Transformers: Animated

[areaseven]

Here's a better angle of the video posted earlier:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGFckswLCwc

[Fort Max]

need to see their robot modes .... I've only seen the dino modes of the toys ...

Theres pics of Grimlock and Slag in here somewhere,

http://photos.actionfigs.com/showgallery.php?cat=2554

[Ishimaru]

Anyone see the latest Lil Formers comic in relation to this?

http://www.udonentertainment.com/mattmoyla...ormers/home.php

[Kurisama]

Wow wow WOW!!!

That's all sorts'a cool! The music - the homages to G1 - even starscreams voice was in the same vein! I think this looks great - from what is available!

I don't know what all the bashing is for - this looks really cool! Can't wait!

[areaseven]

For those who missed the sneak preview of episode 1, the series begins airing on Saturday, January 5, 2008, at 10:30 a.m.

I got to watch episode 1, and it was much better than expected. Story-wise, it was a huge improvement over the last three TF shows. The characters looked fugly at first, but the designs grow on you throughout the episode. Aside from the old-school sound effects, there are numerous nods to G1 elements.

Overall, Transformers: Animated is well worth watching, whether or not you're a TF fan.

[David Hingtgen]

A7---why post in this "dead" thread, and not the big main TF thread where everyone's talking about it? ::mod note to self:: Should rename the thread, as the show's name changed. Or maybe we should designate this the "official" thread, as it might clutter up the main TF thread.

Thoughts/opinions?

[Chindenathus]

Thoughts/opinions?

I think we should use this thread to discuss TFA and use the other for general TF discussion.

It'd help hold back some of the clutter in the "Mega Thread".

Just my two cents.

[Radd]

Sounds like a good idea to me. One for the toy lines and general TF info, one for the show. Makes sense. Just now finished watching the first episode myself. It was alright. There were things that really impressed me, and others that I really didn't care for.

Dialog got more than a tad preachy-cheesy too many times, and the whole story seemed incredibly rushed. Also, as the show played out, the disparity between the story and the artwork seemed to stand out even more. It seems to me the art style could have benefited from being more Justice League and less Teen Titans. Also, humanity seems awfully understanding in this show. Robots come from space, and very quickly become our friends, more robots show up, and there's absolutely no confusion as to what's going on, and it's all priase to the Autobots for saving us from the enemies they lead here. I tend to dislike those overused story elements myself, so I suspect that it's simply a matter of how quickly the show rushed through these things that bothers me the most.

The animation seemed very consistent, though. I love the sound effects. There were a few that really stood out. Loved most of the voice acting, especially Starscream's voice, the actor did a good job making it sound like the old Starscream. Not perfect, but good enough for me.

Overall, I'm still kinda on the fence. I'll probably watch more episodes as they come out. I'm more interested in this show than the past several series, but it's not something that grabs me either. One thing, I can't help but think of the Batman Animated/Big O art style and wonder how a Transformers series like that might look. It's something I think I'd like to see, though it will never happen.

[areaseven]

A7---why post in this "dead" thread, and not the big main TF thread where everyone's talking about it? ::mod note to self:: Should rename the thread, as the show's name changed. Or maybe we should designate this the "official" thread, as it might clutter up the main TF thread.

Because the main TF thread will be sent to the Hall of Super Topics, anyway, as it's exceeded 1,500 posts. Besides, the main TF thread is usually for general TF discussion (mostly on the toys), and we already have separate threads on the movie and its sequel. So why not talk about the new animated series here?

[David Hingtgen]

Actually, few (if any) threads will go to the hall of the super topics now. It was more a limitation of the board than a sheer "we kill big threads" thing. But with the latest updates, threads can get HUGE. We have a few over 100 pages now.

::off to rename topic::

[GobotFool]

It's not beast wars, but its definitly an upward turn from the downward trajectory of the previous 3 shows.

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

I want to see Blitzwing's vehicle modes soon. That is one character I am very excited about.

[mikeszekely]

I'm fine with sticking this in the main TF thread. While we do talk a lot about the toys, it's a TF Mega Thread, not a TF Toys Mega Thread.

[Tober]

I want to see Blitzwing's vehicle modes soon. That is one character I am very excited about.

There's lineart for them about 3/4 of the way down this page.

[Fort Max]

Gundam 00 gets a thread as it's the currently airing show so I don't see why TF:A shouldn't.

I got the premiere the other day and I really liked it, I have no trouble with the animation or the voices (most of which are great and very fitting) but teh story did seem rushed and there was a lot of "work as a team damnit!" stuff going on.

Starscream was amazing to watch, he was just so tenacious and actually dangerous! They said they were going to make the Decepticons a real threat in this show and from that it certainly looks as though they weren't talking bull.

