Transformers: Robots In Disguise 'History Lessons' to air in United States October 22

The latest episode really makes me think that these 6 episodes were indeed planned from way way back. Its all about the powerizer gimmick which is what the entire toyline is sub branded as with a giant power surge (a term used on the show) Prime as the centre piece. That toy (and toyline) must have been planned at least 2 years ago and they would have media support through the show (which also takes quite a while to do) so these episodes do feel like they were always going to happen.

^ exactly. These are Not a "Special TV Event", Not a "TV Movie"...Just more episodes of season two, nothing more (although they are some really good episodes). I'm sure there is another batch of seven that will air after this to fill out the season, and Season three will start as planned, probably in Spring 2017.

The only question I have now is...what is the "Movie" that was talked about some months ago? Perhaps it will occur as a bridge between S2 & S3? or perhaps after S3 and act as an addendum to the show, (as in the case of Predacons Rising)?

You guys do know that these episodes had to have been made a good while back for them to be airing now, right? It's not like they were made recently or anything. That would be impossible.

Latest ep is up
https://youtu.be/qCcHzbSDUf0

Best episode yet! everyone's in this

still dunno who that insecticon is? we get an Omega Surge Starscream(sorta like Machinima CW did) hopefully we'll get an Omega Surge Starscream toy, i laughed when the minicons tried to attack Starscream! the fights & action in this was the best yet, finally we got to see Power Surge Prime properly this time & boy what a fight with Scream it was dunno who those old friends Prime was talking about maybe the Combination Force? coz we know it's coming

Holy sh**, was that episode kick-ass. Starscream went ape and looked badass doing so. I was also happy to see that he wasn't defeated too easily, with the Autobots having to go through four or five scarcely-related plans to stop him. We also confirmed my suspicions that Optimus hadn't made it back to Cybertron when Bumblebee called, therefore the Cybertron story is still at play. I'm not sure how crucial this six-part special was to the overall plot, but for what it is at the moment, it was certainly a thrill. Seeing Starscream again was amazing, and I actually did enjoy Sideswipe's development here. Even it did start out kind of slow and bumpy, these episodes were fun and well put-together overall. Now, two questions: Who are Optimus' "old friends", and where the f**k do these episodes belong in between the seasons?

Sabrblade wrote:And now the status quo is back to being exactly the same as it was when "Decepticon Island" ended, as though the past six episodes never happened.

Except now Sideswipe's relationship with the minicons progressed to them switching partners, apparently. However, I'm sure they wanted to do that on "Decepticon Island" given the plot of "Graduation Exercises", but had to write these episodes to promote the toyline. Even still, I'm sure we haven't seen the last of Starscream.

Anyone got a link? I mean I'm sure it'll be Optimus and Starscream using the 7 chaose emeralds mini-cons to sell their new toys power up before going back to the status quo Cybertron, but I need to see how this turns out.

If you mean a link to the latest episode? didn't i provide one already

Stormtalon wrote:
Starscream's involvement in the event is a little lopsided. On the one hand, as Bee has risen from scout/'the kid' to team leader, Starscream is a more natural adversary than Megatronus or the Troika or Steeljaw. But I never once felt worried for our team because Starscream was on the scene. Bee taunts him over his inevitable failure and its true. When Soundwave popped up a few episodes back, that was nail biting because Soundwave is a threat Starscream is not.

Granted, Soundwave is factually more competent than Starscream, even in Prime. Such portrayal therefore is accurate. However, to your contrast, I did feel like once Starscream showed up, things became a lot more serious than when the focus was on the bumbling scavengers and the filler adventures. He took charge of the show all the way until the end, and like I said before, the Autobots had to come up with quite a few different plans just to remotely slow him down, then two more to finally stop him. Therefore, Starscream was still a huge threat in the confines of this six-parter.

I do agree that the first half was quite slow and jagged, though.

Kurona wrote:Anyone got a link? I mean I'm sure it'll be Optimus and Starscream using the 7 chaose emeralds mini-cons to sell their new toys power up before going back to the status quo Cybertron, but I need to see how this turns out.

Just scroll up 5 posts or so.

I thought this was great. These last three episodes are what I would show any fan of Prime if they were curious about RID. It is also great fiction to back up a toyline which is what fans find missing in generations.

