Catch me up.

[Stilton Disco]

Hi everyone. I'm back after about a decade. Looking at the last comic I read, can you lot fill me in on what's happened with transformers since about 2015?

Yes I'm being serious, I'm basically a time traveller here.

Nick Roche and Simon Furman still writing for IDW? Are Materpieces still getting made? Botcon still a thing?

 

[Xaaron]

Transformers comics have been cancelled. IDW no longer has the license since last year.

The IDW continuity you remember ended in 2018 with a big Unicron battle. IDW rebooted their universe completely, with a new pre-war continuity running from 2019-2022.

Masterpieces are still being made. They've done most of the 1984-1985 guys now.

Fun Publications and their official collectors club lost the license from Hasbro at the end of 2016. This also meant the end of BotCon as an official convention. After several years, the name BotCon has been revived for an UNofficial Transformers convention.

Would You Like To Know More? YES/NO

 

[Dekafox]

There's also been two new cartoons since 2015 and the new RID, and both are stand-alone. The first was Cyberverse - first season was mostly an amnesiac Bumblebee getting his memory back with WIndblade's help, but season 2 got good, and 3 onward was great. The current show is called Earthspark, and is actually post-war, on Earth, with an "Autobot" Megatron, and Earth-born Transformers thanks to a macguffin that you discover the identity of late in the first batch of eps. It's also pretty good.

 

[Undead Scottsman]

There was also a pair of trilogies based on the then current toylines. The first set is laughably bad, the second set is just ranges from crappy to mediocre.

 

[Stilton Disco]

Transformers comics have been cancelled. IDW no longer has the license since last year.

The IDW continuity you remember ended in 2018 with a big Unicron battle. IDW rebooted their universe completely, with a new pre-war continuity running from 2019-2022.

Masterpieces are still being made. They've done most of the 1984-1985 guys now.

Fun Publications and their official collectors club lost the license from Hasbro at the end of 2016. This also meant the end of BotCon as an official convention. After several years, the name BotCon has been revived for an UNofficial Transformers convention.

Would You Like To Know More? YES/NO

Bummer about the comics, although given the state of that industry generally I can't say I'm surprised. Went all Twitter Weido and sales fell off a cliff I take it? Were they any good up until the 2018 reboot, or had quality dropped already, and a reboot was to try and boost flagging sales?

Bummer about Botcon, although I do remember the people behind it being a bit cottage industry to say the least. I think the first year they ran it, you had to order rhe non attendance pqckag3s by fax!

How's the third party scene? I remember there being loads of awesome stuff coming out before I got distracted by getting married. Think I have a 3rd party Predaking at the back of a cupboard somewhere.

Have they made an updated Powermaster Optimus Prime by any chance? Always loved that design.

 

[Undead Scottsman]

The comics were doing quite well, More than Meets the Eye even got a few nominations and actually won a couple of small awards. But eventually they decided they wanted to do a whole Hasbro universe and add GI Joe, ROM the Spaceknight, Miconauts and M.A.S.K. to the story and the new shared universe stuff was considerably less well received and really started taking over the story.

I don't think we know if that is indeed why they decided to have a big final event and start a new continuity, but that's an easy assumption to make. That said, it was a creaky 17 year continuity, so I can understand if they just wanted to start over.

I enjoyed the new comic, but it's definitely a slow burn but It's a bit better now that one doesn't have to wait month to month. Though you can't buy IDW Transformers comics online now so good luck tracking it down.

There was a PMOP from the 2016 Titans Return line, though he's a headmaster not a powermaster.

Autobot Apex & Powermaste Optimus Prime

 

[Stilton Disco]

The comics were doing quite well, More than Meets the Eye even got a few nominations and actually won a couple of small awards. But eventually they decided they wanted to do a whole Hasbro universe and add GI Joe, ROM the Spaceknight, Miconauts and M.A.S.K. to the story and the new shared universe stuff was considerably less well received and really started taking over the story.

I don't think we know if that is indeed why they decided to have a big final event and start a new continuity, but that's an easy assumption to make. That said, it was a creaky 17 year continuity, so I can understand if they just wanted to start over.

I enjoyed the new comic, but it's definitely a slow burn but It's a bit better now that one doesn't have to wait month to month. Though you can't buy IDW Transformers comics online now so good luck tracking it down.

There was a PMOP from the 2016 Titans Return line, though he's a headmaster not a powermaster.

Autobot Apex & Powermaste Optimus Prime

Ugh, shared universes are a blight. Might see if I can find some scans online somewhere anyhow.

Bloody hell that Optimus Prime is hideous! Well between that, the death of Botcon and the comics that's 3 horrible revelations!

