Captain of the SDF-1 Macross

but this energon prime has the G1 head and colors but it has a mouth, and it looks hideous. Prime is not meant to have a mouth!!     

Definately. Optimus Prime should always have a faceplate and also, he must be a truck (whether he's a big rig, fire truck and so on).

Otherwise, we'll be seeing Optimus Prime looking like this (taken from a G1 picture book):

http://www.appstate.edu/~th42428/files/the_end.jpg

EDIT: posted image altered to URL due to the image being too disturbing.

ok, well the optimus primal toy actually had no mouth. That weird. I thought it did.

The writers and animators at Mainframe felt that Optimus Primal should be a different character, hence the addition of the mouth. Ever since, it conviced Hasbro to do the same when it comes to future designs of Optimus Primal.

Well, what I meant is that all the optimus primes that came out that had the G1 head, or something similar never came with a mouth.

Hasbro/Takara make certain that Optimus Prime should have a faceplate and that also reflects on the toys. The exceptions are the Gobot Optimus Prime and the Machine Wars Optimus Prime toys, who are repaints of other Autobot toys who never have faceplates and thus, they don't resemble Optimus.

Optimal Optimus cam with a mouth I believe,

Yes he does, since he's a powered-up version of Optimus Primal and the toy reflects his. A repaint of the Optimal Optimus toy, named Primal Prime, has a mouth.

Odd.... I have the Machine Wars Prime... but it has a different color scheme.

You must be talking about Thunderclash (who never had a faceplate to begin with), where the MW Optimus Prime was derived from:

http://www.tfu.info/1992/Autobot/Thundercl...hunderclash.htm

Truth is, it doesn't really matter to me, because I suck at fighting games. So I probably won't be getting it, anyway.

Although I enjoy playing fighting games, I suck at it when it comes to combo attacks and attack moves, especially on 2-D games.

However, I find 3-D fighting games more easier because the player can hurt the opponent with simple blows and kicks. My uncles suck at almost all of my PS2 games (even Gran Tsurismo 3) but find Dead or Alive 2 much easier to play. And yes, they were oogling at the DOA gals and always pick the girls to play. As one of them say about Tina (about her cowgirl outfit), "Wow, it looks like stepped into the nudie bar at Missisauga."

As one friend of mine says to me on how to play with fighting games, "You must be one with the controller."

Well, they could have made a decent story about slavery out of Armada if Simon Furman had been allowed to write it. Instead of beeping Pokecons, they talk and have personality in the comics. I wonder if Micron Legend has the Microns talking or beeping?

According to the Transformers fans who owned the R2 Micron Legend DVDs (because they wanted the exclusive Minicons inside), the Minicons in the Japanese dub are still beeping, mindless drones.

However, the mini-comics that comes with the DVDs show that the Minicons can talk (just like those in the Dreamwave comics).

Gee, I guess those quarterly reports from Hasbro must all be lies then, since all of them say that Armada is selling better than RiD did.

Just because your nephew appreciates quality toys when he sees them doesn't mean every other kid does. And the fact that Armada DOES sell so well means that most kids probably don't.

Armada is a big moneymaker for Hasbro, and Energon might be too. Just because you and I think that the designs released for Energon are beyond hideous does not mean that kids automatically will. Your nephew probably won't like it, because you've corrupted him into wanting quality toys.

OK, OK, I know that RID and Armada are moneymakers but my nephew's curiousity insists on what are my G1 toys are. We both have some good times looking through the Generations book and the Cybertronian Guides on who's who.

And yes, much of the line are flying off the shelves except for a few, such as Armada Laserbeak for one. Although most of Armada is fudgy, I do bought some good gems like Blurr (a good high-tech alt-mode) and the Street Speed Minicon team (it has realistic alt-modes with good colors). I plan to get Unicron one day since it's the closest thing to a "realistic looking" Unicron toy.

Yet, my nephew is sold into G1 when he played with the G1 toys and watching the movie. After the movie, he got to watch some G1 episodes and later played with my G1 Jetfire toy (but I drew the line that he should not play with my Yamato Macross toys).

When the party was over, I gave him an orignal G1 Optimus Prime (with most of the accessories) since I have the New Year's Prime re-issue. He did want the re-issue but I promise to him that he may get one next year.

