The Energon Pub

I find it understandable to skip Zone. What's there to say except for how weird it was. You'd have to make this whole seguey and there's more important stuff to get into. Kiss Players is weirder And Zone is, despite being the very last true G1 animation animation installment (with Car Robots happening far later), very unimportant as things go. It doesn't properly end it's not really canon (the real story being told in another format) ... what's to say about it?

They didn't even get into the movie except to say how weird it was to skip it. And, yeah, weird choice, Takara. This was quite aggressively about the TV shows. Except Kiss Players, lol.

I think they could have mentioned BW2 and Neo, if only offhandedly, but I guess there's a lot to cram in? I guess that's my one critique. Which isn't much of a critique, so they did a really good job.

Anyway, I sent you the three toy commercials for Go-Bots to watch before you watch the four episodes, just to give you an idea of what you'll be going into before watching the eps.

One more thing. Before proceeding to the long run that is Rescue Bots, you should be made aware that a few episodes of that show originally aired out of order for various reasons. Two episodes from Season 2 were even held back to air during Season 3 (one so that it could air during the Christmas season, and the other for reasons completely unknown). Consequently, many episode lists both online and on streaming services place some of these aired-out-of-order episodes in the wrong chronological order, including the two aforementioned Season 2 episodes often being left out of Season 2 entirely and included as part of Season 3 instead.

I strongly recommend that you go by the episode order listed on TFWiki (either here or here) instead of whatever order they are listed in on YouTube/Netflix/Tubi/Roku/Pluto TV/wherever you choose to watch the series, as the wiki lists the episodes in their production order that reflects the intended series chronology.


Worse still, the sequel series Rescue Bots Academy had many of its episodes aired wildly out of order, with episodes featuring some guest characters airing before their introduction episodes, or episodes that were clearly meant to be direct two-parters airing far and away from each other separately. Like its predecessor, RBA has its episodes listed in various weird orders both online and on streaming services, so I again implore that you use the episode order given on TFWiki (either here or here), BUT WITH THE FOLLOWING EXCEPTIONS:

• The Season 1 episode titled "If at First..." is set chronologically between the earlier episodes "Tough Luck Chuck" and "Whirl'd View", so at least watch that one between those two.
• The consecutive Season 1 episodes "Go Team, Go!" and "The Secret of Flight" should be switched around since a guest character debuts properly in the latter, but also appears in the former, meaning "The Secret of Flight" must come first.
• The Season 2 episodes titled "Wild Ghost Chase" and "The Great Energon Rush" should be watched after the 2-parter consisting of "The Vault of the Primes" and "Power Up and Energize", as the latter two introduce something featured in the former two. In the production order "Wild Ghost Chase" is officially the 4th episode of Season 2, while the other three are right next to each other later in the season, so you should probably just skip "Wild Ghost Chase" until you get the other three, and then watch "The Vault of the Primes" and "Power Up and Energize" first, followed by "Wild Ghost Chase" and "The Great Energon Rush", and then resume the rest of the season like normal.
• The Season 2 episode "Mul-T-Change of Pace" is set before the aforementioned "The Vault of the Primes".
• The mid-Season 2 episode "The Empty City" is set much later in the season than its official placement, and so should best be watched after the late-Season 2 episode "Big Wheels".

Other RBA episodes even in their production order are still out of chronological order, but a proper chronological order for all of the episodes has yet to be determined. Watching the series in its production order still works for the most part. It's just that the episodes listed above are the only ones whose proper chronological placements have been figured out thus far.

Go-Bots

What in the Go Bot did I just watch? Can we even call that a Transformers show? They aren't even properly Autobots! Geez.

All four episodes were, essentially, the same. A Go-Bot toddler comes to Earth (well, America) to have some fun. He goes on a rampage, eventually challenging one of the good guys to a race. At the end of which the toddler gets into a life threatening situation which the adult in the room helps them out of. After being rescued they're sent back home, but if they train hard enough, they can be a real Go-Bot someday! So everyone's happy.

The bright point of the show is that it's mercifully short. Maybe if I were a toddler I'd like it, but even for a kid's show "don't have a tantrum" seems repetitive. No sharing episode? No teamwork episode? And where are these toddlers getting teleportation technology anyway? Why are they giving toddlers experimental energy sources (Gobrillium)?

The theme song is alright, though.

My favourite character is Beat Bot. I guess. None of them have much personality, but I like both of his designs the most, especially the one modelled after Cheetor.

Also, this brings up another point. Characters frequently switch character models. I get that they want to promote different toys, but if I were a kid I'd get really confused. Hell, as a full fledged adult it took me a bit to understand they were supposed to be the same character, especially since Beast's gorilla form is shown in stock animation after he uses his cheetah form at times. I'd be lost as a kid.

As a repetitive show I still wasted more hours on Go. But at least there you can get more entertainment out of it. If you're curious about this show I think the last episode (4) is the best one. It has more danger and action than the other three. Which isn't saying much, but there it is.

Eeeeeeeyup! It's one of those stupid shows that you watch mainly just to make fun of how brainlessly dumb it is. Sheer utter brain rot.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:And where are these toddlers getting teleportation technology anyway? Why are they giving toddlers experimental energy sources (Gobrillium)?

Oh, now there's a thought with some potentially darker implications that I bet the writers never even conceived of, hehe.

Anyway, Rescue Bots is mercifully in a whole other league, leaps and bounds superior to this show in every conceivable way. Hopefully you saw my post above about the correct episode order for both it and its sequel series.

Yep, I'll have to remember that for later.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Yep, I'll have to remember that for later.

I just remembered another RBA episode that was out of order. I've added it to the previous post, and will continue making amendments to it should I find some more (I'll keep you posted on updates to the post).

Found some more episodes of Rescue Bots Academy that are officially out of order and have updated the previous post accordingly.

Are the episodes on TFWiki in order? Or should I keep in mind your own notes and forget TFWiki?

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Are the episodes on TFWiki in order? Or should I keep in mind your own notes and forget TFWiki?

Use the TFWiki order as a base along with my notes, as they are to be used in conjunction with the TFWiki order, pointing out which particular episodes should be rearranged and where. Any episodes I don't point out should be fine sticking to how they're arranged on the wiki.

And my notes are only for the sequel series Rescue Bots Academy. The original Rescue Bots is arranged as it should be on the wiki with no changes needed (but remember that most places do not list the episodes of either series in the correct order, as I continue to encourage sticking to the vanilla TFWiki order for RB and the TFWiki order plus my notes for RBA).

You know what? The more I think about it, the more I begin to feel that it would be easiest if I simply write out all of the Rescue Bots Academy episodes in the modified viewing order.

Going by the TFWiki order as a base, all the episodes written below in normal text are in their official placements, while those in bold text are the ones that have been rearranged, with blank spaces (----) left where the bolded episodes originally were in the official order, so that you'll know when to skip over certain ones that have been moved around.


