R.I.D. 2001: UNJUSTLY FORGOTTEN! || A Retrospective

[@frankcolosimo]

This was great - really looking forward to what’s coming up next!

[@kurvos]

Dude, your review/retrospective here is SO much more professionally made than the vast majority of reviews and retrospectives I've seen posted on KZbin nowadays. We need MORE content like this uploaded on this website. The editing is great, the way you go into details about things and correct yourself on mistakes and even include fun stuff like flubs is great. Overall, it's just great. Keep up the good work, and take all the time you need with it!

[@MrUniq]

You did a good job..keep it up! I watched Rid when I had just graduated high school so it served as somewhat nostalgic entertainment while I was figuring out my life.

[@theherooftwinleaftown6629]

I recently just rewatched this show and I thouroughly enjoyed it as much as I did as a kid. Great vid hope u do more reviews

[@bigbear4120]

Sky bite was my favorite character.

[@Spike-Prime]

I feel like that's true of most fans of this show, except one buddy of mine whose fave is Ultra Magnus

[@K-Barn]

Thank you for making this! RID 2001 was what got me into Transformers. I remember waking up early every Saturday morning to watch it. I bought my first Transformer, Movor, after the Attack from Outer Space episode... before it got pulled from the airwaves due to happening around 9/11.

[@Spike-Prime]

I'm so glad you liked it! It's always great sharing the love of different shows from this franchise, and RID 2001 is probably the least talked about show which made it to the west. I've got more coming so, maybe stick around? 😅

[@jaws848]

​G1 in the west ended in 1987 ,not 1989.....4 seasons from 1984​ to 1987 @@Spike-Prime

[@Spike-Prime]

@jaws848 yeah there's a number of factual errors or verbal slip ups I made during this. I am numerically dyslexic so, what probably happened is I wrote 1987 but said 1989 and didn't catch it in editing.

[@jaws848]

@@Spike-Prime not a problem at all....and for what its worth it was shown on tv in 1988 and 1989 but they were re runs.

[@Spike-Prime]

@jaws848 it's possible I may have run across that too? But more likely I just accidentally said the wrong number

[@greenmantlemagazine4107]

A great look back at an iconic franchise - I was never a Transformers fan but it's an excellent potted history! well done an excellent first movie! :)

[@Spike-Prime]

Hey thanks! I've got lots more videos in the pipeline right now, both TF and other topics, and if you liked this, I've got ones lined up on some fascinating obscure corners of the franchise

[@grog3514]

What should I watch after the OG series? I want to maintain continuity with their forms.

[@Spike-Prime]

In terms of shows released in the west, there are only 3 shows set in the same G1 continuity, the original series, Beast Wars and Beast Machines. After that is when Hasbro rebooted their continuity with almost every show. However, if you're OK with subtitles, you can ignore season 3 of G1 and go: Headmasters, Masterforce, Victory, Zone, Beast Wars, Beast Machine, BW II, BW Neo and Car Robots. After that is when the Jaoanese shows also reboot.

[@transgeek2345]

There’s no such thing as being too informative in subjects we’re passionate about, and the Japanese G1 context of RID is a gold mine of info not many people cover well or properly. Nice work!

[@Spike-Prime]

Oh, I had a huuuuuge amount of context I cut out of this. The third draft of this video with all the original explanation was about 38 minutes long. But, I felt it was too much for a video on RID 2001, since the preamble ended up being 60% of the run time, haha

[@transgeek2345]

@@Spike-Primelol deep cut when? (Haha I do appreciate videos that run long because it helps provide something to listen to on long drives or during tedious assignments, but the video ultimately panned out well in the end.)

[@Spike-Prime]

@transgeek2345 it's unneeded because the cut segments have been incorporated into my upcoming Beast Wars II and Neo videos, since they're mostly relevant to those shows and not RID 2001

[@zacharyzwickl5860]

I remember RID 2001 very well. I had the figures of Wedge and his team minus Grimlock. It one of the three transformers series i like to think about every now and then. Which was why i got the most excited over the Haslab Omega Prime project cause I always wanted to have the RID Optimus figure but never was able to get it proper as a kid.

