Transformers: Age of the Primes toyline discussion || update: stock renders of upcoming Alpha Trion, Micronus, Flatline, Fireflight, Skydive, ++

NovaSaber

NovaSaber

Well-known member
Citizen
Dinosaurs were already extinct in real life 4 million years ago, and are still around in the Savage Land in the present in the Marvel universe, so I don't think justifying the Dinobots had anything to do with the reason for the time gap.

I think the reason was they just wanted "Transformers crashed on Earth some time ago and are now waking up" to justify them being from space without anyone having seen them coming, because Hasbro's original idea was that they were "robots in disguise" whose presence was not widely known (which both the cartoon and comic quickly abandoned, even if the comics had people ignorant about their exact nature).
Of course, that could have been justified with just thousands of years rather than millions.
 
Undead Scottsman

Undead Scottsman

Well-known member
Citizen
Yeah, Ark would have had to crash 65+ million years ago to get living Dinosaurs, outside of the wacky comic book nature of the Savage Land. Actually longer because a lot of the species the Dinobots were based on lived in wildly different eras.

(Based on some real quick and dirty googling, apologies for any mistakes)
T-Rex, Triceratops: 66–68 million years ago
Brontosaurus: 156 to 146 million years ago
Stegasaurus, Pterodactyl: 150-160 million years ago
 
Princess Viola

Princess Viola

Dumbass Asexual
Citizen
starting to get the feeling whoever was writing this stuff back in the 1980s wasn't thinking 'oh yeah this japanese changey robot toyline we got will probably still be around 40 years later, better make sure the backstories make sense'
 
Sabrblade

Sabrblade

Continuity Nutcase
Citizen
Princess Viola said:
starting to get the feeling whoever was writing this stuff back in the 1980s wasn't thinking 'oh yeah this japanese changey robot toyline we got will probably still be around 40 years later, better make sure the backstories make sense'
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Having spent time talking one-on-one with Flint Dille for about a whole half-hour last night (because he was the one who kept the conversation going), that's putting it mildly. ;)
 
LBD "Nytetrayn"

LBD "Nytetrayn"

Broke the Matrix
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
I'm glad my war is "just" several thousand years by comparison. That's honestly plenty.
 
Donocropolis

Donocropolis

Olde-Timey Member
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
CoffeeHorse said:
I'd keep the 4 million year time skip, but not have everyone normally live that long. It's just Shockwave. He will carry out his orders until told to stop, so if he's never told to stop he will just do it forever in defiance of sanity and his own mortality.
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Yeah, it would be interesting to see a version of G1 where they wake up 4 million years later on earth, but when they do get back to Cybertron, it's current state is as foreign to them as Earth is.
 
Sabrblade

Sabrblade

Continuity Nutcase
Citizen
Donocropolis said:
Yeah, it would be interesting to see a version of G1 where they wake up 4 million years later on earth, but when they do get back to Cybertron, it's current state is as foreign to them as Earth is.
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Maximals and Predacons everywhere, with not a single Autobot or Decepticon to be found.
 
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Steadfast

Steadfast

Freelancer
Citizen
This kind of thing is one of the many many reasons I liked early IDW so much. No millions-year slumber, but a nice, small-scale local secret war. Megatron and Optimus don't even show up right away.

There's no way you can sustain that, really-- eventually there needs to be an escalation or a change of venue or something, but it's nice while it lasts.

Like, I dunno, early-ish career Batman. Eventually there are a ton of costumed crazy people and he'll work with the police openly (and if it's live-action, everybody ages), but the mysterious vigilante beating up criminals while the cops are kinda clueless? That's a fun chapter.
 
Cybersnark

Cybersnark

Well-known member
Citizen
Donocropolis said:
Yeah, it would be interesting to see a version of G1 where they wake up 4 million years later on earth, but when they do get back to Cybertron, it's current state is as foreign to them as Earth is.
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Aligned kinda did that with the wrecked post-apocalyptic Cybertron.

Honestly, I prefer to take a page from the G1 comics and have Stuff Happen during the timeskip; Shockwave is overthrown by Trannis, who gets taken down by the Autobot resistance, then replaced with Straxus, then the Triumvirate and its era of decadence. . .
 
Shadewing

Shadewing

Well-known member
Citizen
Cybersnark said:
Aligned kinda did that with the wrecked post-apocalyptic Cybertron.

Honestly, I prefer to take a page from the G1 comics and have Stuff Happen during the timeskip; Shockwave is overthrown by Trannis, who gets taken down by the Autobot resistance, then replaced with Straxus, then the Triumvirate and its era of decadence. . .
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I do something a bit like that in the RPG campaign I setup. Cybertron is a loose 3 way stalemate. With Megatron out of the picture, the Decepticons on Cybertron basically fell into warring factions of who's gonna be the new Leader. In the end, its come down to Shockwave and his Loyalist Decepticons that are trying to maintain Megatron's ways; vs Straxus' Court. This Civil war between the Decepticons have allowed the Autobots to eek out some territory of their own and offering a safe haven to those that try to escape the two faction's wraith; but they understand that if either side won they're territory would likely get steamrolled.

Its not the "everything is different" approach, but its still "Cybertron hasn't been stagnant for the entire time"
 
Sabrblade

Sabrblade

Continuity Nutcase
Citizen
Undead Scottsman said:
The films technically did this; Prime was quite distraught at the state of cybertron in The Last Knight.
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Though he really shouldn't have been so surprised, considering he saw the planet collapse in on itself just a few short years earlier in Dark of the Moon.
 
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