Transformers Through the Years and Why G1 Will Always be There
According to Transformers lore (okay, actually the Transformers episode "War Dawn"), there was a time on Cybertron known to the Autobots as the Golden Age. From what we see and are told in that episode, times were peaceful and prosperous. One could infer that there was also advances, not in war but rather in things like the arts or sciences, perhaps new discoveries through exploration.
Well, we Transformer fans are living through a Golden Age ourselves, at least in my humble opinion. Just look what we have coming to us. New cartoons, new comics (at least two different titles per month), new toys. And not only that, we have other items that we scarcely got through the G1 era: guide books, art books, conventions, re-releases of old toys marketed to collectors, DVDs, novels, posters, t-shirts... you can barely turn around without seeing something with the Transformers name on it. And quite honestly, there does not seem to be an end in sight. Dreamwave, the creator of the new comics, seems to be endlessly churning out new titles and products. Word on the street is that a second season of Armada, guest starring a certain planet-eating Transformer god, is in the works. Images of toys from this new season have been circulating around the internet. Amazon's website has listings for Transformer novels and re-released comics, both American and British, with release dates out to 2004.
The question becomes, however, is the influx of new material watering down what we already have? I guess this question pertains more to the stories (cartoons, comics, soon-to-be novels, etc.), so that is going to be where the rest of the essay stays for the most part. With so many Optimus', Megatrons, and the like running around, does the original, the one many of us grew up with, start to mean less?
Transformers fans tend to think about their fandom in terms of eras. There's Generation 1 (or original line, as the G1 couldn't possibly exist without Generation 2), Generation 2, Beast Wars/Machines (this one itself often split into two entities), Robots in Disguise, and currently, Armada. Hasbro made it easy to split the story lines into individual eras, as they were the ones who gave the individual lines their subnames. However, when you think about it, we've really had a spectrum of toys and media. In the U.S., Transformers, in the form of toys at least, has been on the shelves basically nonstop since 1984 with only a single year break around 1992. This one-year break is all that's stopped us from having almost 20 consecutive years of Transformers toys. In terms of comics, the original run last from 1984-1991 in the U.S., came back for a year with Generation 2, and has been around for about the last year with Dreamwave. There has been a new Transformers cartoon airing each year since 1996. The delineation between the different eras is simply a matter of marketing on the part of Hasbro, a way of keeping the line fresh, more than anything. The way it's explained sometimes by the fans, it would seem like years between the different lines.
Regardless of how the different lines are viewed, one thing becomes obvious within the different media. Each incarnation is beholden only onto itself. There are certainly cases to be made that different lines are interconnected, especially the G1/G2 era with the Beast Wars/Beast Machines era. But even with the various references back to characters from G1/G2, the Beast shows can certainly exist on its own. This individuality becomes even more apparent with Robots in Disguise and Armada. Again, there are some references to past shows (Vehicons mentioned in RiD, for instance), but there are other aspects where the shows are very much their own entity. Even more, with every shift in eras, their seems to be a bit of a schism in the fandom, with the most often cited reason being that the new show takes something away from the original or is somehow unworthy to succeed it.
Perhaps the most visible of these schisms in the fandom occurred between Generation 2 and Beast Wars. While there may have been some questions about G2, I think the fact that the cartoon that aired during that era was the original cartoon from 1984-1986, repackaged with "kewl" new graphics, and the comic was written by Simon Furman, writer for the last third of the original U.S. comic as well as much of the British TF comic, helped matters. Generation 2 didn't seem all that different from G1. Gaudy toy colors, maybe a tech spec that was questioned by some fans, but that's about it. Beast Wars, however, offered a dramatic change. Gone were the cars and jets and in their place were realistic looking animals. The classic cel animation was replaced by computer graphics. And, to top it off, there were characters named Optimus Primal and Megatron which were not the original characters.
Though there had been cases when Optimus or Megatron had died and come back with new bodies, but they always been the same Optimus and Megatron. This was different. These were arguably the most recognizable characters in all of Transformers having different personalities while transforming into a gorilla and a dinosaur. The factions changed from Autobots and Decepticons to Maximals and Predacons. Needless to say, people had a problem with this. The result, aside from various flame wars and the eventual formation of moderated groups, was two-fold. First, and again most visible, was an actual split in the fandom. A new newsgroup was created off the original alt.toys.transformers that was solely for discussion of the G1/G2 line. Some fans felt that this change in formats and change in characters spelt the end of Transformers as we know it. I suppose it did, but not necessarily in a bad way.
