We've had 4 cartoons out of 19 that are actualy good/decent. One good movie out of 6 (and it took us 35 years to get that movie). 25% of the entire comic book output has been actualy well made.

By all means, Transformers is USUALLY bad fiction. And it makes sense, it's a toy brand managed by a toy company that doesn't actualy know much about storytelling at all. It's not a matter of dropping standards, it's a matter of recognizing that if you're in this franchise looking for quality media you're probably in the wrong place and swimming against a waterfall and should prrroooobbably stop being burly as hell about the actual quality of the media, it's fine to recognize we're in Guilty Pleasure Land.

 

I think there's some legal weirdness that's prevented the release of RID 2001, not necessarily Shout Factory's unwillingness. RID 2015 is harder to explain.

 

In other words they're saving themselves about 2/3's the embarrassment.

 

Congratulations on saying nothing of substance and having no idea what you're talking about, but that's typical of many fans at this point in time.

In the grand scheme of things, all Transformers fiction is shallow, ridiculous entertainment made to sell toys. Every comic, every show, every movie is made to sell toys, and no amount of denial on the part of the fandom will change that. All Transformers fiction is light beer at a fraternity kegger with red solo cups, not masterfully crafted microbrews enjoyed in a tulip by some douche hipsters.

Yeah, you can claim some shows or comics are comparatively better, but we're not talking much better. The difference in quality is nowhere as great as fans like to pretend.

So you misrepresent what others say in an attempt to bolster your bullshit arguments.

I have never, ever said Michael Bay understood the franchise better than anyone in existence, but I think he absolutely understands Transformers better than much of the fandom, including some people in this thread, because the sizeable minority or (more likely) majority of the fandom has turned Transformers into something it isn't and never has been. He and Knight and others have certainly put forth a lot more work and effort into Transformers publicly and behind the scenes than anyone in this thread and more than the people who made the Machinima series.

I love Transformers, including G1, G2, Beast Wars, Beast Machines, the Bay movies, and Animated, and even most of the other stuff I'm more indifferent to than hateful, but I love them for what they are and not for what they are not. I think all of those examples are, for the most part, over-the-top and silly toy-based fiction that occasionally touch upon deeper ideas, although they certainly never go into too much depth. That's true of even the best Transformers fiction.

And when I judge Transformers fiction - comics, cartoons, movies - I am judging them as Transformers fiction.

But even more important than judging is describing. It's easy to judge; any idiot can judge something. It takes thought to actually describe. And in the grand scheme of things, it's considerably more satisfying to describe something than to judge.

Yes, it is. Most Transformers characters are archetypes, stereotypes, and clichés. There are occasional exceptions here and there, but they are the exceptions.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that either. Sometimes that can be more fun than more realistic or deeper characters. But anyone claiming that's not the norm in Transformers is fooling themselves.

Yeah, because you totally understand my wants and everything I prefer in Transformers fiction.  

If anything, I'd prefer more Transformers fiction to be more imaginative and something closer to serious science fiction. Something more serious than has ever been made, but I'm also a realist. I know that, realistically speaking, that's not going to happen soon.

That is an argument I have literally never made. Stop putting words in my mouth. I never said the production of shows and films shouldn't put forth effort. I actually think many people involved in the production of Transformers fiction do, but that doesn't mean I don't recognize Transformers fiction for what it is.

Especially since I don't even like the Machinima Series for having almost no effort. The other examples of Transformers fiction I mentioned earlier in my post, whatever their flaws and whatever one thinks of the finished products, all have much, much, MUCH more effort put into them than the Machinima Series.

So you're someone who seemingly can't stand people having different opinions? Grow the heck up. Stop misrepresenting what other people say.

Every single one of my opinions and ideas are things I can back up with evidence and tons of reasoning. I don't lie. I don't bullshit. You don't have to agree, but every single opinion I have is perfectly valid.

The writing in any Transformers fiction has never been the greatest. If anything, it's the artists and animators and voice actors and voice directors that have brought the characters to life moreso than the writing. Without guys like Welker, Cullen, Kaye, and many others, the robots wouldn't have been anywhere near as fun or memorable, nor would they have had as much personality.

