Well, that was kind of my point. Because even in the four short years of movie designs, we've gotten plenty of other aesthetics and designs as well. Including not only Animated, but also blatant G1 homages...again. The movie designs have been mainly relegated to the movies and toys, so it's not like they've been everywhere, and they certainly haven't been the only thing we've gotten recently or will get in the near future either.

There's no need for the "5 major networks" to carry cartoons anymore when there are fully fledged 24/7 cartoon channels running constantly nowadays. The cartoon channel killed the cartoon blocks, not bad cartoons or a lack of interest. Cartoons are still super popular today, which is why these cartoon channels can exist.

There is no denying that there are some similarities in the look and feel of Movie BB and TF rime BB. Though he is hyper-simplified, Prime BB does seem to share the same body frame and overall body image with Movie BB, and their heads and faces are much more closely related then they would be to any other incarnation of BB. Where as WFC BB has a very distinct G1 feel to it, Prime BB most certainly has some hints of Movie-verse designs to him. Having said that though, he's still different enough to fit into a non-movie universe. Which will be great cause that means I can buy one of his many inevitable repaints and just give him a different name to fit in with the rest of my Deluxe Carbot infantry  

While I don't have the same prophesying powers of Draven, I can certainly see this new series being very well written and far more "mature" then both the movies and even TF:Animated. Given the current state of american made action cartoons, combined with Hasbro's highly invested interest in the success of this series and it's new TV channel, this show will be a well written, well animated, high quality series. It'll have plenty of characters and character development, lots of action, drama and fan based homages while lacking the utter toilet humor found in the movies and the absurd silliness often found in TF:A. More or less, this will be the most mature and engaging TF series since Beast Wars.

But that's just a hunch.

 

I think it looks great.

I haven't read the entire thread, but has it been inferred from the name "Transformers: Prime" that this could be a "prequel series" to the movieverse? Prime DOES mean "One," or "First," after all.

 

Ruined forever.

 

I might've liked this for the BayFormers movie but I'd prefer the television show be further from it as the BayVerse has enough exposure without it plopping similar designs onto the small screen too.

 

I certainly hope this proves to be true.

Animated was a 'miss' for me due to the visual style, the overly-stereotypical characters, and the slapstick juvenile humor. The movies, while epic and pretty to look at, were devoid of character depth and coherent writing, and filled with juvenile humor of a different type.

People are quick to throw Hasbro under the bus for things, but I think they've learned a lot about the power of the fiction over the past 4-5 years, and I think this new series is going to be pretty tight. If they can take the best bits of the last few years and make that work, we might be in for something pretty special.

 

You're not alone. Apparently I get hounded any time I say anything bad about the movie series.

Ditto.

But as I said before, I'm going to play the fairness card and reserve judgment until we see more of Transformers Prime. For all we know, it could end up being a sequel to Animated (wouldn't that be funny).

 

Oh, come on.

With all respect Johnator, for the last couple of years you've been busting into Animated threads, placing pretty harsh comments about the series, which in some cases were outright trolling..now somebody makes a tongue-in-cheek joke using your reputation and you're crying 'personal attack'? Please, let's not.

That's the risk you take - if you repeat something like that too much, people stop being mad at you and start seeing you as a caricature. Sorry! Personally, I find it pretty amusing, not too harmful. You don't seem that bad a guy.  

Still, I hope you too will be able to find some joy in whatever's coming for Transformers the upcoming couple of years.

ERIC, on the other hand......  j/k

That would be a great way to piss off the ENTIRE fandom all at once - Movie fans get Animated into their Movie, Animated fans get Movie into their Animated, G1 fans once again get nothing  . The ultimate compromise!!  

 

And this Beast Wars fan gets nothing, too! Whoo!   j/k But again, I'd actually think it'd not just be funny, but actually interesting.

 

Skeptical, but I'll keep an open mind.

 

I'm sorry, but do you see BB lubricating all over John Turturro in that pic? Just because it may be movieverse doesn't mean they're transferring ALL elements of it to the small screen.

Sometimes I can really hate this fandom.