Can't wait to see what kind of havoc the other cons, much less Megatron will cause.

[Alpha OTS]

There's lineart for them about 3/4 of the way down this page.

I hadn't seen these in quite a while, but my impression is the same: kids are going to love these.

[David Hingtgen]

Same here--while none of the toys really appeal to me, I think kids will love them. (plus they have among the best "toys match show" appearance ever) (I like realistic designs, which is why I bought almost nothing from Energon/Armada, but tons of RiD)

[Alpha OTS]

Same here--while none of the toys really appeal to me, I think kids will love them. (plus they have among the best "toys match show" appearance ever) (I like realistic designs, which is why I bought almost nothing from Energon/Armada, but tons of RiD)

RiD was what brought me back into the fandom because of the realistic designs(The Car Brothers and RiD Prime are the forerunners of Alternators, imo). I can kind of see Hasbro's long term strategy. RiD caught everyone's attention after the long vehicle(vehicons are not quite the same thing) hiatus since G2 much to Hasbro's surprise. Armada tried to capitalize on that attention and hook them young. Energon and Cybertron tried to keep them hooked as they grew older. The movie line took this another logical step further. And with Animated, they're starting over again, but with the lessons they've learned along the way(thank Primus). In the mean time they throw out Alternators, MPs and Classics for those who're the long term diehards, or just want something even more realistic than what the other lines offer.

It's a really smart business model, imo, but I might be speculating a bit too much. It might just be a lucky turn of events.

I might buy a couple of the Animated figures. The Primes(I'm really happy Earth Prime has his face plate), Starscream(although I'll wait for the inevitable strict G1 repaint courtesy of Target ) and Megatron, because I collect figures of those three. Seeing them in motion and hearing the voices really helped me warm up to the designs, but still, the rest of the lot don't really appeal to me, nor do I think are they supposed to. Kids, on the other hand........

[mikeszekely]

I might buy a couple of the Animated figures. The Primes(I'm really happy Earth Prime has his face plate), Starscream(although I'll wait for the inevitable strict G1 repaint courtesy of Target smile.gif ) and Megatron, because I collect figures of those three. Seeing them in motion and hearing the voices really helped me warm up to the designs, but still, the rest of the lot don't really appeal to me, nor do I think are they supposed to. Kids, on the other hand........

That's about the ones I'm looking at for now. Maybe Bumblebee. While I like Ratchet and Bulkhead fine as characters, they don't look like they'll appeal to me as toys.

[Hikuro]

I like where the toys are going....I just hate the long wait...i'm sick of the movie toys and robot heroes and gadget crap....I want the classics 2.0 and animated figures.

[David Hingtgen]

Imagine if they'd just completely cancelled the stupid movie "fast action battler" toys, and used the money to fund a $40 Barricade instead... (or Starscream)

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

Imagine if they'd just completely cancelled the stupid movie "fast action battler" toys, and used the money to fund a $40 Barricade instead... (or Starscream)

Completely agreed. Leader Starscream would also have brand recognition going for him. Despite the young age of some of the new movie fans from this summer, they all still wanted the regular movie figures, not so much the FABs and whatnot.

[mikeszekely]

Completely agreed. Leader Starscream would also have brand recognition going for him. Despite the young age of some of the new movie fans from this summer, they all still wanted the regular movie figures, not so much the FABs and whatnot.

Also agree. A Leader Starscream is probably the only movie toy they could make in the next six months that they could actually get me to buy. While it's definitely true that the movie toys have sold like hotcakes, without a movie, DVD, and a holiday to move them, I really don't get why Hasbro thinks they're better off stocking the shelves with movie repaints instead of Animated toys.

EDIT: The fact that this conversation has segued into discussion of toys and the movie reinforces my earlier notion that this thread should be merged with the other.

Edited January 2, 2008 by mikeszekely

[Alpha OTS]

Ratchet is the grumpy one.

[protostar8]

Also agree. A Leader Starscream is probably the only movie toy they could make in the next six months that they could actually get me to buy. While it's definitely true that the movie toys have sold like hotcakes, without a movie, DVD, and a holiday to move them, I really don't get why Hasbro thinks they're better off stocking the shelves with movie repaints instead of Animated toys.

EDIT: The fact that this conversation has segued into discussion of toys and the movie reinforces my earlier notion that this thread should be merged with the other.

In response to your edit: Only because someone decided to start posting in the wrong thread.

Animated looks pretty decent. It's only the first three episodes and they did a rush job on the story. Now that the groundwork is layed, we can get a decent plot going. The toys look like they will be awesome. I honestly love how many homages I saw in the first three episodes. Everything from Spike and Daniel in the background to Prime being grey when he's dead. The "Key" is a very pathetic plot element though...

