Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

I just watched the japan head masters on you tube and let me first say how very cool it is that someone took the time to do them in english regardless of the quality (which is quite good at times I.M.O.)Now onto the rant.
Supposedly japan made these toons before seeing the movie. Galvatron is in them though,so they had to know the outcome of the movie.
Where then did the head masters pick up? The end of season two? end of season four?
If season 2, how did megs turn to galvie, bombshell to cyclonus etc etc?
Also, Why did they not have the movie, but did manage to acquire the music exclusive to the movie and how did they know about the matrix?
Furthermore, how did they know some of the quotes from the movie to later use in the head masters such as "merge for the kill", "we cant beat em, but we can give them one hell of a repair bill" and a few others? Was this just a big ole coinkie dink?
Then theres the fact that the bots that die turned grey juat as they did in the movie. How did they know that? Surely not a coincidence....
Lastly, Is it also a coinki dinkj that they also saw fit to ahem.... KILL OPTIMUS PRIME!! LOL!! I was like REALLY!!.....REALLY!!!!
The other option is that it took place end of season 4 after the return of O.P. In which case Im wondering how they were able to explain anything to their audience.
They would have had to know what happened in the movie at least, so why stray from what happened by bringing back deceased bots?
How would anyone know what was going on without seeing the movie to tie the two generations together?
More importantly if the head masters took place after the return of optimus prime then that means ahem......They KILLED OPTIMUS PRIME AGAIN!! REALLY? The toon that preceeds the return of optimus prime has him die again? How lame is that? I couldnt believe they did that again no matter where the story took place.
Anyone shed any light on this for me? (Im looking your way stovokor and sabrblade)

Misleading thread title is misleading.

Oh, sorry. I was just kinda stunned and confused over the whole thing and then prime dies.....AGAIN so I was like ????DAMNIT!! So it felt like the right think to name the thread.
Do you want me to change it man?

Please. I get confused every time I see it pop up!

You might also get more answers, too.

As far as I know, the Japanese Headmasters series picks up at the end of the American Season 3. Discount the Rebirth story. It never made it to Japan, instead they got the real Headmasters story. I don't know where you got that the Japs didn't know about TFTM, if they didn't then a lot of stuff wouldn't be in Headmasters.

What I ment was that they didnt get the movie for years after it was released.
They didnt have the movie info at the time they made head masters.
Thats why Im wondering how things came to be the way they were.

Between season 2 and 3 these crazy Japanese folks got the two-part episode 'Scramble city', in which the events of the movie get a different explaination. However, only one of the intended two got made, so the gap still remains.

I'd advise you to pull yourself through the Headmasters. It's full of WTF's and some doses of awesomesauce. Afterwards, reward yourself with Masterforce.

And for the love of God, which it all with subtitles.

'Spaceship Bruce.'

Megs for pres wrote:I just watched the japan head masters on you tube and let me first say how very cool it is that someone took the time to do them in english regardless of the quality (which is quite good at times I.M.O.)Now onto the rant.

I don't know what you mean by "English" (if you mean subtitles, the Omni Productions dub, or a fandub), but no other version can top the Japanese version.

Megs for pres wrote:Supposedly japan made these toons before seeing the movie. Galvatron is in them though,so they had to know the outcome of the movie.
Where then did the head masters pick up? The end of season two? end of season four?
If season 2, how did megs turn to galvie, bombshell to cyclonus etc etc?

Though they didn't get the movie until 1989, they still did have season 3 in Japan, and Galvatron was in still in that.

The headmasters takes place after season 3, taking the place of season 4. Basically, "The Rebirth" didn't happen and doesn't exist as far as The Heamdasters is concerned.

And, instead of taking place in 2005/2006, the Japanese version of season 3 takes place in 2010, with The headmasters being set in 2011.

Megs for pres wrote:Also, Why did they not have the movie, but did manage to acquire the music exclusive to the movie and how did they know about the matrix?

