Cyberverse lasted four.
Transformers: EarthSpark
- Thread starter Paladin
- Start date
As did Rescue Bots.
...with a sequel that went on for two more.
...with a sequel that went on for two more.
Its a little sad that core class is ending but then again, I haven't gotten any for a while, I passed in the Dinobots as I don't want that size Dinobots, thou I expect Hasbro not to fully get rid of the smallest TF scale and likely rebrand it again as this scale use to be known as Scout class
I know I lost interest in EarthSpark after the first half of season 1. I appreciated the show for what it was, it just didn't captivate me. I am very happy that it is in the Transformers Mythos now though as it did give some cool characters that might be fun to explore in the future in another series.
Apparently, making this show hasn't actually been a very fun experience for the production crew. If you look at the credits for season 1 and season 2, you'll notice a massive shift in the crew who made season 1 and the crew who made season 2, with several people behind the first season just gone and several new people added to the second season who did not work on the first. The first season was animated by Icon Creative Studio in Canada, but season 2 switched to being animated by 88 Pictures in India. The series' CG Supervisor Michael Launder gave this explanation for why there was such a drastic change in production between the two seasons:
Yikes.
Okay. So WHY was the production team's mental health suffering in the first place?
WHAT was being done to the staffs to cause the suffering of their mental health?
HOW did the WHAT get so bad that an entire new studio had to be used?
WHO was in charge and let the Why's, What's, and How's affect so many people negatively?
WHAT was being done to the staffs to cause the suffering of their mental health?
HOW did the WHAT get so bad that an entire new studio had to be used?
WHO was in charge and let the Why's, What's, and How's affect so many people negatively?
Likely a toxic showrunner or producer, who making unreasonable demands of the staff
I'd buy that if we were talking about just one or two people leaving the show, but the fact that they had to replace the entire animation studio over these mental health issues, as well as most of the writers and directors, does make it sound very much like the troubles were work-related.
That all does sound rather suspect.
Yeah, when you have, effectively, THE ENTIRE PRODUCTION STAFF of a show replaced, that is a HUGE red flag. Given how many of the creative staff were industry veterans (many of the Transformers franchise itself), I can’t help but point to someone at Nick/Paramount being the issue, but given broader corporate issues between Paramount Global and Hasbro…it could be any number of potential issues.
I think this puts a new light on the news of a new iteration well into production. It comes across to me that season 2 of Earthspark was done simply to satisfy contract demands of the partnership, and I suspect Transformers 2025 won’t have the direct involvement of Paramount. Though it will probably remain airing on the Paramount networks given the relationships the film series provides.
Also, I wonder if this has any bearing…
iatse.net
Note: It appears that Icon DID complete unionization efforts a couple weeks ago.
Workers at ICON Creative Studio are Fighting for Union Representation - IATSE
VANCOUVER, BC– Animation workers at Vancouver’s ICON Creative Studio, known for such animated productions as Monsters at Work, Ariel, Charlie the Wonderdog, and The Search for Wondla, are rallying to secure union representation with IATSE […]
iatse.net
Note: It appears that Icon DID complete unionization efforts a couple weeks ago.
I think this is it. This partnership thrived on two things: Brian Goldner's relationships, and the fact that the films were astonishingly successful. Neither factor is really in play anymore.
Man, that suuuuuuuucks. Earthspark S1 was something special, IMO. I'm not going to say it's the best animated series, but it's certainly the freshest take in awhile. Real heartbreaking if it's true that the creative team behind it got gutted and that's why season 2 was such a drop in quality.
It definitely feels like they abandoned some of the themes of the first season in exchange for more traditional goodguy vs badguy dynamics. Like there was themes of how not all Decepticons are bad news all through S1, beyond Megatron himself, Breakdown sacrificing himself for Bumblebee, Tarantulus just wanting to be left alone, sparing the cassettes, Starscream's brief backstory.
And then they throw that all down the crapper in this season. All of the Decepticons (besides Megatron, who is basically just an Autobot now, regardless of his insignias. And Tarantulus I guess.) being a straight up opposing army with a secret lair and all that jazz. And honestly, I feel like this is partially a S1 problem as well.. Like, not a single Decepticon also joined with the Autobots after the war? Not even a Megatron lackey?
But even worse are the chaos Terrans. Because they're "born wrong" they're just automatically badguys. Like I said before, Aftermath joins up with Breakdown for the flimsiest of reasons, just randomly deciding to listen to him. And of course he turns out to be an asshole. But Spitfire was even worse: I was already dreading the idea of an evil version of Twitch, but having her just instantly be a complete sociopathic narcissistic monster was so off-putting. Like, not even try to explain it with her being unaware of how fragile humans are, but nope, she just didn't care if she hurt someone if it meant winning. All because the emberstone was set from "good" to "evil." Which, beyond everything else, is kind of shitty to the chaos terrans. Like they didn't become little monsters, they were created that way.
Bleh.
Like the Decepticons, if it wasn't all or nothing, if there was a Chaos Terran on the Team Malto as well, I might not be so annoyed.
Also the first season made it seem like changing your alt-mode was something you feel, not meticulously pick one out down to the detail like Hashtag was doing. Now it turned out that she got an alt-mode by feel after all but the show made no attempt to acknowledge this so I don't know if it's just trying to be subtle. I doubt it given how unsubtle the rest of the season is. Also I get scanning her first alt-mode, but if a Transformer can just swap alt-modes on the fly it's a question of why don't they do that more often for strategic reasons.
