Good news, Rescue Bots fans – Transformers Rescue Bots is primed to get a fourth season. Rumours that the show might end with season 3 had been circulating with the Hasbro Studios webpage listing the show only had three seasons, but a press release today on the Discovery Family Channel corporate website talks about the network’s 2015-16 season – and among the listings is one for a Transformers Rescue Bots Season 4.
While this is not completely unexpected – Hasbro have gone on record saying the show is popular among younger age groups – it was never a certainty given the show has more than hit that magic number of episodes to put it into syndication.
With this news, it also means that Transformers Rescue Bots is poised to overtake Transformers Generation 1’s record for number of 22 minute episodes, assuming this fourth season is 26 episodes long like the previous ones.
MaxxieOD
Older fan as well with no kids. It's just a plain fun show. Heck, nearly half of my FB page is people who just enjoy the show (the other half are parents who also love the show along with their kids).
Hollywood Hoist
It's really funny how many adult fans forget that all these shows are meant for kids as well as the toys.
I would watch RB even if I didn't have a 5 year old, but it makes it even better to share his first Transformers show with him.
I agree, it's one of the best TF shows.
Hollywood Hoist
Why shouldn't it get a 4th season? It's a great show, the toy line seems to be doing well.
Of course there are other TF shows that would have been great to get additional seasons of (Animated, Beast Wars, G1), but they don't deserve a 4th season any more than Rescue Bots.
Supertron
Same here. Great to see that its getting another season. It deserves it.
spiritprime
I am an older fan of Transformers and I love Rescue Bots. I think it's fun.
MasterZero
Shocking how other people have opinions too, huh?
I mean, most Transformers fans are meant for kids. They're just also written so they can be enjoyed by older fans.
Beastwarsfan95
Well there are ALOT of little kids in the world.
edgs2099
Obviously in enough opinions to warrant a 4th season.
Beastwarsfan95
…in your opinion.
GreednGluttony
yep, one of the best tf series ever!!!
Beastwarsfan95
Out of all the transformer shows, this gets a (full) season four?
SaberPrime
I think you misunderstood what I mean by play value… And actually I'm not even entirely sure what you think it means. Just because your son wants to play with them more than other toys doesn't automatically mean they have more play value. There are many reasons why he might prefer them. You even said that he's more familiar with the Rescue Bots and you never said how old he is but I'm betting the other toys are too complicated for him. (I don't mean that to be insulting, just that Rescue Bots are simple for a reason.) Play Value refers to everything you can do with a toy. This includes articulation, transformation, gimmicks, accessories, and several other things. The more a toy can do, the more play value it has. Something as simple as a Rescue Bot does not have a lot of play value. That's not an opinion that's just a fact. That doesn't mean you can't still have a lot of fun with the toy just that it isn't designed to do much. The robot mode basically just stands there as it's nothing more than a statue. The transformation is simple so it's not much of a puzzle and I do like to think of Transformers as puzzles, that's part of the fun. Then there's the vehicle mode which isn't really any different than any other toy car. That's it, that's the entire play value of a Rescue Bot. Now a kid's imagination can do a lot more than what the toy is actually designed for and that's where your opinion comes into play but that doesn't effect what the toy itself is actually physically capable of. When someone talks about the play value of a toy they actually mean what the toy by itself can actually do which does not include what the child can imagine it doing.
To give you an example of the difference. Armada Hot Shot's shoulders can't move but that never stopped me from playing with him and pretending his arms could move normally. Just because I imagine him with articulated shoulders doesn't mean he actually has them. In order to include them in the play value of the toy he has to actually have them not just pretend.
Again, your enjoyment of the toy actually has nothing to do with it's play value. Those are actually two different things. The play value is determined by what the toy itself is designed for. While you may not like the more complex transformations part of Transformers is that they are puzzles which adds to their play value. You don't personally enjoy puzzles, that's fine but that doesn't take anything away from it's actual play value. The feature is still there weather or not you like it. Every feature a toy has adds to it's play value regardless of how you personally feel about it. The only time a feature can really take away from the play value of a toy is when that feature hinders something else on the toy.
