First of all, I found it pretty ridiculous that the Autobots were so underpowered in the 1986 movie. Brawn was the first victim to Megatron, ok, but Ratchet, Ironhide and Prowl dying after a few laserblasts? come on!
Wheeljack and another mini-autobot were lying dead at Autobot city. What happened with Sideswipe, Sunstreaker and Hound who arrived with Optimus but did not fight? Where are Tracks, Smokescreen, Hoist, Grapple, Inferno, RedAlert, Mirage, Jetfire and Omega Supreme (okay we know later that he still appears in season 3)?
I guess Marvel studios and Hasbro just wanted to display the new characters to boost their new toyline back then. But it really sucked because none of the Decepticons died during their assault but only a few (the Insecticons, Skywarp, Thundercracker and Megatron) were badly damaged while the Autobots seemed to die after a few direct hits.
Rodimus Prime/Hot Rod was not only an inconsistent leader in the series, but also not that popular among the fans compared to Optimus Prime.
I was expecting a much more intense big battle in the movie where almost all Transformers are fighting and not dying so easily. I also missed the familiar BGM and the transformers logo-screen-switch.
The movie is still a good OVA, but IMO could be much better in several parts.

 

i liked rodimus leading, and the character relationship between magnus and rodimus, which led up to the return of prime which was awesome, probably one of my favorite episodes when prime actually gets to use the matrix

 

They all went to a farm far far away and are very happy.

 

I beieve many of the Season 1,2 Autobots confirmed "not dead" remained on Earth lead by Jazz. Most lkely these were the ones tasked to build the ridiculus Funeral Ark for Rodimus Prime. Afterwards, Autobots like Grapple and Hoist most likely went back to rebuilding Autobot City. It just wasn't finished by the end of Season 3,4.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong... Tracks was shown in the storyboards of TF:TM (in the special features section of the DVD) but they never actually used that scene. I always assumed he survived and probably spent his time preening himself at car shows.

 

Well, Tracks didn't die, even in the unused scene. Tracks is an Earth lover, so you may be right. I always thought it funny that not all the older Autobots wanted to follow Rodimus Prime.

 

yeah, I've always wondered too. I read somewhere that there was a scene cut out where a bunch of Autobots bit it, including a dead Trailbreaker on the ground or something. It was in the original storyboard, but got cut.

If anyone has any info on where I can find the original script and original storyboard, it would be much appreciated.

 

This is what that site said:

I also saw Prowl in the first episodes of Headmasters. Didn't talk, but he was clearly there. Too clear to be a miscolored bot, imo.

 

Yep and of course Wheeljack reappeared in Victory. They may be animation mistakes, but I still like to think they somehow survived. Even if it's in a "Carnage in C Minor" kind of way.  

 

I usually say "virtually all the the rubbish ones" when asked this question.

 

Just curious. Whom do you consider rubbish? All those that survived?

 

Nope not animation mistakes, more of a sort of miscommunication.

Japan didn't get TFTM till after Headmaster & Victory aired. So the animators didn't know that Prowl and Wheeljack died prior to those 2 shows

 

Okay, COMMUNICATION animation mistakes.   (I still think Wheeljack survived). 

 

Yeah! ULTRA MAGNUS, HOT ROD, BLURR and KUP didn't deserve to live, sub-standard replacements for better characters that they are!!!
(I'm being glib more than anything - Don't take me too seriously!)

 

Well, there were seversl Autobots with tomb markers in the giant Crypt-ship thing (Seriously, where did the Autobots get the time and resources to build that? Especially if it was 'years ago', and this was only one year after the movie?)

A notable addition was Huffer. As far as we can tell, this is what happened to him: http://www.supermegatopia.com/tmbgr/gallery/huffer.htm

 

 

Pretty much, characters like Sunstreaker and Sideswipe... I just assumed that they returned to Cybertron sometime after the movie ended and just stayed there. Oh, and that Autobot who was seen dead alongside Wheejack... I think they said that's Windcharger.

 

It is generally assumed most of the Season 1 bots died in the movie unless they were seen after the battle, such as Sunstreaker, Hound, Bumblebee, Jazz.

I personally liked how Arcee, the compassionate female autobot had no concern at all for Bluestreak, Huffer and Hound, all of whom were working with Kup when the attack started. She was only concerned with Kup and Hot Rod.

 

Yeah... was she only concerned for Kup and Hot Rod out of everyone working outside Autobot City because Kup's old and that Hot Rod's a hottie?

 

If we didn't specifically see them die in the movie, then I assume they are alive and still fighting somewhere in the Autobot or Decepticon ranks. All my fanfics integrate the survivors with the new characters. A lot season one & two characters did survive the movie, we just didn't see them very often. For example of the 18 Autobots in the original Ark crew, 8 died, the other 10 (16 if you include Jetfire and the Dinobots) are still alive and well as far as I'm concerned. And none of the season 1 Decepticons died, Starscream came back and the others got reformatted by Unicron.

 

Well, if you look around in season 3, you will occasionally see some Autobots from the past as background characters. You might also see some Autobots among the Decepticon ranks. You might also see some Decepticons among the Autobot ranks.

You might also see Frenzy and Rumble standing as tall as Soundwave. You might see a somehow tiny Devastator standing right next to his Constructicon component Hook.

I love Transformers, but season 3 is a perfect example of 80s Crapimation.

On the subject of deaths, season 3 was full of them. Season 1 and 2 would have the Transformers get tossed around by laser blasts -sometimes with explosions coming off of them. But Season 3 had the characters blow up from the inside -with their body parts going in opposite directions. That was fine if they were actually dead, but the tertiary characters would miraculously appear fine later on and the main characters would "wake up" none the worse for wear.

But, the most Autobot deaths occured in the Rebirth. About 99% of Cybertron's Autobots were completely decimated by a surprisingly effective force of about 30 Decepticons. They were all piled up to be "fuel" (how does that work?).

Though, I suppose they were all miraculously revived at the end. At least thats what was implied.