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Post by shadowynne on May 1, 2012 12:37:14 GMT
just got him, pure awesome.
i have been going back and forth over this guy for years and im glad i finally caved in. really nice figure. the bot mode is excellent the other modes are varying degrees of entertaining and passable. the hand mode is pure win, wildly amusing!
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 16, 2014 8:23:16 GMT
But, likewise, I don't feel Skybyte either. But then that probably has something do with my general loathing of (Car) Robots in Disguise. It's the series that undid all the progression made by the Beast series. But that's a conversation for another thread Oooo I'm interested: Discuss! Certainly from a toy point of view I can't see it. Everything used in BW is taken on a levels and applied to vehicles. |
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Post by Toph on May 16, 2014 8:33:58 GMT
Give me RiD over Aligned, movies, and Sunbow G1 any day.
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Stomski
Fusilateral Quintro Combiner
YOU INTERRUPTED MY SPEECH!! But don't worry. It won't happen again.
Posts: 6,121
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Post by Stomski on May 16, 2014 8:34:31 GMT
On a toy level definitely not. Some great molds here!
From a cartoon level, I can see what LG is talking about, but so much better than the 3 series that followed it. It's light hearted and with enough ongoing jokes and characterisation to keep it enjoyable.
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Post by Llama God on May 16, 2014 10:34:49 GMT
Damn. I didn't actually mean to start anything here. But since I opened this can of worms...
Yeah, toy-wise I don't think I can really fault the line. Sure, Fire Convoy's super-mode is more than a little fragile, but it's a pretty decent toy, nonetheless, and it was exciting at the time to have a new Optimus Prime. And yeah, I'll not disagree that some of the Beast Machines toys were a bit ropey, at least until the Battle for the Spark range, but there were some gems in there, too. And they were at least trying something different.
No, the reason I hate RiD is, as stomski suggests, because of the cartoon. Beast Wars and Beast Machines were fantastically, lovingly animated, flawlessly acted, and a joy to watch. You may not like where Beast Machines ended up taking Transformers, but I can't think that you can fault the effort that went into it, and the fact that they were trying something different. And I loved it all.
My first problem with RiD, really, is that it wasn't a continuation of the Beast series. They were back on Cybertron, at last! Whatever you may think of the end of Beast Machines, it left the series with massive potential. There were characters that I'd really come to love, and a story that I'd really enjoyed, and I wanted to see more. The fact that RiD wasn't a continuation was not only a disappointment, but the return to a G1-esque story felt like a step backwards.
But that of course is just a prejudice I had going in to the series. All the same, I was intrigued and couldn't wait to watch the cartoon, and it was so disappointing. The animation was flat (naturally), felt very much like standard stuff, and had nothing like the vibrancy of Mainframe's work. I hated the fact that they re-used all the transformation sequences - one of my favourite thing about the Beast series was seeing the characters transform in the middle of the action; having to bring everything to a halt whilst pre-canned transformation sequences were shown was jarring and tedious. I know it's a staple of that sort of animation, but I just didn't like it, and Mainframe had given us better. I ended up fast-forwarding through about fifty percent of the episodes, just to get past that stock footage.
And then there was the characterisation. Yeah, sure, so Beast Wars had some goofy characters, and Beast Machines mucked around with some of the characters (like Rattrap), but at least they were layered, *real* characters. The characters in RiD were all stereotypes and caricatures. These were true kids' cartoon characters, and nowhere near as entertaining as the Beast era cast. I won't fault the voice actors, though, for their work - they did a good job with the material they were given.
That's it in a nutshell, really: Poor animation, terrible characterisation and predictable stories. RiD was, in every conceivable way, a backwards step for Transformers cartoons. And one we really didn't progress from until Animated. That's why I loathe it.
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Post by Andy Turnbull on May 16, 2014 21:58:30 GMT
How long until Ralph comes on frothing at the mouth about RID Magnus I wonder?
Andy
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 16, 2014 22:11:16 GMT
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Post by blueshift on May 16, 2014 22:15:24 GMT
I love RID. What a lovely, fun tv show!
