Transformers: Energon & Beyond

[plasticfetish]

...but I don't like the idea of Everything constantly taking steps backwards.

That's it for sure. I dunno... I've been thinning out my Transformers collection over the last few years anyway, but going back and looking over toys from before Armada... all the way back to the few G1 toys that I own, has really made me miss the time when Hasbro and Takara tried for something a bit more clever with each figure. They didn't always do that with every toy, but they did manage to put out a line of figures that had you curious about all of the characters.

...they couldn't get away with calling a new show just Transformers.

How about "Toon-formers" or "Transformers Gang" or maybe "Optimus and Friends" instead?

All I'm saying, is that for years we've been hearing how kids today are "more sophisticated" and don't watch cartoons or play with toys as much. So Hasbro's way of dealing with that is to completely dummy down the Transformers concept?

They may be shooting for that 2-11 year old boy demographic, but I'd be really curious to know how many boys over the age of 5 or 6 are actually watching that show.

[Chaddymac]

I saw about 10 or so each of Animated Ratchet and Blackarachnia at Ghetto Wal-Mart, but nothing else.

Also, I'm completely on the otherside of the "Animated Sucks" argument. First, the show is the most well-written and sophisticated animated series Transformers has gotten in years. Perhaps not as adult as Beast Machines, but I would argue that the very value of its sophistication is its ability to tell stories both kids and adults can enjoy. The last thing it is doing is dumbing down.

And, after purchasing the toys, I can say that Haskara is VERY MUCH still seeking great innovation in the designs, in much the same way as they have with Star Wars of late. There are action gimmicks, but they've done an amazing job of making sure they don't interfere with articulation and posability. Many of them still use automorph technology, like the movie toys. And going a step further, the reason why I find the "animated" moniker appropriate is because what Haskara has attempted here is to create stylized transformers, much like what the Clone Wars line is doing now. Maybe it doesn't grip you the way the movie line did (which, by the way, didn't grip me at all), or maybe you enjoy powerlinks, energon stars, and cybertron keys (all lines that had far more misses for me than hits), but it is remarkably successful in doing what its attempted and its something I wouldn't have thought I'd love until I saw it.

As a fan of both the toys and the show, this line fills me with a brand of joy I haven't felt in a long time, perhaps not since Beast Wars. And since I'm also deeply enamored with Classics, I'll be happy and broke all year long.

[El Chuxter]

PF, there seems to be this weird trend. On the one hand, we say that kids are more sophisticated than in the past, which is baloney. On the other, we deprive them of Bugs Bunny because it's too "violent" and only air cartoons that talk down to them.

I am ambivalent toward most of the robot designs in Animated, and absolutely hate the human designs, but, the few times I've been able to see it, thought the writing is some of the best I've seen in a new cartoon in ages. Still, like you said, I'm not sure how many non-fans over the age of 6 would watch just due to the weird style.

Figgy, I meant "shoehorned" in that I thought Grimlock wasn't scheduled for several waves yet, and wasn't sure if they rushed him to get him into stores more quickly, sticking him into a case assortment at the last minute. Maybe shoehorned wasn't exactly the right word. Good to hear--maybe I'll see one in the wild, so to speak, so I can be sure it's not junk before Hasbro gets around to shipping him in late August.

[JediTricks]

"Sir, that tank-thing is getting back up!" - soldier reacting to Brawl.

"We're so dead!" - Capt. Lennox responding to Blackout.

Actions might speak louder than words in so far as the characters go with the Decepticons. I don't think the audience wanted a long expose from any of the villain characters, except more where Starscream and Megatron were concerned.

So, you liken them to set pieces and then say "well, nobody wanted to see them as characters anyway", that's a hell of an argument. What's the point of making them sentient transforming robots then? Why not just a meteor or a flood or any other pointless task to overcome? It's not a war anymore that way, the Decepticons aren't characters, that's Michael Bay's "Transformers: Autobots Hitting Things".

And it's not like the audience could even make out the majority of the actions the Decepticons were doing, much less the facial expressions or any of the non-verbal cues that audiences need to be able to connect with characters, both heroes and villains. Understanding and recognizing the villains is important to accepting them as an engaging threat.

Besides, Frenzy talked to himself in his own crazy language all the time. What are you complaining about?

Which most folks hated.

[Adam]

The Grimlock/Lugnut wave is pretty much everywhere, I saw them both at TRU today, and I bought my Grimlock at Target.

Actually ended up buying BumbleBee, Ratchet, Prowl, Grimlock, Starscream, and Lugnut. By the end of the day today, I returned everything but Grimlock and Prowl, who are both pretty cool.

The others... they were just ok. I thought about it for awhile though, and all the others I was really not going to care about too much after awhile, much like all the movie toys I bought. I had small issues with all of them. BumbleBee seems too big to me, Lugnut is too small. Starscreams articulation got on my nerves for some reason, and his damn left leg kept popping off. Despite having joints in all the right places, Ratchet just didnt seem to be able to pose too well. I'd rather have the money for TFU when they start showing up next month.

I will still get Voyager Prime whenever he starts showing up, and probably leader Megs, Ultra Magnus and maybe deluxe swoop and Jazz, but that seems it for right now.

[figrin bran]

I found some of the Animated toys today at TRU and as they had sent me a $10 off of a 50 dollar purchase, I went ahead and bought Screamer, deluxe Prime, Ratchet and Blackarachnia. So around $43 for everything wasn't bad at all. I'm still playing around with them but I'm quite pleased with this line.

[figrin bran]

I've added Animated Prowl and Lockdown to the collection now as I was able to find both of them at TRU today. Prowl is very well designed especially when you consider that his alt mode is a motorcycle which has not always resulted in great TF's in the past.

[RUSHBOY]

My local TRU just got the new Grimlock figure from the animated line !!
They had about 8 of them in the morning but I just bought 1.
They had to break the streetdate because Walmart has been selling the animated line for like 2 weeks now .

[figrin bran]

What's a Hasbro line launch without QC issues?

The grappling hook accessory that comes with Blackarachnia has broken already. For some strange reason, it stopped working and so I unscrewed it, thinking that the string just got caught into a snag. It wasn't and so I tried putting all the little pieces back together and it's not functional right now. I'll try again but this shouldn't even happen!

[Chaddymac]

I've added Animated Prowl and Lockdown to the collection now as I was able to find both of them at TRU today. Prowl is very well designed especially when you consider that his alt mode is a motorcycle which has not always resulted in great TF's in the past.

I have to agree. Prowl is an absolutely awesome figure by any measure, then add in the fact that he's a motorcycle and it's kind of unreal. Have you done the fix yet, to give him more knee articulation? You unscrew the yellow pads on either side of his thigh, switch them, then invert them by 180 degrees. Suddenly, he can bend his knees completely. Just awesome.

I picked up all the deluxes, the first wave of voyagers, and the DVD 2-pack. Some figures are more satisfying than others, but they are all pretty cool. I take that back. I actually think voyager Megs, if only because of his wonky cannon, is a bit of a loser. I look forward to his earth mode version. The 2-pack version, however, is actually pretty well done and very stable. That disappoints me a little. Also, I really appreciate the fact that 2-pack prime is an amalgam of Cybertron mode prime and voyager earth mode prime, and it accomplishes this combination admireably.

Yeah, the only disappointment for me was Voyager Megs. That kinda sucks.