The Energon Pub

[Galvatron X]

AWESOME!

I'm liking just about all of those designs. Soundwave and Starscream look SICK! They almost like vampire-ish; quite evil looking!

Bulkhead looks cool; a little less stupid-looking (intelligence-wise) than TFA, which is nice.

Cliffjumper looks good too!

One complaint though...ENOUGH with the "Cybertronian Jet" Megatron. I just don't like him in that alt mode. That's for the Seekers, IMO. Give us something different!

[Soundwave__Superior]

Soundwave....http://listicles.thelmagazine.com/wp-content/upload/ironhide_facepalm.jpg

Starcream reminds me of a Harpy in the old Jason and the Argonauts movie, not really a bad thing, I sort of like his design.

But Soundwave? Oh Primus.......



Speaking of Soundwave, anyone seeing the WFC Soundwave anywhere?

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

I like the designs, here.

[Noideaforaname]

Woah, Soundwave's paper-thin!
I like how Starscream sneaks in all those blades in his alt mode.

[Convotron]

My gut reaction to the designs is that they're cool. They look very interesting on a graphic design level. However, once I stop to consider that these are supposed to be transforming character designs, my view on the designs become less positive. There looks like there's going to be significant visual cheating(squashing, stretching, and basically morphing of parts) for some of the characters to make them go from bot to alt mode and vice versa.

Granted, there's no planned toyline for Transformers: Prime so it's not as if these character designs have to be translated into physical 3D objects(ie. toys) so I think the character designers for TF: Prime were given much more room to play around with character visuals.

[Clockwork Femme]

W-w-w-what happened to Soundwave?!? I was so excited to see his design, too! This is such a serious let down...... Over-all I'm still excited and I think these are some pretty cool designs.... but poor Soundwave... He looks like some sort of mutant flying squirrel.... with maybe a bit of cockroach thrown in. I'm disappointed. Very, very disappointed. I'm kind of sickly curious to see what they do with these "Deployers" though.

Well, I'm still quite happy with Starscream, Ratchet, and Arcee. And the other designs are certainly growing on me. Though, I'm just going to have this sick dread over Soundwave now. Ugh, I'm gonna go sit in my emo corner and pout about this.

[Mkall]

I'd get a toy of Bulkhead, I think that's the only one I want to own as a toy.

I am hopeful for the show though. Counting down the days...

[Samurai Bludgeon]

Wait, so we will be seeing toys from these designs? I thought this series was not gonna have any. Either way I'm thrilled cuz these look fantastic and I'll be getting them all for sure. Do we know when they will be released?

[NatsumeRyu]

Looking forward to this series. This only hyped me up.

Megatron's basically just movie design....His head's even in the same place in his alt-mode, lol. You can still see his optics. I wonder if it were turned into a toy if they used the same transformation as TF1 Megs. o_O

Happy to see Soundwave a UAV. Means he can be the all-seeing-eye, but still get into fights on the ground. His design reminds me of BM Nightscream for whatever reason. (Hah)

Sad Bumblebee will be beeping.

SUPER EXCITED to see Starscream [basically] an F-16! Next year I won't feel bad spending a few hours in this costume again.

Bulkhead amused me. I was expecting something different. (Guess designs from every canon can be copied...shoulda' realized that).

But still happy Cliffjumper is different. And every time I think of what voice he'll have.... LOL.

Here's hoping!

[First-Aid]

But the bios are just stealing from freking everything else!

But...but...but...isn't that what we want? G1 redux? Same characters, similar designs?

Soundwave is a "stealth drone". I don't think he's a drone in personality, I'm betting his alt mode is something like a Predator or futuristic stealthy observation plane. At least he gets minions, right?

One complaint though...ENOUGH with the "Cybertronian Jet" Megatron. I just don't like him in that alt mode. That's for the Seekers, IMO. Give us something different!

It IS different! What would you like, some kind of modified slightly rusted out semi?

Sure these guys look funky, but don't worry! Next year we'll be getting 1516718191908336545367289384762789 new Bumblebee toys!

