# Transformer nerds, unite! All things transformers (except live action films) thread



## Whammy

I saw a few random transformer threads but they are all very old and mainly about the live action films so I thought I'd start new one.
So what are you interested in?



Animation series
Animated films
Collector figures (Masterpiece etc)
Comics (Marvel, Dreamwave, IDW etc)
Soundtracks
Toys
Video games (War for cybertron, Fall of cybertron etc)

Share your opinions, collections and talk transformers stuff 

What series have you watched and what did you like? Got any recommendations?
Are you collecting any toys/collector figures?
Are you into any of the comics, what's your favorite?

--------------------------------------

I'll start first and get the ball rolling a little...

I grew up watching the G1 series. Loved it and to this day I still enjoy it. What the hell was with season 4 though. 3 episodes, WTF? I know they wanted to finish it up but still, it could have just been a movie.
Anyway I ended up watching The Headmasters (sub, not dub ) and although there was quite a large cultural difference evident in the series I still loved it.
I always found the episode titles for The Headmasters hilarious. They literally told you what was going to happen before you watched it. Like "The Death of Ultra Magnus!!". Hmmm I wonder what is going to happen in that episode... 

Next on my list is Super-God Masterforce & Victory. I'm interested in other series but one step at a time 

I used to have a few transformer G1 toys from when I was younger but not anymore  The only ones I can find are Brawl (Combaticons), Streetwise (Protectobots) and Firefight & Air Raid (Aerialbots).
I would love to collect all the G1 combiners. I always wanted to have the Stunticons.

My sister got me a Transformer Masterpiece for one of my birthdays. MP-14 Alert. It's one of the smaller Masterpieces but I love it. The detail and representation to the G1 series is amazing. The Masterpiece range is certainly one that I would want to collect and I love how they are still adding to the toyline


----------



## Don Vito

I know next to nothing about Transformers, but I'm GASing' hard for a Masterpiece G1 Soundwave atm.



I was a kid in the early 00's, so the only series I've ever watched is Armada. I pretty much had all the toys from this era at some point, even the 15 inch Unicron that was incredibly difficult to transform, even though the planet form wasn't too entertaining as a kid.

I've thought about re-purchasing some of this stuff, especially Tidal Wave. I wish the cute mini sets were cheaper 

edit: watching some clips of Armada on youtube.. i'm starting to think they modeled Megatron after Cell from DBZ


----------



## MFB

Unless you mean the Megatron from the live action, Cell is about ...11 years too late to influence anyone.


----------



## Don Vito

MFB said:


> Unless you mean the Megatron from the live action, Cell is about ...11 years too late to influence anyone.


Armada is from the early 00's, and DBZ is late 80's/early 90's in Japan.


----------



## MFB

Don Vito said:


> Armada is from the early 00's, and DBZ is late 80's/early 90's in Japan.



Oh is Armada one of the series? I could've sworn there was a Transformer also named Armada so I was super confused by the correlation of that to Megatron/Cell. 

He's similar after viewing a few clips, but I think around that time-frame (late 90's) that super, overly confident leading bad-guy was kind of the thing so it might just be the end of that trend. He sounds similar but apparently is a different voice after (whom also happened to be Treize from Gundam Wing)


----------



## Whammy

Don Vito said:


> I know next to nothing about Transformers, but I'm GASing' hard for a Masterpiece G1 Soundwave atm.
> 
> I was a kid in the early 00's, so the only series I've ever watched is Armada. I pretty much had all the toys from this era at some point, even the 15 inch Unicron that was incredibly difficult to transform, even though the planet form wasn't too entertaining as a kid.
> 
> I've thought about re-purchasing some of this stuff, especially Tidal Wave. I wish the cute mini sets were cheaper
> 
> edit: watching some clips of Armada on youtube.. i'm starting to think they modeled Megatron after Cell from DBZ



I never watched Armada. Is it any good?

I love that you can get two different versions of G1 Soundwave Masterpiece. The original blue color scheme and the black version which I believe is from The Headmasters.
Plus you can get all the cassettes. Laserbeak, Ratbat, Ravage, Frenzy & Rumble


----------



## Church2224

Totally subscribing! 

