Yes, that's the one.Quote:
Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime
also I see the thread title has been changed, thanks Bossbot
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Yes, that's the one.Quote:
Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime
also I see the thread title has been changed, thanks Bossbot
I'm going to put this down to the character never get much play in fiction before Robots In Disguise, but I've never made the connection between the function "thief" and the name "Chop Shop" before. 30 years late to the party :o
Never realised that Generations Seaspray had a fan combination mode with Breacher (similar to Mindwipe and Skystalker). Image from eBay.
Just found out today that there was a 30th anniversary Transformers exhibit in Singapore that finished yesterday. :o
http://www.science.edu.sg/exhibition...nsformers.aspx
It was in the news section in November, and had a lot of discussion in January.
...that was kinda my point for posting my super-late realisation on this thread. :o
------------------------Quote:
Originally Posted by Firestorm
Whoa... so G1 Ratchet was originally conceived to be female? :confused: :eek:
That Roller guy went there on the opening day. Barrels of fun! Our grandkids will probably be adults before we ever see an exhibit like that down under.Quote:
Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime
I probably just forgot about this, but the 2014 Hero Mashers Drift was originally going to be Bludgeon... to match the Gen1 theme of the other Hero Mashers.
A shame that we probably won't see that now. It's a bit of a tease for the Bludgeon fans.
This may seem stupid, but I did not realise until today that Generations Skid's shoulder sockets can extend from their awkward position. Looks much better.
If heard of this before but never tried it. I don't have access to my skids right now to try it. Any chance of some pics to show he difference?Quote:
Originally Posted by Bidoofdude
As for my own realisation, I was fiddling with the deluxe movie Brawl earlier and finally discovered that his massive cannon can slide up his forearm so it's not quite so awkward.
I currently don't have any pictures, but you can't really notice it too much. He just holds poses much better and his shoulders look slightly broader.Quote:
Originally Posted by Firestorm
I got a rude reminder just now that every line has it's share of turds. I got TFA Swoop, Slag and Wreck-gar in the mail today. Slag is, OK. Swoop is, basic. And Wreck-gar is just plain bad. Oh well, I'm so close to having all the TFA characters now. Just 5 more toys to go and I'll have all the retail TFA characters, then I can start on those Club characters.
Took me ages to figure out thar the feet of the classics Prowl/Bluestreak/Smokescreen mould can actually be extended a cm or so, really helps with posing so they don't fall over
Transforming Death Star Darth Vader for the first time in a long time, I found out about the opening parts in the shoulders and legs that can hold the pilots.
I just made the connection today... the third part of the Transformers Prime franchise was called "Beast Hunters," and that name an homage to Beast Machines: Transformers as 'Beast Hunters' was the original working title for that franchise before it was later finalised as "Beast Machines." :eek:
"BEAST HUNTERS, the next evolution of the popular Beast Wars franchise, continue their fight against the evil dragon Megatron and his hordes of Predacons in 13 all-new episodes with cutting edge computer animation, action, adventure and humor, produced by Mainframe Entertainment."
Fox! Kids press release, 10/2/1999
Only took me 2 years to notice this. #slow :p Although it appears that TFwiki hasn't noticed it either, as it's not mentioned on the footnotes of their TFP: Beast Hunters page.
Always easier to renew a trademark than to file a new one.Quote:
Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime
The trademark for Beast Hunters may very well have expired considering, if it was ever filed at all. Even if they had filed it, TFPBH came out in 2013, and let's assume that the trademark was filed in 2012, that's still a good thirteen year gap. Surely any trademark would've expired by then. We didn't see Hasbro using the Beast Hunters name at any time between 1999-2013 so there doesn't appear to be any sign of them maintaining the trademark through usage. I suspect that the homage was done more out of opportunity.
