Since you guys can answer all my questioons. Is G2 a hated line? I keep reading things and seeing great kitbashes about every single line except G2. I was just wondering why. G2 happens to be my favorite line. It is the line i remember being a kid.
I would call it one of my favorite lines. The toys were easy to find on clearance, and it was an opportunity to pick up some old G1 favorites. Some of the new ones featured ball joints (Dreadwing), and of course we had a talking Optimus Prime and Megatron.
G2 was awesome. Had my favorite fiction, revisited some great classics toys, brought us some great new molds (Dreadwind!), and introduced some legitimately fun gimmicks (Rotorforce, Laser Rods, Aqua Chargers or whatever). Didn't care for a number of the paint schemes, but even some of the garish ones were cool in a different way.`
A lot of the paint decos were pretty bad, but I would love it if Hasbro or Takara/Tomy would brush the dust off those molds and release some new deco'd G2 toys...perhaps under the newly revamped Universe banner?
G2's comic series was the best pre-IDW comic series. Sure, it had flaws, and a really stupid virus sub-plot, but it is (so far) the only TF comic that shows you total war. I have mixed feelings about the toys. The toys were great. G2 Megatron is still my favorite Tank-former. But some strange color choices really attack the eyes. Blue grimlock???
While G2 may have included some of the first instances of ball-joints in US Transformers, I SERIOUSLY doubt that they wouldn't have made it into other toys if G2 hasn't been thee.
I personally love the G2 new molds. The smaller jets and cars are fun, the Laser Rods are twenty flavours of awesome, and the Combat Heroes are terrific. Love Sideswipe and Jazz's updates too. I see where you're coming from, but I disagree that without G2 we'd have never seen better articulation in Transformers. True, G2 did it first, but the inclusion of more articulation was also a sign of the times. Kids didn't just want transforming robots anymore, they wanted transforming robots who could strike poses and stuff. Basically, if Hasbro and Kenner had not put articulation into the line at this time, it would have been introduced at a different time. It's something that I personally see as an inevitability, sooner or later technology was bound to have progressed enough to allow it.
Cyberjets were kickass, even though some of the G2 repaints were abysmal. I thought some of the jets and cars for G2 were pretty good/decent. (aquamarine and black Ramjet?! Yuck!) Oh, and who wouldn't want to see more TFs that transform into motobikes (ex: Road Pig and Road Rocket)?
Yep Lazer Rods, Road Rocket, Prime with a black trailer and big ass guns, and my favorite at the time, the Hero Prime mold, I loved G2, but couldn't afford it at the time it was available. Missed out on most of them, and now for some reason they're getting harder to find them some of the originals. A G2 original Lazer Prime is a bitch to get ahold of now days.
G2 was the line that tested/premiered most of the stuff we take for granted in current lines, such as fully-articulated robot modes and full-bore gimmickry, not to mention liberal use of the "Go-Bots" name. It doesn't seem to have quite the hold on fan conciousness it used to in the BW/BM days, now that all the stuff that made G2 great is commonplace.
G2 was brilliant - aside from some of the dubious paintjobs (combiners, for instance ), which frankly late G1 was pretty guilty of too. We got some cool updates of existing moulds (Prime's new colourscheme and voicebox, Starscream and Ramjet with SFX, Sideswipe and Jazz's new threads), and better yet, a ton of new moulds, many of whom had as yet unparalleled articulation. Stealth Assault (Dreadwing to the Yanks), Laser Rod Prime, the Illuminators (Laser Rods) and Lasercycles, the Cyberjets, Heroes... great, popular, poseable moulds, many of which have been re-used many times since. And of course it also introduced the Go-Bots, and those moulds (since labeled Spychangers) have proved pretty darn popular, too...
I think G2 was the first time we saw light up headlights and more and if you look at the RID series you will notice the bikes have come back and more even back to the point in which we saw spychangers which got redone for the RID series. Theres so many things and also a chance in which we got different coloured dinobots but its a shame we didn't get a g2 swoop
they've done it with almost all of them already Laser Prime - RiD Scourge, ehobby Magnus Hero Prime - another Scourge Hero Megatron - RiD Bludgeon, RM Reverse Convoy big Megatron - BW2 Megastorm Dreadwing - RiD, BW2, RM Road Pig - RiD Axer, RM Sideways Road Rocket - RiD Sideways, some other RM guy Cyberjets - smattered throughout Universe, RM, and even a Botcon exclusive Go-Bots - smattered throughout RiD and Universe Autorollers - released in BW2 along with unreleased ones the only significant ones that they havent released are the Laser Rods, which is too bad cos I'd like to get them myself. I guess you could also throw in stuff like the water squirters or the Rotor Force, but I think those lack the articulation to fit in with modern toys (then again, they're always releasing Spychangers and they put the Euro/MW figures in Universe 1, so I guess anything's possible)