Transformers Animated (Spoilers within!)

[Beastbot]

Well, you also have to remember that Bumblebee's bound to be popular because of name recognition now, plus Hasbro's really pimping him out what with the original deluxe, the "Elite Guard" repaint, the original Activator, the "Patrol Activator" repaint, the Bumper Battler, AND the "Cyber Slammers-esque" non-transformable toy. Bulkhead, beyond having the Voyager-class version, an Activator, and a Bumper Battler, also is getting a big-ticket Leader class toy, so both of those characters are probably required to have more show time by Hasbro. Meanwhile, Ratchet "only" has mainline, Activator, and Bumper Battler versions, and Prowl, so far as we know, only has the original deluxe toy and the samurai add-on armor.

Also, according to Kickback, the admin at TFW2005, who has proven VERY reliable in the past, Shockwave will have two robot modes AND two vehicle modes. If you've seen the spoilers, you know why. AWESOME.

[Wonko The Sane]

Still,could we at least give some limelight to the others who need development?

[The Crab]

Also, according to Kickback, the admin at TFW2005, who has proven VERY reliable in the past, Shockwave will have two robot modes AND two vehicle modes. If you've seen the spoilers, you know why. AWESOME.

Hubba.

Hubba Hubba.

*faint*

When did Kickback say this? :O I habitually patrol the TFW2005 Animated forums for news, and somehow I missed that.

[Beastbot]

This thread, second page (if you have the 20-posts-per-page option like I do):

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/showthread.php?t=176561

On the third page there's also a great comparison of Shockwave and "Longarm" from the waist up. It certainly seems doable, and it's more than just a head transformation, as you can see from some other small variances in the details.

[Wonko The Sane]

My review for YTV's 'Rise Of The Constructicons'

Stereotype:A conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image.
One that is regarded as embodying or conforming to a set image or type.
To characterize by a stereotype: "Elderly Americans are the neglected sector of the fashion industry, stereotyped by blue hair and polyester pantsuits" (American Demographics).
To give a fixed, unvarying form to.

Disappointment:Not up to expectations or hopes: "a disappointing test score; finished the marathon in a disappointing 12th place."

And this my freinds,is what this Episode is about.



Animation

The alt-modes of the Cons were yur basic constuction vehicles.Not futuristic but we plainly see where the name comes from.

For their robot modes,each one resembles a human construction worker.For MixMaster,he was a fat,bearded,helmet-wearing robot with jeans and a belt,but all metalic to point of seein sharp,square teeth.For Scrapper,he was skinny,hard-hatted,and waring construction clothing,metallic to the point of his eyes being lights.


Storyline And Characters

NOTE:I watched this at the exact time when it aired rather than seeing it on YouTube.

The Autobots wer rebuilding the bridges Blitzwing destroyed in 'Velocity' making the humans assume the Autobots are to blame,again.While they and humans were re-building,they encounter Blitzwing and Lugnut stealing construction items.They fight and the Deceptiocns escape with little they have,while the Autobots try to save humans from an almost dstroyed bypass.They help again and leave,but Bulkhead leaves behind,finisheing the pilliars.While he mixes the cement,and Allspark shard appeared and gave lifeto two new bots,called MixMaster and Scrapper.They don't know who Bulkhead was but befirended him by saving his life from falling items.They knew each other in a bar-like style(In a port drinking motor oil)and became fast friends.Bulkhead introduces the two to Optimus,but their rowdy behaviour causes an awaken Sari,a pised off BumbleBee and a doubting Prime.Bulkhead leaves with them.Moving foward,the 'Constructibots' decided to help their supposed team and catch up to Blitzwing and Lugnut,stealing more items.They found their mountain lair and intends to destroy them(The Decepticons),but Megatron intervines and finds them useful,showing them the plans for his Space Bridge,since they are so good at making things.They renamed themselves the Constructicons and chose Megatron for having the best motor oil, and is manipulated by Megatron by saying that the Autobots are evil.Foward again to the Constructicons stealing items and Bulkhead finds them out.They encounter at the base and explain why they switched sides.They aks for the Allspark and Bulkhead agrees,giving them oil for the road.They run off and start malfunctioning,leading to an explosion due to the Allspark.Bulkhead and the Autobots reach them alive,and their datatracks erased,forgetting who they were.Bulkhead,upset,challenges them to fight,but they run off without the Allspark.Optimus talks o Bulkhead later,coping with the fact that they can still decide which side to choose.


