Transformers General Discussion thread

The place to discuss anything relating to anime or manga.
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Mu La Flaga
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Re: Transformers General Discussion thread

Not that some people complained mind you.
I got my Dreadwing and Smoke Jumper set that way.

Such a nice repaint of a somewhat rare G2 toy.
Just wish I knew how to fix his wings up though.
They tend to flop down, not sure if it's a loose screw or something.
2NA Fish
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Re: Transformers General Discussion thread

That's some really interesting info there. I didn't realise G2 innovated the storage space design.
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Mu La Flaga
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Re: Transformers General Discussion thread

You know, now I think about it considering I have a G2 Megatron and inside his legs he has racks to store a spare missile inside each leg as well in his tank mode cannon.

And Scourge/Laser Optimus Prime had a place to store those disks and other various weapons in tanker mode.

So yeah I never thought about that actually.
Jaynz
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Re: Transformers General Discussion thread

JEFFPIATT wrote:armada reverted to brick formers because people complained about the origami shellformers in RID
Not really. Armada's toy design was heavily hampered by the minicon gimmick, with many toys (most notably Hot Shot and Stepper) suffering from 'the gimmick blocks absolutely frackin' everything). Also, quite a few of the toys were designed in a hurry because RID actually did so well that it caught Hasbro completely off-guard. (Several of the Armada designs, such as Scavenger and Megatron were actually rushed reworkings of intended Transtech designs!)

Energon and Cybertron both had proper 'development times' for their toys, which is why they tend to be far superior in the detailing and design.
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YokozunaBulldozer
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Re: Transformers General Discussion thread

I would love to see a TF series with Kawamori Shoji or one of the IDW guys as mecha designer sometime in the future. I do like the Animated and Prime shows, but it would be interesting to see their renditions of TF characters moving (Kawamori especially since he designed some of the G1 stuff).
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JEFFPIATT
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Re: Transformers General Discussion thread

Mu La Flaga wrote:You know, now I think about it considering I have a G2 Megatron and inside his legs he has racks to store a spare missile inside each leg as well in his tank mode cannon.

And Scourge/Laser Optimus Prime had a place to store those disks and other various weapons in tanker mode.

So yeah I never thought about that actually.
G2 had an bad marketing concept it only received an new comic run it's Cartoon was old G1 episodes with early 90's cgi overlays added to it. The first few waves of toys was mostly old G1 mold's with new bright decos and sticker sheets. and those bad rap ads.
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Transformers:_Ge ... anchise%29
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Transformers:_Ge ... ng_effects
Generation 2 was the first line to sport a uniform, gimmick-spanning sub-title in addition to the main "Transformers" name. (Although the "Generation 2" moniker would be dropped for the tail end of the line, mostly affecting toys that would never be released on the US market)
Though some earlier toys used them, the Cyberjets were the first toys to introduce ball joints on a wider scale. By the following toyline, Beast Wars, ball joints had become a regular feature of Transformers toys.
The new molds created for Generation 2 also dropped stickers in favor of paint operations and tampography for deco details.
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Beast_Wars:_Tran ... ng_effects
Beast Wars made ball joints, first used on a wider scale by the Generation 2 Cyberjets, a regular feature of Transformers toys.
Beast Wars was also the first toy line to commonly integrate the robots' weapons and accessories into the alternate mode, thus avoiding extraneous kibble (in the original meaning of the term) and/or obvious attached weaons and accessories.
As noted above, Beast Wars finally established standardized size classes/price points and multiple assorted waves of the same price point per year.
Furthermore, Beast Wars made redecos and retools of toys from previous waves a lot more prevalent than had been the case in previous lines.
Lastly, Beast Wars packaging introduced the use of twist ties, to the anger of a lot of fans.
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Transformers:_Ge ... cartoon%29
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Mu La Flaga
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Re: Transformers General Discussion thread

No need to be mr encyclopedia :P and I believe I mentioned it or it's common knowledge G2 was mostly repacked G1 stuff.
Oh and you forget in some cases, different weapons or parts.
Jazz new missle launcher.
Inferno had a water canon.
Starscream and Ramjet and Optimus Prime had sound effect boxes.
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JEFFPIATT
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Re: Transformers General Discussion thread

some of the "new" parts were actually taken from the GIJOE toyline to replace the parts that hasbro removed for legal reasons. also it was the first time megatron became an tank due to the toy laws forbidding realistic gun toys.
Jaynz
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Re: Transformers General Discussion thread

Mu La Flaga wrote:No need to be mr encyclopedia :P and I believe I mentioned it or it's common knowledge G2 was mostly repacked G1 stuff.
Common knowledge is typically wrong. While the first year of G2 was indeed mostly G1 redeos (well, entirely, if you realize the Skyscorchers, Color Changers, and Axelerators were G1 UK molds), this was less and less in the next two years of the line. Second year only had the Aerialbots and Combaticons as repaints, and the final year had no repaints of G1 toys.