Now that was over, I'll see if I can make my nephew to like Macross.

Out of curiousity, out of the people here who are whining about how much the new kids line sucks, how many of you have seen the fan line, Alternators? I mean, Energon is supposed to be neon bright, simple, and mostly disturbing to older folks, since kids will eat it up. Alternators is where we'll get the licensed cars with cool transformations and posability. Aside from Starscream, I think pretty much everything shown from Energon is crap, but I don't really much care since there's a better TF toyline coming at the same time.

I have seen Alternators and I'm sold. I like the concept back into realistic alt-modes.

Still, there are still hardcore fans (including myself) who are vocally against the direction Hasbro is pushing. They believe that Armada and Energon is both a mistake and an insult to the Transformers name. Such fans wanted the serious storytelling back, much like what Bob Forward and Larry DiTillo did for Beast Wars. Those writers did an excellent balance of seriousness, humour and enjoyment for both the hardcore and the youngsters. That show brought me back into Transformers.

Shade, if you think youngsters would just follow what Armada and Energon stands for. Think again.

When my 8 year-old nephew visits my place for a party, I shown him my robot toy shelf of Valks, Beast Wars, Robots in Disguise and G1 stuff. He is from the Beast Wars/Beast Machines/Robots in Disguise variety.

Him (points to G1 Prime, who's next to RID Prime): Who's this next to Optimus Prime? It looks cool.

Me: Optimus Prime.

Him: No way. He doesn't look like Prime.

Me (transforming the toy): It's him for sure.

Him: Wow. Looks wicked.

Him (looking through the Transformers Generations book and points the G1 Megatron picture): This is so cool. Who is he?

Me (points to the heading): That's Megatron.

Him: You can't be serious. He doesn't look like him.

Me (shows G1 Megatron): He is Megatron. I'll transform him for you.

Him (holding G1 Megatron in gun mode): This is a great toy.

You should have seen his reaction to Tranformers: the Movie. He got excited watching it, especially when Megatron started killing the Autobots aboard the shuttle. He also got surprises of the way some of the names from BW/BM/RID were also on the movie.

I predict a problem for Hasbro in the future. The same problem that gutted the comic book industry. Looking at all the repaints, and tons of crap thats coming out with only a few redeeming figures. I see the bubble bursting. People simply can't buy it all, and with so much crap on the market already there is going to be a point where people have enough and throw in the towel.

Archer is a stupid numnut, the very fact that Hasbro has allowed this virtual fool to turn himself into a fan celebrity will come back to bite them on the ass when they try to get rid of him. People like him are flavor of the month, as soon as they get tired of him he's going to be sent out and new guy will come in. All the fan's backing won't save him from that fate.

Very true. These are the same factors as to why the Generation 1 line was killed off back in 1990:

* drop the use of diecast metal and rubber tires.

* stop using realistic alt-modes and instead use "high-tech" alt-modes.

* the line was riddled with gimmick-oriented toys (Headmasters, Powermasters, Targetmasters).

* some sublines make the line worse (Pretenders, Action Masters).

* Lastly, they use lousy color schemes/paint apps (neon colors, mismatched schemes, etc.)

Fortunately, Generation 1 was able to last longer in Europe and Japan, where they made better toys that were more playable.

Whoever was running Hasbro are probably the same idiots who did the worse marketing decisions during G1. Because of their mindset, this the reason why Bob Forward and Larry DiTillo (the Beast Wars script editors/writers) were fired. Bob and Larry are diehard fans who cared not only for the hardcore fans but also for the youngsters who are also fans. They did a lot of balancing the storytelling without dumbing down the audience.

Simon Furman (TF comic book writer) wanted to write for the Armada show or the upcoming Energon one, but Hasbro said no to the request.

Who is Archer/"orson" anyway?

Aaron Archer (aka Orson) is the chief Transformers toy designer at Hasbro. Most of the Armada (and the future Energon) toys are credited by him.

He is also one of the few insiders at Hasbro (since he's an employee) who hangs out on TF message boards under the name "Orson". Check the message board of www.tfw2005.com, click onto the "News, Rumours and the Future" section and you'll find a sub-section of the board devoted to Orson, under the name "Orson's World".

If you want to b*tch at him, go to the board if you want.

Prime looks like a power ranger helmet. I mean, at least Prime has his colors, the tradition is still there, even if he is bad looking.

