Transformers G1: Favourite moments?

[Ruaidhri]

In the movie, as Arcee and Springer are pushing the big launcher into place, she chides him for not fully understanding the situation.

And, "Such heroic nonsense."

 

[Ethros]

I always liked Optimus Prime's line in Dark Awakening- "Monsters. They made me a weapon, to destroy the very ones I loved in life."


After that most would come from the movie. Always love the birth of Galvatron scene
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzNsOGt3bHk
Orson Welles and Leonard Nimoy could read out the phone book and make it sound epic.
"I will rip open Ultra Magnus, and every other Autobot, until the Matrix has been destroyed! To Cybertron!"
"...Destory the Matrix."




I'd also give a shout out to the s3 episode Call of the Primitives. Apart from the ending which I always think occurs so abruptly, its a great episode, the animation in particular is of very high standard (esp compared to the low standard of a lot of other s4 episodes.) The opening battle is awesome, and has a very anime style to it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRnhs68PHUE
Mint





oh yeah and don't for Dr. Smoov's videos on Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-ItfWY3xMQ
"Those bitches!"

 

[Trek Survivor]

but I'm not that familiar with the TV show. It was all about the comics for me. Mostly the UK ones, but they occasionally brought in some of the US stories as well.

Not "occasionally" - the UK comic reprinted every single US story and, for the most part, tried to integrate US/UK into one big narrative.

Like you, I consider the UK comic saga the "definitive" telling of the TF story. It worked on so many levels (and as the UK storyline includes all the US stories, I include them in this statement).

The TV series... it was OK; it was rarely on here in the UK (on terrestrial TV, we pretty much just got season 1, with each episode broken down into 3-4 minute segments to play out across the week on Wac-a-Day. Curse you Timmy Mallett!!). I know some of the Sky channels got later seasons as well.

So, this was my exposure to the TV series (as well as the occasional Video Gems VHS release; they concentrated mostly on the 2-parters and editing them into "feature length" presentations). It was always fun to watch, but I never really considered it much as part of love for TF - the comics and the toys were where it was at.

Love the movie, though; and have fond memories of watching the old VHS "Arrival From Cybertron", "Megatron's Master Plan" etc.

 

[Admiral2]

My favorites go all the way back to the first mini, when Optimus Prime was less "elder statesman" and more "John Wayne." My absolute favorite quote comes when the Autobots have the Decepticons cornered at Sherman Dam and Optimus calls out: "Stick it in neutral, Megatron! Yer not goin' anywhere!"

Haha. Which episode was that?

Episode 2 of the mini. Episode 3 also has this classic exchange:

Megatron: "Did you really think you could fool me by letting Ravage escape? Did you?"

Prime: "Go on, Megatron. You're in the driver's seat."

I just love that throughout all three eps Prime talks like a militant mechanic.

Can't remember the details but there was an episode where Star Scream finds his old partner? friend? Skyfire on Earth. It was a step above the usual drek the show had for scripts.

They were friends before the Cybertron wars and Skyfire was lost during one of their scientific surveys. In that one episode, Skyfire was found, recruited into the Decepticons, defected to the Autobots, and died.

Yep, definitely above and beyond the regular series scripts.

 

[Ethros]

^ Died. Well, he did come back like 2 episodes later to be fair.

 

[Admiral2]

^ Died. Well, he did come back like 2 episodes later to be fair.

Not saying otherwise. I'm just saying in that particular ep he sacrificed himself to save the autobots and at the end they were all like "We shall remember you, Skyfire..."

 

[Unicron]

And I clearly remember, from the few times I did catch the TV show, how much more intelligent and literate the comics seemed in comparison. The TV show seemed so dumbed down, so explosions-and-one-liners, whereas the comics managed to create some really great, well-told, clever stories. Much like Trek Lit has done with some of the less brilliant Trek TV.

