Yes another movie topic, but it's the 30th anniversary so why not. So yeah, as the title says, what if the G1 movie was a massive success back in '86 for its rather ballsy approach, instead of a major bomb (on the scale of other movies like Star Wars and such) It's interesting to think how different Transformers could have been today: - Would the series have continued in a more mature direction? - Would Rodimus have remained as the leader, and would they possibly kill him off too in favour of another leader later down the line - Could there have been a sequel of some kind? Maybe even a trilogy of 80s Transformers movies? -Could Megatron, Optimus, Screamer, Bee and all the other '84-'85 characters have been forgotten and seen simply as stepping stone/obsolete characters (eg. The less remembered Street fighter 1 or Original Dragonball) - Would more TV shows have been made in the 80s-90s - Do you feel the G1/Original Continuity Family would still be followed or be able to hold up to this day? I realise it's all up in the air, and these are only some of the questions I have buzzing in my head about this, but how do you guys think this would have impacted the direction of the TF franchise/ the mindsets of writers and Hasbro on the long run, and even the effect it might have had on Takara's handling of the franchise. Oh, and try to refrain from the obvious "They'd just keep killing off characters" answer haha. I think that one is a given really.
The series always was about selling toys. I think the lesson learned was don't kill the main character, just change/upgrade them every season. Same loved chars, but new toy versions to buy each year. Beast wars pulled that off pretty well with trans metals (2).
I think the main issue was because it was an animated film based on toys. If it were released a decade or so later when things like the Lion King and Toy Story were popular I think it would have done better. The last couple of Generations have grown up on franchises which really took off in the 80s so Animated features are more accepted by us adults who grew up with that kind of thing.
I think it would have stayed the same, at least at the time. TF is obviously darker now (As if it wasn't already. A war that rendered an entire planted uninhabitable? You know, for kids!), but I doubt the success of the movie would have changed anything. If the movie hadn't traumatized tons of children (Worst move ever, Hasbro. Just say that the characters went elsewhere or were reformatted between 1986 and 2005!), then maybe it would have been different. Other than that, I don't think much would have changed. When you study the film closely, you can notice that a lot of it was set up for the next generation of Transformers (a.k.a. more toys) for season 3. A new cast gets introduced and the old cast is mostly removed, that much is obvious. But the film also establishes that the Autobots and Decepticons can travel freely in space now, with a bunch of new planets introduced to have new adventures on. And Unicron, do I even need to talk about Unicron? All of this probably would have happened regardless, as shown by the largely-despised Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime staying leader for an entire season among other things.
Okay, based on the premise that the animated film, as it was, had been a huge success, here are some things I think would have happened. 1. The cartoon series, for the purposes of broad appeal, would likely not have "matured" too much, but I do think that we would have seen an adjustment of presentation, wherein you would have two or three seasons of the cartoon on TV, followed by an "everything changes" film. And, major deaths would happen in those films, as the first film (in this alternative history) had been proven to be great way to clean the slate for new product. 2. Given the futuristic look of the vehicles of the first film, I would think that, generally speaking, we have seen the end of alt-forms based on real vehicles in favor of "Cybertronian" versions of vehicles throughout the line. This would eliminate any worries about being sued over vehicle designs that might be too close to actual vehicles. 3. The life of the G1 era would have have been extended, and we'd likely have a much more uniform continuity. 4. The G1 characters that were killed off *might* eventually be brought back, but likely in some type of time travel incident, and then split off from the main group, similar to the way that has been done in the IDW comics, with two distinct groups. This would have been spun-off into its own episodic cartoon, as the time-displaced Transformers either attempt to get back or maybe pursuing a time-displaced/controlling bad guy. That's what I think would likely have happened if that first animated film had been a massive blockbuster.
Yeah I agree with you. IMO it was too ahead of its time. The seriousness of the plot and how some characters were treated (killed off) were contrary to what was shown on TV - where everything was a wee bit goofy. On the other hand, the toy industry (at least in my country) may be a victim because of the rise of console games. Many of my friends and neighbours stopped buying toys because Nintendo was more 'fun' and was the in-thing.
I disagree with the premise. Its 2016 and here we are talking about a movie that wasn't a success? I know what your driving at though commercial success, not making children cry so on...... LOL
I read this and for some reason I thought "Todd McFarlane's Transformers", and I think I would love to see his artistic style use just once in Transformers.
It's a great, classic "What If?"-style question, in that I think ultimately, what we'd gain by the Movie being a success would not equal what we'd lose. Here's what I think would have happened. First, Hasbro would have ordered a full fourth season of the cartoon. "The Rebirth" as we know it wouldn't have happened. At the very least, it would have been a five-parter as originally planned, and it probably wouldn't have introduced the entire 1987 product line. I doubt the third season would have ended with "Return of Optimus Prime," but it's possible. Though it's more likely Optimus would stay dead, at least for a while longer. Now here's where it gets interesting (and tragic): rather than developing Headmasters, Takara would have simply imported the American fourth season as they had done with the first three. They would have had to follow the "binary-bonded to Nebulans" idea instead of the "Transtectors piloted by smaller robots" idea. Masterforce would not exist, replaced by a fifth season featuring the Hasbro versions of the 1988 product line (Nightbeat instead of Minerva, in particular). As for toys, there would have been an American release of Overlord in 1988. The planned-then-scrapped Chromedome remold into Arcee might have happened, if Headmaster Arcee had remained a thing. Most of the gimmicks would have remained, as they were mostly in response to what competing toylines were doing (Pretenders a response to He-Man and TMNT and others, Micromasters a response to Micro Machines, Action Masters a response to the articulation of superhero toys). However, there may have been fewer homages and updates to the '84-'85 characters. Depending on how long Transformers stayed popular, there may not have been a Generation 2 or even a Beast Wars.
