The Random Transformers Thoughts Thread

[GoktimusPrime]

Today marks the 30th anniversary of when the Transformers Generation 2 cartoon first aired on Australian television.

[GoktimusPrime]

A nihilist by any other name...
The G2 repaint of Legacy Drag Strip is called "Shadow Stripe," which I think is cool because it makes him/her into a new character. But then the G2 repaint of Legacy Dead End is called "Dead End." Nothing wrong with this, per se... it's just gonna bug my OCD if four of the five G2 coloured Legacy Stunticons are going to retain their G1 names except for Shadow Stripe. I've already pre-ordered TL G2 Dead End, so obviously it's not going to stop me from buying them.

Terrorcon logo
There's an image of a concept art for Rise of the Beasts Scourge showing him with a faceplate resembling a Decepticon logo, making him arguably look more like Tarn. I'm personally glad that they didn't go with this and opted for the new Terrorcon logo instead. To me, the Terrorcon logo looks like a corrupted Autobot logo, which implies that Scourge is some kind of corrupted Prime. Possibly from a Prime who pre-dated Sentinel, or a Prime from another universe, or a fallen clone of a Prime. And it also implies that the other Terrorcons may be some kind of corrupted Autobots too.

It could also be that, just as the Autobot logo is the face of Primus, the Terrorcon logo is the face of Unicron. Horns on the head and a pair of long fangs with a gaping maw. The similarity between the two representing how Unicron is the Yin to Primus' Yang. The Terrorcon logo also looks similar to the Unicron masks worn by the Acolytes of Unicron in the G1 comics.

[GoktimusPrime]

Last month was the fortieth anniversary of Tokyo Toy Show 1983, which ran from the 16th to 19th of June. It was at this convention that Takara showcased their new Diaclone Car Robot and Microman Micro Change line. A Hasbro employee, whose identity has yet to be uncovered (it's theorised that he was from Hasbro's European branch), was in attendance at the show. This Hasbro rep then contacted Hasbro USA employee, Henryk Orenstein, who then persuaded Hasbro CEO Stephen Hassenfeld and R&D Vice President George Dunsay, to obtain licences for these toys from Takara to adapt for Hasbro markets.



I hope that some day the identity of this Hasbro rep will be uncovered some day. But to whomever he or she may be, we salute you!

[GoktimusPrime]

This piece of trivia came to me via Paul Agnew, but yesterday was the 26th anniversary of when episode 1 of Beast Wars first aired on Australian television, Channel 7's CheezTV.

I was living in Japan at the time, so I have no first hand lived-in memory of this. Over there, BW didn't begin airing until the 1th of October (18:00). My first exposure to the Beast Wars cartoon was the Japanese dub. Watching the original English-language format of the show later on sounded weird to me, only because I had become accustomed to the dub, but I weened myself off the dub and acclimated to the original English language version. I watched Seasons 2 and 3 exclusively in English; I've never bothered to watch "Beast Wars Metals" (JP dub of BW S2-3 combined into one series). Having said that, I can't help but have a bit of a soft spot for the Japanese dub... I do have a few episodes on DVD that came packed with the Telemocha BW toys, but I'm not going to hunt down the entire series. Interestingly enough, the Japanese dub cast are reprising their roles for the Japanese dub of Rise of the Beasts, with the notable exception of Airazor; because Airazor was a bloke in the JP dub, and evidently Paramount wants to keep Airazor as female in RotB so they've replaced Iwanaga Tetsuya with voice actress Honda Takako (who previously dubbed Slo-Mo in TF Animated). Iwanaga was more commonly known in the 90s as the voice of Ken Masters in the Street Fighter video game series. "Airazor, SHOURYUUKEN!"

[GoktimusPrime]

Happy birthday to Peter Cullen.

[kovert]

...yesterday was the 26th anniversary of when episode 1 of Beast Wars first aired on Australian television, Channel 7's CheezTV.

Cheez TV aired on Channel Ten on weekday mornings!

[JJJ]

And that explains why I never even heard of Beast Wars until well over a decade later - we never had either channel here in 1997. You kinda forget how isolated and splintered things were compared to now, back in the 90s...

[kovert]

Indeed. Everything is so easy to access online these days.

[Paulbot]

Cheez TV aired on Channel Ten on weekday mornings!

Yeah it wasn’t on Cheez TV. Two eps a week on Channel 7 in the afternoons.

[DELTAprime]

I could be wrong, but I thought I saw Beast Wars on weekday mornings on Agro's Cartoon Connection.