I believe you mean either 2002 or 2001 or something like that... :PQuote:
Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime
Transformers Prime Beast Hunters ran from 2013-2014, thus the trademark for that name would presumably have been filed in 2012. If Hasbro had trademarked the 'Beast Hunters' name for the Beast Wars sequel, then they would have done so in 1999. Beast Machines was already over by 2001-02 which were the Robots In Disguise years.Quote:
Originally Posted by UltimateGalvatron
Sorry I thought you meant from 2013 BACK to Beast Machines :confused: :rolleyes:
Digressing here. They should be able to register them for 10-year periods, and even if after the trademark's expired, if it is unused by any other company then the original company has a choice of renewing it. Fees are usually involved, but they are negligible (at least in Australia) compared against the ridiculous 7 month waiting period of lodging a whole new trademark.Quote:
Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime
That's quite interesting, hardly a digression, thank you.Quote:
Originally Posted by SuspectimusPrime
C'est trés possible mon ami. ;) In which case, glad to see Hasbro finally using that trademark. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by SuspectimusPrime
As seen in the Action Pose thread, Cybertron Metroplex does in fact, have a city mode. While it isn't offical (and it only kinda resembles a city), it can be a good place to put your mini-cons on.
https://40.media.tumblr.com/67277ca8...rsjo5_1280.jpg
After seeing a group photo of the Q-Transformers toys in packaging, I didn't realise that they are a mix and match of Hasbro and TakaraTomy names in English on the packaging, but they all have the TakaraTomy names underneath in Japanese... and it doesn't seem to make much sense (to me).
The "Gen1" Bumblebee is labelled in English as Bumble, Sideswipe is labelled as Lambor... however, the "Gen1" Red Alert is not called Alert in English, Jazz is not called Meister, and Hot Rod is not called Hot Rodimus. And yet, the Japanese name is on the packaging in Katakana.
Why not have all the English names be their Hasbro names if they are different instead of just half of them, or have all of the Japanese names be the Hasbro names in katakana if they are different to the TakaraTomy names.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/blog/c572.jpg
I don't know why they do the strange inconsistent naming either but they have already used "Optimus" and "Optimus Prime" in the QT series thus far, so perhaps they are trying to avoid "english" confusion by calling the G1 version Convoy (and that's what he was called in the original 84 Japanese version right? so it would make sense)
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8709/...f1be13e0de.jpg
Similarly they've used Bumblebee with the Age of Extinction version so perhaps they want each vehicle to have it's own unique "english" name?
The influence of the Movies has indeed been affecting other non-Movie Transformers lately in Japan, but some of these were using their TakaraTomy names in English, while others were using Hasbro names in English... and I have a feeling that QT-19 will have "Convoy" on the packaging to differentiate it from the Optimus and Optimus Prime in your photo.
That in itself could be a reason for Optimus and Bumblebee (to have different names on each toy for Retailers & buyers to differentiate between toys that have the same character name), but the other ones I listed in my earlier post are the only toy of that character name... so that's not a consistent reason.
Remember that the English language in Japan is mostly decorative. Most people in Japan don't speak English and wouldn't pay much attention to it. It's similar to how Hasbro (USA) uses the Japanese word for 'masterpiece' (傑作; kessaku) on their recent MP packaging despite the fact that most Anglophones don't speak Japanese, and also despite the fact that Masterpiece Transformers are never called kessaku in Japanese -- it's only ever called マスターピース (masutaapiisu: Masterpiece); if you look at any Japanese MP toy, they use only ever use the English word "Masterpiece" and never the Japanese word "kessaku." But both sides are doing this to give a foreign exotic appeal to their products.
