The Energon Pub

I couldn't find a topic that matched but I have a question or two for anyone reading. My kids (9 year old boy, 6 year old girl and 4 year old girl) all watch rescue bots and I tried to explain to them that both shows were in the same continuity and they seemed to buy it but then the 9 year old boy started asking questions like why didn't Optimus call the rescue bots to help battle megatron because how out numbered they are etc. I said because they were rescue bots not fighters and that was not satisfactory since Rachet is a doctor etc.

So two questions:
1. Anybody out there have a better way of explaining the timeline/continuity?

2. Anybody else out there want to see Prime designs for the Rescue Bots? My son and I both agree they would be awesome to see.

Thanks for reading!

You've got a bright young lad, there.

devlingrey wrote:I said because they were rescue bots not fighters and that was not satisfactory since Rachet is a doctor etc.

Well, even warriors need doctors, but notice that none of the Rescue Bots have a doctor of their own (in the show, that is, since Medix is currently a toy-only character).

Though, you could tell him that, even though Ratchet is there working with Team Prime, he doesn't often go into battle with the others since he isn't a warrior, just like how Rescue Force Sigma-17 isn't a group of warriors either.

devlingrey wrote:So two questions:
1. Anybody out there have a better way of explaining the timeline/continuity?

Well, it's difficult to say.

See, we do know that they both occur in the present day, but what exactly that means isn't quite clear. It could take place simultaneously to TF: Prime, but then there's some of the global events in Prime that aren't acknowledged in Rescue Bots. Like, Unicron's global storm/earthquake from the end of season 1 has had no presence in Griffin Rock, and something that big to have just happened off screen without any mention would feel pretty dumb for a show as smartly-written as Rescue Bots.

Although, Rescue Bots story editor Nicole Dubuc once Tweeted that, while unstated, she and the other writers supposed that the reason Heatwave couldn't contact Optimus in episode 13 was due to his being with the Decepticons as Orion Pax at the time, but again, Unicron's global disasters that happened not too long earlier going unacknowledged in Griffin Rock flies in the face of that.

However, in the same episode, Morocco was also having a phone call with, also according to Ms. Dubuc's Twitter, Silas, which means that episode would have to have happened prior to the Nemesis Prime episode of Prime (since Silas gets fatally wounded in that one and only returns once more in Breakdown's body before he gets hauled off to be broken down by Knock Out).

Then there's also the upcoming second season of Rescue Bots coming this Winter, which may provide more clues as to when it take place in relation to Prime.

As far as we can tell now, Rescue Bots might take place either before season 1 during the three years of no Decepticon activity on Earth, during season 1 before the Unicron saga, during season 2 after the Orion Pax saga and before the finale, but not during season 3 due to Silas having to be alive during Rescue Bots episode 13. Granted, none of these are perfect fits since the two are produced independently from one another. Given time, however, we may be able to get a better idea of when Rescue Bots occurs in relation to Prime once more information comes out.

devlingrey wrote:2. Anybody else out there want to see Prime designs for the Rescue Bots? My son and I both agree they would be awesome to see.

Slag yes!

If not Prime designs, then at least just articulated Deluxe/Voyager class figures.

Hi Saberblade,

Thank you for your response and nice comment about my son, I appreciate it. Sorry I did not reply sooner. We are on Spring Break so I haven't been checking the boards or email.

I was hesitant about posting a question because you just never know what you are going to get with boards. My seal the deal point with that is remembering when they revealed Metroplex in the FOC game and post after post said they would never make a toy. Fast forward to Toy Fair and low and behold we see an over 2 ft tall Metroplex is being released and the amout of complaints was insane. Who cares that it's more of a relaunch G1 than FOC? It's an over 2 ft tall Metroplex! I figured if that could cause an outrage, what would a continuity question cause?

We have so much fun with Transformers because I played with them as a kid and being able to share that with my kids has been amazing. Although I could poke holes in the Bay movies, you'll never see me really complain about them because he loves them and even if they are not what I would like them to be, I love watching my son's face and talking about them before and after. To me it's money well spent if he has a great time seeing it on the big screen and his fun makes it fun for me.

Anyway, back on topic to the continuity. Telling them that there was a timing thing going on that we don't know about really helped. Thank you. They actually then took that and ran with it about how things might have played out which was fun listening to their theories.

As far as the toys go, I looked that the Rescue bot toys in the store and I can't remember a transformers toy line where the heads don't even come close to the animation, especially Blades. I wonder if the toys were created prior to the final animation models.

Sorry for the rambling post. I do have a separate question for you since you seem to be an invaluable resource/font of info: I collect the flip changer Indy-cars and I am trying to figure out if I have them all. I have Jusco Clear Indy Heat, Indy Heat, Skid-z, Mirage(Robot Masters), Mirage (Machine Wars), and Prowl. Do you know if I'm missing one?

Thanks for reading and I apologize for the multiple tangets. My son comes by his ADHD honestly.
Best regard,
Michael

devlingrey wrote:Anyway, back on topic to the continuity. Telling them that there was a timing thing going on that we don't know about really helped. Thank you. They actually then took that and ran with it about how things might have played out which was fun listening to their theories.

What sort of theories have they thought of, by any chance?

devlingrey wrote:As far as the toys go, I looked that the Rescue bot toys in the store and I can't remember a transformers toy line where the heads don't even come close to the animation, especially Blades.

Well, a lot of G1 toys, some of the earliest Beast Wars toys, and several Beast Machines toys greatly differed from their respective animation models.

devlingrey wrote:I wonder if the toys were created prior to the final animation models.

