No,I kind of suspect the answer is to just not bother. I was expecting everyone to tell me that.

 

Nah, its more complicated than that. Not bothering is wayyyyyyyyyyy of the mark. After all we wouldnt be here at all.

 

Well,I had points at Kmart,so I picked up the wing slicing Starscream. I’m happy with him,I like how he’s stylized,but I wish the back end was a little more solid in vehicle mode. Also,I have to say,this is a HUGE downgrade IMO of what you get for 18 dollars. Allthough I do like how easy it is to play with him and transform him.

Another thing I’ll add is that,as I suspected,he does not in any way do the special attack they claim he does,but you can get him to do a MOTU punch.

 

being more a returning fan i dont have much in terms of a collection i have some voyeger sized figures one being the studio series movie Bumblebee Prime which is a good figure so as said earlier you could do some stuff there theres also like the seige series which i havent gotten into though it looks like i beams quality and if you have the cash the masterpiece line is worth it most the time 450 $ for the new masterpiece prime ? no ill pass thanks but other than that being super over priced IMO most other are good prices like the movie master piece prime he ussally goes for the 80-100 dollars range if you wanna spend that much on a figure mp-10 if your looking for a g1 prime can be pricey but if your patient you can find him for a good price , i actually have a masterpiece megatron im looking to buy soon theres lots of options figure wise show wise theres alot of good stuff The G1 show does hold up for the most part it aint perfect has some flaws but its a 80s cartoon and its amazing how much it holds up so theres that theres also beast wars which if you can get past the mid 90s cgi is a Great show with a really good plot and well written characters armada is worth watching tho being worse than the previously mentioned 2 IMO but still worth watching Transformers animated having a very different art style is a amazing show as good as beast wars IMO i havent watched any of cyberverse so i cant comment so if you havent watched previous media theres plenty to do until the next BIG Transformers thing happens

 

bumblebee gives me hope for decent TF movies, Siege gives me hope for decent toys, cyberverse gives me hope for decent shows, so all in all I'd say there's a healthy helping of hope for being a TF fan these days.

 

For me being a fan in 2019 means being squeezed out by the insane, greedy, bullshit prices. Stores that never restock. Stupid pointless crap like overpriced, internet only exclusives like Generations Selects which should be sold in stores. Deluxe figures packed in leader boxes with leader price tags which means you're paying for a ton of empty space. A movie dedicated to one of the G1 minibots in total GOD MODE that cannot be destroyed or killed no matter what happens to him (and all the fans don't even notice how utterly ridiculous it is). And this brand unification BS which means we get to pay Takara prices in the states. And 50 million versions of MP-10 in every color combination imaginable. And still no updated versions of the deluxe insecticons (except for Chop Shop). And tiny Dinobots that look like total shit. And horrible lines & cartoons aimed at baby's that go directly to the clearance section (RID & Cyberverse).

 

I color for fun, it's relaxing. Crayons, pencils, whatever. Sometimes I'd feel silly, pick the wrong colors. Green Smurfs, purple Superman, pink Optimus Prime.

The first time I saw that pink MP-10 Prime, I was in disbelief.  

 

Every time you want to say something positive about the movie, having to qualify it as "the _1986_ movie."

 

I feel like it's a pretty good year to be a fan. We just got arguably the best movie yet, the promise of more great movies ahead, a pretty good comic series, and several solid toylines. I don't particularly care for the current cartoon, but a lot of fans seem to regard it as better than the last one, at least. For me personally, the downside is that I'm not overly hyped for anything. As I said in another thread recently, 2019 is the equivalent of 2012, or 2015. Since we just got a movie, there's not going to be filming news or trailers for while. And I haven't seen enough of the new video game or the Netflix show to get excited for those yet. I don't think this year is quite as "exciting" as the last few years (say what you will about TLK, but the buildup was exciting and eventful), but thankfully it's not too bland either. For people who are more into collecting, I'm sure Comic-Con will be exciting. And people who are into Cyberverse are probably anticipating Fall. I guess it's just a slow year for my interests.

 

Movies are still movies. Hollywood will never get it right.

IDW comics losing millions of dollars every quarter. Tells you what you need to know there.

Cartoons consistently getting worse. One is a web series on YouTube and the other is supposed to come from low budget rooster teeth, who is currently in trouble for not paying a lot of their employees.

The toys have been pretty consistently good since Generations. Stuck in a bit of a G1 season 1 loop but still delivering pretty good quality.

Fandom is toxic as all hell. Good luck with anything more than blindly agreeing with everyone and if you speak frankly your posts will be modded or deleted.

Get out while you can.

 

You can't take Transformers too seriously, because you'll never get out of the fandom alive!

 

Yeah, the movies have not been great. Bumblebee was better than the previous movies but it wasn’t great.

I quite liked Roberts comics but I didn’t care much for the rest of modern IDW, and I really don’t care for IDW2.

And I don’t care for the cartoons since Prime. I’ve not even watched a new episode of Rescue Bots and haven’t watched a lot of RiD or Cyberverse.

And I don’t care for Studio Series, Cyberverse, Rescue Bots, Bot Bots or RiD toys. I do quite like the Generations toys though. If Hasbro stopped giving us. G1-style Generations toys, I don’t know where I’d be.

 

The year of great toys and bad media. I suppose it was a better year to be a collector than a general fan.

 

Cyberverse is pretty gr8 so far. IDW2 just had me lose interest.

