I'd love to see these early designs eventually, out of sheer morbid curiosity if nothing else.

I really enjoy the cartoon style (now. - like many others it was a shock to me at first sight) for the main reason that it's expressive. It's the same reason I think BW and BM were the best animated TF series despite some of the CGI looking dated by today's standards. Characters act through body posture, movement style, and facial expression, and it's possible for someone to show their personality without even speaking a word. Most TF shows from G1 through the recent anime series relied almost exclusively on the dialog delivery for emotional context, and the best you could do to visually tell what's on a robot's mind was whether the mouth was making a smiley or a frowny shape. I'm not saying they CAN'T do better using that style, and occasionally they did (a few good examples in the 1986 movie), but I am of the opinion the design of the characters in Animated is more 'friendly' to expressive acting and animation.

 

I think its a catch 22.

true there'd be less haters if it weren't for the cartoony style.

but speaking for myself, I don't think I'd like it this much if it weren't for the cartoony style. I've had opportunies to buy pre release stuff since the movie line but I was like meh. but with the new look I've been more pro active abt getting them than if they were designed the normal look.

in summary, I think the cartoons popularity and the hater demographics are very much tied to the look. and me being in the former camp, am very much content with how things have developed.

 

I'd admit, I did hated the design style at first-glimpse. But that was until I saw some of the toys and the preview trailers/clips from the series. Though I wish they'd use something reminisent like that in the Universe 2.0 toyline with really top-knotch CGI. But the fans do have a point upon certain things.

Initially for one, the designs are definately a new approach to Transformers. The problem is with the way they look with the entire "Teen Titan" concept of drawing which dosen't really match up to what we had in shows like G1, BW/BM, RID, A/E/C, and the awe-magnificant designs from the movie. Animated seems like a backstep to some fans, which is why they don't like it. Some fans I've seen, simply hate change in the franchise, or some of than are itimidated by change. They're all deluded in thinking that the TF franchise is being ruined and molested, simply cause it's not "Gee-Wun!" Well, Transformers has never been precisely like G1 since Beast Wars first aired, Hasbro isn't going to completely revert back to what we had back in Generation 1, without slightly changing over some concepts. Well the franchise definately isn't ruined, and Animated, nor has any previous franchise ever ruined the Transformers franchise or will ever. It'll grow into the very far out future, into what I feel... will be a better franchise to foresee in the future.

Though if Animated was more advanced than say... the Cybertron series yet still had the same writing as it does now, I'd bet it be a even grater hit. And nobody, except for those high hardcore G1 fanboys who don't anything except for G1 wouldn't like the show. Not even if it was in a more advanced form of animation like anime or CGI.

 

I'm still in the "undecided" camp. While I think the show, animation quality & voices are all phenominal, I'm still 50/50 on the designs. For every character that I think looks awesome, there's another one that I think looks ridiculous. There's no question that Animated is easily my favorite show incarnation since G1, but I guess I still hoped for something a tad more mature after the movie. For example, a new series still geared towards kids as expected but also a little more geared towards older fans as well. But I also acknowledge that if they turned Classics into a cartoon instead, people would expect it to be a virtual frame by frame recreaction of G1 just with new animation. That would have caused a shitstorm none of us need, whereas Animated has the advantage of standing completely on its own and is not expected to follow any pre-established rules like there have to be 5 Dinobots, there have to be 6 Constructicons, there have to be 3 main Seekers, etc.

All in all, I think I might be one of the few people who fall into the grey category of loving the show but not necessarily buying any of the figures due to my feeling of them looking a little too childish. My feeling is that if I have to eventually warm up to something as opposed to instantly liking it, then I probably shouldn't be buying it. The Movie line is a good example of that. I was never on board with the new design style but I bought the figures anyway. And where are they all now? In storage.

 

 

Same here. I have to say I like a lot of things they're doing with the show. For the most part, I like the story (I think a few things could have been done better/differently). The characters have been pretty entertaining. But the style they're using just annoys me. I'm sure I'd probably have enjoyed this show a lot more if they'd used a more traditional style.

 

I'd have to disagree with your reasoning here. I believe someone can respect the variety of styles and methods that are out there, but that doesn't mean they have warm up to like a particular style. At the end of the day, if they don't like it, then they just don't like it. It's all just a matter of personal opinion and taste.

 

I wonder what Transformers will be like a couple years after Animated.

 

The first image I saw, which was the poster which had the 'bots in both robot and vehicle mode was meh, but actually seeing on the TV finished product was awesome. No wonky 3d like A/E/C mixed with animation, but a nice newer animation style that fits in and cant honestly change moods between episodes.

