If there was a true attempt at a G1 sequel, Windblade would probably find her way in nowadays.

 

And I would be okay with that.


Anyway, sometime ago I made this little post, trying to come up with an explanation as to why some guys are now combiners and headmasters. As well as putting the 88, 89, & 90 lineups plus some IDW originals in the cartoon universe...
What is your Transformers head canon?

 

Pretty much me as well, but not the Unicron Trilogy guys since I didn't like that whole series.

For my CHUG (not MP) toys, it's about updated designs and I find nothing wrong with IDW designs with a few exceptions.

The diehard Geewunner in me needs for example; Hardhard, Chromedome, Brainstorm, etc to be Headmasters. Nothing against IDW per se, but I'm not going to get an IDW version of Chromedome for my collection. No room (seriously) and not what I want in that character.

I didn't buy Windblade. Nothing against her, but not (my?) G1 so not part of my collection.

 

Yeah, I'm buying the TT Legends version with the more G1 styled head. If there's a G1 alternative, you bet I'm buying that over IDW.

 

Probably. Either way, I feel she fits in there well enough, and while I do personally feel IDW has evolved from an "Ultimate G1 Continuity" to an "Ultimate Transformers Continuity", I still am perfectly happy to leave her with other Classics/Universe/Generations Autobots. I just don't feel like I need to dwell on the matter too much.

 

Same Here.

It's close enough.

 

I guess the thing that makes the difference to me, is that the IDW cast feel like actual characters.

The cartoons are, by necessity of their large cast and target audience, very shallow to the point of stereotypes. Characters are not allowed to grow and change as time progresses, because all of those re-runs needed uniform continuity.

I can understand why I loved the cartoon growing up. It was fun! Exciting! And then I could watch it next week without having to remember what happened to the giant purple griffin.

As you age, you can handle more narrative complexity and have the mental capacity to remember what happened not only last time out, but events further back.

The cartoon is fine for a child. The comics are better for a broader age range.

 

If you like the IDW comics, that's fine. I'll stick to my old Marvel rags and the Sunbow toon. I just personally think it's unfortunate that, after all this time, when we finally started getting cool updates to the G1 cast, the IDW comics stepped in and wrenched some of it up (Ultra Magnus in particular for me). It's kind of like if you were buying Black Label Star Wars figures based on the movies and suddenly they switched to the Marvel '78 look while saying, "here's your definitive Luke Sywalker with super blonde hair and super blonde spandex. We aren't going back to that character for awhile...so I hope you're happy."

 

I'm not familiar with the Star Wars lines, but what you're suggesting about the Black Label sounds an awful lot like a Masterpiece equivalent?

 

But in many (not every so don't nitpick this comment please) cases the figures are designed first, even if they show up in the comics first. Plus not every "idw" figure is actually a true idw design.

Magnus for example, in the comics never uses a hammer and has a cybertronian vehicle mode. The cw toy has a robot design based on idw Magnus but also uses concepts from g1 (car carrier alt mode) and animated (hammer) so it's not just an idw figure

 

They're the $20 6 inch figures, aimed at collectors.

 

Not all figures, for sure. But this is why I've advocated for a while now the idea of IDW having their own toyline outside of Generations...or, perhaps, even their own sub-branding under Generations. That way you'd have faithful G1 updates and faithful IDW toys. Perhaps in the cases where the toys came first, it's not necessary. But in the case of Ultra Magnus, he's obviously IDW first and G1 second unfortunately TO ME (others obviously care less). The head on Chromedome is obviously IDW inspired as well. Since there is a G1 alternative for $45 shipped at BBTS, I'm opting for him. Magnus has his Masterpiece figure I suppose...but I really don't want to spend $150 or so for a decent CHUG placement on my shelf. So, I'm stuck with Minimus.   At least I can chuck him in a bin.

 

I guess what I meant moreso is that no part of chug was ever about being 100% faithful to the source aside from the foc/wfc figures being as faithful to the game models as they could budget

 

Grammar Nazi moment, Must Have. Or Must've.

IDW people don't know a lot about the "new limbs" either, they played minor roles at best. I don't even recall Rook ever saying anything. Victorion has done things and played a somewhat large part though. The Minicon Assault Team technically never appeared. There was another race of machine life that did have a few members that resembled them, but everything from the back of the package on the figure was not present.

It's all relative.

To be honest, I moved past "Everything must be G1!" back in the 90's. I enjoyed Beast Wars Neo, Car Robots, and then in later years Animated and Victory. I've enjoyed (and sometimes loathed) IDW and take it as another iteration.

Personally, my collection post-Animated has been, well, me building my own factions. My own take on it, you could say. When the 30th Anniversary was coming up, I made it a point to re-read the original full length profiles and use them as a base. Frankly I found it a little shocking at just how much depth there was in the original profiles that were watered down for story and simplicity's sake in both the comics and the cartoon.

 

While some design choices have been obviously from IDW, the toys influence the comics more than you think. Blast Off recently started sporting a jet alt mode with a retractable mouth plate. Anyone who owns CW Blast Off would probably know why.

It's also pretty clear that the toys influence the plot. In IDW's More than Meets the Eye series, there was a long-running arc focusing on First Aid, which then got dropped as soon as CW started so that he could be a part of Defensor. Before CW, Devastator ripped Superion in half, so they used that to explain Slingshot dying when CW started. Except... Silverbolt was the one that was ripped in half... and Superion got attacked from the right... LOGIC FAILURE FOR THE SAKE OF TOYS!

Though as far as IDW and G1 are concerned, IDW is separate. It may have familiar faces from G1, but there's also a lot of influences from other continuities and their own original concepts. Maybe connecting them for the sake of putting toys on the same display shelves is fine, but treating them like the same continuity is not seen as "correct" by most people.

To me, I think IDW wins over the G1 cartoon by a landslide. IDW has great world-building and a lot of cool characters. The G1 cartoon always felt kinda overrated to me, though it's probably more just that it's outclassed by most modern fiction in terms of characters and having actual continuity (3 different backstories for the Constructicons in one show, seriously?). It doesn't matter to me if the toys are based off of IDW or not as long as they resemble some form of popular TF fiction, which is why I am still trying to find a Legends Hardhead because I want him to have a mouth like in the comics and both cartoons.

 

IDW isn't just G1, but it's part of the Primax universal cluster. You know, the cluster which contains G1, G2, Machine Wars, Beast Wars, Beast Machines and the original Universe line.

 

Superfluous Vector Primey Jim's "count-it-as-canon-or-don't-I-don't-care" attempt at making it all "connected". AVP is hardly the final say on anything.

 

Yeah, because what do G1, G2 and Beast Era have in common?!?!?!?

 

But that's exactly what IDW is.
It's G1, but branched off and expanded.

 

The fact the latter are meant to be actual sequels to G1. IDW is a reboot of the Transformers universe, using G1 themes and then going elsewhere. Again, the same thing can be said of Aligned...so the attempt to coalesce IDW in with G1 under the merit of similar characters and themes but not Aligned doesn't work. Again, the intention was probably there in the first year or so. But it's no more G1 family now than Prime/RiD is.

Rather, IDW now has its own family of comic continuity, toy bios and the Machinima Combiner Wars cartoon.