Season 1

"Recruits Part I"
"Recruits Part II"
"Tough Luck Chuck"
"If at first..."
"Whirl'd View"
"Plan Bee"
"The Bot Who Cried Rescue"
----
"Mount Botmore"
"Mission Inaudible"
"Glitch"
"Five into Four"
"Rescue Promo"
"Tyrannosaurus Wrecked"
"Blame Game"
"The TX3000"
"Big Small Rescue"
----
"The Secret of Flight"
"Go Team, Go!"
"Battle of the Bots"
"Medix Surprise"
"All At Sea"
"All Washed Up"
"Fright At The Museum"
"Lucky Ducky"
"Little Bot Peep"
"Trick or Treat"
"Space Case"
"Balloon Up A Tree"
"The Mystery of Dragon Mountain"
"Driving a Wedge"
"Dino Hard"
"Hack Attack"
"Life of the Party"
"Dog Stray Afternoon"
"Buddy Cop"
"Escape From Penguin Island"
"All that Glitters"
"Dig Fest"
"Monster Savings"
"Tune Out"
"About A Rock"
"Who's Teaching Who?"
"Metal Munchers"
"Bee Prepared"
"Screen Time"
"Whirl's Wise-Bot Quest"
"Flying Hunk-A-Junk"
"Into The Depths"
"Milford Goes To The Dogs"
"The Ice Wave"
"Best Bots Forever Part 1"
"Best Bots Forever Part 2"


Season 2

"Back To School"
"Mission Dinobot"
"Medix Steps Up To The Bat"
----
"Robo-Cody"
"Acting Out"
"Trouble Cubed"
"My Favorite Rescue"
"Little Plot of Horrors"
"Critical Condition"
"Fun Droids"
"Campfire Fright"
----
"Shall We Dance?"
"In Training"
"Need to Know"
----
"Mul-T-Change of Pace"
"The Vault Of The Primes"
"Power Up And Energize"
"Wild Ghost Chase"
"The Great Energon Rush"
"Mystery Museum"
"Heatwave's Shiny Coat"
----
"Partners"
----
"First Responder"
"Five Little Rescue Bots"
"Good Advice"
"Small Cogs"
"Big Wheels"
"The Empty City"
"How To Train Your Scraplet"
"Helicopter Heroes"
"Brushfire"
"The Ties That Bind"
"Bot Blog"
"The Icebot Cometh"
"More Than Meets the Eye"
"Things That Go Bot in the Night"
"Medix Gets Schooled"
"Rescue TEENS"
"Enter the Flood"
"Wizard of Botz"
"The Tracker"
"One of Our Dragons is Missing"
"Dino-mite Duo"
"The Lonely Titan"
"X Marks the Bot"
"Making Tracks"
"Don't be Alarmed"
"Powerless"
"Griffin Rock Rocks!"
"Bot Battle"
"Space Party"
"Crash of the Titan"

This is really helpful! I may create a playlist to help watching these. Although it may not be possible with kid's videos, I have yet to try.

So far so good with Rescue Bots, BTW. You weren't kidding. It's WAY better than GoBots, lol.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:This is really helpful! I may create a playlist to help watching these. Although it may not be possible with kid's videos, I have yet to try.

Going through several of these RBA eps to figure out which go where has actually been easier said than done, to my surprise. I've actually had to rearrange a number of them multiple times and just shrug off some minuscule continuity issues as simply unavoidable.

Thankfully, the first RB show doesn't have these problems when simply going by the order given on TFWiki.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:So far so good with Rescue Bots, BTW. You weren't kidding. It's WAY better than GoBots, lol.

It's way better than MOST other shows in its whole demographic!

Rescue Bots

This is one long running series, but I'm finally done! Before I went into this I knew there were no Decepticons and that it, obviously, focused on a younger audience. So I was pretty anxious about it being so out of my age group that I'd burn me out. Happily it'd actually pretty good! Focusing a lot more on character interactions it's really just a fun show that doesn't talk down to it's audience. Unlike Go Bots, each episode of Rescue Bots really feel unique and the characters themselves feel unique as well.

Although I think a weak point is the fact that it's a part of the Aligned continuity at all. The different designs for BB and OP can be jarring. You have to sort of assume they "change clothes" every time to enter the show. I suppose I can live with that. But, then, you have to account for the fact that OP can become a T Rex at any time after a certain point and you have to ask yourself why he never does! Like ... that never would have came in handy? He's fighting Predaking or something and he never thinks to become a T Rex?

Speaking of which the show handles multiple toys the same sort of way Go Bots does - they just have the one character transform into the different alt modes without a care in the world. So Heatwave is a quad changer -he can turn into robot, fire truck, boat, and dinosaur. Of course this just means he has four toys featured on the show, but you get it. The main cast are all triple changers, at least, with a robot, vehicle, and dino mode. And, if I were a real fan of the series, this would bother the living Hell outta me. Because there's no way I'd be able to own a "true" version of any of these characters! It's worse than Astrotrain - at least they try with this. But there's no attempt here to even pretend these guys are real triple or quad changers.

The world itself is a lot more high tech than in Prime or RiD. I get that it's on an island (mostly), but still. If I had seen this at the same time as the other shows I probably would have asked why OP didn't tap Doc Green in for any given problem. The China glazing in Season 4's last couple episodes also comes off differently now. If I watched TF Portal now I'd really miss Rescue Bots in it. It was all about humans and Bots interacting. But it was a bad sketch of a show. So there's that,

Heck, now that the rise in AI is a whole thing the entire technological wonderland hits different. How many jobs do the Rescue Bots take just by being on that island? But that's overanalyzing, lol.

My favorite Autobot is Heat Wave. I think he's probably a lot of people's favourite. I like his bad attitude and character growth. Of course Blades is kinda ... much and Chase is a bit too boring. So there's that.

Boulder reminds me of a much nicer Rhinox. He even has the same colors and a similar face!

Kade is a giant asshole and I have no idea why he's left in charge when Charlie is away. He can be funny, but he he's a jerk. Why isn't Dani lieutenant? She seems like the best fit for it among the humans.

I guess Dani or Cody would be my favorite humans. Dani has the most leadership potential and I like how she grows in her relationship with the needy Blades. I felt bad that she gave up her dream of being a space pilot in one of the last episodes because she wanted to be closer to her family, but the very end of the series has some exciting stuff for Autobot / human relations, so there's that! They give a lot for Cody to do, of course. Sometimes I wonder how he passes school. But we're not meant to think about that! Overall I do find him likable and they fit him in well enough.

There's no Deceptions, but there are two main human antagonists.

Dr Morocco - I actually wound up really liking him. He's a charming tech-stealing long-lived evil scientist who wants to rule the world. They make him have a friendship with Jules Verne and go off into the future, rehabilitated, but they just couldn't quit him so they made an evil virus copy that eventually becomes the closest thing this show gets to a "Decepticon" in the final episode. Actually kinda makes me want a toy of it.

The only real flaw Morocco has, as a villain, is that he needs to be de-aged using a device. It creates an inconsistency. When he's captured he no longer seems to need it and when he's brought into the future he also no longer has it. So it's only really useful when the writers remember it's there.

Madeline Pynch - Another human antagonist, but less important than Morocco. I think she was meant to replace him and has largely the same MO - stealing technology, but this time to get a lot of money. She gets the better of him in their encounters. I find her less interesting ... but when you compare her to a time-spanning villain who creates his own "Transformers" and mind wipes our heroes it's really hard to measure up. But they did need SOMEBODY else because, as much as I like Morocco, he was getting overplayed.

She has a daughter who, I guess, was supposed to be an antagonist to Cody, but didn't really feature. and that's a good thing because, even in the show's context, she was insufferable.

Oh, I have been waiting for this.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Although I think a weak point is the fact that it's a part of the Aligned continuity at all.

Funnily enough, it originally wasn't supposed to be.

Back when the show was in production, Jeff Kline, who was an executive producer for both Prime and Rescue Bots, felt that it made sense to set Rescue Bots in the same universe as Prime since both shows would be airing concurrently on the same network, and both were made by a lot of the same people. He also felt it made sense since both shows would be featuring Optimus Prime and Bumblebee (in starring roles on Prime and guest-starring roles on RB), it would (from the perspective of an executive showrunner) cause less confusion if the two TF cartoons airing together and featuring two of the same characters were linked with each other.