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Post by blueshift on May 16, 2014 22:21:35 GMT
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Jim
Thunderjet
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Posts: 4,922
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Post by Jim on May 16, 2014 22:27:15 GMT
One day I will actually get round to watching an episode of RID.
My impression has always been that it's quite fun though.
-Jim
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Post by blueshift on May 16, 2014 22:29:02 GMT
It starts quite slow, but gets amazing once the Decepticons arrive and so doesn't feel the need to treat Sky Byte and his Predacons as actual threats any more.
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Post by Llama God on May 16, 2014 22:57:14 GMT
That's an epic story. I may have applauded. And to be fair, I think that Magnus was when insanity started to creep into the transformations, and the instructions started to become far from helpful... |
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Post by The Doctor on May 16, 2014 23:02:12 GMT
Yes he **^^***€€¥$+** is! Though my rage is not what it used be as ROTF Leader Prime exists. -Ralph |
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Post by The Doctor on May 16, 2014 23:03:04 GMT
One day I will actually get round to watching an episode of RID. My impression has always been that it's quite fun though. -Jim It was the last TF cartoon show that I actively enjoyed. Everything since has been awful! -Ralph |
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Post by blueshift on May 16, 2014 23:08:52 GMT
Yes he **^^***€€¥$+** is! Though my rage is not what it used be as ROTF Leader Prime exists. -Ralph I think as long as you know what he's supposed to look like, he's fine. It's just that the Omega Prime legs mean it feels like it should transform more than it actually does. I have an oddly soft spot for Magnus though. Happy days! |
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 17, 2014 10:35:20 GMT
One day I will actually get round to watching an episode of RID. My impression has always been that it's quite fun though. -Jim Jim: Watch Skybyte saves the Day. Single greatest TF episode ever. And they banned it in the US! |
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 17, 2014 11:32:08 GMT
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Post by KnightBeat on May 17, 2014 21:02:37 GMT
Though my rage is not what it used be as ROTF Leader Prime exists. I share your pain. I tried to convert it to vehicle mode 5 years ago and still haven't finished. It's sitting in my wardrobe now, waiting for the day when it will finally be able to roll out like it's G1 counterpart. |
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Post by Toph on May 18, 2014 0:50:57 GMT
I promptly lost the instructions for my RotF Optimus. It spent years untransformed, before I finally found them.
I transformed it once, put it back on robot, and vowed to NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!
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Post by Jaymz on May 18, 2014 17:58:23 GMT
That's it in a nutshell, really: Poor animation, terrible characterisation and predictable stories. RiD was, in every conceivable way, a backwards step for Transformers cartoons. And one we really didn't progress from until Animated. That's why I loathe it. To be fair, it wasn't developed for the Western market and the proper follow up to Beast Machines should be considered to be Armada, which is much worse. |
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Post by Llama God on May 18, 2014 21:37:07 GMT
To be fair, it wasn't developed for the Western market and the proper follow up to Beast Machines should be considered to be Armada, which is much worse. Just because it wasn't developed for a Western market doesn't mean it couldn't have been *good*. Sure, it might have lost something in the translation, but even so... As for Armada, that's more a sequel to RiD, which was inspired by Hasbro realising that they could get away with this shit and still sell toys. Sure, the production issues with the cartoons for the entire Unicron Trilogy are well documented (such as the Western versions featuring unfinished animation), but the point is there shouldn't have *been* production issues. Mainframe put out five years' worth of slickly-animated, well-produced TV - you can't really excuse any other animation house or production team for not being able to do the same. And you really can't leave Hasbro blameless either - they wanted it rushed to market, so rushed it was. And that's part of why my whole problem with RiD (as I might have already said - I've had a busy weekend, I forget) - with Beast Wars you could tell that someone loved the series, and was putting a lot of thought and effort into what was being produced. With the advent of RiD... we were back to just being sold toys again. Oh, and the final disappointment - the proper follow-up to Beast Machines would have been Transtech. Just thinking of the conceptual designs that finally surfaced always makes me weep for what might have been... |
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Post by Jaymz on May 18, 2014 22:11:25 GMT
Just because it wasn't developed for a Western market doesn't mean it couldn't have been *good*. Sure, it might have lost something in the translation, but even so... Having seen some subbed Car Robots episodes, the dub is a huge improvement... But yes, I entirely see what you mean, there is no excuse for the bad cartoon. I blame Takara's involvement more, Japan has a completely different view toward kids cartoons than the west, but yeah, Hasbro should've tried better too. Still, we got Animated eventually, which was nice. Promptly followed by another bad TF cartoon in Prime. Personally, I'm not a fan of Beast Machines, especially as a follow up to Beast Wars, but it had some nice animation. |
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Post by Toph on May 18, 2014 23:37:02 GMT
I think you're coming at CR/RiD completely wrong.
