Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Calling all Transfans -- let's celebrate the Transformers

The recent mentions of Transformers at Legion World -- in the Who's Who of Legion World thread -- have inspired me to start this thread. I thought it would be nice to have a place where we can talk about our favorite characters and favorite episodes. I also want to give credit where it's due by talking about a lot of the people who worked on the show. In its variety of storylines, in its rich mythology, in its wonderful characterizations, in the ambiiton and intelligence of the writing, and in the consistency of quality for a show that ran almost 100 episodes (98, to be exact), the original Transformers cartoon is a very special thing to me. It is my personal equivalent of Star Trek The Original Series, my personal equivalent of Stan Lee & Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four. My complete set of Transformers DVDs (sadly discontinued, although the upcoming live-action movie and the recent release of a Transformers the Movie special edition shows promise that the show will be released again on a new set of DVDs) are something I will always treasure.

Before I proceed, I want to recommend The Cybertron Chronicle , by far the best source for all things TF G1 cartoon. Webmaster Rik Bakke has done Transfans a great service.

Now, my favorite charcter by far is Tracks, although most of the writers didn't seem to feel that way, using him most of the time as cannon fodder. It was only David Wise who really understood Tracks, who understood that beneath the vain, effete, haughty surface, Tracks knows when to put such things aside and be a good warrior. Plus, Tracks's status as an outsider among the Autobots resonated with the junior-high outsider I was back when I first saw the show.

My favorite episode is "Make Tracks" (written, of course, by David Wise), in which the Autobots are doing their part to help take down crime in New York City while also protecting the city from Decepticons; Tracks befriends Raul, a street kid and reluctant car thief, and together they stumble into a Decepticon plot to turn stolen cars into a fleet of battle-drones. It's an unlikely premise, but David Wise specialized in taking unlikely premises and coming up with really good scripts (more on that shortly). "Make Tracks" is my favorite episode for many reasons: even though it focuses on Tracks, it's jam-packed with other Autobots, and I always loved it when an episode had lots of characters (off the top of my head, it co-starred Blaster, Seaspray, Powerglide, Cosmos, Hoist, Huffer, Sideswipe, Bumblebee, Jazz, Inferno, Ironhide, Ratchet, and of course Optimus Prime); the animation is really good, with none of the animation errors that cropped up in a lot of episodes; Raul could have come off as a negative stereotype, but Wise makes him a well-rounded character; the action sequences are outstanding, especially when the Autobots are fighting the battle-drones in the city streets and bridges.

Wise wrote two more episodes starring Tracks, "Auto-Bop" and "Trans Europe Express". Neither one is nearly as good as "Make Tracks", but I like them both. "Auto-Bop" is the one in which the Decepticons are using a discotheque to hypnotize people -- it's corny, but on its own terms it's great fun; it also has a great Blaster vs. Soundwave battle. "Trans Europe Express" is the one in which several Autobots participate in a cross-continental auto race, while the Decepticons scheme nearby. It's not particularly good on any level, I just like it because Tracks stars in it.

David Wise is the most prolific of the TF G1 cartoon writers, with 15 episodes to his credit. Considering the amount of scripts he wrote, it's amazing how good most of them are: "Day of the Machines" (the Decepticons take control of a super-computer); "Microbots" (Megatron gets super-powerful and three of the Autobots use a shrinking device to sneak inside him and disconnect his power source); "The Secret of Omega Supreme" (Omega Supreme reveals the root of his feud with the Constructicons); "The Key to Vector Sigma" (the 2-parter which introduced the Aerialbots and Stunticons); "War Dawn" (the Aerialbots travel back in time to Cybertron right before the end of the Golden Age). Wise also wrote the 3-part series finale, "The Rebirth", which has been heavily criticized but which I think came out pretty good considering the circumstances (Wise's original scripts was a 5-parter, but the toy company cut back on the budget, forcing a compression into a 3-parter; plus, it was animated by Akom Studios rather than Toei Studios.)

Next, I'll be writing about other favorite characters and episodes and creators. Other Transfans are more than welcome to contribute their own favorites to this thread.

I have a question. My Transformers memories are somewhat vague because I haven't really seen them since I was around 12-15. Did the animated movie and the episodes that followed up on it occur within the series you're discussing, or was that the start of a new series? In any case how many episodes of post-movie continuity were there?

Also: was Beast Wars a totally separate continuity, or did it relate somehow to the original series?

The 33 episodes after the animated movie are part of the original series. The first thirty are Season Three, and the 3-part series finale is Season Four.

Beast Wars is indeed part of the continuity; I have mixed feelings about Beast Wars, but the writers certainly deserve credit for doing their homework.

