The Random Transformers Thoughts Thread

[Paulbot]

What? The Keeper trilogy? Oh Primus that first book was bad. So bad.

I only got about halfway through Exodus but at least it didn't feature gratuitous graphic descriptions of humans being killed by giant robots.

[Jaxius._]

I may be the minority that liked them. Don't have the third book though.

[BigTransformerTrev]

What? The Keeper trilogy? Oh Primus that first book was bad. So bad.

I only got about halfway through Exodus but at least it didn't feature gratuitous graphic descriptions of humans being killed by giant robots.

Did you read all 3? The sequels are less human-death intensive.

And I think it was quite interesting to show just the kind of collateral damage and even accidental loss of human life that TF fights on earth cause

[Paulbot]

Did you read all 3? The sequels are less human-death intensive.

And I think it was quite interesting to show just the kind of collateral damage and even accidental loss of human life that TF fights on earth cause

I've heard that the second and third books are better (and different author I believe) but book one was enough for me.

The collateral damage angle could make good fiction, but I was put off by the first book where I was reading something that thought explicit violence, swear words and sex made it an "adult book". Not to mention the sloppy editing.

[Ralph Wiggum]

I think I saw a MP-11 Skywarp sell on Ebay for $US599.

This is madness!

[GoktimusPrime]

I'm in the same boat as Paulbot. The first book was such a pain to read that it put me off reading any more.

I think I saw a MP-11 Skywarp sell on Ebay for $US599.

This is madness!
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/avatars/th_spitdrink-1.gif
Proof that some people have more money than brains.

[prjkt]

Jazz has certainly seen better days (http://www.msn.com/en-au/motoring/reviews/porsche-911-gt3-rs-wrapped-as-barn-find/ar-BBraWWI?ocid=spartandhp)


(I saw the preview image and that's what came to mind)

[BigTransformerTrev]

I've heard that the second and third books are better (and different author I believe) but book one was enough for me.

The collateral damage angle could make good fiction, but I was put off by the first book where I was reading something that thought explicit violence, swear words and sex made it an "adult book". Not to mention the sloppy editing.


I'm in the same boat as Paulbot. The first book was such a pain to read that it put me off reading any more.

Well id recommend you both read the second and third books as they are much better and all 3 make the Aligned novels look even worse than they already are, but it's a moot point as they have been out of print that long you'd have a bugger of a time finding them anyway

[Paulbot]

I bought Book 3 from a clearance bin many years ago. Just because I didn't like it didn't mean I didn't buy it. ;)

[The Scream Man]

Unless i am wrong, the Autobot army, including all the japanese g1 transformers and those introducsed in the IDW books is 185 characters.

Not a huge army.

[GoktimusPrime]

Unless i am wrong, the Autobot army, including all the japanese g1 transformers and those introducsed in the IDW books is 185 characters.

Not a huge army.
Looking purely at all the G1 Autobots released during G1 - just Hasbro's - and excluding all repeat characters (e.g. Goldbug etc.), then there are a total of 239 characters. This would be larger if we included Takara and non-toy characters, but it would still not much more than say roughly 300 characters. But yeah, even that wouldn't be a big army. Even the Spartans had a great force than this in the Battle of Thermoplylae*.

But I see them as being the 'hero characters' in the Autobot army, with the rest being populated by generics. I do wish that they would release generic troops for the Autobots, similar to how the Decepticons get say Vehicons. :o

-----------------------------------------------------------
*Although there were 300 Spartan warriors, they were also reinforced by 300 Spartan slaves (hoplites), various Peloponnesian forces (e.g. Arcadians, Corinthians etc.), as well as various Opuntian Locrians (e.g. Thespians etc.), bringing a grand total of up to 7700 fighters. Although this was still outnumbered, as modern historians estimate the Persians to have had up to 300,000 soldiers.

[Jaxius._]

But I see them as being the 'hero characters' in the Autobot army, with the rest being populated by generics. I do wish that they would release generic troops for the Autobots, similar to how the Decepticons get say Vehicons. :o



Autotroopers and Autorooper says hi.

[GoktimusPrime]

Beast Wars theme, A Capella! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtLZBc50nu4)

[GoktimusPrime]

Thinking about the Latin terms used by IDW -- real vs fake Latin.

Conjunx Endura
* Conjunx does indeed mean "spouse," although it is spelt "coniunx" in Classical Latin, as the letter J did not exist in the original Roman alphabet.
* Endura is a Neo Latin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Latin) word that comes from the actual Classical Latin word induro, which means, 'to make difficult.' So "coniunx induro" means, "a spouse that makes things difficult." :rolleyes:
* Some people, including tfwiki (although I can't remember if IDW has done this) incorrectly pluralises Endura as "Endurae." The truth is that 'Endura' is an uncountable or mass noun and there is no plural for it. An examples of uncountable nouns in English include information and milk.
e.g. "That's a lot of information", not "informations" etc.

Amica Endura
"amica" means friend in Latin, but only a female friend because this is the feminine nominative singular form of the word. A male friend would be called amicus, so a male Cybertronian's BFF would be an Amicus Endura. Also, the stress on the Latin word amicus/amica differs from the English stress on descendant words amicable, amiable and amity. In English, we place the stress on the first syllable (e.g. amicable = AM-uh-cuh-bull), but in Latin the stress falls on the second syllable. So Amica should be pronounced, "ah-MEE-kah," and not "AM-mi-kah."

To be fair, using messed up Latin is nothing new to Transformers. Optimus Prime should possibly be either, "Optimus Primo," or "Optimo Primus," and "Ultra Magnus" should probably either be, "Ultro Magnus," or "Ulter Magno." Ultra is feminine. :o

[Paulbot]

The new Rodimus and Galavtron set (http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?p=519672), along with the Autobot warriors, the battle on the planet of Junk and the Cyclonus and Scourge sets make up a good range of the movie cast, but there's still gaps.

What are the odds for:

"Mission to Earth" Platinum Edition set - 3 deluxes and 1 legend: battle damaged deco Ratchet, Ironhide, Prowl and Brawn

"City Under Attack" Platinum Edition set - 1 voyager, 1 scout, 2 legends: battle damaged Wheeljack and Windcharger, and Bombshell and Shrapnel

"Friends Reunited" Platinum Edition set - 1 voyager, 1 deluxe, 1 legend: redeco FOC Grimlock, Perceptor, and Wheelie

"Jettison Some Weight" Platinum Edition - 3 deluxes: Astrotrain and battle damaged deco Thundercracker and Skywarp

"Coronoation" Platinum Edition set - 3 deluxes: redeco Starscream (with new helmet), Ramjet, Thrust

:)

[SuspectimusPrime]

+ "Get On With The Ceremony" Platinum Edition set - UW Constructicons with tiny trumpets (and elbows to use them).

[CHILENO20]

+ "Get On With The Ceremony" Platinum Edition set - UW Constructicons with tiny trumpets (and elbows to use them).

I was just thinking that! LOL :D

[philby]

+ "Get On With The Ceremony" Platinum Edition set - UW Constructicons with tiny trumpets (and elbows to use them).

This is good comedy...

#sorrynotsorry

[Jaxius._]

Bad Comedy- Tr Galvatron and a Black and grey Starscream (classics mold) with a crushed crown and burnt cape

[Paulbot]

Oh damn it. I forgot:

"Moonbase Outpost" - 3 legends Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, Gears, RTS deluxe Jazz and CW Laserbeak

Not the greatest set. Maybe with a MP Laserbeak!

(Gears is there. I almost put Grappel into one of the sets too!)

And on that thought, those who are me there

"Cutscene" Platinum set - 4 deluxes: Tracks, Sideswipe, battle damage deco versions of Mirage, Red Alert

[Jaxius._]

On a roll!

Planet Quintesson set- Deluxe Hotrod ( :( ) TFP Deluxe Kup (new head) Quintesson (Energon Alpha Q) and Sharkticons from either the rumoured Gnaw or Energon Sharkticon

Also

Light our darkest hour- T30 Springer in a Rodimus Prime deco (no sword so no helicopter) MP10 Matrix, Battle damaged (or perhaps a lava deco) TR Galvatron and the Unicron head that came with Primus

[MEEEGGGAAATTTRRROOONNN!!!]

Forgotten Dinobot set -- empty box, although with a tray cutout where missing Snarl should be.

[BigTransformerTrev]

The 'Heroic Nonsense' or 'Nooooo' set.

Battle Damaged Ironhide, Ratchet, Brawn, Prowl with Wheeljack and Windcharger thrown in for good measure

[Jaxius._]

The 'Heroic Nonsense' or 'Nooooo' set.

Battle Damaged Ironhide, Ratchet, Brawn, Prowl and maybe Wheeljack and Windcharger thrown in for good measure

That sounds awesome :D

To compliment that

The new bots
(Toy accurate decos) Hot rod, Springer, JunkionsX2 , Perceptor, Cyclonusx3, SCourgex3

And

The City Commanders- TR Galvatron and Classics Magnus (perhaps a City Commander armour reissue ;) )

[BigTransformerTrev]

Let's face it, we all know what we really want: The 'Innocent' set

An official set of Quintessons. A Quintesson Judge, Prosecutor, Guard, Switch Thrower, Alicon and Sharkticon.

[BruiseLee]

"Me Grimlock kick butt!" set! Somehow a set of G1 Dinobot reissues coming in a Unicron butt shaped boxset. We can then finally say that HasTak gives an arse about what collectors want! :p

[Paulbot]

"Me Grimlock kick butt!" set! Somehow a set of G1 Dinobot reissues coming in a Unicron butt shaped boxset. We can then finally say that HasTak gives an arse about what collectors want! :p

Speaking of G1 reissues, and molds recently available, I would seriously be interested in:

Platinum Series box set release of the Anibots! Simba (repaint of Razorclaw), Clump (Headstrong), Pardo (Rampage), Shriek (Divebomb) and
Thump (Tantrum).

(And they'd double as SG Predacons for those fans)

[Lint]

There's an entire Hasbro product placement scene in season 2 episode 5 of 'Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt'. It's very Transformers centric and features the Leader Starscream figure and namedrops a whole bunch of other Transformers pronouns such as Prime, Megatron, Mark Wahlberg, Sky Lynx, Trypticon and the Allspark.

It's a little difficult to determine how much input Hasbro had into this scene. I wouldn't have expected the writiers to namedrop a more obscure transformers like Sky Lynx and Trypticon (which are conveniently on the shelves at the moment), but at the same time the rest of the dialogue seems to reference the movieverse more heavily which is more of what I would expect of the writers.

My guess is that Hasbro simply dropped off a pile of toys and the writers worked from there, mixing in whatever pop culture knowledge they possessed about Transformers.

[Bidoofdude]

I wouldn't mind an Autobot shuttle set:
-Universe Ironhide
-Universe Ratchet
-Universe Prowl
-Generations Brawn (Gears redeco, makes up for the Titan Master)

[BigTransformerTrev]

Well giving in to temptation paid off today :D

Stuck in Bathurst whilst dealing with a fairly large family issue and whenever we visit here I try to find one TF to take home with me at the end of my trip. So far both the Target and Big W have had sweet f'all :rolleyes:

Went to Woolworths this arvo to pick up some stuff and noticed they had RID 1-step changers that werent there yesterday. I didn't really want them but figured it was my only chance to get a TF for the trip so grabbed a Springload. It was $18 or so which is way too expensive for a toy I don't want but I figured what the hell. When going through the self-service checkout it wouldn't scan. The service lady came along, couldn't fix it so I got the toy for free!

My wife said she had to go to the same supermarket that arvo to get some stuff I had forgotten to. I told her to grab a 1-step changer Quillfire whilst there on the off-chance it worked again. It did! That's $36-$38 worth of TF's free for me - yay! We didn't ask for it, apparently it's store policy :)

I'd feel guilty except for how Woolworths monopoly (along with Coles) is hurting the Aussie farmers on how much they can expect to get for their meat and dairy produce. And I figure I'm probably paying at least 2 peoples salaries at Hasbro with everything I buy each year so I can take the odd windfall when it happens :D:p

[GoktimusPrime]

As we all know, AoE explains that the Transformers were created by the Creators* who seeded planets to create the basic metals to make the Transformers to serve their purposes. Pretty much like the Quintessons. Yet the first movie established the Transformers' origin as being somewhat more divine, springing from the AllSpark Cube (whether it was created by Primus himself or not; the movie states, "We know not where it came from").

So do these two origin stories contradict each other? Certainly wouldn't be the first time that events in the live action movie universe have contradicted each other. :rolleyes: Or is there a simple way to make these stories fit? Could the AllSpark have also been created by the Creators?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*A name even more epic than 'Transformium.'

[Jaxius._]

Just finished watching Zone... I want Ehobby or some 3p company to make the armour that the Destron's had.

[Paulbot]

As we all know, AoE explains that the Transformers were created by the Creators* who seeded planets to create the basic metals to make the Transformers to serve their purposes. Pretty much like the Quintessons. Yet the first movie established the Transformers' origin as being somewhat more divine, springing from the AllSpark Cube (whether it was created by Primus himself or not; the movie states, "We know not where it came from").

So do these two origin stories contradict each other? Certainly wouldn't be the first time that events in the live action movie universe have contradicted each other. :rolleyes: Or is there a simple way to make these stories fit? Could the AllSpark have also been created by the Creators?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*A name even more epic than 'Transformium.'

Seems like you could use a variation on those old theories to combine the Primus and Quintesson origins:

The Creators found, rather than created, the AllSpark, and saw they could use it to bring creatures made out of transformium (:rolleyes:) to life as slaves/tools/items to sell etc.

Despite living for very long times, Transformers get very forgetful about their origins in every universe. Everything becomes creation myths.

[SuspectimusPrime]

Just finished watching Zone... I want Ehobby or some 3p company to make the armour that the Destron's had.

That armour didn't do them much good... :p

[UltraMarginal]

Despite living for very long times, Transformers get very forgetful about their origins in every universe. Everything becomes creation myths.

haha, yea.

[Jaxius._]

That armour didn't do them much good... :p

true...
What i don't understand was Predakings face

[Jaxius._]

I was comparing TR galvatron to Takara's (images obviously) and it got me thinking:
Galvatron has a Jet mode, and Hasbros is reminiscent of Energon Galvatron. What if it is a dual homage (or 3 homages if you make him Marvel galvatron because of the Megatron Headmaster)

Although i still want Marvel colours.

[GoktimusPrime]

Last week when I went to pick my daughter up from school, I saw this boy playing with Combiner Wars Sunstreaker and he was repeatedly throwing it onto the pavement as if it were a tennis ball! :eek: Seeing kids being rough and beating up their toys is nothing new. I knew lots of kids who were really rough with their G1 Transformers and broke them, but it's something that I have personally never understood. I've always tried to take really good care of my toys, but I hear nightmare stories about people who - either deliberately or through negligence - damaged their childhood toys and talk about toys not "surviving" their childhoods. :eek: This mentality baffled me as a kid and continues to baffle me today. Surely if you love a toy you'd take care of it. :confused:

I wonder if this kid's gonna be hopping on eBay looking to re-purchase a vintage Combiner Wars Sunstreaker all because he trashed his original as a child. Geez. My own child hasn't treated a toy like that since she was a toddler. Even Toy Story 3 shows the difference between toddlers (Caterpillar Room) and pre-schoolers (Butterfly Room). But this child is school-aged (looked to be Stage 1) -- older and more mature than pre-schoolers or Early Stage 1ers! I... I don't even... :eek:

[Soviet Fox]

I destroyed a lot of my toys growing up. Except my plastic Voltron set, that I kept immacultely u til we moved city and my mother decided it was "too big" to come with us. My only regret is that Voltron.
I disassembled whatever i could to figure out how they were made but was rarely able to put them back together.
Ive fohnd the deluxe CW ger is pretty robuat and the ball jointa pop easily enough to avoid most damage
Thankfully by the time i got to cars I was able to put them back together again. And a lot of that mechanical thinking came from that play.
Of my two sons, one likes to meticulously transform each robot to vehicle and back again, the other likes to pull them apart (which i discourage with the TFs and suggest other toys).
Funnily enough though the only one to break a figure permanently is the former....on multiple occasions.
I think it's important to teach kids to respect their stuff but i try not to stifle explorative play.
That sunstreaker my hve been a gift from an uncle who didn't know the kids not into TFs

[Jaxius._]

Well from observing my sister who at a young age would bash Bumblebee (always Bumblebee :rolleyes: ) and another random bot together and say they were fighting. I guess it is to simulate the violence without the tedious posing that children with short attention spans would fail to do. Although throwing it at the ground makes little sense.

[GoktimusPrime]

Nope. Still don't get it. Because Transformers never fight like that. I would (and still do) simulate action by trying to make the toys physically do what I want them to do. e.g. if I wanted Soundwave to punch Optimus Prime, I would make Soundwave's fist connect with Optimus Prime's face. There wouldn't be any force behind it, because they're just toys, but then I'd use my hands to make Optimus Prime fly through the air and crash into something. I never felt the urge to literally slam it.

My daughter doesn't deliberately mistreat her toys, but if she did I would simply stop buying them for her. She currently collects Shopkins, which are admittedly hard to break, but if she, say, threw them onto the ground then I'd never buy another one for her. I've never actually said this to her. I don't need to... it's just common sense. If you like something, take care of it. If you're not going to take care of it then no more! :rolleyes:

[Bladestorm]

Nope. Still don't get it. Because Transformers never fight like that. I would (and still do) simulate action by trying to make the toys physically do what I want them to do. e.g. if I wanted Soundwave to punch Optimus Prime, I would make Soundwave's fist connect with Optimus Prime's face. There wouldn't be any force behind it, because they're just toys, but then I'd use my hands to make Optimus Prime fly through the air and crash into something. I never felt the urge to literally slam it.


My 9 year old son plays with his Transformers exactly as you do Gok. He never throws them or has any force behind his figures fighting and they still have some doozy fights! He treats his toys with respect. He wouldn't have as many toys as he does if he didn't care for them and he knows and understands this. I don't understand the violence towards or with toys by some kids either. My son has a couple of friends who are super rough (learnt through poor old movie Sideswipe loosing his front fenders to these kids (TWICE) literally snapping them off to get the transformation to move to much shed tears by my son). He won't even allow these kids in his room when they come to play anymore (and he hides his most precious Transformers items in my bedroom just incase).
I think some kids aren't taught the value of a toy because they think mummy or daddy will just get them a new one or buy them the latest thing when they ask for it in such a disposable world. Least that seems to be one of the issues here.

[GoktimusPrime]

Your son is awesome. And you're an awesome mum for supporting him in the defence of his toys. Because among my G1 toys that are broken, the majority of those were broken by other kids. :mad: I would be like your son and want to refuse to share my toys with others who had demonstrated that they couldn't be trusted, but my mum made me share my toys. And yeah, whenever someone broke a toy, I would be in tears. :( I'd go and tell my mum about it, but she never backed me up. She just laughed it off, so the kid who broke the toy faced zero consequences, and I was never compensated. Even when that other kid's mum or dad would offer to pay for a new one, my mum would flatly refuse to accept their offer and also refuse to buy me a new one. So I was just left with a broken Transformer, which I still have in my collection today. Even if I manage to replace that toy with another one now (usually a reissue), I keep the original because even in its broken condition, it's the toy from my childhood.

