Hasbro's Possible Biggest Screw Ups With Transformers And G.I. Joe From My Childhood

I personally enjoyed Kaiju No Kami's reviews and his weird sense of humor. I may like Turboranger but I admire how he wasn't all too afraid to give his blunt opinions on how bad he thought it was. I guess he still felt Carranger was way too interesting with its parody. IMHO, I think I can now agree with fans who think Carranger shifted into Turbo too many times and ran over Turboranger, Power Rangers Turbo, and Go-Onger. The video of his berating Hasbro over the recent Power Rangers thing (which I dislike) reminds me that Hasbro had some screw-ups from my childhood too. These two shows are G.I. Joe and Transformers.

How Transformers was handled during the 1980s could be one....

I love to compare Optimus Prime's death to Burai's death from Zyuranger. Granted, both Toei (as an animation provider) and Hasbro had a history together SO I guess it's not too coincidental when a late 1980s movie killed a beloved character before Zyuranger came in 1992. I rewatched the movie a couple of times and one may notice the MASSIVE character deaths. The beginning even has Starscream using Megatron as a gun to kill off many old generation characters. This was called the Toy Massacre of the 1980s by some fans.

Optimus Prime was an icon. They decided to finally kill him in battle. I get it that casualties of war can't be avoided. I wonder if they wanted to make Optimus Prime like those glorious war heroes and give him an honorable death. Optimus Prime fought Megatron to the death to protect Autobot City. Defend it no matter what the cost. I feel Optimus Prime's death was a very heroic gesture. An adult may get over it but what about the children? Rumors came some children refused to get out of their rooms. I think it was too hard to take. Optimus Prime was literally an icon. The movie was focused on selling out new toys. New characters got introduced so they had to kill old ones out.

Transformers Season 3 finally came in. I think one of the worst things Hasbro did was to turn Galvatron into a childish, whiny leader more than the average cartoon villain. Sure, Cobra Commander was whiny and hissy BUT he still had good plans. The Decepticons are forced to follow a megalomaniac. I think turning Galvatron into a stupid leader doesn't give Rodimus Prime the character he needed. I think I could accept Rodimus Prime IF he was a regular character during the first two seasons. Instead, Rodimus Prime (and his former form Hotrod) were added all at once. Hmmm... trying to sell two toys out of one character? Rodimus as Hot Rod wasn't even given enough space to develop before becoming the new leader. 

I think the only memorable thing about the third season is "Five Faces of Darkness". It was an interesting take on the lore of Cybertron and how the Transformers race was created by the Quintessons. The Quintessons are pretty much like the Cobra-La of G.I. Joe - wanting to retake the world after time of dominance came to an end. There were some interesting episodes. Though, I feel Galvatron has become more of a clown than a cartoon villain. Galvatron either gets funny or becomes rather annoying like Serpentor was in G.I. Joe's cartoon continuity.

G.I. Joe was also screwed up too in the 1980s

It's no secret that I have mixed feelings towards Serpentor. G.I. Joe Season 2 started to feature a new synthetic antagonist. Serpentor was different from the comics since he wasn't immediately intended. However, the toy commercial had it that Destro and Dr. Mindbender feared Cobra Commander no longer had the ability to lead so they created Serpentor. Serpentor was introduced as the new leader of COBRA - a daring move to replace the already established TRUE LEADER, Cobra Commander. Cobra Commander was reduced to a second-in-command and went from Megatron to Starscream. Just because Cobra Commander was voiced by the late Chris Latta doesn't mean he should be a Starscream. Destro was already filling in that role trying to wrest power from Cobra Commander. So, Destro pledging allegiance to Serpentor feels out-of-place for a self-serving man.

There are high expectations from Serpentor since he's created from the most tyrannical tyrants and military leaders. However, Dr. Mindbender used Sgt. Slaughter's DNA as a substitute and failed to create a good leader. Serpentor may have had some great traits like Adolf Hitler's charisma (which it's implied that he may have the DNA after all). However, Serpentor, like Hitler also was rather foolhardy with a sense of suicidal overconfidence. Serpentor proved to be just as stupid, if not, more stupid than Cobra Commander. The whole second season was devoted to Cobra Commander trying to get his old position back from the usurper who thinks he's the true leader. Besides, Serpentor's plans were almost no different from Cobra Commander. They were all but typical cartoon villain plots played for laughs. 

Eventually, things went down when G.I. Joe The Movie came. It turn south that Cobra was actually owned by a rather last-minute character known as Golobulus. Maybe, not too last minute because Dr. Mindbender's dreams were anything but normal. The whole psychic motivator was used to create Serpentor as Cobra's new leader. It turns out that Serpentor's claims to be not symbolic aren't real. I find it weird that Cobra-La just appears and the rest of Cobra accepts Golobulus' authority. I mean, doesn't Cobra-La HATE the current civilization? It makes no sense really that Cobra Commander was a man who is centuries old and only came into the world much later? Don't the members of COBRA have loved ones too? Hmmm... I feel the whole movie was a weird trip. I think Golobulus as the true leader of Cobra just feels rather random. Making Serpentor the new leader for season two just feels rather weird. I guess that's why Serpentor is very well-disliked by the fans and ends up getting written off or not even appearing in reboots at all. Serpentor is more of a nuisance than anything else and I never liked him as the new leader even as a child. Though, I did fantasize creating Serpentor in real life which is just impossible.

The third season (which came after the movie) got worse. Why Hasbro decided to work with DIC instead of Sunbow is rather weird. It was two years after the movie ended and they decided to continue the series. I think Transformers Season 3 isn't all that bad. However, the DIC series which took place after the movie happened. Cobra Commander did return and get his rightful revenge on Serpentor. However, the plots of Cobra were made to be even more convoluted than they are. I also didn't like the idea that Destro suddenly broke up with Baroness for ZARANA of all people? There's bad animation quality and just some idiotic plots. I even feel the anti-drug campaign was badly done. Sure, drugs ARE bad but I think the Headman arc needed to be a mini-series than a two-partner. Some characters are also missing since I'd be interested to see Dr. Mindbender cry over Serpentor's defeat (and like Destro, have no choice but to work back for Cobra Commander) or how Zartan and others are just missing. I also wanted to see a scene where the Crimson Twins regret following Serpentor and side with the Python Patrol to get rid of the usurper.

The third season was followed up by a fourth season. It was marked with bad animation, some rather weird writing, a bad case of missing characters, and one must wonder why they aborted the plan for the Crimson Twins leading the COIL? I guess Hasbro was trying to play it cheap like what Haim Saban did in later episodes of X-Men: The Animated Series and how he does it with Power Rangers. 

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What are your thoughts?