I think you're underestimating the number...

As for "upsetting the fans", who cares? It's on a kids network, anyways. As ALWAYS, this is aimed at KIDS and not FANS. That's what the Generations line is for.

[krayziejones]

starscream looks part female, he has hooker boots

[Sabrblade]

My initial thoughts:

• The image of the Decepticon Troopers' altmode is labeled as "Eradicon"
• The image of Arcee's altmode is labeled "RC"
• Jack's full name is revealed to be "Jackson"
• Miko's surname of "Tezuka" has been oddly changed into Nakadai
• Soundwave has even less of a face than ever (resembling the visor faces of the G2 Cyberjets).

Upon futher reading...

Main Page:

• What is this "rare element" that Megatron supposely has? Is it Dark Energon, or something movie-inspired?
• "Team Prime" - how original
• "...needs human help more than ever." - Oh, that sounds promising.

Image Galleries:

• Megatron's eyes are peering out of his spaceship mode. And his cannon become its thruster.
• Prime's altmode looks kinda... bland.
• Starscream, on the other hand, is one sleek jet!
• Bulkhead's one big bruising ATV!
• Huh? The image of Soundwave's altmode shows a bigger image of his robot mode instead of a bigger altmode pic. Woops.

Character Bios:

• Arcee is "least 'flawed'" of the Autobots and their "best soldier"? EAT THAT, JAPAN! Also, she has a bond with Optimus and teams up with Jack. Umm... okay.
• You can so tell that Prime's bio was written by a fanboy. XD
• They actually say that Soundwave HAS NO FACE?!! And he has Deployers (instead of Mini-Casstte bots) in his chest, as well as... TENTACLES?!! Oy vey, no hentai allowed. Please!
• Ratchet knows Optimus the best? But it was Jazz who was Optimus' best friend in the book. Is this friendship something from the game? Also, he DOESN'T want the Autobots to bother with protecting humans? Our medical hero, ladies and gentlemen.
• Unlike the Movieverse homages of most of the other bots, Bulkhead is definitely an Animated homage. Though, given his bio and voice actor (Kevin Michael Richardson), it doesn't seem like he'll have the slightly-dimwitted persona his Animated counterpart had. Oh, and he's partnered with Miko. Seriously, why all the human partner stuff?
• DARN IT, BUMBLEBEE! WHY CAN'T YOU SPEAK NORMAL ANYMORE?!! He was fully capable of clear ununciated speech in the game (done by Johnny Young Bosch to boot!)! How is Josh Keaton supposed to make him speak if all he does is sound like a censorship frenzy?! And he's partered with Raf, what a surprise!
• Raf's bio page ain't working, so: skip
• Bland Megs bio, moving on.
• Jack's bio just made me lose a good chunk at whatever preliminary interest I had in the guy.
• Anorexic Screamer looks cool and sound decent. Especially considering his voice actor: STEVEN BLUM!!!
• Miko's into "American pop culture" and "wild punk outfits". And she's a "bad" girl. Erm... somehow I'm now all the more nervous about what Raf's persona will be like.

[1337W422102]

"...Soundwave's far-reaching tentacles..."
What the crap?

[TFGnome]

prime = just meh, and too bad its a long nose cab again
bat-wave = ninja Soundwave, cool, and im down with the "cyberjet helmet" look but no cannon/gun?
bulkhead = a transforming bolder....great
ThinScream = its the ghost of ....erh skeleton of Starscream, and is that a paper thin null-ray ?
Arcee - blue ? high-school super anime teen girl techno blue...
BB - *yawn*
Ratchet - nice
Megatron - another "cyertronian whatsit alt mode"

[PhunkJunkion]

I like Starscream's high heels.

[Shckwve]

The Decepticon designs remind of an anime series called neon genesis evangelion. I think they look nice even if they are a bit unconventional designs for transformers. I like it.

