The Energon Pub

[Sabrblade]

(I don't count rescue bots

Says the man with an insignia originating from the Rescue Bots cartoon as his avatar.

[King Kuuga]

He's only saying he doesn't consider it a unique continuity, not that he doesn't like its existence.

[o.supreme]

And yet... things like Fall of Cybertron sold 105,000 copies in it's first week and to date has sold 860,000 copies on 3 platforms, whereas Devastation has sold, total, 570,000 copies on 5 platforms. And Fall of Cybertron got a recent re-release, and it was critically better received.

Devastation has been out for barely a year...FoC is four years old. You're not comparing apples to apples...go back and find out how many copies FoC sold in a year...I bet its not 570K

And also, Generation 2 flopped,

According to who? G2 is what reignited my interest in the franchise after Action Masters killed it

How many other 80's TV shows have yet to be redone, to have nostalgia bring them back to the front?

Pretty much all the big ones have been redone. Here are the top 8 in chronological order- (MOTU, GI: Joe, Transformers, Voltron, Thundercats, Robotech, The Real Ghostbusters, TMNT) all have had remakes in one form or another. I mean *I* would love for The Inhumanoids to make a return but I know it isn't likely any time soon.

[Kurona]

Game sales generally don't matter after the first year, or even first six months unless it's an extremely popular Video Game title like Mario, Pokémon or Call of Duty - while sales will of course occur, they'll be few and far between compared to when the game first came out. Devastation is not likely to get anywhere near FoC's sales in the next four years.
It's also worth noting that FoC had a very popular online multiplayer going for it to promote sales after it's first year, compared to Devastation which doesn't have a multiplayer.

TL;DR - if a game's been out for a year, comparing it to a game that's been out for four more years is not comparing apples to oranges. It's simply not how modern consumerism works.

[Kurona]

And also, Generation 2 flopped,

According to who? G2 is what reignited my interest in the franchise after Action Masters killed it

According to sales figures. Transformers was just not selling well in G2, simple as that.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

And yet... things like Fall of Cybertron sold 105,000 copies in it's first week and to date has sold 860,000 copies on 3 platforms, whereas Devastation has sold, total, 570,000 copies on 5 platforms. And Fall of Cybertron got a recent re-release, and it was critically better received.

\
Devastation has been out for barely a year...FoC is four years old. You're not comparing apples to apples...go back and find out how many copies FoC sold in a year...I bet its not 570K

It sold 105,000 in the first 4 days. I can't find sales numbers for only a year nor can I find Devastation's first week sales, but considering the dropoff for video games, I'm still sure Fall of Cybertron will beat it.

And also, Generation 2 flopped,

According to who? G2 is what reignited my interest in the franchise after Action Masters killed it

Basically the fact that it lasted 2 years and the whole thing was scrapped for lagging sales. And then Beast Wars came along.

I'm not trying to crap on you or your likes here, just trying to make a point. Animated and the 2007 movie got me into Transformers, and those are considered "abominations" to many.

[Kurona]

I'm not trying to crap on you or your likes here, just trying to make a point. Animated and the 2007 movie got me into Transformers, and those are considered "abominations" to many.

I got into Transformers through the Unicron Trilogy which - Cybertron's toyline and a few bright spots in Armada and Energon's toylines aside - I now consider terrible.

[DedicatedGhostArt]

Ya know, I just realized. What recent Transformers thing has way better combiner sequences than this, and should be more fit to be called Combiner Wars?



Combiner Wars doesn't even have ONE combining sequence so far other than Starscream's stupid merge with all the combiners to become the screaming head.

[Kurona]

Ya know, I just realized. What recent Transformers thing has way better combiner sequences than this, and should be more fit to be called Combiner Wars?



Combiner Wars doesn't even have ONE combining sequence so far other than Starscream's stupid merge with all the combiners to become the screaming head.

It was, in part, an advertisement for Combiner Wars (Devastator, the aesthetic and very existence of Motormaster and Menasor, the three Autobot Combiners at the end)... so yeah, I could totally buy that.

Goddamn do I want it.

[DedicatedGhostArt]

Ya know, I just realized. What recent Transformers thing has way better combiner sequences than this, and should be more fit to be called Combiner Wars?



Combiner Wars doesn't even have ONE combining sequence so far other than Starscream's stupid merge with all the combiners to become the screaming head.

It was, in part, an advertisement for Combiner Wars (Devastator, the aesthetic and very existence of Motormaster and Menasor, the three Autobot Combiners at the end)... so yeah, I could totally buy that.

Goddamn do I want it.

