The Energon Pub

[o.supreme]

Because like many of us, we would like to return to something that we enjoy. This is an old argument across several forums, so I am not going to open it up again but...since the original series was never really "completed" many fans would like to see a return to that universe. Yes I like the Japanese shows, and it is an adequate stand in, but like so many other genres with multiple continuities, many fans like to go back to the original from time to time. This is not something unique to Transformers fans. The Original Universe revisited is something done often in many TV shows, movies, comics etc...It's just never been done in Transformers animation.

[Sabrblade]

For anyone else who has yet to see the Combiner Wars cartoon and can't access it on Go90, all eight episode are on KissCartoon.

While the four Preludes (Optimus Prime, Victorion, Starscream, and Windblade) are still on YouTube.

[JazZeke]

For anyone else who has yet to see the Combiner Wars cartoon and can't access it on Go90, all eight episode are on KissCartoon...

But why inflict that upon yourself?

[Sabrblade]

For anyone else who has yet to see the Combiner Wars cartoon and can't access it on Go90, all eight episode are on KissCartoon...

But why inflict that upon yourself?

Some are morbidly curious to see what all the fuss is about.

[o.supreme]

Some are morbidly curious to see what all the fuss is about.

Exactly. That is also why I think many of us who knew it wasn't going well kept watching. We just had no idea HASBRO would be bonehead enough to translate views into likes. The ONLY way I will watch TR or whatever else is coming from Machimina would be through some 3rd party source. Don't want them to see my view and think I like it.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Thanks to our very own Jon3.0, we bring to you a special behind the scenes video of the voice acting and creation of Transformers: Combiner Wars as we gear up for the upcoming Transformers: Titans Return cartoon. Jon takes us through many different locations, as we visit the place where they are designed the Transformers and then the voice acting booth where the individual voice actors are recording their scenes. We even get some nice scenes of Jon Bailey AKA Optimus Prime, Ben Pronsky AKA Rodimus Prime, and Abby Trott AKA Windblade filming scenes together. We even find out it was Ben Pronsky who voiced Metroplex. You can check out the video below, and let us know what you think in the comments section below!

[fenrir72]

These people are Amazing!

[fenrir72]

Because like many of us, we would like to return to something that we enjoy. This is an old argument across several forums, so I am not going to open it up again but...since the original series was never really "completed" many fans would like to see a return to that universe. Yes I like the Japanese shows, and it is an adequate stand in, but like so many other genres with multiple continuities, many fans like to go back to the original from time to time. This is not something unique to Transformers fans. The Original Universe revisited is something done often in many TV shows, movies, comics etc...It's just never been done in Transformers animation.

No longer have the products to sell anymore?

Though I wish TF G1 would go the DBZ route but then again, different market and demographics from those in Japan. Heck, even Sailormoon has/had a revival of the series with new revamped (more manga-sh character designs) and was a hit!

[Sabrblade]

I LOVE this kind of behind the scenes stuff. It is so fun to see the actors having a ball and being funny with each other both during and outside of the recording sessions.

And yet, the joy of watching this just serves as yet another reminder of what the Combiner Wars cartoon could have been but wasn't. The show clearly had some talented people behind the voices of each character, but a lot of that talent was put into making the characters into being either as unlikable or as uninteresting as possible (Windblade especially, what with most of her dialogue rooted in pure hatred), with the sole exception of the wonderfully fun Megatron we got from this show (Starscream would have been an exception as well had it not been for his sudden personality switch at the 11th hour).

The energy and wit that Jon puts into his improvised Optimus voice that we see him doing in this video outside of the recording sessions is proof that he's very capable of not only doing a good Optimus voice, but a lively and enjoyable one. Yet, the final product felt more like the directors were trying to tone his performance way down into a much more stiffer, less emotional version of Optimus (not unlike the very boring Optimus we got from Peter Cullen in Transformers: Prime), thereby preventing Jon from really shining as the cool and fun Optimus we know he's capable of performing.

On a different note, I think this video finally revealed to us who voiced Metroplex.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

I agree Sabr. There are some awesome voices with that cast.

I even included the Metroplex part in the news story

[Evil Eye]

It's funny, because after watching Freddery's side-splitting spoof of this mess ("HI I'M WINDBLADE") I have absolutely zero desire to actually watch the "real deal". Maybe I should just so I can "get" the jokes in the parody a bit better.

Come to think of it I don't think I've watched/read any official TF fiction with Windblade in it, which admittedly isn't very surprising given I haven't consumed that much TF fiction in general. But anyway, I highly doubt that's going to change any time soon- I don't read IDW for various reasons (mainly because it's been going for so long that I have no hope of catching up), I don't watch RID because from everything I've seen of it, it just isn't that good (especially compared to Prime) and I haven't watched CW because it's an absolute travesty. Maybe a series will come along with Windy-chan in it that I'll get into and end up liking the character, but for now in my eyes she will remain an arrogant joke monkey who desperately wants to become a main character. Because seriously, Geewun Reedun Windblade is slagging hilarious.