Similar discussions came about with each new toy line and each new media. What can we make of all this? Let me briefly talk about some of these different eras and try to explain why all the new stuff coming out in recent years is a good thing.
Enter the Beast
To be completely honest, the hubbub around the Beast Wars completely baffles me. I understand that the shift explained above, with new characters with the names of old ones and the use of Maximals and Predacons instead of the familiar Autobot and Decepticon, might be something new, but I did not see how it sullied what came before. It seemed to me to be something new, and frankly, not exactly disparate from what came before it. Was I thrilled at the simplistic character names (Cheetor, Dinobot, etc.)? No, but that wasn't going to be a deterrent for the show or the characters themselves. Transformers had survived nonsensical names before (what exactly *is* a Grimlock anyway?). The faction names of Autobots and Decepticons going into a hiatus? Again, it was simply something new. Perhaps some people simply weren't fond of the story, which I certainly have no problem with. However, I see little fault in the new concepts introduced with Beast Wars.
The beautiful thing about the use of Maximals and Predacons as new (and related as it turns out) factions is that it adds depth the not only Beast Wars, but to the time between G1/G2 and Beast Wars. Without even telling a story, it told a story. Something happened in between, some kind of shift in the political landscape or philosophical environment that caused the creation of these new factions. In fact, the main cast of the Predacon side was made of criminals, outcasts of the main Predacon faction. The fanfic writer in me simply loves this. Where the three seasons of Beast Wars, with a largely full plot, makes it difficult for me to find a hole to put a story of my own in there, the time before it is rife with possibilities. Also adding depth to the show is the fact that the Optimus and Megatron in this story are not only new characters, but they are also *not* the leaders of the factions. It might seem odd at first, but frankly the two characters portrayed through Beast Wars almost makes me forget that they weren't the first ones with the name. This is certainly the case for Megatron.
Which brings me to the two other big contributions that Beast Wars (and Beast Machines) brought to Transformers: great, memorable characters and more grown-up stories. The characters, I feel, were among the best of any era of Transformers, despite liberal name reuses and some pretty dumb names. When the names Megatron, Inferno, Silverbolt, and Rampage are mentioned, I instantly thing of the Beast Wars characters rather than their G1 predecessors. This is even the same for one of the show’s dullest characters, Scorponok. Names like Cheetor, Rhinox, Blackarchnia, and the like certainly aren't shudder-inducing, as they were upon first hearing them if I’m being honest. This is because these guys quit being names and started being characters.
Characters that were featured in what turned out to be a fairly mature cartoon (especially in the case of Beast Machines). Instead of a cartoon that was largely focused on two sides that lined up ten feet from one another, shot at each other, and still managed to miss each other completely, we have Beast Wars and characters getting hurt. Or characters dying. War was not a game; it had consequences. This was something rarely seen in the G1 cartoon (though it was in the comic, which aged with its core audience into a more mature canon). In fact, the only time we saw characters die that weren't nameless Sweeps was in "Transformers: The Movie." Rather than a largely episodic (with some exceptions) cartoon, as G1 was, Beast Wars was frequently host to "previously on" montages to get you caught up on previous action. And even when these montages were not present, knowledge of previous episodes was a big plus, especially around the arc with the alien presence on the Beast Wars planet.
That's not to say that the G1 universe was devoid of mature stories and memorable characters. Despite the popularity of Beast Wars among older fans that grew up on G1, it seems that most fanfiction is written in the G1 universe, including my own and I would call Beast Wars my favorite are of Transformers media. That's got to say something about the original characters from these years and how memorable they are. Season three of the G1 cartoon and the G1/G2 comics both had a lot of stories with that mature sci-fi feel to it, including some heart-stopping story arcs. But I feel that the Beast shows took Transformers that one step further, adding depth as it went.
(As a note, it can be argued that there is a difference between Beast Wars and Beast Machines. I'll cover that in a different essay, however.)
Re-enter the Cars
Whether you think that Beast Machines was a good couple of years in the history of Transformers or not, one thing probably can be universally agreed upon: Beast Machines was dark and don't mean just the lighting on Cybertron either. Death, treachery, and angst flowed through the show like Cybertron's organic core. Transformers: Robots in Disguise was a remedy for this.
