The Energon Pub

Sabrblade,
Yhea you have the basics the only bit you are missing/ not quite correct with is the pre-80s.

As I touched on before, and as most of us know, GIJoe goes back a long ways. All the way back to 1964 when it started as a 12" line of action figures. This line was additionally licensed out and made available in England as Action Man, and Japan as Combat Joe.

In 1972, Takara spun out a new line based on Combat Joe called Henshin Cyborg, and starting in '74 that line was relaunched in a much smaller scale called..... Microman.

That series of Microman would run until 1984/85, and would be important in North America for A) becoming the Micronauts toys released by Mego, B)a subline called New Microman which developed into Microchange, C) another sub-line called Inch-man which developed into Diaclone.

It is from the Microchange line (toys which are beings from another dimension, the scale of the toys is their actual height) that we got the toys that would become Megatron, Soundwave, Perceptor, Blaster, the cassetticons, and the original 6 (7 if you count Bumper) Autobot minicars.

From Diaclone we received all the piloted transforming mecha, which would become the bulk of the original Autobots, the Dinobots, Insecticons (the aforementioned Waruder units) and Seeker jets. The end of the line as Diaclone would see the creation of the Constructions (Devestator) and Trainbots (Raiden). In '85 the Diaclone line ended and the Microman line was placed on hold while they relaunched the same toys under the Transformer brand name.

GRL8806,
Yes Transformers is quite popular in Japan, in fact for a number of years it was much more popular there than it was in America. Do they see it as their own? Hard to say, that is rather subjective, but there are many aspects of the transformer mythos that Japan is responsible for, and they have published more shows than America has, so they can take credit for many aspects that could be debated, and a few that no one would. (Kissplayers)

Also, there were some transforming/combining robots before Transformers, like Getter Robo and Gold Lightan, I just barely found out about those, anyone familiar with them?

so anyone familiar with Getter Robo and Gold Lightan?

ALSO, would you say Transformers is to America just as much as it is to Japan?

giantrobotlover8806 wrote:ALSO, would you say Transformers is to America just as much as it is to Japan?

O hell no. Despite what people may think, Transformers may have had a major impact in Japan, but right now their popularity with the kids is overshadowed by other shows, mostly staple shows like Super Sentai and Kamen Rider. While the US just has Transformers, Japan has a buttload of other iconic robots. Case in point: the Super Robot Wars series of video games. Transformers are nowhere near mentioned, the closest thing it has is GaoGaiGar from the Yuusha/Brave cousin line.

So Transformers is bigger in the U.S. than it is in Japan? more popular in the Western World?

also, Unicron was an american original character right?

yeah, eventhough Unicron is American original, and all the Transformers movie characters(animated version) look like they have Japanese style designs, after all, Giant Robots are very popular and iconic in Japan. Just look at Super Sentai/Power Rangers, Gundam

Floro Dery is hispanic right? but I know that all the pre-movie characters were Japanese designed

like all the designs of the characters before the movie originated in Japan

Sabrblade wrote:

giantrobotlover8806 wrote:Floro Dery is hispanic right? but I know that all the pre-movie characters were Japanese designed

Floro Dery is Filipino. The pre-movie toys were Japanese-made, but the character animation models were designed by Shōhei Kohara and Floro Dery for Marvel and Sunbow, two American companies.

but I think Ultra Magnus is the only movie character to have originated in Japan right?

On the only Japanese originated Movie figure,depends on who you believe. Floro Dery takes direct credit for Metroplex/Autobot city but Takara had a Metroplex figure already in the back burner.

Also, the were plans for a robot planet by Takara prior to the Movie, so again depends on who came up with the idea first (Floro Dery's Unicron came with a moon though)

But to give credit where credit is due, both Hasbro and Takara. Hasbro for the name and line and lore while Takara initially the designs and also the lore.

Server error....double post

well Transformers started off as a toyline first

Well in my opinion, it was a joint effort. It owes it's thanks to everyone. It owes it's thanks to the Japanese for making the original toys. It owes its thanks to the US for bringing those toys over and dubbing them The Transformers. It owes its thanks again to Japan for keeping the series alive after interest died in the US. I can keep going on and on with this with who it owes thanks to.

MagnusRex wrote:Well in my opinion, it was a joint effort. It owes it's thanks to everyone. It owes it's thanks to the Japanese for making the original toys. It owes its thanks to the US for bringing those toys over and dubbing them The Transformers. It owes its thanks again to Japan for keeping the series alive after interest died in the US. I can keep going on and on with this with who it owes thanks to.

Such true words.

Japan gave us the original toys.

America gave us the characters and stories.

The UK gave us the marvel UK comics and by extension Simon Furman. (They also technically gave us America but that's a story for another day)

And Canada gave us Mainframe Entertainment, which in turn gave us Beast Wars. Not quite as big a contribution as the other countries but still pretty cool.

Shadowman wrote:The UK gave us the marvel UK comics and by extension Simon Furman. (They also technically gave us America but that's a story for another day)

Actually, America wasn't given by the Brits, it was taken from them.

And Canada gave us Mainframe Entertainment, which in turn gave us Beast Wars. Not quite as big a contribution as the other countries but still pretty cool.

The single best series in TFdom. But without the Japanese and American G1, probably never happened.

But I agree, it's definitely a joint effort, with credit shared equally. it's a prime example of how a partnership can benefit to the maximum by playing off of each other's strengths. And the result is millions of happy people. With thinner wallets.

Rodimus Prime wrote:

Shadowman wrote:The UK gave us the marvel UK comics and by extension Simon Furman. (They also technically gave us America but that's a story for another day)

Actually, America wasn't given by the Brits, it was taken from them.

He means the colonies were British owned, run and set up by the British, hence the use of the English language. At the time the 2 super powers of the world were Britain and France. Britain and France were constanly at war, Britain did not commit its forces fully to the war with the colonies on the eastern coast, as they were stretched fighting the French all over the world. No one foresaw Americas western expansion, creating what it is today. If they HAD foreseen it, all the potential wealth, it would have been a diferent outcome.

I know what he meant.

America was taken from the Brits by their own detractors, whom the United States considers its Founding Fathers.