Hey guys!
Welcome back to Top 10 Nerd, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey.
The Transformers have seen a heck of a lot of screentime, now that they’re banging
out movies left right and center.
But there have been a bunch of different versions of the Transformers over the years, so let’s
talk about 10 of the most influential iterations of the franchise.
But no Michael Bay.
Everyone knows that version by now.
Also, I’ll just point out that these aren’t necessarily the 10 BEST versions, since that’s
super subjective.
I just chose the 10 that I most wanted to talk about.
Although number one does happen to be the best.
Objectively.
If you disagree you’re wrong.
If you finish this and want more, check out our part 2 video for the Alternate Versions
of the Power Rangers next!
But first, get ready, it’s time for the Top 10 Alternate Versions of the Transformers!
Number 10: Energon.
Okay, I know this is a top 10 list, but I think we need to start with Energon just to
point out how terrible it was.
Here, the insane alien Alpha Q created the Terrorcons in an attempt to steal away the
Energon from the Autobots Energon mines.
He intended to use the Energon to recreate the worlds consumed by Unicron, but after
allowing Megatron to come back, Megatron pretty much immediately took back control.
Because he's the boss dammit.
Honestly, it might have been a decent series if they took more time to write it, but as
it stands, it was insanely repetitive.
They pretty much completed the main storyline halfway through, and the rest was just filler
and a rehashing of the first storyline.
Plus the voice acting wasn’t the best since it was dubbed, poorly.
Sometimes a character even spoke in the wrong voice.
What I’m saying is, if this list makes you nostalgic and you want to go back and watch
one version, you can skip Energon.
Number 9: The Bumblebee Movie.
Yep, it’s time to plug the story that brought this list up.
Although we HAD been meaning to do it anyway.
We don’t know a whole lot about the Bumblebee movie yet, which will be coming out on December
21st, 2018.
It’s a prequel to the original series, looking at the early days of Bumblebee on Earth.
But this time…
Bumblebee’s a Volkswagon Beetle.
Just like he originally was in the show.
Bumblebee was the first transformer revealed in the first movie, and we kinda figured he'd
been around for a while since he was looking pretty beat up in a secondhand shop.
It’ll be cool to reveal some of the mystery behind his time on Earth.
Obviously, this will be rather different from the other movies, since there will probably
be fewer Transformers around.
Plus, Bumblebee is a different kind of car, which causes his humanoid form to look different
as well, and a lot friendlier.
With a bee helmet.
And he does NOT like to be Rick Rolled.
I won’t get my hopes up yet, but it looks like it could be a nice change from the last
few movies, especially since it’s directed by Travis Knight.
Number 8: Combiner Wars.
Combiner Wars got the hopes of fans wayyyy up.
It was supposed to be a Transformers for adults, claiming to be the Game of Thrones of Transformers.
It even came alongside a Toyline aimed at collectors, rather than kids.
But then it debuted in August 2016, and, well...
it did not go well.
In attempting to make it more adult, they just made it worse.
Previously interesting characters became one-dimensional, the super non-violent and diplomatic Windblade
became a crazy murderer, the voice acting was mediocre, and the graphics were surprisingly
shoddy, given how recent it was.
I gotta say, though, the Combiner aspect was pretty neat, where 5 transformers would combine
into one giant one, even if it was basically Transformers meets Power Rangers.
Not the most original, but a pretty neat addition to Transformers.
Plus, hey, it may have been flawed, but with 8 five minute episodes, at least it was short.
So you can go watch them all in one sitting if you want!
Number 7: OG Transformers.
We've seen a lot of different variations to the Transformers over the years, but there
will always be a place in the heart of every fan for the original series.
Coming out in 1984, the show became really popular really quickly, thanks in part to
the popularity of the toys.
And that was no coincidence; the show was actually produced by Hasbro, to run alongside
the Transformers line of toys.
Here we got our first taste of the OG Optimus, and amazing Canadian voice actor, Peter Cullen,
who voiced Optimus in the recent films.
This was also the first, but definitely not the last, appearance of the great Frank Welker
in the franchise, who did one of the most unique and popular voices for Megatron ever.
He did voices for a bunch of Decepticons actually, and he apparently had to record his Megatron
lines last because all the raspiness destroyed his voice.
This also saw the classic Transformers story, where the warring Autobots and Decepticons
crash on earth, wake up millions of years later in 1984 and continue their battle there.
But you know all that.
Number 6: Robots in disguise…
The first one.
Robots in Disguise was the first Transformers-style iteration I saw, having only seen Beast Wars
before it, so it will always have a place in my heart.
Hasbro was planning to follow up Beast Machines with a new iteration called Transtech.
But when Beast Machines fell short, they canned Transtech.
However, this left them with a year without new toys to sell!
And that's unacceptable!
So, they imported Transformers: Car Robots from Japan, renamed it Robots in Disguise,
gave it a wicked theme song, and Bob's your uncle you’ve got a hit on your hands.
Well, maybe not a hit, but it was a hell of a lot better than Energon.
Robots in Disguise was fairly similar to the original series, albeit slightly more strange
in certain areas.
They brought back Autobots and Decepticons and brought back the car transformations,
which was great for older fans.
