Machinima Transformers Combiner Wars Animated Series Now Online

Well, watched it.

>Computron remains combined despite 2 of the component bots being sliced off
Why.
>menasor does the same with breakdown chopped off
>Cybertron has 2 visible moons (despite the whole missing moon thing) which is impossible if we're to believe this is IDW universe
>Voice acting seems poorly cast, emotionally wooden and appears as though delivered to match the existing lip flaps, leaving it feeling awkward and unnatural
>Animation flits between different degrees of jerky between shots
>as the review rightly points out, no context given for much of the 'story' we get through, much of it seems to be at odds with current IDW continuity
>5 minute episode format which feels like the cold opening of any TV show, it ends when you're left feeling the opening theme should just be kicking in.

I'm struggling to find things I like, and I wanted to like this.

I'm just left feeling confused. It feels like when you get a cone from the ice cream truck, only to have the icecream fall off as you move in for your first bite, leaving you sullen and holding an empty, dripping cone in your hand.

Is this it's entire own microcontinuity separate from IDW and the Toy Bios?

MemphisR56 wrote:Well, watched it.

>Computron remains combined despite 2 of the component bots being sliced off
Why.
>menasor does the same with breakdown chopped off
>Cybertron has 2 visible moons (despite the whole missing moon thing) which is impossible if we're to believe this is IDW universe
>Voice acting seems poorly cast, emotionally wooden and appears as though delivered to match the existing lip flaps, leaving it feeling awkward and unnatural
>Animation flits between different degrees of jerky between shots
>as the review rightly points out, no context given for much of the 'story' we get through, much of it seems to be at odds with current IDW continuity
>5 minute episode format which feels like the cold opening of any TV show, it ends when you're left feeling the opening theme should just be kicking in.

I'm struggling to find things I like, and I wanted to like this.

I'm just left feeling confused. It feels like when you get a cone from the ice cream truck, only to have the icecream fall off as you move in for your first bite, leaving you sullen and holding an empty, dripping cone in your hand.

Is this it's entire own microcontinuity separate from IDW and the Toy Bios?

I think it has to be considering how drastically different Windblade is.

This reminds me of a commercial. I'm not sure how it can add up to anything close to a good storytelling event.

Edit: I actually have no issue with the animation or voices so far. Both are pretty good. I just don't like diverging from the IDW stuff...

MemphisR56 wrote:>Cybertron has 2 visible moons (despite the whole missing moon thing) which is impossible if we're to believe this is IDW universe

It's not. It's its own universe merely based on IDW's.

MemphisR56 wrote:Is this it's entire own microcontinuity separate from IDW and the Toy Bios?

Yes.

MemphisR56 wrote:>Cybertron has 2 visible moons (despite the whole missing moon thing) which is impossible if we're to believe this is IDW universe

I dont know where you go that Memphis, Sabreblade and Jelze repeatedly corrected us that this was not the same universe.

Is this it's entire own microcontinuity separate from IDW and the Toy Bios?

Yes, totally.

william-james88 wrote:

MemphisR56 wrote:>Cybertron has 2 visible moons (despite the whole missing moon thing) which is impossible if we're to believe this is IDW universe

I dont know where you go that Memphis, Sabreblade and Jelze repeatedly corrected us that this was not the same universe.

Is this it's entire own microcontinuity separate from IDW and the Toy Bios?

Yes, totally.

It's a case of "Dumbshizzlsnit didn't read the thread" disease

you reminded me of that dull opening fight. I mean...how could they make it dull? It would sound so awesome on paper!

william-james88 wrote:

Nexus Knight wrote:Is there a reason the video's no longer available?

No reason, I am watching it right now on youtube, we embeded the video at the end of the review.

Optimizzy wrote:ok, so I just watched it...

man...I'm not going to spoil anything (How could I anyway? Its barely loner than a movie trailer), but this was weak. The characters seemed way off to me. It seems like they watched a bad anime and was like "Oh, that, that is what we should do."

I am disappoint.

