(JAN-2013) Hasbro Gen1 Cartoon - Comments and episode reviews

[Megatron]

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For me, I definitely remember Web World, as it has left some kind of imprinted thought that Galvatron would become Megatron again when he turned white/grey.
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Where he would finally wake up from a really long and horrible nightmare?

You would have been so boss watching web world as a kid. I thought that he was becoming Megatron again.

If you set aside your love for Megatron, which is understandable (who doesn't love guns and robots?!), you may be able to see that Galvatron is really his own character and the only thing relating him to Megatron in any way is his origin, which doesn't change much, as he is practically completely different /unique in terms of mind.
I would treat Galvatron as a different character, if you wanted to appreciate him more.

But I don't know how to put aside my love for Megatron... I haven't seen Seasons 3 or 4 of G1 yet. They're next on my 'to watch' list. I'm not really looking forward to them, but I agree with what you said; Galvatron should be treated as a totally separate character (gladly in some official continuities he actually is!), that way it will make those seasons more bearable for me to watch.

Btw, Cybertron was the first Transformers series I ever watched, and Cybertron Megatron was the first Megatron I ever knew about. I would wake up really early every Saturday morning (I think it was) just to watch that show.

[Iriorne]

But I don't know how to put aside my love for Megatron... I haven't seen Seasons 3 or 4 of G1 yet. They're next on my 'to watch' list. I'm not really looking forward to them, but I agree with what you said; Galvatron should be treated as a totally separate character (gladly in some official continuities he actually is!), that way it will make those seasons more bearable for me to watch.

I read something a while back which seemed to me to be a very wise way of dealing with this sort of problem. Essentially, treat all the different incarnations and stories as legends or myths, passed on over thousands of years and embellished and altered along the way.

It was originally in reference to Star Wars which arguably suffers more than other media properties due to their drive for a single canon continuity with the unfortunate side effect of rendering some very good stories apocryphal.

In any case, I think it's a good way to enjoy each story on its own terms, explain away inconsistencies between different series (or within them!) and gives you license to 'pick and choose' your own personal continuity.

The G1 cartoon, for all its flaws, is the iconic Transformers media for me. I used to watch the G2 incarnation (G1 butchered with a CG intro and new transitions) whenever I could and loved it. I recently picked up the new remastered DVD sets and I'm working my way through them.

As others have said, the stories are quite simplistic and sometimes don't make a lot of sense. I'd definitely recommend viewing at least a selection of episodes though as the cartoon was the origin of the voice of Optimus Prime and, along with the comic series, set the scene for everything that followed.

One thing that really bothers me though: Why did Megatron call a retreat every time one of the Decepticons stubbed their toe? If they pushed the attack they could wipe out the Autobots with minimal losses.

Episodes that I can remember from way back include:
More Than Meets the Eye 1-3
Dinobot Island 1-2
Prime Target
Starscream's Brigade + Revenge of Bruticus
BOT

Most of those are probably pretty iconic, except Prime Target. Not really sure why that one stuck with me.

[Megatron]

I read something a while back which seemed to me to be a very wise way of dealing with this sort of problem. Essentially, treat all the different incarnations and stories as legends or myths, passed on over thousands of years and embellished and altered along the way.

It was originally in reference to Star Wars which arguably suffers more than other media properties due to their drive for a single canon continuity with the unfortunate side effect of rendering some very good stories apocryphal.

In any case, I think it's a good way to enjoy each story on its own terms, explain away inconsistencies between different series (or within them!) and gives you license to 'pick and choose' your own personal continuity.

Actually that's a really good way to look at it because it keeps the option open that something may or may not be true, as with myths, rather than say that something is absolute fact and I have no other choice but to acknowledge it a certain way. Very helpful, thanks. I also tend to 'pick and choose' my own ultimate continuity already anyway.

The G1 cartoon, for all its flaws, is the iconic Transformers media for me. I used to watch the G2 incarnation (G1 butchered with a CG intro and new transitions) whenever I could and loved it. I recently picked up the new remastered DVD sets and I'm working my way through them.

