I was introduced to the franchise when the toyline was released, then the cartoon show. Yes, I'm a G1'ner and I thought that I remember the series pretty well... or so I thought.

I am re-watching some of the episodes (sporadically) and it's tripping me out how certain characters were present in those shows that I don't seem to recall. Example, for some reason I thought Refractor didn't show up until way later on (the series) only to discover he was in the second episode of Season 1. Blitzwing being present so early in season 1 whereas I thought he didn't show up until season 2 (or 3) and so on.

As a fan, do you think you recall most of the episodes, characters only to discover what you thought was right was actually off?

 

Definitely!
For example, I remember watching the episode "The Rebirth part 1" but I never remembered seeing 99% of the bots that were in that episode, for like years.

 

LOL Exactly! It amazes me how we're getting all these new toys/characters and I'm thinking "WHO?" only to discover they were there already and I just didn't remember them. Granted, maybe my old age is not helping in the memory department.

 

I only had the faintest memories of a few scattered episodes of the series from when I was a kid, so watching it again as an adult was a mostly fresh experience because I think I remembered, at most, like a dozen episodes most of which were from the 1st season. Because of that I had no expectations of where and when various characters fit into the timeline of appearances.

That said, it's funny that you remember Reflector appearing later in the show because they actually only appears as prominent characters in the 1st season. In fact according to the series bible the writers were discouraged from using them past the 1st season because the toy was being phased out (and was only available as a mail-away redemption) so their post-season-1 appearances are background cameos and the like. I'm pretty sure only they and Jetfire/Skyfire are marked as "don't use this character" in the bible, though the latter's was less about toy availability and more about the sticky legal issues with the Jetfire toy.

 

I may have Beast Wars memorized front-to-back.

 

Blitzwing wasn't in season 1.

 

Same for me with Armada.

 

And here comes the correction! Thank you!

As stated, I thought certain things/characters/plots were placed in certain timelines/episodes whereas now that I'm re-watching certain episodes, it completely makes me think about what or why the heck did I think about it like that the first place!

And seriously, thank you for the correction!

 

Beast Wars and Animated easily for me given how many times I’ve watched those shows.

 

Season 1 is quite different from later on because it has the smallest/tightest cast. There are almost no significant character introductions partway through the season that don't also get introductory episodes to explain where they came from (the Dinobots and Constructicons most prominently). So everyone that appears on either side is part of the initial crew from the Ark or the Nemesis.

Trying to think off the top of my head I think the complete season 1 casts are:

Autobots
Optimus
Ironhide
Ratchet
Jazz
Prowl
Bluestreak
Bumblebee
Hound
Trailbreaker
Gears
Huffer
Cliffjumper
Mirage
Windcharger
Brawn
Sunstreaker
Sideswipe
The Dinobots once they were introduced

Decepticons
Megatron
Starscream
Thundercracker
Skywarp
Shockwave
Soundwave (with Lazerbeak, Rumble, Ravage and I think Frenzy?. Buzzsaw and Ratbat weren't until season 2. Buzzsaw was rarely seen because there was no need to advertise him since he was the pack-in with Soundwave)
Reflector
The Constructicons once introduced
The Insecticons once introduced


There were almost no Decepticons (hence the significant amount of padding their ranks out with nameless seeker and reflector clones) but I feel like I probably missed an Autobot or two.

Also the above doesn't count the nameless bots that were scene filler or army padding or possibly animation errors who eventually became actual characters in later fiction (like the rainmakers, or Sunstorm, Hotlink, and Bitstream. Or Hauler going from pre-finalized name for Grapple and only appearing in crane mode in the pilot to a totally different character with a different background in later fiction.

Season 2 was the one where we saw the largest expansion to the cast, and usually without any explanation of where they came from except maybe "shut up, they were totally there the whole time and you can't prove otherwise. They were just barely off screen in every group shot. Prove us wrong."  

 

I have most of bw, definitely 99% of beast machines, and ROTF/DOTM


Now my real shameful moment is knowing the beats and dialogue of the 07 movie down to the SFX and the music score playing and stopping hardcoded into my brain

 

Funny, I have an obsession with the '86 movie, and I can do the same thing for that. I was in high school and my friends thought I was joking about how much I knew this movie and bet me I couldn't do it, so for 45 minutes straight I said word for word the dialog, song lyrics, and what exactly what happened to a teat so much so they all actually got very fucking pissed I wouldn't shut up about it.

Pretty proud of that moment and won $20. I love that movie so much that I have actually finished the movie and was like, yep I want to watch it again and did.

My old roommates also hated me for it and memorized the movie as well (not by choice, but by how much I watched it) and every time they heard the opening credits they would curse and say not this shit again.

Then I would go on hours long rant or question something Transformers related.

Good times. Speaking of, I should probably go watch the '86 movie again.

 

I generally recall the happiness, of industrialisation. As and when I do think of the show, the ideology of my mind is to invoke the industrialisation of the G1 show being happy.

The industrialisation, that I refer to: the aspiration to create and share ideas, disguised by the capitalist-military-industrial complex

 

I dragged my family to watch the 07 movie in theaters at least 10 times as a kid


lmfao

 

I have a crystal clear memory of Beast Wars, but that’s the only one.

The last time I rewatched G1, I was surprised at how many of the main characters from season 1 just disappeared in season 2. The Dinobots, Ironhide, just a ton of the characters that are commonly thought of as the faces of the franchise just disappeared offscreen.

 

The 86 movie, Beast Wars, and Armada are the only pieces of Transformers media I consumed as a child and I have a pretty clear memory of those. Everything else I watched as a teen/adult so I haven't been caught off guard on rewatches of any of those.

 

Hot Shot. Jetfire. Vector Prime. Landmine. Scattershot. Optimus Prime.

Transform and roll out.

 

I've watched G1 so many times now the lines and sound effects just come to me like second nature.

 

But that's not true, Ironhide and the Dinobots all had focus stories in season 2.