Peter Cullen on Optimus Prime in Machinima Transformers Titans Return

Well It was kind of cool to see Fort Max as a fully powered Titan, able to stand up to Trypticon even with augmented Powers. Having Trypticons transformation again shrouded was disappointing. They should have just made this an actual animated series instead of a cheap web-series. Of course when I say full animated series, I mean with professional level writers, directors, animators etc...Yeah I know Hasbro would never go for it, that's why we cant have nice things.

I just starting watching G1 again, like over this weekend, and trying to do the whole series. IT's amazing to hear how young Optimus Prime sounds to how he does now. I know that's because Peter is older, but you could honestly believe this is part of that continuity, you know, if they hadn't screwed it up. lol

Happy New Year, Seibertronians! With a new year comes more Titans Return, and so we arrive on the ninth episode of Machinima's animated series. Head-scratching moments abound, so let's just dive right in!

We open right where the previous episode left off, as Fort Max stands before Trypticon with Optimus, Windblade, and Emissary in his hand. And almost immediately off the bat we're reminded of one of the series' biggest issues. Fort Max is pelted with bolts from the same cannon that fired one shot at Prime and hurled him across the map, but acts like it's nothing. A mild inconvenience. He carries on a conversation through the entire scene while constantly getting hammered with countless lasers. This show needs to understand battles are not night and day, perfectly healthy to dead. Show some struggle, some battle damage. Heck, even if it's just little burn marks, just SOMETHING. Make us feel an emotional connection to the characters. If you don't want to do that, establish that they have a force field or shield around them, like the ships from Star Wars. Or, since this series loves glowy neon orbs so much, give him an actual lazer shield that expands from his arm! That would look so cool! THIS IS NOT THIS HARD, PEOPLE. It's really starting to bother me, and is really making it feel like they were just, frankly, too lazy to alter the character models in any way.

"Yeah, sure, we can make him fall over, but blaster marks? Ha! That's above MY pay grade."

Anyway, Trypticon transforms back to kaiju mode, and battles Fort Max, and again, the Titan fights are proven to be when this series is at it's best. The combiners can't reform their super combiner mode, as they've spent all of their energy. They decide to just split up and try to distract the Titan Dinosaur. Optimus discovers Megatron just watching the battle, and tries to convince him to fight. He's unsuccessful for the time being, as he's distracted by Fort Max, who lands a couple good hits on Trypticon, knocking him on his back. It looks like the Autobots have the upper hand for the first time in this battle, and Victorion rushes him, trying to finish him off. At the last second he turns his head and devours her whole. Literally, in one bite.

Hey, it's Attack on Titan! Heheheh

The odds then stack up against the Autobots, as not only did they lose a fighter but Trypticon has also consumed the Enigma of Combination, which somehow activates it, granting him magical powers. He promptly uses them to knock Fort Max and the other remaining Autohots down. It is a glorious couple of minutes of action, and it's extremely pretty. The visuals of Trypticon using the Enigma are very good looking. Again, the art style and color palette are very quickly becoming my favorite parts about this series.

I'm excited for the Doctor Strange remake starring Trypticon

Trypticon takes control of the other combiners and makes them turn on Fort Max. Windblade and Emissary decide they have to get them off the City Titan, so they do a couple strafing runs, knocking Devastator and Menasor off. Computron fights back, however, and sends her way off course, crashing into the ground, conveniently right at Megatron's feet.

I was almost going to complain about how Windblade shot Fort Max more than the combiners she was aiming for, but then I realized there's no point, because damage is meaningless in this series. HAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA

Windblade convinces Megatron to finally join the fight, and he narrowly saves Optimus from Devastator. While this is all happening, Perceptor has received a message from the Matrix of Leadership, which he's supposed to be carrying to safety. He brings it back into the city, presents it to Trypticon, and also gets straight up eaten whole. With that, the episode ends.

Trypticonus Prime?

This episode brings us one step closer to the end of this season, and I have to say i'm kind of enjoying the overarching story. When you zoom into each episode, the details and execution annoy me, sure, but the actual story isn't awful. It's an interesting idea, and now that we're closer to the climax, the action is more fast-paced, fun and definitely watchable. Depending on how they tie it all up, of course, but that remains to be seen.