How do we know there will be more episodes to season 2? This looked like the end of it with Season 3 in 2017.

Just a strong hunch. 13 or 26 episode seasons are the norm...not 19, but then again, I know CN does very little "normal" these days. It seems to me whatever Prime is hinting at going on with Cybertron, doesn't seem to fit the combiner gimmick of season 3.

william-james88 wrote:How do we know there will be more episodes to season 2? This looked like the end of it with Season 3 in 2017.

I concur. This declares RID seasons 1-2 to be "45 x 22 minutes or 42 x 22 minutes and 1 x 65 minutes", which is what the 26 season 1 episodes, the 13 season 2 episodes, and these six additional episodes would add together up to be, with the last three of these six being a serialized three-parter able to work as a TV movie.

And this supports the above's statement of "45x22 min."

And this refers to these six episodes as a "TV Special Event".


Not to mention how this whole thing felt like an afterthought, what with its going out of its way to avoid making any changes to the status quo as seen at the end of "Decepticon Island", all of the Scavengers being made from recycling preexisting character models as a cost-saving measure, and the fact that "Decepticon Island" essentially resolved everything that was set up at the very beginning of the show.

These six episodes, as entertaining as they were, just feel like filler material simply meant to have something to advertise the Fall 2016 RID toys with the barest minimum of necessary effort put into them. They didn't even take Steeljaw out of the theme song sequence despite his having been defeated before and not appearing in these episodes.

Sabrblade wrote: all of the Scavengers being made from recycling preexisting character models as a cost-saving measure

Do you think the Bounty Hunters were also recycled? I know one was Hardshell but not sure about the others.

william-james88 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote: all of the Scavengers being made from recycling preexisting character models as a cost-saving measure

Do you think the Bounty Hunters were also recycled? I know one was Hardshell but not sure about the others.

Thanks for the reminder! They too were made from recycled models. Shadelock used a Vehicon body with Prime Megatron's shoulders, Roughedge used the body-type of the museum guards from the pilot episode, and the Insecticon was just a Prime Insection model wholesale.

Weirdly enough, Roughedge is the one thing I wish they'd expanded on. Would have been so interesting to see why an Autobot decided to go all bounty hunter and possibly could have jibed well with what they're leading up to on Cybertron.

Kurona wrote:Weirdly enough, Roughedge is the one thing I wish they'd expanded on. Would have been so interesting to see why an Autobot decided to go all bounty hunter and possibly could have jibed well with what they're leading up to on Cybertron.

That those three were as enigmatic as they were also ties in with the "barest minimum effort" part I mentioned.

Sabrblade wrote:

Kurona wrote:Weirdly enough, Roughedge is the one thing I wish they'd expanded on. Would have been so interesting to see why an Autobot decided to go all bounty hunter and possibly could have jibed well with what they're leading up to on Cybertron.

That those three were as enigmatic as they were also ties in with the "barest minimum effort" part I mentioned.

Yeah, a criticism I fully agree with. I know a lot of people loved the last few episodes, but when I watched them I just... kinda didn't feel anything.

Kurona wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Kurona wrote:Weirdly enough, Roughedge is the one thing I wish they'd expanded on. Would have been so interesting to see why an Autobot decided to go all bounty hunter and possibly could have jibed well with what they're leading up to on Cybertron.

That those three were as enigmatic as they were also ties in with the "barest minimum effort" part I mentioned.

Yeah, a criticism I fully agree with. I know a lot of people loved the last few episodes, but when I watched them I just... kinda didn't feel anything.

It honestly felt to me like when Starcream showed up, the Scavengers and all the time spent with them in the previous episodes were rendered entirely pointless. It was a lot like how Megatronus's arrival cast aside all the importance of Steeljaw and his Pack, but only worse here since the Scavengers never really made the same impression that Steeljaw made and now there's practically no guarantees of us ever seeing the Scavengers again. In the end, they were little more than fodder villains whose only real purpose was to give some reason for the Mini-Cons being on the run on Earth.

Sabrblade wrote:

Kurona wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Kurona wrote:Weirdly enough, Roughedge is the one thing I wish they'd expanded on. Would have been so interesting to see why an Autobot decided to go all bounty hunter and possibly could have jibed well with what they're leading up to on Cybertron.

