G1 Season 4

Discussion in 'Transformers General Discussion' started by Greenspan, Sep 6, 2007.

  1. Greenspan

    Greenspan Monetary Maestro

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    I love G1 and even if it had flaws it is still seomthing very special. I absolutely loved Beast Wars, I think of it as G1 season 6 or something so much it built on G1 and expended its lore.

    I did like Beast Machine too, however the ending is flawed. As an example Blade Runner was never supposed to have a happy ending, it bugged Ridley Scott for years, the true ending is much more dark and fits the whole thing better. To me Beast Machine is the Blade Runner of Transformers, remove the happy ending and you get one hell of a "G1 Season 7"

    After BM no other TF series ever grabed my attention. I tried, but they all felt flat. Don't get me wrong, many of them spawned cool toys, but somehow the stories all felt out of place.

    Now (bear with me for a sec) imagine that BW is G1 Season 6 and BM is G1 season 7, that leaves us with 3 episodes of Season 4 and a full run of episodes for season 5.

    Wouldn't be cool if they completed G1 season 4 and made a G1 season 5 that bridged to BW ?

    All the Japanese series that aired ater Rebirth were good in their own rights but I'd leave them alone or use their best elements and incorporate them into season 4 and 5. I'm talking about picking up after Rebirth part 3 and do 20 something episodes. Done in the same anime style but with today's quality (imagine Gonzo doing the animation)

    Done right many would watch it. Imagine tuning in and hearing season 4 opening, same as it was 20 years ago, and seeing all these familiar robots (albeit different voice actors). It'd be as if Rebirth part 3 aired last week. Talk about one cool buzz.

    Star Wars live action series will explore what happened between Ep 3 and 4. If Star Wars can do it, why not TFs ? We could explore what happened between Rebirth part 3 and BW.

    Godspeed
    -Greenspan
     
  2. Bumble Prime

    Bumble Prime all the time

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    id kill for an animated american series that transitioned from machines to beasts, done in the style of beast wars II or neo
     
  3. adam-x

    adam-x megazord activate,,

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    it ended at beast wars for me. I didnt like beast machines
     
  4. llamatron

    llamatron OFFICIAL MMC REP TFW2005 Supporter

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    I'd kill for a series set in between G1 and Beast Wars or a Beast era continuation (i.e. Transtech) but it seems that Hasbro have absolutely no intention of ever returning to that continuity. Honestly, I've had absolutely no love for any of the fiction we've seen since BM ended.
     
  5. Dark Starscream

    Dark Starscream With Headmaster Cobra Commander

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    Agreed.
     
  6. adam-x

    adam-x megazord activate,,

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    and I dont care for transformers shows that look like pokemon either
     
  7. Hooper_X

    Hooper_X hit dogs holler

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    Eh. I don't want anything set between the two because I *like* it being a mystery. There's so much that could be done there that if it wasn't BW-levels of awesome, it'd just be ruining the potential. I don't trust Furman to do it, based on the "quality" of the BW books he's penned thus far (aka "Let's Cram Every Toy Ever Into A Fight Scene And The Hell With Characterization").

    So no, I don't want stories bridging the G1/BW gap unless we can be assured ahead of time that they'd be really spectacular, because the only thing worse than nothing depicting that timeframe would be a bunch of total crap depicting that timeframe.

    -hx, given that everything BW we've gotten since the actual show has been awful, y'know?
     
  8. Bass X0

    Bass X0 Captain Commando

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    You do know that The Gathering was (I believe) intended to be a six issue series from Dreamwave which didn't happen until it was picked up by IDW so assumedly, everything that didn't relate directly to moving the plot forward had to be scrapped to fit it into a four issue series.

    The Ascending which is written specifically for four issues should have better pacing.
     
  9. Taker

    Taker Chilean TF Fan

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    I have some problems considering Rebirth episodes as a 4th season. I know it's some kida official, but I prefer looking at them as 3 OVAs (that I know they aren't).
     
