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Wrexis

Member
Nov 4, 2017
21,229
I really enjoyed this and I wasn't expecting to. It goes pretty deep into TF lore. I was surprised by actual consequences - characters die.
This is definitely aimed at a more older audience than some of the older cartoons.

Or were they like fuck it, this is what audience is used to regarding character models.

Yeah I think that's what they did. There's been some older attempts to make the Cybertron designs look less Earthlike, but it always results in just having a spacey truck/car/plane etc.

So apparently part 3 of this may involve
Beast Wars?
 

Mindwipe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,208
London
I've only watched the 80's Transformers Movie/Cartoon... and Beast Wars.... Maybe I'm being forgetful/mixing something up, so help me with something.

Didn't all the characters get their automobile models after landing on earth? Interacting/probing our vehicles. Does this show take place after they leave earth or something? Someone mentioned that this seemed like a younger Optimus, so I'm kind of confused. Or were they like fuck it, this is what audience is used to regarding character models.

It's a new continuity inspired by the old one, so don't expect it to line up exactly.

But yes, broadly this is a prequel to the 80s cartoon, retelling the story of how they left Cybertron and before coming to Earth. Hence everyone has Cybertronian alt modes rather than Earth ones, and when they get to or near Earth they'll be rebuilt with more Earthen alt modes then.

But, boring real life reason - the designs for this show are (almost all) taken from the recent toyline, and hence the reason everyone's Cybertronian mode looks quite like an Earth vehicle with some cardboard boxes and extra lights strapped on it because Hasbro wanted to be able to retool the toys they made for this line into toys with Earth vehicle modes for later lines without having to spend much money.
 

Divvy

Teyvat Traveler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,903
Watched it yesterday. I thought it was only okay and I agree with others in thinking the dialogue is kind of basic and juvenile, which is at odds with how dark and not really for kids the show is.

Also is it just me or is Optimus kind of a really shitty leader in this? Elita voiced some very reasonable concerns and it never felt like Optimus respected them even a little. I get he's desperate given the situation, but I felt that could have been handled better.
 

Bizazedo

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,609
It also feels like it's fairly early in his tenure. He was sharing leadership with Ultra Magnus.
 

Bard

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
12,429
There were a lot of things in this that seemed to make little sense with this series. I enjoyed the animation enough though. I'll continue watching it but I hope the story starts getting better. Some moments make it seem like Megatron was sympathetic while others show his more cruel side but there's such little in the way they transition between the two that you just get like a tonal whiplash in regards to his character.

I'm probably in the minority here but the one series I actually sat all the way through as a kid was Armada since I hopped kind of late into the transformers wave. I really enjoyed that one and hated when they switched to 3dcg with energon or whatever that came after that.
 

MegaSackman

Member
Oct 27, 2017
17,699
Argentina
Just finished it, really liked it, they nailed Optimus being the most dumb character with his plans only being surpassed by Megatron's dumber plans lol

Didn't Chromia just died a chapter ago!?
 

wisdom0wl

Avenger
Oct 26, 2017
7,856
since my last transformers media that I consumed was Bayformers, I've completely forgotten how non-murderous prime is supposed to be lmfao

but really prime was batshit in the bay films
 
Oct 25, 2017
1,476
New Orleans
I binged watched it tonight and need somewhere to put my thoughts! Besides the fact that I'm still reeling from how Megatron is 🔻👄🔻, I found this...mediocre.
+ pretty
+ Elita was a real one. So were Ratchet and Impactor lol. Jetfire's okay. Soundblaster was all right for the brief period he existed (albeit not "screw loose" as described), and my boy Omega Supreme is, of course, my boy
+ it has more nuance than some predecessors I can name. You can see Aligned and IDW in there, which is to its benefit.

- Megatron's lips too distracting 🔻👄🔻
- dialogue had a couple good moments, usually mediocre at best
- why do so many of ther Decepticons sound the same/have the same tone. I get it. They're eeeeviiiiil.
- writing ain't that deep, much as it probably wants to project it is.
- several weird/silly story beats. I'll spare you the myriad I noticed.
- Optimus's voice acting reminds me of the SE Avengers game character design complaint—clearly supposed to sound like Mr. Cullen but comes off as not *quite* there. Same with Scream, and his voice was already sniveling enough lol. Similar is Soundwave—either I'm mishearing, but it sounds almost like you can hear the voice actor with a vocoder slapped on top. I echo the poster who mentioned it sounded kind of weak.
- hooooooonoooooooor
- Soundwave's role so small >:(
- *I made this observation before Arcee + Moonracer showed: again with barely any women, none Decepticon. You don't get bonus points for just two (esp. when the second has little character at all).
**Even with the later arrivals, though, no bonus points—point kind of stay the same there

