Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

News Credits: 372 · by **Cyberpath** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 2:40 am

The latest Figure King mag has a collage featuring the characters from Siege in their original animated form. They look so much livelier and dripping with personality. (Not that I ever expected the Netflix series to come close to the original, in any aspect -- just to have some fun.)

More Siege/Netflix articles from Figure King, like posters and run downs of the characters/figures @ Loopaza Mega Store

by **NiteStar** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 4:37 am

Thank you in the name of Alpha Trion For the series. This is the viewpoint and storylines I have been waiting for in a Transformer series. The characters, the designs, everything. Yes! War for Cybertron, Fall Cybertron, everything. Even though it’s not directly related to the video games stories but this is still “in the style of” that I have been waiting for. Thank you to the Transformer gods. I will be enjoying every minute of this series.

News Credits: 4498 · by **william-james88** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 6:53 am

Sad to see how hurt Peter Cullen is about this show. He seems to care much more about the legacy of the character and well being of actors than the money.

News Credits: 372 · by **Cyberpath** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 7:14 am

The one true voice of Optimus Prime!

News Credits: 436 · by **Sabrblade** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 8:10 am

Oh dear...

Peter Cullen dissed both Jake Foushee and, even more directly, Jon Bailey.

Yikes.

News Credits: 6 · by **AllNewSuperRobot** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 8:21 am

Still on Voices, it actually took me until he was namedropped before I noticed that was Ironhide. Possibly the most generic voice in the show. Which was in itself a sea of generic voices.

Also amusing that Fem-Bots are the new Token characters and Red Shirts... Note as well that none of them transformed.

News Credits: 436 · by **Sabrblade** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 8:23 am

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Also amusing that Fem-Bots are the new Token characters and Red Shirts... Note as well that none of them transformed.

All except for one red Cog redeco who turned into a set of cannons for Sideswipe to use.

News Credits: 6 · by **AllNewSuperRobot** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 8:27 am

Oh yeah, I forgot about the Multi-coloured Cogs. That was probably the weirdest palette swap variant mold to me. Also, considering how many variants there are of the Seekers, they seemed to repeat the same two or three being shot down or destroyed. I'm thinking it might have been re-used show models?

News Credits: 4498 · by **william-james88** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 8:37 am

Cyberpath wrote: They look so much livelier and dripping with personality.

Yeah, especially the Rainmakers.

News Credits: 55 · by **o.supreme** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 8:55 am

william-james88 wrote:Sad to see how hurt Peter Cullen is about this show. He seems to care much more about the legacy of the character and well being of actors than the money.

Source?? It may just be early for me, but I'm not sure I'm understanding....

Peter Cullen is hurt that he wasn't asked to play Prime, or that he just didn't like the series in general?

Also I would think caring about his characters, as well as the actors themselves over money would be a good thing?

News Credits: 6 · by **AllNewSuperRobot** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 9:02 am

While I do think it is well passed time to move Transformers media away from Welker and Cullen, their replacements in this show were the weakest so far. Hopefully not a sign of the way forward. Even Garry chalk or David Kaye's Prime could have at least added more charisma to the lacklustre dialogue.

News Credits: 55 · by **o.supreme** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 9:11 am

As bad as Prime wars was, I think Jon Bailey does a good Prime, I also liked Neil Kaplan in RiD. I know this Jake Foushee is much younger (he was born when I was in College!) and that's probably what they are thinking, and perhaps he will grow into it one day.

Unfortunately however, starting now, I believe we are going to experience a Muppets situation. Just today in fact a brand new Muppet show debuts on Disney+, and the 3rd Kermit is getting lambasted by fans, for good reason, but its sad the previous actor still wants to do it, but was fired by Disney a couple years back.

News Credits: 6 · by **AllNewSuperRobot** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 9:17 am

It's funny, as I watched subbed Car Robots as it aired in Japan (via dial-up, no less). I've never heard the English voice cast.

The issue though is that "young" voices don't work for every character. Some need to sound more world weary and experienced. As I mentioned before, that Siege Prime voice would have been better suited to BB/Hot Rod/Cheetor etc

News Credits: 55 · by **o.supreme** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 9:32 am

I too watched most of Car Robots (still prefer it) before RiD ever aired on Fox kids, but I have watched/own both. I agree about age and experience, but young voice actors have to get their start somewhere. It would be nice if someone a bit older was able to master a Good Optimus Prime until the younger actors can come into their own. I remember being at the panel for Rescue Bots at BC in 2013. You had veterans there like Maurice LaMarche and Steve Blum among all the young new talent, but I wished them well on their endeavors, and hpe they still are continuing to work.