Using Armada Hot Shot as the example again. The reason his shoulders don't work is because of his Mini-Con gimmick.
Anyway I think your idea of play value is very different from everyone else. Your looking at imagination and saying oh yeah that has a lot of play value but if that were the criteria for play value then every toy would have the same play value as a stick or a cardboard box. Sorry but it doesn't work that way. Or maybe it's that you're viewing it as weather or not you like the features offered. Again, just because you don't like something doesn't mean it's not there for you to play with.
Play value is actually another way of saying features. The more the toy can do, the more play value it has. If you were to compare Sonic Screwdrivers just to simplify things. My Eleventh Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver has an open and closed mode and makes four sound effects. It's features are limited to just that. My Temporal Sonic Screwdriver on the other hand has nine different sound effects however doesn't feature any moving parts. Although it does feature swappable parts with the Personalize Your Sonic Screwdriver set… which I don't have… yet… On it's own, not a lot of play value physically but I can do a lot more with the different sound effects. If I had the other parts to swap out it could easily have way more play value.
On the other hand, given that they're both essentially the same thing… a Sonic Screwdriver, it doesn't really matter how many features one has over the other, kids are going to have just as much fun with both of them. Does not really mean the play value is the same, one still has more features. There are many other reasons why you might choose one over the other, play value is only one set of criteria to forming an opinion and you've already jumped to the opinion.
Yes there is stuff in there for older viewers but that doesn't mean the show is for them. Things are generally created with a target audience in mind but some times draws a very different crowd than what it was intended to. The existence of grown men who like My Little Pony for example doesn't change the fact that the show is actually meant for little girls.
Generally the reasoning for including references that only adults are even going to get is because they know parents are going to be watching with their children. Although there was one episode where they were watching a movie with Robbie the Robot in it. Kids who grew up with G1 are even too young to get that reference. I only know him because my dad is into all that Sci-Fi stuff. Maybe they thought they should include some references for the Grandparents who might be watching with their grandchildren? Oh and wasn't that AI that went crazy protecting the island suppose to be a reference to an old Sci-Fi as well? I don't know that much about it but I think it was based on Hal9000 which has also been referenced in a lot of other shows as well. Have no idea where that originally started from.
SaberPrime
Family of Heroes: This is actually a recurring theme in the series considering it's the mission Optimus gave to the Rescue Bots. The lesson of the first episode, teamwork. The humans and Autobots don't really work well together originally but that improves over time.
Under Pressure: Now who says this show doesn't teach you anything about Science? There's a continuing lesson about team work here as it continues from the previous episode and on top of that this episode is full of real facts about volcanoes. Last I checked, volcanoes were covered in science class.
Hotshots: The episode starts out with an experimental solar powered car going out of control. While this in itself is just for entertainment the fact that it's a solar powered car actually has a lesson attached to it. We're running low on Fossil fuels which Doc Greene explains in the episode, and we need to adapt to other forms of fuel to keep our cars running. That's called current events. Though this is probably a little advanced for the target audience considering they won't be driving any time soon. However there's also a second lesson… again continuing on the team work theme though this time it's a little more specific. Dani and Blades are feeling under appreciated in this episode. Being that I've worked in theater for so long I can easily translate the lesson here into terms I'm more familiar with. Actors instantly get all the credit for plays, T.V. Shows, and Movies while the crew behind the scenes go largely unnoticed. Usually if the crew is noticed, it means they've done something horribly wrong. It's incredibly rare they ever get any credit for doing their jobs well. To put it simply, the lesson here is that even if you're never acknowledged doesn't mean you aren't just as important as those who are. This might also apply to children with siblings. Maybe the parents are paying more attention to one child than the other, not because they actually like that child more but just because that child has special needs due to age or illness. Kind of a good lesson for kids to learn.
Flobsters on Parade: Cody and Frankie have a disagreement at the beginning of the episode but later learn that friends don't always need to agree about everything. Also while the problem in the episode is very unrealistic this episode does teach problem solving. There's also a thing with Heatwave that I'm pretty sure is a lesson about how some times you have to do things you don't want to.
