The Energon Pub

Hey there,

I'm a lurker by trade, and have enjoyed these boards a lot. Now however, I'm trying to dig up some information, and quite frankly, the amount of data and knowledge on these boards has my head spinning. None of the search terms I used were able to get me to where I wanted to go. So, I'm asking for help.

I am looking for information on WHO and HOW TFA was created, most especially the HOW. I've heard it was "fan-pitched" and hence all the great nods to the G1 series, but I'm trying to confirm this.

So, does anyone know the process for how TFA came to be? Who thought the idea up, then carried it to Hasbro?

And, on a similar line, how did Armada get thought up/created/produced?

Much Appreciated. Thanks.

Damn, It's hard to summarize all of that.

I guess the main jolt for Animated was that Hasbro wanted a new take on the Transformers Universe, getting new fans in their grasp, while maintaining that old fan base. And what better than to do it with Cartoon Network and their style of cartoons. I don't think fans had any means of kicking off Animated, Hasbro wanted something different from Bays-formers.

Armada was a mixed venture between Takara and Hasbro, which spawned a TV series... that's about all.

I don't know the exact details of who cooked up everything, although I'm sure someone here will.

So, are we talking about Armada or Animated? Only the story of the latter I know of:

Animated: It was originally going to be Transformers: Heroes, with almost the same setup, but it had more awesome character plans (by levels better) - I guess the animators of Teen Titans were cheaper, so Hasbro chose them, finally; the only major switch from the characters were, that initially, Red Alert (a fembot, seen later in the show) would have been on Ratchets place.

Armada: No idea, did my last year of break from collecting back then...

Animated was originally going to be called Transformers Heroes with a character design style similar to the movie line just a little bit simpler. Basically Hasbro contacted Cartoon Network to make a new series and sent them a sheet showing the amount of detail Transformers could have due to advances in toy technology and engineering, they also wanted a show that focused on characters and development without the use of gimmicks other than Transforming.
CN then brainstormed about the show direction while already having first character designs for it.
Somehow CN decided to ask Derrick Wyatt if he where interested in doing the character designs, well he freaked out and started work on it. He started with Bulkhead and soon noticed that this design was very very cartoony and not at all Tf traditional, he even feared that he would loose the job after he had sent the first bunch of designs of, but CN loved it. Marty Isenberg first didn't want to work on the project due to the reaction he got from his work on Beast Machines, but once he saw Derrick Wyatt's designs he suddenly did want to be a part of the project.
Hasbro was pretty intrigued by the new art direction and went with it.

Most people that worked on Animated where Transformers fans it was even said in an interview that all the easter eggs and homages in the show where there just for the staffs own amusement.

Chaoslock wrote: the only major switch from the characters were, that initially, Red Alert (a fembot, seen later in the show) would have been on Ratchets place.

Also Bumblebee was originally envisioned as Hot Shot, thus the characters attitudes, but was changed due to the BB's presence in the movie.

Dead Metal wrote:Most people that worked on Animated where Transformers fans it was even said in an interview that all the easter eggs and homages in the show where there just for the staffs own amusement.

Wow. So they're even more pointless than I thought they were.