New Clip - Machinima Transformers Combiner Wars: Megatron vs Constructicons

Video link doesn't work. Just a small icon of some blue cube?

YouTube link, please!

https://youtu.be/gpG0O1TC_XE


Best I could find

Randomhero wrote:https://youtu.be/gpG0O1TC_XE


Best I could find

Brilliant! Cheers!

Although the uploader wrote "combaticons" instead of "constructicons" by mistake.

primalxconvoy wrote:

Randomhero wrote:https://youtu.be/gpG0O1TC_XE


Best I could find

Brilliant! Cheers!

Although the uploader wrote "combaticons" instead of "constructicons" by mistake.

That's a actually a thing for some reason. A lot of stuff is promoting them as combaticons for some reason

Maybe - and I'm just letting the speculengine loose here - they're combaticons in the sense that they're part of that combat arena looking thing?

Man, that is some choppy movement on the bots (despite all the background and camera movement looking just fine).

Sabrblade wrote:Man, that is some choppy movement on the bots (despite all the background and camera movement looking just fine).

Yeah, I am not a fan. I really dont like that style of action where you dont see the origin of the blows and instead just see the bot flying off after being hit.

Looks pretty good, I admit its not as fluid as I would hope, but still good. Can't wait to watch these. What I wish Hasbro would do, would be a show that is set during the 20 yrs between G1 Sunbow season 2 and the movie. Same style animation, just updated similar to Devastation. So much to cover there like Kup, Hot Rod and the bunch reuniting with the Ark gang, Metroplex/Autobot city, Decepticons taking Cybertron and Unicron build up. But maybe thats just me.

Moonshot wrote:Looks pretty good, I admit its not as fluid as I would hope, but still good. Can't wait to watch these. What I wish Hasbro would do, would be a show that is set during the 20 yrs between G1 Sunbow season 2 and the movie. Same style animation, just updated similar to Devastation. So much to cover there like Kup, Hot Rod and the bunch reuniting with the Ark gang, Metroplex/Autobot city, Decepticons taking Cybertron and Unicron build up. But maybe thats just me.

I wouldn't mind this either. I'd be mostly and completely alright and on board with this idea. I doubt it will happen though unfortunately, but you never know.

If I'm honest, I'm very meh on the idea and I would like to see them continue to tell new stories that aren't constricted by G1. Give me an animated series set in the idw time line or a new time line altogether. The original G1 had its time in the sun, let it enjoy retirement.

ZeroWolf wrote:If I'm honest, I'm very meh on the idea and I would like to see them continue to tell new stories that aren't constricted by G1. Give me an animated series set in the idw time line or a new time line altogether. The original G1 had its time in the sun, let it enjoy retirement.

Yes, it had it's time in the sun, and then it bowed down

ZeroWolf wrote:If I'm honest, I'm very meh on the idea and I would like to see them continue to tell new stories that aren't constricted by G1. Give me an animated series set in the idw time line or a new time line altogether. The original G1 had its time in the sun, let it enjoy retirement.

Not to mention that every time Hasbro kept getting asked at each BotCon about either a continuation, a season 2.5, or a remake of the G1 cartoon, they always sounded less than ethusiastic about the idea, and accompanied their responses with the usual "We prefer to move forward with the brand and look to the past for mere inspiration and influence for new ideas, rather than stay stuck in the past" shtick.

I think it just goes to show how fickle (or diverse) the fanbase is, or how confusing Hasbro seems to be. See for me, really I haven't been collecting toys for about a decade (with few exceptions). I am mostly in it for the animated series and comics, which is a constant source of frustration.

I would love to see a truly, honest to goodness continuation of the original animated series. Either taking pace in the time period between season 2 and the movie, or something Post-Rebirth. Hasbro keeps saying "no" because basically there is no money (or far less money) to be made in animated series and comics. Toys is where they make their money (well and now the movie franchise but...)

So they sought to appeal to fans, and in a way it succeeded. Between Combiner Wars and Titans Return, a fan can *almost* relive the experience of getting the entire 86 & 87 toy line, plus a good amount of new stuff. but again those are just TOYS. I want to see a absolutely true continuation of the original animated series, but I know its never going to happen.

Plus, honestly... a continuation of the original G1 series wouldn't work because it didn't really have a particular story behind it. It was just fun, silly situation-of-the-week episodes that had no real connection, was pretty mindless, and never went anywhere. Which is fun, but there's not really any story to continue there.
Now if you're talking about something like Marvel G1, Beast Wars, Animated etc. who do have stories and characters that went places and it would be great to see a continuation of - especially given the latter's cancellation - then that makes sense. But beyond the pure basic thinking birthed from nostalgia of "OMG MY CHILDHOOD SHOW'S BACK", what could you really do with the G1 cartoon?
It's why I was initially scared at the rumours of Combiner Wars being a G1 continuation because it's (trying to be) a serious story which doesn't really fit in at all with G1.

william-james88 wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:If I'm honest, I'm very meh on the idea and I would like to see them continue to tell new stories that aren't constricted by G1. Give me an animated series set in the idw time line or a new time line altogether. The original G1 had its time in the sun, let it enjoy retirement.

