84forever wrote:"people do not understand what it is that is making them successful".
Autobots were cars, Decepticons were jets, tanks and big robots disguised as small items meant to deceive. There was a difference in the two factions fighting each other. Underdogs against impossible odds... poor little sports cars versus big bad military vehicles. In 1985 Hasbro got greedy and threw this winning formula out the window and Transformers has been in decline ever since. Even the hacks at IDW get this simple concept right with their creations. Drift is a car, Turmoil is a tank. Apparently IDW is even smarter than the fandom who voted into creation yet another AUTObot jet.
"once you establish an icon, you're a fool if you don't try to preserve it".
The 1984 cast are the true Transformers. Everything else is an imitation. The Transformers brand will not reach it's true potential until the season 1 Transformers are brought back. Plain and simple.
You know, I've seen a lot of somewhat inaccurate use of the term "GEEWUN" around here over the past week or so, mostly in the Windblade and Whirl threads, so I thank 1984ever 4 straightening things out: THIS post is what GEEWUN is really about. Attempting to narrow the meaning of G1 down to just the stretch that
you most enjoyed, in order to hijack the words of Transfans like myself who happen to at least sort of like
all of G1 (both the decade we originally got, and the vestiges in comics and toys since) into instead reenforcing your own view that the areas of G1 you didn't like are somehow "less G1" or "not even Transformers". Over the years, this has only helped fuel casual fans' misconceptions of when Generation 2 started to the point where many honestly seem to believe that G2 means the areas or gimmicks of G1 that they didn't like: i.e., ______-masters and Pretenders being "GEETOO" despite none of those gimmicks existing in the G2 toyline (well, there were different Powermasters...)
Personally, I've always felt that killing Optimus Prime to enhance the drama of TFTM was the greatest, ballsiest move ever taken by any toy-franchise media, and that the Season 3 was where the cartoon finally got going, with the ancient cosmic war finally roaring into present tense, the essence of what Transformers had tried and failed to be for 2 years. And since I never felt the need to have and Autobot leader I could pretend was my dad (or whatever Op's appeal was), getting a new leader whose self-doubt a kid could actually identify with was a major upgrade. And if you look back on the times Optimus's wimpy leadership almost got his troops killed, Hot Rod really did his faction a favor by disposing of the old. So if anything, S3 was truest essence of a TF cartoon, meaning Seasons 1 and 2 had a greater taint of GEETOO: That's what the G2 cartoon mostly consisted of, right?
Then again, 3 post-movie eps
did get the G2 treatment, so it's more likely that Transformers reached the apex of what it was supposed to be in 1988, with the all-time widest array of gimmicks showcasing the adaptability of these alien machines in ways that all that leftover Diaclone and Microchange stuff never could. Say, I didn't know about Diaclone when I was a kid, so it was probably GEETOO too, right? I mean, most geewunners I've met face-to-face seem to assume that's true of their favorite year, so I don't sound completely insane for asserting that 1988 was the only year for
REAL TRANSFORMERS, do I?
Or, if I've misunderstood 1984forever's point and that post was just a joke, then I thank you sir for giving me the set up I needed to get that off my chest.
And Ron, even if it was against your will, thanks for pulling the trigger and giving TF it's finest hour. Yours will be my...well,
second most essential 30th anniversary TF book after the one with all the package art. Oh to finally hold a picture of Slamdance without that pesky bubble in the way...