It is funny you mention "The Death of Ultra Magnus" as Ultra Magnus in his many incarnation is my favorite charachter (Except his RID version, he was a dick then)

My favorite animated series are probably Armada, G1, and Prime. Prime did a good job of focusing on a few central characters, although I think they could have done a lot more with the series. Armada was the first series I ever watch as a kid, I really enjoyed it and it even had some touching moments and character development. 

I do has a few masterpiece figures, I just got into them. Currently have Masterpiece Ultra Magnus on order. I also have a lot of the Generations figures


----------



## Rosal76

I am both a old and new school Transformers fan. Old as in, I started watching the cartoon series when it started in 1984. Shortly after, I received my first Generation 1 Transformer: Starsceam.  As for the new school stuff, some of it is pretty cool. I purchased the Armada Unicron (released in 2003) and the "Revenge of the Fallen" Devastator (2009). I still have all my old Generation 1 Transformers, though, many in bad condition.

My last purchases have been a few KRE-O combiner Transformers sets. KRE-O have done an excellent job on these.

KRE-O Generation 1 (style) Constructicons/Devastator set.






KRE-O Generation 1 (style) Combaticons/Bruticus set.


----------



## Rosal76

Whammy said:


> I always wanted to have the Stunticons.



They can be expensive to find in mint/decent conditon. You can buy the KRE-O Stunticon/Menasor set. Not as cool as the real Hasbro deal but very cool, nonetheless.


----------



## Rosal76

This is probably a good/better investment as opposed to buying each figure separately. Transformers Generation 1: Stunticon/Menasor set.

Amazon.com: Transformers G1 Menasor Stunticon Giftset: Toys & Games


----------



## Whammy

I didn't know KRE-O were doing G1 combiners. I saw them in the shops but never a combiner for the G1 world.

Just checked, they do a load of them.
I am so getting Computron 








Church2224 said:


> I do has a few masterpiece figures, I just got into them. Currently have Masterpiece Ultra Magnus on order. I also have a lot of the Generations figures



Show us 

Ultra Magnus is released very soon isn't it? Saw some images of it. Looks ridiculously good.


Has anyone checked out the Kids Logic stuff?


----------



## Rosal76

Whammy said:


> I am so getting Computron



Computron is a cool Transformer but he is like the biggest nerd robot I have ever heard. I thought Perceptor (Autobot scientist) was bad. Have you ever heard him (Computron) talk in the G1 cartoon? When he gets hit by a laser he says, "Impact on left arm. Calculating damage at 15%. Use of arm is limited" I was like, "WTF???" If I were a Transformer that got hit by a laser blast, I would be like Ironhide. Ironhide: "I'm gonna get that Decepti-creep who shot me and turn him into a trash-compactor". 



Whammy said:


> Has anyone checked out the Kids Logic stuff?



I've seen them and think they're pretty cool. I really like the Grimlock figure. These remind me of the "Transformers Robot Heroes". I have one of my favorite Transformers, Unicron!!!


----------



## Whammy

Rosal76 said:


> Computron is a cool Transformer but he is like the biggest nerd robot I have ever heard. I thought Perceptor (Autobot scientist) was bad. Have you ever heard him (Computron) talk in the G1 cartoon? When he gets hit by a laser he says, "Impact on left arm. Calculating damage at 15%. Use of arm is limited" I was like, "WTF???" If I were a Transformer that got hit by a laser blast, I would be like Ironhide. Ironhide: "I'm gonna get that Decepti-creep who shot me and turn him into a trash-compactor".



When I first saw Computron I was a kid and though he was the coolest thing ever 
He has sunglasses (looks like it anyway) and has a goatee! For some reason I though that was awesome. Plus he talked just like I imagined a robot would.





He has to be the most 80's looking transformer haha.
^ one of my favorite episodes just because of Grimlock.


----------



## Rosal76

Whammy said:


> He has sunglasses (looks like it anyway) and has a goatee! For some reason I though that was awesome.



Good catch. Never noticed the red Goatee.

