The Ultimate Transformers Thread

Given that we already have threads for Star Wars, Star Trek, Batman and others, I figured it was about time we had one for one of the other major franchises - Transformers! This thread is for the discussion, posting of pics and videos, and anything else to do with the robots in disguise. This can be from the comics, tv shows, toys, fan art, music or even the awful but nonetheless often entertaining Michael Bay films! If I’m feeling generous, I may even allow some discussion of GI Joe stuff provided a cool team up picture is included with it!

So without further ado...

 

Great idea!

I am a big Transformers fan.

Not necessarily of all of the movies, but definitely of the franchise.

Autobots.... Roll out!!!

 

Two other things:

1) is the above movie the 80's one where Optimus Prime dies and gives his spark to Hot Rod who becomes Rodimus Prime?

(if so I watched that a ridiculous amount of times when I was about 8)

2) I have always had an upset with the fact that the Autobots are mostly cars and the Decepticons get all manner of wicked vehicles.

I mean, Optimus did you really decide that a 16-wheeler was the most efficient vehicle? And (given that they can apparently scan whatever they want and change into that) why would you not take something a lot more war-like in your fight against the decepticons?

 

It is indeed from the 1986 Transformers Movie!

The main reason is that toy-wise it would make for a very uninteresting line if they all turned into military vehicles, but the in universe justification is that, given that they are meant to be “in disguise”, you can expect a typical car to generate a lot less attention than, say, a massive fighter jet

 

Huzzah! What a classic!

I know, I know... But even if motivated by sales, they could have Optimus changing into a fighter jet or one of those heavy duty air-to-ground attack planes.

Anyways. For the record, this was exacerbated by the second Transformers movie where Optimus gets extra parts and is then able to at least fly... which then fall off.

 

To be fair, it wouldn’t be entirely without precedent:





But to be honest, particularly with Optimus Prime, one of the main problems with that is that him being a truck is pretty much a defining part of his character. If you want an Autobot jet, just get one of the other Autobots who do turn into a jet. Hell, there’s even a whole combiner team of them:

 

Ha! I did!!!

I had that set of combiners specifically as I had a little bit of an obsessions with jets/planes/fighters when I was younger.

 

I’m definitely going to be watching that one.

@ravagekitteh this is one for you!

 

I love the way they release cartoons based on specific toy lines after the toy lines have finished and been replaced - Siege (or Stege as it is known based on the font they used) ended earlier this year! They did the same with the godawful Prime Wars trilogy; each instalment came after the line it was based on had finished!

 

I see you’ve pinched my template for thread titles

 

I did love the Transformers back in the day. I think I still have some of my original toys, but they're not in great shape (played with a lot and then in storage).

The 1986 movie had some mediocre animation, but it was lots of fun. Good voice talents too, despite actor stunt casting. I wasn't crazy about many of my favorite characters getting blasted, but it was decent way to introduce a new line of toys, and advance the series. (Kind of like a certain gaming company who blew up their fantasy world to introduce new models. Not sure how I feel about that one though... ha ha ha)

The start of the first Michael Bay movie was actually pretty good. When that helicopter landed and started attacking the military base, I thought the movie was on point... to me, it fell apart quickly after that. The subsequent movies were harder to watch. Bumblebee wasn't bad.

 

"...and then, the giant ikthiyak came tromping and stomping down the mountainside, flames spewing from it's nostrils, and I thought..."
"Hey Kup, don't we have better things to do than tell old war stories?"
Dinobots: "NO! Tell stories! We wanna hear stories! YES STORIES!"

 

Kup’s even more badass in the IDW comics...

 

I don’t think it quite went down as well as you think it did. The stakes were never raised because as soon as the movie finished, they immediately returned to the ‘no death’ status quo that reigned before. Instead, all it really did was traumatise all the children who went to see it, causing the creators to go “oh s***, maybe we shouldn’t suddenly and violently kill off their heroes in horrible ways”. I think the eventual resurrection of Optimus Prime was to that end (especially since he also would have a lovely new Powermaster toy released the following year!). They definitely learnt though that people are as much attached to characters as they are shiny new gimmicks and vehicles though - the Action Master line (the transformers who didn’t transform) released later on were entirely built around this, and since then, pretty much every continuity released has had an Optimus Prime, and you can expect at least half the characters from any show to be new versions of older ones.

You’d think they’d learn from the experience about violently killing characters though but, err, no... https://tfwiki.net/wiki/To_sell_toys#Death