One of my little pet peeves about the original Transformers was the whole “autobots can’t fly” bit, yet in some of the early episodes they all can fly in robot mode and in other ones only those few autobots that turn into planes can fly, and then only in vehicle mode. Was this ever explained in any way or is it just a major screw up?
A screw-up.
It wasn’t certain that there would even be a full series at one point. The first 3 or 4 episodes are a pilot, as usual.
So continuity wasn’t too important.
Later, fan mail from semi-obbsessive collectors made thing plain–get it straight.
Ah, I was hoping for some esoteric reasoning. Oh well, I created my own pet theory as to why the atobots were established as not being able to fly.
On an artificial planet like Cybertron there are roadways and networks of passages extending throughout the entire planet so the autobots, never needed to fly when they were only workers since it was quicker to go through the planet than around it. The decepticons however were always military and had to be able to get around on other worlds where the various land routes might be controlled by hostile forces or simply be nonexistant. Later, when autobots and decepticons began to fight each other for controll of cybertron the autobots never had enough reason to develop flight because traveling through the more secure network of underground passageways deep within the planet was much more efficient than flight.
Plus, the fact that the planet was about 40 miles in diameter helped. 
(Transformers, the movie)
Only 40? Dang, I thought it was almost as big as our moon. Of course now that I think about the mathematics of it utilizing the entire volume of the planet seperated by levels 40 feet apart could yield as much space as the entire surface of the earth.
Wasn’t there an early episode that had Cybertron being brought close to Earth’s orbit, causing massive tides and other havok?
Maybe Cybertron went on Atkins’ between the 80’s and 2005…
If you are going to complain about that, why not also complain that decipticons that turned into tape decks and cameras were also flying!
“first we crack the shell, then we crack the nuts inside!”
The Ultimate Doom (with or without “Countdown to Extinction”), which has a plot eerily similar to the Go-Bots Premiere.
In any event, if you want to quibble about it, some of the early Autobots could fly – Wheeljack’s tech-specs says he has flight capabilities, and Sideswipe had the rocket pack that he loaned to Optimus Prime at the end of “More Than Meets the Eye.” But yeah, the flying Autobots stopped after the first three-part series, and is just a continuity error.
And the size of Cybertron has been contradicted in the canon. The animated series generally showed it as a small planetoid, about the size of Earth’s Moon, while the Marvel comic series described it as the size of Saturn.
(Still doin’ that Trannies thang…)
Oh well, In my personal version of TF cybertron shall forever be a little smaller than the moon. It’s still a darn cool planet.
I had mixed emotions watching the Rhino re-releases of the TV series. On the one hand, I was stoked to finally see the show again after all these years. But on the other hand, I was amazed at how dumb most of the show was.
Oh well. It’s still better than what passes for kids cartoon programming these days. Somehow I can’t see there being much nostalgia for Pokemon or Power Rangers or whatever.
You can always combine Transformers and Pokemon and watch the now-running Transformers: Armada on Cartoon Network – every episode is a variation of Megatron and Optimus Prime (no relation to the originals) going “Gotta catch the new Minicon of the Day!”
Hey, is there a Team Rocket song in Armada? With Megatron, Starscream and Soundwave
Prepare for trouble!
Make it double!
To conquor the world beneath our thumb!
To unite all transformers within cybertron!
To denounce the evils of truth and love!
To extend our reach to the stars above!
Megatron!
Soundwave!
Decepticons, blast off at the speed of light!
Surrender now or prepare to fight!
Starscream! That’s right!
Geeze, Tars, I don’t know whether I should laugh or vomit.
In order for there to be nostalgia for Power Rangers they would have to actually go away for a while.
It’s amazing that the current TF series are such pieces of suck that they make the plotlines of Beast Wars look good.
I just took the size from estimating off of the fact that I could see the entire planet and still see several plane-transformers flying around it several times a minute, with myself being able to see each individual one from “high orbit”.
No, it doesn’t make sense.
I love the TR song.
Seriously. I’m nostalgic for the first couple seasons and everything, but it’s not like I can’t just watch them on ABC family along with the new ones.
Which came first with that show- the cartoon or the toys?
Bit of trivia- the song Markie Mark sings in ‘Boogie Nights’ called “You got the Touch” was originally on the Transformer movie’s soundtrack.
Lord, I am so cool.
No, cool would be having the soundtrack. I’ve got it in both CD and cassette form.
Count me as cool then. I bought it for Weird Al’s “Dare to be Stupid” (even though I already had it on the original ALbum.) I really liked “Dare” and “The Touch” though. Does that make me a bad person?
The score was nifty too…done by the same guy who scored Rocky V, I believe.
I preferred Instruments of Destruction myself. The other songs didn’t have enough of an edge to them for my tastes (although Dare to be Stupid, like most of Al’s works, was pure fun).