Was Transformers Generation One canceled in Season 3?

[NextGen123]

Watching the DVD's of Transformers Generation One: Why did it end so abruptly in the start of season 3? With the return of Optimus Prime and the evolution of the Headmasters, it looked like the story was going to continue. Did the show get canceled or did Hasbro believe it was time to stop production?

I saw on Amazon.com there was a Headmasters series in Japan. However many reviewers claim it never matched the quality of Generation One.

Are there any shows that followed Generation One that match the quality of writing? The only reason I bothered to watch this show was the fact that many Marvel Comics writers worked on the show.

 

[Gepard]

Short story: nobody knows. Long story: ...actually, it's about the same.

 

[NextGen123]

Short story: nobody knows. Long story: ...actually, it's about the same.

Are there any DVD's you could reccomend? I saw a few called Transformers:Energon. Are they a continuation of the Generation One mythology? I am hoping some of the Marvel writers like Len Wein might have participated in future series.

Another question I have would be why wasn't there a Transformers/G.I. Joe team up or series of some kind? I know there was a Marvel comic years ago. Why wasn't there an animated version?

 

[Gepard]

I have no idea. I don't follow most of the fiction, but all the information you could ever want to know is on TFWiki. Just look up the shows in question.

 

[Whofan]

Energon is a sort of American/Japanese co-production, I think. It's in an entirely different continuity than Generation One. It, Armada and Cybertron form a trilogy. It sort of has homages to G1 of course, but is not the same thing.


The Beast Wars series is supposed to be pretty good, although the CG animation is a bit dated. Also, "Transformers animated"-released around the time of the first two films-is also pretty good, although the designs are more cartoony than usual.

The current Transformers series is Transformers: Prime, which has CG and largely borrows stuff from the Bay movies.


If you'd rather just read G1, IDW (Who also make the current Star Trek comics) has been publishing comics for several years that utilize the G1 characters (Although not exactly the same continuity). Dreamwave also did a G1 series as well.

 

[Agent Richard07]

I picked up the complete Transformers series a week or so ago and saw the Headmasters DVD on the shelf, but didn't get it. When I went home, I read up on it and found out that it continued the G1 story, so I went back and got it the next day. I sampled a bit of it and yeah, the animation doesn't look that good and it's in japanese with english subtitles, but I'm still looking forward to seeing where the story would have gone.

Fun fact: Headmasters takes place in 2011.

 

[Captain Craig]

It would be nice to know for the sake of curiosity why S4 for the US is only those 3 Headmaster episodes. I just recently finished the Japanese Headmaster series and despite the subtitles enjoyed it. They killed off Prime again, restore Rodimus only to have him go off with Kup& Blurr in search of a new home. Leaving Cerebros/Ft. Max in charge. Those are bullet points but I found the stories enjoyable and there is a narrative they follow even if they stray for a few episodes at a time.

I also liked how some toys never explored as characters due to a cut short S4 show up here. Likely as they became available at retail. I'm curious about the next Japanese series, aka S5, called Master Victory that may see a North American release if Headmasters sells well enough.

I enjoyed the Dreamwave series from the early years of last decade and currently like what IDW is doing. Big story is kicking off called Chaos and TF is going bimonthly till end of the year.

Also, it was ironic as I put in Headmasters the future date was 2011!!

 

[Hound of UIster]

Headmasters really is a horrible sequel to the original G1. The Japanese writers just didn't have an affinity for the original characters and they even went the extra mile to kill Prime off again. Why?

Some of the characters are interesting most especially Sixshot, but its sequels Masterforce and Victory are much better imo especially Masterforce.

 

[Agent Richard07]

They're supposed to be releasing Headmasters, Masterforce and Victory in one DVD set this fall, but from what I understand, Masterforce veers away from G1's continuity and re-imagines a lot of things.

 

[shivkala]

For US television, Beast Wars and it's sequel Beast Machines are the only continuations of G1. I definitely recommend Beast Wars. It does take some getting used to the use of beast modes instead of vehicles, and yes, at this point, the CGI looks outdated (though it was pretty cutting edge at the time), but it's an awesome show.

I don't want to spoil anything, but if you're a fan of G1, you will definitely be rewarded for watching the show!

 

[Hound of UIster]

Also Transformers Animated, which is pretty much a tribute to the original.

 

[Rarewolf]

Did many 80s cartoons go beyond three seasons?

We never got more than series 1 of Transformers and Thundercats in the UK. At the time.

 

[Hound of UIster]

Thundercats had 4 seasons.

