As in what do you regard as being G1? Is it just the toy line and related fiction from '84-'89 (or whenever it ended)? Is All Hail Megatron G1? The DW and IDW titles? Classics/Henkei? WFC?
G1 is the original cartoon series, toyline, Marvel comics, etc. G1 is also the the Japanese series' Super-God Masterforce, Victory, and Zone, along with their magna and other fiction. Beast Wars seems to be in G1 as well. IDW and Dreamwave are placed into G1, but not continuing the show or Marvel Comics. Just think if the Transformers original show had awhole different story to tell. Classics, Universe, Henkei, etc. are the remakes of G1 (ands other continuaties, explaining Hot Shot and Cheetor), characters. Fun Pub has fiction for Classics and it is place in a "splinter timeline" where different events happened after the Marvel comics stories. WFC... Some say it is it;s own continuity, while Tfwiki (and myself) believe it is a prequel to the upcoming "Transformers Prime" show. But it's defiantly not G1. Hope this helps.
For me, G1 is a fun corner of the Transformers universe where the bad guys were goofy, the good guys were corny, the lines were ridiculous and the plots were silly, but yet there was still plenty of transforming, robot fighting and heroic dialogue to be thrown around. My experience with G1 is mostly based around the cartoon and the movie. I don't really ardently try to follow or map out the continuities or the splinter universes or etc. To me, "G1" is an era where Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Hound, Wheeljack, Prowl, Ironhide, Ratchet and other heroic autobots do battle against Megatron, Soundwave, Starscream and evil Decepticons. That's a great premise for some fun stories, and that's good enough for me.
G1/Generation 1 wasn't actually called that until some time after G2 started. It was kind of a retconned title for everything Transformers falling between the years 1984 and 1989(ish). Anything that uses characters, stories toys from that period which were produced after it, is only G1-themed, not actual G1. ...however, as Shadowbreaker inferred, there is other TF fiction which falls into the G1 family, like Beast Wars and Beast Machines. Basically, if you need more info (and defined more coherently than I am able to) then check out TF Wiki. It has a whole section on continuity families, although it can get quite tangled!
I hear people, and Hasbro say this, but the reveiw I heard by one of the guys on the RFC podcast says that if you actually play it, not only is it totally G1, but it's a great lead-in to the old G1 Sunbow cartoon.
Just to clarify, I don't need info, I'm asking for opinions. Conversationally, when I refer to "G1", I'm referring only to the original toyline and the cartoon and comics of the time from 1984-1989 (or 1990 or whenever it ended). Other things that are "G1 esque" I usually refer to by their respective names, like Classics, All Hail Megatron, etc... since Hasbro/Takara has already named those lines and stories for us. Functionally, in my own way of thinking, I regard anything "G1esque" as G1. So, to me, All Hail Megatron, Classics, War For Cybertron, the current IDW comic, the DW comics, etc. And to muddle things even further, I also regard G1 as anything that is intended to be a direct continuation of one of the fictions at the time (cartoon or comic) which means that I also regard G2, BW and BM as G1. Enjoy.
G1 refers to the original 1980's Transformer toy's featuring Optimus Prime as leader of the Autobots and Megatron leader of the Decepticons.
Yep, and Beast Machines. BM is the official end of the American G1 story timeline, from a fiction standpoint. Absolutely! Yeppers to this as well. Toys: 1984-1991, including US, Japan, and European stuff Story: US cartoon/comics all the way through Beast Machines
^ OH GAWD G1 is just the Cartoon, Comics, and toys from the first days of Transformers. The canon flows through Beast Wars and Beast Machines. The Japanese series are spinoffs in their own universe as far as I'm concerned. Nothing more, nothing less. The classics are remakes, WFC is its own thing, and newer comics are their own continuity based on it.
For me, G1 is the original Toy line, cartoon & comics from the 80's. The DW and IDW stuff, while set in G1's time frame and uses their charcters, is not G1 to me. It's G1 inspired for sure, however G1 was officially ended by Hasbro nearly 20 years ago.
When I think about G1, I think about the original 80's cartoon, toys and Marvel comics. The G1 universe on the other hand is still going on today with side stories, and for me includes Beast Wars and Beast Machines.
i go by toyline so for me.... bricks .....if its a transforming brick its g1 any articulation = g2 and above
Well, when I started using the internet to accommodate my Transformer fandom way back when, I remember looking at the G1 and both G2 Constructicons. I can't remember what it said, but whatever it said, it lead me to believe G2 was season 3 of the G1 'toon and on. Then I discovered TFWiki and read hundreds of articles that day. For me, G1 is the US show and toyline. I also out the Headmasters in there, since it included a lot of the 'ol G1 guys. Super-God Masterforce and Victory I put in their own continuity. I haven't seen the whole Headmasters, I don't see how that goes into Masterforce. DW and IDW I put into other G1 continuity. Like I said before, like if G1 happened differently.
G1 is the original cast of characters that started it all, and have continued to re-appear in various places like different TF vs. JI Joe's, All Hail Megatron, Alternators became a different spin on them, Dreamwave's War Within and more recently War for Cybertron. They spawned a Next Generation called Beast Wars and then later Beast Machines. It is conceivable that Maximals and Predicons can show up in later generations of each G1 continuity... including the current IDW Transformers Ongoing.
Depends on the context of the conversation - under some circumstances Victory & zone count in other respects not. In general though anything pre-G2 with some sprinkles from the Beast era and Takara expanded universe aspects (like Tigertracks/Clampdown/Sunstorm etc...). Under other circumstances G2 counts as an extention of G1 and sometimes I'd say anything up to and including Beast Wars & Beast Machines + the Japanese expanded Universe (minus Alternators). and excluding RID, AEC, Animated & Prime. IDW & Dreamwave comics barely count most of the time especially int he places they are widely inconsistant with regular G1. In some ways the Marvel comics and the old cartoon and toy line have more in common with each other than something like IDW does with respects to the widely different backgrounds and stories of characters like Springer, Arcee, Ultra Magnus, & Blaster. I don't count IDW as much as the characterisation is not consistant. where as even in the odder stuff like Kiss Players it can still be.
This is a bad topic to start, along the lines of RIRFIB, Brawn is alive, etc. Everyone has their own definition of this, and some will argue their point of why their idea is correct.
G1, in my mind, is simply everything before G2 (winner!). The cartoon, comics, toys, etc. And nothing after. When it comes to comics like IDW and Dreamwave, I regard them simply as "G1-based." Same goes for lines like BinalTech, WFC, and "Classics." They're G1-based lines, but not exactly G1. G1 has been over since 1992, everything since is simply hearkening back to nostalgia factor.
