Thoughts on first ep of Combiner Wars on go90.com? (SPOILERS)

[Rodimus_2316]

I saw all four preludes on youtube (Optimus Prime, Victorian, Windblade, and Starscream), and have now seen the first ep on go90.com. I think this is it:

https://www.go90.com/profiles/va_0a41e9fb10434ab4a483fc2c60e07885

It was ok, just was expecting it to be longer, like a normal show ep. Never expected a Computron/Menasor fight. And Menasor talks normal, not typical combiners intelligence? I'll keep watching for new eps, hoping that it'll get better.

Anyone else have thoughts?



- Rodimus_2316

[banzait...@gmail.com]

I just watched it... Wow, I am sorry but it was complete garbage. It was so bad, I tried to watch it again to see if I was being a bit harsh, and couldn't make it through the second time. The voice "acting" is a complete give up. The battle scene you described reminded me of a 5 year old playing with menasor and computron. That's how poor the choreographed battle is. This has got to be the lowest budget transformers cartoon ever produced.

How did we get to this point? I too am hoping for a drastic improvement, but let's be realistic. This is going to suck harder than any transformers cartoon has sucked before.

I want to cry...

-Banzaitron

[Dave Van Domelen]

Felt like a senior class project. Decent school-level animation, voice
talent from whatever drama majors had a spare afternoon, and writing based on
someone's high school fanfic.

Dave Van Domelen, might be maligning the level of animation software
available at universities these days, tho.

[No One In Particular]

My internet signal was so bad at home that I couldn't get the thing to
stream. I'll try again later.

[banzait...@gmail.com]

Don't bother

[No One In Particular]

On 8/3/2016 10:59 PM, banzait...@gmail.com wrote:
> Don't bother
>


Too late. :)

I don't want to jump on the "Ruined Forever!" bandwagon, but I will say
this; get a small army together of small, fast, and agile bots, give 'em
all lightsabers, and suddenly I don't really see much advantage in being
a combiner any longer.

Brian

[Travoltron]

Somebody let me know when the whole thing is complete and compiled into
one video and then maybe I'll check it out. Because I'm told it wasn't
originally designed to be shown in these 5 min chunks.

[Iaclonus Warp]

On Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at 7:18:37 PM UTC-4, Rodimus_2316 wrote:
>
> Anyone else have thoughts?

Whelp... on the plus side, I really appreciated that Computron's vocal patterns from his brief Sunbow G1 appearances were retained quite accurately...

But yeah, Menasor's voice just ruined it for me. You really don't appreciate the skill and craft that professional voice actors bring to the table (in a franchise that has most definitely employed the best in the business) until you hear someone who just... isn't one...

Windblade was almost decent... her Prelude had me genuinely excited for the show, but I was expecting a *lot* more story. Y'know, an actual arc showing her progression for city-speaker to murderous Combiner Hunter-- not just slicing off Menasor's arm within the first three minutes of the show!

I like how the YouTube description bills Maxima as a proud new addition to Transformers lore... only to have her just be a Windblade re-skin who loses a limb every time somebody touches her... (though I *do* support casual dismemberment in Cybertronian combat... makes it more visceral... it just also makes Maxima seem unbelievably feeble in this case...)

Yeah, I had no idea these "episodes" were only going to be five minutes long. And there are only eight of them?! Cripes, those "Cyber Missions" webisodes they came out with to support the latter RotF toys boasted more content than this!

J (so we waited over a year for less than 40 minutes of "series"... well, better than nuthin', I guess...)

[banzait...@gmail.com]

> well, better than nuthin', I guess...)

No, Nothing is preferable to this garbage. IMO. Same goes for the Bay-verse. Sometimes, things are better left alone.

-Banzaitron

[Zobovor]

On Sunday, August 7, 2016 at 4:25:40 PM UTC-6, banzait...@gmail.com wrote:

> No, Nothing is preferable to this garbage. IMO. Same goes for the Bay-verse.
> Sometimes, things are better left alone.

You can tell it's trying to be mature. All that monologuing. It kind of has the same flavor as some of the stuff they used to play on MTV, like The Maxx or Aeon Flux.

