The Energon Pub

Back in 1984, when both comic and cartoon introduced us to a never ending war between good and evil machine based lifeforms, I've always wondered why BB, like Brawn had a different face from the toy or why Jazz didn't have any "wings",Ratchet and IH having heads etc.

Now we know F.Dery simplified the designs etc. Now we just take for granted how the shows characters are now rendered as near complete replicas of the toys being sold.

I kind of laid off BW (concentrated at collecting G1 in flea markets)but got back with CR/RID. This time around, all characters look just like their animation. So happy

Then came TFA. To put it diplomatically..........oh sl@g! Only figs I got was Arcee,the two Tomy exclusive Primes, UM,Megatron, SW and Grimlock (due to character respect).

They DID look exactly like their toys, but "stylized" ain't for me. Then we get Prime, owing to a lot of Bayformer influence, was kind of good (great story too)but i still gravitate towards the United/Generations style (only own FE Tomy Prime btw). They just didn't have to oomph for me

TF Go!, got me excited because the "gestalt" gimmick was back and the toy designs hearkens back to the CR/RID days (implementation of the gimmick kind of a near miss I have to accept with Optimus ExPrime looking awesome as a train and robot (let's not talk about the dragon mode okay )but sucks as a power up mushroom deus ex machina. The new toy super modes puts the the T in TIMBER!!!!!!!!!This time, I was wishing that the toy look just as good as the show.

Now we have another incarnation of the upcoming cartoon. Still early to judge but I for one wish for a more GF style of engineering deco over the possible bland stylized circa TFA that might be implemented in the new show.

I do wish this new series will bring more figs and be a success. I wish it will light a spark among fans of G1 and a new generation of fans but I have my concerns that the designs look more of a slap dash effort (to tide us over or after AOE).

What say you out there fellow tf fans?

The two character models we've seen so far look horrible to me. To TFA for my tastes so I think I'll be passing on the line. I wish TFP hadn't finished.

The BB we've seen is okay, fairly bland but nothing that really puts me off. The Optimus I like. Again, nothing too fancy, but it's got all that I'd like and nothing too "out there". I certainly like the design style more than TFA.

Now, mentioning Animated, I have to say I was amazed that they managed to make such good, accurate toys. The style wasn't for me, but damn did they do a great job of taking the designs from the animation and putting them into 3d! I don't own any TFA toys, but have enjoyed that the character designs have bled through into other series, because there was some nice variety there. Lockdown, Lugnut and the like.

Not sure I can judge the latest offering on just 2 pics, especially of the two most homogenised characters in the TF universe at present. Hopefully when we see more of the cast there'll be some more interesting choices made on their designs, and that it'll lead to some excellent toys.

Whilst I'm a big supporter of the cartoons being American 'produced', I would still much rather have Japanese design and animation. Looking back at G1, its a signature of the show - Western cartoon writing with overtly Japanese looks.

Or maybe they should've involved IDW in the design process, similar to how they orchestrated G1 with Marvel back in the 80s.

That said - Bumblebee is cute enough (if a little bland) and Optimus is definitely a fairly nice Prime. Though the teaser images we have seen place the styling much like a slew of other childrens cartoon shows. I really do think they should have pushed the envelope to distinguish it from everything else.

Sure the show will be decent, I'll bet toy line distribution will be terrible.