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[Microraptor]

That's why Megatron decided to reform at the end of the episode. All he really wanted all this time was for Prime to pull his trigger.

[King Kuuga]

Apparently Metroplex is Mufasa.

"REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE."

Otherwise, ditto to the consensus. Marmocha's Megatron is great and one of the great Megatrons. everybody else was kind of crap. They should really have called this Titans Return since the combiners are much more like Titans than robots made of separate components who join together. Hopefully either Machinima's Titans Return doesn't happen or it gets a massive production boost.

[TransformableBacon]

Starscream spent so much screen time vomiting I thought I was watching "the Exorcist".

This is the main reason why IDW should lose it'sTransformers license immediately. The IDW comics are responsible for influencing this garbage that we all just watched. I don't care if the Titans are returning to belch for 3 minutes straight or whatever they're coming to do. I just don't care. No sequel please. Just leave it alone.

IDW has nothing to do with this series. If you're going to blame anyone for the way this turned out, focus your attention on Hasbro for the budget and Machinima for their execution of the series.

You're partly right. Machinima is to blame for not executing this series before it could be seen by anyone.

But I still hold Idw responsible for this mess. Hasbro execs looked at the boards and deduced that adult fans like boring plots and small casts.

Also the Combiners are portrayed as a different faction from Autobot, Decepticon or Camien. Wtf?

So let me get this straight. IDW had no control over the show. They created the comic books and the Combiner War Arc. Hasbro and Machinima liked it they agreed to make a animation 'adaptation' of the story arc.

Despite Machinima being in full control and all everything that's wrong with the show is to be pointed at IDW? What? For inspiring an animation series? Something they do not have control nor is it their idea in the first place? For Inspiration?!?! That argument is just whack. And your second point clearly states it was Hasbro who made the show the way it is and not IDW. So who's at fault then?

Argh, not to mention the Combiners are never portrayed as being sub-groups consistent of individuals being able to combine into one save for Devastator. Its like they never separate at all.

[ausbot]

I like most transformers fiction, and I try to be positive, but that was very dissapointing.

[RodimusRex]

Starscream spent so much screen time vomiting I thought I was watching "the Exorcist".

This is the main reason why IDW should lose it'sTransformers license immediately. The IDW comics are responsible for influencing this garbage that we all just watched. I don't care if the Titans are returning to belch for 3 minutes straight or whatever they're coming to do. I just don't care. No sequel please. Just leave it alone.

IDW has nothing to do with this series. If you're going to blame anyone for the way this turned out, focus your attention on Hasbro for the budget and Machinima for their execution of the series.

You're partly right. Machinima is to blame for not executing this series before it could be seen by anyone.

But I still hold Idw responsible for this mess. Hasbro execs looked at the boards and deduced that adult fans like boring plots and small casts.

Also the Combiners are portrayed as a different faction from Autobot, Decepticon or Camien. Wtf?

So let me get this straight. IDW had no control over the show. They created the comic books and the Combiner War Arc. Hasbro and Machinima liked it they agreed to make a animation 'adaptation' of the story arc.

Despite Machinima being in full control and all everything that's wrong with the show is to be pointed at IDW? What? For inspiring an animation series? Something they do not have control nor is it their idea in the first place? For Inspiration?!?! That argument is just whack. And your second point clearly states it was Hasbro who made the show the way it is and not IDW. So who's at fault then?

Argh, not to mention the Combiners are never portrayed as being sub-groups consistent of individuals being able to combine into one save for Devastator. Its like they never separate at all.

I thought stuff like Combiner Wars was created by Hasbro and assigned to IDW as a direction.

So it was more like, "The next story is called Combiner Wars. We have this character Windblade who is what's known as a 'City Speaker'. The following characters are on the table." And then IDW works backwards from there.

My DISTINCT impression is that, for example, some folks at IDW know fully what the third part of Prime Wars trilogy is, that Hasbro is largely responsible for some of the big story beats, and that they advance leak this stuff to IDW to setup in advance. In many cases, it isn't that IDW is influencing the toys so much as that IDW is informed about the toys in advance.

In turn, Hasbro picks some designs (Cyberverse Prime, Generations Springer, Combiner Wars Ultra Magnus) that draw SOME inspiration from IDW and then doubles down by making decos based on IDW in some cases for molds that weren't designed for it.

I don't think IDW is exactly the horse leading the cart here, regardless. Hasbro decides the big stuff internally (maybe while consulting IDW guys), they leak two year plans within IDW to advance setup the next big thing, and then they take designs and flourishes from IDW.