Other observations...
/ Why is this TV-Y7. Like, I know why, but bleh
/ Why did Elita always sound like she was on the verge of tears?
/ I know the planet's dead and people are hiding and all, but it pivoted between being a complete wasteland and having a packed stadium and the works. Where is everyone? What's the scope here?
/ Speaking of which, Autobots randomly showing up despite the initial impression being that their numbers much smaller was noticeable.
/ Sparkless were such a nothingburger

I will, of course, watch Chapter Two. I can't not watch it.
 
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Mindwipe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,208
London
Just finished it, really liked it, they nailed Optimus being the most dumb character with his plans only being surpassed by Megatron's dumber plans lol

Didn't Chromia just died a chapter ago!?

That was

Moonracer who died, not Chromia. But they couldn't be bothered to do a new model, so Moonracer had Chromia's head. I can see why it was confusing.
 

MegaSackman

Member
Oct 27, 2017
17,699
Argentina
That was

Moonracer who died, not Chromia. But they couldn't be bothered to do a new model, so Moonracer had Chromia's head. I can see why it was confusing.

Oh! Optimus did shout Moonracer but I thought he was asking him to help Chromia lol

I had a hard time calling who was who sometimes because most characters aren't introduced. I basically discovered Prowl and Ironhide like three episodes in, I even knew Ironhide was in this when someone said his name. :P

It didn't help that my knowledge of Transformers is very thin because while I did watch G1 I was just a kid.
 
Oct 25, 2017
20,209
Posted this in the OT but:

I really hate just how much this was reliant on the toyline. This is my main gripe with the entire show and I feel like it reduced it a big chunk. Making hundreds of grunts from Refraktors & Cogs just was silly to me. Also designing Chromia to be a partsformer _in the show_ is just stupid.
 

Mindwipe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,208
London
Oh! Optimus did shout Moonracer but I thought he was asking him to help Chromia lol

I had a hard time calling who was who sometimes because most characters aren't introduced. I basically discovered Prowl and Ironhide like three episodes in, I even knew Ironhide was in this when someone said his name. :P

It didn't help that my knowledge of Transformers is very thin because while I did watch G1 I was just a kid.

I don't think it's really your fault, it's pretty obvious that characters appear out of nowhere depending on if their model was finished by the animators (this series feels very rushed in execution despite them having a lot of time...).

It's very notable that characters body types only get recoloured into background generics the episode after they first appear for the most part.
 

Flavius

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,314
Orlando, FL
Some of the voices were annoying early on but with the exception of Soundwave, they all grew on me and by the end I wasn't thinking about any of the voice acting...to their credit.

I'm old and loved G1 TF...this was pretty solid fan service. However, Prime's relative power level here just doesn't align with his preachy do-gooder ways. G1 Prime gets to be all preachy and overtly inspiring because he's also a badass warrior. It seemed like they were going to justify his smack down by Megatron due to some weakened state but that never really manifested. That, coupled with the overwhelming numbers of Decepticons vs Autobots just seemed like piling on and far more than necessary to show what a disadvantage the Autobots were operating from.

That said, I'm in and I will be binge watching the next batch of episodes.
 

PanzerKraken

Member
Nov 1, 2017
14,984
The voices weren't that much of a problem as much as the crappy delivery. The quality of acting really was all over the place. Some were good, some were incredibly bad.
 

raYne_07

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,205
Some of the voices were annoying early on but with the exception of Soundwave, they all grew on me and by the end I wasn't thinking about any of the voice acting...to their credit.

I'm old and loved G1 TF...this was pretty solid fan service. However, Prime's relative power level here just doesn't align with his preachy do-gooder ways. G1 Prime gets to be all preachy and overtly inspiring because he's also a badass warrior. It seemed like they were going to justify his smack down by Megatron due to some weakened state but that never really manifested. That, coupled with the overwhelming numbers of Decepticons vs Autobots just seemed like piling on and far more than necessary to show what a disadvantage the Autobots were operating from.

That said, I'm in and I will be binge watching the next batch of episodes.
I just go with, "he was low on energon" like the rest of the autobots. Wouldn't put it past home to act like he's 100% while giving up his share to the rest so they could keep going.