 

Fandom is nuts. The franchise is super healthy. Everyone has their corner of media and physical product. Not much ‘course correction’ I could suggest.

 

Well, it depends on what you're interested in.

If you're a fan of G1 and/or the Live Action movies, you're basically getting everything you've ever wanted and more from Generations sublines and Studio Series.

If you're a fan of anything else, it's all either mediocre or nonexistent. Cyberverse is doing well as a crash-course for pre-teens on what Transformers is all about, while still putting its own unique spin on the lore and characters. It started out with some pretty lackluster toys, though the Power of the Spark subline has updated things in some areas, and there are new, more Generations-quality toys coming later in 2020.

Rescue Bots is still going strong as the line for very young children. Though it forgoes the traditional formula of Autobots fighting Decepticons (instead, there are only Autobots, filling a role similar to the "Rescue Heroes") and there are no Generations style toys for collectors who might happen to watch it.

Meanwhile, anything Post-G1 (Beast Wars/Machines, RID'01, Unicron Trilogy, Animated) is essentially being actively ignored, outside of the occasional minor homage.

 

honestly now that you bring it up i think maybe a new take on the beast wars characters would be pretty great now weather or not they ignore beast machines or make a new cannon is something else i think a new cannon would be pretty cool

 

not much thats actually being officially made at the moment, just older stuff, 3P Masterpiece scale G1 stuff, War for Cybertron, The War Within, Beast Wars, G1. i dont have have any hope that movies and cartoon series will improve to a level where i can take them seriously enough to bother investing time in them.

 

Toylines
Recent Past
Combiner wars
Everybody's a combiner! Deluxes are limbs, voyagers are bodies. Lots of interchangeability and cool new combiners not previously seen. Fun line, but the feel of the figures wasn't great and lots of repaints

Titans return
Everybody's a headmaster! Each character had a removable head that became a lil guy who could sit in the cockpit of the vehicle mode and stand on teeny tiny pegs that were sprinkled on the sculpts of bigger bots. Really fun line with some great molds although some paint apps were replaced with foil stickers pre applied. Voyagers were triple changers and leaders had base modes that could connect to eachother and titan class fort max. it's what got me back into transformers along with the Prime tv show.

Power of the primes
Combo of the previous two lines except the little titan master guys are now prime masters, with a symbol of one of the 13 primes on the back, they come with pretender shells and can do everything titan masters do. More combiners including a cool team of dinobots leader figs were optimus and rodimus with the gimmick that they are orion pax and hot rod who armor up into their prime versions of themselves with the matrix of leadership in their chests. Fun line, sometimes low quality plastic feel, still has stickers.

Current

Siege - varying levels of Cyberytonian designs for the characters, but all very faithful and also high quality, pick up anybody you think looks cool and odds are it's a good figure. They've taken a break with intrusive line wide gimmicks and i guess the "gimmick" of the line would be lots of weaponry, with battlemasters, small bots that become weapons, and micromasters who come in packs of 2 and can combine to form weapons

also there is the standardized 5 mm peg system, where each fig has them in roughly the same spots

Weaponizers are in this line, deluxe sized bots that are partsformers, however each piece of their body can become a weapon or armor for any of the other bots

They're all very solid with good paint apps besides some sloppy weathering effects


Studio Series - Movie designs, usually well done but some can have issues due to the intricacy of the designs. A devastator is slowly being rolled out and seems pretty sick

Fiction

Beast wars
Idk if youve seen it but it came before RID. New concept, new characters, strange animation, but it's a good series and highly regarded

Transformers Animated
A different take on the same characters you know, very stylized animation and sort of supervillain of the week plots at times, but its another great series that really took things a step forward i think.

Transformers Prime
CG animated show, a hybrid of movie style and animated style, i think its the best transformers series out there and many would agree with me. Builds on the groundwork animated put down and it sets out to tell its own story. It's accessible to kids but never dumbs itself down. There are great characterizations here that stick for the greater tf universe in some cases. New characters are present that youll love as much as the old, and the old characters that were brought back are oftentimes better than youve ever seen them. The toys were great too but pricy now.

If nothing else, watch the shit out of this show

RID2015
I havent watched this show, ive heard awful things and great things, but the consensus is its on the kiddy side but fun enough

Cyberverse

Ive passively watched this show, amd i enjoy it well enough. Still kinda kiddy but better than first impressions might make it appear. Lots of Pre war backstory is shown which i like a lot, ok animation ok voice acting, short episodes so it doesnt overstay its welcome. Its also free on YouTube

Old IDW comic
This fleshes out characters you care about and characters you've never cared about but now care more about than the ones you thought you cared about

Good shit, there are articles by smart guys thatll tell you the order in which to read them and if you should avoid anything

Pre war and currently-at-war and post war stuff in this, it's really REALLY cool

Current IDW comics
I like these too! I think there are too many artists on the book and its a slow build up starting in pre war days, optimus is still orion, there are various factions at play and some cool things are being done like showing their relations with other species, even sharing cybertron with some organic species. id try reading them
All in chunks by getting the trade, that'd help with the slowness.

 

For me it’s just about the toys. Specifically Siege and Earthrise and Masterpieces. I haven’t enjoyed the current cartoons (though I will give the Netflix one a shot) and didn’t really enjoy any of the movies except the 2007 original. But I love the toys and how they stir my nostalgia.