The problem was, by this time, few people cared and the reputation of 'half-ass retake on G1' was pretty solidified by the first year's toys, the awful rap commercials, and the intrusive 'cybernet space cube' version of G1 cartoons.
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Mu La Flaga
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Re: Transformers General Discussion thread

At least the comics did something new with the story direction.
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JEFFPIATT
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Re: Transformers General Discussion thread

the comics were not as mass market as the Cartoon was part of beast wars doing so well was having the cartoon series produced G2 was run on an much lower budget and it did not help to have an cartoon market the toy produced in the 80's and selling the toy with an radically different deco and sticker sheet. and advertizing the old g1 pistol megatron had to confuse new fans who could only buy the new G2 tank megatron.
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Mu La Flaga
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Re: Transformers General Discussion thread

On a note in reply to that a thought crossed my mind that apart from that would get mor confusion with Galvatron and all that too, since they did some Season 3 episodes in the G2 style touch ups.

As I said before the comics were better even if they ended on a short note just when we see whom Liege Maximo is.
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JEFFPIATT
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Re: Transformers General Discussion thread

Mu La Flaga wrote:On a note in reply to that a thought crossed my mind that apart from that would get mor confusion with Galvatron and all that too, since they did some Season 3 episodes in the G2 style touch ups.

As I said before the comics were better even if they ended on a short note just when we see whom Liege Maximo is.
the S3 episodes used in G2 featured the Aerialbots and/or Combaticons,but oddly enough the episode "the key to vector sigma" where the Aerialbots were introduced and s2 was less ad driven S1 was very ad oriented to feature all the episodes featuring the dinobots and constructicons
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Mu La Flaga
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Re: Transformers General Discussion thread

That wasn't the case for every episode though, but a fair few of them.
Some also focused on Protectorbots and/or Stunticons, since they were intended to have G2 style recolours/redecos.
2NA Fish
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Re: Transformers General Discussion thread

I think G2's big problem was the cartoon made everyone feel ripped off. I remember tuning in excitedly for episode 1 and realising I was just watching a rerun of the old series, despite those 3D trailers. Left a bad taste in my mouth so by the time the good toys came out, I'd lost interest.

But I fondly remember Optimus Prime with his name printed in huge letters on his trailer. Lol, so much for disguise huh?
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Mu La Flaga
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Re: Transformers General Discussion thread

Yeah pretty much stupid idea there.
But to me back in the day before G2 had a slot on Cheez TV they did have their own 7am time slot.
And whenever they got repeated I was greatful for it.

Since back in 1980s I was much younger.
I recorded a bunch of episodes that way on VHS.
Still got a fair few of them.
Last edited by Mu La Flaga on Sat Nov 23, 2013 1:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
2NA Fish
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Re: Transformers General Discussion thread

I used to live in Singapore. Fungus ate all my old VHS tapes. Every last one. :(
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Mu La Flaga
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Re: Transformers General Discussion thread

Well all of mine are in covers so they are in decent shape and still watchable.
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skyknight
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Re: Transformers General Discussion thread

Mu La Flaga wrote: New or old either way stories about them are good.

I really should get myself an encore Devestator.

And any of the lines you can think of, just discuss them.

I would say my fav lines of all have to be.

G1, Beast Wars and Robots in Disguise/Car Robots.
There are lots of reasons why.

RID had a few standouts and I own most of the toys from the line with some small exceptions.
Beast Machines put me off mostly, even the re-releases of old Beast Wars molds in new colours, as tempting as some of them were.

Scourge and Sky Byte are brilliant examples of toys improved so much by better colour schemes.
One thing for sure, die cast metal were less used for later JP TF toys: my Landcross combiner was all plastic and metal screws - some parts were damaged by plastic stress! But my bro's Laster
http://www.tfu.info/1989/Cybertron/Laster/laster.htm

had metal plates in his legs.

I think every TF fan should at least have one character from the Alternators/Binaltech, as I think this is the closest G1 tribute we could get with G1 characters with licensed vehicles as alt mode (I personally am skipping over OP, no Ram truck for me!); Alternity is a bit higher than I want, plus the figures are much smaller than Alternators/Binaltech - but you get OP disguise as a Nissan GT-R (> US $90,000 in the US!) and Megatron as a Fairlady Z (or 350Z in the US), which are cool cars if you are import cars enthusiast.

I am looking forward towards Prime, as it tries to combine G1 characters with a slightly more mature storyline; thou I wish Bumblebee would remain a small car instead of a muscle car (not necessary a cutie car, but could be a highly-tuned Mini Cooper), Wheeljack looks cool (instead of a wimpy one in Bayformer!), but I will have to wait and see.

Sorry for the long wait in between!
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