Transformers questions by newbies, and not-so-newbies

[heroic_decepticon]

I don't believe I could do a better job of creating a new Character can anyone else? Was that the sound of silence, highly unlikely I'm sure someone here has something to say and off you go.

That is not a fair question to ask and that's just not how things go. Not being able to do something 'better' than someone else does not deprive one of the (for lack of a better word) freedom to talk about it or comment about it. If that were the case, commentators for things like football, tennis, F1 and the like would go the way of the dodo. I'm pretty sure tennis commentators can't 'do a better job' at tennis than Roger Federer, but they sure can talk about him. I'm sure we common people can't 'do a better job' at soccer better than Roberto Baggio, but we sure as hell can talk about him when he missed his penalty kick in the '94 World Cup and lost it for Italy...

Just because we may (and its a pretty big may) not be able to do a better job at creating a new character does not mean we cannot point out that a newly created character is lousy.

Anyway, its McCarthy's job to write and he blew it (judging from the general fan reaction); if I sucked at my job, I wouldn't begrudge people telling me I sucked, even if they can't do my job on their best day.

[Golden Phoenix]

I don't think it matters if they made a new character or used an old one.
Drift or some other random unused G1 character, they would have still been the same forced bad ass cliché character that would have been slammed. There were the same complaints about Perceptor when he suddenly became a super-dooper sharp shooter but because he had an established background in multiple continuities he avoided most of the flack.

Drift is pretty much the same as Hot Rod was in the original TF Movie. Typical stereotype, who appears out of nowhere and ends up doing all these bad ass kind of things to save the day.
Both were new characters, both were stereotypes. The only difference was that later on Rodimus Prime got more story for him, much more than a 1 shot comic, and hey people liked him. Rodimus also shows up in different continuities in various ways, shapes and characterisations.
End of the day, people like the guy, no fuss. Same goes for a lot of the movie cast.

Drift has had a main role in 1 series and made a few appearances here and there. Given time he might become a liked character as others interpret him.
But at the moment he has had 1 main role and it sucked. You got to give the character time to develop, and who knows, maybe in 20 years he will be a classic character

[griffin]

Drift ended up with an excellent toy, no doubt about that so Kudos to the Takara Tomy designer but I can't give McCarthy points for trying when his ambitions were more self serving than progressive.

Find another fan who wouldn't want their pet character(s) used in an official sense.
Even Simon Furman does it (haven't we had enough of Grimlock and Unicron being the centre of the universe when he's writing?). His 'self serving ambitions' (as you put it) with his free reign on the direction of the comic, led to Shane being employed in the first place because of falling sales.

It's every fanboy's wet dream to have their creation made official, or, OMG, made into a toy. Who wouldn't do the same in his position if you had the chance?

And the snowballing of Drift's usage wouldn't be Shane's fault. He created the character and offered it to the story - IDW and Hasbro not only approved it's addition, but wanted more (a Spotlight), more (a toy), more (a mini-series)! You really think Shane would tell them, 'no'? Would you?
Drift wouldn't have been increasingly used if Hasbro and IDW didn't want it that way.
You think Don Figueroa, another fan who's living the dream, who inspired several War Within toys and the Cybertron Starscream toy, would tell Hasbro not to produce toys of his creations? Most fans would sell their soul to get Hasbro to do what Shane and Don have had done, but for these two, Hasbro came to them. That means they are doing something right.

Too many people are either just jealous that another fan is living the dream, or just lashing out at anything Shane does because of how AHM turned out (which would be more IDW's/Hasbro's fault for wanting a change of direction).

(And people shouldn't be so determined to obsessively criticise something that others enjoy, as it just spoils it for them and doesn't make you feel any better anyway - make your point and then leave it at that)

[kup]

.

(And people shouldn't be so determined to obsessively criticise something that others enjoy, as it just spoils it for them and doesn't make you feel any better anyway - make your point and then leave it at that)

I think that comment misrepresents the discussion in the last few posts.

We are having a discussion on the validity of the character Drift and it has been civil. The discussion with Sharky is working both ways - We are not just posting because we want to gang up and bash Drift because Sharky likes him.