So Bulkhead gets another focused Episode,and we see a fun and sad part of himself.He vlues frindship more than anything and betrayal isn't a thing that he can never cope with,which understands why he acted in a wierd way to Sari in that Soundwvae Episode,besides not trusting Soundwave in the first place.

MixMaster and Scrapper has the side of being smart and dumb at the same time,which irritated me throughout this Episode.Smart on construction,dumb on anything else.They were stereotype construction workers;working hard,hollowering to beautiful women(In their case,feminine looking cars)berr(Oil)guzzling,and slow-talking,and accented.I am sure that this was not the original Constructicons acted like(If so,please,enlighten me)I can't really determine if this is creative or not.In some ways,yes,becuase of how they were constucted(No pun intended)in their robot modes and hopefully different from the originals.No because I hate the use of stereotyping.

Megatron was able to mainpulate very well in this Episdoe,which gives him a close nod to his Beast Wars persona.I compared on his maipulation tactics to BW Megs in 'Coming of The Fuzours',as he manipulates to a naive Silverbolt and Quickstrike.However,Animated Megatron had them on his side for the Constructicons for being idiots.

Now for the diappointment.


Writing

How the Constructions were wirtten out was odd,yet frustrating.They were the only one who knew where both the Autobots and Decepticons were hiding,which,could an advantage for both,for Prime and Megatron could have asked them where they were and stop focusing on the Bridge and shards for at least one minute for a tactical advantage.They were both useful to the both of them,and in the end,they lose thier memories,which made the whole thing about a full-out war going on pointless.In my opinion(And I state that part)it could have been a better Episode to have that information,and Prime and Megatron knew that.Why didn't they ask them.I expected Prime to at least talk to them or let Bulkhead do it for him to get something.You never know,they might have shards they are collecting and keeping at any given moment.Deux ex Machina,how I hate you!

Once again,the Allspark could not be handled by the Autobots without losing it,but the difference is,Bulkhead was smart enough to have a way to get them back.


My Thoughts

And now I am stating my thoughts on this:Throughout this Season we have been getting non-stop introduction,filler,and Bulkhead/BumbleBee foucused Episodes.I knew Prime luckily had his chance at the limelight,and Ratchet had it once,but Prowl is still far from gettin one himself.I know he'll get one soon,along with Blackrachnia,but what about the others:What about Lugnut having his own focused Episode,or Blitzwing,exploring all three of his sides.What about the Dinobots?The new characters keep popping out like mad and more are to come,and I know they are used to develop one's chracter,but they end up being throwaway characters,never to be seen again for a while,and I end up waiting for more development from them(Soundwave,anyone?).And the more I see it,there are still filler Episodes,not any plot going along as a significance,since I think it's high time for the Autobots to find Megatron once and for all,but they have to do shard hunting instead.I thought about comparing this to Season II of Beast Wars,but,it aint' gonna happen.

I though about giving this thing up,but if I know the writers like last time,they are going to make the Season Finale so good I'm going back in.You make an indecent story and leave something good for the last moment that will keep me watching.People do that,and I end falling for it.


Quirks

Will Sari's hair grow back again?

[artemis-lady-warrior]

to your constructicons question wonko. No the Constructicons in G1 did not act like idiots. They were actually very smart.

[Beastbot]

A status update on the future of Animated from TFW2005 admin Kickback:

Four "seasons" planned (2008 thru 2011), third season in production, fourth season has yet to be green-lighted (ratings, toy sales, etc., will determine a fourth season). Why Cartoon Network chose to air two seasons to start off without toys being on the shelves is beyond me.

