G1's fate was sealed perhaps in the cartoon on how Rodimus was portrayed as having doubts almost every episode, (as opposed to Rodimus' portrayals in Marvel UK, Regeneration One, More Than Meets the Eye where he's more confident and actually interesting) most of the familiar faces where either killed (Ironhide, Prowl, Brawn, Ratchet, Wheeljack, Windcharger, Optimus) off or put into the background to be used a few times (Soundwave, Rumble, Laserbeak Ravage, Jazz, Blaster, Omega Supreme, Perceptor, Bumblebee, Thrust, Dirge, Ramjet), altered (Skywarp, Thundercracker, Megatron, Bombshell, Kickback, Shraptnel), turned into comic relief (the Dinobots).

Toy wise, Ninja Turtles was picking up steam as the new franchise with Power Rangers debuting a few years after G1 ended, the NES was dominating the 8 Bit Market, and maybe some fans where turned off at the time by the Headmaster/ Targetmaster/ Powermaster/ Pretender/ Micromaster/ Pretender/ Actionmaster lines.

 

I wish we got an actual G2 cartoon

 

You refer to the G1 empire like it was the Roman empire or something long termed, Face it hasbro in the 1980's had hack talent and hack management directing it......

They did not give 2 shits on a shingle about product consistency, storylines, etc....

They were all in for the MOAR TRANSFORMERS NOW! shotgun blast mentality...

They tried to over hype the over hype and it bit them in the ass....

powermasters, headmasters, targetmasters, pretenders....etc


And the main problem was there was no media that was consistent to explain WTF these new successive generations or waves of transformers were about....i mean after season 2 ...you had that 5 faces of darkness.....and nothing.

The movie went from Autobots win....decepticons lose....to the decepticons being stuck on Charr and then the whole manic ass story arc of galvatron being bat shit insane got old real quick.

There might have been the chance back in the day if they had tempered the cartoon to be more in line with the retail sales of TF product like they attempted and mainly stuck with in season 1....it seems like mid season 2 they just said fuck it and let the cartoon go off the rails and into the ditch.

Autobots and decepticons just appearing on earth with no explanation....and the cartoon just getting more random and idiotic ....

Socialist Democratic Federated Republic of Carbombya
ERROR: Crazy Ass 80's Arab portrayed country

 

Die cast isn't good for the main line but I wouldnt mind seeing it on high end collectibles like Hot Toys

 

As much as I hate to admit it, I'm kind of interested to see what DIC would have done with Transformers.

I'd rather drop diecast altogether.

 

I do too. But between reruns with the horrible Cybercube and nothing, I'll take the cube. Between the ridiculous neon repaints and nothing, I'll take the crazy camo colors. It wasn't a time when we had a lot of choices.

 

I actually like it on figures like Ironman

 

During this time period they just got lazy, I don't know if the old leadership left or they didn't understand kids, but the quality just wasn't there anymore.
The toy quality just seemed to go down after season 2, and some of the characters just didn't seem to fit or be as playable as some of the older figures. While not great season 3 made more sense than GI.Joe at the time. Both shows started going down hill as they started going in odd directions and often being animated on the cheap. Then many of the Hasboro toylines started going in odd directions, Transformers had Pretenders and Powermasters, GI Joe started losing their military theme and went with neon colored monsters and monster fighters. The cartoon was losing popularity, I know where I lived I never got season 4, the series always ended with the return of Prime so I was never interested in the later toys as there was no storyline to go with them.
Other shows like TMNT started getting popular,Plus I was getting old enough to enjoy more live action, and there were other new cooler toys and concepts like Captain Power and Lazer Tag coming into play and MTV and other cable networks became more available in my area. The NES was getting more games, and the Gameboy was coming out, there were a lot of other things to spend money on, and the parent company didn't seem to be putting in as much effort. Video games really took off at this point and I remember spending most of my saved money renting or buying games....well that or Ninja Turtles.

 

It's really simplistic....ANYTHING that has fans and the fans support it and patronize it's products enough will keep that item going....

Cars, trucks, Star Wars, Transformers, etc.

Transformers G1 was Hasbro's 1st entrance into the USA toy market using Transforming vehicles into robots....Don't care if Diaclone was here 1st...It did not have a TV show and Media support (TV commercials behind it, books, etc).

Hasbro did not make any long term plans aside from MOAR TRANSFORMERS NOW, LIKE YESTERDAY NOW!....That is why it crashed and burned once the toys out paced the media and cartoon...

Crash and Burn...

Other Franchises , especially Star Wars...when managed and planned out product wise and media support wise (books. comics, etc) can run for an infinite time period as long as you have the Fans supporting you....Because they are your customers....

before Clone Wars came out (the cartoon) ....It's been years since the last movie was out ....Yet Star Wars plugged along fine...due to the concept of constantly renewing and changing Toy product and Media product to support the brand...

If Transformers had been managed batter....Another G1 cartoon supporting the new toy characters and lines....I think it would have ran years down the road further than it did....

