Wasn't there a story line where Shockwave had begun redesigning all Cybertronians to become 'headmasters' merely as a way to conserve energy when not in combat? It explains why some of their pre-Earth vehicle modes had places to hold human-sized beings.
My favourite is the one of human size robots escaping from Cybertron and evolving their transformation in a different direction, turning in the head of the robot mode of their vehicles. It matches with the existence of human size transformers like Rumble and Frenzy.
In most situations I Prefer the Japanese version as it's easier to think about. Although for Titans a Return, I imagine the Titans have a basic personality to help manage their huge bodies, but a Titanmaster can bond and pilot them. Like, Trypticon can be a big dumb dinosaur without Full-Tilt/Necro, but if Terri-Bull or Galvatron or someone were to attach to that slot in the back of his head they would take over.
Headmasteres show are not that geart. It Coz destoyes ceybertorn and killes of optimos again for no resone. But at end of day traformers g1 ended in rebireth at it every good but still have small flows like couler.
Man! The fact that you put these out on Saturday mornings makes my week! I'm going to have to start eating a whole box of lucky charms by myself while I watch them
I started with one random video, and that lead to another...then I found the playlist. This is pretty good to help explain the lore to newer fans. I'm an old G1er, and have read/watched all of this Transformers material. The one thing I was fuzzy on, was the 13 Primes. You cleared a couple things up for me there. I like how you present the material, and I hit the sub button for more.
Yeah, until you see Targetmasters snap their bodies in half to become guns or Brainmasters pretty much disembowel themselves to form faces for their robot partner. Trust me, it can always get more bonkers.
Not to insult such an old gimmick in the brand's history, but when we've had a franchise that's had tiny transformers that turn into tiny vehicles, engines, weapons, armor and/or all of the above, HEADS seems like it would be the very last in that line. The desperation move. The punchline to a joke. Like, "And now, the greatest transformers of all; REMOVABLE HEADS THAT TURN INTO LITTLE MEN!" The fiction has of course been able to sell the idea (to a degree), but the whole thing could've gone horribly wrong unfathomably fast.
I'm not a fan of the concept in case of Cybertronians, but I actually love the idea as human villains attempting to control Cybertronian technology. Exactly because it is gruesome! Henry Masterson from Animated is perfect example of that.
I really love Headmasters. I'm so glad they were revisited as a concept with Titans Return. Sure, some of the Titan Masters don't fit properly in their transtectors (my Kup needs his TM to have its head rotated 180* to fit properly), but robots with swappable heads that are ALSO alt-mode pilots are fun.
@@disneyboy3030 Yeah, but he wasn't even a headmaster within the cartoon. Heck, Cerebro/Spike/Whatever his name was in this continuity acted more like a minicon.
It's certainly a better fit for Headmaster at the very least, as otherwise the body is left a headless Robot. Binary Bonding works better for power boost combinations where the miniature partner forms a non-essential but useful component like a weapon.
Well I hated the rebirth, the g1 show was so amazing with season 1, 2, and the movie,them season 3, but I always hated why they ruin part 4 of transformers with that stupidid concept in rebirth and thats why I hated the rest of season 4 , I did love all transformers but I hate therej concept ,sorry if this offends but why count they keep them fully robot technology instead of an órgano bab pilot 💀👾👾
My favorite version of the Headmasters is the western modern version (shared mind), the gimmick still has a fair explanation that doesn't break what we already think we know about transformers, the Japanese explanation (big vehicle, just the head's alive) really takes away the emotion of watching them battle and hurt each other to survive, and I'm not even going to explain why I wouldn't want lime meaty aliens be the heads of my boys
Stupid organic aliens, dude there freaken robots, they dont need a organic being to survive, there made of metal and cybertronian stuff, I rather fully robots like the jg1,titans return and idw but with a mix of g1 to make it like it use tobe in g1 when it was great the show
I discovered the Japanese Headmasters cartoon in 2006 but didn't watch it til last year. I love the concept and can't wait to see 3rd party versions of the Targetmasters.
What completely killed any chance of my ever being able to watch or enjoy that was "mechaZarak". To this day I can't begin to fathom what possessed them to do that.
Henry Masterson in my opinion was the best Headmaster, because not only was he a legitimate threat, he was hilarious while being so. Probably explains why he showed up in one episode in every season.
Man, now I personally want to see a continuity combine Headmasters with Holoforms. So, like, their robot mode is just a standard robot, but their vehicle mode is "driven" by a human-disguised that can drive around and interact with actual humans, taking "robots in disguise" to a whole 'nother lever. So you don't need to worry about working around riderless bikes or cars. Probably too tricky to scale toy-wise, though. As always, great overview. Your videos are seriously the highlight of my subscription feed.