Expect Season 3 in December 2008 to run through 1st QTR 2009. Animated will be on "hiatus" for movie hype, and if Season 4 is green-lighted, expect it in December 2009 through 1st QTR 2010. Toys would remain on shelves till 2011.

[artemis-lady-warrior]

OH CANADA HOW I ENVY YOU! I WANT PROWL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway..... Just saw the episode Rise of the Constructicos" I hate to say it but. I HATED IT! OH chaos bringer that had to be the worst episode they have made so far (or tied with nanosec) Bleck bleck bleck...........
They looked like the mario brothers. ugh................. well at least I saw a little more of cold blitz persona. He's pretty sneaky.

[Wonko The Sane]

A status update on the future of Animated from TFW2005 admin Kickback:

Four "seasons" planned (2008 thru 2011), third season in production, fourth season has yet to be green-lighted (ratings, toy sales, etc., will determine a fourth season). Why Cartoon Network chose to air two seasons to start off without toys being on the shelves is beyond me.

Expect Season 3 in December 2008 to run through 1st QTR 2009. Animated will be on "hiatus" for movie hype, and if Season 4 is green-lighted, expect it in December 2009 through 1st QTR 2010. Toys would remain on shelves till 2011.

Well I say yay for the hiatus.Hopefully Marty and the boys will have some brilliant ideas after watching the film.

[artemis-lady-warrior]

I can't wait for todays TFA episode to be uploaded. It's the one I've been wanting to see all month! woot!

Okay I got to see it. first of I gotta say it. FINALLY an episode focused on Prowl with absolutely NO Bumblebee. I think I found my new favorite episode. It seems Prowl's letting modifications go to his head. XD At least he learned his lesson. Did you notice him and Lockdown seemed a little too friendly? I'm not sure about this but... O.o
So we encounter some of screamers clones. Coward (Skywarp colors) and Annoying (G1 colors.) I call him Annoying because he annoyed me. I felt bad for the purple clone. He was so cute!
I still don't like Prowl's upgrade look. I don't care what the others say it makes him look bulky and weird. Samurai > Ninja. me no like Samruai Prowl.

[Beastbot]

OH CANADA HOW I ENVY YOU! I WANT PROWL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway..... Just saw the episode Rise of the Constructicos" I hate to say it but. I HATED IT! OH chaos bringer that had to be the worst episode they have made so far (or tied with nanosec) Bleck bleck bleck...........
They looked like the mario brothers. ugh................. well at least I saw a little more of cold blitz persona. He's pretty sneaky.

I saw that ep today, I don't what you guys are complainin' about, I LOVED it. The Constructicons were HILARIOUS.

"Hey baby, show me them tailpipes, eh?"

[Wonko The Sane]

I've already stated why I didn't like the Constructicons.Less stereotype,more originality next time.


Anyway,now for YTV's 'A Fistful of Energon'(Review Part I)

Extremely promising.