My G1 Long Haul is one example of this. Shortly after I got Long Haul in 1985 (my first Constructicon no less), another kid at school (about 3-4 years older than me too) borrowed it from me. He was late - very late - in returning it. Over a week or two later when I finally got it back, Long Haul was in pieces! :eek: The kid told me that his mum had disapproved of him borrowing the toy from me and smashed it. :confused: I didn't believe him and kept on asking why his mum would do something like that, and why she didn't just make him return it straight away, but he kept on saying that it was to punish him for borrowing the toy. I even told him that this made no sense as I was the one who was punished really, not him! :confused: So I spent the rest of my childhood and even adolescence with a broken G1 Long Haul. I later decided to super-glue Long Haul in Devastator-component mode so that I could at least form Devastator with the rest of my Constructicons, but it meant sacrificing the ability to "transform" it (which involved literally taking the toy apart and reassembling it, like the KSI Decepticons :rolleyes:), but at least I could display my Constructicons as Devastator. It was years later when the Parramatta Collectors Fair first came around in the 00s that I found a cheap loose G1 Long Haul. Now I have the Encore reissue, so I have 3 different versions of G1 Long Haul. :p I keep my G1 Constructicons combined as Devastator and the reissues displayed in individual robot mode, and logically I should chuck out my old G1 Long Haul, but I can't. He still forms Devastator, and the spare G1 Long Haul that I got sits displayed in vehicle mode (so he's the one 1985 Constructicon that I have displayed in all 3 modes ;))

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

I had an awesome idea - you know those Incredible Cross Sections books?
There should totally be a Transformers version.:cool:

[Borgeman]

There's a difference between breaking a toy during general play, and outright violence on a toy. While throwing toys on concrete is not a very bright move, I wouldn't expect any future kids of mine to treat their toys like an adult collector. I'd expect that some toys will break due to the nature of the play/what the child is re-enacting.

I was extremely imaginative as a kid, and would create worlds to fit the environment of the room i was playing in - a simple example was a desk being a cliff that some toys would inevitably fall off and meet their doom, and gravity was a much more realistic way for a character to fall, rather than me gently cradling it through the air down to the floor.

And there was nothing wrong with damaging toys. Nothing like a bit of battle damage to carry over to the next exciting adventure my brain concocted!

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Galvatron has a Jet mode, and Hasbros is reminiscent of Energon Galvatron. What if it is a dual homage (or 3 homages if you make him Marvel galvatron because of the Megatron Headmaster)

Marvel Galvatron was a Headmaster? Could someone explain this reference to me please?

Nope. Still don't get it.
Some kids are just different to you Gok. I too don't understand what joy they from smashing stuff up, but there ya go. I played vigorously with my toys as a kid, my Optimus has broken smokestacks and a broken front bumper from smashing through too many Decepticon barricades in the 80s. Maybe that kid was in a bad mood and doesn't know how to express (him?)self well enough. Maybe he took it off another kid and is a bully and wants to break it coz he's a bully. I'm sure there is some reason for it that the kid understands.

[UltraMarginal]

I had an awesome idea - you know those Incredible Cross Sections books?
There should totally be a Transformers version.:cool:

I really struggle to enjoy those books, I often find words used to describe something are either painfully obvious, like 'cockpit window' or just not right. technobabble is technobabble but good technobabble is based on solid scientific theory and logical extrapolation. I have a couple star wars ones and I've never spent much time with them.

[Jaxius._]

Marvel Galvatron was a Headmaster? Could someone explain this reference to me please?



i meant as Megatron and Galvatron existing as separate entities.

[Trent]

I never before realized what a butt-ugly alt mode Generations Drift has. It's horrible.

[GoktimusPrime]

I never before realized what a butt-ugly alt mode Generations Drift has. It's horrible.
The original (http://tfwiki.net/mediawiki/images2/b/b1/SpotlightDrift-car.jpg) looks even worse, although it is a Cybertronian vehicle mode. HasTak obviously based the toy off the comic model but modified the alt mode to try and make it look more Earthen but at the same time identifiable as that weird looking box-sled wannabe-Batmobile... thing. :o

[UltraMarginal]

I never before realized what a butt-ugly alt mode Generations Drift has. It's horrible.


The original (http://tfwiki.net/mediawiki/images2/b/b1/SpotlightDrift-car.jpg) looks even worse, although it is a Cybertronian vehicle mode. HasTak obviously based the toy off the comic model but modified the alt mode to try and make it look more Earthen but at the same time identifiable as that weird looking box-sled wannabe-Batmobile... thing. :o

You'se guys must have your 'can't see cool stuff' glasses on:confused:;)

[GoktimusPrime]

I don't personally think that Drift's vehicle mode looks bad, but my meaning was that if Trent thinks that it's ugly, the original Cybertronian mode is worse. ;) There are a few things about the Drift mould that I'm not a huge fan of, but overall I do like the toy. I'll put it this way, although I think that the Drift mould doesn't work as well for Blurr, I'm happy enough with it that I'm intended to skip Titans Returns Blurr. :)

[Jaxius._]

I was playing round with Classics Prime... He is great but he seems to short these days with the TR deluxes being taller and CW Voyagers dwarf him... Will we ever get a Prime just as good as Classics?


Edit: I saw an image of TR Fort Max with Titan Plex. Fort is shorter :eek:

[GoktimusPrime]

Modern English itself is a massive mix of foreign languages. e.g. "Mirage" is a French word, but it's also an accepted English word now, whereas "grabuge" is not. It can be somewhat subjective, but here are Transformer names that could be argued as being non-English:
* Optimus (Latin); "Prime" is accepted in English (e.g. Prime Minister etc.)
* Megatron (Greek)
* Superion (hybrid Latin/Greek); "superior" (Lat) x "hyperion" (Grk)
* Galvatron (Italian x Greek); from the Italian name "Galvani," which became "galvanise/galvanisation" in English via French.
* Submarauder (Latin + French); while the French word "marauder" is accepted as English, this also includes the Latin word "sub" which means "under." So this is an "under-marauder."
* Banzai-Tron/Banzaitron (Japanese x Greek); "Banzai" (万歳) basically means "long live the Emperor" in Japanese, although in contemporary usage it's more like "Hooray!" "Ban" = 10,000 and "zai" = age, so it literally means "age 10,000," implying that the Emperor may live to be 10,000 years old (long life).
* Pyro (Greek); meaning 'fire'. English only uses this word as a suffix (e.g. pyrotechnics etc.) but never as a stand alone word.
* Scorponok (Greek x Danish/Norwegian); "nok" meaning "enough" in some Nordic languages.
* Metroplex (Greek x Latin). "Metro" comes from the Greek word for 'mother' (μήτηρ) and "plex" comes from the Latin word for "entwine" (plectere). These words are used as prefixes and suffixes respectively in English (e.g. metropolitan, duplex etc.), but not in this combination.
* Megaplex (Greek); A million twists!
* Noctorro (Latin + Spanish); noctis means "night" in Latin, and "toro" means "bull" in Spanish (from the Latin word "taurus"). The additional "r" is probably a deliberate misspelling because "torro" in Spanish means to toast or roast food. Cook the night!
* Ramulus (English + Latin); obviously a blend between the English word "ram" (which is of English origin!) and the Roman god "Romulus."
* Magnus (Latin); meaning "great." Ultra is accepted as English (e.g. ultra violet). Although "Ultra" is actually feminine; the masculine is "Ulter."
* Nightcruz (English + Spanish); Night is English (also of English origin!), but "cruz" is Spanish (and Portuguese and Tagalog) for "cross" (from the Latin "crux"). So he's a... night-cross?
* Mega-Octane (Greek+ Greek x Latin); although "octane" is used in English, the Greek suffix "Mega" isn't used this way in English.
* Reptilion (Latin x Greek)
* Ro-Tor (Norse-English); "Ro" means 'to rest' in Old Norse and "tor" in Old and Middle English means 'a high rock' or 'a lofty hill.' So "Ro-Tor," in Germanic, means "resting on a high rock."
* Movor (English x German); "Mo" is Old/Middle English for "more," and "vor" means "fore" in German. So as Julia Gillard would say, "Moving forward." ;)
* Excellion (Latin x Greek); I'm assuming that the additional 'L' is a deliberate thing, because otherwise this would just be a combination of two English words; "excel" and "lion." Growl. But I'm assuming that it's combining the Latin-based English word "excel" with the Greek "-ion" ending (like Superion, Victorion etc.).
* Victorion (Latin x Greek); 'victoria' being Latin for "winning" and again that Greek ending
* Astrotrain (Greek x French); "astro" being the Greek word for "star," which English uses as a prefix (e.g. astronomer) but not as a stand alone word. Huh... I guess "Astroxiphos" would be Greek for "Star Sabre." ;)
* Meister (German); meaning "master" and the Japanese name for Jazz, Hasbro also used this for the name of Alternators Meister (as they couldn't secure the trademark for "Autobot Jazz" for Alternators).
* Kobushi (Japanese); literally means "old warrior" (古武士). This sounds more like a Function than a name in Japanese.
* Rapido (Italian); meaning quick, fast or rapid. From the Latin "rapidus."
* Maximus (Latin); "greatest."
* Chromia (Latin); "colour." This is the feminine form too (masc. "chromium"). From the Greek "chrome." e.g. something with one colour is "monochrome."
* Elita (Slavic); meaning "elite." From the Latin word "eligere" (to elect).
* Octopunch (Greco-Latin x Latin via French); obviously attaching the Greco-Latin prefix "octo" (8) with the English word "punch" (which originated from Latin (pungo) via French (ponchonner)).

That's all I can think of for now. But this only represents a minority of Transformers names. The vast majority of TF names are comprised of words which are accepted in English.

[BigTransformerTrev]

I took my computer to a new place to be repaired today as the old place I took it to has changed hands and the new owner is useless. Anyway, when I took the computer in the bloke behind the counter said "Does it transform?"

I did a double take and looked at him, then looked at the name on his shirt, it turned out the guy is a member of my FB transformatorium page that I went to primary school with and hadn't seen in the flesh in 30 years! :eek:

We ended up having a big TF talk. Amazing what we remembered from so long ago, like I remembered he was the first kid I ever knew to own an Optimus Prime (and he still has it!) and he remembered that I had Blurr and Mirage and we used to argue about who was faster and then my Mirage broke.

[CHILENO20]

I took my computer to a new place to be repaired today as the old place I took it to has changed hands and the new owner is useless. Anyway, when I took the computer in the bloke behind the counter said "Does it transform?"

I did a double take and looked at him, then looked at the name on his shirt, it turned out the guy is a member of my FB transformatorium page that I went to primary school with and hadn't seen in the flesh in 30 years! :eek:

We ended up having a big TF talk. Amazing what we remembered from so long ago, like I remembered he was the first kid I ever knew to own an Optimus Prime (and he still has it!) and he remembered that I had Blurr and Mirage and we used to argue about who was faster and then my Mirage broke.

Tell him to join up dude! :cool:

[BigTransformerTrev]

Tell him to join up dude! :cool:

I want him concentrating on fixing my computer - not playing in here. ;)

Other random thought - I just got titanium Jetfire today and am really pleased with him, I don't know why but for some reason I often really dig figures that aren't perfectly symmetrical

.

[Handsprime]

On Facebook I was remembered that Optimus once said boobies (http://youtu.be/mbPzqbO4UpI)

[Jaxius._]

I'm thinking of making a trailer for classics Prime and people say get Styrene but where the hell would i got and is it like plastic or what?

[tinyJazz]

I'm thinking of making a trailer for classics Prime and people say get Styrene but where the hell would i got and is it like plastic or what?

Probably a craft, art, or hobby store would stock styrene sheets. You could also try a large newsagent, if they're like the ones here that sell individual sheets of paper and card.

It's like something inbetween card and craft foam, I think.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Just for shits and giggles I bid $AU $300 on a MP-11 Skywarp on ebay.

I was outbid :(

[prjkt]

Was about to preorder the TR DLX wave 1 when I realised i had at least on or two of the Takara versions on preorder already. Checked, and it turns out I had all but Skullcruncher already on order (I want the Hasbro face for this guy) so I might just look for him at retail

[Trent]

Inspired by something I just posted in another thread, I just remembered that when Hasbro MP Soundwave went on sale in Australia at TRU, I grabbed 2. One for me and one that I put up on here for any members that couldn't get one. I was selling it for cost, plus shipping (if required).

I ended up returning it because no one wanted it. The fact that I couldn't off load it seems a little crazy now.

[GoktimusPrime]

They should redeco MP Inferno as MP Artfire with a repaint of MP Rodimus Prime's "Offshoot" Nebulan (handle may need to be retooled). MP Artfire should be produced as a limited exclusive ... and MP Dirge should be mass retail.

[Sinnertwin]

They should redeco MP Inferno as MP Artfire with a repaint of MP Rodimus Prime's "Offshoot" Nebulan (handle may need to be retooled). MP Artfire should be produced as a limited exclusive ... and MP Dirge should be mass retail.

+1
I was thinking of using the Universe Nightstick perhaps, with a few tweaks? I quite like that little guy

As for Dirge... Sadly, I think that we all know that he'll be the TTM exclusive MP11ND

[SuspectimusPrime]

+1
I was thinking of using the Universe Nightstick perhaps, with a few tweaks? I quite like that little guy


He is definitely one of the most decent Targetmasters we have had. Can't recall anything else carrying the weapon kibble quite as nice. If only they done a double-barrelled remould.

[Sinnertwin]

Yah, instead we got that... thing that was the exclusive Fracas. :rolleyes:

[GoktimusPrime]

Yah, instead we got that... thing that was the exclusive Fracas. :rolleyes:
Still not bad for a free gift (w/ TF purchase). ;)

[Jaxius._]

Now that G1 (starting in 1984) is 32 does it need health insurance before June 30?

[Krayt]

No point.... It's already got 4% extra on top....

And the services needed aren't covered in the policy (poor Mirage.... No one covers thoracic separation restorative procedures)

[GoktimusPrime]

Interesting way to skew statistics :p

If you look at the list you will notice that of the 13 Decepticons, 5 of them use almost the exact same mold. This would put unique figures down to 9. If you categorise cassettes as 1 unique figure (I know they are different but the engineering and size for them pales in comparison to the large bots) then have 5 unique figures. That is not much when you look at the remaining decepticons which (bar Dirge) would likely all be unique figures.

Then look at the Autobots. Bluestreak, Prowl and Smokescreen are one unique mold. Ironhide and Ratchet are one. Red Alert and Sideswipe another one. Every other autobot is unique so that is 9 unique figures.

Therefore 5 unique molds to Decepticons and 9 unique molds to Autobots. Almost double the amount in favour of Autobots. That doesn't even get into the proportion of mold uses to total MPs which would really blow things out with the seekers.

All I am saying is some unique mold Decepticon love would not go astray.
Okay, let's look at this purely from the number of unique moulds then.

Autobots = 9*/33 or 27% have been done as MPs
Decepticons = 7**/18 or 39% have been done as MPs
So when we only look at the unique moulds, the Decepticons still proportionately fare better than the Autobots.

If we don't adjust figures proportionately then this would actually skew facts -- it'd be like saying that Japan has more unemployed people (4.6M) than Australia without adjusting for population (1.3M). But of course, Japan has a population of 127M people whereas Australia has 23M, so rather than looking at unemployment numbers we look at unemployment rates which are proportionate to the population. Japan's unemployment rate is 3.2% whereas Australia's is nearly double that at 5.7% of our population.

Similarly yes, there are 9 unique Autobot moulds vs 7 unique Decepticon moulds. But when we make adjustments relative to the number of unique Decepticon moulds available from the early G1 run, then proportionately speaking things actually look better for the Decepticons. Even if TakaraTOMY were to release the rest of the early G1 figures as MPs, the Autobots would still outnumber the Decepticons. It's simply because there is simply a larger pool of Autobots to draw from to make MP products out of than Decepticons. TakaraTOMY can't exactly travel back in time (http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Fixed_point_in_time) and convince Hasbro to create more Decepticons back in 1984-85. :o

------------------------------------
*Autobot unique moulds
Optimus Prime
Bluestreak/Prowl/Smokescreen
Jazz
Hound
Ironhide/Ratchet
Mirage
Sideswipe
Sunstreaker
Trailbreaker/Hoist
Wheeljack
Brawn
Bumblebee
Cliffjumper
Gears
Huffer
Windcharger
Jetfire
Omega Supreme
Blaster
Grapple/Inferno
Skids
Tracks
Perceptor
Beachcomber
Cosmos
Powerglide
Seaspray
Warpath
Grimlock
Slag
Sludge
Snarl
Swoop

**Decepticon unique moulds
Megatron
Soundwave
Buzzsaw/Laserbeak
Frenzy/Rumble
Ravage
Skywarp/Starscream/Thundercracker/Dirge/Ramjet/Thrust
Shockwave
Astrotrain
Blitzwing
Bombshell
Kickback
Shrapnel
Bonecrusher
Long Haul
Hook
Mixmaster
Scavenger
Scrapper

[GoktimusPrime]

My Beast Wars standee which was used to promote the debut of Beast Wars on VHS. ;) It's a bit worse for wear, but considering that it's made from really fragile foam, I'm happy that it's still relatively in one piece.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/beastwars_standee_zpslccxex1k.jpg

[TAAUBlaster]

That's really cool Gok! :) You just don't see a lot of that type of promo material these days.

[GoktimusPrime]

From here (http://otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?p=529155#post529155)

I don't collect Animated - it's the one iteration of Optimus I really don't like either in personality or aesthetic so I always overlook these guys.
Yeah, Animated - much like the live action movie toys - significantly deviates from the orthodox Japanese mecha style of Transformers (not surprising considering that G1 is directly descended from Japanese robot toys), which many fans either love or hate. Animated is basically the Yin to Bayformer's Yang, because the line was conceived around the same time that the first live action movie was being developed. Initially it did look more mecha-like and was called Transformers Heroes.

The rationale goes that when the first Bayformer movie was being created, Hasbro saw (and approved) of the more alien and photorealistically highly detailed looking movie designs. At this time nobody knew if the first live action film would succeed or tank, and just in case it was the latter, Hasbro decided to completely reformat TF Heroes with something that was the antithesis of Bayformers (and thus stylistically distancing itself from the film franchise). And so the decision was made to deliberately make Animated with stylistically simplistic and unrealistically cartoonish designs.

Story-wise Animated is pretty plain. There is practically no character development except for Prowl. Sentinel Prime has character development in one scene of one episode, but then later completely reverts back to his former self (so really, he hasn't grown at all). :rolleyes: It's about the same level of story-telling quality as Transformers Prime (again, bugger all character-drive). The G1 cartoon doesn't have much character drive either (that's why many G1 fans preferred the Marvel Comics which were more character driven). The only real character driven Transformers story I've ever seen on TV was Beast Wars.