Me too, it ends with a shot of Optimus and we dont hear the awesome John Bailey

But aside from that, yeah its dissapointing. I do not like the animation at all. It is very repetitive, like older anime. The scene where Menasor and Windblade are having a back and forth and Menasor's mouth is just moving up and down randomly reminded me of Speed Racer.



I am also not fond of the direction for Menasor, he sounds unintimidating. Also, and this is more because I am aware of he business behind this, I am kind of ticked at how that is the Superion redeco we see as Computron. We already bought the combner wars toys guys, you dont have to sell them anymore!

1984forever wrote:

JazZeke wrote:

1984forever wrote:This is easily the best Transformers cartoon to come out in the last 30 years. But I have to admit that a pretty low bar has been set since the original G1 went off the air.

Uhhh... have you even watched Beast Wars, Animated, and Prime?

I have seen all 3 of the KO series you mentioned and i was not impressed.

Why would you call them, knock off series. I think Prime was excellent.

MemphisR56 wrote:Well, watched it.

>Computron remains combined despite 2 of the component bots being sliced off
Why.
>menasor does the same with breakdown chopped off
>Cybertron has 2 visible moons (despite the whole missing moon thing) which is impossible if we're to believe this is IDW universe
>Voice acting seems poorly cast, emotionally wooden and appears as though delivered to match the existing lip flaps, leaving it feeling awkward and unnatural
>Animation flits between different degrees of jerky between shots
>as the review rightly points out, no context given for much of the 'story' we get through, much of it seems to be at odds with current IDW continuity
>5 minute episode format which feels like the cold opening of any TV show, it ends when you're left feeling the opening theme should just be kicking in.

I'm struggling to find things I like, and I wanted to like this.

I'm just left feeling confused. It feels like when you get a cone from the ice cream truck, only to have the icecream fall off as you move in for your first bite, leaving you sullen and holding an empty, dripping cone in your hand.

Is this it's entire own microcontinuity separate from IDW and the Toy Bios?

You bring up a lot of good points and I have similar concerns for this series. I have seen the first four episodes and the story gains a bit more traction in the second episode. Sadly though Windblade still sounds more like a whiny teenager lashing out than she does a warrior hell-bent on revenge.

The thing I'm worried about the most is the five minute format. The time constraint doesn't allow for enough time to dive deep into either the characters or their arcs. That said episode one is the weakest of the bunch.

I do like the animation style even though it does seem to stutter at times. The series also so far (four episodes in) does a great job adding weight and gravitas to the Cybertronian civil war and the players involved e.g Optimus Prime, Starscream and a few others (trying to avoid spoilers).

MemphisR56 wrote:
It's a case of "Dumbshizzlsnit didn't read the thread" disease

Hey man, I totally get the confusion. There was an IDW combiner Wars comic, Windblade was in it, so one plus one makes two. But I guess since that story did happen and they didnt want the pressure of having things tie in directly, it was safer to just say that it was its own microcontinuity.

ohh what bloody hell did i watch? The animation was choppy and Go90's audio kept skipping and freezing,

ohh what bloody hell did i watch? The animation was choppy and Go90's audio kept skipping and freezing,

R0cl9nk wrote:... I have seen the first four episodes...

Wait hold up say WHAT now
Where have you seen the other three episodes???

I forgot these were basically short clips. All said and done, this is going to feel like half a season of RvB without the storytelling or fart jokes.

I have to say, for a five minute episode, I liked it. I definitely preferred this style of animation over say TF:Animated. Voices? I have no complaints about that either.

Bring on the rest of the episodes so we can see where this is going.

Kurona wrote:

R0cl9nk wrote:... I have seen the first four episodes...

Wait hold up say WHAT now
Where have you seen the other three episodes???

Maybe he's got internal connections or something. Best not to look into it.

Counterpunch wrote:Do post trolling otherwise interesting conversations get you down?

Do some users just seem to skirt the rules just enough to make you want to scream and maybe get yourself a warning in the process?