However, check out Unicron and his goatee and Fu Manchu. * "Stop" sign floating away with other debris on right side of Unicron's mouth! 






Unicron is actually my favorite Transformer. I was very pleased that he was made into a toy (Transformers: Armada) in 2003. Unicron has a very "rough" history of being made into a toy, with lots of prototypes being scraped. He is one of my most prized new generation Transformers toy.


----------



## Explorer

Kudos to the OP for ruling out those crappy movies from discussion....


----------



## Bloody_Inferno

Hardcore G1 viewer here. Never got into Beast Wars and anything after that. I own the box set of Transformers: The Headmasters... but after 4 episodes I never bothered to finish it, and never got Super-God-Masterforce (such a Japanese title ) or Victory either. This thread may inspire me to...


Funny enough, Cloudburst (Pretender) was the very first Transformers toy I ever owned...






The concept looks hillariously stupid to me now.  I probably should wiki up their full canon now eh? I also had all of the Protectobots and Aerialbots as a kid, and maybe Blast Off from the Combaticons. Most of what I own is gone now, except one: I still have Rewind standing next to my Mac.

Also I never understood why the first toylines of Ratchet and Ironhide looking the way they did:


----------



## Whammy

What was the Pretender concept all about? I vaguely remember them.

I completely forgot about those early Ratchet & Ironhide toys 

I actually had Ratchet. I never made the connection that it was Ratchet or even a G1 Transformer because the Autobot symbol sticker had fallen off. I can't remember where I got it from. It was just always there 
Mine had a weird sticker for a face and at the back of the head was another sticker showing some kind of reel to reel tape machine 









Such a WTF toy haha



Explorer said:


> Kudos to the OP for ruling out those crappy movies from discussion....



There are already a few threads that talk about the live action films and I feared that having an all-encompassing thread would eventually lead to talk about only the films, rather than the vast world of Transformers that has existed for 30 years 



Rosal76 said:


> However, check out Unicron and his goatee and Fu Manchu. * "Stop" sign floating away with other debris on right side of Unicron's mouth!



How big is that stop sign?


----------



## Rosal76

Whammy said:


> ... and at the back of the head was another sticker showing some kind of reel to reel tape machine



That is interesting. It does look like a reel machine. That particular sticker would make more sense if it were on Soundwave or Blaster since they record stuff to play back. 



Whammy said:


> What was the Pretender concept all about? I vaguely remember them.



It was a weird toy line. Transformers pretending to be humans (Autobots) and monsters (Decepticons). During this time, Transformers started to go in a weird direction. I did not understand the concept of Decepticons pretending to be Monsters because: 1. They already introduced the Decepticon Terrorcons and 2. Most anyone, Transformers and/or human, would probably notice a big-ass Monster walking around. 

I did see the Pretenders in one issue of the Transformers (Marvel) comic. In the issue, a bunch of Decepticons were flying towards a government building wanting to steal or kidnap something/someone. Before getting to the building, one of the Decepticons said something like, "There are some humans guarding the building. They won't be a match for us". As the Decepticons got closer, one of them said, "Those humans are awfully big!" As you could figure out, the "big humans" were actually Autobot Pretenders. That is the first and only time I have seen the Pretenders in the comics. I actually still own the Decepticon Pretenders: Bomb-burst and Skullgrin. These would be the last 2, Generation 1 Transformers I received until I purchased the Armada Unicron in 2003.


----------



## Rosal76

Whammy said:


> How big is that stop sign?



I think someone in Transformers land was trying to be funny. I didn't notice it before, but if you look closely at the debris, you can see, "The Autobot Matrix of Leadership" floating. Proof that Rodimus Prime cannot hold on to the Matrix and is unfit to the be Optimus' replacement. 





Also, on Unicron's right horn, appears to be a recycled sign. Did the Autobot Junkions/Wreck-Gar place it there?


----------



## Friendroid

As an avid G1 watcher when I was a kid, something died inside of me when the movies started to come out.

Still have my toys somewhere : )


----------



## Bloody_Inferno

Also for the G1 enthusists:





This tripped me out first time I saw these as a kid. Premise, plot, story flow... exact same everything. 

