Very nice! But I think you're right. Other than wanting to own the rights to all of the TF cartoons, Hasbro has no reason to buy the rights from Saban. At the same time I don't know if Saban would be able to release RID on DVD by themselves without approval from Hasbro.

But yes RID needs more love. The new molds for the line were excellent and sadly it took many years afterwards for the quality of the engineering to return to that level.

 

I voting for RID because it was the first to have Optimus to combing.

 

My vote is for the Unicron Trilogy. I never cared for anything related to Beast Wars. And the Alternators line was great, but distribution was a problem, and now we kinda have it back in the form of Human Alliance. I wonder how well HA is doing and if it's doing well enough to justify them doing more molds - inside or outside of movie design. One plus side to Alternators & HA - my girlfriend didn't totally hate them because they turned into real cars. I don't know why that's important, but...well, she's goofy like that. As for RiD, I totally missed it...Armada is what got me back in. But I've seen the molds and I usually haven't cared for how they look...and I had real trouble with Optimus Prime being a firetruck. (I got over it with Cybertron.)

The Armada animation was OK. (The comics were good, though.) Energon was bad enough that I stopped watching it. Cybertron? Oh, I loved that show and I still do.

But what's most important to me is that Armada and Cybertron added substantially to the overall TF mythos. Starscream stopped being an inept backstabber and became a genuine threat...something that even TFTM07 and RotF miss somewhat. (He even wound up with his own team of Decepticons in Cybertron!) We also got other characters that were obvious homages to G1, but (arguably) improved. And - and this may be most important - we got new, memorable characters. Yes, some (many?) were clearly similar to G1 characters insofar as archetypes go (Red Alert -> Ratchet / Perceptor, Hot Shot -> Bumblebee / Hot Rod, Tidal Wave -> Devastator.) But some were pretty fresh for Transformers....

*Demolishor, loyal to a fault but a few microchips shy of a circuitboard...still a credible threat, though. (Animated Lugnut and Armada Demolishor would probably get along rather well.)

*The chaotic pair of Ransack and Crumplezone...it's not often that we get Decepticon cars, which made them all the more welcome. Dirt Boss was cool too.

*Override, a new Prime and (in the West, at least) a new "femmebot."

*Scourge, a new Prime - a Decepticon, no less. And one of the neat things about him (and the other Jungle residents) is that they're "tech beasts" like the G1 Predacons, not organic-looking. His minions aren't terribly great characters, but it's important to have minions.

We also got Mini-Cons - something new for TFs. We got Energon weapons, which were a logical extension of Prime's axe and Megatron's flail from G1. Cybertron gave us new planets to explore. That the battle between the Autobots and the Decepticons on Velocitron mostly took the form of racing is awesome. Like Lightning McQueen awesome or Ricky Bobby awesome. Yes, that awesome. Cybertron also gave us Keys, and some of the gimmicks were pretty cool.

We got a lot of neat toys - especially in Cybertron. We also got a Cybertron Defense Force - which sorta foreshadowed the Elite Guard in Animated. (Note that both of those teams got modified Autobot symbols.)

So this has turned into a ramble instead of something coherent, and I don't have time to fix it. But you get my drift...Unicron Trilogy all the way.

 

I like the way you think.   I think the Unicron Trilogy concepts are great. In my Transformers series concept Velocitron and Gigantion are planets the Transformers colonized.

 

It's all about RID as far as I am concerned, if for no other reason than Scourge. He ruled.

 

I was torn between RID and AEC.

 

beast machines

but we need the lost transtech toys
a botanicia figure. she was from a group of transformers that landed on a planet with nothing but plants, so they had plant alt modes.

 

Since I'm mostly just in this hobby for the toys, my choice is mostly based on that preference alone...

My vote is for none of the above since I'd rather have more Beast Wars. Personally I'd like the designers to have another crack at beast molds, the Universe releases were the weakest new molds of the entire line. It would be cool to see new, better toys of some of the core characters, especially Rhinox. A comic series would be cool too, just so long as it's nothing like what IDW already did. I'm not against new characters, but cramming in as many as they possibly could was horrifically terrible. I'm not really much of a comic collector outside of the odd TPB to read on road trips, but I'd be interested in seeing an 'Untold Stories' series on Beast Wars, things that happened in between the episodes and so forth.

