#g1 - idw - armada - marvel comics - cyberverse....

[crowbotss]

I always appreciate posts like this gracing the tf tag,,

Starscream deserved better.

The more and more transformer media I consume the more angry I get at the treatment of Starscream. He’s just desperately trying to survive.

OH YEAH BUT MEGATRON, THE ABSOLUTE ASSHAT?? The ABUSER?? He gets a redemption arc!!! Literally fuck OFF.

‘The decepticons are no more bc I now know what it’s like to be oppressed :(’ fuck off. The reason you are the way you are is because you liked the power. He already knew what it was like to be oppressed, because that was THE WHOLE FUCKING PREMISE OF THE WAR!

I haven’t finished the series but I��ve seen enough from previous iterations to know that this bullshit is going to drive me insane. Here’s an idea: stop giving abusers redemption arcs because you think they’re hot. How about we give redemption arcs to the victims (starscream) instead. OR JUST KEEP THEM BOTH EVIL! IDFC! BUT DONT MAKE IT SEEM LIKE STARSCREAM CANT BE REDEEMED AND MEGATRON CAN. Blatant victim blaming.

EDIT:

Fuck you megatron simpers, if you were a decepticon and real etc. he’d fucking abuse you beyond the point of breaking. He’s an abuser. Deal with it.

[blueikeproductions]

I’ve said before Transformers has struggled recently with its villains and recent material doesn’t change this.

Ever since this happened…

We’ve largely been stuck with poor man’s Vegeta Megatron.

And as such the series has lost its main villain, and become directionless.

The modern version of this trend started with Rescue Bots & RiD15, but it made sense in their respective series, and the replacement villains were treated like actual villains and are fondly remembered because of that.

It’s also not the first time Megatron was succeeded in leadership, as the Marvel Comics did this shockingly frequently.

With RatBat being the most unique case, in that he was the only one who largely succeeded in his efforts, and was a result of sincerely wanting to try something different.

I think that sincerity is long gone in favor of brand stagnation and “DEI” despite the later going out the door as of typing.

The usual replacement tends to be Galvatron, often depicted as an evolved Megatron through mystical means.

But Hasbro seems very reluctant to use Galvatron lately for whatever reason, instead usually having him as a (technically) separate character if he does show up.

Cyberverse kinda shows the current problem two fold. The bad writers convinced themselves they wrote a sympathetic Megatron when the writing shows him to still be certifiably insane and going through what is essentially an on the nose bad break up with Optimus. This extended to Megatron somehow being worthy of using the Matrix, and able to use it, despite Decepticons never typically being able to, and imply Optimus isn’t worthy of the Matrix, but never follow up on it.

To convince themselves and the audience that the regular CV Megatron was still a good person despite his atrocities, the writers pulled an Archie Sonic, and brought on their own Robo-Robotnik in Megatron X.

He too is apparently worthy of the Matrix and able to use it, despite completely destroying Cybertron and most, if not all, of its non Perfectcon inhabitants.

(To be fair, the idea of a Decepticon being able to use the Matrix goes back to Marvel G1 Thunderwing, but his actions helped corrupt the Matrix, creating the Dark Matrix Creature, but Cyberverse never states this is the case at all. This isn’t really a popular concept the series goes back to either, making Cyberverse the outlier.)

This ties back to Hasbro’s reluctance on Galvatron, as X was originally supposed to BE Galvatron in a Marvel G1 homage, but Hasbro said no.

So we’ve been left with a weird, but non committed, experimental phase of trying out different Villians to less than stellar results…

(Mandroid and Scourge are pretty good villains, but Mandroid quickly succumbed to bad writing, & Scourge was fairly quickly killed off, with no clear intent to go back to the Terrorcons and have a Movie Cyclonus based on the Armada version to take Scourge’s place.)

This feeds back into fan complaints about Hasbro’s unwillingness to try new things I’ve seen recently. In context the complaint was more wanting another Beast Wars like thing with new factions and new non G1 characters.

Like we HAVE been getting that with the Terrans and Terrorcons, but it’s clear kids aren’t that interested in them, and adult fans are as fickle as ever and not supporting it super well either. TFONE is pry the most damning, where it’s doing poorly across the planet theatrically, despite trying a new non-evergreen art style, and a much better version of Aligned/IDW caste system that simplifies it to Cogs & Cogless.