RiD was never supposed to be anything other than filler, keeping the Transformers name on the shelves and acting as a transition between the animal-centric toys and the vehicle-based toys that were to return with Armada (the last part is just a theory of mine; Hasbro only called it filler). Even still, we had a cartoon that was about the exact opposite of Beast Machines. Instead of good guy animals versus bad guy vehicles, we had good guy vehicles (named Autobots) against bad guy animals (Predacons). Instead of a dark story, we had a much lighter fare. Which isn't to say that it was bad. I enjoyed watching the RiD cartoon. However, while I taped almost every episode, I have yet to go back and watch them again. In addition, I completely missed the last several episodes, so I don't know how the series ended. By way of comparison, the Beast Wars and Beast Machines tapes I have are starting to wear out, which will teach me to use cheap tapes when taping Transformers. RiD seems to fit the bill of filler perfectly. People liked the show okay, but not so much that it causes discussions among fans. What discussion I saw occurred early when Hasbro took another step away from the original G1 characters and into their own Final Fantasy.
With RiD, Hasbro decided that every couple of years, they were going to change up Transformers. The one constant was going to be the existence of an Optimus Prime leading the Autobots and a Megatron leading the Decepticons. Not *the* Optimus Prime and Megatron, but *an* Optimus Prime and Megatron. Different characters. Heck, completely different universes. RiD, and Transformer lines to follow, were not going to have a lot (or anything) to do with what came before it. New characters, new stories, always Transformers. But does this fact take anything away from old characters or old "universes"? I would argue no. In fact, I think it was the opposite. Again, using fanfiction as a guide, we see very few works of RiD fanfiction and still many works of G1 fanfiction being written. RiD seems to have had little effect on the perception of G1 or Beast Wars or their legacies among fans.
What RiD did do is add a few more interesting characters, as well as a sense of humor, to Transformers. On the character front, Sky Byte has to be the first one mentioned. He rhymes, spazzes, seems to have incredible hearing and, to put it bluntly, he rules. He and his Predacon cronies are largely the humor of the RiD cartoon, whether it involves the absurd rhyming, a skunk wearing an army helmet, or a flying squirrel singing "Someone's in the kitchen with Darkscream" (one of my favorite lines in all of Transformers). But the Preds aren't the only interesting characters. Gray-area players like Ultra Magnus (obviously on the outside of rest of the Autobot ranks) and Scourge (definitely on the outside of Megatron's agenda) are also added to the mix, again adding depth to the Transformers universe despite both of these characters having very memorable predecessors in the name department.
Armada brought back both Autobots and Decepticons, but again these are not the Autobots and Decepticons we knew as kids. The original characters are never referenced (despite a few being shown in strictly cameo spots in several episodes of the cartoon) or named. Again, we have an Optimus Prime and Megatron that is not related to any previous incarnation of names. It is interesting to note that among the four different Optimus' and four different Megatron's that have come down the pike, many of the Optimus' have similar features to one another. Three of the are red in color, they've all got a facemask, stuff like that. With the different Megatron's, each them look very dissimilar to one another. It certainly helps in imagining these different characters as just that: different characters.
Anyway, while Armada appears similar to RiD, there are actually some differences present. First of all, with Armada, we are given a backstory of sorts, while RiD was more of a generic "good guy vs. bad guy" war. Cybertron was always a constant, but RiD seemed to be left vague in that one could potentially insert the series into what came before (for instance, one could put RiD between G1/G2 and BW. There will be some problems in continuity, but it’s still possible). Armada makes no bones about how it is completely and absolutely different then what came before. The show and the comic have described the beginnings of the conflicts and how they had and continue to effect the various factions. What's more, despite the little cameos by character models from G1, there is nothing to indicate that the series is anything but a separate entity, not meant to be inserted into anything that came before, meaning G1/G2 (and by extension BW/BMac, as it establishes itself within some realm of the G1/G2 universe with appearances by such characters as Optimus Prime, Megatron, and Starscream as well as concepts such as the Plasma Energy Chamber and Vector Sigma).
Another thing that Armada adds to its universe is a third faction: the Minicons. Third factions are something that have shown up before in both the official story lines as well as various works of fanfiction. Often times these third factions represent an offshoot of the Autobots and Decepticons fighting their war that storm in make themselves known. These new factions are often very powerful, as the Cybertronians are shown to be in the G2 comic as well as many of the aforementioned fanfics. Armada's third faction, however, is something completely different. While the Minicons are little powerhouses, able to give the Autobots and Decepticons extra powers when attached to them, they are dragged into the war rather than entering it on their own. According to the comic and the cartoon, over time the Minicons began to be seen as tools rather than individuals. As a result, they left Cybertron and the war they had never wanted to enter behind. Both the cartoon and comic describe an exodus from Cybertron by the Minicons. Over the course of the two different media (and keep in mind as I write this, the show and comic are both ongoing), they have shown a different focus. The cartoon is more focused upon the Autobots and Decepticons, while the comic has consistently focused more on the Minicons and their struggles.