Call me a purist, but I just hate the low-budget CGI. It was exciting in Beast Wars because it was something that had never really been done before. Nowadays everybody is doing CGI and it's got no heart. (True story: We took the kids to a double-feature at the drive-in the other night, and it was showing Secret Life of Pets and Ice Age: Collision Course. We didn't stay for all of the second movie. I can only take computer-generated mannequins being dragged across the screen for so long. Even the Muppet Show was only half an hour long.)

Also, the choreography was so uninspired. Menasor punches Computron. Computron punches Menasor. Menasor punches Computron. Computron punches Menasor. Menasor punches Computron. Computron punches Menasor. Seriously, that was the whole fight.


Zob (I can't believe this is being marketed as "Transformers for adults")

[Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats]

On Sunday, August 7, 2016 at 5:42:25 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
> On Sunday, August 7, 2016 at 4:25:40 PM UTC-6, banzait...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> > No, Nothing is preferable to this garbage. IMO. Same goes for the Bay-verse.
> > Sometimes, things are better left alone.

Wow, that was... something?

Not having followed the IDW books, that first episode was just out of nowhere, and did nothing to drag me in.

Wingblade was apparently a city speaker, but doesn't do that anymore. There are a never ending series of combiners coming, and that is somehow an affront to everything Wingblade stands for.

> You can tell it's trying to be mature. All that monologuing. It kind of has the same flavor as some of the stuff they used to play on MTV, like The Maxx or Aeon Flux.

Very, very Aeon Fluxxy. Nihilistic by design, diving right into the story with no context, and lasting only a few minutes of "awesome".

We just needed ass shots of Wingblade.

> Call me a purist, but I just hate the low-budget CGI. It was exciting in Beast Wars because it was something that had never really been done before. Nowadays everybody is doing CGI and it's got no heart.

I think they were going for no heart and bleak, which makes the CGI a really good choice for it.

"You're a killer too!"

> Also, the choreography was so uninspired. Menasor punches Computron. Computron punches Menasor. Menasor punches Computron. Computron punches Menasor. Menasor punches Computron. Computron punches Menasor. Seriously, that was the whole fight.

Well, they were fighting in space, where there was no gravity, just their own momentum and the rockets in their shoes, so I don't expect great acrobatics there.

> Zob (I can't believe this is being marketed as "Transformers for adults")

But "Transformers for moody 13 year olds" sounds terrible... what do you expect the marketers to say?

[Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats]

On Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at 8:30:03 PM UTC-7, banzait...@gmail.com wrote:
> How did we get to this point? I too am hoping for a drastic improvement, but let's be realistic. This is going to suck harder than any transformers cartoon has sucked before.

No, it will be better than Energon. This will be moody, short and go nowhere. Energon went on forever and went nowhere.

> I want to cry...

I suppose it is good that you were able to blot Energon completely out of your mind.

> -Banzaitron

[Travoltron]

You guys have probably all seen this already, but if you haven't, check
it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LISpBoanrFA

That is a fandub of The Headmasters. It's very well done and that is all
done by fans alone. Imagine if instead of this crappy Combiner Wars
cartoon, Hasbro had instead dubbed Scramble City and The Headmasters?
Maybe they could shell out for Mr. Cullen and Mr. Welker at least?
(Optimus and Galvatron don't last all that long in the series anyway.)

[Travoltron]

On 8/7/2016 5:42 PM, Zobovor wrote:
> It was exciting in Beast Wars because it was something that
> had never really been done before.

TBH, I didn't really like that even then. It was a really ugly show to
look at. It's been 20 years; am I allowed to say that here now?

[Zobovor]

On Monday, August 8, 2016 at 12:16:28 PM UTC-6, Travoltron wrote:

> TBH, I didn't really like that even then. It was a really ugly show to
> look at. It's been 20 years; am I allowed to say that here now?