[@vitoldwisniewski]

I was introduced to this show and I was disappointed that there was no continuation of this show. So I had to make up my own continuation through fanfic using Transformers: Operation Combination's plot that saw Decepticon High Regent Scrash and the Jet Corps break out Scourge who became Scrash's 2nd in command and the Commandos out of prison to plunder Earth's energy. Not only that, This Decepticon faction had a main computer system called ADA which stood for Advanced Data Analyzer and she was the evil counterpart to T-AI.

[@Spike-Prime]

That actually sounds really cool, it's always great to hear about hoe fans get inspired to make fan works. I have a history of doing that myself, which will be slightly featured in an upcoming video

[@vitoldwisniewski]

@@Spike-Prime Thanks while T-AI manifests herself with a holographic avatar, taking the form of a young human girl in a maroon uniform similar to a Japanese policewoman. ADA that I created for the Decepticons takes the form of an Adult Woman in a futuristic jumpsuit with a Decepticon logo patch.

[@milestinker2178]

Beast Wars Neo wasn't made to replace Beast Machines in Japan, Car Robots was. Beast Wars Neo came out in Japan before the Japanese dub of Beast Wars seasons 2-3 (known in Japan as "Beast Wars Metals") was ready. The timeline of release for the Japanese Beast Era is as follows: Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers (October 1, 1997-March 25, 1998) Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars II (April 1, 1998-January 27, 1999) Beast Wars Special: Super Lifeform Transformers (December 19, 1999) Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Neo (February 3, 1999-September 29, 1999) Beast Wars Metals: Convoy's Great Transformation! (July 31, 1999) Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Metals (October 6, 1999-March 29, 2000) Transformers: Car Robots (April 5, 2000-December 27, 2000) Then, Beast Machines finally got dubbed in Japanese in 2004 as "Beast Wars Returns" Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Returns (November 6, 2004-May 25, 2005)

[@Spike-Prime]

Thanks for the correction, I must have had the dates a little mixed in my head. There are a few other things I either missed or got slightly wrong too so, after my other upcoming projects are done, I'll make a follow-up on this with some amendments

[@milestinker2178]

@@Spike-Prime It's all cool. Speaking as one of the TFWiki folk, you did a great job overall. Also, you mentioned Megatron being a goofy villain. While that was absolutely true for the English dub (in which he was basically given a theatrical Lord Zedd-type voice), the same wasn't true of the original Japanese version. In Car Robots, Gigatron was all serious (save for one silly scene in Episode 15 that was made even sillier in the dub) and had a voice and demeanor similar to that which Animated Megatron would have some years later. His ultimate goal was drastically different in both versions. In the final episode, the dub had him explain that he wanted to harness the power of human children in order to fundamentally alter the notion of good triumphing over evil so that he could rule over all (an explanation he gave in the dub with a very typical Saturday morning cartoon villain delivery, complete with some "mwahaha" type laughter). While the Japanese version went more for a philosophical angle. While, like Galvatron, Devil Gigatron wanted to harness the power of human children, he instead wanted that power in order to change his fate and that of the entire Transformer race. Being as long-lived as they are, the Transformers are essentially immortal and locked into an unchanging fate of stagnation and restriction. Because human children have the capacity to decide their own fates and the human spirit can manifest into a mysterious energy of limitless potential, Devil Gigatron wanted to use that power to alter the fate of the universe itself, so that he might free himself from the shackles of fate. In other words, he wanted to conquer fate itself.

[@KazuyaMithra]

​@@milestinker2178Yeah more or less that. Beast Wars Mainframe production wasn't suitable for what Takara had in mind for a weekly 52 episode show, so making their own two series fit their memo. It wasn't dubbing that was necessarily the reason for the delay but the CG production process itself. The hand drawn animation of BWII and Neo let them have more control over their market and scheduling the series with its product.