In fairness, the cartoon wasn't exactly dumbed down so much as targeted at kids somewhat more than the Marvel comics (arguably) were. I think the third season in particular suffers from that, and it seems in part like the writers couldn't really get a grip on some of the characters. I always liked both Hot Rod and Rodimus Prime, but the fact that Rodimus seemed to be emo didn't help.

Marvel had a bit more leeway in terms of what could be done in the comics, and I agree they handled some aspects a lot better. It's also cool that the UK branch was able to keep a very nice continuity structure for the stories that were integrated, even if it occasionally slipped (Megatron clone ).

 

[Saga]

i always liked Rodimus/Hot Rod. the death of Optimus Prime was one of the few times i ever cried over a movie.

 

[Taylirious]

"You took my voice. You will never rob anyone, of anything, ever again."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8OqTYgvJUk

-Bumblebee

♪ ♫ Must be living in the wrong generation... ♪ ♫

G1 with Skyfire is the best!

Story of Skyfire; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SaysAmjydA

 

[TV's Frank]

I have always felt that the 3rd season is unfairly maligned. There are a number of great episodes and memorable moments. In terms of Rodimus' character, he was tough-minded in "Fight or Flee" and "The Ultimate Weapon", both good episodes, and then was capable of showing self-doubt at times, such as in "The Burden Hardest to Bear", another fine episode. I feel this is a positive for his character in season 3, seeing as how more aspects are displayed, he isn't one-dimensional, there are layers to him. Same with Galvatron, who also became more well-rounded in presentation thanks to an episode like "Webworld".

All of those aforementioned episodes have memorable moments for me, such as in "Webworld" when Cyclonus expressively regrets his decision to submit Galvatron for psychiatric care when the torture begins.

In "Fight or Flee", I love the sequence when Sandstorm convinces his planet's people to rebel against the Decepticons and it turns into a massive conflict. The ending is also memorable in its ambiguity and Rodimus' questionable actions.

 

[Hound of UIster]

Season 3 gets flack because of several factors namely a) the terrible animation due to mostly how Hasbro sunk much of the animation budget for and b) it followed in the heels of the movie where Optimus Prime was perceived to have died at the hands of Megatron partially due to Hot Rod, which in turn created somewhat of backlash from the nascent fandom of the time. According to Hasbro's own internal data, a lot of the kids (now adults) saw Optimus Prime very much as a father figure and what happened in the movie no doubt had a negative effect on their perception of Hot Rod and later Rodimus. But you are right, Season 3 had some of the best scripts and employed notable writers such as Diane Duane, Len Wein and Marv Wolfman. Five Faces of Darkness with the origin of the Transformers, Only Human with the return of Cobra Commander, Ultimate Weapon with Rodimus standing up to Galvatron and exploration of First Aid's non-violence were all very good scripts that would have been remembered more fondly if not for the animation problems.

 

[Unicron]

The funny thing about Prime's death is, it's not necessarily Hot Rod who deserves as much flak (though it's quite understandable given how it was portrayed). Duke's intended death for G.I. Joe: The Movie was created earlier, conceptually, and Hasbro agreed on the condition that they could do the same to Optimus in the Transformers movie. It was released earlier and got a very negative response, so Duke's death was quickly nixed.

Did Diane Duane do any eps other than "Webworld"? That's the only one I can remember her credit for immediately, but I could be wrong. And it's a very strange episode, IMO. I sometimes think it's partially to blame for Galvatron being stereotyped as a nutcase.

 

[TV's Frank]

Season 3 gets flack because of several factors namely a) the terrible animation due to mostly how Hasbro sunk much of the animation budget for and b) it followed in the heels of the movie where Optimus Prime was perceived to have died at the hands of Megatron partially due to Hot Rod, which in turn created somewhat of backlash from the nascent fandom of the time. According to Hasbro's own internal data, a lot of the kids (now adults) saw Optimus Prime very much as a father figure and what happened in the movie no doubt had a negative effect on their perception of Hot Rod and later Rodimus. But you are right, Season 3 had some of the best scripts and employed notable writers such as Diane Duane, Len Wein and Marv Wolfman. Five Faces of Darkness with the origin of the Transformers, Only Human with the return of Cobra Commander, Ultimate Weapon with Rodimus standing up to Galvatron and exploration of First Aid's non-violence were all very good scripts that would have been remembered more fondly if not for the animation problems.

