Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Plus that cover art is purely nostalgia-bating false advertisement.

Indeed. The other factor that was a gut punch, back in the day. I had zero interest in the BW 2 and Neo cast before that book, during and after. The real waste was the previously toy-only designs. Debuting as generic cameos and nothing more.

Well, Stampy finally gave us a canon answer to the age-old question "Are beast modes anatomically accurate?" so at least he did something.

Latest preview for the next issue just dropped a semi-major spoiler.

One that suggests that this planet isn't Earth after all.

Well that would either be cleverly in keeping with Season One or Heavy peddling, due to feedback.

No one else has thoughts on the latest issue?

It was... a'ight. Felt like kind of a waste (and predictable) to have Dinobot show up and save Nyx, instead of a survival story with Nyx trying to survive the night and evade capture.

Not sure I like the idea of a snarky internal computer, either. When you think about it, it doesn't make much sense for the Maximals and Predacons to have secondary AIs for internal computers. I know the show featured that too, but I figured it was a convention for the audience's benefit, just about as literal as the time Dinobot flattened himself into a tree cartoon-style.

I was surprised I received the newest issue (today in fact) before the next review. A whole lot of nothing happens. To the extent when I reached the last page I thought, this is it?? Plus, now the characterisation of Dinobot is definitely Silverbolt. To a greater extent than Primal, the disparity between cartoon and comic is vast in the interpretation. This is also starting to really drag.. Nearly on par with IDW 2.0.

"Writing for the trade" has done no favors for the pacing of this series.

JazZeke wrote:Not sure I like the idea of a snarky internal computer, either. When you think about it, it doesn't make much sense for the Maximals and Predacons to have secondary AIs for internal computers. I know the show featured that too, but I figured it was a convention for the audience's benefit, just about as literal as the time Dinobot flattened himself into a tree cartoon-style.

Sabrblade wrote:"Writing for the trade" has done no favors for the pacing of this series.

Agreed.

Although I have no interest in this series, I recently thought it would be nice to fill in some gaps left in the original BW story, but a couple of things make it clear that even that wont be possible. This story is moving at a much slower pace, and it likely will be going in quite a divergent direction from the original BW series.

I was thinking it might be nice to get in story form, the actual events of "Dark Glass", but since that was supposed to be a mid-s3 episode, IDW probably wont get there for several years, and then of course I came to the realization that they probably wont ever get there, because they are not just going to do a skewed retelling of the original series, they ae probably going to go in a completely different direction. It would also be nice to see in story, the restoration of the original Megatron's spark into his body (not just a deleted scene). But I guess I can reserve those stories for the run of independent direct-to-home animated films I keep hoping Hasbro will do, but will likely never happen.

o.supreme wrote:I was thinking it might be nice to get in story form, the actual events of "Dark Glass", but since that was supposed to be a mid-s3 episode, IDW probably wont get there for several years, and then of course I came to the realization that they probably wont ever get there, because they are not just going to do a skewed retelling of the original series, they ae probably going to go in a completely different direction.

Personally, from what has been on offer these past four issues, I don't realistically think this series is going to last into reinterpreting Season 2 events. Let alone anything beyond it.

o.supreme wrote:Although I have no interest in this series, I recently thought it would be nice to fill in some gaps left in the original BW story,

It was never going to. From the onset, it was always going to be to the cartoon what the Marvel G1 comics and the Dreamwave Armada comics were to the G1 and Armada cartoons, respectively.

Sabrblade wrote:

o.supreme wrote:Although I have no interest in this series, I recently thought it would be nice to fill in some gaps left in the original BW story,

It was never going to. From the onset, it was always going to be to the cartoon what the Marvel G1 comics and the Dreamwave Armada comics were to the G1 and Armada cartoons, respectively.

Exactly. Any of us that wanted ..more from this, were always going to be disappointed.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

o.supreme wrote:Although I have no interest in this series, I recently thought it would be nice to fill in some gaps left in the original BW story,

It was never going to. From the onset, it was always going to be to the cartoon what the Marvel G1 comics and the Dreamwave Armada comics were to the G1 and Armada cartoons, respectively.

Exactly. Any of us that wanted ..more from this, were always going to be disappointed.