The best parts of this season has been the goofier bits, like the father/son relationship that Breakdown was having with Aftermath, or the episode with the trailer. When it's a family show occasionally punctuated by scifi adventure and hijinx is where I think this show is at its best.
Interesting that Earth now has its own Titan, both for the show and for the franchise as a whole, potentially. I feel like having a Titan just be able to speak directly to someone is the death knell of Windblade's impact on the franchise. Even the concept of cityspeaking itself has gone away. Just something I noticed.
Syncing is a little too willy-nilly for me, though it is weird that they dropped it. It's just that feels too fluidic, and like being able to scan an alt-mode at will, just feels too ill-defined which leads me to believe it's going to be used for some dumb dues ex machina later, much like the cybersleeves basically already are.
The shot of Starscream from Spitfire's perspective after she realizes was Starscream was about to her was incredibly effective and is probably the most scary Starscream has ever seen. Also I could use a gif of the start of the party.
Whether or not it's the fault of a new studio, this has been a disappointing season. It's not terrible, but it really feels like some of the soul of the series has been sucked out of it.
It definitely feels like they abandoned some of the themes of the first season in exchange for more traditional goodguy vs badguy dynamics. Like there was themes of how not all Decepticons are bad news all through S1, beyond Megatron himself, Breakdown sacrificing himself for Bumblebee, Tarantulus just wanting to be left alone, sparing the cassettes, Starscream's brief backstory.
And then they throw that all down the crapper in this season. All of the Decepticons (besides Megatron, who is basically just an Autobot now, regardless of his insignias. And Tarantulus I guess.) being a straight up opposing army with a secret lair and all that jazz. And honestly, I feel like this is partially a S1 problem as well.. Like, not a single Decepticon also joined with the Autobots after the war? Not even a Megatron lackey?
But even worse are the chaos Terrans. Because they're "born wrong" they're just automatically badguys. Like I said before, Aftermath joins up with Breakdown for the flimsiest of reasons, just randomly deciding to listen to him. And of course he turns out to be an asshole. But Spitfire was even worse: I was already dreading the idea of an evil version of Twitch, but having her just instantly be a complete sociopathic narcissistic monster was so off-putting. Like, not even try to explain it with her being unaware of how fragile humans are, but nope, she just didn't care if she hurt someone if it meant winning. All because the emberstone was set from "good" to "evil." Which, beyond everything else, is kind of shitty to the chaos terrans. Like they didn't become little monsters, they were created that way.
Bleh.
Like the Decepticons, if it wasn't all or nothing, if there was a Chaos Terran on the Team Malto as well, I might not be so annoyed.
Also the first season made it seem like changing your alt-mode was something you feel, not meticulously pick one out down to the detail like Hashtag was doing. Now it turned out that she got an alt-mode by feel after all but the show made no attempt to acknowledge this so I don't know if it's just trying to be subtle. I doubt it given how unsubtle the rest of the season is. Also I get scanning her first alt-mode, but if a Transformer can just swap alt-modes on the fly it's a question of why don't they do that more often for strategic reasons.
The best parts of this season has been the goofier bits, like the father/son relationship that Breakdown was having with Aftermath, or the episode with the trailer. When it's a family show occasionally punctuated by scifi adventure and hijinx is where I think this show is at its best.
Interesting that Earth now has its own Titan, both for the show and for the franchise as a whole, potentially. I feel like having a Titan just be able to speak directly to someone is the death knell of Windblade's impact on the franchise. Even the concept of cityspeaking itself has gone away. Just something I noticed.
Syncing is a little too willy-nilly for me, though it is weird that they dropped it. It's just that feels too fluidic, and like being able to scan an alt-mode at will, just feels too ill-defined which leads me to believe it's going to be used for some dumb dues ex machina later, much like the cybersleeves basically already are.
The shot of Starscream from Spitfire's perspective after she realizes was Starscream was about to her was incredibly effective and is probably the most scary Starscream has ever seen. Also I could use a gif of the start of the party.
Whether or not it's the fault of a new studio, this has been a disappointing season. It's not terrible, but it really feels like some of the soul of the series has been sucked out of it.
I think this backfired. It's fresh to us. Megatron as an Autobot is fresh to us. This post war world is fresh to us. It's fresh in contrast to completely unrelated shows we've seen. But in its own universe, as what should have been a jumping on point for kids, the freshness doesn't feel earned. It feels like a sequel to a show that doesn't exist. Or an upcoming animated film, at least at some point in its development. I don't know how kids were supposed to approach this.
Assuming any kids even found this show, with it getting dumped on a niche streaming service.
Not related to the new season, but the word "non-binary" in a season 1 episode has been censored on TERF Island.
During Pride Month.
During Pride Month.
BBC Censors Non-Binary Mention In Transformers Earthspark Cartoon
The BBC channel CBBC has censored a mention of a character being non-binary in the Transformers Earthspark cartoon during Pride Month.
bleedingcool.com
Not related to the new season, but the word "non-binary" in a season 1 episode has been censored on TERF Island.
During Pride Month.
BBC Censors Non-Binary Mention In Transformers Earthspark Cartoon
The BBC channel CBBC has censored a mention of a character being non-binary in the Transformers Earthspark cartoon during Pride Month.bleedingcool.com
I can understand the reason behind that, they rather not have young children asking questions about grown up issues that a lot of idiots would like pushed into very young children's education, when they aren't ready to learn about such things and stepping over parents right to chose when their children learn about such things