[kanedaestes]

Yeah because then it seems like any damage has no real effect on the show. It is like how comics kill people only to know they will come back eventually. I think that key will play into something bigger later or just lose its power hopefully. I remember seeing the preview for the show a while back isn't Suri supposed to get some kind of transforming armor or whatever?

[protostar8]

Yeah because then it seems like any damage has no real effect on the show. It is like how comics kill people only to know they will come back eventually. I think that key will play into something bigger later or just lose its power hopefully. I remember seeing the preview for the show a while back isn't Suri supposed to get some kind of transforming armor or whatever?

I actually have that video on my hard drive and it's like a transforming 3-wheeler. I honestly think the key will end up being called "Vector Sigma's" key or something related to the old story arc as another homage. All in all, I can totally see people calling this the rebirth of G1 after all is said and done.

[Vermillion21]

There's lineart for them about 3/4 of the way down this page.

Thanks for this great link Tober ... wow, the TF animated toys are going to be very cool. While I wasn't too impressed with the show itself, I find the new TF stylistic designs more and more appealing. Can't wait for these and Classics 2.0.

[mikeszekely]

In response to your edit: Only because someone decided to start posting in the wrong thread.

I suppose that's true, if you consider terry the lone wolf starting a new thread to be posting in the wrong thread instead of using the Transformers thread, since it's the Transformers Mega Thread and not the Transformers movie and toys thread. The fact that the sub title is Teen Titan Edition is already a reference to Animated, and we were already discussing it there before A7 resurrected this thread.

Unless you're referring to a few posts ago, when David started talking about what if Hasbro canceled the FABs in favor of a better Barricade or Starscream. To that, all I can say is David's a mod. He can post wherever he wants.

Frankly, discussion of TF Animated will inevitably lead to discussion of toys and comparisons to other TF media. That's not a bad thing; without that kind of discussion the conversation will gradually shift to "Did you see what happened in the last episode?" "Yeah, it was awesome!" Which, again, is why this thread needs to be merged with the greater TF thread.

Gundam 00 gets a thread as it's the currently airing show so I don't see why TF:A shouldn't.

I'd think that's a good argument to merge the Gundam 00 thread with the other Gundam thread rather than an argument to keep the TF threads separate. But even still, Gundam 00 is a show that will air weekly for a total of, what, 38 weeks? Animated is a show that will air something like 18 times a year for two or three years. As it stands, the Gundam 00 thread will see steady activity for the next six months or so, and this thread will see some discussion (that's already likely to relate to what's going on in the main TF thread) while there's new episodes, the fade to obscurity until sweeps, assuming that someone else decides to dig for this thread instead of just posting in the TF Mega Thread.

[Fit For Natalie]

Same here--while none of the toys really appeal to me, I think kids will love them. (plus they have among the best "toys match show" appearance ever) (I like realistic designs, which is why I bought almost nothing from Energon/Armada, but tons of RiD)

Weren't you the one who thought RID Prime wasn't a real fire truck?

RiD was what brought me back into the fandom because of the realistic designs(The Car Brothers and RiD Prime are the forerunners of Alternators, imo). I can kind of see Hasbro's long term strategy. RiD caught everyone's attention after the long vehicle(vehicons are not quite the same thing) hiatus since G2 much to Hasbro's surprise. Armada tried to capitalize on that attention and hook them young. Energon and Cybertron tried to keep them hooked as they grew older. The movie line took this another logical step further. And with Animated, they're starting over again, but with the lessons they've learned along the way(thank Primus). In the mean time they throw out Alternators, MPs and Classics for those who're the long term diehards, or just want something even more realistic than what the other lines offer.

It's a really smart business model, imo, but I might be speculating a bit too much. It might just be a lucky turn of events.

I might buy a couple of the Animated figures. The Primes(I'm really happy Earth Prime has his face plate), Starscream(although I'll wait for the inevitable strict G1 repaint courtesy of Target ) and Megatron, because I collect figures of those three. Seeing them in motion and hearing the voices really helped me warm up to the designs, but still, the rest of the lot don't really appeal to me, nor do I think are they supposed to. Kids, on the other hand........

I don't think Hasbro are that smart, but I don't think it was all dumb luck, either

By 2000-2001, Hasbro had teamed up with the cash-strapped Takara to develop a new vehicle-based Transformers toyline with small partner robots (which we now know as Armada). Due to the retail dissapointment of Beast Machines, they imported Takara's failed Car Robots line as a 'filler' line, and were taken by surprise at how well it did.

