The Demo Site

originally posted August 25, 2005

by NinjaJack

If you’re a young man in your twenties you've probably have heard that term and it's quite likely when you were a boy you held that term very close to your heart.

These Robots In Disguise once were associated with fascinating stories, innovative toys and a well deserved dedicated audience I was in that audience and I bought those innovative toys (though I never could get my hands on the original G2 Optimus Prime)

Between 1985 and 1998 Transformers went through an iconic period of being a toy phenom then
being taken off to air in the states and then being broadcast on Japanese TV only to be brought back in 96 with the epical Beast Wars(Beasties for you Canadians) series.

Then the slag hit the fan.

In 1999 the most utterly confusing, totally immersing and completely ridiculous TF series of all time premiered on Fox Kids entitled Beast Wars( I don't know if it had a Canadian name, but I’m pretty sure it still sucked)

The Transformers plot line for this season was that they had forgotten how to transform. . . .
That’s right, they had somehow forgotten how to a natural function of their bodies. Optmus Prime forgot he was a warrior and became a wise old sage who was trained in the martial art of Transforming.

What the #%$!

As the first four years of the new millennium passed, it had become obvious like a Trekkie at a Star Wars convention that somehow the Autobots had taken a wrong turn on the highway to Sucksville.
After years of beautiful seasons from Mainframe the bots packed up and moved to Asia. Hasbro and Tekera started a new animated series for BigBot and his boys called Robots In Disguise but it suffered from way too much Anime sweat drops way too little story.

Then there was true revamp of TF, if you could call it that. Transformers Armada/Micron Legend
premiered with much fan fare. It was the first TF to be only available on a cable station, so it was treated as one of Cartoon Networks major events even having a mention in Entertainment Weekly(was positive but it was there) I liked the thought of there being a third faction, but they were not much more than tools.

Just last year Cartoon Network aired Transformers Energon, a better series that was written much smoother than it's predecessor. Its drawback was the stilted CGI and far more characters than anyone could care about, mass-produced Transformers didn't work in Beast Machines and they didn't work here.

As a TransFan I pretty much officially disowned this series with Beast Machines. The toys didn't look like the bots on the show anymore. The stories never seemed to make sense. The characters stopped taking themselves seriously. Transformers became a joke.

And you know what made it worse? The fans were the ones laughing, laughing at how these seasons were so bad they COULDN'T have possibly been Transformers. Someone must have resurrected The GoBots and tried to pass them off as craptacular Transformer series. Well, the truth sets your free, but sometimes it hurts. The fans came to accept that the period of excellence had longed passed. And that these supersized Henshin Heroes would never regain rise to greatness ever again.



But from deep out the bowels of Cybertron came the Amazing Gonzo (not the Muppet) Anime Company came into the fold to restore what was ounce thought lost forever to bad writing and plenty of deadweight.

Studio Gonzo is behind many well established animated series that have been critically acclaimed by critics and their fans for beautiful animation coupled with endearing characters.
The first foray into the TF mythos has been a supersized success. Transformers Cybertron/Galaxy Force has vindicated Transformers. After so many years of complete disappointment fans have been jubilant in the return of good stories and characters they(gasp) actually care about!

Megatron isn't the preachy loser as of the last couple of seasons. He finally back to the Megs we knew in Beast Wars.
The kids don’t get in the way
The dialog is actually pretty good, and did I mention the stupid kids don't get in the way?

I’m still in the process of retaining a state of calm after seeing all Transformers Cybertron has to offer. And recognizing that Transformers is no longer a laughing stock.

The Autobots are back on track, no pun intended, and the Decepticons are flying high once again.

"Way to getter dun Starscream!"-Thundercracker
Could not have said it better myself.