EDIT: ...then I found out writer David Wise pretty much recycled the story from Transformers to TMNT verbatim. Wise has also been known to do this multiple times.


----------



## Whammy

^
I've always hated that powerglide episode 

I never knew that about David Wise. The guy was bound to run out of ideas at some stage  
That being said I never spent too much attention on the different writers.

On a kind of very loosely related note of things being recycled.
Starscream's voice in the G1 cartoon, (which I absolutely love) was done by Christopher Collins aka Chris Latta.
The same guy also voiced Cravex in Visionaries (awesome cartoon) and Cobra Commander in G.I. Joe

Whenever I see either of these characters I can only picture Starscream 







Rosal76 said:


> It was a weird toy line. Transformers pretending to be humans (Autobots) and monsters (Decepticons). During this time, Transformers started to go in a weird direction. I did not understand the concept of Decepticons pretending to be Monsters because: 1. They already introduced the Decepticon Terrorcons and 2. Most anyone, Transformers and/or human, would probably notice a big-ass Monster walking around.



Such a weird concept. Disguise yourself as a giant human/monster 

I know one of the original ideas behind transforming was for disguise, but that kind of went out the window when the Dinobots came along


----------



## Bloody_Inferno

Whammy said:


> Such a weird concept. Disguise yourself as a giant human/monster
> 
> I know one of the original ideas behind transforming was for disguise, but that kind of went out the window when the Dinobots came along


 
They were indeed. And the fact that toy-wise, the humans had to be fat to necessitate room for the robots. 

And yeah, agreed on the Dinobots. Swoop wins the most conspicuous award thanks to being his transformation being a bloody pteranodon.

...and then, there was Skylynx. 












Of all the Transformers, this...whatever the hell he is/they were, baffled me the most. I couldn't figure it out. There were 2 parts to him, but he's still considered 1 entity. And the look itself...


----------



## Whammy

Skylynx is just plain weird 
But in fairness Skylynx did transform into a space shuttle, which can be considered normal. Kinda... if you work for NASA 

But Cosmos!


----------



## Rosal76

Whammy said:


> Skylynx is just plain weird
> But in fairness Skylynx did transform into a space shuttle, which can be considered normal. Kinda... if you work for NASA
> 
> But Cosmos!



I would have liked to see the planet the Decepticon Terrorcons got their alternate forms from. I keep thinking that maybe they were watching fantasy movies or going through a Dungeons and Dragons monster manual book. 






What the hell planet did he visit to find a 2 headed Dragon?


----------



## Rosal76

A fun little game here.

1. There is a human being in the drawing. Who is he?

2. There are characters who are non-Transformers/non-human beings in the picture. They are not even solid material. Who are they?

3. There is a robot in the picture who is not a Decepticon or even a Transformer? Who is he?

4. There is a alligator pictured on the bottom right that looks like Grimlock but is not. Who is he?

Hint: All of the individuals in the picture below are from the Generation 1 cartoon, nothing afterwards.


----------



## Whammy

I marked the answers as spoilers in case anyone else wants to try 

1.


Spoiler



Doctor Arkeville



2.


Spoiler



Kremzeek



3.


Spoiler



B.O.T. (Biotronic Operational Telecommunicator) and/or Nightbird. I suppose the "Autoscout" released by Soundwave could also be an answer but technically it's probably a Decepticon.



4.


Spoiler



Alligatorcon made from parts of Prime's body (I was going to say Skullcrusher but the color is way off )



Awesome little game


----------



## Rosal76

Good job, Whammy. All correct. 

There are some characters in the picture that I don't recognize. 

1. Cassette tape with arms but no legs. Bottom left. 

2. The 3 robots above Arkeviile. I've seen them before but don't remember the episodes.

3. Clone robots on right side of Constructicon Bonecrusher. Cybertron Decepticon clone guards???

4. Robot with raised right arm. Above Shockwave.

Any ideas who they are?


