A Transformers Thread

Looks like anyone who has Cartoon Network and is itching for the next Transformers show can breathe sighs of relief.

http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/news/transformers-robots-in-disguise-possibly-moving-to-cartoon-network/31442/

P.S. I don't suppose anyone's going to comment on my dream VA's from post #698?

EDIT: Pagetopper

edited 7th Oct '14 7:00:44 AM by TargetmasterJoe

.... Congratulations? You can ... look at pages?

Also, you're sort of putting a lot of weight on a news based on an article that has been removed by its own writers. At best this is a "maybe".

edited 7th Oct '14 10:44:39 AM by Ghilz

Well, speak of the Devil:

http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/news/cartoon-network-becomes-the-home-of-hasbro-studios-transformers-robots-in-disguise-official-press-release/31443/

Looks like that "maybe" is now a "definitely".

edited 7th Oct '14 12:38:19 PM by TargetmasterJoe

I'm bettin' $50 on the Cash-Cow Franchise!

[rolls dice, gets Snake Eyes.]

Yeah, I'm not bettin' anymore. Always bet on CN if you like losing bets.

edited 7th Oct '14 3:19:49 PM by Darkton

Awesome writing there, press people.

I'm still on the fence about the show, will judge it when it comes out, but it's giving out a ton of bad signal.

And in all fairness to the above - Thundercats 2011 was sort of bad. It never really tried to live up to its own potential, so it being cancelled isn't "Screwed by the Network" it's a case of "Couldn't bother to be actually good".

edited 7th Oct '14 3:43:15 PM by CobraPrime

And didn't Generator Rex sort of get a legit conclusion?

Generator Rex has a proper Conclusion, more or less, but it's final season got shuffled around alot. It completed it's episode order though, so that's hardly getting screwed over. Thundercats got promoted out the wazoo and got so-so ratings so it getting cancelled can't be blamed on Cartoon Network either.

Yeah, Thundercats really never lived up to its potential. Awesome art and voice acting, but the directing and writing were not nearly as good. That failure is on the show, not the network.

The first failure was in making the Thundercats besides our heroes a bunch of bigoted assholes. After the first few minutes, you're inclined to root for Slythe to wipe them all out.

Not even. I mean, yeah, it's bad, but you can have them move from that and that'd be good storytelling. Recognizing and overcoming their prejudices.

The main flaw is that most of them have no personality and no character arcs (Cheetara's entire character can be written on the back of a post it). Most of the characters are almost entirely defined by their relations to others: Panthro hates whathisface for betraying him. Tygra is jealous for Lion-O. Cheetara is Tygra and Lion-O's boner magnet. The kids could've been cut from the show without impacting its plot. Characters forget the lessons they learned an episode earlier the very next episode. The pacing was awful, Panthro is introduced before we've even got to get to know the existing cast.

edited 8th Oct '14 9:35:24 AM by Ghilz

Well, that's two reasons against... but what about the other four? This show is marked for death, unless it becomes pure comedy, specifically "lol i so random" comedy.

Never watched the other four, so I for one can't say if they deserved cancelling.

Dude. It's Transformers. It's coming out just after the fourth movie in a very successful series of movies. These shows basically write their own checks.

Plus it's not like Hasbro never screws its own shows on its own. That's hardly news.

Haven't seen enough of the show yet to even know if it's going to be any good, so it's too early to feel bad if it does get cancelled.

The first clips are up!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kgi7O-ycjuI

I don't know about you, but I like to think that this could be the show that proves that American action cartoons aren't dead.

Also, to anyone who watched Teen Titans or is watching Teen Titans Go!, don't you think Grimlock sounds a little familiar?

edited 9th Oct '14 3:17:21 PM by TargetmasterJoe

Wait… since when is Grimlock a Decepticon?

Since now.

Apparently he'll be squabbling with Bumblebee for leadership. So, basically a BW Dinobot expy.

Bisk seems fun.

Is he a decepticon, it only says he was a prisoner.

Still getting mixed vibes about this. The fight scene is very meh... Speedline and what will no doubt become stock footage... Getting all sorts of Energon vibes.

EDIT: NVM, saw the insignia.

edited 9th Oct '14 6:25:57 PM by CobraPrime

I like the 'escaped prisoners' element. Reminds me of Power Rangers Time Force.

One thing that comes to mind watching this footage is how... lame the Autobots' guns are. It sort of annoyed me in Prime how the autobots guns stopped working when not firing at mooks, and these... wow. That con doesn't even flinch when he's shot at. These guns, both in sound and visual effect, make RL nerf guns feel like the minigun from Predator. It makes you wonder why the Autobots deploy weapons they know doesn't work on half their race. Geez, No wonder you guys are always on the verge of losing the war.

...Are you for real?

Legend of Korra? Adventure Time? Frozen? The Venture Bros? No. It's 7 minutes of footage (Not particularly interesting footage at that) that convince you that American Animation (Which apparently was dead. Here's something new) is oncoming some rebirth?

Also, season 1 trailer

edited 10th Oct '14 8:45:20 PM by Ghilz

Ok. Whoa.

Let's back up a little.

I said American action cartoons. Yes, I am 110% aware of Legend of Korra (which I really should be watching apparently), Adventure Time, Frozen, Venture Bros., etc.

But if you haven't noticed, Cartoon Network doesn't have a lot of primarily-Action cartoons right now. This show could rectify that problem.

And another thing, I said "could be".

COULD. BE.

The main focus word is COULD.

As with many things in life, it's entirely possible that I will be wrong. But I hope I'm not.

And look, you don't like it? That's fine. We are all entitled to have our own opinions. Just don't be an a-hole when you're expressing your opinons, all right?

Some of us want to think that this show will be good. So why don't you do this forum a favor and not crush that optimism? All right? All right.

EDIT: In hindsight, I probably could've worded what I said earlier a little better. I guess what I should've said is that despite having a great collection of comedy-oriented shows, Cartoon Network should have some action shows to balance out said comedy shows and this Transformers show could do just that.

edited 10th Oct '14 10:20:15 PM by TargetmasterJoe

Fair enough. I get what you mean.

Though honestly if the sample we are given is what the show's action will be like, it doesn't bode well, that fight scene was underwhelming as hell. With the guns who do nothing, and the "action move over line background that doesn't show the attack actually hitting its target so the show can't be called violent and can re-use these as stock footage since the background is generic colored lines".

One thing TF Prime, for all its flaws did well, were the fight scenes, who were visceral and awesome as hell. This feels a step down. Maybe the writing will make up for the sub par action. Or maybe we've just been given a poor example of the show's action.

edited 10th Oct '14 10:02:21 PM by Ghilz

So it looks like we're getting a division between bots and cons again, in the former of the Decepticons getting more beast and animal forms, whilst the autobots take on Vehicle forms to be accepted (which makes total sense for the autobots to me).

Actually it looks like the Cons have vehicule modes (See Bisk turn from a car), but their robot modes are all animal themed. Blurbs about the other cons also seem to support this, that they go from vehicule to animal mode. No robot mode.

Huh.

That's different. Ok, lets see how this plays out.

Also, between Rescue Bots, and now this show, it looks like they are experimenting with Transformer series that don't have Optimus in a big role, and other guys leading them.

Something that hasn't been done since Optimus' incompetent murderer took up his torch way back when.

edited 11th Oct '14 2:01:56 PM by HandsomeRob