  10. Nerdling

    Nerdling Jiminy Jilikers!

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    QFT, or transforming animals that turn into robots.
     
  11. Feralstorm

    Feralstorm Good Morning, Weather Hackers! TFW2005 Supporter

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    What would be the (season) ending then? Megatron wins and everyone else is dead/spark eaten? Op sacrifices himself to take out Megatron, and nothing happens? All the yelling robots running over the hill are actually pissed off at becoming techno-organic? Nothing?

    While Cybertron becoming a giant chia-pet wasn't exactly my fave thing, I felt it was pretty much the inescapable conclusion to the story as it was going. It's even a gold mine for stories about what comes AFTER, if Shane's "Obsidian's Lament" and related comics are any indication. I'd like a 'season 8', to use your system.

    A lot of people like to consider the Japanese G1 shows like Headmasters and Masterforce/Victory/Zone as the season 4/5/so on of the G1 cartoons. It's a convenient thing to do, but it does fairly little in terms of advancing the G1 (cartoon-based) story universe as a whole, since except for the first half of Headmasters and a crossover here or there, they were largely self-contained stories with self-contained casts.

    I'd love something 'official' to elaborate on the transition from Bot/Con ro Max/Pred, but as Mr. Hooper said, it would have to have some quality behind it.
     
  12. Hooper_X

    Hooper_X hit dogs holler

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    And? It would have still been a trainwreck in six issues. Razorbeast and maybe Magmatron would have gotten more characterization, but will we *ever* learn more about what, say, Torca's like?

    Also: Grimlock. I'm tired of him. I hope they never dig his ass out of the ground in the IDW books. I don't miss him one bit. Here we have a chance to ahve a book about Retrax and Injector and Wolfang and all these other guys, and no. We get MOAR GRIMLOCK. Just what I wanted.

    -hx
     
  13. Greenspan

    Greenspan Monetary Maestro

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    As far as BM being obliged to end the way it is I wholeheartedly disagree. BM could've ended as a cliffhanger to BM season 3 or a new series without cybertron converting green. Maximals copuld've have discovered (while Optimus gone) that the whole green thing was a big machination by an unseen force using Megs as a puppet for its devilish plans. a BM director's cut could easily fix that mistake.

    Think if the Newhart show, BM was not obliged to end the way it did.

    But I digress

    The point is having a full run of 22 episodes for G1 season 4 done today would be amazing. I don't want all mysteries to be answered, but there is MUCH more to explore with these characters.

    Godspeed
    -Greenspan
     
  14. Deadend

    Deadend Spark of Creation

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    The transition semi happens in the japanese series, as the various bots get smaller, and use what seems like more 'exo frame' bot suits to be bigger. (Brainmasters, powermasters, headmasters, among many others, including starsaber himself who was really just the minibot that makes up his chest and head, and also including the pretenders who were human sized until size shifting.)

    It's explained (albeit briefly) in beast wars that the transition from autobot to maximal was due to power consumption. The big bots are essentially gas guzzlers, well, energon guzzlers. And wasted much of the precious energon needed after the signed pact of 'peace,' granted I am not sure if the treaty came pre or after size reformat. I think it was after the treaty, as there was no need for the war sized bodies anymore.

    Hence, why many bots and cons were rebuilt also. And get several references in BW, including waspinator's babbling at several points when hit on the head.

    And I tend to agree on Beast Machines, it seemed to take transformers to a Gobot level of story, by citing the planet was originally once organics. (As Zod had pointed out to me previously, with proof that made me even rewatch gobots lol, they were once organics who were dying and transplanted into mechanical bodies.)
     
  15. red00wolf

    red00wolf Insatiable collector

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  16. Scrapper6

    Scrapper6 Lord of Constructicons

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    Robots in Disguise would be ideal for this if they ever made a 20 year anniversary for it, or a 10 year even. I mean it already features Predacons against Autobots and Decepticons so why not take those characters and re-make the cartoon with new animation and a whole new plot-line that tells the story of the Pax Cybertronia and the creation of Maximals and Predacons using Gigatron and crew as the first Preds? Oh right, because that would be an intelligent idea and toy companies like Hasbro never think like that. <Sarcasm Alert...

