As good and off-model as the animation was,is there any reason why it's animation and art-style was vastly different than the rest of the series?

 

A different studio animated it, basically. A majority of seasons 1 and 2 were animated by Toei, season 3 was predominantly animated by Akom, but that particular episode was done by yet ANOTHER studio (TMS, I believe?) who used "Studio Ox" character sheets rather than the normal animation model sheets the other two companies used.

 

If it was a different studio,why would they be chosen for just this one episode?

 

Maybe a deal was struck for them to animate a whole series of episodes, but Sunbow nixed it for some reason after they did just the one?

 

Unlikely, if nothing else, it is more cost effective to get multiple stuff done at once (unless the guys were from the commercial division at Toei or something)

My suspicion is that Akom may have simply fell behind in production (these are guys who had animation thrown out by Bruce Timm in the 90s Batman series for not being up to par), and Toei may have been unavailable (keep in mind circa 1985, Toei was doing THREE theatrical films, GI Joe, Jem, and all the commercial animations PLUS other series and projects), so another studio was grabbed to do it. The usage of the detailed Studio Ox models says to me it was NOT a studio that was normally working on the series

 

My guess it was a one-off use of a studio subcontractor who normally did not do Transformers cartoons to meet production schedules. I don't think it was ever more than speculation that it was TMS, though it's a possibility, since that studio did some Hasbro/Sunbow work like Visionaries (maybe COTP was a 'test run' of sorts)

People keep saying Studio OX models were used, but I don't see it. Instead I see the standard cartoon models used, but with a liberal dose of artistic license from some of the layout artists and animators. Studio OX models tend to have a greater amount of toy-based detail, which I'm not seeing in the ep. I do think Studio OX might have been involved in some capacity though. The scene where the Predacons form Predaking kinda reeks of the style of one OX artist well known for mecha with tiny feet and a HUGE pelvis, for example.

 

We ca all just agree that if that animation studio animated the whole G1 Series, G1 would be a whole lot more awesome!  

 

I do recall stuff like antannas like the ones on Ultra Magnus are diagonal and pointy and Predaking had a bulky look like his toy,except for his feet.Also in that scene where Grimlock pops up from the ground after everyone else had their energy drained,he has some bulky proportions as an error,like his arms,which look like robot arms and not the thin,stick arms he normally has and his torso seemed larger too.

 

Can I assume the pre-movie episodes with the bright colors and really flat shading were a different studio?

 

Look up who the founder of AKOM was.

Then look up who the producer of the Transformers cartoon was.

 

I can agree with that.

 

Did this "Studio Ox" animate anything else?
Is there a larger reference list available?

 

They mostly did magazines. Here' s a cool gallery with a lot of there work.

Category:Images by Studio OX - Transformers Wiki

 

Studio Ox didn't animate this episode - they were artists and designers, not animators. It's claimed sometimes that it was their designs that were used as models for this episode, but that's also inaccurate - while the models in "Call of the Primitives" are much more stylized than normal, they are just stylized versions of the normal cartoon character models. Take a look at any of that art in the gallery linked above side-by-side with the episode, and you'll see they're not the same models.

 

I noticed the TFwiki OX assertion has been tweaked since last I checked.

 

Everyone! Everyone! It's quite clear as to why this episode was much better looking than the rest! For those who werent paying attention, i'll glady inform you. This episode featured none other than Sky Lynx! And, of coarse, since Sky Lynx was in command of the primatives, and dare i say, quite possibly the most outstanding player in this story, it was only natural that they use superior animation for Sky Lynx's big break at a command position. Albeit that foul mouthed idiot did make the critical move that saved the entire universe, rest assured in Sky Lynx were there he'd of coarse have figured it what was needed to be done more swiftly than that crude fool.

Sky Lynx would want it explained that way. trust me.

 

thank you. i do try.

 

Fun fact:

Obari directed this episode. The same guy who directed Gravion and Gravion Zwei, Dancouga Nova, and a few other things I can't mention here.