Cuz Toei Animation still made both the movie and The Headmasters cartoon and thus had access to each. The American G1 cartoon was made with Asian animation studios, just like a lot of American cartoons at the time did.

What a sec! Did you just say that The Headmasters used music from the movie? That never happened in The Headmasters. The Headmasters had its own soundtrack unique to itself. Did the videos you watched on YouTube have the movie music? If so, then whoever originally made those videos must have put them in themselves since none of the movie music was there originally.

Megs for pres wrote:Furthermore, how did they know some of the quotes from the movie to later use in the head masters such as "merge for the kill", "we cant beat em, but we can give them one hell of a repair bill" and a few others? Was this just a big ole coinkie dink?

Oh dear. It looks like you watched a fan dub. A very unfaithful one, even.

The reason there's all these movie quotes is because the people behind the English dialogue wrote them in just to be cool. They did not say any of this in the authentic Japanese version, so what you saw was a filtered, edited version of the original story. In other words, you got cheated out of the original story.

Megs for pres wrote:Then theres the fact that the bots that die turned grey juat as they did in the movie. How did they know that? Surely not a coincidence....
Lastly, Is it also a coinki dinkj that they also saw fit to ahem.... KILL OPTIMUS PRIME!! LOL!! I was like REALLY!!.....REALLY!!!!

Like I said, Toei animated both the movie and The Headmasters. They even worked on seasons 1 and 2 of the G1 cartoon. They knew what to do because they're the ones who did it in the first place.

Megs for pres wrote:The other option is that it took place end of season 4 after the return of O.P. In which case Im wondering how they were able to explain anything to their audience.
They would have had to know what happened in the movie at least, so why stray from what happened by bringing back deceased bots?
How would anyone know what was going on without seeing the movie to tie the two generations together?

The company knew about the movie because they made it. They just didn't dub it into Japanese until years later.

Megs for pres wrote:More importantly if the head masters took place after the return of optimus prime then that means ahem......They KILLED OPTIMUS PRIME AGAIN!! REALLY? The toon that preceeds the return of optimus prime has him die again? How lame is that? I couldnt believe they did that again no matter where the story took place.
Anyone shed any light on this for me? (Im looking your way stovokor and sabrblade)

They killed Optimus because they didn't even want him back in the first place. It was America that wanted Optimus back, and season 3 was animated by AKOM, not Toei, so Toei had no say in the bringing back of Optimus in season 3. So when they got the chance to do their own series, they were free to do away with Optimus as they so pleased.

================================================================================

Rodimus Prime wrote:As far as I know, the Japanese Headmasters series picks up at the end of the American Season 3. Discount the Rebirth story. It never made it to Japan,

It did when it got released on Laserdisc and DVD over there.

OOOOOOOOH! So the versions I watched were bastardized and only loosely translated by fans then in other words? That makes sense and answers the bulk of my questuons.
You know they were saying things like "hot rod! are you o.k?" "oh yes! Im just PRIME Blaster!" LOL!!! They used that cheesy line like four times and only optimus and rodimus say it too so.....ya know.
n I still cant believe they friggin kill optimus again THAT SOON!!!LOL
If that wasnt a blatent "screw you U.S.! How dare you mess with our cannon!" moment, I dont know what was. I guess the asian fans werent as big on the big guy as we were in the states.
I know his death messed me up for awhile and when they brought him back It was a weight off my shoulders. I t really depressed me for a long while ya know? LOL
Seems silly now, but I guess thats why Im here now posting in this forum. Transformers was a huge part of my childhood.
O.K. then. So which version do you recomend I watch? Rha said it was worth the time to watch and was even awesome at times, so Im gonna take his advise.
I just dont want to stumble on another bad translation. So, any suggestions?

Megs for pres wrote: O.K. then. So which version do you recomend I watch? Rha said it was worth the time to watch and was even awesome at times, so Im gonna take his advise.
I just dont want to stumble on another bad translation. So, any suggestions?

