I'm hoping that with how Cyberverse so far have been given us plenty of BW references and more beasts in general it'd be grand if next year if it has a sequel it'll be beast themed with the focus on being on both new takes on classic BW characters along with established G1 beasts/new characters. It'd be one way to celebrate BW's 25th anniversary that way.

Those are good points. With how big a deal Hasbro's taking the brand in a hyper G1 direction along with making everything similar and connected you'd think Hasbro would now more then ever take this chance to make everything part of the same universe,and have each media focus on different time periods and tones of the universe they're bent on pulling up but as it is,it feels like they're shooting themselves in the foot by basically making every different series be similar to the point of feeling like the same basic product then rinse and repeat. That's just setting themselves up for trouble later down the road because if the majority of your series feels like the same product but with some minor differences like in design,story,and tone then why would be people get invested in them? If you don't care then why should they?

 

Power Rangers has been doing this nearly annually (Sentai even moreso) with no issue.

Resets are nice. It makes the brand accessible to kids specifically and new fans generally.

A straightforward premise they can build new stories around.

Keeps things fresh, too.

 

I mean, Cyberverse and the Netflix show is pretty different tonally and is geared towards different audiences muchas Rescue Bots is different from those two as well. Where the problem lies (for me) is not continuing both of these series.

I get that rebooting brings in new audiences but the reboot button is being hit far more frequently than your average franchise. Like you look at Batman: The Animated Series. Started there, reset with the same continuity as Batman and Robin, again with Batman and Superman Adventures and then again with Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. It wasn't until after that entire run that they finally hit the true reboot button and that's something that I think would really benefit Transformers.

The thing with Power Rangers/Sentai as I understand it (unless this has changed recently) the premise is the same but the cast is different each series. Much like a lot of Japanese TV shows, there's generations and baton passing and I think Sentai does this as well.

Applying this to Transformers, you'd still have Autobots vs Decepticons (and other factions obv) asthe premise but instead of Optimus and Megatron as leaders, you'd have Magnus/Rodimus and Galvatron/Cyclonus and so on and so forth. In Japan, iirc, all the various TFs timelines were all one long continuity up to at least Car Robots and (maybe?) Unicron Trilogy?

I guess what I'm itching for is a sense of history/continuity and more broadly, moving further into it's large mythology past the regulars in every TFs cartoon to date. Even Marvel made Ant-man and Guardians of the Galaxy work so there's no reason why c-list TFs can't equally get some love.

 

Isn't that exactly what they did with the Aligned Continuity? You had the novels and games set on Cybertron before before and during the early days of the war which were supposed to be "adult" fiction, you had the Prime cartoon set on the modern day Earth and you had RiD set during the post-war era, which were the "teens/young adults" fiction, and you had Rescue Bots running alongside both of the other cartoons but aimed at a younger audience. Of course, the continuities outside of Prime and RiD didn't really match up at all... but it was their stated intention.

 

The premise is the same with Transformers. Hell, unlike PR we also typically have the same names and faces in roughly the same roles while PR gets all new characters literally every year.

Rescue Bots Academy is a continuation of the original. Centered on new characters with the originals playing background roles.

Hell, TF has been roughly this for a while as well. Prime/RiD were the same universe doing the same thing as RB/RBA.

Cyberverse was a new storyline, but the cast was roughly the same with characters being about who they usually are. That's been the MO for the franchise for a while. Characters are roughly the same at their core with variations here and there.

To complain about Cyberverse being over after three years without even knowing what comes next is kinda riddiculus. Especially since, as I already mentioned, the show references multiverses directly.

The reset is fine. Transformers has roughly the same premise and the characters haven't evolved much even through all the iterations.

 

Is it ridiculous when, as you already mentioned, we don't know what's coming next? If it's a continuation then that would be groovy. Same with the Netflix trilogy. Hopefully they continue that continuity past that third series but I don't know that either.

Edit: Also, I wasn't complaining. I said Hasbro's tendency to hit the reset button too soon irritates me. Stating what I'd like them to do isn't complaining.

 

I mean, it's riddiculus in general. Zelda, Marvel, PR, DC, Sentai, Digimon, etc etc have had no issue sustaining themselves despite frequent resets.

It all comes off as an extension of wanting G1 to be *it.* Because 9 times out of 10 that's what the complaint stems from. "This isn't G1 so it's bad."

 

Ah. Hence why you thought why I was complaining. Still, I don't see why you got "G1 had to be *it*" as you put it from my comments when I specifically said that I wanted Hasbro to move forward and delve into it's rich mythology and history. Unless you just jumped in, half read what I wrote and made conclusions made off of assumptions from there.

 

To be fair Rescue Bots is being continued with a sequel to the original show but yeah I get what you're saying overall. It makes no sense on why Hasbro isn't taking the chance more then ever to do a similar type of model the DCAU had done years ago if they really want to be committed to the new direction they're taking.