[Autobot N]

Maybe I should

Bad idea

[Sabrblade]

Thinking more about this video, Bang Zoom! usually has good voice direction, and Tatsunoko Production is legendary for having made several works of excellent animation quality.

Combined with the competent vocal talent, the Combiner Wars clearly seemed to have some really good talent behind it in several departments (the voice actors, the recording studio, the animation studio, the guy who made the awesome that was Megas XLR, etc.). So with all this talent put into the making this show, it really begs the question:

Just what the slag happened to make the Combiner Wars cartoon be as terrible as it ended up being, especially with its atrocious writing, directing, and animation?

[Kurona]

Thinking more about this video, Bang Zoom! usually has good voice direction, and Tatsunoko Production is legendary for having made several works of excellent animation quality.

Combined with the competent vocal talent, the Combiner Wars clearly seemed to have some really good talent behind it in several departments (the voice actors, the recording studio, the animation studio, the guy who made the awesome that was Megas XLR, etc.). So with all this talent put into the making this show, it really begs the question:

Just what the slag happened to make the Combiner Wars cartoon be as terrible as it ended up being, especially with its atrocious writing, directing, and animation?

Do we know what sort of budget and production time it had?

[Bumblevivisector]

Because like many of us, we would like to return to something that we enjoy. This is an old argument across several forums, so I am not going to open it up again but...since the original series was never really "completed" many fans would like to see a return to that universe. Yes I like the Japanese shows, and it is an adequate stand in, but like so many other genres with multiple continuities, many fans like to go back to the original from time to time. This is not something unique to Transformers fans. The Original Universe revisited is something done often in many TV shows, movies, comics etc...It's just never been done in Transformers animation.

No longer have the products to sell anymore?

Though I wish TF G1 would go the DBZ route but then again, different market and demographics from those in Japan. Heck, even Sailormoon has/had a revival of the series with new revamped (more manga-sh character designs) and was a hit!

The other difference is that DBZ and Sailor Moon didn't have a steady stream of new fiction for a decade or two after their main storylines ended, did they? Transformers has, even if most of it wasn't connected to the universe that fans wax most nostalgic about. Therefore, "bringing Transformers back" is a harder sell because it never really went anywhere. Influence from the multiverse will undoubtedly creep in (even if not as disruptively as in ReGeneration One), begging constant comparisons between the Sunbow continuation and all the stories we've had in the meantime. Even if everything goes off without a hitch, standing out from the rest of the franchise post-1987 will be a heckuva' daunting task. By contrast, Dragon Ball Super just had to outperform GT, which wasn't THAT hard.

But you know what? I'd support this Sunbow revival if, and ONLY if, it involves the combiner cassettes, Triggerbots/-cons, and Double-Targetmasters slaughtering as many of the remaining '84-'85 characters as possible, to make up for their never quite getting the fair shake they deserved back in the day. No wait, actually that needs to be the sequel to the Deviations comic. But picking up where The Rebirth left off means a flood of '88 toy characters, and you make the biggest impression with TF:TM style house-cleanin'. I can already see Grapple getting his head blown off by Spinister, only to have his old protege Erector use his mentor's remains to construct his trailer in season 6...

As for this video, they're having so much fun in studio, it almost makes me forget how the series actually turned out. Has it been edited together on Youtube yet, or is it exclusive for eternity to GoPro...I mean Golgo 9013...see, the name just plain doesn't stick with me enough to recommend it to friends.

EDIT: Just looked up and saw Sabre's link. Thanks!

And yet, for some reason...I really, honestly, want a toy of Maxima. Hopefully she'll be one of the first exclusives from whatever replaces the Club. That still being a realistic possibility is the silver lining of Hasbro apparently getting the wrong message about this series' alleged success. Not that I'm not looking forward to the next two; CW was an entertaining train wreck and all.

[Sabrblade]

Hey guys, get this.

While most of the non-Megatron stuff in this series was balderdash, a couple of things from this series were referenced positively in Beast Wars: Uprising.

The first of which is Maxima. While a near-complete blank slate in this show, Uprising transplanted the character into that series's backstory lore in which a new history for her was invented, describing her as a relatively notable historical figure. In BWU, Maxima is known as "the first Maximal", and the "first daughter" of Fortress Maximus, who in this series was (or more specifically, Cerebros was) the creator of the Maximals. She owned a lupanoid steed, whose face became the source of inspiration for the Maximal insignia. She and the First Predacon, Preditron, were acquaintances, and it was her funeral that inspired the Pred to pen the Predacon Manifesto, a document spelling out the eight foundational "pillars" that not just all Predacons but all "proto-formers" should live by (Ambition, Honor, Valor, Pride, Loyalty, Justice, Sacrifice, and Cunning). To later Maximal generations, Maxima came to be known as "She Who Sang". She once composed a battle song for Preditron, so she might have been musically-adept, earning her that nickname.