Sure as hell doesn't fit with him getting THE POWER OF THE MATRIX and still getting his ass whipped all over though. Lol
 
Oct 27, 2017
5,778
Watched it all this weekend. It's not the worst Transformers media we've ever had, but it's nowhere near the best. I'd put it a bit below average.

I found the plot to be pretty basic. The late era war on Cybertron is pretty much the most boring part of Transformers lore, but even then other media has told that story far better. Fall of Cybertron was pretty much the same thing, but I thought it worked in ways this didn't.

I didn't like how off most of the characters felt. I get that it's a new continuity, but it's very clearly trying to invoke G1 (which I wish we would hurry up and move past), so I think it's a valid criticism to say the voices and behavior don't match some of the characters. Not to mention the overuse of of recolors. I get they only had a few models to use, but it was weird as heck when suddenly like 5 new models showed up around episode 5, why not use those for recolors too, at least it would improve variety. Freaking Astrotrain shows up in the last episode for like 5 seconds. Why even bother?

My fiance watched with me, and she is less versed in Transformers than I am, and she got frustrated with how often they'd mention things or characters without ever explaining them. She still doesn't know who the heck Alpha Trion is, other than some old teacher guy.

I could go on and on, but I just feel like this was a very underwhelming show. It was hyped up as being an "adult" show, but it felt like it had less mature storytelling than shows like Beast Wars, Animated, Prime, and especially the old IDW continuity. I've got the feeling the writers got a list of "best of" moments for the Transformers franchise, and figured out ways to do something similar here without realizing why those moments worked.


Side note though, they really screwed up not having it out at the same time as the Siege toyline. I was at the store this weekend and saw a guy and his kid looking for the Siege toys, and were confused why everything was Earthrise and Cyberverse.
 

Cow Mengde

Member
Oct 26, 2017
12,705
I enjoyed it.

There are a few things that bothered me. Optimus was really dumb. Everything about him feels off. The acting is also not very good.

The way they handled BumbleBee was also weird.

Otherwise there's a lot of love. I like the Transformers can die and be killed in this series. It definitely shocked me when they killed you know who.

I wonder if they'll have toys for this series? A lot of the designs are quite nice. I love this version of Jetfire.
 
Nov 1, 2017
8,061
I enjoyed it.

There are a few things that bothered me. Optimus was really dumb. Everything about him feels off. The acting is also not very good.

The way they handled BumbleBee was also weird.

Otherwise there's a lot of love. I like the Transformers can die and be killed in this series. It definitely shocked me when they killed you know who.

I wonder if they'll have toys for this series? A lot of the designs are quite nice. I love this version of Jetfire.

All of them, they exist. In fact the models are based on the toys, of course some are easier to find at this point than others but yeah Jetfire is quite the toy.
 

Daingurse

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,739
Only just started but damn if this ain't the best Starscream voice since the original G1 days.
I love it too man lol. I got into OG Transformers suuuuper late, like around 2011, and I fucking loved Chris Latta's Starscream. Made me fall in love with that character and this new dude is really channeling that voice.
 

mute

â–˛ Legend â–˛
Member
Oct 25, 2017
25,062
I enjoyed it.

There are a few things that bothered me. Optimus was really dumb. Everything about him feels off. The acting is also not very good.

The way they handled BumbleBee was also weird.

Otherwise there's a lot of love. I like the Transformers can die and be killed in this series. It definitely shocked me when they killed you know who.

I wonder if they'll have toys for this series? A lot of the designs are quite nice. I love this version of Jetfire.
They are last year's toys because of poor planning/timing but are still very good and can still be found in stores. Jetfire will probably be hard to get other than online.

Next year or later I imagine we will have this year's toys and such and so forth.
 

Uzumaki Goku

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
19,257
I enjoyed it.

There are a few things that bothered me. Optimus was really dumb. Everything about him feels off. The acting is also not very good.

The way they handled BumbleBee was also weird.

Otherwise there's a lot of love. I like the Transformers can die and be killed in this series. It definitely shocked me when they killed you know who.

I wonder if they'll have toys for this series? A lot of the designs are quite nice. I love this version of Jetfire.

In regards to Optimus, Hasbro is basically getting Jake Tillman to do a Peter Cullen impression because they don't want to pay for him
 

mrmoose

Member
Nov 13, 2017
21,175
Finally finished this so braved this thread.

Uh... yeah that was something. The best thing I can say is that it got my son excited to play with the toys.