[@suemeade2471]

Am I the only one who has to say "apply directly to the forehead" every time I hear "head on"?

[@Spike-Prime]

I forgot about that ad! (I also do not remember when I said "Head On" in this, haha)

[@Alibek-z7y]

Great video' especially fotr the first video on the channel. Looking forward to more

[@madkaiser4887]

Oooh great work especially for a first video! This series is one I consider to be at least a good fun romp. Something to just unwind and have fun watching, given that it doesn’t take it self too seriously and has some funny jokes (which better executed here than RID: 2015) especially Skybyte and Kelly being real highlights. And I think it’s severely underrated Looking forward to your video of Armada! Great job! 👍

[@SunstreakerTitan]

Rid 2001 got me back in to collecting transformers plus the figures were fantastic

[@mothy8500]

Learning a lot of TF history already and ready for the next session, notes ready! Keep up the good work!!

[@cptwigglefuffle]

Really good video, also impressive for your first upload! I was planning to watch TF Car Robots and Beast Wars II this year! I hope you'll do more Transformers videos especially the Japanese exclusive ones like Beast Wars II Also I'd love to see you cover the Yuusha/Brave series, which was what Takara made after G1 was losing popularity in Japan. A lot of elements from that series came from their G1 original sequels, and in Exkaiser, some villain designs were reused from Transformers

[@Spike-Prime]

Funnily enough, I've never actually watched Brave, but I hear it's great from what folks say, so I will give it a shot some time. ATM, I've got a few videos in the pipeline beforehand though

[@UnknownPeugeot]

Great video, very informative though maybe too much but I'm very shaky on that, more specifically talking about the ''lead up to RID2001''. Great editing, the emotion spreadsheet that you have for your character is also used extensively, very clear in everything that you have said. Loved watching the video, see you in the next one!

[@koalatime6664]

I remember loving this show, and always thinking that it deserved more recognition.

[@Spike-Prime]

It certainly does The only comics which gave it love were Dreamwave, in a tiny story, one cameo in 3H's Universe comic, and an awesome story from Fun Publications where Optimus and Ultra Magnus help save the universe from Unicron and Nemesis Prime. Some characters like Gigatron and Sky Byte appeared in IDW but that's it.

[@koalatime6664]

Imagine if the next tf film was a Sky byte solo movie, it will never happen, but it would be awesome.

[@Spike-Prime]

@koalatime6664 he spends half of it spouting poetry his fellow Predacons/Decepticons can't stand but he finds an autobot who loves it and defects to escape the haters

[@Mia-gamin-616]

This show is far from being my favorite but not because is bad or anything, is really competent and fun at times but it plays it safe which makes it less outstanding compared to other shows, a kid would love it, but to give it some credit, is good at recapturing the fun and silliness of the g1 cartoon

[@captainhenson41]

I'm excited to see you talk about the Botcon fiction, because not enough people talk about it; the transformers multiverse, as developed through Botcon fiction, is one of my favorite fictional multiverses. Same goes for the Japanese side of things; plenty of content still needs to be translated, but still. I can't wait for future uploads.

[@Spike-Prime]

I LOVE the Botcon fiction, mostly the Fun Publications stuff. The Nexus Prime arc was great, hopping from universe to universe, uncovering the mystery, I enjoyed all of that. Oddly enough, my favourite stuff ended up being the G1-based stories with Deathsaurus, Jihaxus, etc, which is funny since I don't usually care for G1 cartoon stuff.

