Some of the opinions on here are laughable. The original G1 transformer series doesn’t hold up? Give me a break man. G1 is the ONLY Transformer series that holds up. Beast Wars, Beast Machines, Armada, Energon, Cybertron and ESPECIALLY Animated belong in the garbage. G1 might not have had the character development or continuity as some of those other shows, but the animation design is so far ahead of the concepts of the other shows its incredible. Reason why? Every new reboot the Transformers animation design continue to gradually become more and more kiddie like in appearance. Look at Optimus Prime in all of the iterations from G1 to Animated and tell me that isn’t true. Doesn’t pass the laugh test if you try to. All of those other incarnations are either child like in their animation style (The Armada block, Animated) or have a mediocre setting and presentation (The Beast blocks). There’s a reason why the G1 fanbase outnumbers the fanbase of the rest of the shows combined, because its the BEST. By best I mean Seasons 1, 2, and the movie. Everything after that I agree is very subpar. They wiped out awesome Autobots (Ironhide, Wheeljack) and replaced them with…Arcee and Blurr? Gag. Same with the Decepticons (Galvatron is a joke compared to Megatron). The reason for this was toy driven (a known fact you can look up) as the desire was to replace toys of characters on the shelves that kids had already bought with new ones they didn’t have. With only a 30 minute block and so many characters you can give screen time to in that amount of time, characters gotta get chopped. So you chop the old ones to make room for the new ones so kids see them and then want to go out and buy the new toys. This philosophy carried over to almost EVERY single 80s cartoon with a toy line attached. Some didn’t completely wipe out characters the way Transformers did, but they took away their appearances in the show to give time to the new characters they were putting toys out for.
Also while I’m on the subject, G1 Megatron is the only REAL Megatron (i.e. he transformers into a gun). Canon, Tank, and Jet versions are crap (I realize the legal reason behind it, but its a travesty they had to neuter that character for that reason, and kudos to Takara for releasing the Masterpiece version and for anyone who successfully circumvented the law by getting them here to the U.S. without the stupid orange plug). If I could watch any episode of any other Transformers show an unlimited amount of times for the rest of my life, or could only watch each episode of G1 Seasons 1 and 2 only once again ever, I’d gladly take the 2nd choice. No apologies for any of the above statements (of fact in my mind) either as its how I genuinely feel on the matter. I’m also not even going to comment on how terrible the new ‘Prime’ series looks. I could write another paragraph on my thoughts on that, but its nothing that isn’t stated above. Welker and Cullen will regret coming back to voice that failure waiting to happen.
G.I. Joe I wasn’t as into as a kid so I never watched the show or any of the subsequent releases like Sigma 6. As an adult though I’ve now watched a lot of the Sunbow series, the movie, and Resolute. The Sunbow series definitely still holds up very well too, but Hasbro again has neutered its legacy. They’ve slowly taken the ‘Real AMERICAN Hero’ mantra away from the property (you don’t hear that catchphrase that I remember in Resolute). Its like they don’t want the series or the characters to be American, but rather non-descript global characters. The ‘Real AMERICAN Hero’ aspect is one of the subliminal things that made it popular back in the 80s. But of course it was also more popular to be proud to be an American (which I still am) back then than it is now. Shame the company buckled probably to pressure groups to shift the focus away from that. That’s why that series will forever stand on a platform above any others they release that don’t hold to that mantra. I actually became a fan of that series later in life because of my increased patriotism to my country and core American values I grew up with. The more I see the United States try to distance itself from it and instead turn to globalism, the more I’ve drawn to American icons like G.I. Joe and Captain America later in life because I want to see the country return there. I digress. I had high hopes for Renegades when I saw the sneak trailer from Comic Con. The one on youtube that you saw the awesome animation of the action sequences but you couldn’t really get a good look at the character design. Then the HUB website finally updated and they look like Japanese caricatures of western characters. Every one of them has slanty eyes and they look like 14 year old brats, not men or soldiers. It doesn’t pass the laugh test at all just like Transformers Prime and some of the opinions above.
Next up to get skewered is MOTU. Honestly both as a kid and as an adult I find the MOTU toyline MUCH more appealing than the show. I’ve tried watching MOTU, and its the hardest of any of the big 4 cartoons from that era for me to get into. People complaining about Transformers having little character/story development should REALLY be complaining about He-Man. If that were the lone problem I could still handle it. Its the lackluster quality animation (love how Scooby Doo characters and He-Man characters have an almost identical goofy walking pattern) and the even worse voice acting that put it over the top (or under the bottom I should say). The new show is no better in the voice acting department from what I can tell (from the one episode I could stomach), although the animation quality is significantly improved. The 2003 show however failed in a brand new area that the original show got right: Adam is a teenager. A grown man should be changing into He-Man, not a teenager. Also, while Skeletor and Hordak have great updated character designs that still pay a great deal of tribute to the original show, the new style to Adam is atrocious. He looks like the offspring of a cyber punk and a cave man. He looks terrible and is the main reason I can’t get into the new show more (and people at Mattel have since realized this with the new Classics line and the retiring of the stylized 2003 anime look). I never watched enough of either show to say which was better (although IMO that’s like trying to find which is better between a dog turd and expired milk).
Having said that, MOTU the toyline was superior to Thundercats. I’m a Thundercats fan through and through. That was and still is my #1 show ever (as in if I’m stuck on a desert island, I got 1 show I can take with me from the entire history of T.V. Its Thundercats no question), and I’ll always be a Thundercats fan first. You ask me that same question as an 8 year old, I tell you Thundercats and you’re crazy for even wondering if He-Man was in the same ballpark. However as an adult, looking at it from a neutral perspective, MOTU had far more innovative base figures (Moss Man was flocked, Scareglow glowed in the dark, Stinkor stunk, Snout Spout squirted water out of his snout, Mosquitor had a thing that made ‘blood’ come up and appear in his chest, and thats just scratching the surface), and the Slime Pit was a nice way to cash in on the slime craze of that time (you couldn’t find a supermarket that didn’t have one of those quarter kids toys machines without seeing one that exclusively dispensed slime). Thundercats all had a variation of battle-matic action, which in comparison is actually quite dull. I love Thundercats figures, but there’s no question as to which toyline was superior in innovation.
In short, yes I’m a curmudgeon that clings to the original incarnations of beloved 80s shows with an iron fist. I do so because they are far and away superior to any subsequent tripe they try to pass off as a new and innovative spin. The original formula has always demonstrated to be the best by how it continues to be the most popular when anniversaries come around (I’ve yet to see any Beast Wars or Sigma 6 anniversary sets out there, but they continue to try to find excuses to put out new toy and media anniversary sets for G1 and Real American Hero). As Collin Quinn used to say, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
or of course if anyone else is interested!!!