The issues really only come into play with the fact that Prime started first, beginning a whole year before RB did, and despite the two shows sharing much of the same crew, it felt like Prime really wanted to do its own thing while RB was willing and eager to play the shared universe game. Between the two shows, there was only ever a single instance where a Prime episode and a RB episode were explicitly linked together. The RB season 2 episode "What Rises Above" (where Optimus helps the 'Bots investigate a subterranean energon deposit) leads directly into Optimus's first scene in the Prime season 2 episode "Nemesis Prime" (where he returns the base and says that he's returned from an investigation in a subterranean energon deposit).

Gauntlet101010 wrote:The different designs for BB and OP can be jarring. You have to sort of assume they "change clothes" every time to enter the show. I suppose I can live with that.

This is a recurring thing throughout all Aligned media, as not only do Optimus and Bee look different between Prime and RB, but also between those two and RID 2015. Yet, all three shows act as if each body they appear in are the same bodies. This was further reinforced in the IDW-made tie-in comics for RID 2005 that showed a flashback to TF: Prime in which Optimus was depicted in his RID 2015 body with the other members of Team Prime, who all still looked just like their Prime designs.

A similar thing also happened between the War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron video games, with Optimus having a different body in each game but with no explanation, as if his new look in FOC was just supposed to be the same as he looked in WFC.

The easiest way to think about this is to basically treat it like how the Joker's appearance kept changing between Batman: The Animated Series, The New Batman Adventures, and Justice League. He had a different design in all three, but was depicted as the same old Joker across all three with no attention ever drawn to his change in appearance. In Joker's case, we're simply supposed to think of him looking the same across all three shows, and that his different looks are only noticeable from our audience perspective.

With this in mind, Optimus and Bumblebee are, essentially, not changing bodies but are instead simply being viewed by us through a different lens per show.

As for why all of this happened in the first place, the Hasbro team at the time who was in charge of pushing forth all the Aligned media were more concerned about giving the creatives behind each production as much creative freedom as they were willing to give, which meant they were less concerned about making every little detail line up visually in a rigidly precise manner, and more concerned about the broad strokes lining up just enough to pass what they called a "squint test" (recall that this was also the era when Michael Bay was still the director of the live-action films, and we all know how loose the continuity was between those films without the help of John Barber bending over backwards to fix the movies' continuity issues via the tie-in comics from IDW, only for AOE and TLK to ultimately throw all of tie-in comics down the drain).

Gauntlet101010 wrote:But, then, you have to account for the fact that OP can become a T Rex at any time after a certain point and you have to ask yourself why he never does! Like ... that never would have came in handy? He's fighting Predaking or something and he never thinks to become a T Rex?

This point actually was addressed by Nicole Dubuc, co-creator/story editor/writer for RB, who was asked this very question at one point and gave an explanation for why Optimus never used his T-Rex mode in Prime: Optimus doesn't look to use his T-Rex form because how hard it is to control without giving in to its more feral instincts.

I can buy this answer for everything except for the Season 2 finale of Prime, in which Optimus would have absolutely cut loose and unleashed his T-Rex mode on the army of Vehicons he fought through in order to stop Megatron from reaching the Omega Lock on Cybertron. That is the only time I feel like Optimus would have absolutely used his T-Rex mode during Prime had it existed at the time (by which I mean, the RB season 3 episode where Optimus first got his T-Rex mode wasn't made until well after TF: Prime was over as a show, as Seasons 2 and 3 of RB didn't start airing until 2014, when Prime ended its full run in 2013). So, yeah, hindsight is 20/20.

Of course, Optimus's body in Prime season 3 was a new one, so he likely no longer had the T-Rex mode in that body anymore by that point, giving Prime season 3 a more believable reason for the T-Rex mode's absence during that season.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Speaking of which the show handles multiple toys the same sort of way Go Bots does

Purely by complete coincidence as both shows were made by entirely different people many years apart.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:they just have the one character transform into the different alt modes without a care in the world. So Heatwave is a quad changer -he can turn into robot, fire truck, boat, and dinosaur. Of course this just means he has four toys featured on the show, but you get it. The main cast are all triple changers, at least, with a robot, vehicle, and dino mode. And, if I were a real fan of the series, this would bother the living Hell outta me. Because there's no way I'd be able to own a "true" version of any of these characters! It's worse than Astrotrain - at least they try with this. But there's no attempt here to even pretend these guys are real triple or quad changers.

Yeah, and that was probably a marketing decision. By which I mean, by the time the show decided to incorporate other altmodes of the characters from other toys, the first-body robot forms of the 'Bots had become too iconic to replace. To the young viewers, those forms were how the 'Bots looked and how they're supposed to look, so the additional altmodes were handled much like how the Cybertronian altmodes of Wheeljack, Bumblebee, Jazz, and the Seekers were handled in the first episode of the G1 cartoon: Familiar-looking bodies merely morphing into new forms.

It's a lot like how Mighty Morphin Power Rangers went three seasons using the same Zyuranger suits before finally switching over to the Ohranger suits for Zeo, due to the Zyuranger suits being too iconic to replace. After all, the Rescue Bots "Rescan" toys not only had new altmodes, but also had very different looking robot mode designs with only the heads and color schemes being the same per character. Had Rescue Bots been a show aimed at older viewers, who were less likely to be averse to body changes, the new altmodes probably would have also included new altmode kibble for the robot modes. But different demographics have different needs and sensibilities, I suppose.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:The world itself is a lot more high tech than in Prime or RiD. I get that it's on an island (mostly), but still. If I had seen this at the same time as the other shows I probably would have asked why OP didn't tap Doc Green in for any given problem.

The island setting is also helped by the fact that Griffin Rock is a government-sanctioned testing ground where all the new technology is confined entirely to said island.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:The China glazing in Season 4's last couple episodes also comes off differently now.

Yeah, this was back when Hollywood was trying to appeal more to the Chinese market, like how Age of Extinction set its final act in Hong Kong, or how Iron Man 3 got an alternate ending scene exclusive to the Chinese version of the movie.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Heck, now that the rise in AI is a whole thing the entire technological wonderland hits different. How many jobs do the Rescue Bots take just by being on that island? But that's overanalyzing, lol.

The show actually does poke fun at that. In Doctor Morocco's debut episode, Mayor Luskey states point-blank to Chief Burns, "Your bots replaced dozens of vehicles, Chief. Progress marches on." In other words, the Burns family basically monopolized the entire emergency response industry for the whole island once the 'Bots came to town, putting several rescue workers and their vehicles out of jobs and out of action, which is actually crazy when you realize that.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:My favorite Autobot is Heat Wave. I think he's probably a lot of people's favourite. I like his bad attitude and character growth. Of course Blades is kinda ... much and Chase is a bit too boring. So there's that.

Oh, all four are fan favorites. Heatwave for all the reasons you said (he's basically the "Grumpy Bear" of the show, to use a Care Bears example), Chase for his rule-stickler deadpan demeanor that makes him unwittingly hilarious, Boulder for his kindhearted gentleness, and Blades for being, well, the Fluttershy of the show, with many finding his shy and awkward nervousness adorable.

Not to mention the other 'Bots who appear later. Blurr getting an excellent three-part redemption arc, Salvage being such a likable Good Guy, Quickshadow being a cool and sleek secret agent, and High Tide being a salty sea dog of a Titan.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Boulder reminds me of a much nicer Rhinox. He even has the same colors and a similar face!