I'm the type that enjoys watching others play games on Youtube. That's what I did with Devastation since I couldn't get it. (Don't have a console for it.) Even though that game had so many cliches, it was way better than Combiner Wars' story since it was supposed to be like an update of G1's theme, and it made me so much more giddy. Transformers Devastation did a better job at making me want the toys than Combiner Wars even could. I suppose one thing that made the Devastation game so great was all the returning voice actors, whereas Combiner Wars has mostly replacements.

[King Kuuga]

I'm the type that enjoys watching others play games on Youtube. That's what I did with Devastation since I couldn't get it. (Don't have a console for it.) Even though that game had so many cliches, it was way better than Combiner Wars' story since it was supposed to be like an update of G1's theme, and it made me so much more giddy. Transformers Devastation did a better job at making me want the toys than Combiner Wars even could. I suppose one thing that made the Devastation game so great was all the returning voice actors, whereas Combiner Wars has mostly replacements.

You know Devastation is available on PC, right?

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Remember that Youtube stopmotion video that showed off Devastator and Windblade, sponsored by Machinima? Well, part 2 has finally been released! Part 2 of this Combiner Wars stop motion battle features Devastator and Victorion, locked in epic battle to the end! You can check out the video below, and you can head on down to the comments section to let us know what you think!

[Sabrblade]

Many perfectly fine boxes were sacrificed in the making of this video.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Many perfectly fine boxes were sacrificed in the making of this video.

He destroyed Victorion's own box

But really, this guy makes amazing videos

[Kurona]

That was fraggin' awesome. Tied with Megatron for the best thing to come out of this series.

[padfoo]

Ya know, I just realized. What recent Transformers thing has way better combiner sequences than this, and should be more fit to be called Combiner Wars?



Combiner Wars doesn't even have ONE combining sequence so far other than Starscream's stupid merge with all the combiners to become the screaming head.

It was, in part, an advertisement for Combiner Wars (Devastator, the aesthetic and very existence of Motormaster and Menasor, the three Autobot Combiners at the end)... so yeah, I could totally buy that.

Goddamn do I want it.

I'm the type that enjoys watching others play games on Youtube. That's what I did with Devastation since I couldn't get it. (Don't have a console for it.) Even though that game had so many cliches, it was way better than Combiner Wars' story since it was supposed to be like an update of G1's theme, and it made me so much more giddy. Transformers Devastation did a better job at making me want the toys than Combiner Wars even could. I suppose one thing that made the Devastation game so great was all the returning voice actors, whereas Combiner Wars has mostly replacements.

I forgot about this game until I saw this. I just ordered it, looks awesome!

[steve2275]

Many perfectly fine boxes were sacrificed in the making of this video.

they had no chance

[King Kuuga]

This 3 minute video features more combiner warring than the entire Machinima series so far.

[ausbot]

Sadly that was better than the show.

[Tyrannacon]

That was fraggin' awesome. Tied with Megatron for the best thing to come out of this series.

Agreed. That was actually very nicely done.

[Tyrannacon]

Figured I'd clue everybody in, go90 posted their Combiner Wars finale:

https://www.go90.com/profiles/va_45cf3a ... 9362d51692

It's two minutes longer than the other parts at least.

[Sabrblade]

And with that, the abomination that is Machinima's Combiner Wars comes to its long-awaited end. And BOY was it terrible.

Remember that scene in ROTF where Sam "dies", goes to the Transformer afterlife, gets "wisdom" from the Primes, and comes back to life? Remember how so many critics, both official and on YouTube, felt so royally confused by that scene because of how it far out of nowhere it seemed to come? I now know how those people all felt by that scene as Windblade goes though almost the exact same ordeal here.

What's more is that this scene brings in yet another deus ex machina at the 11th hour: Metroplex. No formal introduction, no build up, no explanation of who or what he is to the common uneducated viewer. Just comes in clear out of nowhere and not only brings Windblade back to life but also just serves to solve everything in one fell swoop.

Though, this scene also attempts to try to finally tell us (or at least hint at) what a Cityspeaker is, but... too little too late, guys. Seriously, don't wait for the very end before telling us something like that.

Plus, Windblade now claims that she wants to save Cybertron and is desperate to do so. But she NEVER went through any kind of believable development for her to have such a change of heart. It just came off as just as forced and contrived as Metroplex's sudden appearance did.

And now we'll never really know Starscream's true motive was since he was apparently killed during all this. By all appearances, it looks as though he really did just regress from his interesting reformed persona back to his uninspired, stagnated, backstabbing persona for no other reason than for a GEEWUN-based attempt to shock the audience. Blah.

Victorion got a little more dialogue in this one and then shoved the Enigma into her chest like it was some kind of Matrix. And no, I don't mean she opened her chest and put it into a chamber, she literally just took the thing and pushed it through her armor plating to force it inside her. But in the long run, Victorion was completely wasted and had no business being in this show at all.