I agree that the poorly-animated episodes in Season 3 tended to color fans' perceptions of the show, but even in those examples you mentioned, both "Only Human" and "The Ultimate Weapon" display some fine animation, especially the latter. AKOM was responsible for some really shoddy animation, but "Only Human" is probably their best work for that season. For sure season 3 lacked the consistency of animation found in the prior two seasons, although "The Core" and "The Autobot Run" from season two feature animation just as sub-par as "Carnage in C-Minor" from season three.

However, when you look again at season three I think everyone will find a great number of well animated episodes, such as "The Killing Jar", "Chaos", "Dweller In The Depths", "Fight or Flee", "Call of the Primitives"... even "Webworld" and "Nightmare Planet" feature some solid animation and striking visuals throughout.

 

[Silvercrest]

In "Fight or Flee", I love the sequence when Sandstorm convinces his planet's people to rebel against the Decepticons and it turns into a massive conflict. The ending is also memorable in its ambiguity and Rodimus' questionable actions.

"I've never seen anything this beautiful in the entire galaxy ... All right, give me the bomb."

 

[Stephen!]

With episodes such as "Grimlock's New Brain", Optimus Prime must have been laughing from within the matrix.

"You got me killed. Well, haha, now you'll have take on the burden of leadership. And as an added bonus, you'll have to put up with Grimlock, who I had a hand in creating"

 

[Unicron]

"Carnage in C-Minor" has some of the more hilarious examples of animation problems in the series, chiefly this one and this one. I don't think Voyager class Soundwave has much to fear from Legion class Blaster. My only specific gripe with the episode is that the aliens talk in musical English, but only Blaster and Soundwave seem able to understand them.

 

[Silvercrest]

Unicron, I'm going to be disappointed if you don't make some "in-character" references.

Come to think of it, is Starscream still around?

 

[TV's Frank]

"Carnage in C-Minor" has some of the more hilarious examples of animation problems in the series, chiefly this one and this one. I don't think Voyager class Soundwave has much to fear from Legion class Blaster. My only specific gripe with the episode is that the aliens talk in musical English, but only Blaster and Soundwave seem able to understand them.

Wow, I forgot about that 2nd example you posted, my goodness that is a major size difference! It's as if the animators and layout operators wanted to see if anyone at Sunbow was paying attention that day... and maybe they weren't?

 

[Stephen!]

"Thief in the Night" - if for no other reason, that it's amusing how "CarBombYa" managed to get past the censors

 

[Unicron]

It's a pity that caused Casey Kasem to leave, though. While it's unlikely the name was ever meant to be more than a pun, he felt it was a stereotype and refused to come back for the third season.

Wow, I forgot about that 2nd example you posted, my goodness that is a major size difference! It's as if the animators and layout operators wanted to see if anyone at Sunbow was paying attention that day... and maybe they weren't?

It was a fairly common error, although the "Carnage" one was probably the most glaringly noticeable. One of the problems with the S3 animation was that the movie characters had two sets of character models, an earlier set closer to the toys (or at least their existing prototypes) and a final version that was used for the movie and intended for regular use in S3. Sometimes though the models would get switched between episodes, and Cyclonus is a noted case. He appears with his earlier toy-based design in "Starscream's Ghost" and a few others.

Broadside is a much stranger case, in that his "Carnage" appearance used the unbuilt prototype character model. Apparently he was supposed to be released this way in toy form, as a prototype figure existed in UK catalogs and he was drawn with this model on the 1986 battle art. But at some point his design changed to the official toy and character model that was used for his later appearances. Amusingly enough, his sole appearance in the American comic was edited into a generic Autobot in the British continuity because the Wreckers were elsewhere at the time. Loser...