They only had six episodes and yet everyone talked and moved at a snail's pace. There were multiple times I was just thinking "can you please just go through this hokey dialogue? I know what you're going to say and you don't need five minutes to say it." But slow as molasses. I'm not sure if that's because of the animation or they needed to pad time for budget reasons or what.

The plot was... terrible. If you think about the motivation of all the people who switched sides or did something like
surrender
it made absolutely no sense. I'm fine with other Decepticons openly torturing autobots and killing them myself, but I'm shocked, shocked I say that Megatron wants to wipe people out. What? Where the heck have you been in the last few scenes? Whey the heck did
Ultra Magnus surrender when he's holding these super important protocols and he's the only one who has them? What if they didn't kill him outright? Those protocols would be stuck with him. He's as dumb and useless as he was in G1
.

Almost every single plot point just comes out of nowhere. They have three fetch quests that need to be simultaneously done, and they initiate two of them without even knowing the whereabouts of the third one (they luck into it and through amazing circumstances get everything they need to succeed). And damnit if Megatron didn't have a point
when he says that Optimus might be invoking genocide by taking the allspark off planet. Optimus sure didn't know what the hell he was doing. And then they have that weird platforming scene where he's jumping through a Donkey Kong level because he needs to be high enough to... throw the stupid thing? What?

Shockwave comes up with a plan out of nowhere to shift the balance of power. Then someone else comes from nowhere to shift it back.

On a toy note, near the end they have
astrotrain
come in like he's a big deal, and he even looks huge, which is funny because his toy is relatively tiny.

And why does Ratchet
have an autobot symbol from the very beginning?

Last few nitpicks: Ironhide's voice... just make him mute, geez. And it really irks me when they have seekers hold their guns in their hands.
 

Ze_Shoopuf

Member
Jun 12, 2018
3,932
some thoughts after viewing:

- Starscreams voice completely changed between eps 2 and 3?...

- everyone talks WAY.TOO.SLOW

- everyone slowly walks everywhere; transforms to vehicle mode are shockingly few. there's even one part where a group of Autobots are like "we have to hurry!" but they just keep walking- they don't even transform!

- they missed an opportunity to show everyone's alt mode. Come on, we like to see Transformers TRANSFORM!
 

Deleted member 27246

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 30, 2017
3,066
Just watched the six episodes. Overall I liked it. A bit slow especially at the beginning.

The thing I dislike the most though is my favorite Decepticon, Soundwave. His part is too small, his voice is not doing it for me and I really don't like Laserbeaks design.
 

mrmoose

Member
Nov 13, 2017
21,175
some thoughts after viewing:

- Starscreams voice completely changed between eps 2 and 3?...

- everyone talks WAY.TOO.SLOW

- everyone slowly walks everywhere; transforms to vehicle mode are shockingly few. there's even one part where a group of Autobots are like "we have to hurry!" but they just keep walking- they don't even transform!

- they missed an opportunity to show everyone's alt mode. Come on, we like to see Transformers TRANSFORM!

The best part about those autobots lumbering away is that the seekers give chase in jet mode and actually transform to robot mode to slowly walk after them.

Obviously there were budget considerations for some of the lack of transformations. Wheeljack and Bumblebee in particular don't have cybertron alt modes and shockwave and soundwave have really crappy ones.

My favorite part is at the end of episode one. Who could that mysterious figure be, covered in a piece of cloth?
 

raYne_07

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,205
some thoughts after viewing:

- Starscreams voice completely changed between eps 2 and 3?...

- everyone talks WAY.TOO.SLOW

- everyone slowly walks everywhere; transforms to vehicle mode are shockingly few. there's even one part where a group of Autobots are like "we have to hurry!" but they just keep walking- they don't even transform!

- they missed an opportunity to show everyone's alt mode. Come on, we like to see Transformers TRANSFORM!
I don't remember the scene, but I literally laughed out loud when someone was escaping and the Decepticons decided to chase him on foot when they had two Seekers as pursuers.

The best part about those autobots lumbering away is that the seekers give chase in jet mode and actually transform to robot mode to slowly walk after them.

Obviously there were budget considerations for some of the lack of transformations. Wheeljack and Bumblebee in particular don't have cybertron alt modes and shockwave and soundwave have really crappy ones.

My favorite part is at the end of episode one. Who could that mysterious figure be, covered in a piece of cloth?
Laughed at this too. Who the fuck doesn't know what UM looks like? "He has his face covered and body fully exposed! WHO COULD IT BE?!"
 
