Most Disappointing Transformers Series

Hey all, new poster hoping to find a fairly active Transformers board to pop into every once in a while. Thought I'd start things off with this:

If there's one constant among Transformers fiction, it's the ability to create interesting and dynamic universes, and then do nothing with them.

Thankfully, that doesn't always hold true, and we've gotten a number of fun and engaging stories over the years, but it's always there. That comic or cartoon you begin with such interest, only to watch it fall into its own horrible rut.

So, what are the series that, in your mind, have the most potential and the most disappointing outcome? Note that this isn't necessarily your least favorite series; it has to have some merit that it fails to live up to. For example, I think Armada is terrible from its first minute onward, and have never been able to finish it, so it wouldn't be a candidate for this thread.

I'll start:

1. Energon - A series so universally reviled its TFWiki entry has en entire section dedicated to mocking it. I truly think this is the most squandered Transformers series ever made. It may not have had the potential to be the best, and it may in fact be one of the worst, but that's particularly tragic because, in concept, it does a number of things I enjoy.

It introduces a number of elements never before or not often seen in Transformers. The relationship between the Transformers and humans is incredibly interesting, with humans allowing them to set up bases on Earth but electing that the conflict isn't something Earth nations should step into. The dynamic of what to do with Unicron is something that's never been done elsewhere. It gives us a human protagonist who hates that his family has shoved him into constant interaction with the Transformers. It gives us Transformers who reflect on human mortality (!). It actually brings back the large-army format of Generation 1 pretty successfully, which is a refreshing concept now. Its version of Megatron is genuinely scary, and by all rights, it should have the most interesting interpretation of Scorponok outside Marvel G1.

That's all in concept. In execution, yikes. At least the soundtrack is good.

2. The Michael Bay films - I feel dirty just admitting that. But honestly, there's a lot to like here. The designs are great. I like the background of the otherworldly "Cube" as opposed to the usual Primus/Unicron business. I like the idea of a dead Cybertron and an outcast Transformer race. I like their interactions with Earth governments. I like that the Decepticons are genuinely frightening and have no compunctions about killing large numbers of Earthlings. I like that the fight between Autobots and Decepticons seems to be more about pragmatism than anything else. I like kill-crazed, frustrated Optimus. I also quite like the role of the human protagonist here: their first human friend who's realistically bummed about being set aside for their more official jobs. And again, a great score.

Unfortunately, everything else. Like, absolutely everything else.

3. The Headmasters - Isn't this series often described as, "Sounds really awesome on paper, but is incredibly boring in execution"?

Because that's entirely accurate. The sexist portrayal of Arcee is just there to crank things up to eleven.

4. Transformers Prime - Okay, it's not really fair listing this here. It's just that it came from what is probably the best opening mini-series among any version of Transformers, a great introductory first season, good use of human characters and great B-plots to ... what we have now. But it's entirely possible that when all's said and done, the latter portion of season two will just be a blemish on an otherwise enjoyable series. Maybe.

Yours?

 

Promising: Victory

Disappointing: None

 

carrobots. it draws from various universes, beastwars, g1, g2 as well as homaged several great characters, in a way that they were unique. a true transformers universe cartoon. sadly was short lived and really just kind of cut short at the end.

beast machines. seemed good on paper. had potential ... just the dark way they went about doing it. would have prefered a different villian too.

prime. really didnt like the idea or the look. but now i do enjoy it.

animated. pains the eyes like having bleach poured into them. awesome story, which doesnt match the animation if you ask me.

 

I don't really know what Energon promised. However Armada had very good story lines that Energon failed to continue in a decent way. Even if it didn't promise much, it still is a disappointment.

Story wise, Prime is all talk. I bet people will be horrified when they look back in a few decades and see a show with ancient graphics and no plot or originality to make it hold up to time like Beast Wars and (hopefully) Animated.

Edit: Forgot about Bay's films. I still think the first one was a decent start but the sequels are crap. I think their going to end up the same way I said Prime will.

 

The Most Dissapointing series the Michael Bay Transformers films.

So much crap is put into it and yet nothing is coherent or in the ends are anti-climatic as hell.

 

Promising: Beast Wars

Disappointing: Prime

 

Gonna say Prime because I knew Energon was crap going in. But with Prime there have been so many let downs.