It’s not for lack of trying, but it’s also not grabbing kids well either.

This weird flip flopping recently came into play with Galactic Trials, the crappy looking racing game.

The game casts Nemesis Prime as the main villain, who tried to steal the relics of the Primes, but fail and cast the Chaos Emeralds, er, relics across the galaxy.

Here’s the weird part: this happens before the Great War began, with the Autobots and Decepticons now finding out in the present and scrambling to collect the relics for themselves. The story isn’t expanded and confuses things. Nemesis typically isn’t even a Prime, but a Decepticon clone of Optimus. Barring a few exceptions, the main deviation this MIGHT be referencing is IDW Nova Prime, who briefly became Nemesis Prime, powered by a Matrix like relic from the Dead Universe.

So does that mean in this universe the Matrix chose a guy literally named Nemesis to be Prime? Is this actually supposed to be Nova Prime via IDW? Is this Orion Pax’s black sheep of the product line? So many questions this game isn’t going to answer.

This is the frustrating part about all this. I like that they’re trying to branch out still, and I liked Nemesis Prime in IDW and back when he was Scourge in RiD01, but…

He’s kinda pointless here.

Why are we using a “new” character for a failing on launch, not-mobile game, when the plot would be much simpler in that Megatron or Starscream raided the vault of the Primes only for Optimus to intervene and launch the relics into space. Why is Nemesis the villain? For that matter, since it’s a racing game, shouldn’t the Stunticons be the villains?

This is where CyberWorld might be the make or break now.

I think slowly but surely, Hasbro is recognizing their past ideas on overusing antihero Megatron isn’t working, and that they need to properly commit to a successor if they don’t want Megatron to be a villain anymore.

Going by toy leaks, it appears they’ve decided to go BACK to Galvatron proper, but they also include Scorponok, who’s typically cast as a leader in some capacity (excluding Beast Wars).

(Until we learn more, I’m leaning towards their roles being similar to Superlink’s.)

So I think that’s a step in the right direction so far; going for Skybound’s aim of familiar but, they’re willing to pivot under better writing.

I think that’s where TFONE D-16 doesn’t work as a concept.

Like it if not, casual audiences and kids aren’t that invested in the idea of a wide eyed good boi Megatron who fell from grace or wants to redeem.

They want these kinds of power hungry megalomaniacal Megatrons, who are willing to go the extra mile just to upstage Optimus to stroke their own ego. Not high school bosom buddies with gay lover subtext that Stereotypical Tumblr-Twitter wants. And hopefully with what we’ve seen with Skybound, we’re going back to that Megatron soon. And if we don’t go back to Megatron strictly, then Galvatron might be the way to go cartoon wise.

[darkstarofchaos]

Hang on, I wanna see something.

Beast Era isn't listed because the Predacons are literally different characters.

Shattered Glass isn't listed because I'm talking to the villain fans.

Rescue Bots isn't listed because there were no Decepticons (that I'm aware of).

Almost every piece of media in the Aligned universe is a different experience. Hence, the cartoons are separated.

Technically the same is true of the Unicron Trilogy, but if I just listed Armada, fans of TF Cybertron would have wondered where their show was (Energon was not going to be on the list. It gets a new lease on life).

G1 cartoon and Marvel comic are also different experiences. I went with the cartoon because the only people I've seen talk about the comic are Autobot fans.

In addition to all of the above points, I ran out of room. Sacrifices had to be made. Apologies if your favorite Decepticon appearance isn't on here.

[transingthoseformers]

I became fixated or something, went through tfwiki again, and made a full alphabetized list of Sunbow G1, Marvel G1, and Japanese G1 cartoon continuity male bots who are female in other continuities (IDW, G2, and other later introductions excised from the list).

(Round parentheses) means female in that continuity, [square parentheses] means in G1 by this continuity.

