The Energon Pub

To mark the 15th Anniversary of Car Robots, what we called Robots in Disguise in the west, Takara designer Hisashi Yuki tweeted out an initial draft sketch of what would become Fire Convoy (Optimus Prime). As you can see below, it shows off some very cool design cues that were not carried over to the toy, like the Maximal insignia on his chest (this was the first time the Transformers brand was going back to Autobots and Decepticons since Beast Wars). Yuki was the designer for Fire Convoy / Optimus Prime and the gallery of the toy can be found here,

Give this man a minute and he can create a work of engineering art! If he did MP-Megatron in a week or so, what more if you give him a month?

Just further fuel to the fire of Car Robots/RiD 2001 being a part of the Beast Era (real world chonology-wise, not continuity subfamily-wise).

Sabrblade wrote:Just further fuel to the fire of Car Robots/RiD 2001 being a part of the Beast Era (real world chonology-wise, not continuity subfamily-wise).

Haha! I think Air Attack Optimus Primal is all the fuel we need for that

Probably the best bio I ever read:

He is a hero from the future, whose courage, skill and wisdom are needed again, to lead the Autobots in their fight against Megatron and his evil plans for the planet Earth. Wise and strong, Optimus Primal councils Optimus Prime in the ways of defensive combat and serves as custodian of freedom. Helps others find their own strength to keep fighting despiste the odds. Brave and intelligent, he belives wholeheartedly in his cause and lights the fires of justice and truth in others.

The placement of the symbol on his chest makes me wonder if they had at one point intended for him to be the same character or perhaps somehow related to Lio Convoy. It's interesting to see him looking so G1 (head, square chest window, grill abs) despite being a Maximal. I guess if this is an early sketch it would make sense that he would look to existing figures and characters for a little inspiration.

Emerje

Sabrblade wrote:Just further fuel to the fire of Car Robots/RiD 2001 being a part of the Beast Era (real world chonology-wise, not continuity subfamily-wise).

Sabr, just from what future did Fireconvoy come from anyway? In the Japanese continuity anyway? Lio and Big came thousands of years after Primal if I got it right. So what about well these guys?

fenrir72 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Just further fuel to the fire of Car Robots/RiD 2001 being a part of the Beast Era (real world chonology-wise, not continuity subfamily-wise).

Sabr, just from what future did Fireconvoy come from anyway? In the Japanese continuity anyway? Lio and Big came thousands of years after Primal if I got it right. So what about well these guys?

Continuity, CR is supposed to slot in between G1 season2 and the movie, according to TFWiki, with some of Takara's creative edtting and a story that seems to "magic" everyone away for a time.

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Transformers:_Th ... _Star_Gate

fenrir72 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Just further fuel to the fire of Car Robots/RiD 2001 being a part of the Beast Era (real world chonology-wise, not continuity subfamily-wise).

Sabr, just from what future did Fireconvoy come from anyway? In the Japanese continuity anyway? Lio and Big came thousands of years after Primal if I got it right. So what about well these guys?

It's never stated. Though, Fire Convoy did mention that he and Gigatron had known each other for 3000 years, but that could suggest a number of things.

Sabrblade wrote:

fenrir72 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Just further fuel to the fire of Car Robots/RiD 2001 being a part of the Beast Era (real world chonology-wise, not continuity subfamily-wise).

Sabr, just from what future did Fireconvoy come from anyway? In the Japanese continuity anyway? Lio and Big came thousands of years after Primal if I got it right. So what about well these guys?

It's never stated. Though, Fire Convoy did mention that he and Gigatron had known each other for 3000 years, but that could suggest a number of things.

3000 years................

Flashwave wrote:

fenrir72 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Just further fuel to the fire of Car Robots/RiD 2001 being a part of the Beast Era (real world chonology-wise, not continuity subfamily-wise).

Sabr, just from what future did Fireconvoy come from anyway? In the Japanese continuity anyway? Lio and Big came thousands of years after Primal if I got it right. So what about well these guys?

Continuity, CR is supposed to slot in between G1 season2 and the movie, according to TFWiki, with some of Takara's creative edtting and a story that seems to "magic" everyone away for a time.

