by o.supreme » Wed Sep 08, 2021 9:16 am
- Motto: "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes"
Greetings All,
It is hard to believe, it has been 20 years! On this date (Saturday) 9/8/01 that Robots in Disguise (the first animated series to have the subtitle, not to be confused with the 2015 follow up to TF : Prime) aired on Fox Kids. I remember recording it, and being fairly satisfied with how it was translated, and the characters personalities. However the history of the series goes back 18 months prior to that day, as the original Japanese version first aired on 4/5/2000.
I really enjoyed this series. Well...to be honest, I really enjoyed more so the original Car Robots version. By summer 2000, I had just finished obtaining BWII and Neo on VHS and was excited for Car Robots. I attended Botcon 2000 July 28-30 of that year. I had already obtained Fire Convoy and Gigatron from eBay, and was looking for newer characters. At the convention, I straight up traded my BC exclusives Shockaract and Apelinq for JRX and Baldigus, a decision I would still make all over again. I was also able to get the first 8 episodes of the series on VHS, raw (not subbed), and loved it.
2000 was still relatively early for internet videos. a few really bad copies of BM season 2 could be obtained early since YTV in Canada had aired them before Fox Kids in the U.S., but that show was just more of a chore to complete the BW saga. Car Robots got me excited about TF\'s again. Getting later episodes of the series on the internet was hit-and-miss, so you can imagine my excitement when Fox announced they wre dubbing the series.
20 years later, i appreciate the dub for what it is. However...Fox\'s handling of the show was criminal. Although it aired initially 6 days a week, the airtimes got very random especially on Saturdays. then 9/11 happened and that messed up everything. Some episodes were aired out of order. 3 were banned altogether (at least in the U.S.), leading some to wonder if they had even been dubbed at all. I mean this would nto be the first time that happened *cough* Ultraman Tiga *cough*
Anyway...The whole series (both high quality fan subs of Car Robots, and the RiD dub) are now on YouTube. I do have a Malaysian DVD set which was a nice cost effective alternative to trying to obtain long oop UK R2 DVD\'s. Unfortunately, since this series was produced by Saban Ent, and subsequently purchased by Disney, it was not part of the deal when Saban purchased *most* of their IP back, which ironically now rests with Hasbro. Disney I\'m pretty sure doesn't even know they have it, and Hasbro doesn't seem to be making any great efforts to get it back, which is a shame. I\'d defintely support a legit media release of this series.
In hindsight, I know it was just supposed to be "filler" until the first U.S./Japan co-produced series came out (Armada), but I\'ll be completely honest when I say I prefer Car Robots to any of the Unicron Trilogy. CR got me excited about Transformers again, and that true excitement wouldn't\'t come yet again until almost a decade later with Prime. Now since Prime ended in 2013, there have been some amazing toys in the Generations line, but I\'m still waiting for an animated series that looks great and gets me excited for the brand.
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