Autobots

Bumblebee??? (G1 lite? Categorised as female, not mentioned or explained on page) [Sunbow G1, Marvel G1]

Broadside (Beast Wars: Uprising) [Sunbow G1, Marvel G1, Japanese G1 cartoon continuity]

Cerebros/Plasma (Beast Wars: Uprising) [Sunbow G1, Marvel G1] {Nonsapient in Marvel, sapient cybertronian in the cartoon}

Cliffjumper (Armada) [Sunbow G1, Marvel G1, Japanese G1 cartoon continuity]

Cosmos (Cyberverse) [Sunbow G1, Marvel G1, Japanese G1 cartoon continuity)

Crush-Bull (Beast Wars: Uprising) [Japanese G1 cartoon continuity] {Micromaster}

Ironhide (Armada) [Sunbow G1, Marvel G1]

Jazz (Cyberverse) [Sunbow G1, Marvel G1, Japanese G1 cartoon continuity?]

Joyride (Cybertron) [Marvel G1]

Nightbeat (Animated) [Marvel G1]

Oiler (Beast Wars: Uprising) [Japanese G1 cartoon continuity]

Optimus Prime (Universe) [Sunbow G1, Marvel G1]

Override (Cybertron, Bayverse, Aligned, Animated — though the last one has a female Override AND a male Override) [Marvel G1]

Ratchet (G1's original concept before Hasbro nixed it) [Sunbow G1, Marvel G1]

Red Alert (Animated, Universe toy in Japan) [Sunbow G1, Marvel G1, Japanese G1 cartoon continuity]

Road Rocket (Legacy VS500 Collection Special Comic) [1990 G1 toy, Japanese G1 cartoon continuity] {Those are two different people}

Sky High (Beast Wars: Uprising) [Japanese G1 cartoon continuity, Marvel G1] {Those are two different people, a Micromaster and a Pretender}

Skyjack (Aligned) [Japanese G1 cartoon continuity]

Strafe (IDW1) [Sunbow G1, Marvel G1, Japanese G1 cartoon continuity]

Sunstreaker (Animated) [Sunbow G1, Marvel G1]

Swoop (Cyberverse) [Sunbow G1, Marvel G1, Japanese G1 cartoon continuity]

Tread Bolt (TransTech) [Japanese G1 cartoon continuity]

Whirl (Aligned, sort of — There's a female Whirl AND an obscure male Whirl) [Marvel G1]

Decepticons

Bombshell (Cybertron) [Sunbow G1, Marvel G1]

Cindersaur??? (G1 lite? Categorised as female, not mentioned or explained on page) [Marvel G1]

Dead End (Beast Wars: Uprising) [Sunbow G1, Marvel G1, Japanese G1 continuity]

Devastator (Timelines) [Sunbow G1, Marvel G1] {Normally all combiner components and the combiner themselves are same gender, so presumably female Scrapper, Hook, Bonecrusher, Long Haul, Mixmaster, and Scavenger}

Dirge??? (Cyberverse — Categorised as female, not mentioned or explained on page) [Sunbow G1, Marvel G1, Japanese G1 cartoon continuity]

Drag Strip (Animated) [Sunbow G1, Marvel G1, Japanese G1 cartoon continuity]

Frenzy (Earthspark) [Sunbow G1, Marvel G1, Japanese G1 cartoon continuity]

Nemesis (Legacy toy) [Sunbow G1, Marvel G1] {Yes, the spaceship, though i don't think Nemesis showed any sign of intelligence in G1 canon}

Nova Storm (Cyberverse, Earthspark) [Sunbow G1]

Ramjet??? (Cyberverse — Categorised as female, not mentioned or explained on page) [Sunbow G1, Marvel G1, Japanese G1 cartoon continuity]

Ravage (Earthspark) [Sunbow G1, Marvel G1]

Scourge (Timelines) [Sunbow G1, Marvel G1, Japanese G1 carton continuity] {That Scourge is less G1 Scourge and more Nemesis Prime, though}

Shrapnel (G1 dub, movie only; french & russian) [Sunbow G1, Marvel G1, Japanese G1 cartoon continuity]

Starscream (G1 dub, movie only; french & turkish) [Sunbow G1, Marvel G1]

Thrust (Cyberverse dub; japanese, renamed Red Wing) [Sunbow G1, Marvel G1, Japanese G1 cartoon continuity]

Tracer (Beast Wars: Uprising) [Japanese G1 cartoon continuity]

Overlord??? (Japanese G1 cartoon continuity; literally half man half woman, could be read as bigender?} [Japanese G1 cartoon continuity] {Starts out as a nonsentient Transtector, becomes sentient later}

This is actually all, at least unless Earthspark or some future series introduces more genderswaps.