[UltraMarginal]

Why do all the characters need to develop? How many people do you know who are the same person they were 10 years ago? I would expect, a lot. they may have changed physically but a lot of people don't learn from their mistakes or experiences.
I don't see why there is always a complaint about consistency in characters across a series.

[Jaxius._]

Why do all the characters need to develop? How many people do you know who are the same person they were 10 years ago? I would expect, a lot. they may have changed physically but a lot of people don't learn from their mistakes or experiences.
I don't see why there is always a complaint about consistency in characters across a series.

Perhaps people want something more emotional than a wall?

[UltraMarginal]

Perhaps people want something more emotional than a wall?

yea, that's a fair point but there can be emotion in a story without everyone developing to be a born leader or stop being a dick of a character over the course of a series. it's the oddballs that stay oddballs that make stories interesting.

[SuspectimusPrime]

yea, that's a fair point but there can be emotion in a story without everyone developing to be a born leader or stop being a dick of a character over the course of a series. it's the oddballs that stay oddballs that make stories interesting.

It's for these reasons why my fav Autobot from the G1 comics was Blaster and one of my fav Decepticons from the same comics was Ratbat, respectively :D

[GoktimusPrime]

Why do all the characters need to develop? How many people do you know who are the same person they were 10 years ago? I would expect, a lot. they may have changed physically but a lot of people don't learn from their mistakes or experiences.
I don't see why there is always a complaint about consistency in characters across a series.
Not all characters need to develop, but there should be a central character or cast of characters that develop. This character or characters is/are called the protagonist, and it is through the protagonist's journey that the audience connects to the story via an emotional investment. Even the IDW comics focus on a core set of characters who act as the protagonists, they don't develop everyone. Characters like Chief Justice Tyrest, Star Sabre, Dai Atlas etc. have no real development, but they either act as antagonists or as a secondary supporting character. Through the character's journey we learn about who they are, not what they are.

"Thorough characterisation makes characters well-rounded and complex. This allows for a sense of realism.....In contrast, an underdeveloped character is considered flat or stereotypical."
(Ref: English 250 Fiction Unit: Characterisation 1 - Character Development (http://www.ohio.edu/people/hartleyg/ref/fiction/character2.html))

If we look at the death of Starscream in TFTM, it's not much of an emotional tragedy. At most it may be disturbing because of the graphic violent nature of his death via being reduced to cinders, but there isn't an emotional tragedy because G1 cartoon Starscream was little more than a caricature (and a pretty incompetent one at that). As an underdeveloped character he doesn't feel real nor does his death. Compare this with the deaths of more fleshed out characters like Scorponok (G1 Marvel), Dinobot (BW), Rewind (IDW) etc. and it's a whole different ball game because we've been made to care about these characters. They feel like people to us. When I spoke with Chris Ryall at SupaNova he told me that this was one of their explicit goals with writing Transformers at IDW. Season 3 Blitzwing is actually one of the few characters who actually underwent an interesting personal character journey (actually becoming more like Thundercracker, whose character was never true to his original bio in the G1 'toon).

There are certainly challenges when it comes to character development, and especially in a toy franchise like Transformers when Hasbro is pushing writers to introduce new toys into the story. In effect, you're working with an ensemble cast. Time is another constraint. Movies usually cannot cope with character development in an ensemble cast due to the limited amount of time afforded to it. This is why so much of the Lord of the Rings was omitted in the film adaptation, and in other areas things were just creatively changed to flesh out other characters (e.g. Arwen is far more fleshed out in the films as she was nothing more than a set piece in the books). This is why Christopher Nolan refused to "seed" Justice League elements into his Batman films. He had zero interest in laying out the groundwork for any future JL or crossover films because he only wanted this stories to focus on the character drive of the Batman character. And it worked especially well in "The Dark Knight." Attempting to shoe-horn in references to Superman or other DC characters would have, according to Nolan, distracted the film from its core purpose of focusing on the story of Batman. Marvel has arguably struck a better balance by having 'stand alone' character movies like Iron Man, Captain America, Thor etc. that allow the story to focus on the central character... people often wonder why the Avengers never show up in these films (oh look, Dark Elves are attacking London... where are the Avengers?), but from a story-telling POV it's so that the plot doesn't get bogged down with too many protagonists. It allows the story to just focus on the central character. Having too many central characters becomes a case of "too many cooks spoil the broth." Even with most of the Avengers showing up in the third Captain America movie, the story still attempted to focus on a few core characters - Captain America, Iron Man and Bucky. Removing Thor and Hulk helped to make the ensemble cast smaller and less distracting, although some would argue that Civil War isn't as strong as The First Avenger or Winter Soldier in terms of character-drive. Characters like Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye and even Spider-Man were really there as supporting characters -- none of these characters underwent any emotional developmental journey. There was even a "mini journey" in the story with Black Panther, but I'm sure that he'll be more properly fleshed out in his upcoming stand-alone film. Heck, look at Deadpool... he was basically a caricature in the Wolverine movie and fans hated it. The new Deadpool film treats him as a character where he goes through a personal journey (and literally drags the audience along with him!), and consequently has been better received by fans. :)

If you look at stories like "To Kill A Mockingbird," the protagonist is not Atticus Finch - the lawyer trying to defend an innocent black man (Tom) in a time of intense racism in America - but rather his daughter Scout. It is through the eyes of this naive child as she witnesses the world around her and undergoes the journey of discovering the meaning of social justice that really drives this story. She becomes the eyes for the audience to emotionally connect to the story, especially for many young readers today who may have never personally witnessed or experienced racism (and certainly not institutionalised and deep-seeded racism that was seen in 1930s America). The audience experiences emotional connections in scenes such as when Scout and her brother are bullied by other children who call their father a "nigger lover", and the children's faith in the judicial system being shaken to the core when Tom is found guilty of a crime he didn't commit and later shot dead. The atrocity of witnessing a gross miscarriage of justice simply because of the colour of a man's skin has a deep emotional impact on Scout and Jem, and thus the audience experiences the horror of the situation through them.
RE: Catharsis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catharsis)

And this is the thing; without central character development there is no mechanism for catharsis. This is also why the Original Star Wars Trilogy is widely regarded as being superior to the Prequel Trilogy, because the Original Trilogy was more character-driven than the Prequels. Irvin Kershner, the director of The Empire Strikes Back, was initially hesitant in directing a Star Wars film. Lucas really had to twist his arm to do it, and even then, Kershner said that he would only do it under the condition that he be allowed to focus the story on the characters and not other things like scifi, space ships etc. And Empire is arguably the most emotionally driven Star Wars film in the entire Saga, and an enduring favourite among fans. IMO in a good action story, it is the story that should drive the action, not the action that drives the story. TESB is a good example of a film that has story-driven action. As awesome as the Luke vs Vader fight is, the real climax of that scene is the one that strikes at the heart of the character, "No, I am your father." This line was so critical that during filming, David Prowse actually said a different line but was dubbed over later by James Earl Jones giving the iconic and correct line (Mark Hamill knew what the real line was so he was able to react appropriately to it, but was sworn to secrecy even from other members of the cast).
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/trilogy_zps064b1113.jpg

A serial is actually better able to develop a character-driven story than a cinematic film since it has more overall screen time than a movie. IIRC it was actually Simon Furman's suggestion to have the live action movie's plot focus on an Autobot Mini Car, which is why Bumblebee became a more central character. The idea was to take what is a small and underwhelming character and put him on a journey towards greatness. Much like Luke Skywalker moving from farm boy to Jedi Knight. But of course, the execution of this concept turned out to be entirely different. :rolleyes: Across four films Bumblebee has journeyed from being an immature brat to becoming... an immature brat. <slow.clap> :rolleyes: He keeps changing his appearance in each film, but the character has remained stagnant. Forrest Gump goes through more change than Bumblebee! :eek:

Real People
Alright, perhaps some people IRL don't change. Do you think that their lives would necessarily make for interesting stories though? Most of the more successful biographies have been based on people who underwent change, or focuses on moments of their lives when they underwent change. And in some cases - especially in movies - they will outright lie to make the protagonist look like they went through more interesting changes than they actually did in real life! An example of this is Fearless starring Jet Li as the Chinese martial artist Huo Yuanjia. In the film, Huo is portrayed as being a morally deprived butthole whose selfish acts lead him into acts vengeance culminating in the death of his family and then exile. He then goes on a journey of personal redemption and returns to become the famous folk hero that history remembers him for. This never happened in real life. Historical accounts show that he was always a fairly upstanding man who never did any of those horrible things that the film portrays (Huo's family have openly criticised the movie for painting in such a negative light). Also, the movie shows Huo finally facing off against three top fighters from different countries in three different bouts. In real life he fought one bout against ten Japanese martial artists simultaneously... and won. The real fight was actually more interesting than the movie version, but by narrowing down to just one main antagonist at the end, it allowed the movie to tell a more emotionally intensive story for the audience.

So what's wrong with having stories that aren't character driven?
There's nothing necessarily wrong or "bad" about having non-character driven stories per se, but here is where we find the difference between a short story and a story. A short story is one where none of the characters change. The word "short" doesn't actually refer to the length of the story, but the length of a character's development (or lack thereof). So the strength of a good short story doesn't come from its character, but rather its dramatic structure: exposition, complication, crisis, climax, then resolution. Short stories need to be dramatically driven rather than character driven. An example of a good short story is "The Bicentennial Man" by Isaac Asimov, which later was used as the basis for his full story "The Positronic Man" (which was adapted into the Robin Williams film, "Bicentennial Man"). So there's nothing wrong with a short story, but it needs to still be driven by drama rather than character. And action alone isn't necessarily drama. It is the drama that drives the narrative. Again, action is merely a story-telling tool.

Oddball characters
Nothing wrong with having oddball characters either. Even Beast Wars had lovable weirdos like Waspinator and Inferno. Even IDW has oddballs like Whirl and Swerve. :) But again, these aren't protagonists which drive the story or drama. These are 'aside' characters which help to punctuate the intensity of the story by providing comic relief, and that's fine. But these 'aside' characters shouldn't exist in place of a main character. This is why Jar Jar Binks is so widely disliked by Star Wars fans, and similarly Daniel and Wheelie by G1 cartoon fans. There shouldn't be scenes (or entire stories) where the audience looks at these characters and wonder, "What are you even doing here?!?" Like Swerve making a quick aside about how he may have soiled himself inside Ultra Magnus' shoulder - okay, that's funny, but it's a quick joke. It's not like say seeing Bumblebee chucking childish (and often violent) temper tantrums which actually becomes the narrative. :eek: :confused:

[Paulbot]

Looking at TRU today and it's remarkable how many exclusive and highend TF items are in the stores these days. Sure the pricing is a bit off-putting for us online savy folk, but ten years ago we wouldn't have ever expected to even have so many chances to buy in store.

[griffin]

Looking at TRU today and it's remarkable how many exclusive and highend TF items are in the stores these days. Sure the pricing is a bit off-putting for us online savy folk, but ten years ago we wouldn't have ever expected to even have so many chances to buy in store.

I know what you are saying, as I've seen the photos of other TRU stores with heaps of TFs exclusives and imports, which is all thanks to a couple of people at Hasbro Australia, signing up as many limited items to retailers as possible and sourcing quite a few extra items from Asia...


...but unfortunately for me, the TRU store servicing the southern half of Brisbane doesn't currently have any, and only had MP Sideswipe as the only exclusive in the last 2 months. (at least I rely on importing already to not miss out)
And for some reason, TRU has a policy of not ordering in stock for customers who are a guaranteed sale... :confused: :rolleyes: :mad:

[GoktimusPrime]

Although the number were certainly fewer, the overpriced exclusive toys that we did get at TRU still shelfwarmed (e.g. MP Ghost Starscream), while the more reasonably priced Japanese MPs at Target sold better. Hasbro have told me that they have no exclusive deal with TRU for these toys, it's just that other retailers don't order these toys (thus allowing TRU to have a monopoly by default). :( IMO it'd be good if other retailers were to order in the TakaraTOMY imports and offer more competitive prices. Hasbro are fully aware that TRU are overpriced but ultimately it's TRU that sets their prices. (-_-)

[Jaxius._]

Don't Hasbro/TakTom have a sort of base price? Like say a base of 20AUD for a deluxe?

[GoktimusPrime]

They have a recommended retail price which retailers can either abide by, go under or go below. When I was volunteering at their EB Games Expo booth last year, I was quoting their RRPs for the Force FX lightsabres which was much higher than what retailers ended up selling them for (I don't remember these prices now).

[Jaxius._]

Recently RID Starscream was revealed.... A new Deluxe seeker mold....


Hasbro do your thing!

[GoktimusPrime]

Today I got a Rescue Bot toy called Servo (http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Servo_(RB)). I can't help but notice the irony in the name. The word "Servo" in English is short for servomotor or servomechanism, which is: "a mechanical device for controlling large amounts of power by means of smaller amounts of power and correcting the performance of the device using feedback." It is comprised of two morphemes: 'servo' and 'motor' or 'mechanism.' The word motor comes from the Latin word for "to move," and mechanism comes from the Latin word for "machine" (derived from the Greek word 'mechanikos' [μηχανικός]). But the word 'servo' comes from the Latin word "servus" (say "sehrr-wuss") which means slave. So yeah, 'servomotor' means "slave mover" and 'servomechanism' means "slave machine."

But by only using the "servo" part of the word, it means that Servo's name just means "slave." :eek: It seems somewhat odd for Autobots to name a subordinate partner "slave." Sounds more like what a Decepticon would do! (or a Mandalorian, although the Slave-1 isn't sentient :p)

And I got to thinking that perhaps I might repurpose Servo as Dominus Ambus the Gokiverse where he's undergone Empurata and has had his robot mode replaced with the drill mode. The additional irony here is that the word "dominus" is Latin for 'master' and is the exact opposite of what "servo" means! So perhaps as a final insult, the Functionists had his name changed from 'master' to 'slave.'

[Ralph Wiggum]

What event is going on right now where all these 3rd party reveals are coming from?

[TAAUBlaster]

What event is going on right now where all these 3rd party reveals are coming from?

TFCon :)

[Jaxius._]

What event is going on right now where all these 3rd party reveals are coming from?

TFCon i think. I just look at those pretty pictures :D

[Krayt]

Not really a random thought, coz I've been thinking it constantly for 2 weeks.... But with today's acquisition the reality has blown me away.

We are an awesome community all over the world!!!

Remember how Roll Out Roll Call in the UK got the "sold out" Botcon stuff? Well a couple of pms, a Facebook chat, and BAM! Tickets bought, a U.K. Local OK to collect, organisers of con know, and mailed here to oz in under a week....

Our international geeks are amazing!

[UltraMarginal]

Not really a random thought, coz I've been thinking it constantly for 2 weeks.... But with today's acquisition the reality has blown me away.

We are an awesome community all over the world!!!

Remember how Roll Out Roll Call in the UK got the "sold out" Botcon stuff? Well a couple of pms, a Facebook chat, and BAM! Tickets bought, a U.K. Local OK to collect, organisers of con know, and mailed here to oz in under a week....

Our international geeks are amazing!

That's particularly cool.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Where has the FT Phoenix (not Skyfire) thread gone? Can't seem to find it...

[griffin]

Where has the FT Phoenix (not Skyfire) thread gone? Can't seem to find it...

About a dozen new topics were started on the weekend and most had hotlinked images from TFW. The poster was notified and given 3 days to replace images with links or free-host site images... the posts have now been unapproved so that only the poster can see them, and when they are fixed they will be made visible again.
If it was one or two I would do it myself, but this was dozens of images in over a dozen topics.

[1AZRAEL1]

Understandable. Thanks for the explanation, i had no idea they were hotlinked posts

[DELTAprime]

Just placed a preorder for MP Thrust at RK and a preorder for UW Skylynx and PC. I'm broke now. Damn you Takara!!!

[Ozgardian]

Punch/Counterpunch would make a good double Headmaster & could have a counterpart for each faction form. Punch's head should be called Judy!:p

[GoktimusPrime]

Continued from here (http://otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=19495)

Badly engineered is pretty harsh.
Don't forget that the fandom in general was quite critical against Armada. Remember that this was the line that followed Car Robot/Robots In Disguise, a line saw awesome that it went on to inspire Binaltech/Alternators and Masterpiece. Armada on the other hand was so bad that it gave rise to this running joke:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/avatars/jaam_shoulders.gif
...which was in reference to Armada Hot Shot's abysmal upper body articulation (or relative lack thereof) because it was compromised by the Mini-Con activated gimmick. And this was fairly indicative of how many of the Autobots and Decepticons were designed in Armada. As figures they really felt like a great leap backwards, especially after the awesomesauce that we'd experienced throughout Beast Wars and Car Robot. And don't forget that 2002 was a pretty dry year for Transformers with mostly just repaints and reissues coming out; the only new moulds we had were Air Attack Optimus Primal and Megatron Megabolt... and even they were just abandoned Beast Machines toys, they weren't new designs that Hasbro had created for that year. I remember buying toys like RiD Galvatron despite already having CR Gigatron as well as RiD Optimus Prime despite already having Super Fire Convoy simply because there was literally nothing else to buy. :eek: Even Japanese fans were whinging about how they had no new moulds since 2000 (remember that unlike RiD, Car Robot only lasted for one year in Japan) other than G1 reissues. 2002 was one of the most frustrating years as a TF fan since the mid 1990s. When Armada came out, I started lapping it up... the Mini-Cons really impressed me, they are by far the strength of the Armada line... but boy did the Autobots and Decepticons leave me feeling disappointed. :( And I really, really desperately wanted to like these toys.

Hasbro has even made a small acknowledgement of the critical reception that Armada received. When they released Universe Hot Shot in 2008, they used proper contemporary engineering and didn't bother implementing a Mini-Con activated gimmick. The result was what Armada could've been if they'd never bothered with the Mini-Con gimmicks -- just a solid and decent action figure! But Hasbro's nod to the criticism of Armada can be seen on Universe Hot Shot's licence plate which reads: JAAM (http://www.marshmallowsupernova.com/2008/10/armada-real-story_26.html). ;) This comic is even funnier when read aloud and you shout for all of Hot Shot's upper-case letters but lower your voice to normal for all of the lower-case ones. :D

[Deonasis]

SWEEEET.. I share my birthday (today) with Peter Cullen :eek: Oh yeah! :cool::cool::cool::cool:

Happy 75th Pete! :D

[UltraMarginal]

Car Robot/Robots In Disguise, a line saw awesome that it went on to inspire Binaltech/Alternators and Masterpiece.


You've said this a few times, I would love to know who has said this is the case. I don't see a correlation between the lines apart from realistic alt modes, which we first saw in G1, all car robots did was go back to the roots of the franchise and add some newer engineering concepts and materials.



SWEEEET.. I share my birthday (today) with Peter Cullen :eek: Oh yeah! :cool::cool::cool::cool:

Happy 75th Pete! :D

that's pretty neat!
Happy birthday to you and Mr Cullen.

