New Universe Classics Animation

[kup]

Hasbro has added a Java animation video of the Universe Classics on their website:

http://www.hasbro.com/monkeybartv/default.cfm?page=Entertainment/Videos/VideoSelect&aid=3823

Its pretty cool and its basically a streamlined version of the basic G1 story. However there is one think that I seriously dislike with passion.

I HATE how every new Transformers story has them changing alt modes 'on the fly' without any assistance or needing to be rebuilt like in G1/BW. Ever since this 'on the fly' stupid change of alt mode concept was introduced in the Unicron trilogy it has been forced into every single form of new media including the Movie.

If Transformers can morph into anything by just scanning something then what is the damn point of Transforming? They may as well be made of liquid Metal like the T-1000. This is a clear dumbing down of the concept and a regression not progression.

[Pulse]

Not a big fan of the animation (feels as though they really cheapened out there :rolleyes:)

I wonder if Megs will scan a nerfgun? :D

[i_amtrunks]

Dont know why, but the Narrator/Prime voice actor bothered me.

[Golden Phoenix]

That was pretty poor. I liked the whole story synopsis, but the animation was poor.
Waste of my time really...

[roller]

Dont know why, but the Narrator/Prime voice actor bothered me.

same


Well, this ad fuels my ambition that Universe 2 is not the same continuity as Classics.

Primes voice sucked!

[roller]

Hasbro has added a Java animation video of the Universe Classics on their website:

http://www.hasbro.com/monkeybartv/default.cfm?page=Entertainment/Videos/VideoSelect&aid=3823


I HATE how every new Transformers story has them changing alt modes 'on the fly' without any assistance or needing to be rebuilt like in G1/BW. Ever since this 'on the fly' stupid change of alt mode concept was introduced in the Unicron trilogy it has been forced into every single form of new media including the Movie.

If Transformers can morph into anything by just scanning something then what is the damn point of Transforming? They may as well be made of liquid Metal like the T-1000. This is a clear dumbing down of the concept and a regression not progression.

Exactly,they should have a stasis pod or have Teletrann 1 with its repair arms modify them.

Why didn't they all turn into jets when Starscream was jacking the airforce?!

[GoktimusPrime]

I just watched that without sound cos I'm at work (and my work computer has no speakers anyway)... that animation was really CHEAP as amateur. Seriously... even the animation on Home Star Runner (http://www.homestarrunner.com) kicks the crap out of that! A really terrible effort... reminds me of those cheap Marvel cartoons from the 1960s. "When Captain American throws his mighty shiiiiiieeeeeeeld!" :p


Exactly,they should have a stasis pod or have Teletrann 1 with its repair arms modify them.

Why didn't they all turn into jets when Starscream was jacking the airforce?!
Heh, true. I think Bay avoided the whole spaceship crashing on Earth thing to speed the story along. In the comics it's been revealed that they did travel to the Sol system with starships, but they parked them off Earth and travelled to Earth in protoform. The Decepticons parked their ship on the Moon and made a pitstop on Mars which is where they encountered the NASA's rover from the teaser.

It's odd that Frenzy can change from a stereo to a mobile phone with a quick scan, and Bumblebee also upgrades himself in the same way, but we don't see other Transformers taking advantage of that ability!

But I'm glad they don't because:
1/ It would make the movies more expensive. Those CGI models cost truckloads as it is - having different versions of each character in each different form would blow their SFX budget... then they'd have to fly jets in as models on strings. :p
2/ Imagine all the different freakin' toys we'd have to collect! Bad enough we had to get two freakin' versions of Bumblebee (three including the one with the battle mask down - I wish the original Concept version included it as an exchangeable head)... imagine collecting multiple versions of every bloody character!! Aaaargh!

So while it's a story anomaly, it's a good story anomaly! :D

[Paulbot]

Ratchet's pretty noticeable in that animation, hope that's a good sign for the Hasbro Universe release. But then so is Tracks.

I'm disagree that the more recent "scan and reformat" is really "on the fly". I can't think of one example where a TF scanned one mode and then scanned another one in a short period of time, rather than days/weeks/months?.

I assume that there is some sort of cost/limit to the ability which is why as Goktimus says we don't see other TFs taking advantage of it more often.

[FFN]

That animation is weak. As I recall, Japanese companies sometimes do flash animation videos for promoting new toys, and they're better than this.

As for scanning, to be fair to Transformers, Animated reintroduced the requirement of TFs needing their ship to reformat themselves. Scanning by themselves is just a story cheat to speed the plot along. Like the Decepticons being able to fly away when they are defeated or the Autobots being able to drive to the artic to dig up Skyfire so he can fly them down to South America.

[kup]

Ratchet's pretty noticeable in that animation, hope that's a good sign for the Hasbro Universe release. But then so is Tracks.

I'm disagree that the more recent "scan and reformat" is really "on the fly". I can't think of one example where a TF scanned one mode and then scanned another one in a short period of time, rather than days/weeks/months?.

I assume that there is some sort of cost/limit to the ability which is why as Goktimus says we don't see other TFs taking advantage of it more often.

Unfortunately they have never addressed those costs/limits but portray the sequence as if its something they can do at will, particularly in the movie.

I would be more able to tolerate the lack of Space ship when reformating and them formatting from 'rock lords' to the alt mode in the movie as they were in a kind of 'chrysalis' state but unfortunately with Frenzy and Bumblebee it seemed as if they can just do it whenever they want to.

The same thing happened in the Unicron trilogy where they just walked around scanned something and became it.

Like FFN said, to Animated's credit they didn't fall into that trap which appears to have become a trend with Transformers as a whole as of late.