Thanks for reading! You can watch this episode for yourself over on Go90, and come back and tell me if you agree or if you think I was totally off base. Catch you next week with the release of Episode 10!

This series has been a better watch but, man it drags on sometimes.

Stuff ALMOST happened with this episode.

I mean sure, there was still the whole bit with Optimus telling the combiners to separate ... only to ignore him and get promptly taken over by Trytiscream.

Oh and Menasor and Devestator only got taken over because of their limited intelligence. Care to explain Computron then Windblade?

And hey look! It's Perceptor! Totally ignoring Optimus' orders as well. I don't think anyone respects his leadership abilities any more.

Except Megatron, maybe, though he's just hanging around for the lulz.

Good grief this series is a mess.

I want to say I think the Enigma of Combination is quite possibly the worst item ever conceived of and added into Transformers Lore. Whomever came up with it, should be thoroughly beat with their keyboard.

To a certain extent I would like to see them do a reissue of Trypicon in the Psychedelic magic scheme of translucent purples and glitter they us in here.

The best part of this episode Preceptor getting eaten. I loved him in the G1 cartoon but I can't stand him in this series. I admit, part of it is probably the voice actor for him this time around.

I think the idea of the Enigma is a good one, explaining how Combiners work, and can come into existence. How its been executed in this series, and the previous one, yes that is a point of contention I can understand.

Its kind of like Vector Sigma...Sure you can make new Transformers without it (i.e. The Dinobots), but they are going to have limitations. In my head canon, I always envisioned the Dinobots were taken to Vector Sigma at some point between 1985-2005, which explains their vastly augmented personalities from TFTM & on.

o.supreme wrote:Its kind of like Vector Sigma...Sure you can make new Transformers without it (i.e. The Dinobots), but they are going to have limitations. In my head canon, I always envisioned the Dinobots were taken to Vector Sigma at some point between 1985-2005, which explains their vastly augmented personalities from TFTM & on.

As a fan who didnt grow up with G1, the key to Vector sigma is what I have the hardest time making sense of. Especially when you link that to Beast Machines.

william-james88 wrote: As a fan who didnt gro up with G1, the key to Vector sigma is what I have the hardest time making sense of. Especially when you link that to Beast Machines.

yeah, BM screwed a lot of things up, but that's nothing new.

o.supreme wrote:

william-james88 wrote: As a fan who didnt gro up with G1, the key to Vector sigma is what I have the hardest time making sense of. Especially when you link that to Beast Machines.

yeah, BM screwed a lot of things up, but that's nothing new.

What did BM do with the Key that was wrong? In G1, it turned organic material into metal, just as it did in BM.

I was being a bit facetious, but the question may want to be directed at William since he was wondering how Vector Sigma made sense...

As for me, I really have no issue with Vector Sigma itself in BM...it's other things I take issue with.

I just watched the Stop Motion video you guys posted with Optimus, Hot Rod and Overload, which was awesome, but I noticed there was another one by the same creator and I didn't know if you guys knew about it, so I thought I would share just in case.
This one has Windblade, Optimus, Megatron and Tyrpicon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRhfqRUYNTE

Recently Den of Geek did an interview with the one and only Peter Cullen. In the article he talks about his role as Optimus Prime and Ironhide throughout the franchise, including the most recent Titans Return animated series. He reflects on the moment when he got word that Optimus would be written out of the Transformers: The Movie (1986). He goes on to talk about how he portrays Optimus and Ironhide in the live action films by Michael Bay.

He later gives some advice in the article to those who aspire to be voice actors. It is worth the read for those who are thinking about being the voice of a character in a show. If you would like to check out Peter Cullen's latest work, Transformers Prime Wars: Titans Return is available on Go90.com.

I was a 1980s kid, and I remember seeing Transformers: The Movie and just being devastated by the death of Optimus Prime. How did you first find out about this plot point, and after Optimus died did you find yourself grieving for the character?

