Note: First off, yes, I am still reviewing Batman: Arkham Asylum. You may see this more often with multi-part reviews here. I will finish it. I offer this retrospective as a sort of tribute the Transformers: Animated and it's (to many) untimely demise.
Back in 2007 toy-manufacturer giant Hasbro first introduced it's fans to a re imagining of it's ever-popular Transformers line. Following a soon-to-be summer blockbuster under the same brand name that was already a drastic deviation from the traditional appearance of the Transformers characters. The fans and followers of the Transformers franchise were taken off-guard by the revealing of Transformers: Animated. A new series separate but partially inspired by the coming live-action film.
First reactions were largely negative. people dismissed the early designs as childish, ugly and uninspired. This was before the movie actually hit theatres, and many fans were not a fan of either style choices. However, this quickly changed when the following San Diego Comic Con, where fan were exposed to concept drawings and character models, along with prototypes of the coming series of action figures. This was around when the toys for the movie were being released and selling very well. Too well, as I'll get into in a moment.
Though some fans still weren't sold on the design of the cartoon or the toys, but there was a third "Universe" series that was combining the classic characters of the 80's with modern toy engineering, though it didn't have any widely-available associated media. Transformers Animated, or TFA as it would be abbreviated, did, and when first footage leaked responses were largely positive. The show was a massive throwback to the characters and concepts of the 80's cartoon. Opinions would be cemented when the show actually began to air. The characters were three-dimensional, the voice acting was top-notch, and the stories were intricate. This was a massive step up from the past "Unicron Trilogy" of imported Japanese cartoons with flat and interchangeable characters, poor vocal performances even from stellar voice talent, and contrived and nonsensical story lines typical of low-budget Japanese animated shows.
There was just one problem: where were the highly-anticipated toys the show was promoting? prerelease samples and test-shots of the first 'wave" of figures had already been streaming off of eBay at a steady rate, and impressions were largely positive, but toy shelves still only gave shelter to movie figures. While never outright stated by Hasbro or retailers, the commonly accepted cause was that the hugely successful live-action film toys were more popular, and retailers didn't want to put a "nobody" line on the shelves while the movie toys were so popular.
While the Animated toys did eventually hit stores about a month after the show aired, this would prove damaging later-on. But the fanbase wasn't concerned at that point. The figures were excellent quality. detailed yet streamlined and clean sculpts in both modes that followed the on-screen depictions of characters almost bizarrely. The show was increasing in quality and popularity, and by the time the second season had ended, a fair chunk of the figures were out. Unfortunately, the gap between the shows premiere and the toys' release meant that most of the characters who showed up in the show weren't available until much later. This was damaging to line as a whole, and on top of that, there was a significant, but not unusually large gap between the second and third seasons, and the toys only barely caught up.
However, somewhere around the beginning of 2009, it was decided that with a sequel to 2007's live-action movie on it's way the coming summer, Animated would be cancelled. The show completed it's third season, and the last toys were designed. (set for a 2010 release) A series that for over a year had given the fans almost everything they wanted had been discontinued before it could finish the last leg of the course. But fans remember it fondly and while it's not truely over, with a few more figures on the way, (and possibly, however slim the chance, a comic) it is certainly not Hasbro's main focus any longer.
And so, my first retrospective. I hope you found the reading insightful, even if it's more like a cliffnotes version.
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