People don't like Transformers because it's "great" fiction with "deep" characters, although it certainly can be imaginative or even clever at times. It's simply a toy brand that has captured the imagination of millions of people starting in the 80s. That isn't nothing. There's a time and a place for everything.

 

I'm more disappointed that Gee-wun Redone never gave those other 2 season's their due like the first season.

 

headass

 

that's a shame because I didn't have time to watch all of them

 

*Staff doinked mournfully*

 

It was a fun Saturday night binge on the iPad.

 

It's still better than what the Bay films or Machinima gave us.

 

Combiner Wars and Power of the Primes is on Hasbro's channel, but Titans Return is missing for whatever reason.

No. That's something else. You are not able to buy or rent the '86 film digitally at the moment, but that may have to do with licensing or some exclusive streaming deal we don't know of. Machinima on the other hand simply took down all of their videos for rebranding purposes.

 

such a disappointment i feel like a calculator wrote the script

 

TBF, lots of IDWVerse wasn't much better than either one of those, so maybe he's basing it off that.  

 

Saban was behind the English dub, who then owned the dub audio. The video is still owned by TakaraTomy. TakaraTomy can release it in its original audio language, but if they (or a Hasbro licensor in this case) wish to release the English dub they would need to pay the company that owns that existing English audio track.

Saban was purchased by Walt Disney. When Saban bought his company back it was not any of the dubbed anime that Saban had produced. Disney still owns the audio tracks of all of those Saban shows, but not the video portion of the programs.

It would require Hasbro and Disney to share the digital and home release profits. My understanding is that Disney wants the lion's share of that profit and they're Disney so you deal with them or go away. It's not financially affordable for Shout or Hasbro to license the English audio for the Saban dub. It would probably be a legal battle if they were to even release the original in a subtitled version as well, because Disney would use that as an excuse to claim they owned the show entirely. That would open a can of worms where Disney could then claim rights to the names of the characters in the show. They have done far worse against other companies and individuals. Hasbro probably feel that it's not worth risking the legal fight just to bring a show out again for the eight people who can't just torrent it somewhere else.

 

My Free with a paid subscription Calulator resents the implication that it is that talentless as a writer. Also: boobs.

 

No one enjoyed it to begin with...

 

To be fair, as goofy as the show seems NOW, Transformers was leaps ahead of most other cartoons of the day and certainly better than any Western action cartoon that came before it, save Jonny Quest.

 

You said it better than I could have

Perfect response transformers was never perfect from beginning especially g1 cartoon transformers I look at transformers as entertainment nothing more while others can look for transformers other things here welcome to those people who stuck on in g1 past who always complain bits in movies don’t have human faces and don’t have boring blocky LEGO bodies they should stick with comics and cartoons but those movies do have good side they took new people who don’t watch cartoons don’t read comics turned them into transformers if hats not good thing to look at movies then those most of those old fans will never change and be stuck in g1 universe forever those movies made transformers popular again that comics and cartoon never could have done.

Some of g1 episodes are dumb and not master piece powerglide crush , hound dive in water save drowning spike with air mask over his face he can breath in space but not water , and humans not floating away on cybertron and no space suites required but you space ships and asteroides get close to cybertron they don’t burn up when getting close to cybertron as you would see space shuttle entering earth atmosphere

 

Hasbro: Please take this as a hint. Invest in your fiction. See what Netflix has done for other properties (like Voltron, Trollhunters, etc.) or Disney did with Star Wars: Rebels and actually put some money and talent behind your IP. The Bumblebee movie was a step in the right direction: do something similar to that, but with animation and more of a focus on the robots.

 

For those wondering about Machinima:

- 

Anyway, as rise TF videos were, at times, geo-blocked for me in Japan, I learnt to either watch them via third party solutions, or just ignore them.  For me, the TF episodes, and Machinima, were (due to this) largely irrelevant (same with the latest Hasbro cartoon show, which is also geo-blocked in Japan at YouTube).

I won\'t miss this channel, not the TF content on it.  Anyway, I\'m sure it\'ll get reloaded.