Just got back from tonight's presentation. It was... alright.
It began with a short welcome video from two Hasbro people, BMac and a lady whose name I can't remember. They greet the audience and briefly showed off a a display of some Legacy United Wave 1 figures and some Studio Series figures that we've all already seen and all in-package. Nothing new.
It then played a commercial for the EarthSpark Cyber Combiner toys, the same commercial that can currently be found on TV, YouTube, and streaming services that have ads.
Then we got a legit sneak peek at an upcoming episode of EarthSpark season 2, a full scene in which
the Autobots, Terrans, Maltos, and Megatron were all fighting to keep an "Embershard" away from Starscream, Skywarp, Skullcruncher, and I think one other Decepticon. It was a new action scene with so many characters fighting at an outdoor storage yard and nearly everyone getting a brief moment to shine. Elita-1 and Skywarp had a reall up-close-and-personal fight between each other, with Jawbreaker providing backup for Elita.
They also played a commercial for Hasbro's fan streams using a lot of existing footage from many past streams.
There was also a commercial played for Skybound's Energon Universe comics, highlighting panels and artwork from Transformers, Void Rivals, and G.I. Joe.
There was even a commercial for Transformers: The Ride 3D at Universal Studios. It's still around and kickin', apparently.
The main presentation finally began with the table reading, and it was not at all what I was expecting. I thought it was just gonna be Peter Cullen and Frank Welker reading a few lines from MTMTE in their Optimus and Megatron voices, like maybe a script reading of the Sherman Dam fight or something. What we got instead was something really special: A complete redub of the entire first episode.
The reading began with a bunch of G1 voice actors (and two non-G1 VAs) all introducing themselves and saying which characters they would be reading for. Here's the full cast:
- Peter Cullen: Optimus Prime, Ironhide
- Frank Welker: Megatron, Soundwave, Mirage, Skywarp, Rumble
- Dan Gilvezan: Bumblebee, Shockwave
- Michael Bell: Prowl
- Paul Eiding: Hound, Ratchet, Thundercracker, Teletraan I
- Gregg Berger: Narrator, Decepticon leader*, Cliffjumper, Spike, truck driver Joe
- Frank Todaro: Starscream, Wheeljack, Sparkplug, Reflector
- Arif S. Kinchen: Jazz
* -- the Seeker who looked like Starscream but had a different voice; he yelled "Autobots! Stop them!" at the approaching Wheeljack and Bumblebee on Cybertron.
Anyway, they played the animation, music, and sound effects of the episode on the left side of the screen while the right side showed each voice actor when it was their turn to speak. A background border styled after Teletraan I surrounded the two screens. And during the commercial bumpers, there was no narration, from either Berger or recycled from Victor Caroli.
Once the first episode ended, we were treated to some pretty funny bloopers and outtakes of the actors fumbling their lines and trying to make each other laugh the whole time. Welker kept trying make Cullen laugh, while Bell kept trying to make their both laugh. Berger made a fart joke: In response to Hound's line to Cliffjumper of "You smell something, Cliffjumper?" Berger broke character and said "Excuse me."
Then the next three episodes played normally, with nothing new done for them. The picture was shifted to the center of the screen with another Teletraan border to account for the fullscreen picture played on a widescreen theater screen. The theme songs for each were skipped (they played it for the first episode's redub, at least), while the end credits did play but with the video sped up in fast forward, cutting the audio of the ending theme song short midway through the song.
At the very end was something else unexpected, the "Don't run away from home" PSA short hosted by Bumblebee.
Overall, the atmosphere of the room was... formal. I had originally wanted to get there early so I could hang out and chat with other fans before it started, but IRL stuff kept me from getting there any sooner than about five-to-ten minutes before it started. When I got there, the room was real quiet as the typical pre-trailer ads were playing, with no one talking to each other and everyone keeping to themselves. The guy sitting to my right even moved over one seat during the first episode. The only people in the room who seemed to be having any fun enjoying themselves were a small group sitting toward the middle-right of the room (I was up in the back row), who could be heard chuckling at some of the zanier points in the episodes, and one of them made a "Ha! Superhuman Spike!" joke when Spike punched Rumble in the first ep. But other than them, the room was fill with dead silence from everyone else. And when it was over, we all got up from our seats to leave and nobody said a single word to anybody in the room. Only a few folks said they had fun to some of the ushers standing outside the theater room waiting to come in and clean up, but the total vibe of the room was really introverted and unfriendly, very much the opposite of how TF fans act when at conventions, in my experience. It felt less like a fan event and more like a formal opera experience where nearly everyone is on their best behavior and really stiff.
