You’ve found AdamBeechen.com, your source for what I’ve done, what I’m doing, and what I’m pondering. Welcome you to my own little, sleepy, one-traffic-light-and-a-post-office pit stop on this giant Web.
For announcements about my latest projects, as well as air dates, publication dates and upcoming appearances, check out What’s New(s)?
Go here for information about HENCH, including how to order your copy.
Curious about my credits? Check out my Comics Credits, Television Credits and Film Credits links above for full, updated lists and get answers to all your questions.
I do love sports and I have lots of thoughts about them. If you’re interested, stop by The Sports Page. There, you’ll also find my “Superfan” columns published between 2006 and 2014 on Suns.com, the official web page for the NBA’s Phoenix Suns.
If you’re pursuing writing professionally and feel you can learn from someone else’s experience; If you’re wondering how I managed to wind up in my little nook of the entertainment industry; Or if you’re just looking for some silly, crazy or amusing stories about one person’s working life in Hollywood, the Career Moves link will take you to an ongoing chronicle my career path, past, present and future.
AdamBeechen.com 
Hi ! I’m new to your website. I would like to start off by saying that I love your work & all that you did for the Transformers franchise. I know how you answer fan questions & comments, so if you don’t mind, can you answer some
these questions ?:
1. What happened to the members of Team Prime ? (Excluding Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Ratchet, & Bulkhead)
2. Did Predaking die alongside SkyLynx & Darksteel ?
3. What happened to Shockwave after the events of Transformers Prime: Predacons Rising ?
4. Did Steeljaw eventually get arrested ?
These are all the questions I have for now. Thanks for your time if you answered them !
1. They were discredited, like everyone else, during the Decepticon Impostors’ takeover of Cybertron. Once the Decepticons were overthrown, the Team Prime members were restored to their previous heroic status and continued serving the population of Cybertron.
2. Unknown.
3. Unknown.
4. The last we heard, Steeljaw was at large on Earth, probably planning to cause more trouble.
Hi i’am big fan i have some questions if you would like to answer.
1.What happened with Soundvawe in RID 2015 after he got in shadowzone.
2.Are you heard about projects Transformers Prime Season 5 and Transformers Prime Galvatron’s Revenge movie.
3.What happened to Bulkhead in RID 2015.
4.If Bulkhead is live are any other characters live from Prime.
1. He augmented himself with debris and other material he found in the Shadowzone. He was contacted by the Council, who offered to free him if he would eliminate Bumblebee and his team.
2. No, I haven’t heard about either.
3. He came to Earth and assisted Bumblebee’s team when they returned to Cybertron to expose and defeat the Council.
4. I’m sure there are.
Hey, my name is Joshua Hearn and I am a huge transformers fan. I would like to know why Megatron was not in Robots in Disguise(2015). Also, what was the point of mentioning his name throughout the series if he wasn’t attended to be in the show?
Hi Joshua – Megatron was never part of the plan for RID. Having left for parts unknown during Prime, it seemed to soon to bring him back. But we mentioned him because we wanted to make it clear he remains an important part of the Transformers universe, and there are characters waiting for him to return and wondering when it will happen. When will it happen? I couldn’t tell you – I’m not involved with the franchise these days. But I’m sure he’ll be back sooner or later in some form.
Hey Mr. Beechen, this is Joshua again. And this is my last question(s). Why do Bumblebee and his teammates follow the same power ranger-esque format, and why there’s no character development. They just do the same thing as trying to capture the Decepticons, bicker among themselves, learn a lesson, and achieve at capturing the Decepticons at the end of the day. I feel like they do the same format in every episode.
Well, I disagree with you that there was no character development… Bumblebee learned how to be a leader, Sideswipe learned to trust and count on others, Strongarm learned living by the spirit of a rule, rather than the letter of a rule, and so on.
I also disagree with you that the show had the same format every episode. Some episodes were two-parters, and we even did a three-parter. Because our show was intended for a younger audience than the series that preceded ours, we didn’t want to be too experimental, and we chose to vary our episodes according to the different personalities of our villains and their plans. Our series was intended to be more light-hearted and less continuity-based than the series that preceded ours, so we focused on our heroes and villains more than in putting together complex plots that ran through entire seasons.
Capturing the Decepticons was our heroes’ mission… The crash of the Alchemor freed Decepticons to cause chaos around Crown City and elsewhere, and Bumblebee’s team chose to make it their purpose to round them up before they could create too much damage.
Characters on all manner of shows bicker and learn lessons – That’s how you get character growth and development.
Sorry you didn’t care for the choices we made. I hope you enjoy the next Transformers series better than the one we produced, and as much as you enjoyed the ones that came before ours.
Hey, how much time passed between season one to the final season of RiD15?
It’s one very long summer.
Oh and where exactly is crown city located? Like what region?
Originally, it was meant to kinda, sorta be a Pittsburgh-like kind of town, so maybe somewhere in the Rust Belt. But as the series went along, and we needed to send the Bots to different terrain (mountains, desert, rivers, etc.), it sort of became a place in America that doesn’t really exist, a place close to all of those kinds of locations.
What was the process of developing the new Decepticons that you and your team did for RID?
There are so many different villains in this series, so many more than any other Transformers show, and a lot of them were so out-there and that helped them stick with me. RID is almost like the “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” of the Transformers canon in my mind. A broad majority of them are “OCs” which I say to mean they were conceived for this show and not taken from previous stories like Soundwave, Megatronus, Starscream, Cyclonus, or Menasor were.
Steeljaw is what most fans in the fanbase at large would consider to be the surprise star of the show. Such an enamoring villain. It was interesting to see him get grimmer and more sadistic over time. The family friendly atmosphere of the show really made Steeljaw’s absolute powerlust have all that much more impact since it was such a subversion of expectations.
Additionally, Thunderhoof, Clampdown, Springload, Bisk, Quillfire, Vertebreak, Groundpounder, Fracture, Rage Byte, Zizza, Pseudo, Shadow Raker, Ped, Crazybolt, and many more (there’s a lot as you know lol) all made a lasting impression on me, even though some of those characters were only a single episode affair.
I can imagine a room full of three hats. One full of animals. One full of alt modes. One full of personality traits. Pull one out of each:
“Okay uhhh this week we have ahhh gorilla, who turns into uhhh *shake shake* construction vehicle who is ahhhhh…GLADIATOR. Gladiator. Okay so what do you guys think, John DiMaggio.”
That’s a joke, of course. Although if it was actually like that I would be really amused. Was it a lengthy process? How much freedom did Hasbro give you? Were some characters yours and some theirs? Did they hand you guys each one or did you and your team have the agency to create the week to week Decepticons? Was Steeljaw Hasbro’s idea or the production teams’?
Do any characters original to your show stick out to you as personal favorites or work that you’re particularly proud of? Thank you for your time.
It’s a great question. I wish I could tell you there was a formula. But what you imagine is probably, at least in part, true.
Hasbro gave us a pretty free hand in creating villains. Occasionally, they’d come to us with a toy idea and ask us to build a character around it, but many times, they created toys out of characters that were made first for our scripts.
