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Seibertron have posted up another one of their top-5 postings, and this one is actually interesting enough to mention here.
It features some of the confusing or redundant parts that are on Hasbro Transformers toys, and even though I already knew why almost all of these exist (except Optimus Minor, whom no one probably knows why it has extra arms), I thought that there might be some people here who might be enlightened by some of these.
It includes...
- BW Transmetal Optimus Minor having split arms in robot mode (no one knows why... probably so that it wasn't criticised for having no "transformation" element to all of its limbs).
- Gen1 Dinobots having seats (left over from the pre-Transformers Diaclone versions, which had pilots).
- Universe Galvatron having legs (a well documented story about how this toy was originally designed to have three modes and a Voyager size... but then scaled down to Deluxe size, and having the third mode abandoned without removing all of the parts that only apply to the third mode).
- BW Transmetal Ultra toys having cockpits (another story revealed at the time, about the toys intending to have pilots, but the concept was dropped by Hasbro, but later included when TakaraTomy released the blue Cryotek in Japan).
- Gen1 Perceptor having an extra wheel on its back (similar to the Dinobot seats, as it was for a pre-Transformers tank mode that Hasbro didn't officially document with their release of Perceptor).
The seating arrangements on most of 84/84. I had no idea about Microman back then. At the same time a lot of the seats were barely seats so I had the feeling of am I looking a seat or not?
G1 missile springs. All these awesome weapons and none of them work. What's up with that?
G1 Megatron. He had that much disabled on him. And what was with the stock and extra weapons? An awesome toy with all these hints of even more awesomeness.
The Japanese opening for Transformers Animated is great.
But I never knew there was an alternate version featuring some different Decepticons (including Swindle and Soundwave)
There's also a third version with the cast singing the song.
"All I can do, and all you can do, habatake transform!"
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It's JAM Project! It features the voices of legendary anime singers like Kageyama Hironobu (The☆Headmasters opening/closing themes, CHA-LA-HEAD-CHA-LA etc.) and Mizuki Ichiro (Zone opening/closing themes, Science Ninja Team Gatchaman etc.)! You should see how these guys perform live.
I really love how the Japanese actually create new music for Transformers instead of constantly rehashing the G1 theme which is what we all we get from the American series (Beast Wars is Canadian ). Just look at the RiD theme... every time I hear I just think that the lyricist must've spent a whole 30 seconds coming up with those words.
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I just realised that there's a Cybertronian martial art called "Tekkaido," which in Japanese means "Way of Withdrawal" (撤回道). So do they beat their opponents by running away? Works for Sir Robin the Brave I suppose. This name seems to be coined from Anglophone canon, not Japanese canon. And my guess is that they wanted to make it sound like "Taekwondo," but then they used more Japanese sounding phonology and uh... yeah. Way of Buggering Off!
G1 Cartoon Megatron must be a black belt in Tekkaido. "DECEPTICONS, RETREAT!"
As amusing as “the way of fleeing like a coward” sounds. I had assumed that the “Tekkai” in Tekkaido was meant to be read with the same kanji as the Tekkai technique in the anime One Piece 鉄塊 which I believe means Iron Body (and would thus be read as 鉄塊道) quite fitting for a race of mechanical beings.
Sounds more plausible. Although unless an official source provides the Kanji then it's impossible to definitely rule out what the actual meaning is supposed to be.
This sometimes happens in canonical material from Japan too where names are only ever officially written in Katakana. One example is the character "Akira" from Transformers Zone. Phonetically "Akira" can be a boy or girl's name, the difference lies in which Kanji is used (similar to say Tony vs Toni etc.). Since the name is only ever written in Katakana, it's impossible to tell if Akira is meant to be a boy or girl. And the Akira character is incredibly androgynous in TF Zone!
The Japanese fandom may not have FIRRIB but one endless fan debate that does exist there is whether or not Akira is male or female.
Speaking of Japanese stuff. I just found out that Takara and Takara Tomy have developed a bunch of video games over the years (most non Transformers related) dating back as far as 1987 when they made Transformers: Headmasters for the Famicom Disk System (Not to be confused with the cartridge based Famicom AKA the NES).
My son noticed (quite impressively I thought considering how tiny it is and is the same orange colour as the shoulder) that the RID Blind Bags version of Unicron has a Decepticon symbol on his right shoulder. I've had one of these figures 10 times longer than him and I never noticed!
Anyone know if this is the only Unicron that has - on the toy, not the packaging - been identified as a Decepticon? I've got quite a few Unicrons now but as far as I can remember none have a Con symbol on them.
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