Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes

Friday, April 27th, 2018 8:08AM CDT

Categories: Cartoon News, Digital Media News
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As we know, the third chapter in the Prime Wars Trilogy (in its media incarnation here) will be debuting from Machinima as of May 1st - you can check out the trailer here - and the official Facebook page for Transformers has shared a video of some behind the scenes work with the voice actors who will be giving life to the characters in the cast, such as Mark Hamill (Megatronus), Gregg Berger (Grimlock / Volcanicus), Judd Nelson (Rodimus Cron), and Ron Perlman (Optimus Primal). Check it out below, and let us know what you think of this new series!

We’ve got an awesome voice cast for Transformers: Power of the Primes! Watch them do their thing May 1st on transformersprimewars.tumblr.com.

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Credit(s): Transformers FB

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Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1956548)
Posted by ZeroWolf on April 27th, 2018 @ 12:15pm CDT

Wow judd you got old :-(

now I feel older.

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1956563)
Posted by Randomhero on April 27th, 2018 @ 1:16pm CDT

ZeroWolf wrote:Wow judd you got old now I feel older.

Well he is pushing 60

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1956571)
Posted by william-james88 on April 27th, 2018 @ 1:49pm CDT

ZeroWolf wrote:Wow judd you got old

Thats what happens when your dad encourages you to smoke at a young age.

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1956575)
Posted by Randomhero on April 27th, 2018 @ 2:41pm CDT

william-james88 wrote:
ZeroWolf wrote:Wow judd you got old

Thats what happens when your dad encourages you to smoke at a young age.

Did...did you just breakfast club this?

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1956586)
Posted by WreckerJack on April 27th, 2018 @ 5:16pm CDT

It will be werid to see Ron Pearlman as Optimus Primal after I am so used to him as one of the bad guys from Sons of Anarchy.

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1956591)
Posted by william-james88 on April 27th, 2018 @ 6:16pm CDT

Randomhero wrote:
william-james88 wrote:
ZeroWolf wrote:Wow judd you got old

Thats what happens when your dad encourages you to smoke at a young age.

Did...did you just breakfast club this?

Hells yeah !

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1956614)
Posted by ZeroWolf on April 28th, 2018 @ 1:24am CDT

WreckerJack wrote:It will be werid to see Ron Pearlman as Optimus Primal after I am so used to him as one of the bad guys from Sons of Anarchy.

Any weirder then thinking that Hellboy has turned into a monkey bot?

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1956627)
Posted by The_Cryptid_Person on April 28th, 2018 @ 8:27am CDT

“Rodimus Cron” makes a surprising amount of sense when you think about it. Like how “Prime” is one of the syllables in Primus, except faction-swapped. Would be a really good way to denote servants of unicron if it didn’t sound completely ridiculous.

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1956717)
Posted by Ultra Markus on April 28th, 2018 @ 9:58pm CDT

ZeroWolf wrote:Wow judd you got old now I feel older.

7f1e5a0953b3187c21e4babb8d75d54a.jpg

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1956980)
Posted by Sabrblade on April 30th, 2018 @ 5:24pm CDT

Full POTP cartoon poster - https://www.instagram.com/machinima/

Solus Prime is included on this poster as a character in the show.

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957023)
Posted by Sabrblade on April 30th, 2018 @ 11:54pm CDT

Episode 1 - https://www.go90.com/videos/AwYuFwRTEEG

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957025)
Posted by Sabrblade on May 1st, 2018 @ 12:19am CDT

Okay, so, it is so painfully obvious that Megatronus is talking to Unicron in the first scene, and that Overlord and Rodimus Cron are his acolytes.

Mark Hamill is basically playing Megatronus like he played Fire Lord Ozai. This creates a problem on two fronts. One is that his entire performance is nothing but sinister-sounding, even in the flashback scene with Solus Prime in which he's supposed to sound casual and maybe even friendly with her. But instead, his voice comes off as sounding evil even at the point in his life before he turns to the dark side. The other problem is that the limited facial animation he is given completely belies the sinister tone of his voice. While he sounds eerie and ominous, he face instead reads as constantly bored and indifferent, much like the infamous "Uhh" faces of Transformers: Energon.

Oh, he also uses the D-word at one point. We'll see how far the cursing in this show goes since Windblade later uses "Oh... scrud".

