Studio Series discussion

[LordGigaIce]

I really dislike Prime for wasting Peter Cullen's last "peak" years as the voice of Optimus. The movies are whatever but Prime could have been the show to give him one final sendoff and instead they turned Optimus into a boring movie trailer line reader.
"Primes don't party," "Optimus never uses contractions."

First, he's not Data from Star Trek. Secondly G1 had Optimus playing basketball and cracking dad jokes at the word "boobies"
So I have no idea what the hell they were thinking.

Prime's toyline issue was: This was designed to be a TV series first, a grand epic TV series to be taken seriously like Star Trek, Star Wars, or Stargate; and a toyline second. The toys were meant to capture the show and be stuff people wanted because they liked the show. Not because they were good toys.

That actually makes a lot of sense.
My favourite drama of all time is nu-Battlestar Galactica. The toys for it are bad. Really bad. But people who like the show buy them because you know... you like the show. These are characters from the show.

So if you look at Prime like that... yeah I can see it.

That describes the First Edition ones better than the later ones.

I mean, the mainline Voyagers in particular actually had a weapon gimmick that made them worse as toys (literally just a worse version of a gimmick that was already bad in DotM), but also didn't have any basis in the show.

That's the baffling thing. The one time the pre-BH Prime toyline tried to be toyetic they gave us these blocks of indeterminate tech that could fold out into guns, but never locked in place. So if I wanted a Prime shelf congrats all the Voyagers are wielding engine blocks I guess.

Except Magnus, who managed to get a cool hammer/gun out of it. But then he didn't even get to show up in the show with that character model so

 

[Shadewing]

That describes the First Edition ones better than the later ones.

I mean, the mainline Voyagers in particular actually had a weapon gimmick that made them worse as toys (literally just a worse version of a gimmick that was already bad in DotM), but also didn't have any basis in the show.

No, that still counts; if anything imo it PROVES it true. They didn't try to give the toys gimmicks, they threw in the laziest more unobstructive gimmick they had on hand that could still be consider toyetic but wouldn't actually effect the toy directly and called it a day.

 

[GodSentinelOmega]

The Prime Magnus toy was a cool figure with a massive hammercannon, that would have looked awesome on the show. It is said that oversight and changing priorities scuppered that and the Star Seeker idea. So we got Thundertron alone, and Magnus as a reworked Prime Prime.

I know it’s kinda wishful thinking (and the wrong thread for this) but I would love to see a Legacy style update of Prime Magnus’s toy design.

On a tangent, I really wish the Studio Series Gamer line was better. As i’d love to see figures like WFC/FOC unrealised figures like Magnus, Springer, Scattershot. And of course, better versions of the FOC Combaticons.

 

[Sabrblade]

The more I think about just how much she clashed in tone with the rest of the characters in the world they inhabited, the more I begin to realize that Miko really was the Jar Jar Binks of the series.

They wanted Prime to be like The Sopranos, yet they also threw in a hyperactive wannabe anime girl into the mix? Sure, that totally fits.

 

[Gizmoboy]

As much as we all found Miko annoying at times (or a lot for some ), you have to admit that is was pretty bad ass when she got the Apex Armor.

Sorry to all not interested in the TFP conversation. It kind of has taken over the thread a bit. We'll try to steer things back on topic.

 

[GodSentinelOmega]

Agreed Gizmo. The Apex Armour was a high point. Miko did have her good times. Plus, this Prime talk has been good.

Plus, how cool would a new Thunderwing be that took at least some inspiration from Prime game Thunderwing.

Also, if you put a pair of swords with SSBB Movie Wheeljack. He’d make for a pretty decent pre-earth Prime Wheeljack. His design was cool.

 

[Sabrblade]

Plus, how cool would a new Thunderwing be that took at least some inspiration from Prime game Thunderwing.

I'd rather we got a Prime game Thunderwing proper in SS Gamer Edition instead of a figure merely "inspired" by him.

 

[Gizmoboy]

Also, if you put a pair of swords with SSBB Movie Wheeljack. He’d make for a pretty decent pre-earth Prime Wheeljack. His design was cool.