[GoktimusPrime]

You've said this a few times, I would love to know who has said this is the case. I don't see a correlation between the lines apart from realistic alt modes, which we first saw in G1, all car robots did was go back to the roots of the franchise and add some newer engineering concepts and materials.
A Takara designer mentioned this in an interview published in a Japanese magazine in 2004.

Here's the correlation:
In 2000 Takara releases Car Robot, which is basically Beast Wars engineering (e.g. fully articulated robot modes) with licensed vehicles such as Dodge Viper (Speedbreaker), Lamborghini Diablo (Mach Alert), Mercedes Benz ML320 (Wild Ride), Nozomi 500 (J-Five), E4 Max Type (J-Four), Railstar 700 (J-Seven), Hino Brandbilar (Fire Convoy) etc.
In late 2003 Takara releases BT1 Smokescreen and MP1 Convoy. In the interview it was explicitly stated that these lines were inspired by Car Robot. They really liked the idea of articulated Transformers action figures with licensed vehicle modes and wondered what they could do if given the budget to make these toys in high detail for adult collectors.

They didn't say that BT/MPs were explicitly based off Car Robot, but they did say that Car Robot inspired them to make BT/MPs. Stranger things have happened. After all, it was this toy (http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/aQAAAOSwd4tT5DVq/s-l640.jpg) that inspired the Headmasters (as explicitly stated by Ono Koujin (http://tfwiki.net/wiki/K%C5%8Djin_%C5%8Cno) in the Transformers Generations book interview). :)

[GoktimusPrime]

I think that I might be one of few people here who still prefers the Deluxe CHUGUR Astrotrain mould over the TR Voyager (bearing in mind that the Deluxe is roughly half the price of the Voyager).
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/astrotrain_henkeititans_zpssxsshtis.jpg

[CaminusPrime]

Anyone think we could see a titans return swoop out of mind wipe? there is the titan master on the way now

[GoktimusPrime]

From here (http://otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=19495&page=7):

People complained about the G1 toys being bricks without articulation, which lead all the way up to the redundant non-transforming action masters, then beast wars went mental with articulation at the expense of everything else.
Articulation on articulation on articulation.
Didn't care for beast wars toys when they came out. Some (not many) have grown on me since. Only one I have is transmetals rhinox, his articulation is minimal and he reminds me of G1 slag, I even keep them together as they look cool together.

I'm glad Beast Wars went mental with articulation, and those experiments led to better overall toys down the line, but to me overly articulated shellformers are not my kind of transformers. Many of them look more like Digimon or pokemon to me than anything I would call transformers.
I don't remember anyone particularly complaining about the lack of articulation on G1 toys, with the rare exception of toys with practically zero articulation like the Throttlebots (which I personally love), Battlechargers, Firecons etc. But on the whole there wasn't widespread criticism over it. And I don't see any lead up towards Action Masters, Hasbro kinda just dropped them on us in 1990-91. And the Action Masters' articulation wasn't even that great, not even by the standards of the day. :rolleyes:

As for Beast Wars going "mental on articulation at the expense of everything else" -- how so? :confused: Your average Beast Wars figure had 9 points of articulation (head, shoulders, elbows, hips, knees). I don't think that's terribly excessive, and don't forget that late G2 already started this trend with toys like the Laser Rods, Cyberjets etc. Beast Wars refined the concept and ran with it. A lot of toys these days have about 9 points of articulation or more (BW set this standard), such as...
* Combiner Wars Legends Class Shockwave = 9 points
* Titans Return Legends Class Wheelie = 9 points
* Generations Deluxe Class Arcee = 15 points
* Age of Extinction Deluxe Class Bumblebee (concept Camaro) = 13 points
* Combiner Wars Deluxe Class Swindle = 15 points
* Robots In Disguise Warrior Class Thunderhoof = 11 points
* Titans Return Voyager Class Sentinel Prime = 15 points
As we can see, out of this sample of Transformers from a range of recent lines, there's an average of 12 points of articulation. So this means that Beast Wars actually has what would be considered a below-average level of articulation compared to contemporary toys (although still incredibly awesome for 20 years ago :D). And Transmetal Rhinox toy has 11 points of articulation, above average even for its time. Seems a bit odd that you consider 9 points to be "mental" but 11 points to be "minimal." :confused:

What did Beast Wars' articulation come at the expense of? :confused: When I think about some of the more compromised toys from Beast Wars, I cannot think about how they were compromised by articulation. Let's look at Retrax for example; a toy that is heavily compromised by its gimmick (you either love or hate it). It's not the articulation that overwhelms this toy, it's the spring-loaded gimmick. And if anything, it's actually sacrificed articulation. The arms are stuck pointing out to the sides like he wants to hug you or is being crucified; the arms are slave to the gimmick. The head and legs are articulated well enough and aren't influenced by the gimmick at all. The toy is still able to transform just fine.

Action Masters gave us crappy articulation at the expense of being able to transform. Beast Wars gave us good articulation, but the toys were never compromised as a result of this. I love the Flipchangers but I understand that some don't, and they would make a valid argument that the Flipchangers' transformation is slave to the Flipchanger gimmick, and I would totally agree. But none of the Flipchangers are compromised by their articulation though. You compare say Terrorsaur with Airazor, a lot of people would say that Airazor has a more fun and involved transformation, but both toys have the same level of articulation. The difference is that Terrorsaur isa Flipchanger, so his transformation is going to be relatively much simpler than Airazor's, but this has nothing to do with either of these toys sporting 9 points of articulation.


Much preferred toys from the Unicron trilogy lot, particularly Cybertron line, which was one of the best lines ever imo.:cool:
I absolutely agree that Cybertron was the best of the Unicron Trilogy, but the previous comments were only aimed at Armada, not Cybertron. Cybertron was the best because those toys had the least intrusive gimmicks compared to Armada and Energon. Even if you totally cannot stand some of their Key activated gimmicks, you can just happily ignore it and enjoy the rest of the toy. Most Cybertron Transformers still enjoyed being articulated and transformable figures, whereas Armada toys sacrificed their articulation for their Mini-Con activated gimmicks.
Let's have a look at a few Cybertron figures...
* Downshift (Deluxe) = 11 points of articulation
* Unicron (Deluxe) = 15 points of articulation
* Starscream (Voyager) = 15 points of articulation
* Optimus Prime (Leader) = 19 points of articulation
etc.

[GoktimusPrime]

(From the MP Dirge news thread)

If we are going by the cartoon then that's the least of our problems, how do all the Decepticons and Dinobots fly in bot mode despite having no visible means of propulsion or lift.
The cartoon was so inconsistent when it came to who could and couldn't fly in robot mode. In early Season 1 it seemed that every Cybertronian could do it, but then after a few eps in most of the Autobots seemed to have lost this ability. The Decepticons almost always can do this, but in "Roll For It" we see Soundwave being transported in tape deck mode aboard one of the Decepticon jets (Starscream?) to Chip Chase's house (and conveniently nobody noticed an F15 parked on the street... must be one heck of a neighbourhood!). The weird thing is, if Decepticons can fly in robot mode at the same speed as the Decepticon jets (i.e. they can achieve supersonic speed), then what's the point of having jet modes (other than to disguise themselves on air force bases, which doesn't happen very often)? :confused:

The Dinobots also started off with the ability to fly in robot mode for quite some time, but then started losing it. In "Desertion of the Dinobots" Swoop was the only flier, and even then only in Dinobot mode. He even mentioned that his ability to fly in Dinobot mode was impaired after his wing was damaged by an automated defence system^axe tied to a rope. :rolleyes: And in The Transformers The Movie and Season 3 eps, we don't see any of the Dinobots flying in robot mode. The Dinobots appear to free-fall down to fight Devastator, and they are later seen flying to attack Unicron, but that was in space. We don't see them flying in a gravity environment.

The G1 cartoon seems to have been the only series that did this too, with all other series maintaining greater and often more realistic rules when it came to flight. In the G1 comics it was only those with flight modes who could fly (and only in those modes). Even Megatron, Soundwave etc. had to be transported inside the cockpits of Decepticon jets. So did Galvatron who could mass-shrink when he transformed into his pistol mode (which is never seen in the G1 cartoon); although alternate universe Galvatron II's pistol mode was gigantic (don't know if he deliberately chose not to mass-shift (as he was attacking Autobase), or if he was incapable of doing so). All post G2 cartoon series also avoided showing Cybertronians just "magically" flying. In Beast Wars when Megatron became a Transmetal he delighted in telling Optimus Primal that flight was no longer his advantage. For some odd reason, flight was deemed as a Decepticon racial trait in Animated. :rolleyes:

Okay, physics got really ridiculous in Age of Extinction (even by Bayformer standards) with the magical floating cubes and Optimus Prime's Astroboy legs. :rolleyes: But prior to that the portrayal of flight in the first three films was handled reasonably well IMO. Even if Jetwing Optimus Prime did spend 20 minutes dangling upside down. :p

[Ozgardian]

What's with TR Fortress Maximus's tech specs? Obviously it's out of 10, yeah!?
Going up to 20 leads us to believe that when Maxy's in robot mode he needs to have Emissary attached to cerebros's head mode to achieve the full 20/20. But if that's the case then that would make Cerebros 10/10 when combined with Emissary which makes his specs equal to Maxy:eek: when Maxy's not combined, I kinda find that a bit hard to swallow! Just sayin', what a stupid way to revise the tech spec system if that's the case or not.
Would've also been nice if they were to do a tech spec build, the results of combining with Blaster & Prime.

...I know, I'm nitpicking.:(

[GoktimusPrime]

The Titans Return tech specs are all just complete rubbish. Practically zero creativity placed into writing the bios... every bio pretty much reads, "This robot kicks butt." (-_-)

[Ozgardian]

It's a real shame they don't put in the effort these days to plan out in depth tech specs & it reflects the shallowness when cartoons & movies are made from empty characters. Surely well thought out bios & good character development increases sales.
One of my favourites was G2 Hooligan "Sometimes goes too far, was nearly dismantled after putting sugar in Megatron's fueltank!". Still puts a smile on my face everytime I picture that.:)

[GoktimusPrime]

That's because G1/G2 tech specs were written by Marvel. They knew how to make each individual Transformer toy distinctive and interesting, not because they had kick-butt powers, but because of their individual quirks like the one you've just mentioned about Hooligan. After G2 ended Marvel stopped writing tech spec bios for Transformers. Kenner wrote the bios for Beast Wars, which initially wasn't that great but got better after the cartoon came out and Kenner/Hasbro decided to write subsequent BW tech specs based on the cartoon continuity. Beast Machines actually had decently written tech spec bios, and Transformers Cybertron were also pretty good. My favourite is Shortround who is literally described as a Transformer who collects Transformers toys. :) I can imagine his fellow Decepticons walking into his quarters to find shelves full of action figures based on themselves and their enemies (kinda like how Poh from Kung Fu Panda has action figures based on the Furious Five (with the Mantis toy being 1:1 scale :p) ;)).

But most tech spec bios outside of that have been pretty rubbish. :(

[GoktimusPrime]

It's interesting when I think back to how I voiced many of my toys before they ever appeared on screen (as well as how I choose to voice toys that have never had screen appearances). I initially gave Blaster a more generic sounding Autobot voice and he never spoke "street," but rather spoke more like Soundwave (but without the monotone voice). And it was really funny when I'd make him say, "Eject: eject!" :p But of course the Autobot Cassettes didn't come out until a year after Blaster did, so in 1985 I was using Decepticon Cassettes in Blaster. I imagined that these Decepticon Cassettes had been captured by Blaster and then forced to fight for the Autobots. In other words, they were slaves of the Autobots! But my child mind at the time never processed it that way. :p

These days I voice Bludgeon by doing an impersonation of George Takei's voice -- so he sounds like Master Yoketron from TF Animated (or Alpha Trion from TFP). I find that Takei's voice works just as well for villains as it does for sage-like goodies.

The way that I originally voiced Wheelie was more like Blaster's voice in the cartoon; i.e. talking normally most of the time but occasionally making rhymes when the situation called for it. Kinda like Sky-Byte with his haikus. Voicing Wheelie after watching TFTM got harder because I'd have to sit and try to think of a rhymes. Thankfully Wheelie is a rubbish toy so I didn't play with him very often. :rolleyes:

[SMHFConvoy]

It wouldn't take much to make combiners using the titan masters and their vehicles, sort of like the micromaster combiners

[GoktimusPrime]

From here (http://otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?p=533943#post533943)

I wonder how many Hasbro versions of MPs are better or on par with their Takara (TOMY) counterparts. Not including special imports and excluding MPs for which there are no counterparts.

MP1 Convoy = Takara
MP3 Starscream = Hasbro
MP6 Skywarp = On par. Takara's better for show likeness and Hasbro's is better for toy accuracy. Judging from photos though, I've never seen the Hasbro version IRL
MP8 Grimlock = On par. Takara's better for show likeness and Hasbro's for comic likeness. Both toys can become toy-accurate thanks to changeable eyes in both modes.
MP-9 Rodimus Convoy = On par. Takara's better for show likeness and has much more effort put into the deco, but has some design flaws. Hasbro's is more toy-accurate ('cept the hands) and fixes some of the design flaws but has a lazy deco. Takara's has the trailer while Hasbro doesn't, but Takara's is also significantly more expensive.
MP-10 Convoy = TakaraTOMY. Although the Hasbro one is cheaper.
MP-11 Starscream = On par. TakaraTOMY's has a more show-like grey nosecone and coronation kit, but Hasbro's has a toy-accurate blue nosecone (albeit it's cartoon-accurate light blue not toy accurate navy blue) and additional accessories not included with the TakTOM version. Again, based on photos as I've never seen either TakTOM's or Hasbro's IRL
MP-11S Sunstorm = TakaraTOMY. Was Hasbro's cheaper? TakTOM's was 13650JPY (approx. $170). Either way, Hasbro's looked cheap. Judging from photos as I've never seen Hasbro's IRL outside of its box.
MP-11T Thundercracker = On par.
MP-13/15/16 Soundwave & Cassettes = On par. Hasbro's Soundwave is more toy accurate while TakTOM's is show-like. Hasbro's Frumble have sacrificed chrome for metallic paint colours. Hasbro's is cheaper though. Hasbro's Frenzy is technically incorrect because he's purple like G1 cartoon Rumble (but not like G1 toy Frenzy who's two shades of blue, not purple; Hasbro really should've switched Frenzy and Rumble's names and I'm assuming that every Anglophone fan is going to repurpose them as FIRRIB anyway)
MP-17 Prowl = On par
MP-18 Streak = On par
MP-21 Bumble = On par, based on photos of Hasbro's; no significant differences

[griffin]

Wally Burr, the voice director for the original series cartoon in the 1980s, has apparently had a stroke earlier this year (http://news.tfw2005.com/2016/08/19/tfw-sends-well-wishes-wally-burr-321768), and is said to have lost his ability to speak, and some body functions.

He was a guest at BotCon in 2004, 2005 (selling his copies of the movie script and storyboards) and 2013.
It says he's 92 now, so he's certainly beating the odds in terms of the average age. I think we have to prepare ourselves for him being the next to go. :(

[UltraMarginal]

From here (http://otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?p=533943#post533943)


MP-11 Starscream = On par. TakaraTOMY's has a more show-like grey nosecone and coronation kit, but Hasbro's has a toy-accurate blue nosecone (albeit it's cartoon-accurate light blue not toy accurate navy blue) and additional accessories not included with the TakTOM version. Again, based on photos as I've never seen either TakTOM's or Hasbro's IRL[/list]

What accessories are in the Hasbro version that aren't in the TakTom version?


Wally Burr, the voice director for the original series cartoon in the 1980s, has apparently had a stroke earlier this year (http://news.tfw2005.com/2016/08/19/tfw-sends-well-wishes-wally-burr-321768), and is said to have lost his ability to speak, and some body functions.

He was a guest at BotCon in 2004, 2005 (selling his copies of the movie script and storyboards) and 2013.
It says he's 92 now, so he's certainly beating the odds in terms of the average age. I think we have to prepare ourselves for him being the next to go. :(

I read that today, it's pretty sad, and probably very difficult for his family.

[GoktimusPrime]

What accessories are in the Hasbro version that aren't in the TakTom version?
TFwiki (http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Starscream_(G1)/toys#Masterpiece):
TakaraTOMY's MP11 accessories: Crown, pauldrons (left and right), cape, 2 null rays, hologram pilot figurine
Hasbro's MP07 accessories: 2 null rays, 2 missile racks, hologram pilot figurine, two-piece display stand, gun clip

[GoktimusPrime]

From here (http://otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?p=534111#post534111)


The newer stuff has really dwarfed in size. And at a similar price point to what they were 30 years ago
Specific examples?

TR Scourge is actually 5mm taller than Generations Scourge. (note that the photo below is taken from an angle, but you can see that TR Scourge's left shoulder line is slightly higher than Gen Scourge's right shoulder line)
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/Titans%20Return/TR_scourge03_zpszqoaujml.jpg

Also, BWTF's review of Combiner Wars Hook (http://www.bwtf.com/toyreviews/generations/sdcc/hook) makes a weight comparison with Generations Springer (with all accessories on). Springer weighs about 147g whereas Hook is about 176g! So despite appearances CW Hook actually has more mass than Springer. So while Hasbro may be using less plastic with hollowed parts in recent toys, the density of the plastic itself appears to have increased.

[GoktimusPrime]

Recently when I've been playing with Blurr I've been making him move like Quicksilver from X-Men: Days of Future Past. This "bullet time" play is nothing new, but just the idea of him moving so quickly that he can stop and admire bullets (or lasers) in mid flight. It also makes him so frighteningly fast that he can basically win entire skirmishes on his own. As a kid I always stuck with his function as Data Courier and imagined him moving very, very quickly to send messages... but now I'm thinking about upgrading this role and playing Blurr as some kind of special covert ops agent. Because that his speed he could literally zip in and out of enemy lines before anyone could even notice, and as a robot there doesn't seem to necessarily be a limitation as to how long he can maintain his hyperspeed. Especially Animated Blurr who freakin' ran back to Cybertron :eek: This would mean that he can literally run through the time-space continuum, much like the Flash.

And yeah, I've occasionally caught myself singing the "Time in a Bottle" song when he goes into his super-speed mode too. :p

But it's made me think -- is Blurr a super-powered character who's underused? Or does it simply depend on which continuity? Animated Blurr definitely seems the fastest, but other Blurrs don't necessarily demonstrate anywhere near this level of speed. More like MCU Avengers' Quicksilver (who, while blindingly fast, is a snail compared to X-Men's Quicksilver). I don't think most Blurrs would be able to run fast enough to spin the Earth backwards and turn back time. :p :p And before Blurr appeared in G1 cartoon continuity, I always imagined (and played) Blurr as only being able to use his super speed in vehicle mode, not robot mode. Because his tech specs bio explicitly states:
"In vehicular mode, he can travel faster than the speed of sound, leaving a blurred image in his trail."
I was actually surprised to see him doing this in robot mode when I first watched TFTM in the cinema. :eek:

Mind you, there are a LOT of abilities which the cartoon portrayed far more differently from what their G1 tech specs had originally intended.
e.g.
* Hound is only supposed to be able to project holographic maps (like R2D2 and BB8 can in Star Wars), not holograms of just anything that he can freakin' imagine!
* Mirage active camouflage which allows him to blend with his surroundings, much like SHIELD's Helicarriers. It's not exactly the same as absolute/true invisibility.
* Rumble makes earthquakes by generating vibrations into the ground, not by using piledrivers. Which actually makes more sense when you consider how tectonics work.
etc.