Besides, we've had plenty of BW cartoon tie-ins over the years, the most recent of which we got from IDW in 2016 was just mind-bogglingly bad. We don't need any more.

I would have loved for them to go beyond Beast Machines. To progress that narrative. Not rehash Season one with superfluous kitbashed characters.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:I would have loved for them to go beyond Beast Machines. To progress that narrative. Not rehash Season one with superfluous kitbashed characters.

That's what Universe already did, at the ironclad commanding behest of Hasbro.

Sabrblade wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:I would have loved for them to go beyond Beast Machines. To progress that narrative. Not rehash Season one with superfluous kitbashed characters.

That's what Universe already did, at the ironclad commanding behest of Hasbro.

Sorry, I should have clarified.. Better than That. Lead BM into Transtech. Progress with the story that Mainframe never got to tell.

Less of this:



More of this:

They'd probably need to come up with real designs mind, some of those mock ups would raise Bandai's eyebrows

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

Oh, but see, that's not Universe. That's what Hasbro was like "Kill the story, we don't care about The Wreckers. Do Universe or else!"

This is what Hasbro created to be the Beast Machines sequel via the 2003 Universe line:

Yes and that is far too much G1 and Botcon redecos for my liking. The general concept art and designs for TransTech leaned more towards evolving the Vehicon aesthetic IE something completely new and different.

ZeroWolf wrote:They'd probably need to come up with real designs mind, some of those mock ups would raise Bandai's eyebrows

Indeed.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:I would have loved for them to go beyond Beast Machines. To progress that narrative. Not rehash Season one with superfluous kitbashed characters.

Personally, I have always wanted a sequel to Beast Wars that ignored Beast Machines completely. Something like the Maximals coming home, getting hailed as heroes but at the same time grappling with secrecy as the shady Maximal Elders have classified the events of Beast Wars, and our war-weary heroes trying to fit back in with society and also expose the Tripredacus Council's planned uprising. Less war and more political intrigue.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Yes and that is far too much G1 and Botcon redecos for my liking. The general concept art and designs for TransTech leaned more towards evolving the Vehicon aesthetic IE something completely new and different.

It was the brand's 20th anniversary, celebrating everything (on Hasbro's side, that is) that had come before: G1, G2, Beast Wars, Machine Wars, Beast Machines, Robots in Disguise, and Armada, all in one fell swoop.

If Beast Machines had been "too different" for both Hasbro's and the fandom's liking, Transtech looks like it would have been even more divergent. As for any story, there likely wasn't any planned or even thought of at the time, so there's nothing we missed out on that wasn't even there.

Plus, this:



This is literally just a mech from Gundam.

Sabrblade wrote:It was the brand's 20th anniversary, celebrating everything (on Hasbro's side, that is) that had come before: G1, G2, Beast Wars, Machine Wars, Beast Machines, Robots in Disguise, and Armada, all in one fell swoop.

The mish-mash of different series designs really looks off-putting to me. The blocky G1 aesthetic really stands out - in a bad way - among its more refined descendants.

Sabrblade wrote:If Beast Machines had been "too different" for both Hasbro's and the fandom's liking, Transtech looks like it would have been even more divergent. As for any story, there likely wasn't any planned or even thought of at the time, so there's nothing we missed out on that wasn't even there.

I always thought it was more the Maximal side of things that disagreed with the most people, when it came to Beast Machines. I looked to the Vehicons as G1: Evolved.



I suppose that is why this design for Megatron also exists. A lot less legally dubious.

Of course some of the designs were folded into other projects even as nods, like Animated Blurr

ZeroWolf wrote:Of course some of the designs were folded into other projects even as nods, like Animated Blurr

Yeah, Transtech Megatron was cannibalized into both Armada Megatron and Animated Shockwave. And maybe ROTF Megatron's legs.

A few pages back,there was a discussion about Dinobot talking and fighting at the same time and how it was strange,but to be fair talking about ideology while fighting its kinda a staple of many Transformers stories,see most Megatron vs Optimus fights.

About Transtech,one thing I think it was unintentional but still interesting it the similarity between the truck modes of Transtech Optimus Prime and Age Of Extinction Optimus Prime.