Never fear! Your friendly neighborhood User Control Panel has the answer you're looking for.

Just head over to the User Control Panel and choose the "Friends and Foes" tab.

Choose the "Foes" group.

Enter any ole name you like, hit submit, and trolling posts disappear just like that.

Foes.JPG

except...when another user quotes the entirety of their post and replies to it...which is often the problem I have. If only quote replies could be blocked as well...I know its better than nothing...and didn't want to seem unappreciative, but its just the problem I've run into.

william-james88 wrote:Does Masterforce count as G1 cartoon to you?

I know you were asking another directly...but I didn't want to be lumped in with that. so...to me it does, but then again I have some pretty crazy Ideas I'm coming to find out.

To me, everything from the original series, through the Japanese series, and BW/BM is all one continuity, kind of like Gundams Universal Century. Everything from CR/RiD on are separate continuities, like the various Gundam series from G Gundam on. The only thing is unlike Gundam Unicorn which returned to the UC. We have not returned to "Original Transformers" timeline since BM.

Just wanted to make sure I don't get lumped in with others. Sure I prefer my original Transformers, but I recognize others are good when they do come along.

That................was horrible.

This is what we were waiting for this whole time!?

They killed the "remember the new guy" and friggen Menasor in the first episode!


THE FIRST EPISODE!!!


And I am assuming that the Combiners are going to be treated as full characters instead of a well combiner of other Characters.


Then again their budget probably went to mostly animation which looks damn crap running at 30 FPS or something.

1984forever wrote:This is easily the best Transformers cartoon to come out in the last 30 years. But I have to admit that a pretty low bar has been set since the original G1 went off the air.

Of course you would like it since your mister I hate everything not from the cheesy 80's.

im in ireland meself and just watched it there.

i dunno.

it seems a bit "off" or something. more to do with direction than art style. there were times when menasor and computron were hitting eachother in free fall where they looked to have no mass at all.

i do like the style. the colour palate is interesting and its got a nice anime feel to it.

i found menasors voice weird though. in fact bar computron they all sounded a bit "teenagery" .

the five minute time scale threw me too. i'd forgotten all about that and thought i was looking at a promo piece.



having to make it fit that format makes it seem a bit abrupt or something, still as a fan im interested enough to keep watching other episodes. not sure anyone thats just a casual viewer would feel the same though as theres not much "hook" to it.

Sorry for the multiple posts but I'm so disappointed by this.

A show is supposed to get people invested in the first episode and if it fails to do that then it's unlikely to get any better.


And holy crap I was pretty ok with Windblade from the comics and rid but this Windblade was so damn edgy and angsty I felt like I was watching an animated bad fanfic.


That's what this show is a very badly made fanfic.

Kurona wrote:

R0cl9nk wrote:... I have seen the first four episodes...

Wait hold up say WHAT now
Where have you seen the other three episodes???

Machinima/Hasbro sent them to me to review. One of the perks of my journalism degree - sadly there aren't many of them.

R0cl9nk wrote:
Machinima/Hasbro sent them to me to review. One of the perks of my journalism degree - sadly there aren't many of them.

Well congrats it's a good feeling to have a job where you can get some things earlier then others!


well hope you enjoy them!

Deadput wrote:A show is supposed to get people invested in the first episode and if it fails to do that then it's unlikely to get any better.

Most episodes also run more than five minutes. I think people (not necessarily you) are being too quick to write this off just on five minutes.

For those who aren't impressed, may I suggest until waiting for all episodes to be released then watch them in one sitting? You might find it more enjoyable then maybe?

THIS VIDEO IS NOT AVAILABLE

WTF?

Burn wrote:

Deadput wrote:A show is supposed to get people invested in the first episode and if it fails to do that then it's unlikely to get any better.

Most episodes also run more than five minutes. I think people (not necessarily you) are being too quick to write this off just on five minutes.

For those who aren't impressed, may I suggest until waiting for all episodes to be released then watch them in one sitting? You might find it more enjoyable then maybe?