[FFN]

Animated is inconsistent about it. The Autobots used Teletraan 1 to reformat but Starscream merely scanned the jet.

Basically scanning works however the scene needs it to work. Like it's more exciting to see Starscream blow away an entire squadron of jets and scan the final one before presumably destroying it as well, as opposed to him simply scanning it inside a ship.

[kup]

Animated is inconsistent about it. The Autobots used Teletraan 1 to reformat but Starscream merely scanned the jet.

Basically scanning works however the scene needs it to work. Like it's more exciting to see Starscream blow away an entire squadron of jets and scan the final one before presumably destroying it as well, as opposed to him simply scanning it inside a ship.

That's where we disagree.

He doesn't have to be in the ship to scan it. Why not scan it and then go to the ship? The best scenario to accommodate the new process would probably be to add rules to it like Paulbot mentioned but nothing official on such limitations have been mentioned.

I can't remember about Animated Starscream and the alt mode scanning. Did he actually change into it as soon as the jet was scanned or did it go into a scene change and then when they went back to Starscream, he had the alt mode. If that happened then that suggests time passing and opening more possibilities as to what happened.

[roller]

how cool would it be if governments discussed these issues in Parliament?!:p:D

[Pulse]

how cool would it be if governments discussed these issues in Parliament?!:p:D

Why do you think Obama got voted in? ;)

[SilverDragon]

Good points first, since everyone's complaining.

Well, I like that they're establishing some fiction for Universe.

...that was my only good point.

The animation sucked. Seriously, I animate (http://worldserpent.deviantart.com/gallery/#Flash-Animations), and I think mine are better animated. Heck, as previously pointed out, Homestar Runner (and loads of other web toons besides) are doing it for FREE and their animation trumps it soundly.

Voice acting...well...I don't think he caught Cullen very well. It sounded more like one of those really bad attempts at mimicking him that show up in most fan videos.

As for the scanning, I like it, since it really suits the concept of 'robots in disguise' for them to be able to change what they turn into so they don't stick out on an alien planet.

[jacksplatt11]

Homestar Runner is good... This was not

[kup]

As for the scanning, I like it, since it really suits the concept of 'robots in disguise' for them to be able to change what they turn into so they don't stick out on an alien planet.

Then what's the point of Transforming when they can just scan whatever they want at will and morph into it?

[Lord_Zed]

A typical cheap flash promo, probably done by some overworked corporate designer in a night. Can't say I'm suprised, if it had good animation Hasbro would want money for it.


Then what's the point of Transforming when they can just scan whatever they want at will and morph into it?

I think its same as what Paulbot said about costing resources. Scanning is and ability governed by vauge but restrictive rules, that limit what a TF can and can't do for the benfit of the story. For me it's exactly like Mass Shifting, why combine into a big robot when you could Mass Shift your way there, why not? because vauge rules the fandom has accepted prevent it. :p

[reillyd]

Oh my gosh! Did anyone else notice Frenzy/Rumble in that animation? Does that mean we'll see a release of the cassettes and Soundwave again?

[GoktimusPrime]

I think its same as what Paulbot said about costing resources. Scanning is and ability governed by vauge but restrictive rules, that limit what a TF can and can't do for the benfit of the story. For me it's exactly like Mass Shifting, why combine into a big robot when you could Mass Shift your way there, why not? because vauge rules the fandom has accepted prevent it.
Yeah, but I can see where kup's coming from too. With mass-shifting, the ability was always portrayed to be very specific/limited. For example, Megatron and Soundwave could only mass-shift when transforming from robot to alt mode. It was never shown that they could change size at will, otherwise yeah, they could easily transform into robots the size of insects and infiltrate secret places then grow to giant size etc. So that made mass-shifting somewhat plausible in terms of being an ability restricted to transformation, and even then only by select characters.

The advantage of G1, G2, BW et al. (most TF continuities) where Transformers are unable to wantonly scan objects and transform into them at will does create a plausible reason as to why they stick to only one form at a time.

Having said that, I can suspend disbelief for the live action movie because it is a necessary "evil" to keep the plot moving along. Having alien starships in the movie would've wasted screen time, not to mention take the story away from the human-centric focus which was so important for allowing it to appeal to a general non-Transformers and non-scifi fan audience.

As for this web animation though - it actually shows the Ark and Nemesis crashing into Earth... and this is targetted at kids really, not a general movie-going public. So I don't see why they couldn't have shown or explained Teletran-1 or some computer scanning those vehicles for the Transformers. Unless they were trying to save money - but for WHAT? The animation is so freakin' CHEAP already! Did they have a $5 budget?!? Nah, I don't buy that. There are plenty of web animations out there which amateurs do for free which are better than this in every way. :/ I can't believe they used flash animation to produce something that looks like animation which was cheap even by 1950s/60s standards. (-_-)

http://www.hrwiki.org/images/thumb/b/bc/TheHomestarRunnerHeadForward.png/180px-TheHomestarRunnerHeadForward.png (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJvM3m2hVzo) "What's a ro-bot?"

[STL]

Just watched it. I don't think it was brilliant but was it really that bad? I like the fact that we saw Ratchet. There's hope yet! He, Jazz, Trailbreaker (hence Hoist), Grapple are on the top of my wish list. If I get them all before next year's movie, I could pass on all the movie figures and not give a rats :D

[Lord_Zed]

I think the artist just used random g1 characters he had pictures of, I wouldn't put much stock in Hasbro releasing them anytime soon.

[Lint]

I hope that was produced by some hasbro exec's 12 year old kid because paying money for that is fail.