Hasbro just got lazy and thought they could just keep gimmick-izing the transformers toyline with headmasters, target masters, power masters, action masters, pretenders, etc and that kids would just keep buying it without hesitation.

Truthfully , by time the cartoon cancelled...I thought that was it....
I had seen the movie and gotten the movie line toys (wreck-Gar) and Galvatron....So i had the new toy brochure showing all the new toy line product....

But with the Cartoon Cancelled and not seeing any new commercials...I figured transformers was done....

So on i went to Robotech....

Years later I on that awesome internet and invention called ebay and found G2, pretenders and all the other lines that came out in the end....

transformers G1 reminds me incessantly of the Tonka Go-bots line....

It had a great idea...was mis-managed by inept, apathetic staff/management so it went away like it was destined too...

I'm happy it's back but i just have a feeling that toywise it could have easily made it to the 1990s in the USA , if they (hasbro) had used a functional brain cell back then....

 

Uh... There were years where there weren't really many Star Wars toys on the shelves between Jedi and the Special Edition, where the franchise carried on in novels and comics just as Transformers did, I don't think it's an effective counterexample.

 

Yeah, and in that small 3 year period from the end of Episode III to the Clone Wars movie, the SW line was just classicized as it was for the late 90's revival.

 

yeah but the point is Star Wars did not just give up and stop as a franchise toy wise....It's been out in one form toy wise since the first group of toys got released for the first Star Wars movie....

My point using them as an example was to illustrate that IF a brand/toyline is supported by books, comics, and toys that it can continue as long as the Fans continue to support that brand by purchasing it's items....

transformers could have gone alot further and longer in the G1 form if Hasbro had tried to make some plans with the brand/franchise aside from trying to flood the market with as many transformer branded toys as quickly as possible,

They had no plans aside from a poorly planned cartoon that failed to support the many new characters that the movie introduced and toys lines (as i mentioned in my above post)....

the comic never got into the newer line of robots until the very end of its run....

and aside from the 5 faces of darkness....the newer transformers got almost zilch support via the cartoon.

 

"no, the point is you are misinformed"

just doing my unicrom impression, just joking.
you are a bit misinformed.From 1986 to 1995, There were no Star Wars toys released.

9 years with out SW toys.
I do not think Transformers were ever out of the toy market that long.

 

Paragraphs are your friend.

 

Maybe I'm alone.. But I'm glad everything was the way it was.. I enjoyed the cartoon as a kid, even season 3..

Hell.. When I was a kid I LOVED the movie. I always liked prime, but after the movie, hot rod was definitely my favorite. I think hot rods character in the movie was VERY appealing to kids. He was a badass car, he was young, looked cool in both modes, and he was a tiny bit of a rebel.. It was a nice change of pace from what prime was.

I'm thankful for everything that happened in G1.. Otherwise, Galvatron, hot rod, springer, Magnus, scourge, and cyclonus may never have existed.

As for season 3.. Sure, it's a little goofy.. But I think for a show like that, at the time, they had no choice but to expand the scope of the show.. There are only so many stories you can tell on earth before it loses it's "wow, these robots are big and look like real cars" appeal.

I can understand why people dislike it.. But whether you like it or not, I think it ultimately led to us getting so many reinventions of the brand, which I appreciate.

I mean.. It's rare for cartoons to last very long.

 

I stopped reading half way threw the text wall...

 

your not alone ! The movie was huge I was torn between sorry of loosing guys like Prime and Starscream but was blown away by the new characters as well ! ( Galvatron and Sci clonus ect ect )

Season 3 was great too and I was super happy to see Starscream and Prime come back

I loved how it all came out

I would have ( and still do ) of course liked to have seen a season between season 2 and the movie but again maybe that was part of the fun of the movie was this sudden change of characters .

 

It's too bad that they did not do a TV movie (like the predacons rising one) and flesh out the story further with all the G1 combiners maybe taking on the Quints or something.

I would love to have a few series fleshing out the story from the end of the Great war thru Pax Cybertronia leading us into the Beast Wars time.

 

To support Flatline, the reason we saw a Star Wars absence until the Power of the Force line in 1995 was due to Hasbro buy Kenner. Whether a Star Wars line was in the works before the buy out, I wasn't at the board meeting but nothing really pushed Hasbro for Transformers toys like G2 which consisted of remake/recolors and some improved toy tech and newer designs supported by the 12 issue run. Machine Wars was another filler line that tided a very few over, including myself until Beast Wars.

Funny about Actionmasters, we seem to be getting a lot of high-end actionmaster releases now. Vector Sigma.

539

 

so, you are suggesting that Hasbro chose not to release star Wars figures?And yes, there were Star Wars toys/prototypes in the works before the buy out...........

no, the reason we didnt see any SW toys all thoses years is because the market went soft.

excuse me?
You seem to be remembering things wrong

the Machine Wars toylne did not see its first release untill after mid 1997

the Beast Wars toyline were in stores in spring/summer 1996