I'm planning to do that. I do *want* to enjoy it. I'm just not wowed by it so far.
I don't think I've been unfair to it, or even particularly scathing.

With all these hot takes in here, I'm worried I'm going to burn my crotch if anything spills. I'm tempted to go re-name this thread the Combiner Wars Panic Room.

This is what, 1/8th of what boils down to being a < one hour, one-off special? Either way, what most of us have seen so far is five minutes of content that, to me, was just fine as a "watch this in my car on this mobile app while eating lunch" experience. While there were some things I didn't really like there were also good moments and I'm not ready to go all in on some opinion one way or another based on the tiny clip of this short special that's 'aired'.

Hopefully Hasbro learns a lesson here about how to set fan expectations though, because there was clearly a disconnect.

edit: would just like to mention that I started writing this before Burn made his post. Didn't purposely intend to post a different version of the same thing!

Burn wrote:

Deadput wrote:A show is supposed to get people invested in the first episode and if it fails to do that then it's unlikely to get any better.

Most episodes also run more than five minutes. I think people (not necessarily you) are being too quick to write this off just on five minutes.

For those who aren't impressed, may I suggest until waiting for all episodes to be released then watch them in one sitting? You might find it more enjoyable then maybe?

There's a chance for anything to get better and I'm not writing it off just yet - I'm just saying that this episode was really terrible. I'm hoping for something that lives up to what interested me about the Starscream Prelude; a new and interesting take on a character that we think we've seen everything of already. That's been the best part of this series so far imo

Spider 001 wrote:THIS VIDEO IS NOT AVAILABLE

WTF?

U.S. residents watch it on Go90. Everyone outside the U.S. gets the YouTube video.

Burn wrote:For those who aren't impressed, may I suggest until waiting for all episodes to be released then watch them in one sitting? You might find it more enjoyable then maybe?

QFT. I will definately be giving it the benefit of the doubt.

Burn wrote:

Deadput wrote:A show is supposed to get people invested in the first episode and if it fails to do that then it's unlikely to get any better.

Most episodes also run more than five minutes. I think people (not necessarily you) are being too quick to write this off just on five minutes.

For those who aren't impressed, may I suggest until waiting for all episodes to be released then watch them in one sitting? You might find it more enjoyable then maybe?

To be fair, though, how many are writing off the whole show based on this one episode rather than just writing off this one episode on its own?

Sabrblade wrote:To be fair, though, how many are writing off the whole show based on this one episode rather than just writing off this one episode on its own?

A good portion of those discussing it across a number of Facebook groups/pages.

Burn wrote:Most episodes also run more than five minutes. I think people (not necessarily you) are being too quick to write this off just on five minutes.

For those who aren't impressed, may I suggest until waiting for all episodes to be released then watch them in one sitting? You might find it more enjoyable then maybe?

I will watch the rest of the show but so far I'm just really disappointed!


I wanted to like it but I just don't and this is coming from the guy who pretty much likes or doesn't mind everything besides Kiss Players.


I'm mostly disappointed by how the combiners are just seemingly going to be treated like individuals instead of the combined forms of the teams like the Technobots and Stunticons as well as how Menasor dies in the first episode with no mention of the Stunticons as a whole.


And I hate how Windblade is portrayed in this and I usually like or don't mind most characters but damn she is so edgy in this it's sickening.

Burn wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:To be fair, though, how many are writing off the whole show based on this one episode rather than just writing off this one episode on its own?

A good portion of those discussing it across a number of Facebook groups/pages.

Perhaps, but we're more civilised than Facebook.

... we are, right? ... right?

You can cut Diamondium with how much edge they given Windblade. Hell you even Diamondillum doesnt stand a chance against the electro matter sword they seem to of given Windblade. That's the only way i can see her cutting into menasor like that,

Kurona wrote:

Burn wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:To be fair, though, how many are writing off the whole show based on this one episode rather than just writing off this one episode on its own?

A good portion of those discussing it across a number of Facebook groups/pages.