News Credits: 6 · by **AllNewSuperRobot** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 9:35 am

New voice actors are always a good thing, to be encouraged. But they need to appreciate not every character can be voiced 'Young'. Not every actor will have the range of Welker, nor should that level be expected. But a default voice rarely works for multiple roles.

News Credits: 54 · by **Deadput** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 10:06 am

Another problem is that they can't or don't want to just get any voice actor they want sometimes, so that limits who can be chosen for roles.

It's a shame that despite some good performances, the VO work is arguably one of the things that brings down the show, you can have the most perfectly written dialogue but it doesn't mean much if you can't get someone to properly execute it.

The sound mixing not being that good doesn't help either.

News Credits: 23 · by **aronjlove** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 10:41 am

Since we are talking voices, why was Jetfire so breathey(?) in every single sentence. Like he was soooooooo tired or something. And Ironhide sounded way too young.

News Credits: 4498 · by **william-james88** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 11:08 am

o.supreme wrote:
william-james88 wrote:Sad to see how hurt Peter Cullen is about this show. He seems to care much more about the legacy of the character and well being of actors than the money.

Source?? It may just be early for me, but I'm not sure I'm understanding....

Peter Cullen is hurt that he wasn't asked to play Prime, or that he just didn't like the series in general?

Also I would think caring about his characters, as well as the actors themselves over money would be a good thing?

My source is the video I posted, did you look at it? And yes, this is what I meant. He wants to voice the character so that this character's legacy stays true as long as he can, and yet he was not hired due to money reasons.

News Credits: 1 · by **Dark Ops** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 11:56 am

Watched it with the Mrs last night. To quote a certain departed voice actor: "F***ing ponderous man! Ponderous!"

In a few more words, there was no energy, there was no inflection or emotional range. I couldn't even tell most of the characters apart based on their voices. Their voices were flat, unemotional except for moments of suddenly shouting, and everyone had weird... unnatural... pacing.

The most damning thing is that it was uninspired. A retread of a retread. We JUST got done with another series based on chucking the allspark through a space bridge, and the dialogue and acting in that one were less constrained. We know the fiction can go in other directions. Look at some of these ideas:

G2: The War we knew was microscopic, and a grand (evil) unified Cybertronian Empire was at its peak.

Animated: The War's over. The Autobots won. Megatron's the resistance leader, Optimus is somewhere near the middle of the hierarchy, and some interesting, emotional character studies showed up. See: Ratchet vs Lockdown.

IDW 2005: Love it or loathe it, it broke new ground, told new stories, and did a lot of world-building.

I guess I'd just like an error to be made trying something new instead of revisiting Cyberverse with more swearing and less acting.

News Credits: 55 · by **o.supreme** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 3:06 pm

So...on a more positive note, we as fans of course like to speculate on everything, especially when things such as the Netflix/Walmart toys promote "spoilers" for the show. Well one of the things on the First spoiler box did happen. However it appears that the Black Tar substance (Play-Doh) was not part of anything. I was going to say the same about Energon, but it was there (both in cube and unrefined form).

Additionally, this lends further intrigue into what's in the 2nd spoiler box. I'm sure that these toys will be repaints/retools throughout the whole trilogy, but it seems as though this 2nd wave is still aimed at Siege, and since it's out already, not sure how this 2nd box will be handled...

I understand how some can feel that this is a retread however...you can remain the the original universe and still have new stories to tell.

11-9 MYA Quintesson Rule and Transformer Revolution
9MYA-4MYA 3 different Great Wars
20 year gap between 1985-2005
Post-Rebirth
Post Operation Combination
300 years between "The End" of the Autobot/Decepticon war and Beast Wars
Post BM....

Gundam does it, Star Trek does it, Ultraman does it..... although all those franchises have multiple universes as well, it's nice to go back to the original and tell new stories.

News Credits: 4498 · by **william-james88** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 4:03 pm

Sabrblade wrote:Oh dear...

Peter Cullen dissed both Jake Foushee and, even more directly, Jon Bailey.

Yikes.

How does he dis Jon?

Edit: oh shirt, wait, i just remembered that Jon is the BB Prime actor he is referring to. Yeah, thats bad.

by **DarkEnergon** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 8:10 pm

Well, I just binged the series, and I loved it. I’d been away for awhile.

