(MAR-2013) Generation 2 Era - Rate it

[Shirokaze]

I voted "one of the better ones" based purely on nostalgia. Even though I now know it was technically a horrible G1 re-hash, all the changes that bugged most people about the series make up my earliest and fondest memories of the Transformers.

[GoktimusPrime]

Overall I would rate it as "Not very good." There really was a lot of awful rubbish in G2... the badly redecoed toys (with awful hurt-your-eyes day glo flouro coloured weapons and super long missiles), the incredibly bad cartoon, the fantastic comic that was axed too soon (gee, axe us!)... but most importantly, it failed to achieve its intended goal, which was to revitalise the Transformers brand. There were also some absolutely dreadful toy concepts too. The Autorollers were kinda blargh, and the Power Masters were just awful They make Firecons look good (though the G2 Firecons and Sparkabots were massive eyesores). My TF collecting massively slowed down during the G2 years. To this day I have a relatively small G2 collection (only 67 figures ). As Hursticon rightly said, it instead nearly killed it... and Transformers would have died if Beast Wars hadn't come along and saved it.

But there were some good things from G2. As I said, the comics are good (a real shame it didn't go beyond 12 issues), but arguably G2's greatest legacy lay with the later toys where they introduced the concept of the Transformers are articulated and poseable action figures in robot mode! The Dreadwing, Smokescreen, the Hero leaders, Laser Rods and Cyberjets suddenly gave us articulated robot modes! (something which Beast Wars would later refine and standardise) Another legacy would be the Go-Bots, which Car Robot/RiD revived as the SpyChangers. Transformers in scale with Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars with free-spinning axles that made them compatible with their playsets -- nice! But despite HasTak's best efforts, it was just too late... even some of the best G2 toys like Laser Optimus Prime continued to shelf warm for years. I remember seeing a mountain of Laser Optimus Primes shelfwarming at a Toys R Us as late as 1999 (I went and bought a second one to keep sealed (I later sold it off to a collector in Tokyo )). There just didn't seem to be enough interest in the line no matter what Hasbro tried with the toys... and their market research indicated that it was because kids weren't as interested in vehicles anymore, but animals were all the rage (Jurassic Park came out around the same time as G2). So Kenner released Beast Wars and Transformers enjoyed great success, lifting us out of the "Dark Ages" that was the G2 years!

[Bidoofdude]

As I've said, I don't have much to say on G2, but the cartoon was... iffy at best. (those cheats...)
Like Gok said, there's quite a few bad concepts and toy designs, but there were some standouts, like laser prime.
Just my (small) input on G2.

[llamatron]

It's great. When I was 9 those CGI additions were awesome. It gave us some great articulated toys and wasn't afraid of trying new things. The laser rods and smokescreen/dreadwing are all-time classics and still hold up well compared to modern standards. The comic was good and pretty self contained.

[Autocon]

I remember the cube animation and thats all. Apparently the cartoon was just repeats of G1 with new 3d animations in between scenes?

I bought some of the toys, couple of planes and the matchbox sized cars. Dont really remember much of it.

Vote: Dont remember any of it

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

I voted average.

It did bring us the sexy-shmexy-wexy Battle Optimus Prime and gave me the opportunity to buy some G1 toys that I had missed out on. I love my G2 Snarl.

The colours were gaudy, but now I think of them as having retro charm.

Didn't really get into the G2 all that much, but from my post-era-collecting, what I do have from G2 I like.

[Sinnertwin]

I voted average.

*puts bulletproof vest on* Personally, although it did revitalise the franchise, the Beast Era was my least favourite. That is what turned me off TF. Id look at aisles full of monkeys, bats and whatever else, turn around and leave. G2 gave me a new take on older figures, some cool new ones, and despite the retinal scarring it has left me, i.still look upon that time of my life with great fondness. And its not BW on the banner, is it now?