So too were the Combiners themselves, really. They were barely even in this show, despite their being the titular characters! And once again, the Combiners are referred to as a people of their own. What do they mean by this? Who knows? It's yet another concept introduced by this show that goes completely unexplored.

And then at the end we get a tacked-on cliffhanger foreshadowing to Titans Return, with a quick cameo by Fort Max whose eyes flash from blue to red. No. Oh please, no. No more of this, Machinima! Please don't give us another round of this with Titans Return! I beg of you. We've suffered enough!

The only, ONLY cool thing about this was Cy-kill, er, I mean Megatron. He was true to form in this just as he's been ever since he came into this show, and here we saw him as a triple-changer with a Space Gun Mode of his own (in addition to his robot and tank modes) that Optimus used to blast the screaming star Starscream into oblivion.

But really, this show was a wreck. A complete and utter train wreck fueled by bad writing and terrible characterization (Megation aside). And that ending with Metroplex was so badly forced that it might as well have been Primus himself come to deliver divine punishment to Starscream and save everyone in an instant.

Honestly, folks, if you want to experience a G1 story written for an older, nostalgic crowd that not only pays respect to the past, but is does some really cool stuff and is very well written and well designed overall, AND features Optimus and Megatron teaming up to fight a super-powered Starscream whose plan was far more competently executed and made worlds of sense, then I HIGHLY recommend that you ignore this abysmal show and instead check out Naoto Tsushima's 4-part manga story Transformers: The Battle of the Star Gate. It has beautiful artwork, great-written characters, tons of emotion and drama, a superbly-written take on the G1 cartoon Starscream, and lots of cool action scenes that completely enhance and enrich the story as it progresses. Machinima's Combiner Wars can only wish that it was that good.

All in all, this show was a near-complete failure, with Megatron as its sole saving grace that still isn't enough to redeem the show as a whole.

Congratulations, Combiner Wars, you are officially a worse show than Transformers: Energon.

[o.supreme]

OK...it is here...finally...the end. (or is it?)

this deep disembodied voice who told her "Don't... let this happen." Who said that?! And why was this a thing? It's never brought up again in the episode, nor even really acknowledged that much by Windblade when she hears it. It was just really weird.

I'm guessing/hoping for Metroplex, or some Titan,

Yeah, that wasn't really hard to predict. So Windblade death=Metroplex awakening, guess they should have killed her much earlier on (Sorry IMHO Optimus Prime calling forth a Titan such as in FoC , or even in the recent IDW comic was much better). Also this kind of reminded me of Sam's death in RotF...Starscream is still, screaming, in fact he sounds like Chris Lloyd as Judge Doom in his death scene from Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

So apparently machinima didn't have the budget to animate a full Titan, so we get just an arm...ok...and the Combiners are apparently all alive & well now.

Wow..and now how is the Titan that just saved everyone a "Bigger Problem" ? I'm pretty sure fan reaction wont let a sequel (Titans Return) get made, at least not by Machimina again. I think the saddest part about all this is that the folks that made this (I mean those that wriote the script) are proud of it. This does not have the "Feel" of the original series at all..in fact I really cant compare it to anything...Maybe the Japanese PS2 game The Transformers: Call of the Future, but I actually liked that story (such as it was)...and I cant say I really liked anything about this series. I'll be the first to say I was 100% dead absolutely positively wrong -WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. I had such high hopes for this series, it was nothing like what I had envisioned. The problem is...I don't even know who to blame.
Hasbro-for going cheap, for not having the courage to end this project if they saw it was not developing well? Machimina -For actually thinking this was good story telling? I don't know...just kind of rambling/ranting right now...hopefully I'll have something more coherent later in the day

[Tyrannacon]

All in all, this show was a near-complete failure, with Megatron as its sole saving grace that still isn't enough to redeem the show as a whole.

Congratulations, Combiner Wars, you are officially a worse show than Transformers: Energon.

I do agree with Megatron being the sole saving grace in this case, but it wasn't definitely enough. I admit I was wrong about my initial assessments, I was hoping the "crappiness" was just a symptom of the 5-minute run time of the episodes, but sadly it did end up being just a case of mediocre to bad story telling and that's unfortunate because of what it was billed as and the potential it had started with and even developed due to the preludes.

Though I've only seen an episode or two of Energon so I can't really compare that. This simply wasn't the best though and I'd say a train wreck in a lot of ways. I could only hope they improve if they go to make more, but I'm totally hesitant in the regard of them making any additional iterations or supplements to this series. A lot would need to change and happen.

[Sigma Magnus]

Well...that's it, then. I'm not really sure if I'm happy it's over, dreading Titans Return if they make it, or waiting to see how badly they screw that up too.