Scene transition

DUN DA DUN DA NAAAAAAA!

A scene transition is a kind of televisual punctuation, used to mark a break in the action.

There are three main reasons for employing these transitions within a show:

• Shifting focus between the different Transformer factions.
• Jumping forward in time to what the same faction is doing later on.
• Marking a dramatic change of pace within a scene, e.g. the end of a battle.

Generation 1

The scene transitions in the original Transformers series employed a "symbol flip" that was one of its iconic elements. The preceding scene would cut to the insignia of whichever faction was most prominent at the scene's end, which was large enough to fill the screen. The symbol then receded into a black background for a short distance and flipped around with a flare effect to reveal the symbol of the faction that would be prominent at the beginning of the next scene on its reverse-side. Finally, it moved back into the foreground until it was large enough to fill the screen again before cutting to the next scene. A distinctive musical sting accompanied this transition.

Since only the Autobot and Decepticon symbols were used, transitions to or from scenes featuring characters technically belonging to neither faction applied a generic good-guy/bad-guy approach. For example, the Quintessons were represented by the Decepticon symbol, while humans were typically represented by the Autobot symbol (even if the individuals in question were plotting against the Autobots during that scene).

Takara

The Japanese G1 follow-up series used minor variations on the original symbol flip, with each series making its own changes to the movement and visual style of the symbol.

Flip me teenage babe.

The Headmasters

The Headmasters used redrawn versions of the symbols that were near identical to those in the American shows, albeit somewhat less detailed, and continued to use the original musical sting.

Masterforce

During the Super-God Masterforce series, however, the iconic flipping symbols were nowhere to be found, with the series relying solely on basic editing techniques.

Victory

Victory saw the return of the flipping symbols, but decorated them with solid colours instead of the familiar gradients. These symbols also moved a lot faster and shrank further into the background than those in other series, accompanied by a new, suitably frantic musical motiff.

Generation 2

The early-90s repackaging of the original series used an altered form of the symbol flip that involved the Cybernet Space Cube.

Computers can do that?!

The sides of the cube would iris shut to "enclose" the scene, with the appropriate faction symbol in the middle of the cube face. The cube then rotated to show the opposite face which featured the appropriate new symbol, and opened up again to reveal the next scene already in progress. The original musical effect from Generation 1 was used.

In addition to the new transitions, various effects of "scene viewport panels" that shifted, flipped, and rotated on and around the inner walls of the cube were also used to accentuate regular cuts and edits that had received no special treatment when they aired as part of the original series.

Beast Wars

The original Beast Wars series didn't feature any kind of transitions. The only exception is the episode "Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)", in which the Maximal brand on Cheetor's forehead detached and grew to fill the screen as the scene changed behind it, in an apparent homage to the G1 symbol flip.

Takara

Beast Wars II brought with it a new transition style of its own. Rather than the flipping symbols seen in the original cartoon, BWII used a customised expanding iris wipe effect shaped like either the Maximal or Predacon insignia depending on the scene. These wipes were accompanied by a short "whoosing" sound effect.

The same style of transition continued to be used throughout the Beast Wars Neo series, with the only difference being that the "whooshing" sound was replaced by something a little more "sproingy".

Robots in Disguise

Over a decade after the conclusion of Generation 1, the Japanese Car Robots series returned to using fully detailed faction symbols for its transitions.

Chromey, chromier, and chromier still.

Depending on which faction dominated the following scene, the Autobot, Predacon or Combatron symbol would quickly grow from a point in the centre of the screen until it completely filled the foreground as the scene changed behind it, before shrinking back again and disappearing in the same point from where it originated. This action was accompanied by a high-pitched "zipping" sound effect.

The Americanised Robots in Disguise series reintroduced the classic symbol flip on a black background, but used new, shiny chrome-like CGI symbols, upon which the traditional colour gradients appeared as a reflection. For some reason, the Decepticon symbol's eyes were lit-up whereas the others' weren't.

RiD also replaced the "zipping" sound effect with a robotic voice saying "Transform".

The Unicron Trilogy

Bitch be trippin' balls.

Armada / Micron Legend

The American Armada series featured symbol flips using Autobot and Decepticon insignias that were very similar in design to their original G1 counterparts, but overlaid them onto a trippy swirling green background instead of the traditional black void.

The flips were accompanied by one of two different musical stings.

Energon / Super Link

Similar to the Japanese G1 series, the middle instalment of the trilogy does not feature any scene transitions.

Cybertron / Galaxy Force

Cybertron featured a traditional flipping-symbol transition, depicting shiny metallic CG insignias, accompanied by a four-beat fanfare.

Ba-dum-BA-DUM!

These transitions were also present in Galaxy Force; in addition, Galaxy Force also employed modified versions of the symbol-flip as a transition between each episode's "cold open" and opening titles (having the Autobot symbol appear overlaid upon the actual footage of the cold open, rather than on a black background), and as a title card. For the title card, the symbol did appear on a black background, but flipped to reveal not another symbol, but the brushed-chrome reverse-side of the symbol itself. This silver surface zoomed in until it filled the screen, revealing the symbol of the Omega Lock stamped in the centre (previously too small to be seen). As this was happening, the episode's title would appear from behind the camera and move towards the background, meeting the reverse-side of the insignia half-way with enough inertia to shake the screen.

See also

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