I wouldn't say that. In all honesty, there are quite a few episodes of the show that I find much better written than the movie. Burden Hardest to Bear, Ghost in the Machine, The Big Broadcast of 2006/Quintesson Journal saga and Dweller in the Depths being some of them (I would also add Rebirth, since I always felt that was the best multipart saga in the whole show); heck, Five Faces of Darkness would have made for a much better movie than the movie itself if you fix some stuff in the writing and give it better animation (even season two episodes like The God Gambit, The Golden Lagoon and The Gambler I feel are better written than the movie).

 

It had less plot than even ROTF.
It introduces Unicron, jumps to the Autobots fighting the Decepticons in a prolonged battle that's irrelevent to the Unicron story and kills off the majority of all previously established characters, then we go planet hopping to kooky planets while barely even acknowledging Unicron, and then the movie ends ends rushed and abruptly.
At least all of ROTF's plot threads were all leading to the same thing, the 1986 movie did not. And to say it was the best written G1 media at the time is a pretty low bar to begin with.

Which is ironic because it's goal was to be a toy commercial, so much so it carelessly killed off the previous cast to make room for new "toys".

 

Ok. Strongly disagree with your entire post. But, ok.

 

Prove me wrong.

 

I do not know the uproar, really the show is about fighting in a war. Death happens in war, I am more annoyed (at least adult me) about characters just not appearing again without any explanation.

 

From a Sunbow perspective, I kind of assumed Hauler was killed offscreen, probably just before the Constructions showed up (assuming that Hauler was one of the Constructicons before the Robosmasher encounter). I believe there is some media that Hauler was searching for fuel reserves, but given what a threat the Constructicons were to the Autobots (until Omega Supreme showed up), I feel that if Hauler was still alive, Hauler would have heard about the threat of the Constructicons and told Optimus and the fellow Autobots all about the Constructicons well before the Secret of Omega Supreme episode.

I kind of wish that the Secret of Omega Supreme episode could be extrapolated. For me, it would be interesting to see after the Robosmasher incident whether Devastator fought in any battles before Omega Supreme first encounter with Devastator.

Also, I would love to see the Constructions when Hauler first found about the Constructicons joining the Decepticons (I assume the Decepticon logos were just animation errors and that at the time of Crystal City, the Constructicons were neutral, like Skyfire was).

Then it would be nice to see how the Constructicons kept themselves busy after fleeing from Omega Supreme and finally how they found that Megatron was alive again and on Earth in 1985.

 

Nice try. Not getting baited into an endless debate online. Oh and by the way, there is no right and wrong when it comes to subjectivity.

I stated my opinion and stand by it. You stated yours. End of conversation.

 

Still the best transformers movie.

 

86 movie plot is this--slow scene, fight. Slow scene, fight. Repeat over and over for an hour and a half. You get the 86 film. Film is not known for its "plot" most is swiped from star wars.

It's known for cool robot battle action, 80s music, deaths, curse words and the main hero of the show for 2 seasons getting only 10min of screentime and dead by 30min.

Even with that I still have a soft spot for it and had better animation than the show!

 

Perhaps without it, the TF brand wouldn't have had such a lasting impact.

Where are the Silverhawks now? Or C.O.P.S? Is M.A.S.K. on its seventh live action movie?

Love them or hate them, I feel that the TF and GIJoe animated movies helped to cement their legacies, and both included some of the BEST cel animation art I have ever seen, even rivaling Disney.

 

Mask they tried to do a film, but it's been stuck in dreaded movie limbo for years. Thundercats, voltron, robotech had films in the works for decades but could not get off the ground.

Ninja turtles on the other hand did and even got two animated films in theaters.

 

I knew Brad Garret in that Mighty Ducks cartoon back in the 90s, but yeah, learning he voiced Trypticon in G1 surprised me.

 

Well we've the Insecticon Hot Rod drives over the head of getting back into Autobot City. That's a clear fatality. I agree Skywarp, Bombshell, and Thundercracker might technically count, despite their mild protestations. Though in that case, you've got to count Megatron. Tricky. Starscream is a given, despite what shenanigans he got up to later. And of course Unicron himself, which some people have a penchant for descirbing him as a Decepticon. I don't buy it, but it is out there. There's also the possibility of Shockwave's death, such as it is. So we got a lot of candidates, we've just got to figure out the most likely contenders.

I say start with squished head Insecticon. He's undeniable. Starscream. Go from there.

Plus the 5 live action films. I think we're putting the cart before the horse to not mention them. Who wasnt amazed as a kid by the 1990 Turtles. They were the Animated Turtles, literally come to life. It was mind blowing. One of those dream projects where you're doing your homework and idly thinking "wouldn't it be cool if..." and realising there was no way it could ever happen. But damn they found a way. And damned if it doesn't still hold up today. What an achievement.

