Toonami

[NexCarnifex]

Everyone hates TOM 4 so how cool would it be if in a Toonami cutscene the new tom finds out his location on a planet and identifies him as an intruder than goes and kills him and his crew.  Wouldn't that be awesome?  Because clearly TOM 4 was an intruder.  I'm just throwing this out there, it would sort of fix TOM's legacy, and we'd get to see him doing something other than sitting down.

[SpaceshipEDM]

The main thing people aren't grasping is that toonami had their own legitimate reasons to make tom 4 besides "more kid friendly."

and most importantly, the people at toonami LIKED Tom 4.

They understood he didn't exactly fit, but they liked him. They had been trying to make a Tom with a face for a while as well. They think that he's an alright Toonami Operating Module.

So we need to accept that we're never going to see our current Tom badmouth Tom 4. Steve Blum has a big heart.

[NoireAirwave]

Yeah people aren't really a fan of TOM 4 but most don't hate him that much. He was still a TOM and should be treated with a bit of respect.

I personally don't like him for a combination of factors. No Backstory, No more space, No more SARA, his general design, the programming, and that he was around when it died... but he is still a TOM so he is ok in my book...

[okjsdhfjdsf]

I'm not a TOM 4 hater. I don't like the what went on around that time, but I'e never hated TOM 4 himself.

And SpacechipEDM is absolutely right. DeMaro was talking about it with someone on Twitter last night. He said Sean Akins had always wanted TOM 4 to have a face, but it took them that long before they could do it with technology. He said that "They", I guess Williams Street, would not give them the money for a smooth transition, but Sean went ahead and did anyway, and that Sean thought people wouldn't care. He said that they all actually liked TOM 4.

[alexDS]

I figured he meant Cartoon Network, not Williams Street.

Either way, I'd like to see the story of the transition but I agree that's a bad way to go about it. Despite TOM 4's visual awfulness, Steve Blum did his best to make TOM more of a bro than ever in those days, with the Outlaw Star shoutout in the intro and the multiple references (including Bebop, of course) in the final broadcast. If they ever tell the story of what happened to TOM 4, he deserves a heroic death like TOM 1 and 2 got.

[ALchemist81]

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SpaceshipEDM wrote:

They think that he's an alright Toonami Operating Module.

So we need to accept that we're never going to see our current Tom badmouth Tom 4. Steve Blum has a big heart.

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Oh, so that's what T.O.M. stands for!  I had been wondering that...

[MinamiKousaka]

Finally! T.O.M. 3.5 killing T.O.M. 4.0 might fix up T.O.M.'s legacy and sexiness if that happened!

[unscinfinity]

i stopped watching shortly before the switch but i know that i didn't like the design of tom 4

[ThatGman]

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NoireAirwave wrote:
Yeah people aren't really a fan of TOM 4 but most don't hate him that much. He was still a TOM and should be treated with a bit of respect.

I personally don't like him for a combination of factors. No Backstory, No more space, No more SARA, his general design, the programming, and that he was around when it died... but he is still a TOM so he is ok in my book...

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that Moltar guy, on the other hand.......

[MinamiKousaka]

He's still working for Space Ghost along with Zorak in Space Ghost Coast to Coast.

[bobofosho123]

The funny part about this thread is that I stay in touch with the guy who did all the CG for TOM 4 until the block's cancellation, his name is Chris Higgins. He liked T.O.M. 4, considering it was his baby...and he's actually doing all the CG on T.O.M. 3.5 today. If you're curious to see his work for the network, checkout his Vimeo channel: https://vimeo.com/channels/chrishiggins/5702442. 

And just so everyone here knows, the man cares more about T.O.M. and what he meant to our childhood than anyone, besides DeMarco, that I've met. He even told me a story about how he put a bunch of the bumpers on a DVD and showed them to his little kids all the time...talk about a cool dad.