TF Views

Gomess wrote:So is everyone actually watching and enjoying this series? I hear very little about it. And what I mostly hear is "it's pretty but vapid".

A surprising amount of my friends who don't care about TF watched Animated with me. Not one of them suggested we follow it up with Prime.

Perhaps Prime isn't aimed at the Casual Viewer...

To me, Prime is filler, it's basic content to drive the franchise forward, it is pretty much exactly what the casual viewer would be looking at.

Sorry, I should've elaborated on my use of capital letters.

Prime is certainly aimed at casual fans, and the actual kid demographic it's *intended* for, but young adults who have no prejudices against cartoons don't seem to find it worth their time, from my experience.

Which tells me that, aside from happening to bear the Transformers logo, it's not much of a show.

JediTricks wrote:Pretty much right on the money all around (although I still think BB's color shouldn't have affected the scanning based on the way they had been scanning vehicles in previous episodes at a deeper level). You caught more inconsistencies than I saw, you have been cursed with "paying attention" this show. I like the take on Optimus turning into the Hulk, that's a good take with him all bulked out like that.

Oh, yeah, I meant to comment a bit more about Bumblebee changing his paint job but forgot about it... While I thought it was a nice idea to throw off the Decepticons from a visual standpoint, it really doesn't make any sense that it would actually fool the Decepticons. I mean, they are a race that specializes in an ability to transform, so why would a relatively minor change like paint job make them go "That doesn't look exactly like him, it must not be, moving on..."? What if Bumblebee had scanned a new alternative form? On top of it, they actually scanned Bumblebee, so why wouldn't they have detected an Autobot signal, or something, like they do elsewhere in the series?

I wouldn't say I caught so many inconsistencies because I payed attention, they were just more apparent to me I guess...

Gomess wrote:So is everyone actually watching and enjoying this series? I hear very little about it. And what I mostly hear is "it's pretty but vapid".

It is one of the best visual Transformers series we have ever gotten and while it has its moments, the writing leaves a lot to be desired. Like JT said, a lot of it feels like filler and it could be better...

In theory,it could be plausible. The paint used on the SR-71 and on the Stealth bomber and fighter are a special type of paint that disrupts radar (essentially making them impossible to scan by our current technology). My father actually knew a guy who had illegally painted his car with this stuff and would come in to work doing speeds in excess of 100mph but cops could catch him because the radar couldn't detect it. He was later caught and I think he was tried for treason. Anyway, case in point, it is theoretically possible to create paint designed to disrupt scanning devices.

Although... the fact that I have to come up with that explanation myself is not good.

Hrm. That reminds me, Hasbro did make a "Shadow Strike" Bumblebee repaint with a similar look whose toy bio explained his new paint job was "chameleon tech". Although, the way the bio describes is it like a chameleon changing color to blend into its surroundings. The show itself, however, doesn't say that there is anything special about Bumblebee's new look and offers no explanation other than the Decepticons simply did not recognize him. And then we see Ultra Magnus still can detect Bumblebee's signal with his ship's sensors while the only two he doesn't detect was Smokescreen and Optimus as their signals are shielded...

Shockwave wrote:My father actually knew a guy who had illegally painted his car with this stuff and would come in to work doing speeds in excess of 100mph but cops could catch him because the radar couldn't detect it. He was later caught and I think he was tried for treason.

I had a moment where I was like, "That's a pretty harsh punishment," until I remembered that guy was probably in the military.

Onslaught Six wrote:

Shockwave wrote:My father actually knew a guy who had illegally painted his car with this stuff and would come in to work doing speeds in excess of 100mph but cops could catch him because the radar couldn't detect it. He was later caught and I think he was tried for treason.

I had a moment where I was like, "That's a pretty harsh punishment," until I remembered that guy was probably in the military.

Not to mention that the paint is still secret technology, not released to the public. It would be like joyriding in a stealth bomber. The military generally frowns on that.

THREAD INFO UPDATE, TFP/BH Episode 5 schedule air date, name & brief description: "The episode is titled "Project Predacon" and scheduled to air on May 17th.

See the brief synopsis below: "The Decepticons launch a new scheme to clone an army of beasts".

Their is a extended intro starting with BH episode 5. The extended stuff in the intro is BH Optimus's new robot & vehicle mode design. Predaking fighting optimus.

Project Predacon
I would have just assumed the Forge of Solus Prime upgraded Optimus' vehicle form along with his robot mode, but apparently not, as the episode begins with Fowler providing a new military experimental fighting truck for him to scan. And Smokescreen goes out and get himself a new paint job, not wanting to be left of of having a new look like Optimus and Bumblebee. Seems to me they might as well have shown Ultra Magnus scanning a vehicle form as well if they were going to waste so much time in the episode on this.

This episode sets up yet another scavenger hunt plot line. After the Decepticons recover part of a Predacon fossil (Optimus gets the other part alerting them to the Decepticons plans), we find out during the War for Cybertron, Shockwave cloned a whole army of Predacons and sent them to Earth to protect energon stocks hidden on the planet. Even though that's what Skyquake's job was. Over time, they all died and became fossils, but Shockwave says he can clone the clones fossils to make new Predacons, but they wont be very difficult to find them because he had them micro-chipped before sending them to Earth. So the Decepticons go after two signals, and the Autobots split into teams to stop them. And the first team fails to stop them from getting a fragment.