Considering that the numbers have more or less stayed equivalent between MTMTE and RID, I think it's reasonable to assume that most people brought into the comics from MTMTE, or anything from Phase 2 (but let's be real, that was the one getting any kind of attention outside of the TF fandom, even if it wasn't a ton), at least tried the sister titles. Most anyone who asked where to start here would be told to basically start at MTMTE vol. 1, and alternate back and forth until the crossovers.

Also, none of these other franchises have had cartoons on TV without around year or so of interruption since 1996, no have they had a successful (financially) film franchise. There is absolutely no comparing Transformers to any of Hasbro's other dead franchises. It will never be the same level of obscurity of these other ones. Even if it falls out of the public eye, the fandom is still quite strong. Like, what other multimedia has such a tremendous amount of unofficial product that TF does?

 

Well if Visionaries wasn't dead before, I have a feeling it will be after the author is done with them.

 

another reason to not buy this drek or support IDW

 

Well, I used to have the comic, the cartoon on VHS and taped from elsewhere, and a multitude of the toys - I'd count myself as a pretty big fan back then - always loved them, but have been disappointed in them being primarily forgotten when they were such a novel idea.

How big a fan are you dude?

(also don't just judge - just saying.)

 

Very nice indeeeeeeeed!

I'm actually a huge Visionaries fan - possibly more than any of the rest of you bozos. ;-) I went in on the Kickstarter for a fan-made companion book a couple of years ago, and I can recite most of the poems off by heart:

"Sheathe these feet in the driving gale / Make swift these legs, o'er land I sail!"

The redesigns are superb, although it's a shame they don't have the all-over helmets - these ones seem kind of ineffectual. The biggest issue is whether there's enough new ideas in the book for it to take off - it's a worrying sign that they've gone straight for the Transformers crossover, and it'll have to be something special to last far beyond that.

 

I think it's just a good way to reintroduce the concept to a modern audience, I understand where some fans are coming from by having another tie in, but really, it makes a modicum of sense to attach it to their largest franchise at the moment. I'm sure there will be enough ideas to flesh it all out - but if it stays as just a moment in time with this series, then it will have made this fan a bit happier to see that they have tried.

I think the new vision for the designs are great - it really updates them well, and i'm not too concerned by whether characters have been flipped around a bit, I'm intrigued how they will bring this all to fruition.

 

No - they look like something from the eighties. Leoric's Freddy Mercury look is a dead giveaway, as is the general homogeneity of the cast, in build as much as ethnicity, and the design of the armour, which is of a piece with other toy/cartoon franchises at the time.

You can't please all the old fans *and* strike out in search of a new audience - you have to aim for somewhere in the middle to even stand a chance of refloating a franchise like this.

I agree - I'm happy that it's happening at all. I'd just really like it to take off.

 

Do you have a Digital or a Physical copy? I missed the kickstarter so I couldn't get one  

 

Well...Rom Vs Transformers is a great read so let's hope for a repeat of that success. Although the art for the TFs might be a little dodgy.

I've contributed

 

Physical only, I'm afraid. It's quite a delicate thing - no cover laminate, so the colour wears off at the edges.

 

Here's the thing though, Hasbro aren't bringing back the 1980's properties. They're reviving them for a whole new audience and if they can pique the interest of any 80's fans (who presumably would all be in their 30's) then bonus.

Anyway, I loved Visionaries as a kid (watched the VHS, had some of the toys, read the comic when it was the backup strip in the Transformers UK comic) and as an adult I bought the whole Visionaries TV series on DVD.

I have no issue with any of the changes. Why? Because I can move on. Bit like Transformers. I can move on from G1.

 

Hmm...Not familiar with Visionaries at all, and I can't say the covers grab me at all. I don't really like the verses thing, and unless the series surprises me like Rom vs Transformers, this will be a hard pass.

 

Not a fan of the designs. They look like Youngblood rejects.

No he doesn't. He looks like Burt Reynolds.

 

Well, whichever way you slice it 80's Leoric looked doofy as hell.

 

Hmmm.

If you're psyched about this, cool!

If you're not into this; I feel you.

It's a bit too far removed from the originals for my taste, and when you get there, I say why bring back the property if it was so desperately in need of a change. The diversity is fine (welcomed , really)... it's more that the designs don't really feel evocative of the old toys. YMMV.

Speaking practically, I just don't really see who the audience is for this, besides the obvious. Visionaries may make 30ish to 40ish year olds say, "oh yeah, I remember that!" and that's about it. Even then, Visionaries was never a big deal. I only really like them because I have tremendous affection for 80s Hasbro toys. Obviously, that's why you buoy it with Transformers... it's just not really an interaction between properties I would really care to see, and I have a hard time picturing a rabid audience starving for this. I spend a lot of my time on this board shooting down people in the comics forum because, bless 'em, a lot of people who read IDW's TF output don't seem to follow a lot of other comics publishing and don't understand why Spotlights or Deviations (whatever the stupid What If? thing is called) or mini series about super niche Transformers stuff aren't constantly being published, to which the answer is always "sales." There are not enough of us hard core fans who also buy comics to support "Prowl in Crisis on Infinite Table Flips" or whatever... so something like this just baffles me.

My other, probably somewhat uncharitable thought is "I hope Magdalene Visaggio is a big Transformers fan," because I'm really not willing to read Transformers comics anymore by people who aren't as vested in it as people like us are. I generally hate that kind of gate keeper stuff (are you a TRUE fan?!)... but I've been burned too many times and, like someone said up thread, I'm not really willing to lay out money on this to try it and see.

Hope it's good; hope the people that want to like it do. Maybe some of you could ease up slightly off of the people who are disappointed.

 

You know you want the chest hair:

 

To me, he looks like a regular 80s dude. But if you insist he looks doofy as hell then it doesn't matter that he looks doofy as hell. That's what he's supposed to look like, like how G1 Ironhide should look like a red minivan despite minivans being seriously uncool.


Anyway, anybody want to talk about Galadria? I don't like that redesign either. They're supposed to be Spectral Knights, not Tribal Superheroes.


And answer me this TFW2005, why is 80s cartoon accuracy approved when its applied to Transformers but not when its applied to 80s human characters? I wonder how many people would have been complaining that the designs sucked if they had kept the 80s designs. Not the 80s cartoon character models, just the same basic look to their heads and armor.

 

In XXI century glowing parts on costumes are new pouches.

 

what a creative and good hearted soul

 

I can sort of accept the tribal redesigns as the new series' way of showing a civilization sans technology/resurrected with magic, which was one of the cornerstones of OG Visionaries. That's an interpretation, so I'll reserve judgment on that.

I would have liked the characters to more physically resemble their 80s designs too, but it also doesn't kill me to have a more multi-ethnic cast. Matt Trakker as a black guy didn't sit well with me at first either, but I realized it doesn't change the story, so whatever. That was just my hardline nostalgia talking.