Not sure if this belongs here or /co/ or /a/ or /toy/ or what

I'm not terribly well versed in it, but most people say to start with all of Gen 1's show and then theres about 6-7 shows that are worth your time.

I've only really just watched G1 and read the MTMTE comic.

Transfag here, OH BOY HERE WE GO:

>G1
Watch until up to the original movie, then if you like excruciating pain, keep going. The show nosedives from that point on as the writers and animators just completely lose the reigns
>G2
Pretty much limited to the comics. Great read, violent as all hell and dozens of your favorite characters will die. But it has little impact on anything else other than following G1's story to it's horrifying conclusion.
>Headmasters/Masterforce
Two Japanese followups to G1 [part of a fuckhuge secondary continuity], since the G2 comics never made it over there. They're actually getting a bit of a following in the west these days, but they are Eighties anime so don't get your hopes up.
>Beast Wars
Arguably the best Transformers series for a long time - or the worst, depending on who you ask. The animation isn't doing it any favors, but the closer focus on just a handful of characters means more standout roles. The villains, especially, are incredibly funny and likeable.
>Beast Machines
Follow up to Beast Wars with arguably better story but in turn less focus on humor and character showcasing. If you really wanted to know what happened post-G1 and don't care for G2, this will scratch your itch. The animation is somewhat improved, as well.
>Robots in Disguise/Car Robots
The first of the Japanese continuity to be brought over. It's... there. Not very much special here other than some really fruity robot designs and standard nineties anime tropes.
>Armada/Energon/Cybertron [AKA Unicron Trilogy]
ALART! ALART! The next series of Japanese imports sent the Transformers series into a nosedive that the franchise almost never recovered from. This is unique mid-Thousands levels of Bad Anime - awful dubbing, poor CGI, continuity and animation errors so bad they still don't make sense and LOTS of toy gimmick shilling. Honestly, I grew up on this and could not recommend it to anyone if they asked me to. The ONLY good concept was Sideways, barely.

>>13941631
cont'
>Bayformers [AKA Sam and the Change-o-Bots]
While not actually as bad as everyone likes to think [aside from RotF, fuck that movie] these still aren't anything GOOD. Maybe watch the first and consider it a nice little G1 tribute. Maybe don't.
>Animated
Indisputably the best show in the series repertoire at the time of its airing, Animated is a love letter to twenty-plus years of nonsensical transforming robots continuity, written and directed by people who read TFWiki for fun. If you've been doing your homework, it'll blow you away - if not, it's still a good watch. It picks up TREMENDOUSLY a season in, so if it's initially slow don't worry. Sadly, it was canceled before its time leaving the best of its plot threads and cameos to go unfinished.
>Transformers Prime + Robots in Disguise [no relation]
The show to air yet in the series, Prime and RiD return the series to the Beast Wars setup of questionable CGI and character-driven action while retaining some of Animated's finer points [the cast especially, and the interaction with humans]. I haven't actually given these series a full run through yet, though I will say if you can't get past some of Bayformers' flaws [designs, no talking Bumblebee, etc] this will be a rough start.

OTHER MEDIA:
>Vidya:
Fall of Cybertron and War for Cybertron are the best Transformers games, bar none, telling a unique pre-G1 story with incredible art direction and great gameplay. If you liked Vanquish, this may be right up your alley.
>Comics
Aside from the G2 run, the IDW and Image [later Dreamwave] comics tell great modernized stories with a lot of scope. There's some seriously crazy stuff out there that could only work as comics [check out Shattered Glass if you want to see Megatron be the Good Guy, for example]. There are also some crossovers with Marvel stuff, but it tends to be pretty edgy in my experience.
>Manga/Radio Drama/Japan
Transformers Manga, and japanese stuff in general gets fucking weird.

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>>13941631
>G1
Season three wasn't that bad. Granted, the lows were some of the lowest but we actually got some continuity in writing and Web World.

>>13941663
>Transformers Manga, and japanese stuff in general gets fucking weird.

What don't want to talk about Kiss Players?

>Armada was bad
Well it wasn't great or anything, and I can't speak for Energon, Armada at least was pretty enjoyable.

>>13947740
Armada was okay, mostly because of Starscream (who was fucking fantastic), Energon was just plain nope, Cybertron was meh.

>>13947698
I actually did, ran out of space though and that stuff is best left discovered by chance.

>>13947740
Go rewatch it

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>>13941663
WfC and FoC are pre-Prime, there are just a ton of G1 references because the devs are fans.

>>13947771
They're both part of the Aligned family, but there are too many discrepancies for them to be a direct prequel. They work much better as G1

>>13947771
Those games were made before Prime existed, they were designed as "pre-G1" in concept. Also, the link between Prime and WfC/FoC has some pretty glaring holes (Bumblebee losing his voice happened at a battle pre-WfC but he's healed from it in WfC). The connection is pretty tenuous.

>>13947785
I always got the feeling that Hasbro never really knew what the fuck they were doing with the Aligned continuity.

As a random question, did RiD 2015 ever get any better? I started watching it when it first started, but dropped off as it went on. Anybody know if its worth getting back into?

>>13948086
>Hasbro never knew what they were doing
Aligned was going to be some kind of G1 reboot at some point but it fizzled out pretty hard, Rise of the Dark Spark or whatever was proof enough that nobody wanted that.

