Agreed. A lot of them look really cool, but the lack of noses just bugs me for some reason.

 

Now this is a much better way to frame your critique. Thinking that the characterizations in TFP are weak is a valid opinion, and suggesting that adding more characters from the toyline would make up for that weakness is a fair take!

Though, I personally feel the show made sense of the limited roster by setting itself near the war's end. They imply that there aren't many Autobots left ever since Cybertron went dark, with most being scattered across the galaxy (Wheeljack, Ultra Magnus) or dead (the rest of the Wreckers). You can also assume a similar situation on the Decepticon's end, what with Megatron's willingness to expand his forces in any way he can through risky endeavors, such as the Terrorcons and Predacons.

I admit, they certainly could've done more with those stories. While I was personally satisfied with how most of them were resolved, its perfectly fine if you weren't and I can understand why some would find them disappointing.

Yeah, I second that! TFP is no masterpiece but for the most part, it succeeds in what it sets out to do.

I think we can all agree that Blum did a wonderful job with his performance as Screamer! His voice struck the perfect balance between both the malice and cowardice that Starscream is known for.

And I can understand not liking the designs of the show. Its definitely an acquired taste, though I personally think they pull off the movie aesthetic better than the movies did (the Bumblebee movie not withstanding).

Yeah... it is a pretty strange omission, now that I think about it lol

Well, as a preteen (around the age range I was when I first saw Prime) I loved getting shocked and scared by dark moments and stories... but at the same time I was always up for more light-hearted fare. So who was the show aiming for? Me, apparently! lol

Jokes aside, your comments regarding confusion of Prime's intended audience does raise an interesting point of discussion all on its own. How does a story manage to balance tonal shifts, in a way so that no part of the audience feels alienated? Its a narrative struggle that I've never thought about before, and there's gotta be some kind of a science to it, right?

 

Yeah and that's totally fine.

But Steven Blum's Starscream is IMHO a perfect example of how you can have another actor take a familiar character put his own spin on it and do a respected take on it even if he's not the original.

 

For the most part, I find that old timers tend to look odd or bad in a new style, and newcomers look better. Prime was one of those where I thought both look bad. I don't like the jagged, slinky proportions, strange faces and lack of noses.

I recently got a blindbag Prime Starscream at my local dollar store and laughed because he looked like a surprised old man.

 

I like Prime Starscream's design (I like all of their TFP designs...save for Optimus' upgrade into the 'Hulk' in Season 3), but that thing looks freaky. They even painted his optics the wrong color!

 

I've always been a fan of the bigger, bulkier, Optimus. Whether it be Powermaster Optimus Prime, Optimal Optimus from Beast Wars, or season three Optimus from Prime.

 

I adored this show before reading these boards. It was different than anything on television. It was cookie cutter but it dared to be gritty, something a lot of thinks children's programming strays from.

All the arguments against this show on the boards made me throw my blu-rays (that were signed by Cullen and Welker) into the garbage. I didn't want to disappoint others.

 

Why dissapoint others? People just have different opinions than you. No need to feel ashamed.

 

It's really hard to enjoy yourself when you have low self-esteem and spend too much time online. It still happens too.

Any good? It solidified Polygon Pictures as one of my favourite animation studios. I can't stress how much I adored their work (especially Ajin) and it was Prime that got me into it. Glad they're back for Siege and hope they deliver the same level of quality.

It showed humans can cause harm without super powers though I won't deny MECH's commence was shoehorned in. I really like the designs without the noses, they don't need them but I get the uncanny valley they create. The humans in general were shoehorned it but they were relatable since they resonated with me as a fan. Jack's humbleness, Miko's energy, Raph's intelligence.

Would I purchase this series again? No, Cullen and Welker's signatures had me keep the show around. Here's hoping for a good future.

 

Don't forget his various Super Modes from the Unicron Trilogy! Cybertron Optimus is one of the all-time coolest designs for the character, in my opinion.

Polygon is back for Siege?! Wow, now I'm really hyped! Here's hoping they hit another home run!

 

It's worth noting that Siege is co-produced by Rooster Teeth and if RWBY (which is not animated by Polygon) is anything to go by...

Anyways, hope for the best and enjoy what you like. Let's get back to the topic at hand.

 

I don't hate Prime, but I don't love it either. I enjoyed it on my first full watch-through, but subsequent deep dives and comparing it to other shows in the overall Transformers franchise had it coming up... lacking.

The show had a few things going for it. Knock Out and Sounwave were easily my favorite character and characterization, for example. Other than that, the show falls flat. As others have mentioned, some notable problems include a strong aversion to altering the status quo, dropping plot threads or using Deus Ex Machinas to resolve them, poor characterizations, and so on. It's also worth noting that Prime is wholly responsible for Transformers media and toys becoming "cheaper" leading into the 2010s: it ran so horrendously overbudget that other planned shows needed to be cancelled, and their funding redirected to support Prime. But even the extra budget didn't stop it from bombing in Japan, hard. The show did so poorly that Transformers in general were removed from shelves, and became a product you had to go and ask a store to bring out for you to see what was in stock. In fact, Takara refused to import the third season - which needed to be rebranded "Beast Hunters" in order to save face elsewhere - and instead created both a brand-new show and accompanying toyline out-of-pocket.

