72 replies to this topic

[SHIELD Agent 47]

Take all of this with a grain of salt:

 

For some time now the staff of TFNation have been dropping cryptic hints of something big to come. Fans have speculated that this year's TFNation could have an officially sponsored exclusive product.

 

The Twitter account of TFNation mascot Genny has tweeted about the resemblance of Brunt to the Mark V Guardian Droid from the Marvel G1 comic, though no identifiable plastic has been leaked on Chinese social media.

 

Now, the TFNation Twitter account has separately tweeted '10 years', '2 months', and '25 days', which has recently been interpreted by fans as the length of time between the finale broadcast date of Transformers Animated, 23 May 2009, and the first day of TFNation this year, 16 August 2019.

 

What could it be?

 

 

[Rycochet]

I love how nineties the Guardian units all look, given how they were early to mid eighties. Can't say I think any of them look like Brunt though.

[Sabrblade]

If anything, Brunt oughta get a simple redeco into this:

 

 

I mean, the idea practically goes without saying.

[Fear or Courage]

Here is my predictions, in order of likelihood:

 

1) Trial and Error, the unofficial fanmade graphic novel finale to Transformers Animated released at a previous TFnation, is getting reprinted, and said reprint has been officially approved by Hasbro, making it the canonical Animated finale.

 

2) Some sort of Animated revival, like a direct-to-tv movie finale is being produced, and it will be announced/have a trailer/have some early footage shown there.

 

3) Similar to the above, but it's been completed, and will have a surprise viewing there (less likely because we'd have heard of it).

 

4) An exclusive run of Animated toys is being released at the convention, perhaps the unreleased-in-the-west molds, like Wingblade Prime, Hydrodive Bee, and Blackout (if this was happening, we'd likely have seen some leaks by now).

Edited by Fear or Courage, 05 July 2019 - 09:22 AM.

[unluckiness]

Erector and whoever from that Micromaster two-pack

[The Phazer]

Seems like it's a script read performance of the Animated S4 opener.

 

Have to say, I really doubt Hasbro UK will ever be on the ball enough to actually produce an exclusive.

[Walky]

snippet of Sari's hair

[SHIELD Agent 47]

https://twitter.com/tfnationltd/status/1147203633701896195

 

This year we are pleased to announce that we will be taking a break from our traditional Saturday evening script reading and instead treating you to something a little special...#TFNation #ClubCon #TransformersAnimated

— TFNation (@tfnationltd) July 5, 2019

This will be an amazing experience for any fans of Transformers Animated and something you do not want to miss. Join us as we say goodbye to some old faces, and meet some brand new characters, designed by Eric Siebenaler and Marty Isenberg especially for this event.

— TFNation (@tfnationltd) July 5, 2019

Tickets are still available for the show, but remember only Weekend Pass holders will get entry to the Saturday night program. If you are a fan of Transformers Animated and don’t want to miss out on this historic, event head over to https://t.co/dUbJjSGOJD and book your tickets.

— TFNation (@tfnationltd) July 5, 2019

No. There will be a strict no recording policy in place including phones at all times during this event as part of the agreement for it to take place.

— TFNation (@tfnationltd) July 5, 2019

[SHIELD Agent 47]

This is What Would Have Actually Happened Next.

— Chris McFeely (@chrismcfeely) July 5, 2019

[Sabrblade]

Welp, sucks for all of us who can't go overseas to attend this.

[HellCat]

Welp, sucks for all of us who can't go overseas to attend this.

Oh hey, it's me with practically every hugging geek thing of interest ever. Especially in the last 3 years.

[SHIELD Agent 47]

TFW2005 admin Sol Fury's bullet points from "The Trial of Megatron" season premiere outline reading:
 