IDW set Plantinum Games up with writers for Devastation and the the Ninja Turtles game. And I think Megatron's characterization here had some influence from IDW because, perhaps, they read those comics.

But I don't think Combiner Wars originated with IDW at all and the plot points here that mirror the comic are probably because Hasbro assigned IDW those details in advance, not because this was trying to adapt the comic. Combiner Wars, I'm pretty sure, is a Hasbro story that IDW was given advance info on, not something IDW guys cooked up.

[DeadCaL]

Anyway, I think like alot of people, I enjoyed this mainly because of Megaton. He straight up does a pun about Prime pulling the trigger and just rolls with it.

That wasn't a pun. Megatron was referring to something he said to Optimus both back in the fourth episode and back further in Optimus's prelude video.

T'was also a straight up pun.

[1984forever]

I believe it was IDW not Hasbro who decided to end the war. I also believe it was IDWs sole decision to make Starscream ruler of Cybertron. The writers of CWAS clearly were inspired by the IDW stuff. If they had taken their inspiration from the G1 cartoon we would have gotten a better story.

[Mr Skram]

That's funny because the way I see it this was waaay more G1 than IDW. The writing and character "development" was so eratic and poorly executed. Bad animation. Etc. Not to mention it's essentially a commercial.

[o.supreme]

That's funny because the way I see it this was waaay more G1 than IDW. The writing and character "development" was so eratic and poorly executed. Bad animation. Etc. Not to mention it's essentially a commercial.

A Commercial for what? The Combiners which were barely present? or all the characters whose models weren't part of Combiner Wars, or don't exist at all? Anyone trying to say this bares any resemblance to the original animated series is about as far off as you can be.

[Big Grim]

Anyone trying to say this bares any resemblance to the original animated series is about as far off as you can be.

Not particularly. All his points are pretty spot on. For all the love the G1 cartoon gets, it was poorly written and could be appallingly bad now and then. IDW ain't 100% perfect but it's a damn sight better than the G1 cartoon.

[Kurona]

Though let's not also say that this is on par with the G1 cartoon. The G1 cartoon - barring a few certain offenders such as B.O.T. and Carnage in C-minor - was at the very least a fun, cute little show with enjoyable characters and light-hearted humour that you could smile at for a good twenty minutes. Which is a whole lot more than can be said for this... thing.

[o.supreme]

For all the love the G1 cartoon gets, it was poorly written and could be appallingly bad now and then. IDW ain't 100% perfect but it's a damn sight better than the G1 cartoon.

That is an opinion and provably untrue. To this day I can enjoy watching an episode of the original series now and again...I gain very little satisfaction from reading IDW comics...thus to me they are much more poorly written.

[1984forever]

That's funny because the way I see it this was waaay more G1 than IDW. The writing and character "development" was so eratic and poorly executed. Bad animation. Etc. Not to mention it's essentially a commercial.

A Commercial for what? The Combiners which were barely present? or all the characters whose models weren't part of Combiner Wars, or don't exist at all? Anyone trying to say this bares any resemblance to the original animated series is about as far off as you can be.

Seconded.
Initially this series may have seemed to be a loose continuation of G1 because of the existence of Computron who has yet to appear in the IDW universe, but by the next few episodes it became apparent that CWAS is almost completely based on the IDW comics.

And it suffers for it.

Greatly.

[Kurona]

Also sorry if this sounds a bit... dickish or whatever, but this debate isn't exactly gonna get anywhere. Your differing points of view are both valid and come from the fact you're looking for different things and are influenced by different types of nostalgia, that's all.

[o.supreme]

Also sorry if this sounds a bit... dickish or whatever, but this debate isn't exactly gonna get anywhere. Your differing points of view are both valid and come from the fact you're looking for different things and are influenced by different types of nostalgia, that's all.

You are 100% correct, not off-putting at all. You cannot quantify opinion...just wanted to clarify. I know *most* peoples opinions do not agree with my own, you can make a poll that sates "The majority feel" one way or the other, but you cant prove the quality of one work vs. another.

Still I was telling a friend of mine just the other day, who is a fan of the original Star Trek, that I now know his pain .

[Kurona]

Aye. I think we can at least agree that Machinima CW is worse than both in any case. It's definitely at the bottom for me; edged alongside the likes of Energon but saved from the murkiest depths of Kiss Players.

[Stormtalon]

I thought I'd watch the whole series before rendering a judgement. I think that was a good call.