The transition from Japanese makes certain parts a bit awkward, but it turned out to
be a pretty decent series.
One might say there was… more than meets the eye...
God, I’m funny.
The only problem was, a bunch of early episodes had to be rehashed since it coincided with
911, and that caused a few plot issues.
But that’s not their fault.
Number 5: Transformers Animated.
Transformers Animated was widely seen as a big step up from previous attempts.
This series saw five relatively unknown Autobots landing on 22nd century Earth, including Rodimus
Prime, previously Hot Rod.
This was following a big confrontation with Megatron over the Allspark, a powerful artifact
that grants access to the Cybertronian afterlife.
The place where their sparks go while they wait to be reincarnated.
On Earth, they defend the humans from the Decepticons, with the help of Sari, a young
girl who is able to communicate with the Allspark.
The show managed to actually be pretty funny at times while being pretty darn grim at others.
Which is really tough to do in any medium, let alone a cartoon aimed at kids.
That said, some people didn’t love the sudden change in tone, claiming that it was too much
of a departure from the past.
But it looks pretty good to me!
Number 4: Prime.
Honestly, Prime has a lot of things going for it, but it makes it on this list for the
animation.
It was just gorgeous.
After the first movie came out, and the Transformers started being seen in a bit of a more badass
light, Hasbro decided to make a new series that was way more cinematic.
And they nailed it.
They even brought back the OG voices of Peter Cullen as Optimus, and Frank Welker as Megatron,
which helped to ground the series with G1.
Now, the story itself wasn't the best, it was kinda slow and didn’t have the best
payoff.
But the awesome music, excellent voice acting, and of course, the beautiful animation, more
than make up for the mediocre story.
Number 3: Super-God Masterforce.
This series from the late 80 take a more Japanese-inspired approach to the series.
Which, given the name, isn’t that surprising.
It’s hard to not read it in a Japanese accent.
But I won’t, because I’m not an idiot.
This one changed things up big time; there was still the usual conflict between the Autobots
and the Decepticons, but a lot of the story revolved around the actions of the humans.
They used Transtectors, unliving shells of Autobots, in order to fight, piloting them
like Gundams.
They're led by a truck driver who rocks a wicked Optimus Prime looking Transtector.
Side note, transtector is a really weird word, when I try to say it my brain goes “that
can’t be right”.
But it’s a real word!
Anyway, this was the first huge departure from the original series and opened the door
to other alterations to the usual Transformers style.
Such as, you know…
Number 2: Beast Machines.
Beast Machines was one of the most controversial of the shows, largely because they made significant
changes to the backstory of the Cybertronians.
Don’t get me wrong, the show wasn’t without its merits.
The voice acting was amazing, many think it’s the best voice acting in any Transformers
show.
The graphics were really great, especially for the time.
Plus, it had the transformers as animals, which is way better in my opinion.
I’ll expand on that in the next point.
But the problem is, they totally changed a few major points.
For one, it was revealed that the Cybertronians, including the Autobots and the Decepticons,
were meant to become these techno-organic hybrids, mixing it up with animals, but it
doesn't end there.
The new backstory turned Optimus into some religious zealot and Megatron into this Uber
serious tyrant.
Plus, Rhinox was made into a villain!
And he was my favorite character in Beast Wars!
Which, I suppose, leads us to number one…
Number 1: Beast Wars.
Or Beasties to my fellow Canadians.
That’s right, it had a different name here in Canada, so if any Canucks out there were
wondering why you saw two different names for the show, that’s why!
Although I gotta confess, Beast Wars totally sounds better.
The show was created by Mainframe, the same company that did Reboot.
Which was, ironically, rebooted recently.
But apparently, it sucks so I haven’t watched it.
Beast Wars saw the transformers crashing on prehistoric Earth, where they all gained the
ability to change into various animals, only able to remain in humanoid form for small
periods of time.
This is because of the energy emitted from the Energon on the planet.
There was Optimus PrimAL the gorilla, Cheetor the cheetah, Rhinox the Rhino, Rat Trap the
Rat, Dinobot the predacon-turned-maximal velociraptor, plus Megatron was a freaking T-Rex.
Awesome.
There was also a loner guy, Tigatron the White Tiger, who was everyone’s favorite.
But personally I liked Rhinox.
And Megatron, who was just wonderfully flamboyant.
There were a bunch of others, too many to name, but man, this show was my jam.
I wasn’t even aware of Autobot and Decepticon for years, it was just Maximals and Predacons
as far as I was concerned.
But in my opinion, the animal aspect made it significantly cooler than any of the other
Transformers shows or movies.
That’s it for today!
Hope you guys enjoyed if you did please smack that thumbs up button and subscribe to Top
10 Nerd for more videos!
Let me know YOUR favorite version of the Transformers in the comment section down below, even if
they didn’t make the list!
It was painful leaving some great ones off the list, but I really wanted to warn people
away from the lousy ones too.
Also, if you want a sweet playlist to watch so you can just relax and let the nerdiness
wash over you, check out our Top 10 Alternate Versions playlist on the channel!
Until next time, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey with Top 10 nerd.
Later nerds!