But Megatron, there is not hope for him, that is the worst Megatron ever. Even the Alligator Megatron is better than that mess of a design. You want to see complicated gestalts, go check out Endevor of Microman fame, thats a badass robot made of lots of vehicles. This, it just awful, mean awful. Almost unexcusable.

And thanks to his love of publicity, the man to blame is very easy to find. Mr. Arron "Orson" Archer. Somebody find his cell number, its time he was talked to.

Crap, Megs is like a design I'd find inspiration for on the floor of a taxi cab.

Then I recommend in convincing Hasbro to hire Shouji Kawamori, Big West and Studio Nue to do the new Transformers designs.

Once Kawamori and co. comes it, Orson is shown the door (headfirst, of course).

Hell, Syd Mead (Turn-A Gundam) can do better designs. <_<

Dear lord no. Hasbro might screw it all up and call it Leader One.

Nah. Ever since Hasbro bought out Tonka, Hasbro has ownership of the Gobots trademark and the character names. With that, they already ridiculed and gloated the Gobots (and related) names anyway.

Besides, Leader-One (a Minicon from Transformers: Armada) is now the pimpin' servant boy to Decepticon leader Megatron.

I don't think prime is meant to have a mouth.

If you want to see something that will scare you (or laugh) senseless, here's something from the G1 era:

http://www.appstate.edu/~th42428/files/cover.jpg

http://www.appstate.edu/~th42428/files/map.jpg

http://www.appstate.edu/~th42428/files/hound.jpg

http://www.appstate.edu/~th42428/files/meg...gs_pimpride.jpg

http://www.appstate.edu/~th42428/files/the_end.jpg

This is definately wrong.

are those annoying kids dead by this time, or will they be replaced by equally annoying ass kids??

According to various Transformers boards, most say that the Armada kids are gone when the Energon era comes up. Unfortunately (or fortunately), the Autobots will get only ONE human kid. <_<

I don't think Prime is meant to have a mouth. YUK!! Looks like he put on some pounds since Armada!

Too late for that. Hasbro already done that to Optimus Prime and his decendant, Optimus Primal.

Optimus Prime:

http://www.tfu.info/1995/Autobot/OptimusPr...ptimusprime.htm

http://www.tfu.info/1997/Autobot/OptimusPr...ptimusprime.htm

Optimus Primal:

http://www.tfu.info/1996/Maximal/OptimusPr...timusprimal.htm

http://www.tfu.info/1998/Maximal/OptimusPr...timusprimal.htm

http://www.tfu.info/1998/Maximal/OptimalOp...imaloptimus.htm

http://www.tfu.info/2000/Maximal/OptimusPr...timusprimal.htm

http://www.tfu.info/2001/Maximal/BlastPunc...timusprimal.htm

http://www.tfu.info/2002/Maximal/SupremeOp...timusprimal.htm

Okay, that design is really bad. Is this part of the new Transformers line???

Yes it is. It's called Transformers: Energon, a follow-up sequel to Transformers: Armada.

Taking place 10 years after the events of Armada, the Autobots resort to the use of combining while the Decepticons use energon for their weaponry.

Sorry, I'm not well up-to-date to this because I don't know much further than that.

It's a shame that HG has the mini series non canon because it's pretty good. It goes deep into the Zentradie culture and features a ritualistic battle suicide.

Before the Wildstorm comics came about, all comic series before it are ALWAYS NON-CANON because the stories are treated the same way as fanfic stories: unofficial stories that have no bearing to the timeline. The Robotech Reference Guide did treat the Malcontent Uprisings as canon because they want to put a logical reason for the establishment of the Southern Cross Armies.

Two leaders of the Malcontents are captured and want to die a warriors' death. So, Breetai and Miriya hunt them down with armed veritechs while the Malcontents are flying unarmed ones. It's a pretty violent scene.

I have the issue that contained that story but Seloy was not one of the particapents. Miriya confronted Seloy about her plans to wipe out the South American towns and Miriya killed both Seloy and her son to delay her master plan.

As for the fight, the Zentraedi weren't piloting Veritechs; they were piloting Stingers, which are junk-heap armed battloids with flight cabalities.