Yes, it had it's time in the sun, and then it bowed down

Ah. Hah. See what you did there. Clever!

Sabrblade wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:If I'm honest, I'm very meh on the idea and I would like to see them continue to tell new stories that aren't constricted by G1. Give me an animated series set in the idw time line or a new time line altogether. The original G1 had its time in the sun, let it enjoy retirement.

Not to mention that every time Hasbro kept getting asked at each BotCon about either a continuation, a season 2.5, or a remake of the G1 cartoon, they always sounded less than ethusiastic about the idea, and accompanied their responses with the usual "We prefer to move forward with the brand and look to the past for mere inspiration and influence for new ideas, rather than stay stuck in the past" shtick.

I recall this as well from reading it somewhere actually. It was either on a news group's archive I went through, TFWiki, or BWTF that lead to it. Can't really remember exactly.

Kurona wrote:Plus, honestly... a continuation of the original G1 series wouldn't work because it didn't really have a particular story behind it. It was just fun, silly situation-of-the-week episodes that had no real connection, was pretty mindless, and never went anywhere. Which is fun, but there's not really any story to continue there.
Now if you're talking about something like Marvel G1, Beast Wars, Animated etc. who do have stories and characters that went places and it would be great to see a continuation of - especially given the latter's cancellation - then that makes sense. But beyond the pure basic thinking birthed from nostalgia of "OMG MY CHILDHOOD SHOW'S BACK", what could you really do with the G1 cartoon?
It's why I was initially scared at the rumours of Combiner Wars being a G1 continuation because it's (trying to be) a serious story which doesn't really fit in at all with G1.

You've captured perfectly my other thoughts about this, the tone of G1, and you would have to get dark and let the bad guys win in order to properly bridge the gap between s2 and the movie and that for me would pretty jarring. You could argue that the beginning of the movie was dark but that was just the after effect of a pure business decision, aka the law of unintended consequences.

ZeroWolf wrote:If I'm honest, I'm very meh on the idea and I would like to see them continue to tell new stories that aren't constricted by G1. Give me an animated series set in the idw time line or a new time line altogether. The original G1 had its time in the sun, let it enjoy retirement.

Although Sunbow season 2.5 would be sweet. I have to agree that my preference would be an IDW set show. MtMtE would fit perfect for a 30min show.

Moonshot wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:If I'm honest, I'm very meh on the idea and I would like to see them continue to tell new stories that aren't constricted by G1. Give me an animated series set in the idw time line or a new time line altogether. The original G1 had its time in the sun, let it enjoy retirement.

Although Sunbow season 2.5 would be sweet. I have to agree that my preference would be an IDW set show. MtMtE would fit perfect for a 30min show.

I would be all for a MTMTE show. However, I think Hasbro would be warmer to a John Barber Transformers show than a show like the MTMTE comic.

Kurona wrote:Plus, honestly... a continuation of the original G1 series wouldn't work because it didn't really have a particular story behind it. It was just fun, silly situation-of-the-week episodes that had no real connection, was pretty mindless, and never went anywhere.

With all due respect, I do not agree with your assessment. Was the original series silly at times? Sure, but so was the Marvel Comic. Also there was a very solid overall story especially in season 3 despite the limitations of the animation. I have had literally hundreds of ideas for episodes that could take place in the original series. saying its pointless is just nonsensical to me. Now I'm not saying that the majority of fans would agree that a continuation of the original animated series would be a good thing, but since its never been done before, how would we know? But I'm pretty sure we will never know because Hasbro is just too cheap to try it.

All I know is this...There are many fan made short films on sites like YouTube using all forms (cosplay, toys, animation etc..) based on the original series. I have not seen one for BW that uses anything original other than reused clips from the series itself, and basically nothing from any other TF continuity.

o.supreme wrote:

Kurona wrote:Plus, honestly... a continuation of the original G1 series wouldn't work because it didn't really have a particular story behind it. It was just fun, silly situation-of-the-week episodes that had no real connection, was pretty mindless, and never went anywhere.

With all due respect, I do not agree with your assessment. Was the original series silly at times? Sure, but so was the Marvel Comic. Also there was a very solid overall story especially in season 3 despite the limitations of the animation. I have had literally hundreds of ideas for episodes that could take place in the original series. saying its pointless is just nonsensical to me. Now I'm not saying that the majority of fans would agree that a continuation of the original animated series would be a good thing, but since its never been done before, how would we know? But I'm pretty sure we will never know because Hasbro is just too cheap to try it.

All I know is this...There are many fan made short films on sites like YouTube using all forms (cosplay, toys, animation etc..) based on the original series. I have not seen one for BW that uses anything original other than reused clips from the series itself, and basically nothing from any other TF continuity.

Alright, what was the story? What progress was made? What arcs happened, what character development happened, did anything actually happen of any substance other than situation-of-the-week episodes, the Movie changing the setting and episodes that introduced new toys notwithstanding?