I loved reading the tech spec bios as a kid. I would often just go into toy stores or department stores while my mum did 'boring' grocery shopping and just stand there for ages reading all the tech spec bios. :D I would ask her to let me hang out in a toy store and agree to rendezvous somewhere nearby. And indeed when I got a new toy I'd keep on re-reading that tech specs bio to familiarise myself with the new character (how I miss this and it's such a shame that kids can't do this with Transformers toys today :(). But then I would sometimes be surprised at how certain Transformers media such as the cartoon would deviate from the source.

[Ozgardian]

+1. Have to agree with you there Gok! I too used to study the tech specs in toy stores (it beat shopping with mum & she knew she could leave her 10yr old son in the toy store because I was too absorbed to wander) it's what sold the character's for me. Traibreaker was one because of his sheilds, Skywarp's teleport was another. But speed was my favorite ability so I fell for Windcharger straight away.

Going a bit off subject here (sorry guys), but if you haven't seen it Gok 'The Flashpoint Paradox" is a great piece of anime. Never seen so much blood in a DC film before, animated or otherwise. Would absolutely love to see Transformers done this way. Excellent animation with nice thick black lines that make it feel more like a an animated comic. If the G1 Movie was ever to get a remake IMO this would be the way to go about it.:)

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

That actually raises an interesting point.

Animated blurr was able to run back to Cybertron, but do we know how long it took him? In a way though, the animated series really pushed up the powers Transformers had into super hero territory. Magnus lightning hammer, Sentinels expanding shield etc etc. Which is kind of understandable when it started off as TF Heroes.

G1 Blurr though, hrm.... I always just saw him as being super fast, I mean there's quite a few Transformers that can travel faster than the speed of sound. Admittedly most of them are planes. I always felt he was his fastest in vehicle mode, and was surprised at the movie too.

Thing is though, if he did move that fast, him moving his arm would create mini sonic booms all the time!:D

As for the covert ops thing, well Animated Blurr was a covert ops guy. If I was to power up Blurr to X-men Quicksilver levels of speed, I'd place some restrictions, so he can only move that fast in robot mode for a limited time before the excess strain takes a toll on his body.
His vehicle mode is made for speed, so should be able to handle it no problems, so the restriction on robot mode would stop him from essentially being invincible.

I wonder what other TFs could be super powered-up into comic book style powers? Windecharger had magnetic hands, so could he be a TF Magneto? G1 Megatron has the ability to syphon powers from er, blackholes/space or something, so he could be considered super powered. IIRC most TFs with amazing powers were only to use them for a limited time before the power consumption/bodily stress caused them to have to stop.

Side note, I too used to just read the tech specs. I learnt what kinetic energy was from Runamuck's bio. Well, it made me look up the meaning of Kinetic, and has stuck with me ever since!:)

[GoktimusPrime]

Animated blurr was able to run back to Cybertron, but do we know how long it took him?
Not bloody long! Think of when Blurr got sucked into the space bridge, when Shockwave was on Cybertron waiting on the other end, until when Blurr finally arrived on Cybertron and Longarm Prime/Shockwave is still at the space bridge controls having communicated with Strika's team not long before. Hours? Days? That's still incredibly fast considering that he's running from one end of the galaxy to the other! :eek: Considering that it takes over four years for light to travel to the nearest galaxy, it's likely that Animated Blurr was running beyond the speed of light.

Having said that, it's odd that he wasn't able to outrun the closing doors. If he can even run at the speed of sound, those doors must've looked lethargically slow to him. Unless you reason that Blurr was low on energy and exhausted after having freakin' run back to Cybertron at super-light speed! :eek:


I wonder what other TFs could be super powered-up into comic book style powers? Windecharger had magnetic hands, so could he be a TF Magneto? G1 Megatron has the ability to syphon powers from er, blackholes/space or something, so he could be considered super powered. IIRC most TFs with amazing powers were only to use them for a limited time before the power consumption/bodily stress caused them to have to stop.
Time Warrior.
Super Power: able to accurately tell time and automatically adjusts across different time zones
Weakness: unable to adjust for Daylight Savings Time


Side note, I too used to just read the tech specs. I learnt what kinetic energy was from Runamuck's bio. Well, it made me look up the meaning of Kinetic, and has stuck with me ever since!:)
So you could say that it got things moving. ;)

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

I'll commedn you on the kinetic joke here Goki, but moving on....:p

I was cruising through the official image thread and found the ones for TR Fort Max, and went to have a looksee.

I discovered this one, which I am sure was meant to show off his articulation:
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k313/Wootnchoo/Titans-Return-Fortress-Maximus-Robot_zps02m8upvn.jpg (http://s91.photobucket.com/user/Wootnchoo/media/Titans-Return-Fortress-Maximus-Robot_zps02m8upvn.jpg.html)

But all I see him doing is hailing for a taxi.

Am I the only one?

[Ozgardian]

I can see the TR line has made a slight attempt at the Headmaster gimmick of taking on the techspecs/abilities of any headmaster unit inserted.

Darkmoon; Cloaking Ability, Hyperfire; Speed Boost, Nucleon; Universal Systems Upgrade (Unstable), Fracas; Absorb Abilities ( Rogue-X-men comes to mind). I can't believe they paired Scourge with such a dangerous ability!:eek:

It's a pity they didn't write up abilities for the solo Headmaster Units, eg; I bet Brawn would increase Strength,etc... Pretty slack effort on Hasbro's behalf I believe considering the ones they did incorporate were barely a sentence long.:(:mad::confused:

[prjkt]

I thought they did for some of them in a comic style pamphlet... I'll have to find the link again

[GoktimusPrime]

But this is the problem that I have with the way that tech spec bios are all written now -- they only focus on how "Awesome!(TM)" the character is, talking about how much power they have and how they can kick butt blah blah blah but ZERO personality. The great thing about reading G1 tech spec bios wasn't just to find out about what the characters could do, but also to read about who they were.

e.g.
* Rumble; generates earthquakes but is also your basic street thug/punk
* Thundercracker; able to project focused sonic booms and is morally conflicted
* Trailbreaker; can generate impenetrable force fields but struggles between seeing himself as a liability or asset to his friends
* Tailgate; able to use the momentum of other vehicles to propel him but is a few Aerialbots short of a full Superion
* Pipes; able to emit corrosive gases and is a compulsive hoarder
* Long Haul; able to carry massive loads but hates his job and is easily provoked into battles that he can't win
* Dead End; equipped with long range radar and powerful compressor gun but suffers from depression and lethargy
* Hubcap; able to tune into all frequencies. Seems like a really nice guy but uh... I wouldn't be surprised if he and Swindle were making secret deals with each other.
etc.

G1 Transformers were more fleshed out and balanced out. While they all had unique abilities they also had individual quirks that made them unique. Recent tech spec bios tell me all about what these Transformers can do but nothing about who they are. :( And the problem with every tech spec crying out about how awesome their character is is that it all becomes noise that I end up ignoring. It's like walking through a market where all the vendors are yelling at customers about how great their stalls are - cheap prices, fresh produce etc. - but in the end it's just noise. There's really bugger all thought put behind these bios. :rolleyes:

[GoktimusPrime]

I'm going to be in Japan next month and I'm thinking about getting MP Delta Magnus if I find one... and if I do, maybe repurpose it as being an alternate G1 universe version of Dominus Ambus. ;)

[Ralph Wiggum]

Sometimes I feel like buying a 3rd Party Masterpiece Jazz (when one comes out) Hound, Sunstreaker, Galvatron and Cyclonus then calling it a day with collecting Transformers. TT seem to be focussing on repaint/redeco potential and with finite funds, buying b class characters (even if they were in the G1 cartoon), is looking less appealing.

[GoktimusPrime]

I'm going to be in Japan next month and I'm thinking about getting MP Delta Magnus if I find one... and if I do, maybe repurpose it as being an alternate G1 universe version of Dominus Ambus. ;)
I looked at my MP Autobot shelves tonight and realised what a daft idea this was because I just don't have the space to house Delta Magnus, especially considering that I'd prefer to display him in vehicle mode (since Ultra Magnus is already displayed in robot mode). So yeah, probably pass on this. Besides, it's not as if Japan has a shortage of TF temptations for me. :p

[Antonio Handsome]

After almost a year of no buying new bots, no following news, nothing, I got hit with a sudden wave of "I want more transformers."

We moved to Aus from NZ last year, and I bought with me a handful of MPs, which until recently was fine. Now I'm working on bringing all the others over, and starting to look into buying releases I'd missed.

It begins again. So much to catch up on.

[M-bot]

Received my Unite Warriors Computron in the mail today. Just had the most awesome time opening it and playing with it with my 2 sons (3 1/2 and 20 months). When I assembled Computron, they took it in turns giving him "cuddles" - very carefully and gently too!

I love being a dad.:D

[CHILENO20]

Received my Unite Warriors Computron in the mail today. Just had the most awesome time opening it and playing with it with my 2 sons (3 1/2 and 20 months). When I assembled Computron, they took it in turns giving him "cuddles" - very carefully and gently too!

I love being a dad.:D

Awesome!!!!!!!! :D:cool::D:cool::D:cool:

[GoktimusPrime]

One of the interesting things I find with interacting with Japanese fans is when they find a Hasbro version of a toy more preferable than their local TakaraTOMY version. A number of Western fans I've noticed have stated that they prefer the TakaraTOMY Legends version of Hardhead (with the more anime-accurate head), but I just come across one Japanese fan who prefers Hasbro's Titans Return version with the more toy-accurate head. One of the Japanese fans that I'll be meeting at the upcoming Osaka meet (http://otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?p=530261#post530261) has asked me to grab a TR Hardhead for him. :D

[GoktimusPrime]

The Deluxe Titan Masters seem to be selling like hot cakes! Reminds me of the original RiD figures back in 2001 when they were similarly flying off shelves. And just like RiD, TR doesn't even have a current TV show to market it, as opposed to the slower selling Movieverse and current RiD toys, which goes to show that good toys will sell themselves regardless of the existence of a screen media or not.

Hardhead seems to be the most difficult to find. I was looking for another one (for a friend) and I called around several stores before I finally found one, and it was the last one there.

Yes, I recognise that unlike Car Robot/RiD, Titans Return is based heavily off some 30 years' worth of G1 nostalgia. But CR/RiD wasn't, and neither was Beast Wars when it first came out*. And of course, even G1 itself was already selling strongly at first before the cartoon took hold.** That's why I'm not a big fan of Transformers toys being modelled after screen models (i.e. Transformers being made as merchandise for a show or film), rather I prefer it when shows and films are created as 'merchandise' for the toys. Because even if the show or movie tanks, we can still have good toys; but if a show or movie is bad then all we're left with are bad shows and mediocre toys. Just look at Combiner Wars. It's using models based off CHUGUR and MP toys. I'm not a huge fan of the show, but the toys that it's based off are still awesome. I'm sure that there are Lego fans who may not love the Lego Movie but still enjoy playing with Lego. :)

---------------------------------------------------------
*Within its first year Beast Wars had elevated Transformers to become the 3rd best selling action figure line after Toy Story and Star Wars.
**Transformers had grossed US$100 million (or about US$232 million/AU$303 million by today's standards) in 1984.

[Paulbot]

Hardhead's the only one of wave one where Hasbro > Takara so it's no surprise to me he's hard to find. Took me three stores to find mine.

[griffin]

Apparently the voice actor for Gen1 Ramhorn (the rhino cassette) has recently died (http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/transformers-news-rumors/1089433-actor-john-hostetter-passed-69-a.html). John Hostetter was (only) 69.

Talk about being signed on to do a single obscure role... I didn't even remember Ramhorn having any lines. If he did, it mustn't have been many.
It seems strange to have someone signed up to just do the one role, and probably only a handful of lines in maybe one episode... when they could just have one of the other voice actors do it while they are there (and probably not cost anything extra).

[CHILENO20]

Apparently the voice actor for Gen1 Ramhorn (the rhino cassette) has recently died (http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/transformers-news-rumors/1089433-actor-john-hostetter-passed-69-a.html). John Hostetter was (only) 69.

Talk about being signed on to do a single obscure role... I didn't even remember Ramhorn having any lines. If he did, it mustn't have been many.
It seems strange to have someone signed up to just do the one role, and probably only a handful of lines in maybe one episode... when they could just have one of the other voice actors do it while they are there (and probably not cost anything extra).

Episode 74: "Forever is a long time coming"

[UltimateGalvatron]

At Oz Comic Con Sydney yesterday I met Hal Rayle, a.k.a G1 Snarl, Shrapnel and Pipes. He was a super-nice guy, and he signed a group shot of the G1 Dinobots for me! :D:D:D:D

I encourage anyone TF Fan going to Oz Comic Con today to see him and get something signed!

[GoktimusPrime]

He was here?!? WAAAAAAAARGH! :eek: Gah... why do they come when I'm too busy to attend cons? :(

[UltimateGalvatron]

He was here?!? WAAAAAAAARGH! :eek: Gah... why do they come when I'm too busy to attend cons? :(

Yeah, I kinda fan boyed out when I met him. I shook his hands twice! :o

[Seraphim Prime]

I went along for the day too. I wasn't going to get anything signed by him at first - I was there largely for Katee Sackhoff, Charles Martinez, and the Stargate Atlantis Panel - but I went along to the Voice Actors panel and had so much fun, and he was just so generous that I got him to sign a Snarl pic for me.

[UltimateGalvatron]

I went along for the day too. I wasn't going to get anything signed by him at first - I was there largely for Katee Sackhoff, Charles Martinez, and the Stargate Atlantis Panel - but I went along to the Voice Actors panel and had so much fun, and he was just so generous that I got him to sign a Snarl pic for me.

Nice! My parents met Karl Urban while I was with Hal.

[Metallikato]

Apparently the voice actor for Gen1 Ramhorn (the rhino cassette) has recently died (http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/transformers-news-rumors/1089433-actor-john-hostetter-passed-69-a.html). John Hostetter was (only) 69.

Talk about being signed on to do a single obscure role... I didn't even remember Ramhorn having any lines. If he did, it mustn't have been many.
It seems strange to have someone signed up to just do the one role, and probably only a handful of lines in maybe one episode... when they could just have one of the other voice actors do it while they are there (and probably not cost anything extra).

That's a shame. He was also in the Clint Eastwood movie Heartbreak Ridge.

Unfortunately there's another one to add to your list too, Norman Alden, who did the voice of Kranix in TF:TM died in 2012.


Episode 74: "Forever is a long time coming"

Yar he's right, Ramhorn has several lines in that episode. I believe he had one line in Call of the Primitives too. I could be wrong on this one but watching/listening to the G1 episodes closely over and over in the early 2000's while working on Seibetron's database, i think it was actually him making Ramhorn's grunts in Madman's Paradise.

[BigTransformerTrev]

:D:):D I AM SO SUPER PROUD! :D:):D


Orion my 3 1/2 year old son has never managed to sit through a whole movie in his life and I've never shown him the 86' TF movie because of all the deaths. Not only did he just watch the entire thing with every sign of enjoyment, but when the credits came up he immediately said "Can we watch it again Dad?!" :D:D:D


Note: I explained Optimus has 'a long sleep' but comes back in the TV show and that Starscream comes back as a spooky ghost as well. He wasn't too fussed about the other characters blowing up.

[GoktimusPrime]

Kinda explains why the black repaint of MP1 Convoy was called "Sleep Mode" Convoy (except that MPs are aimed at adults, but let's face it, death for a Prime is always just an extended nap :p)

[UltraMarginal]

That's pretty cool Trev!

[prjkt]

I'm tempted to grab some Hasbro deluxe TR figures that I have the Takara versions of, or will have, and as long as the deco is different enough (like Blurr perhaps) sticking a random Titanmaster head on and calling it a "new" character

[Paulbot]

I'm tempted to grab some Hasbro deluxe TR figures that I have the Takara versions of, or will have, and as long as the deco is different enough (like Blurr perhaps) sticking a random Titanmaster head on and calling it a "new" character

Put Loudmouth on Blurr. You could call the new bot Bluestreak ;)

[prjkt]

I'm now imagining a bot with Siren's amplitude of voice and Blurr's speed of words. That would be a nightmare

[UltimateGalvatron]

Waiting for a Hosehead Titan Master.

[Ozgardian]

I really wish they left the Dinobots alone. After sighting Ptero (Swoop) I wonder if Sludge, Slag & Snarl are next on the Titan Masters line?!:mad:

I can picture Snarl having a disagreement with his Titan Master, ripping off his head, transforming into stegosaurus mode & stomping his binary bonded partner into the ground!:D

[Verno]

$20 for a Legends toy? I know I'm not an active collector, but damn. I'm not looking forward to getting back into it.

[UltraMarginal]

Waiting for a Hosehead Titan Master.
Totally!


$20 for a Legends toy? I know I'm not an active collector, but damn. I'm not looking forward to getting back into it.

It is steep, especially when Deluxes are only $5 more at Kmart. and the legends are what they were a few years ago with regards to complexity.

Myer and TRU have them on sale for $15 at the moment which is more palatable.

[Paulbot]

Put Loudmouth on Blurr. You could call the new bot Bluestreak ;)


I'm now imagining a bot with Siren's amplitude of voice and Blurr's speed of words. That would be a nightmare

I am tempted to do this now too. Good excuse for me to buy Very-blue Blurr.

Anyone seen a pic of this combination anywhere?

I tried doing a Hardhead/Blaster swap and Blaster's head was okay on Hardhead but not the other way around.

[prjkt]

If there're any Blurr's left at Myer s/l tomorrow I'll give Blue-urr a shot

[Paulbot]

Had a look at them on store today and I think Nightbeat would be a better fit. He seems the same shade of blue and could look good. Siren's red legs might stand out (something I noticed when I put Blaster's head on Hardhead)

[prjkt]

Well I've got both heads (was going to try to mod Gen. Nightbeat to see if that would work) so I'll try tomorrow

[griffin]

At Oz Comic Con Sydney yesterday I met Hal Rayle, a.k.a G1 Snarl, Shrapnel and Pipes. He was a super-nice guy, and he signed a group shot of the G1 Dinobots for me! :D:D:D:D

I encourage anyone TF Fan going to Oz Comic Con today to see him and get something signed!