Breakdown will have to choose sides between Starscream and Megatron? Ooh I wonder what Starscream is planni-Breakdown dies, Starscream becomes a hobo

Unicron is Earth's core? Hey that's a cool ide-defeated and irrelevant by season 2

Orion Pax? Hey this could be a cool story arc and could give Optimus long term developme-dropped after 3 episodes with Optimus being memory wiped and having no effect on his character

Airachnid found a whole cave of Insecticons? Oh boy they're going to wreck shi-the Insecticons are just more cannon fodder that get killed in one shot

The Nemesis is alive now? Oh this could be cool, maybe it's a reference to Tryptico-returned back to normal by the end of the episode and barely explained or mentioned again

Project Chimera? Hey this sounds like an interesting project maybe something cool will come out of i-Nemesis Prime is defeated in one episode and MECH goons are gone, with Silas possibly being dead

Bulkhead is seriously injured and he may never be fully functional again? This could be some long term dram-Bulkhead awakens after one episode and is completely back to normal after 3 episodes

And hey look, 40+ episodes in and nothing significant has changed with the norm. Autobots trying to beat Decepticons to relics every episode just like at the beginning of season 1. Oh boy.

 

I guess I should've chosen a different title. It's not supposed to be two separate categories. I was just trying to ask about shows you thought had potential, but didn't, or haven't, lived up to it.

Well, everything I talked about in my opening post. I know it's a terrible show from the word go, but it introduced a lot of ideas I really enjoyed. I wish they'd been used in a series that actually had some effort put into it.

So, yeah, I agree more and more with this sentiment every week. Like I said in the opening post, I still want to hedge my bets and see how the rest of the series progresses, but my hopes aren't high, and there have been so many missteps as of late, it's going to be difficult to look back on it as a positive whole.

It's a huge shame, too. The first five episodes hit all the right notes for me, and the rest of the season one episodes were enjoyable one-offs and character-building, much like the first season of Beast Wars. It worked like a more mature version of Generation 1, and everything was fine and dandy with the assumption that the introductory material would end and season two would up the ante.

Even the first part of season two was excellent. The various plots of Starscream, MECH and Airachnid really seemed to be building toward an interesting climax. Jack was getting character development. Ratchet was getting character development. Optimus was getting character development. E'rrybody was getting character development. Machinations were brewing right and left. Humans were going to be really important!

Then we finished "Nemesis Prime" and somehow the whole show just fucking imploded. It's actually quite impressive.

I still like it enough to wish it were better than it is, but that's the most I can say for it at this point.

 

Transformers: Prime.

It had so much going for it yet great plots end underwhelmingly.

Also, for such a dark and serious Transformers show, it falls short to me.

I could add the live action films as I was very disappointed in the toilet humor and the theme of main human is getting some. :/ Other than that, it was okay.

 

Promising: While I want to put down Beast Wars, I have to say Animated instead. Given the trend of Transformer series, both BW and BM are the odd balls of the series. Now Animated though, it shares several characters from both the tv and movie lines. I do it find a nice take on characters that had been rebooted countless times before. It was like taking the iconics from G1, add some new characters to it, and then take the soul of BW and inject into the series. Animated is the only time that I've ever cared and respected a character named Optimus Prime. The story was like a spider web, even the minor events tied into larger moments.

Disappointing: I hate to say it even though I like it, Transformers Prime. Its a very slow pace series and often major stuff is either forgotten about or just wraps up too soon without any lasting side effects to a character.

Take TFP Prime, he lost his memories and becaome Orion Pax again. Three episodes later, Jack gives him a restore Matrix and boom, Optimus Prime is back with no memory of what took place. In Animated, Optimus Prime gave up his future to cover for a jerk, was forever haunted by what happened, and took him years to get over it. Animated knew how to do a proper story line, Prime does not.

TFP Bulkhead, he was badly damaged to the point Ratchet said he'll never be the same again. Few episodes later, Bulkhead is not only walking again, he's in battle.

By this point, both BW and Animated had huge amounts of character development and a story that was moving forward. Prime is just starting to get that near the end of season two.

 

Not to keep jumping in or harping on this, but I just want to throw one last thought onto this sentiment as well.

I think that's a huge part of what brings it further down the longer it continues: the more seriously it takes itself, the harder its logical gaffes become to tolerate. At the beginning of the series, I didn't have problem with the idea that no one had discovered the Autobots and Decepticons yet, that Raf could understand Bumblebee without explanation, that the kids' parents didn't know or care, etc., because there would be time to address all that later.

Now, fifty episodes in in what otherwise tries to represent itself as a realistic universe, these elements are really starting to hurt. How is it that no one's spotted a giant warship yet? Why is the military so content with leaving the war to Optimus and not co-opting Cybertronian technology? Where are the rest of the Autobot/Decepticon armies and what are the stakes with only five 'bots a side? On and on and on.