Keep in mind that all of this was a couple years ago now, so my memory may be a little hazy on how, when or why characters were created. But as I recall it, Steeljaw and Underbite were created before I was brought on (most likely by Duane Capizzi, perhaps with input from Jeff Kline, Marsha Griffin and/or Steve Melching), so their personalities were pretty much set. Once I came aboard, their voices and motivations were fleshed out a little more… I’m pretty sure it was our idea to make Underbite an egotistical bodybuilder. Steeljaw’s desire to build a homeland for Decepticons was always integral to who he was, but I know I wanted to make him super-charming and sly, with a real, savage mean streak beneath. His ego was always as big as his desire to “help” his fellow Decepticons. The idea was to give Bumblebee a worthy “arch-villain” who would assemble a squad to mirror and rival the Bee Team.
So we had a wolf Decepticon and a bulldog Decepticon. I can’t recall if Hasbro wanted to make their toy line follow animal designs or if it was a suggestion from us, but it made sense to make further Alchemor prisoners animal-based as well. We didn’t come up with any explanation as to why this seemed to be a ship of animal-based Decepticons… We just went with it. And it was different from what had gone before in previous series. So yeah, we’d try to think of animals we hadn’t used yet. We ran out of traditionally dangerous animals fairly quickly, so we expanded to other kinds of animals that we could somehow make dangerous by giving them special abilities. Quillfire, Springload and Zzizza are good examples of these.
It then became a matter of thinking about what kinds of other criminals would be on a prison ship supposedly housing Cybertron’s worst criminals. Since our show was intended to be more light-hearted than Prime and also targeted to a slightly younger audience, we obviously weren’t going to come out and say any of them were murderers (though we could obliquely suggest, sometimes). Their crimes were going to be lighter in nature, yet still serious and dangerous. Theft. Organized crime (whatever counts for that on Cybertron). Sabotage. Espionage. Incitement to riot, and so on.
Personalities is where it got fun. Sometimes, those were suggested by the kinds of story in which a character would be involved. I wanted to do a “Crazy Treasure Hunter” story set in a jungle, and that led to Springload. We thought a nutball anarchist would be funny and silly, and we all thought porcupines were silly, so boom, Quillfire. We had a notion of doing a story about an ancient Decepticon who hadn’t been told the war was over, and thought that might pair nicely with an “ancient” (and mythical) creature like a dragon – Flamesnort. Armadillos are armored… Lets bring in a military-styled villain – Stockade.
In other cases, we thought it would be fun to hear voices in the styles of some of our favorite characters from old TV shows or movies coming out of the mouths of our bad guys. So we’d hear Paulie Walnuts from “The Sopranos” when we were writing Thunderhoof. Making two of our Combiners in the last season takeoffs on Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton from the Honeymooners also fit well, because it suggested a partnership between them, which makes for good character conflict. Basing another on snobby Gazoo from the Flintstones also made us laugh. We were looking for distinct voices that indicated distinct attitudes.
In a few instances, characters were written for specific actors. It’s just helpful to think of a voice when writing, and if the owner of that voice happens to be available – perfect! So Quillfire was written for Andy Milder, and Scatterspike was written for Robin Weigert, who made a big impression on me with the voice she brought to the character of Calamity Jane in Deadwood (our character was even originally named Calamitar). Story Editor Johnny Hartmann wrote the character of Nightra for Lori Petty (who definitely brought a unique voice to our show), and our Cyclonus was played by Harris Lennix because I thought his voice would really lend itself to a cartoon villain (and because we were once in a bowling league together and share an alma mater) in a way that wasn’t traditionally “cartoon villainous.”
I love all of the villains we created. Writing Thunderhoof was a joy because his personality was so big, broad and clear. Our Honeymooners bad guys were a hoot. It was interesting building Steeljaw into more than a cardboard cutout of a scheming bad guy. Springload was fun because he was just so loopy as this obsessed zealot. Quillfire became a favorite largely because of Andy’s portrayal of him… It was a voice and a kind of character we hadn’t used that was very distinct. That was really the key – As much as possible, we wanted all of our villains to be individual voices, with different motivations. Then we could pair up two or team up four or five and watch them bounce off each other, and that could give us more conflict to play with in an episode. Quillfire and Springload teaming up to steal a tank? Yes, please. Steeljaw exasperatedly trying to wrangle these idiots he’s recruited for his “Pack?” (Steeljaw’s fatal flaw – He has terrible taste in allies) There’s lots we could do (and did do) with that. When you’re trying to come up with 70-plus plots, you look for any angle that suggests story or conflict, and the best ones come from character.
Oh, and the lobster Decepticons, Bisk and Thermidor, hold special places in my heart. If we’d done another, she or he would have been named Newburg.
I hope that kind of answers your questions. We had a lot of fun with our villains, and I hope it shows.
If Steeljaw has such a bad taste in allies, why did he set those particular ones free to help him? Thunderhoof, Underbite, and Quillfire are powerful, but I’m still skeptic of Clampdown and his potential, even though he’s super cool and seeing him argue with Thunderhoof is fun. If it were up to me, Steeljaw should’ve taken Cons like Stockade, Terrashock, Overload, Scowl, and the minicons Swelter and Glacius.
You know, in most Transformers there is a designated stupid duo. In Transformers Energon it was Demolisher and Snow Cat. In Transformers Cybertron it was Ransack and Crumplezone. Would Thunderhoof and Clampdown be this series stupid duo?
We didn’t have an official designation for a stupid duo, but they’re pretty stupid, it’s true. I think there are probably multiple candidates.
Okay that’s a lot of great insight. I don’t know if you are aware, but Hasbro made a PHENOMENAL Bisk toy that they later redeco’d with a new head sculpt into Thermidor. It’s in a toy series called the “Warrior Class”. It’s a toy that cost $15 upon release in 2016 but is going for closer to $30-$50 secondhand, cause it’s just that good. Actually funny thing, the $6 Fixit toy released in 2015 is going for some CRAZY money on eBay these days. I thought maybe you’d like to know that despite vocal critics (negative nancies are always the loudest) that a lot of people enjoyed your show and by extension the figures based on your characters have held and even appreciated in value.
If you’re as attached to the Lobster-cons as you say I feel like you’d get a real kick out of handling one of those toys, if not buying yourself one. Just don’t accidentally buy the one-step changer! You’d be disappointed lol.
One more question, which is something a lot of fans have wanted a clarification on.
Clearly, not all of these Decepticons are the “High Command” that we’re used to seeing (Soundwave, Starscream, Shockwave, Stockade, Overload) and seem to be not quite as “disciplined”. Some fans wonder if all of the RID Cons are “Decepticons” in the traditional sense.
There’s two competing theories. The first is that in post-war Cybertron, or perhaps even before the war, that “Decepticon” meant “criminal” or “social degenerate”. Megatronus being called the “first Decepticon” supports this since he committed the first crime on Cybertronian soil when he murdered Solus Prime. Then, when Megatron started his movement he “reclaimed” the name as he rallied Cybertron’s lower classes and criminal individuals into the Decepticon Army. So, not every Decepticon in RID actually fought in the war. They’re just labeled “Decepticons” upon being arrested.