Animation: The animation was a little washed out in the color palette, but a move in the right direction. Cel-shaded CGI that kept a G1 aesthetic but gave it an updated feel. Not glossy, shiny the way Transformers: Devastation played it. And not overstaturated candy floss colors like in Robots in Disguise. It's not perfect, but moving that direction.

Story: This was a climax with little or no build up. I read Combiner Wars arc of the IDW comics and it suffers a related problem. In the comics, things are constantly building up for some future payoff. In this way comics are like soap operas which build and build and either disappoint in the payoff or wait too long for us to care about it. In the Machinma series we are at the climax, but we don't know much about anyone or the stakes involved.

This feels very much like episode 12-13 of a thirteen episode season. So we get this epic smackdown and stunning betrayals, but no context to bring the epic-ness or shocking-ness to bear.

Execution: So many missed opportunities. I'll stick to my top two.

1) (4) 10 minute episodes instead of (8) 5-7 minute ones. At least enough to fill the cause & effect structure of a short short story. Micro form storytelling only has time for cause and effect. Too often we'd see cause and have to wait until the next episode to see the effect. For example: Ep. 1 action packed but left you with lots of questions. Ep. 2 lots of talking but leaves you with no connection to the Council about to be attacked. But 1 + 2, we get a strong opening act for a standard 22 minute episode.

2) Take advantage of the medium. A TV show or a movie is what you see is what you get. And constraints of time, budget, etc. means that vital information gets left out. For an example compare reading a book to watching it on the big screen. But online, there are many ways to get needed information to the audience. You could have a background bio series that runs concurrent with the series. To Machinima's credit, they did run trailers that hinted at some main character backstory, but hints were all they were.

Hasbro packed comics along with the Combiner Wars line for this very purpose. So take advantage of the internet. Put up lengthy bios of the characters. Show us where the Machinima series differs from the IDW comics and where they are similar. It can be done for a fraction of the cost and have a tremendous return. It could be text ala blog entries, it could be stop motion comic style, it could be don slapstick using actual toys.

What we got was halfhearted. It's like they original planned it to be a climax of the comic story. Then they wanted it to be a bridge between Combiners and Titans and they changed their minds back to a climax, but now it is a year removed from the Combiner Wars in stores and the comics on shelves.


I would watch a second try with Titans Return, but I hope they put more world-building into it.

[o.supreme]

Aye. I think we can at least agree that Machinima CW is worse than both in any case. It's definitely at the bottom for me; edged alongside the likes of Energon but saved from the murkiest depths of Kiss Players.

true enough...I still hope they come to you for a DVD cover.

Anyway...not to blow this way out because I really don't care enough to have a back-and-forth dialogue but...When it comes to the Unicron Trilogy (which is all bad IMHO...but I know it has its fans)..why is Energon often sighted as the worst part? I personally always thought Armada was the worst. Again just a couple of constructive comments would be nice. I am not going to debate, probably wont even respond, but I will read your thoughts with due respect.

[Kurona]

Aye. I think we can at least agree that Machinima CW is worse than both in any case. It's definitely at the bottom for me; edged alongside the likes of Energon but saved from the murkiest depths of Kiss Players.

true enough...I still hope they come to you for a DVD cover.

Anyway...not to blow this way out because I really don't care enough to have a back-and-forth dialogue but...When it comes to the Unicron Trilogy (which is all bad IMHO...but I know it has its fans)..why is Energon often sighted as the worst part? I personally always thought Armada was the worst. Again just a couple of constructive comments would be nice. I am not going to debate, probably wont even respond, but I will read your thoughts with due respect.

Personally I actually do agree that Armada was pretty bad - I really hope I'm not gonna start arguments with that statement lol - but Energon beats it out because of the technical aspects being even worse; the animation being an obvious one. Of course, Armada's animation was far from perfect as well, but that at least was a decent animation marred with a lot of errors. Energon's animation is unsalvageable and unbearable from concept alone. Then there's the repetition of plot points, character arcs being ignored and rushed over to an even worse degree than Armada... a lot of this stuff I'm repeating from TFWiki's article on it, but that's because I just completely agree with everything they say there since it's absolutely spot-on. I just found that anything bad Armada did, Energon did worse and then Energon somehow managed to throw in a few new terrors of it's own.

