The Energon Pub

I will be honest, I never quite liked the Transformers anime. But ever since I watched TTGL I got back into anime, especially mecha anime. Considering how they where often compared to the Brave serie, and considering how much I (against all my expectations) actually enjoyed Gao Gai Gar I figured...maybe I should give those four show a second chance? Honestly I don't quite remeber why I hated them so much back then.

RID is the worst got damn Tf series ever (IMO of course.) And the only thing out of the Unicron trilogy thats worth it is Armada.

Why not? At least then you'll be able to form a more educated opinion in the various discussions that pop up over what was the better cartoon.

I tried the Unicron trilogy. I wasn't a big fan, but I enjoyed it and found merit in the story lines.

RiD is in my opinion the greatest TF series ever aired, bested only by the japanese version Car Robots.



I also like Drift.
*runs away*

Sure. Despite some quality balance issues, their still Transformers shows, and if you like seeing figures you have(or possibly may have missed) in action and given a voice, I think it would be worth it. A few quick notes from my personal experience:

RID: I was looking over the episodes on the TFwiki yesterday, and it turns out I missed a good chunk of eps. However, I did see the last arc of the series, and it's pretty cool. The animation in this show is good, and the voice acting, compared to Armada and Energon, is quite good. However, the show doesn't really get good until Scourge and the Decepticons show up. Speaking of Scourge, well, he's pretty awesome. Poor points is that it is very anime'-ish, which may or may not effect your views on it. Sweat drops, super deformed caricatures, lame jokes, etc. are all par for the course in this show. If you take it as a comedy and not a serious action show it'll come off a lot better.

Armada: Another series I've missed a chunk or two of, but anyway, it doesn't really get good until halfway through. A lot of the early episodes are bad. Really bad. You might want to even skip the one called "Carnival." It is worse than Carnage in C-Minor, or B.O.T., because it's just plain boring. Then you factor in the annoying kids, which are a really poor part of the show. They add little to nothing to the plot, and I never found them relatable. Oh, and there's like three Sparkplugs running around, because they get every other character's name wrong half the time. Dubbing errors abound. However, as I said, somewhere around the middle of the series things do improve. We get character development, some neat stories, and Unicron! Plus the battle between Prime and Galvatron at the end is pretty snazzy.

Energon: Overall, better but also worse than Armada. It's better because it's a lot more action packed and interesting, story wise. It's worse because the Animation is funky(2D mixed with some very poor CGI Transformers), and some bits of animation itself is unfinished. Then there's the wonky voice acting, which wanders from decent to horrible. For example, Bulkhead sounds like an old man, not a robot. The guy who voiced him also voiced Kagome’s Grandfather in Inuyasha, and there is little to no distinction between performances, and I don’t recall a robotic synthesized voice either. Plus, I don’t think his mouth, or mouth plate as it could have been, even moved. The scripts are pretty bad too, and there are even more name errors. Still, some of the characters are cool, the battles can be exciting, and the story at least moves along at a decent pace.

Cybertron: The best of all these series, hands down(though this is strictly my opinion.) Voice acting is strong and varied once you get used to the accents. Animation’s pretty good, though there’s a lot of stock footage in the beginning. The main story drags a little in parts, but if I remember right there are subplots running along with the main plot, and some nice character development comes with it. The kids are not quite as bad as Armada, and even help out in certain situations. The battles are cool too. Word of warning, the first ten or so episodes are pretty slow, and you will see a LOT of transformation stock footage in the series. Finally, this series does have a tendency to add and drop characters on a whim sometimes, for little to no reason.

SlyTF1 wrote:RID is the worst got damn Tf series ever (IMO of course.) And the only thing out of the Unicron trilogy thats worth it is Armada.

Oh, Energon is WAY worse! RiD is actually enjoyable and doesn't make you want to stab yourself in the neck with a poison-tipped pencil. I seriously wanted to whenever i saw Kicker. Kelly was hilarious, but Kicker is just danm annoying!

Energon: Overall, better but also worse than Armada. It's better because it's a lot more action packed and interesting, story wise. It's worse because the Animation is funky(2D mixed with some very poor CGI Transformers), and some bits of animation itself is unfinished. Then there's the wonky voice acting, which wanders from decent to horrible. For example, Bulkhead sounds like an old man, not a robot. The guy who voiced him also voiced Kagome’s Grandfather in Inuyasha, and there is little to no distinction between performances, and I don’t recall a robotic synthesized voice either. Plus, I don’t think his mouth, or mouth plate as it could have been, even moved. The scripts are pretty bad too, and there are even more name errors. Still, some of the characters are cool, the battles can be exciting, and the story at least moves along at a decent pace.