[@captainhenson41]

@@Spike-Prime I'm still going through the fiction, but I loved the Animated content (not much, but it was nice to get just a bit more out of that universe) and especially the G1/BW material that filled in the gaps of both shows (3H deserves a lot of credit for that with the Omega Point, Universe War, etc, but I'm glad FP continued that trend with Theft of the Golden Disk, Descent into Evil, etc). I can understand what you mean with not caring about the G1 cartoon. I enjoyed it as a Saturday morning cartoon from the 80s, but as a TF show, it was meh. The first 2 seasons had some genuinely good episodes, but I can't say I really enjoyed as a TF show until TF: The Movie (which I first saw as a kid back in elementary school) and S3. Comparing the G1 cartoon to all the TF content I've consumed, it's mid-to-low tier for me.

[@Devil_-zy6vv]

Me watching this as my introduction to Transformers:

[@Spike-Prime]

Wait for real? :O I hope it was an inviting intro. I tried writing it in such a way that, even if someone wasn't a die-hard fan, they'd still get it.

[@Devil_-zy6vv]

@@Spike-Prime it definitely is!

[@Cassette-Cryptid]

​@@Devil_-zy6vv If you haven't already started consuming media for TF, may I suggest some possible starting points?

[@Jetblast01]

Being the middle child is pretty accurate description of the series. I can remember more things that happen here instead of Energon, but even so it often lacks...impact. I can remember from Energon the Decepticon's nearly being genocided crashing into forcefields or eaten by Unicron and the mass gassing on Cybertron to kill the Autobots. Or Giant Optimus Supreme fighting Unicron. Shockblast's death. I remember so much more from RiD'01, but it's just...mid. It didn't carry real lasting stakes not even in the episodic manner G1 did. Still a better RiD than the 2015 version.

[@skybytebytes]

Finally someone actually praising this show like it deserves

[@AFCManUk]

As, what most newer TF fans would call, a Gewunner, having been born in '76 and just old enough in '84 to be present at and grow up at the very dawn of Transformers, I've never seen or 'got' the attraction of the more (relatively) recent incarnations of them. I tried, but I always found myself pointing at the screen and saying things like, "That's not Optimus!" "Who's THAT guy?" and "What the heck...a robot that transforms into a RAT??". It's the same thing with shows like Zoids. I used to watch Zoids: Chaotic Century in the early mornings at 5am on Sky 1, before I went to work, and absolutely fell in love with that show. Then they pumped out Zoids: New Century Zero and Zoids: Fuzors which, to me, paled in comparison. What I CAN agree on however, is the sheer nostalgia factor for those shows that you grew up with as a kid, even though they might be a totally different version to what someone else knew. You like what you like, and you have explained it very well here :)

[@Spike-Prime]

Yeah, I came to it from completely the opposite side. As a 90s kid I grew up on Batman The Animated Series, Avatar The Last Airbender and other shows. When I finally saw G1 at the age of 10/11, gewunners hyped it up like crazy so I was excited, expecting something great, but I was disappointed. To this day, I still don't rate the 80s cartoon that highly, outside the movie and a few episodes.

[@AFCManUk]

@@Spike-Prime Oh, I agree. With the benefit of hindsight and wisdom, the G1 animation was TERRIBLE, but at the time my 8 year-old self couldn't get enough of it. And the toys were pretty rough too...Often looking nothing like the characters they were supposed to represent, and ranging between little and no articulation, but we absolutely lapped them up!

[@Spike-Prime]

@AFCManUk it's how I feel about a few od my childhood shows too. Like Armada, it's really bad a lot of the time bit it's still got a special place in my heard because it was "my" Transformers, y'know? Our memories are funny like that. As for the TF toys not looking like the characters, especially ones like Iron Hide and Brawn, that of course is the result of them not originally being made for that franchise but being bought up by Hasbro and retroactively fitted in. Though no kid knew that back then.