Images
TakaraTOMY MP -- notice how "Masterpiece" is written in English or Katakana (masutaapiisu):
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-txFd5Fd_sk...ng%2BFront.JPG
http://static.seibertron.com/images/...9_mp23%201.PNG
http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/...path-prefix=es
http://static.seibertron.com/images/...cc8cb0e186.jpg
http://intl.rakuten-static.com/t/9db...5056b7016d.jpg
Hasbro MP -- notice that the Japanese word 「傑作」 (kessaku) is used:
http://news.toyark.com/wp-content/up...oundwave-1.jpg
http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-...1398782759.jpg
http://www.actionfigurefury.com/wp-c...-sdcc-2013.jpg
http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-...1398955859.jpg
http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-...1406334294.jpg
Last year I saw someone wearing this shirt -- 'glass stain' style image of Megatron with the Latin expression pax per tyrannis; an attempt at saying "Peace through tyranny" in Latin. But it's grammatically incorrect, as it's using the nominative case of 'tyrannis,' instead of the accusative case; thus the correct translation is pax per tyrannidem. I pointed this out to the person wearing the shirt -- he had a chuckle, but otherwise wasn't fussed by it. There's a group of Resident Evil Umbrella Corps cosplayers whose uniforms all have the word "Umbrella" incorrectly written as アンブしラ社 (Umbshilla Corps); evidently whoever made the logo confused the Hiragana character 'shi' (し) for the Katakana character for 're' (レ). I pointed this out to some of these Cosplayers, and again, they laughed it off but didn't really care. I also used to train with a Karate teacher whose name was also written incorrectly in Japanese on his black belt; I won't use his actual name, but it'd be the equivalent of a guy named "Bob" having his name written as "Bab" on his black belt. When I pointed this out to him, he was amazed... but didn't go ask for his black belt embroidery to be redone.
And that's pretty much how most Japanese people feel about English -- if you point out that something may be incorrect, ultimately, most won't care. The language use is ornamental, nothing more. I'm not saying that I agree or approve of this, but it's what it is. :o
What I find more interesting are:
* Bluestreak -- he's actually called ブルーストリーク ("Bluestreak") instead of just 'Streak', which is his Japanese G1 name. It seems that the toy is based on Binaltech Bluestreak. I don't think it's a trademark issue, as TakaraTOMY used the name 'Streak' for the Masterpiece toy, so I'd say it's directly based off the BT figure.
* Jazz -- is called オートボットマイスター ("Autobot Meister") instead of just 'Meister.' This suggests that TakaraTOMY may have lost the trademark to the name 'Meister,' and has thus tacked 'Autobot' in front of it. This certainly isn't the first time that this has happened -- Henkei Inferno is called サイバートロンインフェルノ ("Cybertron Inferno"), and Henkei Octane is called デストロンオクトーン ("Destron Octone"; bearing in mind that "Octone" is Octane's JP G1 name).
Generations Gears... his instructions show photos of Generations Swerve, and got a Decepticon purple background! :eek:
http://www.transformerland.com/image...ions-68500.jpg
Apologies for the lighting, but just found out Universe Galvatron had a third mode
http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/...pswf05xl7b.jpg
And also never realised that G1 Ultra Magnus's legs clipped into his arms in trailer mode
http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/...pser0qh2lu.jpg
I think that the USA has a higher degree of 'use it or lose it' with regards to trademarks.Quote:
Originally Posted by SuspectimusPrime
I just discovered that CW Legends Thundercracker's wings can actually be positioned in such a way in robot mode that they are much more secure and less likely to flap about, if you simply push the whole assembly down so that the connecting strut is on an angle. Works much better in my opinion.
Funny cause I've always been doing this and I never really noticed.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zommael
that third mode for Galvatron is pretty neat, I might have to try it out.
I think this is actually new, but if it isn't, I didn't realise it before - the RID Titans are made in Indonesia, which is a country that I don't recall seeing before on a Transformers toy.
It seems rather odd though, as they are still getting toys produced in China and Vietnam, so I wonder why they need another location to make toys... and the most gimmicky ones at that.
IIRC some G2 toys like 1993's Megatron was made in Indonesia
Is the Universe Galvatron actually designed to allow for that 3rd mode, or is it a happy accident?
#5Quote:
Originally Posted by Bidoofdude
http://www.toymania.com/news/messages/10873.shtml
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bidoofdude
Thanks For Sharing that Sinnertwin, that was a very interesting little read and the sketches were pretty cool. That toy would have been so awesome as a voyager or even Ultra.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sinnertwin