Heh, back when the show first debuted, everyone was comparing Boulder to Animated Bulkhead, saying he was more like Bulkhead than the actual Bulkhead in Prime.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Kade is a giant asshole and I have no idea why he's left in charge when Charlie is away.

IT's because he's the oldest of the Burns siblings and thus has the most experience.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:He can be funny, but he he's a jerk.

He does have character flaws, but I feel that's what makes him interesting. On the surface he comes across as a typical arrogant jock type who's all cocky and full of himself, but deep down is a much more complex character with layers and nuance. His jerky attitude does feel off-putting to his siblings, but there's never any outright malice behind it. And when the chips are down, he knows when to drop the act and take charge of the situation.

Several shining moments of his are when his arrogance is dropped and we see his more real inner self.

• In Episode 2, he shows deep concern for Cody when he fears the lava is heading for the firehouse, and when he and Heatwave arrive to check up on Cody after the crisis is averted, Kade's first instinct is hug his baby brother and sternly but compassionately say "Don't you ever scare us like that again" (almost sounding like he's trying to hold back tears when he says it).
• In the episode where three of the bots get shrunk down and everyone thinks they've been destroyed, we see Kade, Dani, and Graham depressed by their loss and Kade is clearly the one taking it the hardest, meaning he really does care about Heatwave. And when a new emergency comes up, Kade is the only one to volunteer, saying that he's still a fireman, Heatwave or no Heatwave.
• In the season 3 episode where Graham has a crush on a girl named Amy, while Kade does briefly laugh about Graham's lack of confidence at first, he instantly wants to help his brother out and takes him under his wing. Even though his help didn't work, he saw his brother struggling with a problem and immediately wanted to help fix it.
• And then there's the episode where he got four copies of himself who were all based on the individual personalities of the four 'Bots, but who were also said to embody different aspects of his own personality, meaning he's a combination of rude, smart, nice, and silly.

Is he a fool? At times, absolutely. But an outright bully? Not really.

The writers set about to give us some pretty nuanced characters whose many qualities become noticeable upon repeated viewings. Kade in particular really was the Rattrap to Heatwave's Dinobot in terms of their relationship.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Why isn't Dani lieutenant? She seems like the best fit for it among the humans.

I can't recall if this was stated outright at some point or just went without saying, but there seemed to be a sort of "no military" rule when it came to Rescue Bots. Not just in terms of imagery but terminology as well. They really wanted to avoid such titles for the preschool demographic in spite of the fact that the crew making the show was writing for a much older audience than toddlers. It was probably a decision made from higher up rather than by the show crew themselves.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I guess Dani or Cody would be my favorite humans.

The only two humans who could understand Bumblebee's beeps, as it turns out (really shows how nonsensical it was for Raf to understand him for no reason over in TF: Prime).

Gauntlet101010 wrote:They give a lot for Cody to do, of course. Sometimes I wonder how he passes school. But we're not meant to think about that!

I think we're just supposed to assume that most of the episodes take place on weekends, as we only ever see Cody in school in just one episode (which had a Ferris Bueller in it, no less).

Gauntlet101010 wrote:There's no Deceptions, but there are two main human antagonists.

And a Cyclone Mini-Con for one episode, and a few other recurring human antagonists. In particular, I really liked Colonel Quint Quarry and wish we could have gotten more of him outside of his three appearances. Especially since he was wonderfully voiced by the ever-talented Jim Cummings, who brought his A-game to the role.

By contrast, Evan and Myles weren't really that interesting as crooks, yet they just kept on coming back to be a nuisance to our heroes. They were okay, but didn't wow anyone like the others did.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Dr Morocco - I actually wound up really liking him.

Who doesn't love a good Tim Curry-voiced villain? Though, Curry sadly had a stroke in 2012 (which he survived, thankfully), so he only voiced him in Season 1, succeeded by Johnny Rees in the following seasons.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:He's a charming tech-stealing long-lived evil scientist who wants to rule the world.

And quite literally a 19th-Century mustache-twirling villain.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:They make him have a friendship with Jules Verne and go off into the future, rehabilitated, but they just couldn't quit him so they made an evil virus copy that eventually becomes the closest thing this show gets to a "Decepticon" in the final episode. Actually kinda makes me want a toy of it.

There is one, and I happily own a copy.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Madeline Pynch - Another human antagonist, but less important than Morocco. I think she was meant to replace him and has largely the same MO - stealing technology, but this time to get a lot of money. She gets the better of him in their encounters. I find her less interesting ... but when you compare her to a time-spanning villain who creates his own "Transformers" and mind wipes our heroes it's really hard to measure up. But they did need SOMEBODY else because, as much as I like Morocco, he was getting overplayed.

At least we got an Ocean's Eleven homage, of all things, out of her final defeat.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:She has a daughter who, I guess, was supposed to be an antagonist to Cody, but didn't really feature. and that's a good thing because, even in the show's context, she was insufferable.

Yeah, I remember not liking Priscilla back when the show was still new, but I'm pretty that was the point. Everyone, both the viewers and the characters, found her annoying. Yet, I'm glad they didn't make her irredeemably bad and instead gave her something of a conscience at times, which showed that there was at least potential for her to not go down the same path of corruption as her mother.

In the musical episode, Frankie allowing her to share the spotlight with Frankie during her performance in Griffin Rock Idol seemed like it was even meant to be a sign of forgiveness for Priscilla's selfish attempts to win the contest (for which she also got her comeuppance when she embarrassed herself singing badly in front of the judges), with Priscilla even selflessly stepping back to let Frankie bask in her moment, and applauding her in her winning the contest.

It's subtleties like these that reveal the brilliance in how the show wrote even its most purposely unlikable characters.

I do agree with giving Pricilla some good qualities. I think it's because she's still a kid. She can't be all bad ... yet.

I forgot about Quint Quarry in my writeup. You know what? I don't like him, lol. Ugh, what is it abut big game hunters that fascinate cartoon and comic book writers? So many franchises have them! I kinda hate all of them! Maybe I need to read Kraven's last hunt to have some respect for that guy because I hate him too. I just don't get the appeal of this archetype.

I understand the "behind the scenes" reasons for why they change the character models for the show (regarding Prime and Bee), but I just don't like it as a viewer. And, really, them not being true triple changers as toys also woulda bothered the living daylights outta me too. There were things my childhood toys did that always bugged me. Namely ... not looking like the show I liked! lol. Why was that such a thing?

MMPR SHOULD have used the new suits! Or at least changed the damned helmets. But that's digressing.

I get that Kade was the leader because he's oldest, but that's hardly a real qualification. I remember those times you mentioned, but they don't outweigh all the other times he just showed no leadership qualities. I feel like leaning on "oldest being leader" is actually the one bad message this show sends. Leadership should be based on the person who has the best leadership qualities. The fact that she has to comfort the very needy Blades shows she can bring the team together more than the guy who takes lording over the team quite literally in one episode. I don't think he's a bully, but he's a jerk. I don't think he ever shows he has what it takes to be second in command material. There's glimmers of it here and there, but that's despite himself.

And, by lieutenant, I just mean "second in command" not, literally, a lieutenant.

It would be hard for Prime to connect with this show. It has such a gritty atmosphere. It's hard to imagine OP going from this fun adventure with flobsters or something and then truck on over to the very serious world of Prime. I think Blur and Ransack work out better. The tone of RiD is a LOT lighter.

I didn't find the model switching from Prime to RiD too bad; I can assume they had switched bodies. Except for when they found one of BB's old videos. That should have been his Prime body.

