I for one have always been one to view Transformers as a toy/collectible interest first off, with the shows, movies and comics as a supplement. With the popularity of Transformers, it disappoints me that Hasbro hasn't made an attempt to solidify a single continuity yet.

I guess the clusterfuck that we have now can satisfy some people, but I for one would love to see something better, something deeper. It's not like Hasbro doesn't have the resources, they just either lack the determination, or are content with bringing up a new money-sucker of a storyline every 2-3 years with the same pretenses and tendencies.

Now I know the Prime continuity is supposed to be the new one going forward for "10+ years", but do we really expect Hasbro to stick with it?

Now I know with the popularity for Transformers, new toys need to come out, and for that, new ideas, which is obviously why a new supplementing series comes out so often. But why not take the ideas of something like Star Wars? Have your core story line, but then branch off into something else with a host of new characters from a different point of view. Tie the Fall of Cybertron, and hopefully the successors, into it somehow. Start putting out more books and promoting them with better and richer storyline.

I love Transformers, and will for a while, but the Sci Fi geek in me would at least like to see some sort of continuity with DEPTH, not just a single show.

 

But that's exactly what Hasbro is now in the process of doing. The War for Cybertron video games, the Exodus and Exiles novels, and the Prime cartoon are all based on a single unified continuity bible created for a new "aligned" storyline that draws on every past continuity, from the colony worlds of the Unicron Trilogy to the movieverse AllSpark.

 

personally i want to see something put that cybertron "reformatting organic" bullshit clusterfuck to bed...something like beast machines was a quint experiment gone amuck...

I agree..i tired of new exciting annoying humans every few years...

 

but even in their attempt to present a unified single continuity they have failed.

just look at the few "actual" differences between TWC and Exodus

 

Eh, no worse than the varying takes on G1 that existed in the 80s, much less NOW.

I think the big problem is people are somehow thinking that the "aligned story bible" is some point for point "checklist" of every single event in Transformers history that every writer must be beholden to.

The story bible is an overall guide to the Universe, but Hasbro is letting the individual creators do what they feel is necessary to produce a quality product. No, War for Cybertron does NOT follow Exodus to the letter, but in doing so likely created a more compelling game experience (thus, better received and better sold), but they tell fundamentally the same story with the same character arcs and the same basic ending.

If nothing else, I give Hasbro props for this new-ish approach to the brand, I'm more interested to see how long this continuity will actually be followed. The last major continuity family we got was the 5 year "Unicron Trilogy", which has much bigger continuity issues than "Aligned" currently does. Then again, keep the creative forces under Hasbro's control might help avoid a lot of THOSE issues...

 

Much as I may not agree with you, I'd suggest you check out the BotCon-exclusive "Wreckers" comics, which did exactly that.

 

true. at least kicker served a purpose, he was a living energon divining rod. no more no less.

 

I agree with you guys for the most part. I just wish Hasbro would do a better job of letting us know, or perhaps getting the message out there when it comes to these things.

I plan on reading Exodus, despite the poor reviews, but I want to feel emerged in the story, not just knee deep in it like every other Transformers story.

And about the linking of the continuities, TWC and Prime, that just seems like a bad idea. You've got these "friendlier" versions of the bots on Earth while on the otherhand there is this badass war going on across space. It just doesn't seem like it really ties together good, and Hasbro is just making a shitty effort at getting a storyline together.

I want to see the bios on the back of the toys mean something. I want the "power stats" to be accurate and be able to say "Hey, these seem about right, Starscream is blah blah blah in the current show, videogame and comic!".

Transformers' story is just too much of a pigsty to get involved with right now, and I don't plan on getting into it for a while.

 

He also served as Flapping Exposition Mouth. For all the good it did, that is.

 

The problem is that you'll never be able to keep a continuity going because someone will screw up down the line. It happens with comics and TV series all the time, so trying to keep a continuity going which consists of comics, toys, tv series, movies and games is impossible.

Personally I just ignore the stuff that doesn't fit into my continuity.

 

Or they reset the continuity on purpose every five years or so, on account of turnover in their target audience.

 

Many series have done it, most notably Star Wars. They've expanded 3000 years into the past and done a great job. I would love to see something like this from Transformers.

All I'm saying is that Transformers has the potential for a great story and history, but Hasbro chooses to use it as a cashcow.

 

true enough

thats pretty much the message that can be taken by their statements on how the series share the same continuity..