Solus Prime's actress is just as stiff in her performance as the Mistress of Flame. Her acting is completely wooden, and the long and numerous pauses make her sound like either a female William Shatner or a character from an old video game cutscene.

As for all the others, Megatron, Windblade, and Victorion give the best-sounding performances, while Wheaton's Perceptor, Berger's Grimlock, and the other Dinobots all come across just as stiff as the performances in these shows have come to sound.

The Dinobots don't really seem all that familiar with everyone else, with Grimlock only recognizing Perceptor and harboring hateful feelings towards him and his intelligence. It's as though the Dinobots disassociated themselves from the Autobots and Decepticons and spent a long time in isolation, as they have no qualms with trying to kill the other Autobots they encounter, even if they were with Megatron at the time. They even emerge from the swamp saying things like "Kill!" and "Destroy!" in a singleminded manner, as though that was the main thing they loved doing.

But the biggest sin this episode commits is with the one thing that had been the best and only really good thing about the Combiner Wars and Titan Return: Megatron. This one episode has done the undesirable by taking Megatron and sucking all the fun out of him. He is now all business and seriousness without even a hint of the smarm and sarcastic snide that made him so endearing in the previous two shows. Now, he's just like everyone else, carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders and speaking all about a foreboding doom and gloom. Bleh.

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957031)
Posted by WreckerJack on May 1st, 2018 @ 2:29am CDT

Thanks to fellow Seibertronian, Sabrblade we now know that Machinima has finished their Power of The Primes poster by revealing all of the pieces. You can see the full poster on Machinima's instagram page. It features many different characters from The Prime Wars Trilogy.

Rodimus Unicronus is in the middle with Perceptor, Windblade and Optimus Primal to his sides. Megatron takes up a lot of space here too, which may clue us into him having a big role in the series. The combiners Victorion, Menasor, Computron and Devastator are also feautred as well as the dinobots. We also notice that Unicron's head and Overlord are also looming around.

Did you spot any of your favorites? Have a look at the poster below and let us know on the boards!

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957032)
Posted by WreckerJack on May 1st, 2018 @ 2:43am CDT

The very first episode of Machinima's Transformers Power of the Primes is online. We will not spoil it for you of course, but the title of the Episode is called "The Swamp". You probably guessed based on the new poster some of the characters that may appear. We will also share with you the episode description if you would like to read it.

Megatronus hunts for the Requiem Blaster as we learn about its mysterious past. Elsewhere, Megatron and his team are also searching for the weapon, hoping to get to it first, when they encounter Grimlock and his fellow Dinobots.

You can watch the episode on the go90 app or click here to watch on their website. Enjoy!

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957034)
Posted by jamarmiller on May 1st, 2018 @ 3:31am CDT

IN ADDITION TO THE FIRST EP, There is an awesome ,almost 5 minute recap, of Combiner wars and Titan Returns by victor carolli, sorry I dont know how to spell his name , the original narrator of the g1 series on Tumbler , its not on go 90

for me it was must see

dont know how to link to it but look for Titans return recap, its 4 minutes 53 seconds

as for the ep, hell yeah I liked it. Only thing I didnt like was the arm is missing still on Victorian, but it makes sense since this follows pretty quickly after titans returns

I just wish there was a way that I could download and save these eps now.

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957037)
Posted by Burn on May 1st, 2018 @ 4:19am CDT

For those of us who live in places where the letter U isn't shunned.

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957041)
Posted by Omegatron. on May 1st, 2018 @ 6:58am CDT

At least the animation is smoother this time.

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957058)
Posted by TulioDude on May 1st, 2018 @ 9:40am CDT

The Swamp

*All Stars playing in the background*

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957061)
Posted by Rodimus Knight on May 1st, 2018 @ 9:43am CDT

Just gonna say this episode shows why the dinobots should have been made at a larger scale.

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957068)
Posted by Immortal Starscream on May 1st, 2018 @ 10:20am CDT

this one was not that bad actually, compared to the previous series. though everyone headbanging when they talk gets a bit distracting, particularly in the scene with the close up of megatrons eyes. I find it odd that grimlock here looks like his masterpeice toy version in robot mode.

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957082)
Posted by o.supreme on May 1st, 2018 @ 11:28am CDT

So...who's going to Drain the Swamp...

Sabrblade wrote:Okay, so, it is so painfully obvious that Megatronus is talking to Unicron in the first scene, and that Overlord and Rodimus Cron are his acolytes.

