Hasbro's being giving us G1 stuff for a while but lately after seeing the new Soundwave and Optimus designs in the Bumblebee movie along with the direction Siege is taking for Generations,Cybervese for TV as well the IDW reboot I'm honestly beginning to worry that Hasbro has now been pushing G1 to the point of being obnoxious about it and make it so that the brand only revolve around G1 and nothing else. I know the other series had elements of G1 in them some stronger then others but it was never to this level.

I mean I get it. G1 nostalgia is all the rage right now but it's not going to sustain the brand for long because people will eventually move on from the craze and also not every grew up or even care for G1 at all. Not to mention it'll risk alienating the non G1 fans who are starting to get a little annoyed about it. I hope Hasbro knows what it's doing and have plans to eventually do other non G1 series and make new content because right now I'm beginning to be concerned.

 

I don't have a problem with them using G1 stuff. I love G1 stuff.

My bigger issue is I feel they're using the most dull and overused 20% of G1, when there's the more interesting 80% of G1 that's rarely, if ever, used for inspiration.

 

I personally happy with it, I'm a big G1 fan, I just love the block colorful designs, BUT I can see why it would annoy noG1 fans a lot and I can sympathize.

I not sure they will be coming with noG1 stuff so soon though... with the new Bumblebee movie (and the possibility of sequels for it) and Cyberverse here (not to say about the possibility of a Transformers Devastation sequel that may or may not happen+IDW's G1 success), the best you can do is hope that the big G1 phase of right now will pass, sorry.

 

I don't think it would be a problem if there was just one or two lines on the shelf, like there was in the past. But when Siege comes out there's going to be that with a G1 aesthetic, Cyberverse with a stylised G1 aesthetic, Bumblebee with a movie-meets-G1 aesthetic, not to mention Authentics and Cyber Battalion figures. There's going to be so many Optimus Prime figures on shelves together, all very similar, even the movie figures decoed to look like G1. I can understand how it could turn into a confusing mess for kids and parents.

 

Why is this still a debate.

I know why it's still G1

You know why it's still G1

Do we want other eras? Most would say hell yea...but it's not going to change. Sure we'll get characters here and there and homages to this and that but G1 is what sells....G1 is where the focus is....I'm not thrilled with it either but it is what it is.

 

G1 Nostalgia has basically been the rage in one form or another since a year or two after G1 ended. It'll likely always be a part of things, but that doesn't meant the brand can't grow in new directions at the same time.

 

G1 will always sell. G1 is the reason this franchise exists. Most collectors will never get tried of G1. Other than G.I.Joe's (both quality 12" and 3 3/4") and original trilogy Star Wars will always sell well.

 

I won't disagree, but it certainly seems like the brand isn't trying to go in new directions, and when it does it's still draws heavily from G1.

 

I'm more concerned about the overall quality of the content, or the lack thereof. Cyberverse could have been much better than it is, instead it's incredibly safe and mediocre, while still pushing one of the worst characters in the history of the franchise. If Windblade weren't there, the show would already look a lot better.

As long as there is something of substance, strong characters and good writing, it shouldn't matter. Generation One is less of a 'direction' and moreso the foundation that the entire IP is based on.

 

I honestly am just not bothered at all. Cause having something is better then having nothing at all.

 

That’s a good point, don’t just use a specific part of it, use ALL of it! Give some of the more obscure characters some time in the spotlight.

 

Yeah, G1 was the one time in the brand's entire history that it was a hugely popular global phenomenon. People who only grew up with Armada or Animated or whatever have no idea how huge the difference is in brand awareness between the original era and everything since. The thing is, I can't think of any examples of differences that big in any form of entertainment that occurred during the lives of kids who grew up in the Unicron Trilogy era and beyond to illustrate what a huge gulf there is.

I would have agreed with this before Titans Return. Now I look at shelves filled with Headmasters and Masterforce era characters who have never received representation for 30 years and I am well satisfied.

