Kurona wrote:Another thing I don't quite get about "we won't get the ending we deserve", is... ending to what?
I appreciate that, while you do not see the Original series as I do, you are willing to have a civil discussion about it, that's why I'd like to answer your question in detail.
First off, looking back 30 years. is the series silly at times? Sure. Are there animation errors, of course. Was it designed to sell toys- like most 80's cartoons. Absolutely. But...for my tastes it also had some of the best writing (on occasion), some really great animation (on occasion). And some really great characters that still resonate with me to this day. .
There may have not been a strong continuity until the movie...but TF:TM changed all that. But even in season 2, when a new character was introduced, there was typically no inconsistency of that character appearing out of place. Even in season 2 you could tell the difference between early season 2 and late season 2 based on what characters were involved. Season 3, while it had a decline in animation, stepped up the overall continuity quite a bit with the history of Cybertron, how the Transformers came to be etc...
Going back to the fall of 1987. The Rebrith 3 part series was something all my friends and I highly anticipated. We didn't know for sure when or how it would come about, but for the last 3 years we got "new episodes" in September, so it was something we had come to expect with great anticipation. After "Rebrith" we watched the days, turn into weeks...with no new episodes. We had questions. What was going to happen with the Headmasters? What was this "great plan" Galvatron & Zarak were going to unveil. What about the Duocons, the Monsterbots...were we going to see them? See---there are many questions left unanswered.
Fast Forward to 1988...fall...The comic is still going. Pretenders & now Powermaster toys are hitting the shelves. I had basically stopped collecting because the series showed no prospect of new episodes. As a fan of Combiners I wanted to get Piranacon, but never did.
My friends and I dreamed up scenario cartoon episodes with the Pretenders, Powermaster Prime etc...I was now in the 5th grade. my elementary school got a foreign exchange student from Japan (Jay Onda) I remember his name to this day. I don't know how, but we became fast friends, probably because he liked most of the same things I did, and some other friends as well.
He also had cool stuff from japan (The Nintendo Famicom, and we got a first look at the "real" Super Mario Brothers 2), also a relative in japan was sending him VHS tapes of "New" Transformers episodes ---Yes it was Masterforce. I didn't care that it was only in Japanese, I thought the show was amazing. Sadly I moved away in 1990, and lost contact, but only in one small fanzine (Markalite issue #1 fall 1990) did I find any other reference to the Japanese Transformers. It would be almost a decade, and thanks to the prevalence of the internet before I could convince anyone else they actually existed.
At Botcon 1998 I actually found a couple of really bad quality bootleg tapes, but I didn't care, I was just happy to have them. Of course over the years I got all the episodes in various formats & languages, until Shout factory finally released their set.
You see---to me...Yes the Japanese series are the official continuation. In my mind, I can "re-write" a scenario where Headmasters Episode 1 picks up after "The Rebirth" . But not all fans feel the same way. Like jamarmiller, whose efforts I applaud, they want to have those questions answered. Sure its easy to say "Its a never ending War" and let it rest. But at some point there was an ending. To me that would be some significant event from which the Beast Wars would arise. "300 years After the END of the Great War" - a throwaway line by Blackarachnia in a Season 1 BW episode, but it gives us something tangible. There was a time, and there was an end. What was it? --THAT---among all the other questions posed earlier, are what I would like to see in a continuation of the original animated series.
Also, not all 1980's series ended abruptly (though admittedly most did). One shining example is Thundercats. Although I did not get to see it until years later on CN Toonami, they took the time to provide a true ending to that series, and it was pretty good. It satisfied my curiosity and brought closure to the story, so I felt like there was no more needed to be told.
In my 32 years of being a fan, taking the nostalgia glasses off...to me, there has been no Transformers animated series as diverse, action packed, and fun as The original. As a critic I rank Beast Wars and TF: Prime higher in terms of overall quality. But I think Prime is the only series that got me *almost* back to that feeling I had when I was a kid, and saw the original series. Though I have liked some more than others, No other has even come close.
I realize you, and many others do not agree with my opinion, and that is ok. Hasbro will, I'm sure, never attempt to bring back the original, and I am way too poor to have the ideas in my head come to any fruition. I only ask that people understand them. Its not that there are no stories to be told. There are a ton of them. Its just a sad reality that the time and money needed to make it happen is beyond the reach of those that want to. So we rely on the visions of others like jamarmiller. While his vision is not *exactly* like mine, its far far closer than has ever been attempted before.
Bucket/Want List: Botcon 2016 Customization Class Ratchet (G2 Deco), or Customization Class Ratchet (Marvel Comics Deco) **would also be willing to pay for an Unpainted Botcon 2016 Ratchet, TT Legends Fortress Head (only) with working Electronics
Wish List of Modern Combiners: Road Caesar, Monstructor & Dinoking (proper size to fiction), Landcross, Guard City, Battle Gaia, & G2 Defensor. Wish List of Titans:Metrotitan,Majin Zarak
. I know exactly where you are talking about. I grew up in the east bay, and moved to Sacramento in 1990, where I still am today, but I still love to go and visit San Francisco. I know the shop you are speaking of, there were a few in China Town, but Japan Center was the hub of most of my pre-internet purchases.