You didn't watch much Energon, did you?

The Animation was TERRIBLE! Now, at the beginning, it was looking to be a decent show, but then, the exhaust hit the fan. From Mika, Maka, Misha, no-one knows anyone's names. It's even worse than Armada. At least they had the excuse of a rushed dub, Energon had a lot of time to get itself together, and just fell apart. It couldn't keep a decent story together, and character development had the rug pulled from under it.

In otherwords: IT SUX!

I'm gonna go cry in my room now.

JetOptimus23 wrote:

Energon: Overall, better but also worse than Armada. It's better because it's a lot more action packed and interesting, story wise. It's worse because the Animation is funky(2D mixed with some very poor CGI Transformers), and some bits of animation itself is unfinished. Then there's the wonky voice acting, which wanders from decent to horrible. For example, Bulkhead sounds like an old man, not a robot. The guy who voiced him also voiced Kagome’s Grandfather in Inuyasha, and there is little to no distinction between performances, and I don’t recall a robotic synthesized voice either. Plus, I don’t think his mouth, or mouth plate as it could have been, even moved. The scripts are pretty bad too, and there are even more name errors. Still, some of the characters are cool, the battles can be exciting, and the story at least moves along at a decent pace.

You didn't watch much Energon, did you?

The Animation was TERRIBLE! Now, at the beginning, it was looking to be a decent show, but then, the exhaust hit the fan. From Mika, Maka, Misha, no-one knows anyone's names. It's even worse than Armada. At least they had the excuse of a rushed dub, Energon had a lot of time to get itself together, and just fell apart. It couldn't keep a decent story together, and character development had the rug pulled from under it.

In otherwords: IT SUX!

I'm gonna go cry in my room now.

I think those are the reasons why I hated Energon back in the days. Oh! And Kicker.

If you can, try watching the Japanese versions, Car Robots (RiD), Micron Legends (Armada), Super Link (Energon), and Galaxy Force (Cybertron). Having seen both, the Japanese versions are soooooooooo much better, due to the story. The American versions were OK, but the whole series of each cartoon got chopped up, so the story is not nearly as exciting. If you have to watch the American versions, in my opinion, they are as follows, from best to worst:

1., Armada - To me, it was reminiscent of G1, only with smoother animation. The toys were pretty cool, though simpler than G1 toys. The comics were great. It was short and sweet (18 issues) and ended with a blast. The best toy from the line for me was Megatron, with Tidal Wave close second. But the coolest feature of any toy was Prime, Overload and Jetfire being able to combine for a MASSIVE figure.

2., RiD - As it has been posted, you'll have a lot more fun watching this if you go into it expecting comic relief and not a serious TF show. The characters go from zany to boring to plain stupid, and the stories are mediocre, save for the last arc. The toys, though, were some of the best TFs ever made, I think. Magnus looks AWESOME in truck mode, though in bot mode he's kind of simple. But it's still a good homage to G1. But Scourge is the best toy of the bunch, followed by Prime. And Magnus and Prime combine to make a formidable figure, though it's a bit top heavy. And Team Bullet Train is just cool. The characters, the toys, their stories, everything. I wish I still had them, their combined form was a lot of fun.

3., Energon - Same as Armada, except everything is lower quality. The comics SUCKED.

4., Cybertron - I really like the animation and the toys, but the story was just too out there and at the same time nothing new. But the toys were GREAT! Optimus from this series is probably the best-looking Prime toy ever (not counting MP, because that's not a toy) and I have yet to come across a bad Cybertron figure. Though that's not to say others haven't, because I only own 4 of them so far, though I have seen a lot of them.

If you can watch the Japanese versions, the toys are pretty much the same, but for story, I rank them different:

1., Galaxy Force (Cybertron) - Most fun you'll have watching ANY series, maybe except for Beast Wars. The action is all over, the pace is brisk, and the character development is good, combined with a wide variety of characters.

2., Super Link (Energon) - Much like GF/Cybertron, the story is put together differently, making a lot more sense and fun, thus the characters are better and more enjoyable.

3., Car Robots (RiD) - Once again, just a much better version of the American show, and there are few, if any, characters wasted. It's still kind of comic relief, but you can take it more seriously.

