Likewise.

 

DJW work is amazing but we need to remember that DJW aren't alone doing this show.

Without the work of Marty Isenberg, Matt Youngberg, Eric_Siebenaler and others we wouldn't have the same Transformers Animated show and comics that we all enjoy here. They assured many times that the work in Animated was a team effort.

And can we imagine the Almanacs without the work of Jim Sorenson and Bill Foster?

Kudos to all TFA creative team. You all deserve this.

 

Given the fact that Sari actually turned out to be an Autobot I don't really see it as being a helmet but rather that's her real head. It does look a lot like kicker's helmet painted yellow though with the added bits for her "pig tails".

Well when he's actually being Shockwave it hasn't changed but he does seem to alter the voice a bit when he's in Longarm mode. By that I mean Shockwave has a British accent which he seems to drop when he's Longarm.

Also while reading threw the replies I realized I forgot a couple Beast Wars references. Optimus Prime, much like Primal was not actually the leader of his faction but just of his crew. And Predacon's Rising featured the beast modes of the original Axalon crew at the end of the episode. So Primal, Cheetor, and Rattrap each had two homages. Too bad there's no homage to Rhinox.

There have been kitbashes of Beast Wars characters in Animated. My favorites being Grimlock as Megatron and Swoop as Terrorsaur. If you remolded Snarl's head a bit he could be a passable Rhinox.

 

Primal Major?

Why!!   After ten years, I could of had the leader I grew up with back on tv? Thank you to the idiot that prevented season four, thanks alot!!  

Enough of the crush dreams, seeing the Beast Era homages was a nice change to the normal G1 homage.

Man, Marauder Megatron, why in Primus name couldn't they find some method to release that wonderful figure. Animated, Classics, FoC, Prime, something is better than nothing.

 

Ohmigosh I didn't know about Cheetor before. Holy crap I wish so much that season 4 got produced. I would have paid serious dollars to see Cheetor animated! And to own him as a voyager too... (Cheetor's one of my oldest favorites from Beast era, for many reasons)

Personally, my favorite fan nods in order from least to greatest:
1) The soundwave debut episode where Kremzeek makes a cameo appearance (When the camera bot attacks the reporter, and a "technical difficulty" sign is displayed afterwards featuring kremzeek)

2) Just plain seeing Wheeljack. He hasn't even been featured in an animated series for so long prior to Animated, so just looking at him was a huge nod to me.

3) Carly & Spike cameo-ing.

4) Wreck-Gar!!! <3

5) The end of the Waspinator transformation episode. Seeing all the former Beast Wars characters made me all sorts of excited.

 

I liked all of the character models. Still wish for a season 4. Or maybe a series that kinda follows animated like how beast wars was kinda the future g1.

 

Primal Major wasn't going to be in the show. He's an invention of the Almanac.

The real Optimus Primal reference would have been an actual Optimus Primal created by Black Arachnia in season 4, in an episode called "trukk vs. munky", which is probably one of the best fan-nods they ever could have done. The world is poorer off for lacking that episode. I would LOVE to see an actual DJW-designed TFA Optimus Primal.

 

Don't miss the Kremzeek in "Sound and Fury"!  

 

Seeing that Megs... we need a PETITION to restart TFA.

 

"I am Wreck Gar and I DARE TO BE STUPID" made me just lose it.

The whole opening fight in Season 3 was beautiful as well.

 

Dear Shout Factory,

PLEASE make a TFA boxset your next TF release!

 

 

Actually... I wonder if we could get this going?

 

Animated was awesome and I miss it.
I loved Brawn's G1 personality in Animated.

 

Cheetor wasn't going to be in Season 4 that I'm aware of. He was a character in a BotCon exclusive comic book and already has a toy which is a deluxe retool of Blurr and again is a BotCon exclusive.

Contradiction much? You're actually talking about the exact same character in both paragraphs.

Primal Major is the Optimus Primal reference that would have been created by Blackarachnia in season 4 in an episode called "Trukk vs. Munky" and the Primal Major design I posted in the first post is based on the actual design that would have been in the cartoon. I could only find a close up of his upper body on the wiki and there was no face plate so the one I posted is probably someone's guess at what the missing parts would look like but if you look at the official picture it's pretty clearly the same thing.

I'm pretty sure because Primal is meant to be a clone that they chose to change the name to Primal Major so there wasn't two Optimus' running around at the same time. It could also be something like Rodimus Prime having a different name in the toy line. In either case whatever his name is meant to be in the cartoon they're the same character so you can't say that it's is an invention of the Almanac not meant to be in season 4 in one paragraph and then say he was going to be in season 4 in the next.

 

That was one of my favorite fan-nods also. I kinda liked seeing Spike, Carly, and Daniel in two of the episodes (I think one of them was Garbage In, Garbage Out and another is one that I forgot, season 3 I think?)