The Alien Invasion of Griffon Rock: The lesson of the episode is that safety takes priority over everything else and they really stress this in this episode. First the Autobots almost blow their cover. Chase thinks he's in trouble but Chief Burns assures him that saving lives is more important than maintaining his cover. Then later Doc Greene is giving Huxley instructions on how to operate a piece of machinery which he ignores and causes the danger of the episode again reinforcing the idea that it's better to be safe than sorry. There's also a second lesson about things not always being what they seem and not to panic until you know for sure what you're dealing with. Everyone thought they were being invaded by aliens but there was another explanation for everything that happened.
Walk on the Wild Side: Do I even need to explain this one? The lessons here are way more obvious than in other episodes. Recycling, the real life holiday of Earth Day, learning about animals and how they assist in rescues which also happens in real life. Some animals can be trained to do tricks and how to train them. Lions and house cats are both felines though you don't want to keep a lion as a pet. The value of books. There's a lot packed into this episode.
Cody on Patrol: Again, the story revolves around a character feeling unappreciated, this time it's Cody. He has a go cart in this episode but is disappointed at how slow it is. Basically wanting to drive… which was brought up briefly in the first episode. This is basically a not growing up too fast lesson. There's a reason you have to be at least 16 to drive. There's also some problem solving in this episode, again not a realistic problem but it's there.
Four Bots and a Baby: You ever had that class where you have to take care of a fake baby for a week to learn parenting skills… well that's what this is. Seems a little odd to be teaching someone how to take care of a baby when they basically still are babies but look at the toys targeted at girls that age. Most of them are baby dolls so little girls can pretend to be mothers… which is really weird.
Christmas in July: This episode teaches what the four seasons are though it mostly focuses on Summer and Winter. The episode also goes over real life safety protocols for blizzard conditions. Although that's useless information depending on where you live. There's also a bit in there that teaches the very basic principle that credit should be given to those that deserve it and not to cheat your way threw life like the Mayor does.
Deep Trouble: This episode teaches kids what light houses are for. There's also a fishing lesson which I don't care for because I hate sea food.
Return of the Dino Bot: This is a problem solving episode. Also I should of mentioned this earlier but it's more relevant to this episode. They're teaching kids to be able to spot familiar shapes (Dr. Morrocco's Logo) and spot clues. In this sense I can easily make a comparison here to another preschool show, Blue's Clues. Though again, I really like Rescue Bots a lot more because Blue's Clues is the same freaking thing in every episode and they make it way too easy to piece the clues together. Rescue Bots is more on par with a mystery story, they make the clues a little easy to find in a similar fashion to Blue's Clues but not so obvious how they're all tied together.
The Other Doctor (This is also the title of a Doctor Who episode though the wiki doesn't mention the reference): This episode tells an actual folk tail about John Henry. "For the man that invented that steam drill
Thought he was mighty fine;
John Henry sunk a fo'teen foot,
The steam drill only made nine,
The steam drill only made nine." And the plot of the episode also mirrors the story which is a lesson about how machines can never really replace humans. Though several people have actually been replaced by machines. Most factories are automated. However they still require human workers to keep those machines running. There's also the continuing lessons from previous episodes to spot Dr. Morocco's logo and solve the mystery.
The Reign of Morocco: This continues and finally resolves the continuing lessons from previous episodes. Though just because there's no more mystery about who that logo belongs to doesn't mean they can't continue to use it as a learning tool for kids to be able to spot familiar shapes and build memory skills in future episodes when this symbol pops up again.
This is the last one I'm doing for this post, I'll finish up the first season some time tomorrow. This a bit more time consuming than I thought it would be as I don't remember every episode I'm having to read threw the synopsis to remind me what the lesson was suppose to be. I could point them out more easily with more recent episodes that are still fresh in my mind but going back to the first season, I forgot a lot of what happened.
ZeroiaSD
It has facts and lessons, and the stories are engaging, the characters developed, and it's pretty fun for older viewers too.