I can sorta see why people think there are similarities between Bulkhead and Boulder. Green lantern jawed gentle giant types that are down to Earth. But Rhinox also shares those qualities and he's also a techie (which Boulder was until Salvage came along) and he loves Earth's nature. If you put him in this show I think you'd get a guy a lot like Boulder while Bulkhead would wind up a lot like a less tech focused Salvage. Heck, a Rhino isn't too far off from a triceratops if you want to compare beast modes.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I forgot about Quint Quarry in my writeup. You know what? I don't like him, lol. Ugh, what is it abut big game hunters that fascinate cartoon and comic book writers? So many franchises have them! I kinda hate all of them! Maybe I need to read Kraven's last hunt to have some respect for that guy because I hate him too. I just don't get the appeal of this archetype.

It all goes back to the original literary source that all these fictional big-game hunter villains (including Lord Chumley from the G1 cartoon) are based on: the 1924 short story "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:There were things my childhood toys did that always bugged me. Namely ... not looking like the show I liked! lol. Why was that such a thing?

Heh, it's funny how people used to rag on Challenge of the GoBots for having character models that looked really toy-accurate when compared to The Transformers, when the main reason the Transformers character models looked cooler was specifically because they didn't look like the toys.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I get that Kade was the leader because he's oldest, but that's hardly a real qualification. I remember those times you mentioned, but they don't outweigh all the other times he just showed no leadership qualities.

Oh, those were just the ones I remembered off the top of my head. I'm sure there were many more, but it's been a hot minute since I last watched the series in full.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I feel like leaning on "oldest being leader" is actually the one bad message this show sends. Leadership should be based on the person who has the best leadership qualities.

*shrug* Maybe Charlie trusts his son the way he does because he knows him, the real him that lies beneath the outwardly cocky facade, better than we do.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I don't think he's a bully, but he's a jerk. I don't think he ever shows he has what it takes to be second in command material. There's glimmers of it here and there, but that's despite himself.

Meh, after seeing how much of a jerk Animated Sentinel Prime was, Kade's a saint by comparison. Even Kade would probably think Sentinel's too much (or even think, "I don't like this guy. He reminds me of me!").

Gauntlet101010 wrote:It would be hard for Prime to connect with this show. It has such a gritty atmosphere. It's hard to imagine OP going from this fun adventure with flobsters or something and then truck on over to the very serious world of Prime. I think Blur and Ransack work out better. The tone of RiD is a LOT lighter.

Something else I forgot to mention before (which also ties into you previous inquiry about why Optimus wouldn't just call Doc Greene over from Griffin Rock to assist him with Cybertronian tech in TF: Prime) is that, according to Nicole Dubuc, Optimus wants to keep the Rescue Bots, their allies, and the island of Griffin Rock itself a secret from the Decepticons. He doesn't want to involve the 'Bots in the war because they are considered his "Plan Z", the last line of defense for humanity should Team Prime ever fail in the war and be permanently defeated by the Decepticons. Should that happen, Heatwave and his team would then be called upon to step up and focus their attention on rescuing as many human lives as they could from the Decepticons, not directly engaging in combat but deploying far and wide to perform rescue operations wherever they would be needed. Ultimately, though, this last-resort measure did not happen, as we saw Team Prime ultimately victorious against Megatron's forces by the end of TF: Prime.

But to address the Doc Greene issue more directly, recall how, in TF: Prime proper, Optimus did not want to involve humanity with the Autobots' war with the Decepticons. He allowed Agent Fowler to get involved but only as a liaison with the U.S. government, and permitted Jack, Miko, Raf, and Jack's mom to get involved but only as civilian relations. This decision of Optimus's also explains why he didn't just have army of U.S. military soldiers and war machines working alongside his team to combat the Decepticons (think like N.E.S.T. in the movies), or a whole team of scientists and analysts working round the clock to help his Autobots invent and innovate new weapons and other Cybertronian tech (also like N.E.S.T.). So it's not as much of an issue that's exclusive to Rescue Bots but to TF: Prime itself.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I didn't find the model switching from Prime to RiD too bad; I can assume they had switched bodies. Except for when they found one of BB's old videos. That should have been his Prime body.

Which was yet another instance of "same body, different viewer lens".

In fact, TF: Prime was guilty of the same thing whenever we saw flashbacks to the war on Cybertron. Arcee, for example, was depicted in her Prime design in the flashback to when Tailgate was murdered, when we know that she instead looked like this back during the war:



Or Megatron and Soundwave being shown in their Prime bodies in pre-war flashbacks, when they instead looked like this back before the war began:



The Aligned media simply didn't care about precise visual consistency (I've actually gotten to read a copy of the Binder of Revelation some months back, and this particular lack of care for consistency was especially true in there).

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I can sorta see why people think there are similarities between Bulkhead and Boulder. Green lantern jawed gentle giant types that are down to Earth. But Rhinox also shares those qualities and he's also a techie (which Boulder was until Salvage came along) and he loves Earth's nature. If you put him in this show I think you'd get a guy a lot like Boulder while Bulkhead would wind up a lot like a less tech focused Salvage. Heck, a Rhino isn't too far off from a triceratops if you want to compare beast modes.

I think it also had to do with how Boulder comes across as more of a younger, less experienced 'bot like Animated Bulkhead, while Rhinox was more of a wise old man full of lifelong experience.

I never got into the games.

To me, this lack of visual consistency is a real dent in the armor when it comes to the aligned universe. It's easy to say "they're all connected," but if it falls apart when you need a visual model.

Let's be honest here: they just didn't want to take the time to make a real model. Each product is it's own thing ... and they also don't want to waste any budget money by translating a video game - level model into a TV show level model. Or make a new one-off model when they may never use it again. And people who watch the show may not play the game (like me).

That Arcee design (for instance) could be a totally different character and may be confusing to add to the show too.

And there's the toys to consider. Both Prime and RB has their own versions of OP and BB to sell. They just want to sell them. No more no less. And, unlike a guy like Superman, they just look totally different from their respective shows.

But the crossovers in Rescue Bots and in RiD should definitely have used the right models. I mean, why use Prime Ratchet, but not the right BB model? Nobody would get confused.

So far I just don't think that connecting absolutely everything really helps. I guess you can come up with some excuses as to why you don't get some characters involved in other series or why Prime doesn't turn into a T Rex, and you'd miss out on some fun crossovers, but each franchise is still mostly it's own little fiefdom.

I think it also had to do with how Boulder comes across as more of a younger, less experienced 'bot like Animated Bulkhead, while Rhinox was more of a wise old man full of lifelong experience.

I don't think Boulder comes off as younger, but more easily enamored with his surroundings. Like Rhinox in his quieter moments. And Bulkhead doesn't have technical knowhow, except when it comes to space bridges. He's very much a blue collar citybot. During his quiet moments he often plays video games and can be led astray by the Constructicons. Whereas Rhinox is technical and loves nature which defines Boulder. Both character often either explore nature or tinker in their spare time. Which is why I think Boulder is more like Rhinox than Bulkhead.

Maybe it's just because Animated as closer in terms of airing than Beast Wars when RB came out and I've seen all of them relatively close together.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I never got into the games.

To be honest, I never played them, myself, either. Since I didn't own the consoles they were released on (and since they came out at a point when life got too busy for me to really play games anymore), I only ever watched complete gameplay walkthroughs of them on YouTube in order to experience their stories (which are indeed very cool stories. Save for Rise of the Dark Spark, that game's two stories were severely undercooked and nonsensical even if one of them does bridge the gap between WFC and FOC).

Gauntlet101010 wrote:To me, this lack of visual consistency is a real dent in the armor when it comes to the aligned universe. It's easy to say "they're all connected," but if it falls apart when you need a visual model.