Perhaps, but we're more civilised than Facebook.

... we are, right? ... right?

More often than not, thankfully...

I think this image sums up Windblade perfectly:

Kurona wrote:

Burn wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:To be fair, though, how many are writing off the whole show based on this one episode rather than just writing off this one episode on its own?

A good portion of those discussing it across a number of Facebook groups/pages.

Perhaps, but we're more civilised than Facebook.

... we are, right? ... right?

Yeah, I haven't had to ban (let alone warn) someone for a while.

Burn wrote:

Kurona wrote:

Burn wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:To be fair, though, how many are writing off the whole show based on this one episode rather than just writing off this one episode on its own?

A good portion of those discussing it across a number of Facebook groups/pages.

Perhaps, but we're more civilised than Facebook.

... we are, right? ... right?

Yeah, I haven't had to ban (let alone warn) someone for a while.

Oh...jinxed it.

I was going to rip this ep to pieces but then I found one thing about it that sums it all up :

Voices supplied by so called Celebrity Youtubers (no that isn't a joke).

---

P.s. No I won't watch any more for a while - maybe when they are all done.. but for the moment I can't see any positive reason to watch it - all it is going to do is make me dislike Windblade.

Besides any attempt to re-purpose IDW fiction as some sort of "G1 replacement" leaves a horrible taste in my mouth - one I wouldn't have if they were more upfront about treating it as more like Transformers Prime or the Movie Universe as "other" - but re-writing people's childhood doesn't sit well with me - so it's another reason for me to not show much enthusiasm for the fiction that accompanies the 'Prime Wars' concepts to date.

But who know maybe they can one day come up with a rational story explanation for Titans Returns if it ever gets that far.

But it's a bit odd to have them throwing out Windblade with no backstory to her - even making it seem like the audience is supposed to know who she is and her back story as some sort of Horse Whisper for City bots.

Despite that begging the question of why a Citybot needs a Horse Whisper in the 1st place.

Anyway best of luck to those who want to stick with it - but I can't see this having any more impact on me than Cyber Missions did.

Well, Combiner Wars seems to have met most of my expectations given the fact that we've only seen 5 mins of it. So far I'm happy with the voice acting. Nothing has been cringe worthy as of yet. Although, I do agree with most constructive criticism comments out there, that Menasor's voice is different take on what we would have expected. I actually don't mind the change, as it does fit that Stunticon street-punk crazy type of voice. Windblade and Maxima have perfect voices. Sad that we won't see more of Maxima after this. As far the negative criticism that's been mentioned of the YouTube voices, I really don't agree. I've heard far worse voice acting coming out of many ADR studios in my time, this is like a dream compared to some of them (at least in episode 1).

As far as the animation goes, it works. It's definitely nowhere near TF Prime quality, but then again, that was a show with a HUGE budget. So considering this is a FREE web series, the animation is really nice considering this must've had a limited budget.

One of two things that I do echo others on, is that 5 mins is too short for an episode to really establish anything. However, we all knew this was going to be the case when watching this series. I do hope that if Machinima does do another TF webseries, that they would consider breaking it up into 10-15 min segments, just to give everyone a little bit more to savor until the next episode is out.

The second thing, is Windblade being too overpowering. While there might be an explanation for this, having her cut down Menasor takes away the idea that the Combiners are a real threat. If it took a lot more to destroy them, then maybe we'd understand more as to why they're hard to stop.

Finally, I would strongly recommend those bashing this series to wait until all the episodes are out and then cast final judgement on the series as a whole.

Kurona wrote:

Burn wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:To be fair, though, how many are writing off the whole show based on this one episode rather than just writing off this one episode on its own?

A good portion of those discussing it across a number of Facebook groups/pages.

Perhaps, but we're more civilised than Facebook.

... we are, right? ... right?