Well, you got four options for the Japanese version. One is the TV-Nihon fansubs, another is the Metrodome DVD set from the UK, the Madman DVD set from Australia, and the Shout! Factory DVD set in the U.S.

However, none of these four are perfect and each one has their own fair share of flaws. But they're still your best bet.

TV-Nihon's fansubs are uncut, but use some Gratuitous Japanese in the subs and at times overdo the phrasing of the dialogue, which might make them less enjoyable a read.

Both the Metrodome and Madman DVDs have some missing pre-episode footage as well as some spelling/grammar errors in the subtitle scripts (and some technical errors in one episode). Also, these DVDs won't play on just any ordinary U.S. DVD player, so you'll either need a region free one or will have to just watch them on your computer.

And Shout! Factory's DVDs also have the same missing pre-episode footage, and rewrote several lines of dialogue in the subs to say some things that differ from what's being said on screen by the characters.

I myself own the TV-Nihon fansub downloads and the UK Metrodome DVDs.

Megs for pres wrote:You know they were saying things like "hot rod! are you o.k?" "oh yes! Im just PRIME Blaster!" LOL!!!

Ain't them clips just PRIME?

LOL!!!! Thats what they were saying! I didnt know it was also said in other shows as well.
I love the thunder bolt that reveals a brief glimps of the G-1- starscream in the bottok clip. Im a screamer fan!!!!

Megs for pres wrote:LOL!!!! Thats what they were saying! I didnt know it was also said in other shows as well.

Mmm...Beast Wars for the most part. Don't know about Beast Machines; it's been a while.

I love the thunder bolt that reveals a brief glimps of the G-1- starscream in the bottok clip. Im a screamer fan!!!!

Beast Wars also revealed G1 Optimus, Megatron, Soundwave, Jazz, and more. Best part is they were in the same band of episodes.

Also, the episode "Possession" has Starscream's spark (as he died in G1, his spark floats around in space. It's kind of creepy) take over Waspinator's body. You might want to look on YouTube for it if you're a 'screamer fan.

Wasn't this about The Headmasters?

Sabrblade wrote:Wasn't this about The Headmasters?

Just explaining to him where "I'm just Prime" may have come from during the Headmasters fandub.

Megs for pres wrote:I just watched the japan head masters on you tube and let me first say how very cool it is that someone took the time to do them in english regardless of the quality (which is quite good at times I.M.O.)Now onto the rant.
Supposedly japan made these toons before seeing the movie. Galvatron is in them though,so they had to know the outcome of the movie.

they also had details on who died, so it doesnt explain how Prowl is back

Where then did the head masters pick up? The end of season two? end of season four?

the end of season 3, right after the return of optimus prime.

Also, Why did they not have the movie, but did manage to acquire the music exclusive to the movie and how did they know about the matrix?

you must be watching Fan made dubs, the originasl did not feature music from the film.

they got the film at a later date.Why, my guess is dubbing time.But remember, the matrix was used heavily in season 3, which they got soon after we did.

Furthermore, how did they know some of the quotes from the movie to later use in the head masters such as "merge for the kill", "we cant beat em, but we can give them one hell of a repair bill" and a few others? Was this just a big ole coinkie dink?

do you speak Japanese?

if not, you cant trust that the dubs you saw are 100% accurate translations.

most dubs of Japanese cartoons arent 100% translations.

Then theres the fact that the bots that die turned grey juat as they did in the movie. How did they know that? Surely not a coincidence....

they were given some details

Lastly, Is it also a coinki dinkj that they also saw fit to ahem.... KILL OPTIMUS PRIME!! LOL!! I was like REALLY!!.....REALLY!!!!

Rodimus was pretty popular in Japan, and the toy mold for Optimus had been in toystores for over a decade at that point.

so they go rid of optimus AGAIN to be focused on new toys.