A better way of putting it might be, what happened that wasn't reset by the end of the ep. Off the top of my head I can think of two-three instances off the top of my head but one is a multi episode event (key to vector sigma) and the other may as well be a two parter (starscream brigade and revenge of bruticus) but then again they are only introducing characters. Plus the comics may of had their light moments (car wash of doom any one? ) but they had far more involving story lines then the toon and inspired people just as much as it's toon counterpart because of its storytelling.

o.supreme wrote:All I know is this...There are many fan made short films on sites like YouTube using all forms (cosplay, toys, animation etc..) based on the original series. I have not seen one for BW that uses anything original other than reused clips from the series itself, and basically nothing from any other TF continuity.

With all due respect to you as well, I think the reason there hasn't been as much of that for Beast Wars is that it told a much tighter story that didn't need as much improvement, introduce as many underused characters, or leave as many loose ends to enable or warrant that much fanwankery. What room there was has already been explored by official stories from 3H, FunPub, and IDW, after being run into the ground by the glut of late '90s prose fanfic. Ben Yee said his original idea for 'Descent Into Evil' was a G1/BW bridge story, until he remembered that just about every long-term TF fan with internet access in 1996 had already written that story, therefore no one would allow an official version to displace their personal canon for that particular time gap.

(DISCLAIMER: o.supreme, the rest of this isn't directed at you as much as an argument that needs to be put forth forth for counter-argument's sake; this general argument's been bugging me for a while)

And therein lies the reason that an "official G1 continuation" will never, ever work: It means something too different to every one of us. I'd most like to see more late season 3 stories, so Rodimus could get more respect as was his due, before being unfairly brushed aside by that arrogant zombie whose heroic death was also unfairly undone.

Which brings me to the reason I would actually LOVE to see Hasbro try this proposition: watching an official G1 continuation crash and burn is the only thing that might ever put this silly pipe-dream to rest. Cuz no matter how it turns out, where it tries to fit in, or what right notes it hits, I guarantee you, every geewunner who's been whining for this for three decades despite never actually rewatching the cartoon so dear to their memories in all that time would just scream their head off about how "Hasblow didn't do it right! And why not? It woulda' been so easy! This crap isn't even Transformers!" In fact, I need to hear some of that ASAP to get that glowing youtube review of the fangasmically awesome TF:TM Deviations comic out of my head. Please Hasbro, get your newly-acquired animation studio working on the G1 continuation!

Mods, if I've just reopened old wounds, I'll accept any stern warnings I'm due. But that had to be said. And had to be negative.

But if you think I'm actually wrong, then please explain just how this hypothetical continuation of the G1 cartoon would be quantifiably better than the one we already got. You see, any 'new season 4' argument simply presumes that the G1 anime don't count. Well, why not?

Because most western fans didn't see it when they were kids? Well, even though Hasbro hobbled the official Shout! release with dumb subtitle decisions, surely anyone who "needs" more G1 cartoons can have a look somewhere online, or could have at some point in the last decade.

Because accepting Headmasters bumps The Rebirth out of the timeline? While I do get the strength of nostalgia-blinders for those 3 eps as a symbol of what might have been, any actual demand for more G1 eps makes clinging to them instead of accepting three whole seasons pretty illogical.

Because of inconsistencies with the Sunbow cartoon? Well, are any of those greater than the U.S. material's internal inconsistencies? Like the Autobots losing their collective flying ability near the end of the third episode, the means by which new TFs are brought to life changing every season, and Optimus somehow becoming retrievable between Dark Awakening and Return of Optimus Prime? (That's just off the top of my head)

Because you think the accompanying manga was too silly/fanwanky? Well, the earliest manga technically do fit within the S2/TF:TM gap that so many cry out to be filled. Though I'll admit, Rumble and Frenzy's little dress-up stunt could be considered a legitimate deal-breaker for that particular stretch.

I've surely made some factual misstatements here that Sabreblade will post TFWiki links for in reply...and I welcome it, because of the point I'm trying to make with this rant. "Do an official G1 cartoon continuation" has been repeated a bazillion times throughout our fansites, and has yet to produce anything that fandom overall has accepted as such (AFAIK; again, any relevant links correcting me would be genuinely appreciated) To anyone reading this who disagrees with my argument, instead of repeating the call for the billion-and-first time, please use TFWiki to brush up on the G1 "continuations" we've already got, and explain what a "true continuation" would have to do better. Otherwise, clamoring for that elusive perfect G1 continuation will remain the stalest dead-end demand in transfandom.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to get back to writing the definitive Season 4 of Beast Wars that EVERYONE will accept once Hasbro makes it official, because Beast Machines doesn't even count, right? (See, I brought my post full circle, so it wasn't just a tangent)

Oh yeah, the video...um...maybe Megatron was scheduled to fight the Combaticons, but showed up early?

So early that the Constructicons were still building the necessary arena?

Whatever. Still mostly looking forward to this series.