Second is that the reason that not all of the Decepticons in RID seem to be “super-serious” is that a lot of them are just “rank and file” type individuals who fought in the war and were part of the faction, but not in the upper echelon that tends to be focused on, and found themselves engaging in criminal activity in the Autobot dominated post-war Cybertron.
There’s also conjecture that perhaps the prisoners on the Alchemor could be from all different time periods. Pre-war (such as Groundpounder being a gladiator when many assume post-war Cybertron wouldn’t have the gladiatorial pits that pre-war Cybertron did in its social decay), during the war (Overload and Stockade, who seem to have been captured in combat scenarios) and post-war (Steeljaw, Thunderhoof, and Clampdown, who all engaged in criminal activities post war through insurrection and subterfuge, conning and menacing, gangster stuff, etc)
Of course, the show is vague enough that all of these is mostly speculative.
So could you please clarify if the Alchemor prisoners were all “bonafide” Decepticons who were once commanded by Megatron and fought the Autobots, or just criminals who were labeled “Decepticon”. And the timeframe on their incarceration.
Thank you so much for your time!
I don’t speak for Hasbro, so their vision might be different than mine, and their vision is what counts, so keep that in mind.
I think the second scenario you speak of is closest to what I was thinking, that these guys are mostly really nasty “rank and file” types. Certainly no one as highly placed as the High Command.
And the idea that the Alchemor prisoners came from different time periods makes sense to me. Groundpounder certainly could have been incarcerated for goodness knows how long before being placed on the Alchemor.
Will the next official sequel of transformers robots in discuise be in high graphics and extensive action like transformers prime
I’m not involved with the new series. There’s a trailer for it you can find online that will give you an idea of the animation style and the tone.
Hey, Mr. Beechen this Josh once again. This will be my final FINAL question(s). I didn’t understand what you said about RID being “less continuity-based”. Is RID not a part of the Aligned Continuity, or not part a sequel to Prime. The reason I asked is that if RID is in the same fictional universe as Prime, the show coulda solved some loose ends that were left from Prime. Like what had happened to Knock Out, Airacnid, and Shockwave. Or least acknowledge the other Autobots like Arcee, Smokescreen, Ultra Magnus, Wheeljack or their previous human companions. I TRULY understand that you don’t know what happen to any of the characters in Prime, I get that. I just like that if people make a sequel to a movie or TV show, I like to have some loose ends carried over and explored even more instead of completely forgotten. If they don’t want to explain it, then what’s the point in all that built up. Some fans think that RID should be a separate show from Prime. Sorry for being long-winded like this, once again this is it. I won’t bother you again.
What I meant by “less continuity-based” was that each episode of RID was meant to stand more on its own than the episodes of Prime, which was more serialized and required some knowledge of what had gone before in order to fully understand any individual episode. We wanted new viewers to be able to tune in at any time, having never seen a Transformers show before, and be able to grasp the general concept of our series – alien robot heroes on Earth hunting down escaped alien robot criminals.
All of the events of Prime happened in the universe in which RID exists (as far as I know, unless someone has decided they didn’t and never told me). Our characters are aware of what has happened in the events of that show, in so much as they would care (Sideswipe probably didn’t pay much attention until he hooked up with the Bee team, for instance). As I’ve said, RID was never intended to be a sequel to Prime, but rather a spin-off. Some of our characters, like Bumblebee and Optimus, may have crossed over, but our tone was much lighter than Prime’s was, and directly continuing the darker, sometimes grim storylines from Prime would have been inconsistent tonally with what RID was trying to achieve – a lighter toned series targeted and younger, newer viewers. If we’d tried, Prime fans wouldn’t have been satisfied, because the stories would have been told in our storytelling manner, not the way Prime would have handled them.
I hope someday the Aligned Continuity fates of Arcee, Smokescreen, Ultra Magnus, Wheeljack, their previous human companions and all the rest are revealed. I’d like to know what they are, too. But RID wasn’t built or intended – ever – to do that. Hopefully, Hasbro considers those stories not forgotten or abandoned, but just on “extended pause.” I suppose we’ll see.
Hi, Mr. Beechen. My name is Key’Shawn. This is my first time on the site, and I have to say thank you for all the work that you put into the Transformers franchise. I love Robots In Disguise; I thought it was a fun, action-packed, enjoyable continuation to the Transformers Prime storyline. It was sad to know that the show ended last year in favor of a new show called Transformers: Cyberverse, as I thought that there was a lot more things that they could do with RID and the Aligned continuity in general.
There’s tons of questions I would love to ask you, so I will start off with this first question. With the exceptions of Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Ratchet, why didn’t the other Autobots from Transformers Prime (Arcee, Wheeljack, Smokescreen, Ultra Magnus, and Knock Out) return for the sequel/spin-off, RID? I understand that RID was meant to focus on Bumblebee leading a new team of Autobots, but after Bulkhead and Ratchet returned, I wondered why other Autobots from Team Prime didn’t show up, especially Arcee since she was an original member of Team Prime alongside Optimus, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Ratchet since Season 1 of Prime.
Hi Ke’Shawn… There wasn’t a specific reason we didn’t use the other Autobots. If the series had gone on longer, we probably would have seen more of them sooner or later.
Hi Mr. Beechen, I would like to tell you something. It’s about Bumblebee from Transformers Robots In Disguise. Since he is my favorite Transformers character of all time, I would say that I was so proud of how mature and serious he became in the series. I would say he was always my favorite since the beginning, and I am glad that he was an excellent leader which made Optimus Prime proud of his leadership skills. I am also as well proud of him because of his character development in the show. ^^
Hi Maryam – Thank you very much. Bumblebee’s growth was a big part of our series, and we paid a lot of special attention to it. Happy holidays!
Mr. Beechen,
A lot of Transformers fans regard Bumblebee in RID2015 to be the best realized version of the character in awhile.
He’s got a lot more in common with his G1 predecessor than the Movie version, which is popular but distant from ‘traditional’ depictions. Seeing the friendly, insecure little scout really rise to his station and step out of Optimus Prime’s shadow was triumphant.
That bit in the Decepticon Island 2 parter where you chose to have him and Optimus butt heads was a bold move.
BUMBLEBEE….in a screaming match with OPTIMUS PRIME in the middle of a high stress scenario. I didn’t think I’d ever see that before I did see it.
Thank you, that’s very nice of you to say – You made my day!
Hi, Adam Beechen, I Wanted To Comment About Robots In Disguise, And I Really Really Really Want To Know About The Episode Called “Two-Wheeler”, I Hope It A Actual Episode, Reply As Soon As You Can.(Arcee Is My Favorite Character, And I Really Want To Know If She Will Come In Robots In Disguise).
Hi Zayan. Unfortunately, we’re not making new episodes of Robots In Disguise any more. But maybe Arcee will appear in Cyberverse, the new series, if she hasn’t already.
That’s Okay, But Will She Be Coming In Her Prime Appearance And Voiced By Sumalee Montano?(Sorry To Bother You)
I don’t know the answer to either of those questions. I’m not involved with the new series.