The other option is that it took place end of season 4 after the return of O.P. In which case Im wondering how they were able to explain anything to their audience.

Season 3 ended with the return of optimus prime.

Season 4 was called The Rebirth in the US.

In Japan, they did not use the Rebirth and started their own Head master series.

TRANSFOOOOOORM HEAD ONNNNN!
Why couldn't the US version have catchphrases like that?

It's more along the lines of:

THANSFOEHM! HEAD OEHN!

MASSSSTAAAAAHHHRRR SOOOHHHRRDDD!

@Sto: Already answered his questions, thanks.

@Sinnertwin: These are for you.

"Toransufōmu, Heddo On!"

"Toransufōmu, Dasshu!"

"Biggu Mōdo! Toransufōmu, Heddo On!"

"Masutā Sōdo!"

"Tāgetto On!"

As for why the U.S. version didn't have any vocal commands like these, well, they just weren't a thing American cartoons used.

Such were staples of Japanese cartoons, and were even added into the Japanese dub of the G1 cartoon (in which phrases like "Toransufōmu!" and "Gattai!" were commonplace).

It's a difference in cultural mindesets and so the English G1 cartoon didn't have them since the people making it didn't have them in mind.

However, Beast Wars would eventually give us "Maximize!", "Terrorize!", "Beast Mode!", "Flight Mode!", and more.

Sabrblade wrote:@Sto: Already answered his questions, thanks.

@Sinnertwin: These are for you.

"Toransufōmu, Heddo On!"

"Toransufōmu, Dasshu!"

"Biggu Mōdo! Toransufōmu, Heddo On!"

"Masutā Sōdo!"

"Tāgetto On!"

As for why the U.S. version didn't have any vocal commands like these, well, they just weren't a thing American cartoons used.

Such were staples of Japanese cartoons, and were even added into the Japanese dub of the G1 cartoon (in which phrases like "Toransufōmu!" and "Gattai!" were commonplace).

It's a difference in cultural mindesets and so the English G1 cartoon didn't have them since the people making it didn't have them in mind.

However, Beast Wars would eventually give us "Maximize!", "Terrorize!", "Beast Mode!", "Flight Mode!", and more.

And then 'I am transformed'.

To which I took a hammer to my face.

RhA wrote:To which I took a hammer to my face.

Well, that was Beast Machines, which also gave us "Pulverize!", "Afterburn!", "Overdrive!" (and "Accelerate! in one episode, hopefully by mistake), "Terminate!" and "Obliterate!"

Sabrblade wrote:

RhA wrote:To which I took a hammer to my face.

Well, that was Beast Machines, which also gave us "Pulverize!", "Afterburn!", "Overdrive!" (and "Accelerate! in one episode, hopefully by mistake), "Terminate!" and "Obliterate!"

My personal favorite:

'Big transform'

Yes, it was dorky, but also intimidating. Zarak just said it calm enough to be menacing. Not Headmasters, but Zarak none the less.

RhA wrote:My personal favorite:

'Big transform'

Yes, it was dorky, but also intimidating. Zarak just said it calm enough to be menacing. Not Headmasters, but Zarak none the less.

Technically he wasn't just "Zarak" in any of his forms. In his smaller robot form he was "Scorponok", in his first Transtector body he was "MegaZarak", and in his second Transtector body he was "BlackZarak", but never just "Zarak".

Sabrblade wrote:

RhA wrote:My personal favorite:

'Big transform'

Yes, it was dorky, but also intimidating. Zarak just said it calm enough to be menacing. Not Headmasters, but Zarak none the less.

Technically he wasn't just "Zarak" in any of his forms. In his smaller robot form he was "Scorponok", in his first Transtector body he was "MegaZarak", and in his second Transtector body he was "BlackZarak", but never just "Zarak".

I forgot about that.

Silly Japanese turning stuff around.