Any decent lore Youtubers out there that can give me the rundown on the new cartoons? I assume they're on some streaming service? Please don't say Disney's...

 

[CoffeeHorse]

We really don't need BotCon exclusives anymore. Hasbro just does those kinds of things on their own now. But with normal sized heads.

 

[Xaaron]

Yeah, toy-wise Hasbro redid basically every old G1 concept in the Combiner Wars and War for Cybertron toyline trilogies, including Headmasters, Targetmasters, Pretenders, Combiners, Micromasters, Beast Wars.

You asked about Masterpieces, and the distinction between Masterpiece and Mass Market Retail is getting blurrier. Check out the Jetfire MMR and the Skyfire Masterpiece here, as an example. https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Jetfire_(G1)/toys#War_for_Cybertron:_Siege

Studio Series has been producing the most accurate cartoon models possible for Transformers: The Movie favorites. We've received multiple Dinobot combiners. Characters like Devcon, Jhiaxus, Tarn, and Dion have toys now.

 

[The Predaking]

There was also a pair of trilogies based on the then current toylines. The first set is laughably bad, the second set is just ranges from crappy to mediocre.

I had completely mentally blocked those out of my mind.

Seriously, Megatron was the only thing good in the first web series, and the second one was just kind of meh.

 

[The Predaking]

We really don't need BotCon exclusives anymore. Hasbro just does those kinds of things on their own now. But with normal sized heads.

We even got a TF weapon pack complete with little explosions and blast effects. Its pretty neat these days!

 

[Undead Scottsman]

I had completely mentally blocked those out of my mind.

Seriously, Megatron was the only thing good in the first web series, and the second one was just kind of meh.

This man speaks the truth.

 

[The Predaking]

Posted in your welcome back thread:


Cartoon wise, TF Prime ended and was followed up with a traditionally animated series that continued the story called Robots in Disguise, hence the fandom refers to RID as RID2001 now and the newer gets called RID2015. Then we got a web exclusive show called Cyberverse which was way better than it had any right to be. After that wrapped up with some animated movies, we got a new show call Earthspark. I haven't seen it yet, but that because I have been busy.

Toy wise, things have been nuts! CHUG finally ended, but we have started over with what I can only describe as a mini-masterpiece lines that continues today for the collector market. We have all the combiners released, and now they are going back and redone Menasor in a new style. We got several new Titans, including Scorponok, Omega Supreme, Predaking, The last Autobot/the Ark, various repaints of those, and an upcoming Nemesis! Hasbro lost their minds an "crowd funded" a $500 Unicron toy. There are a ton of kid targeted lines such as Cyberverse and Earthspark. Seriously though, go to Unicron.com and check out all the cool stuff that has come out in the last decade.

The Bay movies got a soft reboot with the Bumblebee movie and now the next film, Rise of the Beasts which features a ton of the Beast Wars characters, is set to come out early next month. They just announced a new animated film that is a prequel to the live action films.

 

[Sabrblade]

BotCon may be unofficial now, but it's still got some heavy hitters as far as guests are concerned. Last year, they had Frank Welker, Bob Budiansky, Simon Furman, David Kaye, Gregg Berger, and more.

This year, they've so far announced Scott McNeil, Garry Chalk, Bob and Simon again, and Cyberverse Maccadam voice actor Dick Terhune.

 

[Sciflyer]

I still can't believe that we live in a world where a gigantic, Hasbro-created Unicron exists (shipped in a box the size of a mini fridge), along with multiple versions of G1 Arcee. Those releases, coupled with the upcoming Devcon, still make me pinch myself. Welcome back!

 

[Steevy Maximus]

You've missed about 9 years worth of pretty cool toys that are now more expensive than you probably want to pay for them.

 

[Agent X]

For Brand, Character, and lore histories I highly recommend Chris McFeely's "Transformers: The Basics" youtube series.

https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisMcFeely

Examples relevant to your interests:

Just note: the farther back you go, the more likely some videos (EX: Unicron, Quintesons, etc) may be out dated unless an updated one was released (Bumblebee, shockwave)

 

[lastmaximal]

Toylines:

• The Prime Wars Trilogy (Combiner Wars, Titans Return, Power of the Primes) where Hasbro redid G1 combiners (and most of their G2 redecos), G1 Headmasters (Powermasters and Targetmasters and non-Headmasters are now all Headmasters), and more of each (a few more combiners). New tiny Pretenders and Optimal Optimus, too.
• They finally made a Headmaster Arcee, there's a toy floating around based on the G1 Unicron prototype, a transforming G1 Ark, a US release Minerva, and other wild fun things.
• War for Cybertron, a new trilogy which (along with other lines like Studio Series 86) Hasbro has used to remake their 84-onwards character list (and Beast Wars), still ongoing. Now we're on the second leg of a new trilogy (?), Legacy Evolution.
• Legacy and Legacy Evolution continue the WFC remastering, this time adding in more and more pre- and post-G1 universes/toylines like Diaclone (characters), G2 comics, Armada, Cybertron, Transformers Prime, Animated, etc.
• Studio Series, a new toyline where Hasbro redoes live-action movie characters. Now also featuring sublines where they revisit 1986 animated movie characters with Studio Series 86 and the 2010s War for Cybertron video game with Studio Series Gamer Edition.
• Generations Selects, where Hasbro does the G1, Diaclone, old exclusive, etc redecos/retools that used to be Botcon etc territory, at regular retail.
• Botbots, a toyline that has given us a transforming stapler, turkey, pencil, ice cream cupcake, computer mouse, rock, toilet, deodorant stick, and more, with names like Fottle Barts, Fomo, and Steve From Accounting.
• Hasbro has created HasLab, an official crowdfunding service that has produced the immense Unicron, as well as Star Saber/Victory Leo, and is currently producing Deathsaurus.
• Takara releases are more tightly synced with Hasbro than ever before (starting in ~2019), rarely getting extensive redecos/retools exclusive to their market. They do still produce some paint-tweaked releases (the Premium Finish line) but it's not the default (like the old Legends line became).
• Takara has continued to go strong with Masterpiece, making a slew of animation-model accurate G1 releases (including a new gun-mode Megatron, a third take on Optimus Prime, and currently they've gotten around to Trailbreaker). They've also started up the Movie Masterpiece line with Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, and have continued to add to it with Ratchet, Megatron, Starscream, etc.
• Hasbro has also licensed out the brand to other formats, such as Micro Machines (Jazwares) and model kits (from Flame Toys). The former mostly features Movie-based vehicles with some G1;
• Third party stuff I know much less about, but they're very much still around and most enduring brands have settled into their niches. Products range from upgrade kits (3D printed or otherwise) to fill in literal physical molding gaps in official toys, add accessories, etc; to Masterpiece-scale and complexity toys; to Legends/Scout etc scale lines; to oversized and/or modified copies of existing toys.

Comics:

• IDW's first Transformers continuity, which iirc was running at the time you lapsed, did well and ran its course, and they wrapped it up in 2018. New continuity started in 2019, as well as a new Beast Wars comic.
• Transformers vs. GI Joe happened, a wild fever dream that was very enjoyable.
• IDW lost the license last year (wasn't renewed) and there's been no word as to who's next to take it up.

Movies:

• Transformers: The Last Knight was finally bad enough to make the studio rethink its approach a little bit.
• 2018 had Bumblebee, essentially a soft reboot with a heartwarming story, a great turn from Hailee Steinfeld, and solid quality and a first five minutes on Cybertron that gave people their live-action CGI G1 fix.
• There's a new live-action movie due out this year, featuring the big screen debut of Beast Wars characters!

TV/series:

• The Prime Wars Trilogy had a webseries for each of its three toylines, all of them were terrible, no reason to check them out at all. Although the voice cast had occasional heavy hitters as it went on (Mark Hamill, Ron Perlman, Judd Nelson, Wil Wheaton), the writing didn't do much with them.
• The War for Cybertron Trilogy had a miniseries on Netflix for each of its three toylines, all of them aggressively mediocre and somehow managing to meander in a svelte six episodes each. Also, this time, without the same occasional heavy hitters in the voice cast.
• Transformers Cyberverse came and went. An interesting series with shorter episodes, started out with an amnesiac Bumblebee and wound up giving us some pretty neat takes on characters and concepts from the TF mythos.
• Botbots got a single season on Netflix; it's 10 light and fun episodes.
• Transformers Earthspark, a new series, is out. Some cool recognizable names in the voice cast, a neat new continuity with neat twists that I don't want to spoil here.

Everything else:

• Botcon as a brand is still around, but it's not THE official Transformers convention anymore. Fun Publications lost the license after 2016. Hasbro did one fan convention featuring its brands in 2017, and while that seemed to be okay they haven't done one since.
• There is a pandemic (although the batteries have been taken out of the fire alarm for at least a year now), it's 2020 III right now, and we're still writing the next five verses of "We Didn't Start The Fire".

 

[wentwood]

I own up to Victory on DVD from Shout so have they continued after Victory in the comics?

 

[Sabrblade]

I own up to Victory on DVD from Shout so have they continued after Victory in the comics?

This is not the thread for that.