Armada, in my mind, is the most distinct example of a deviation away from the original G1 media. Though it might be a tight fit in some cases, there are ways of shoehorning the different eras into the G1/G2 universes. I wouldn't recommend it, as I think it's impossible to reconcile the G1 cartoon and comic with one another (and neither were they ever meant to be). The question again is whether this takes something away from the previous incarnations of Transformers. In my opinion, it does not. I’d bring up the fanfic reasoning again, but not only would it get repetitive, but with no end in sight for Armada as of yet, it could very well be that we haven't had a chance for the fanfic writers out there to come up with ideas regarding Armada. Even still, Armada has brought us new, interesting characters (something I wasn't holding my breath on after the first several episodes), such as Sideways, Blurr, and Wheeljack, and as it turns out, Hot Shot and Megatron as well. Plus, there's the introduction of the Minicons, whose additions added a different element to the civil war: the faction caught in the middle, which is a concept that the comic is exploiting with very good results.
In short, with all of these shows, it does not seem to be a matter of watering down the G1 stories and characters that came before. Perhaps there are those of us who are not fond of a certain eras story line or characters or toys or whatever. Hey, that's perfectly fine. But I think the shows and comics that have come after G1/G2 have not taken anything away from the original. In fact, I'd say it's done the exact opposite. I think that it's these new incarnations, the fact that the Transformer name is still out there after all this time, that has helped with the revival of all things G1.
Re-Enter the G1
I can't say that I can back that up. For all I know, G1 might have gone through its revival even without a current line there as well. However, G1 popularity ranging from newsgroup traffic to G1-related products on the shelves have increased with time since Beast Wars came on the air in the mid 1990s. In fact, just with my own unscientific, walk-through-the-mall analysis, it appears to me that the number of G1-related products has been steadily on the increase over the last year. Perhaps epitomizing this is the release of G1-related media. And not just the old comics and cartoons (which are in the form of trade paperbacks, videos, and DVDs), but the new G1 stories as well.
Dreamwave, who is also writing the Armada comic, has had several G1 titles over the last year. Two runs (one finished, the other just started as I write this), deal with the "present day" Transformers. The cast includes just about everybody from the first season of the cartoon (plus the Aerialbots) and followed a story that, like the latest cartoon runs from RiD and Armada, deviate from that which we had seen before. However, unlike with the case of the cartoons, these characters are not new characters with the names of the old characters. Through the first "Generation 1" comic run, we see characters that are supposed to be the same ones that we grew up with back in 1984. And yet, there are some obvious differences in the canon. Human militaries aided the Autobots in bringing the fighting on Earth to an end by helping defeat the Decepticons with the whole bunch of them were then supposedly destroyed by a rogue in the U.S. government. Slightly plot difference there. It’s the characters that are the big tip-off. Several characters seem to act differently, including Grimlock (who defects), Starscream (who is far too loyal in the first volume of the neo-G1 comic), and Optimus Prime (far too wishy washy... oh wait...). And then there’s the fact that Wheeljack and the Aerialbots die at the end of the first G1 series. That certainly doesn’t fit it with previous story lines. The events of the story simply didn't fit with anything that came before and the characters were a little off or dead. With the start of the second run, more characters appear to be acting very differently (including Shockwave and Ultra Magnus) and the plot seems to be taking off in a whole new direction. Honestly, it’s too soon to tell where exactly this second volume is going. For all I know, it’ll stay vaguely in line with previous eras.
Even if it doesn’t, however, none of this is bad. In fact, as with the cartoons over the last several years, I feel that this adds a nice, new dimension to the vast Transformers Universe. It'll be interesting to watch an Ultra Magnus, quite the same one that we knew in 1986 (or technically, in 2005 in the cartoon universe), acting in a different way and seeing how Optimus Prime reacts to it. It's interesting to see what different writers can come up with and see where they can take our ever-growing universe. New concepts and new characters continue to be added to Transformers, expanding the universe in a myriad of ways.
And, yet the heart of it, is the original line. Remember: without the first Transformer toys and the accompanying cartoon and comic, we wouldn't have any of this. The G1 line was the first and, in the eyes of many, still the best. I can't argue with that. Everybody will have an opinion as too what is best. Though I'd say that the stories and many of the characters of the Beast era make those my favorite cartoon, G1 will always be there. Nothing can change it; nothing can take it away. All the new shows and comics can do is add to it and continue the legacy that G1 started, which is what each of them has done in their own way. What more can a toy line ask for?