For multiple age ranges is a real thing. A lot of shows for kids actually have creators figure olders will watch it too and give them stuff for them to enjoy.
Hollywood Hoist
I personally don't care that Rescue Bots doesn't have fighting, that is not why I watch any Transformers show. i watch them for the characters, plot, humor and overall entertainment and those are all criteria that apply to all Transformers shows. That is why I can say that Rescue Bots is a better show overall than G1, AEC, Prime. I see no conflict in the comparison of those shows, if you do then that's your opinion. I've read your opinion in your previous posts, but you have failed to convince me to change my opinion.
As far as your comment about the toys having little play value, I disagree. My son has played with Rescue Bot toys, G1 toys, movie toys, classics, Animated. You know the toys that he goes back to, the Rescue Bots and yes it's true he's more familiar with RB, but he still goes to RB Bumblebee over any of the more complex, articulated Transformers figures. In addition to that, I enjoy playing with the rescue Bots so I can say with 100% certainty that RB toys have lots of play value.
Just like G1 has play value despite the lack of articulation, complex transformations and kids still enjoy playing with those. For me most of the really complex transformations hinder the enjoyment of the actual toy. I don't enjoy playing with a lot of the movie figures cause I don't want to spend 10 minutes or more trying to transform the figures.
SaberPrime
Education isn't limited to just Math, Science, and English. They're Rescue Bots so the education is about safety. And remember this show is directed at kids under the age of four so even just having a message about finding someone you trust when you get into trouble counts as an educational safety lesson… even when it's done in a very unrealistic way.
As to your questions about what kids are suppose to be learning, if you really want I'll post a list of the lesson from every episode that's aired so far. For right now I'm only going to address the specific episode you mentioned.
"can you tell me the educational value of dr morroco taking over the world in an alternate universe? or the rescue bots ripping the morbot to pieces?"
The lesson in that episode has nothing to do with Dr. Morroco taking over the world or ripping apart Morbot, but rather the fact that Cody was lost in that alternate universe trying to find his way home. He did everything a kid should do when they're lost, find an adult they can trust to help. The idea of being in a different universe isn't very realistic but the episode does still teach kids what to do in case they ever get separated from their parents. Like I said before, this show is directed at kids under the age of four. It's not going to have any educational value to a full grown adult but to a kid, that's an important lesson so they know what to do if they get lost and don't get scared.
Most parents wouldn't let kids that young run off on their own in the first place but it is a little difficult to keep track of them in a crowded area like a mall or amusement park, especially once they're old enough to walk. Kids have a lot more energy than adults so even though they're smaller they can out run us. There's also lots of things to distract both the parent and the child which is why it's a good idea to teach young children what to do in case of an emergency like that. Actually I think a lot of this show is teaching that same lesson in different ways. Cody tends to get lost a lot, weather it's to another universe, a different time, or just getting stuck in a cave with Uncle Woodrow, several episodes have actually been teaching this same lesson.
The weird and unusual is their way of making the lessons entertaining… Also to help hide the fact that you're actually learning anything at all. The useful facts and emphasis on problem solving is actually the main reason the show exists. That's what preschool shows are mainly for.
Animated also had the Human Super Villains though they stopped showing up in season 3. Prime also had Silas. Though non of these episodes have any lessons attached to them like Rescue Bots does. G1 did also have several shorts as many 80's cartoons did… you know the ones that are painfully obvious about the fact that they're teaching you stuff. Those commercials that always ended with the tag line "Now we know, and knowing is half the battle." I could totally see you making comparisons to that… and Rescue Bots is a lot better considering it's not so painfully obvious. Just because kids are young doesn't mean they're stupid, you don't need to shove lessons in their face like that. That's one of the reasons I like Rescue Bots, it has the lessons but they don't talk down to their audience and feel the need to make every lesson an obvious one by shoving it in their faces.
GreednGluttony
Exactly
ZeroiaSD
It does often have characters mention useful facts or emphasize problem solving, but a lot of it is about watching the bots and humans do cool stuff to stop something weird and unusual.