Hello it’s me again. I thought about this. Bumblebee had to have known his actions with fighting Decepticons would attract government attention right? How did we never see any government officials like Agent Fowler?
Also, I can understand why Steeljaw set free Thunderhoof, Underbite, and Quillfire at the end of the show, but why does he keep bringing Clampdown? He’s the least combat effective Decepticon created. If anything he should have brought someone smarter like Simacore or Stockade or those two minicons Swelter and Glacius.
We never saw Agent Fowler because our series wasn’t a continuation of Prime. We were focusing primarily on new characters. Whether or not the government knew Bumblebee’s team was operating on Earth, we don’t know.
Clampdown did pretty well against Bee and Strongarm for a time, primarily because of his agility, but also because of his surprising strength and his acid-coated skin. Simacore and Stockade were too strong of personalities for Steeljaw to try and keep under control.
Thank You For Answering My Questions, I Would Have Liked RiD If All Members Of Team Prime Appeared, Thanks.
I know and I’m sorry. A lot of people wish RID was more like Prime or a continuation of Prime, or that Prime had never ended. Maybe someday someone will go back to Prime and continue the story everyone enjoyed so much.
In the meantime, I hope you’re enjoying Transformers Cyberverse, which I think is pretty great.
By The Way, I Started To Like RiD Now, So I Must Say As A Transformers Fan And A Adam Beechen Fan, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR MAKING RID!!!! And Thank You For Making My Life Better!!!
Also, Please Tell Me What Happened To Shockwave, Because My Brother Really Wants To Know So Bad, Please Reply
Unfortunately, I don’t know the answer to your question, but I’m pretty sure Shockwave is still out there somewhere.
I wish Skylynx and Darksteel hadn’t been killed. But then again since Starscream is not the most honest, maybe they are alive. The Predacons were the best part of Prime.
Maybe those characters are still alive. We didn’t talk about them in regards to Robots In Disguise, so I don’t know anything about their current status.
Is there a reason why this version of Grimlock didn’t breath fire?
Bulkhead said Dinobots in Prime were totally different from Predacons. Are Dinobots just a subspecies of Transformers, like Chompazoids, Sharkticons, etc.?
1) Because he’s a different version of Grimlock.
2) It’s possible.
Hi! I’ve seen your show (Transformers Robots in Disguise) and I have one question… what happened to Starscream’s legs?You know….The powerful legs?The ‘stronger than Beyoncé’s legs’ ? The legs that everyone loved? Those legs?Also where’s Megatron,Knockout and the human kids;Miko,Raf and Jack?
1) Starscream’s legs weren’t an integral part of our story.
2) We decided to focus on new characters and other characters.
Hi,
My 8 month old son absolutely adores the Chuck & Friends song that plays while the credits roll at the end of each show. Could you tell me who sings it, please? I’m able to find the song on YouTube that’s sung by the characters in the show to play for him, but not the version done by the man who sings it when the credits roll, and my son far prefers this version.
Any help you could give me to find this song for my little boy would really make his day!
Thank you very much!
Hi Ashleigh – Thanks for your note. It’s been a long time… I only remember the version sung by Gabriel, the young man who voiced Chuck. I don’t remember anyone else singing it, although I know Clint Black sang a version of the show’s theme song.
Me. Beechen, is there any way that you could ask anyone from Hasbro to continue Transformers Prime without Optimus prime? I’m sure almost everybody in the world wants it to continue, if you guys say no just remember that we outvote you, just please ask if they can continue, it’s our childhood
I spoke to someone at Hasbro and told them how much you and almost everybody in the world wants them to continue Transformers Prime. They said they really appreciate how much you enjoyed that show, but they’re focusing on different Transformers stories now, like Transformers Cyberverse. Maybe someday they’ll get back to Prime, but they’re not planning on doing that right now. Hasbro also said that if you have any more questions, you should ask them directly through this link: https://hasbro-new.custhelp.com/app/answers/list
Also could you ask when Hasbro will continue Transformers Prime?, They can’t leave it like that.
No, I think you better ask Hasbro directly, like they suggested.
Hello Mr. Beechen,
I reached out to you earlier today on Twitter in regards to a script that I’m writing for a Batman Beyond YouTube video. During the panel at SDCC this past weekend Bruce Timm had brought up a scrapped DTV for the series that would have brought the clone reveal in even earlier than they did with JLU, but instead Catwoman would have been the one responsible.
Bruce has spoken about this film idea before with the most detail he went into being from a 2005 forum post on ToonZone. I had seen it before, but re-reading it I realized that there were some striking similarities with your “Hush Beyond” arc from a few years back. Not only in that you included Catwoman and had a large focus on the cloning aspect of things, but in particular Timm had said “”Selina’s ‘son’ was going to be the main bad guy ‘muscle’ of the story-a twisted version of Terry / Bruce, with his own ‘dark superhero’ outfit and everything. The plan was for him to be bumping off criminals from the Batman Beyond Rogues Gallery, and possibly even an old-timer like Edward Nygma, thus setting the plot in motion”, which is something the Dick Grayson clone ended up doing in your hook, as well as “Bruce was going to discover the truth about ‘dark avenger guy’ being a clone of himself, put two and two together, and realize [that] Terry was also a Bruce clone and try to shut Terry out of the case” which is pretty similar to what we see in the Dynamic between Bruce and Terry when he brings in the Bat-Drones.
So I was super curious, had you heard about this story before writing Hush Beyond? Was it the inspiration perhaps? I know your Beyond books didnt stick fully with the Animated continuity, but going back over Timm’s posting it struck me as peculiar that a lot of it lined up with what you ended up doing. Would love to hear any input regarding the matter! Who knows, maybe it was just wild parallel thinking?
Hi Mattie – Total coincidence. This is the first I’ve heard about it.
Hi Mr. Beechen, I have two questions I wanted to ask about RID
1. Where was Arcee during their events of RiD?
2. We’re you planning on bringing Megatron into the series or not?
(Thanks for your time)
1. I don’t know.
2. The idea of bringing Megatron into the series was discarded early on, as we wanted to focus on different characters, and because bringing him back so quickly after making such a big deal of his departure felt like a mistake. We wanted his time away to mean something.
Hi Mr.Beechen i just wanna say that all the transformers story began with Megatron as a decepticon so, and as you said up he Will comback soon or later but making him an autobot Will be a big bad mistake cause it’s in his blood. can he be a good decepticon ? cause there are bad autobots like the one in transformers rid 2017 with starscream and megatronus the decepticon Prime so please keep him a decepticon and their leader in the good side of course cause he was made to lead Cybertronians and his team of cons wich means the predacins like predaking in his side as friends cause the decepticons need LORD MEGATRON and thank you
I’m sure Megatron will be back in some way, someday, and that he’ll be as lovably evil as he’s ever been.