----------



## Rosal76

Another thing that I really like about the picture, I don't know if this was intentional by the artist who drew it, is that Jetfire (left side of Constructicon: Mixmaster) seems to be looking away to his left. As we know, Jetfire is a former Decepticon. Was his turning away reflecting his attitude towards being a Decepticon? Perhaps not wanting to be in the picture? Cool thing to add in the picture.


----------



## Whammy

1. That's the Autoscout that Soundwave released in the "A Prime Problem" episode.

2. The first one is Deceptitran. The two above him I'm not too sure. I know I've seen them 

3. They are transport drones.








4. I think that's a Sentinel on Cybertron





Here is another Sentinel seen over on the far left


----------



## Triple7

Huge Transformers fan here. The animated movie is the best movie that was ever created, my favorite movie hands down.


----------



## Whammy

Just pre-ordered Brainstorm. The Takara Tomy version.
Really hope they make Highbrow, Hardhead & Chromedome at some stage.




First time pre-ordering anything. Getting it as a Christmas gift. Have to wait till the end of January (maybe February) though 

Anyone else getting transformer related gifts for the festive season?


----------



## zappatton2

Count me among the nerds, this and the tfw2005 boards are the only two I'm active on. About the same time I became much too poor to afford a guitar collecting habit (thank you home ownership) I got bitten by the Transformers Masterpiece bug. I was insane in love with Transformers (and dinosaurs, or course) as a kid, and the MP line is an expression of pure 80's nostalgic joy. Currently awaiting Bumblebee


----------



## Church2224

Poor Schockwave... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-ItfWY3xMQ

And him getting his ass kicked by Ultra Magnus 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTkJBuIfiY8


----------



## Whammy

Had to share this.

Stop motion video by TakaraTomy of the Ultra Magnus Masterpiece.
Ultra Magnus looks awesome...
...and huge!


----------



## Church2224

That's it...

I am buying two Magnuses!


----------



## Rosal76

Whammy said:


> Stop motion video by TakaraTomy of the Ultra Magnus Masterpiece.



I like how the top rail drops down so the cars can off load. Could the G1 version do that?


----------



## Whammy

Rosal76 said:


> I like how the top rail drops down so the cars can off load. Could the G1 version do that?



No idea 

I'd imagine that the transformation process would allow that part to be folded down, but then again original G1 toys aren't known for their poseability so who knows


----------



## Varcolac

I had so very many of these as a kid. I had about 3 or 4 different Optimus Primes, including an all-white one. No clue why it was colourless. We used it as "Ghostimus Prime" for when we really needed to up the epic. Metroplex was pretty awesome as well, even if his name does make him sound like an inner-city shopping centre. My best friend when I was about 7 years old had the 1986 movie on video and it was THE BEST THING EVER. It still is.

Also this thread needs this song. 

[Youtubevid]AZKpByV5764[/MEDIA]

Michael Bay has a lot to learn from this.


----------



## Church2224

Was the white one with a blue mouth plate? Because that is Ultra Magnus


----------



## Whammy

That white Prime is indeed Ultra Magnus.

The original design for the Ultra Magnus toy was for the truck section to form the white robot and the trailer to be combine with the inner core white robot as armor to form Ultra Magnus.







The G1 cartoon completely ignored this and incorporated his trailer into his robot form seamlessly without any inner core robot.

I would assume that at the time of making the original toy they didn't have a better way of making Ultra Magnus resemble his robot form in the cartoon, without using the inner core robot.
But the toy line came before the cartoon so I don't understand why the cartoon didn't work with the toy design 
That would have been kind of cool actually 

Down the line Dreamwave incorporated the inner core robot into fiction with this...


----------



## Church2224

This is Correct. In fact in the Dreamwave Continuity Magnus is Optimus Prime's Brother.


----------



## ghostred7

I'm a G1/G2 head. I love the old toys & tv series....yes, even the "Old Snake" episode where the voice actor for Starscream & Cobra Commander got to do both on that weird-assed crossover.

As for the toys....I've always been GASing for the RDF version of Jetfire. No secret that the Jetfire toy was a ripoff of a VF-1S from Robotech (Macross)...so much so that Hasbro got sued. 