Bumblevivisector wrote:

o.supreme wrote:All I know is this...There are many fan made short films on sites like YouTube using all forms (cosplay, toys, animation etc..) based on the original series. I have not seen one for BW that uses anything original other than reused clips from the series itself, and basically nothing from any other TF continuity.

With all due respect to you as well, I think the reason there hasn't been as much of that for Beast Wars is that it told a much tighter story that didn't need as much improvement, introduce as many underused characters, or leave as many loose ends to enable or warrant that much fanwankery. What room there was has already been explored by official stories from 3H, FunPub, and IDW, after being run into the ground by the glut of late '90s prose fanfic. Ben Yee said his original idea for 'Descent Into Evil' was a G1/BW bridge story, until he remembered that just about every long-term TF fan with internet access in 1996 had already written that story, therefore no one would allow an official version to displace their personal canon for that particular time gap.

(DISCLAIMER: o.supreme, the rest of this isn't directed at you as much as an argument that needs to be put forth forth for counter-argument's sake; this general argument's been bugging me for a while)

And therein lies the reason that an "official G1 continuation" will never, ever work: It means something too different to every one of us. I'd most like to see more late season 3 stories, so Rodimus could get more respect as was his due, before being unfairly brushed aside by that arrogant zombie whose heroic death was also unfairly undone.

Which brings me to the reason I would actually LOVE to see Hasbro try this proposition: watching an official G1 continuation crash and burn is the only thing that might ever put this silly pipe-dream to rest. Cuz no matter how it turns out, where it tries to fit in, or what right notes it hits, I guarantee you, every geewunner who's been whining for this for three decades despite never actually rewatching the cartoon so dear to their memories in all that time would just scream their head off about how "Hasblow didn't do it right! And why not? It woulda' been so easy! This crap isn't even Transformers!" In fact, I need to hear some of that ASAP to get that glowing youtube review of the fangasmically awesome TF:TM Deviations comic out of my head. Please Hasbro, get your newly-acquired animation studio working on the G1 continuation!

Mods, if I've just reopened old wounds, I'll accept any stern warnings I'm due. But that had to be said. And had to be negative.

But if you think I'm actually wrong, then please explain just how this hypothetical continuation of the G1 cartoon would be quantifiably better than the one we already got. You see, any 'new season 4' argument simply presumes that the G1 anime don't count. Well, why not?

Because most western fans didn't see it when they were kids? Well, even though Hasbro hobbled the official Shout! release with dumb subtitle decisions, surely anyone who "needs" more G1 cartoons can have a look somewhere online, or could have at some point in the last decade.

Because accepting Headmasters bumps The Rebirth out of the timeline? While I do get the strength of nostalgia-blinders for those 3 eps as a symbol of what might have been, any actual demand for more G1 eps makes clinging to them instead of accepting three whole seasons pretty illogical.

Because of inconsistencies with the Sunbow cartoon? Well, are any of those greater than the U.S. material's internal inconsistencies? Like the Autobots losing their collective flying ability near the end of the third episode, the means by which new TFs are brought to life changing every season, and Optimus somehow becoming retrievable between Dark Awakening and Return of Optimus Prime? (That's just off the top of my head)

Because you think the accompanying manga was too silly/fanwanky? Well, the earliest manga technically do fit within the S2/TF:TM gap that so many cry out to be filled. Though I'll admit, Rumble and Frenzy's little dress-up stunt could be considered a legitimate deal-breaker for that particular stretch.

I've surely made some factual misstatements here that Sabreblade will post TFWiki links for in reply...and I welcome it, because of the point I'm trying to make with this rant. "Do an official G1 cartoon continuation" has been repeated a bazillion times throughout our fansites, and has yet to produce anything that fandom overall has accepted as such (AFAIK; again, any relevant links correcting me would be genuinely appreciated) To anyone reading this who disagrees with my argument, instead of repeating the call for the billion-and-first time, please use TFWiki to brush up on the G1 "continuations" we've already got, and explain what a "true continuation" would have to do better. Otherwise, clamoring for that elusive perfect G1 continuation will remain the stalest dead-end demand in transfandom.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to get back to writing the definitive Season 4 of Beast Wars that EVERYONE will accept once Hasbro makes it official, because Beast Machines doesn't even count, right? (See, I brought my post full circle, so it wasn't just a tangent)

Bravo!

To add a little bit more, the way I see it, what the desire for a Season 2.5/continuation/remake of the G1 cartoon really boils down to is that people just want to see and hear all the same characters that they know, love, and grew up with back on TV in new situations that allow them to show off their personalities all over again. What kind of new situations? Doesn't matter. They could be any random situations so long as the classic characters get to once again show off who they are and how they behave exactly like they did 30 years ago.

And while that's a nice feeling to have, it doesn't seem to be a feeling that Hasbro reciprocates all that strongly, as the most we've ever gotten out of that kind of feeling in the modern age are funny script readings at fan conventions and also the Transformers: Devastation game. Those are bones tossed at the specific fans who want to relive the sound and feeling of the G1 cartoon in a new format in the modern age, but that's all that they are: Bones.

