Quote Originally Posted by jimoinj View Post
Looking at the Japanese one, it doesn't even seem like the G1 cartoon. It was childish, very poorly voiced, with weird scenes and friendship power circles. Reminded me more of care bears than Transformers!
Ermm, at risk of stirring the already-tempestuous pot, the US G1 cartoon wasn't really that great hey. It wasn't terrible by any means, and the voice work was mostly really good, but the Headmasters series wasn't much better or worse, especially once you take into account the Japanification. Personally I quite liked it for the most part - aside from moments like Daniel and Wheelie tricking Trypticon into falling down a ravine and Arcee = secretary it was a pretty decent addition to the TF franchise.
And the 'real men don't cry Danny' thing is just beautiful.

On the original topic ('toon Rodimus Prime), I'd say his 'lack of leadership' is more a result of overemphasising his insecurity to the point of Flanderisation, the relative lack of 'maturing' characterisation (though arguably the whole of TFTM is his traditional 'heroes journey', replete with learning the value of listening to his elders), the long-established nature of Optimus as 'the leader', and the general 'dumbing down' that seems to happen with the G1 'toon as the series progressed. Season 1 and the first half of season 2 were both pretty decent cartoons, but the latter half of season 2 and season 3 just seemed to get less and less, well, intelligent. Instead fo there being an occasional 'bad' episode with good ones being the norm, it became a case of the occasional gem amongst mostly average stories by 80s cartoon standards, and, well, Carnage in C-Minor. Put all those factors together and add in a belated 'Let's bring back Optimus 'cos it turns out kids care about the character as well as just buying the toys' and Roddy never stood a chance even if he was the only 'G1' TF to, well....
And then we get the Rebirth trilogy, where a whole season's worth of toys and story had to be squeezed in to 3 episodes, including an 'everything turns out OK' ending.