I was stunned when I first read about it. I was reading the script, getting ready to go into recording. I was with Frank Welker and I got to the page, and I just read it and when the dust settled in my brain, i said "wait a minute, this is it, I’m not coming back. Oh damn." Or whatever curse words were available at the time, I chose those that were appropriate.

It was disappointment for sure. As an actor you either learn to put up with rejections or disappointments or you’ll break, you'll succumb. I'm used to that. Most actors are used to that, getting hired for something that means a lot to them. You hope, you hope, you hope. Your hopes shouldn't be dashed because you didn’t get the part. But in my case I was a little disgruntled because there was no explanation, there was no intended meaning behind it, other than years later to find out they were just trying to create a new character to sell more toys. But at the time you interpret that as being “my character sucks, God I must have been terrible in this role.”

We didn’t get fan mail. I never received a letter of fan mail although I was told it did come. And we didn’t have the internet so there was no thermomenter to judge how popular or unpopular something was. So move on, go on to the next job.

Of course now you realize how beloved Optimus is. Jumping ahead a few years when you were first cast for the Michael Bay Transformers movie, was your approach to the film version of Optimus different than his cartoon counterpart?

I think the answer is a two-fold answer. The character traits were ultimately for me going to be the same, but how to enact them and make the change from a small television screen with painted pictures to a full-on, blown up 45-foot character who is talking to human beings in real-life form in a believable way, that was something that had to be contended with. And I might add that Michael Bay and the people in his department were very concerned whether or not Peter Cullen could act. In other words could he act in a real-life situation and the way they were going to conceive it and portray it?

I had to audition a total of three times, they weren’t quite convinced. I don’t blame them, because at the audition Michael asked me if I played any other characters and I said yes, I played Ironhide and Ironhide had a scene with Optimus Prime. There was a girl reading Ironhide not giving it any dimension. I assumed that Michael Bay was at least aware of some of these characters so I said “if you don’t mind I’d like to read that part, I did him two and half years on the television series." She said ok.

Jess Harnell was Movie Ironhide. Cullen just read Ironhide's lines during his audition for Optimus.

It's Tuesday, where's episode 10? Did I miss a memo about its delay?

Surprisingly, it isn't up yet on go90.

Episode is up now.

Windblade wrote:Somebody explain what just happened!

Sums up what I think of the series so far.

"All Things Must Pass" ....so many jokes/puns could be made here, but I'll leave that for others...

Well, that was something. Actually something I think I may have not entirely disliked...not sure yet...It certainly did make the end of the battle with Trypticon anti-climactic, but in an odd way, I feel it was kind of like the end of LOTR. There was nothing really the armies of the world could do to stop Sauron, but the destruction of the One Ring did bring it all to an end, as did giving the Matrix to Trypscream.

Oh and we see Overlord, make sure you don't forget him . Megatron, what terrible language . Also is that Mark Hamill voicing Megatronus? Just a shot in the dark, probably not, but just going by my initial instinct.

Are there any Mazinger fans here? I Initially thought of the Mikene Emperor with the flaming face, and oddly enough, Megatronus had a Mazinger-ish head in his robot form, which is again a completely new design not based on any previous rendition of Megatronus/The Fallen.

No surprise about Evil Rodimus, though they must have done this before getting renders from Hasbro about Rodimus Unicronus. Though the face-plate reveal in PotP could come complete with evil goatee.

This felt much more like Episode 1 of PotP than the end of TR, but it is what it is...Oh and it definitely was also very much like the end of Pirates of the Caribbean "Dead Man's Chest" (the 2nd one). -The Hero is dead, the Villain comes back and asks if the crew is willing to go to the place they need to go, to do the thing they need to do...It's just too bad that Optimus' Death means so little now, its pretty much a staple of every series.

I'll admit I'm more optimistic about PotP now, than I was for TR at the end of CW, but just a bit more. .

o.supreme wrote:"All Things Must Pass" ....so many jokes/puns could be made here, but I'll leave that for others...

