Forty Years of Transformers Hot Takes

[Deathy G1]

In any property that has endured for 40 years, there are bound to be all sorts of hot takes that a fan can have on one topic or another. What are your hottest, most controversial takes on Transformers topics over the last 40 years?

I'll start with my own example to set the tone: Beast Machines is by far my favorite Transformers series. I love the dark tone of the series, the themes of fanaticism on both sides of the conflict, and pretty much everything about the portrayal of Megatron. I don't think the show is perfect (not a fan of Nightscream until his friendship with Noble, and even then, he isn't the greatest), but it, Animated, and the 1986 movie are the only TF media I can watch over and over again.

I'd like to see more updated figures hitting the shelves aside from Cheetor though. Give me some new Vehicons, a new Silverbolt and a remold of Legacy dragon Megatron with new wings and head.

 

[Gizmoboy]

Couldn't agree more about Beast Machines. My 3 that I watch over and over again are Beast Machines, Prime, and the 86 movie.

 

[Cybersnark]

I liked Rung more when he was a goofy psychiatrist.

 

[Sciflyer]

Beast Machines was a great series that took a lot of chances. Not all of them worked, but I'm glad that Hasbro took the shot. Also, it cannot be overstated how impactful the return of vehicles was! I was in the screening room at Botcon '99 when we were treated to the first look at the show. The excitement was palpable and people cheered when vehicles were shown! I got nothing but love for animal/creature Transformers, but the return of tanks, motorcycles and jets was very welcome.

Okay, now for my own Hot Takes:

-Combiner Wars figures, while fun, were not that great! A lot of the combined modes looked doofy and the individual bots suffered from mold fatigue. Also, releasing randos first (Alpha Bravo, et al.) instead of the original members of the teams was very stupid.

-There's too damn much! This has been talked about in different ways across multiple sites, but there are too many "baskets" to keep up with. And yeah, I understand that having the ________line is a good way to shoehorn figures that wouldn't/couldn't have been put into _______line or _________line, but for the love of all things holy, enough is enough!

-Some of the original Gobots were just as fun - if not more so - to play with than the initial wave of G1 Transformers. There, I said it!

That's all I got for now. In the spirit of what I think that this thread is aiming for, I tried to write quickly and not overthink things. I'm sure I'll think of other things as the thread moves on.

 

[tec]

Steamhammer is still a pile of jive.....Oooooooooo

 

[The Predaking]

Minicons were crappy robots that fell apart too easily and looked ridiculous most of the time hanging off the robot or alt modes. Only when designed to fit the Transformer did they really work, IE Demolisher and Cyclonus.


G1 Reissues are always way over-priced at retail.


Wave 1 of every toyline is always way over ordered by stores, making Wave 2 hard to find. Wave three comes in full force, and wave 4 gets hard to find after that. Its been that way for a decade at least now. I think that is why most of us just order online now.

 

[Deathy G1]

-Combiner Wars, while fun, were not that great! A lot of the combined modes looked doofy and the individual bots suffered from mold fatigue. Also, releasing randos first (Alpha Bravo, et al.) instead of the original members of the teams was very stupid.

Amen! I regret pretty much every Combiner Wars purchase I made. It burnt me out so badly on combiners that I skipped Predaking and the recent Menasor! I only dipped my toe back in for the recent core class Volcanicus which reminded me of another thing I hated about Combiner Wars: It took too damn long to finish a combiner! I think from now on, it's giftset or nothing for me.

 

[The Predaking]

Amen! I regret pretty much every Combiner Wars purchase I made. It burnt me out so badly on combiners that I skipped Predaking and the recent Menasor! I only dipped my toe back in for the recent core class Volcanicus which reminded me of another thing I hated about Combiner Wars: It took too damn long to finish a combiner! I think from now on, it's giftset or nothing for me.

I remember arguing with Walky before the toyline came out about how foolish it would be to split up the combiners between the waves.

 

[Sciflyer]

Yeah, like Deathy, I had enough by the time Predaking came around. Every now and then I think about getting him but then I'm like, "nah." I still like Devastator in combined mode though, and I think that the recent Stunticons / Menasor are mostly good (but don't get me started on Breakdown...).

 

[Gizmoboy]

I can totally understand all your arguments about Combiner Wars. I have a different take on it in a positive light.
Combiner Wars actually let me flex my customizing muscle to make some unique characters. I loved the fact that I can take different members and make unique combiners. I was able to make up some fun characters.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

I'm not saying Titaniums are good.

I just like them.

 

[Agent X]

Characters should not be chained to gimmicks.

Continuity problems don't need to be explained away.

We don't need in-universe explanations for real-world inconsistencies.

 

[Sabrblade]

G1 is overrated.

 

[Dake]

Many of these aren't so much "hot takes" as they are "reporting of facts".

 

[The Mighty Mollusk]

FIRRIB.

 

[Sabrblade]

Many of these aren't so much "hot takes" as they are "reporting of facts".

Alrighty then, here's something you don't see that often:

*clears throat*

DinoZaurs should be shoehorned into the Transformers multiverse like GoBots was.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Action Masters did nothing wrong.

 

[Princess Viola]

- Super-God Masterforce is the best Transformers series

- Coming up with explanations for continuity errors/inconsistencies years down the line is dumb as hell and I pretty much consider all that jive to be non-canon. If it ain't shown in the show proper, then it don't fuckin matter to me as far as canonicity goes.

 

[Donocropolis]

I don't care much for "mysticism" in Transformers. I don't mind Unicron and Primus, and the idea that all the Transformers have Sparks that are a piece of Primus, but I've never been a fan of the pantheon of 13 original Primes or the Point One Percenters or that some sort of crazy mad science is required to create multichangers or what have you.

 

[Haywire]

-Some of the original Gobots were just as fun - if not more so - to play with than the initial wave of G1 Transformers. There, I said it!

I'll do you one better: the Gobots toy line was better than the initial Transformers waves. Transformers won the war with marketing, not superior product.