[Chupacabra Convoy]

Can anyone else tell if the actual character models will be cell shaded? It seems that way to me. All the non preproduction art pictures seem a little simple to me, not in the character design, but little things that are missing such as dynamic shading and shadows. If these images are not the final product, then I look forward to seeing what they look like with more complicated textures to them.

As a whole, I like them, but I wish they had better textures to them, and some actual raytracing (real world lighting effects).

Soundwave, well, I miss the bulk of the character, but he was always meant to be the creepy special ops guy, so now he looks like it more so than ever.

Starscream... has been reading too many twilight novels. But I still like it.

Bulkhead, love the chin, and the design, but I do miss his big truck mode.

Megatron doesn't remind me so much of Movie Megs, but more so something out of Starcraft.

Optimus Prime is clearly his movie counterpart, but the truck mode's lack of real world lighting and shading makes him look really bland.

Bumblbebee, surprise, surprise, he's biased off of the movie. So that's a meh from me. I understand why, but it still doesn't even things out for me.

Well these are my first impressions, but I'm holding off making my final judgement until I see something that doesn't look like a pre-rendered animation model. Why they decided to release these unfinished images is beyond me.

I'm still gonna watch it, but I'm not sure if that's because I'm a TF whore, or I am genuinely interested in it from what has been shown.

Also, that whole Ratchet is Prime's best friend thing instead of Jazz: I'm sure that they meant from the perspective from within the team, not in general. Since other members of Prime's War for Cybertron cabinet are not there, Ratchet wins by default.

[craggy]

I like Arcee, Bulkhead and Ratchet's designs. Starscream and Soundwave look interestingly different. Maybe there's more distinction between Autobot and Decepticon forms in this. It makes sense that a society where you can rebuild yourself into any imaginable configuration would have a fairly high focus on looks.

[Doubledealer93]

my hopes for this show just got killed when i saw and read the bios for the humans and BB. bumblebee, i hate you. TALK NORMAL!!!!!!!! UR A ROBOT IT CAN BE FIXED! i dont want to watch it anymore. these kids can have the stupid BB. im sticking with the G1 and animated BB.

[lsoul5]

I'm glad I don't have cable, and that these won't be clogging up the toy isles. Actually, I don't think you could even make toys out of these that would withstand a modern drop test. Way to go Hasblow.

[MYoung23]

Is anyone else a little confused about the marketing of this show? For a show set to debut in two weeks there has been very little push.

If you take Avengers: Earth Mightiest Heroes which debuts after Transformers: Prime they have had a full trailer, several (well done) webisodes as well as articles about the show on many of the major geek websites. Meanwhile, Transformers: Prime hasn't even had a proper trailer yet and you would think they would cross promoting The Hub and its signature shows across the Discovery Network (at least some of them) but I haven't noticed anything.


** Edit **

Never mind. I see that the show isnt set to debut on 10/10

[HalfOfMe]

Is anybody else starting to feel like Optimus and Bumblebee don't fit in with the design aesthetic here at all? In terms of design, they're nothing but references to their movie designs. They throw off the consistency of the look they've gone with here.

[Solrac333]

I like the alt modes. The bots have too much of that crappy animated style. Man I will forever hate animated.

[NuclearConvoy]

Ewww.....Hate it, hate, hate it. I was going to give this show a chance, especially after completely skipping Animated, but the decepticons just pure suck. It's like the autobots=gundams and the decepticons=neon genesis evangelion. The yuckness factor exceeds my expectations so beyond far it's not even funny.

Evangelion is TOTALLY what I thought of when I looked at Soundwave!

Granted, the Gundam analogue, not so much seeing that for the autobots.

[Swiftpaw]

I'm sorry. I'm trying to keep an open mind like I did with Animated's designs... but these just look horrible. I'm -seriously- hoping its because they're not actual show animations that they look so... freakish.

Out of all of them? Bulkhead is the only one I can really find interest in... Arcee looks okay, but the fact that there is NO INDICIATION OF VEHICLE MODE IN ROBOT MODE is aweful.

TFPrime is quickly losing interest for me. And for how long I've been a transformers fan, this is sad.