I have the earlier G1 DVD boxed sets, when they first came out. What's different in the remastered ones and do you think they are worth getting, even when I already have the non-remastered ones?

One thing that really bothers me though: Why did Megatron call a retreat every time one of the Decepticons stubbed their toe? If they pushed the attack they could wipe out the Autobots with minimal losses.

I'm not sure but I always got the impression that destroying all the Autobots wasn't a primary goal of his, at least not initially. To begin with, all he wanted was to steal all of Earth's energy so he could get the f*** off this planet and go home. It wasn't until later, when the Autobots just kept showing up and getting in his way EVERY SINGLE TIME he set out to do something, that he finally got fed up with them, lol. I dunno, but I'm kind of glad he backed off a lot of the time... maybe he wasn't such a bad guy after all?

[Iriorne]

I have the earlier G1 DVD boxed sets, when they first came out. What's different in the remastered ones and do you think they are worth getting, even when I already have the non-remastered ones?

I'm not sure, and it seems to be very difficult to work out. It seems like there have been a couple of US releases, the first by Rhino which used pre-broadcast tapes, introducing animation errors, some of which they attempted to correct, and added in additional sound effects.

The original Australian release by Madman may use the broadcast masters but with Rhino's audio mix and a poor attempt to trim out the commercial bumpers on some of the earlier sets.

Subsequently, Shout! Factory has re-released the G1 set cleaning up a lot of the animation and audio errors introduced by Rhino. However the restoration required the use of some sub-par source material resulting in jumps in visual/audio quality within episodes.

This latest remastered release from Madman may be based on the Shout! Factory. I haven't noticed any obvious wayward sound effects, quality changes or bumper chops on the episodes that I've watched (about 2/3rds of season 2) but it's possible I just wasn't paying attention.

You can check out youtube for comparison videos between the rhino release and the broadcast version. I couldn't find any examples of the Rhino sound effects for comparison but by all accounts they were pretty obvious.

Whether they're worth re-buying will depend on how much you care. It seems like the original Madman release was alright, in which case I would suggest it's not worth the bother unless the added sound effects, if they exist, really bother you. Unless you're doing a direct side-by-side comparison you're probably not likely to notice much/any difference between the releases.

Packaging wise, each remastered set is in a slim-line multi case so they take up minimal shelf space and they have some slick cover art as well as original G1 box art on the back. I suggest waiting till JB Online have a 20% off sale if you're keen.

Here's a second opinion from a thread on these forums: http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=14430

Sources:
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Kid_Rhino
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Shout%21_Factory
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Madman_Entertainment
http://www.cybertron.ca/boards/showthread.php?t=20561
http://transformers.wikia.com/wiki/Madman_Entertainment

I'm not sure but I always got the impression that destroying all the Autobots wasn't a primary goal of his, at least not initially.

Perhaps, but it was clear from pretty early on that the Autobots weren't going away. Half of Megatrons problems were caused by Starscream, who he should have vapourised after his first betrayal as an example to the others. The rest was failure to use his resources effectively and not having an actual strategy. Still, perhaps it's fitting... Megatron was always a bit unstable and impuslive and the cartoon would have been much less interesting if he'd won after the fifth episode.

[Bartrim]

I'm in the process of educating my 6 year old son with G1. He loves the whole first disc, The Ultimate Doom, The whole Bruticus bit at the end of Season 2 and the movie. He has good taste in G1 episodes

[Megatron]

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Perhaps, but it was clear from pretty early on that the Autobots weren't going away. Half of Megatrons problems were caused by Starscream, who he should have vapourised after his first betrayal as an example to the others. The rest was failure to use his resources effectively and not having an actual strategy. Still, perhaps it's fitting... Megatron was always a bit unstable and impuslive and the cartoon would have been much less interesting if he'd won after the fifth episode.

I disagree. Killing Starsream would have entirely changed the dynamics of not only their relationship but also Megatron's personality as well. I wouldn't describe Megatron as unstable; impulsive, yes at times, but so was Optimus (the episode where he goes off to try and save Elita-One, the episode where he goes off to deal with the Dinobots by himself, to name a few, etc...). In terms of not having an actual strategy, the Autobots were the same way; it seemed that everything was thought of/planned/acted upon in the moment.

