The animation was quite good but the writing was absolutely atrocious. I hope it gets better, but hey, at least it's free.

 

I know it was only 5 minutes but it felt even shorter probably because it was all action really this episode. I'm still interested to see how the other episodes will turn out but I don't think this episode taught me anything more about the story than the trailers or prequel videos did.

Computrons' voice was great but Menasor sounded like Constructicon Maximus from Energon, kind of like a pre-teen bully which I've always thought was an odd choice for a combined form. The way these Combiners are treated reminded me a little of Energon, I appreciated how G1 gave the individual team members decent focus for a "buy the whole set" idea like combiners.

The way Maxima's body got destroyed looked very cool, that's the highlight I'll take from this episode.

 

terrible, the art style is good, i like the look of things even if it's kinda simple, the slow and hidden animation would be acceptable if everything else didn't SUCK, what's up with this story? Combiner Wars was about the shady moves of Starscream to make combiners, Optimus seen as the TF GOD and Prowls resolution

and what's up with the voices? and did Windblade CRY??????????????????????????????? TRANSFORMERS DON'T CRY OMGGGGG

what a painful failure, add it to the pile of shame on the TRANSFORMERS trademark, GOD KNOWS IF THERE'S ANY PLACE LEFT THERE FOR IT, i've seen fan made shows that were better, hell i bet i can find stop motions that are better than this (in my boy Galvatron's words) "perversion", but hey, if something as cool as Btaman the Killing Joke can get an animated film that brings eternal disrespect and stains the legacy of the comic forever what did i expect for this? and i bet no one's shocked, i mean we've all seen the trailers right? hahaha

 

That was AWESOME!!! I want 6 hours more of it a year.

 

Wouldn't have been clever if Windblade actually outsmarted Menasor, like maybe by leading him into tight quarters to force him to seperate, and carefully disable each component one by one because she can't beat Menasor in a straight fight because for fuck's sake that's the entire point of Combiners?

Like wouldn't that be cool, her showcasing cunning and strategy, which would simultaniously give insight into her character and opportunities for more sincere character interactions? Maybe have the repaint die because of an error in judgement?

At what point did heart, humour, and thinking become unfavourable aspects in a TV show? When did our standards fall so low? Where did they get the idea that fans wanted this tired, edgelord, 12 year old G1 fantasy of murder and violence? Aren't the most popular TF shows full of jokes and wit and goofiness as well as drama, violence and action? I really don't... get it, man. I mean I knew it was gonna be bad but I still had a little hope.

 

The video doesn't appear to be working. Is anyone able to see it, the one recently uploaded on Youtube?

 

It would have been better to not have Windblade at all, but I definitely see where you're coming from, and agree.

I love how this is their grand idea of "the first evar transfarmers series for adultz".

 

first off IT SUCKED, but i already figured that out before watching it. I knew the episodes were gonna be short , i heard it was 8 minutes long and thats what i was expecting but 5 minutes? come on hasbro!!! its whatever though. only proving my point, a point that i always get mad hate for, a point which is that hasbro dont give a damn about their longtime fans and fandom for that matter. Figured that out with the age of extinction toy line and that shitty excuse for a seqeul called Robots in disguise. Ill await futher judgement until the second episode.

 

Holy hell this is absolute trash. The writing was bad, the VA delivered it awfully, and the "dark" carnage really didn't demonstrate that combiners were threats given how fragile everything was and a 2 combiner body count.

"Geared to more mature audiences" my ass.

 

Contrary to the news post at the front/homepage, the YouTube link is NOT "available worldwide". If you are outside the USA, it's probably geo-blocked.

Never fear, simply copy the URL of the offending video, then Google search " online YouTube downloader ", and upon finding a suitable service, paste the YouTube video url into the entry box and download the video when prompted.

 

Menasor's voice was not fitting to the character's scale AT ALL, and Windblade's grunts felt like they could be more dynamic. The dialogue overall was terrible. "Nerd"? Really? I kind of expected something more from a series aimed toward adult fans, but so far it seems just like the grimdark fanfic setup the trailer portrayed it as.

I do enjoy the visual style, though. Animation is stiff in places but the lighting is great. Hopefully the CombinersSuperion aren't extinct by the end of the second episode, seeing as they're so fragile and don't really pose any threat that a normal enemy couldn't aside from their size.

 

THIS.

 

I wasn't expecting this offering to be very good, but I was honestly surprised at how lackluster this series looked in the first episode. I agree with a lot of the points people have made - the voice acting is hacky, the animation is choppy, and the dialogue offered was truly weak. Not a great start to a series that's allegedly for the adult fan, especially when the IDW comics basically set forth what a lot of the adult fans want these days. Why they just didn't animate Sins of the Wreckers or something is beyond me.

Regardless, I think the true irony comes from the fact that the story and dialogue offered so far is really straight from a campy late 80's cartoon or anime - over the top scenery chewing acting, heavy reliance on what someone presumably felt was an "action packed" sequence, and over-wrought, hackneyed "emotions".

In other words, it's basically a G1 episode - just with more death and stuff. This is exactly the series I wanted. Back when I was 12. In 1992.

 

If this was supposed to have been fan service, why didn't they reach out to The Audio Knights Theater. There is great talent among the group and I am sure they would have killed for a chance like that.

