G1 season three thoughts

[andersonh1]

Always thought that episode should've been called "I, Grimlock".

I mean, come on.

Yeah, no kidding! A real missed opportunity there.

[Gomess]

Always thought that episode should've been called "I, Grimlock".

"Shattered Glass" would get to that years later in the only good (and interestingly, the first) piece of fiction ever spawned by that universe.

Soooo Shattered Glass at its best is as intelligent as I was when I was 13. Reassuring.

[Dominic]

Yeah, "Shattered Glass" is pretty bad.

The comic distributed at the convention in '08 was better than it had any right to be, weighing in at "passable".

The rest is just derivative low-grade crap, even by the standards of the genre.

I have some of the text stories. If you want 'em, lemme know.


Dom
-they are really bad.

[andersonh1]

Ok, I skipped ahead to Return of Optimus Prime, and I've started "The Rebirth" as well, just to compare and contrast with "The Headmasters". I'll post some reviews tomorrow. I will say that until I saw the Rebirth on VHS at a Botcon years ago, I had no idea that it existed. I always thought ROOP was the final story of the series. The Rebirth really does go the opposite of the "slow burn" approach that Headmasters takes and throws tons of new characters at the viewer in the first ten minutes.

Kup: "How many Decepticons are on the way to Cybertron"
Prime: "ALL of them!"

[Gomess]

The Rebirth really does go the opposite of the "slow burn" approach that Headmasters takes

Understatement much...? Xp

I'm amused how American Sixshot is a cowboy, where Japanese Sixshot is a ninja.

[Mako Crab]

I watched Rebirth once.
.
.
.
Only once. As much as I hate it when people call the cartoons 30 minute toy commercials, it is painfully, inescapably true for Rebirth. I saw the interview with David Wise (I think) where he talked about the whole process he went through trying to make something coherent out of the laundry list of characters that Hasbro handed to him for inclusion. I really felt for the guy, trying to find some kind of narrative that could be told while introducing somewhere in the range of a few dozen new characters. Then his big 5-part epic finale got cut down to 3-parts and he's still supposed to make this thing work somehow and still make sense?! The fact that it's watchable at all is a credit to his name.
I did feel a little bad for Optimus though. Here he is, celebrating victory at the end, the complete revitalization of Cybertron, and not one of his original troops are anywhere to be seen. Surrounded by strangers, he's lost everyone by war's end.

[Gomess]

Bumblebee's there.

=/

And he's not Goldbug anymore.

=//

[Dominic]

In theory, more than a few of the 84/85 cast are still around. But, yeah, it was a much different show by the end.

And, is that really such a bad thing?

[andersonh1]

The Rebirth
The story I didn't even know existed until Botcon 2002, I believe. So many new toys/characters get crammed into three episodes that it's amazing they found room for a plot. And it's a plot that Beast Machines seems to have ripped off nearly wholesale! Well, not really, but portions of it did appear in very similar plot arcs in that series. The Plasma Energy Chamber plays a big part in Beast Machines, while Vector Sigma/The Oracle plot to transform Cybertron by feeding visions to the leader of the Autobots/Maximals and by manipulating the villain to help get the job done. The similarities do make me wonder...

In any case, so many new characters get crammed into the episodes that some get one or two scenes only. Punch/Counterpunch, Sixshot, and both sets of clones get a cameo. The Targetmasters and Headmasters get the bulk of screen time, and the entire second episode is pretty much devoted to how they come to exist. The third episode gives us the resolution to Galvatron's plot as well as the battle between Scorponok and Fortress Maximus.

It all holds together fairly well, despite the more overt than usual toy commercial roots of the cartoon. I think I prefer the small Transformer/Transtector version of Headmasters seen over in the Japanese cartoon, since having organic Nebulons inside the guns and heads is a tough to swallow concept once it plays out on screen. And I still think "The Return of Optimus Prime" would have made a better end to the series than "The Rebirth". But in all honesty, I like the story and I'm glad it exists. It's good to see Optimus Prime alive and in command at the end, and see a new golden age for Cybertron and the hope of a peaceful future for the Autobots.

[Onslaught Six]

It all holds together fairly well, despite the more overt than usual toy commercial roots of the cartoon. I think I prefer the small Transformer/Transtector version of Headmasters seen over in the Japanese cartoon, since having organic Nebulons inside the guns and heads is a tough to swallow concept once it plays out on screen.

See, here's the thing--I prefer it sometimes and then I don't prefer it. For example, and I know G might call this blasphemy, I much prefer the Marvel Comics Scorponok to anything else I've seen done with the guy (besides Maximum Dinobots). The way Zarak and Scorponok learned to cooperate made it so that, by the time of his death, they were one complete being. (Which led credence to the same happening to Optimus Prime and Hi-Q, another thing I didn't seem to mind, though I much prefer Ginrai.)