I thought the same thing when I saw him at retail. Never picked him up though.

 

[Haze Arquebus]

As much as we all found Miko annoying at times (or a lot for some ),

Speak for yourself, she was my favorite. Raf was just fine, Jack was dull as cardboard. Miko actually got things happening. (With extremely bad and dangerous decisions couched in questionable-at-best behavior, but well-behaved characters don't drive episode plots.)

 

[Dake]

Eh - I find that to just be lazy writing. Sure, in the end it's still a kids' cartoon, but using bad behavior as a shortcut gets old. Having the one idiot kid that never learns as the go-to to advance the plot is second only to the "lack of simple communication leads to dire/deadly/world-ending consequence" as one of my least-favorite tropes (cough *Acolyte* cough).

 

[Shadewing]

None of the kids were good characters. Miko existed to move the plot and little more. Raf existed to be Bumblebee's voice and be the magic tech kid and litterally nothing else. Jack existed for Arcee's sake and little more, he's kinda the opposite of fridging as he solely exists for her character development by not dying.

Of the three, Miko kinda is the best by default in my books because she's the closest to having an actual personality, and is almost borderline fun at times until it teeters into being annoying or obnoxious.

 

[GodSentinelOmega]

I thought the same thing when I saw him at retail. Never picked him up though.

If you ever see him again, he is well worth a pickup. The hits of shiny paint don’t hurt either.

As for Miko. It really is just the fact that they never really let her evolve beyond her hyper beginnings, save for moments like (as Guzmo said) the Apex Armour event. Think about the ending to S2, when the good guys have to split up and go in the run. That felt like a great moment to hammer home how dangerous things are for the kids on the run with the bots. The writers just didn’t seem to have the time, especially with the truncated S3, to really follow up on that.

Overall, Prime is a good series with some odd decisions made.

 

[Sciflyer]

I saw a few episodes of Prime and it seemed alright. Some of the toy designs were pretty good.

 

[Sabrblade]

Sure, in the end it's still a kids' cartoon,

It sure didn't wanna be, what with the whole "Let's make this like The Sopranos!" mindset.

And now I'm reminded of back when Machinima wanted their Combiner Wars show to be "The Game of Thrones of animation!"

 

[GodSentinelOmega]

Curse you! Now I’ve got Kentucky Fried Overlord stuck in my head.

 

[MrBlud]

It sure didn't wanna be, what with the whole "Let's make this like The Sopranos!" mindset.

Indeed.

Never has ambition been further away from reality.

And now I'm reminded of back when Machinima wanted their Combiner Wars show to be "The Game of Thrones of animation!"

I misspoke earlier.

 

[LordGigaIce]

I didn't care for any of the Prime kids. For my money Armada had the best human kid characters. I revisited the show recently. They are, strangely for the rushjob Armada was, pretty decently written and feel like kids.

With Prime we had Jack, the Wish.com version of Sam Witwicky.
Miko was very try-hard. The anime fangirl hyperactive bad behaviour thing felt like every aspect of her came from a focus group on "what the kids like." If Prime had been made like ten years later she'd be doing the Fortnite dance.
Raf was inoffensive but had a bit too much of that "magical connection" stuff going on. Which is the most forgivable and makes Raf the best human character on the show... after Jack's mom

 

[Sabrblade]

Raf was inoffensive but had a bit too much of that "magical connection" stuff going on. Which is the most forgivable and makes Raf the best human character on the show... after Jack's mom

The sad thing about Raf's "connection" with Bumblebee isn't just that it went unexplained, but how inconsistent it was, too. Over in Prime's sister series Rescue Bots, Bee was similarly understood by Cody, and even later by Dani. Yet, Prime showed Jack unable to understand him when they hung out together for an episode, and Rescue Bots likewise showed the rest of the Burns family (especially Kade) unable to understand Bee's language either.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Rescue Bots was somehow the best thing to come out of Aligned.

 

[Sabrblade]

Rescue Bots was somehow the best thing to come out of Aligned.

Truer words have never been spo-- Oh. I did this already.