It's target audience was young children (which seems counter intuitive given some of the toys are some of the hardest in the franchise), which is rather jarring following Beast Machines, which was written more for teens.
CR was also written as a complete slapstick comedy. Nothing about it was ever meant to be serious, same as BWII and BWN. And the japanese dub of BW.
I think you're approaching RiD with the same serious adult Space Opera mindset most detractors seem to. Which is fine if you only like space opera stories, but you shouldn't fault something written for pure comedy as though it's intended to be serious.
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primenova
Fusilateral Quintro Combiner
Posts: 6,057
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Post by primenova on May 19, 2014 6:29:56 GMT
One thing with Magnus is keep him transformed & use him to move cars around.
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Post by Llama God on May 19, 2014 8:33:47 GMT
I think you're coming at CR/RiD completely wrong. Crazy Jetty, with the greatest of respect- No, wait, anything that follows on from that comment is usually going to be completely the opposite. So... Crazy Jetty, with the greatest of disrespect- Nah, that doesn't work either. But yeah, I do get your point. I guess the way that I feel about it is that they're all kids' series, and should all be treated as such. I had no preconceptions going in to Beast Wars, but then that turned out to be something that could be enjoyed by both adults and children, on a number of different levels. That's what I was spoiled by, really. I do understand that RiD was targetted purely at children, and I can't really fault it for that - but I am disappointed. Beast Wars was a kids' series that had someting for me, RiD was a kids' series that had nothing for me - that was the let down. And I don't just apply this criteria to Transformers. After being spoiled by Pixar films, it's always massively disappointing when I have to sit through kids' stuff with my various godlesschildren only to discover that no-one else has learned from Pixar, and that there's nothing for the adults. (No, Top Cat, I still have not forgiven you. And never will.) |
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Post by Philip Ayres on Oct 22, 2017 12:58:59 GMT
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Post by Pinwig on Jan 10, 2021 22:31:35 GMT
Today was supposed to be Scourge day, but having had to work all day (don't let the government fool you that schools are closed, they're far from that) I've only had time to fiddle with the robot.
What a joy he is though! Lovely simple transformation, great truck and robot. I love the way the head swings out on that arm and flips round. So imposing, lovely moulding. Solid. Great head. Brilliant. The only thing that stops it being perfect is some leg articulation. He looks Magnificent stood with the Baldichaps (minor niggle that in my case the faction symbols don't match).
Admittedly, I have never fiddled with the G2 Op version of this and I know that has some extra features, but the instructions make the trailer look like a LOT OF FUN due to the presence of actual PLAY FEATURES. I must explore tomorrow. I must.
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The Huff
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Hufferlover
Posts: 4,243
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Post by The Huff on Jan 11, 2021 9:25:48 GMT
The Laser Rod Prime mould has leg articulation. I assume Scourge is the same?
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Post by Toph on Jan 11, 2021 9:33:50 GMT
Not acquiring Scourge when the option was available to me is my biggest regret of CR/RiD
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The Huff
Thunderjet
Hufferlover
Posts: 4,243
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Post by The Huff on Jan 11, 2021 11:18:03 GMT
I'm completely happy with my Spychanger and Combat Hero versions.
Never been a fan of evil black Optimus Prime clones but at least this one had a bit of a personality and was his own thing.
Of course the Laser Rod Prime mould is still one of the best. I was fiddling with the trailer the other day and had forgotten that it pretty much does every feature from 1995 as well as a couple from 1994!
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