Yeah, this was back when Aaron Archer was in charge and, after having gotten to meet him at some conventions in recent years, it's clear that he had approached Transformers more from a business perspective than a nerdy one. He wasn't at all geeky about this kind of stuff like we are, and told me up front that he had had very little reverence for or familiarity with Generation 1 back during his tenure at Hasbro, and didn't care to gain more familiarity or reverence for it at the time since he was far less interested about catering to older fans and was more interested in reinventing and innovating the brand in order to grab new fans of younger ages. He was always focusing on the next big thing instead of trying to cohesively build upon the old. But of course, that's the difference between those who are storytellers and those who aren't, and he certainly wasn't.

Nowadays, though, things are different at Hasbro, with new people in charge who actually grew up on the brand as fans of Transformers when they were children and are willing to honor the past in a slavish manner while also looking toward the future. In other words, the inmates are finally running the asylum.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Let's be honest here: they just didn't want to take the time to make a real model. Each product is it's own thing ... and they also don't want to waste any budget money by translating a video game - level model into a TV show level model. Or make a new one-off model when they may never use it again. And people who watch the show may not play the game (like me).

Not to mention that fact that each component of Aligned media was being made by different people working separately from each other (who wouldn't have been able to share the same design assets with each other anyway) with different goals in mind. Like, the folks making the games had originally wanted them to be G1 games, while the crew making the Prime cartoon originally wanted it to be in line with the live-action movies (or even, bafflingly, The Sopranos). It was Hasbro playing the middleman between all these disparate groups that eventually helped to weave everything together as best they could, but the demands were really taxing and at times futile, which just made everything such a mess behind-the-scenes that it's a miracle that we got as many of the connections and alignments between all the various mediums that we did.

One really insane demand Hasbro had made at this point was for IDW to just kill their then-current IDW1 universe and make a new comic series that tied directly into the Aligned media. Naturally, IDW was unwilling to do that, so a compromise was reached instead. The "More Than Meets The Eye" and "Robots in Disguise" series would simply use many of the WFC video game designs for their characters even if they weren't those specific versions of the characters (being the same IDW1 versions since IDW1 first began, just in new bodies), while IDW would also publish a few one-shots and mini-series that would tie into WFC, FOC, and Prime without simply replacing the main IDW1 universe.

Hasbro had way too much ambition for the Aligned media. They really weren't prepared to face all the pushback that they received from all sides. It's no wonder it all blew up in their faces around the time of Prime season 3.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:But the crossovers in Rescue Bots and in RiD should definitely have used the right models.

Well, they actually did change Bumblebee to look more like his Prime design compared to how his RB toys looked.



The head, up-swung wings, and slim legs, in particular.



Conversely, Bumblebee's first RB toy looked like this:



A head with a smiling open mouth, no wings, and some really wide chunky legs. About the only thing the cartoon model has in common with the toy is the shape and orientation of the torso cockpit.

It wouldn't be until a year or two into the Rescue Bots line that Bee would finally start to get toys that better matched his Prime-based look in the cartoon.


At least Sideswipe got off easy in his RB guest appearance since his RB toy was based on his RID 2015 design.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I mean, why use Prime Ratchet, but not the right BB model? Nobody would get confused.

Ratchet's guest appearance in RID 2015 was actually based on his RID 2015 toy.



It just so happened to be deliberately based on his Prime design (as it should have).

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Maybe it's just because Animated as closer in terms of airing than Beast Wars when RB came out and I've seen all of them relatively close together.

It's also probably because a number of fans were a little bummed by how Prime Bulkhead had been stripped of the lovable goofball charm of Animated Bulkhead that when Boulder came along people gravitated more towards his lovable charm that reminded them of good ol' Animated Bulkhead.

Rescue Bots Academy

Ok. Finally. Finally finished watching Rescue Bots Academy. And, man. Man oh man. Am I not the target demo for this show. It's not that it's a bad show. I'd say that it's a good show. But it's very much a kid's show. While Rescue Bots had really interesting characters and surprising ways the botsgot into different situations - and even a few villains, Academy just had Sims. And the characters, while decent enough, just aren't as good as the previous cast.

I dunno. Everyone gets along a bit too well. It's all a bit too positive. The stakes are always too low (since it's all just sims at a school). In Academy you had things like time travel, the island in danger, and inventions running amok! Here it's just ... simulations and the bots learning various lessons. It gets more interesting in season 2, but not interesting enough for my tastes.

I found myself really missing our friends from Griffin Rock. It was nice to see Doc Greene again for that one episode, even if his voice was different and his lab was wrong. I guess I'd have been sad to see his real lab get destroyed. It seems like they forgot about the extended cast from Rescue Bots?

My favorite character is probably Wedge. I like his reliability. And, in a cast of extremely high energy characters I found him to be a refreshing change of pace most of the time. I also like that he used to be a Decepticon, although it doesn't really come into play all that much.

My least favorite was Hot Shot, at least until midway Season 2. So, basically:
- He gets a free pass to a prestigious rescue school everyone else tried really hard to get into
- He got a multi cog just to be able to keep up with everyone else, but no rescue vehicles to really be able to help
- Isn't into rescues and is a complete showboat with little to show off.

It took me a LONG time to like him. I don't know if he was designed to be actively disliked, but yeah.

Can we talk about G1 Lazerbeak for a second?

It's weird that he exists. But I guess there can be two Lazerbeaks in the aligned universe? I found it a little weird that, after everything he went through and all the talk about "nobody cares if you're a Decepticon" the ultimate way to end his story was him becoming an Autobot. Yes, Wedge. They DID care. But now he's an Autobot, so it's all good.

I wonder when this is supposed to take place. Since when is either Bumblebee or Grimlock a Rescuebot? Both are warriors! But whatever, I guess. That's one big takeaway after watching this, the last of Aligned media I have to go through on my journey. The aligned continuity isn't aligned on anything! There's no visual consistency and little plot consistency! I mean. at least you can tell who Ratchet is supposed to be. You can imagine it's just an art style change. But Prime, Bee, and especially Grimlock can pass for different characters entirely. Why did they make RB Grimlock G1 coded and not RID coded? What a bizarre choice! I remember the first Bay movie. And the different versions of each character at different price points. There was a lot of consistency. I don't understand why the designers were allowed to go to town on the casts' designs in something called "aligned."

All in all, I think Academy is good ... for kids. Young kids will enjoy it. Maybe a "best of" playlist for adults would be better than a full series watch.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Rescue Bots Academy

Ok. Finally. Finally finished watching Rescue Bots Academy. And, man. Man oh man. Am I not the target demo for this show. It's not that it's a bad show. I'd say that it's a good show. But it's very much a kid's show. While Rescue Bots had really interesting characters and surprising ways the botsgot into different situations - and even a few villains, Academy just had Sims. And the characters, while decent enough, just aren't as good as the previous cast.

Yeah, in a nutshell, I "like" RBA but I don't "love" RBA. It's good for what it is and excels at what it does. It's just what it is and what it does are for a very specific demographic rather than for all ages, and that's okay.

But then, I'm the kind of guy who can sit through and enjoy something aimed at preschoolers if its well-written enough (e.g. - Arthur, Sesame Street, Mister Rogers, the good seasons of Thomas, etc.) and I know not everyone can do that. But, I won't give the time of day to anything brain-dead. Thankfully, RBA isn't like that.