Yes or at least that was the goal for the Aligned universe to begin with. From what we've known the reason why a lot of the stories inside the Aligned universe don't match up a lot was plenty of reasons due either to creative differences between Hasbro and some of the heads of the Prime production staff, as well as some other factors such as how the Universe MMO had different problems going for it which led to Hasbro eventually dropping it in favor of the new direction they're taking nowadays with the Evergreen thing in placed. What's boggling to me is that with Hasbro now taking more control then ever you would think they would make sure that everything is actually more solidly connected this time with each media expanding upon the new lore Hasbro's building up but they haven't. I guess one can make the argument that they're now going for a model similar to how in the G1 days that they're mostly different universe having similar aspects to them which if that was the case now it would make this more understandable. I hope they confirm that's he case because otherwise this is going to only make people who don't understand why Hasbro isn't connecting it's current media together all the more frusrated.

 

Because they specifically do not WANT the universes to connect.

They don't want little kids seeing the Rescue Bots with missiles and guns shooting bad guys, that's not who they are. Likewise they're very careful about how characters from the wider mythology come back in to Rescue Bots. They're all professors, with references to stuff they've done....but never battles or fighting.

Even Cyberverse and the Netflix series appear to have a different tone. Both dealing with life/death scenarios, but only one really showing the negative outcomes of war.

The common lore people want is the premise of the show (robots in disguise, which Rescue Bots is really making a point of) with characters who share the same name having common traits between versions.

 

Thing is though you can have series with different tones be connected to the same universe that don't involve having characters go against what they stand for. Like you said the Rescue Bots aren't the type to go into serious war zones yet RID15 shown that it's possible that both series can exist in the same universe without going against the ideals Rescue Bots has going. It's like how in the DCAU Superman's adventures and city isn't the same as Batman's darker adventures and tones yet they still exist in the same universe just fine that don't go against each respective character's themes.

So again it makes no sense why Hasbro isn't trying harder this time to make things connected and have each series have different themes and goals yet exist fine in the same universe when the DCAU had proven this to work just fine.

 

The "Evergreen" designs are, I believe, intended to give the characters immediately recognizable designs that are specifically not connected to any continuity as a means to be able to sell toys of them regardless of what is going on in other fictions. While Cyberverse did use some of the Evergreen designs, pretty much every character's design was a pre-existing one drawn in Cyberverse's artstyle. Bludgeon, for example, was the RiD Deluxe-Class toy.

 

And Power Rangers proves the other works fine, too.

People are just skewing towards "one continuity" for Transformers because whether they know it or not they want the universe to match the franchise they specifically like. G1, BW, etc...

What if they aligned under the Bayverse? Hell, that was so popular it redefined Bee and it's stuck for 13 years.

 

Why do you keep generalizing so much? It's weird that you keep classifying people that want one continuity as people that only want one part of the franchise. There are some that want one continuity so that maybe Hasbro can finally get to other parts of the franchise as they blend in them into the/an existing continuity. Because currently, Hasbro reboots back to the status quo.

Edit: Using G1 **as an example**, they went G1/G2/Headmasters/Victory/Masterforce etc etc. The way Hasbro currently goes about it, you'd never even get to Headmasters because they'd push the reboot button well before that.

 

You only want one continuity, ergo you only want *one* part of 30 years worth of stories to come out on top.

And, like I said, whether you know it or not, it's one you're personally biased towards. I'm not even faulting people. I'm assuming positive intent here and just pointing out where the argument stems from.

Same thing is happening in PR fandom. People want Hasbroto honor "the lore" and it usually skews towards whichever seasons they grew up with (which is usually MMPR for them as it is G1 here).

 

Except that's not what I said at all. You jumped the shark right from the start and accused me of being a G1 purist (which seems to be a thing with you in general) yet I blatantly said the opposite in all my posts about the subject. If you can't take what I actually said and discuss it from there, maybe you shouldn't reply to me?

Because again, I didn't say I wanted only one part of the franchise. I want *all of it*. BW, HM, Victory, IDW...whatever.

Just to turn it on it's head and throw a curveball, start with Beast Wars for a change with the Maximals and Predacons and have them committed to the old ways a la IDW. Then towards the end of it's run, introduce another iteration of the franchise. There's room for innovation but Hasbro gets gunshy a lot.

 

Well, I'm 45 so the TFs I grew up with is pretty much the whole franchise (comics, toys and toons) so I don't really have a preference for any one part of TFs, just make it good. That's my one and only criteria.

Heck, I finally accepted BWs after initially shunning it way back in the 90s like a red-headed stepchild. The Transformers universe book got me into the BW story and, being an animation snob somewhat back in the 90s, I was able to look past it when I got into the lore in later years.  

 

Nope. I spoke in general about the forum and the fandom and, as they say, a hit dog hollar...

 

Nope. In one post it was general in this post it was specifically to me.

And, btw, you have yet to show me where I actually said any of the bolded. Oh yeah. Because I didn't.