 

It's always surreal to me that Hasbro chose to kill off their popular characters and replace them with a new cast instead of just giving the existing characters new designs and altmodes (which would also sell toys). I guess the brand was in its infancy and Hasbro was still figuring out what worked, but sometimes I wish 1986 Hasbro had the knowledge they have now. We might have gotten a movie that was a bit more respectful towards the original cast. Which isn't to say they couldn't have killed anyone, but they could have killed less characters and given the ones who died more dignified send-offs.

 

That's not a backlash. That's the makings of a dynasty.

Was the movie not written all that well? It's very uneven, that's for sure. The best part is the first half hour. The rest is a space chase filled featuring a demolition derby, a silly dance sequence and the introduction to a new Autobot leader that...holds an artifact up, Wrestlemania tosses a villain out of the rin--I mean, through a wall, commands a small platoon of Autobots to transform and roll out of danger, and then celebrates.

BUT, we're treated to a wholesale wipe out of Season 1 and 2 Autobots, along with a few Decepticons. As an adult, yeah, it's obvious what was going on. But to a kid, this was hardcore!! Never before had a cartoon show just up and wipe out an entire named cast of characters. It would be like Cheers experiencing a terrorist bombing and 3/4's of the barflies are killed off - and you see Cliff and Norm's dead bodies in the wreckage while Sam Malone cries over Diane. It was the biggest WTF? of the summer.

Hasbro may had made a mistake that cost them a longer TV series in the short run. But in the long run, THIS MOVIE defined a fandom in a way that would be impossible for any kid to understand today with the modern movies. Sunbow/Hasbro/TOEI came together to make a cult classic movie that is on par with many of the animes of the day. Seriously, the 1986 movie can stand shoulder to shoulder with Macross and Gundam. Again, the storytelling is a mite weak but the animation, music, voice work, and the visceral nature of the first half hour are chef's kiss!

That's why 1986 Transformers is celebrated and why Hasbro won't let 1984-1986 go. The 1986 movie IS Transformers, love or hate it.

So, to all the old cast that felt bad about their characters getting the axe. I get it. But I doubt you all would be getting constant calls to appear at conventions today without it.

 

We see him protesting being chucked from Astrotrain before being chucked from Astrotrain and reformatted by Unicron a few minutes later so that head crushing might not be as lethal as you think.

Maybe that was a clone and the Kickback on the shuttle is the real deal, but since he talks to Shrapnel in that sequence (and calls Shrapnel by name), and Shrapnel ends up in the same situation as him on Astrotrain, I'm inclined to think he's not supposed to be a clone.

 

But that's not how war works is it? So many soldiers go out without any big end or any fanfare whatsoever.

Personally, seeing the Prowl/Ironhide shuttle crew murdered so quickly in the beginning of the movie really rose the stakes, made me feel like I wasn't watching a "safe" cartoon.

 

I disagree with this. I still generally like the movie because it's iconic and nostalgic and the high stakes and bright and colorful action make it a lot of fun in most places, but it's absolutely not well written. It feels like what it, by many accounts, is: a franken-script of like 3 or 4 different ideas kludged together so that we can lurch from one big dramatic setpiece to the next with little meat to connect them other than the fact that these characters are all on the same side and ultimately sort of trying to do the same thing. For instance the Quintesson scenes are largely pointless to the plot except that they are revisited and expanded on in Five Faces of Darkness. Hot Rod and Kup's danger could've been basically anything else and the overall plot would not have been materially different.

I also don't like how it dumps the Matrix on us as this vastly important almighty macguffin that was never once alluded to, hinted at, or validated at any point prior in the series even though there's almost not way it wouldn't have come up before then. But that's a whole different kettle of fish.

Apologies for the needless pedantry, I don't think Huffer specifically had to have died during the movie itself, just some point in the interim between the end of season 2 and the start of season 3. IIRC in Dark Awakening the mausoleum is said to be for Autobots who died during the great war which means they have like 7 million years' worth of war dead housed in it, not specifically just bots that died during the attack on Autobot City or anything else that happens in the movie. Or maybe it's 9 million. Or a completely different number. Honestly I don't remember and really can't be bothered to.  

 

Sure the movie killed characters, but it wasn’t to set a darker “anyone can die” tone to raise the tension/drama/stakes. It was to make way for the new toys who go on to save the day. If they wanted to maintain those stakes they should have continued having characters die throughout the whole movie.

In S2? Even when Megatron was powered up by the “heart of Cybertron” and he trashes the Autobots no one dies. No one dies when Blitzwing wrecks several of them and Scrapper turns them into a throne.

my complaint about killing characters like they did is not that they did it but that it’s inconsistent with what was established before.

At least when the comics had Underbase!Starscream kill everyone whose toy wasn’t on the shelves anymore they were smart enough to keep open the possibility they could return.