Howdy once more, folks.
I feel a bit awkward about asking such questions, but I suppose I might as well, due to that I'd like to get into the fandom a little deeper.
I basically grew up on Beast Wars, so I've always been a Transformers fan, but, well...Godzilla came first  
Now that the Big Gray Guy is on his third hiatus, I wanted to get back into the Transfandom...however, I have a few questions. Call me a n00b if you want, but I just like to be able to read board posts without scratching my head.

1. What is a "gestalt"? A type of combiner?

2. What the slag is "kibble"?

3. ...are there any Cybertronian curse words other than "slag" and "pit"?

4. Exactly how many TF television series are there total? (Japan AND US...OVA's excluded)

5. Is there any indication as to what happened between the end of the Great War and the start of the Beast Wars?

6. What is considered the end of the Great War?

7. Are there any other Transfan terminology I should be aware of?

Thanks!

 

I'll try and answer where I can, and the only way you'll find out something is if you ask  

Yes, a gestalt is just another name for a combiner.

Kibble is the bits of the alternative mode that hang off a figure when in robot mode.
For instance: Side Burn
If you look at the Robot mode image at the bottom of that page you will see parts of the vehicle mode hanging off the robot mode.

There is always BW Megatron's 'Spawn of Unicron' comment.
But that is debated as it's not known if he meant it as an insult or as an indication as to Tarantulus origins

Someone else will no doubt post a complete list.
I'm not to sure about all of the Japanese ones.

From what is known from Beat Wars, the Autobots and Decepticons came to peace. A downgrading was created where the new factions Maximal and Predacons replaced the Autobots and Deceptions. These were also of a smaller size than the old Autobots and Decepticons to help conserve energon. Several Decepticons were granted amnesty (G1 Ravage was one) and were rebuilt and reprogramed as Predacons.

As far as I know it's never been said.

A few of the top of my head:
RIRFIB = Rumble is red, Frenzy is blue
Trukky not Mukky = in reference to Prime being a vehicle over a beast
Can't actually think of any other.

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks, Boardwise! Now I just need to find out how many TF series there were...

 

This should cover it:

1984-1985--Tatakae Cho Semiatai Transformer (US Seasons 1-2)
1986--Transformer 2010 (US Season 3)
1987--Headmasters (Japan)
1988--Choujin Masterforce (Japan)
1989--Victory (Japan)
1996-1998--Beast Wars (in Japan, the first season of BW was called Beast Wars: Cho Roboto Semiatai Transformer, while the 2nd and 3rd seasons were called Beast Wars Metals)
1998--Beast Wars II (Japan; spawned a theatrical release called LioConvoy Crisis)
1999--Beast Wars Neo (Japan)
1999-2000--Beast Machines (called Beast Wars Returns in Japan; aired over there last year)
2000-2002--Transformers 2000 (this is the collective term I use for the series that was called Car Robots in Japan and was dubbed over as Robots In Disguise in the US; Transformers 2000 was reportedly the original title for Car Robots)
2002-2003--Armada (called Micron Densetsu in Japan)
2003-2005--Energon (called Super Link in Japan)
2005-2006--Cybertron (called Galaxy Force in Japan; show is still airing on Cartoon Network here)

Known OVAs are Scramble City (1985) and Zone (1990). Series that were told in manga form in Japan, but never had a show, were Battlestars (1991) and Operation Combination (1992). Hope I didn't leave any out.

I'd say Boardwise summed that one up well.

I would say the signing of the Pax Cybertronia can be considered the end of the Great War. Though there was never any official word on when the war ended, I think it's assumed that after the Great Upgrade, the Pax Cybertronia was signed, ending all known conflicts. Roughly 300 years later, I believe, the conflict(s) known as the Beast Wars took place. Unknown if any other battles besides the ones in BW, BWII, and BWN took place (ie. battles on Cybertron itself).

 

That would be me.

The numbers are actually different, depending on how you look at things.

US
G1 (G2 doesn't technically count since it's just G1 with useless cg added)
Beastwars
Beastmachines
RID
Armada
Energon
Cybertron
US = 7

Japan
Super Robot Lifeform (G1 pre-movie)
2010 (G1 post-movie)
Headmasters
Masterforce
Victory
Beastwars (season 1)
Beastwars II
Beastwars Neo
Beastwars Metals (seasons 2 & 3)
Beastwars Returns
Car Robot
Micron Legend
Superlink
Galaxy Force
Japan = 14

Total = 12 (from US perspective)

That should be it.

 

[quote="TerraDestroyer]3. ...are there any Cybertronian curse words other than "slag" and "pit"?[/quote]

Kup was also known to say "cam-digging" and "grill-cracking" at least in the movie. I'm not sure about Seasons 3 and 4.

Now, I have a question...ok, maybe two.

So how did the idea for Transformers start-up again considering there's a 7 year hiatus between Victory and Beast Wars? Or was there something else going on in manga or comics?

 

Beastwars (with the exclusion of BWII and Neo) was developed entirely over here. The show was made in Canada, and the toys were made in the US. The gap between G1 and BW was actually 10 years due to that fact.

I don't believe anyone's ever actually asked anyone at Hasbro that particular question before. I could be wrong though.

 

Well, the hiatus wasn't really that long. The toys continued in the US until 1990, and later than that in Europe and Japan. There was a 2 year hiatus after G1 toys ended in the US, and then you had G2 for 3 years. There was a comic and a cartoon for G2, although the cartoon was just the G1 cartoon with minor changes. After G2 there was a brief hiatus, maybe 6-8 months, and then Beast Wars hit. In Europe there was basically no hiatus at all between G1 and G2.

 

You forgot that G2 started up after G1, and although it died out in the US, Eurpoe continued it releasing some molds that never made it to the US (Overlord springs to mind)
So Eurpoe saved Transformers, which was stated at a panel during Botcon 04  

Also about the time of Beast Wars there was a line called Machine Wars.
As far as I know it was a test by Hasbro to see if there was still a market for transformable vehicles, but the beast turned out to be more popular thus Beast Wars continues and Machine Wars was sidelined with some of the molds being used in RID and universe.

 

Show wise there was a pretty big gap. G2 didn't really last very long on tv at all. Not even a full year as far as I know.

 

Since the Animorphs toyline was released under the TF banner, does the Animorphs show (I seem to recall that there was one) count as a TF series?

-Tony!

 

That was an enormously popular word in 01 and 02, but has since fallen out of disfavor. I think Hasbro marketing the term "combiner" finally sunk in, so gestalt started to sound rather passe.

 

No.

 

3. My two favorites are "Hexagonal Nuts!" and "Leakin' Lubricants!" both from G1! Also from Skockwave: "Miserable Glitches!" referring to Humans.

 

Yeah, "gestalt" means combiner... but does anyone know the -origin- of that term?

I mean, based on the dictionary description, it certainly sounds right:

"gestalt - a configuration or pattern of elements so unified as a whole that it cannot be described merely as a sum of its parts"

But who coined that phrase? It sounds a bit academic, doesn't it? : )

 

You just took the words out of my mouth.  

 

Wow...hell of a thread. Lots of great info!
Now if anyone can tell me how the Japanese Beast Wars anime end....

 

Hey! No spoilers. TFCog's dubbing them.  

 

Gestalt's origins come from the german word (translated as form, likeness, figure, etc) and is a psychology theory. On a related note, I learned about it as part of the elements and principles of design in one of my classes at art school.

 

Don't forget about Vector Prime's "by Primus (no)!"