Episode Review - BH Ep56 (S3E5) - Project Predacon

[BigTransformerTrev]

Gee, they chucked out a few references in this episode!

"Dinobots"

"Beast Wars"

"Unleash the Beasts" (TF Legends game/Terrorcons)


Think there were a few more but can't remember.

And slag it, I KNEW UM would get Prime's old alt-mode, lazy-arsed animators and Hasbro trying to sell the new toy. I wanted to see him as a flatbed truck at least!

[liegeprime]

I really wish theyd make Dinobots, even if just flashbacks. Also as toys, even if just by Cyberverse toys

[GoktimusPrime]

And slag it, I KNEW UM would get Prime's old alt-mode, lazy-arsed animators and Hasbro trying to sell the new toy. I wanted to see him as a flatbed truck at least!

I was unhappy with that too. Having the BH robot transform into the TFPRiD truck would've been better, because then the 1 screen character would actually be promoting two toys! But it may not be the animators' fault; more likely Hasbro didn't want to pay for a whole new CGI model to be constructed for TFPRiD Ultra Magnus, so they might've told the animators to simply retool the old Optimus Prime model instead.

That's why Beast Wars had a lot of 'redecoed' characters appear, such as Tigatron/Cheetor and Tarantulas/Blackarachnia. Even Ravage was an extensive 'retool' of Transmetal Cheetor (hence later Takara followed suit with the toy). And we saw Michael Bay recycling CG models of characters, even after they supposedly died! (e.g. Bonecrusher, Constructicons etc.); and everyone's just assuming that they're the same "type" of Transformer, but not the same individual. :/

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

I liked the moment where Ultra Magnus and Optimus Prime didn't get Fowler's kilt reference, and Optimus taught Ultra Magnus to just nod politely in order to get along with their human comrades when they make cultural references that fly over their head. I really like moments like these that remind us of how other-worldly the Autobots are. All too often I find the Transformers just act too human for my liking.

I enjoyed that whole segment actually. The Dinobots, beast wars lines were all pretty good and I was excited. then the rest of the episode happened...

+1 Exactly as you said, this episode was designed to promote toys (current and future releases)

Well, now the whole show is designed to sell toys so no surprises there.

This was a pretty drab episode IMO. How many episodes do we have left? 8? they sure are moving slowly. Next ep will be BH, WJ and UM in Scotland doing much the same thing as BB and SS, hopefully with less tug of warring, leaving us with (I suspect) a sudden rush of all the cool stuff happening in the last 3 episodes.

I though BH would get along at a cracking pace, but nope. It's just moseying along without a care in the world.

[lancalot]

Im just waiting to see how all of them change and get spikes every where like the toys ...or are they? already 5 epi and nothing ....where all the beast they should be hunting? Not hunting fossil again!!

[griffin]

Spikes are like redeco toys... they are there for the retailers to buy something "new", but can still be similar enough to the cartoon characters to still sell.
Retailers just want new/different product on their shelves as often as possible, so if a cartoon goes for more than a year, the character toys have to have something changed on them (colours, a new gimmick, moulding, new toy, etc)... and it is up to the cartoon to reflect those changes if they can afford it (CGI) or can make sense of it (standard animation) - like Transmetals, or Energon Powerlinx upgrades, or Movie mechtech weapons.
Maybe before the end we might see one or two have an upgrade, but being a CGI cartoon, the chances are slim, especially getting close to the end of the series (they won't want to waste time and money redesigning/resculpting CGI models if it won't be used much). They'd much rather spend the money creating a new character model, than reworking an existing one.

[SMHFConvoy]

And slag it, I KNEW UM would get Prime's old alt-mode, lazy-arsed animators and Hasbro trying to sell the new toy. I wanted to see him as a flatbed truck at least!

Wow, way to belittle animators. It probably had more to do with the limitations of TV production e.g. time. Much easier to retool an existing animation model than build a new one. You might also want to consider budgetary constraints too.

At least you got the part about Hasbro wanting to sell toys right.

[Bidoofdude]

Actually quite liked this episode. Smokescreen was good in this episode and I hope we get that beautiful redeco. (never thought I'd say that )

Honestly, BH IMO is making me like the characters a lot more than the first 2 seasons did. Loving Wheeljack, Smokescreen and Shockwave. Pity I missed the first couple PRid waves.

Ultra Magnus looks really cool to me and his toy is pretty much spot on, even for a retool.