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Transformers:_Th ... _Star_Gate

Yup. Takara shoe horned them alright. Then sending Brave Max to the future to throw Megs into prison and coming back to become the core of Autobot City then...........

awesome

fenrir72 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

fenrir72 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Just further fuel to the fire of Car Robots/RiD 2001 being a part of the Beast Era (real world chonology-wise, not continuity subfamily-wise).

Sabr, just from what future did Fireconvoy come from anyway? In the Japanese continuity anyway? Lio and Big came thousands of years after Primal if I got it right. So what about well these guys?

It's never stated. Though, Fire Convoy did mention that he and Gigatron had known each other for 3000 years, but that could suggest a number of things.

3000 years................

They could have known each since before the era of the and . Though, as Fire Convoy was still a , perhaps only Gigatron and his team upgraded from to while Fire Convoy's stayed as . It's possible they could have come from a post-Beast Wars Returns, pre-Beast Wars II future era.

Sabrblade wrote:

fenrir72 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

fenrir72 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Just further fuel to the fire of Car Robots/RiD 2001 being a part of the Beast Era (real world chonology-wise, not continuity subfamily-wise).

Sabr, just from what future did Fireconvoy come from anyway? In the Japanese continuity anyway? Lio and Big came thousands of years after Primal if I got it right. So what about well these guys?

It's never stated. Though, Fire Convoy did mention that he and Gigatron had known each other for 3000 years, but that could suggest a number of things.

3000 years................

They could have known each since before the era of the and . Though, as Fire Convoy was still a , perhaps only Gigatron and his team upgraded from to while Fire Convoy's stayed as . It's possible they could have come from a post-Beast Wars Returns, pre-Beast Wars II future era.

Like Protoman had said? http://www.seibertron.com/energonpub/the-true-transformers-g1-timeline-what-to-watch-and-in-what-order-t102036.php#p1613182

That is so cool.

william-james88 wrote:Like Protoman had said? http://www.seibertron.com/energonpub/the-true-transformers-g1-timeline-what-to-watch-and-in-what-order-t102036.php#p1613182

Only sort of. It isn't outright stated what time period Fire Convoy's Cybertrons and Gigatron's Destrongers came from, but the Destrongers using the insignia would suggest a point after the Great Upgrade in the Japanese timeline. However, there's still the notion of the Destrongers still being large-sized Transformers instead of the human-sized ones that the Beast Wars characters were, so if the Destrongers did come from a / future era, we can only assume that, for whatever reason, they didn't downsize like the rest of 'em.

Sabrblade wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Like Protoman had said? http://www.seibertron.com/energonpub/the-true-transformers-g1-timeline-what-to-watch-and-in-what-order-t102036.php#p1613182

Only sort of. It isn't outright stated what time period Fire Convoy's Cybertrons and Gigatron's Destrongers came from, but the Destrongers using the insignia would suggest a point after the Great Upgrade in the Japanese timeline. However, there's still the notion of the Destrongers still being large-sized Transformers instead of the human-sized ones that the Beast Wars characters were, so if the Destrongers did come from a / future era, we can only assume that, for whatever reason, they didn't downsize like the rest of 'em.

Oh, the way I understood was that RID was much much after Beast Wars (long enough for the world to get back to what it looked like in the early 2000s, starting from ashes) and thus in Transformers evolution, the Maximals and Predacons gave way to a new breed of autobot and decepticon which resembled the g1 transformers of old.

william-james88 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Like Protoman had said? http://www.seibertron.com/energonpub/the-true-transformers-g1-timeline-what-to-watch-and-in-what-order-t102036.php#p1613182

Only sort of. It isn't outright stated what time period Fire Convoy's Cybertrons and Gigatron's Destrongers came from, but the Destrongers using the insignia would suggest a point after the Great Upgrade in the Japanese timeline. However, there's still the notion of the Destrongers still being large-sized Transformers instead of the human-sized ones that the Beast Wars characters were, so if the Destrongers did come from a / future era, we can only assume that, for whatever reason, they didn't downsize like the rest of 'em.

Oh, the way I understood was that RID was much much after Beast Wars (long enough for the world to get back to what it looked like in the early 2000s, starting from ashes) and thus in Transformers evolution, the Maximals and Predacons gave way to a new breed of autobot and decepticon which resembled the g1 transformers of old.