-G2 would be close to the top of my list. I liked this year's Botcon toys (outside of Skybyte who didn't really fit in with the others) and it would be cool to see more. Once again coming from a toy collector first and foremost, I'd love to see some G2-inspired toys, even if the're just repaints of existing molds. I'm looking forward to next year's G2 Ramjet.

-Machine Wars who? Seriously, don't really care at all about it at all.

-Beast Machines would be nice to see given some updates given that the original toys were so god awful but I just don't know how they'd be able to make toys that were faithful to both modes from the TV show even with 10 years of engineering advancements. The designs are just too far out there IMO. But an Untold Stories comic series would work for BM too.

-RiD toys are still better than half the modern toys IMO. I can't see how they could possibly make the Car Brothers or Optimus better. Comics might be fun, but I couldn't stand the personalities from the cartoon so obviously if they carried over to a print format I'd skip it.

-Armada toys would be nice to see updates for here and there. I'm still not the biggest fan of the original toyline but the farther we get away from it the more I see the charm in knowing there's a shelf in my collection room full of simple toys to fiddle mindlessly with. That's just me. An updated toy of Megatron with articulation would be killer though!

-The Energon toys aren't all that bad IMO. There are some Autobots that were destroyed thanks to the combining gimmick, but they aren't as bad as Armada. For the most part the Decepticons are great.

-Cybertron is great as-is. Not perfect but not really demanding a redux either.

-Animated is gone. I'm happy. I'll leave it at that. Give the whiners a comic book to make them happy.

-Alternators show their age next to the Human Alliance line. Classics (and the related lines) took the concept of updated G1 forms and did it better anyway IMO, so let Alts rest in peace.

 

I say Beast machines, Hasbro try and shy away from anything to do with that series since it ended (Titanium Cheetor came out by a sheer fluke)

a show accurate Jetstorm or Tankor would be awesome but i can understand why hasbro want to stay away from it after it didn't do so well. I think Michael Bay would have been well advised to look at the cartoon designs for the vehicon robot modes for the movies, the sleek no part wasted nature just looks so much more believable over having circuitry exposed.

whilst the ending was far off from what many wanted for cybertron I feel the element of closure was needed for the characters.

 

I voted armada/energon/cybertron. This is mostly because I just don't think the Terrorcon molds from Energon, or the Scrapmetal Mold from Cybertron gets enough love. I have a whole Terrorcon army of like 50 or so from those molds, and I want some more repaints of them. Especially the Divebomb mold and the Scrapmetal Mold.

I lump the energon Sharkticon mold in with these guys and have the Botcon use of the mold in the army as well. I would love for that mold to get a repaint release too.

 

I voted RID. I hated the cartoon originally but it grew on me once the Decepticons arrived. Plus Skybite is just so endearing. Would love to get Basic/Scout size Spychangers, especially Ironhide/Ox.

To really celebrate RID, I think they should homage the black repaint of Prime trend they started by repainting RID Optimus and Magnus as Nemesis Prime and Motormaster respectively and have them combine into Menasor. Those 3 names are linked to rivalries with Primes anyway. Nemesis Prime in Classics, Universe, IDW and Armada, Motormaster's classic tech spec rivalry with Optiimus Prime and Menasor as Titanium Rodimus' evil twin.

I'm sorry, I just want a Motormaster repaint from Ultra Magnus.

On the evil repaint note, 5 other RID toys have since been repainted as Decepticons. The Build Team were repainted as the Universe Constructicons (my favourite Constructicon incarnation btw) and Robotmasters Wrecker Hook was supposed to be an amnesiac Towline. Oh to see RID Skid-z/RM Mirage repainted as Dragstrip!

On topic, while I love RID, had it been listed among the choices, I really would have voted for Robotmasters.

Some amazing repaints - compare Machine Wars Mirage with his Robotmasters counterpart and tell me you don't see Wingstun as G1 Waspinator! I can hear him now, "Why universe hate Wingstun?" Plus both characters have followed BW Megatron.

Some great new molds - the Seekers, Lio Convoy and Optimus Primal. This line was the original Classics series!

It also expanded on the G1/G2 era, adding new characters to that universe.

