Prime Evil wrote:Starscreams bad comedy wrote:Whats up with all the new users posting here about how we should show our support by seeing the movie and to hold off judgement? Viral marketing?
I noticed that too when reading alot of these postings. Guess the movie boosted the public image of Tf's.

Couuuuuuuuld be! I was a G1 fan, though all I had for toys were G1 Megatron and Slag (and a bunch of Battle Beasts, if only those counted). I kept up with Beast Wars and Beast Machines but never had any of the toys. Now, at age 30, Michael Bay pulled me back in, chipmunk-cheek Starscream or no.
Being a fan of comics, sci-fi, and
Doctor Who (it rises to the level of obsession, thus gets its own category), I've seen many examples of what's going on here before. The hardcore fans are always rabid newshounds, so very slight revelations like showing Prime's new model become much bigger deals than they were meant to be. Keep in mind it's press that flier is targeting. I scored a Leader Class Movie Prime half-price off a reporter guy who'd picked it up as SWAG. Pre-release Leader Class Prime! I don't care how many runway models you're bring back to your studio apartment, you clear out closet space for that bad boy!
One thing I learned in Psychology 101 that has helped me a great deal in adult life is a phenomenon called "Illusion of Conformity." This is the very common tendency of people to think that their judgments are more objective and their valuations more universal than they actually are. For instance, it's absurd to me that anybody could think "Robots in Disguise" was better, or even more true-to-concept, than "Beast Wars," but I saw an earlier poster make just that judgment in language that suggested they were pointing out the bleedin' obvious. Personally I thought "Beast Machines" was brilliant and had no idea fandom disliked it until I started researching the toys for my burgeoning collection.
The point is, opinions vary, tastes differ, and none of us are any more important to Hasbro than the seven year-old neighbor kid down the street. If you want fan-service, read the comics. TV is all about the dollars.
That aside, there's reason enough to reserve judgment. If any of you recall seeing press sheets like this for prior American series, I wish you'd post pics, as I never have, so have no idea how much things can change between this phase of production and being brought to market. "Clone Wars" was well done, and the people who said earlier in this thread that the animation style was a good match for "Star Wars" are right -- but how many Star Wars fans thought so at first blush? Any "Beast Machine" fan should be happy about the writing staff, and the voices are A-List to the last, to whatever extent that term has any meaning.
Hasbro goes where the money leads. Right now that's Ben 10, Teen Titans, and all else post-McCracken. Alas Sunbow, we hardly knew ye.