While it may not have fights with 'Cons, many episodes wouldn't be out of place in G1 themselves. It's not unknown for the other shows to deal with side threats occasionally!
GreednGluttony
how is rescue bots educational? its not like they teach math or science, or even English.
you ever watch rescue bots? can you tell me the educational value of dr morroco taking over the world in an alternate universe?
or the rescue bots ripping the morbot to pieces?….or basically any episode plot?
SaberPrime
It's not really about what your personal criteria is for which to compare these shows. It's about the fact that there's little to nothing there to even make a comparison with.
Every other Transformers series has fighting between two factions of Transformers. This series just has one team of Transformers working with humans to save humans… Transformers have worked with humans before so you could make comparisons there but the saving is normally from the Decepticons and/or Predacons. So you're basically trying to make a comparison between a group of alien robots bent on destroying the Autobots and us to natural disasters. How do you compare a character like Megatron to a forest fire? A forest fire is something we can actually fight without the Autobots help. It has no intelligence, it's not really good or evil because it would have to understand what those concepts even mean. It's not the leader of all the natural disasters, they don't even have a leader or motives. So there is no comparison to make.
Rescue Bots is educational. Other Transformers are purely there for entertainment. How do you make a comparison between the educational value of the shows when there is none?
Even the characters that are there, the Autobots, are hard to make comparisons with other shows. We don't really know much about Optimus Prime as a leader because technically he isn't. Heatwave is the leader of the Rescue Bots. Optimus Prime is only there to make cameos not to lead them. In any other series we would be making comparisons from one Optimus Prime to another because he's normally the leader. In this series I'd actually make the comparison from Heatwave but he's never been a leader character before so I can't even really do that. Technically speaking the only character on this show with a comparable counterpart is Blades. G1 Blades was one of the Protoctobots so they're both members of a rescue team. However as a character he actually has more in common with G1 Silverbolt being that they're both flyers who are afraid of heights. Also the Protectobots rarely actually did any rescuing, and like everyone else were fighting a war so again not a lot of comparisons to make.
If we ignore the names of the characters then I could make comparisons between Heatwave and other Autobot leaders like Optimus, G1 Rodimus, and RID2015 Bumblebee. Chase and RID2001 Prowl have very similar personalities. Boulder is a lot like Animated and Prime Bulkhead, they're both large green big jawed characters with very similar personalities.
All this being said, these comparisons are just the seeds in the fruit. None of this stuff is going to turn this orange into an apple. I agree it's a well written show. Armada is the worst written Transformers series in my opinion. Does that mean that I think Rescue Bots is better than Armada? No. Does that mean that I think it's worse than Armada? No. How are both of these statements true? Because they were never competing against each other.
Again making the racing comparison. The fastest horse (Rescue Bots) can not win or loose against the slowest car (Armada) because they were never even entered into the same race. One is a horse race (Preschool Cartoon for children under the age of 4) and the other is Nascar (Children's Cartoon for kids ages 5 and up)
Look at the Transformers toy lines as well. Every other transformers toy line was designed for ages 5+. The Rescue Bots toy line is designed for kids under the age of 4. No one would make a comparison between the toys. When you're looking at a toy you're looking at the play value, the articulation, paint job, complexity of the Transformation, and in most toy lines you can actually compare all those things because they're all present on every figure… some better than others but they are there in some capacity. However the Preschool toys have simple designs for much younger kids to play with. There is very little play value, no articulation, no complex transformation, and thus nothing there to compare to the bigger kids toys. If you were to make a comparison Rescue Bots would automatically be horrible toys because none of that stuff that you normally look for is there. However that's not really fair to the toy line because they aren't meant for the same consumers. They're not even in the same isle as the other Transformers figures. One Step Changers I think are bad Transformers toys because they're actually targeted at older kids but are designed like Preschool toys. That doesn't mean the Rescue Bots are bad figures because they're suppose to easy for the younger kids to play with. I'd actually like the one step changers if they were meant for the Preschool kids. If you wouldn't compare the toy lines to each other why would you try to compare the cartoons?