>>13941631
Also to note is that the last episodes of G1 never happened in the Japanese Late G1 continuity.

>>13948109
Also they mention the thousands of dollars wasted on a bible.

>>13941663
Let's not forget about the Devastation game that Platinum did. Short but sweet nod to the G1 days, written as if it were part of the first show.

>>13948512
Haven't played it, couldn't comment. Seemed alright though.

>>13948109
Aligned was supposed to give an "aligned" direction and backstory to all the various pieces of Transformer media being developed. Problem was that the IDW sat out from the start, Michael Bay was doing his own thing, Prime changed directors (or was it showrunners?) between season 2 and season 3 and the new person threw out most of the stuff planned for Prime to do his own thing, and the Game devs did their own thing.

Hasbro put a lot of work into Aligned, but the groups they put on the job went other places than where Hasbro wanted them to.

Starscream is ruling Cybertron, Megatron is a Pacifist autobot, and Optimus Prime just annexed the Earth... what the fuck is going on?

>>13941663
>bar none,
The PS2 Armada game disagrees

>>13948869
>Hasbro put a lot of work into Aligned
Really? I can't tell. It's like Hasbro just said to the creators
>Heeeeeeey guys
>Not trying to hinder your creativity, but...
>Remember to make your game/show link up vaguely to other properties
>Okay?
>Hello?

>>13949816
oh damn, I completely forgot about that one!
It doesn't completely outrank WfC and FoC, but it's definitely worth checking out

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>>13941631
>>13941755
Doesn't Sky Lynx only appear in season 3? Don't even try to tell me that you don't like Sky Lynx. It's not possible. I know, because Sky Lynx told me, and Sky Lynx is incapable of lies and he's never wrong. Plus he's handsome.

Also Masterforce is amazing. Don't lump it in with Headmasters, c'mon. And why did Victory get skipped entirely in this otherwise comprehensive recap?

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>>13941631
>but they are Eighties anime so don't get your hopes up.

>Car Robots
>90's

>>13941663
>Fall of Cybertron and War for Cybertron are the best Transformers games

>>13950153
Let's just saw wfc and foc are some of the best tf games along with devastation and the armada game. I've played all of them except for devastation and would recommend to any person wanting to get into transformers. >>13947740
Armada is alot different than prime which was the last series i had watched before. The more Campy atmosphere and less serious story was fun, at least for me. Transformers needs to be less serious desu.

>>13950153
>implying Car Robots didn't have a bunch of poor nineties tropes
think harder
>seriously implying FoC and WfC aren't the best transformers games
Be contrarian somewhere else anon

>>13949909
I literally forgot Victory existed
Not even gonna lie about that one, I did a quick skim of TFWiki to make sure I had everything in order and didn't even think of Victory.

>>13950870
Armada isn't bad in concept, it's fucking terrible in execution

>>13941441
/m/ is the best place exactly because it talks about it less.

/co/ and /toy/ Transformers threads are as cancerous as Gundam threads are here.

>>13941663
>No mention about Rescue Bots
>Now imagining Heatwave making some sarcastic comment about how they never got any respect
Yeah, I know that it's basically a pre-schooler show made in Flash (with a bit of cel-shaded 3D thrown in later episodes), but come on. Especially since it seems to have quite a lot of adult fans.

>>13950884

Victory is like robot wrestling. We've tried to watch it with a bro and felt it was too retarded for us.

>>13941631
>>13941663
Pretty all there is to it, I partially disagree on Unicron Trilogy (I think Armada OKish, Energon the worst, and Cybertron the best of the 3). Also keep in mind that Cybertron/Galaxy Force (japanese name) was supposed to be standalone, but Hasbro wanted a trilogy.

Plus, there is the JAPANESE BEAST WARS STUFF!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vm3I3Bb4SY

In addition to a very wacky dub of the original BW (Rattrap speaking to the audience about food, Airazor becoming a man and still romancing Tigatron, Blackarachnia changing moods to polar opposites at a nanoclick...), there is 2 japan-exclusive Beast Wars animes, the first (Beast Wars II) made with remaining toyline characters not used in the OG BW, some re-issued old molds and a couple of new models for the leaders (Lio Convoy/Leo Prime and pink Galvatron). The second is Beast Wars Neo and used mostly new toy models for both factions (now led by Big Moth Convoy and Magmatron). Both showns have them fighting over a energy source called Angolmois which is actually Unicron essence. EVERYONE in II (apparently) dies after Galvatron gathers all of the energy in a planet called Nemesis and blown it up. Then in Neo, 3 servants of Unicron, the Blendtrons, start ressurecting GalvaUnicron and use Cybertron as his new body, forcing the Maximals and Predacons to join forces. They also bring the previous cast back to help, since they were just stuck in a wormhole. Like G1 4th season, Beast Machines do not exist in Japan.

>>13951355
Incidentally, Karyuudo Fansubs should be putting out Beast Wars II within a few weeks from now.

>>13950881
>claim to know which Transformers game is best when you haven't even played Devastation
Okay buddy.

>>13952105
Devastation is a good game, but it's just a rehash of G1 characters and ideas. WfC/FoC go the distance to create their own unique vision of Cybertron and the history of the Trabaformers themselves

>>13951175
Rescue Bots isn't Transformers
;^)
>>13951355
>angolmois
Doesn't that shit show up in Binaltech too at some point? Jap Transformers is some cuhrazy shit