I guess one unique viewpoint I can offer here is that one thing I personally like to do is look for some nice characters from each series that I can transplant into my own headcanon ultimate continuity sort of thing, you know? So like, I take RiD Sky-byte, TFP Knock-Out, all these great new characters introduced in other continuities that I can put into a better one like an expanded G1, not unlike what IDW's been doing. That way even if there's a series I find bad like RiD 2001, it at least has some nice characters to remember and take from it.
So for instance, Armada - it's take on Starscream was a fresh and interesting one in my opinion; Tidal Wave, Demolishor and Cyclonus all make for nice stock Decepticons; Sideways was a really cool thing.
Energon had...
...
Energon had... uh...
Well, look at that. Energon introduced no new characters of any particular interest. There is almost literally nothing to salvage from this series. Heck, even Machinima CW managed to give us a cool Megatron!

[Big Grim]

Though let's not also say that this is on par with the G1 cartoon. The G1 cartoon - barring a few certain offenders such as B.O.T. and Carnage in C-minor - was at the very least a fun, cute little show with enjoyable characters and light-hearted humour that you could smile at for a good twenty minutes. Which is a whole lot more than can be said for this... thing.

Oh, agreed!

That is an opinion and provably untrue.

Opinion? Yes. Untrue? I don't believe so, no. There is a hell of a lot of bad writing in the old cartoon though most of the worst offenders is in season three. There's still plenty of good stuff in the first two seasons. Megatron's Master Plan, Desertion of the Dinobots and Revenge of Bruticus are three personal favorites.

Has there been some iffy writing in the IDW stuff? Of course. But it is still written a hell of a lot better than this Combiner Wars toon.

Aye. I think we can at least agree that Machinima CW is worse than both in any case. It's definitely at the bottom for me; edged alongside the likes of Energon but saved from the murkiest depths of Kiss Players.

Again, agreed.

What's worrying is this whole talk of Season 2. Please, no. The ONLY redeemable part of this whole sorry mess is Megatron's character in this.

[Sunstar]

I had actually hoped for a more mature Starsream this time around,that was just dreadful - predictable. Started out okay then went... what was all that screaming last episode? It felt as if someone had a seizure, flailed the keyboard and they were "right, great! we'll write it into the script" - or something that the director in hoist goes to hollywood would have done.

Animation was good (Synch aside). The Story Idea was good - needed polishing, the writing was bad. the voices were acceptable - a little tinny. I adapted to them well. The episodes were far too short to really get into it and sometimes a little too abstract.

I did not like energon, so this one is down there with Energon.... Never read kiss players - not after legions tongue, never touched it with a 10 foot pole.

[Mr Skram]

A Commercial for what? The Combiners which were barely present? or all the characters whose models weren't part of Combiner Wars, or don't exist at all? Anyone trying to say this bares any resemblance to the original animated series is about as far off as you can be.

Is that not what it was intended to be? I was under the impression it was to promote to toyline. Though it shoehorned Titans Return at the end, which was likely a decision from the top since they were so far beyond the Generations Combiner Wars shelf time. One could guess this was intended to be aired much sooner but they couldn't pull it off in time so they added some titan nonsense in an attempt to keep it somewhat relevant.

I understand your points, but stand by my statement. G1 had plenty of characters that looked nothing like their toys. Probably some that never got a figure either, though I can't think of any examples off the top of my head.

Aside from all that, I think we agree on the most important point. That this series was mostly a debacle from start to finish.

[Bradimus]

I thought I'd watch the whole series before rendering a judgement. I think that was a good call.

Animation: The animation was a little washed out in the color palette, but a move in the right direction. Cel-shaded CGI that kept a G1 aesthetic but gave it an updated feel. Not glossy, shiny the way Transformers: Devastation played it. And not overstaturated candy floss colors like in Robots in Disguise. It's not perfect, but moving that direction.

Story: This was a climax with little or no build up. I read Combiner Wars arc of the IDW comics and it suffers a related problem. In the comics, things are constantly building up for some future payoff. In this way comics are like soap operas which build and build and either disappoint in the payoff or wait too long for us to care about it. In the Machinma series we are at the climax, but we don't know much about anyone or the stakes involved.

This feels very much like episode 12-13 of a thirteen episode season. So we get this epic smackdown and stunning betrayals, but no context to bring the epic-ness or shocking-ness to bear.

Execution: So many missed opportunities. I'll stick to my top two.

1) (4) 10 minute episodes instead of (8) 5-7 minute ones. At least enough to fill the cause & effect structure of a short short story. Micro form storytelling only has time for cause and effect. Too often we'd see cause and have to wait until the next episode to see the effect. For example: Ep. 1 action packed but left you with lots of questions. Ep. 2 lots of talking but leaves you with no connection to the Council about to be attacked. But 1 + 2, we get a strong opening act for a standard 22 minute episode.