 

I can see a valid point, like, devote like...a one season show on the 13 and their battle against Unicron at the beginning of Transformers history and the events that followed.

That I also agree with, but I don't think that's a bad thing. I personally like the idea that in multiple universes there are hundreds, thousands if not millions and the same transformers fighting the same battles. That itself leads to other story telling elements, like the possibility of dimensional travel and such.

Also, you have to remember, Hasbro and Takara are companies, they are out to make money. That's a cold hard fact. They know that you can't keep one style of product out for too long or it grows old/bland. That's why they need to change things, or they'd lose money and would have to possibly end Transformers completely if it was too bad of a loss. Remember, it's a toyline for kids first, not collectors/fandoms.

 

The Prime cartoon is already beginning to have major conflicts with the story line in War for Cybertron, especially episode 26 which will air next Saturday. No matter what Hasbro says, the writers have broke that continuity.

 

I hear ya. I guess on that front, I've always stuck to G1 as my foundation, and never really gotten too invested in any of the continuities that come after, entertaining though they may be. Doesn't stop me from buying toy robots from those lines though.  

Who really believes that though? I mean, Hasbro seems to be starting off on the wrong foot immediately by trying to unnaturally link two discordant series like Prime and WFC. We've all read the interviews from Highmoon Studios back when WFC was being developed. There was no "Aligned Continuity" at that point. The "connection" with Prime is a fraud that Hasbro cooked up well after the fact, probably due to the success of WFC as a game.

Though I supposed if it worked (sort of) for the Robotech Trilogy back in the 80's, I guess we can stretch it enough for Prime and WFC... though personally I think I prefer to keep them separate.

I'm as cynical about the Unicron Trilogy, really. Armada to Energon... sure. Cybertron? That's pushing it.

I guess I'd like to see one ongoing continuity family... but perhaps my personal history with the brand leads to biases; I feel that G1 already is that family (lacking in "continuity" though it may be"). Looking at all the other series that have come along, G1 has been the core principal. The franchise has never been able to crawl out of that shadow. Beast Wars might have been the closest they ever got to that, and it was still directly in-continuity with the G1 cartoon.

Which is not to say I don't enjoy the other series. I really liked Animated, but I don't feel that it needs to define the whole franchise.

zmog

 

Another good thing about constantly refreshing continuities is that a fan who is turned off of one continuity might like the next one. If someone doesn't like, say, Animated, all they have to do is wait 3-4 years and the franchise will take a turn into something new that might interest them more.

Think of your least favorite TF continuity...now imagine being stuck with it FOREVER, with no chance of it ever changing again.

 

only question i got is wether or not we might actually see the whole idea of cybertronian family bonds being explored in more thorough and serious manner like when it comes to the lambo twins sunsstreaker and sideswipe or the autobot triplets of prowl smokescreen and bluestreak for that matter.

to be honest i actually think it would be interesting to see that whole family brotherly bond explored between 2 autobot brothers in the way it was handled between siemon and kaminas characters from gurren lagann

in the best of circumstances that bond shared by brothers can in wartime be a unstoppable weapon of incredibly epic proportions

in the worst case scenario it can also be a nightmarish clusterf@ck of unimaginable tragedy as well

 

Yeah Star Wars is a good example, but even that has continuity problems and issues with what's canon and isn't. Splinter of the Mind's Eye being the first example of it going wrong, then there was the huge screw up with the end of the the original Clone Wars series, the beginning of Revenge of the Sith and Labyrinth of Evil all contradicting each other.

I think the only way it can be done with Transformers is to adopt the same thing that has been adopted for Star Wars where there is a tiered level of what is canon, so contradictory events can be ignored.

 

But how can you place any faith in an author who can’t even get the basic characters right, let alone attach himself to a subject that requires the depth that the 13 Primes does….

I mentioned this before and I’ll say it again we need someone of George R. R. Martins caliber to break down the “G1” transformer lore and continuity the way it deserves to be done and not as the OP put it “just bringing up another money sucker line” for the time being.

If Bay’s crappy movies prove one thing it’s that not even poor script writing, silly stories and terrible editing can stop Transformers from printing its own money. So what if the content given actually had some actual TLC???

How often have be "begged" for at some type of Direct to video out for the G1/IDW fans which Marvel, DC and a few others have proven to be lucrative.

SMH....so many ways to broaden the Transformers line...yet it's constantly ignored due to the promotion of stupid sh*t.