Transformers help

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>>15811732
G1 is like hanna barberra cartoons with robots, just a status quo sunday morning KIDS CARTOON
its there so you can like the character better, so you can show off to your friends "that robot is my guy i even own the toys of him".
Japanese G1 however feels like traditional super robot show, theres monster of the week formats but most of japs G1 happens after the movie.

so yeah, if youre not really familiar with any of the characters, you probably wont feel anything when they die or did something in the movie

>>15811732
>viewing requirements for the 1986 movie?
Just watch the first 3 episodes (More Than Meets the Eye Part 1-3) of G1 Season 1 for the '86 movie. It sets up "who's who" "why the civil war" and "how they got to earth. Then if you enjoyed those two pieces, work through the rest of season 1 and 2.
>Where does it stand on the scale of "undisguised toy commercial" to "genuinely intriguing story"?
This is a cartoon from the late 80s, no matter what its forever a toy commercial. If you want story telling, read the Marvel G1 comics (The US and UK comics branch off from each other)

Citizen Kane
The Third Man
Touch of Evil

these are the bare minimum of Orson Welles cinema you must see. You may continue with films like F for Fake, Magnificent Ambersons and The Lady From Shanghai. Once you have watched most of his filmography, or how many you want, you may watch this movie wihich has his final role voicing Unicron.

>>15811732
anyone else read an alternate timeline fic that sort of explains why jetfire looks like a veritech (robotech was used not macross)?

basically there was an agreement banning humans from obtaining cybertronian tech but nothing about non-cybertronian tech.

the jetfire body was a token for the autobots help in reverse engineering the sdf-1's tech.

it was way back then (iirc pre 2007) so it's long gone now (so no use asking for the link for proof).

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>>15812013

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>>15811732
Latching on this thread, I have few questions regarding Transformers as a newcomer (barring the Michael Bay movies)
1. What are worth consuming media in the franchise such as TV shows, comics?
2.Any visual guide that shows connections and followups?
Thanks in advance.

>>15811732
It doesn't really matter. The movie isn't even that good overall, I just love it because I saw it as a kid and the soundtrack is genuinely great. The best parts of G1 are the UK comics which have been getting republished slowly in trade paperbacks.

>>15812013
this is my new favorite answer

You don't really need anything prior. You already kinda-sorta know who Optimus Prime and Megatron are, that's good enough.

It's a toy commercial as much as the bay movies. I think you already know that the main cast is almost entirely new and they systematically kill off all the S1/S2 characters so kids would go buy new toys.

if anything it's more important to have seen the Fist of the North Star movie so when they reuse footage from it you can go "wait wtf that's from Fist of the North Star"

>>15815229
Beast wars

>>15816731
Really? Where was that?

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>>15818906

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>>15815229
Seconding this

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>>15815229

I have this. The first part is a guide for the IDW transformers comics, which are really neat.

>>15815229
for tv, animated and beast wars are most worth it. prime is pretty great. the japanese made ones (headmaster, masterforce, unicron trilogy, etc) flow like your typical super robot show, quality varies from show to show.

>>15815229
I can only talk about shows that ended up in America but Beast Wars is great (Beast Machines is love-it-or-hate-it) and takes G1 as canon. Robots in Disguise is very anime-y, might be your thing, might not be. The Unicron trilogy (Armada/Energon/Cybertron) is almost entirely crap (it's essentially only good for the last third of Armada and a couple parts of Cybertron)
Animated is fun and Prime is nearly perfect.

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>>15821325
The Unicron trilogy is interesting. All of them have unique ideas but don't do enough to make them stand out.

Armada/Micron Legend had the Starscream arc (which gets negated the very next show) and the entire final stretch. Basically, everything once they leave Earth. I'd actually recommend Micron over Armada because Armada's script is baaaaaaaaad.

Energon/Superlink was a mess. Not only did it kill any semblance of character development for Scream and Megs, the plot itself was fucking awful and meandering with no real purpose until about halfway through. Our new cast is also kind of not likeable, outside of Doc and maybe Misha. I only really liked Crash Course and Distribution, both which happen to be filler episodes and have fuck all to with the actual plot.

Cybertron/Galaxy Force was probably my favourite of the bunch. I liked the plot, I actually really liked the human characters this time around and the Transformers were enjoyable. I liked both dubs for this one, with Rhinox's VA playing Vector Prime in the dub and Maximilian Jenius in the sub. Vector Prime's death was actually really fucking good IMO, much better than Inferno's in Energon. Hell, I loved the character as a whole.

Best version of the Unicron Trilogy's Optimus Super Modes too, IMO

How much of the toy lore am I going to miss out on if I disregard Armada, etc.? It's really painful to watch. Even my dumb, shittaste inner 8-year old finds this garbage to be incredibly boring and low quality.

>>15821386
Armada is really repetitive until the second half.
I haven't seen the japanese version, but the second half of Armada when everyone got upgrades was goat

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>>15815229
Beast Wars, Animated, and Prime are the main TV shows with real effort in storytelling. They're not perfect, but you can tell the writers were putting real effort in, even if it took Beast Wars a few episodes.

Most of the American comic books are worth reading, even going back to the 80's they targeted an older demographic and were allowed to tell more complex stories.

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Continuity

The chart I posted isn't nearly as complicated as it seems, it really just boils down to "everything G1 can lead into Beast Wars in the far future, and everything else is in its own timeline".

Also, the so called "Unicron Trilogy" is pretty trash and best avoided, unless you want to go watch the original Japanese with subtitles. Nearly every instance of a philosophical conversation or something interesting is replaced with dull banter like "Why don't you bring it on Megatron!" Localization was an utter mess.

What are the differences between 80s UK and US comics?

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I haven't watch much of Headmaster but Masterforce is pretty good

>>15811751
>G1 is like hanna barbera cartoons with robots
This is actually such an apt comparison

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>>15821922
Gobots is literally a Hanna Babera cartoon with robots, how does it compare?

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>>15821881
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Marvel_Comics_continuity

>>15815229
Hot personal opinions:

The G1 cartoon is an interesting relic that doesn't hold up. You should absolutely watch the insanity that is Prime Target from Season 2, and all episodes featuring the Socialist Democratic Federated Republic of Carbombya. The movie is worth watching at least once, has some really nice animation in places and a stellar voice cast.

Beast Wars once it gets out of season one is probably the best-written Western Transformers series. Beast Machines conversely is terrible and should be avoided at all costs.

None of the more recent series are worth watching, in my opinion. The Japan-only instalments such as Headmasters, Victory, Super-God Masterforce and Beast Wars II are good.

The live-action movies are pure cancer. There's a few select issues of the Marvel and Marvel UK Transformers comic worth reading, but you won't miss out on anything earth-shattering by skipping them. The Dreamwave title War Within has an OK story and some great Cybertronian bot designs. I didn't really like any of the IDW stuff.

My summary would be if you're already into less mainstream mecha stuff most Transformers material is going to feel like a huge step down in quality. Try and cherry-pick the best bits and don't waste time with the large piles of horse manure making up most of the franchise.