Thank you very much sir also withe megatronus in his side cause that Will be epic thank you again for this lovably show
But not that much evil please cause bad guys die alaways in the end
Hello Mr.Beechen it’s Megatron first Prime again i have other questions if you may please:
1-You said up that you wanted of Megatron’s absence in rid 2015 to mean something ,but what is the explication of mentioning skylinx and darksteel without predaking, i mean what is the explanation of his disappearance even though he was with them to settle scores?
2-where was predaking when skylinx and darksteel wanted to destroy starscream
3- Is there any chance of Megatron to be a prime after he learned his lesson and that because of his technologies and the idea of transforming earth that Cybertron was restored ? And be trained by Megatronus ,the original decepticon prime ?
And thank you.
Hello Mr Beechen would you please answer my questions up , and please if you may give us a little small trailer about the transformers rid season 4 please just one principal idea cause it’s been two years now and the idea of this season is killing a lot of the TF fans?
I’m sorry, I don’t have any answers to your questions. Our focus was on the characters in our series and we were coming up with stories for them. We weren’t also figuring out what was happening to other characters we weren’t going to show.
And there’s not going to be another season of RID. Season 3 was the last. Hasbro has moved on to Transformers: Cyberverse, and I’ve moved on to other projects, so someone else will have to give you the answers you’re looking for.
Thank you very much sir for your honesty ,and can you tell me about a easy way to talk with Hasbro like your official blog or something else please and thank you again
Hello! This is my first time writing something on your website. I’m going to cut straight to the point – Thank you so much for the work you’ve sent out into the world. Not gonna lie when I say my personal favorite is RID. Contrary to what many say, I believe it was one of the best Transformers series plot-wise. Not too overbearing, but not vignette-style either.
Many of the comments I’ve seen about RID are positive, but that doesn’t mean it’s without dislikes. Many of said negative comments were aimed specifically at the writers and producers, claiming that RID was not a successful predecessor to TFP. Given this, I wanted to let you know that your works (gotta admit, especially RID!) are some of the best despite having its own haters.
RID is the kind of series with memorable lines and quotes, sometimes cracking a few with my brother or friends to only explode with laughter. “Hey, remember _____?” You gave us cliffhangers, appreciation for your works, and of course, humor. Not to leave our unforgettable characters with their own unique personalities that, to be honest, many writers fail to give. RID is one of the series I don’t think I’ll ever forget from my short childhood, and for a good reason. You made it that way, and as weird as it sounds coming from a wide-eyed child, thank you so much for everything.
Hi Alexandra –
I’m sorry it’s taken so long for me to reply to you. Thank you very much for your kind words. I’m glad you enjoyed RID, and it sounds like you understood what we were going after – a fun show that acknowledged TF continuity without requiring viewers to understand the entire franchise history.
Of course, I know RID didn’t please everyone. Any series following Prime was going to have big metallic boots to fill, and the fact that we were so different in tone and style, not to mention aimed at younger viewers meant some of our audience was going to feel negatively. I respect that. TF has always had a passionate and vocal fan base – That’s part of what makes the franchise so enduring. My hope has always been that RID holds its own within the franchise, honors it and brings a bit of a unique voice/perspective to it, while being funny and exciting in its own right.
I’d love to know some of the lines or moments that still make you laugh or smile, if you want to share them. Maybe we have some of the same ones!
Thank you again for writing – and I hope you keep enjoying cartoons after your “short childhood.” I did… and now I get to help make them!
Best,
Adam
Good Mr. Beechen
I’m not sure have I ask you this before, so ask anyway just in case.
Can you give some hints how to become writer/scriptwriter?
I have so far made fanfictions, but I have one own story developing and I wonder if it is possible.
Hi Eeva – It is possible. The first and best advice I can give you is to keep writing. The more you do it, the better you get. The next best piece of advice I can give you is to get your hands on some scripts that have actually been produced for television (if writing for television is what you want to do). That will show you the format that is used by the industry, so you can make your samples look professional. The last best piece of advice I can give you is to move to Los Angeles if you’re not already here (and if writing for American television what you want to do). It’s not absolutely necessary, but it helps to be close by if a production company or studio wants to meet with you, and it’s helpful for making connections with other people who work in the industry. Good luck to you!
Thank you for your advices. Yes, I’m so far thinking TV script. Movie sounds big thing so I plan for small for now, but let’s see now.
The last advice may be too difficult to me because I live in EU Finland. But I see how things go.
Thank you ^^
Hi Eeva – I wasn’t aware you’re overseas, but that doesn’t have to stop you. I know Finland has a film and television industry, so you might want to look into opportunities there. There are many contests for screenwriters, as well as seminars and classes aspiring writers can take. Writing for shows produced in America or Canada might be difficult from where you are, so why not see what your country has to offer?
Hello!
I’ve really enjoyed rid 2015 and all the unique designs and fun storytelling. I even hope some of those awesome characters will be used by hasbro again! Thank you for your great work on it!
I did have a question about the episodes Decepticon island part 1 and part 2
(season 2 episode 12/13)
The autobots use the stasis bomb on the ship with Decepticons. I was curious what would that looks like and afterworth? And those caught in the explosion. Like how would it look inside and how would the Decepticons look like? What does the effect of it look like and the aftermath basicly.
Hi – Sorry for the late reply… I’ve been out of town. To answer your questions, I imagine it’d look like a lot of Decepticons sleeping, ready for our heroes to scoop them up and put them in stasis pods.
Hey! Thanks for your reply. It didn’t take long 🙂
So would they be like frozen in the last place they had been? due to the stasis bombs effect. totally covered in ice. or would it more look like when they are in a stasis pod? with like a little bit of it over their body but still frozen in place?
also they don’t keep them in stasis pods right on cybertron, i’d imagine some kind of jail?
They’d look the way they look when they’re in a stasis pod.
I can’t say for sure, but I’d imagine Cybetronian prisons would be large facilities filled with criminals in stasis cells, much like the Alchemor.
Hello! My name is Daniel, and I’m one of many fans of the Alligned continuity, which includes Robots in Disguise. I’m a fan of your show, and got some good enjoyment from it as well, particularly from the impressive building of continuity and callbacks to Prime. I had a couple questions about the show that I wanted to ask (not entirely certain if they have been answered before in some form, and I apologise if they have been):
1) Were there ever any plans to have Shockwave return from Transformers: Prime, given his unknown fate in Prime? Or what do you think became of him following Prime’s conclusion?
2) Steeljaw was a pretty competent villain in RiD, but he wasn’t always the brightest. He seemed to have no trouble allying with Soundwave despite what transpired between him and Megatronus in Season 1. Why wasn’t he a little more wary of teaming with someone else promising him control of Earth?
3) Speaking of Soundwave, during his time in the Shadowzone, would he have encountered the Terrorcon Skyquake left there during Prime’s first season? And if so, did Soundwave kill him and use some of his parts to construct the generator?
4) If a fourth season of Robots in Disguise was to be made, would we have seen Starscream and Soundwave make another return given their current status on Cybertron?
Hi Daniel – Thanks for your note. I’m afraid my answers won’t be very satisfying for you, but…
1) There were no plans to include Shockwave, nor did we discuss what happened to him after Prime’s conclusion. We were too busy focusing on our newer characters and the other members of our cast.