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nekkid

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
21,823
I'm two episodes in (not my choice - my 3yo loves Transformers). So does anything actually happen in this or do they just talk a lot?
 

Deleted member 62221

User requested account closure
Banned
Dec 17, 2019
1,140
I found it pretty mediocre. Nothing was terrible but also nothing was really good IMO.
I'm probably expecting too much because my last transformers experience was the War and Fall of Cybertron games, man, those games had amazing battles and intense pacing.
 

Princess Bubblegum

I'll be the one who puts you in the ground.
On Break
Oct 25, 2017
10,270
A Cavern Shaped Like Home
Watched this over the weekend and think it's pretty bad. The world building is crap, even if you have existing knowledge of Transformers, shortcuts are taken in the writing left and right, none of the dramatic story beats land, and the voice acting is acceptable at best. This first arc needed to be at least twice as long.
 

Garlador

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
14,131
I found season 1 to be pretty good, if very flawed.

- I didn't mind the voice acting, overall. Some were better than others, and I feel the script needed at least one more pass to polish up some lines or delivery.
- At 6 episodes, things are RUSHED. Good luck following if you don't already know who some characters are from the toyline. Countless characters are introduced late in the season with no introduction, and some even die with no fanfare. It really needed probably double the episode length and time to breathe. Many fan-favorite characters feel like they're there just to be there and hit the quota.
- The sound mixing was kind of off, with some scenes feeling like they were missing sound effects or music or voices played at the wrong level.

However... I will admit, it hit a G1 sweet spot with great modernized designs of classic characters, the tone of gritty war and survival was appreciated, and the clearly present ideological backstory of the main characters was actually compelling. Seeing Megatron presented as a former revolutionary hero who was corrupted by his own power and who escalates the conflict with an effective PR campaign against the Autobots was intriguing.

Overall, I thought the animation worked, if janky at times. Some scenes flowed better than others (a LOT of "transforming" happens off screen and you just hear the sound cues). Some of the character changes worked for me (I enjoy Bumblebee's "neutral survivor" introduction).

I enjoyed it, very evident flaws and all. I'd give it perhaps a 7/10 and happily watch season 2. Certainly a sweet balm after years of Bay movies.
 

mrmoose

Member
Nov 13, 2017
21,175
Like I said before, the best part (even if it limited the animation) was that these were the toys brought to life. If you like these designs, check out the toys, these are literally the CAD designs for the toys, with extra ports and all. So I can't credit them with the designs.

It has this weird thing where it's a short series and they cram way too much plot, and yet the characters move and speak like they're stuck in molasses so it feels like nothing is happening.

Look at that first episode. How long do they spend on Bumblebee and Wheeljack getting caught by the seekers where absolutely nothing happens? They get caught. Skyfire for whatever reason decides he wants to chop off his soldier's arms. They turn on him even though he's their leader. Megatron shows up. More talking. Optimus shows up and gets beat down. Elita One shows up, Megatron orders the seekers to go after her, so they transform into jets and fly after her. Immediately, Optimus and co. escape from like the two guys left on the ground. Megatron orders the seekers to go after them, so they come back, TRANSFORM BACK INTO ROBOTS FROM JETS, and pursue them on foot. This is like half the freaking episode.

My young son, who loves playing with the toys and loved that they were translated to the screen, is kind of my proof of this. After like three episodes I asked him if he wanted to watch another one and he was like "you can watch it by yourself." Which is a shame because that last episode is pretty good as far as picking up the pace.

Also, I realize they're cribbing from the comics with this functionalist stuff, but if you're going to bring in class and slavery it's going to be a bad look to have the former slaves who are revolting against their masters be these cookie cutter evil bad guys who relish in torture and destruction, while the good guys are good only because they look cooler and have brighter colors but are otherwise just as prejudiced, blindly follow their leader, who is led by his religion into potentially ending all life on the planet just because. Like who am I rooting for again?

This is supposed to be the darkest part of the trilogy so maybe it lightens up a little as they get to Earth or whatever.
 
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caliph95

Member
Oct 25, 2017
35,160
The pacing is so fucking weird

Next season should do better world building and so rushed and slow at the same time
 
Oct 27, 2017
5,778
So here's the real question, why did the spoiler box set at Walmart include Rung with Ultra Maguns?

What does Rung have to do with the show? I guess they mention Primus a few times, but I doubt they're going that direction.
 

Divvy

Teyvat Traveler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,903
It is pretty weird that for a transformers show they barely do any transforming