Well I'm glad you deduced that somehow. I don't think it was obvious at all. Not saying you are wrong, just saying this first episode was probably the poorest setup for a series I've ever seen. I had no idea who Megatronus was supposed to be talking to. The parts with the Dinobots were ok, but corny. Also I know people's voices change over time, especially after 30+ years, but with all due respect, there's just something off about Berger's Grimlock. It sounds just like his own voice but more gravely, like many characters he used to voice on Garfield and Friends back in the 80's, or Kraven from the 90's Spider-Man. There was just something about Grimlock, originally, that made him stand out, and whatever it was, Berger either forgot it, or maybe just cant do it anymore. This would not be the first time I've heard this with a VA, and it may not be their fault, just noticing the difference.

Was it better than the first episode of CW & TR, sure I'll give it that, but that's not saying much. I guess we better buckle in, one down. 9 to go...

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957093)
Posted by Chriphord on May 1st, 2018 @ 2:03pm CDT

Rodimus Knight wrote:Just gonna say this episode shows why the dinobots should have been made at a larger scale.

I think you're right and have been thinking the same thing recently. Making Volcanicus the titan would've allowed for a better looking combiner with better ratios all around. Predaking would've probably still looked a little off though if they had done him at the "normal size."

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957105)
Posted by Sabrblade on May 1st, 2018 @ 3:13pm CDT

o.supreme wrote:So...who's going to Drain the Swamp...

Sabrblade wrote:Okay, so, it is so painfully obvious that Megatronus is talking to Unicron in the first scene, and that Overlord and Rodimus Cron are his acolytes.

Well I'm glad you deduced that somehow. I don't think it was obvious at all. Not saying you are wrong, just saying this first episode was probably the poorest setup for a series I've ever seen. I had no idea who Megatronus was supposed to be talking to.

I mean, there's the fact that they showed Unicron's head at the beginning, which is pretty much a given that he'll end up playing some kind of role in this show based on how predictable the previous two series were, which in turn means that Megatronus is gonna end up not being the main big bad of the series after all, which then means that he'll have to have some kind of connection to the main big bad (Unicron) in order for him to still be relevant in this show.

And since Megatronus--The Fallen--was conceived as a minion of Unicron from the onset back in the Dreamwave days, his being Unicron's servant here would pretty much be the easiest route for this show to take, and we all should know by now not to expect anything more than the easy street from this show.

Thus, his talking at the beginning has gotta be with his master Unicron, and his talk of acolytes has to refer to Overlord (who was all ominous about something bad coming soon back in Titans Return, who corrupted Hot Rod into Rodimus Cron, and who seemed pleased by Megatronus's presence in that show's last episode) and Rodimus Cron (for obvious reasons given his name, and that his deco is based on the Rodimus Unicronus toy, whose Matrix accessory is the Unicron-based Matrix of Chaos).

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957124)
Posted by Skritz on May 1st, 2018 @ 4:14pm CDT

Well, personally I'm all in favor of that character being less 'Megatronus Prime' and way more who he originally was when conceived and introduced to us back in the day: The Fallen.

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957126)
Posted by o.supreme on May 1st, 2018 @ 4:17pm CDT

That would make sense, except that this TF universe is establishing things that are somewhat different. Sure the love interest between Megatronus and Solus is established in a flashback. However the Requiem Blaster being part of a *triumvirate* of sacred relics (along with the Matrix and Enigma) is new, to me at least. Also the idea that Megatronus defeated Unicron previously is also a new take on things, unless there is some other version of these events I'm not familiar with. Of course it makes sense that Unicron being Evil, and Megatronus (The Fallen) would somehow become his servant. But why would you choose to serve one you defeated? It could just be poor script writing....

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957135)
Posted by WreckerJack on May 1st, 2018 @ 4:35pm CDT

I sort of wonder if the toys coming before the series is to pay for the series before they air it? Because it seems kinda backwards that the toys are out before the episode. Back in the day the show was supposed to hype you up to buy the toys not the other way around.

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957140)
Posted by o.supreme on May 1st, 2018 @ 4:43pm CDT

Toys arriving in comparison to a show has always been a sliding scale. The entire 1984 line was released in the summer, the show did not start airing until September, and that was only the first 3 episodes. TF:TM movie toys were released shortly before the movie, but not before advertisements began to air.