I think it's safe. All the possible arguments about Beast Wars happened a long time ago. :)


Zob (my four-year-old daughter has a bunch of the direct-to-video Barbie movies and they were animated by... yep, you guessed it, Mainframe)

[Travoltron]

On 8/8/2016 5:46 PM, Zobovor wrote:

> yep, you guessed it, Mainframe)

The last, and worst thing I saw of theirs was this Spider-Man show on MTV:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-Man:_The_New_Animated_Series

It looked hideous. I remember at one point Spider-Man got his costume
ripped and they just slapped a "rip" JPEG texture over the area instead
of, you know, changing the CGI model.

It was also one of those terrible MTV shows that tried real hard to show
how "mature" and adult it is. A character needlessly said "SON OF A
BITCH!!!" near the beginning of the episode I saw just because they could.

[No One In Particular]

Thing is though, Combiner Wars is supposed to be the media used to help
sell the Combiner Wars toys. Scramble City isn't the same toys.

(Yes. I know CW is over, and airing the cartoon now is very much
locking the barn after the horses have escaped. I think they dropped
the ball on that completely.)

Brian

[Rodimus_2316]

Ep 2:
https://www.go90.com/profiles/va_e80879ee86ff49d4b169fba67d53e1c7

Question: Is this in-continuity with IDW G1? I haven't read that in quite awhile.



- Rodimus_2316

[Murat Sarar]

It was okay, I guess. Nothing too spectacular.

[Murat Sarar]

9 Ağustos 2016 Salı 21:37:02 UTC+3 tarihinde Rodimus_2316 yazdı:

It draws inspiration from IDW but it's not in the same continuity.

[Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats]

On Tuesday, August 9, 2016 at 11:37:02 AM UTC-7, Rodimus_2316 wrote:
> Ep 2:
> https://www.go90.com/profiles/va_e80879ee86ff49d4b169fba67d53e1c7
>

I think that episode is even worse.

Chickbot with hammer sounds congested.

No explanation as to why Combiners are bad. Terrible animation.

Still, better than late season Energon.

[Rodimus_2316]

Ep 3 posted:
https://www.go90.com/profiles/va_3284b04d4fb74ea584af0b9dece19200



- Rodimus_2316

[banzait...@gmail.com]

SOMEBODY PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!!!! Bayverse is less offensive to the brand than this!

[Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats]

It's so ... Faux 1990s Japanese Anime.

[Rodimus_2316]

Ep 4:
https://www.go90.com/profiles/va_5c5908e732944a2ba306b4fa92e878d7



- Rodimus_2316

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

Why do parts of the constructicons glow?

Where are they driving to at the en if it's a dead world? Did they park their ship on the other side for some reason?

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

Machinma is the company that made tons of 1990's Japanese robot anime, and they made this.

[Rodimus_2316]

On Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at 4:18:37 PM UTC-7, Rodimus_2316 wrote:
> I saw all four preludes on youtube (Optimus Prime, Victorian, Windblade, and Starscream), and have now seen the first ep on go90.com. I think this is it:
>
> https://www.go90.com/profiles/va_0a41e9fb10434ab4a483fc2c60e07885
>
> It was ok, just was expecting it to be longer, like a normal show ep. Never expected a Computron/Menasor fight. And Menasor talks normal, not typical combiners intelligence? I'll keep watching for new eps, hoping that it'll get better.
>
> Anyone else have thoughts?
>
>
>
> - Rodimus_2316

S1:E5 Homecoming
https://www.go90.com/profiles/va_76d339377a884aab97be734ad7cb9343



- Rodimus_2316

[Rodimus_2316]

It's gotten a little interesting...a little. What does Windblade mean about the council-fembot leaving her people to die on Cadamus (I think that was how it was prononounced)? And who said, "Don't...let this happen."? Sure hope Rodimus is ok next ep.

I'll keep watching, to see it hopefully improve more.



- Rodimus_2316

[Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats]

Did the voice in Windblade's head say "Don't! Let this happen." or "Don't let this happen!". I honestly have no idea.

I guess since the phrasing was enigmatic, that it must have been... the enigma!

[Shin Hibiki]

Rodimus_2316 <rodim...@hotmail.com> wrote:

>It's gotten a little interesting...a little.

