The Montreal/Quebec Local Fans Banter Thread

[Undrave]

I don't really remember much about how I came to own what little G1 toys I got. I remember, vaguely, getting Metroplex at x-mas at the same time as my cousin. I don't know why mine seems to come with Wheelie instead of the proper car (maybe I traded it?).

I didn't get a lot of transformers toys as a kid. I did watch the same 'More than meets the Eyes' quebec dub tape my parents copied onto a BETA tape. Over and over and over... I also had a bunch of catalogues, most of them with the 84-85 lineup and would stare at it hoping to get those toys. But by that time they weren't on the shelves anymore.

I got into TMNT and LEGO a lot more but I still took care of my transformers. I got a couple of micromasters and I really loved them. I must have gotten a few toys at yard sales because I don't know how I ended up with so many Gobots @.@ I got a Crasher for exemple, and Small Foot. I know my Buzzsaw came from a yard sale.

I LOVED Beast Wars to death. I would catch it on the syndicated block on channel 22 after school. Later I would wake up at like 6 AM to catch on like... I think it was WFFF Fox that aired it before Fox Kids? I really hated to miss those episodes when I was forced out of town on weekends ><

Beast Wars was probably one of the best thing to happen to me. It forced me to perfect my English. I wouldn't be having this conversation with you guys if I had relied only on the school system to learn English. Beast Wars was the first show I truly wanted to understand. I also can't help but feel like it helped me get through a rough patch. Right around the time I started to watch it my parents got divorced, and it was a rough time for me at school where I didn't really have much friends. If a lot of kids in the 80s saw Optimus Prime as a father figure, the maximals were like big brothers to me.

I never got a Beast Wars toy back then sadly. Heck the first one I ever got was the Telemocha Beast Wars aniversary Motor Arm (It was on sale for 600¥ at HLJ ). I got a Transmetal Rattrap earlier this year

The first TF toy I can say I bought as an adult collector was the pieces for RiD Ruination. I really wanted a combiner since I had never owned one as a kid, and it wasn't too expensive to get it. Then I waited until Cybertron before really buying more stuff. I got a few scouts, LOTS of Legends and Primus himself.

I didn't have much space so for a while most of what I bought were Legends class. I didn't miss out on Hound though.

I think it wasn't until the tail end of the ROTF line that I started to really really buy a lot of Tranformers.

[MaxArel]

Originally Posted by SHCKWAVE

What a great series of replies. Ok new topic: What ARE your views on the whole Beast Wars era?

I was born in it, so it holds a special place in my heart. I have two cassettes of a few episodes in french and whenever I'm down or sick, I watch the slag out of 'em!

[xelement24x]

Originally Posted by Vain

Then Beast Machines happened...

LOL so true. Beast Wars was epic, the characters really made the show what it is. THe problem with beast machines is that it ripped out all that we loved about beast wars. They focused on very very few characters, and made the ones that were apparent very f***ing ugly. I understand they tried something new, but cmon the only one with normal legs was optimus!! Then they go and make rhinox bad.....wtttfff! I bet the show wouldve kicked ass if they got dinobot in there somehow Also the toys are just.....soooooo odd.

[SMOG]

Originally Posted by SHCKWAVE

What a great series of replies. Ok new topic: What ARE your views on the whole Beast Wars era? I was never much of a fan in years past but now I'm totally becoming addicted.I just recently bought the BW series on DVD that I got in Burlington and have slowly been picking up the figures.

I have a very lukewarm response to Beast Wars. I remember when it was first on TV, and the toys were hitting shelves... I think I was about 20, and some friends and I were actually in the midst of a little Transformers G1 nostalgia kick, fooling around with TF MUSHES online, and reliving old times.

But the Beast Wars toys were an abomination to my eyes... which is not simply to say that they were not "my" Transformers, the ones I'd love so much in my youth; I just thought they were UGLY.

I think it was just that the semi-organic, asymmetrical, shell-forming aesthetic was not appealing to me. I found the beast modes were often really unimaginative in how they dealt with kibble and stuff. The "animal-legs-become-robot-legs" and "let's just stick that tail/head/ass anywhere" simplicity really felt like a design fail, propped up by a smokescreen of intricate sculpting. That said, the ball-joints were quite a breakthrough. I wanted to like them. I tried... but my enthusiasm for the increased articulation was offset by the generic body designs and tendency for the toys to get very loose very easily, lacking that satisfying "click-click-click" as everything locked in place on a traditional Transformer. And let's just say that those craptacular names and minimal bios added no extra charm (hell, people complained about the names in GoBots and MOTU... Beast Wars was at least as bad!).

I've since warmed up to a few of the designs... mostly transmetal stuff (because of the removed organic element). I like some of the more anime-infused Japanese BW figures too.

Now, speaking of the Beast Wars TV series... at the time I was watching it, and I was willing to concede that it had better, more dynamic, clever writing than any other Transformer series had before. Also, the crappy, primitive CGI graphics didn't look quite so dated at that time, obviously. But even if I found it fun sometimes, it never really pulled me in.