Also you have scenarios like in Beast Wars. The Ultra Assortment of Rampage and Depthcharge came out during the summer of 1998. Rampage's first episode aired in February (5 months before the toy came out), and Depthcharge's first episode aired in November (4 months after the toy had already been out)....

Besides PotP will feature Predaking, Before his toy is released.

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957142)
Posted by Sabrblade on May 1st, 2018 @ 4:44pm CDT

o.supreme wrote:However the Requiem Blaster being part of a *triumvirate* of sacred relics (along with the Matrix and Enigma) is new, to me at least.

The "three relics" thing is likely just a cost-saving measure to avoid having to include every personal artifact of all thirteen Primes, instead just focusing on the three that are the most relevant to this series.

o.supreme wrote:Also the idea that Megatronus defeated Unicron previously is also a new take on things, unless there is some other version of these events I'm not familiar with. Of course it makes sense that Unicron being Evil, and Megatronus (The Fallen) would somehow become his servant. But why would you choose to serve one you defeated? It could just be poor script writing....

While the specifics are new, the idea of the specific member of a group of heroes who personally dealt the killing blow to a great evil being the one to later go bad and side with that evil is an idea that has been used many times over in fiction, Transformers or otherwise.

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957172)
Posted by william-james88 on May 1st, 2018 @ 7:53pm CDT

o.supreme wrote:Toys arriving in comparison to a show has always been a sliding scale. The entire 1984 line was released in the summer, the show did not start airing until September, and that was only the first 3 episodes. TF:TM movie toys were released shortly before the movie, but not before advertisements began to air.

Also you have scenarios like in Beast Wars. The Ultra Assortment of Rampage and Depthcharge came out during the summer of 1998. Rampage's first episode aired in February (5 months before the toy came out), and Depthcharge's first episode aired in November (4 months after the toy had already been out)....

Besides PotP will feature Predaking, Before his toy is released.

Optimus primall as well. Also I remember back in the cybertron show, nobody understood why Hasbro released a giant Starscream, until one year later where Starscream got bigger to fight Primus.

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957174)
Posted by fenrir72 on May 1st, 2018 @ 8:24pm CDT

Who's the big head on the left?

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957176)
Posted by Sabrblade on May 1st, 2018 @ 8:30pm CDT

fenrir72 wrote:Who's the big head on the left?

I take it you didn't watch the episode.

Sabrblade wrote:Solus Prime is included on this poster as a character in the show.

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957203)
Posted by fenrir72 on May 1st, 2018 @ 11:32pm CDT

Sabrblade wrote:
fenrir72 wrote:Who's the big head on the left?
I take it you didn't watch the episode.

Sabrblade wrote:Solus Prime is included on this poster as a character in the show.

1. Nope

2. Thanks

3. I usually watch this stuff completed (looooooooong patience)

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957209)
Posted by Ultra Markus on May 2nd, 2018 @ 12:17am CDT

william-james88 wrote:
o.supreme wrote:Toys arriving in comparison to a show has always been a sliding scale. The entire 1984 line was released in the summer, the show did not start airing until September, and that was only the first 3 episodes. TF:TM movie toys were released shortly before the movie, but not before advertisements began to air.

Also you have scenarios like in Beast Wars. The Ultra Assortment of Rampage and Depthcharge came out during the summer of 1998. Rampage's first episode aired in February (5 months before the toy came out), and Depthcharge's first episode aired in November (4 months after the toy had already been out)....

Besides PotP will feature Predaking, Before his toy is released.

Optimus primall as well. Also I remember back in the cybertron show, nobody understood why Hasbro released a giant Starscream, until one year later where Starscream got bigger to fight Primus.

yeah and a lot of the Prime trilogy figues released have not been on the machinima show like superion and bruticus and most of all no titan masters besides the one and only Emissary!
and he never turned into Cerebros's head and never saw Cerebros period but only Fortress Maximus
so besides what we have seen so far i doubt we will even see the terrorcons
i would have really liked to have seen a Megatronus toy come out in this series

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957256)
Posted by william-james88 on May 2nd, 2018 @ 8:52am CDT

I hated the first season, it was pure crap. So I ignored the second season. This episode was getting good comments from people, so I took a look. Oh boy, our expectations have sunken really low. Firstly, the animation is still terrible, it feels super cheap. I understand other webseries, and especially web comics dont have much movement either, but at least they arent selling anything more than what they are and arent made by such a high profile studio.