Although, I did think the Season 2 finale was kinda epic. But it didn't feel like a series finale. I actually got to meet Whirl's voice actor, Courtney Shaw, at BotCon 2023 (she is every bit as much of a sweetheart as Whirl is, she is adorable), and asked her about if a third season was ever a possibility, and she said that she was hoping there would be one, since she too felt that the Season 2 finale didn't feel like a proper conclusion for the whole series.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I dunno. Everyone gets along a bit too well.

Except for Wedge in the earliest episodes, when he's still kind of a jerk before he mellows out later.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I found myself really missing our friends from Griffin Rock. It was nice to see Doc Greene again for that one episode, even if his voice was different and his lab was wrong. I guess I'd have been sad to see his real lab get destroyed. It seems like they forgot about the extended cast from Rescue Bots?

Sadly, it's a little more complicated than that. The show was headed by largely the same people who headed Rescue Bots, but after that show and RID2015 ended, there was a shakeup at Hasbro Studios.

Hasbro Studios decided they wanted to save money by going non-union for the voice casts of their next Transformers shows, and so switched from the talent pool of SAG voice actors based in Los Angeles that they had been using for Animated, Prime, Rescue Bots, and RID2015, to the talent pool of non-union voice actors based in New York. While this gave new Transformers voice-acting work to a whole bunch of actors who had never gotten to work on Transformers before due to being based in New York rather than either Los Angeles or Vancouver, it meant that the previous Rescue Bots cast of union voice actors could not reprise any of their roles in RBA, and so all of their characters had to be recast with New York-based soundalikes.

I got to meet Jason Marsden (Kade's voice actor) at a convention back in 2019, and he explained to me that he would not have been able to voice act in RBA even if he had wanted to due to the logistics behind union and non-union voice acting. And while Kade ended up not appearing in RBA anyway, needless to say, Marsden was really irked about Hasbro going non-union for the Rescue Bots sequel series, since he absolutely LOVED his time on the show and adored working with that voice cast, saying it was one of the best voice-acting experiences in his entire career.

And Hasbro likewise used the New York actors (plus a few other non-union VAs from outside of New York) for both Cyberverse and the War For Cybertron Trilogy on Netflix. It was only when EarthSpark came along that Hasbro finally went back to using union actors from Los Angeles again (while the BotBots cartoon instead surprised everyone by using the voice actor talent pool of Toronto, making BotBots the only TF cartoon to ever use Toronto-based voice actors).

As for the artistic changes, the animation studio had also changed. Where Rescue Bots had its animation duties exchange hands between multiple studios based in Canada, Malaysia, and Australia, Hasbro acquired Irish animation studio Boulder Media to produce the animation for RBA (and Cyberverse and BotBots). But since RBA was a new production, Boulder Media was apparently not given any of the animation assets from the first show and so had to recreate them from scratch, explaining why the animation models for all the returning characters look slightly different compared to how their animation models looked in Rescue Bots.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:My favorite character is probably Wedge. I like his reliability. And, in a cast of extremely high energy characters I found him to be a refreshing change of pace most of the time. I also like that he used to be a Decepticon, although it doesn't really come into play all that much.

Yeah, they probably didn't think of it until the Laserbeak episode, where it is the only time it is relevant. Although, the idea does actually kinda fit with the greater Aligned lore, in that the Exodus novel originally established that those with construction-based altmodes were all members of the Constructicon Guild, which ended up siding with the Decepticons when the war broke out. So Wedge having a construction-themed altmode could suggest that he was originally designed to become another Constructicon when he was first brought online, only for Optimus to show him a better path.

What's more, this notion from that novel that all construction TFs were once part of the Constructicon Guild could also suggest that Bulkhead from Prime and Boulder from RB were likewise once members of that guild before choosing to side with the Autobots. And both of them are even green!

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Can we talk about G1 Lazerbeak for a second?

It's weird that he exists. But I guess there can be two Lazerbeaks in the aligned universe? I found it a little weird that, after everything he went through and all the talk about "nobody cares if you're a Decepticon" the ultimate way to end his story was him becoming an Autobot. Yes, Wedge. They DID care. But now he's an Autobot, so it's all good.

Despite the G1-based design, this Laserbeak is supposed to be the same Laserbeak who was Soundwave's chestplate in Prime and RID2015, with Perceptor noting that Laserbeak "currently has no criminal record" and is "a free bot", with the phrasing suggesting that he has paid his debt to society and had his criminal record expunged.

In addition to the aforementioned voice and animation shakeups that happened right before this show began, another shakeup also occurred: Hasbro introduced an "evergreen" style guide that they wanted several of their shows and comics to all adhere to, and this "evergreen" look was heavily G1-based. This is why Optimus, Bumblebee, and Ratchet all look more like their Cyberverse character designs instead of closer to how they all looked in Prime, RB, or RID2015, since Cyberverse went all-in on the evergreen designs. Those three (plus Perceptor) even retain the same voice actors who play them in Cyberverse, with Bee and Ratchet's actors even being told not to do voice impressions of Will Friedle (Bee's actor at the end of Prime and all throughout RID2015) or Jeffrey Combs (Ratchet in Prime and RID2015).

At one point, Bumblebee even was originally supposed to look more like his Prime/RB design, but Hasbro's evergreen demands put the kibosh on that. To the left and center are two preliminary designs that retain Bee's familiar Prime/RB body design, in contrast to the final "evergreen" model with the G1-based head on the right:

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I wonder when this is supposed to take place. Since when is either Bumblebee or Grimlock a Rescuebot? Both are warriors! But whatever, I guess.

RBA is the chronologically latest piece of Aligned fiction, set years after the final season of RID2015. Cody's an adult now when we last saw him as an early or mid-teen, so it's probably something like ten years or so after RB Season 4, which would be at least eight years after RID2015 Season 3. Maybe even longer, but not too much longer since Cody's still pretty young as an adult, probably no older than his early or mid-twenties.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:That's one big takeaway after watching this, the last of Aligned media I have to go through on my journey. The aligned continuity isn't aligned on anything! There's no visual consistency and little plot consistency! I mean. at least you can tell who Ratchet is supposed to be. You can imagine it's just an art style change. But Prime, Bee, and especially Grimlock can pass for different characters entirely.

All thanks to that pesky "evergreen" mandate I mentioned above.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Why did they make RB Grimlock G1 coded and not RID coded? What a bizarre choice!

Huh? His voice actor (who, unlike the others struck by the evergreen designs, isn't the same actors who voices Cyberverse Grimlock) is clearly doing an impression of Khary Payton's RID2015 Grimlock, just a little deeper and more mature since it's some years later. Grim even still has his irrational fear of cats that he had back in RID2015.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I remember the first Bay movie. And the different versions of each character at different price points. There was a lot of consistency. I don't understand why the designers were allowed to go to town on the casts' designs in something called "aligned."

By the time RBA came out, the higher-ups at Hasbro really didn't care that much about Aligned anymore. The people behind the first few years of Aligned were laid off in 2012, and the new Hasbro team who replaced them didn't have any of the same ambitions as their predecessors did.

In fact, the new Hasbro team originally wanted Transformers: Prime to be canned after Season 2 and have Beast Hunters be a completely new and different show entirely. Season 3 of Prime only happened because the people making Prime begged and pleaded with the new Hasbro team to let them finish the story with one more season, deciding to rebrand the show as "Prime Beast Hunters" and incorporate both Optimus's new toy body and Predaking as a compromise, which is why those two were the only things from the Beast Hunters toyline to make it into the show (that is, until the Predacons Rising movie added Darksteel and Sky Lynx, who weren't even part of the main Beast Hunters toyline, being mere redecos of Grimwing and Skystalker sold in a Target-exclusive "Predacons Rising" subline).