That's early IDW you're describing, there! In the first few years of IDW's comics, the Autobots used solid-light "holomatter" avatars to "drive" their vehicles, and to move around and interact with the human world, even able to project them across moderate distances, so they could physically "be" places their robot forms couldn't go! Glad you're enjoying the series! :)
Actually, they're describing what some fans I know call the 'reverse Headmaster' process...instead of a little bot combining and controlling the larger one, it's a large bot that can eject a little one that runs around and can do human-scaled stuff. (there's one fanfic I know that had Optimus Prime doing this after Hi-Q died of old age..while scientists reversed the Powermaster process on his main body, he basically went on vacation and toured the world disguised as a human).
Fantastic Video Chris! I really like the Takara approach: Smaller Transformers piloting larger bodies, all with just one mind. For me, it’s the most straight-forward & least ridiculous of all the other versions.
Considering the condition on the world lately, re-watching these has brought me much joy- thanks for doing these! Maybe you answer this later but wasn't there a brain master, like Star Saber? And was Breast Force & extension of the powermaster concept? You really have some awesome videos sir!
I was really fascinated by the concept put forward in the IDW comics, where the Headmaster "melds" not only physically but mentally with his Transformer partner. There was this one scene where Hunter and Sunstreaker were debating tactics and Hunter was like, "Aren't you really just arguing with yourself at this point?" or something along those lines. I REALLY wish they had kept those two around. I would have loved more of that. :c On a different note, could you explain the Brainmasters, please? I know there are four of them, and they feature prominently in Transformers Victory, specifically main character Star Saber. Like, that one scene where Star Saber drops Jan off at school and has a conversation with the headmistress, but they have to talk on the roof, since Star Saber's body is too big. But I'm watching that scene and I'm like, "hang on, don't you have a man-sized robot in your cockpit? That's your "Brain" right? Why can't you use that body to interact with the humans?" TF Wiki's page on the subject was...less than clear on the subject.
There's not a lot to tell - the origins of the technology was never explained in Victory media, only getting one years later when "Ask Vector Prime" was able to "canonize" the original, planned explanation that didn't get used at the time. The idea is that they were basically "reverse Headmasters" - full-size robots who had their consciousnesses transferred into small robot forms so they could interact with smaller lifeforms. So yes, it'd make perfect sense for Star Saber to do just as you say in that scene, but he doesn't because the Victory cartoon is pretty universally terrible at advertising the play features of the Victory toys. The Multiforce are barely ever shown splitting into their component pairs or swapping positions, the Brainmasters never use their brains, the Crossformers never do anything with their shells, the Dinoforce never transform...
@@ChrisMcFeely I must say that I'm glad of this comment. I'm currently watching Victory and was feeling like I was missing something even after reading the TF Wiki.
In 1987 I was already a huge Transformer fan but when the Headmasters were introduced they absolutely blew my mind. I loved them. Bought Brainstorm and Targetmaster Blurr right away.
I love the titans return line. I got overlord and skyshadow and soundwave and trypticon and I have such a huge decepticon base. I have some of those 4 dollar titan masters with tiny vehicles they can attach to and those vehicles and titan master all over it makes it look so cool. I also have blaster, Super Ginrai and god bomber and Fortress Maximus and I put blocks under Fortress Maximus’s legs to hold them up like skyscrapers and the titan masters over the huge base is just awesome. Titans return is my favorite toy-line from the past years it’s just so much fun.
Very well done story. As a kid I liked the headmaster g1 version although i never had any of the figures unfortunately. But I also liked the powermaster line of which I had a few of those figures. I like both concepts. The other concepts you brought up i also thought were interesting
I have always loved the nebulan/human bonded with an open enough mind to accept new species and even sub cybertronian species like a minicon to bond as well. I even have a fun mental game of inserting my self into a story as a head of Jetfire like Transformer (in his original design lost to Macross/Robotech) and even use a cyclone from the other show with 2 other partners a weapon and an engineer as the engine.
When you consider Cybertronians can live for millions of years, pairing them with organic partners never made sense to me due to the limited lifespan of us Humans as an example. They'd be having to switch partners every 20-30 years. Japan handled them better with the smaller robot controlling a larger one.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I am always entertained watching your THE BASICS videos Chris. Can you please do a basics video on Quickswitch? Can you please also do a basics video on the Transformers Generations toy line? Once again, thank you for a great video. :D
The strangeness of 1980 exploring gross concepts with the popularity of robots, computers and AI concepts of futuristic appeal lead robots to intertwine with human intelligence.