The story, or wahtever I witnessed, also made no damn sense. I have no clue why the dinobots fought, especially when it was confirmed that they did indeed know who erceptor was. So why start drowning him. Also, the tall grass made for a terrible sense of scale. This looked more like a scene from I shrunk the kids.

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957258)
Posted by King Kuuga on May 2nd, 2018 @ 8:54am CDT

Of all the episodes of all the shows I've ever seen in my life, that..... was one of them.

They did some really cool stuff at the beginning by following the falling drop of energon or whatever it was, I thought that was the highlight of it all. The rest is just more of the same. The Dinobots are MAD for REASONS. Megatron is monotonous. Megatronus is monologuing. The voice director needs to find a new career path because this just isn't working out for them. The animation is the usual, lips that don't match the words and static faces and bobbing heads. I wasn't even excited by the Dinobots because they just showed up and were angry because they had nobody to fight and it's just.... boring.

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957259)
Posted by Sabrblade on May 2nd, 2018 @ 9:01am CDT

william-james88 wrote:So why start drowning him.

I don't know what's worse. The fact that the Dinobots tried to drown Perceptor when he's a robot that doesn't need to breathe, or the fact that Perceptor started gasping and gagging as though he wasn't a robot that doesn't need to breathe. :HEADHURTS:

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957264)
Posted by o.supreme on May 2nd, 2018 @ 9:16am CDT

william-james88 wrote:The story, or wahtever I witnessed, also made no damn sense. I have no clue why the dinobots fought, especially when it was confirmed that they did indeed know who Perceptor was.

Grimlock believed his former allies had aligned themselves with Megatron (Megatron-BAD). Not saying it's a good reason, but it is what it is....

Obviously the creators of this show have not seen TF:TM, or any number of random episodes where scenes take place under water.

. Of course that stuff looked more like Antifreeze, or Lava Lamp goo than water...maybe THATS what drowns Transformers :shock:

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957273)
Posted by ZeroWolf on May 2nd, 2018 @ 10:09am CDT

Maybe they were basing the dinobots after their movie selves who had to be beaten by prime to actually help out

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957275)
Posted by william-james88 on May 2nd, 2018 @ 10:27am CDT

Sabrblade wrote:
william-james88 wrote:So why start drowning him.
I don't know what's worse. The fact that the Dinobots tried to drown Perceptor when he's a robot that doesn't need to breathe, or the fact that Perceptor started gasping and gagging as though he wasn't a robot that doesn't need to breathe.

Also, the second part is worse. The dinobots are clearly the biggest idiots they have ever been here, so whatever.

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957322)
Posted by Bronzewolf on May 2nd, 2018 @ 3:43pm CDT

This is it. The beginning of the end. The final chapter in Machinima's Prime Wars trilogy, bringing with it my last reviews for the series. I've reviewed Combiner Wars, Titans Return, and now it's time to review the finale season. We still have lots of episodes to get through, though, before we get to the true ending, so let's buckle up for one last ride, courtesy of Power of the Primes.

The episode gives us a brand new title sequence, featuring a logo cut by a laser from the floating head of Unicron, (Spoilers, maybe?) who looks like he was rendered using the animation software from the G2 commercials. It leads us to the title of the episode...

-Insert obligatory, completely original Shrek joke here-

Megatronus, voiced by Mark Hamill, starts us off by explaining to some mysterious force, whoistotallynotUnicronwhydoyouask, that he has to find a relic called the Requiem Blaster to complete the ancient...triumphurent? Right off the bat the usual problems pop up, blocky animation, expressionless faces, terrible lip sync, the usual, but they all seem to be worse this time around. It definitely seems like the series was rushed to try to premiere at the same time the coinciding toys were on store shelves, something neither of the two previous shows were able to do. Most of the movements characters make are sudden, with just a few frames dedicated to each. We'll dive into that more a bit later in the episode.

Anyway, Megatronus has a brief flashback to the era of the original 13 Primes, back when he had used the requiem blaster for good to defeat evil, not the other way around. It also introduces a frankly strange love interest in the form of Solus Prime. Solus wants the blaster destroyed, and Megatronus is offended that she doesn't trust him to keep it safe. Solus' performance is stale and rigid, especially given that she's trying to be portrayed as a warm, charming character. But, similarly, voice direction has not been one of the past show's highlights.