[@AFCManUk]

@@Spike-Prime You're not wrong. Most of the first waves of Transformers figures were brought in by Hasbro from the 'Diaclone' line in Japan. I give the Marvel Comics their due though. They did make an effort to make some of the characters look like their toy counterparts, especially early on. Brawn is a prime example, he even had the simple slit for eyes that the toy had :)

[@Spike-Prime]

@AFCManUk oh I love the Marvel run, especially by Furman. The UK stuff is especially good, and a lot of the time early on they didn't have the Floro Deary designs to work from, and worked directly from the toys instead. Sometimes it works better than others, like Jazz didn't change much. But toy version Megatron is pretty funny in comic form

[@bcatbb2896]

i remember watching it when it aired and i didnt mind it at all it was by no means as good as beast wars though

[@Spike-Prime]

Oh, totally agreed, it's a pretty fun show but it doesn't have any moments which match stuff like Dinobot's death or Megatron's master stroke in The Agenda

[@mattimusprimal637]

RiD 2001 was dubbed by Saban Entertainment! (Digimon: S1-3, Shinzo, Dinozaurs, Samurai Pizza Cats, Flint the Time Detective etc.)

[@mskain4896]

I grew up in the 80s and on the original G1 Transformers...it was my favorite cartoon when I was a kid and I watched nothing more than the original movie. I never gelled with Beast Wars or Beast Machines--I didn't like the CGI art style or the theme of 'animal Transformers', it was just dumb to me. As silly and wacky as RID was, it was a breath of fresh air for me, returning to something RESEMBLING the original Transformers, and yeah, it was fun enough, even if it wasn't a masterpiece And yes, Skybite was the absolute BEST part of that show

[@mfsusanoo7238]

This is a comfort show with some cool action scenes sprinkled in. anyone that knocks it is probably just trying to fit in with a vocal minority in this fanbase that just likes to craptalk instead of actually enjoying the hobby.

[@edenreyes4747]

The transformers R.I.D 2015 should have rename the show and not to get confused with transformers R.I.D 2001

[@jolemaire6629]

Beste toyline in transformers history

[@-Spartanoblivion1515]

Honestly I give the show a 7.5, because while it’s not bad, it is slightly outdated and there are a lot of errors in the show, and don’t get me started on the stupid yet funny gag of Sideburn constantly chasing and flirting “beautiful red sports cars,” and even though the show only has 39 episodes there used to be 47, yes as it turns out 8 episodes never aired in the US, don’t ask me why idk.

[@Spike-Prime]

They were removed because of 911. Certain episodes were censored due to references or images of exploding buildings but for those they couldn't cut down, they just cut entirely

[@-Spartanoblivion1515]

Huh ,well, I’ll add this to the list of things that 911 changed. Thanks @@Spike-Prime for the information.

[@Xeno-The-Wanderer]

Finding this video randomly in my feed… sigh, another one who thinks Energon is the worst the franchise ever got, I can only imagine what “quality” video’s gonna come out with that in mind. Usually I would be shilling the Brave series but those sails had the wind taken out of em

[@Spike-Prime]

Energon isn't "the" worst, the franchise definitely got worse than that before and after, but I'd certainly put it below RID 2001 and Imo, it's the worst of the Unicron Trilogy

[@dangerousdays2052]

Car Robots sub was great. Dub was pure garbo. No wonder Hasbro wants people to forget about it.

[@Spike-Prime]

I don't think that's fair at all. The dub was fine, and had talented people behind it. Yes it was different, as any translation would be, and it was censored a bit due to 911, but to call it garbo is nothing short of insulting to the talented actors in it.

[@Spike-Prime]

@Nix91 yeah, I think at this stage it's effectively Disney property, and they have no motivation to release a show marketing figures from 20+ years ago owned by two unaffiliated companies. Plus, we literally JUST god Omega Prime from Haslab, the fastest success story of Haslab which reached two stretch goals. I highly doubt most people who are excited for that are exclusively fans of the sub than the dub.

[@Sohei12]

First....

[@canopyfields]

The script was lame, optimus kept telling megatron "you won't get away with this megatron" many times in the first episode without taking action.

[@rollin-kimblecroskey9110]

This thing didn't deserve the Transformers name in my opinion!!!

[@ryananderson5202]

Anime sucks. Fight me!