I grew to like Beast Wars, but as a separate entity.

Springer is my favourite, followed closely by Hound. I got the chance to view the entire first series about a year ago. Some of the early work stands up well. As the series wound down and it became a commercial, it lost some appeal.

And Starscream bugged me from the get go.

...you'll have to excuse the enthusiasm, but I am fangirling you RIGHT NOW. I love Tracks. I believe him to be severly underappreciated and misrepresented in Transfandom, and he is definitely in my top three favorites. Far too many rely on his moments of vanity to define his character without noticing that Tracks has done things like threaten Megatron with bodily harm for coming so very close to harming Raoul. Plus Michael McConnohie is an awesome, awesome guy. I would LOVE to meet him at a convention.

I'm going to have to get out the door here for my night shift, shortly, but I'll go ahead and add that I'm "more Autobot than Decepticon" at heart, making my top three Ratchet, Tracks and Red Alert. (in that order). I'll have to get back into this thread later to discuss some of my favorite episodes, as well, but "Make Tracks" is definitely one of them!

Im a transfan from way back...though admittedly I have a little trouble saying (typing?) Transfan with a straight face. It has other connotations. I think they mightve actually released the movie special ed. here first? its possible...Ive had a copy for about 4 years or so. I actually got into the comics moreso then the series - specifically the UK comics which were released either weekly or fortnightly and usually had 2 stories in them - A main story and a backup that was either GI.Joe or something...towards the end of the run it was a headmaster backup which was uber-cool
fave chracters? Arcee, Blaster and Minerva/Minelba.
Oooh and I still have my Metroplex with its box. hooray!

Omg, Straya, Red Alert and Ratchet! They're both high on my list of favorites. I love the way that Don Messick gave Ratchet the same voice he had given Dr. Benton Quest, Jonny Quest's father. And Red Alert's showcase episode, "Auto Berserk" is an episode I love, especially the way that it mixed old favorites (Optimus Prime, Ironhide, Wheeljack) with then-recent arrivals (Red Alert, Inferno, Hoist, Grapple, and Smokescreen).

And I totally agree about Michael McConnohie. He has such a great sense of humor. I love the story he told about how, when the recording sessions got slow and tense, Frank Welker would pantomime a telephone and have a conversation with himself -- "Frank Welker lives in his own world, and he's welcome to it." (No disrespect intended to Welker, one of the greatest living voice-over artists; everybody has their quirks).

CJ, I like Hound too. As a matter of fact, Hound is my favorite of the original 18 Autobots.

A couple things about Tracks I forgot to mention:

He's one of the second wave of Autobot cars & trucks, whom I like to refer to as The Magnificent Seven, because I love of all of them(Tracks, Red Alert, Smokescreen, Inferno, Hoist, Grapple, and Skids).

Tracks has what I consider one of the funniest comeback lines in Transformers history; it's in the scene from "The Secret of Omega Supreme" where the giant alien monster is about to divebomb on Tracks and Beachcomber.

Beachcomber: "Relax, maaaan, remember we're all one with the universe."

Tracks: "We're about to become one with the pavement! DUCK!"

So if Beast Wars was in-continuity, how'd they go from machines to beasts? (I don't believe I ever saw a Beast Wars ep in my life!)

And is/was the most recent Transformers cartoon a continuation or a reboot, of sorts?

BTW, as much as Transformers rocked, "Go-Bots" totally sucked! Anyone remember that piece of crap?

Oh, and would you say the original series "jumped the shark" after the movie, or did it improve or at least maintain its appeal?

***Note: I was more of a G.I. Joe kid and never owned any Transformer toys!

I remember when I was a kid thinking it went massively downhill after the movie. Not that everything was bad necessarily, but there was definitely a certain magic lost.

quoting from wikipedia (toooo lazy to explain on my own ) Early concepts for the series show that the original faction leaders (Primal and Megatron) were in fact going to be reimaginations of the original Generation One faction leaders, Optimus Prime and G1 Megatron, but the series itself shows that they are indeed separate characters. (Both Primal and Megatron come face-to-face with the currently-deactivated forms of their ancestors inside the Ark at different points.) The idea of both faction leaders being the G1 characters was probably abandoned when the idea of the series taking place in modern times (as a continuation of the Generation 2 series) was dropped

I actually LOVED go-bots. but what was I? like 7? heh. Rocklords.

