I don't recall much character development in the G1 show to be honest. More like blatant contrivances to further plot: CLIFFJUMPER suddenly deciding MIRAGE is a traitor after knowing him for a whole season (in the immaginatively titled "Traitor")?

BRAWN thinking PERCEPTOR is a 'coward' in "Microbots" (when he's been allied with the likes of RATCHET and WHEELJACK for ages, both being as much "back-room boys" as PERCEPTOR!)
IRONHIDE's "I'm old and useless" moaning in "The Immobilzer"?
Every single Autobot being dumb in "Megatron's Masterplan"?

Things like that make me hate the second season so much....

You mean when he blatantly disregarded orders, decided to perform the very un-Autobot act of assasination, endangered his partner (HOUND) by taking on overwhelming enemy numbers and then missed a sitting target?
It does say "Warrior" on his tech-spec doesn't it, not 'Idiot?

One thing I do miss from G1 are stories with a beginning, middle and end. The modern TF shows almost seem to take place in 'real time'; Autobots all turn up somewhere, talk a bit, Decepticons turn up (or are already there waiting), big fight, 'witty' exchanges during battle, Decepticons get/don't get something and bugger off. The whole thing has unfolded almost with fades, scene jumps or any evidence of time passing. How annoying!

 

Seeing every character get a bit of screen time, always loved waiting to see if my new figure got on the show.

 

You know the constant debating over G1 is almost as bad as the 'true fans' threads we've had a number of lately.

 

I didn't say it was a WISE course of action but it does give insight into the character. It shows he is thinking about his homeplanet and how he can possibly end the war with ONE fatal shot. It does cause him to disobey orders as you pointed out which is very "UnAutobot" but it also shows how he really feels about what has transpired and how it has affected him so much to do something against the typical grain of the Autobots. I always viewed Cliffjumper as somewhat brash and quick to anger which showed in that episode so that he does things without thinking about them. I also do miss the beginning, middle, and end of shows as well.

 

The original Optimus Prime toy and Powermaster Optimus Prime are still 2 of my favorite toy versions of him ever. Not the most posable but I think they're the most fun and the original is the most scale accurate. For being made in the late 70s or so, the original is still a very well made and good toy for what it is.

And todays toys are even made much better with all the different joints and more posabilty too. It's just they don't do the actual namesakes any justice character-wise.

But I get what you are saying. I loved the fact that in G1 you had a character available for more than just 6 months or a year. You had Optimus Prime and Megatron available for 2 years until the movie. You had Soundwave available for the entire run of the show until season 4. You had the Dinobots available for like 3 years as well. They didn't just have the toy on sale for a few months and then say, "welp, we need to clear the shelves for repaints".

They had a much wider selection in the stores at the time of G1 and the characters lasted longer. Heck, even when Optimus Prime was dead he was still in the toy commercials pushing Hasbro's latest creation!

The other thing was I remember getting a bunch of brand new sealed Transformers that were of the Powermasters generation for Christmas in around the 1991 or 1992. G2 had not even begun yet and at that time I thought Transformers were long in the past. So I was really suprised and excited to get them. Apparently my family had gotten them from Kiddie City when they went out of bussiness locally. I guess they had left overs or they kept making them or something. But it does show that Transformers during G1 were much more accessable and lasted alot longer. There was a much wider variety of characters available to buy for a longer period of time.

The fact that the characters were available much longer made them more beloved. It made the characters more special. It gave them their charm and we got to know more about them in the show and comics thanks to the fact the toys were still trying to get sold.

Not to mention if you had a favorite one for a while and it broke you still had an oppurtunity to go back to the store and buy it again.

Now a days, you're lucky if you even find the newest Transformer just once at the store before they clear them all out for new ones!

 

G1 had TONS of gimmicks. pretenders, head masters, power masters, target masters, action masters, throttlebots, jumpstarters, triple changers... of course, thats why I like the original toyline so much. the variety was insane.

as many problems as I have with the original show (I still like it regardless of my complaining) the one thing I will never be able to ignore is how the autobots managed to drive across the planet in under a minute. you'd see Megatron in a foreign country attacking some base, cut to the ark where the autobots find out about the attack, and then cut right back to megatron attacking the base noticing the autobots were there.

that was stupid.

 

At least the RiD series gave an explanation of sorts for that phenomenon with the Autobots' through-the-Earth warp gates/space bridge deal. If someone feels like retconning (and some do   ) one could easily say Wheeljack came up with something similar.

Maybe the Autobots just drive at hypersonic speeds when no one's watching!  

 

Hydrofoils and Courage!

 

  I've ALWAYS thought about that, too. I thought it was hilarious.

 

I really never stopped to consider about that so it never bothered me... although just lately watching some season2 G1 episodes I started to wonder about that.

I get what you'e saying.  

 

Not to mention Giant-Robot-Sized Surf Boards!