I tried going through the whole series again a few years back, and couldn't handle it. The horrible HORRIBLE canned music (often little more than one endless synth guitar solo), the clunky, ugly CGI, the limited character range, and that awful speech-impediment voicework (especially on the Preds) really did me in. The stories and evolving character development quite simply wasn't good enough to overcome the badness of everything else, and I had no nostalgia for the series as an anchor.

So that's my anti-Beast Wars diatribe.

I'm sure that if I watched it when I was twelve, I would have loved it, but sometimes you just can't go back.

zmog

[Kristal]

With Beast Wars, I do remember seeing it on YTV as a toddler. Sadly all I remembered was primal,rattrap,cheetor and spidertits (BA)

It was only until after TFA I rewatched BW a little and recognized all of them I probably didn't remember them much since in the late 90's I caught the Digimon and Pokémon craze.

[Protoman]

Having being raised on G1, and my favorite character being Hot Rod; I still say with a straight face that Beast Wars is not only the best TF series ever made, but the toys saved the franchise.

At the time (Before the 2007 movie era), the last time Transformers was even in the Top 3 best selling boys toys brand was 1985, then it was dark times ahead. 1997 was Transformers return not only to the Top 3, but #1 according to the 4th Quarter American Consumers Report of 1997. While tailend G2 and some SPARSE G1 toys brought balljoints to Transformers, it was Beast Wars that brought about universal weapon storage (instead of sidelined kibble) and balljointing.

Everything we hold dear today in Classics is due to those "Beast Wars beginnings"

[Undrave]

Nadeshicon is holding a fun raising flea market for otaku tomorow. Starting at noon at Université Lava and ending at midnight. I'll be there helping a friend at her table (and probably wearing my Optimus Prime t-shirt ). I won't be selling TFs but just thought I'd mention it if somebody's in the area.

[Grayfox]

Originally Posted by Undrave

Nadeshicon is holding a fun raising flea market for otaku tomorow. Starting at noon at Université Lava and ending at midnight. I'll be there helping a friend at her table (and probably wearing my Optimus Prime t-shirt ). I won't be selling TFs but just thought I'd mention it if somebody's in the area.

I would've loved going. I wish I had a better work schedule!

[Jazz227]

coming home from elementary school just to watch Beast wars on YTV was the best. best time to be born besides G1 but yeah haha. it was always fun to get new toys and play with them till they broke i still love watching the old episodes today

[SMOG]

Originally Posted by Protoman

Having being raised on G1, and my favorite character being Hot Rod; I still say with a straight face that Beast Wars is not only the best TF series ever made, but the toys saved the franchise.

As lukewarm as I am toward Beast Wars, I can't disagree with this. We've had some decent series since Beast Wars (Animated, Prime), but in terms of writing and characterization, it's still probably the best, even if some elements are not painfully dated.

Everything we hold dear today in Classics is due to those "Beast Wars beginnings"

I have to disagree with this to some extent. The BW toys were a sensation and definitely put Transformers back on the map, but I'm not sure I agree that Beast Wars is solely responsible for the great toys we have now. Some of the mechanical innovations starting with G2 definitely showed where the franchise could go, and BW simply following that lead while adding even more balljoints and shell-forming.

Although Beast Wars kept the brand name alive (and I give it full marks for that), I think that the vehicle counter-revolution and Classics were simply a sea change thing. A certain generation reached a certain age, and it triggered a revival, one that arguably could have happened whether the brand was active OR dormant at the time (MOTU 2000 would be an example of a similar comeback, though one that ultimately failed) I'm pretty sure there are a lot of fans like myself who came back not because of Beast Wars, but because suddenly G1-esque characters were back on the menu.

I also disagree about integrated weaponry. I actually see it as exactly the opposite. Almost none of the BW weaponry looks like anything. It's just comes off as an excuse not to have to integrate various tails and heads into the robot engineering. What are we going to do with these dinosaur tails? Nothing. It can just detach and be a... "sword-propeller-flower thing". What are we going to do with this head? Oh just stick it on his arm. BW weapons are some of the lamest things in the history of Transformers. You want integrated weapons? G1 Soundwave. There's your integrated weapons.

I also think it's telling that when the Beast Wars design philosophy was applied to Car Robots, we got spindly, shell-forming endoskeleton robots with huge chunks of car ball-jointed to them, and weapons made out of unwieldy bits of fender or tailpipe. Not that I don't like some of those figures... Mach Alert is pretty great... Sideburn... less so. But I think it also shows some of the design limitations of the BW style. Thankfully CR/RID brought us more traditional designs as well in the Build Team and JRX.

As a total aside, you can probably answer this, Proto... what exactly was the story behind BW being released under Kenner at that time? Hasbro had bought Kenner, right? But then why release Transformers under the Kenner banner? Seems weird.

zmog