Well, that was something. Actually something I think I may have not entirely disliked...not sure yet...It certainly did make the end of the battle with Trypticon anti-climactic, but in an odd way, I feel it was kind of like the end of LOTR. There was nothing really the armies of the world could do to stop Sauron, but the destruction of the One Ring did bring it all to an end, as did giving the Matrix to Trypscream.

Oh and we see Overlord, make sure you don't forget him . Megatron, what terrible language . Also is that Mark Hamill voicing Megatronus? Just a shot in the dark, probably not, but just going by my initial instinct.

Are there any Mazinger fans here? I Initially thought of the Mikene Emperor with the flaming face, and oddly enough, Megatronus had a Mazinger-ish head in his robot form, which is again a completely new design not based on any previous rendition of Megatronus/The Fallen.

No surprise about Evil Rodimus, though they must have done this before getting renders from Hasbro about Rodimus Unicronus. Though the face-plate reveal in PotP could come complete with evil goatee.

This felt much more like Episode 1 of PotP than the end of TR, but it is what it is...Oh and it definitely was also very much like the end of Pirates of the Caribbean "Dead Man's Chest" (the 2nd one). -The Hero is dead, the Villain comes back and asks if the crew is willing to go to the place they need to go, to do the thing they need to do...It's just too bad that Optimus' Death means so little now, its pretty much a staple of every series.

I'll admit I'm more optimistic about PotP now, than I was for TR at the end of CW, but just a bit more. .

TFWiki credits Hamill for Megatronus. So, credit to Hasbro again for upping the voice budget.

His design definitely evokes Mazinger with the helmet and the neck spikes. I guess it looks a bit like the movie incarnation filtered through the RID art style.

Not sure what I think of this. It was certainly a bold way to end this chapter. Megatron continues to entertain, so I guess that's enough for me.

MrBlack wrote:TFWiki credits Hamill for Megatronus. So, credit to Hasbro again for upping the voice budget.

oh wow, I was right for once. . Still this is not his first gig in Transformers, he was Chief Burns brother in Rescue Bots.

When I saw this: https://i.imgur.com/JhKnYpL.png

I thought of this:



and this:

Final episode? You mean "How much can we cram into this one episode because we ran out of time?"

Just like that, Trypticon falls over dead, Ghost Starscream goes flying off, and a flaming eyes and mouth that made me wince.

Basically this entire series was a set up for Megatronus to get his hands on the Enigma of Combination and The Matrix? ugh ...

At least we got a glimpse of Rodimus Unicronus, I thought for sure they'd just skip over that little plot point.

Now that they've discovered more money for the voice actor budget, can they find some money for the script budget for PotP?

Will there be a new Megatronus toy?

Burn wrote:Now that they've discovered more money for the voice actor budget, can they find some money for the script budget for PotP?

Same writers....so I'm going to say no. But, to be fair, I'd say overall it was better than CW (I know not saying much...) But if the trend continues, we could actually, potentially, maybe...live in this crazy world where PotP may end up better then the worst of the Unicron Trilogy...( everybody's opinion of worst is different , so take your pick..) just sayin'

Rysquad wrote:Will there be a new Megatronus toy?

That was my initial thought, but Hasbro hasn't revealed anything beyond the Prime Masters as representing the Prime's themselves (Megatronus is said to be with Bomb-Burst in wave 3 of PotP). Though I must say that Megatronus had that "Toyetic" (points if you know where that's from) look.

Another Tuesday brings another episode of Machinima's Titans Return animated series. We're finally up to the final episode this week, episode ten, and boy are we in for a big one. That's not necessarily saying it's good or bad, just that it's packed to the brim with new, interesting, and slightly confusing moments. So without further ado, let's take a look at the final episode of Titans Return!

We rejoin the action with Trypticon having just eaten Victorion, the Enigma of Combination, Perceptor, and the Matrix of Leadership. This is obviously too much power for even the giant Titan, so he automatically rejects them all, coughing up the two Autobots and the two relics. Starscream's ghost is also released from Trypticon's body, and he falls, having basically been turned into an empty shell. The former council member says his final words to the Megatron and the rest of the cast, and then disappears into the ether. Sort of an anti-climatic end to the main plot thread of the series, but it at least makes some sort of sense. For the first time in a few episodes, Overlord is shown again, now overlooking (badumtiss) the aftermath of the battle.