I saw on the news last night the OCC being in Brisbane this weekend (which I completely forgot about), and they Hal Rayle shown with some of the other guests.
I wouldn't have gone just for him (I've seen him at BotCon too), but I would have posted about it for other Brisbanites... and if I had known he was coming to Australia (for the Melbourne and Brisbane Cons), I would have posted about it in the news section a few weeks back.
:o

[GoktimusPrime]

I absolutely would've gone to meet him had I known. :(

[UltimateGalvatron]

I absolutely would've gone to meet him had I known. :(

I didn't know he was gonna be there either til I arrived! Some how I had forgotten to check the guest list :/

[Lint]

I'm finding I'm really enjoying the little Titan Masters, even moreso than the larger figures in the TR line. I only have Crashbash and Skytread so far but I'm already enamoured. To the point where I'm willing to pay full RRP just to get them.

Well played Hasbro.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Me too. I wish it was easier to just pick up little head guys here in Japan.

They'd be perfect Gacha gacha toys!

[prjkt]

I am tempted to do this now too. Good excuse for me to buy Very-blue Blurr.

Anyone seen a pic of this combination anywhere?

I tried doing a Hardhead/Blaster swap and Blaster's head was okay on Hardhead but not the other way around.

well, a bit delayed, but here is the result and a comparison. Managed to get one single photo out of my very flat spare camera.

http://i.imgur.com/iZZFIFI.jpg

Nightbeat is almost a perfect match colour wise with that blue, and considering this is a two-eyed face, while my idea of Nightbeat is that he has shades (visor) I'm happy with this "new" character. Plus LG Blurr get's a silver gun now.

Be interesting to see how the LG Go Shooter head works (Have LG Wheelie/Go Shooter on pre-order) - Might be another potential use for this guy.

[Paulbot]

well, a bit delayed, but here is the result and a comparison. Managed to get one single photo out of my very flat spare camera.

http://i.imgur.com/iZZFIFI.jpg

Nightbeat is almost a perfect match colour wise with that blue, and considering this is a two-eyed face, while my idea of Nightbeat is that he has shades (visor) I'm happy with this "new" character. Plus LG Blurr get's a silver gun now.

Be interesting to see how the LG Go Shooter head works (Have LG Wheelie/Go Shooter on pre-order) - Might be another potential use for this guy.

Nice one. That head does look make for the body.

[SuspectimusPrime]

That looks more distinctive than Generations Drift & Generations Blurr.

[UltimateGalvatron]

I like Computron.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


I realized that A LOT of Season Three that appeared a lot (not always as main characters but were still there) characters disappeared in the Rebirth, G1 Transformers 'Season Four'. I assume this is because they were focussing on selling the new Headmasters and Targetmasters, but I compiled a list and by Primus they missed a lot.

Autobots
*Blaster and Cassettes
*Perceptor
*Springer
*Sandstorm
*Broadside
*The Dinobots
*Metroplex
*Swerve, Pipes, Tailgate, Powerglide, Cosmos, Beachcomber and Warpath
*Sky Lynx
*Jazz

Decepticons
*Soundwave and Cassettes
*Astrotrain
*Blitzwing
*Trypticon
*The Battlechargers
*Dirge, Ramjet, Thrust
*Octane
*The Predacons
*The Stunticons
*The Sweeps (Not Scourge)

I probably missed some but yeah that is still a LOT.

That being said The Rebirth mini-series is among my favourite G1 episodes.

[Paulbot]

Pretty much everyone on that list was in the 1987 toyline so off the show they go!

Tthe G1 cartoon goes like this

Season 1: Promote the 1984 toys and some early ones from the 1985 line (Dinobots, Constructicons)
Season 2: Promote the 1985 toys and some early ones from the 1986 line (Stunticons, Aerialbots, Combaticons, Protectobots)
Season 3: Promote the 1986 toys and some early ones from the 1987 line (Terrorcons, Technobots)
Season 4: Promote the 1987 toys

[Lint]

So there's an application at work called Unicorn 7. I was putting together a presentation and just realised I typed Unicron 7 throughout the entire powerpoint.

[CHILENO20]

So there's an application at work called Unicorn 7. I was putting together a presentation and just realised I typed Unicron 7 throughout the entire powerpoint.

A Herald you may be:D

[Paulbot]

In an odd case of selective dyslexia, I spent several years thinking that the monster planet was called Unicorn.

I heard it as Unicorn when I watched TFTM, I thought the UK comics had a story called "The Legacy of Unicorn". I wrote it down as Unicorn whenever I used his name.

Then one day I was reading Marvel #75 (possibly the first time I read it) and noticed it was "misspelt" Unicron and thought 'that's weird'; so I looked at the other comics and books and never made that mistake again!

[griffin]

I wonder if the narrator of this golf club commercial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg0ef3VN3DA) is the same person who was the deep-voiced narrator of the original Transformers cartoon, as he sounds very similar, especially when he says "and now..." which is exactly like the bit of the Gen2 cartoon intro (when he says, And now through the magic of the cybernet spacecube...).

Many cartoon voice actors, do commercial voice-overs, and some have even mentioned it at BotCon.

(I heard a clip of it on the Checkout show from last week, and thought it was Peter Cullen at first, but according to the TFWiki, Victor Caroli narrated both Gen1 and Gen2 cartoons.)

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

I wonder if the narrator of this golf club commercial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg0ef3VN3DA) is the same person who was the deep-voiced narrator of the original Transformers cartoon, as he sounds very similar, especially when he says "and now..." which is exactly like the bit of the Gen2 cartoon intro (when he says, And now through the magic of the cybernet spacecube...).

Many cartoon voice actors, do commercial voice-overs, and some have even mentioned it at BotCon.

(I heard a clip of it on the Checkout show from last week, and thought it was Peter Cullen at first, but according to the TFWiki, Victor Caroli narrated both Gen1 and Gen2 cartoons.)If you're talking about Victor Caroli, I don't think so. This (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aj_gUFPCrk) is a clip of Caroli narrating an ad. Here's Peter Cullen (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9wSC0uIiHg) hawking Thundercats too.

I have heard the same guy doing the golf clip above (which is pretty funny truth be told) doing 80s toy ads, I think it was somewhere in the Youtube Dino Riders episodes. I'm sure it's not Caroli though.

EDIT - Did a little hunting around, and it looks like the guy you're thinking of is someone else. Could be called Dan Shafer, but I'm not totally sure if that's the actual voiceover guy. He sounds a bit different to the golf ad guy though (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEQzxTbPA7c).

[griffin]

I guess there is a generic, deep-voice, American, narrator sound that American studios and business/advertising companies want, and these guys have mastered it to the point of sounding very similar at times.

[UltimateGalvatron]

At my Big W the price tag for Victorian read '$169 TF Fan Built' :o

[Bladestorm]

This will probably sound a bit odd to the older fans out there but my son got his first Megatron that turns into a gun (Classics) on the weekend. He's got Megatron's that turn into tanks and jets... but never had an actual hand held gun Megs until now and he LOVES it... moreso than the CW tank one (which prior to the weekend was his favourite Megs). He's been playing with it non-stop all weekend with the largest of smiles on his face.

Just shows even todays kids can suspend their imagine of scale enough to really enjoy Megatron the gun as a concept. :)

[Jellico]

My 3 year old daughter's favorite has been Leader Jetfire's spring loaded gun. Actually any of the TF guns that shoot something. Oddly that includes her Strongarm's non functional gun and my Windblade's sword. Shockwave is desired but off limits.

I think kids just like the idea of shooting stuff.



On a side note when she first met CW Megatron she liked to give him hugs... and shoot his gun.

[UltimateGalvatron]

I forgot that Oreo-Bot was an actual thing











:D

[GoktimusPrime]

If we were to divide the G1 period into 3 eras - Early, Middle and Late, how should it be divided?

Here's how I would divide it:

Early G1
1984
1985
1986

Middle G1
1987
1988
1989

Late G1
1990
1991
1992
Early-1993

I disregarded early 1993 (as it's commonly considered to be the first year of G2) and then divided 1984-92 by 3. I then "reattached" Early 1993 onto the third era, lumping it together with Late Generation 1. And so...
* Early G1 represents the Golden Years of G1. The bulk of MP figures draw on characters from this era.
* Middle G1 represents... well... the middle years of G1. The US G1 cartoon was wrapped up with only 3 episodes in '87 before cancellation, although the Marvel Comics were still chugging along fine.
* Late G1 represents the more notable years of G1's decline, and coincidentally the early 90s years of G1 (so the 80s represent Early to Middle G1). Action Masters and Micromasters dominate the early part of this era, and it also saw the eventual cancellation of the G1 comics. 1990 was the final year of Transformers in the U.S. with 1991 being the final year in Japan. 1992 and early 1993 were the years where Transformers were only still being sold in Australasia and Europe.

Do you guys think that this would be a fair division of the Generation 1 Period if we were to split it three ways? :o

[UltimateGalvatron]

I would do it like:

Early G1
1984
1985

Middle G1
1986
1987
1988
1989

Late G1
1990
1991
1992
Early-1993

[Paulbot]

Into just 3 divisions? Would stick with the 86/87 division which is noted by the shift from being predominately existing toys to being new TF-line specific toys as well as beginning the gimmicks-led era.

The 91-93 is in my mind the Euro Era, the memorable toys from those years are the Euro-exclusives (which had gimmicks less invasive than *Master ones) plus the rerelease of Classic toys


Original Era 84-86
Master Era 87-89
Euro Era 90-93

[UltimateGalvatron]

Into just 3 divisions? Would stick with the 86/87 division which is noted by the shift from being predominately existing toys to being new TF-line specific toys as well as beginning the gimmicks-led era.

The 91-93 is in my mind the Euro Era, the memorable toys from those years are the Euro-exclusives (which had gimmicks less invasive than *Master ones) plus the rerelease of Classic toys


Original Era 84-86
Master Era 87-89
Euro Era 90-93

I actually like this one more then mine. Making the three era's more about the theme of the time rather then the time of release.

[GoktimusPrime]

I actually like this one more then mine. Making the three era's more about the theme of the time rather then the time of release.
It's basically the same as the way that I divided the years, albeit with different names - and that's cool too. :) I just used "Early" "Middle" and "Late" because that's how historical periods are often described.
e.g. Early Roman Empire, Middle English, Late Victorian etc.

Some people might like to label them after precious metals, as they did with the DC eras. Thus...
1984-86 = Golden Age
1987-89 = Silver Age
1990-93 = Bronze Age

[Paulbot]

I was going to suggest 1990 was part of the Silver Age but I was misremembering when Classics came out and changed that before I hit post.

The first few years are a funny one. The shift to non-earth vehicles in 1986 (and the cartoon jumping to 2005) makes me want to divide between 1985/86. But 1985 includes everything from 1984 that an era that was (kinda) one years worth is a bit too small. The 1987 shift was the bigger one.

And thinking about it more, 1987 changed the packaging logo and added the pixelated sunburst which is a nice divide. 1989's silver/gold packaging design, new logo, grid tech specs and smaller pack-in catalogue where another major shift.

If you just considered the US G1 I'd break it as 84-86 / 87-88 / 89-90. Maybe even that with 91-93 as the extra European Era...

[Metallikato]

At Oz Comic Con Sydney yesterday I met Hal Rayle, a.k.a G1 Snarl, Shrapnel and Pipes. He was a super-nice guy, and he signed a group shot of the G1 Dinobots for me! :D:D:D:D

I encourage anyone TF Fan going to Oz Comic Con today to see him and get something signed!


I saw on the news last night the OCC being in Brisbane this weekend (which I completely forgot about), and they Hal Rayle shown with some of the other guests.
I wouldn't have gone just for him (I've seen him at BotCon too), but I would have posted about it for other Brisbanites... and if I had known he was coming to Australia (for the Melbourne and Brisbane Cons), I would have posted about it in the news section a few weeks back.
:o

Missed these posts the other week..

I went to the Sunday Sydney Comic Con just to meet Hal Rayle, a bucket list thing to talk to someone who actually voiced G1. I got a picture with him which he was happy about about because apparently I was the first to do so (this was very late in the day) then went back to the signing thing. He signed my Predator 2 dvd cover and started talking to me in the Predator voice which was interesting.
He was also going to give me a signed card with a bunch of his characters on it (Snarl, Raphael [he filled in on TMNT sometimes], Deep Six from GI Joe which I also grew up with via videos, etc ) but his "supervisor" next to him shot us down (apparently that would of cost me another $30 or something, not being a convention regular I didn't realise), was put off by attitude that went with the shoot down, especially since Hal himself seemed content... Exchanged pleasantries with him for another minute or two then left... realising I'd forgotten to bring up anything G1.
So, meeting a G1 voice actor was cool, but first convention experience, did not enjoy, definitely not my thing.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Yeah, the guests are still people who for the most part want to engage with their fans, but there's the business side of things and money to be made. I guess if you got a freebie then someone else might have a whinge. Sad but true. I'm sure if Hal really pushed it you could've got the autograph though. The supervisor ultimately can't do squat about it.

[GoktimusPrime]

Conventions were much nicer years ago before they got too crowded. Like when I could just stroll up to George Takei and just have a casual chin wag with him. No big queue, no fee to just speak with him (only if you wanted an autograph)... those were great times. Nowadays you're lucky if you can even see an international guest at a big con without waiting in a freakishly long queue that you have to pay for the privilege to stand in. :rolleyes:

You can still experience this at smaller and lesser known conventions like Heroes and Villains (which is really more like a collectables market that happened to have international guests). I was able to have a good chat with people like Garry Chalk and Steve Blum, get autographs, take photos etc. - all without paying an arm and a leg!

[UltimateGalvatron]

Pretenders = Robots in Disguise in Disguise

[GoktimusPrime]

Picked up the 3 latest IDW comics today and read them... detected no glaring errors in spelling or grammar! :eek: :D #celebratingmediocrity

[GoktimusPrime]

From here (http://otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?p=538771#post538771)

Man so far this line knocks cw out of the park!!
To be fair, Combiner Wars achieves a very different thing from Titans Return. TR figures don't need to combine, and being able to combine to form a gestalt - especially one that's stable with self-contained connecting joints and interchangeable limbs etc. is a compounded gimmick which the toy needs to accommodate. This will invariably impact on the design/engineering of each figure. The Headmaster gimmick on the other hand is a whole different kettle of Sharkticons. On one hand, the toy must have a cockpit for the Titan Master, but on the other hand it doesn't need to stow the head away in alt mode as it's detachable. Furthermore, those which are based on G1 Headmasters are emulating toys whose original design already catered for this gimmick. e.g. Mindwipe has a big unsightly windowed cockpit in the belly of the alt mode, but this is fine because it's G1 accurate. :) And for non previously Headmasters becoming Titan Masters, finding a place to stow the pilot isn't as challenging because you don't need to worry about a place to stow the head. It's basically a trade off.

And I may be in a minority here, but I'm personally not thrilled about TR making almost everyone into a Headmaster because it kinda cheapens the idea of being a Headmaster. I see these "Master" gimmicks as a special ability amongst Cybertronians, and as Syndrome from The Incredibles said, once everyone's super then noone will be. For characters who were originally Headmasters, then I really enjoy having them as Titan Masters. But for those who aren't, it either turns me off getting those toys or simply adds nothing for me. I honestly would have preferred it if Scourge weren't a Headmaster. I'd prefer it if he were either a Targetmaster or just no kind of any Master at all (like the original 1986 Scourge). But having him as a Headmaster is easier for me to accept (as I imagine that Fracas has been upgraded from a Targetmaster to a Headmaster) than say a character who was never a ~Master, like Blaster. Even when that toy was $60 at Myer (great value!) I still couldn't bring myself to get one.

For this reason I also have no intention of getting TR Perceptor either. I have Generations Perceptor, and if I desperately want to see him in microscope mode then I have G1 Perceptor for that! (this is the same rationale I had for Blaster) I do plan on getting toys like Sixshot and Broadside, but again, because there are no other Classicsverse versions of these characters. I'm getting them despite being Titanmasters not because of it.

I like the Titan Master gimmick just as I like the Headmaster gimmick, but everything in moderation. I feel that they've taken the Headmaster thing and overkilled it. I can understand them doing it with the same base moulds, like Brainstorm and Blurr. And indeed we saw the same thing in Combiner Wars with figures like Hound, Trailbreaker, Wheeljack etc. (which personally didn't interest me and I skipped them all), but I don't fault Hasbro for doing this as they're recouping the costs of developing those original core moulds, as well as reusing them for other figures like UW Lightspeed etc.

Also, Combiner Wars didn't make everyone into a gestalt component, and there were a lot of really good toys from that line that were non-gestalts. e.g. Megatron, Ultra Magnus etc. TR has this obsession with making every single figure in this line compatible with each other, but it's really not necessary IMHO.

Just my 2c. :o

[prjkt]

I'm going to disagree with a couple of your points there Gok, but because we're all entitled to our opinions, I'll just start out by saying I understand where your coming from.

It might not be neccessary by collectors' standards, but it's an excellent marketing tool, and the way they've made things so that it's not just the heads that are compatible - ie Fortmax & Leaders become "bases" and the Legends interact with other classes, either as a "cassette" for Blaster/Soundwave or as vehicles for the Titanmasters, it takes the CW level intercompatibility to the next stage, without seriously hampering the figures that much - look at Wheelie - quite possibly the best Legends class figure I own, fits a Titanmaster in his canopy, yet transforms into a near perfect replica of his cartoon art.

I like that concept. I find it less an exclusive gimmick as it was back in the G1 days, "This guy here's a Headmaster, and this ones a Targetmaster. Over here you'll see a Sparkabot..." and more and inclusive feature across the line as a whole.

Now as collectors we want the characters for who they are, and sometimes who they've always been (hence why when I saw LG Blurr I got quite excited, even though I already had United Blurr, this guy is almost straight out of the cartoon) but kids these days don't know and probably don't care about the last 30 years of history, they've got a cool new toy, with bits and pieces that can be swapped or played with other toys in the line. It's great from that perspective.

I get you on the CW Autobots who weren't combiners to begin with - I already had each of those two waves of DLX figures in previous Classics-verse incarnations, so like you, I passed them up. But for a newer collector, or *shock-horror* a kid to whom the line is really aimed at, it's a way to get these characters that in some cases hadn't been seen on shelves in 9-10 years. I don't see an issue there. We just won't buy figures we don't want/need for our collections, while others buy them, and help fund future releases.

So far I've bought every TR character released, some Takara, but most Hasbro, but if the time comes and a character is released that I already have in another form and I feel is superior, I'll pass on the new one and that's OK.

On Perceptor, I've already got the Classics-verse release, in the form of the very nice and shiny GDO 3 pack release, but the TR one intrigues me as it's in G1 form... so like Brainstorm I may end up have two versions on my shelf, representing different versions of the character (Gen. Perceptor is my IDW sniper, Gen. Brainstorm is straight out of MTMTE while the TR guys may represent their cartoon forms.)

Apart from lack of shiny paint, which is a weakness I've had since I started collecting the Takara FOC line, I'm finding that so far, Titans Return is the strongest sub-line of Transformers Generations, even the Classics-verse as a whole. Looking forward to the seeing future holds down this path.

