How do you divide up the original Generation 1 era?

**dirge** · 7th May 2020, 11:04 AM

Originally Posted by Paulbot

My original deleted post was to point out the way that I have heard G1 broken up over my last 25 years interacting with TF fans of all type, so more organic than the approaches suggested above which I feel are over complicated for such as short number of years.

Yeah I feel the same way, IE there's a clear "before and after the movie" which doesn't neatly split by year.

Originally Posted by Paulbot

So I would agree with Krayt and vote a DON'T option. It's unnecessary, a form of gatekeeping, would make posts more obtuse, and creates an excuse for pedantry.

Of course. We all know Gok is a specific sort of guy. So I can see why categorising is something he'd like to do. But of course, Hasbro don't necessarily make sure things are neat and orderly over the years (as personnel change, as the market changes etc). I guess he's trying to sense the "vibe" of how the fandom DO split up G1, given the ambiguity.

For whatever reason, there's a fair chunk of the fandom that cut things off after the movie, or after 1986. And I think Gok was trying to suss that out.

"Don't" is certainly a viable option.

Originally Posted by Paulbot

You can correct some who misidentifies a G1.5 toy without these terms (and I hate the G1.5 term personally but I understand it!).

Yeah that term, and "Euro G1" are both misnomers. A cultural artifact of the the US-centric fandom. "Non-US" G1 would actually be most appropriate, if anything.

**Bidoofdude** · 9th May 2020, 08:46 PM

I generally divide it in my mind into the US cartoon run years, the JP cartoon (Headmasters to Zone) years, and the tail end proto-G2 years.

Then again, the US cartoon run years also do kind of have their own division, obviously by the movie, but still feel mostly like a unit due to a large amount of shared cast.

I know there's a lot of overlap and broad-ness to it, but those all feel decently distinct to me and are how I subconsciously do it. I don't have any skin in the game with the above discussion I've read, but I guess this as good a place as any to explain your own opinions if you feel those categories don't suit you. Stuff like this is often extremely variable between individuals, so I think rigid categories are mostly not useful, but that's my opinion.

**GoktimusPrime** · 10th May 2020, 12:19 AM

Originally Posted by Bidoofdude

I generally divide it in my mind into the US cartoon run years, the JP cartoon (Headmasters to Zone) years, and the tail end proto-G2 years.

* US cartoon years = 1984-87
* JP cartoon years = 1987-90 - so you have an overlap there with 1987, unless you just want to arbitrarily declare 1987 to be a JP cartoon year since The Headmasters was a much longer series than Sunbow Season Four
* Proto-G2 year = Early 1993. It was only the early 1993 G1 Transformers that would be later repackaged as G2.
Your division does not account for 1991 and 1992.

Originally Posted by Bidoofdude

Stuff like this is often extremely variable between individuals, so I think rigid categories are mostly not useful, but that's my opinion.

Meh, this poll is just asking which method you prefer, not method you think is necessarily the best. It's like being on a flight and you're offered a choice of meals between chicken, fish or vegetarian. Neither might be what you actually want to eat, but the flight attendant is asking you to make a choice based on your preference.

Or you could choose to skip the meal and that's fine too.

And at the end of the day, this is just an opinion poll. It's not like we're voting in a new government or anything.

Many systems of classification are inherently arbitrary. Why are Europe, Africa and Asia classified as separate continents even though it's one big land mass? How are the UK and the Philippines considered part of the continents of Europe and Asia respectively when they're islands unconnected to continental land masses? What counts as a planet and why? Are viruses living or non-living? Why are Bosnian and Croatian considered different languages despite having a high level of mutual intelligibility, but mutually unintelligible Cantonese and Mandarin are classified as dialects of Chinese? Why are North and South Korea recognised as separate sovereign states, but Taiwan is not recognised as being separate from China? Why do we call the 10th month of the year "OCTOber" when it means "Eighth month"? Why are the letters W and Y classified as consonants when they can sometimes be pronounced as vowels? etc etc etc.

Je ne c'est pas. Ultimately we just decide on general consensus to help us make sense of the world and just run with it, even if it doesn't always make sense.

**Krayt** · 12th May 2020, 03:22 PM