"Well ain't that downright...finger lickin' good."

Victorion tries to retake the Enigma, but it catches her on fire, burning her right forearm, an entire half of Dust Up (Who may or may not exist as a separate personality in this continuity, given this series' track record with Combiners), completely off.

She recoils from the attack as the fire spreads, creating a ring around both the Enigma and the Matrix. The fire climbs higher and creates the shape of a...fairly non-threatening smiley face?


"Children of my third cousin twice removed's wife's sister's bank teller!"

The Emoji from hell reveals himself to be some sort of God to the Transformers, and Optimus wants to defend Cybertron from his obvious evil intentions, but Megatron convinces Prime to let him talk to the mystical being first. As Megatron approaches, the being reveals himself to be none other than Megatronus. Megatron speaks to him, reminding the God that he has, for eternities, fought under his name with respect and honor, and united the Decepticons Megatronus created. Megatronus tells him to move on to his point, so Megatron continues.

I have a few issues with Megatron's speech here.

The first is that Megatron curses Megatronus, saying "Goddamn you!". It caught me so off guard that it totally pulled me out of the episode. I haven't really shared my thoughts on the PG-13 nature of this series' dialogue yet, so I'll throw those two cents in now. It's not the principle of swearing that bothers me specifically, I think it's fine to use for effect, but in this series it feels like they're including it just because they can. There's no drama to it, no anguish, it's just there. Not only that, but in this specific case it makes no sense, as he's the God doing the damning. Perhaps it would have been more of an effect had he said "Primus Damn you!" or something to that effect, referencing a power higher than Megatronus. I digress.

My second issue with this scene is Megatron himself. Megatron's voice actor is one of the best parts of both this series and its predecessor, Combiner Wars. The sarcastic and flippant take on the classic character is seriously one of the best Megatrons we've seen since G1, but in this specific scene, it doesn't completely work. He's lamenting to his God and Idol about all of these things he's done to try and honor Megatronus, but he still maintains his indifferent exterior. It actually would have been an interesting scene to have him perhaps become slightly vulnerable at the feet of his idol when he's so buffed against vulnerability toward everyone else. It would have deepened his character, and would have really shown that he felt betrayed about doing all these things to gain approval of Megatronus just to receive nothing in response.


It's awesome to see our podcast staff in official media...

Anyway, Optimus and Fort Max use this opportunity to try to attack Megatronus, and it ends, uh, very poorly.

Fort Max actually uses the Master Sword, which is pretty awesome to see in an American series, but Megatronus easily blocks his attacks. He then gets rushed by Prime, though Optimus is similarly no match for the god, and gets blasted through the chest by a lazer. Yep, we get to deal with this again.


Oh, guys, no. Why? Didn't Transformers: The Movie teach you anything about what happens when you kill Optimus Prime?

As the life drains from Optimus's eyes, Megatronus warns of an apocalyptic event that will bring an end to the Transformers. With that cryptic warning, he disappears. Megatron realizes he knows where to find Megatronus, and asks the rest of the team to follow him there, promising the new adventure for the cast in the next series.

Overlord is still on a nearby hill watching what's transpiring before him, and for one final twist to this huge episode, it's revealed to us that he has turned Hot Rod into Rodimus Unicronus. With that, the episode, and the series, ends.




While on the whole this was a very enjoyable episode, there were bits and pieces that irked me. Line deliveries, pacing issues, the norm for this series. It answered a few questions and ended a few plot threads, but started quite a few more, but does lead in to a cliffhanger to transition into Power of The Primes. The amount of new characters and plot twists has definitely peaked my interest, and was an exciting episode, but I feel that spreading some of them out over the past couple of episodes would have been better. Some of the more recent installments have felt a bit too dull and filler-like, but it did make for quite a nail-biting episode today, like I said. And if there's one thing you can say for these Machinima shows, they're always unpredictable.