That those three were as enigmatic as they were also ties in with the "barest minimum effort" part I mentioned.

Yeah, a criticism I fully agree with. I know a lot of people loved the last few episodes, but when I watched them I just... kinda didn't feel anything.

It honestly felt to me like when Starcream showed up, the Scavengers and all the time spent with them in the previous episodes were rendered entirely pointless. It was a lot like how Megatronus's arrival cast aside all the importance of Steeljaw and his Pack, but only worse here since the Scavengers never really made the same impression that Steeljaw made and now there's practically no guarantees of us ever seeing the Scavengers again. In the end, they were little more than fodder villains whose only real purpose was to give some reason for the Mini-Cons being on the run on Earth.

I'm still not entirely sure what the point of the Scavengers was. They could easily just have put new toys Paralon and Scatterspike on Starscream's team and have the whole thing lead up to him rather than putting half the episodes' focus on these random guys with no impact.

I dont know about you guys, but satisfying fictionor not, I would love to get those bounty hunters as toys, that would at least give us a voyager Prime insecticon

I'd say its a criticism of the series as a whole, or at least since season two started. The "Leaders" Scorponok, Saberhorn & Glwostrike, we barely got to know before Steeljaw just punked them. At least the Scavengers each kind of got their own episode, but Starscream's team we almost knew nothing about, would have really liked to learn more about Roughedge & Shadelock (The first Vehicon with a personality). The Insecticon I don't even think ever spoke, or even had a name, must have just been a drone, not like Hardshell.

Kurona wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Kurona wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Kurona wrote:Weirdly enough, Roughedge is the one thing I wish they'd expanded on. Would have been so interesting to see why an Autobot decided to go all bounty hunter and possibly could have jibed well with what they're leading up to on Cybertron.

That those three were as enigmatic as they were also ties in with the "barest minimum effort" part I mentioned.

Yeah, a criticism I fully agree with. I know a lot of people loved the last few episodes, but when I watched them I just... kinda didn't feel anything.

It honestly felt to me like when Starcream showed up, the Scavengers and all the time spent with them in the previous episodes were rendered entirely pointless. It was a lot like how Megatronus's arrival cast aside all the importance of Steeljaw and his Pack, but only worse here since the Scavengers never really made the same impression that Steeljaw made and now there's practically no guarantees of us ever seeing the Scavengers again. In the end, they were little more than fodder villains whose only real purpose was to give some reason for the Mini-Cons being on the run on Earth.

I'm still not entirely sure what the point of the Scavengers was. They could easily just have put new toys Paralon and Scatterspike on Starscream's team and have the whole thing lead up to him rather than putting half the episodes' focus on these random guys with no impact.

Like I said, they were a means to get the Mini-Con refugees hiding out on Earth. Not that it was well-handled means, but it did the job it was set out to do, even if it meant wasting the Scavengers' relevance.

I thought it was a pretty good episode. Wonder if those old friends of Prime happen to be a certain group of Autobots that survived Prime and have yet to make an appearance...

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:I thought it was a pretty good episode. Wonder if those old friends of Prime happen to be a certain group of Autobots that survived Prime and have yet to make an appearance...

Two guesses on that. Either some of the members of Team Prime, or... the reformed Megatron.

Sabrblade wrote:

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:I thought it was a pretty good episode. Wonder if those old friends of Prime happen to be a certain group of Autobots that survived Prime and have yet to make an appearance...

Two guesses on that. Either some of the members of Team Prime, or... the reformed Megatron.

Possible... his voice actor was confirmed to be doing some voices

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:I thought it was a pretty good episode. Wonder if those old friends of Prime happen to be a certain group of Autobots that survived Prime and have yet to make an appearance...

Two guesses on that. Either some of the members of Team Prime, or... the reformed Megatron.

Possible... his voice actor was confirmed to be doing some voices

Though, wouldn't it be outrageous (in a good way) if the old friends that Bee knew turned out to be Rescue Force Sigma-17?

Sabrblade wrote:Possible... his voice actor was confirmed to be doing some voices. Though, wouldn't it be outrageous (in a good way) if the old friends that Bee knew turned out to be Rescue Force Sigma-17?