 

So... all I can say is it was too short. Not lead into properly unless you read the comics and the voices were weird. Not a good start.

 

I agree. Hasbro doesn't give a crap about Transformers and the fans. Just make a cheap product and see if they can get a couple cheap bucks out of it. They take for granted that everyone will just buy it for the Transformers brand name printed on it. In the mean time, Disney actually cares about their properties and is buying up all the IPs that companies like Hasbro doesn't give 2 sh!ts about making decent.

I also find it interesting that their philosophy and excuse for doing inferior color schemes is "updating the characters"
as if altering their famous look and leaving out inexpensive paint apps makes any sense. (Seen in the new Fortress Maximus toy designer video.)

 

I honestly don't know how to feel. The Combiners they're supposed to be promoting just showed up to die and aren't even threatening when Windblade kills Menasor with just a standard sword. The only way they could salvage losing two of the most popular Combiners is if Menasor gets rebuilt with G2 colors and Computron with the Takara design. Though there wouldn't be much point to that, also did Menasor seem kind crazy to anyone else or just me?

 

Okay, so I just checked out the alternative link. The only thing I can say that I liked about this episode was the styling of the character designs. And that's pretty much the only thing. The animation was choppy, but it just shows how low budget it really is. I think the writing is absolutely horrible. Caminus? Is that a side joke for Canibus? I also think the casting for the 2 Combiners was terrible choices. Menasor is supposed to be an imposing giant of a violent monster, not some pre-teen adolescent with a high pitched voice. I don't mind Windblade, I think her voice is OK. But the writing really doesn't help at all. The crying seemed so forced and it never should have happened without the proper character development to make the audience care.

It's not out of jest when I say this, but I could have done a better job for this series. And I mean it in the most sincere way.

I am legitimately flabbergasted at Hasbro right now if they think this is worthy of being called a fan service. Beyond that, it isn't even in sync with their business model of releasing toys with a proper cartoon to support those toys.

 

This is patently ridiculous. Generations alone is nothing but slavish pandering to older fans, to the point where modern figures are virtually just articulated versions of the G1 Characters. Sixshot alone refutes this claim. Everything Generations is strives to appease older fans and give updates to as many characters as possible. I sincerely doubt if it was just a cash grab we'd ever see frigging Alpha Trion the way he is, if at all. That's pure homage to a fanconvetion exclusive of a character virtually exclusive to older fans.

Problem is, Hasbro is and will forever be entirely product-focused. The toys are always going to be where their efforts are concentrated, versus other media. They're a toy company, that's what they do. This is why for so long there was, and still kinda is, such discontinuity within media like the comics and films and TV. To have three radically different media running concurrently is seldom seen elsewhere. Even synergized to this point, relatively little is mandated to all mesh together, which is one of the reasons Windblade being touted everywhere is so jarring. Outside of Optimus and Bumblebee, who logically have the excuse of being the stars of the movie, so few characters remain consistently prominent. Compare this to other franchises that will mandate entire casts based around the movies to make eveyrthing seem as similar as possible.

No, Hasbro's greatest failing with media outside of toys has always been their lack of properly mandating aspects, leading to wild variances. The status quo and stories of the comics are all over the place, and with very few actual mandated changes outside of "draw this character like this toy." And even that's inconsistent. This is usually a good thing, as it means the creators are relatively unrestricted in what they can do. Hell, Megatron has been an Autobot for like a year now in the comics, and absent from RID, because the creators deemed these changes necessary, and Hasbro didn't but in. Imagine Darth Vader being turned into a Rebel for anythign more than a one-shot.

This show is, unfortunately, the counter-arguement. The free reign here has led to a wild misunderstanding of what fans want. Hell, if you think Hasbro was really exerting corperate control here for souless product pushing and nothing else, you think they would let an expensive yet-to-be-released giftset be killed off in the first two minutes?

No, they came to these people asking them to make a fan-focused miniseries, as companies do, and they said they would and made what they thought fans would appreciate, and it backfired massively. (afterall, the creators are fans themselves) And yet, it didn't totally backfire, because some folks still like it, and truth be told had this come out ten of fifteen years ago, it would've been a massive hit among older fans. Because this is exactly what the consensus for a "mature" TF series was considered back then. Unfortunately it is far too little, and far, far too late. Hasbro is not a media maker, they don't produce shows. (They tried, it didn't work out) That's why they hire companies. If you hire a guy to come fix your roof, and he fails miserbly, do you blame yourself for hiring him? No. The blame rests with the person actually responsible for producing the product. Hasbro is not a singular person that has a focused, concious intellect. It's a company, made of different people doing different jobs. And nobody in that company is responsible for this no more than they're directly responsible for the great work done on TFA. We don't praise Hasbro for that, we praise Marty I., DJW, and Eric S.

If you want real apathy towards the diehard fans of a franchise, look at the likes of Lego, Mattel, or Bandai of America. Those companies aren't even bad, except Mattel but that's for a differnet subforum, but Hasbro is like Godsend compared to the stunts they pull. It really is astounding how, just because some piece of crap comes out once in a while, it somehow undoes all the great stuff that's come from Hasbro lately in the form of Generations. The actual things the company produces.