2) Take advantage of the medium. A TV show or a movie is what you see is what you get. And constraints of time, budget, etc. means that vital information gets left out. For an example compare reading a book to watching it on the big screen. But online, there are many ways to get needed information to the audience. You could have a background bio series that runs concurrent with the series. To Machinima's credit, they did run trailers that hinted at some main character backstory, but hints were all they were.

Hasbro packed comics along with the Combiner Wars line for this very purpose. So take advantage of the internet. Put up lengthy bios of the characters. Show us where the Machinima series differs from the IDW comics and where they are similar. It can be done for a fraction of the cost and have a tremendous return. It could be text ala blog entries, it could be stop motion comic style, it could be don slapstick using actual toys.

What we got was halfhearted. It's like they original planned it to be a climax of the comic story. Then they wanted it to be a bridge between Combiners and Titans and they changed their minds back to a climax, but now it is a year removed from the Combiner Wars in stores and the comics on shelves.


I would watch a second try with Titans Return, but I hope they put more world-building into it.

Well put!

[Stuartmaximus]

It's a pity that we only got to see metroplex's arm(btw he seems to be laying down under there! the way his arm came up) as i wanted to see the rest of him

the only other thing was his voice! it just didn't sound deep enough for Plex! heck! even the Generations toy has a deeper voice

[Bronzewolf]

Welcome, Seiebrtronians, to the Combiner Wars Review Extravaganza! In a celebration of the Machinima Combiner Wars series and it's conclusion, I'll be posting episode 7's reivew and then, later today, I'll share my review of the finale (along with some final final thoughts) as well! It'll be one big day of celebration and thanking primus it's over. Let's look at Episode 7.


We open on Cybertron once again, and see Starscream has finally formed into his "Combiner Combiner" mode. Megatron takes a shot at him, but is thrown across the city, smashing into a building.

While Optimus runs to Megatron, Starscream deals with the amount of power he posses. He envelops him, and he explodes. Bits of the various combiners are thrown across the landscape, and a piece of Computron tries to take out Prime.

Ah, Geez, Rick, what are we gonna do now?

Starscream emerges from the rubble, now only a ball of Galactic Glitter Glue with a head, and launches some missiles(?) from his shoulders(?) at the city below. Optimus and Co. dodge the incoming debris, as Starscream starts making a black hole, sucking all of his loose parts in.

Pictured: Starscream

He "throws" the black hole at Optimus and Megatron, but here comes Windblade, saving the day again with her Turbine Attack, which can apparently stop the force of an inverted star.

Huh.

Never knew.

I...I hate this episode

Windblade follows this up by rushing the literal Screaming Star, while he shoots what sounds to be lasers trying to connect to dial-up internet out of his mouth.


If they lasted any longer, you would have started to hear the Windows XP boot-up noise, too

Windblade is somehow able to block the large, continuous beams of pure energy with her thin sword, but is finally taken down by a lightning blast from Starscream. She falls, many stories, and lands on the ground. Optimus and Megatron have a moment to mourn her before Starscream jumps at them, Screaming and laughing.

I...I really hate this episode

Okay, Final thought time:

Why? Why? You had potential here, those couple of episodes in the middle of the series were great, compared to what has come before and after them. Why make Starscream's plot a cliche Starscream plot? You already had one of the most interesting Megatrons we've ever gotten, why couldn't you have left Starscream be and have one of the most interesting Starscreams we've ever gotten? I want you to challenge my perception of what I already know about these characters, or I want to be pleasantly surprised with a interesting continuation of what I know and love. This series can't decide which of those it wants to be, so it fails miserably at both. It's not a good new idea, or perhaps just poorly executed, and it's not a good continuation of the same old same old. What is it trying to be?

-gasp-Father! Please! Help!

I think this series could have been good, (heck, it could have been great) if it would have picked a lane. As it sits, it comes across as a slapped together mess, with 0 pacing and no cohesive, understandable plot until halfway through act 4. And even then it makes no sense.

If your going to go back on your set idea of different, more civil, changed Starscream, give him a viable motive. He is literally already one of the rulers of Cybertron. He couldn't climb the latter more if he tried. He even said how he convinced the public to trust him. He's where he wants to be! Where he's always wanted to be. Why would he ruin that? Why?

To be continued

Tune in later today when we continue our celebration and conclude the series with the review of episode eight!

And, as always, I'm the Nostalgia Critic, I remember it so you don-wait, wait, no. Wrong thing.

Ahem

And, as always keep it right here, on seibertron.com for all your latest transformers news (and reviews!).