Looking at the series as a whole, it was not bad by any stretch. I've maintained since the beginning that it is leagues ahead of Combiner Wars, and it really is. In voice talent, animation, pacing, even the mouth movements on the characters, everything is a huge improvement. I can say unequivocally this production team learned a lot from their past mistakes and tried to remedy some of them. There lies the problem, though: They didn't fix enough of them. The pacing still feels off, some of the conversations need, desperately, to feel more natural and flowing. Character movements need to be more natural, and need to express more emotion when someone's talking. It's all very close to being good, and they have made vast improvements and learned a lot, I just think they need to learn a bit more.


Thanks for reading this review, and, as always, please share your thoughts down in the Energon Pub forums. Sorry today's review was a tad longer than what I normally do, there was a lot to unpack. Tell me if you agree with the points I made, or if I'm way off base. See you later this year, with the release of Power of the Primes!

o.supreme wrote:

Burn wrote:Now that they've discovered more money for the voice actor budget, can they find some money for the script budget for PotP?

Same writers....so I'm going to say no. But, to be fair, I'd say overall it was better than CW (I know not saying much...) But if the trend continues, we could actually, potentially, maybe...live in this crazy world where PotP may end up better then the worst of the Unicron Trilogy...( everybody's opinion of worst is different , so take your pick..) just sayin'

Keep my expectations low then.
Not like it was going to be any other way.

o.supreme wrote:Well It was kind of cool to see Fort Max as a fully powered Titan, able to stand up to Trypticon even with augmented Powers. Having Trypticons transformation again shrouded was disappointing. They should have just made this an actual animated series instead of a cheap web-series. Of course when I say full animated series, I mean with professional level writers, directors, animators etc...Yeah I know Hasbro would never go for it, that's why we cant have nice things.

I would have been happy with just an animated comic style affair, with great voice acting and some nice effects. There was a pretty good motion comic a while back about the War Within that seemed better than Machinima's efforts.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JPeHw4laWos

Fan made videos are fine. I have ma favorites also.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYny1tadpPM

but, for better or worse, I always keep them separate form official media.

o.supreme wrote:Fan made videos are fine. I have ma favorites also.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYny1tadpPM

but, for better or worse, I always keep them separate form official media.

I meant that Machinima could have used this style of animation to save money and spend more in the writing, visual effects, voice actors, length, etc.

Some might say that there are practically no differences in frame rate between a motion comic, and what we have got right now

I feel bad for the voice cast on POTP, because Joe's gonna kill them.

chuckdawg1999 wrote:I feel bad for the voice cast on POTP, because Joe's gonna kill them.

I haven't watched rasslin' since 2002, so I have no idea who this guy is. After looking him up online, he seems like a good fit for Predaking.

That wasn't even Rodimus Unicronus at the end. We got cheated out of even expecting that since that was just Nemesis Hot Rod.

chuckdawg1999 wrote:I feel bad for the voice cast on POTP, because Joe's gonna kill them.

..HAHAHAHA!!

chuckdawg1999 wrote:I feel bad for the voice cast on POTP, because Joe's gonna kill them.

Just imagine if the timing had been right, they could have had a different voice actor for when Fortress Maximus WOKE.

Bronzewolf wrote:I haven't really shared my thoughts on the PG-13 nature of this series' dialogue yet, so I'll throw those two cents in now. It's not the principle of swearing that bothers me specifically, I think it's fine to use for effect, but in this series it feels like they're including it just because they can. There's no drama to it, no anguish, it's just there.

I have a minor point of contention regarding this: this show is not PG-13. It's solidly PG. You can fit a few "damns" and "hells" and (according to TF:TM) even a "shit" in a PG film. It's not language alone that determines the rating, it's the level of action, violence, themes, and intensity of what's onscreen, and nothing in this series surpasses is any worse than TF: Prime, it just sticks in a few curse words because..... reasons. I agree with your comment that the profanity doesn't add anything, but considering this a PG-13 work is a bit much.