    Perhaps IDW could make a mini-series like that? Or a Macro-Series considering the only representation we've ever had of RID in Comic Book format is a big joke in certain respects. They could consider it a Revamped RID, an alternate version of the plot and characters to cram in as much exposition and revelation as would be necessary.

    It's one possible way things could be done, as far as Animated Series go I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot more one-shotesque series from here on out... Hasbro seems to have a large aversion for continuing the saga of the original Transformers in any form of media officialy.
     
  17. llamatron

    llamatron OFFICIAL MMC REP TFW2005 Supporter

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    I think the story goes that around 2000 / 2001 they hired some guy to sort out the convoluted story line / timeline and at the end of that just decided to screw it all and do endless "one shot" lines.

    Back in the day Armada was going to be this awesome fanwank cartoon featuring Tarantulas and Unicron, lots of guns, etc. Somewhere it all went horribly wrong.
     
  18. Deadend

    Deadend Spark of Creation

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    When they split the bill with takara, and decided to let anime companies do it.
    Transtech should have happened, while I don't hate all the anime we got, transtech would have been a nice sendoff before it.

    Damn them for realizing it was cheaper to just import a series and redub it!
    But ooh, such pretty toys...
    And I still love the Transmetal Rhinox cameo in armada, that was just all shades of awesome for right after when orson stated, none of the repainted beast wars toys would be in it. xD
     
  19. Greenspan

    Greenspan Monetary Maestro

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    In today's market I think a continuation of G1 could live on its own. Everyone knows that most TV shows don't rely on heavy merchandising to make money, whilst cartoons are essentially 22 minutes tv ads for toy lines.

    Hasbro gets a win-win situation with a G1 continuation. They get an audience and can therefore sell the show to a network that will generate revenue (think Sci-Fi channel, dvd sales, etc) and they also win as the show will certainly generate interest in whatever toy line they decide to link it with.

    Done well (think Gonzo quality) and good writing (think BW good) the show would essentially be cartoon for adults. The Simpsons proved it can work. TFs is a very strong franchise and it begs to branch into the adult territory.

    Some of you will point that Alternators failed and it was aimed for adults. My answer is that a lot of adults that watch sci-fi shows don't necessarily buy the toys. They'll buy the dvd's and maybe one knick-knack to put next to the computer screen. The shows needs to live (make money) on its own, regarldess of the toys associated with it. If tghe toys sell well then it's only more gravy.

    I should explain that my view of adult cartoons does not automacially imply nudity or violence, it simply means that we don't get slapstick and dumbed-down storylines. BW, in that regard, was much more of a animated sci-fi show than a simple cartoon to advertize toys.

    Hasbro is no longer thinking in terms of being solely a toy maker, but as an entertainement company that happens to make a lot of toys. Sure making toys is their number one priority, but today's kids are getting into iPods and PSPs younger and younger, thus while in 1984 a 9 year old kid was into getting toys, the same 9 year old today aims to get a PSP.

    By making movies out of their core properties, Hasbro diversifies itself and softens the blow of loosing ground to electronic gadet makers. Making a more adult G1 animated sci-fi show is certainly more of an option now than it was back in the internet-less days.

    Just like I said, it would be as if 20 years hadn't passed between Rebirth part 3 and the following newly made episode. G1 designs and visuals are still bankable elements that begs to come back to the TV screen.

    However with my luck Hasbro will make G1 stickers and call it a day. Heck I'm not even a G1 purist, I just like good cartoons for adults, TFs happens to be at my number 1 want/wish list.

    Godspeed
    -Greenspan
     
  20. Robimus

    Robimus Wanna'be Cassettebot

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    I'd love to see a G1 continuation of some sort. The Japanese stuff has its charm but I'd love to see something with the voice actors we know and love(or reasonable replacements for those who have passed on).