The Soapbox IV: Top 10 Characters of All Time

[Fungal Infection]

Kids today can turn on Tivo or a games console. Most other entertainmant they want they can download. Their parents can order their toys from online shops and leave negative feedback if it doesn't ship next day.

Back then kids still read comics, rode bikes to exotic toy stores searching for toys to swap price labels with and then go back home to beat up their siblings... great times.

Kids today wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes back in 1984.

(double posted - deleted one & fixed a typo - dirge)

The swapping price labels thing gives me a sense of deja vu......

[Borgeman]

So I am pretty sure that if I were 6-10 years old when Armada was released; I would have gone 'meh'; specially if I had previous exposure to older but better designed toys.

hindsight is a wonderful thing

George

[STL]

I think Jaydisc has summed it up best in regard to Armada. I don't like the toyline as a collector and think of it as absolute mediocrity but I do acknowledge its gimmicky appeal. I think we hold Hasbro to a too high standard of care sometimes. Sure, I get frustrated with things like quality control and the like but in terms of design, I can understand where they're going.

Animated is hardly a step in the collector direction but as collectors we were always like to fall into line and start collecting it too. But if u stop n think about, we were the last people Animated was ended at. I don't particularly mind though b/c I imagine w/ TFM movies now, we'll see a balance of Animated-kids style and more classic/realistic stuff.

I just don't think it's fair to say Hasbro are all careless and evil for nto giving a rats about collectors. They don't and we're nothing more than just an afterthought to them.

As in relation to your 10, what Lord Zed said:

I think you missed the point a bit, although truth be told STL did say character, what he should have said is Icon. The explanation he gave implies these are Iconic characters that are recognisable beyond just the fandom. in that regard Prime is more recognisable than Megatron.

If you were writing a list of the most interesting characters or personalities then that would be a lot different. In that regard I'm not sure what your aiming for in the your list.While #4 onwards are all deserving interesting characters Megs, Soundwave and Prime are pretty simple. All 3 are iconic but their personalities are simple. G1 Megatron is your cut and dried cartoon megalomaniac, Soundwave had more personality on the comic but he was limited to just being a schemer who feigned loyalty, no development there. And Prime well you already summed that up.

In terms of TF characters with depth, no list would be complete without Dinobot and Scorponok.

The one thing all this makes me want to do is write a column about character depth. A lot of personal favourites there. You've given me an itch to write about Prime, Dirge.

[kup]

hindsight is a wonderful thing

George

I have done that as a kid when it came to 'popular' things that I didn't like so I am confident I would have.

[Bartrim]

I'll stick up for Hot Shot, yes he is retarded, but he was the spearhead for Armada, the series that pulled TFs back to success from the cock up that BM was.

I think this is a very good point. A lot of people I know (myself included) disregarded TF's when they went into the Beast Wars/Beast Machines era (don't flame me Beast Wars fans I am older and wiser now and enjoyed the series). When I first noticed Armada on Cartoon Network all those years ago seeing them as vehicles rekindled the flame slightly (It wasn't until I found the G1 movie on DVD that it really took off again) and I watched it casually with interest. With Hot Shot being one of the new key characters on a new show I can understand his placement in the list.

[1orion2many]

I liked Beast Machines

[kup]

I think this is a very good point. A lot of people I know (myself included) disregarded TF's when they went into the Beast Wars/Beast Machines era (don't flame me Beast Wars fans I am older and wiser now and enjoyed the series). When I first noticed Armada on Cartoon Network all those years ago seeing them as vehicles rekindled the flame slightly (It wasn't until I found the G1 movie on DVD that it really took off again) and I watched it casually with interest. With Hot Shot being one of the new key characters on a new show I can understand his placement in the list.

I have to agree with the above to some degree. As much as I liked Beast Wars, toy wise (non Japanese) it had a monumental flaw and that was a lack of variety. They were all Beasts, about half were robotic with pseudo vehicle modes (Transmetals) but the Beast theme was still very much present.

Beast Machines tried to provide variety but making the good guys appallingly bad non robot toys and the bad guys drone like robots was not the way to go.

RID also offered variety but compared to BW, BM and Unicron trilogy it was not that prevalent in the eyes of the general public.

When Armada came out; on the surface it looked like they had gone back to their roots with cars, planes, etc and that is excellent and I know that originally this concept did catch my eye but when I saw the gimmick centric toys, cartoon and plot, it killed any enthusiasm I had for it.

However Armada was not the provider of variety as most toys were just gimmick boxes with a vehicle theme of some sort. It neglected variety.

Energon and Cybertron went for over the top Sci-Fi vehicle modes for their entire lines and again neglected variety. However as Dirge mentioned, the smaller toys did do an attempt at realism which worked amazingly well such as Clockers, Armorhide, etc.

The only line which was succesful at providing an excellent balance of variety between realistic, Sci-Fi, Beast Modes (organic looking and robotic) and gimmicks was G1. No line since has been able to provide enough variety to satisfy all tastes.

[Paulbot]

Energon and Cybertron went for over the top Sci-Fi vehicle modes for their entire lines and again neglected variety.

The only line which was succesful at providing an excellent balance of variety between realistic, Sci-Fi, Beast Modes (organic looking and robotic) and gimmicks was G1. No line since has been able to provide enough variety to satisfy all tastes.

I find it hard to believe you think that Cybertron neglected variety when they had slightly sci-fi Earth vehicles (earth planet), Sci-Fi vehicles (speed planet), robotic beast (beast planet), and big construction vehicles ( giant planet), and one Transformer that turned into a whole planet! While the line had a central gimmick it didn't get in the way all that much. I personally thought the Beast Planet toys were the weakest and didn't buy any of those, but there were plenty from the other Planets that I liked.

[kup]

I find it hard to believe you think that Cybertron neglected variety when they had slightly sci-fi Earth vehicles (earth planet), Sci-Fi vehicles (speed planet), robotic beast (beast planet), and big construction vehicles ( giant planet), and one Transformer that turned into a whole planet! While the line had a central gimmick it didn't get in the way all that much. I personally thought the Beast Planet toys were the weakest and didn't buy any of those, but there were plenty from the other Planets that I liked.

Sci-Fi doesn't necessarily equal Space ship.

Many of their car and construction vehicle modes had an overarching futuristic/Sci-Fi theme.

When it comes to Beast Modes, I will concede but they were rather weak as you mentioned but still overwhelmed by the Sci-Fi theme.

Transforming planets are also included in the non realistic Sci-Fi theme, they are actually great examples of it.

[Lord_Zed]

The one thing all this makes me want to do is write a column about character depth. A lot of personal favourites there. You've given me an itch to write about Prime, Dirge.

I look forward to that, but don't forget Scorpy and Dinobot or I will hunt you down, through all of time and space if necessary!!!