Here's what the Stinger battloids looked like:

http://www.steelfalcon.com/Mecha/stinger.shtml

Kimora is the female ace you fight during the Battlecry game. She goes completely crazy after a few battles with her.

Tell me about it. Her shrieking voice and her missile barrages pisses me off when I confront her in the game, especially the no-clip ceiling that prevents me of going higher.

What are you running? If it's Windows XP, there are instructions HERE on how to use these icons on your PC. I'm not sure how compatable these instructions are with other Windows OS, though.

I use Win 2000 on my PC. I will never move to XP due to the obvious flaws in that OS and I had a bad experience using it, so I don't bother.

Besides, the PowerBooks and iBooks are built like refined Swiss timepieces with comparable specs and price points. From my previous experience with PC laptops, I find that more than half are lemons.

One of these days I would get a PowerMac for video editing because Premiere performs better and Final Cut can only be runned on that computer. My previous experience with a PC for video editing led me into frustration when I get bad results with it. To vent my rage, I kicked the PC and punched the moniter because of it. I got swollen knuckles on my fists and putted dents into the PC casing after that.

Now thats what i call bad design!

It goes to show that toy designers should not take drugs.

Since Energon Prime is a bad design (he looks like he drank too much energon), I'm taking the Armada version instead.

I think its high time the name Optimus Prime and any likeness to him be retired. C'mon they're freaking robots...can't they design a new leader??

Hasbro already tried that before and that replacement was Rodimus Prime, an angst-ridden wimp who whines his doubts of leadership that is worse than Shinji Ikari.

I voted for Link because he fits with the combat theme of the game: sword fighting.

Spawn is kinda good, but should have went for Mideaval Spawn to make it fit.

Heihachi should not be the bonus fighter because he's a corperate boss and also, he fights with his fists. That's like fighting with a knife against a guy with a submachine gun, and who has that handicap.

Since I voted for Link, I have to buy a Gamecube to play.

All these pretty Mac OS-X icons make me wan't to buy an Apple iBook.

However, I have to earn some cash for me to buy one.

Exo-

Yes he is. That piece of art was done by Kevin Long for the Robotech RPG by Palladium back in the 80s. The UN Spacy symbol was added on for some sort of consistancy.

Not to mention that all of the Robotech mecha drawn by Kevin Long has the UN Spacy emblem, with the exceptions of the lifted animation sheets. Wayne Breaux Jr., who replaced Long, drew the UN Spacy emblem only of the "Veritechs" and Destroids. Yet, he did draw one on the Super Alpha, a beefed-up version of the Alpha with UN Spacy FAST Packs.

I also remembered that the Matchbox Hovertank toy had a UN Spacy sticker on its leg near the knee. <_<

Got rid of all the REALLY bad looking Isamu faces (his animation doesn't look different in different scenes anymore, which you'll notice they are different in the OVA version).

Not to mention they managed to fix most of the animation error, such the soldiers performing the gun salute for the ceremony. The OAV version looked uneven and jumbled, while the movie version fixed it so they performed right for the gun salute with their M4 rifles.

If they can only bring it on DVD with Jap. Language track w/ Eng. Subs. I wonder who owns the rights now?

When Urban Vision released the OAV Tekkaman Blade II, the sign of good sales from it did prompt them to consider releasing the TV series. However, Saban stepped in and said to Urban Vision that the OAV is infringing the rights on Teknoman, with a C&D. Technically, Urban Vision told Saban they weren't because it's seperate and Saban backed down. Because of this, no one went to license the TV series.

Saban was bought up by Disney last year when they were looking for a new animation subsidary to replace DIC (Disney kicked them out previously). This killed the Fox Kids block and Saban was renamed BVS Entertainment, as shown in the credits of Power Rangers and Digimon season 4 (Digimon Frontier).

Whoever's running BVS currently owns the rights right now, including all of Saban's anime licenses.

I remember that. It was cool when I was young and it was on a sunday morning with no competition from other cartoons. I think I still have a tape with some of the episodes on it, the UPN version.

UPN used to air it for 26 episodes back in 1995 and re-run the same eps until September because Teknoman ran on a weekly schedule. The remaining 15-18 (?) episodes were supposed to continue for the UPN Kids block but was canned because the ratings weren't what UPN wanted. Instead, they ended up airing pish-posh stuff for the remaining year until UPN killed their kids block completely when it was over.