And quite the list this is

[died-but-not-dead-propaganda]

Optimus Prime Propaganda

optimus prime (one) pretty infamously died in "Transformers: The Movie" and spent a solid season or so of the show afterwards dead. like. passed on his soul to another guy dead. Then he gets rebuilt and somehow this works? It really shouldn't. He gets his soul back though. it also feels relevant to say that due to shenanigans in his reconstruction he's one of like two people immune to some virus spreading around at the time that makes anyone infected with it go a bit crazy with anger. this is half the reason they brought the guy back to life. they could have done this any time i think??

optimus prime the second dies in like the second episode of the show and is promptly revived with some kid's portable version of the thing that gives his entire species life and thought. i could also put Animated Starscream in here for similar reasons but i find it silly to clump the optimi together. important to note, to me, that he well and truly greyed out like all dead in that show are shown to. he was GONE FOR GOOD in any ordinary setting.

optimus primal is a *slightly* funky case in that his soul wasn't entirely gone when his second in command went venturing into the afterlife to find it after his original body got blown up in an escape pod and fake moon based incident. the fake moon may have actually come later. at any rate he was Solidly Disembodied, then Rhinox went and found where he was and yanked him back into the physical plane.

He’s died and come back like 20+ times in the last 40 years of the franchises existence. Crazy fr

God, the amount of times Optimus Prime has died and come back in different universes. It's so common place in the franchise now that if he dies, it's WEIRD if he doesn't come back. Off the top of my head, he's died in: the G1 cartoon,  the Armada cartoon, the live action movies, the TFP cartoon, the Cyberverse cartoon, the IDW comics, the Marvel comics, etc. There's a whole ass wiki page for his deaths https://tfwiki.net/wiki/The_many_deaths_of_Optimus_Prime To quote a character from one of the comics "Optimus will be back. He always comes back."

i am legally obligated to submit him as a tf fan. (if you want specifics since this is such a sprawling franchise, G1 Optimus for the og death and wait-we-still-want-to-sell-toys-of-him-it-turns-out)

He dies in every continuity at least once. Sometimes more than once. Once they killed him in the pilot episode and brought him back in under 90 seconds. This robot does not stay dead.

[megop]

Hello! Welcome to the MegOP blog!

On this post you will find some general guidelines about the contents of the blog and the tagging system.

First of all, while this blog is has a focus on MegOP as a ship (and that is with a very broad understanding of "romance"), not all the content reblogged here will necessarily be shippy. Platonic/gen content of Megatron and Optimus may also be featured, as well as (of course!) enemy, enemy-lovers, and other non-conventional types of relationships.

We look at the #megop and #megaop tags for posts to reblog, as well as dig up older posts to keep the queue from running out.

The submission box is also open in case your post isn't appearing in tags or was missed by the moderators.

General tags

#modposting for when the mods speak

#solo megatron and #solo optimus for posts that only feature one of the characters, mostly used to keep the queue running

#incorrect quotes for non-megop posts that we thought fitted the megop vibe

#humanformers

#softbody

#sparklings for posts related to mechpreg or Cybertronians as children/babies

#tf au for when a post is clearly using the megops of a specific continuity, but the universe/setting is completely different than the original canon beyond mere universe alterations

#valveplug for sexually explicit content such as sticky sexual interfacing. Both censored and uncensored valveplug will be put under this tag.

#suggestive for content that has sexual innuendos, jokes, implications, etc but no explicit sex.

What's the difference between #valveplug and #suggestive? Do you reblog NSFW content?

After a poll, we have amended the blog to now reblog and share explicit materials, censored or uncensored. In general, the difference between #valveplug and #suggestive is sort of like the difference between Teen/Mature ratings and Explicit ratings: it's based on how explicitly the content is based on sex, has detailed sex, or discusses sexual topics.

As an example, a post joking about how Megatron and Optimus have sexual tension and should frag would be put under #suggestive because, while it does mention sex, it's in a vague, non-explicit/detailed way. On the other hand, a NSFW headcanons post that discusses specific kinks/sex acts would be #valveplug .