LARDLAD - Beast Wars takes place several centuries after Generation 1's Great War comes to an end with the Autobots as the victors. Over time, both Autobot and Decepticons give 'way to their descendents, the Maximals and the Predacons, who apparently lose size over time, but maintain the various vehicle type alt modes. The beast modes come in when the Axalon (holding Primal and his exploration crew) and the Darkside (captained by Megaton and his crew) crash land on Earth several thousand years in the past after going through a transwarp drive jump. At that point in time, Earth is covered in raw energon, which interferes with the Cybertronian systems in deadly ways. The only way to shield themselves from the long term effects is to take on beast modes based on either local lifeforms or on extinct ones through scans, with the outer organic shell acting as the barrier.

The war on Earth is very contained for the longest time. The gist of the situation back home is that the Maximals are still in control, ruling by council, but that the Predacons are trying to bide their time, looking for the opportune moment to take over. BW!Megatron is convinced that he is destined to lead the Predacons to glory and is thus considered a loose canon by the leaders of his own people, the Tripredicus Council. And it's through their need to destroy him that we find out that some Decepticons out of those not granted amnesty are surviving as Predacons...and one is sent back during the middle of the "beast wars" on ancient Earth to assassinate BW!Megatron and "clean up the mess."

As for the most recent series, Galaxy Force/Cybertron...it's both a reboot and a continuation. It depends on whether you watch GF as the original Japanese, or Cybertron as the dub. GF stands completely on its own, not following any particular series (although there are plenty of homages to gen1). Cybertron, when it was dubbed and brought over, was force fit into the Armada and Energon timeline (those two series ARE supposed to be related). It's common for a Japanese TF series to experience some edits and name changes upon being brought over, but the changes made to GF were, in my opinion, forced and a generally bad idea all around. Especially since it meant they cut out the first two episodes entirely. I have this personal rule about only watching TF series in their original language and the dub edits made to the various Japanese series are a large part of the reason why.

As for the original series post movie, I rapidly lost interest. I love Springer and Ultra Magnus, but most of my favorites either died during the movie or disappeared after. And even for as cheesey as some of the plots were in seasons one and two, I think the storylines and even the animation were worse in post-movie seasons three and four.

Stealth - Classic Tracks line, that one! BTW, have you ever seen the "Michael McConnohie raps as Tracks" video?

And I suppose I should talk about my top favorite, Ratchet...

I really liked him as a kid, but it wasn't until I came back to Transfandom as an adult that I realized fully how awesome the character is in terms of quirks, personality, skills and internal conflicts. We have a guy here who was meant to be a civilian surgeon, but who never intended to be a career soldier and yet ended up taking on the role of a field medic, anyway, taking up arms when necessary. One the one hand, he is a healer to his fellow Autobots, but on the other, he won't hesistate to shoot at the enemy (unlike the pacifist First Aid, who fanon claims as the good doctor's protegé). Fanon also paints Ratchet as being a real grouch who uses his attitude to hide the fact that he really cares, but I think given what we know from the series and even from the various comic incarnations (Marvel, the UK comics, Dreamwave and IDW), he just gets snarky when he's stressed... And that seems to be often enough to make things interesting.

One of my absolute favorite Ratchet moments is from the episode "Changing Gears" when he takes out Thundercracker with a flying kick. Fandom has since dubbed him "the ninja medic."

Seasons 3 & 4 always elicit strong responses, either very positive or very negative. And while I understand and even agree with some of the criticisms, I'm actually in the "very positive" camp.

On one hand, I think that the deaths/dissapearances of most of the original characters was a bad idea, and that the new characters didn't measure up. I also didn't like the way that Season Three had small cores of characters on both the Autobot and Decepticon sides, robbing a lot of characters of face time.

On the other hand, I like the darker, hard-action, space opera atmosphere of these episodes. I think many of the episodes are extremely well-written. Contributors included SF authors Diane Duane and Arthur Byron Cover. I think that the 5-part Season Three premiere, "Five Faces of Darkness", was much, much, much better-written than the movie (in fact, it included a lot of elements from Flint Dille's legendary rejected draft of the movie script.) If only the animation had been of the same quality as the movie. And even though Seasons 3 & 4 had overall weaker animation than what had come before, they also had some of the series' best animation, most notably "Call of the Primitives", the only episode animated not by Toei or Akom but by TMS (Tokyo Movie Shinsha), where the animation is even better than the movie's animation.

I have some long-range plans for a TF fanfic reboot, starring the pre-movie characters but taking place entirely in the Cybertron galaxy. That, to me, would be the best of both worlds.

I haven't seen it, but I would love to and I'll do a search. Thank you for telling me about it.

Joe, regarding the TF comics, I never got into them because they were too different from the cartoon.

