"Back to its roots" should mean going back and identifying what worked and what didn't in past alliterations creatively and improving from that. There's two big factions, two leaders, and a war that's been prolonged or started in the past year or so-so. They just need to take these basic concepts and just get creative with those factors. It's how we got great alliterations like Beast Wars and Animated. If anything the TF franchise as a whole is too invested in it's own core roots and as a result we get these shitty G1 rehashes like Siege completely missing the point on how certain core-alliterations succeeded. That said, Hasbro needs to get some actual creatives in place who can actually establish a context for new alliterations to exist for Hasbro to work off of for the toys and not the other way around.

 

We need to stop with the "false starts." I feel like we have more stories about the war for Cybertron than we do follow-ups to that war and proper conflicts on Earth, which is where everything interesting happens.

We need a simple, straightforward take that begins on Earth, with the minutiae and cause of the Great War that brought them there simplistic and vague. We need the Decepticons to just be power-mongers, not backwards freedom fighters, and Autobots who are heroic, not dour and morally compromised. I'm so sick of feeling like I've entered into the world's worst forced drama. Neither G1, Beast Wars, or TFA had much in the way of a detailed backstory, because it was the modern conflict that was most interesting. It doesn't make Optimus and Megatron better characters by giving them this intertwined backstory, it just makes it seem like the writers can't handle a dynamic between them without resorting to vague references to a forever undisclosed and unseen relationship. It's cheap.

More than anything, though, we need to re-establish the tone set set by those series I mentioned. Grimdark does not fit Transformers, but it also doesn't need to be devoid or serious elements. Even G1, for all its faults in writing and plot, had a balanced tone that could be serious when it wanted to, but Beast Wars and TFA are the quintessential TF series for most people for a reason.

If I were to take Transformers back to its roots, I'd have two small factions of Autobots and Decepticons, with strong leader characters whose dynamic is built within the series, not before it. I'd have a central, plot-moving element that establishes a baseline conflict from which to expand (an item or resource both sides want or need) and for God's sake I'd make everything that matters happen in the show. No half-baked allusions, no budget flashbacks with matte paintings and narration in lieu of animation and dialogue, just actual events and moments and story told well that we care about. Episodic stories with an underlying continuity.

Transformers has the ego of a big brand with a rich narrative, but the reality is it's been chasing its own tail for years, constantly resetting or bungling the continuity. It's not an epic, it's not a mythology, the lore is convoluted and weak and we desperately need a return to form. And because of this ego, it tells tall tales and totally lapses in the moment-to-moment stories and character development. (or the opposite: the overall narrative doesn't matter/is complete hogwash, and it becomes a sitcom of characters who all feel too cartoonish and scripted in their interactions) That ego needs to go, and we need to embrace simpler plots with straightforward narratives where the characters conflict, interaction, and overcoming obstacles is key. You can always work your way up to bigger things, sure (BW and TFA both ended far larger than they started) but you can't dial it back without the stakes and story suffering.

 

Going back to its roots?

Watch Cyberverse. Buy Cyberverse.

The Cyberverse cartoon is made with kids in mind but with adult ideas lurking beneath - just like Generation One. Season 2 Episode 1 was literally me and my friends having a battle on my old bedroom floor when I was 9.

Buy Cyberverse toys. Yes, some of them suck, especially wave 1. But the toys are meant to be enjoyed for being toys, not works of art or display pieces.

You want roots? Remember the magic that brought you in as a kid back in 1984 and go!

 

Basically what SPLIT has said. Don't bother with the minutiae of the backstory, just get right to Earth as soon as possible because that's where everything interesting happens, and for god's sake make it fun. I'm so utterly sick of Transformers being so far up its own ass. This is a franchise about colorful space robots that can turn into whatever, some of them can grow or shrink, some of them have heads or guns that can turn into smaller robots, some of them can combine to make bigger robots, and some of them are Sky Lynx. It doesn't have to be a comedy and there's still plenty of room to be serious with that premise (see: Animated) but just own up to the fact that your goofy space robots are goofy and move on. Megatron and Optimus don't need a complex, intertwined backstory to be interesting-- as a matter of fact one of my favorite Optimus/Megatron dynamics is actually the one from Armada, where we know basically nothing about their respective backstories but learn everything we need to know by just seeing them in action, Megatron in particular but both of them in the final episode, which I still regard as one of the greatest finales to any Transformers show ever. Also have their arrival on Earth be a complete quirk of fate-- the Allspark is just a boring Macguffin that legitimately has not been used for anything remotely interesting since Animated, a whopping 13 years ago at this point. And finally, don't be afraid to use new characters in the core cast, or at least ones that aren't used very often. Optimus and Megatron are a given by this point, sure, but there was a time where those under their command could be new characters who would shake the dynamic up, like Hot Shot or Lugnut.

