Super God Masterforce

This is the next series released in Japan covering Generation One characters/toys. But chronologically, it doesn't seem to fit anywhere. Even though it is supposed to follow on from Headmasters (which was supposed to be a future setting), it appears to be set on a present day, pre-movie Earth. And the Pretenders have been on Earth for thousands of years, according to the first episode, but have never been involved in previous series (obviously, if the toys hadn't been made yet). And (Metal)Hawk says that Cybertron still exists, which would place it before Headmasters.
A quick check of tfwiki.net, suggests that it is easier to understand if you see Masterforce as a stand-alone series, in its own continuity.

I'm looking forward to seeing in action, all the other Gen1 toys/characters that didn't get a chance to feature in Western animation, like the Pretenders, Powermasters, Seacons and second year Headmasters. I don't think the second year Targetmasters are included though.


Ep 1 - Rise Up, Pretenders

Three Decepticon Pretenders appear after thousands of years imprisoned around the globe, forcing the four Autobot Pretenders to reveal themselves to combat them. Using Seacon drones, the Decepticon trio start terrorising humans. Shuta is a human child friend of (Metal)Hawk, who gets caught up in the attack.

The Pretenders in this series are human sized when in their shells, but magically appear as full-sized robots through a dazzling light display or a shimmering shadow. They don't even grow or shrink like Gen1 characters (like Soundwave), they just suddenly appear and the human-sized shell disappears. At least the US comic had the shells the same size, and still existed when the robots were out and about.

All the Pretenders that were released by Hasbro have different names in Japan, so take a bit to get used to them. Metalhawk though is a Japanese exclusive character/toy, but for some reason is just called Hawk in the cartoon.

The squealing of the Tentakil drones is really annoying.

Quite a lot of human carnage in this show. The Japanese kids mustn't get as traumatised as the western kiddies do when seeing death and destruction in cartoons.

Commercial break 'bumpers' are included, showing characters transforming, like we saw with some of the US Gen1 cartoon.
They even include a short clip of the next episode at the end.

The intro credits song sounds like a love song, it's so soft and mellow. It doesn't feel like something an action, warring robots series would have as a theme song. Even the closing credits song is a bit too soft as well.


Ep 2 - The Decepticons' Fearsome Manhunt!

The Decepticon Pretenders steal corpses to turn into zombies to use as weapons against humans and Autobots. The plan fails, so they decide to capture live humans next. They pick an obscure Pacific Island, but coincidently the Autobot Diver is on a boat nearby and reports it to Hawk. Shuta manages to convince Hawk to take him to the dangerous location, and promptly has to save him soon after they arrive. They meet with another child, Cab, who joins them after the Decepticons are chased off and the captured Humans are freed. During this raid on the Pacific Island, Dauros (Skullgrin) attacks and destroys the Observatory the Autobots were using as a base, killing Shuta's father.


It seems that the Seacon drones stay in groups of their own type, as this episode had Lobclaw (Nautilator) drones and Overbite drones.

The Decepticon base looks really organic and weird. Nothing like previous Decepticon or Cybertronian bases.

Shuta is another annoying child able to convince Autobots to behave irrationally.

And Cab has the mystical ability of talking to animals.

The Autobots new base at the end of the episode... it is implied that it is new, so must have been built really fast.