2) Steeljaw didn’t have a lot of options, and he knew he wasn’t capable of taking over the planet on his own. He probably figured he could outsmart Soundwave at some point and get rid of him.
3) It’s possible. We don’t really know what transpired in the Shadowzone.
4) I don’t know. It’s possible. We didn’t discuss a next season, particularly once we knew our final season would indeed be our final season. I think it’s more likely we would have tried to focus on creating new villains.
Your answers are fine, thank you for taking the time to answer my questions!
You’re welcome. Happy holidays.
Is the Predacon’s normal form their bot mode or their beast mode?
I honestly don’t know, sorry.
Hi Mr Beechen.
I have some quick questions to ask, my questions are: During the prime cartoon bumblebee was an Urbana 500, but later in season 1 of RID2015 it was said he was a 1995 Griffin Motors Windblazer, so my question is, Did at some point during the end of prime and robots in disguise did bumblebee scan a new car mode ? Because he looks nothing like how he did in the prime cartoon, he has a different body type in RiD compared to prime, could he have just returned to Earth before rid started ? My 2nd question is During season 3 of prime, optimus scanned a new truck given to him by Agent fowler, did he still have that same mode during RID ? It makes me wonder because bulkhead and Ratchet still had the same body style and vehicle form they did in prime as well as when Starscream and Soundwave did when they 1st appeared in RID before they refomated themselves. And my final question is what happend to their built in weapons such as Bumblebee’s/Optimus’s arm cannons and Bulkheads wrecking ball and hand blaster, overall compared to prime, in rid they just depend on decepticon hunters to help them fight.
Hi Justin:
It’s been a few years, so my memory might be hazy…
1) I don’t remember ever specifying in dialogue that Bumblebee was a 1995 Griffin Motors Windblazer. If we did, then sometime between the two series, he either scanned the body type on a return trip to Earth and those stories haven’t been told yet, or perhaps there’s a database now of Earth vehicles that Autobots can search and select from. But no, you’re right, Bumblebee doesn’t look exactly the same as he did in Prime. Neither does Optimus or any other character that appeared in Prime and then in RID. That’s mostly because we used a different animation style and different artists; We wanted RID to have its own look and style to help differentiate it from Prime. RID was meant to appeal to a younger audience.
2) I’m not sure if Optimus had the same truck style that he did in Prime. I imagine there were at least some differences between the two styles.
3) The Autobots didn’t utilize built-in weapons on RID because they didn’t want those more powerful and pyrotechnic weapons to attract attention to their presence on Earth. If at all possible, they tried to keep their activities on the hush-hush and to incidents that could easily be explained, if necessary.
Hi Mr Beechen its Justin again from yesterday, I just wanted to say thank you for your reply and answering my questions about RID2015, I really appreciate it, im a big fan of yours, the show and transformers in general.
And i actually had 2 more questions about the show.
You said the Autobots didn’t utilize their built in weapons because they didn’t want to attract attention to their presence on Earth, but did they have them equipped in their weapon system’s during the show after prime ? Example bumblebee’s blasters ?
My 2nd question is how much time has passed from the end of prime to the start of RID ?
Because I heard that it takes place 3 years after prime based on the show’s connection to Transformers Rescue Bots and what we see in RID but the dialogue in the show makes it seem like its been several years or more(perhaps a decade). Anyways thank you so much for your reply and taking the time to answer my questions , I hope I did not take much of your time and again thank you so much. 👍
Hi Justin:
1) I would think they did, but I don’t know for sure.
2) I think we always figured it was more than three years, though I’m not sure we ever specified how long it was.
I have questions to ask
1. Is Goldgear the replacement for Great Byte?
2. Why Chainstorm isn’t among the other Weaponizers in season 3?
3. Do you think the Alchemor is actually a place for Cybertronians with mental disorders?
4. Which Decepticons from Transformers Robots in disguise you think deserved a toy?
5. Do you believe that Cyberwarp was part of the old High Council before Cyclonus took over?
6. Do you think Steeljaw’s backstory is that he was betrayed by an old friend?
7. Are there any more characters who didn’t make the cut?
8.Was there any plans to have Lancelon betray the other Weaponizers and partners up with Starscream?
9.Are there more Chompazoids beside Underbite,Bashlight and Thunderfoot?
10. Did Swelter and Glacius had a previous owner before or were they orphans to begin with?
11. Hi-Test is the only Activator minicon who came back and join the Autobots. Why the other Activators didn’t come back too? Did something happened to them?
Now my commentaries
1. I wish there was another frog Decepticon instead of just Springload. Like Spittor,for example.
2. Instead of having too much repaints,it would be better if some Decepticons were based on a beaver or a crocodile/alligator.
3. Too bad the Autobots didn’t battle Kickback and Glowstrike at all.
4. It would have been nice if Terrashock came back or even Fracture.
5. I think Clampdown should have joined the Autobot team instead of being arrested.
6. I have some good names for Decepticons: Packapunch,Boom-Bite,Fearstrike,Trush and Snowplough.
Hi Vicky:
1) No.
2) No particular reason.
3) No. It’s a prison.
4) All of them.
5. No.
6) Given how poor he is at choosing allies, maybe.
7) Lots and lots, I suppose.
8) No.
9) Probably.
10) That remains to be seen.
11) Nothing happened to them. We just chose to use Hi-Test.
1) Maybe someday. Frog Decepticons are fun.
2) I’ll pass that along.
3) Maybe next time.
4) Agreed.
5) Clampdown agrees with you.
6) Good suggestions – I’ll pass them along.
A few more of my point of view.
7. The orange minicon that look like Major Mayhem could have been the minicon Volcano from the Japanese toyline of RID2015 since both are very similar.
8. All the shorts featuring the cyclone minicons feels to much like a whole episode of Season 1 set before episode 25. I don’t know if this was intentional.
9. Flamesnort was suicidal. Yet,the Autobots decided to capture/arrest him. Wonder if him being suicidal was only to get attention.
10. Some of the Decepticons from the books should have appeared onscreen. Transit for example.
11. People wanted more dinobots in the show when Combiner Force was airing. Mostly Swoop and Slug. Now I get that this Grimlock is different but this has enraged a lot of people.
12. I have an idea of a cowboy/outlaw bot that would play off as an Autobot only to be revealed he was a Decepticon who just cares about getting money.
13. Although not really into Decepticons who are repaints,Wingcode being the Nightstrike repaint as the last con the Autobots catches on Earth seems fitting.
14. Speaking of Wingcode,her episode seems to have predicted the recent virus going around. Mostly because she’s a bat and she indeed spread a virus.
15. Even though I wanted either Wheeljack or Smokescreen to appear in Combiner Force,at least I have appreciated that we got Bulkhead out of any other bots.
16. I didn’t like the fact that Drift went with Optimus in his mission instead of Strongarm. It was a missed opportunity to show off the combiner Primestrong.
17. I’ve seen that the minicon Sawback was promoted too much,whenever it’s by merchandise or show promotional images. Wasn’t he intended to appear in the show at some point? And if he was cut off the show,was there a reason?