 

oh dear god no... I hope they are sealed away in a government warehouse with the Ark of the Covenant. Can you imagine the unholy bitching and fights we would never hear the end of if they were released?

Personally, I am DISLIKING the classics line simply because they feel boring and old. I don't get the tactile enjoyment out of holding and transforming them. Though I am pretty happy with the Robot Heroes, they are going to be my classics.

 

kickback. thanks for that info on animated origins.

what is important is that irrespective of the cartoon look the toys themselves have been remarkably designed, they could have been average or poor but if anything they are amongst the best TF toys yet seen, they are great toys anyway even if you ignore the TF stamp.

Ever since AEC and movie ive rummaged through pegs seeing if there was something that i really liked only to find myself buying the occasional toys that are just OK (i do like some of the energon delux linkers though), now heres a line that has me anticipating buying 80% of the upcoming toys without any hesitation. I'm still interested in how kids respond to these, let us know what happens in teh shop with the two pack!

 

If I've learned thing about fandom it's no matter what you do you can never please everyone.

While Animated would not have been my first choice of styles I watch it for the story and characters. It's a bit like Beast Wars where I really didn't like the CGI look but the characters are what had me coming back to watch more episodes.

Classics or Animated I'm really enjoying that the toys are actually looking like the characters instead of those old days when the toys didn't look like their cartoon counterparts.

Now movie is a whole different story, but then again I just don't like anything about the movie look so I'm not a good person for that one.

 

I'd imagine they'd look somewhat like that CN advert with the black prime and white megs which TF into the CN symbol.

 

Im not going to constantly annoyingly harp on the animation like some people do. I like the animation, for the kids its a popular animation. This cartoon isnt for us its for the kids. Any cartoon that dosent come on adult swim is for kids for that matter. I like the animation becuase its different and for me realistic is very very boring. I also agree that the classics are boring and old. I dont plan to buy any of them. Every saturday I get to go eat with the family the kids (not mine, in the family) are always talking about how cool it was and they love it. I expect the toys will sell about as good as the movie if not better. If you dont like the animation, just deal with it and quit harping on it, its not going to change after 20 episodes. I love the direction this show is going, I am also glad its not a cgi cartoon. Im sick to death of cgi cartoons, im glad transformers is getting back to animation. As for if I could put it over beast wars I dunno. I didnt grow up with g1 so I dont care about it I grew up with BW/BM. Id have to say
1.BW/BM
2.Animated
3.RID
4.Armada
5.G1
6.Energon/Cybertron

 

A bit of a harsh statement, as it's got a bit of the same feel of the other side's arguments, in that "If you like it/don't like it/don't warm up quickly, there's probably something wrong with you." kinda way  

The underlying sentiment is true and commonly recurring in TFs though. There's been lots of examples of how the line and/or style has been changed up one way or another, which usually brought out an immediate strong negative reaction from the (apparent) majority of fans on first sight, only for things to soften up given enough time and information, perhaps even to the point where the majority opinion is flipped, though there are always some who remain staunchly in the 'against' category.

Beast Wars
Beast Machines (took a few years of anime shows to soften some opinions)
Armada (more of a 'who cares what the fans think - the kids are buying.' thing)
Movie 2007
Animated


... and on the subject of those concept drawings that Nkelsch is too afraid of NM saying "AW WE COULDA HAD THAT!" to see, I'd imagine they might look a bit like Macraptron's 'normalized' drawing of Animated Prime.

 

I wanna see this 'normalize' drawing.

 

I love everything about it.

 

Personally, I'd rather have them evolve the Sunbow/Marvel aesthetic of the 80s-early 90s since the last show to use that was Spiderman:TAS....about 10+ years ago. But then again, I'm one of these perfectionists who like to get things 'right' and not leave them feel like they never reached their full potential.

In terms of Animated, I'd love to see a darker story and a more realistic approach to the designs. One thing I love though is character work that they've done. The dialog isn't painfully generic and really brings out their respective personalities.

 

Without the art style Animated isn't Animated. If it wasn't for the art style and amazingly accurate toy designs, Animated would be the same boring crap as Classics.

It's like saying you'd like the "message" behind a Picasso or Pollock if you scraped all the paint off and replaced it with something more "realistic."

It has a whole style and soul to it that is shown right in the character designs  

 

i personally believe that the animation style more or less has to be there-otherwise scenes like when Starscream threw the bomb at Megatron and he threw it back-couldnt work, IMHO. there are tons of scenes that would only work with this style