Oddly enough, after I posted, I dug this gem out of storage...working winch, head that moves with the boom, flip out missile launcher; Megatron may have lost his place as favorite tonight...
What is really impressive about Armada in the modern context is they are largely simple enough for a kid to TF easy, full of fun gimmicks and really really thick blocky and solid/durable by modern standards.
Todays kids aimed figures sometimes, sometimes, still get the gimmicks, but they're almost always either complicated to get modern poseability and/or thin-plasticed and fragile feeling for budgetary reasons.
-ZacWilliam, I could give a kid most Armada figures with no worry about breakage on a level unmatched by modern stuff.
Todays kids aimed figures sometimes, sometimes, still get the gimmicks, but they're almost always either complicated to get modern poseability and/or thin-plasticed and fragile feeling for budgetary reasons.
-ZacWilliam, I could give a kid most Armada figures with no worry about breakage on a level unmatched by modern stuff.
The Unicron trilogy (or those Samurai combiner abominations for TF Prime "Go!") seemed to be TT's final stab at competing with Bandai's sentai ranges of toys via the Transformers brand. After that, they aimed themselves at collectors in their CHUG and MP lines and used other, localised robot toys (tomy car/train bots, etc) to complete in that market?
I'll always advocate for the back half. I'd say if you haven't made it there already, skip to where Thrust first shows up and go from there, or just on to the second half entirely. (I personally really liked Jetfire's debut, his first combination with Optimus, and the debut of Tidal Wave, if I was to pick and choose from the first half.)
If nothing else, it has one of the best Optimus vs. Megatron/Galvatron fights of the entire franchise, I think. I used to rate it as THE best, but... we've had a lot since then. I'd need to rewatch and reevaluate the rest.
You can even find videos where they just cut the other stuff happening around it, and focus on the fight.
I'm also going to say that Armada and Energon were going when my friends and I started doing the RPG that my Mega Man Legends stories are based on. That fact is... not entirely insignificant, let's say. And the two are kind of tied together in my mind as well.
...come to think of it, it's funny we get the new Armada toys in Legacy around the same time I rebooted that story. Certainly puts me in a mind of wanting that new Optimus even more, though!
I remember sticking with the first 8 or 10 episodes but kind of falling off afterward. I still picked up the toys that I liked, since they were my main focus, but maybe I will give the rest of the series a watch at some point.
I agree that there was/is a lot to like about Armada. I recall being a little bit disappointed/put off at first by the lack of articulation, especially coming off the heels of the Beast Era and Car Robots / RID. But the toys were just engineered so well and were so much fun, that I didn't mind after a while. I would love updates of Red Alert, Demolisher, and Cyclonus, in particular.
I agree that there was/is a lot to like about Armada. I recall being a little bit disappointed/put off at first by the lack of articulation, especially coming off the heels of the Beast Era and Car Robots / RID. But the toys were just engineered so well and were so much fun, that I didn't mind after a while. I would love updates of Red Alert, Demolisher, and Cyclonus, in particular.
I'll always pine for Armada and the rest of the Unicron trilogy. Literally the only downside for the toyline is "knees", but guys like Scavenger don't need knees.
If the show had been dubbed and translated properly i'm sure it would have been fine, because that second half is good. Their execution in the shows leave a lot to be desired, but the stuff Aaron Archer and the rest of the team came up with concept wise was super ambitious and expansive.
Sometimes i get nostalgic for psuedo homages or the naming philosophy of calling someone Smokescreen who looks nothing like the first guy to have that name.
If the show had been dubbed and translated properly i'm sure it would have been fine, because that second half is good. Their execution in the shows leave a lot to be desired, but the stuff Aaron Archer and the rest of the team came up with concept wise was super ambitious and expansive.
Sometimes i get nostalgic for psuedo homages or the naming philosophy of calling someone Smokescreen who looks nothing like the first guy to have that name.
Prime has a lot going for it though.
That end of season 1 arc when you find that Unicron is Earth! Freaking crazy idea at the time!
Optimus losing his memory and joining up with his friend Megatronus.
3 Actual character deaths before we get to the end, not to mention the zombiefication of several of them.
Wreckers! We get wreckers for the first time!
The best Soundwave since G1.
Probably the best Starscream that we will ever get.
Bumblebee's first words are FREAKING EPIC!
Optimus losing his memory and joining up with his friend Megatronus.
3 Actual character deaths before we get to the end, not to mention the zombiefication of several of them.
Wreckers! We get wreckers for the first time!
The best Soundwave since G1.
Probably the best Starscream that we will ever get.
Bumblebee's first words are FREAKING EPIC!
A lot of folks didn't like animated, but it has some great things going too.
The Freaking Ark, that we have been seeing the entire show, gets magically repaired, and suddenly transforms into Omega Supreme!