The main course meals are reserved for the more non-"1980s G1" modern fiction (i.e. - the movies, the current cartoons, the IDW comics, etc.) because there's more contemporary brand prominence in those works.

Hasbro has consistently expressed a disinterest in reviving the 30-year-old original cartoon, and that seems to be because of how irrelevant it, in essence, has become to the brand after all this time. Does it still have some importance? Yes, of course, but more in a legacy sense rather than a contemporary sense. It is revered but not relevant, homaged but not honed in on. The brand still takes inspiration from it, but has chosen to steer its course on a path that needn't be fully tied down to everything that the cartoon did the past.

And frankly, if people really want to see a witty Transformers cartoon full of great characters showing off their personalities in fun situations that just seem to do whatever they want to do episode after episode, we already do have a modern TF cartoon like that right now, and which will soon overtake G1 as the longest-running TF cartoon of all time: Rescue Bots.

those are some impressive posts there guys.

Though one point, if it ever did happen and then subsequently fail, those who are asking for it, would simply keep asking for another cracking at it. To them, this idea can't possibly fail, it would just mean the staff working on it suck.

The g1 cartoon is many different things to many different people. To some it was a revelation from heaven, for others, just a better concept for a half hour toy commercial. I think it would be best if we just left it be in that special place on our hearts and memories.

Personally, I don't think the cartoon/marvel era had the best possible story. I loved it, and it was defining, but not the best possible.
Beast Wars was good...but it's starting to become as overrated as G1 is.*
I do think I'd like to see an IDWverse cartoon. I really think IDW has filled in where Prime failed and made a definitive transformers universe.
However, I am perfectly contented to continue reading the comics. All I really want is toys based on the comic versions anyway.

To be honest, though I was excited by Prime (Frank Welker and Peter Cullen? yes.), I still think Transformers Animated had the best world-building for the cartoon media so far. It was fresh and different and really tried to play with the concepts. The animation style is an arguable point but they really did make good stories.




*overrated does not mean bad, just... overrated.

Very impressive posts actually. I appreciate the arguments put forth and yeah. I agree with them.

I watched G1 fairly recently (like 2 to 2 and a half years ago or so). I don't have any tight or nostalgia goggle visions of the original series because I was born in 84 and barely remember it. I do remember catching some of Season 3, but those memories are hazy. So what I watched recently was more or less my first time. Yeah, the shows are a shameless plug to sell toys. It didn't have much going into story telling quality like other and later shows.

I really didn't mind season 1 and 2 of G1 though as the episodes felt more memorable to me least. That may just be my own personal preference there. The original movie was decent for me as well even though it was more shameless selling of toys and took out a lot of favorite characters. I love Optimus and Megatron and both Cullen and Welker are the heart and soul of the brand in my eyes. The only reason why I'd want a official "Season 2.5" of the original cartoon is mostly for the fact I feel, officially at least, it's mostly unexplored. Fan stories and what not are fine and all though, and the fallout that any official "Season 2.5" would like have a lot of people upset about it not being what they envisioned or otherwise.

So...has anyone actually watched the first episode since it posted this morning?

I wasn't thrilled with it, but I'll give it a chance. On the plus side, the animation was smooth, and the voice was pretty well done. On the negative side:

I do not like Windblade's characterization. They basically turned her into Arcee-lite, which is not in keeping with either her IDW or RID personality. They also have to introduce another character to die in the first episode to give Windblade some additional angst, which is a pretty cheap trick, and seemingly unnecessary since there is enough in the dialogue between Windblade and Menasor to set up her story arc.

Computron jobs to Menasor this episode, but at least he survives. Way to sell the new toy. Menasor bites it. I guess that's what you get for not having toys on the shelf.

I couldn't help but feel that we are only getting half the story. The prelude videos tried to flesh things out, but the plot still seems rushed.

MrBlack wrote:So...has anyone actually watched the first episode since it posted this morning?

I wasn't thrilled with it, but I'll give it a chance. On the plus side, the animation was smooth, and the voice was pretty well done. On the negative side:

I do not like Windblade's characterization. They basically turned her into Arcee-lite, which is not in keeping with either her IDW or RID personality. They also have to introduce another character to die in the first episode to give Windblade some additional angst, which is a pretty cheap trick, and seemingly unnecessary since there is enough in the dialogue between Windblade and Menasor to set up her story arc.

Computron jobs to Menasor this episode, but at least he survives. Way to sell the new toy. Menasor bites it. I guess that's what you get for not having toys on the shelf.

I couldn't help but feel that we are only getting half the story. The prelude videos tried to flesh things out, but the plot still seems rushed.

I wasn't aware this was even out yet, I'll try to watch tonight at some point.

I didn't know it was out either. Is it on youtube?

Kurona wrote:I didn't know it was out either. Is it on youtube?

Not yet. I hope they put it there eventually...

As for the original animated series continuation...I know I'm the minority in wanting it to be revived. But don't you guys worry, I think we all know its never going to happen, Hasbro would never take that chance. And I am dirt poor with no resources, so the vision of greatness I have can never happen. Guess we can put that to rest. It's never going to happen we all know that.