After Prime, Transformers media hasn't been the same. Robots in Disguise 2015 features far less expensive animation, but still followed the general formula of Prime (strict adherence to the status quo, at the expense of everything else including proper character development), the Prime Wars Trilogy was incredibly cheap, and saw the rise of Hasbro employing non-Union actors to cut costs. This culminated with Cyberverse, which continued the trend of hiring non-Union actors, but took the idea of cheaply producing a cartoon to the extreme, limiting the show to ten minutes per episode, as opposed to the standard 20. We did, however, see a dramatic 180 with regards to storytelling in Cyberverse; it was willing to tell longer, multi-part stories and explore individual characters on a deeper level. Notably, for the first time since Prime, we see an Optimus that isn't just a stoic cardboard cutout, but one who's naturally very introverted and socially awkward.

 

I’m very curious, if you guys find prime’s story lacking, which transformers media do you consider fulfilling? I’ve watched most shows besides beast wars(watched it as a kid but can’t get past the animation as a adult ) and for the most part Prime has remained the only show to have any sort of consistency of plot. Most of the Transformers shows I’ve seen have episodes that are essentially random storylines in each episode that follow very little overarching stories. Given prime did a similar thing but it always seemed like the Autobots had a goal they were working towards over multiple episodes. If there’s a show I have to return too please let me know because I’ve tried g1, the unicorn trilogy, Victory, I love animated but it feels like Prime is the only show with a real story.

 

The unicorn trilogy was definitely the most fulfilling story wise.  

 

Beast Machines did the overarching storyline thing much better than TFP ever did, at least IMO. TFP never progressed to me, whereas in Beast Machines, there was always something that shook up the status quo (whether it be a Vehicon General's original personality being brought back or a new character joining the Maximals).

 

I think TF: Prime is just an ok show, but not my favorite. There are stuffs that I like, but there are a lot of things that I didn't love in TF: Prime. If there's another thing I'll give credit to TF: Prime, that'll be the visual isn't too bad. The show itself looks pretty nice at times, and the animation isn't ugly; The visual elements in TF: Prime is the one thing the show does quite well, which I'll give some credit for.

That said, the budget of the show could've been spent better. There's really no need waste the budget on things like hiring celebrity superstars for VA's like Dwayne Johnson and whoever Breakdown's VA was (There didn't add much to the presentation of the show, and cheaper dedicated VAs could've been just as good), or wasting the animation on Mcguffins that was used only 1-2 times and never been used again.

The good guys are boring, the bad guys are interesting but mostly underdeveloped and incompetent, the fights are mostly boring with the Autobots endlessly killing Vehicons every episodes, and there are some writing choices that feels like a cop-out; Some examples of this are the rivalry between Bulkhead and Breakdown in the show but nothing awesome was ever done with it through. Breakdown get killed when he shouldn't be, Silas (Or whoever that is) get Breakdown's corpse and make himself more powerful, and that's it. We never properly know anything about their rivalry, Bulkhead just doesn't give a damm when Breakdown was dead (Even a simple "Wait? You're dead but how?" kinda line from Bulkhead would've been nice), and that's the end for another potentially interesting rivalry.

Despite being the main cast and the one that I should root for, I find most of the Autobots very boring (And Prime Arcee is one of the most hypocritical jerkass TF I've ever see in a TF show for a while). I don't really love the Decepticons either, but at least most of them has some sort of personality unlike Prime Optimus who is just boring with his stoic "heroic speech", and R2-Bee2 with his constant radio beep-boos.

 

Beast Wars and Animated take it for me. Unlike Prime, they actually take time to develop their characters in meaningful ways. And on top of that, the story isn't just "fetch quest central" like it is with Prime. They also take the time to ensure their plotlines have satisfying endings (with the notable exception being Animated, since it was cancelled before its fourth season could be produced). Both shows also don't go out of their way to try and force the idea that they're "dark" and "mature" down our throats. Prime doesn't do any of this. While it's true Prime's story shares the same storytelling pattern as Beast Wars and Animated, where each individual episode contributes something to the plot, the latter two do it much, much better.

 

Yeah, I've heard how badly Prime bombed in Japan. I can't say I'm surprised that it did. It has a more western-edge to it than most every other TF series, and it doesn't seem like something that would appeal to the younger demographic that the franchise had over there.

I know Takara extensively altered the show for the Japanese market to make it more "kiddy", so I'm honestly kind of glad it failed.

What you're saying about Cyberverse however, makes me excited to watch it! Sounds like an interesting take on Optimus.

Yeah, that's an understandable opinion. Very reasonable critiques!

For as much as I personally disagree with your takes on Prime, I really can't argue that Animated and Beast Wars are for sure the better shows.

 

Prime is great solely because we got Knockout from it.

He's great. Nough said.

 

After just watching Siege, I gotta say what made Prime great was the voice acting and the diversity of the voices. Each character was very distinct.