Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

Apologies in advance if this is in the wrong forum.

OK, apparently I've been on Mars or something over the last decade, because I thought the transformers were dead.

Well, actually I KNOW they were dead, because I saw them die when I was 8 or 9 or so. The TV show got canceled, the comic got canceled, and the toy line was so out of ideas, they put out transformers that didn't transform (action masters, I believe?) I think that also marked the end of the toy line.

I recall the G2 comic like 15 years ago, but after that got cut off at 12 issues, I figured the transformers generation was lost, so I just gave up on them (I still think G1 ended way before its time...so much left to tell).

Well anyway, 15 or whatever years since the G2 comic ended, I figured I'd take a nostalgic look at my old childhood pastime (the upcoming movie got me thinking about TF again), and I admit I'm a little confused.

Now all of a sudden there are like half a dozen TF series, all of which look like spin-offs or complete re-writes of the original story with new characters.

Don't get me wrong, some of these series might be good, and I might also hate them, being that I spent the first 10 or so years of my life devoted to the originals. (BTW, in that regard, this is a really neat place.)

Anyway, (forgive the long-winded preamble) my question is this:

Has there ever been a continuation of or addition to the original G1/G2 storyline, comic or otherwise? If not, is there at least anything out there that involves the original cast? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!


Looking forward to chatting up the movie with you guys. It's a (pleasant) shock to me that TF seems to be alive and kicking again after all these years...

You really have been on Mars if you don't know about the Beast Wars and Beast Machines. They were the 90s continuation of the G1 storyline.

The only continuation of the G1 storyline would be found in Dreamwave, IDW, and DDP comics. Dreamwave I believe is the only one to make any actual reference to previous cartoons & comics.

Hey, if I never joined Seibertron, i would've never known that Beast Machines, Super God Masterforce, Headmasters, Victory and RiD even existed.

I knew about all those series before I joined, but I'd like to forget everyhting about Beast Machines. Welcome to Seibertron, Hi-Q.

Headmasters, Super God Masterforce, and Victory are the japanese continuation of G1, they just negate 'the Rebirth'

Pretty much everything new is set in it's own continuity, because they have this high-minded notion that "We be too stoopid to understand contin...continui...continuation." So under misguided attempts to tell a new story every time, we have a dozen or so new continuitys to follow instead on one long big one.

The only exception would be Beast Wars and Beast Machines, which despite a great number of people who just don't know better who believe that they take place after the comics, they do indeed continue the story from after the original cartoon (with a small number of offside references to the comic thrown in as in-jokes - hence the stem of deperate people trying to tie it into the comics instead of the cartoon). Though at first set as something completely different with only vague references to Cybertron and Autobots and Decepticons, towards the end of the first season and throughout the second the third season of Beast Wars they finally tied it to the original TF series (Autobots and Decepticons being the decendents of the Maximals and Predacons respectively - but were trapped millions of years in the past on Earth). If you haven't seen it, I definately recommend it. The story continued into Beast Machines, where the Maximals return to Cybertron in their expected timeline only to find it had been taken over by their long time nemesis, Megatron. After being reformatted into new techno-organic bodies, the rest of the series is the Maximals trying to discover what happened and find a way to save the sparks of every TF on the planet. - Again, fans like to shaft this one because even though it was still being produced by the same production company as Beast Wars (Mainframe), it was being done for Fox Kids - so the stories and characterizations were simplified a bit for the kiddies, and things like good guys don't use guns. Destruction was kept towards non-living things such as drones and buildings - and the bad guys couldn't hit the broadside of a barn. But the plots heavily exploited past events and articles from the original G1 cartoon - such as Vector Sigma, the Plasma Energy Chamber, the Key of Vector Sigma, the Hate Plague and so forth.

When that series ended, Hasbro pretty much had a choice. Continue the series from Beast Machines (which they toyed with a bit and had designs done for a series that would have been called Transtech), or go off in a completely new direction. They decided on the latter, and again, the series was simplified with a craze that every kid would recognize - the gotta catch 'em all Pokemon plot was imported, and Armada was born. But in the meantime, Hasbro needed something to fill the gap so they could develop this kiddie brigade, and imported a Japanese Transformers series and redubbed it for Fox kids. Since the toys were already produced for Japan, they also redid the toys and released them here, as well as produced a series of repaints to expand the line. This one-shot series was called Robots in Disguise. And outside that even though it has it's following, its pretty much kiddie fodder as far as the cartoon goes with absolutely no continuity from previous series - with the exceptions of vague references thrown in as in-jokes.

