Welcome to the third TFW2005.COM Sound-Off! This is a place for you guys to voice your thoughts and opinions on various topics that we frontpage for the whole Transformers community to read, observe, and who knows, maybe someone somewhere is taking notes!

The question for this session is pretty simplistic!

Which past incarnation of the Transformers deserves some more love?

Now, as you can see by the poll, we've left some incarnations out! And I'll explain why certain series were left off.

Generation One
Let's face it - the whole "Generations" line is basically Hasbro throwing the collectors a bone with "classic" stylings of their old, beloved characters. Just this year we're getting Thrust, Darkmount (Straxus), Red Alert, Blurr, Perceptor, not to mention War For Cybertron (in a semi War Within styling) Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Soundwave, Megatron, and Cliffjumper. There's an on-going comic (though some argue in a perverse state) of Generation One, and there's still quasi merchandise being released of Generation One (the entire cartoon on DVD).

Generation Two
They just had a BotCon convention based on G2, and a few figures were released in movie styling (and Universe 2.0 styling). If not for this last convention, this would probably be at the top of the list.

Beast Wars
This is the hot topic debate. We know you want more Beast Wars. The whole "Airachnid" name fiasco proves that. But compared to the other series on the poll, Beast Wars recently had their 10th Anniversary celebrated, they had "Black Arachnia" in Transformers Animated, Cheetor and Dinobot were released in Universe 2.0, they had two comic series and a MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE profile book type thing released a few years back, and Dinobot was just inducted in to the HALL OF FAME at the last convention. Compared to the other series' on the list, Beast Wars is and has been doing just fine.

Now let's look at the series that ARE on the list:

Machine Wars
The forgotten series, probably because it was a KB Toys exclusive toyline back before Beast Wars. It featured everything from Optimus Prime to Megatron, Starscream, and Soundwave. While we did see a few figures brought back in the failed "Universe" line, the actual series itself seems to have been forgotten. Does it need more love?

Beast Machines
The sequel to Beast Wars, Beast Machines hit in the late 90's as a follow-up series that was going to take Transformers from "beasts" in to a more machine like mixture, or "TransTech" as the failed after series was originally titled. The series marked the proverbial "end" to the storyline set up with Generation One (seeing as Beast Wars was a sequel to G1, and BM was a sequel to BW), and Bob Skir is still in hiding over the threats made to him and his family for the ending (

Spoiler

Cybertron turning techno-organic

). But the series featured some really awesome toys (Battle Unicorn anyone?) and, in this fan's recent viewing, had a very dark and mature storyline that really set itself apart from anything before it, and really, anything after it. Does it need more love?

Robots in Disguise
Aside from the over-use of some of the figures in "Universe" that resulted in the destruction due to over-use of some of the molds (the Car Brothers, Optimus Prime, and Ultra Magnus), and the overall cost being too much to reproduce some molds (Rail Racer), this line has been pretty much ignored and forgotten (save for Sky-Byte's random appearance in this last year's convention set). Aside from an appearance in Fun Publication's "TIMELINES" and Dreamwave's one-shot comic, ROBOTS IN DISGUISE, the line that really brought Transformers popularity to a high point after Beast Wars, the line has been forgotten almost entirely. People don't realize that it was this toyline (and "CAR ROBOTS" in Japan) that brought the fad of "black Optimus Prime" repaints and realistic vehicles back to the Transformers franchise. What did Hasbro do to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of this series? Not a thing   Does it need more love?

Armada, Energon, and Cybertron
We lumped these bad boys together because in retrospect they were pretty bad. Aside from some great toys in Cybertron, a pretty decent story in the Armada cartoon, and ... well, Energon gave us some decent combiners, these series really set the way for the creation of the Transformers movies to happen (yes, blame Armada for the movie!). Armada was immensly successful. So much, that Hot Shot still gets love (Animated, Universe 2.0). And the Energon combiners saw a re-release in the Revenge of the Fallen toyline, and Cybertron figures were in Universe 2.0 and the whole three-lines have seen use in the last handful of BotCon convention figures. However, there are parts that have been forgotten - Jetfire being Optimus Prime's pants, Wheeljack being an Autobot traitor, Unicron came back in to mythology, Primus became an official toy and character, and that British DJ made the theme song for Cybertron. But ... does it need more love?