Because even Megatronus has to have a villain backstory. For some reason.

This whole scene gets a bit exposition heavy, and doesn't flow very well as a normal conversation. It's quite painfully obvious that this scene is purely to inform the viewer of Megatronus' plan and backstory, even though there are more organic ways of achieving that. Megatronus doesn't find the blaster, and dissapears, off to search another area.

We then catch up with the main cast, consisting of Perceptor, Windblade, Victorion, and Megatron, who find themselves being watched in the middle of a cybernetic swamp. The same story with Megatronus and Solus is detailed again, making the previous scene unneeded. While it's hard to get across in text form, there's a scene here that shows all of these characters together, talking one at a time. The only character that ever moves, blinks, or changes their facial expressions is the one that's talking. The rest are just still character models until it's their turn to talk. This looks AWFUL, and has to be one of the worst looking shots I've noticed in any of these shows. The way the characters are animated makes them look lifeless enough, let alone just making them stand frozen when they aren't talking.

The group is then ambushed by the Dinobots, who appear from the plant growth in the swamp.

*Live Studio Audience Applauds*

Something extremely important to note here is that, despite the Dinobots combining later in the episode, they all have their own personalities and voices, something other combiner members in this show notably do not have. It's been all but established that the limbs of combiners are little more than drones, and it's just one consciousness shared between the members. This totally retcons that entire thing, showing that (at least with Volcanicus) each member has a consciousness, identity, name, voice, and (in the case of Grimlock and Slug at minimum) a robot mode and the ability to transform.

So wait, does that mean Dust Up just got straight up sliced in half? Is she dead? How can Victorion still control her right arm? This presents so many questions.

To the episode's credit, it is really nice to hear Gregg Berger as Grimlock again. He delivers a great performance, and it's a great callback to the original show.

The Dinobots start attacking the gang, because they don't trust Megatron. Grimlock takes out Megatron with the slowest, easiest-to-see-coming tail swipe ever. He then grabs Perceptor, trying to drown him, even though he shouldn't need air to breathe. There are several instances here where a few more frames would have made things look considerably smoother, such as when Perceptor gets knocked over. On the first couple of watches I genuinely though he just clipped through Grimlock's leg.

Grimlock moves more like a sock puppet here then I would like to admit.

Meanwhile, the other members of the expedition are having their own problems with the dinos. For instance, Victorion is having to deal with both Sludge and Snarl, who both seem to be nearly the same size as her even though we've seen Volcanicus and Victorion being the same size in trailers.

I swear to Primus they're saying "TOM" "HANKS!" "TOM" "HANKS!"

And then we're treated to the best/worst part of the entire episode. Windblade is in the middle of a battle with Slug, and tosses him across the clearing. In the next shot, however, he stands up, transformed, about ten feet away on her left. You can see Windblade on the ground after tossing Slug in the lower left hand corner of the first image, and then where Slug pops back up in literally the NEXT SHOT in image 2. Who in the production office decided that was okay?

...10 outta 10

The Dinobots regroup, and reveal to the cast that they can form Volcanicus, the bombshell on which the episode ends.

That was quite the episode. I wish I could say that they've fixed everything, or that it's even an improvement over the last series, but I honestly can't. The mouth movements are worse, the animation feels rushed, the writing is still terrible, the voice direction and some of the acting isn't good, and there's glaring continuity errors that are just glossed over. There isn't enough story to fully critique yet, so I'll reserve my judgement for the full series until more episodes are released, but I don't harbor a lot of hope.
Thanks for tuning in with me to take a look at Power of the Primes. If you want to watch the episode for yourself and tell me if I was right or wrong, you can find it on Go90 or the Transformers Tumblr page. Join me next week as we take a look at episode 2!

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957325)
Posted by Bronzewolf on May 2nd, 2018 @ 3:47pm CDT

Sorry for the delay on this one, guys and gals. Life got ahead of me yesterday. Enjoy!

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957335)
Posted by ZeroWolf on May 2nd, 2018 @ 4:24pm CDT

Okay bronzewolf, which staff member did you insult in order to be forced to watch this series?

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957339)
Posted by kurthy on May 2nd, 2018 @ 4:37pm CDT

Bronzewolf wrote:Sorry for the delay on this one, guys and gals. Life got ahead of me yesterday. Enjoy!