All sticky sexual interfacing will be marked as #valveplug even if censored or offscreen; the principle is more or less "if you can tell they're having sex, it's explicit content even if censored or offscreen." Things like plug and play and tactile interfacing will also be included under #valveplug for the sake of clean tagging and because they fit under the definition of "sex", even for alien robots.

Continuity tags

These tags follow a pattern of "tf [continuity]"

#tf general for general/unspecified continuity, heavy continuity soup, the post uses unspecified designs, fan continuities, or the mods simply couldn't tell the continuity

#tf g1 for both Sunbow cartoon and Marvel G1, derived works set in either of those or G1-inspired crossovers

#tf aligned for everything related to the Aligned continuity family

#tf animated for everything related to Transformers Animated

#tf beast wars for everything related to the Beast Wars sub-franchise

#tf movies for everything related to the live-action movies (Bay and Knight) and related materials

#tf idw1 for everything related to the IDW comics continuity that ran from 2005 to 2018

#tf idw2 for everything related to the IDW comics continuity that ran from 2019 to 2022

#tf cyberverse for everything related to the Cyberverse continuity

#tf earthspark for everything related to the Earthspark cartoon

#tf unicron trilogy for everything related to Armada, Energon and Cybertron. We are aware that its original Japanese, Cybertron (or rather Galaxy Force) was its own show not meant as a sequel to the previous two, but we decided to archive according to the English conventions.

#tf rid 2001 for everything related to the 2001 show Robots in Disguise

#tf nwfc for everything related to the Netflix's War for Cybertron trilogy

#tf prime wars for everything related to the Machinima Prime Wars shows

#tf dreamwave for everything related to the Dreamwave comics continuity

#tf energon universe for everything related to the energon universe continuity by image comics

#tf shattered glass for everything inspired by Shattered Glass, be it based on the official SG stories or a SG take of another continuity

#tf one for the 2024 Transformers: One movie

We hope we didn't forget anything, we'll edit this post as necessary. Ask box is open for any inquires!

[polyhexian]

Updated Nate draikinator transformers tier list:

God tier:

Rescue bots

Mtmte/lost light

Bumblebee movie

Cyberverse

Rescue bots academy

Eugenesis

Beast wars

Recordicons

Great tier:

Transformers Prime

Transformers Animated

Botbots

86 movie (Bluray remaster)

Victory

IDW windblade mini

Transformers RiD15 IDW comic

Good tier:

IDW2

Transformers go

Armada (the starscream and Optimus parts)

Okay Tier:

Wfc: Siege

Zone

Beast wars uprising

Bad tier:

The rest of IDW1

G1

Armada (the rest of it)

Japanese headmasters

Energon

American headmasters

Wfc: earthrise

Super god masterforce

Beast wars 2

Beast wars neo

Beast machines

RiD 2001

86 movie (pre bluray remaster)

Cybertron

Bayverse

Machinama’s Prime Wars

Go-bots (transformers branded)

Wfc: kingdom

Burn in hell tier:

Rid15

Exodus

Hayato sakamoto’s Transformers Legends

Kiss players

??? (I still havent read/watched these) tier:

Robot Masters

Devastation

WfC

-I’ve actually played a few hours of this but i got bored and didn’t finish so I don’t feel like i should rate it, but ultimately i just found it kind of generic and it didnt grab me

FoC

Wings Universe

Unite Warriors

-this is illustrated by hayato sakamoto and ive seen enough of like, the horny bathtub art and oversexualized female characters to assume its most likely shit tier, but i think he also brought breakdown back to life and canonized kobd? I do legitimately want to read this eventually

Transtech

Marvel comics

GI Joe transformers crossover comics

Dreamwave comics

Q transformers

-I have actually watched the subbed episodes of this but, there’s so few of them and its so clearly not intended for me since this is like a little silly flash cartoon specifically for japanese fans of transformers that its like, of course i dont really get the jokes or anything so even though i found this kind of boring i dont think its bad and i dont feel comfortable putting it on a tier

Funrise comics

Gobots (tonka)

TFP tie-in games

Bayverse tie in games

Earth Wars

IDW MLP crossover

Earthspark

[antagonistchanremade]

Getting Into Transformers

So, someone (who I don’t actually know) asked how to get into Transformers, and a mutual, uh, mutual recommended me as a good source for that sort of thing, so, here’s a post on that.

