Launching today, my new YouTube series designed for new Transformers fans, to help explain complicated concepts and lore from this big ol' mess of a franchise! New episodes will run weekly in June; it's all the sort of stuff that anyone who frequents TFW2005 is likely to be thoroughly familiar with already, but share it with any new fans you know who are trying to get to grips with Transformers!

 

Oh moy Mehanichesky Bog, comrade Chris, you did an amazing job, and this was said by me, who's the artistic weirdo with drinking habit and great tendency to make an offtopic posts! Wish you food luck with your project and I'll leave a box of "Bulichevskaya" for raising the effectiveness of your brain pulses!
Udachi, comrade, and see you later!
Artork's out.

 

Episode #2 is now live!

Why are there so many different Transformers characters with the same name... and why are they sometimes so different?

 

Time for episode #3! Where do new Transformers come from? What are they made of? What IS a protoform, or a brain module, or a spark? What happens when a Transformer dies?All this and more!

 

Chris McF.... only had time to watch 2 of these so far... but they're amazing... great narration and visuals. I'd like to see this over in TFGD if you'd like to..... Think it would generate some great conversations....and debates on end... and maybe stop a few of those debates that have dragged on forever....maybe? lol.
But mostly, you hit the nail on the head here, they are educational!!!! Great job.  

 

Glad you like!   I imagine it'd get deleted or moved if I made a thread over in TFGD, but feel free to share 'em around if you see an opportunity.  

 

A little bit different this week - no deep lore dives, no cross-media concept unpacking, just a simple, straightforward real-world overview of IDW's publishing history, and recommended starting places for new readers!

 

Great series so far.

Really enjoying More Than Meets The Eye so far. Yet to catch up with Robots in Disguise/The Transformers. Read Revolution - didn't think much of it.

Trying to catch up as much as possible without getting lost on certain events that happened.

Keep up the work.

 

I just discovered this and I wanted to say that these videos are really just fantastic

 

THE BASICS on BUMBLEBEE!

 

Just saw this one! Great breakdown!

It's really odd to me that Budiansky put Bumblebee in the Witwicky's garage? His profile doesn't have one word to say about his relationship to humans or Earth, only the other Autobots. Hound was clearly positioned to be the guy the kids would want to be friends with, which makes since because his toy had a face and wasn't a gangly freak. I wonder if Hasbro had some sort of say in that, or if it was just a coincidence that he subsumed the other guy's role in both major early continuities?

Also, I'd say the conflation of Bumblebee and Hot Rod actually starts a bit earlier, with Cheetor. He was the yellow kid appeal bot, the brash hot shot, the fastest, and grew into a leadership role. Of course, this was just the natural progression for that character as the writers of the Beast Era were apparently largely unaware of the G1 continuities. But in my mind, Hot Shot was more than anyone else definitely inspired by Cheetor. And Hot Rod of course because in Japan, he is Hot Rod  

 

Excellent work! I really like these videos. They shed light on some Transformers things that many ask questions about. Some are topics I've been meaning to get to in my own videos. Perhaps one day we can do a collab!

 

Glad you're enjoying, guys, here's a new one for ya!

 

Five minute TFNation break to bring you The Basics on Ultra Magnus!

 

Enjoyed the Magnus video! I wonder how an "Ultimate" Magnus could be brought about. Maybe he's a stiff bore who's Optimus' brother, who is forced to become supreme commander of the Autobots against his will after previously leading the Wreckers?

On second thought, nah, that sounds a little too similar to the Prime character. I know he's not super popular with some since he's basically a watered down IDW Magnus, but I like him enough. I think he wore the Optimus model better than Optimus himself did. And I think Michael Ironside was a terrific choice to play him, and I certainly hear his voice when reading IDW.

 

Today's episode - The Primes!