I love the Headmasters concept! It works no matter which version you use! My version of Headmasters works the same except I use female humans, humanoids, aliens, and animals(all female) as the Titan Masters(the robots' heads)!
I like the small organic creature route. It's intresting in a weird way. I wish the idea of two fundamentally diffrent creatures bonded and forced to have a partnership was explored more.
As a kid, I used to love the bracelet-wearing ones, since you could pretend to have those bracelets. Harder to pretend that you’re a robot than a person inside a robot body. And Ginrai (basically Optimus Prime but as a Power Master) was cool as hell! In fact, I was watching the show in a Ukrainian dub, and they ended up naming the guy Optimus Best (that’s how they translated Prime in those shows, since the word doesn’t have a direct translation). Naturally, I knew who Optimus Prime was from Gen 1, but my first instinct was “who names their kid Optimus Best?” Yes, now I know his actual name is Ginrai, but didn’t know that back then (no internet access and no Wikipedia).
I think the best course of action would be to marry the 2 ideas together A small cybertronian transforms into the head for a transtechtor and this can be replicated with a mech suit for humans/nubulons who want to help
"So I' sez to 'im, you fink I'm gonna tear off me *head* and let some *squishy* live n'it, you got another fink comin'" ---Double Punch, Generation 2: Redux
In my head canon in G1 Headmasters were actually Micromasters refit to control larger bodies built by Shockwave. Since they couldn't make new transformer lives they reused the micromasters to make Frontline soldiers who could take a beating and abandon their bodies if need be.
Next book to be added to the TTRPG is the Enigma of Combination book! I am wondering if we will get these as part of it, or if they will be a whole book to themselves.
I don't know if anyone's ever said it before but with all these episodes so far I'm surprised we have not seen anything on Nemesis Prime / black Convoy / scourge person that's something I would love to see you cover sometime
He's always been in the back of my mind, definitely, there's an interesting history to go through with the concept. If I'd started the series earlier, I'd have done him to coincide with The Last Knight!
Go one further--the old Powermasters couldn't transform unless you inserted the engine. Would sentient Powermaster toys feel a sort of locked-in syndrome if deprived of their partner?
5:18 the description of one pilot controlling a big robot body among few things reminds me of Starvengers , and the Shogun Warrirors , Voltron too i guess seemingly too , etc.
I go for the single mind concept. The concept from the G1 comic book line from Marvel is my favorite. I gotta question, has Gallen appeared n any other media yet?
Briefly in IDW's Kirby-style "Transformers vs. G.I. Joe" comic, in his traditional role as Fortress Maximus's head-within-a-head. Aside from that, you've gotta get into fan-club-exclusive stuff for even a mention.
The idea that the head is a separate character is weird to begin with, and becomes confusing when interchangeability is played up. (In Titans Return, technically nobody is actually associated with their own face.)
Interestingly, the concept of characters transforming into robot heads were reused in the Bomberman B-Daman Bakugaiden Victory toyline (a subline of B-Daman), where Bomberman characters would transform into the head of giant marble shooting mechs by the name of B-Da armors, even going as far as to reuse the phrase "head on". Taking into account that the toys of this line all could transform into an alt mode (albeit very simple), it'd seem as though Takara reused concepts from Transformers when making this new subline.
*The takara way to use smaller humans who control lifeless big transforming shell-robots, is pretty much how it is often portrayed in japan. They often 'work' in that way. I do not remember the names, but I've seen quite some cartoons and 'live action' (power ranger style) cartoons that functioned that way. I think, on the other hand, what hasbro liked and introduced with the transformers was more the idea that the robost themselves were the persons in control, just as they had originally changed the transformers from lifeless robots from japanese diaclone toys towards the "living" transformers with their own personalities we know today*
With titans return I personally like the single mind concept, and the standalone Titan masters increase the power much more than the regular partnered headmasters
@Mr. Al From what I can tell the Nebulans don't really control the bodies. They can do things, like when Chip took over as Prowl's battle computer when he was damaged, but most of the time the Transformer was in control (in vehicle mode his personality downloads into a backup system in his chest, or hers' in Arcee's case) and the Nebulan simply plans strategy. And can we stop reading too much into Daniel and Arcee's "relationship"? She was at best a "second mother" for him, which makes sense since his actual mom spent most of her time playing ambassador while Arcee practically raised the kid.
I like the Japanese style of Headmasters technology and I plan to feature many classic ones in my fanfiction along with all the other ones, with a few new spins.