Storyline

It all starts with the Elite Guard....and Starscream's escape,extremely pissed off at Megatron.Meanwhile at Dinobot Island Prowl comes back to observe the natural scenery of a deer,until Bulkhead ruined the 'fascination' with his walking.Apparently,there are rumours going that rampaging is afoot,and the Autobots assume that it is the Dinobots.While discussing the use of Stasis Cuffs and EMPs,Grimlock comes out of hiding and goes on a rampage,about to attack hatchlings on a tree.Prowl stopped him using the EMP and discovered a 'thorn' on Grimlock's foot.Ratchet instructs Prowl on how to take it out using the EMP.The procedure was successful and Prowl begins to appreciate the medical weapon,however he doubts on being 'too much of a good thing'.In the Autobot base,Ultra Magnus calls out to Optimus warning him about the escape of Stascream,but that message is also being seen by Megatron using the transmission they stole in Mission Accomplished.Megatron orders Lugnut to send another message to Cybertron;ordering any Decepticon to bring back Starscream.Prowl and Bulkhead recieve the message as well and head towards the Ark to use Teletraan-1 to find the wanted 'Con.The worldwide scan picked up a moving Allspark fragment and Prowl goes after Starscream using the shuttle,despite Bulkhead's sayings.The shuttle lands on the moon,where a destroyed Nemesis lies,and Prowl believes this is where Starscream is hiding.He explains this as a reconnaissance mission and Prime demands him to turn back,but Prowl gets away from his demands by faking interference.He enters into the warship and finds Starscream and battle,resulting an EMP blast to Screamer.Prowl cuffs him,smiling,until Lockdown finds him.The two battle.During the battle,Starscream makes his escape again,blasts the shuttle and heads to Earth.Lockdown heads for Starscream using his own ship,explaining why he is hunting him down:Reward.Prowl grabs on to the ship and heads inside to talk to Lockdown.The result is partnership and an upgrade on Prowl.They land on Earth and the ship was disguised as a warehouse again.They find Starcream,instantly begging for mercy.Prowl chases him and pushed him into Stasis Lock,and Lockdown cuffing him afterwards.Lockdown communicates with Megatron and Prowl is shocked to realize that he was working on the wrong side.They discuss were to meet to have a trade:Starscream for Megatron,reward for Lockdown,but Starscream continues to beg for mercy.Prowl tries to stop Lockdown but stops the him first and takes off with Screamer.Prime and the rest of the Autobots find Prowl,frees him and follows him to get Lockdown and Starscream.A jet comes their way and it is G1 Colours Starscream.After Prowl proudly fought with him,Ratchet brings his sense back,showing him the dead,unborn birds.Prowl comes back into his old self but still determines to get Lockdown and Megatron.Forward to the meeting between the Autobots and the Deceptcions and Lockdown and a standoff begins,but as Bulkhead reveals G1 Colorus Starscream,something is up and both Screamers reveal that they were controlled by the real Stascream,and plans to kill Megatron by placing a time bomb inside each of them.Megatron and his crew escapes,but the Autobots decide to disarm the bombs.Prowl,while removing his samurai parts creates a plan to disarm them,by using his upgrade.The bombs fly up and explode,unfortunately,to the Decepticons.After the ordeal,Lockdown comlinks Prowl,offering a deal to come with him,but Prowl,though tempting it is,he sees it as a sign of weakness,and demands him to never speak to him again as friends,only as enemies.Prowl lastly removes the EMP and gives it back to Ratchet,promising himself to never use it again.In the end,Starscream views a message of Megatron,increasing his rewards to find the traitor,and only the real traitor this time.Starscream,grabbing the Stasis Cuffs cries out in anger,but only displays a smile as he has more clones to offer.

Starscream clones are the new MacGuffin this Season.As for the use of the Allspark Key,it is now becoming a rarity.

What was slightly irritating in this Episode however was the constant use of mechanical slang to be replaced by some other words.It is good to use a few,but the first half a lot was used,particularly with Starscream.The phrase ‘You wish you never been a protoform’ was a little out of place for me.It could of have been fitting if he used ‘online‘,which makes more sense than protoform.As for Lockdown’s use of ‘sparkplugs’ as another word for ‘guts’ or ‘balls’was also a little out of place,but I can’t think of another word to replace it other than…*ahem* lugnuts(lol).The term ‘Spark to Spark’ was also out of place.What does in mean anyway?

Interesting symbolism and imagery used in this Episode.The samurai upgrade symbolized the development in Prowl and his evergrowing pride,but the image of a broken tree and dead eggs blew me away,giving Prowl a subconscious choice:To live as a ruthless warrior,or,as a honourable one?It comes back to how similar he is to being a Decepticon or Lockdown,having slight sadistic humour in catching Starscream.When removing the armour,it gave a sense of sacrifice,as he declines the right of having power,and comes back to himself.Though he will never be as powerful as he sused to be,it gives him a down-to-earth lesson on how power and pride can only go so far…far enough to blind you.

I feel sad that he had to let go of the samurai upgrade,but,it gave him development in the wrong way.Prowl is a bot of honour,not of pride.