[GoktimusPrime]

I agree, and I can totally see the play value of having cross-compatible figures, especially ones that can build a city. Reminds me of Micromasters in G1. :D And I agree that for people without any pre-existing G1 bias, they wouldn't care at all about any of the stuff I was on about. And the fact that both TR and LG toys are hard to find in Hasbro and TakaraTOMY markets illustrates just how popular these toys are. Everyone's definitely lovin' these toys. :)

But getting back to ZoonMaster5000's comment about TR>CW I think that both lines are really good, but they just achieve different things. CW toys may be more limited in engineering compared to many TR figures, but that's because they had to be able to combine (with a lot of self contained parts) and be interchangeable as limbs. TR are unburdened by such an intrusive gimmick. But both lines have given fans what they want. CW gave us Classicsverse Devastator, Superion, Defensor, Menasor, Computron, Bruticus etc. while TR is giving us all these other characters.

But yeah, in both CW and TR, I'm more likely to skip figures if they're a "repeat" character. :o But that's my view of CHUGUR overall. ;) The fact that both CW and TR are doing so well is great news for the brand, which ultimately is great news for us (although there is short term frustration in hunting these toys down :p). :cool:

[UltimateGalvatron]

I'm hoping to catch Steve Blum (R.I.D Fortress Maximus, Prime Starscream, Rescue Bots Heatwave and many more) at Supa-Nova Adelaide.

[GoktimusPrime]

Awesome! :D
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Conventions/Heroes%20and%20Villains%202012/th_heroesvillains2012n.jpg

[Ralph Wiggum]

At the post office picking up a parcel, and saw a guy collect a big box with HLJ on the side. Somebody will be happy tonight :)

[Deonasis]

Not exactly rocket science but I looked at this box yesterday and from what is rumoured the entire image could *almost* be recreated.. :cool: :cool: :cool:

https://c8.staticflickr.com/6/5505/30277363455_7b4383ba32_z.jpg

[Deonasis]

Also, i think the guns with little seats in Titans Return is half a nod to the original targetmasters which is nice.

[GoktimusPrime]

My Transformers collection has now hit the 2000 (UCM) mark with Titans Return Highbrow as my 2000th figure. :o

[Ozgardian]

Heh, I just read Zelda Williams (daughter of the late, great Robin Williams) will be voice acting in RID S3.:cool:

I wonder what character she will be playing?:confused:

[Paulbot]

I know some people are really good at keeping track of their TF purchasing but I always fall off on my efforts.

But looking back at an older spreadsheet and it's actually quite a nostalgia trip to go back and see how long some items have been in my collection.

Like looking at 2008. I recall buying a BW Rattrap at a Fair not that long ago, but find it was actually 8 years ago! Same with MP4 at Target - that was in store 8 years ago? I bought some BW toys from Verno that year too (Did I?). So many movie toys.

[Borgeman]

I know some people are really good at keeping track of their TF purchasing but I always fall off on my efforts.

But looking back at an older spreadsheet and it's actually quite a nostalgia trip to go back and see how long some items have been in my collection.

Like looking at 2008. I recall buying a BW Rattrap at a Fair not that long ago, but find it was actually 8 years ago! Same with MP4 at Target - that was in store 8 years ago? I bought some BW toys from Verno that year too (Did I?). So many movie toys.

I had a spreadsheet from back in the day, but it's completely vanished! I've gone through my pc a dozen times in the past 8 months or so but nada. I don't delete files like that (i have some really old stuff on my pc still) so I've just completely messed up somewhere along the line :(

[GoktimusPrime]

Games Infinity in Sydney's Market City appears to have closed down now (may have happened yonks ago - I haven't been to Market City in ages :p). If so, I wonder if this marks the end of specialist collectible stores in Sydney (is that little place near the Capitol Theatre still running? Haven't checked it out in many years :confused:). Given Games Infinity's notorious rip-off prices (even for imports) I'm surprised that they managed to stay open as long as they have. :rolleyes: Part of me is saddened to see the last vestige of brick and mortar import stores disappear from Sydney, although in reality they died off years ago when the good importers like Cartoon Gallery, Modeller's World etc. closed down. :( Games Infinity's prices were far beyond their competitors and we used to laugh at them and they earnt the nickname of "Games Insanity." It's odd that they should have been the last to go though.

It was an inevitability though. Brick and mortar importers are subject to government import taxes, levies, duties etc. A mate of mine used to work at Modeller's World and he explained to me that approximately 50% of their prices was in government imposed duties, which explained why their toys cost twice as much as what you paid in Japan. Basically, these import stores were charging the same RRP as what you'd pay in Japan, but once you add duties on top of it, you ended up paying about double. So a toy that cost $35 in Japan cost $70 here, with half of that being earnt by the store and the other half going into our government's coffers.

The rise of e-shopping has obviously out-competed brick and mortar specialist stores. It became all too easy for Aussies to pre-order Japanese imports from places like HLJ and pay the same RRP as people in Japan (or cheaper with early bird discounts), vs paying double RRP at the average import shop (or triple (or more) at places like Games Infinity :rolleyes:). And this was before Australian-based online dealers like Premium Collectables came along. Perhaps it's the rise of AU-based e-stores that are now pushing out the last of the import stores here.

I suppose that Aussie importers do still exist, but as online stores now rather than brick and mortar shop fronts. I was never really able to support the old brick and mortar shops in the old days (although I did often like window shopping there :D) because as much as I want to support local business, I couldn't justify paying double prices for all my Japanese toys. But I'm more than happy to support online Aussie business like PC wherever possible. :)

[5FDP]

My Transformers collection has now hit the 2000 (UCM) mark with Titans Return Highbrow as my 2000th figure. :o

Congrats :) I'm surprised you didn't hold off and buy something more significant for your 2000th unless of course the character holds special meaning for you.

[FatalityPitt]

I wonder if they'll ever release non-Titan/Headmaster versions of Titan Return figures in the future. Example, versions of Galvatron, Scourge, Blurr that uses their TR bodies but excludes the titanmasters gimmick. They'd need to be retooled of course, but I wouldn't mind seeing such toys, even if they have to parts-form the heads (where the heads, non-transforming, just get plugged in similar to a Combiner hand/foot).

The thought popped up in my head when I was mucking around with Scourge. The nice thing about TR scourge is that the alt-mode (space ship) is accurate to the original toy and the robot proportions are more impressive than the 2010 Generations toy. My only slight nitpick with the TR toy is that the titanmaster gimmick makes the head a bit too square for my liking. Ideally, to me, Scourge's head is bucket-shaped (like Windcharger, Megatron, and Skydive) but with a gun on top. If I had the time, skill, and means (i.e. a 3D printer), I'd probably try to sculpt my own non-transforming Scourge head.

[GoktimusPrime]

Congrats :) I'm surprised you didn't hold off and buy something more significant for your 2000th unless of course the character holds special meaning for you.
It wasn't deliberate, but I've had a hell of a time finding the Wave 2 TR Deluxes so I just grabbed 'em as soon as I found 'em, and Highbrow just happened to be #2000. :o

[DELTAprime]

I know some people are really good at keeping track of their TF purchasing but I always fall off on my efforts.


I stopped filling out my spreadsheet last year. Given that I'm simply buying current release Takara Generations and Masterpiece I don't feel the need to fill in a spreadsheet anymore.

Actually I think the spreadsheet method just made me spend more money. I would look at a line like Henkei and see I was only missing say 5 figures from the entire line and then I would go hunt them down for completion sake. Now that I don't look at the spreadsheet anymore I don't feel the need to go back and fill in the blanks. As for the Henkei line I never got Armada Hotshot or the second Minibot set and I feel fine about it now.

[griffin]

I still keep track of my purchases (http://toycollectors.com.au/collections/griffinofoz/tfc2016.html)... just not the amount I spend, as it's best that I don't know. :p

[BruiseLee]

I still keep track of my purchases (http://toycollectors.com.au/collections/griffinofoz/tfc2016.html)... just not the amount I spend, as it's best that I don't know. :p

Hehe, I think it would be easier for you to keep track of the things you don't have! :D

[UltraMarginal]

I wonder if they'll ever release non-Titan/Headmaster versions of Titan Return figures in the future. Example, versions of Galvatron, Scourge, Blurr that uses their TR bodies but excludes the titanmasters gimmick. They'd need to be retooled of course, but I wouldn't mind seeing such toys, even if they have to parts-form the heads (where the heads, non-transforming, just get plugged in similar to a Combiner hand/foot).

The thought popped up in my head when I was mucking around with Scourge. The nice thing about TR scourge is that the alt-mode (space ship) is accurate to the original toy and the robot proportions are more impressive than the 2010 Generations toy. My only slight nitpick with the TR toy is that the titanmaster gimmick makes the head a bit too square for my liking. Ideally, to me, Scourge's head is bucket-shaped (like Windcharger, Megatron, and Skydive) but with a gun on top. If I had the time, skill, and means (i.e. a 3D printer), I'd probably try to sculpt my own non-transforming Scourge head.

If you can model up a head you can get it printed on a website like shapeways. granted it's not a cheap way of doing it. there might be something more local you could use for the first go or two before you finalised the design.

with regards to the Titan returns figures being remoulded. I get why the headmasters are headmasters but I feel making everyone a headmaster is really effecting the engineering of the other toys. Voyager Galvatron for example. the face mask looks pretty mediocre and a huge section of the chest it Taken up with the flip out mask gimmick when a smaller amount of the chest could be used for that and the unused space may have been utilised in making the transformation and other modes more homogenous.
The current design of both Megatron and Alpha trion uses up a massive amount of body space for the gimmick and both have extremely restricted head movement. Good head movement is one of the features that gave the Combiner Wars toys so much character.
Scourge has a massive amount of his core being used up for a cockpit for the titan master, I would like to see what might have been if he was not a headmaster and didn't need a cockpit. it might have allowed for those ridiculous flaps on the underside of his alt mode to go somewhere else.



I still keep track of my purchases (http://toycollectors.com.au/collections/griffinofoz/tfc2016.html)... just not the amount I spend, as it's best that I don't know. :p


Hehe, I think it would be easier for you to keep track of the things you don't have! :D

True that. :D

[FatalityPitt]

If you can model up a head you can get it printed on a website like shapeways. granted it's not a cheap way of doing it. there might be something more local you could use for the first go or two before you finalised the design.

with regards to the Titan returns figures being remoulded. I get why the headmasters are headmasters but I feel making everyone a headmaster is really effecting the engineering of the other toys. Voyager Galvatron for example. the face mask looks pretty mediocre and a huge section of the chest it Taken up with the flip out mask gimmick when a smaller amount of the chest could be used for that and the unused space may have been utilised in making the transformation and other modes more homogenous.
The current design of both Megatron and Alpha trion uses up a massive amount of body space for the gimmick and both have extremely restricted head movement. Good head movement is one of the features that gave the Combiner Wars toys so much character.
Scourge has a massive amount of his core being used up for a cockpit for the titan master, I would like to see what might have been if he was not a headmaster and didn't need a cockpit. it might have allowed for those ridiculous flaps on the underside of his alt mode to go somewhere else.






True that. :D

Yeah, I checked out shapeways. Someone there is selling fan-made faces for TR Scourge. But shipping, for something so small, is outrageously expensive. Also, looking at the sizes, I don't think they're big enough to cover the titan master arms; which really are the culprit for my little first-world problem with Scourge.

It's definietly possible to make versions of Galvatron and Scourge without the Titanmaster gimmick. For Galvatron, the head could flip up from where the mask is. It's a pretty ample cavity that can well and truly fit a whole head. For Scourge, if it weren't for the cockpit, the head could've easily been made retractable by attaching it at the top of the 'spine' that gets pulled up and down during transformation (if you've played with the toy, you'd see where I'm coming from).

As for the flaps that make Scourge's shins, they don't bother me too much, but I can see that if they changed the transformation by having the lower legs turned the other way (so the side exterior of the space ship makes the shins instead of the calves); they could've excluded thos flaps. Problem with excluding the flaps is that Scourge will then have hollow legs like CW Bombshell.

To sum up - it's definitely possible for some TR toys (namely Galvatron and Scourge) to be re-made without the Titanmaster gimmick. Question is; will Hasbro/Takara do that if enough fans clamoured long and hard enough?..

[UltraMarginal]

I don't think they would.

If you were interested in doing some design work of your own I'd suggest 123D as a free basic CAD system. you could then submit the .stl files to shapeways yourself.

[SMHFConvoy]

Just thinking about the simplicity of Twintwist and Topspin and how Hasbro could make the pair as TR legends class figures...

[BigTransformerTrev]

Got the Retro Edition of Transformers Monopoly for my birthday (along with some other TF stuff). No wonder it was only half the price of Transformers Monopoly: Collectors Edition, it's only half as good! Collectors edition is way better, though I'm quite happy to have both now :)

[M-bot]

Listening to a 'Stuff You Should Know' podcast on Action Figures (3/11/16), they spoke about Ronald Reagan appointing a new head to the US Federal Trade Commission who went on to make it possible (in order to encourage free markets) for toy manufacturers to advertise heavily with and during cartoons. Without this ruling, we may not have had Transformers as we know them.

[GoktimusPrime]

Just thinking about the cost of MP figures compared to the cost of their original counterparts, with the cost of the originals adjusted for contemporary standards and MP prices are based on full Japanese RRP (as opposed to the discounted pre-order prices that we usually pay). We can see...

* MP Lambor is 200% dearer than the original Sideswipe toy.
* MP Beast Convoy is 221% dearer than the original Ultra Optimus Primal toy.
* MP Soundwave is 356% dearer than the original Soundwave (although much cheaper if you got the Hasbro version locally)
* MP11 Starscream is 433% dearer than the original Starscream
* MP10 is 462% dearer than the original Optimus Prime toy.

[BigTransformerTrev]

I got Cybertron Swerve for my birthday - my son has gone to bed with his little flashlight looking at the catalog poster.

So friggin cute - I'm raising that boy right :D

[Krayt]

Just thinking about the cost of MP figures compared to the cost of their original counterparts, with the cost of the originals adjusted for contemporary standards and MP prices are based on full Japanese RRP (as opposed to the discounted pre-order prices that we usually pay). We can see...

* MP Lambor is 200% dearer than the original Sideswipe toy.
* MP Beast Convoy is 221% dearer than the original Ultra Optimus Primal toy.
* MP Soundwave is 356% dearer than the original Soundwave (although much cheaper if you got the Hasbro version locally)
* MP11 Starscream is 433% dearer than the original Starscream
* MP10 is 462% dearer than the original Optimus Prime toy.

Wait.... How much was beast convoy back in the day?

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

I started watching RID2015 season 2 last night.

I really like the Decepticon designs for this series, the vehicle modes and animal-esque robot modes has me most fascinated. Shame even the warrior toys don't manage to look as snazzy as the TV show

[Deonasis]

Listening to a 'Stuff You Should Know' podcast on Action Figures (3/11/16), they spoke about Ronald Reagan appointing a new head to the US Federal Trade Commission who went on to make it possible (in order to encourage free markets) for toy manufacturers to advertise heavily with and during cartoons. Without this ruling, we may not have had Transformers as we know them.

Jokingly, I nominate Regan or a member of the powerful lobby group as future inducties into the Transformers Hall of Fame!

Interestingly, i came across this article (http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/elist/eListRead/what_ronald_reagan_has_to_do_with_dora_on_your_pop sicle_package/) regarding the impact of this change on kids food advertising (and it briefly mentions toy cartoons). It is a very good read and fine example of lobby groups affecting policy.

[FatalityPitt]

I started watching RID2015 season 2 last night.

I really like the Decepticon designs for this series, the vehicle modes and animal-esque robot modes has me most fascinated. Shame even the warrior toys don't manage to look as snazzy as the TV show


I like seeing Decepticons with beast modes or animal motifs. It makes them more distinct from Autobots, who usually turn just into boring ol' cars, trucks, and the occasional plane. Also, the animal motifs remind me a lot a lot of RiD Car Robots from the early 2000's

[BigTransformerTrev]

Jokingly, I nominate Regan or a member of the powerful lobby group as future inducties into the Transformers Hall of Fame!

Interestingly, i came across this article (http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/elist/eListRead/what_ronald_reagan_has_to_do_with_dora_on_your_pop sicle_package/) regarding the impact of this change on kids food advertising (and it briefly mentions toy cartoons). It is a very good read and fine example of lobby groups affecting policy.

Regan wanted to pull down a wall, Trump wants to build one. Does that mean Trump is anti-TF? :eek::p

[SuspectimusPrime]

I had a glance at the ClickFrenzy website this morning. Didn't notice many interesting deals aside from ToyWorld and TwoScoops, and also noted that the CF website was very blue.

Wanted to check them out again just now, but I'm having mental slow day as I've been sick for a week. Googled the website name instead of typing the URL, had a good look at the search results and wondered, "wth is this crap?". Just realised I Googled "click rumble" instead.

[1AZRAEL1]

Random musings

How is it that Kmart can sell G2 Bruticus at $99 and make a profit, whilst TRU has him at $169 (down from $199)? How much of a markup must TRU have on the set? Did they pay a premium cost to get them in first before everyone else? Why do I still shop at TRU?

[Sinnertwin]

Random musings

How is it that Kmart can sell G2 Bruticus at $99 and make a profit, whilst TRU has him at $169 (down from $199)? How much of a markup must TRU have on the set? Did they pay a premium cost to get them in first before everyone else? Why do I still shop at TRU?

Cost prices per unit are higher.
Probably not.
Why do you still shop there? :p

[davieanix]

What bugs me is Target has Menasor for $199 but Superion is $119. I pointed out to them on Facebook that they are exactly the same, and it's like charging a different amount for 2 different deluxes.

No avail.

[SuspectimusPrime]

Cost prices per unit are higher.
Probably not.
Why do you still shop there? :p

They probably bought less units of G2 Bruticus as G2 Superion and G2 Menasor didn't sell well. And if they didn't buy as much stock then Hasbro AU may have been overstocked and reduced bulk prices for Kmart.

[DELTAprime]

I'm thinking of throwing all my Masterpiece's clam shells and flattening the boxes. With all the releases over the last couple of years I'm running low on room. There goes the resale value.:p

[GoktimusPrime]

Even flattened boxes can take up a lot of space after a while. I just chuck most of my packaging out now.

[Ralph Wiggum]

I had to do a bit of box tetris today in my cupboard after picking up MP Thrust. Once Inferno and Skywarp arrive, I'm going to have to make some tough decisions on boxes.

[prjkt]

Heh, just had all my TR Dlx Vehicles lined up in a row, canopies open.

Reminds me of games like Wing Commander where you choose a vehicle based on your play style - Low Armour, High Speed etc...

Blurr
Type: Land
Speed: High
Armour: Low
Weapons: Low

Chromedome
Type: Land
Speed: Medium
Armour: Medium
Weapons: Medium

Hardhead
Type: Land
Speed: Low
Armour: High
Weapons: High

Brainstorm
Type: Air/Space
Speed: High
Armour: Low
Weapons: Low

Highbrow
Type: Air
Speed: Medium
Armour: Medium
Weapons: Medium

and so on....