So, this episode..... I got halfway through, stopped and rewatched episode 9, and I realized they still didn't show the Combiners being released from Trypticon's control. I assume it happened when he ate the Matrix but still, the episode opened with them just standing there. Not a great continuation after last week's cliffhanger. This whole episode felt anti-climactic, and I don't like that the plot thread with Overlord and Hot Rod was ignored for most of the series only to make a brief appearance here teasing the POTP show. I also don't quite get how Menasor and Devastator can be so mad at Megatron for claiming to want to reignite the Decepticons when they're supposed to be his (at least former) underlings, but I guess that goes along with Combiners effectively being their own faction here, which is strange since I think they still have faction symbols. Maybe I'm mis-remembering. The world of this show is not very well fleshed out at all. Megatronus was an interesting development at least, with an all-new design. Kudos for that, let's hope they don't squander that storyline next year. (not holding my breath) Oh and Optimus Prime is dead. How sad, this has never ever happened before in the history of the franchise, and I'm absolutely shaken that they would dare to kill off such a beloved icon permanently.

Well, this has been a trip. The show was, overall, better than Combiner Wars, but burdened with its own flaws. Ultimately we saw 6 standard toys from the toyline (but despite Perceptor's head-legs, none of them appeared to be Headmasters), both titans, and one single Titan Master who never actually formed anybody's head despite clearly having Cerebros's head on his back. And we never saw Cerebros at all, Fort Max just appeared fully formed. Not that I'm terribly surprised but Trypticon's drone never got used either. The show technically lived up to its title with the appearance of 3 titans, but didn't serve to advertise the toyline very well by not featuring its main gimmick at all. (of course, again, neither did CW so I don't know what I expected.) It feels weird to criticize a show for not being a blatant advertisement for toys, I'm not gonna lie, but there's just so much more unexplored potential in this series. I'm now betting that we will see at most 2 Prime Masters and maybe one Decoy Shell in the POTP series, and Elita One will be the only new toy character (barring Nemesis Hot Rod) and we'll never see her combine.

King Kuuga wrote:

Bronzewolf wrote:I haven't really shared my thoughts on the PG-13 nature of this series' dialogue yet, so I'll throw those two cents in now. It's not the principle of swearing that bothers me specifically, I think it's fine to use for effect, but in this series it feels like they're including it just because they can. There's no drama to it, no anguish, it's just there.

I have a minor point of contention regarding this: this show is not PG-13. It's solidly PG. You can fit a few "damns" and "hells" and (according to TF:TM) even a "****" in a PG film. It's not language alone that determines the rating, it's the level of action, violence, themes, and intensity of what's onscreen, and nothing in this series surpasses is any worse than TF: Prime, it just sticks in a few curse words because..... reasons. I agree with your comment that the profanity doesn't add anything, but considering this a PG-13 work is a bit much.

You misunderstand. I never said it was a "PG-13 work", just a PG-13 nature of the dialogue specifically. I understand the action/violence factor, and I agree with you, it's nothing worse than Prime, which is why I specified dialogue.

I hesitate to talk about any 80s movie in reference to PG-13, as it was brand new at the time, having been instituted in late 1984. A lot of 80s PG movies pushed the envelope, and I'd argue that TF The Movie potentially deserved a PG-13 rating, between the language and violence, as many of the 80s PG movies do. (Back to the Future comes to mind) I think the only thing that saved it (other than PG-13 not being very widely used) was the fact it was animated.
You'd be surprised how many people get offended by "Goddamn", which is why it's censored on TV and in songs on the radio, while "Damn" isn't. I stand by my thought, I think it's accurate.

o.supreme wrote:

chuckdawg1999 wrote:I feel bad for the voice cast on POTP, because Joe's gonna kill them.

I haven't watched rasslin' since 2002, so I have no idea who this guy is. After looking him up online, he seems like a good fit for Predaking.

Are we sure he's Predaking? I just thought that pic was for reference.

chuckdawg1999 wrote:

o.supreme wrote:

chuckdawg1999 wrote:I feel bad for the voice cast on POTP, because Joe's gonna kill them.

I haven't watched rasslin' since 2002, so I have no idea who this guy is. After looking him up online, he seems like a good fit for Predaking.

Are we sure he's Predaking? I just thought that pic was for reference.

You did read the POTP voice cast announcement, right?

