Hehehehe, Gok, you beat me to it. Jaydisc's post made me think and put it down as a discussion topic later for one of my Soapboxes but you've beaten me to the punch so I'll lay my thoughts out here.
GOLD!Originally Posted by autobreadticon
I think this discussion isn't well defined.
What do we mean by G1? The cartoon? The toys? A concept? A combination of all of the above?
G1 as a toyline will be succeeded. The vintage collector dies and vintage collecting rests more and more on nostalgia. Sometimes the engineering and uniqueness carries forth like with the combiners but 90% of time it is nostaliga driven. That dries up as has been said with new generations and why settle on old fragile toys when you can have sparkly new sleek and articulated toys?
G1 as a cartoon. This is invariably contentious. G1 was a mixed bag. It had moments of brilliance but then it has moments that are quite cringeworthy. Watching it requires a suspension of belief and that may become harder as newer fans will be grow up on the movie or more recently cartoons. There will be in all eventuality a better cartoon.
G1 as a concept. This is harder to define but at some point we've got to see that G1 is no longer a toyline or a cartoon. It is far more than that. It has transformed, pun unintended, into the root of all transformers. Anything that has come since and will ever come will have its root and relevance in G1. And there's a certain inevitability to that. G1 will and cannot be proceeded b/c Prime will always be a truck. Megatron will always be his arch nemesis. Starscream will forever be the schemer. Bumblebee is the young punk that the audience is supposed to identify with. What you build around that will always be at the discretion of the writers but those concepts are intrinsic to the Transformers franchise.
Secondly it is in Hasbro's interests to build off the past to establish brand. It can only be done over generations and generations with the same characters and conflicts. BB will always be a sleek yellow car. Ratchet will be a medic. Ironhide a toughnut. Prime a truck. Megatron a vehicle of destruction. Starscream a jet. By doing this, Hasbro and Takara establish a brand with longevity - a brand that will outlast us and even those in charge right now. G1 is a very large part of that.
Beast Wars may have been an excellent cartoon, probably the best, but as a toyline it does not offer the diversity that you got in G1. It doesn't carry that nostalgia for this present generation and nor does it seem to be a large part of Hasbro's development of the franchise. For that reason, as loved as it may be by a niche, it at most can only ever be a G1 supplement. It has no legs.
G1 cannot be dethroned as a "concept". Perhaps I've used the wrong term but in its entirety G1 represents the core of all Transformers. Parts may be added to it that supplement it but it will never be superceded.
That to me is a bit sad as I'd like to see something new in Transformers, an all new direction but the business of toys and developing a brand require differently. G1 is and will always be a constant in Transformers in one form or another.
Reply With Quote