Transformers, despite being an absolutely massive franchise, is a surprisingly easy series to get into. Compared to other fandoms of its scale, it’s basically no work at all to get into it. This is because Transformers is split into, like, fifty different continuities. That can be daunting in its own way, if you want to REALLY get deep into the series and its lore, but since most continuities are at least a little self-contained, getting into any individual continuity is a breeze.

Also, a particularly noteworthy fact about Transformers is that it’s one of the few franchises I can think of that’s completely multinational. As in, it is equal parts Japanese and American. It is, and always has been (though it was a little fuzzier in the early days), a joint project between the American company Hasbro and the Japanese company TakaraTomy. And there are a lot of ways in which it is a quintessentially American franchise, but just as many ways in which it is a quintessentially Japanese franchise. It’s really interesting. And the history of why Transformers is like this is also interesting, but not important to the topic of getting into it.

My personal introduction to the series was the 2005-2006 anime Transformers: Cybertron (or Transformers: Galaxy Force in the original Japanese), which... that one’s actually a little complicated due to some blunders on the parts of its creators. It is effectively its own continuity, but it’s officially the final act of a trilogy with 2003′s Transformers: Armada anime and 2004′s Transformers: Energon anime. But the timeline between Cybertron and Energon is so chaotic and screwy, and Cybertron feels like a completely new story, that you’re not really missing much if you haven’t seen Armada or Energon yet. So, don’t worry about it when you’re first getting into it, just be prepared for complexity when you start broadening your horizons.

However, that’s not, in my opinion, the best starting place for getting into Transformers.

The best places to start would be:

Transformers: War for Cybertron: Siege, a Netflix original series which is going to be starting in 2020 and will take place in its own continuity.

Transformers: Cyberverse, a cartoon that started last year, takes place in its own continuity, and can be watched for free on the Hasbro youtube channel.

The 2008 cartoon Transformers: Animated, which is widely regarded as one of the best incarnations of the franchise (and again, takes place in its own continuity).

The original 1984 cartoon, The Transformers (these days more commonly referred to as “Transformers G1″). It’s not very good, and is not a standalone series in the slightest (they keep adding onto and rebooting this particular continuity, since it’s the first one), but it’s where the series began and that’s pretty important. I wouldn’t recommend it as your first series, but definitely your second. Also, an important note is that there’s a movie, The Transformers: The Movie, which came out in 1986, in between the second and third seasons, and also takes place between them, and it’s my favorite movie of all time. Like, the rest of G1 is kinda charmingly terrible, but the movie is genuinely really good. It also technically shares the position of “where the series began” with the Marvel comics that started at the same time, but the Marvel comics are significantly more obscure and also significantly more daunting.

The 1996 cartoon Transformers: Beast Wars. It has a similar positive reputation as Animated, and it takes place in the same continuity as the original series... but while having seen the original series definitely enhances Beast Wars, Beast Wars can be enjoyed just fine without it, since it’s a very distant sequel/prequel (it’s a sequel because the characters are from the far future, but time travel happens and they spend pretty much the entire series in the distant past, so it’s also a prequel).

The Transformers comics by IDW Publishing that started this year (there was also a Transformers series that IDW did that began in 2006 and ended earlier this year, but that’s significantly more daunting). The previous IDW series is just as beloved as Animated and Beast Wars, but is significantly more daunting, so the new series that’s just starting is probably a better starting point.

And one final note:

The “Transformers” tag on Tumblr is absolutely worthless. It’s just filled with, like, pictures of actors who have been in the Micheal Bay movies. As such, the Transformers fandom on Tumblr came up with its own tag for fandom content, “Maccadam”, which comes from the name of a fairly obscure character.

