Classic Transformer Cartoons Seriously Lack Quality

I became a Transformer fanatic when I was in junior high. Granted, I was probably a few years too old to be enjoying after school cartoons, but I loved how the cartoon would be filled with action packed fighting, technology and some pretty cool characters. Having missed a number of episodes from Generation 1, I wanted to go back and rewatch these classic episodes for prosperity sake. So I forked over a couple a couple of hundred bucks buying all the boxed sets on DVD. Reliving childhood dreams? Well, almost, except that the quality of these old cartoons sure were downright crappy. I must have had no sense of taste growing up.

It's hard to believe, but the quality of animation for these classic episodes are worse the knock off brands you buy on the streets of China. After watching about 10 episodes in a row, here's what I noticed:
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1. There must be at least 3 different animation houses making different episodes, because the style used is quite different. From the way the humans looked, to the way the Transformers tranform, there was no sense of consistency.

2. Sometimes one character would be talking, but the mouth of another character would be moving. It would be so bad, that you had a human talking, but an Autobot had his mouth moving.

3. Sometimes the colors would be complete wrong, where in one scene an Autobot may have a silver chestplate, then the next shot he would have a purple one, then right before your eyes, it would switch back to silver.

4. The autobot Tracks is based on a Corvette, but on numerous scenes, he is drawn so poorly it would switch from a Pinto, to a Civic, to a box with 4 wheels. Consideing half of the characters in the cartoon are AUTObots, someone in charge could have at least found an artist who can draw cars. BTW - Tracks is probably the only Autobot that may be questionably gay. I wonder how I missed that as a kid.

5. In one scene Blitzwing would have his cannon mounted on his back, then in another scene the cannon is coming out of his head.

6. There were some questionable plots as well. Granted these are cartoons, so I don't expect Shakespeare, but there was one episode where the Decepticons were running a disco joint. In another, the Autobots and Decepticons get transported to another world where they are the size of robot toys, and become the playthings for an alien child. I did like the one where the Autobots go Hollywood and dress up like aliens. *Chuckle* Someone in charge should have bought better weed for the writing staff, because this cheap sh*t ain't gonna do.

Some of these errors are so glaring that you wonder if there was no one double checking any of the work submitted before they were aired. And clearly the animation houses just didn't care either, phoning home a performance that borderlines on lip syncing at a live concert, while eating a burrito. If you gotta be lazy about it, at least try a little. At least get the spelling of simple words right.

The funny thing is, the one thing I loved about the old series was that they were constantly introducing new Transformers every few episodes, so there was always something new and cool to see. Alas, now that I know all this was just clever product placement (toy companies started to pitch their toys as cartoons right after the Federal Communications Commission got rid of regulations that prohibited this) designed to entice kids to buy more toys, even this one aspect I loved seems just a bit tainted.

So going back and rewatching all these shows may not have been such a great idea. Because now a piece of my childhood just feels a bit dirty. Ignorance is bliss, and I shoulda looked away. Oh well, at least there's a new cartoon in the works, and I'm sure it must be better. Wait a min... Is that Megatron with a sword? Oh man... not lookin good.