My second favorite episode is "The Search for Alpha Trion", written by Beth Bornstein. How do I love this episode? Let me count the ways:

1. It's the first and only appearance of four female Autobots who were all way cooler than Arcee. Elita-One, their leader, is just awesome -- she saves Optimus Prime's life, almost sacrificing her own life in the process; and her voice actress is Marlene Aragon, who was Synergy on "Jem!" The other three -- ornery Chromia, stoic Firestar, and earnest Moonracer, were almost equally awesome, especially Moonracer, who I relate to a lot.

2. It provides the first key to Optimus Prime's origin, which was further explored in "War Dawn."

3. It takes place mostly on Cybertron, a rarity for a pre-movie episode.

4. Starscream, my favorite Decepticon, was never as well-written as he is here: still arrogant and cowardly, but very competent and crafty as field commander. As Starscream himself puts it: "How fitting that the Decepticons have captured Optimus Prime under MY leadership."

I actually did like FFoD quite a bit, if just because of what happened with Blitzwing at the end. It was a real moment of development for him and something I ended up deeming worthy of closer investigation via fan fic.

"Call of the Primitives" had excellent animation...my only gripe is that the story really suffered. I'm not necessarily a big fan of the Dinobots (save for Swoop, I love him), but s3/4 really seemed to take Grimlock and turn him into and oversized puppy with an ego complex. I mean, he had the ego problem, previously, but he was much more the tough guy. Not exactly the brightest crayon in the box, but also not the, "Ooh, a bright red button, must push it!" kind of character. And I think it was those kinds of details that eventually turned me away from Transformers when I was younger, for a time. I always felt Blaster's dialogue from s2 was always at least decently written in terms of rhyme, but it gets painful in s3 where he becomes little more than a slightly better Wheelie imitation. (And...yeah...I'm one of the fans who really doesn't like Wheelie. He was okay in the movie, but his dialogue in s3 really took him over the edge, IMO.) Apologies if all this comes off as being s3/4 bashing, but it's a subject I feel strongly about as a Transfan. (And things like this were also the reason I became absolutely giddy when the DW comics began coming out because they were trying to do a reset of sorts.)

"Roll for It" still remains one of my favorite episodes, not only for the better animation, but also because it featured Chip Chase. Some Transfans don't dig the human characters, but I'm one of the ones who does. And even though the stuff with the antimatter was a little out there, the episode still had a lot of fun points to offer... Such as Chip and Prowl teaming up to take on Soundwave, his tapes and Starscream, as well as an introduction to the Twins' infamous "Jet Judo."

I'll comment more in this thread later but 1st of all, can we please change the thread title so it's for Transformers in general? Even though I'm a big fan of G1 since I am a child of the 80's limiting the conversation to one era/incarnation is a bit odd. I'm a fan of all the various premutations of the robots in disguise.

And in prep for that happening did anyone else see this?:

http://www.tformers.com/Design-Your-Own-Alternator-Contest!/6836/news.html

Count me as another big G1 Tansformers Fan! I also liked the comics for awhile, but it's the cartoon that really holds up.

My favs:
-- Prowl: Aside from looking cool (the doors as "wings", the b/w cop car motif), he was Prime's right hand man. Uber-competent and trusted, serving the cause without ego - the good soldier.
-- Sideswipe: I liked Sideswipe's devil may-care attitude, the red/black design and the fact that he was a Lambourghini Countach (totally awesomest car *ever!*). Also loved that he was originally the only autobot who could fly (with his rocketpack).
-- Soundwave: I've read descriptions to the contrary, but like Prowl, he was "the good soldier" - Megatron's right hand, never seemed arrogant, stupid or malicious and steadfastly loyal like when he rescued Megatron in the movie. Which is why I didn't buy it when two seconds later, he makes a play for leadership and lets Megatron get tossed out in space. Oh, and that voice was kick-ass (yeah, it was like the Cylons, but that's extra cool).
-- Springer: The only one I liked of the G2 Transformers. He was tough, fearless and could *triple* change - how cool is that?

So what happened in the original series finale Stealth mentioned, called "The Rebirth"?

Actor Lad, your suggestion makes sense. I changed the title just now.

I agree with everything about Soundwave, especially the voice. That voice made him menacing and creepy everytime he appeared, a must for an effective villain.

BTW, there's one episode (I don't remember which one), where Soundwave's voice momentarily loses the echo-ey processing, and sounds like the voice Frank Welker used as Darkseid in Superfriends and Dr. Claw in Inspector Gadget.

