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A couple days ago an idea popped into my head, and it was a simple "What if". Basically, what if when Transformers was created/ brought over back in the 80's they decided to go the human piloting a mech route(Diaclone) instead of the sentient alien robots idea? Would it have worked?

Ground rules I'm establishing since this is my hypothetical(and cause this is fun too ):

Autobots and Decepticons would still exist in this Universe, with no faction changes.

-Mass shifting would still be in effect. For example, Megatron would be a normal sized handgun carried by the top human "Decepticon" when not transformed. When it did come time to transform, the human would throw the gun up into the air, it would magically expand in mass(there would be some logical explanation), and when in robot mode the human would pilot Megs like any other Transformer in this hypothetical series.

-Character archetypes and voices would remain the same. Starscream's pilot would still be a backstabber, Wheeljack's pilot a mad scientist, etc.

-Some "sentient" robots would still exist, though they would be human created. The cassetticons would definitely be drones, but have the same characterization as their regular G1 counterparts. The Mini-bots would also be sentient, though closer in human size, and couldn't carry humans in vehicle mode. Their characterization would remain pretty close as well, but would be a tad "friendly-er".

-Stories would still adhere to the Decepticons quest for energy and taking over the world, though stuff like space bridges wouldn't exist.

Okay, I think that's everything. Hopefully my hypothetical is clear, and now your opinion: would it have worked?

Personally, I think it would have been a pretty good success, considering it was mostly about toy sales back then. However, I feel it would not have had a lasting impact, and it would have fallen by the wayside eventually, and would not be strong 20 years later.

I don't know, Gundam worked and stuff like that and Gundam is still a top player.
But I wouldn't be interested in it, cos it was this sentient alien robot that changes into something them that interested me in this franchise.
If all the robots were piloted and the Humans were the "real"Transformers I would not read, watch or buy any.

Dead Metal wrote:I don't know, Gundam worked and stuff like that and Gundam is still a top player.
But I wouldn't be interested in it, cos it was this sentient alien robot that changes into something them that interested me in this franchise.
If all the robots were piloted and the Humans were the "real"Transformers I would not read, watch or buy any.

Gundam is a different beast all together, cause it is first and foremost a Mech series, and deals only somewhat in transforming mecha(which usually have more functional alt modes rather than realistic), and I love Gundam for that.

However, I really don't collect Gundam, cause they are just mobile suits, and each suit doesn't have much of a "personality" when you pick it up, whereas even the most generic Transformer does, because unlike a mobile suit, you can create a whole backstory for a character just by transforming it and studying its features.

They sort of did that with the whole headmasters, targetmasters, breastmasters, brainmasters, powermasters concept. So what would be the difference between this idea the other series of toys.

shortround wrote:They sort of did that with the whole headmasters, targetmasters, breastmasters, brainmasters, powermasters concept. So what would be the difference between this idea the other series of toys.

Well, they more along the lines did that with Masterforce yes, but that was an extension of the Transformer brand. But Masterforce was still grounded in the idea of giant alien robots come to Earth from another planet.

My Diaclone hypothetical is that everything would be Earth technology based, no magic bracelets(that was sorta cool though), no galaxy spanning adventures in the begining, just a simple show about how the evil secret Decepticon organization wants to take over the world(and steal lots of energy), but are thwarted at every turn by the heroic Autobots, which might be a government branch. So kinda like G.I. Joe or M.A.S.K., but with giant transforming robots.

Duke of Luns wrote: So kinda like G.I. Joe or M.A.S.K., but with giant transforming robots.

T-Bob and Scott Tracker = Bumblebee and Spike ???

I think the minibots should have child like personalities kind of like the Ghost in the Shell Tachkama, or however it is spelled.

OOhhh, could they be ghost driven sentient machines? As in driven by the soul of someone dead??

Okay sorry. It sounds interesting, but I liked Transformers for Robot goodness, GI JOE for human war coolness, and MASK for transforming piloted vehicle goodness...

Please don't combine them.

Duke of Luns wrote:Gundam is a different beast all together, cause it is first and foremost a Mech series, and deals only somewhat in transforming mecha(which usually have more functional alt modes rather than realistic), and I love Gundam for that.

However, I really don't collect Gundam, cause they are just mobile suits, and each suit doesn't have much of a "personality" when you pick it up, whereas even the most generic Transformer does, because unlike a mobile suit, you can create a whole backstory for a character just by transforming it and studying its features.

Maybe "Diaclone" would have gone the way of the Go-Bots. A good show, but characters lacking in background (no tech specs or bios on the Go-Bot packages). I liked Transformers originally because the Autobots were a team, helping each other and stopping the villians heroically. I guess the Go-Bots had that, too, and I probably would have liked Diaclones like I liked M.A.S.K. and G.I.Joe. Maybe I didn't keep up with those lines just because their shows stopped (except for G.I.Joe, but the first remakes in the late 90s had poor quality toys, and then they switched to larger sized toys or ones with less articulation, so I gave up on it). Basically, I liked each show and collected toys for each, but the ones that remained on air were the ones that continued to be interesting. The others are only good memories, revisited rarely. What makes a lasting fan base anyway?

Dragonoth wrote:

Duke of Luns wrote:Gundam is a different beast all together, cause it is first and foremost a Mech series, and deals only somewhat in transforming mecha(which usually have more functional alt modes rather than realistic), and I love Gundam for that.

However, I really don't collect Gundam, cause they are just mobile suits, and each suit doesn't have much of a "personality" when you pick it up, whereas even the most generic Transformer does, because unlike a mobile suit, you can create a whole backstory for a character just by transforming it and studying its features.

Maybe "Diaclone" would have gone the way of the Go-Bots. A good show, but characters lacking in background (no tech specs or bios on the Go-Bot packages). I liked Transformers originally because the Autobots were a team, helping each other and stopping the villians heroically. I guess the Go-Bots had that, too, and I probably would have liked Diaclones like I liked M.A.S.K. and G.I.Joe. Maybe I didn't keep up with those lines just because their shows stopped (except for G.I.Joe, but the first remakes in the late 90s had poor quality toys, and then they switched to larger sized toys or ones with less articulation, so I gave up on it). Basically, I liked each show and collected toys for each, but the ones that remained on air were the ones that continued to be interesting. The others are only good memories, revisited rarely. What makes a lasting fan base anyway?

Or a slightly more popular Robotix