Anyway, thanks for the info about the DVDs.

[GoktimusPrime]

First watched the G1 cartoon in 1985 - religiously watched it every Saturday morning where I would try to record every episode on VHS. It was hard when it was being showed by some Channel 10 show (with some stupid mascot called "Marty"), because they kept interrupting the cartoon with LOTS of segments that I never cared about. Transformers for 5 minutes - commercial break - now let's watch footage of people riding BMX bikes or surfing - commercial break - or have stupid in-studio games and competitions with random kids - commercial break - oh, here are some competition prizes - commercial break - 3 minutes of Transformers - commercial break - and let's talk about random crap - commercial break - and now back to the Trans--, oh no, we're out of time, see you next week!

I'm serious. There were times when the CRAP that happened in between Transformers episodes went for so long that the "Pause" function on my video player timed out and stopped... which also rewinded the tape by a few seconds, so if I hit record again I would tape over a last few seconds of episode just before I hit pause. And there were a few times when they just DIDN'T show the rest of the episode because they just RAN OUT OF TIME!! What?!? I can't stand these kinds of shows... just show the damn cartoon. Have a bit of goofy fun between cartoons, but no interruptions while they're on please!

I like the G1 cartoons, but I must admit that my liking comes from personal nostalgia. It's not something that I'd recommend to people today who haven't grown up with the cartoon. The animation is inconsistent and seemed to get worse as the series progressed. Probably because they invested less money into the cartoon as it progressed. Season 1 and the movie were mostly animated by Toei in Japan, but then from Season 2 onward some episodes were outsourced to AKOM in South Korea... basically the better animated eps were Toei, the crappier ones were AKOM -- and as the outsourcing to Korea increased, so too did the quality of animation decrease. Most Seaosn 3 eps were animated my AKOM, a few by Toei, and the best animated S3 ep "Call of the Primitives" was animated by Tokyo Movie Shinsha (who also animated Mighty Orbots). Season 4 was entirely animated in Korea... can you tell? I know Korean animation is a LOT better now, but sadly not in the 80s where it was mostly cheap and nasty.

The characters in the cartoon aren't really characters, but one dimensional caricatures, and as such the stories are character driven. It's a lot like the Michael Bay movies in that sense, which is why I've often said that the Bay movies did capture the spirit of the G1 cartoon quite well (especially the first one). Of course, the G1 cartoon was better in that it didn't allow the story to be over dominated by worthless humans and even the most generic Transformers still at least remotely looked kinda like Transformers instead of random metal monsters.

I quite enjoyed most of the stories in Seasons 1 and 2, but I felt that the story quality declined in Seasons 3 and 4. On one hand, it was cool that they tried to "mature" the story by making it more science fiction and making the Transformers' adventures span across space and not just on Earth. Oh, and it was the future. And it was a good idea to change the leaders too. But it suffered too much from, "Good idea in concept, didn't work out so well in practice." Problems included:
+ Rodimus Prime worrying too much about not being Optimus Prime. No, you're not Optimus. Accept it and move on. Because he didn't, it really held back his potential as Autobot leader.
+ Galvatron just sucked... sure, G1 comic Galvatron was crazy too, but he was demigod powerful kickass crazy, whereas G1 cartoon Galvatron was embarrassingly crazy... like that relative you never want to invite to your wedding.
+ WHY were the Dinobots suddenly kid-tarded?!? Sure, they were never Rhodes scholars to begin with, but they weren't infantile tard monkeys either! In Seasons 1 and 2, the Dinobots just traipsed around kicking butt... in Season 3 most the Dinobots were pretty lazy, and Grimlock just went about being clumsy and stuff. Oh how the mighty have fallen.
+ Wheelie. If Grimlock wasn't Jar Jar enough, they gave us Wheelie. The high pitched voice and rhyming is one thing, but the fact that he and Daniel just wasted SO much screen time and contributed so LITTLE to the actual plot of the story was just stupid. The exact same complaints that Star Wars fans made about Jar Jar Binks in The Phantom Menace... little wonder that Wheelie, Daniel and Jar Jar are often compared. Hey, at least Jar Jar helped make the Empire... don't see Wheelie doing that. "Who the f$% is this Autobot?!" - The Rude Awakening of Optimus Prime
+ Wheelie and Daniel's time wasting meant that a lot of other toys got less screen time... how about giving us more action from Tailgate, Swerve, Pipes or HUBCAP!! Hubcap's a WAY better toy than Wheelie (who's easily the crappiest of all the G1 mini Autobots) and yet he got ZERO screen time!

