I haven't read the rest of this thread cos I've only seen ep 1 thus far (I'm about to step out, so I'll watch ep 2 later).

But some of my thoughts so far:

+ The episode more or less picks up where the comic book left off - though apparently some time has passed since Arcee and Cliffjumper arrived on Earth. Not too surprising considering the comic was intentionally written as a prequel to the pilot.

+ This cartoon is very much inspired by the live action movies. Seeing Orci and Kurtzman's names in the credits explains a lot. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, I think Hasbro are seizing the opportunity to create a series that parallels with the movie franchise and ride along with its success, which makes sense. Being written for a younger audience allows young kids who might otherwise not have access to the M rated films (or even if they did, it might not appeal to them as much (not that parts of it even appealed to adults )), are able to enjoy something very similar to the films. In some ways there are elements to this that I prefer over the movies... Jack isn't walking around desperately trying to get laid, and Miko isn't a "trophy girl". And Rafael also helps younger kids to relate too, as many of us were when Transformers came out and would be around the same age as most kids who are currently playing with toys (not that I've ever stopped playing with toys, but ya know... )

+ Is Soundwave a chick? If so, I think that's an interesting move. It allows the Decepticons to also have a female that's also a homage to a G1 character (cos it's not like we had a lot of female Decepticons in G1 to draw on - and even if they did, they'd be pretty obscure... "Esmeral who??" ). Soundwave's a character who's never been overtly macho or "manly" so it's possible to make him female. Of course, they could make Starscream female too... hehehe.

+ I'm happy with the animation quality. It's no Clone Wars, but of course, TF Prime probably doesn't have anywhere near the same budget as Star Wars. There's a lot of nice visual details, such as the battle damage on Cliffjumper, bleeding mech fluid etc. The rendering looks good, I like how the metallic car parts have that shine, and the headlights look cool.

+ Neat references: Cliffjumper often being referred to as "Cliff" (referring to his Japanese G1 name); Jack works at a place called "KO Burgers" (Knockout Burgers) - but of course, KO means something totally different to collectors - and he doesn't even have a uniform when he's at work... what kind of knockoff drive thru is this!?! ; "Robot Fight Club" -- heheh; setting the story in Nebraska is reminiscent of the way that Portland Oregon (presumably) was portrayed in the G1 cartoon - as Thundercracker would say, "Earth's so flat"; and of course, heaps of movie references.

+ The Space Bridge looks COOL! Reminds me of the Space Bridge from the G1 Marvel Comics, only cooler cos it's built inside an asteroid instead of a suspension bridge. Not sure if that asteroid is an enslaved Cybertronian or not though.