 

Do a reinvention of the franchise every 5 years

 

Drop the Allspark/"magical mcguffin" already. We've had it on repeat for the over a decade now (with the Allspark alone).
Return to the great war being an energy crisis, that is much more grounded and relatable. I mean a lot of wars are started over scarcity of resources. Also throw in some new characters without relying SOLELY on legacy characters, or if you have to keep the copyright in the loop, go with a radically different interpretation of the character like what we saw in Animated and the Unicron Trilogy. Its getting stale seeing the same legacy characters being rehashed and recycled being hardly different from the previous iteration.

 

I think WFC on netflix came so close. It has alot of right ingredients. Simple designs that hew close to the toys(part of why i loved AEC). A decent variety of familiar and some new charecters. Slick looking(albeit sorta clunky) animation. Starting toward the beginning of the war. So many great things were there...le sigh.
Keep the cast small. It really helped Beast Wars. But don't be afraid to bring other charecters in and out periodically(worked decently in Prime with Wheeljack who wasnt always around, would work great for a Drift type charecter or some spies).
With great writers lean into the fact that there are heroes on both sides. The Decepticons dont have to be purely mustache twirling villains.

 

yes

 

I'm gonna go the sort of joking route and say make it feel like Diaclone and Microchange: robots that transform is cool and stuff, and the characters themselves are just fun. Doesn't mean it can't ever be serious, like I love the lore of the Transformers with being former slaves to aliens and making a whole planetary society torn by war and lack of energy.

It makes for an interesting dynamic with Earth and humans and is very fitting for literal car robots and the like. For me at least, some "quiet" moments would be kinda fun, like Wheeljack tinkering in an auto shop or Ratchet visiting a medical school and being hilariously shocked at human anatomy. It might not be very action-packed, but it would make for some nice interactions. Heck, maybe Megatron can force Starscream to a military flight school believing it'll make him a better fighter.

An example I can think of is when a pair of autobots from Victory who usually combine into one being try to combine the other way around. One is a spaceship, and the other's a bright orange jeep, and they basically combine kinda like Overlord: one makes the legs, the other the torso. Combining the other way around really messed with them, and they could barely get around. Moments like that are just the best for me, alongside the tense firefights, violent raids, and character matchups. It's the Yakuza effect where all the fun and ridiculous moments get you attached, making the fighting and action moments that much more impactful. Also, sorry for the rambling.

 

For the record, the spaceship is Mach and the jeep is Tackle. Their normal combined form is Machtackle, while this one time one is Tacklemach.

 

Here’s the thing that no Transformers fan wants to admit;

the “roots” of transformers were kinda shit to begin with :/

maybe not entirely - you can’t make something as big as the mass marketing move G1 made without SOME genuinely creative and talented people being involved (Daddy Floro Dery where you at), but for the most part G1 was a shoddy, half baked, soulless cash grab relic from the Reagan era designed to sell toys and nothing more.

I understand that this is difficult for a lot of fans (particularly the gen X’ers) to accept, but really go back and watch G1 and tell me with a straight fast that telling a thoughtful, intelligent story with well developed characters was their main goal.

now that doesn’t mean transformers is doomed to be shit to begin with, or even that the roots are entirely disposable - I have my problems with G1 but it DID establish a lot of the designs, cues, story, and formulas that the series STILL pulls from to this day, and we’ve seen Transformers media that does great stuff with what’s already established.

personally, I think a great way to “return TF to
It’s roots” is by doing a HARD deconstruction of it, by acknowledging and focusing on the problems with the concept, or playing the concept completely serious, as though it’s happening in the real world.

This doesn’t mean shitting all over G1 (although that could work in a “21 Jump Street Movie” kind of way), but by acknowledging the stuff you never considered as a kid but can’t stop thinking about as an adult. Why are they fighting? How do they work? Why are they hanging out with kids? What effect would their presence have on world politics? Why is Grimlock? Any ONE of these questions can fill a whole movie if you have talented people behind it.

Transformers is really one of those properties that’s waiting for a super talented and passionate individual to take the reigns and make something amazing out of it (Sam Raimi with Spider-Man, Richard Donner with Superman, etc.), but I don’t know how that could happen if they don’t just let go of the past. At the very least let go of this overly sacred interpretation of it, as though a half hour toy commercial is some kind of gospel.

 

Honestly, they need something completely out of the left field, pretty much a fresh slate. A new and unique story that honestly forgets pretty much all of the established lore and goes in a new direction with a brand new cast of characters and on an entirely new planet. The problem with modern day shows is that they always fall in the same pattern, leave Cybertron to Earth to find some Mcguffin, use pretty much the same characters and follow pretty much the same story.