 

I'd agree fully with this on the toy front. I just wish more of those guys got more representation in cartoons. :/

 

Heartily agreed.
It's the fact that it's the 84 guys being pushed into our faces in every toyline and every fiction that is the problem.
It's about time guys like Mindwipe, Brainstorm, Triggerhappy, Scoop, Windsweeper, Starsaber, Liozack etc were pushed and explored more, alongside Tarantulas, Sideways, Landmine, X-Brawn, Ta-I, Towline, Tigerhawk etc.

Hasbro is really killing the creativity and the appeal of the franchise in favor of satisfying the selfish desire for monotomy.
We don't need more 84, we need a lot less of it.
Kids don't care about what 40-something collector thinks is iconic or core or whatever.
Kids just care about cool designs and cool stories.

 

Well, I'm never going to complain about too much G1. But I think it's clear what Hasbro is doing.

Cyberverse: Re-establishing a ground-level continuity based on G1 lore and design.
Bumblebee the Movie: Re-establishing a ground-level continuity based on G1 lore and "blended G1/movie" design.
Siege: Re-establishing a ground-level continuity based on G1 lore and design.
IDW: Re-establishing a ground-level continuity based on...we don't know yet but I bet it's going to be G1 lore and design.

The only toyline going out of bounds on this is the Rescue Bots series that is the last vestiges of Aligned.

Otherwise, it's clear what's going on. Hasbro wants all their various media to be working within the same G1 sandbox, which they see as their most popular and profitable part of their property. They don't have to be in continuity with each other, like Aligned. But they all need to be in the same place starting out so that when a child goes from watching the cartoon to snatching a comic book to grabbing a toy off the shelf, there's familiarity across the brand, like there was in G1.

 

There's that too. That's a pretty foolish decision on Hasbro's part because having almost all of your characters look the same in every different line they have was a big reason why GI Joe died out in the first place because what's the point of buying a new Optimus toy if the one you got last year is pretty much the same with one different weapon and one or two minor details? That's shooting yourself in the foot basically.

Exactly. If Hasbro also has plans that go beyond G1 nostalgia I'll feel better about this and maybe they do but all the same I don't want to see the brand go the way of the other 80's brand.

There's a difference between giving out familiarity and just giving us rehashed designs with a few minor tweaks. It's especially irritating to the people who didn't grow up with G1 and/or just don't care for it as much and who just want to see the series they grew up on be represented in some form. What Hasbro's doing is just going to end up driving away those fans if they're not careful along with going out of business because they sell items that are much too similar to each other.

 

I'm sure the idea is that one toy works for the other. A child getting Siege Optimus can still have him play within the Bumblebee movie universe without feeling like he's not the real Optimus Prime.

 

If by "a while" and "right now", you mean for the past 11-12 years since Classics and Masterpieces showed up, then no, no I'm not worried.

Things are no more G1 now than they started to be again back then. Even Animated was largely referencing & homaging G1, many Bayformer designs got G1 homage redecos as toys, and virtually every line/series since 2007 has had very prominent influences if not straight-up redos. So none of this a NEW thing by any stretch - it just (finally) made it INTO a live action movie.

 

But what's the point even if not only every toyline and fiction that runs at the same time has all the same characters, but all those characters have almost the exact same designs.
If they want everything reduced to the same characters it would be more profitable to just give up on comics and the generations toyline and just have your cartoon with a kid-aimed gimmick line and a collector-aimed line and a movie with no toys but for a few special editions in the cartoon line every year as a seasonal finale for the cartoon.
None of which will be of any interest to me if it's all just the 84 guys coming to earth, duking it out and back again, over and over again.

 

What is new is that it is all at the same time.
We never had the cartoon being so 84, the comics without a doubt next year being 84 (not that Barber's comic hasn't been 84 for a while now), the generations line being 84 and the movie being 84.