideswipe, you're just a goddamn Lamborghini) but it's just so funny because, due to their small size, they don't have any form of 'Cybertronian' sculpting on them, they're just regular cars.

[Pax Nerdvana]

RUN IT'S DREADWING.

God I still need to get some version of the Dreadwing and Smokescreen molds, personally leaning towards either the Beast Wars II BB and Starscream or the Robot Masters Gigant Bomb and Smokesniper ones.

Anyways speaking of -masters, went to Target yesterday and finally found some goddamn Battle Masters and Micromasters. Picked up Blowpipe so my Triggerhappy would have his old Targetmaster buddy and the Race Car Patrol.

Race Car Patrol's pretty cool, their 'weapon' mode sucks shit but I'm glad that, since they're so small and simple, the figures aren't compromised by the gimmick at all. Although I still love how Hasbro is pretending these two figures, which turn into what are very obviously a Pontiac Firebird and a DeLorean with the serial numbers filed off are actually 'Cybertronian' cars instead. Guess you could say the same for a lot of the Autobots in the line though (I mean you're fooling nobody here Sideswipe, you're just a goddamn Lamborghini) but it's just so funny because, due to their small size, they don't have any form of 'Cybertronian' sculpting on them, they're just regular cars.

Hound turns into a Space Humvee. I want to get a version of the Dreadwing mold at some point as well, along with some version of the Combaticon molds. I'm leaning towards the Ruination versions.

[Gandoor]

Don't get the Takara reissue of Bruticus. Those molds turned into crap after HasTak used them like four times in four years.

Although do gotta love how the Hasbro versions showed how quickly toy-safety standards can change though.

[Pax Nerdvana]

Don't get the Takara reissue of Bruticus. Those molds turned into crap after HasTak used them like four times in four years.

Although do gotta love how the Hasbro versions showed how quickly toy-safety standards can change though.

Yeah, I'd heard about the degredation. I would love some individually carded Scramble City combiner reissues.

[Gandoor]

Honestly what I'd rather have compared to more plain G1 reissues would be some neo-G1 stuff and recolors, like how Takara did back in the early 2000s.

Like in Siege we're getting a Barricade retooled from Prowl and we know that the G1 Prowl mold still exists, so how about a reissue of G1 Prowl in the Barricade colors as a 'G1' police Barricade?

Or the Seekers. I mean the Seeker-mold is really ass (even for the time) but I'd be more interested in like a G1 Acid Storm vs the 10 millionth rerelease of Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp.

[Pax Nerdvana]

Honestly what I'd rather have compared to more plain G1 reissues would be some neo-G1 stuff and recolors, like how Takara did back in the early 2000s.

Like in Siege we're getting a Barricade retooled from Prowl and we know that the G1 Prowl mold still exists, so how about a reissue of G1 Prowl in the Barricade colors as a 'G1' police Barricade?

Or the Seekers. I mean the Seeker-mold is really ass (even for the time) but I'd be more interested in like a G1 Acid Storm vs the 10 millionth rerelease of Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp.

That would be cool. Famliar molds, new color schemes. Some G2 would be nice too.

[Revanchism]

God the Studio Series has been absolutely killing it. I just recently got DOTM Megatron as a gift and he is amazing.
Also picked up an upgrade kit for SS Grimlock. Not that he really needed it, but man, he looks even better with a giant mace.

[Pax Nerdvana]

God the Studio Series has been absolutely killing it. I just recently got DOTM Megatron as a gift and he is amazing.
Also picked up an upgrade kit for SS Grimlock. Not that he really needed it, but man, he looks even better with a giant mace.

I've heard good things about SS. So the stories are true?

[The New California Republic]

I have actually never seen any of the Transformers movies. I need to have a Transformers binge methinks, in order to catch up.

I'm still working my way through them. I'm on to Transformers: The Last Knight next. I don't know anything about the plot, but I do know that it was almost universally panned by critics. I'll try to keep an open mind though.

[The first Galactic Republic]

I have actually never seen any of the Transformers movies. I need to have a Transformers binge methinks, in order to catch up.

I'm still working my way through them. I'm on to Transformers: The Last Knight next. I don't know anything about the plot, but I do know that it was almost universally panned by critics. I'll try to keep an open mind though.

As someone who liked the first movie but only appreciated the others as popcorn action flicks, Last Knight was genuinely awful. I know people complain about them all, but Last Knight really stands out.