MrBlack wrote:So...has anyone actually watched the first episode since it posted this morning?

Yup just watched it. one thing I will say. I was concerned about accessibility because prior to this, I had never even heard of go90. What sort of hurdles was I going to have to go through just to watch this. Thankfully, like Youtube, there were none, for the moment at least.

The animation was pretty good, taking into account the smaller scale & budget involved. Windblade is a Mary Sue (should have been destroyed as easily as her partner, combiners should not be taken down in such a way by a single bot no matter how *special* they are)the opening scene was pretty good. I can definitely see that scenario playing out. So for a 5 minute episode 1 I'd give it 3 out of 5 stars (the first have I would give a 5 out of 5 , and the second half 1 out of 5)

literally just type in go90.com. there are no signups or anything. its as easy as youtube

Oh, that's wonderful. I'm glad they thought through everything when deciding on what to put this new series on.

o.supreme wrote:As for the original animated series continuation...I know I'm the minority in wanting it to be revived. But don't you guys worry, I think we all know its never going to happen, Hasbro would never take that chance. And I am dirt poor with no resources, so the vision of greatness I have can never happen. Guess we can put that to rest. It's never going to happen we all know that.

MrBlack wrote:So...has anyone actually watched the first episode since it posted this morning?

Yup just watched it. one thing I will say. I was concerned about accessibility because prior to this, I had never even heard of go90. What sort of hurdles was I going to have to go through just to watch this. Thankfully, like Youtube, there were none, for the moment at least.

The animation was pretty good, taking into account the smaller scale & budget involved. Windblade is a Mary Sue (should have been destroyed as easily as her partner, combiners should not be taken down in such a way by a single bot no matter how *special* they are)the opening scene was pretty good. I can definitely see that scenario playing out. So for a 5 minute episode 1 I'd give it 3 out of 5 stars (the first have I would give a 5 out of 5 , and the second half 1 out of 5)

literally just type in go90.com. there are no signups or anything. its as easy as youtube

Regardless of whether Windblade should be able to take down a combiner, that's not what a Mary Sue is.

Kurona wrote:

Oh, that's wonderful. I'm glad they thought through everything when deciding on what to put this new series on.

man that sucks...in that case I hope they do post it on youtube so all fans can have access to it. I'm fairly certain they will as Machinima has their own Youtube channel...or some fan might copy it to there if nothing else

MrBlack wrote:Regardless of whether Windblade should be able to take down a combiner, that's not what a Mary Sue is.

from Wikipedia

the "Mary Sue" is judged as a poorly developed character, too perfect and lacking in realism to be interesting

sounds about right to me.

Went ahead and watched the first episode (along with a few other videos I hadn't seen) on Go90. The first episode is a lot shorter than I would have liked, was kind of hoping for something closer to 10-15 minutes or so. I felt like I didn't have enough to judge exactly. So it will be nice to get more episodes to see and get a strong feeling for it.

That also sucks that people outside of the US can't watch it as it's not fair. Terrible. Makes me wanting to have a cranky old man rant.

Spoilerish


its

"what a nerd"
i cant stand menasors voice.
Who is Maxima and how can she transform with an arm missing?
When a combiner loses a limb dont they automatically decombine?

How long are these episodes supposed to be? I just watched an episode on the Go90 app called "The Fall". Is this the first episode?

Powermaster Swag wrote:How long are these episodes supposed to be? I just watched an episode on the Go90 app called "The Fall". Is this the first episode?

yes

It was a bit of a short first episode (5 minutes ) . I think they said about 7-8 minutes each. I guess we'll know next week if that was an exaggeration or not. usually in a short series like this, the last episode is a bit longer. I'm thinking the last episode will probably be closer to the 10 minute mark.

o.supreme wrote:

MrBlack wrote:Regardless of whether Windblade should be able to take down a combiner, that's not what a Mary Sue is.

from Wikipedia

the "Mary Sue" is judged as a poorly developed character, too perfect and lacking in realism to be interesting

sounds about right to me.

It was a five minute episode. None of the characters were developed, or were at all interesting (and I fear that will be a problem moving forward).

At this point, all she's done is take down a combiner. We don't know how hard that actually is in this continuity; Optimus and Megatron may be taking them down left, right, and center later on. There isn't even remotely enough material available yet to state whether Windblade is a Mary Sue or not. Such characters also tend to be author inserts or wish-fulfillment characters, and there is no indication that is going on here.

MrBlack wrote:We don't know how hard that actually is in this continuity; Optimus and Megatron may be taking them down left, right, and center later on. There isn't even remotely enough material available yet to state whether Windblade is a Mary Sue or not. Such characters also tend to be author inserts or wish-fulfillment characters, and there is no indication that is going on here.