18. Clawtrap should have gotten a toy because all the other Scavengers got one. A green repaint of Clampdown would’nt hurt Hasbro.
19. If a character of the show gets a plush toy,it has to be Underbite because of how much I love him and the reason why my loneliness has gone. He would’ve been a big cute huggable plush.
20. In a storyboard for RID2015,I noticed with Crazybolt it says ”Season 1”.
21. If Megatronus is apparently still alive,then I think during his defeat,he must have been teleported or trapped somewhere.
22. It would have been great to have some Autobots transforming into animals like they did with Transformers Cybertron. We did have Grimlock. An Autobot elephant or an Autobot pinguin would’ve worked.
23. If you liked the names of the Decepticons I had,then i’m giving you some for the Autobots. Gateburn,Guard Rail,Trackdown,Scatterbrain and Synchroblast
24. One of the statues at Kaon Plaza in the first episode ressembles Cyclonus from Combiner Force.
25. I felt like Minitron was forgotten by everyone.
26. I did’nt like the fact the show used injections. I have needlephobia and whenever I see one,I cry out of fear..
27. I wish Quillfire was’nt used that much. He begins to annoy me. But of course.. Kids..
28. In Combiner Force,Phantomjaw should have appeared instead of Steeljaw. His motion would have been to seek revenge on Bumblebee and his team for what they have done to his brother Steeljaw.
Maybe some more questions but they would be the last ones since I do not want to spam or anything.
12. Are all minicons bad?
13. If there was some scrapped ideas for the show,will you share them with us?
Last thing I want to say.
There is a new Rescue Bot series going around using characters from RID such as Grimlock and Bumblebee. I’ve been wondering if you can go and tell Boulder Media if they can add Underbite somehow. It would make me happy. I have been in a rought time at home for quite a while,mostly because of health problems with an abces.
“A few?” Jeez. Okay, but please understand that RID is the only Transformers series I ever worked on (aside from the Titans Return shorts), I haven’t worked on RID for more than three years, and my knowledge of Transformers lore is far from complete. That said, I’ll do my best.
7. Okay.
8. I don’t, either.
9. I don’t think so. I think he still thought the war for his cause was still going on and was trying to be a good soldier.
10. Sorry.
11. Sorry.
12. Sounds cool.
13. We liked it, too.
14. Hadn’t thought of that.
15. We had fun with Bulkhead. I get that people wanted to see other old characters, too. Everybody has a favorite character, and it was impossible for us to feature all of them and still make the larger story about our characters.
16. Sorry.
17. Sawback was never discussed as a possibility to appear on RID that I know of.
18. I suggest you write Hasbro a letter saying exactly that.
19. I agree!
20. I wasn’t aware of that.
21. Entirely possible.
22. Maybe next time.
23. Also great names!
24. Interesting.
25. I don’t remember if we forgot Minitron.
26. Sorry.
27. Sorry. We loved him.
28. Can’t help you. I didn’t work on Combiner Force.
12. No.
13. We used all the ideas we had!
I don’t have any connection to Boulder Media, and I’m not currently working with Hasbro. My advice would be to write to Boulder and Hasbro and let them know how you feel about Underbite. I hope you feel better soon!
hello my name is hejab and i am a big fan of robots in disguise and i have questions to ask
1-what happened to kickback because last time he was seen in decepticon island and disappeared?
2-what happened to arachnid and the insecticons after prime ended?
3 you said megatron was never planned for RID but i found a concept art of him can you explain?
and one last thing, i was so depressed ever since RID was cancelled and i want to talk to hasbro directly to make a sequel but i don’t know how so can you help me how please?
1. He went to prison back on Cybertron.
2. I don’t know, I’m sorry. I didn’t work on Prime.
3. I’ve never seen the design and I don’t know anything about it. We were never intending to use Megatron in RID.
Your best bet is probably to contact Hasbro itself at https://consumercare.hasbro.com/en-us. I haven’t worked with Hasbro in several years and wouldn’t know who to talk to directly. But I suspect Hasbro isn’t considering a sequel to RID because they’ve moved on to other projects and other stories in the Transformers universe.
P.S. I don’t know what happened to the weaponizer minicons. Hopefully, they found a safe place.
Looks like some people are asking questions you have already answered in the past.. It’s a shame this happens,honestly.
Hey, new to your site, sorry if you’ve already answered this elsewhere. I was wondering if there was ever some sort of Cybertronian subspecies that Steeljaw was a part of, much like the Chompazoids, Amphiboids, and Buffaloids. Also, if there was such a group as this, would the one off villain Silverhound be a part of the same subspecies as Steeljaw? Big fan of the show. Thank you for your time!
Hello and welcome. I think it’s safe to say Steeljaw is part of a Cybertronian subspecies. Silverhound was more on the dog side than the wolf side, so if they’re not part of exactly the same species, they probably have common ancestry somewhere back along the timeline.
I have a few questions:
1: Have the Decepticon Steeljaw ever saw Blaster’s Minicon Steeljaw?
2: I heard a lot of things about how Hound was not feature, like they did not want to confuse him with Bulkhead. Is that true?
3: Is there a war going on again with Blaster and his minicons vs Soundwave and his minicons and how many do both have? I see that Blaster could had just about as many minicons ad Soundwave.
4: Hound’s absents show that he might have got damaged somehow. What is his status?
5: In Rescuebots academy, will the other 2 dinobots make appearances like Snarl and Sludge?
6: Will we ever see the Autobot commander SkyLynx?
7: Where was Springer, Broadside and Sandstorm in RID? Is there a war against Astrotrain, Blitzwing and Octane?
8: Are the combiners in RID have their own planet or are they not even combining at this point of time?
1. No.
2. No. Hound was never discussed for our series.
3. I don’t know.
4. I don’t know.
5. I don’t know. I’m not involved with that series.
6. Probably.
7. I don’t know. Those characters were never discussed for our series.
8. Unknown.
Cuddy Fox,Mr.Adam Beechen did not work on Cyberverse and Rescue Bots Academy. Robots in disguise Steeljaw is way different from G1 Steeljaw so they’re not the same character and the Multiverse does not exist in the Robots in disguise timeline. In Cyberverse,Hound was never recovered from being unproperly removed from the loop,which means he possibly died. In Robots in disguise,after the Autobots were blacklisted,it’s more likely they went into hiding so the High Council would’nt find them. And beside,the war is over prior to Robots in disguise so..
hello adam beechen, i’m back to ask some other questions
1-was RID season 2 meant to have 26 episodes?
2-were there plans for a RID movie?
3-were there any cancelled characters?, if there were, tell me who they were
1. Nope. It was always 13.
2. Nope. At least not that I was aware of.
3. Nope. The only character we agreed we didn’t want to use was Megatron. We wanted to honor his decision to go off by himself for a while, and not have him return right away.
hello adam beechen,i’m back with some questions
1-was RID meant to 78 episodes?
2-was RID meant to have more seasons?
