Transformers general thread - Toy Robot men based on giant robots based on previously mentioned toys about said robots

[The Lawgiver]

It's interesting you should say that because no matter how bad this might be, it could be so much worse...

https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Transformers:_Kiss_Players_(franchise)

This is worse than kiss players in my opinion. The first pre-bay attempt at making more "mature/dark" transformers shit while also trying to simultaneously play into the then current trend of "put cute kid characters in this thing" ended up with a kind of schizo nightmare of a spinoff series but there were still some interesting concepts in it compared to the shit transformers ONE is doing where it feels like a weird spliced/copy and pasted plotline of a bunch of marvel movies and Gurren fucking lagann of all things. ONE will probably be constantly praised by "influencers" in a manner similar to how kiss players gets constantly demonized as the "bad bad scary no good transformers!" despite them and Hasbro constantly pulling from lore introduced in it.

I'll take Kiss Players over IDW's "Starscream is trans allegory" thank you very much.

Wait WHAT!? I know I haven't been following the comics super close in fucking forever but what the FUCK?

 

[el bandito loco]

It's interesting you should say that because no matter how bad this might be, it could be so much worse...

https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Transformers:_Kiss_Players_(franchise)

I read like a quarter of this article so far and I am in total shock. however this at least seems entertaining in it's garbage and degeneracy as 'this shouldn't exist but DOES' where this new movie seems like everything that sucks about blockbuster movies of the era shit out on a plate and the fans are told there you go, eat it. you wanted a transformers movie only with robots, here's your monkey's paw faggot.

that being said I have no interest in actually looking at kiss player but I'm grateful to know something so fucking stupid and weird was officially made at some point.

 

[The Lawgiver]

that being said I have no interest in actually looking at kiss player but I'm grateful to know something so fucking stupid and weird was officially made at some point.

I haven't looked at in fucking years, first saw it (the manga) when it came out via unofficial translation shit as a kid on the internet before everyone was hyping it up as the scary bad worst thing ever. Hobby shops by me carried some of the figures as well as other imported transformers, kinda wish I got some of them because the figures are actually pretty cool. It wasn't meant for small children but teens and adults, and was kind of one of the first transformers things to try to do that "dark mature" thing. Really kind of shows looking at literally anything from it but reddit/twitter types and e-celebs these days treat it as if it was. Rough around the edges and fucking insane in some instances, but there's clearly some level of effort put into it's concept and it had enough of an impact that shit even today keeps occasionally referencing or pulling from shit in it.

 

[marvlouslie]

I managed to get two threads on TFW2005 discussion around this shitpiece locked because I mocked the fuck out of it, and them. I essentially said, "Yum, yum, yum. Give me more shit tier Marvel writing Hollywood Daddy", and they lost their fucking minds over it. Apparently no one can criticize anything ever over there. It actually got so bad that they began actively wondering why a 40 year old man was on a Transformers fan site (which is just wild to me).

Goddamn, I hate these fucking kids.

 

[Hammerstein]

Wait WHAT!? I know I haven't been following the comics super close in fucking forever but what the FUCK?

In The Transformers: Till All Are One #12 Windblade speculates that Starscream changes bodies so often because he's subconsciously rejecting them. And I'm sure you know what they did to Arcee.

 

[The Lawgiver]

In The Transformers: Till All Are One #12 Windblade speculates that Starscream changes bodies so often because he's subconsciously rejecting them. And I'm sure you know what they did to Arcee.

I see. Kind of an odd thing when from what I remember a lot of characters in that comic have like several design changes, sometimes from issue to issue.

 

[Travoltron]

The Kiss Players radio shows have been fully fansubbed and I think the manga as well. They're on Nyaa, It is what it is, and I think it's kind of entertaining in its outlandishness.

I don't get why it's so hard to get Transformers right. People either go too silly and jokey with it or too grimdark and no fun.

 

[Starscream's Loyalty]

Kids and adult fans alike deserve better. At least bring back all the G1 VAs that are still alive for Christ's sake.