I loved the blocky designs. I loved light callbacks to G1, to Barber/comics, and I loved the new twists. I liked the deaths. I didn’t mind the voice acting (except shockwave and ironhide). In short, I felt it glued together and elegantly simplified a lot of deep or conflicting mythology. Some of the dialogue was off, the fluidness of the characters was off, but I liked it, and want more.

News Credits: 436 · by **Sabrblade** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 9:14 pm

william-james88 wrote:
Sabrblade wrote:Oh dear...

Peter Cullen dissed both Jake Foushee and, even more directly, Jon Bailey.

Yikes.

How does he dis Jon?

Edit: oh shirt, wait, i just remembered that Jon is the BB Prime actor he is referring to. Yeah, thats bad.

I know, right?

I get why it frustrated Cullen, but all the folks who are defending him should also consider the other side.

I've seen and read a lot of interviews (some of which were even on here, Seibertron.com) in which Jon Bailey has talked about how Peter Cullen is his personal hero who inspired him to get into voice acting, and that for each of the times that he's gotten to do voice work in Transformers he was honored and humbled to have been given these opportunities, being able to follow in the footsteps of his hero.

And then, I see this video in which Cullen very openly and publicly lambastes Bailey to a whole room full of people cheering him on, which makes it look like Jon Bailey's personal hero is basically telling him "You suck!" That's gotta hurt.

News Credits: 4498 · by **william-james88** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 10:52 pm

Sabrblade wrote:I've seen and read a lot of interviews (some of which were even on here, Seibertron.com) in which Jon Bailey has talked about how Peter Cullen is his personal hero who inspired him to get into voice acting, and that for each of the times that he's gotten to do voice work in Transformers he was honored and humbled to have been given these opportunities, being able to follow in the footsteps of his hero.

And then, I see this video in which Cullen very openly and publicly lambastes Bailey to a whole room full of people cheering him on, which makes it look like Jon Bailey's personal hero is basically telling him "You suck!" That's gotta hurt.

The worst part is that this would be same old same old for Jon. He discussed meeting Cullen at a panel before and having comments thrown at him by Cullen that he would be his replacement, but while Cullen would still be able to voice Prime. So as we see here, that's not said in good light and Jon wasn't sure how to take it at the time but now we see it. Which sucks HARD.

Also, there is a bit I don't get. Optimus doesn't have a mouth in Bumblebee, I see no reason why there would be such scrutiny for matching someone else's acting and how long a vowel is performed. I am sure Cullen isn't lieing about any of it, I just don't get the point to go out of one's way like that, especially when you could have the expert on the character give you his best work and feel better about it. Even when Jon decribes it, his voice is more of a placeholder, not something to model a performance on.

And just to reiterate, Optimus doesn't show his mouth

DarkEnergon wrote: In short, I felt it glued together and elegantly simplified a lot of deep or conflicting mythology.

I will admit, because I do follow a lot of TF media (kinda have to), it was easy for me to not see all that and just see what is being shown as derivative from various sources. BUT I do forget that not all fans watch Cyberverse, nor do others read the comics and some fans only watch the films where the all spark is key. And this show is being heavily pushed to join all these fans at once and does indeed do a great job at tieing in multiple concepts into a pseudo prequel to the "G1" most people are familiar with.
So, if FJ desantos or anyone else is reading these boards, you aced that.

News Credits: 22 · by **Rodimus Prime** » Sat Aug 01, 2020 12:43 am

It seems that Cullen's main sticking point was that Netflix used non-union talent, which meant no oversight and lower pay. That's a personal choice, whether to belong to an union or not, but I totally get Peter's point. I will say that as far as money is concerned, if that's the main roadblock between Hasbro and Cullen, then why don't they resolve it by compromise? If Cullen loves the character so much, is worried about his legacy, and disapproved of those following him, why doesn't he lower his demand to play Prime? Maybe the union terms don't allow him? And Hasbro, a company that's worth billions, some of that acquired due to Prime's popularity, which is also due to Cullen's voice in a big way, open the purse strings just a little more to guarantee the involvement of the most qualified performer to play the part, especially considering that Prime and Cullen are practically synonymous?

Personally, I prefer Garry Chalk to Peter Cullen, but I have no problem giving the OG his due. I also agree with him on the Bumblebee film being off, but Prime's voice was small potatoes compared to the major problems that movie has.