I have oversized KO Deluxe Wingstun and Wrecker Hook and that size really suits them. Wingstun looks great with Acid Storm in both modes. Updated deluxe versions of these guys and Air Hunter would be great and the 3 molds have so much repaint potential with the likes of MW Megaplex and BW Dirge and Thrust.

 

Though RID is a fantastic series with fantastic toys, I feel that Beast Machines should be given some more love. It had great toy ideas like Megatron that I feel should be revisited and re-done. I mean who wouldn't want a more accurate Megatron, Grand Maul, Optimal Megatron, Tankor, or Jetstorm? And the whole Cybertron was organic once as bull-crap. After watching a few eps I thought it could've been re-done as the Quintessons lead a massive attack and did the whole spar extracting/drone creating. Then the maximals had to team up with Megatron to re-take cybertron while keeping the whole former allies altered into enemies.....

 

Beast machines please.

Better story and writing to that mess of RID. plus the figs got poor molds and deff deserve some upgrades.

 

For me, I'd have to say RiD.
It gave us some fantastic figures (Prime and Magnus) our first 10 mode transformer (Galvatron) and, although used far to much these days, a evil version of Optimus Prime.
It used older molds to fill out it's lines (RiD's Dreadwind & Smokejumper spring to mind) and was a fun line.

It was also the first major introduction of three factions at the same time. Autobots, Decepticons and Predacons (Sub-teams from G1 weren't different factions)

Also, while Car Robots was released in 2000, it didn't make it's way to the US till 2001, so technically, RiD's 10th anniversary is next year  

Machine Wars was a fine line, but completely dwarfed by Beast Wars and I always looked at is as a experiment by Hasbro to judge which was going down better, vehicles or animals. Animals won, so we got a continuation of Beast Wars.

I liked the Beast Machines show. Sure it wasn't to everyone's taste but I liked it. Plus the last episode is one of my favourite ones from the whole run of the shows. Primal and Megatron battling it out for a whole 25 minute episode? Excellent!
The figures, however, were lacking I always felt. The selections of who should be in which size class was weird (Mega Rattrap vs basic Silverbolt?) The Vehicons were a saving grace, if not completely show accurate to begin with.

Armada, Energon and Cybertron were good, with Cybertron (or Galaxy Force) being the best out of the three. The introduction of the Minicons was great, but it was really the start of the gimmicks tacking over, which did impact some of the figures.

Alternators I always viewed as a collectors line (hell I got them all :/)
They were good, but not really something that could be played with.

 

i voted alternators, but i think animated should get more love. i liked the way they were going with it and would have liked to see it continue

 

I voted machine wars. Although RID brought back the love for the vehicles and unique robot style along with the cartoon. I felt machine wars could have been done a lot better.

 

Back after a long absence,,,, but enough about me.

To the point, RiD (Car Robots really), but let's look at the runners up:

Machine Wars: a tepid line of toys that really could have been a continuation of G2 (and therefore G1). No fiction, save for tech specs (which were pretty horrible at that point). Only saving grace of the line to me was that my Machine Wars Optimus Prime doubled as my G1 Orion Pax toy. There was a Cybertron version of Optimus in the Marvel comics run which coincidently also had a single-piece windshield, and Orion Pax also had a single windshield on his chest. So going by the info I had at the pre-internet time, (as well as MWOP not having a faceplate like he did on the box) I figured I had me an Orian Pax. Would I love to see this toy done again with more articulation? (because I still have him and he's pretty brick-ish) sure. But now that I have Animated Op, I've kinda already got a modern stand in.

UT: For one thing it's already got it's rabid fans giving it more than enough love. Second, I really couldn't stand the flying cars shtick. It seemed like lazy animating. Admitedly I never got around to watching the whole series, so I'll judge it on the toys. Too-gimmicky! Tempting designs spoiled so you could attach an out of scale stealth bomber to a fire truck (WTF?) Robots in Disguise? NOT. SO. MUCH. Would I buys some homages to some of the more popular chachters? Doubtfull, because durring the UT I mostly bought minor charachters who didn't get much screen time. So any homages would probably be of characters I thought were over-exposed anyway (Hot Shot, Scavenger, Scattorshot, Jetfire) Won't lie though the Cybertron Defender molds at the end were pretty sweet. I repurposed CD HotShot into Nightbeat, and I got a CD Scattorshot.