A combiner should never be that easy to take down in ANY continuity. I know it happened in the original series (both cartoon and comic), in the Japanese series like HM, MF, & Victory, RiD and in Energon. It's always been a point of contention with me. Additionally, if anyone doesn't think that the insertion of Windblade wasn't at the demand (wish-fulfillment) of Hasbro, they should think again.

speaking in general about combiners. It just saddens me that 30+ years into the franchise we have not yet had any medium that properly presents them (perhaps the DW comics but unfortunately that was short lived). A combiner becomes "more than the sum of its parts" so, the typical 5 member "scramble" type combiner should be able to stand up to a small army, say no less than 25 single transformers, some "super weapon", another combiner, or larger transformer such as Sky Lynx or Omega Supreme. The "weak spot" contrivance for times such as Devastator's first appearance and Bruticus' second is plausible on occasion, but you'd think after a period of time, they would have worked that out. My apologies for the rant. I guess its just frustrating when you see something you enjoy so much, and your absolute favorite part about it, never quite hits the mark it was intended to. I'm definitely going to keep watching this series to see where it goes.

Combiners taken down too easily in Victory? I seem to recall liokaiser being a monster...and the one bot to truly deal with him being an uber powerful but out of control sometimes Victory Leo. Another thing about combiners is though, you have to be very careful about how you handle them in the fiction as they can invalidate a lot and ruin story potential if used incorrectly.

Their is also something to consider the potential difference between how the Japanese look at combiners to others. Given the abundance of combining robots there.

ZeroWolf wrote:Combiners taken down too easily in Victory? I seem to recall liokaiser being a monster...and the one bot to truly deal with him being an uber powerful but out of control sometimes Victory Leo. Another thing about combiners is though, you have to be very careful about how you handle them in the fiction as they can invalidate a lot and ruin story potential if used incorrectly.

Their is also something to consider the potential difference between how the Japanese look at combiners to others. Given the abundance of combining robots there.

I am a huge fan of LioKaiser, even had the original toy for a time. But part of my problem with Victory was that the leaders (Star Sabre & Deathsaurus) were roughly the same size as the combiners. I know that works well for the scaling of toys, but it diminishes their importance. LioKaiser was a great fighter, but when he is looking eye-to-eye with Victory Sabre, or Deathsaurus, instead of towering over them, the threat of their presence is greatly diminished.

I mean if in the original cartoon Devastator was basically the same size as Jetfire Skyfire, would he have been nearly as impressive? no, not at all.

Voice acting is WEAK. Menasor sounds like an angry child. No gravitas to his voice at all. And not even humans die that easily. 2 deaths in this show already, I could see any human surviving; or at least they'd put up a better fight than what was displayed here. Any small child would have survived that, and they expect us to buy that that little smack against a wall would be enough to kill a Cybertronian? NAH! Even if she was a Camien, they can't be that much weaker than their Cybertronian brethren.

I don't want to hear ANYBODY talk about how ROTF Devastator got punked out in that movie. Even he got a more deserved death than any of the combiners in this "show" so far.

o.supreme wrote:

MrBlack wrote:We don't know how hard that actually is in this continuity; Optimus and Megatron may be taking them down left, right, and center later on. There isn't even remotely enough material available yet to state whether Windblade is a Mary Sue or not. Such characters also tend to be author inserts or wish-fulfillment characters, and there is no indication that is going on here.

A combiner should never be that easy to take down in ANY continuity. I know it happened in the original series (both cartoon and comic), in the Japanese series like HM, MF, & Victory, RiD and in Energon. It's always been a point of contention with me. Additionally, if anyone doesn't think that the insertion of Windblade wasn't at the demand (wish-fulfillment) of Hasbro, they should think again.

That would make her more of a Scrappy or a Wesleythan a Mary Sue. I doubt any of the executives at Hasbro see themselves as a robotic geisha. They invested a lot of hype into the creation of this character, and whether we like the outcome or the fan-built bot poll or not, they're going to cash in on that hype.

Machinima's Combiner Wars series, centered around characters from the toyline of the same name, held some promise for me when we saw the trailers and screencaps from various conventions. It's premise looked good, original, and tied in nicely with the rest of the current fiction. I was hopeful. However, after watching the first episode, that hope is fading. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad, perse, but there's a formula when it comes to a good series opener based off of the gigantic robots we know and love: It has to have Good Characters with good development, a good setting and premise, a nice production quality, and it should set you up well for what the rest of the series is going to bring. This is what made cartoons like Beast Wars, Prime, and, in some of those cases, the original G1 Cartoon so close and unforgettable to a lot of us. Combiner Wars fails on most of these grounds.

Let's break down the first episode.
The series starts off with a fight through a space bridge between Menasor and Computron. Menasor literally tears Computron to shreds, and the autobot combiner ends up "dying". We hit our first road block here. We're immediately thrown into a intense action sequence without any backstory at all. This would be completely fine by me if the rest of the episode tried to explain what's happening, but it doesn't. However, the episode is only five minutes long, so I will let this slide in hopes that future episodes will go into more detail.