• The Protoforms are handed over to the Cyber Ninjas and their new sensei, Dai Atlas.
• Sari is not one of the protoforms. She’s something else.
• A wake is held for Prowl.
• Ultra Magnus dies and names Optimus Prime as his sucessor.
• Sentinel Prime bribes Bumblebee with a spot on the Elite Guard to endorse him as Ultra Magnus’ successor. This drives a wedge between him and the rest of the team. He later reconciles by refusing to follow along with Sentinel’s bribery.
• Ratchet and the other science bots build Sentinel Prime a “Powermaster” armor suit.
• Ironhide and Jazz become members of Team Prime.
• Omega Supreme has a hard time fitting in on Cybertron as people view him as a weapon of mass destruction. Omega decides to dedicate himself to saving lives.
• The Decepticons attack the Energon farm Bulkhead came from. Obsidian leads the attack. A later raid sees Team Prime sans Bumblebee fight Strika’s Team Charr.
• Sentinel gets played by Megatron, first leading the Elite Guard on a wild goose chase then distracting everyone with a public trial.
• Rattrap (here named Rattletrap) is Megatron’s defence attorny. He gets Megatron off all charges.
• Megatron launches Trypticon Prison into space.
• Optimus (using the Powermaster armour) leads his team on Omega Supreme in pursuit. Bulkhead stays behind on Cybertron to fix the damage Trypticon launching caused.
• Omega VS Trypticon leads to Omega being damaged and remaining in ship mode.
• Optimus and crew (minus Ratchet) break into Trypticon prison and knock the rocket city’s power offline by overloading the power grid.
• Megatron throws his soldiers into the city’s reactor in a desperate bid to keep the prison powered (Lugnut jumps in willingly)
• After a showdown with Optimus Prime, Trypticon prison crashes to Earth – landing on top of Dinobot Island.

 
And a few more bits of information from Marty Isenberg's Sunday panel, some of which have already been published in the AllSpark Almanacs.
 

• Powermaster Prime was a Hasbro request to allow Hasbro to release a larger size / priced character. Marty worked it into the premiere.
• Hasbro also requested flames on Optimus, movie-style. This would have been a repaint on the toy. It popped up in the outline as signifier of a high honour awarded to Optimus.
• Focus would have been on Mini-Cons, but the other Decepticons would have eventually come back.
• Megatron was completely losing it at this point in the story. Described as "not quite Beast Machines genocidal, but on the way there"
• Marauder Megatron was a Hasbro request, they wanted a triple changer design. Intended to make Megatron a huge threat to the point he didn't need minions.
• Writers never figured out exactly where Sari was going. But her journey was the story of Transformers Animated - idea was the finale would have been the end of her journey.
• Beachcomber was intended for Season 3. He was supposed to catch Longarm turning into Shockwave. His reaction? "Dude, not cool". Then Shockwave kills him. This was cut for time.
• Beachcomber was then intended for a scene in Season 4. Blackout would have killed him.
• If the Beachcomber scene hadn't happened in Season 4, he'd have died in Season 5. Marty didn't like Beachcomber.
• Unicron considered "too big for Animated"
• No plans to have had Megatron become Galvatron in Animated.
• Shattered Glass episode was intended for Season 3. It got bumped when the Season 3 opener was made into a three party.
• Marty doesn't remember who would have been on Slipstream's own team of Decepticons.
• Optimus as a young leader was Marty's idea. He likes writing underdogs and characters with something to prove rather than big heroes.
• Blitzwing as a character was born from Marty wanting to write a character who turns into anything. Because that didn't work as a toy, Derrick Wyatt suggested using a triple changer. Marty then came up with three personalities. Derrick was then inspired by He-Man's Man-E-Faces. In-show origin would have involved Blackarachnia and been told in Season 4.
• There was a running joke about having a transforming character called "Tractor". He'd have been an Energon farmer.
• Blurr was not intended to come back - he was "gone and dead" as far as Marty was concerned. But, the Botcon story where Blurr is revived "is canon. Sure. Why not?"
• Team Charr were not specifically planned to be used (no stories built around them) but Marty thinks they would have "inevitably" been used.
• Ratchet probably ran off with Omega Supreme as the Ark, and nobody else knew rather than him being intentionally given to Optimus.
• Characters like Red Alert and Rodimus would have been recurring characters.
• Marty thinks Obsidian in the treatment may have been a slip on his part, and could have been Strika in the final cut.
• No plans for more flying Autobots.
• Human villains were phased out - "fell by the wayside" - as the series progressed. Not a Hasbro pushback.
• The timeslot for the Unicron Trilogy and Animated was based on a deal. The first run was on a decent timeslot but if the ratings were not good, it'd be moved to an earlier timeslot.
• Cartoon Network wanted Marty and the crew to "age up" the show for season 3, to reflect the network's other shows at the time (specifically the new Ben 10 and Clone Wars)
• Bulkhead was the first character Derrick Wyatt designed.
• Lockdown was based on wanting a version of Death's Head that Hasbro could own.
• Chances of actually seeing a new season "slim to none". Comic a smaller investment, but up to IDW to decide if they want to do it. Marty would be happy to write it.
• Marty says if you want to know more, get the Allspark Almanacs.