Yep, although it was a low hurdle to clear!

>What does Windblade mean about the council-fembot leaving her people to die on Cadamus (I think that was how it was prononounced)?

Caminus. It may refer to something in the IDW comics, which
seem to influence this series a bit, but since those stories don't
stick in my mind well, I don't really remember. :P

>And who said, "Don't...let this happen."?

Since she is a Cityspeaker, probably Metroplex or some other
Titan.

>Sure hope Rodimus is ok next ep.

It's just a flesh wound!

>I'll keep watching, to see it hopefully improve more.

Being free also represents a low hurdle to continued viewing!

- Shin Hibiki

----
The race ain't over yet, baby
It's only just begun
They thought they had it won, baby
But soon we'll have 'em on the run

[Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats]

On Sunday, September 4, 2016 at 10:40:05 PM UTC-7, Shin Hibiki wrote:
> Rodimus_2316 <rodim...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> >It's gotten a little interesting...a little.
>
> Yep, although it was a low hurdle to clear!

I thought this episode was actually a step down from the previous one. Fembot chopping off penis-cannons with a big sword kind of ruined this one for me.

> >What does Windblade mean about the council-fembot leaving her people to die on Cadamus (I think that was how it was prononounced)?
>
> Caminus. It may refer to something in the IDW comics, which
> seem to influence this series a bit, but since those stories don't
> stick in my mind well, I don't really remember. :P

I think it's supposed to be mysterious and reference a massive backstory that we are given brief glimpses of. It's like Homer's "Odyssey", where the action starts halfway through the story -- a fine literary tradition.

> >And who said, "Don't...let this happen."?
>
> Since she is a Cityspeaker, probably Metroplex or some other
> Titan.

But, was it "Don't! Let this happen." or "Don't let this happen!"? I really couldn't tell from the voice acting.

> >Sure hope Rodimus is ok next ep.
>
> It's just a flesh wound!

Many people recover from worse.

> >I'll keep watching, to see it hopefully improve more.
>
> Being free also represents a low hurdle to continued viewing!

And short. By the time you think "This is awful, I should stop watching this," it is over.

[David Connell]

On Monday, September 5, 2016 at 2:49:46 AM UTC-4, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:

> I think it's supposed to be mysterious and reference a massive backstory that we are given brief glimpses of. It's like Homer's "Odyssey", where the action starts halfway through the story -- a fine literary tradition.
>

Oh, so this whole thing is a promo to get people to buy IDW comics and trade paperbacks? That significantly decreases my interest. Not that I wasn't aware of the IDW influence, but if it isn't at least a stand-alone story ...

[Rodimus_2316]

https://www.go90.com/profiles/va_996b5915acc646f1af528e1d5c609e7a

S1:E6 A War of Giants

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

On Friday, September 9, 2016 at 6:44:57 PM UTC-5, Rodimus_2316 wrote:
> https://www.go90.com/profiles/va_996b5915acc646f1af528e1d5c609e7a
>
> S1:E6 A War of Giants

eww, this show is far too short to spend this kind of time milking a transformation sequence.

We get it, move on already.

[Rodimus_2316]

S1:E7 Darkest Hour:
https://www.go90.com/profiles/va_92b2644504054b28a8b694748ea11c87

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

On Wednesday, September 14, 2016 at 12:09:25 PM UTC-5, Rodimus_2316 wrote:
> S1:E7 Darkest Hour:
> https://www.go90.com/profiles/va_92b2644504054b28a8b694748ea11c87

Wow, that was the worst yet...

[Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats]

Apparently robots that combine into bigger robots just aren't interesting enough so we needed a Starscream cloud?

Also, terrible.

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

Exactly my point, we have a toy commercial that can't be bothered to have the actual toys, and cloud enemies always suck. Remember the Green Lantern? or the Fantastic Four movie?

[Rodimus_2316]

Even though I agree with you guys, just one thing: Did Starscream just pretend to change so he could get his hands on the enimga-device? Or did he revert to evil after accessing it?