At this point, it's so bored and tiresome and we need something fresh like a complete reboot of everything. Hell, I would dare say forget the entire Cybertronian war and go a new angle like the revolution against the Quintessons or colonizing new worlds; just something other than the typical G1 nostalgia formula.

I've seen some good ideas posted here and it always pisses me off to see how a show could have been instead of what it was. Hasbro truly needs to do the clean slate and start over, get some fresh blood and new ideas flowing otherwise the franchise is just going to fizzle out in the dust. TLK pretty much killed the general interest in Transformers amongst the masses, Bumblebee kinda brought it back, but overal I think people are just tired of seeing the same thing over and over. It truly is Franchise fatigue and they need to reinvent themselves.

As much as I hate to admit it, but I'd also possibly reccomend taking a break from the franchise altogether, wait a couple of years to forget about the bad Transformers media, and then regroup and put all their efforts into quality reboots that will reignite the spark for people's love of Transformers.

 

Stop making shows on the cheap (Netflix series).
Bring back as many of the original voice cast as possible (See above).
Make a full on G1 show set between 1985 and 2005.

 

This more than anything. Hasbro wants to be a studio but don't at all operate like one, let alone spending the resources to put out a truly high production value series and writing.

Me personally? I'd start the war on earth. Autobots are the ruling party on Cybertron and Decepticons are the uprisers like usual. But Autobot dominance can't be broken and so Megatron and co flee Cybertron to find a planet resource-rich enough to launch an army insurgence from. Hence Earth.

Other than that...just give them actual personality, expand past the usual cast and key in on everything that makes them cool. What they transform into, how hard they are to kill.

 

1) make it about the war. The start, during and the end. Not on earth like most shows and not after the war ended like in animated. Megatron's rise and downfall, optimus becoming a prime and struggling with leadership.


2) keep it not restricted to cybertron but include all the colonies included like Velocitron and all the other many colonies I don't want to name.

3) keep some politics. Let it be interesting. It worked for Star Wars the clone wars, it can work

4) let the characters be interesting. Starscream smart and clever like littlefinger from GoT. Let some episodes focus on the soldiers and not treat them like generics

5) let characters have arcs and episodes dedicated to them. Make a plot twist worth it

 

I'm going to disagree with you here, Necro. What you call "being up its own ass" is what has kept me interested in Transformers beyond childhood. The war on Earth is all well and good, but when it comes down to brass tacks, it seems to be one of the few recurring things I think Transformers can truly do without. It worked to sell toys in the 80s, but Transformers has gone beyond that as a franchise. I found IDW1's take on Cybertron all the more interesting when it was divorced from the War on Earth.

Stuff like the Thirteen, Empurata, and the expansion of Marvel-era lore like gladiatoral combat is what has my attention, lore-wise. These are high concepts, a blend of traditional science fiction and fantasy bona fides. People like to moan about the Primus stuff, but the alternative - "alien squids made the Transformers" - just doesn't interest me. The Transformers being made by God, or the closest thing, is a hell of a lot more interesting in my eyes.

You like Armada. That's OK, you're allowed to like what you like. But it can't be denied that it was perhaps one of the most toyetic series, whose driving force was initially a "gotta catch'em all" gimmick. It's remembered for its characterization, but the actual bones of the story in which that took place weren't as good in my opinion.

 

I think the "primus and the 13" has gotten boring by this point. So have the squids. The origin isnt mysterious anymore, its just overly complex. I think having a gobots style origin for the transformers might even be more interestibg at this point...

 

The Primus stuff is, out of the origins presented to us in the lore, is the one that has the most staying power. It's understandable that it's the go-to. I feel like there's something be honed in on the fact that Vector Sigma is His "purest form" - that Primus is not just some metal body, but a being of pure, unbound information. Some of the Japanese material has picked up on this, but that stuff never makes it into the minds of the American creators who work on Transformers.

And as for the Squids, I'll make no secret of it. I don't like them being the creators of the Transformers. It takes away from the concept of the Matrix, because its origins are never properly explained in a Quintesson context. It's just this thing that their slaves have that has mystic powers, and the Quintessons haven't seen fit to destroy.

 

How would I take Transformers "back to its roots"?

Easy. I'd import Diaclone Reboot into a new TF toyline, have a decent comic book writer do the bible work on it, then branch off a new comic AND cartoon when the toyline hits.

 

The mission there for Hasbro would be to make sure it's affordable. I don't think parents would be interested in spending $100 on a voyager sized toy or $200 on a leader class figure. When Transformers hit back in 1984, the most expensive figures like Shockwave were around $24.99 - about $50- $60 today. Most of them were in the $7.99 to $14.99 range - $15 to $30 each today which is what they are comparatively now.