Rodimus Prime as a leader

[GoktimusPrime]

Nope, it's not because I don't like the Japanese cartoon. It's because it's a separate and distinct cartoon to the english version of G1 Transformers. The characters were totally different. It didn't follow the G1 english series continuity

Just because it's different from what you've grown up with doesn't make it less canonically valid.

Fine if some of you are Japanese or prefer the Japanese cartoon, you can call it canon.

It doesn't matter if one likes Japanese canon or not, it IS canon. You can't disregard canonical sources just because you don't like them or because you're not as familiar with them or didn't grow up with them... it's still equally as valid.

But for the vast majority of Australians the G1 english version cartoon is it.

Don't forget that both the US and UK comics from Marvel were widely available in Australia and a lot of Australian fans grew up reading those comics, as evident from the number of people here who've voiced their preference for the Marvel comics.

When you talk about the Japanese series you are talking about an alternative continuity.

That doesn't make it less valid though. We have alternative continuities in Anglophone canon too, like the Earthforce Saga. But just because it's an alternative continuity doesn't make it less valid. And for anyone who prefers or grew up with watching the Japanese series, The Rebirth is an alternative continuity - it's relative. Just because the majority here are more familiar with Anglophone continuity doesn't necessarily make Anglophone continuity more (or less) correct than Japanese continuity.

Look it up on wikipedia, they're not even listed in the same article. The Japanese 'season 4' is not even Transformers G1, it's called 'Headmasters'. A separate and distinct series.

Yeah, cos wikipedia is always a reliable source </sarcasm>

Remember that G1 is a term that was coined by fans and didn't even enter official currency until 2000 (and even then only in Japan, Hasbro adopted the term several years later). Before 1993's Generation 2, everything before then was just "Transformers." Thus fans referred to everything before G2 as G1... G1 is everything before G2, including 1993's G1 (often referred to by fans as "G1.5"). Transformers The Headmasters, Super God Masterforce, Victory and Zone came out in 1987, 88, 89 and 90 respectively -- all predated 1993's Generation 2 and there thus by definition, G1.

Of course the toys are the primary product, but here we are comparing the cartoon and comics. Comics are a niche market for fans, while the TV series was mainstream for the general public.

How are the comics only for a niche market? They were written for the general public and released for the general public. I bought all of my Transformer comics during the 1980s from local newsagents, the same place where people buy newspapers... which are hardly a "niche" commodity.

Granted television is a more widely accessible medium, but I wouldn't go so far as saying that the Transformer comics - which were chock full of ads for kids like ads for breakfast cereals (Lucky Charms!), computer games, other Marvel comics and occasional community messages (like the one which tells you to tell a trusted adult if someone is touching you in a way you don't like) etc. - are for a niche market. And unlike Transformer comics today, the Marvel comics were dictated by Hasbro and stories had to be written according to the toyline. e.g. The Earthforce Saga - while it proved to be a continuity headache (and it's since been officially declared as being out-of-continuity), it was something that was written at Hasbro's bequest to market Transformers Classics. Furman didn't want to bring Optimus Prime back after killing off Powermaster Prime in US#75, but Hasbro told him to because they wanted Action Master Optimus Prime to feature in the final issue.

A lot of the most popular post-cartoon toys are ones that were popularised in the comic books, e.g. Bludgeon, Thunderwing... and characters like Zarak and Scorponok were far more memorable in the comics than he was in the cartoon. Scorponok and Fortress Maximus didn't even really have personas in the US or Japanese cartoons, they were just extensions of Zarak and Spike (although The Rebirth did give Cerebros a separate persona which neither the comics nor Japanese cartoon did ).

It's been mentioned that the Japanese series is an official Transformers product. Sure, but it's official in Japan, it was never officially broadcast in the west. And does it need to be said? We are not in Japan!

The series has been officially released in Australia on DVD though. But if we are to go by the logic of disregarding anything not released here, then we should also:
+ disregard G1 Shockwave - that toy was never released here
+ disregard the Deluxe Insecticons - also never released here
+ include Overlord - he was released here, although very rare. And the Hasbro version appeared in Last Stand of the Wreckers
+ disregard Binaltech - that line was never released here, we had Alternators but they didn't have a continuity like Binaltech did
+ disregard Alternity
+ desist discussion about Transformers Prime as that hasn't aired here

In any case, I would have thought it'd be a given we were talking about the english version continuity, not the foreign language version. Otherwise it's like if you say Galvatron was crazy in the G1 cartoon, and I reply no he wasn't because he was clever in the comics! Obviously different continuities, with different characters...you can't really bring both into the same discussion about the G1 cartoon continuity.

I wouldn't say that just because Galvatron was cool in the G1 comics, therefore it makes G1 cartoon Galvatron cool. I would say that I prefer G1 comic Galvatron because I think he's cooler than G1 Galvatron, who I think is a loser.

But even looking purely at the G1 cartoon, the Japanese series counts as the G1 cartoon because it is:
a: something that was released as Transformers prior to G2
b: an animated cartoon series

If you want to restrict discussion to Anglophone cartoon continuity only, then I think that needs to be defined from the outset. Because otherwise it's is perfectly reasonable for people to assume that the discussion is encompassing of any of G1 Rodimus Prime's canonical cartoon appearance.

Btw, I notice that your own avatar is of Rodimus Prime from the UK comics. Is that the version of Rodimus Prime that you personally prefer?