Armada led into Energon, and soon Cybertron (which could or could not argued as being part of this continuity). I would go into it more, but by this time I lost interest in the cartoon, though it has a pretty popular following. But again, this "Unicron Trilogy" as it's been dubbed by the fandom, does not connect with G1 in any way, and reestablishes it's own continuity.

During this time, in an effort to milk their sudden cash cow for all it's worth, Hasbro produced a new toy-specific continuity called Universe - which consisted of solely of repainted figures and released as new or old characters with new bodies. This had a vague story synopsis on the back which pretty much consistent of Transformers from all timelines converging to defeat the forces of Unicron and his Decepticons. This went on to produce a short lived comic series produced by 3H productions as a direct market product (I.E. you had to order it from their web site). They also produced a limited series called the Wreckers, which would have continued the G1/Beast Wars/Beast Machines continuity - but like Universe met an untimely demise when Hasbro pulled their license.

When Dreamwave won the license for Transformers, they were quick to set up their own continuity as well, pulling aspects from both comic and cartoon series to create a whole new G1 series. Likewise for their Armada/Energon series, which went a completely different way than the cartoon. But in the end, sanity set in, clamor for Transformers waned, and Bankruptcy set in. Dreamwave went out of business and left all their series unfinished. IDW picked up the license and have run the torch in yet a whole new direction as a sort of middle-finger to Dreamwave since they picked up a majority of their writers and artists.

A long-winded explanation of your question, I know. But as you can see, everyone has their own interpretation and even the current Transformers series has no connection to previous continuities.

Just want to say welcome back to the fold. You have a lot of catching up to do buddy.

I grew up with the cartoon, but haven't really enjoyed any but the Beast Wars stuff. You should definitely check them out. I've been keeping up with the comics however, since they are G1-ish.

I enjoyed the DW stuff, not the earlier stuff, but Vol. 2, War and Peace, and Vol 3 which was the ongoing line that got cancelled. Cancelled not because of sales mind you, because the Pat Lee is a moron.

IDW current run is pretty good and you can get the TPB of any mini series out now. I'd definitely pick those up.

Sorry, wrong topic...

So far so good, thanks.

And yeah, the more info you guys can give, the better. I'm filling in 13 years worth of blanks.

Also if you can get hold of them and don't mind TV with subtitles check out the 3 series (headmasters, masterforce, victory) that were made in Japan after the American series was canceled. They're a G1 continuity that branches off from the end of season 3. (but be warned, masterforce is kind of... different.)

I've still to get Victory...but Masterforce made me laugh so much. Mastaaaaaaah-Foooooooooce! Amazing comedy value, particularly the first episode.

I'm in mostly the same boat as Hi-Q, though I kept up with the cartoons all during the Beast Wars/Machines era. I had very few of the actual TF toys, knew nothing about the Japan-only series, missed RiD completely (and thankfully) and didn't have any interest in Armada/Energon/Cybertron until I tried watching G1 with my 4-year old daughter...and realized why my mom never let me watch GI Joe (to her knowledge).

Anyway, I've found out a lot. No time to set it all out now, and it's mostly all been said by others, but one thing I do think helps is the rationale, somewhat cobbled-together though it may be, of the TF Multiverse.

You can find it at http://transformers.wikia.com/wiki/Unicron, though you'll have to look a bit. Basically Unicron goes from universe to universe trying to suck up Cybertron. Sometimes he succeeds, sometimes he fails, and Primus is usually around to stop him. There's only one Unicron that hops from universe to universe, and one Primus that exists in all universes simultaneously. Patch that in with the idea that Galvatron becomes Unicron's herald in several different timelines and often gets the ability to time travel in the package deal and it's possible to understand a certain progression from Uni getting whacked in G1 to his showing up slightly formatted in Armada, etc. So at least it's the same big baddie, even if it's slightly different goodies.

It got really good after series three.

Trypticon married Metroplex in an under the sea wedding performed by Kup. The offspring produced battled after 30 years...calling themselves AMAZINGMASTERS. The gimmick for Amazingmasters is that they were amazing. And you missed it.

Hi-Q wrote:because I thought the transformers were dead.

They were out but they weren't dead, and even if they were, they are coming back and this time, hopefully staying

Prime Evil wrote:I enjoyed the DW stuff, not the earlier stuff, but Vol. 2, War and Peace, and Vol 3 which was the ongoing line that got cancelled. Cancelled not because of sales mind you, because the Pat Lee is a moron.

Actually, Dreamwave spread themselves too thin, while Transformers sold moderately well, their other properties were a money pit, and they were not able to pay their employees which ultimately resulted in Bankruptcy. Hence the over-blown reactions of "Pat Lee is a moron" approach. Granted, not paying employees is a pretty crappy thing to do.