I know I'm not the only transformers fan, so I figured why not make a Transformers discussion topic. However, please no Bay movies. Currently my biggest interest is the IDW comics, sadly I don't have cable to watch the new series.
What's there to talk about in Bay movies? It's just a series of explosions held together by one-liners written by computer algorithm. I'll start off with a question: In your opinion, What in transformers is worth your time? What's the take-away. Why are you a fan?
Hmm, not the kind of conversion I was expecting. Why do I like Transformers? Well I guess I've always been a fan of Transformation the ability to change from one form to another. When I was little I enjoyed the original cartoon, as I got older and the Cartoon had ended I got into the comics. By the time they ended the second Generation came out followed by a new comic. After that came Beast Wars. In one shape or another Transformers has always been with me. More so than GIJoe which I'm also a fan of. My Apartment is littered with toys of both series but more so Transformers than GIJoe.
Transformers and G.I. Joe were also big for me growing up. There were interlopers as well, TMNT, Ghost Busters, etc. But Transformers and G.I. Joe were staples growing up. At the playground, Transformers and G.I. Joe divided people into factions. You could like one or the other, but not both. I spent my time going back and forth between the two camps week to week. Eventually G.I. Joe won out. It was on TV much more frequently, and my cousin had a lot of them so naturally I played G.I. Joes whenever I came over. I remember playing with my cousin fondly, but G.I. Joe isn't very important to me. I see little of value in the characters or the situation. Transformers gives me more to munch on; Optimus Prime as a leader, Hot Rod, Bumble Bee, Perceptor were to me much more engaging characters. Still, there's a lot of not-so-well-developed characters that fall by the wayside. Who can tell the difference between Blue Streak and Prowl? Between Sideswipe and ... Sideswipe's twin brother? These characters could use to be a little more filled out. Also the values it teaches, while richer than G.I. Joe, are a little vague and laced with impurities. It wasn't until college that I met someone that loved transformers, too. He reminded me how much I liked them. I still believe the property is in need of refinement, but that it is also worthy of refinement. Transformers Prime was a step in the right direction, but didn't really scratch the itch I have about Transformer's potential.
Have you tried the IDW comics? Couple bumpy spots, but over all it's done pretty well. You can definitely tell Sunstreaker from Sideswipe.
I haven't. I guess I'll have to. Do the Autobots seem a lot like the knights of the round table to you? They seem a lot like that to me.
Not really they had a Knights of Cybertron/Pirate theme for the last Botcon. I kind of wish I got the set cause it had a headmaster.
I've seen the clips for Robots in Disguise. Looks Okay. I'm not sure I like that The autobots have always been defined by fighting the decepticons. Eternal war. Seems rather bleak, maybe even boring. When I was a kid, I only collected autobots, because I didn't want to introduce conflict into the team by throwing decepticons in. I never liked decepticons. As characters, though, today I find them a little fascinating.
I buy whatever interest me. That's pretty much why the only Transformers I bought from the last movie were the Dinbots. As I don't mind the conflict but I have my own head cannon when playing with mine. Yeah, I'm 35 and I still play with my toys.
I will say that the Prime/Aligned continuity (which covers War for Cybertron, Fall of Cybertron, Prime and R.I.D.) is a rather well done delight. The only thing that really, really, re-healllllllllllly bugs me at the moment is R.I.D.'s portrayal and coloration of Grimlock. The fact they also got Cyborg's voice actor from Teen Titans also grates against it a bit as they've given him a chipper and scrappy personality. I don't like chipper excited grimlock. I prefer slightly dumb, ball of primordial rage Grimlock that fights to prove he is the strongest. Not one who fights because YEAH! FIGHTING! They've literally turned Grimlock into Scrappy Doo and changed his colours to the Unicron trilogy Grimlock's colours. You know, that series which took CGI, violated it and decided Grimlock was a construction vehicle. What.
I've always been more a fan of the smart Grimlock of the comics. He acted dumb some of the times, but he was doing that to get people to drop their guard. The toys original tech spec had an intelligence of 8. It's possible there's more to the 2015 RID Grimlock then we currently see. I mean he was one of the most dangerous criminals, hard to believe as he is that's the case. Side note, there wasn't a Grimlock in the Unicron Trilogy, your thinking of the first RID: http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Grimlock_(RID)
Ah,. my bad about that. I remembered it as an abomination. Turns out, still an abomination, just with muddled continuities. Grimlock's smart, but in the same way a predator is smart. It doesn't do calculus, but it does figure out exactly what you are about to do and how you are about to do it and proceed to punish you for that. I just really, really, really hate the voice actor for the new Grimlock. Grimlock does not need Cyborg's voice actor. I swear to god if they mention Waffles at any point in the series I'm just going to flip the table. And this is a shame as well - Prime was actually a good and potent series that was somewhat serious. Like, almost to the scale of Beast Wars for seriousness. And its follow up? So far from that it just seems...tacky.
Hey, what you got against Bayformers? I liked the first one. Anyway, I've only ever seen the Unicron trilogy, Animated, some of G1, and the 2007 Bay film.
Beast Machines wasn't as good as Beast Wars either. So Hasbro isn't so good at sequels that seems to be a given as far as the cartoons go. I haven't watched all of the Unicron Trilogy so I can't say how Armada compares to Energon. I did watch all of Galaxy Force, but that was supposed to be separate and was just forced together for American Cybertron. Bumblebee peed on a human in the first film, Wheelie humped Megan Fox in the second movie, the Devastator's ball joke in the second. These sorts of things do not belong in Transformers.
As for Bayformers, I only heard all of my friends express unbridled excitement before its release... then nothing. I happen to see the second one and was scarred for life by it's awfulness. Crass, pointless, pornographic, psychotic, and some of the worst "story telling" of any movie I've ever seen. Seriously, I can't think of a worse film. Wheelie was in that one?! How could I know? It just looked like a bunch of psychotic racist stereotypes. Illiterate black ghetto robots?! I swore I'd never watch another one, so I skipped 3. Then someone told me 4 was good. That is was nothing like two. He was right. It was so much worse. No plot at all. Not a single sympathetic character. Not a single character. Just 12 hours of explosions held together with a glue of the world's worst one-liners. Like someone needs an award for being able to write that badly. Seriously, I want to go back in time and see that writing room "And then he says, the last thing you see is my face! and then we'll shoot him in the face!" "Oh yeah! That'll be awesome!" I can't even express the PTSD I still have after being subjected to that. That wasn't transformers. That wasn't Optimus Prime. That was some bull----. Okay rant over. I hope you'll forgive my forceful opinion if you miraculously found something good in that film.
So now Robots in Disguise Season 1 is over, I liked it over all I'm not big on Fallen being the big bad, it kinda feels like they threw him in at the last second. Still the season was pretty good. On the subject of Toys we'll be getting a new Sky Lynx. I can't wait, he won't be able to separate like the original but he'll be he centerpiece of gestalt.
