The Energon Pub

So while using the spare 10 minutes of free time I have once every two weeks to countinue the attempt at cleaning and organizing my Toyroom, I found my box of Animated figures.

When you his line was first announced and shown, man, did I ever hate it. The style, the look, the tone..... all felt wrong to me. When the figures first started to show up on shelves, I ignored them. Didn't even attempt to watch the show. Then I realiz d that a. See animated Sfarscream for my Starscrem shelf, so I bought him.

I found I really quite liked these figures. Started watching the show and found it enjoyable.

On the flip side of this topic, when the first movie line came out, I loved it. Thought it was the most amazing thing ever. I was blinded by fan love. Since those first years, iv come to regard everything movie related as pure trash*, to be avoided at all costs. So what is one of your beloved lines, that at first you hated?





*there are a few notable exceptions, such as the first two leader class primes, and leader Starscream, and evasion prime.

hmmm ... I guess if I was to go with one line it would be Beast Wars.

Now hear me out.

This was a time when I hadn't returned to collecting and the internet wasn't so big. I saw this Beast Wars cartoon on TV using the Transformers name and was horrified and offended. Suffice to say, I never watched it.

Then a year or two later I returned to collecting. I stuck with G1, 'cause you know, that was my era, but then I started picking up these lot bundles off E-Bay with some Beast Wars figures in them.

Of course none of them were in one piece, arms and legs were popped off, weapons mixed up or missing, so I had to start doing some research!

And that's when my opinion of Beast Wars changed. I watched the cartoon and invested heavily into the toy line (to the point I have all of BW and nearly all of the Japanese stuff).

Unlike Mr Ironhidensh though, I never liked the aesthetic of Animated, and even when I get into the room to rearrange things it's about my least liked line.

On the flip side, I was excited for Titanium, then I started getting the figures and yeah ... lot of disappointment there.

I didn't hate BW when it came out, I just didn't care about it. It wasn't the original Transformers, so I just dismissed it. When it came out, I was obsessed with the (at the time) brand new Star Wars Power of the For e line of figures. I didn't get into BW until a few years later when I discovered the transmetal figures on clearance. Then I followed the same basic path as you, Burn, I started doing research and watching the reruns of the cartoon and completely fell in love with BW.

Entire lines? Can't say there's a line I ever actually hated and said "Ruined Forever!!!", I just pick up what looks interesting to me and ignore the rest(or rationalize "I have X, I don't need Y).

However, back in the day I picked up two figures from the original "Legends of Cybertron", Scourge and Starscream. Thought they were nifty, didn't pay much attention to the sub-line barring a clearance find or two for a few years(not having a job factored in). Then around ROTF things clicked, and I started actively looking for more Legends/Cyberverse figures. It didn't hurt that certain characters were only getting a smaller version, and that probably spurned me to collecting the smaller version of a character I already had a larger version of. That and my decent collection of G2 GoBots/Spychangers are close enough in scale to fit in.

It's never gone to a "collect the whole line" mentality, until now. Now I'm collecting every Legion mold from the current RID line, mostly cause I don't really have a desire to collect the deluxe RID line but I do enjoy the show and I want to support it.

As an aside, is the Legion Megatronus going to be available in a single pack? I haven't seen anything on it.

I guess everything that wasn't Movieverse, at first. I mean I didn't really *hate* anything, but nothing else really fit with that aesthetic. And back in the '07 craze when Movie toys actually sold out and stores had to make do with... not-Movie lines, it kinda bugged me that they were all clean and boxy and "human".

But now I mostly collect Kreons and passed entirely over Age of Extinction. Funny how things turn out.

Armada's launch was the first and only time in my life I completely stopped buying Transformers. I'd eagerly watched the show premiere, decided I was too cool for this stupid kid's stuff, and when I did see the toys in stores this led me to my super edgy cool kid opinion of "look at this dumbed down crap, nothing like the Transformers from when I was a kid!" It should be noted I was still a kid (17).

Fast forward about two years, I picked up an Alternators Hound to go with the MP Prime I impulsively bought just for kicks when it was at Gamestops, then a few months later I grabbed a few Energon toys on clearance, then started following this new "Cybertron" line that was really cool. The ball continued to roll when I discovered some of the Cybertron toys I was enjoying were actually Armada toys with different paint jobs. Woops. This led to looking into that line more, and, well, here we are. Not only with the entire line in my collection, but outside of double dipping on Unicron, the entire Japanese line as well.

Movie

Armada. When it first started I kinda hated it for what it wasn't (RID), rather than appreciate it for what it was. I know it's not the best line, but it really was a lot better than my first impression.

Movie stuff I've pretty much gone the other way, as the original poster had. As they've gone on I've gotten less and less. For AOE, I barely bothered, as a lot of the toys were that simplified subline junk. Some of what I did get were only because of $10 Kohls bucks, granted with their prices that's not a big discount. Probably the last movie stuff that really excited me weren't even technically from the movie, just using the aesthetic, like Banzaitron and Seaspray and that one decepticon scout that turned into a biplane.

I never managed to warm to Animated. The whole simplified aesthetic just doesn't work for me. I got a Megatron/Optimus two pack, and nah, no more, just not diggin it.

Beast Wars never did anything for me either. I don't mind a beastformer here and there, but find it way too limiting for the whole line to be nothing but beasts. The only "BW" toys I have are some of the ones that got redecoed and released as part of RID.

Hated, then liked: Generations. Oh goody, another line comprised entirely of G1 rehashes. Why bother calling it Generations? "Thrilling 30" won me over though.

Liked, then hated: Star Wars and Marvel Crossovers. They had potential, but yeesh, did they ever botch the execution.

Still disappointed with TiTanium

Pretty much the only line I can say I hated first, but then grew to love would be Beast Wars. Like so many a fan of Original Transformers, the idea of "animal" Transformers sounded dumb. Sure OTF had many characters who's alt mode were animals, but at least they were robotic-animals. But of course it was the success of the TV show, and its official link to OTF that won me over. Other than that, pretty much every line, my initial feelings of like/dislike was justified.

Pretty much the only toy lines as a whole I really liked were the Original (sans Action Masters), Beast Wars, RiD 2001, Alternators/Binaltech, Energon, & now most recently Kre-O & Combiner Wars. However there have been individual characters from several of the other lines I enjoy. I really like any Transformer that has a combiner Gimmick, or are City & Planet sized bots.

For me it was Animated. When I first saw the designs for the cartoon it self it just turned me off. I never even gave the figures a look. It wasn't that I'm a purist or anything, it just seemed to me that this version was aimed much younger then my demographic and I was okay with that. I had my Transfromers when I was little, time for a new generation to have theirs.

Then I moved in with my sister and nephew and he loved it. So I started watching it with him. Needless to say I thought the show was cool so I had to get the toys. Man I loved that line after that. It was a pity I lost them all in a fire.

fighterknight wrote:For me it was Animated. When I first saw the designs for the cartoon it self it just turned me off. I never even gave the figures a look. It wasn't that I'm a purist or anything, it just seemed to me that this version was aimed much younger then my demographic and I was okay with that. I had my Transfromers when I was little, time for a new generation to have theirs.

Then I moved in with my sister and nephew and he loved it. So I started watching it with him. Needless to say I thought the show was cool so I had to get the toys. Man I loved that line after that. It was a pity I lost them all in a fire.

Storywise yes.Too bad the 3rd Season never materialized. Still not fond of the character designs though. Felt like a cheap KO of the Bayformers line. Engineering wise, amazing it was translated to toy form almost flawlessly.