[Megatron]

+ Galvatron just sucked... sure, G1 comic Galvatron was crazy too, but he was demigod powerful kickass crazy, whereas G1 cartoon Galvatron was embarrassingly crazy... like that relative you never want to invite to your wedding.

QFT.

That was an interesting read, Gok.

[5FDP]

I quite enjoyed most of the stories in Seasons 1 and 2, but I felt that the story quality declined in Seasons 3 and 4. On one hand, it was cool that they tried to "mature" the story by making it more science fiction and making the Transformers' adventures span across space and not just on Earth. Oh, and it was the future. And it was a good idea to change the leaders too. But it suffered too much from, "Good idea in concept, didn't work out so well in practice." Problems included:
+ Rodimus Prime worrying too much about not being Optimus Prime. No, you're not Optimus. Accept it and move on. Because he didn't, it really held back his potential as Autobot leader.
+ Galvatron just sucked... sure, G1 comic Galvatron was crazy too, but he was demigod powerful kickass crazy, whereas G1 cartoon Galvatron was embarrassingly crazy... like that relative you never want to invite to your wedding.
+ WHY were the Dinobots suddenly kid-tarded?!? Sure, they were never Rhodes scholars to begin with, but they weren't infantile tard monkeys either! In Seasons 1 and 2, the Dinobots just traipsed around kicking butt... in Season 3 most the Dinobots were pretty lazy, and Grimlock just went about being clumsy and stuff. Oh how the mighty have fallen.
+ Wheelie. If Grimlock wasn't Jar Jar enough, they gave us Wheelie. The high pitched voice and rhyming is one thing, but the fact that he and Daniel just wasted SO much screen time and contributed so LITTLE to the actual plot of the story was just stupid. The exact same complaints that Star Wars fans made about Jar Jar Binks in The Phantom Menace... little wonder that Wheelie, Daniel and Jar Jar are often compared. Hey, at least Jar Jar helped make the Empire... don't see Wheelie doing that. "Who the f$% is this Autobot?!" - The Rude Awakening of Optimus Prime
+ Wheelie and Daniel's time wasting meant that a lot of other toys got less screen time... how about giving us more action from Tailgate, Swerve, Pipes or HUBCAP!! Hubcap's a WAY better toy than Wheelie (who's easily the crappiest of all the G1 mini Autobots) and yet he got ZERO screen time!

Reading that reminded me of this

[Skullcruncher]

lol at fanboys getting up in arms over any character in a cartoon made over 25 years ago. Sure Wheelie is annoying as hell, but the casual watcher dont seem to mind him - my girlfriend thinks hes funny and my friends who come over when reminising can always remember his character, and for some reason many had his toy. To me hes like members on message boards you always want to slap in the face with a dead fish every single time they post.


** Fanboy Rage ahead, chance of foaming at the mouth - 97.5% **

Ultra Magnus I curse and hate your hopeless character and nasty prime ripoff toy to the ends of the earth, if you had the balls of Hot Rod, toys that I had -Outback and Pipes - would have got way more screentime, maybe then I could have seen Outback host a barbie and Pipes... ummm.... do something!!!

** Fanboy rage over **


Back to the real world, the whole Jetfire/Skyfire situation was confusing - here on screen he was skyfire but the catalogue it was jetfire, we concluded it must just be a coincidence that they look the same!