That would've been nice - as it is, I was disappointed with the two fans they chose to represent the group. For one thing, it wasn't quite clear who they were...

I expected the show to cover MORE of the toy-line, too. I get it: G1, BW, and Bay.  

But G2? Or maybe some Prime? Even the current stuff would be interesting to show/promote (especially with how represented characters really tie back into the original toy line). Mostly, I chuckled when they interviewed Aaron Archer over and over, but never mentioned his "contributions" to the brand!   So, at the very least, we can all be grateful that the Unicron Trilogy was NOT mentioned!  

 

I'm genuinely shocked the reaction is so positive here!   I expected more nitpicking or anger... but I guess the focus was correct: origins and G1.

For all the complaining some loud members do about G1, a large majority of the fan base does appreciate G1 and/or respect its contribution to [bastardizations like] Bay TFs!

It's important we support documentaries like this!!!!      

If they revisit some of these toy lines, I feel like BW and some later TF lines can get their own episodes (there's a lot of stuff they could explore/cover!).

 

I think part of the reason may be because lines like He Man and GI Joe aren't mainstream any more. It's kind of like their stories are done. TFs are still going strong!

 

That, or they took one look at some of the fans and were like "I don't think we can legally show that here..."    

HEY! I grew up on The Unicron Trilogy, and I LIKED IT!

 

I enjoyed the Transformers episode a lot, I thought it was well done. The focus on all the episodes has been to cover the history of the toy, how it came to being, and how it came to be successful. The Transformers episode stayed with that formula. It was cool to see the focus on the Japanese roots not only of Transformers, but of robots and post WWII toys in general. It was also interesting to see the reactions of the Japanese designers after the toys became successful in America under a different story and marketing campaign.

I have read that TTTMU shot quite a bit of footage for all their episodes, and I'd love to see some of the additional footage if that were possible.

 

It would be cool if they made follow up episodes on certain toy lines that go into further detail...

 

Your sig really suits you.

 

Enjoyable 45mins. I didn't recognise Aaron Archer at all but that's mainly because the last photos I saw of the guy was when he was presenting the launch of the Alternators line in 2003. Christ, WHERE DID THE LAST 15 YEARS OF MY LIFE GO!!?!?!!

 

He looks like such a hobo now haha

 

Very nice documentary. Random thoughts:

At what point did Aaron Archer turn into Alan Moore?  

I'm glad they acknowledged Bob Budianski. He really doesn't get as much love as he should get. Especially from fans who only see the next month instead of the past.

I'm not shocked that they didn't bring up any of the cartoons more current. Sure, a few lines sold well, but this franchise would not exist in its current form without Budianski's initial work on G1 (and Jim Shooter), BW reviving the franchise and Bayformers getting it back into the spotlight.

No matter what I think of Bayformers or UT creatively, one was vastly more important than the other.

 

This^

When I first started collecting again in the late 90s, early 2000s (think alt.transformers newsgroups), he was always shit on and remembered for Carwash of Doom.

 

To this franchise.  

this made me giggle too much.  

 

Budianski is probably responsible for any of the reasons the characters are remembered less for their bot/alt modes, and more for what they represented and their "quirks".

 

Finally watched "season 2" last night while doing guitar and bass maintenance. The Transformers episode was a fun watch. While not a ton of new info for me, it was great seeing the interviews with the creators and especially Cullen. At the beginning when he just drops in, "Roll out. . ." I actually got chills. I do wish there would have been more about Welker. One could argue Megatron and Soundwave were just as recognizable as Optimus by voice alone. At least Cullen mentioned him.

It was an odd choice to drop Hello Kitty as the last episode. As what was definitively the weakest episode of the entire series, while still somewhat interesting, I'd think you'd want to go out on a higher note. If it had been my decision, with the episodes as they exist, I would have shuffled the GI Joe and He Man episodes to the second season, making He Man last so you could go out on a combo high and WTF note. It just seems like the entire show was front-loaded with the "really exciting" episodes, and the last four were just kinda there in comparison.

I still enjoyed all of them, but Star Wars, He Man and GI Joe were definitely the highlights, and I'm not even big on any of those properties. Lego, TF and Hello Kitty all felt sorta meh in comparison, and I'm a huge Lego and TF fan. The Star Trek episode at least managed to capture the weirdness that is the Trek franchise when it comes to success::fail ratios.

I'll probably have to revisit these at some point just for funsies. All of them were enjoyable, but some felt more informative than others.

 

Hello Kitty isn't a toy, it's a brand.

 

If you want to get technical about it, the only episode title that covered a toy (singular) as opposed to a brand would be He-Man. All the rest, including Transformers, are brands.

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe is the brand in that particular case.

 

Perhaps not surprising, I got the most out of the episodes where I had less knowledge going in, so in that sense I found the Transformers episode less engaging overall, (though I did enjoy the deeper history of Japanese tin toys and robot toys in the lead-up) When you have a lot of your own knowledge on a particular, it's easier to pick up on inaccuracies, omissions, or distortions a 'casual' wouldn't notice or care about (and your own personal preference/agenda, as in "why did they gloss over the importance of (XXX)?")

And as interesting as I found it, the Hello Kitty episode is really the odd one out, as it's only about toys as a portion of the total Sanrio/Hello Kitty merchandising operation, as opposed to being about a toy line/brand, or attempts to make a property sell toys (Star Trek, and sorta Star Wars)

 

Can anyone get me a screenshot of that Motormaster proto