The next Transformers Cartoon REVEALED!

[mr3urious]

Slipstream and Jetstorm have proven themselves as independent Minibots who can also hold their own in battle and rescue their master,

Spoiler

but by the end, they choose to continue to be Drift's apprentices to learn new combat techniques.

 

[mr3urious]

Looks like there will be a full 3rd season after all, with the finale movie counting as 3 episodes.

http://news.tfw2005.com/2016/02/12/...ro-toy-fair-2016-investor-press-event-309206/

 

[Drtooth]

Mentioned that a while ago. Season 3 will be 13 more episodes to be released this fall. I'm guessing that they got 2 26 episode seasons, but decided to break the second season into a second and third season, probably to help prolong the toy line until the inevitable clearance from store shelves for the TF5 movie toys. Hopefully at least leaving ample room for the G1 inspired Combiner War and Titans Return subbrands. But hey. 52 episodes is at least a round enough number. That's more than TFA got. Shame that the movie pushing the toyline out and CN's terrible slot for that show killed it before the fourth season. They should have made a deal with IDW to just put any finished scripts in comic book form.

While I did like the second season finale, it would have been meh had it not lead to a second part of the season. It was great to see Soundwave briefly emerge out of the phantom zone to make his appearance, as well as seeing Ratchet ("I needed That" and all) get a nice return to the series as well. I really hope to see Starscream and Shockwave, the last 2 Decepticons from the original series that stuck around, make their big debut next season, at least before the show ends.

 

[Drtooth]

A cryptic message popped up regarding season 3 voice actors on the Transformers wiki:

Ian James Corlett and Frank Welker will be providing voices while Christopher Swindle will be voicing a character that's been described with “big teeth… and fins”.

Ian James Corlett in an American union voiced cartoon series sounds interesting. He'd be the second Beast Wars voice actor to be featured in one of these, though David Kaye did move to California since. Frank Welker sounds like this could either mean Megatron as a comeback or flashback or Soundwave actually speaking this time, or even just voicing another character. and "Big teeth and fins" sounds suspiciously like it could very well be RID'15's version of Sky-Byte. Or not.

That said... there seems to be some major hints at a certain villain from Prime coming back, as he's getting a new toy in the toyline. True, Ultra Magnus got a smaller RID released figure, and he only appeared in the comic book tie in, but Ratchet toys were announced and he did appear in the end of the second season.

 

[Drtooth]

Meanwhile, Rescue Bots finally had a special episode that crosses over ever so slightly with Robots in Disguise as Bumblebee returns with his voice and references to the other show to match. Even references the fact he can't come up with a good catchphrase yet. Which pretty much confirms that it was 3 years in between Prime and RID. Wow. Cybertron terraformed fast.

 

[Drtooth]

Several episodes later, we have a full blown crossover with a Robots in Disguise character...Sideswipe. Hunting down the first Decepticon to ever set foot in Rescue Bots, a mini-con named Bounce. Indeed this was the first time the term "Decepticon" was even uttered in Rescue Bots, but only from one Autobot to another. Thus proving my theory that Optimus and the others refused to use the term as not to worry the Cades.

 

[mr3urious]

Several episodes later, we have a full blown crossover with a Robots in Disguise character...Sideswipe. Hunting down the first Decepticon to ever set foot in Rescue Bots, a mini-con named Bounce. Indeed this was the first time the term "Decepticon" was even uttered in Rescue Bots, but only from one Autobot to another. Thus proving my theory that Optimus and the others refused to use the term as not to worry the Cades.

Don't you mean the Burnses? The Cade clones are long gone, you know, and I doubt they'd be scared of them either way.

 

[Drtooth]

Yeah. The Burns family. Can't imagine why I got the name confused.

I'm loving the fact that RID and Rescue Bots are keeping even closer continuity with each other than Prime. There was one episode connecting to the Cybertronian artifact collecting arc from Prime, and Optimus and a mute Bumblebee would cross over from time to time for merchandising purposes (Optimus and Bumblebee were toys in the RB line up even before the show was a thing). I'd love to see more RID characters pop up this season.

BTW: Rescue Bots has officially surpassed the original G1 cartoon as the longest Transformers cartoon series.

 

[Drtooth]

Looks like the the show is going to get a proper third season and the second half of season 2 is just that, the second half of season 2.

I give credit for them cramming in as much of the toyline's gimmicks into the show and making them full season plotlines. In the original series the Headmaster and Targetmaster gimmicks appeared at the very end of the series in a multi-part finale (I'm not counting Headmasters which was a full series about both because they were made as a Japanese exclusive that went off in a different direction).

As far as the show is concerned though, once again the toy line spoils what's supposed to be a huge reveal:

Spoiler

That Starscream has come back to the series (with a design strangely altered to be an amalgam of his G1, Animated, and Prime versions). While there are some TRU exclusive Starscream toys that even the fanbase didn't know about until they hit shelves, Hasbro failed to realize that season 2.5 hasn't aired in the US yet. Their new toy commercial features Optimus battling Starscream. Way to ruin the reveal.

 

[mr3urious]

So we've actually been getting a 6-episode miniseries in between the 2nd and upcoming 3rd season, with the 3rd premiering next year under the subtitle Combiner Force. Canada already got the miniseries a month before us, of course.