[DELTAprime]

Well I learnt a valuable lesson just now about the MP12/14 mould. Be very careful when inserting the gun into the cannon as it can become stuck.:rolleyes:

[UltimateGalvatron]

Annnnnnd now I've met Steve Blum as well. I got him to sign a Starscream print I got whilst at Adelaide Supanova (even though it was a G1 Starscream). I apologized for it being the wrong Starscream but he was still happy to sign it and he was a cool guy. :) I also got a Galvatron print while I was there.

[davieanix]

With Titans Return figs showing up locally in fairly quick succession, I'm debating cancelling my preorders from BBTS.

I mean surely we will see W3 voyagers and Sixshot sooner rather than later, now that the deluxe have been spotted?

[DELTAprime]

With Titans Return figs showing up locally in fairly quick succession, I'm debating cancelling my preorders from BBTS.

I mean surely we will see W3 voyagers and Sixshot sooner rather than later, now that the deluxe have been spotted?

It's always a gamble not preordering, but if you're in an area with a bunch of choices you should be fine. Those of us with fewer options if one place sells out, that's a bigger gamble.

[FatalityPitt]

I was imagining how funny it would be if Hasbro decided to troll the fans who imported and/or scalped the Walgreens Exclusive Brainstorm by taking the Triggerhappy mold, retool and colour it up as a superior Brainstorm toy (packed with TM Arcana and a gold briefcase-time-machine accessory); and release it as part of wave 5 or 6. It would also be the most common figure in the case.

[GoktimusPrime]

I was imagining how funny it would be if Hasbro decided to troll the fans who imported and/or scalped the Walgreens Exclusive Brainstorm by taking the Triggerhappy mold, retool and colour it up as a superior Brainstorm toy (packed with TM Arcana and a gold briefcase-time-machine accessory); and release it as part of wave 5 or 6. It would also be the most common figure in the case.

I don't see what would be wrong with that. Making the TR Brainstorm mould more easily available to fans can only be good for the fandom. Hasbro has done this sort of thing before, and while I can understand that it can be frustrating for individual fans who may have shelled out more for the previous limited editions, ultimately the wants of the many outweigh the wants of the few.

e.g. Classicsverse Thrust, Dirge and Thundercracker were initially only released as BotCon exclusive figures. TakaraTOMY then released them as convention exclusive "Gentei" figures. Either set were limited and expensive to get (about $50 a figure). I personally got Gentei Thrust and Thundercracker to fill those gaps in my collection. But then Hasbro released all of those figures as regular store-available Generations figures for $25 each here. I was finally able to get a CHUGUR Dirge, and yeah, even though it sucked for me that I paid too much for my CHUGUR Thundercracker and Thrust, I was really glad that Hasbro eventually made the right decision to release them as mass produced regular store figures.

Hasbro released Thrust first and although I already had Gentei Thrust, I went and bought Generations Thrust as well. I gave that Generations Thrust toy away for free as a trivia prize to a board member here - I never bought it to keep it, I just bought it to show my support to Hasbro about this decision (re: voting with my wallet). And then Hasbro released Thundercracker, and I went and bought that figure too despite already having Gentei Thundercracker (although in this case, I kept the Generations figure because Hasbro fixed the mould degradation issues that Gentei Thundercracker has).

I don't know if I'd go and buy a mass store release of TR Brainstorm because frankly that figure doesn't interest me all that much, and also because this isn't the first mass release CHUGUR Brainstorm toy anyway (re: Generations & LG Brainstorms). I was more willing to support those Seekers because they really should've been released back in 2006/7. Do I regret "wasting money" on Gentei Thrust and Thundercracker? Not really, because there was no way that I could've known that these toys would be mass released by Hasbro years later. So yeah, if people desperately want the TR Brainstorm mould, then they may feel the desire to shell out a premium price for it, but if it comes out as a regular release figure later, then the majority of fans benefit. The release of Generations Thrust was of no benefit to me, but I'm happy that others were able to benefit from it.

And if Scalpers end up losing all their money on their depreciated stock of Brainstorms, then suck excrement to them! Scalpers are a despicable lot and they fully deserve any karma that comes their way. It's mostly the honest fans who stand to gain from a mass release of previously limited toys.

[FatalityPitt]

I don't see what would be wrong with that. Making the TR Brainstorm mould more easily available to fans can only be good for the fandom. Hasbro has done this sort of thing before, and while I can understand that it can be frustrating for individual fans who may have shelled out more for the previous limited editions, ultimately the wants of the many outweigh the wants of the few.


I wasn't implying it'd be bad, in fact I'd love for that to happen since the only Brainstorm I have is the original G1 (missed out on the voyager from several years ago and I can't afford to import the TR exclusive or legends). I was just imagining the look on the faces on some of these jokers in the US who'd go to Walgreens to buy up multiple copies of TR Brainstorm to sell at hyper-inflated prices to poor foreigners like us on eBay; only to realise there's a better Brainstorm about to be released worldwide.

If they do a general release Brainstorm, I hope they use the Triggerhappy mold. Seeing photos of Triggerhappy, I think that mold is more appropriate for Brainstorm compared to the Blurr mold.

[GoktimusPrime]

Not a bad idea. Here's a fan's digital mock up (http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/attachments/picsart_04-30-03-23-50-jpg.27585056/)

[prjkt]

I like the concept there... don't need a third Brainstorm but I can appreciate it

[FatalityPitt]

Not a bad idea. Here's a fan's digital mock up (http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/attachments/picsart_04-30-03-23-50-jpg.27585056/)

That's more like it! :)

Not to say that the Walgreens Exclusive is bad (far from it). I would have even bought it myself if it were more attainable. But since learning of the Triggerhappy mold and watching video reviews of it, I'm thinking to myself "this looks SO like Brainstorm.. It would have taken Hasbro/Takara less effort to retool from this than from the Blurr mold - And it would have been a good toy"

[UltraMarginal]

Not a bad idea. Here's a fan's digital mock up (http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/attachments/picsart_04-30-03-23-50-jpg.27585056/)

That's pretty nice, I don't have the TR brainstorm simply because for the moment, I'm happy with the voyager one but I might get that if it were ever released. What are the odds they release 3 different brainstorm moulds in 3 years??

[Paulbot]

Blurr is a great toy. Triggerhappy is a great toy. Brainstorm should feel lucky to be consider a retool of either.

Like seriously, Blurr and Triggerhappy are by far my favourite two Titans Return deluxes. I love them both!

[prjkt]

Haven't got Triggerhappy yet, it after seeing a video review I'm looking forward to him, but I did like Blurr so much I bought both the Takara and Hasbro versions and stuck Nightbeat's head on the Hasbro version so I'd have a reason to have them both on my shelf.

[GoktimusPrime]

In the TR Autobot Breakaway review thread (http://otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=23706) a comment was made that the toy was disappointing due to the lack of Getaway's distinctive shoulder pads, and okay, fair point, but I don't know if I completely agree with this sentiment, and here's why.

Classicsverse isn't about replicating G1 toys with modern day engineering. The toys are distinctly identifiable as their G1 counterparts, but they're not necessarily enslaved to the idea of being G1 accurate. To me, Classicsverse is more like how HasTak would make these characters today using contemporary design/engineering. Masterpiece on the other hand is more about 'translating' G1 toys with a slavish dedication to aesthetic fidelity.

Look again at the Classicsverse/G1 Comparison thread (http://otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=9742) and have a good look at a lot of these toys. Many of them "lack" iconic features of their G1 counterparts. e.g.
* Classics Optimus Prime has no smoke stacks on his shoulders.
* Mirage's weapons look nothing like the G1 toy's rifle or rocket launcher.
* Grimlock's overall design and transformation is a significant departure from his G1 counterpart. I know that he's not everyone's favourite toy, but I like it. And I like it a lot better than Generations/FoC Grimlock which has a more G1-like appearance and transformation.
* Much of RtS Windcharger's body looks nothing like G1 Windcharger (either the toy or show model), yet it's an arguably better toy than the more G1-accurate looking Combiner Wars Windcharger.
* Sunstreaker lacks the iconic yellow shoulder pylons and the limbs are totally different.
* Sideswipe & Red Alert's lower leg appearance and transformation is utterly unlike the G1 figures.
* Inferno has no ladder or wings.
* Boobglide. 'Nuff sed.
* The lower legs on the Nissans are inverted compared to their G1 counterparts.
* Voyager Nerf Megatron looks very different from his G1 self, and just as well because if he were G1 accurate then he'd raise legal issues!
...and so on and so on and so on... you get the picture.

And yet people have long loved Classicsverse figures despite their relative lack of G1 accuracy, and I think that it's because G1 accuracy isn't the staple of the appeal of Classicsverse. They're more like modern upgrades of these characters, like a "Transformers: Generation 3." And these "G3" Transformers generally tend to look a lot more like their G1 counterparts compared to some G2 Transformers such as G2 Mirage (http://www.cliffbee.com/reviews/images/gmirage.gif), G2 Power Master Ironhide (http://tfwiki.net/mediawiki/images2/2/2b/G2-toy_IronhidePM.jpg), G2 Gobot Ironhide (http://tfwiki.net/mediawiki/images2/f/fe/G2Gobot_Ironhide.jpg), G2 Jetfire (http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/transformers/images/4/45/G2Jetfire_toy.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20070209070334) (with Decepticon insignias!), G2 Gobot Optimus Prime (https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/de/2c/f4/de2cf472dbb52cee52a918eff87b937e.jpg), G2 Gobot Megatron (http://tfwiki.net/mediawiki/images2/0/0b/Megatron-G2GoBot.jpg), G2 Frenzy (http://tfwiki.net/mediawiki/images2/b/b7/G2toy_gobot_frenzy.jpg), G2 "Rave Party" Soundwave (http://toys.tfw2005.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2008/06/Go-BotSoundwave_1212931699.jpg) et al.

Classicsverse are very immediately identifiable as the character that they're meant to be, whereas some of these G2 figures you'd look at and wonder what the designers were drinking when they came up with them. I love both CHUGUR and MPs. I collect both CHUGUR and MPs, and it's because both lines scratch a different itch. Classicsverse shows me what G1 characters would be like if they were made as regular/mainline toys today. MPs gives me toys which are slavishly accurate renditions of G1 (or BW) characters. I love both for different reasons. :)

[UltraMarginal]

In the TR Autobot Breakaway review thread (http://otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=23706) a comment was made that the toy was disappointing due to the lack of Getaway's distinctive shoulder pads, and okay, fair point, but I don't know if I completely agree with this sentiment, and here's why.

Classicsverse isn't about replicating G1 toys with modern day engineering. The toys are distinctly identifiable as their G1 counterparts, but they're not necessarily enslaved to the idea of being G1 accurate. To me, Classicsverse is more like how HasTak would make these characters today using contemporary design/engineering. Masterpiece on the other hand is more about 'translating' G1 toys with a slavish dedication to aesthetic fidelity.

Classicsverse are very immediately identifiable as the character that they're meant to be,


I haven't read the post you're referring to but I think for a lot of characters, especially lower tier characters, silhouette becomes more important, otherwise it's just generic bot #9.

From your post above:Look again at the Classicsverse/G1 Comparison thread (http://otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=9742) and have a good look at a lot of these toys. Many of them "lack" iconic features of their G1 counterparts. e.g.
* Classics Optimus Prime has no smoke stacks on his shoulders. Arguably one of the biggest flaws with the toy
* Mirage's weapons look nothing like the G1 toy's rifle or rocket launcher. but the silhouette of the robot, though comparatively very lanky does represent the original toy and show model very well
* Grimlock's overall design and transformation is a significant departure from his G1 counterpart. I know that he's not everyone's favourite toy, but I like it. And I like it a lot better than Generations/FoC Grimlock which has a more G1-like appearance and transformation. This one is missing the iconic wings and while having feet that form the head is novel idea (Itoo like this toy a lot) apart from the chest and head this toy doesn't really 'feel' like Grimlock
* Much of RtS Windcharger's body looks nothing like G1 Windcharger (either the toy or show model), yet it's an arguably better toy than the more G1-accurate looking Combiner Wars Windcharger. For such a low tier character the vehicle mode and head sculpt are what matters and both these toys deliver.
* Sunstreaker lacks the iconic yellow shoulder pylons and the limbs are totally different.
* Sideswipe & Red Alert's lower leg appearance and transformation is utterly unlike the G1 figures. I would imagine that the original poster might also find these toys disappointing for that very reason. They are good toys but they don't evoke the character in the same way.
* Inferno has no ladder or wings. Like prime one of the biggest downfalls of the design. I imagine it also irks the original poster a lot.
* Boobglide. 'Nuff sed. The toy might not have turned out quite like everyone hoped but the appearance of the robot and the alt modes do strongly evoke the original toy and character.
* The lower legs on the Nissans are inverted compared to their G1 counterparts. but they still have wings, shoulder missiles and their iconic chest look. in silhouette you would pick the group for sure.
* Voyager Nerf Megatron looks very different from his G1 self, and just as well because if he were G1 accurate then he'd raise legal issues!
...and so on and so on and so on... you get the picture. different discussion


I get what you're saying modern toys don't need to replicate original toys, especially with transformation but when a character is being re-developed to the modern style and design aesthetic, part of the essence of a character is the defining features of the robot that carried over from the alt mode. Or just the robot design. the original toy designers of the 80's line were brilliant at this. Look at the torso design of the original seekers, very well sculpted and that design has carried through ever since.

The point of modernising old toys/characters is to draw on peoples nostalgia, not including iconic elements of the original design loses that and that's when we start to see more and more bots look alike and dare I say it, more like the recent movie designs.

[1AZRAEL1]

All the ones you listed, I happen to love. They are a modern take on the characters, not just of the toy of old. I happen to love Sideswipe/Sunstreaker/Red Alert. The fact Prime has doesn't have his iconic stacks doesn't faze me. Again, I love the figure and mold.

I would go on to say the same thing about the rest listed too.

[UltraMarginal]

I'm not saying any of those are bad toys, I actually think they're all great, but I can see how someone might be disappointed by the missing features I listed. Imagery is a big part of this hobby.

[Paulbot]

Ultramarginal you have stolen my reply. I was going to say that although some of the toys mentioned are missing some elements as Goktimus points out, they have enough key elements of the original designs. Classics Optimus might not have smokestacks on his arms, but he has the windshield chest, grill abs and back of truck as legs that are essential to so many Optimus Prime designs. And so on with the other examples, they don't have to have everything but they have enough.

With Breakaway he just has some of Getaway's colours and head sculpt. And there's plenty of repaint/tools with those qualities that aren't enough for many of us. For me when I think of Getaway I think of those shoulder pads and the windscreen on his chest. Breakaway has a knack attempt to make the chest kind of look like a windscreen and doesn't have the pads and that meant I left him on the shelf quite happily.

I came here to make another post but that can wait!

[1AZRAEL1]

I too can see why some might be disappointed in those figures, I just happen to not be one of those :)

[GoktimusPrime]

^Agreed. :)

And sure, I can understand that a whole new mould for Getaway would've been definitely nicer than a redeco, but we all know why redecos are important. And Chromedome is the only car in Titans Return - they couldn't have used any other existing mould. So there wasn't a whole lot of choice to go with as you do with Combiner Wars. Given what they had to work with, I think that they did a pretty good job. I realise that it's not ideal, but I don't think that it was a complete failure in execution. IMO it's a better approximation of Getaway than say CW Trailbreaker, Ironhide, Prowl etc.

As Paulbot pointed out, Getaway's iconic features are his shoulder pads and windscreen on his chest; while they were unable to do the shoulder pads, they were at least able to do the windscreen chest. I think that Breakaway would've looked better if they added more iconic colours, like the blue forearms/hands (even if it means sacrificing the blue spoiler on the vehicle).

Go-Go-Gadget-Hasty-MSPaint-Job!
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/Titans%20Return/TR_breakaway_arms_zpsmvrcyvyy.jpghttp://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/Titans%20Return/th_TR_breakaway02_zpshfs66ofv.jpg

[Jellico]

Would Hot Rod served as a better base for redeco?

[prjkt]

With some characters losing a signature part to me is enough not to buy them, but for the most part a figures legs don't matter much (unless it's a big part of their design, such as Wheeljack's.)

I really like the Sideswipe/Sunstreaker mould as each character has their signature chest piece, along with the Nissan bros. and their door wings. Never bought the 8 CW Autobots that weren't combiners previously because they lacked key parts of their silhouette, but then as mentioned above, I prefer the RTS Windcharger mould to the CW version hands down as a better figure. I guess I'm a little hypocritical there.

Another figure I think is an excellent upgrade is a Gen Kup. Nothing like his G1 design in alt mode, yet has the right shape chest, head and arms.

There's probably quite a few others on my shelf to mention, if I feel that if a figures got enough of the character it's meant to be, I'm happy. With Breakaway I guess I'll be satisfied as I never had any exposure until MTMTE, so this'll be "good enough."

[GoktimusPrime]

Another figure I think is an excellent upgrade is a Gen Kup. Nothing like his G1 design in alt mode, yet has the right shape chest, head and arms.
Kup was supposed to be a ute (pickup truck) but Dery's "futuristic" design makes it look pretty unrecognisable as a ute. Generations Kup really gives his alt mode the look that it was always meant to have. And being an "Old Timey" style ute also suits the character well. :D The little faux windscreen on the top of Kup's chest is an homage of G1 Ironhide (and Ratchet), since those toys have the big windscreens in front of their heads. The reason for this is that Ironhide was originally meant to be the old timer among the Autobots - Ironhide was the one retelling old stories in Season 1 of the cartoon ("Ah remember that time on Cybertron..."). So the idea is that Kup is of a similar or even older vintage as Ironhide (an idea which was originally shown in DW's The War Within where both Ironhide (http://tfwiki.net/mediawiki/images2/0/07/WarWithin5_ironhide.jpg) and Kup (http://www.oafe.net/yo/art/tfc_bgts4.jpg) had windscreens covering their faces (although Ratchet (http://tfwiki.net/mediawiki/images2/b/b9/Ratchettww.jpg) had his on his back, suggesting a different lineage/vintage/wateva :p)

G1 Kup's alt mode is something that even the original G1 designers at Takara still remember as being a pain in the butt to "translate" as a toy (re: Ono Koujin interview). So I see Generations Kup's alt mode as being the toy that Takara would've wanted to design, but couldn't when they were bound to base the figure off of Dery's design. Liberated from that constraint they were able to make a toy with a superior vehicle mode. And this is something that I can sometimes enjoy about Classicsverse over MPs - the relative creative freedom unbound from being enslaved to G1 likeness. Of course, CHUGUR is still enslaved to some degree as it does need to capture the spirit or essence of the G1 designs. This is why I tend to enjoy new toys that are new/original characters like RiD Strongarm etc. (although they're still held back by being based on animation models, but that's a whole 'nuther discussion :p)

[GoktimusPrime]

I haven't been able to find any TR Kickbacks or Sharkticons around my area.
GGNNNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWW! (https://i.imgflip.com/syvoz.jpg)