Watch the two episodes, plus the Hubworld episode and the Hub Exclusive, and it's been a fun watch.
Hubworld was a weird mixture of lame and awesome. Lame because of the host's rather juvenile puns and behavior. Awesome because of all the stuff they showed. BotCon 2010, Comic-Con 2010, voice recording sessions, interviews, all of it was golden.
The Hub exclusive focused on G.I Joe: Renegades first. I LOVED how they gave a history of that franchise by going back the original 12-inch action figure and went through it to the ARAH cartoon and the Rise of Cobra movie. They also showed some brief clips from Sigma 6 and Resolute. The behind the scenes of Renegades was cool too. This series is gonna delve into how the Joes met and came to be who they are.
The TF: Prime part of the Hub Exclusive was like the Hubworld episode, but so much more. History with the G1 cartoon, G1 commercial clips, clips from G2/Beast Wars/Cybertron/Animated, more interviews, more voice recroding sessions, and CONCEPT ART! The whole show is gonna be a cinematic style, almost like a live action film. All in all, this show is gonna rock!
Episode 1 was... surprisingly not as awesome as I thought it would be. I guess it was due to having been spoiled by so many clips form this episodes beforehand. There was also the disappointment of there being no theme song. Though, because this is a sneak peak and the actual airdate for the series is Monday, maybe the Monday airing will have the theme song. Still, it was a decent first episode with a fair amount of action and comedy. I liked how Miko asked Bulkhead if he'd ever used a wrecking ball for a punching bag (nice little nod there).
Episode 2 was better. Welker's new Megatron voice is very cool, and actually kinda sounds like Megatron's WFC voice, which is a plus considering their shared reality (more on this later). The "Ground Bridge" was a familiar idea that seems to harken back to both RiD's Global Space Bridge and Armada's Warp Gate. We now have a confirmation that it's "Agent" Fowler (I guess "General" was a dropped concept or something).
Some points of interest are that Arcee refers to her hologram rider a "Sadie". The Eradicons can speak, but not often. The Pentagon is apparently unaware of the Transformers' existence on Earth. And, there is Energon seeded on Earth... wait, why?
Though, I gotta say that there are some continuity issues between this and Exodus/WFC. Ryan was right. TF: Prime is like a forced continuity with the book and game in the same way that Cybertron/Galaxy Force was retconned with the rest of its trilogy. For example, Megatron and Starscream speak of Dark Energon as though they are just now beginning to understand it, and the Autobots completely unfamiliar with the substance, when both sides had become well aware of it and understood what it could do all throughout WFC/Exodus. And, Dark Eenrgon's primary ability is to reanimate the dead into mindless beastial zombies, instead of merely being a power-up with addictive and corruptive side effects. And, most of all, Megatron and Starscream act as though they've never used Dark Energon on themselves, and when Megatron tries to use it on himself, he and Starscream act as though this were the first time they (or any a living being, for that matter) has ever done so.
These episodes also do bring up some interesting questions. Why has Megatron been missing for three years? Where's Breakdown? (he was in the comic that came right before this). What happened when the Autobots came to Earth for the first time? What has been going on during the 3-year period that the Decepticons have been missing? What are these "Movie-esque" events that were said by Hasbro to have happened prior to the series? Aside from the three teens and Agent Fowler, just how much a secret is the Autobots' existence? Why hasn't Bumblebee's voice been fixed during hte 3+ years that the Autobots have been on Earth? How can Raf understad Bumblebee's "Mini-Con beeps"? And why is there Energon seeded on Earth?