Thank you for suffering through the episode so I don't have to! :lol:

Where were you during Beast Machines?

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957348)
Posted by D-Maximal_Primal on May 2nd, 2018 @ 4:49pm CDT

ZeroWolf wrote:Okay bronzewolf, which staff member did you insult in order to be forced to watch this series?

He told Burn Stalker sucked and Scrounge deserved to smelt in the pool. Burn disabled his ability to post unless he agreed to be the reviewer for the series.

On that note, the one good thing: Finally, a combination sequence. And of all people it's the Dinobots.

Where are the other 3 combiners? and Fort Max? Weren't they coming too?

Also, come on Victorion, get that arm fixed. Dustup is missing her legs for Primus' sake!

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957351)
Posted by Deadput on May 2nd, 2018 @ 5:01pm CDT

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:Also, come on Victorion, get that arm fixed. Dustup is missing her legs for Primus' sake!

Dustup doesn't exist remember?

Victorion is just missing an arm.

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957354)
Posted by Sabrblade on May 2nd, 2018 @ 5:05pm CDT

Deadput wrote:
D-Maximal_Primal wrote:Also, come on Victorion, get that arm fixed. Dustup is missing her legs for Primus' sake!

Dustup doesn't exist remember?

Victorion is just missing an arm.

Stromclash does, at least.

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957384)
Posted by Skritz on May 2nd, 2018 @ 7:57pm CDT

Oddly enough, the Dinobots seem to be the reverse of how this show treated combiners in that they are individuals who merge into one bigger robot. I'm sure this was always the intent behind Combiners even in this serie as this is how Combiners always worked, several individuals fused into a bigger robot...and yet?

I can't help but think that when they wrote Combiner Wars and Titans Return they handled the concept in reverse. That the combined whole is the character and the limbs are sub component. If you look at the writing of the last two shows as a misunderstanding of the incompetent writers it suddenly make sense: they though the big combined robot was the individual who split into smaller bots rather than smaller individuals merging into a bigger robot.

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957387)
Posted by william-james88 on May 2nd, 2018 @ 8:08pm CDT

Bronzewolf wrote:I wish I could say that they've fixed everything, or that it's even an improvement over the last series, but I honestly can't. The mouth movements are worse, the animation feels rushed, the writing is still terrible, the voice direction and some of the acting isn't good, and there's glaring continuity errors that are just glossed over. There isn't enough story to fully critique yet, so I'll reserve my judgement for the full series until more episodes are released, but I don't harbor a lot of hope.

Perfect review Bronzewolf, I like how you say it like it is. And I am in complete agreement.

I use no hyperbole when I say that this is the worse TF fiction I have ever bore witness to. Granted I have never looked into Kissplayers but I have watched all the Bay films.

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957400)
Posted by Skritz on May 2nd, 2018 @ 9:47pm CDT

The Prime Wars toyline may go down in Tf history as a good line but it's cartoons will be something we'll look back at and laugh about for decades. Just like Energon.

Re: Voices Behind Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes (1957405)
Posted by Bronzewolf on May 2nd, 2018 @ 10:05pm CDT

ZeroWolf wrote:Okay bronzewolf, which staff member did you insult in order to be forced to watch this series?

It's a love hate relationship. I'm a hardcore MST3k fan, so I enjoy sitting and making fun of it. I enjoy writing the jokes/image captions. I don't enjoy the series. It was actually voluntary in the beginning. I just wanted something to review. :lol:

Va'al had the comics, and I was almost never able to get any new toys before everybody else, so I took Combiner Wars. Worst/best decision ever.

william-james88 wrote:
Bronzewolf wrote:I wish I could say that they've fixed everything, or that it's even an improvement over the last series, but I honestly can't. The mouth movements are worse, the animation feels rushed, the writing is still terrible, the voice direction and some of the acting isn't good, and there's glaring continuity errors that are just glossed over. There isn't enough story to fully critique yet, so I'll reserve my judgement for the full series until more episodes are released, but I don't harbor a lot of hope.

Perfect review Bronzewolf, I like how you say it like it is. And I am in complete agreement.

I use no hyperbole when I say that this is the worse TF fiction I have ever bore witness to. Granted I have never looked into Kissplayers but I have watched all the Bay films.

Thank you! I appreciate it!:D

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