Great review as always keep up the good videos. In the G1 cartoon Rebirth, Fortress Maximus didn't existed until Spike & Cerebros created him from an old Nebulos city. essentially creating a 2nd Autobot City, but this time as a Headmaster with Earth Amb. to Cybertron Spike as you mentioned, but becoming the headmaster to Autobot scientist Cerebros & he becomes the Headmaster to Fortress Maximus.
In terms of design, the only real issue with the Headmasters figures was that the toy was kind of ruined if the small robot accessory was lost. Targetmasters didn't have that problem. And technically neither did Powermasters, since it was still possible to unlock the figure's robot mode without the little engine being inserted.
Fortress Maximus is a bit of a special case, he's so big that instead of just having a headmaster that becomes his head, he's got a smaller transformer called Cerebro that transforms into his head, and Cerebro has a headmaster that transforms into his head. I am not sure if any other transformer does this.
I think I like the Masterforce version the best. Using the headmaster mechanic to allow humans to work alongside transformers in combination with the pretender mechanic allowing transformers to interact in human spaces was an interesting idea I thought. It would have been great if the story had gone more into those sorts of interactions, and it was a bit disappointing that the transformers basically fell into the background as the humans stepped up as the defenders of Earth. Felt like the resolution of the series didn't quite live up to the set up.
I like a blend of the 2 Organic beings in a exosuit and have an extended robot body that they entirely control Maybe humans and nebulons no longer wanting to be useless so some one like wheel jack or ratchet whips something up for a few of them Maybe even hijack a few decepticons every now and then just to troll them
Love the transtector, as it can give action use to humans, MasterForce is an amazing anime! The bound looks like works fine for power/god masters. Saddly the head change in the add would be great, but the toys cant hide their heads and put another one, close to this only super link omega supreme, his neck had eyes! I do love galvatron titan, cause his head is megatron and for me make all the sense, make galvatron a super mode to mega!
What always baffled me was the headmasters had people as there co pilots and spike merged with cerebros and then fortress maximus,and then scorpenok simply have just the hive leader.....so does that make scorpenoks head tiny in comparison to maximus as he only has a one stage transformation where as spike goes to cerebros and then maximus
Youre 100% right. This wasnt explained in the show, but im assuming its the go to answer for most scale kerfuckery, Mass-shifting on skorponoks part. As for the toyline, scorponoks head was mostly helmet? so it was at least bigger than standard headmaster size. Point for point his figure was also about half the size of fort max. Black Zarak, who was just a retooled skorponok, he just had a regular sized head that went over the headmaster! so you could totally have the toy without the headmaster and not notice at a glance.
I really enjoyed this video, and am thankful that you explained the difference between the American and Japanese Headmasters, as well as all of the figures that were directly inspired by them, i.e. Titan Masters. I have always been torn as to which I like better, because I feel the American figure were more capable (2 minds in 1 body or a pilot and a vehicle fighting side by side), but the Japanese were more plausible, and would be better suited to explain the rise of Power Masters and the Micro Masters. However, that is a subject of opinion. I do feel that you missed a couple of things though. First, though you got most of the Master lines that most Americans would recognize, you left out the Brain Masters of Transformers Victory, and possibly their Decepticon counterparts, though they were quite different, more like Target or Power Masters. Second, you missed what I feel is an interesting parallel between the Titan Masters and the Mini-Cons of Transformers Armada. The original Head Masters formed the heads (and minds of the Japanese versions) of the full size robots, and the Mini-Cons bonded to various full size Transformers and gave them extra power (weapons, flight, etc.) Now, let us examine the Titan Masters who become the heads of the full size Transformers, and in doing so, bond with them granting them various super powers. I hope you see my point. As a final note, I really did love this video, and have a request to go with it. Would you please consider doing a Target Master video? The Target Masters have a similar divided history between east and west, not to mention the debate over Megatron being an over sized Target Master. A final interesting note is that I am curious to know if that the IDW comics really redubbed many of the old Action Master characters as Target Masters.
I very much prefer the Japanese portrayal of Headmasters in their season 4. The Titan Master thing where the abilities go with the Titan Master is really cool though, and I'd love to see it expanded upon more in future shows and media.
Even if I hate the series, I prefer the original Japanese take on the Head Masters. Small robots controlling a lifeless body. I also like the concept of the subsequent "Masters" also been human. The "symbiosis" concept is never adequately explained, so we don't get to know why a biological been makes a robot more powerful.
Other than the new decepticons in the live action movie having barely any screen time the “Cogman taking over Nitro” thing should never have been cut from the movie. In fact there is a line in the movie that actually foreshadows the event in question.