Aligned was pretty much doomed only two years into its existence. The Hasbro team who created it had too much ambition for their own good, completely in over their heads, while the Hasbro team who replaced them had so little interest in carrying it on and wanted to make a more G1-ified brand instead of how the early Aligned stuff was so heavily influenced by the first Michael Bay movie.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:All in all, I think Academy is good ... for kids. Young kids will enjoy it. Maybe a "best of" playlist for adults would be better than a full series watch.

So what's next for ya? Cyberverse? BotBots? EarthSpark? Wild King's still airing and the fansubs are on hiatus at the moment (I don't know the reason why, though, despite my helping out with them).

Going way back and watching Cybermissions.

When I say Grimlock is "G1-coded" I just mean his look. Grey and gold instead of green. But if this is supposed to take place at the end of Aligned ... fine. Everyone just changed their look. That's acceptable enough for TF lore, I guess. Cybertronians who CAN change their look may, occasionally, opt to. Although it's still an odd choice, as it's supposed to be the same guy. I guess the higher ups just didn't care.

Lazerbeak's journey is probably an odd one from his perspective. I'd love to think there was some deep reason he picked a retro cassette as an alt, but I have to be real here. The behind the scenes shakup meant the new guys weren't familiar with the previous works and probably just went with something more familiar. It's a real bummer to hear about all the shakeups too. But I guess that's how it goes sometimes.

TBH, I do think the finale wrapped things up well. We had payoffs for a few one-off characters for a new class. Payoff for Lazerbeak's story. The other Dinos got to become full-fledged Rescue Bots. We got to see Hot Shot fully embrace his role as a Rescue Bot and be thankful for his place on the team. Fortress Secundus has payoff for that expansion to the school side story and a cure for his loneliness. We even see a reference to that nano sculpture stuff. So much payoff seeded throughout the season! In a school setting there's always room for more, but I dunno. I think this show ran it's course. You would have to actually expand beyond simulations to really make the show work, but that IS the show. I feel like this was a good place to end.

It's sort of a shame the ambition with aligned fizzled out, but it's inevitable. Imagine if Optimus transformed into his T Rex mode when fighting Megatron. Nobody would get it! But it's a shame they never did one, big special with all the various characters interacting. Like Portal, but good. Someone unique to the video games interacting with someone unique to Prime and someone from RID with someone from Rescue Bots. That woulda been a cherry on top of the whole era. Probably something you could only do in a comic, though.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Going way back and watching Cybermissions.

I'll light a candle for you.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:When I say Grimlock is "G1-coded" I just mean his look.

Ah.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Grey and gold instead of green. But if this is supposed to take place at the end of Aligned ... fine. Everyone just changed their look. That's acceptable enough for TF lore, I guess. Cybertronians who CAN change their look may, occasionally, opt to. Although it's still an odd choice, as it's supposed to be the same guy. I guess the higher ups just didn't care.

The actual real-world reason is that his design was based on his toy, which the evergreen mentality led to it looking like this:



The toy's lack of an actual robot mode is also what led to him never transforming out of dino mode in the show.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Lazerbeak's journey is probably an odd one from his perspective. I'd love to think there was some deep reason he picked a retro cassette as an alt, but I have to be real here. The behind the scenes shakup meant the new guys weren't familiar with the previous works and probably just went with something more familiar. It's a real bummer to hear about all the shakeups too. But I guess that's how it goes sometimes.

Laserbeak's evergreen design also had a cassette as his altmode, so it was likely part of the evergreen mandate.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Fortress Secundus

Citadel Secundus. He gets the fancier name.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:You would have to actually expand beyond simulations to really make the show work, but that IS the show.

Lots of eps took place outside the school in either Griffin Rock or Milford. They weren't just confined to Hero Hall.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I feel like this was a good place to end.

Sure, but it also felt like they were setting the stage for the next generation of recruits with Brushfire, Slash, Snarl, Sludge, and Laserbeak all set to be the new class of secondary cast members for a potential third season, in a vein similar to how the eighth season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic introduced a new cast of secondary characters alongside the main six that had been the focus of the show since the beginning, with the newcomers being students at the new school that opened up in the Season 8 premiere and remained a prominent part of the show for its remaining final three seasons.

But I guess we'll never really know for sure.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:It's sort of a shame the ambition with aligned fizzled out, but it's inevitable. Imagine if Optimus transformed into his T Rex mode when fighting Megatron. Nobody would get it! But it's a shame they never did one, big special with all the various characters interacting. Like Portal, but good. Someone unique to the video games interacting with someone unique to Prime and someone from RID with someone from Rescue Bots. That woulda been a cherry on top of the whole era. Probably something you could only do in a comic, though.

And yet, the actual Aligned comics never did. The most we got was the final two issues of the Beast Hunters comics seeing the FOC Dinobots team up with Bulkhead, Arcee, and Bumblebee from the end of TF: Prime at a point set after the Predacons Rising movie, and the RID2015 comics having the Bee Team work together with Arcee, Bulkhead, and Ultra Magnus at points set during the cartoon's first season (however, the show's following seasons would write the RID2015 comics out of continuity with cartoon since the later seasons all had the Bee Team act like those comic team-ups with Arcee, Bulkhead, and Magnus never happened in the show during its first season).

I know lots of episodes too place outside of the Academy, at least in Season 2. But plenty still take place inside.

Way, WAY, too many.

I don't get the feeling "class 2" was ever intended as a true sequel. The first cast were all rescue vehicles, minus Hot Shot. The second set has three dinos, a tape, and an RV. It's a really weird bunch. I like it from a storytelling perspective, but from a marketing perspective? It lacks cohesiveness.

I looked up Grimlock's toy to see why he never transformed. Weird choices. I'm surprised he had only one toy to choose from, but there it is.

Cyber Missions

Oof, the voices. That's what they went for with Bludegon?

Ratchet and Lockdown really crib from Animated. If you're gonna crib, may as well crib from the greats! Although it's really watered down and rushed. Can't do much with three minute toy commercials.

I like Smouder in this one. Just strolls up to a group of fire fighters and adds to the blaze. That's fun! Kinda wish we got a whole team of Decepticon anti-Protectobots at the right scale. I also liked it when Barricade pulls Ironhide over. Finally, the Decepticons use their alt modes for chaos!

The last episode features everyone, but Smolder! I guess he's chilling out with Soundwave somewhere?

Out of sheer coincidence I have all the new Decepticons in these episodes! Huh. They had some pretty great toys in this lineup.

Anyway, these are what they are. Kinda **** animation. Very simple story. "Give me your face" Optimus shows Megatron mercy twice! But I guess the war can't end decicively in a friggin' 3 minute webtoon!

I really WANT to like Bludgeon more because his toy goes hard, but he doesn't appear enough and he doesn't do enough in the little he does appear. I think I actually like Smolder the most. Between the gleeful way he adds to the flames to the joyful way he and Choipster fights the Autobots, I enjoyed his short the most. And we'll never see him again! I'm not kidding about evil Protectobots. I'd be down. But I wouldn't want them as reskins of the G1s either. I would want a better version of THIS Smolder, just like I like movie 1 Baricade. Reskinned Prowl will not do.

Mindwipe gets done dirty. "I'm gonna control you!" (Hears a somewhat loud noice) "Ahhhh! Need to run away!" God damn.

The Autobots.

No pretense is made about Bee'not havign a voice. I guess that's the budget you get.

I guess I like Sideswipe the most. Mostly because I like his design. What can you say?

Cyber Missions. It's bad. But watch the Smolder one (9).