Transformers the Movie 40th Anniversary Tour

You know, let's talk about them bringing Optimus Prime back. As a kid, I loved watching the Transformers series, and loved watching the movie. Rodimus was a cool character and did a good job leading the Autobots in Season 3. And when they brought back Optimus as a zombie, it was a great episode. Seeing our two heroes clash was great. Having Optimus overcome the Quintessons and save the day one last time was epic. Then they had the multi-part season finale with the hate plague, where they bring Optimus Prime back for good. Honestly, that was probably the best episode of season 3. After watching that episode we pretended that our Ultra Magnus toy was Optimus with the coating to protect him from the spores. As a kid I loved that Optimus was back, but unfortunately that was the last new episode I ever saw as a kid. I was in college before I got a chance to watch the last very short season, so the season 3 finale was like the finale of Transformers itself. Honestly, it does really work for a series finale too. With the Decepticons standing down, Optimus telling Rodimus that the matrix wisdom had made everyone a little wiser, and that it was their job to refill it. It was a great way to bring back a beloved character, while still keeping Rodimus, at least until he went back to Hotrod so he could have a targetmaster toy.

Optimus' return was pretty much all for naught though, as the show only had that very short fourth season to introduce the headmasters and Optimus really doesn't factor into it at all. It would have been cool to see the fourth season get extended to feature the powermasters as well. We could have got cool things like Optimus getting his PM body, and having the Seacons get an US appearance. Maybe even have Overlord as a villain! However, as a kid that grew up watching it, I can honestly say that it was a great thing to bring back Optimus Prime.

The Predaking said:

Maybe even have Overlord as a villain!

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Nah, Hasbro had nothing to do with that toy at the time, so that wouldn't have happened.

In fact, in the scenario you're describing, if season 4 had been full length and led into a proper season 5 with Powermasters and other 1988 toy characters, Takara likely would have never made the Overlord toy in the first place since they would have had no reason to, since Masterforce itself wouldn't exist in this scenario.

Sabrblade said:

Nah, Hasbro had nothing to do with that toy at the time, so that wouldn't have happened.

In fact, in the scenario you're describing, if season 4 had been full length and led into a proper season 5 with Powermasters and other 1988 toy characters, Takara likely would have never made the Overlord toy in the first place since they would have had no reason to, since Masterforce itself wouldn't exist in this scenario.

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Well, Hasbro US didn't have anything to do with Overlord, but Hasbro did use him in Europe though, which they were a big part on why Transformers still existed after they stopped making TV series in the US. Masterforce not existing would be probable, but there would be a fifth season of G1, which would have been far better to have, IMHO. However, it's all what ifs, and if we didn't get Overlord and just focused on the US Toys for two more full length seasons of G1, then I would take that trade.

LBD Nytetrayn said:

Is it the same team? I thought they'd had some turnover between Kingdom and now?

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Warden left, but as far as I know, the team is mostly the same.

The Predaking said:

Well, Hasbro US didn't have anything to do with Overlord, but Hasbro did use him in Europe though,

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Several years after that toy already existed.

Overlord was created because the Hasbro 1988 lineup didn't have anyone Takara could use as the new lead villain toy for Masterforce, with Giga and Mega being introduced early on in the show to build up to the release of the Overlord toy.

Donocropolis said:

it's doubtful that the writers realized that they were doing this, but they accidentally stumbled into good writing while trying to make a toy commercial.

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A broken clock is right twice a day!

Sabrblade said:

He was, however, a trailer-tow machine.

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..................okay fine take your Like.

Sabrblade said:

Overlord was created because the Hasbro 1988 lineup didn't have anyone Takara could use as the new lead villain toy for Masterforce, with Giga and Mega being introduced early on in the show to build up to the release of the Overlord toy.

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I had to go to the wiki to confirm that, but yes, 1987-1988 seemed to be a bit of a two-year cycle for Hasbro's catalogues,* amortizing the more expensive Scorponok toy by keeping it in service for the next year's catalogue. That wouldn't be an option for Takara thanks to how The Headmasters ended (though they did go for the Black Zarak retool).

Even in US fiction (Marvel-G1), the Decepticon fragmentation was reliant on toy reuses of varying age: Shockwave, Ratbat, Scorponok, with Galvatron complicating things over in the UK.

So maybe it's not so curious that Takara made Overlord, so much as he wasn't shopped around to the other TF markets -- though as noted above, Europe did eventually get him (starting the whole variation as to who and what the character was). That being said Skyquake ended up kind of the reverse, being in Europe but not Japan -- though Scrash may have been intended as a localized rename.

I still assert that if there had been a proper animated series stateside (as opposed to syndicated rerun packages), then we might well have seen a version of Overlord much sooner than IDW-2005-G1's, likely with the Powermaster process leaning more into environmental themes than the Marvel comic did (not that it wasn't touched upon, but arguably the Headmasters limited series did a little bit more in that regard).

*- that wasn't anything new, 1986's Scramble Combiner teams still had roles in both 1987 toy catalogues and the Headmasters anime.

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But we're getting a bit far afield, not that I mind.

Regarding the Promised New Content Hinted At By Optimus Floating In Space (and what is he doing there anyway)....