 

No, not a contradiction. The Primal Major design you posted is from the almanac, and isn't done by anyone who worked on the show. It's drawn by Bill Forster rather than Derrick J Wyatt or Irineo Maramba, and the difference in style is fairly obvious. Primal Major in the almanac was a commaner of one of the Omega Sentinels, which doesn't fit at all with how we know Optimus Primal would have been handled in the show. He would have been a failed cloning experiment (check the source link under notes on primal major's page on tfwiki), meaning he would have been a completely new transformer made by Blackarachnia, not a commander of an Omega Sentinel during the great war. These are two very different characters.

What a lot of fans have trouble understanding is that a lot of the content in the almanacs is made up by Bill Forster and Jim Sorenson. Many of the characters they create for the almanacs contradict how the same character would have looked, or been handled in the show. See the almanac design of Sky-Byte and Cheetor versus DJW's designs for the same characters. They are completely and horribly different. Now, I love the almanacs, and appreciate that they expanded on the universe so much, but I fully acknowledge that not everything links up with the show, or the show creators' intentions. In the case of Sky-byte and Cheetor, we get to see two things from the almanac completely negated via a comic written by Marty Isenberg, with character designs by Derrick J Wyatt. Had the show continued, we would no doubt have seen a lot more almanac content negated.

In short: Primal Major in the almanac is not the same character we would have recieved in Season 4 as an Optimus Primal homage. He, like every non-supreme Omega Sentinel and every other Omega Sentinel commaner mentioned in the almanac, is something Jim and Bill did on their own.

This is not a bad thing, just a confusing thing. They had to fill two books, and when doing so, chose to follow the spirit of Animated and throw in tons of references to other Transformers shows, and reinvent classic characters, just like the show did. It's a good thing. Unfortunately, since Marty and the others obviously didn't want to spill everything that they had planned, there were going to be conflicts.

 

i miss all 5 or 6 members come giant warriors

 

5 or 6 members of what?

 

Yes it is but to be fair the wiki itself is a contradiction. I'd say it's a continuity error but sense it never actually was in the continuity they're both just conflicting concepts for the same character.

What difference in style? He has the same misshapen body as everyone else in Animated. Plus how do you know the person that designed the character for the almanac wouldn't have been hired to work on season 4?

Again, wrong. If they were two different characters they each would have their OWN wiki page. They're actually as I said above two different concepts for the SAME character. Considering he never actually made it to the show both are simply abandoned concepts. The Omega Sentinel concept I think was thought of and abandoned first. I think because they decided not to have other Omega Supreme clones walking around during the great war sense they did it already with Lugnut and Starscream controlling the clones.

Again, the designs in the almanac should be considered discarded CONCEPT drawings. Note that both versions of Cheetor would have been based on Blurr, the only thing that was changed was the head. Obviously the almanac was made along side the actual product as both versions were released within days of each other. Why else would they both use the same mold without having seen the other design before? It's called a concept drawing, it gets changed before the finished product comes out. The almanac is basically a book of concepts that may not always have made it into the series.

In short, if it's a different character then why doesn't it have it's own wiki page separated from official content. Better yet if the almanac is not official material by the show or comic's creators why is it mentioned on the wiki at all? The wiki doesn't feature any fan art, only concept art.

Again the reason things don't always match is because the books contain CONCEPTS not actual stories.

 

Because there'd be no point in it. Derrick J Wyatt and Irineo Maramba both draw much better than Bill Forster. You honestly can't see a difference in style between Bill's art and Derrick or Irineo's art? Wow.

No. I address this below.

Nothing done by Bill or Jim in the almanac can be called a concept drawing for TFA, as they did not have anything to do with the production of the show. They were complete outsiders. You can't tell what body type cheetor in the almanac would use, as it was just a badly drawn head. Bill and Jim had absolutely no input on anything to do with TFA, other than the almanacs.

The almanac IS official material. It is absolutely official. Hasbro had to approve it. The staff of TFA contributed to it. The reason the non-existant show version of Optimus Primal never showed up on the tfwiki is because he never got a chance to exist. His episode never happened. All we know about him is what Derrick has shared at that convention. That he would be a failed cloning experiment by Blackarachnia. Hardly enough to make a page. Had his episode happened, he would have a different entry on the wiki, because what we know about the character tells us that he's not the same guy as Primal Major.

No. Again, nothing Bill or Jim write for the almanac books is a "concept" for TFA. The stuff we got in the second book about season 4? sure. those are concepts, as they're from the actual TFA staff. Primal Major and all the commanders of the Omega Sentinels? Made up entirely by Jim and Bill in order to flesh out the universe more. Again, that's a good thing.

I'm not bashing the almanacs, I love them. I'm just trying to get you to realize that the Optimus Primal that would have been in season 4 is not the same character as Primal Major from the Almanac, even though they are both BW Optimus Primal homages.

For more info on this stuff, hit up Derrick J Wyatt's formspring. I've watched it for about two years now, and learned a ton about Transformers Animated. You can too, if you can deal with the random formspring RP stuff that wanders onto his page almost every day.