Yes they were. In an interview with Jeff Kline, he mentioned how he first got the idea for the cartoon after having seen the toys already made and ready to go to the stores. I guess the cartoon wasn't in the original plan for the Rescue Bots line.

devlingrey wrote:Sorry for the rambling post. I do have a separate question for you since you seem to be an invaluable resource/font of info: I collect the flip changer Indy-cars and I am trying to figure out if I have them all. I have Jusco Clear Indy Heat, Indy Heat, Skid-z, Mirage(Robot Masters), Mirage (Machine Wars), and Prowl. Do you know if I'm missing one?

Of that particular mold? Let's see, there's...

• Machine Wars Mirage
• Machine Wars Prowl
• Car Robots Indy Heat
• Car Robots Super Indy Heat (JUSCO exclusive)
• Robots in Disguise Skid-Z
• RobotMasters Rijie

I think that's it.

Flip Changer Indy-Car mold: That's excellent! So I actually do have a portion of my meager collection that is complete. Now if I could only get a hold of the last 2 counter arrows then I would have the Indy-car spychanger mold done too!

As far as the theories go, here are the two most thought through. Keep in mind these are from a 9 year old, a 6 year old and a 4 year old:

The 4 and 6 year old girls believe that Optimus and Bumblebee are hiding the Rescue Bots whereabouts so that Megatron can't find them and that Rachet, Bulkhead, and Arcee had not yet found Optimus on Earth. If something happend to the ones in Prime, there would at least always be the Rescue Bots. I asked well, how did Bumblebee find him and the 4 year old said, Daddy, Bumblebee never leaves Optimus, their best friends. I couldn't argue with that.

My 9 old boy's theory is that Optimus sends them on another mission prior to or early on in the beginning of Prime. I asked okay, what other mission and he thought of 2: The first one was to go to the planet the autobots go to in Exiles (we haven't finished reading it yet and I can't remember the name to save my life right now) and help evacuate it. He could not decide whether or not they get captured by Thundertron or not. He said that he would get back to me on that one. The second potential mission was to evacuate the Jungle Planet because it was being attacked by the Quintessons. There's and epic, since everything to a 9 year old these days is epic, battle and Rescue Bots sabotage the Quintesson ship and send them into a black hold saving the Jungle Planet.

Our conversation then veered into what we wanted to see in Transformers 4 and we debated about whether or not it would be Unicron, Galvatron, or the Quintessons who would be the bad guys. We both agreed that the Quintessons would be the best since we couldn't see how they could do Unicron justice in a movie. I ended with I hope Mirage is in the next movie and he reminded me that Mirage died in the novelization to which I said there was no Mirage in the movie, it was Dino and he survived. His final words on the subject were: he's dead and so is Wheeljack dad. Your two favorite characters can't be in the next movie. He's probably right but one can hope right?

devlingrey wrote:As far as the theories go, here are the two most thought through. Keep in mind these are from a 9 year old, a 6 year old and a 4 year old:

The 4 and 6 year old girls believe that Optimus and Bumblebee are hiding the Rescue Bots whereabouts so that Megatron can't find them and that Rachet, Bulkhead, and Arcee had not yet found Optimus on Earth. If something happend to the ones in Prime, there would at least always be the Rescue Bots. I asked well, how did Bumblebee find him and the 4 year old said, Daddy, Bumblebee never leaves Optimus, their best friends. I couldn't argue with that.

I see ya'll are reading Exiles. Seeing as how that book notes that both Ratchet and Bulkhead left Cybertron with Optimus aboard the Ark, she might wanna know that Bulkhead and Ratchet very well may have been with Optimus the whole time like Bumblebee has.

Plus, the episode Bumblebee guest stars in has Optimus refer to "[their] medic," implying that Ratchet is somewhere with Optimus's group during the Rescue Bots cartoon.

devlingrey wrote:My 9 old boy's theory is that Optimus sends them on another mission prior to or early on in the beginning of Prime. I asked okay, what other mission and he thought of 2: The first one was to go to the planet the autobots go to in Exiles (we haven't finished reading it yet and I can't remember the name to save my life right now) and help evacuate it. He could not decide whether or not they get captured by Thundertron or not. He said that he would get back to me on that one. The second potential mission was to evacuate the Jungle Planet because it was being attacked by the Quintessons. There's and epic, since everything to a 9 year old these days is epic, battle and Rescue Bots sabotage the Quintesson ship and send them into a black hold saving the Jungle Planet.

Interesting idea. Though, seeing as how their funticon is to provide emergency response services and how Optimus has thus far made it a point to keep them out of combat, I can't quite see them being sent perform help in a big battle.

Plus, Heatwave's eager desire to join up with Optimus strikes me as though it's because he's never seen combat before and finds the idea of it exciting. kinda like how a kid who's never been to Disney World sees commercials for it and wants to go because it looks fun.

Though, props to them all thinking big.

devlingrey wrote:Our conversation then veered into what we wanted to see in Transformers 4 and we debated about whether or not it would be Unicron, Galvatron, or the Quintessons who would be the bad guys. We both agreed that the Quintessons would be the best since we couldn't see how they could do Unicron justice in a movie. I ended with I hope Mirage is in the next movie and he reminded me that Mirage died in the novelization to which I said there was no Mirage in the movie, it was Dino and he survived. His final words on the subject were: he's dead and so is Wheeljack dad. Your two favorite characters can't be in the next movie. He's probably right but one can hope right?

Well, since Dino is Mirage, Dino's surviving the movie means Mirage did.

As far as his novelization death, Megatron survived in the novel, but not in the movie.

The way I (and I think most people) see the differences between the movies and comics/novels is that anything from the comics/novels that weren't the films but don't contradict the movies can be seen as canon to the movies, while anything from the comics/novels that wasn't in the movies but does contradict the movies gets overridden by the movies.