Characters

Prowl:The current theme for Prowl is being out of character,which is ironically used for his long-delayed character development.We do see some of that nature-loving,tranquil,observer side of prowl,but we finally see something different.Prowl is eager to get Starscream regardless of common sense,and what everyone else says.Bulkhead and Prime explains through their lines that his determination for Screamer is ‘not his style’ and ‘unlike him;,and this goes on further,to the extent of making a deal with the former Decepticon Lockdown,using the word ‘quarry’ and such.Prowl would do anything to capture the villian of this week,even if he had to upgrade himself to do it.When encountering the ‘Coward Starscream’,Prowl becomes more egotistical,gloating to outfly the Decepticon and wanting to have fun while hunting on the same time.But playing ‘bad boy’ aside,Prowl still develops the personality of an Autobot,for not taking to lightly to his deal with Lockdown after finding out he was siding with Megatron and betraying Lockdown afterwards.My theory is that he wanted to hunt down Stsrscream not only for personal revenge and proving himself,but he also wants to have a sense of justice to bring down an evil criminal,except he wants to do this by himself.In the dialouge between Prowl and the Autobots,Ratchet points out on the responsibility of the EMP,givin g out a hint that Prowl instantly developed a sens of power,wanting so musch power to get Stsrscream and other Decepticons.We are coming back to the first Epsiodes of Prowl,being a lone wolf(Or bot)and demands to work alone,and disobey the orders of Prime and Ratchet,but some of that obedience he developed in the later parts of Season I is still there.For example,when he see the damage he has done to let some eggs die,Prowl went back to that tranquil self,and realized that what he was doing was for revenge and not justice,but,he still clings to that upgrade to do one more task .In the end of it all,Prowl learns about himself,wanting to be in an honourable route,but the idea of being upgraded and having fun with his prey,reveals a darker side he wishes to never pay with again.

Bulkhead comes back to being the voice of reason,and,he brings out a valid point in the development of Prowl's character,being 'crazy enough to go after Starscream'.

Lockdown is back,and I couldn’t help but have a Beast Wars vibe to him.The voice he uses was almost calm yet sinister,enigmatic yet concise,similar to Beast wars Rampage and his ‘moments’ with his enemies and friends.More proof on being Rampage….look how he treats on taking Coward Starscream to Megatron .That aside,Lockdown also became a symbol of temptation for Prowl,as being a person who can offer him power,have creul games with,and can see a false light of accomplishing his goals,even if it includes killing nature.

As for Strscream,he provided some comic relief as he ‘back seats’ the fight between Prowl and Lockdown. A theory went into my mind as he escaped from being handcuffed:Is it possible that the Allspark fragment gave him more strength than before.Most likely,since he is recived immortality,and the train that was infected with the fragment increased its speed.Another point of the grand use of one Allspark fragment.What really surprised me is that he became so smart to make a plan of cloning himself and planting bombs in them.Looking back at it,Starscream has some intelligence,since he planted bombs frequently at Megatron.Could that mean that he created those bombs rather than being part of his arsenal?Also he is stealthy when it comes to the uses of Allspark fragments(The train and taking many hostages to trap Megatron)..My guess is that he is so determined to get rid of Megatron that he creates smart ways of trapping him and/or killing him.For once,I underestimated him.As for the number of clones,could the Allspark help him engineer them…or were they planned and creating after destroying Megatron once?

Coward Starscream:A Con begging for mercy and whimpering.

G1 Colours Stasrcream: Deceptive in speech,but his lies are convincing,but not for the Autobots.

Megatron once again shows some Beast Wars Megs speech by using the word ‘taritor’ often,an equivalent to how BW Megatron keeps calling Dinobot ‘turncoat’.

[Wonko The Sane]

'Fistful of Energon'-Review(Part II)



Animation

The destroyed Nemesis is seen again, although it has a different colour scheme to the ones in G1 and Beast Wars,the shape of it is remotely the same.Still in Animated style rather than drawn in detail.