3- was there meant to be an episode called “two wheeler”?
and now my thoughts of what the show could have had
1- season 2 could have been 26 episodes so kickback and glowstrike could have more screentime
2-optimus should never have returned and stayed a ghost
3-RID could have solved everything that was left unsolved in prime
1. A set amount was never discussed.
2. Nope. We would have done more if we’d been asked, however.
3. Nope.
1. That would have been cool.
2. Optimus is too popular to have stayed a ghost forever.
3. That would’ve been cool, but that wasn’t what our show was about.
Hi Adam!
I’m a RID fan (you seem to hear from a lot of them based on the amount of comments on here, haha) and I just wanted to thank you for your contribution to that show. It’s one of my favorite TF shows out there – the gorgeous character designs, animation quality, background paintings, storylines, characters, and humor, are all wonderfully done. There’s a lot to like about the show and I found it be the perfect thing to watch after a long stressful day of college work. 😀
There were definitely some things I wish were different in the show (like a bit more of the complex character arcs and serious threats in Prime) but I respect the fact that you guys chose to go with a different tone and focus storytelling-wise. Plus I’m probably not the target audience. 🙂
If I could change one thing though, it would be to give Starscream a longer arc in the show. He was such an interesting character – a great foil to Bumblebee, had intriguing motives and a cool design (way way better than Prime’s). It felt like he’d barely gotten an appearance before he was defeated (I mean, heck, he doesn’t even get to transform and isn’t that supposed to be like these guys’ main gimmick?) He was my favorite villain in RID (and that’s saying something because I found him to be really annoying in Prime).
I can’t really complain though, because it was my disappointment with what I felt was a missed opportunity for some really interesting storytelling that helped inspire me to create my own comic universe where Starscream finds redemption and starts off on a new path.
Anyways, I recently finished a fun animation project where I tried to remake some of my favorite lines from RID and I thought you might enjoy seeing it. You should be able to watch it here – https://youtu.be/fAmdKSAim4g
Regards,
Emily
Hi Emily, thanks for your note. Glad it brought you some relief from the college grind. It was meant to be that kind of light entertainment – fun and exciting, something new viewers could get into without knowing the franchise’s entire history. The lifeblood of Transformers is toy sales, and we wanted to introduce the Cybertronians’ world to a new generation of kids. We understand that frustrated many fans of Prime, but this show was developed to be different, as you surmised.
Overall, I don’t think we spotlighted enough actual transforming in our series, and if we could go back and do it again, I think we’d make more of it. In the moment, however, we didn’t want to take valuable time away from the stories we were telling.
I hear you about Starscream, and you’re not alone. He actually wasn’t supposed to appear at all in our series – The thinking was that his end in Prime seemed pretty final (the key word being “seemed;” obviously he was going to come back somehow, sooner or later), and Hasbro wanted to draw that out for a while. Additionally, bringing Starscream back would have meant explaining what had happened to him in the previous series, and we were all leery of finding a way to do that in just a minute or two of screen time. But after our second season, the story executives at the Hub felt bringing Starscream back would be fun. However, we were only allotted six episodes for that season, and they wanted it to be self-contained. We found a way to do that, as well as provide enough back story for viewers who hadn’t seen Prime, to enjoy the plot. It would have been fun to stretch that season 3 arc out to 13 episodes, but we just didn’t have that opportunity.
Thanks for the link; I’ll look forward to checking it out.
AB
Hey Adam,
Thanks for the response! Interesting to hear that about Starscream…that confirms my suspicions that the writers had been given only that amount of episodes to work with. Well, you did what you could with what you had – all part of working in film, I guess. 🙂
Honestly, I was fine with the amount of transforming – like you I’m more interested in the storytelling aspect. I’m dealing with that same problem in the fan comic I’m writing. 😀
By the way…what part of working on RID are you most proud of? (Whether an individual or team accomplishment) And what was your biggest challenge working on the show? I always like asking people in the creative industry these questions, I hope you don’t mind. 🙂
Emily
I don’t mind!
What I’m most proud of in regards to RID is the arc of development for each of our Cybertronian main characters. I feel like they all grew as individuals, had very distinct personalities, and unique relationships with each other. They became a real team, and a real family.
I think our biggest challenge was to find a way to organically include all of the elements the Hasbro toy division asked us to bring in at the start of each season. Sometimes the list was very long relative to how many episodes we had to work with, and other times we’d come up with a story for the season where the toy asks didn’t have an obvious fit. Finding ways to satisfy their requests while still telling interesting and fun stories was occasionally a struggle, but a fun one.
Hi Adam,
Firstly I want to say thank you so much for the huge contributions you’ve made (possibly unknowingly) to so many of our lives throughout the years!
As I’ve grown up, I’ve geared myself more and more towards the animation industry and after finishing up a storyboarding course by Steve Ahn, am looking to put together my own portfolio for studio submissions. I’m wondering if there’s any way it would be possible for me to procure some scripts from you? If you have any free samples or even ones that I can buy, I would love to read through them and use them as a starting point for my submissions. While they will only be given out to studios, I will be crediting you on every page that features work based off your scripts.
If they’re available in any capacity, scripts for X-Men Evolution’s “The Stuff of Villains,” Teen Titans “Haunted,’ and Scooby-Doo MI “The House of the Nightmare Witch” would be amazing. I really hope you can help me out, it’s surprisingly hard to find scripts for *any* team shows and I really want to use at least one sample of an ensemble cast as a way to demonstrate what I’ve been working on.
Thank you for taking the time to read this message and I hope to hear back from you!
Dan
Hi Dan – Thanks for the kind words. Send me your e-mail and I’ll send you some stuff.
Can Amphiboids control their ability to secrete acids on the skin?
Snaketicons have any powers and abilities?
I can’t say for certain about the first… I always thought it was just part of their natural defenses, always there. As for the second, I think they’re just big, fast and nasty.
Hey Adam, I had a question about one of the episodes you wrote for Batman: The Brave and the Bold, “Invasion of the Secret Santas,” what was your thought process in telling this kind of story and is there any writing insights you could give about it? I’m making a YouTube video about it. I’m also wondering where did you pull from to tell this kind of story, especially with Batman in this episode.
I’m pretty sure the idea for the story originated with Executive Producer Michael Jelenic, probably in coordination to some degree with Executive Producer James Tucker. I think they were keen to portray Red Tornado in a Mister Data kind of way, coming to understand human traditions and emotions. Once the idea was in place, I was called in to help them flesh it out and then write the script. I can’t remember exactly what I contributed to the story, but I had written a sentimental Father’s Day issue of the Robin comic for DC a couple years earlier, and I do called trying for the same tone when Alfred’s gift to Batman is revealed at the end. My writing of Batman for this story was entirely based on the character from already-completed scripts of the show. His voice was pretty clear, and so was the tone Michael and James were trying to achieve. To write Red Tornado, I pulled from my experience writing the Justice League Unlimited comic for DC, in one issue of which we spotlighted the character. I’ve always really liked him.
Piece of trivia for you: The script was originally titled, “Good Will Towards Robot Men.” I think Michael and James had decided to make the episode titles a little more dynamic and kitschy, like the titles of many 1960s comics stories, which always seemed to have an exclamation point at the end.
Thanks for writing.