Two more things from this Combiner Wars cartoon were more indirectly referenced in the grand finale story "Derailment". And both of them were, well, a bit more on the humorous side, taking jabs at some of the cartoon's more infamous moments.

Behold the end of this bit of text:

With the lone guard out of the way, Lio Convoy finally lay his optics on the Builder Assembly. Fifteen pathetic Builders, all but Ratbat helpless without a walker. One was missing, but Lio Convoy filed that away as unimportant. His understanding was that a quorum was 12, so he had more than enough.

“Members of the Assembly, I am here as representative of the Resistance to personally accept your surrender,” he declared gravely, and gave the Solipsistic Sword a *doink* on the ground for emphasis.

And the end of this:

“I tell ya,” enthused Shatterpoint, “when it all began, what, six stellar cycles ago, I never woulda guessed how it would all end.”

“A peace summit?” asked Wind-Sheer.

“Nah, nah. Well, sure, that. But, I meant, giant floating head, screaming like a banshee,
firing laser beams everywhere.”

[o.supreme]

Nice... but this further just confuses and frustrates me as to why Hasbro would approve a sequel (let alone two...) I mean *someone* there has to read this stuff. Even if fan reaction was seemingly positive in places like FB etc... I don't see how all the negatives can just be ignored.

As a staunch fan of the original Sunbow series CW is not what I wanted, not claiming it was trying to be that mind you...its just that we know in some fans minds their perception is clouded and CW is the farthest thing it could be from the original series IMHO.

Additionally, this goes back to a comment made in the TR toy thread. If a panelist was asked by a fan at a convention 3 or so years ago if Generations Metroplex would get a re-releases as Metrotitan and they said "who?"--I cant believe that NOBODY at Hasbro would know this character, even if it was exclusive to Japan at the time. Perhaps that individual didn't know, but as we have seen, we are starting to get some more obscure Japanese characters released in the Hasbro line.

Like you said before Sabr...there were some odd coincidences between the ending of CW, and the Stargate manga, and while this is something very obscure, I'm sure someone working on Transformers at Hasbro has to have read it, or at least looked at it at some point, and I wouldn't put it past those at Machinima who developed this series either.

So either there is a lot of ignorance, or deception going on, in either case, its not good.

Kind of like when Megatron forced Starscreams hand into admitting he was either lying, or stupid...Nothing good can come of this.

[Sabrblade]

Additionally, this goes back to a comment made in the TR toy thread. If a panelist was asked by a fan at a convention 3 or so years ago if Generations Metroplex would get a re-releases as Metrotitan and they said "who?"--I cant believe that NOBODY at Hasbro would know this character, even if it was exclusive to Japan at the time. Perhaps that individual didn't know, but as we have seen, we are starting to get some more obscure Japanese characters released in the Hasbro line.

To be fair to the Metrotitan thing, that was asked at SDCC 2013, and in that year, the Hasbro brand team was the team headed by Aaron Archer. The current brand team, headed by John Warden, took over a year or so later. It is this team that has lately been giving us a lot of Japsnese characters, whereas Archer's team barely ever did.

What's more is that I'm of the belief that Archer's team really wasn't that fluent in the Japanese fiction. Back at BotCon 2011, at two of the panels (one for TF: Prime and one for the Hasbro Aligned media in general), I asked about Dark Energon and what, if any, association is had to Angolmois from Beast Wars II and Neo. The answers they gave at the panels were that any similarities between the two (both being addictive, corrupting, lifeforce energies of Unicron) were a coincidence, and that the Hasbro team guys weren't that familiar with the Japanese side of the fiction, which sounded to me like they didn't even know what Angolmois was.

[Kurona]

I'd also quickly note that Star Saber, while obscure in terms of the casual fan; is a LOT more well-known that Metrotitan.

[o.supreme]

Interesting...so who knows, maybe at some point the current team, (which is obviously familiar with Metroplex since they used him as the foundation for FM), will be able to do a Metrotitan, though it probably wouldn't be a mass market release.

In any case, its nice to know the current team has a bit more knowledge of the Japanese fiction, I just wish Hasbro really cared about how its TF characters were used, as in the sase of the CW web series, but unfortunately if it makes money, I guess they are going with it.

[Kurona]

[Sabrblade]

I mean, let's be honest. CW had really one positive about it: Megatron.

Energon had a small handful of positives, but only that little.

[JazZeke]

Wow, that is hilarious. What are those results from?

[Kurona]

Wow, that is hilarious. What are those results from?

IMBd. It is of course just votes from a lot of random people rather than the collation of serious critical analyses, but I nonetheless found it funny

[Sabrblade]

So, apparently the cast for the Titans Return cartoon has been revealed and...

...I just plum don't believe it. It all sounds like some fanboy's pipe dream fantasy cast, or like an April Fools prank or something.

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/07/18/peter-cullen-judd-nelson-michael-dorn-and-wil-wheaton-join-transformers-titans-return/

Oh, and the series will be ten episodes of 11 minutes in length.