As for the Ark and the shuttle Prowl used,it is still the same as the other times it was seen in this Series.

For Lockdown’s ship,I could not help but think of the Destron’s ship in Beast Wars II Movie,mainly because it has sails,thogh on the side and is not as overwhelming as the Destron ship was.The colour scheme for it was red;from bright to bloody and had some sci-fi ring to it,and drawn in some detail.The ship is really big,but it makes sense to a Transformer who is a bounty hunter and does weird experiments to anyone who he catches.Seeing it again,the sails are transparent and the ship has a very wide bow.It is also equipped with Decepticon sound effects and a disguise mechanism.

The shield that Prowl uses is almost perfectly round,also,for a brief moment Starscream’s original colours appear as he destroys the Ark shuttle.

We see Lockdown’s alamode again and is still badass,from the many spikes surrounding the car,the thick racing stripes,the outside engine,and a GPS inside as well.

Prowl’s alt-mode is still the same but also proves a side-car for his motorcycle.If I know TF:Animated,there is a great chance Sari is going to sit on that(Hopefully we’ll see more interaction of the two).As for his robot mode,he gets to use boosters,more graceful and bigger than BumbleBee’s.



Weapons

The weapons Lockdown recieves is a hook at one hand,and a chainsaw in the other,both sharp and deadly for his prey.The hook is also able to be used as a grappler.On the attachment of the hook,Lockdown can release a rope-like chain,instantly tying up his enemies,and also provides as a visual comlink.

Prowl has a round shield before his upgrade,but after his upgrade,he brigns out a pronged-like weapon,which can retract to a short or long staff.The function of this weapon is a tazer(sp),but could stick on like a magnet,sending our a ton of massive vibrations in the robot body,numing them.To make things more interesting,Prowl has a retractable blade with square teeth and can cut clean using speed and swift.It is surrounded in a blue laser,acting as a cutter and meld to something as thick as metal plating and armour.



My Thoughts

First off,don't think that this will change my opinion on how this Season is written.Now we are eliminating one MacGuffin(The Key)with an even bigger one(The clones),add that with the arrival of Shockwave,the Seekers,Waspinator and Omega Supreme, and Allspark fragments,we get one crapload of sqeezing in plots in less than 30 minutes,and the Season is almost over.Makes me think why they haven't made a deal to have a 26 Episode First Season.

I do admit however,this is good,but I do wish they kept that upgrade of Prowl's.It kind of cheapens the idea that he wasn't able to tame the upgrade and kept his pride in check.I would love to see that.

I'm starting to like Animated Stasrscream.We deserve to see more of his intelligence...he might even know the Allspark more than anyone else(He is abused by it more than anyone else)



Quirks

Prowl has a good sense of humour,but BumbleBee's fake static is more convincing than Prowl's(lmao)

Why in the Pit is Lockdown wearing what resembles to be a poncho?

To Starscream: Prowl and Lockdown(Well,formerly)aren't Decepticons you glichhead.

Instant paraphrase to The Low Road in this Episode.

G1 Colours Starscream gave out character description of the Autobots in one word…and apologizes for Bulkhead’s name.

What message isn’t hacked these days?

[Purrpalz]

I agree with you on the 'extremely promising' Wonko.
I think I just found my new favorite TF:A episode. It rocked in my opinion. but I felt so sorry for Prowl when he saw those broken egg shells. Poor bot.

[artemis-lady-warrior]

How many times do you watch TFA episodes Wonko, to remember that much?

I'm telling you, Wonko. StarscREam is the Waspinator of this series. He gets owned more times in an episode than anyone else. (even if sometimes it was his clones)

I felt bad for the Coward Starscream. I wanted to give him a hug.

Ratchets nickname for Prowl made me laugh for a full hour after I heard it. I mean 'Mr Happy Mods?" BWAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA! I don't know why but that just sounds funny.

Yeah Prowl was acting a big like his pilot episodes/movie self in this. i kinda figured he would still have some of that persona in him even after all this time.