Dear Hasbro PR team/customer service reps/dudes who are bored in Pawtucket,

Thank you for putting together the Transformers Animated cartoon series and its toyline. I am having a lot of fun with the cartoon and with the toys and I wanted to tell you why.

- THE CARTOON IS PRETTY AND FUN:

Above all else, I love the colors and the flow of in Transformers: Animated. The animation is very bold and stylized; the Teen Titans/Batman The Animated Series/Justice League aesthetic lends itself very nicely to this show. Because of the cartoon aesthetic you guys have chosen to use is already stylized, it helps to make Big robots seem bigger, smaller robots seem smaller and tougher robots seem downright scary. On top of that, the colors are nice and bright in every episode, making it delicious eye candy. This is one hell of a fun show to munch my cheerios to; I can't take my eyes off the screen because I'm having so much fun watching and hearing Transformers do what they used to do when I munched cheerios in my heydey - turn into big robots via that classic transforming sound and either A) try to unravel today's plot device or B) beat the nuts and bolts out of each other. So far, in all honesty, there hasn't been a moment where I've cringed at the art or the voices or the script; I've just let each episode play out in full because I don't want to miss a minute of this very beautifully-drawn show.

- THE CARTOON IS INTELLIGENT:

This is a great American cartoon show. I might go so far as to say that this is what a lot of American (and, maybe, English-speaking) audiences have been hoping for since the original '84-'86 cartoon show went off the air - a 'toon with witty dialogue with enough hints at a "bigger picture" story to keep kids ages 3-30 interested. I have to admit that the writing - particularly the use of modern technology terms mixed into the Autobot and Decepticon dialogue - is clever and entertaining; it's fun to hear the robots in disguise throw out curses like "put that in your RAM and process it!" The other little plot clues dropped left and right between the weekly episode's plot makes the show fun to come back to every week. Additionally, the way your creative team decided to handle character development was very wisely handled - we, as fans, have come to know Optimus Prime, Ratchet, Bulkhead, Bumblebee and Prowl very well and we also have a pretty good idea about the levels of evil to which Megatron, Starscream, Blitzwing and Lugnut will drop to in order to conquer the universe.

The "New Guy of the Week" design for the episodes is also, in my opinion, a wise idea. Fans clamor for new characters from the Transformers universe to show up left and right, and by dropping them in for an episode or two and them taking them right out afterwards means that you can both satisfy the obssessed fan and surprise the casual fan. Instead of having to wrangle with drawing them into every episode or giving them token "Here's my superpower!" lines of dialogue when they need introduction, you give each individual New Guy of the Week a chance to shine on his/her own - we got a very good idea of just why Blackarachnia is so deceitful, just how treacherous Swindle is, just how plain goofy Wreckgar can be, etc. Additionally, it's good writing that these characters just "disappear" for the time being, so they can be brought back into the fold later.

- THE TOYLINE WAS DESIGNED BRILLIANTLY:

I think you guys were handed a nugget of gold with Animated, when it comes to turning a cartoon into toys. Because of the bold colors in the series and the basic, yet stylized design of the characters, you were left with some interesting design challenges - how do we make a robot who has a lot of artistic foreshortening and body-stretching in the cartoon look every bit as imposing/sleek/evil in the toyline? Quite honestly, I think you've handled the job in spades - they few toys I own just ooze character and really reflect their cartoon counterparts. Prowl is nimble and stringy, capable of being posed (or played with!) in a variety of different Kung Fu (or, sorry, Circuit-Su) martial arts moves. LockDown is tall and imposing, with all the right bits and pieces from the cartoon making him look all the more evil and duplicitous, right down to the smirk on his face. Ratchet looks just as grumpy in toy form as he does in the cartoon, right down to the notches on his face and his missing repair device on his arm. The robot counterparts look really nice and - at least, to my untrained eye - seem to match their cartoon selves with accuracy. There's no need for a "Premium series" of toys this time - you guys nailed it on the first try.

So, all in all, a big thanks to everyone involved in the Transformers: Animated cartoon and the toyline - you guys have offered us a lot of fun to be had, and I've enjoyed all of it so far. I think you guys have hit on a great formula and I hope you keep it up.

 

kissass  

 

Agreed best TF since G1.

 

correction.....best since beast wars  

 

I remember Beast Wars, good times  

 

Yeah Animated is definatley the best show since Beast Wars.

 

Agreed on every count, Ops. However, I would have said "THE TOYLINE WAS DESIGNED BRILLIANTLY", as these are easily some of the most fun toys I have ever owned.

 

Totally agree with ya, Ops. I think the movie toys are slightly better in terms of amazing engineering, but Animated toys are great too.

 

Great letter Ops and I agree on all counts.

Is it fair to say that animated has got you buying toys again?

 

Yes.   I'm being very parsimonious, though - I don't think I'm going to pick up much more than the core 5 Autobots.

PS: Draven - edited for truth.

 

Agreed on all accounts.

 

I agree with pancakes.

 

I agree with this thread and the win it provides.

Agreed... again.

 

ask why the quality sucks on some of the figures!

 

Armada & Energon might've been crap but CYBERTRON was totally awesome! You guys cannot continue to ignore Cybertron! Cybertron was one of the best TF toy lines so far with incredible sculpts,memorable characters & great variety of vehicles & beasts. And it was one of the best shows along with G1 & Beast Wars. It looked better than anything in G1 or Beast Wars, especially the toy accurate transformations. Just because the US lumped it in with the Unicron Trilogy doesn't mean you have to keep bashing it along with the UT. It really wasn't part of the UT. Give some credit where credit is due! 

 

Epic breakfast is epic.

 

i agree animated rules

 

Cybertron Quickmix eats any other TF Construction Vehicle for breakfast!

 

At no point in my first post did I specifically bash any of the previous iterations of the Transformers cartoon show.