Is 5FOD really TFTM2?

Kickback · 03-06-2007, 01:24 AM

Having sat through countless panels with the series' writers, I can say that I have a pretty good understanding of what exactly happened.

TOEI, the animation company that handled most of the first two seasons did the animated movie. As TOEI was animating the movie, Hasbro went ahead and got DIC, through TOEI, to animate the beginning half of season 3. DIC is a lot cheaper, thus a lot more mistakes. That and Hasbro wasn't going to catch it and send it back to DIC to re-animate like TOEI did in Season 1 and 2 (as per some of the writers and Wally Burr's comments in past panels).

After the backlash of the death of Optimus Prime, Hasbro decided to do a 180 to try and save the franchise - the movie tanked, ratings were dropping to incredible lows by the time season 3 was underway, and toy sales began to plumet as well. Thus, Dark Awakening was re-aired with a dubbed ending showcasing the RETURN of Optimus Prime (zomg!). It was solicited to most VHS rental retailers and put on counter-tops and such (I remember this as a kid, it's how I first found out they were going to air it).

Sadly, The Return of Optimus Prime did nothing for the dwindling series. The production of what was going to be "Season 4" was already under way and being written with a multi-part opening. During the writing process, it was told to write an "ending" to the Transformers, as they found out during the script-writing that it was the final episode(s).

What sucks is REBIRTH was meant to be a 5 part series with more development on the Nebulans, however Hasbro cut it down to 3 episodes, which means they crammed as much as they could fitting in as many new characters as possible AND writing an ending to the Transformers.

Toy sales remained steady but lower than they had been before, and eventually Transformers just died out (but only for a year).

Backstop · 03-06-2007, 01:41 AM

Never heard this before but hey who knows!!!

LigerPrime · 03-06-2007, 02:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kickback

Having sat through countless panels with the series' writers, I can say that I have a pretty good understanding of what exactly happened.

TOEI, the animation company that handled most of the first two seasons did the animated movie. As TOEI was animating the movie, Hasbro went ahead and got DIC, through TOEI, to animate the beginning half of season 3. DIC is a lot cheaper, thus a lot more mistakes. That and Hasbro wasn't going to catch it and send it back to DIC to re-animate like TOEI did in Season 1 and 2 (as per some of the writers and Wally Burr's comments in past panels).

After the backlash of the death of Optimus Prime, Hasbro decided to do a 180 to try and save the franchise - the movie tanked, ratings were dropping to incredible lows by the time season 3 was underway, and toy sales began to plumet as well. Thus, Dark Awakening was re-aired with a dubbed ending showcasing the RETURN of Optimus Prime (zomg!). It was solicited to most VHS rental retailers and put on counter-tops and such (I remember this as a kid, it's how I first found out they were going to air it).

Sadly, The Return of Optimus Prime did nothing for the dwindling series. The production of what was going to be "Season 4" was already under way and being written with a multi-part opening. During the writing process, it was told to write an "ending" to the Transformers, as they found out during the script-writing that it was the final episode(s).

What sucks is REBIRTH was meant to be a 5 part series with more development on the Nebulans, however Hasbro cut it down to 3 episodes, which means they crammed as much as they could fitting in as many new characters as possible AND writing an ending to the Transformers.

Toy sales remained steady but lower than they had been before, and eventually Transformers just died out (but only for a year).

Finally a detailed account of what really happened! Thanks, man!

Cutthroat · 03-06-2007, 09:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kickback

What sucks is REBIRTH was meant to be a 5 part series with more development on the Nebulans, however Hasbro cut it down to 3 episodes, which means they crammed as much as they could fitting in as many new characters as possible AND writing an ending to the Transformers.

Ah, that explains why Rebirth always felt so rushed and muddled to me - especially the first part, with a whole mess of new characters being introduced and discarded so quickly it makes my head spin.