If this were the SW fandom complaining about how the old EU is relegated to Legends, panning the Prequel Trilogy for not being like the Original Trilogy, and complaining about TFA/Episode 7 because it was too much LIKE ANH/Episode 4 of the OT. I would say no? The only fandom that I know is much worse is the Jurassic Park and larger dinosaur fandom. As it is really chaotic. Don't get me wrong, I am a multi-fandom kind of guy, but I would say this fandom is pretty decent in some ways (especially here) in response most of the time. There are still circles though however and I do a lot of lurking.

Burn wrote:Yeah, I haven't had to ban (let alone warn) someone for a while.

The times this would happen when I was running my Jurassic Park site we would considered this a worrisome thing for the fandom. Mostly because, like minature-sized meatbags, if you don't hear anything; you know there's trouble brewing of some kind.

Wow, this was bad. Does not feel like the 1st episode of a series. It's more like a really long publicity for CW toys or a long teaser for a video game... Animation is uneven, voice acting is bad, no context, no plot, no meaning. Just big robots fighting. This i meant for an adult audience?

WOW. I was really looking forward to this. I was a little disappointed that the Menasor/Computron fight mostly consisted of them playing a steel-drum duet on each other, but assumed things would get more interesting once they did enough damage for someone's components to disengage and transform.

And then...we never got any sign that their components could function independently. Which, when combined with that animation style, I'm sorry to say, can't help but evoke memories of the last quarter of the Energon cartoon. You know, how the Maximus trio just stayed combined 90% of the time, weren't significantly bigger or more impressive than the older characters, and when they did disengage, each quartet of limbs seemed to be little more than drones following their torso, because there just wasn't room to develop 15 new guys that late in the game. I remember not caring that much at the time, because eventually, I'd learn all about their personalities in the Energon Profile Books from Dreamwa--

...yeah. So, maybe I'd feel different if I wasn't 6 years behind on IDW, but all this first ep did was dredge up some BAAAAAAAAAAAAAD memories, not connected to any G1 universe.

But Energon took a long time to slide that far downhill. I still feel it charged out of the gate stronger than any other TF cartoon, partly because it was a sequel and therefore had a lot going on at once without needing to establish everything. So maybe this series will get a lot better after this, like the Armada cartoon!

Errrr, bad example? Seriously, it did keep getting better as it went along. No, I'm not being sarcastic.

It just seems strange to kick off a Combiner Wars universe without any combinING. Can't help but give me flashbacks to a dark time when the very act of combining had lost all meaning due to its pointless overuse, which is why the Autobots forgot all about it before the Cybertron cartoon started...

Ah, pre-fab trilogies. Well, assuming this series does get better, maybe Machinima will do better still on future Prime Wars toons.

why does windblade's hair fan look like a seashell?

i like the animation

Man, they really built up my expectations only to crush me with disappointment. When they were boasting about how this was being properly animated in Japan after all of the complaints the first prelude got I was expecting something really impressive. In the end this didn't look any better than any of the amateur cartoons that can be found on YouTube. It certainly didn't look any better than the first season of RWBY from three years ago. And seriously, who goes to Japan for CG animation? You go to Japan for 2D animation, their 3D stuff is rarely any good without a big budget.

Maybe if they animated it locally they could have saved some money and given us longer episodes. Or at the very least spent money on some decent actors because Menasor sounds like some punk teen and Computron sounds like the least advanced guy on the planet. I get the whole "speak less to reserve brainpower" thing, but even G1 Computron wasn't that lifeless and "robotic". Thankfully they're both apparently dead so we don't have to put up with that any more. And agree with everyone else about it being dumb for the entire team to outright die if the combined form is defeated.

I'll keep watching, but my expectations have really sunk.

chaosalphaandomega wrote:why does windblade's hair fan look like a seashell?

Probably because it's sticking out of the middle of her head rather than proper behind it. It looks weird to me, too.

Emerje

Yeah this p much sums up how I feel about Maxima

https://twitter.com/toygrind/status/760556789532336128

my thoughts are its a cartoon doesnt need to be perfect it has some great potential and it somewhat brings me back as a kid watching the G1 combiners on tv, but for what its worth its a nice salute to what transformers used to be,