By the time Armada had finished its run, it was one of the most sucessful Transformers toylines ever. However, Hasbro underestimated the popularity of Mini-Cons among kids and collectors, which is why only two new sets were produced for Energon line, and why there was suddenly a bunch of Mini-Cons in the Cybertron line and Classics (which were meant for Cybertron).

Classics was created as yet another filler line when the release date of the movie was moved from November, 2006 to July, 2007, as the changed date would have created a product line gap as Cybertron was scheduled to end in September-October 2006. The Classics line wasn't targeted specifically at collectors (given it had to take over from the Cybertron mainline), but the G1 theme was so that it would be extra-attractive to collectors and older fans.

Imagine if they'd just completely cancelled the stupid movie "fast action battler" toys, and used the money to fund a $40 Barricade instead... (or Starscream)

Shut up, fool! Claw Slash Ramjet is AWESOME. Ramjet likes his toast sliced, you see.

I would expect a Leader class Starscream for TF2, should he become a more substantial character.

[promethuem5]

I've never understood why RID/Car-Robots did so poorly in Japan... I remember all the buzz about the Car-Robots toys before RID was announced, and I was psyched... Beast Wars had gone on just long enough for me, but BM was utter garbage and put me off TFs... then along came RID and it was stupendous, even if there was only actually a handful of new toys in it... because all the new toys there were were stellar. Why then, was CarRobots such a disaster for Takara and still only a filler line for Hasbro?

Oh and, I LOVED the Animated premier special... and am sooo psyched for the toys. Bulkhead FTW!

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

I've never understood why RID/Car-Robots did so poorly in Japan... I remember all the buzz about the Car-Robots toys before RID was announced, and I was psyched... Beast Wars had gone on just long enough for me, but BM was utter garbage and put me off TFs... then along came RID and it was stupendous, even if there was only actually a handful of new toys in it... because all the new toys there were were stellar. Why then, was CarRobots such a disaster for Takara and still only a filler line for Hasbro?

Its possibly due to the fact that it was a mashed up cartoon and toyline. It was a cartoon that took too many shortcuts, and done by an animation company that wasn't up to par with most anime it was going against. The toyline was a mix of old and new toys, and some of the old toys were ones no one wanted, yet main characters in the show(the 3 beast wars repaints). Had the line been all new and consistent with new molds, maybe the toyline would have been different. The Combaticons and Black Convoy were probably the only older toys people wanted. I don't think mixing in the spychangers and old beast wars repaints was a good idea. It just wasn't a "new" toy line through and through, and I think it suffered for it. Add to that, the cartoon wasn't all that great. In some ways, it seemed like a half assed effort. Same reason the only RID/Car Robots toys that are constantly revered were all the new molds from that line, and Black Convoy. It was probably filler for Hasbro because they probably knew the cartoon wasn't all that, they were already working on Armada with Takara, and just wanted something to tide kids over till then. Besides, the molds were already made, so no further expense on their part, just profit from selling toys that were already ready to go. Free money in a way.

Bulkhead FTW!

Except for the fact that his Voyager class toy is smaller than Deluxe Bumblebee.

[promethuem5]

Except for the fact that his Voyager class toy is smaller than Deluxe Bumblebee.

I'm a G1 fanatic. Toy scale means nothing to me

[Chindenathus]

Except for the fact that his Voyager class toy is smaller than Deluxe Bumblebee.

Only in height.

That's why the sugarbots like him so...

[Fit For Natalie]

I've never understood why RID/Car-Robots did so poorly in Japan... I remember all the buzz about the Car-Robots toys before RID was announced, and I was psyched... Beast Wars had gone on just long enough for me, but BM was utter garbage and put me off TFs... then along came RID and it was stupendous, even if there was only actually a handful of new toys in it... because all the new toys there were were stellar. Why then, was CarRobots such a disaster for Takara and still only a filler line for Hasbro?

Oh and, I LOVED the Animated premier special... and am sooo psyched for the toys. Bulkhead FTW!

Perception of previous series? While Takara had a fairly continuous Transformers line like Hasbro did since 1997, they didn't market it nearly as well as Hasbro did. For a start, the dub of the US Beast Wars cartoon, how shall we say, fundamentally changed the series. Gone was the relatively serious storyline and tone, instead, they tried to insert humour at every possible opportunity, to the point of giving most of the characters some kind of trademark gag or bizzare, such as BW Megatron screaming like a woman in terror when he's attacked. This was followed by two poorly animated Japanese Beast Wars series, and another bad dub of US Beast Wars seasons 2 and 3, where we got wonderful things such as Depth Charge singing 'Ito Maki-maki', a Japanese folk song, while transforming. The words translate to "Wind the thread"... because it's a fishing song......

So when I say Takara drove Transformers into the ground over there, I mean they broke the Earth's crust, went through the mantle and into the core.