i do remember 5 faces of darkness though!! i do agree it was great. even though i liked the original megatron more. but you said it all when you say "traumatized and confused a lot of kids into abandoning the series". i, obvioulsy felt confused. and since we are the same age, that means when i was 13-14, you were the same-------> see? didn't i tell you i was a horney bastard?
anyways, it would be so awesome, if one of those cable channels would just show the original series with some stability. something like a one hour back to back episode monday - friday would make it easy to follow.
cuz you know how it was with new episodes - once a week. playing with kids in the gym after school and that would be it - kaput!
it did get pretty awesome near the end i do recall. (and i really am recalling deep. the last time i saw a transformer cartoon was probably at least 7 years ago) with all those 5 in 1 and 6 in 1 robots going at it, it was so hectic, i just wish those episodes were longer.......... it was so painful to watch a 17 minute episode (minus commercials). it's just not worth it. you know what i mean? at least watching the pistons and cavs and getttting alllllllllllll worked up brought at least 2.5-3.5 hours of action per game.