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Continuity..
Okay, I've had to go through this so many times, so I'll just limit this dissortation to just the American broadcast shows:
Inspired by previous mecha design and the likes, Transformers, premiered in 1984. In 1986, the first and only Movie came out, with such names as Robert Stack, Judd Nelson, Eric Idle, Orson Wells, and Leonard Nemoy playing Ultra Magnus, Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime, Wreck-Gar, Unicron, and Galvitron, repectively. After the movie, the show lasted one more season in the US, finding termination after 4 episodes of Transformers: Headmasters..
Headmasters was picked up in Japan and continued until the premiere of Transformers: Car Robots. Hailed as a kickback to the old-style vehicle mecha, while still keeping the Predacons in the picture..
While this was going on, in the early 90s, Generation 2 came out in the US.. Toys for the original vehicles were slumping and this was to be the marketing ploy to end all marketing ploys.. It failed.. G2 went down the tube, as old episodes were rehashed for the 20th time and the toys were merely repaints.. Though the Megatron Tank was cool, and the Oil Rig Optimus Prime is worth a mention..
Beast Wars appeared in the late 90s, totally computer animated and throwing a whole new spin on the original while weaving a whole new storyline.. Cameos by Starscream's spark, Ravage, and a bunch of G1 bots in stasis on the Ark topped off a series of great characters, namely Inferno, Waspinator, Blackarachnia, Dinobot, and Rampage in my opinion. (notice a trend??)
Beast Machines was the ultimately lame follow-up to Beast Wars.. What can I say, the premise was flawed, the characters were warped beyond recognition, and the "organic transformations" were terrible.. they were more of shapeshifters than Transformers..
Well anyways, Car Robots, remember from above??, was reboxed as Transformers: Robots in Disguise, but since only one season of Car Robots aired in Japan, only one season of RiD aired here.. No chance of anything else.. Notables here include Gigatron (renamed Megatron in the english version), Scourge ( a black version of G2 Optimus with cool little upside down autobot ensignias on the shoulders), repaints of Devastator ( known as Buildking) and Bruticus, (forgot the new name of the gestalt).. Oh, and the fact that it's the only series where Predacon and Decepticon factions work together..
That would be that.. It's interesting to note that there was a group of Decepticons from G1 called Predacons, they joined and formed Predaking.. Also, the name of the Decepticon faction changed..(Decpticons-Destrons-Destrongers-Predacons) Mostly due to translation and differences in the japanese and english languages.. Also, all told, 4 planets, give or take 1 were destroyed over the run of the show, including Mars..
If you wish to know personal favorites, just ask.. my fingers hurt after typing that one..
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