Edited by SHIELD Agent 47, 20 August 2019 - 03:01 AM.

[Thylacine 2000]

"Rattletrap gets Megatron acquitted" is clearly the most interesting part of all that.

"We never really had an endgame for Sari" is the most disappointing.

[▲ndrusi]

No part of this is satisfying. It might have been in its originally expected context of being followed by the whole season of episodes it was setting up for, but as things stand I feel like I was happier not knowing.

[Powered Convoy]

Was this recorded?

[Jalaguy]

Something Marty talked about a bit was that "The Trial of Megatron" and the status quo it sets up don't represent the original concept for a fourth season - there had already been a bunch of back and forth with Hasbro by the time the treatments got written.

The crew's early intent back when the show was starting was that it would transition towards being more Beast-Era-y around S3, S4, and when the time came to properly develop S4, initially they were like "okay, Megatron is done now, let's move onto a new threat, maybe Predacons", but Hasbro wanted to keep Megatron, and more generally to keep things as mostly vehicular Autobots vs. Decepticons. Having enjoyed "This Is Why I Hate Machines", the crew also then considered a season 4 that would be primarily Cybertron-based, but again there was Hasbro pushback.

Ultimately, for the idea of the show continuing to even be entertained, Hasbro needed it to hew as close to the 2007 film as possible, so the crew essentially ended up constrained to "the five Autobots from the movie versus Megatron on Earth". Hasbro created some mockups of the five Autobots (seen in the Almanac!), including Ratchet in green and Optimus with flame deco. The crew didn't really want the flames, so wrote Optimus as getting them only temporarily during the opening episodes.

Edited by Jalaguy, 20 August 2019 - 07:53 AM.

[Sabrblade]

And now there's a petition going to get IDW to make Animated Season 4 in comic form.

 

https://www.change.o...season-4-comics

[Jim S]

Marty also stress that this was very much a first draft. They would have needed to hammer it into shape to fit into a real 3 episode structure, they would have needed to get all the proper Hasbro approvals. The lack of action in episode 1 I think would have had to change.

[NotVeryKnightly]

Is it like, standard practice for Hasbro to make specific demands even before they could confirm whether or not it's actually getting made?

[Jim S]

No part of this is satisfying. It might have been in its originally expected context of being followed by the whole season of episodes it was setting up for, but as things stand I feel like I was happier not knowing.

 

I feel like you're perhaps coming at this with the wrong mindset. Like, this is NOT designed to provide any closure. Far from it. It's designed specifically to blow open the rather closed ending that we DID get. Season premier and all that. It's not SUPPOSED to be satisfying, it's supposed to be intriguing and make you wonder what's going to happen next.

 

Contrast to, say, Trial and Error, which Chris and I did unofficially. That project took some of the same broad brushstrokes (Sari's encounter with Prowl from the AllSpark, Megatron on trial, attacks on the Energon Farms) but specifically tried to tie it all up and put a bow on it. Different goals, so we produced a different story.

 

 

Is it like, standard practice for Hasbro to make specific demands even before they could confirm whether or not it's actually getting made?

 

100%. Hasbro generally asks for quite a bit of development before a project gets to the place where they're comfortable giving the green light.

 

 

"Rattletrap gets Megatron acquitted" is clearly the most interesting part of all that.

 

It played very well. It also highlighted a little in-joke in the Trial and Error book that I rather enjoyed. Marty had asked me not to share info about Rattletrap as the defender, so we of course respected that. But we did have Sentinel object to Optimus as defense counsel, with the line "we have perfectly good public defenders" while gesturing to a clearly overwhelmed Rattletrap dropping his notes. The joke works on its own I think, but has an extra layer once you find out that indeed that was another likely path for the multiverse to take.

Edited by Jim S, 20 August 2019 - 11:28 AM.