4., Micron Legends (Armada) - Pretty much just a better version of the American show, like SL/Energon. Just because it's at the end of the list it doesn't mean it's bad, it just means there's the least amount of difference between the American and Japanese versions. I still prefer the comics, though.

Nico wrote:

JetOptimus23 wrote:
You didn't watch much Energon, did you?

The Animation was TERRIBLE! Now, at the beginning, it was looking to be a decent show, but then, the exhaust hit the fan. From Mika, Maka, Misha, no-one knows anyone's names. It's even worse than Armada. At least they had the excuse of a rushed dub, Energon had a lot of time to get itself together, and just fell apart. It couldn't keep a decent story together, and character development had the rug pulled from under it.

In otherwords: IT SUX!

I'm gonna go cry in my room now.

I think those are the reasons why I hated Energon back in the days. Oh! And Kicker.

To be fair, I've seen all of Energon, but it's been a long time. I'll agree, it's the worst of the AEC trilogy. Still, there is a lot more focus on the Autbots and Decepticons compared to Armada. There are also a few good character arcs, like Inferno. Of course, as you said, after his story concludes, nada.

So I agree with you, but I guess I remember more good stuff than bad.

Robots in Disguise, Armada, and Energon suck.

Cybertron is OK but nothing special.

Duke of Luns wrote:

Nico wrote:

JetOptimus23 wrote:
You didn't watch much Energon, did you?

The Animation was TERRIBLE! Now, at the beginning, it was looking to be a decent show, but then, the exhaust hit the fan. From Mika, Maka, Misha, no-one knows anyone's names. It's even worse than Armada. At least they had the excuse of a rushed dub, Energon had a lot of time to get itself together, and just fell apart. It couldn't keep a decent story together, and character development had the rug pulled from under it.

In otherwords: IT SUX!

I'm gonna go cry in my room now.

I think those are the reasons why I hated Energon back in the days. Oh! And Kicker.

To be fair, I've seen all of Energon, but it's been a long time. I'll agree, it's the worst of the AEC trilogy. Still, there is a lot more focus on the Autbots and Decepticons compared to Armada. There are also a few good character arcs, like Inferno. Of course, as you said, after his story concludes, nada.

So I agree with you, but I guess I remember more good stuff than bad.

Actually, it was more than just Inferno;

Kicker's fear of Transformers dissapeared by ep.3

Rodimus and Optimus' feud over Unicron was never mentioned after they joined forces.

When Shockblast escapes, Wing Saber isn't even slightly annoyed, even though he wanted revenge with a passion.

There are more, but i cant think of any more. Look it up on tfwiki.

JetOptimus23 wrote:

SlyTF1 wrote:RID is the worst got damn Tf series ever (IMO of course.) And the only thing out of the Unicron trilogy thats worth it is Armada.

Oh, Energon is WAY worse! RiD is actually enjoyable and doesn't make you want to stab yourself in the neck with a poison-tipped pencil. I seriously wanted to whenever i saw Kicker. Kelly was hilarious, but Kicker is just danm annoying!

Thats how RID makes me feel. Energon is close, but IDK. Energon is what took me out of TFs until the movies. And I cant watch a second of RID.

Well, I'm thinking about going back and giving them a shot myself.

The reason being that if next TFCC's theme is RiD, then the year after that we're going to get Armada after that, or they might do something original like the Shattered Glass theme. What I don't know. Maybe Transformers in Space? Another lost tribe of Cybertronians getting back into the mix? More pre-war stuff?

SlyTF1 wrote:RID is the worst got damn Tf series ever.

Worse than Kiss Players? Some people might challenge you there...

While I would avoid RID (It was just a filler series, anyway), the Unicron series is okay, outside of those meddling kids. Still, like most animes, (Cowboy Beebop and Magic Users Club excluded) it's better to watch them in Japanese.

That doesn't mean there aren't times where it makes no sense (Thundercracker PUNCH!!), but...

And the animation at times makes it hard to believe it was animated by Gonzo, but...

I haven't watched much Cybertron, but it looks the most interesting. Most of what I remember of this series is that the toys were ha helluvalotta fun!

I'd take Animated over them any day, though.

RID: I will always have a soft spot in my heart for this series, it returned us to a race of robots who transform into cars. Yes it is a lighthearted anime at times but has some great characters. Ultra Magnus is awesome in this series as the jaded brother of Optimus and Scourge is a really great villain. I'd love to see RIDs Scourge and Magnus in TF comics one day.