I could see that. RB is *most likely* ending. I'm sure most young kids have probably transitioned over to RiD15 already, my son did last year. But it would be like a nice handing of the baton like "ok kiddies you've now graduated. Time to move on to something a little more mature...but not too mature"

One other thing that makes these six episodes stand out from the others is how blatantly obvious they were made to specifically advertise the new Power Surge and Clash of the TFs toys. At first glance, this doesn't seem that abnormal since TF fiction has always existed To Sell Toys, but in this case, it IS odd since this show (like with the movies, Animated, and Prime) has had its character cartoon model designs made first while the toys based on those designs get made second, meaning the show ends up promoting toys of characters who were first made as cartoon models for the show before they were turned into toys. But with these six episodes, they're instead advertising toys of characters that were already made into toy form before they were put into the show, which instead matches more closely how things were done in most of the pre-2007 series, where the toy designs came first and would get turned into cartoon models afterward.

Sabrblade wrote:One other thing that makes these six episodes stand out from the others is how blatantly obvious they were made to specifically advertise the new Power Surge and Clash of the TFs toys. At first glance, this doesn't seem that abnormal since TF fiction has always existed To Sell Toys, but in this case, it IS odd since this show (like with the movies, Animated, and Prime) has had its character cartoon model designs made first while the toys based on those designs get made second, meaning the show ends up promoting toys of characters who were first made as cartoon models for the show before they were turned into toys. But with these six episodes, they're instead advertising toys of characters that were already made into toy form before they were put into the show, which instead matches more closely how things were done in most of the pre-2007 series, where the toy designs came first and would get turned into cartoon models afterward.

Well, could it be that the toys were made before? We know that beast hunters brought back the idea of toys being made first, maybe that carried into RID. The character designs for the minicons were spot on with the toys in this season so I can only guess that the toys did indeed come first and this season was made to sell this powerizer subline.

I didnt mind, it felt like Armada done right (Oh no he DIDNT!

william-james88 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:One other thing that makes these six episodes stand out from the others is how blatantly obvious they were made to specifically advertise the new Power Surge and Clash of the TFs toys. At first glance, this doesn't seem that abnormal since TF fiction has always existed To Sell Toys, but in this case, it IS odd since this show (like with the movies, Animated, and Prime) has had its character cartoon model designs made first while the toys based on those designs get made second, meaning the show ends up promoting toys of characters who were first made as cartoon models for the show before they were turned into toys. But with these six episodes, they're instead advertising toys of characters that were already made into toy form before they were put into the show, which instead matches more closely how things were done in most of the pre-2007 series, where the toy designs came first and would get turned into cartoon models afterward.

Well, could it be that the toys were made before? We know that beast hunters brought back the idea of toys being made first, maybe that carried into RID. The character designs for the minicons were spot on with the toys in this season so I can only guess that the toys did indeed come first and this season was made to sell this powerizer subline.

That's... what I just said. The toys that these six episodes were promoting were already on the market before these episodes came out, whereas every character from the first two seasons who got their own toys ended up getting made into toy form after (sometimes even LONG after) they appeared in the cartoon.

Also, "powerizer"?

Sabrblade wrote:Also, "powerizer"?

Porte-manteau for Power Surge and Weaponizer

And I actually really like when the show is made to sell toys. Its really old school, but its fun to see the toys I bought interact on the screen.

I just prefer when it's done well, like Beast Wars. Or Animated. Or...
... actually that's about it.

Kurona wrote:I just prefer when it's done well, like Beast Wars. Or Animated. Or...
... actually that's about it.

But Animated was the opposite case most of the time, with "cartoon models first, toys second". The only ones who did the old-school "toys first, cartoon models second" were Jetfire & Jetstorm (even though these two did have some preliminary Transformers: Hero designs and TFA bible designs, their finalized looks got made into toy form first) and Oil Slick.

Sabrblade wrote:

Kurona wrote:I just prefer when it's done well, like Beast Wars. Or Animated. Or...
... actually that's about it.

But Animated was the opposite case most of the time, with "cartoon models first, toys second". The only ones who did the old-school "toys first, cartoon models second" were Jetfire & Jetstorm (even though these two did have some preliminary Transformers: Hero designs and TFA bible designs, their finalized looks got made into toy form first) and Oil Slick.

Just speaking purely in terms of to-sell-toys.

Kurona wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Kurona wrote:I just prefer when it's done well, like Beast Wars. Or Animated. Or...
... actually that's about it.

