Amazing, beautiful really...

Amazing, beautiful really, how this franchise has survived all decades continually reinventing itself and staying relevant to new generations, while staying just beneath the radar of mainstream popularity to not have people get burnt out (Bayformers have a very large haterbase, and thus the fans are almost a subculture unto themselves, and it isn't representative of the comics or cartoons anyway). It is truly amazing, bravo Hasbro, bravo, I love you.

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It’s poetic how a franchise about changing could evolve with the times.

No, its a franchise about selling toys to fans of the 80s show. The garbage they've released since is just awful pandering

I guess. It's really just toy-first merchandising; its narrative demands are pretty small. It's not a surprise it's been able to tread water in that respect though the IDW books unraveled into an unfun mess.

If only GI Joe was as lucky as Trasformers. Every reboot has basically failed to capture any popularity.

By that logic though, technically all others should be as successful....G.I Joe, Masters of the Universe, Jem, Care Bears, Rainbow Brite, Thundercats, etc etc, clearly it is not the case that this kind of merch based marketing is a sole reason of success

Really, the only things comparable are TMNT which I would say has had less success as the years have gone on but still close, and MLP which is not really comparable at all because it only gained a massive fanbase with it's later iteration, not sustaining it since it's inception. It seems clear to me that the Transformers fiction while not all of it is to my liking is more key in capturing the hearts and minds of youth than simply hunks of plastic being sold.

>Giant space robots who turn into secondary modes, where everyone distinct bodies and personalities, and is open enough you can project whatever kind o story you want with it from cold war-style clashes of economic and political systems to aliens watching television and learning how to play Basketball.
>Some guys wearing military costumes limited by what kind of things a counter-terrorism unit would do

What's the secret? What has Transformers tapped into that let it succeed again and again and again, with toys on the shelf for 30 years straight, when so many other franchises failed?

TV shows help push merchandise, undoubtedly, but I think the endurance of Transformers has more to do with the endurance of the toyline itself than anything else. Transformers as a concept is extremely flexible, but most of its media is garbage.

Here let me show you

>Okay Johnny you can only have one toy
>Do you want a race car
>Or do you want an action figure

The lore.

I think it's because they have an active fanbase in which a large chunk of them want to continue the franchise and will consume all of its' media and keep it relevant, even if they do dislike it.
Plus a lot of talented people have helped mold the series into many forms.
Takara-Tomy helping Hasbro might also have something to do with it.

It’s literally the GOAT action figure concept.

Dont forget

>Do you want a construction toy
>Do you want an air plane toy
>Do you want an animal toy

Who is the really slick looking red deception on the bottom left. He looks like he's from Prime but I don't remember him.

Knockout?

>Knockout
Yeah

Seems were to forget him. Stupidly popular.

Just a reminder that Shattered Glass is the best continuity for Transformers and I really want to see the Transformers vs GI Joe in the Shattered Glass continuity.

He's so fucking sexy fuck.

Is Megatron still a good boy in the comics?

you are not alone, that metal bastard awakes my bi senses

I really wish we had gotten to see him in the RID show.

His altmode shows up

>Amazing, beautiful really, how this franchise has survived all decades continually reinventing itself and staying relevant to new generations, while staying just beneath the radar of mainstream popularity to not have people get burnt out
>just beneath the radar of mainstream popularity
Are you fucking retarded? Beast Wars was a huge hit and had #1 top sellers in boys toys in 97 and 98. 2000 RiD was a huge mainstream wankfest and then the success of the Unicron Trilogy is the whole damn reason they try a film. Fuck sakes you sound like my old HS buddy that's now 34 and still depending on his parents as a NEET, your fucking fandom is like every major fandom.

>I think it's because they have an active fanbase in which a large chunk of them want to continue the franchise and will consume all of its' media and keep it relevant, even if they do dislike it.
This is the only major reason. Transformers is the Star Trek of kids fandoms. Seas of people, both shut in failures and well adjusted spouses with kids, people flock to the brand and share the experiences. Now the under the hood answer is simple: there are not a lot of brands that were as detailed or intricate as TF then and they still stand as the best transforming toy aimed at kids(however the quality has drop in years). Another major factor was that great 80s magic where a whole generation of kids got suckered in to a 20 minute toy commercial and became attached to the TV cast. No one would remember this shit if it had no cartoon to it.

fun story, he was suppose to be Sideswipes spot in the show but the writers thought two decpticon defectors was to much for the show so they just kept Grimlock and rework KO into Sideswipe.

I must have missed that then, damn.

That's really shitt, it would have been fine.

yeah I miss him and Arcee, some characters should stay in almost all shows (Steeljaw, he is very handsome and RID Bumblebee is too) also I miss a main villain decepticon female

Airachnid was just a clingy lesbian and Glowstrike was all talk, no walk. A mistake.

Not from a writing stand point. For it to work you have to lobotomize KO to where him being a Con just wasn't a thing. It plays a part in Grimlocks character so any episodes that bring that up would either demand constant distractions to remind us KO was a con too or they have to just pretend he ever was one.

Kids that like cool robots, then they grow up to be robot fuckers.

>however the quality has drop in years
Eh. Fall of Cybertron had a pretty weak line and Combiner Wars was messy too, but Titans Return produced some great stuff. We've had ups and downs, even if it's easy to say 2010 or 2011 or so is the best period we've had so far.

Then write Grimlock as a bitter old soldier with PTSD but opens up working with the idealistic youth

1. that doesn't work, the whole point of RiD season 1 was BB becoming a leader, he needed the starting team to be very inexperienced. A wore torn mentor goes against that. Also you just described Transformers Animated Ratchet to a fucking T.
2. Grimlock was planed way early on to be the kid aim seller, a likable character that kids would attache to ( and it work in overall merc sales) it's why KO was kick off, for the story there just wasn't room for his baggage. That said they could have always drop him in as a episode focus like they did Soundwave and Blurr but again, I picture they just couldn't make it work without it turning into "hey remember -this- guy XD"

Toys with massive amounts of lore. Two things that doesn't necessary need to be combined either.