 

I agree. People often have no idea just what idea comes from where. Everything that's in the movie MUST have been written by the writers, and it's their non-compromised vision. It's a statement I see pop up alot of times, and it's so, so wrong.

I think the people whose work gets mangled the most from start to finish are the writers. They often have to compromise or change stuff because the director wants something, the producer wants something, the budget wants something, the sponsor wants something, etc. etc. STILL, they get all the flak when people don't like something.

Heck, they got all the flak for ROTF, even though they weren't there to write it most of the time  
I think Krugher didn't even get half of the insulting comments on this board K&O got..why? Oh yeah, because people have no clue who did what, and it's easier to just blame Kurtzman and Orci, since hey, their names are in TWO of the movies!

Not saying they are the greatest writers ever, seems there's still Hollywood cliché in alot what they do, but I don't believe they're as bad as people make them out to be. And with people I mean visitors of TFW2005, since I've read more than enough about this subject here to fill a full glass of hatorade.

If Kurtzman & Orci are really involved with this, this is a good chance for them to show what they can do with Transformers in an environment that is less forced by the typical movie-hurdles, although I think, if they will fill a producer role, this will not be enough to convince people that they can actually write stuff that doesn't involve pissing all over Mr. Turturro.

 

Honestly, these were all the same things I disliked about Animated and the Movies. Though they weren't bad enough to make me completely dislike the two different franchises, they were glaring issues to me. This new series is obviously going to have a slightly more serious take on the TF mythos then Animated did (can't see any costumed villains or 6 year old sidekicks with magic keys) but at the same time, it'll most likely have far more character development and far less crude humor then the movies.

Animated, by Hasbro's own admission, was specifically targeted at younger audiences, even moreso then previous TF cartoons. The movie was aimed at the largest demographic of viewers, and used the lowest common denominators to reach them. But this new cartoon will most likely find itself in a similar spot to the current top ranked action cartoons, which is mainly the early tweens to mid teens. When you look at some of the best american made action cartoons of the past decade, you see they're all very well written, very well animated, and all contain a certain balance of seriousness and fun, enough to draw in kids who like adventure and their parents who enjoy a good story. TF: Prime has a very good chance to be one of those types of shows.

 

I've got my fingers crossed that Bumblebee looking a bit like movie Bumblebee is all that the new cartoon has in common with the movies.

It would be really nice to have some Decepticons kicking butt again instead of just getting killed when the human military shows up. Might also be nice if cartoon Bumblebee was more than just a robotic version of GI Joe's Snake Eyes with a radio.

Just seems like there are so many more interesting ways for a cartoon to go rather than slightly rehashing G1 or the movies.

 

As a fan of both, that would piss me off, too.  

 

Actualy, if you really looks at the pic, he does seem to have eyebrows, a bit of a chin, and some have pointed out that he appears to have a slender anime'ish pointed nose. He may not have a mouth, but really you could take that as him being face-plated. al la Goldbug.

Not to seem like I'm attacking your perosnal preferences, but I can't help but always find it rather superficial when someone says that they can't relate to a character because they don't look human enough. (Which is a tad ironic, given the number of TF fans who also hate human characters.)
I don't believe that you need that to make a identifiable character.
Take Wall-E for example, his "face" is just a pair of binoculars on a neck, and he's a character filled with personality.

My point being, relying on a design to be visually recognizable to one's self is a cheap way to identify with a character's perosnality.
That's just something that's always bugged me.

 

The design looks cool, but I can't help but feel a little disappointed. Maybe it's just because I'm sick of seeing Movie BB. I'm sure once I see other character designs, I'll love them.

 

Hopefully we see non-Movie villians like Bludgeon and Mindwipe.

 

People are jumping to so many irrational conclusions here I'm starting to wonder if it's one big joke and no one told me.

This could not even be related to the movies at all, and just have a similar style to help bridge the jump for younger fans.

 

Or Lockdown.

Though as I say that, I do feel a tad bit of concern that they wont get Lance Henrikson to reprise his roll as the character.

 

People are engaging in some idle speculation because it's their lunch break. Chill.

Good call. Lockdown is awesome.