The Autobots' Earth base is attacked by the entire Decepticon Army, and the Decepticons steal a key which activates the plasma energy chamber in one of the lower levels of Cybertron. The Decepticons then attack Cybertron as a diversion to open the chamber and set their evil plan in motion. A group of Autobots takes back the key, but accidentally end up on another planet where the few surviving natives fight everyday against deadly machines controlled by an evil elite. The Decepticons follow the Autobots to this planet, and soon both sides are using the exo-suit clad aliens to magnify their powers, becoming Headmasters and Targetmasters. Both sides also build their own giant robot, Fortress Maximus and Scorponok. The Decepticons steal the key again and return to Cybertron, with the Autobots close behind. The Decepticons' plan turns out to be to use the deadly plasma energy to destroy both Cybertron and Earth. Spike and the good aliens, being organic creatures, are unaffected by the plasma energy, and they manage to save the day by redirecting the energy in such a way that Cybertron is restored to its Golden Age. The Decepticons, presumed dead when Scorponok with all the Decepticons inside him was sent freefalling through space, turn out to have stabilized Scorponok, and Galvatron vows to rebuild his army stronger than ever, while the leader of the evil aliens plans to usurp Galvatron's power when the time is right.

I agree it was one of the high points, and I would be interested in reading your fan fic. Could you please post a URL?

The only thing about it that I think is a shame is that, if Thundercracker hadn't been re-created into Scourge in the movie, then Thundercracker instead of Blitzwing would have been the one to switch loyalties. That would have meant that Thundercracker would have finally evolved into his morally ambiguous tech specs personality, which would have been cool.

No need to apologize. Passionate opinions are the very reason I started this thread. I agree about Blaster and Wheelie, but as far as Grimlock, I'm in the minority that finds his movie/post-movie personality amusing.

I like "Roll For It", too. Another good thing about it is that it's one of the rare occassions where Blue Streak gets some face time.

"Roll For It" was written by Doug Booth, another prolific TF writer who I feel deserves mention. The quality of his scripts was hit-or-miss, but when he was good, he was very good. Other Doug Booth episodes I like:

"Atlantis, Arise!" -- definitely one of the top five best-animated episodes (I've heard it described as trippy, and I think it is, in the best possible way) and I like the Atlantis fantasy elements. Plus a rare Buzzsaw appearance.

"A Plague of Insecticons" -- the Insecticons generally appeared in good episodes. This is their first appearance. Bonus points for giving Thundercracker face time.

"The Insecticon Syndrome" -- Where the Insecticons get super-powerful, but also turn into time bombs. A nice mix of first wave and second wave Autobots (first appearances of Inferno and Beachcomber), another Buzzsaw appearance, great animation, exceptional editing (the music syncs with the animation better than any other episode IMO.)

"Fire on the Mountain" -- The best-animated Season One episode. The fantasy elements (a mystical energy source in South America) are engaging, and Thundercracker gets more face time here than any other episode.

"Sea Change" -- The Autobots save the planet of the mermaids and mermen. Fanciful, romantic, heart-warming, as well as fast-paced and action packed. Seaspray, Cosmos, and Bumblebee are three of my favorite Autobots because I think they're adorable.

I always loved the Insecticons. As I recall they were the first toys I got.

I remember fondly the episodes that introduced the Combaticons as well.

Those Combaticon episodes -- "Starscream's Brigade" and "The Revenge of Bruticus" -- are both great. It's refreshing to see Starscream being proactive in his efforts to overthrow Megatron, instead of just talking about it.

Ah, bummer! I looked at it wondering if was a full on design contest, but it isn't. XD I know that in order to have a toy made based on an actual model of car, the car company has to enter an agreement with Takara/Hasbro, but still... I know a number of really great TF fan artists who would have come up with some wicked, wicked ideas and designs for a contest like that. I might still look into it, though, even though I've not had the patience lately for digital painting.

It's a multi-chapter fic called "Running the Gauntlet" , which is a sequel to "Second Chances". RtG is still incomplete at this time, but SC is finished and takes place post-movie. It basically ressurects six of the Autobots who officially died during the movie and places them on an alien planet without their memories in the middle of someone else's war. RtG starts getting them back towards Earth and Cybertron...and it's along the way that they run into Blitzwing, who is being chased by bounty hunters hired by Galvatron.

Gah! You know, I had completely forgotten about that element in "Rebirth." Suddenly, the final episodes of Beast Machines season 1 make even more sense than they did before. (I am, apparently, one of the few Transfans who found some good in that series, but I've still got a sizeable grudge against Bob Skir, and both his attitude about the fans and for what he did to Rhinox. If anyone's read the Transformers Legends anthology, you'll probably know what I mean.)

I definitely agree with you there, as while I'm not really much of a Decepticon fan, Thundercracker is still my favorite Seeker. Skywarp was always my least favorite of the original big name three because he's not much more than a thug who needs Megatron to tell him how to use his teleporting ability.