Being born in 88 I grew up on Gen 1/2 re-runs, then fell in love with BW, then BM, then RID. I have not watched much since. I watched a handful of episodes of Armada but nothing else after. Am I missing anything enjoyable? Of quality? Any of the series since then does anyone recommend?

 

Absolutely, there's more. There's a couple of shows that you might like. Transformers Animated is extremely popular around here. I personally never got into it, but there's a lot of people here who say that it's the best Transformers series following the Beast era. Also, Transformers Prime is my personal recommendation. That show is my favorite post Beast era series.

 

Check out TF Prime, its pretty good and currently the last good TF show available after the Beast era.

TF Animated also has a lot of fans around here, even more than Prime does. I couldn't get into it though.

 

Is the general consensus that the cybertron trilogy of shows are worth skipping? Is Animated catered to a younger audience than Prime?

 

I love anime, but the Unicron Trilogy is not good anime. Its just boring toyetic kid anime. As much as I tried I just could never get into them. I would always end up falling asleep.

 

Thanks I love anime as well. Especially the old Gundam which is why I love the old G1 anime and BW anime and Car Robots. Excited for Neo subs. Wish JP would do another series at somepoint. NO CGI please.

 

Gundam is awesome, G Gundam being my fav.

Car Robots was pretty good, I liked it a lot when it was new. While not the best TF show, its far more entertaining than any of the series in the Unicron Trilogy. If there is ever another TF anime again, I hope its more like CR, only taken a little more seriously.

I'm not sure what the target audience is for TF Animated. I'd say it aims for an older audience than the Unicron Trilogy does. The show is definitely a love letter to various TF shows that came before it, but I just couldn't get into the character designs, and I found a lot of the voices to be annoying. Its ranked right up there with the Beast era, so if you can look past the ugly character designs you'll probably like it.

 

Yeah I don't think Ill be able to looking at the designs but I'll try it. How is RID 2015, Prime, or Cyberverse?

 

There's a lot of good stuff towards the end of Armada series. The Unicron Battles portion of the series is actually damn good and overall, the show has AMAZING Starscream and some other characters and plot threads, but when looking at the how well the episode count actually relates with the good stuff you really have to, um, sort of "dig out" that mentioned good stuff and just tolerate all that crap in between the great portions. Still, there's some badass moments like episode "Crisis", Starscream arc, Unicron battles (even though I'm not a fan of the backstory leaning too much towards Mini-con stuff) and one of the very best Optimus vs Mega/Galvatron fights ever seen in Transformers cartoons.

Energon does start out great! I mean, the animation isn't that exciting, but the general idea is actually very good one; fragile Autobot-Decepticon alliance we were left it in Armada, signs of Megatron & Unicron returning, some interesting concepts here and there... Unfortunately, as great as the show concept was, it turned out to be pretty painfully executed. Cybertron is the most consistent of the "Trilogy" but IMO it also feels most stretched (longest_stock_footage_ever syndrome might have something to do with that though) and while there's some cool stuff it just never really felt that interesting, despite playing with some interesting cards here and there.

Overall, I feel that Armada and Energon wasted tons of good story potential. Armada does good job towards the end and Energon continues the story ten years later with some very fascinating elements, but the artistic direction, writing in general and some terrible characters and stretching really ruins it. The end of Armada and the beginning of Energon are, in my opinion, a very good story. How it's told, however, is another thing, but there were lot of neat ideas around that time nonetheless.

 

I think the general consensus for TF shows you absolutely, positively need to watch is Animated and Prime.

If you liked Beast Wars, you’re guaranteed to like Animated. Easily one of the best Transformers shows created, full of character and just all around fun to watch. Not liking the art style isn’t a good reason to not watch it at all.

Prime is a different experience from Animated, but it’s still fun to watch. Prime focuses much more on action and chaotic, robot-on-robot violence, plus generally tries to appear as a “darker” or “more mature” Transformers series. Whereas Animated follows the Beast Wars formula of “family friendly,” though it also has its share of more mature episodes.

 

It really depends on what your looking for.

I'm only a few episodes into Animated, but I'm really enjoying that (I really can't have a strong opinion on it either way, yet).

I'd give Prime a mild recommendation, mainly because the 3D animation and the cinematic style is fun (it's probably the most expensive-looking TF cartoon). I'd argue the storytelling isn't really anything above average, although a lot of the individual adventures are a lot of fun. I feel like this series really appeals to fans who want to take Transformers fairly seriously, and who want something more dynamic/cool. If that's what you want, you'll love this. If you like a more tongue-in-cheek/carefree take, I'd steer clear.

I'd actually recommend RID, but only if your interest lies in unique designs, and if you want a less-conventional premise. It's very kiddy, but I think it does a decent job building the story forward. It has a different team that usual. A lot of the individual episodes are kind of repetitive, but they're still fun. I'd argue RID is more in-line with the spirit of the G1 cartoon than Prime was (less serious and more of a carefree romp).

I don't think I'd recommend Cyberverse. It's basically just a modern G1, done in a less charming animation style. There are a couple neat lore-building things, but I'd argue it's not worth sifting through the amount of filler and blandness required to get to them. You'll have to put up with a lot of Windblade, and one of the more annoying incarnations of Bumblebee. And non-union voice-acting that makes it sound like a fan-film. Apparently it's supposed to be a love-letter to G1, but something like the Bumblebee movie does that a lot better. I'm honestly not sure what subset of fans I'd even recommend this too.

I definitely wouldn't recommend Combiner Wars (the online fan cartoon). Another "love letter" to fans that completely misses the mark. Nothing about it is pleasant. The story isn't good enough for story-focused fans. The action/cinematography isn't cool enough for people who want something dynamic. The designs aren't interesting enough for design-focused fans. The only positive for me is that it goes into the "so bad it's entertaining" zone at least once. I got a couple laughs, but it's probably not worth watching unless you're really bored.

Haven't seen Rescue Bots, or the follow-up online cartoons. None of those really interest me, so I probably won't be watching them anytime soon.

 

Watch Armada, Cybertron, and Animated. Ignore the rest.

 

Animated is a must. It's like taking elements from G1 and infusing it with the soul of Beast Wars.