[sternerstufftoys]

Bludge up a bit, mate

Bludgeon isn't necessarily the first name you might turn to as an example of a Decepticon leader. For the longest time I had to keep reminding myself that he ever had held a position of command, but yes, Bludgeon does get to keep his place in the Deceptileader hall of fame thanks to a late-game power-grab in the G1 Marvel comic, just a short time before it folded for good. Despite this, Bludgeon's time in charge was followed up by Simon Furman twice, first in the ill-fated Generation 2 comic and then later in the ill-judged Regeneration One, both of which had him very much put in his place by the bigger kids in the playground. He only really became leader in the first place by virtue of all those bigger kids being off elsewhere at the time, and a distinct power vacuum left back on Cybertron which he was eager to fill. Just think, if Furman was more into moustaches and wrestlers than samurai, we could have had Stranglehold on the Deceptithrone.

Yeah, Bludgeon's one of the staple favourites of Simon Furman, and has the honour of appearing in almost every series that he has penned. Marvel G1 and G2 (despite his toy being long gone from shelves at the time), Dreamwave G1 and Armada (yes, really), Titan's movieverse comics and of course, IDW. That's an even more impressive spread than even Grimlock or Swoop. And yet... it's taken until this year for Bludgeon to appear on the screen in any way, with a couple of minor cameos in season two of Cyberverse. That's a pretty massive disparity between being a comic book mainstay and a TV nobody.

It gets worse, as this Bludgeon is (mostly) the RID 2015 version, who got a substantial retool from the Megatronus toy and still didn't appear in the show, only for his own Autobot repaint, Blastwave to get an episode of his own instead. The ignominy! The affront! The bare-skulled cheek! Just because Blastwave's colour scheme was secretly way cooler... ahem.

So you probably noticed that my Bludgeon is looking somewhat different to his regular self. The toy was based on Megatronus, whose arms become the single cannon for vehicle mode, but Bludgeon's arms just end up hanging around on the back looking a bit daft, while his cannons are a new piece. So it didn't take much thought to simply Frankenstein the two together, and have Bludgeon's body with Megatronus's arms. And then an alt mode with three guns, because three guns is two more than one gun, and that's just good maths. Murder-maths!

I've always liked that Bludgeon becomes a tank. It's been suggested that, as a martial arts master, something a bit quicker and more agile might be a better fit as an alt mode, but Bludge is having none of it. Real Japanese samurai armour made them into big hulking powerhouses of the battlefield, built to take punishment as well as give it out, and that's what tanking is all about. Sure, Bluncheon-meat has some sexy moves, but he's still the party tank, not a DPS rogue. He's probably put some skill points in evasion and parry though, so he can tank with style.

Is this the best Bludgeon? Not really. ROTF Bludge is still the superior version, even after a whole decade. But while his erstwhile boss Thunderwing continues to languish in deluxe size, the thought of Skeletor here towering over the greatest leader the Decepticons ever had just couldn't stand. His RID version can certainly hold a pose or two, but his sword's a little on the stubby side, and there's no way he could ever hold it in two hands. And there's a strangely scattergun approach to a colour scheme (which admittedly I made worse by giving him new arms) with green, purple, orange and red all in the mix. And, let's be real here, he's totally overdone it on the skull motif. Not just his face this time, but torso and bum-flap all are made to look like skele-men. He's trying a little too hard, bless.

Still for now, RID hybrid Bludgeon can take the spot on the shelf. For now.

[tfwiki]

Hello there! Hey, I’m kinda new to Transformers, but at the same time I really wanna get into everything XD So...if it’s not any trouble, can I ask what the most popular and well-known continuities are? I already know Animated, Prime, Cyberverse, G1, MTMTE, and Rescue Bots. Are there any other fandoms/continuities that I still gotta get into? XD

OoooOOoh, Transformers continuity, what a bundle of knots it is! The many, many, many Transformers continuities break down into what we on TFWiki call six or seven “families,” which look something like this:

First there’s Generation 1. Within that, from the 80s, you’ve got the original animated series and the Marvel comic, two separate continuities that tell the story of the original Transformers toyline in different ways. This continuity was built upon in the 90s to create Beast Wars and its sequel Beast Machines, set in the future of “a” Generation 1 timeline. A Japanese Beast Wars spin-off cartoon named Car Robots was imported to the US as retitled Robots in Disguise in 2001; it was treated as a separate continuity of its own, not part of the G1>BW timeline. And new stories are being told using the G1 cast all the time, with some of the most famous in the 21st century including IDW Publishing’s comic books (among them More than Meets the Eye), and the recent Prime Wars trilogy of online cartoons from Machinima.