>Not wanting a grampasaurus

Beast Wars is nothing but furry old shit. It's only popular with nostalgic-fags and I'm glad they're dying off.

>I don't follow any other shit and think my shit is special.
He-man has a shit ton more lore and TMNT gets close/Equals TF levels. Hell I'm pretty sure most 80s cartoons have as much.

It's just TF has the Sonic advantage where they are Anthropoids that are everything like humans but in biology which goes great for many brain damaged people and unshapely manchildren that fell out of social circles and needed something that was far enough from human culture that it didn't remind them 24/7 what a reject they were but still super entertaining.

The bigger point is OP is fucking retarded to think TF hasn't been mainstream for the last 35 years. Everyone knew who the fuck Optiums Prime was way before the feature film.

Not the way it was pitched I don't.

Beast Wars had some cool stuff. It bothers me a bit the Generations lines have mostly ignored it.

At least there was a character that looked like a love child of KO and Breakdown.

What if he was Breakdown's brother?

It could be interpreted that way but that's no fun.

So you are saying that Knockout kept record of Breakdown's CNA, made a composite being out of it and his own, and this youth fell in line with Breakdown's old gang despite Knockout being Autobot-aligned at the time? Seems contrived.

Anything is possible with the power of science.

A step down compared to making dragons.

Well, KO was a doctor and it wouldn't be far-fetched for a kid of two former Decepticons to be treated differently, prompting him to seek acceptance by joining the crew of the father he never knew.

They're officially a couple in the comics. The writers could always take it to the next step.

What if he was named Breakout originally, but he saw Knockout as a fucking coward while seeing Breakdown as dying a proud Decepticon and then altering his name to reflect another fallen Stunticon?

AAAAAg, he must be mine!

However you like it dude.

And then Motormaster beat him up enough he developed a timid personality

>mfw I have a D/s fetish

Now you're flirting with some dangerous territory.

It is already canon that Motormaster is abusive to his subordinates.

...

ok this is the best one

You are a retard. Transformers has never, and will never be popular in terms of mainstream popularity. Ever been to Botcon? The chicks who show up to cosplay as Harley Quinn don't show up there, its all fat guys.

Beast Wars and Bayformers
Seriously, Generation 2 & the early 2000s shows bombed hard. But once a decade something will end up successful

>Seriously, Generation 2 & the early 2000s shows bombed hard.

I think the anime era toys sold perfectly fine for quite a while.

How old are you???
Like fucking 15???
Jesus Christ

Armada sure but everyone at my middle school stopped caring once the second show went all CG. It wasn't good like the Beast era CG.

A shame RID is fucking shit. Have to say though that transformers is probably one of the few toylines out right now that, for the most part, i dont have many complaints about and am pretty happy with the product.

>It wasn't good like the Beast era CG.

...?

He's referring to Energon, the CGI in that is utterly atrocious.

Thing is, it didn't go "All CGI". It was a 2D/CGI hybrid.

ditto.

Well regardless, Transformers has stayed on the air for every generation, unlike TMNT which has had big gaps in between shows and less shows, and that's it's best competition, the rest are basically dead

Don't forget the characterization. There's a bot for everyone, even if there's only a handful of the same guys in every iteration.

pretty much.

even the god awful Machinima series has that sassy anti-hero Megatron that's entertaining.

Armada was a legit success despite what most old school fans would tell you.

Because they were selling the toys so well, they had to create more toylines to make up for the demand including the Universe 2003 line.

Lost Light 14 full preview

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Yeah I didn't like it, but I knew it wasn't a failure

I agree. The writers still didn't manage to turn away most of their oldest fans like the big two because non human toys safely resist all negative connotations regarding social justice.

TFW2005 BTFO.
maccadams.com/index.php?sid=acb1dd74de20add12e1e6647445ad2d9

BOMP

M8, no one you're repling to even mentioned social justice. Besides, we're getting more female Transformers in the toyline as we speak.

The fuck is this?

The future.

Wasn't maccadams the tag tumblr adopted for TF-related stuff because the transformers tag was filled with transformation fetish art?

>Triggered this hard
Furry
Old
Shit

Sounds like the kind of thing that's right up their collective allies.

Alleys? Afts? All the same thing for them, itn't it?

Get off the computer Knockout, we know it's you.

It was adopted because the "Transformers" tag was full of Bay stuff that was just pictures of the actors and Bay and very few actual transformers. Originally maccadam was supposed to be only for the comic stuff but its slowly grown to include anything about the robots in particular.

Jealous much fleshbag?

>/toy/ having a total meltdown over the canoodling line in LL 13
>dont even know what the word means

Well clearly they're docking their canoodles together, which is maximum gay. You ONLY stick your canoodle in a woman's saucepan, otherwise you make robot god cry and then he sends Starsaber down to cleanse your filth from Cybertron.

It means fraternizing.

>canoodling
>The act of enjoying anothers company by getting close to them. This generally takes place on a couch and activities include but are not limited to: whispering, giggling, hot gossip, pillow talk, and squeezies. It IS socially acceptable to canoodle in areas with others, to a minimal degree, even when some believe it is not.

Yeah, fraternizing.

Whatever you need to call it to be ok with it.

>squeezies
Degenerate scum!

I'm agreeing with you though. I'm just confused why you felt the need the to dump the actual definition.

dont be like that baby

It didnt come off as a agreeing so wasnt sure but either way cheers to agreeing.