Talk:The Transformers (franchise)

So I'm looking over the various storybook stuff that Steve-o has, and finding that we don't have much of it, and what we do have is pretty much lost in the void. We need to tie all this stuff together. The Franchise Navigation box should include some kind of link to it -- even if that means we have to split our current books page into four or five pieces, by franchise. Each series of books should have its own navigation chain, leading back to the publisher's page. So, something like this:Franchise nav box --> Books --> Publishers --> Individual titles Objections to the splitting-up-the-books page? (heck, it should be a category anyway, as opposed to a multi-franchise list.) -- Repowers 20:48, 4 December 2008 (EST)

Nope. Go for it. I've been thinking for a while that once you factor in all the Armada stuff... man, that's a lot of books. --M Sipher 04:55, 5 December 2008 (EST)

Move

As Thomas Jefferson once said, "Buggery is the Genus, of which Sodomy and Bestiality are the species."In that hierarchical mind, "Generation 1" isn't a franchise-- or at least not as we're treating it. It's an umbrella franchise, just like the Unicron Trilogy or the live-action film series. I think that, in the long term, it'll make our lives easier if our treatment reflects that. -Derik^Talk 11:39, 11 February 2009 (EST)

• Generation 1 (umbrella franchise)
• The Transformers (franchise)
• Headmasters
• Masterforce
• etc...
• Generation 2

The Japanese stuff, certainly. All of the toys in those were sold with the plain "Transformers" label. G2, I'm not so sure, but if you feel so…. (What about Machine Wars?) —Interrobang 11:53, 11 February 2009 (EST)

I think you're right that we need to address the far-reaching uses of the term "Generation 1", but I disagree with your proposal for a few reasons:

1. "The Transformers" is an outdated term for the pre-G2 franchise. Yes, when it came out, that was its name, but the moment "Generation 2" was created, "The Transformers" went from being a specific franchise to being the name of the overall brand. Since then, countless official sources have confirmed the use of "Generation 1" to mean "pre-G2". Generations and The Ultimate Guide are two I can cite immediately, and I'm sure there are far, far more. (For another example of a later name superseding a previous one, note that we don't call Universe: Featuring the Wreckers "The Wreckers" or "Enter the Wreckers".)
2. What you're calling "Generation 1 (umbrella franchise)" is actually just a continuity family, as is the Unicron Trilogy. The 2008 Universe is a true umbrella franchise, where Hasbro is actively using a new brand to subsume pre-existing ones. The big-tent G1 and the UT are both more artificial constructs on our part to classify storytelling trends.
3. If we do create The Transformers (franchise) at all, it should redirect to (or even replace) Transformers brand. Making them two different things is confusing. I also believe that we SHOULD have a Generation 1 (continuity family) to cover all of the far-reaching uses of the term. Generation 1 (franchise) can remain as it is, and all of the bases are covered with a minimum of confusion.

How does that sound?

- Jackpot 23:16, 29 March 2009 (EDT)

If I may throw in my two cents, most of the fandom refers to "The Transformers" as "G1" or "Generation 1". In fact, the only time I've heard anyone call it "The Transformers" is when they specifically mean the G1 cartoon. I think that "The Transformers" stuff should re-direct to the "Generation 1" equivalent.

- Monty Prime