Alternators
I didn't want to put this in here, because this line was popular with collectors but never caught on with the casual purchaser (mom and dad for little billy), and so the line was scrapped - plus it has evolved in to "Human Alliance" and "Alternity" and both of those are on-going as of the time of this poll. Anyways, this toyline started and was very popular, and over time the popularity did die down but one would argue that it was because of the plethora of repaints (Hound, Swindle, Rollbar! Sideswipe, Dead End, Sunstreaker! Tracks, Battle Ravage, Swerve! Smokescreen, Silverstreak, Ricochet! Give love to those figures with NO repaints - Rumble, Ravage, and those with only TWO repaints - Optimus Prime/Nemesis Prime, Meister/Shockblast, Grimlock/Wheeljack, Prowl/Camshaft, Windcharger/Decepticharge, and Mirage/Rodimus! Anyways, the Japanese side of things (Binaltech) used diecast metal and wrote a storyline that tied in to Generation One and, in a way, Masterpiece, and then abandoned the whole thing when KISS Players came out (hentaiwhat?), and have re-started it in a sense with Alternity, the Dragonball Z of Transformers. BUT ... after 4 years of toys and such, with new versions of these figures available as Human Alliance and Alternity ... do they still need more love?

Powercore Combiners
Only three waves currently known and most are mold re-uses except the Grimstone set and ... nah, I'm just kidding, we know Powercore Combiners is the future of Transformers  

So go ahead and vote! And leave your thoughts and opinions as to why! We'll feature this in about a week or so on the frontpage with some of your opinions. Keep it PG-13 at worst!

And for note ... yes, I know some of you will be upset there's not a "None of the above" option, or a "Other" option, so maybe this question should be "IF YOU HAD TO CHOOSE..." ... but these are your options, vote, or don't vote, it's really up to you. Happy voting!

EDIT: I didn't forget Titanium ... but ya'll just had Prowl and Grimlock, War Within style, like a year and a half ago. So nyah!

 

Even though I love me some G2, my vote ultimately goes to Beast Machines. The show took chances in both art style and writing and deserves more credit than it gets because of it, regardless of what people might think of the choices (I personally enjoy the heck out of it). The toyline might have been hit-or-miss, but the aesthetic always stuck to its guns and gave us some really unique pieces along the way. The deluxe Jetstorm, Night Slash Cheetor, and the late-to-the-party RID-released Air Attack Optimus Primal are still some of my favorite Transformers out there.

 

I voted Robots in Disguise.

As I wrote in the opening post, RID spawned off stuff that still happens today, namely the "black Optimus Prime" repaints that we see every year in some way, shape, or form, always named "Nemesis Prime". But it's the first, and really ONLY time, that a "black repaint" was a central character in the animation and/or storyline. "Nemesis Prime" in Armada was literally a one-shot pony, and he was just a manipulation from Sideways trying to fcuk with the Autobots and Decepticons.

The designer behind the CAR ROBOTS toys (Mach Alert, Speedbreaker, Wild Rider, Fire Convoy, God Magnus, Gigatron, JRX, Build King) was also the designer for the Alternators series of toys that everyone loves so much. One could argue that while his style is VERY complex, it also brought Transformers back to what it once was in the 80's ... a popular toyline of realistic vehicles turning in to pretty awesome robots. I remember spending ALL my money in college on those freakin' toys instead of books and alcohol like most good college students.

The molds were heavily re-used (except the Bullet Trains) and most of them are now lost forever and ever unless TakaraTomy wants to re-furbish them, but I know more people that got back in to Transformers because of RID (and then left because of Armada).

So ... bring me back some RID goodness, damn it!

 

RID! Once Armada(show/toys) came out, RID seemed like it was swept under the rug quick(save for exclusives and repaints in Universe)! The line gave us all the good things from Beast Wars(chrome, full articulation, high level of detail) with VEHICLE(not all but still!) alt modes! Monkey Prime was cool but it would be a lie to say no one was waiting for Haskaromy to make an Optimus just as articulated as Primal but with a VEHICLE alt mode, and not a HINT of organics!  

RID was a well received(by collectors) welcome to vehicle alt modes in a main TF line. It was an enjoyable line albeit short and seemed like it never reached its full potential. Nonetheless, while I didn't like the cartoon much, I fondly remember the toys. I think Omega Prime was overrated(not very stable at least mine isn't), but the fact that the combined mode was so fucking big(for a TF at the time), still impresses the hell out of me.

Plus Black Convoy/Scourge=BEST black Convoy/Prime. Dude has a fucking GIANT SWORD AND a trailer, AND guns! Not to mention it's a repaint of Laser Rod Prime, who was awesome to begin with!

In conclusion, short line but GREAT while it lasted!

 

I think another reason RID was cool was because it was a hint at what was to come in the future. RID has a Prime that combined, and the 3 series that followed did too. Also by the 2007, we had a Leader Prime that was leader sized without the need to combine. In a way I think it got us used to having leader sized Optimus Prime figures for the mainlines.

Altertech followed the car bros and even now we still have realistic Transformer car lines. RID is one of the lines that didn't last the longest, but its influence has been felt the longest IMHO.