I hope hasbro fucking burns. I'm tired.

 

[Anonymus Fluhre]

The Kiss Players radio shows have been fully fansubbed and I think the manga as well. They're on Nyaa, It is what it is, and I think it's kind of entertaining in its outlandishness.

I don't get why it's so hard to get Transformers right. People either go to silly and jokey with it or too grimdark and no fun.

I remember when I first heard about KISS Players in passing and thought "I wonder what the Kiss Demon is up to now?!" God I only wish it was the KISS Demon. The shit that comes up on a search that should be illegal.

Kids and adult fans alike deserve better. At least bring back all the G1 VAs that are still alive for Christ's sake.

I hope hasbro fucking burns. I'm tired.

I hear it has some "dark" spots in it, but like how dark are we talking about there? What the Left consider dark? or what the Right consider dark? I'm guessing it has to do with the potential future they see when they show Blackarachnia, Starscream, and Soundwave. Does Sentinel Prime get fed to some Sharkticons are Aligatrons? That's really not that dark if so. Does Sentinel Prime get tentacled by a Quintison in a later deleted scene? That's par the course with Leftest media now so I wont be surprised after seeing him already strung up in the air by them.

 

[Space Police]

The Kiss Players radio shows have been fully fansubbed and I think the manga as well. They're on Nyaa, It is what it is, and I think it's kind of entertaining in its outlandishness.

I will never get over how almost all things Kiss Players are fully translated yet the Cybertron manga isn't, despite being the only comic version of Cybertron. There are tons of other mecha stuff that could have been translated as well, yet anything that's not super coomerish gets the short end of the stick (go on Mangaupdates and see what the majority of translated Super Robot Wars manga are).

It wasn't meant for small children but teens and adults, and was kind of one of the first transformers things to try to do that "dark mature" thing.

What about Armada?
>inb4 "muh minicon of the week"
How are moe protagonists (moe is Barney-tier btw) more mature than a minicon-hunting plot that segues into a mature plotline? Heck, Beast Wars and the Dreamwave comics are all "dark and mature" Transformers media that came out before Kiss Players.

 

[Anonymus Fluhre]

I will never get over how almost all things Kiss Players are fully translated yet the Cybertron manga isn't, despite being the only comic version of Cybertron. There are tons of other mecha stuff that could have been translated as well, yet anything that's not super coomerish gets the short end of the stick (go on Mangaupdates and see what the majority of translated Super Robot Wars manga are).

What about Armada?
>inb4 "muh minicon of the week"
How are moe protagonists (moe is Barney-tier btw) more mature than a minicon-hunting plot that segues into a mature plotline? Heck, Beast Wars and the Dreamwave comics are all "dark and mature" Transformers media that came out before Kiss Players.

Beast Wars had multiple deaths in the series. One that still strikes a chord (at least to gatekeepers) with people is the protoform death because people later saw it as autistic Transformer and today they see it as trans. Beast Machines was even darker given what Megatron did with Cybertron.

 

[The Lawgiver]

What about Armada?

Armada was better than Kiss players by far, but it was also still aimed at kids. A lot of transformers stuff if you look at it is kid oriented media that starts out goofy and issue of the week sorta deal before evolving into a more intense plot. As rough around the edges as the unicron trilogy was in some spots, and as fucked as some of the rushed out with animation or network interference stuff got , that shit was not only more memorable to me than Kiss players (which i can't even remember half the shit from anymore save for the actually cool or fucked up bits) but also a lot stronger in story structure overall. I think I rambled a bit about armada a few times before but I'm too lazy to check right now. I was only comparing the "Transformers ONE" thing to kiss players because the comparison got brought up.

Beast Wars had multiple deaths in the series. One that still strikes a chord (at least to gatekeepers) with people is the protoform death because people later saw it as autistic Transformer and today they see it as trans. Beast Machines was even darker given what Megatron did with Cybertron.

