2017 Fan Vote for new leader in the Power of the Primes series

[GoktimusPrime]

So there we go, it's straight forward. Support it, buy it and you get more.

Vote 1: Optimus Primal!

But Ryall said that while their previous Beast Wars comics enjoyed online popularity, they didn't enjoy actual sales popularity in comic book stores. Although IMO the IDW Beast Wars comics weren't the best - I didn't like how they were meant to be in-continuity but they cherry picked things from the BW continuity family, meaning that it was technically out of continuity. Gah. This is why I hate most fanfics.

I actually find IDW embedding BW characters with their current G1 continuity to be a far better idea. It means that they don't have to start a whole new continuity, but rather just tie in these characters with what they already have. e.g. IDW Optimus Primal could be a descendant or reincarnation of Onyx Prime (who we know colonised the world of Eukaris with the Titan Chela. Now that the Cybertronians have discovered an entire planet full of BW TFs, there's no reason why we couldn't see more BW characters crossing over from that world.

1) In the G1 cartoons (Japanese continuity), Rodimus passed the mantle of Autobot leader onto Fortress after Cybertron got blown up. *

He never passed the Matrix onto him though. Fort Max was Supreme Commander, but not a Convoy. Rodimus did eventually pass the Matrix back to Convoy when he was rebuilt as Star Convoy (and Hot Rodimus was rebuilt as a Micromaster).

2) I just want Hasbro/Takara to release Fort Max toys more frequently at smaller scales (Legends, Voyager, etc) instead of giving us one obscenely expensive Fort Max toy every 30 or so years.

TF Jr. Fortress Maximus is your friend. I wouldn't mind a Leader size Fortress Maximus that transforms into a tank or mobile artillery vehicle - i.e. IDW Fortress Maximus. The problem with a Titan Class toy is that while they're a cool play set, they're not the most interactive action figures because they're so wildly out of scale with other Transformer toys. G1 Fort Max had this issue too, but G1 Fort Max is actually an awesome play set for other Transformers, whereas TR Fort Max is pretty ordinary.

Rhinox - "His Spark contain the matrix, you can't contain that power'

Maybe i misunderstood that part

More like Larry DiTillio and Bob Forward misunderstood it, and they've since admitted that they did. But in all fairness, DiTillio and Forward were not Transformers fans before they started writing Beast Wars. They were paid to write stories for the series, but they didn't have to tie it in with G1/G2 continuity. They chose to and they did use their own time researching various sources from G1 and G2, and as someone who's uninitiated in Transformers - and in an age where quick and easy reference sources like TFwiki didn't exist, it was considerably more challenging. They were watching clips from the cartoon, select pages from the comics, select G1 tech spec bios etc. And importantly, they turned to the online fandom for advice (hence the show makes numerous references to the fandom* as thanks). But they didn't always get everything right, and this was one such moment. But the fact that they tried and mostly got things right was pretty damn awesome!

This is why other writers just choose to reboot the Transformers continuity, because rebooting means that you don't have to go to the effort of doing your homework on pre-existing canon and worry about canonical conflicts. But an in-canon series personally feels so much more satisfying to me because it builds and enriches the existing canon. Just look at Star Wars.

Since Star Sabre was leader after Fort Max (HM) and subsequently Ginrai/PM Optimus (MF), he'd be my personal choice.. Although he's evil in the IDW comics...

Wait, wasn't IDW Star Saber the guy that tried to kill everyone a year or two ago and Tailgate was able to save the day because he was dying so Star Saber's weapon didn't work on him?

Yeah, but IMO that's what makes Star Sabre more interesting. The original Star Sabre's persona was - really - just a carbon copy of Optimus Prime. Utterly lacking in originality, but proved popular because as Fry from Futurama put it, "You see? TV audiences don't want anything original. They wanna see the same thing they've seen a thousand times before."

Dai Atlas was the first ruthless Autobot leader and fans hated him for it.
Coincidentally...
G1 Star Sabre = compassionate
IDW Star Sabre = ruthless
G1 Dai Atlas = ruthless
IDW Dai Atlas = compassionate
It would've made more sense for IDW to have made Star Sabre the leader of New Crystal City and Dai Atlas as Tyrest's enforcer. But it certainly wasn't the first time that IDW writers have completely ignored a Transformer's G1 persona and completely replaced it with something different (e.g. Swerve, Tailgate, Chromedome etc.), yet at other times have been amazingly faithful to G1 bios (e.g. Thundercracker, Overlord (Hasbro), Hubcap etc.). IDW obviously cherry-pick which Transformers they choose to portray with G1-accuracy and which ones to just supplant with new personae.

So even if more BW characters were to appear in IDW, there's no assurance that their persona would be faithful to their original bio. And this is not necessarily a bad thing, often IDW's new personae are more interesting than the originals! I think that IDW Star Sabre's persona is far more interesting than his G1 persona, and likewise Swerve! G1 Swerve's persona revolves around him being a really bad driver with the attention span (or lack thereof) of a puppy. IDW Swerve suffers from hidden depression. He's all smiles and jokes on the outside, but inside he suffers from low self-esteem/image and is actually really lonely. He's the class clown who likes to entertain the troops, but has no true friends. Possibly similar to the brand of depression that people like Robin Williams suffered from. But as sad as it is, it also makes Swerve a far more interesting character than his original G1 counterpart.