There was a BRIEF time when the Hasbro Jetfire actually had the RDF (Robotech Defense Force) markings on it, along with the regular Autobot ones.

V2 - with no markings outside of the TF ones..





V1 - Notice the left wing (camera left)...it has the RDF logo. Also cockpit design is a little different.





RDF logo for reference..





Most G1 Transformers were taken from other Japanese toy lines, so this really isn't surprising. Additional reference: Robotech (Macross) VF-1S Valkyrie toy:


----------



## Whammy

I never noticed the Robotech similarities with Jetfire. Painfully obvious now


----------



## Varcolac

Church2224 said:


> Was the white one with a blue mouth plate? Because that is Ultra Magnus



Yep, looks about right. I think we broke the blue trailer and therefore were stuck with Ghostimus Prime. Not quite as epic as the whole enormous transforming blue guy, but still enabled us to (to an extent) re-enact pretty much the whole of the Transformers movie apart from Unicron. Even had a Wreck-Gar toy, which might've been the first time I tried to do an Eric Idle impression. Bah-weep-granah wheep ninny bong!

Only connected the dots that he was a member of Monty Python far later in my life. Likewise with Orson Welles and Unicron. Sitting about a decade later listening to "War of the Worlds," and thinking, "this fellow's voice sounds _awful_ familiar..."


----------



## Bloody_Inferno

ghostred7 said:


> Most G1 Transformers were taken from other Japanese toy lines, so this really isn't surprising.



Just for the lulz





And let's not forget this chestnut:



> In the next season (3), we were going to have all these new characters, and people are going to be wondering what happened to the old characters that they liked so much. What we knew, in a business sense, is that they had been discontinued, because they were the 1984/1985 (toy)line &#8211; but, we needed to tie them off. So, we had this one scene where the Autobots basically had to run through a gauntlet of Decepticons. Which basically wiped out the entire '84 product line in one massive "charge of the light brigade". So, whoever wasn't discontinued, stumbled to the end. That scene didn&#8217;t make it into the finished movie. But if you think kids were locking themselves in the bedroom over Optimus Prime, basically in that scene they would've seen their entire toy collection wiped out.



Flint Dille. Story consultant: Transformers The Movie.


Also, as a massive Macross/Southern Cross/Mospeada/Robotech fan and owner of a Valkyrie, that Jetfire toy really pissed me off. 

Practically my entire childhood in one post...


----------



## Whammy

Seeing as how we were talking about the original Ultra Magnus toy here is a video of his transformation. I love these videos.



Also here is a transformation video of the modern Ultra Magnus MP. I'm not interested in getting this masterpiece, but he does look aweseom and so does his transformation. I know or two here ordered off Ultra Magnus, did you get it yet?


----------



## BigBaldIan

I actually enjoyed Transformers Prime, there was some stuff that evidently not meant for kids in there:


----------



## Rosal76

BigBaldIan said:


> I actually enjoyed Transformers Prime,



+1.

I love that show. I was skeptical about it because I grew up watching the G1 cartoon in 1984 and didn't think any show made afterwards could compete. I watched one episode and I was hooked. I like the fact that they chose not to cram all of the Transformers into the episodes and stuck with the core characters from the G1 cartoon.

Also, some notable cooleness in the show.

Autobot Cliffjumper's alternate vehicle form is a 1971 Dodge Challenger. 

In one episode, a bunch of teenagers in fast cars trying to race Decepticon, Knock Out, who was disguised in his vehicle mode. Obviously, the teenagers not knowing that the car they're racing is a Transformer.


----------



## BigBaldIan

Another example of "How did that get past the censors?"


----------



## Rosal76

BigBaldIan said:


> Another example of "How did that get past the censors?"



That was kind of weird.


----------



## Rosal76

I thought some of you guy may get a kick out of this. Full size truck version of Generation 1 Decepticon Motormaster. Motormaster is the leader of the Stunticon combiner team. I've seen the Bumblebee Camaro replica and although very cool, pales in comparison to this.






Motormaster as he appears in the Generation 1 cartoon. After ramming Optimus Prime. Guess who lost.






Generation 1 toy from Hasbro.


----------