Current year Transformers "influencers" SEETHE like hell every time somebody calls transmutate "she" despite literally all official material of the character referring to the thing as female. They do this because Transmutate is constantly referred to as "it" in the original episode intentionally misunderstanding the context of why transmutate is being called "it". It's being used as a "this is a malformed abomination that can barely classify as one of our own at this point" and not "Ooh NB rep!" Stuff skeeves me out in the same way the Guilty Gear Bridget shit did.

IIRC there was a mild shitfit a few years ago when the kingdom figure came out about the listing calling her "she" insteadof "it" too. might've posted in this thread about that, I forget and I'm too lazy to check history right now much like the armada thing.

 

[el bandito loco]

so if I'm essentially just a casual fan, where do I look for the good shit? I watched beast wars/machines, the '01 cartoon and the first two? unicron trilogy shows as a child and liked all of them but haven't looked back in 20 years. is there a consensus on the best comics/manga or whatever? or do any of the shows really fuckin' hold up I should look at? I was excited for this movie and that trailer made me not want to see it at all but now I want to look at transformers shit that doesn't suck.

I've of course seen the 80s movie a bunch as a lil guy and in high school I attempted to watch the post G1 Japanese shows but the website I was watching them on got nuked (I remember they sucked anyways)

 

[AFAB]

so if I'm essentially just a casual fan, where do I look for the good shit? I watched beast wars/machines, the '01 cartoon and the first two? unicron trilogy shows as a child and liked all of them but haven't looked back in 20 years. is there a consensus on the best comics/manga or whatever? or do any of the shows really fuckin' hold up I should look at? I was excited for this movie and that trailer made me not want to see it at all but now I want to look at transformers shit that doesn't suck.

I've of course seen the 80s movie a bunch as a lil guy and in high school I attempted to watch the post G1 Japanese shows but the website I was watching them on got nuked (I remember they sucked anyways)

Beast Wars, Animated, and Prime are generally seen as good picks. Beast Wars holds up especially well (even though I never watched it as a kid - which should say something) and I've found myself watching clips of Animated and Prime from time to time.

As for comics - if you haven't read the Energon Universe, go check it out. It's kino and Hasbro should adapt it into a series.

 

[The Lawgiver]

so if I'm essentially just a casual fan, where do I look for the good shit? I watched beast wars/machines, the '01 cartoon and the first two? unicron trilogy shows as a child and liked all of them but haven't looked back in 20 years. is there a consensus on the best comics/manga or whatever? or do any of the shows really fuckin' hold up I should look at? I was excited for this movie and that trailer made me not want to see it at all but now I want to look at transformers shit that doesn't suck.

I've of course seen the 80s movie a bunch as a lil guy and in high school I attempted to watch the post G1 Japanese shows but the website I was watching them on got nuked (I remember they sucked anyways)

Man just watch whatever you feel like if you're in the mood for it. In terms of media I've honestly been kinda scattershot in terms of what I've watched over the years depending on what I feel like watching.

Animated, and Prime

Animated and Prime both do a pretty good job of combining G1 and Bayverse aspects into a new thing, and it makes sense considering they both came out around the timeframe those movies were still being pushed as the "main" transformers. Also given the timing they came out they also pull from the stuff that came slightly before the bay films

Spoiler: like the infamous kiss players.

Autoroopers are in Animated, but they're generic cybertron police guys in the background instead of mass produced defense robots made by a human organization. The terrorcons in Prime are literally just the legion shit but instead of long tongued megatron clone zombies made from unicron/galvatron particles mixing with human tech, they're dead or infected transformers turning into rabid long tongued glowy purple corruption versions of themselves due to coming into contact with unicron's crystallized blood.

One thing I don't see too many people bring up about animated is it's supposed to be one of those "kinda sequel reboots" with G1 stuff being shown occasionally on a TV as like "stuff that already happened in history". They don't do much with that, nor do they address it that much, but it's kinda neat. Megatron in Animated is clearly based on "Super Megatron" which was like the JP manga exclusive endgame form of G1 megatron/galvatron which kind of aligns with that premise of it being a "post g1 series".