That's interesting to think actually, just what the state of Transformer's popularity would be today if the movie had made such an impact and buzz during the late 80s. Would it have become a more lore driven series with the G1 (a term that probably wouldn't exist then) still being the main backstory? Or would it simply have earned it a few more years of popularity before it fizzled out again just like it did in reality? Still, up in the air.
It's a shame it wasn't since now Hasbro is too afraid of straying from the norm. Regardless of the execution and how things played out, I do appreciate the fact they had the balls to do something like this.
I don't think much would have changed. The movie was made fairly early on, during production of Season 2 of the show (hence why the Special Teams and Omega Supreme don't appear). I'd suggest Season 3 was probably already in production before the movie was released theatrically, and it would have gone out as-is regardless of the success of the movie. In terms of franchise longevity, Transformers was always going to be supplanted by Ninja Turtles / Power Rangers whatever happened. A hit movie doesn't necessarily increase the life span of a franchise. Only a few years prior, the Rainbow Brite movie had been a surprise box-office success, yet even that franchise naturally went out of fashion after a while.
It was a success to me even if it didn't do well in the theaters. I loved it back in the 80s and still enjoy watching it now. It never gets old... unlike Michael Bay's movies.
Well I know for one, had the Transformers movie been a success, the GI Joe film would had got to be aired in theaters and everyone would get to see Duke die on screen. I bring this up because as many of you recall Duke is the reason why Optimus died and Optimus is the reason why Duke lived. Had the film been a success, Transformers wouldn't be the only one affected, GI Joe might have seen a change as well. My thoughts on this is that it probably would have encouraged the writers to handle darker and mature themes. Because had the 1986 incident not happened and both Optimus and Duke were killed off with no complaints, the writers wouldn't be afraid to put the characters in perilous situations and show there's always a risk of dying. Death would be an element in play, there would no longer be soldiers that magically survive plane explosions because they have their parachutes and their would not be characters that are bulletproof (Well Rodimus was but I think that was more of the Matrix's doing.) Characters would be shown getting injured a bit more and if sales for a certain weren't up to Hasbro's pleasing, they might even give the writer's permission to kill off that character so they could introduce a new character to sale. So I would say had the movie been a success it would have changed Hasbro's line of thing and they wouldn't be afraid to change off characters when sales were doing great and allow the writer's to get darker with the cartoons. Well at least for the Boy's Toys that is. It's pretty obvious Hasbro wouldn't have applied that logic with their Girl's Toys... well except maybe for Jem since almost every episode there was someone trying to murder her.
I'm not sure much would have changed. Sure they may have had the budget to make a full Season 4, but I think the fact the economy took a nosedive in 1987, many shows got the can kicked out of them.
Not sure about that - even if more people had gone to see the Transformers movie and it was a soaraway success, it wouldn't have changed the fact that kids got pretty upset when Prime died. Indeed, if TF had been a big hitter, you could argue that more kids would have gotten upset, not less! I think Duke's last-minute reprieve was inevitable, given the backlash. You have to understand, though, cartoon movies were getting less and less popular as the 80s went on. Care Bears was a big hit in (IIRC) 1982, but interest was beginning to wane by '86. It wasn't just Transformers that underperformed, it was a trend. Even if Transformers had done well, it would have been an outlier. I'd suggest that putting GI Joe out as a straight-to-video release (and indeed cancelling the Jem movie altogether) was down to more factors than just Transformers being a flop, I'm sure they would have looked at other films like GoBots/Rock Lords, My Little Pony, He-Man/She-Ra etc. and based their decision on the declining industry as a whole, rather than one film.
Did a little Google newspaper time-machining today, and really the August 8, 1986 release date was doomed to fail from the start. The MLP Movie was out in June 1986 and it made 100K more that TFTM (which was only in theaters for 4-5 weeks). My local paper in 1986 had MLP still playing at 2 theaters, 2 months after release. If you look at what was still out that week in August 1986... Aliens. Top Gun. The Karate Kid 2. Ferris Bueller. Flight of the Navigator. Howard the Duck. Friday the 13th Part 2. And probably 10 "summer comedies". Adults were not going to see TFTM unless they were bringing their kids or going-with younger family members. As for the movie itself, I know we went to see it in the theaters, and the new toys were absolutely light-years more entertaining to me compared to the first 2 seasons of the cartoon. I'm sure it was the futuristic looks and space usage (Cyclonus is right near the top of my all-time faves).