Maxima and Windblade take on Menasor

Windblade and new fembot Maxima show up to try to defeat the remaining combiner. We get a small bit of exposition here, but it's only a few lines, and it only explains that Windblade used to be a "City Speaker", meaning she could talk to "Titans" (Metroplex, Fort Max, Etc.) We already knew she could do this, but it's nice to see Machinima try to keep this new series grounded in existing fiction. However, Menasor delivers this dialogue in the new "I will start yelling at random intervals for no reason" voice Machinima gave him, so it's not very easy to listen to. Roadblock #2 comes in the form of the animation. It's pretty good on the whole, but sometimes it's really smooth and fluid, and then sometimes it's broken up and choppy like a motioncomic. So, during the fight between Windblade, Maxima, and Menasor, due to this mix of the two, it's hard to keep track of what exactly is happening.

The series tries to pump some tension into the episode by having Windblade get caught by Menasor, and Maxima feels the only way to save her is to make the Ultimate Sacrifice. She becomes the embodiment of the "Friend/mentor/parent/sibling dies" trope to give Windblade a bit of a backstory and a reason to hate combiners. This doesn't work mainly because she already hates combiners. It's not like she had this drastic change of heart only when her (Friend? Sister? Pupil? We don't know. We never find out) dies. The tension comes across as forced and doesn't get any emotion out of the viewer, especially since the character dying is completely new and we know nothing about her.


Maxima, a new Female Autobot, does two minutes in.

Windblade, now freed, takes on Menasor alone. This isn't a problem, however, because somehow she takes him down in literally two swipes of her sword; about 5 seconds. This would also be excusable if she watched her friend die and went into a Anakin Skywalker-style fit of rage and just started beating up Menasor, but no. She just randomly gets this power with no real change in emotion.
This image is finally revealed to be Windblade, cutting Menasor in half, winning a fight that was much easier than it should have been

She kills Menasor after he worries her for a moment, talking about how he and her are alike, both killers. It's just that she uses a good cause to justify it. This story ark holds promise, and it will be interesting to see where it goes. After Windblade leaves, Computron starts waking up. The episode ends with a still shot of Optimus Prime, in the desert we saw him in in his spotlight video.

Windblade leaves after smashing Computron's Autobot badge

All and all, the series does have its flaws, but it's the first episode. I'm willing to give it a chance, and I recommend you do, too. It's only five minutes of your time, and it gives us the Transformers action we all know and enjoy.

Wanna see the episode for yourself? Check it out at https://www.go90.com/ or on the Go90 mobile app!

Or you could just watch it right here:

I can't quite pin down why I didn't like it, but... I just couldn't enjoy this at all. I think Menasor sums up every problem I have with this.

-He speaks in full sentences. What?
-He went from Jock to megalomaniac "there's gonna be an army of us mwahaha!" villain. Is he some care-about-himself berserker or a fanatic for his 'race'? Well I guess we won't find out now because...
-He went down so friggin' easily. Even if Windblade is supposed to be extremely powerful this just feels so disappointing.
-It feels like he and Computron are treated less as combiners and just... really big dudes.


Also it's nice to know we got a new character just so she could die. Yay. What was the point in Maxima? Like... honestly, what was the point in her? We learned nothing about her, Windblade already has motivation to kill everything as shown from the prelude, and it kind of makes little sense for such a revenge-focused character as Windblade to have a partner like that. Maxima was pointless, confusing, and dead literally within two minutes of her introduction. Why was she there?

And after we got some really creative fight scenes in IDW's Combiner Wars what with taking advantage of the HFG's transformation from foot to fist, detaching limbs for projectiles, separating part of themselves to avoid attacks... we're right back to G1's "they're just big guys that punch each other and sometimes have a gun". Menasor didn't even use his sword, goddamn.

Oh yeah and the animation was choppy and the voice acting wasn't that great. Which I can kind of put up with if there's something entertaining... but there wasn't. There just wasn't.


I realise I shouldn't judge a series based on the first episode - and I don't - but first impressions count for a lot, and this was not a good start. I'm hoping some of the later episodes can have something I can enjoy.

Haven't watched the episode yet as I can't figure go90 out on my computer (don't have an Internet-able mobile device), but I'm chuckling at all the negative comments about the episode in this thread. I mean, what were you guys really expecting from a mini-webseries of eight 5-7 minute-long episodes? This isn't gonna be anywhere near the level of quality one would get out of a full fledged long-running television series of 22-minute-long episodes. It's obviously gonna stand among the kind of shows that Transformers: Cyber Missions and Sanjou Gattai Transformers Go! were.

Were people really expecting this to be something like "The next Transformers: Prime" or something? It's another bottom-of-the-barrel mini-cartoon. The people making this series can only do so much with what little they have to work with, no matter how much effort and quality work they put into it. You can't have too much depth or complexity within a 5-minute time constraint. That's why something like Thomas the Tank Engine has lasted for so long in this format: It keeps things simple.

I might be able to have a better grasp on the complaints once I get to see the episode (why they put it on such an obscure media format that not everyone has access to is beyond me), but for now, it honestly doesn't surprise me that it isn't on the same level as a mainstream televised cartoon series, but is instead on a level of its own.