 

[Cyclonus]

I saw a tribute to Megatron on YouTube showing all of his various incarnations and some commenter said "You left out Beast Wars Megatron" to which the creator replied "that's a different guy."

Is he though? I think of both him and Optimus Primal as being incarnations of the originals, just under Legend of Zelda rules instead of regular multiverse.

 

[The Lawgiver]

Is he though? I think of both him and Optimus Primal as being incarnations of the originals, just under Legend of Zelda rules instead of regular multiverse.

They're different guys with similar names. Originally beast wars was going to have them be the same as the originals but then the show came out and decided to make them distant descendants/relatives. Megatron is strongly implied to just be a completely unrelated megatron-ish guy that took on the name as a sort of ego/admiration thing. Basically if a guy who was a career criminal that admired some historical military figure like Napolean renamed themselves after him. If you're looking into "reincarnation of the original" territory there's shit like Primal Prime, who IS Optimus Prime IIRC.

 

[Cyclonus]

What about G1 cartoon Shockwave and G1 comics Shockwave? Are they the same guy? They have completely different personalities. And how about that stoner surfer fuckhead from Energon called Ironhide? Was he really Ironhide?

 

[marvlouslie]

so if I'm essentially just a casual fan, where do I look for the good shit? I watched beast wars/machines, the '01 cartoon and the first two? unicron trilogy shows as a child and liked all of them but haven't looked back in 20 years. is there a consensus on the best comics/manga or whatever? or do any of the shows really fuckin' hold up I should look at? I was excited for this movie and that trailer made me not want to see it at all but now I want to look at transformers shit that doesn't suck.

I've of course seen the 80s movie a bunch as a lil guy and in high school I attempted to watch the post G1 Japanese shows but the website I was watching them on got nuked (I remember they sucked anyways)

G1 is good, but gets real goofy as shit in parts. Can definitely recommend Transformers Prime. Prime is good shit. Animated is fun, but kind of mid at points. The designs were cool though. Robots in Disguise (RiD or Car Robots in Japan) was a fun ride, and SEVERLY underrated.

 

[The Lawgiver]

What about G1 cartoon Shockwave and G1 comics Shockwave? Are they the same guy? They have completely different personalities. And how about that stoner surfer fuckhead from Energon called Ironhide? Was he really Ironhide?

G1 the cartoon and marvel comics from the same time are technically different continuities but both labelled as "G1". The G1 marvel comics eventually go over into the G2 marvel comics while the g1 cartoon splits off into several JP exclusive seasons and then beast wars which somehow manages to reference both the G1 comics and G1 cartoon. It gets even WEIRDER because the JP dub of beast wars was basically a parody dub that you wouldn't even fucking understand unless you saw the original beast wars, and they had their own exclusive beast wars series that were 2d animated and kind of a sequel to Beast wars. It gets even more surreal with the trivia that the season 3 and onwards of the G1 show in Japan was going on before the movie came out over there which probably confused a lot of kids. My point is Transformers shit is kinda fucky in release and continuity due to several factors.

As for Ironhide? Yesn't. Unicron trilogy is kinda fucking wild with names, especially in region differences. In the JP version, Ironhide is the guy from armada the english one calls Demolishor. It kind of makes sense when you see his Red recolor he gets after he gets charged up/healed by the minicons. He BECOMES Demolishor in energon after becoming the monkey dump truck fucker. In the dub of all Unicron trilogy shit Megatron is megatron and then his color changes and he's galvatron, but that's not how it works in the JP version. he's just called Megatron in armada and Galvatron in Energon. I think I rambled about this shit a good number of times lmao.

Long story short Ironhide from Energon is "Roadbuster" in JP and some other regions. You can kinda see a bit of roadbuster in him looking at the head and proportions, but he's got no faceplate.
EDIT: I FORGOT THERE WAS ALSO AN ARMADA MINICON THEY NAMED IRONHIDE IN THE US VERSION THAT'S A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT CHARACTER.