Megatronus seems like a distant cousin of Henry Masterson's Headmaster from TF Animated.

http://tfwiki.net/mediawiki/images2/6/64/Henrymastersonandhead.jpg

This: machinima-transformers-titans-return-animated-series-discussion-thread-t104773s2075.php#p1930620

Dropped off after episode 7, but only watched this episode to hear how Hamill would do a Megatronus. Not bad, and I like the design for him. Reminds me of Animated Overlord a little.

Also, any reason TFWiki is calling him “Rodimus Cron?”

Mindmaster wrote:Also, any reason TFWiki is calling him “Rodimus Cron?”

That's what the voice cast announcement for POTP has the evil Hot Rod listed as.

Sabrblade wrote:

Mindmaster wrote:Also, any reason TFWiki is calling him “Rodimus Cron?”

That's what the voice cast announcement for POTP has the evil Hot Rod listed as.

Like Uni-cron? Surely it would be Rodi-cron?

Wouldn't it be awesome if we could stop calling them "Machinimas" and "Magnas" ?

Cant we just call them what they are ? (cartoons and comics)

Seems like someone is just trying to make something sound overly sophisticated. Like if they feel the need justify adults watching cartoons or reading comics.

I dont know if the terms are offically coined by Hasbro/Takara or just fan made, but thats my 2 cents on them.

Rated X wrote:Wouldn't it be awesome if we could stop calling them "Machinimas" and "Magnas" ?

Cant we just call them what they are ? (cartoons and comics)

Seems like someone is just trying to make something sound overly sophisticated. Like if they feel the need justify adults watching cartoons or reading comics.

I dont know if the terms are offically coined by Hasbro/Takara or just fan made, but thats my 2 cents on them.

I'm a bit confused what you're referring to. I refer to it as Machinima's Titans Return because

1. It's produced by Machinima
And
2. I want to be clear that I'm talking about the cartoon and not the toy line.

And Magnas are a model of car put out by Mitsubishi ... so ... yeah. Cool story X, cool story.

That finale was...odd. Felt like many plot threads weren't properly cliffhanger-ed. Like Overlord and Rodimus? Ominous, yeah, but I wasn't excited by it. Starscream's whole thing? Well that was easily resolved. Honestly felt bad for Trypticon, he was possessed and left to be a rusted out shell. Megatron's snark has been the saving grace of this show. Although, I'm thrilled to see a new take on Megatronus, finally we see him as OP as I expect him to be (and not a walking furnace/wimpy teleporter/angry first Decepticon). And we have honestly my favorite voice actor in the role.

Whereas Combiner Wars was a 3/10 for me, I'll give this show a 6.5/10. The only thing holding me back is the overly drawn out plot and poor dubbing/voice acting. Though it's light years from how bad CW was, Windblade is just so snore-worthy (thank god Mistress of Flame is dead).

One thing I did like, Optimus totally miscalculated that attack. It was a dumb move, and it's honestly kinda funny to me that he would attack so blatantly and get blown away like he's nothing.

REally like the last episode, and cannot wait for the Power of the Primes.

Rated X wrote:Wouldn't it be awesome if we could stop calling them "Machinimas" and "Magnas" ?

Cant we just call them what they are ? (cartoons and comics)

Seems like someone is just trying to make something sound overly sophisticated. Like if they feel the need justify adults watching cartoons or reading comics.

I dont know if the terms are offically coined by Hasbro/Takara or just fan made, but thats my 2 cents on them.

To be fair Manga is used to describe comics of Japanese origin, and is used specifically to distinguish them from the western counterparts, though both cover many varied topics.

General point:
Comics is the Anglophone name of the medium of sequential storytelling with interaction of image and text. The comic book, manga, manhwa, quadrinhos, fumetti, bande dessinnée are various regional incarnations of that medium (Anglosphere, Japan, China, Brazil, Italy, Francosphere respectively; examples, not comprehensive).

News answer:
So yes, we will keep using the accurate term for all of these. If it's an AngloAmerican comic book, it's a comic (book), if it's a Japanese manga, it's a manga. If it's an animated series produced by Hasbro and Machinima, it's Machinima's animated series.