Transformers questions by newbies, and not-so-newbies

[Sky Shadow]

So i kinda missed the whole Unicron Trilogy.... I started watching Armada a while back and it was a little painful to see. Is it worth slogging it out and watching the whole series, or maybe just wiki it and read about it instead

Several Transformers series aren't worth the time or effort of watching them. Armada, Energon and Cybertron are three of them. Also, none of them really affect any Western continuities so other than adding to your general knowledge or shoehorning them into the Japanese universe they're barely a valuable study. The worst part about the Unicron Trilogy is just how half-arsed it all is. Just as it seems like they might actually be investing in some character development (Starscream and Demolishor, for example) it turns out to be a psyche.

[Quickstrike]

So i kinda missed the whole Unicron Trilogy....

Lucky you.

Well I dunno, I remember the Cybertron Cartoon being ok. Or at least not terrible.

[christalcase]

So i kinda missed the whole Unicron Trilogy.... I started watching Armada a while back and it was a little painful to see. Is it worth slogging it out and watching the whole series, or maybe just wiki it and read about it instead

I loved Cybertron (although I watched it straight after Armada and Energon so it may have influenced my decision) and I think that is worth watching. Whereas Energon is a direct sequel to Armada, Cybertron is pretty much a separate story that you can watch on it's own and enjoy. That said, Cybertron still has some flaws (a lot of stock footage, boring episodes, basic plot etc).

[GoktimusPrime]

So i kinda missed the whole Unicron Trilogy.... I started watching Armada a while back and it was a little painful to see. Is it worth slogging it out and watching the whole series, or maybe just wiki it and read about it instead

The comics are worth reading IMO. Energon not so much... they never even finished the Energon comics since Dreamwave went belly up half way through. So naturally they never got around to making Cybertron comics. By time IDW acquired the Transformers comic licence, the Unicron Trilogy was more or less winding down. But yeah, you're not missing out on much with the cartoon... especially dubbed in English. I've seen Armada in both English and Japanese (Micron Legend), and the Armada dub is just awful. <insert.massively.long.rant>

Toywise...
Armada
The best thing about Armada IMO were the Mini-Cons. I like the concept of Mini-Cons powering up the Autobots and Decepticons, but for the most part it didn't work out so well in execution as a lot of the toys became compromised by their gimmicks (Scavenger is one of the worst). But some of the toys were actually pretty good, like Tidal Wave and Unicron.
Energon
Disappointing -- they were trying to rehash the 1989 Multi Force gimmick as the Powerlinx gimmick, but it somehow worked out to be inferior to the original G1 gimmick! Some of the smaller equivalent Scout Class figures were pretty decent though. The Dinobots and Quintesson just sucked spheres.
Cybertron
On the whole a really good toy line. It was like Hasbro finally learnt how to make toys that were _complimented_ by their gimmicks rather than compromised by them. Even if you totally hated a certain gimmick in a Cybertron toy, you could just ignore it and just enjoy the value of the toy itself. The gimmicks were just so much less intrusive than those we saw in Armada and Energon. And a lot more effort was finally put into the toy fiction (tech spec bios); each Planet Key came with a unique code where you could unlock that character's full bio online that really fleshed them out -- like Shortround... a Transformer who collects Transformers! (holy metafiction, Batman!)

[i_amtrunks]

The last 15 or so episodes of armada were okay, and kind of tand alone from the series (as in you need not have watched the rest of them to understand it).

Energon had some great ideas in the story but they were all executed poorly. The combiner gimmick ruined a fair bit of the show too.

I enjoyed Cybertron as a stand alone, trying to shoehorn it to fit with the first two series doesn't work but it was a fun, kind of Indiana Jones story with the relic hunting. Parts were weak, and the dub made things that were simple in he Japanese version wrong or overly complicated.

If you don't watch it, you won't have missed anything must see, but without the trilogy we wouldn't have had the rejuvenation of the to brand.

[GoktimusPrime]

The biggest effect from the Unicron Trilogy (specifically from the Cybertron series) is the introduction of the somewhat controversial Multiversal Singularity retcon.

[BigTransformerTrev]

Does anyone know if there is any way to tell what robot is in which packet with the Wave 1 Microchangers? I couldn't see any distinguishing codes like there was with the preview wave

[ILikeSoundwave]

The codes are at the back on the red strip at the top. And for the codes http://tformers.com/article.php?sid=18954

[i_amtrunks]

Does anyone know if there is any way to tell what robot is in which packet with the Wave 1 Microchangers? I couldn't see any distinguishing codes like there was with the preview wave

n the top right hand corner there are a bunch of numbers, you can ignore all but the last two, they are what define each figure, for example Inferno is : 22851 41, the 22851 is the same on every bag, the 41 is what lets you know it is Inferno.

Codes are:
Scorch (Singe) 40
Inferno 41
Springer 42
Warpath 43
Blackarachnia 44
Rampage 45
Insecticon 46
Blast Off 47
Hook 48
Dirge 49
Quickslinger 50
Bludgeon 51

[griffin]

The codes are at the back on the red strip at the top. And for the codes http://tformers.com/article.php?sid=18954

What the... you posted up link to a news article at another site, that is using my photos and link back to this site anyway. Why not just post up our news link?