- Rodimus_2316

[No One In Particular]

On 9/15/2016 6:25 PM, Rodimus_2316 wrote:

> Even though I agree with you guys, just one thing: Did Starscream just pretend to
change so he could get his hands on the enimga-device? Or did he revert
to evil after accessing it?
>
>
> - Rodimus_2316
>

At first it looked like they were going with the genuinely repentant
Screamer, similar to Armada. But in a twist that I was really hoping to
avoid, he reverted to type at the first opportunity, revealing via
monologue that this was his plan all along.

Brian

[Rodimus_2316]

Thanks. Yeah, I would have preferred the same for Starscream.

I'm still trying to stay optimistic that this'll all get better.



- Rodimus_2316

[Rodimus_2316]

S1:E8 Destruction's Dawn
https://www.go90.com/profiles/va_45cf3abc23d847e09fee259362d51692



- Rodimus_2316

[David Connell]

On Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at 7:18:37 PM UTC-4, Rodimus_2316 wrote:
> I saw all four preludes on youtube (Optimus Prime, Victorian, Windblade, and Starscream), and have now seen the first ep on go90.com. I think this is it:
>
> https://www.go90.com/profiles/va_0a41e9fb10434ab4a483fc2c60e07885
>
> It was ok, just was expecting it to be longer, like a normal show ep. Never expected a Computron/Menasor fight. And Menasor talks normal, not typical combiners intelligence? I'll keep watching for new eps, hoping that it'll get better.
>
> Anyone else have thoughts?
>
>
>
> - Rodimus_2316

Finally took a few minutes to watch a bit of it. Was it intended to make Energon look good? Hideously boring, poorly animated, and too much blatant IDW influence even in the 5 minutes I watched. The "Enigma of Combination" is still one of the stupidest McGuffin ideas in the history of Transformers, and in a franchise which includes a giant purple griffin and a universal TF off switch, that's saying something! I almost switched it off at the mention of the Enigma, and didn't last much longer.

Thinking I should cut my losses rather than inflict more of this on myself. This may replace Beast Machines in my "worst TF animation ever" slot.

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

So...this is the end of Combiner wars? It started near the end and now, after showcasing less than half of the toys, it's over?

[Travoltron]

If Aaron Archer was still running things he'd be throwing everyone under
the bus by now. The animators, the voice actors, etc. Everyone else's
fault but Hasbro's. I'm happy to see that hasn't happened (so far).

[No One In Particular]

I haven't checked to see for myself, so take it with a grain of salt,
but it's being said that two of the three writers have begun removing
their names from being associated with it on IMDB and Twitter and the like.


Brian. Can't say as how I'd blame 'em much...

[Travoltron]

On 9/21/2016 5:33 PM, No One In Particular wrote:
> Can't say as how I'd blame 'em much...

I don't blame them either. Nobody sets out to make bad things. With
things like this it's usually creative types butting heads with
unreasonable and conflicting corporate demands.

[Gustavo Wombat]

It was better than Energon. Not every episode of Energon -- I think the
first few episodes of Energon held a lot of promise -- but better than the
long slow slog that Energon ultimately became. This had the virtue of being
a lot shorter.

No one should ever watch it again, of course, because it is one of the
least consequential shows ever made -- almost every toy showcased had a
well defined personality from somewhere else, and this did nothing to
improve even a single one -- but it was less painful to watch than the
middle to end of Energon.

--
I wish I was a mole in the ground.

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

On Saturday, September 24, 2016 at 12:03:01 PM UTC-5, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:

You've gone to the opposite extreme. Energon was endlessly long, where this is incoherently short. Why can't we get a happy medium? I would have loved a good 2-3 hours worth of episodes if we got to have some kind of beginning to this story. Maybe an actual villain, or reason behind combiner hatred, or why the limbs can't separate when the head is destroyed.

It's reverse hobbit treatment. Instead of 1 story dragged out into three movies with extra junk packed in, we got the third of three movies condensed down to lengths shorter than an infomercial, and the first two movies worth of potential material discarded.

Defensor Superion and Bruticus weren't even present, just Menasor and .com order giftsets.