Beast Machines: Great series that just kind of fizzled. (dude,,, Noble, okay?) I hated the

Spoiler

Rinox reveal

it seemed so far out of charachter and with no real forshadowing. Probably the best MOMENT of the series to me was when RatTrap was offered the Mech armor by Megatron. Real moment of weakness in that character, well done. Plus the Cheetor/Primal succession dynamic was much better done than the Hot Rod/Optimus relationship. It's almost like they finally appologized for 1986. But face it, the toys were horrible. I mostly bought Vehicons but there were a few Maximals I bought. I hated that Hasbro never fessed up to "Buzzsaw" being Waspinator. But admittedly he's one of my favorite toys from that line. And the transformation is pretty wild. Like UT, I don't think this line needs MORE love, it's got plenty.

Alts/BT: Finally the runner up. Media? Frankly I'm content to imagine this as G1 for adult collectors. And I'll toss the Masterpiece toys in with this too. (they're pretty close to scale.) My only wish is that they could have kept more in keeping with the original cars, and by extension, I wish some of the car manufacturers wouldn't have been such pricks, (I'm looking right AT you VW!) The potential of the line pretty much started fizzling out after the 5th release, the re-paints got out of control, you almost always had to buy them online since they would NEVER get to store shelves, and the licensing issues with old names just got screwy. Would I buy the ENTIRE lineup of the 1984 Autobots as Alternators? Lambo Brothers, Jazz as a Porsche, Bluestreak and Prowl as 280z's, Rachet, Trailbreaker, Ironhide as pickups, and BB as a Beetle? Absolutely, but it's just not going to happen. And that's just too bad.

Which brings me to the last series standing,,,

RiD/CR: This series lasted one season in Japan and was horribly dubbed in english. IIRC it was on cable only and never in a consistant time slot. (I watched it on the interwebs myself). 2/3rds of the lineup were RE-USED toys. Even Sky-byte! And yet they seemed to capture everything about the old TF's that made comming home from school AWESOME! (yeah I was 28 at the time, so sue me!). Autobots that resembled real cars, check. Evil Clones, check. Combiners, Check. Having to hunt in every asian import shop in NYC to find toys (hey, that's how I got my Voltron in 1983!), check. The mystical, "My friend says he has one but I've never seen it for sale EVER" toy, check! (JRX) Plus even though I used Super-X Brawn for Wheeljack, Super Mach Alert for Smokescreen, Mach Alert for Prowl and SideBurn for Bluestreak, I have to admit the characters did kind of grow on me in their own way. As far as Toys, Like I said there were a lot of re-uses. But the line was worth it for Fire-Convoy/Ultra Magnus Alone. (Yeah, I said Fire-Convoy, not Prime. Fire-Convoy is Protectobot Hot-Spot with the Matrix)
And what other line has pumped out toys UNTILL THE MOLDS BROKE!!!

What I'd like to see. A ground up re-design of Ruination. (not a re-release of 1986 Combaticons, but something like the new PowerCoreCombiners) Maybe a few spychangers homages using leftover TF-M, ROTF, and H4D repaints? Maybe a Build-King re-release with a better designed Grimlock (he's got a weird arm problem in the original design) Maybe a 15th aniversary re-release of Omega Prime? And perhaps new Car-Bros, Predicon toys?

That's why RiD gets my vote,,, but I must admit it was a tough call.

 

More Sky-Byte!

 

Too true...oh, and Black Convoy (not Scourge..sounds nasty  ) and Prowl, Gas Skunk and Sky Byte ..  

Like how you think..but RID 1st and BW 2nd.,they both need some love, also I have a region free DVD player--I am here, I am waiting..hahaha  ......

YUM, YUM, YUM, if that could happen  
It's sooooo hard to catch all the episodes on Youtube.

 

I voted for RiD, but I seriously would've voted for Animated.

That show was the best show since Beast Wars/Machines, and it was doomed by being basically a filler for Hasbro in case the movies didn't catch on... sadly, the movies did better than Hasbro hoped. Not saying that's a bad thing though, that the movies had success.

But I know, I know. Animated is alive and well in Japan, and in the rather empty promises of future toys from Hasbro, and the various unanswered prayers for a fourth season.

So, I vote RiD, but I seriously would vote for Animated. Just because RiD was doomed as a filler as well.