But Animated was the opposite case most of the time, with "cartoon models first, toys second". The only ones who did the old-school "toys first, cartoon models second" were Jetfire & Jetstorm (even though these two did have some preliminary Transformers: Hero designs and TFA bible designs, their finalized looks got made into toy form first) and Oil Slick.

Just speaking purely in terms of to-sell-toys.

Even still, I don't think it works out very well in general. I found all of Beast Wars' stupid Transmetal crap distracting as hell, especially by the third season (Cheetor, Blackarachnia, and Primal looked ridiculous). However, on the plus side, the animaton improved as a result of it.

PrymeStriker wrote:

Kurona wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Kurona wrote:I just prefer when it's done well, like Beast Wars. Or Animated. Or...
... actually that's about it.

But Animated was the opposite case most of the time, with "cartoon models first, toys second". The only ones who did the old-school "toys first, cartoon models second" were Jetfire & Jetstorm (even though these two did have some preliminary Transformers: Hero designs and TFA bible designs, their finalized looks got made into toy form first) and Oil Slick.

Just speaking purely in terms of to-sell-toys.

Even still, I don't think it works out very well in general. I found all of Beast Wars' stupid Transmetal crap distracting as hell, especially by the third season (Cheetor, Blackarachnia, and Primal looked ridiculous). However, on the plus side, the animaton improved as a result of it.

I will admit I really hated that, but it only felt that way because the beast wars season was shortened. With these 6 RID episodes, there was a lot of time spent on what is simply a handful of toys, which were intriduced as a team, it felt more manageable. Like the whole 6 episodes dedicated to new toys rather than one toy being intriduced at a time and making things feel redundant.

Sabrblade wrote:

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:I thought it was a pretty good episode. Wonder if those old friends of Prime happen to be a certain group of Autobots that survived Prime and have yet to make an appearance...

Two guesses on that. Either some of the members of Team Prime, or... the reformed Megatron.

Possible... his voice actor was confirmed to be doing some voices

Though, wouldn't it be outrageous (in a good way) if the old friends that Bee knew turned out to be Rescue Force Sigma-17?

Would be interesting, but I'd still prefer the old Team Prime

I'm just wondering where the heck Windblade, Ratchet and Undertone are.

Kurona wrote:I'm just wondering where the heck Windblade, Ratchet and Undertone are.

Undertone is beginning his new career as a gynecologist.

...for Ratchet.

Kurona wrote:I'm just wondering where the heck Windblade, Ratchet and Undertone are.

They're probably with the old friends Optimus mentioned. Since they left Earth with Prime, but Prime said that he never made it to Cybertron, Optimus probably left Windblade-tachi with the old friends to go back to Earth by himself for this mini-series, and now he's probably going back to where he came from to reunited with those three.

Windblade... tachi...?

Kurona wrote:Windblade... tachi...?

"-tachi" is a Japanese suffix used to refer to a collective group featuring a individual whose name gets singled out to refer to the group as a whole. In this case, I could have said "Windblade and co.", "Windblade and the others", "Windblade's group", etc.

And with Windblade's inherently Japanese design, I was also making a half-joke.

If they're going the route in-that Optimus gets a "new" team of sorts, consisting of Windblade, Ratchet, and these "old friends", that'd be really cool.

Though y'know, the new possible team members would likely be Stormshot, Blastwave, Skysledge and/or Stormhammer, given their being new toys.

Kurona wrote:Though y'know, the new possible team members would likely be Stormshot, Blastwave, Skysledge and/or Stormhammer, given their being new toys.

I don't mind seeing Stormshot in the show. He's got a rather neat design. Blastwave and the rest can go screw off, though.

PrymeStriker wrote:

Kurona wrote:Though y'know, the new possible team members would likely be Stormshot, Blastwave, Skysledge and/or Stormhammer, given their being new toys.

I don't mind seeing Stormshot in the show. He's got a rather neat design. Blastwave and the rest can go screw off, though.

I kinda agree here. I really don't want these old friends to be new characters. I'd like them to be some old guys that we do know

So would I... I'm just saying that to-sell-toys is heavily in effect for this show, and we haven't seen any new toys for Bulkhead or Smokescreen or Arcee recently.
... or hey, maybe Magnus really is gonna be a white prime.