Armada: The series has its moments, I still haven't seen it start to finish. One thing I will say is the comic rocked, the last four issues featured a crossover with G1 Galvatron (sort of)

Energon: Haven't seen it sorry, did like the comic though

Cybertron: I really enjoyed this series, its version of Starscream is probably my favorite take of the character. He actually branches off from Megatron and even fights him later in the series.

I would give them all a try; but don't force yourself to finish any of them.

RiD: REALLY want to see the Japanese version. The US version has some nice animation and a few neat ideas (Fort Max), but the story line was, imo, terrible. Again, that is the dubbing, not the original series.

Armada: Strangely, although I did not care for the first few episodes, this became one of my all-time favorite TF series.

Energon and Cybertron: Story lines (in US) are terrible. Animation is not great in either, but is better in Cybertron. Also, for the most part, the dubbed versions threw out the continuity and, essentially, made 3 different series out of the Unicron Trilogy. I place Cybertron in the category of worst TF series ever. I have been a die-hard fan since 1984 but could barely finish this series. As with RiD, I really want to see the Japanese version as I have heard it is substantially better.

Nico wrote:I will be honest, I never quite liked the Transformers anime. But ever since I watched TTGL I got back into anime, especially mecha anime. Considering how they where often compared to the Brave serie, and considering how much I (against all my expectations) actually enjoyed Gao Gai Gar I figured...maybe I should give those four show a second chance? Honestly I don't quite remeber why I hated them so much back then.

Well, the only way that you're ever gonna form a solid, justifiable opinion about those four series is to personally view them all in full completeness.

Don't watch them expecting them to be good or bad, but watch them to educate yourself on them so that you can form your own unbiased opinions about them. Have no premature expectations and be merciful enough to get through each of them in full.

And when I say to view them "in full", I mean it. To not watch a series in its entirety makes it all the more possible that one would be missing out on some details that otherwise wouldn't be stated elsewhere. Whether these details would be vital to the plot or some trivial matter, it's best to see it all to take it all in.

And seeing as how many have stated that Japanese versions are better/different, a good idea would probably be to view them in both English and Japanese. After all, both versions are canon, despite the differences between each. Think of it as viewing eight series instead of two versions of four series. Especially considering that RiD is in its own continuity, whilst Car Robots exists in the Japanese G1 cartoon timeline.

Yeah, as a few (and I mean a few) people have said, don't take our opinions into consideration just watch them. Everyone has there own tastes and that colors their opinion. Just watch them with an open mind, and form your own opinion.

I HATED RID when I first saw it but for some reason, kept watching it. I think because I just wanted to see a TF show after so long. Once the Decepticons came into it, I started to like it and even watching earlier episodes now, I enjoy them.

Scourge is a great villain.

Skybite is like Wasp or Gollum where they're just pathetic but you feel for them.

I love the straight laced Prowl and Spychanger Ironhide reminds me of G1 Ironhide more than any other Ironhide. I'm sorry but Animated 'Hide had far too high a voice.

Great voice cast too, especially Cerebros, Skybite and the Decepticons.

The cartoons are the only bad thing about the Unicron trilogy. Some nice toys, great comics courtesy of the oft maligned Dreamwave and the PS2 game is possibly the best computer game ever, even if you're not a TF fan. You haven't lived until you see Tidal Wave.

As much as I dislike Energon, I did the like the animation style. Think I'm the only one.

BTW, I thought I knew hatred with Carlos and Kicker. Then another truely annoying human character came along in ROTF. His name was Leo. May all three be stricken from our memories. Oh and Professor Princess and Headmaster too. Wheelie and Daniel were never this terrible. Yes, I said it.

Oh yeah, watch RID. Read the Dreamwave Armada/Energon comics. Play the Armada PS2 game.

Windsweeper wrote:BTW, I thought I knew hatred with Carlos and Kicker. Then another truly annoying human character came along in ROTF. His name was Leo. May all three be stricken from our memories. Oh and Professor Princess and Headmaster too. Wheelie and Daniel were never this terrible. Yes, I said it.

A-men. There are very few characters that I disliked in any of the cartoons or movies. But I despise Leo. People complain about Skids and Mudflap, but I didn't mind them (even enjoyed them sometimes), Leo however had absolutely nothing to add to the story, he complained, freaked out, and the teasing of his promises to leave the movie was just a painful tease. On top of that he is getting an expanded role in the next movie. That is the only thing that I am not looking forward to about the next movie (there is the whole Rosie Huntington-Whitely thing but that is an all together separate and completely different matter).