"Decepticons! Transform and rise up!"
A competent Starscream that actually takes out Megatron himself and leads the Decepticons.
The main crew are just some no bodies, has-beens, and wash-outs on a back water world.
Freaking Tick chin!
Introduces some now staple characters.
Davd Kaye kills it as Optimus Prime!
"Decepticons! Transform and rise up!"
A competent Starscream that actually takes out Megatron himself and leads the Decepticons.
The main crew are just some no bodies, has-beens, and wash-outs on a back water world.
Freaking Tick chin!
Introduces some now staple characters.
Davd Kaye kills it as Optimus Prime!
Cloudcover has arrived! Just need to find the G2 Lasercycle in the wild now.
Slow pace is one thing, but Armada was ridiculously slow. So much time between actual dialog and plot.
*Shudders*
I got pretty much all of it too, skipping a lot of the Minicon repaints, and now I just let my kids play with them, but they want my TFs.
I got most of the Japanese and American micron repaints but I also gave away some microns and regret it now.
Too bad Prime wastes all its time trying to make every moment seem as epic as epically possible to the point its bland and boring as hug until Smokescreen shows up.
I kind of wrote Armada off after the first third or so, just coming back for a few key episodes and the finale. Energon same thing. As much for the quality issues as for the difficulty at the time of obtaining copies of the shows, which didn't air locally. It just got to be too much work for too little enjoyment.
Don't really feel like I missed out on that much, partly because I followed the TOYLINES with rapt interest. Armada was a lot of fun ideas and sculpts that really invited the imagination (because the toys themselves would do one thing really well, and not the rest). Energon gave me clear plastic weapons and spark crystals and lots of inventiveness. And Cybertron is still that rarified peak of "a little of everything, including a sharp dose of new" that many lines since then haven't really delivered, for my tastes.
That trilogy just gives me so much good nostalgia I can't bring myself to drop many of the figures from the lines all these years later.
Don't really feel like I missed out on that much, partly because I followed the TOYLINES with rapt interest. Armada was a lot of fun ideas and sculpts that really invited the imagination (because the toys themselves would do one thing really well, and not the rest). Energon gave me clear plastic weapons and spark crystals and lots of inventiveness. And Cybertron is still that rarified peak of "a little of everything, including a sharp dose of new" that many lines since then haven't really delivered, for my tastes.
That trilogy just gives me so much good nostalgia I can't bring myself to drop many of the figures from the lines all these years later.
I'd add Bumblebeep and Soundwave to the list of exceptions, personally. Though Prime does give me some of my favorite Decepticons; Knockout, Breakdown, Dreadwing, Airachnid (Hasbro, give us a Legacy leader class Airachnid, you cowards).
I will grant you that Bumblebee is a bit annoying through the series, but it all pays off when he finally speaks. One of the most Epic moments in all TF fiction.
Soundwave I will argue that. That is one stone-cold badass loyal Decepticon. Starscream and Airachnid found out the hard way not to mess with him.
One thing I've noticed on my latest attempt to watch through Armada (watched 2 more last night. Still not at the 1/2 way point) is that the kids are kinda awful.
And listen i generally like kid sidekicks just fine. Every other TF show I can think I'm either fine with or actively like the humans fine. The Armada kids though are all just a hair too much of their 1 personality trait.
Carlos is very dumb
Rad is very enthusiastic (and dumb)
Alexa is always over serious "mom" of the group
Fred is fat and whiny
Billy is a jerk
Almost all the kids dialogue seems to be flat boring, plot exposition, or stupidity. They say the way to write good kids/teens is the same as how to write for them, to not "write down" to their age and it feels like Armada is writing down about 8 years younger than these kids.
Heck, Billy and Fred starting as bullies and becoming part of the team should be the kind of plot that absolutely wins me over in a cartoon but it's nothing here.
-ZacWilliam, I think you could make a good fun show with these characters but these writers and this voice director did not do it.
And listen i generally like kid sidekicks just fine. Every other TF show I can think I'm either fine with or actively like the humans fine. The Armada kids though are all just a hair too much of their 1 personality trait.
Carlos is very dumb
Rad is very enthusiastic (and dumb)
Alexa is always over serious "mom" of the group
Fred is fat and whiny
Billy is a jerk
Almost all the kids dialogue seems to be flat boring, plot exposition, or stupidity. They say the way to write good kids/teens is the same as how to write for them, to not "write down" to their age and it feels like Armada is writing down about 8 years younger than these kids.
Heck, Billy and Fred starting as bullies and becoming part of the team should be the kind of plot that absolutely wins me over in a cartoon but it's nothing here.
-ZacWilliam, I think you could make a good fun show with these characters but these writers and this voice director did not do it.