Be careful how you use "RID" instead of "Car Robots" since RID's in its own continuity while Car Robots is the one in the JG1 timeline.

Anyway, Car Robots is officially set in the year 2000 with its Cybertronian characters coming from a future era that's never been officially determined.

Sabrblade wrote:Be careful how you use "RID" instead of "Car Robots" since RID's in its own continuity while Car Robots is the one in the JG1 timeline.

Anyway, Car Robots is officially set in the year 2000 with its Cybertronian characters coming from a future era that's never been officially determined.

Oh man, this is so complicated. But thanks for not giving up on me Sabr.

william-james88 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Be careful how you use "RID" instead of "Car Robots" since RID's in its own continuity while Car Robots is the one in the JG1 timeline.

Anyway, Car Robots is officially set in the year 2000 with its Cybertronian characters coming from a future era that's never been officially determined.

Oh man, this is so complicated. But thanks for not giving up on me Sabr.

Sure. Which part is confusing you?

I had no idea that Car Robots was actually in the JG1 continuity.

NuclearConvoy wrote:I had no idea that Car Robots was actually in the JG1 continuity.

Yep. It just wasn't made clear until 2007 since, at the time, the show was mostly self-contained and didn't boast about what continuity it resided in, so most took its self-isolation to mean that it was a completely new continuity altogether. The English RID dub likewise took this idea to heart and ran with it.

But really, because it's so standalone, it's able to occur in the JG1 timeline in the year 2000 with virtually no conflict with other media, as there's a lot of time that occurs between 1985 (G1 cartoon seasons 1-2) and 2005 (G1 movie).

Sabrblade wrote:

NuclearConvoy wrote:I had no idea that Car Robots was actually in the JG1 continuity.

Yep. It just wasn't made clear until 2007 since, at the time, the show was mostly self-contained and didn't boast about what continuity it resided in, so most took its self-isolation to mean that it was a completely new continuity altogether. The English RID dub likewise took this idea to heart and ran with it.

But really, because it's so standalone, it's able to occur in the JG1 timeline in the year 2000 with virtually no conflict with other media, as there's a lot of time that occurs between 1985 (G1 cartoon seasons 1-2) and 2005 (G1 movie).

What source ties it into G1?

NuclearConvoy wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

NuclearConvoy wrote:I had no idea that Car Robots was actually in the JG1 continuity.

Yep. It just wasn't made clear until 2007 since, at the time, the show was mostly self-contained and didn't boast about what continuity it resided in, so most took its self-isolation to mean that it was a completely new continuity altogether. The English RID dub likewise took this idea to heart and ran with it.

But really, because it's so standalone, it's able to occur in the JG1 timeline in the year 2000 with virtually no conflict with other media, as there's a lot of time that occurs between 1985 (G1 cartoon seasons 1-2) and 2005 (G1 movie).

What source ties it into G1?

First it was the 2006-2007 Kiss Players timeline, then it was the Kiss Players Position and Teletraan-15 Go! Go! fiction itself, which heavily involved Brave Maximus in the JG1 timeline.

Sabrblade wrote:

NuclearConvoy wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

NuclearConvoy wrote:I had no idea that Car Robots was actually in the JG1 continuity.

Yep. It just wasn't made clear until 2007 since, at the time, the show was mostly self-contained and didn't boast about what continuity it resided in, so most took its self-isolation to mean that it was a completely new continuity altogether. The English RID dub likewise took this idea to heart and ran with it.

But really, because it's so standalone, it's able to occur in the JG1 timeline in the year 2000 with virtually no conflict with other media, as there's a lot of time that occurs between 1985 (G1 cartoon seasons 1-2) and 2005 (G1 movie).

What source ties it into G1?

First it was the 2006-2007 Kiss Players timeline, then it was the Kiss Players Position and Teletraan-15 Go! Go! fiction itself, which heavily involved Brave Maximus in the JG1 timeline.

Oh man, Kiss Players. I still need so many toys from that odd line. Probably the only line where the packaging is as much a part of the goods as the toys.

NuclearConvoy wrote:
Oh man, Kiss Players. I still need so many toys from that odd line. Probably the only line where the packaging is as much a part of the goods as the toys.

You really need those little dolls? Because if not, then you can just get the alternators, they get cheaper everyday on ebay.