In a sillier, more self-aware series, I could hand-waive. But when Prime demands you take it seriously, its holes become serious as well.

I'm done now. Just a lot of good points.

 

The Unicron Trilogy as a whole. Armada set up some really cool concepts (Starscream's entire story, the Minicons as a whole, Megatron's sacrifice, etc), then Energon just dropped them (Starscream became a mindless servant, Megatron was resurrected and became a giant dick once more), then Energon introduce some interesting stuff (Demolishor losing faith in the Decepticon cause, the Wingsaber/Shockwave conflict, the Decepticon programming in Inferno, etc), and then just dropped them almost immediately after. Just a lot of build up that, in the hands of better writers (Preferably not from Japan, where Transformers holds the stigma of a kiddie show (Yes, I know the brand itself is for kids, but you know what I mean)) could have led to some really great and awesome series. Instead I got 2 mediocre series and Cybertron trying it's hardest to link itself to the other two (For better or worse).

 

I remember People were fairly excited for Energon/Superlink before the series aired. The whole cel-shaded CGI mixed with drawn animation sounded like a great idea then, mainly because the other big anime doing that at the time was Zoids, which did quite well with that style. Apparently differing animation studios, and humanoid robots with faces that (should) show emotion changed things up too much.
Energon started out with a promising world too. Humans and Autobots collaborating, surviving Decepticons from Armada accepted into the ranks (some of which were rather conflicted about it), and a new 'faction' with Alpha Q and the Terrorcons. Too bad it wound up throwing away a lot of the stuff that could have been explored for more entertaining or deep plot development.

 

Prime hands down. While I personally like the movies, anyone who would be dissapointed by them wouldn't see much "promise" considering Michael Bay etc. With all the pre-release info it was pretty much decided either way. Those who liked the info we had gotten before it was out would almost deffinately like the finished project, while anyone who didn't would either have their low expectations met or be pleasantly surprised. Every other series with promise has generally lived up to it, and while Energon is certainly worse than all, it was never really promising. The bad CGI and cheesy intro would have destroyed any expectations before the first episode aired. Prime however, as you said, opened amazingly, and is now... this.

 

I don't know that it's really fair to say that, though. You could go in with low expectations and still find elements you wish were used more successfully.

That's basically my experience with the movies and Energon. Went in knowing they'd be terrible pieces of entertainment, found a few elements I genuinely enjoyed, and wished the actual presentation lived up to those ideas. They didn't disappoint me as a whole, but I was disappointed to see so many fresh ideas wasted on them.

That's also what this thread is about. It could be series that started out strong and fell off the rails, or it could just be buried gems you wish were put to use in a better production. A "good in concept, poor in execution" sort of thing.

 

I hated much of Beast Machines when it was being first broadcast nit-pitting the evil stuff the head-writer was doing to the tf mythos.

Little did I know that just a couple of years later we would have Poke-formers

 

TFP, easily. I can't think of another series that promises so much and turns out to be so lackluster.

Don't get me wrong, I generally enjoy the series. But it seems like they keep promising big story arcs then end them abruptly just to make another one. It's like a continuous saga of disappointment.

 

Movies & Prime

Obviously the movies had SO much potential, but they speak for themselves in way of how many infinite ways they ended up being disappointing. Prime looked like it could be *something*, but after 2 seasons of brutally slow pacing, redundant story lines and a shockingly limited cast of characters, the disappointment ship also sailed on that one months ago.

 

  I really shouldn't be laughing, because all these plot points being pretty much wasted is just depressing, but yeah, Prime is probably at the top of my list (not counting as Energon as I knew that was bad before I watched it). The first season was very good, it looked like it could be one of the best TF cartoons around, but everything just fell apart when they just introduced Unicron and bought up this super important prophecy out of nowhere- there was no buildup, the episode just opens with this prophecy that no-one's ever mentioned before or hinted at or anything and suddenly Unicron just appears??! The prophecy actually annoys me more than Unicron being shoved in, why couldn't something like that be mentioned at the beginning of the season?? When Ratchet's studying the Dark Energon sample one of the kids could ask what it is, Ratchet could then explain who Unicron was and some-one could have mentioned the prophecy, hell, even as a joke, but no, they wait until the end of the season before this comes up. How the writers could honestly think that introducing such a notable and important character and plot point out of nowhere was a good idea is completely beyond me.
And yeah, season 2's been full of disappointments, huge build-ups that lead to nothing. Project Chimera especially leaves a bitter taste

 

For me it's pretty much the Bay movies. They should have been put in the hands of someone who actually cared about the property and respected the art of writing over flashy special effects.