The 2000s brought The Unicron Trilogy - three series, Transformers: Armada, Energon, and Cybertron. Each one had a cartoon, and the first two had comic books, which like G1, told different versions of the story.

After them came the live-action movies. Self explanatory!

Then there was Animated. You’ve got that covered!

After Animated, the “Aligned” continuity was introduced, merging concepts from many past series together. This includes Prime, Rescue Bots, and a new Robots in Disguise series (unconnected to the 2001 show).

Cyberverse is the newest continuity, taking a lot of cues from Aligned in terms of lore and backstory, but with a much heavier G1 flavour. Transformers as a whole in steering back around in a very “G1″ direction at the moment, as evidenced by the changing face of the live-action Bumblebee movie, and the upcoming “Siege” toyline.

We’d suggest checking out these videos, from the YouTube series “Transformers: The Basics” by wiki editor Chris McFeely, for more details!

[wemblingfool]

Minor factual correction (i mean nothing snarky): G1 is not just the cartoon.

G1 is-

The Marvel Comics (US and UK)

The Sunbow Cartoon

The Japanese Cartoons (Headmasters, Victory, Masterforce, Zone. Car Robots has since been retconned into it, but was not written to be)

The Dreamwave Comics

The IDW original comics (Infiltration through Unicron

The IDW reboot comics

The Netflix "WfC" series (good god Hasbro please invest in new titles)

The Go98 Machima "Prime Wars Trilogy" series

And Dozens of smaller continuities such as Wreckers, Expanded Universe, Wings of Honor, Classics

G1 also directly encompasses-

Generation 2 (the reason why the originals are called G1)

Beast Wars (a version of which also exists in the Unicron Trilogy)

Beast Wars II

Beast Wars Neo

Beast Machines

Machine Wars

Universe 1

Robot Masters

Cloud

Shattered Glass

(There are plenty others)

G1 is a multiverse set that uses the original toys and versions of the characters they represent as it's source.

And Beast Wars does not follow the cartoon, it uses a "generic" G1 that mixes elements from both Sunbow (original cartoon) and Marvel. Beast Wars and itcs spinoffs are usually called as "The Beast Era, and regarded as it's own continuity family, though it's still (usually) attached to G1.

The other unmentioned major continuities are-

Robots in Disguise

Cartoon

Toyline

Unicron Trilogy

Armada (cartoon, Toyline, Dreamwave Comic)

Energon (cartoon, Toyline, Dreamwave Comic)

Cybertron (cartoon, toyline)

Aligned

War for Cybertron game

Fall of Cybertron game

Prime (cartoon, Toyline, Comic)

Robots in Disguise ("nurid") (Cartoon, Toyline)

Rescue Bots (cartoon, toyline)

Is inspired by G1, while heavily influenced by Bayverse.

Cyberverse

Cartoon

Toyline

Is heavily G1 inspired and influenced, but is not G1

So, TL;DR, Most TF fiction or toys fit into these eight major continuities-

G1

Beast Era

Robots in Disguise

Unicron Trilogy

Movie

Animated

Aligned

Cyberverse

I love Transformers very, very much, but if you didn’t grow up with it, it can be a daunting series to get into. There are dozens of cartoons, hundreds of issues of comics, and a bunch of distinct universes to worry about. To an outsider, how do you even start?

That’s why I threw this together! This is a compilation of most of the best, most noteworthy, and easiest to get into Transformers series. I neglected to mention plot details and stuff to keep the word count from getting higher, and instead tried to focus on the style of each series to help you figure out which you might want to look into if you’re interested

I also put together a reading order for More Than Meets the Eye, because it’s my favorite and I really, really want more people to read it. It builds off of several years of comics that preceded it, but it was design to be the perfect jumping on point for new readers, so you don’t have to read much outside of the main series! The only big exception is the Dark Cybertron crossover event between “seasons,” which is important for IDW’s Transformers continuity as a whole but, honestly, isn’t all that mandatory for MTMTE readers

I hope this helps!

[undermytruecolors]

Continuity Masterpost

Armada Beast Wars Cybertron Cyberverse Energon G1 IDW MTMTE/Lost Light Marvel Comics TFA TFP WFC