I jokingly suggested over at Ben Yee's space on the Book of Faces that Hasbro might import Takara's immediate post-Animated Movie content -- in which Prime's body does play a role....

At least, I hope I'm joking. Not that the concept couldn't be made to work (and arguably already has in the later Bay films), but not without some very heavy retooling....

Tuxedo Prime said:

Regarding the Promised New Content Hinted At By Optimus Floating In Space (and what is he doing there anyway)....

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Hey, yeah, what is going on with that?

Like, did the Autobots just dump their ex-leader's dead body out into space? With no funerary barge or space tomb or coffin pod or anything to see him off respectfully? "Just toss him out into the void! He's dead metal anyway!" It made sense when Starscream did that to Megatron, but the Autobots aren't that callous.

These implications are worse than the movie killing him off in the first place.

You never saw what happened to him in the movie proper, let's just assume Wheeljack's lab in the basement had some sort of experiment running that was left unsupervised after he died. Everyone evacuated Autobot City (population: two shuttle's worth of castmembers) and just left Optimus where he was lying. The basement experiment exploded, shooting Optimus's body into space. On the way up he passed a coyote on the way back down. It was very awkward. The explosion shocked him back to life.

Platypus Prime said:

Everyone evacuated Autobot City

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Except Blaster.

And, debatably, Snarl.

I just assume Blaster and Snarl both were standing around, and suddenly said "Wait just a...Named characters can DIE...? Ok, that's it, we're out...". and they wandered off and hid out till it was safe.

Platypus Prime said:

I just assume Blaster and Snarl both were standing around, and suddenly said "Wait just a...Named characters can DIE...? Ok, that's it, we're out...". and they wandered off and hid out till it was safe.

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I like to think they stayed behind to continue repairing the city while the others took care of Unicron.

Platypus Prime said:

I just assume Blaster and Snarl both were standing around, and suddenly said "Wait just a...Named characters can DIE...? Ok, that's it, we're out...". and they wandered off and hid out till it was safe.

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Possibly with Gears and Inferno (who were credited in the movie but never showed).

Meanwhile, under the shuttle that Megatron boarded and Hot Rod shot up:

Razorclaw: "Anyone? A little help?"

Snarl’s limited screentime in the film was due to the behind the scenes growing rift between the Dinobots. Snarl’s new girlfriend convinced him to release solo experimental projects where he spoke in the first person, wielded a small dinosaur and did not transform. This was later found to be a front to cover the symptoms of his recreational use of Nucleon, which was common in the industry at the time. Regardless, this led to creative differences with the other Dinobots, who believed that Transformers should transform, and despite their compromise to stop transforming in the third season, they began to work with each other less and less. This dysfunction within the group, the untimely death of their managers Wheeljack and Ratchet in a shuttle accident, and a scheduling conflict with Snarl’s moonlighting work as “Gordos” for a line of motorized model kits during the filming of the Battle of Autobot City meant that Snarl fulfilled only his minimum contractual appearance of four seconds.

Sabrblade said:

Hey, yeah, what is going on with that?

Like, did the Autobots just dump their ex-leader's dead body out into space? With no funerary barge or space tomb or coffin pod or anything to see him off respectfully? "Just toss him out into the void! He's dead metal anyway!" It made sense when Starscream did that to Megatron, but the Autobots aren't that callous.

These implications are worse than the movie killing him off in the first place.

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It's enough to make you ask "What the truck?!"

So I've long thought that they should do a remastering of the original series.. just go through and fix some of the errors (wrong person talking, miscolorations etc. etc.) I recently sat down and rewatched the first 7 episodes and man... this is an ugly show. Like when the characters are on model they're fine, but when they aren't? Woof. There's a bit in divide and conquer (I think) where in one shot Bumblebee has full on bull horns and then in the next shot he's in, they've become tiny little spikes.

I think trying to remaster this would be a colossal waste of time.

Also, nothing will ever be as funny as the Autobots holding a funeral for Skyfire and then two episodes later going "Aw hell, we need a ride to Peru" and then digging Skyfire out of the ice... Y'all couldn't have done that instead of holding a funeral?

Undead Scottsman said:

So I've long thought that they should do a remastering of the original series.. just go through and fix some of the errors (wrong person talking, miscolorations etc. etc.) I recently sat down and rewatched the first 7 episodes and man... this is an ugly show. Like when the characters are on model they're fine, but when they aren't? Woof. There's a bit in divide and conquer (I think) where in one shot Bumblebee has full on bull horns and then in the next shot he's in, they've become tiny little spikes.

I think trying to remaster this would be a colossal waste of time.

Also, nothing will ever be as funny as the Autobots holding a funeral for Skyfire and then two episodes later going "Aw hell, we need a ride to Peru" and then digging Skyfire out of the ice... Y'all couldn't have done that instead of holding a funeral?

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They all knew he was perfectly salvagable down there, but man, digging through that ice was a LOT of work.

"Ah, he's not worth digging out while we're already here and everything.
But a ride to Peru? That's worth a detour back to the Arctic (you know, the opposite direction from Peru) and digging him out"

And to make it even worse, both the toy and its packaging had a design flaw where neither actually fit in a freezer properly for display. Insult to the fans, RuInEd FoReVer...