 

[Agent Richard07]

Also Transformers Animated, which is pretty much a tribute to the original.

Transformers Animated was pretty good. It's a shame it didn't go on. It's the first transformers series since G1 that got my attention.

 

[Anwar]

I think the show could've ended in S3 without the Headmasters stuff, it had an okay finale: Prime comes back, Galvatron and the Decepticons agree to stop fighting (at least for a while). Would've been a fine finale.

 

[JediKnightButler]

Good question, though technically G1 ended after the 3-part "Headmasters" trilogy at the beginning of "Season 4". Why it was cancelled after that I have no idea. To be honest, I only saw (most of) S3 only about once and (I think) I saw some of the "Headmasters" trilogy that kicked off what would have been S4 but I remember very little of it. The animated movie was kind of the high mark of the series for me and I got too busy after that to closely follow the series and then it was just over. Thankfully, I bought the entire collection last year and look forward to (eventually) watching it in its entirety. I *may* even get the Japanese "Headmasters" series on DVD at some point as well since Transformers series since G1 just haven't been as interesting/enjoyable IMHO.

 

[God Magnus]

According to some of the gents who used to work on the Transformers team back then, it came down to funding. Hasbro simply no longer wanted to put the money into the development of the fourth season, so "Rebirth" basically become a three episode toy commercial which introduced characters at ridiculous speeds.

Meanwhile in Japan, they did steam ahead with three new Transformers shows:

Headmasters
Directly continued the story of the Transformers from Generation One including Prime, Rodimus, Metroplex and gang. Newer characters that played ar ole were Headmasters, Targetmasters and Sixshot.

Masterforce
Set after the Headmasters series, this was a much more traditional Japanese styled/human based series where most of the Transformers were either controlled by a human (Headmasters) or looked human (Pretenders). Though directly tied in terms of storyline to Headmasters, it was very different in tone and animation style.

Victory
Set after Masterforce, this was in the future where the two main leaders were Star Saber (leader of the good guys) and Desaurus (leader of the bad guys, his name would later get spelled as Deathsaurus in the US versions of the character). It also introduced new types of Transformers including "Brainmasters" (a modified type of Headmaster) and (no, I'm not kidding) "Breastmasters", Transformers who had small partners that popped out of their chests.

Beyond these three shows, there was one OVA of Transformers Zone, the first episode of what was intended to be a series focusing on the Transformers Micromasters.

The rest of "Zone" and its follow up series "Mission Combination" were only chronicled in print in Japanese magazines and that's effectively where the "Generation One" series "ended" (though it continued in dribs and drabs here and there, but never in full blown animation like the first series).

If you want to look at "Generation One" as a continuity (albeit with many branches), it did continue loosely in "Beast Wars", which used several elements of G1 lore as its back story. The storyline for the "Binaltech" series of toys in Japan also used "Generation One" as its back story. Though it's long gone, the influence of G1 isn't going anywhere any time soon.

 

[JoeZhang]

I see that there is a Transformers comic coming out next year picking up directly from the end of the Marvel series:

Back in April, we wrote about a online petition driven by fans who wanted to see IDW pick up the old Marvel Transformers comic book where it left off with issue #80 in 1991, in the same fashion as the publisher’s current GI Joe: A Real American Hero series. At that point, it was a possibility, but as of last week’s “IDW and Hasbro: 2012 Transformations” panel at Comic-Con International: San Diego, it’s official.

They’re actually starting with an issue #80.5, designed to catch up new readers or old-school fans who may have forgotten a few details in the interim two decades. In 2012 (undetermined as to exactly when, but said to likely be first half), will be #81, which will run until the story wraps in #100. The creative team will be writer Simon Furman and artist Andrew Wildman, the same crew on the book at the end of the Marvel series. The petition currently has 2,779 signatures, more than twice the number it was at in April.

http://blog.newsarama.com/2011/07/29/petition-accepted-idws-transformers-81-official-for-2012/

 

[Hound of UIster]

There has already been two continuation of the original G1 comic. This will be the third. I don't see whats the point really. Furman jumped the sharked along time ago.

Maybe if they had handed it off to the guys who wrote the Wreckers comic. They seem to be the only one who can writer TFs in the comic. Anyone else who tries has failed so far.

 

[davejames]

The big turnoff for me with the third season (aside from the crappy animation) was all the crazy alien settings. What made the show work originally was seeing these giant robots in our own, recognizable world, and transforming into familiar vehicles.

Once they ditched that idea, it just became harder for me to care about anything that was happening.