[griffin]

Yeah I know, I just wanted to get it in there while I was thinking about it, as it relates to the occasional Drift/Shane/AHM/Bay-hate by various people here. I don't want newer members and guests to think we are a negative bunch, as it might lead to them holding back on what talking about what they like about TFs.

[optimus1]

I'm not against Drift, instead I rather think it's good how they inserted a new character into the G1 Universe. Remember how they inserted the 'new' character Sunstorm? Not bad from an unnamed background G1 character into a toy!

I think basically the best way to show the existence of a new character is to show him off all the time. Also, who doesn't like a transformer who uses swords?

[GoktimusPrime]

But that's the thing - Sunstorm's not really new. He first appeared in G1 episode #1. It's just that his character was later severely fleshed out. But that's fine. Happens in Star Wars all the time.

But the thing I have with Drift is that McCarthy likes writing "GeeWun" stories that utilises Transformers almost entirely from 1984-86. As heroic_decepticon said, there's a massive host of other underutilised G1 Transformers that McCarthy could've drawn upon and made cool. Look at Last Stand of the Wreckers -- they took characters like Pyro, Ironfist and Hasbro's Overlord and look how popular they are now! How many of us would seriously give a hoot about Pyro if not for LSOTW?

I like kup's comparison of Drift with Poochie from the Simpsons. He's full of clichés and acts like he's been there the whole time, when he really hasn't! As MV75 recently eluded to - who the heck is this guy?!

I also agree with what heroic_decepticon said. Sure, most of us here couldn't write a better character or story. But Drift reminds of why I generally HATE reading fanfics - because so many of them are centred around some uber-powerful undefeatable Gary Stu or Mary Sue character! It's the same reason why a lot of gamers hate playing with Power Players who run around with super powerful unbeatable Munchkin characters who have unlimited Mana for casting Magick Missiles and Ogres can never surround them because they have Morton Khyton's Faithful Watchdog cast - and what LUCK, an Ogre-Slaying Knife that gives them a +1 against Ogres! (Drift has a Decepticon-slaying sword that seems to grant him instant critical hits with bonus damage against Decepticons unless he rolls a natural 1... which I don't think he has yet. I swear his his dice are loaded). But I don't expect a professional writer whom I'm paying $6-7 per issue for to come up with a character that reads like it was from a badly written amateur fan fiction or role play adventure!

Drift... you either love him or hate him. I think the toy is pretty decent despite my feelings for the character (my main gripe is the shoulders which limit articulation).

[Sky Shadow]

Find another fan who wouldn't want their pet character(s) used in an official sense... It's every fanboy's wet dream to have their creation made official, or, OMG, made into a toy. Who wouldn't do the same in his position if you had the chance?... You think Don Figueroa, another fan who's living the dream, who inspired several War Within toys and the Cybertron Starscream toy, would tell Hasbro not to produce toys of his creations? Most fans would sell their soul to get Hasbro to do what Shane and Don have had done, but for these two, Hasbro came to them. That means they are doing something right... Too many people are either just jealous that another fan is living the dream...

As I have said before in the private "G1 fapping forum" of the board, the problem is that Shane McCarthy is not a fan and doesn't care about Transformers. He was given the job to write for IDW and yet couldn't even be arsed to read Furman's work - the universe he was supposed to be working in. His stories only include 1984-1986 GeeWun characters, G2 Deluge, Universe Dropshot and Drift, presumably because they're the only Transformers he's heard of. Before he'd even done anything for Transformers, Drift appeared, and all McCarthy has ever done since is write about a dozen issues that were so bad that he got replaced on the ongoing title and he only returns to write more about Drift - a boring cliché who should not exist.

I have never had a problem when real fans or creators who love Transformers invent original characters. Simon Furman, Bob Forward, Larry DiTillio, Derrick J. Wyatt, M Sipher, Don Figueroa, Nick Roche etc. are all great creators and fans who loved and cared about what they do. Their original characters were great and I will always buy their output and any toys (like the upcoming Darkmount - Straxus - squee!) of their original creations. On the other hand, I would sooner run over a Drift toy with my car than own one.

[dirge]

I'm all for new characters within the G1 sphere - personally I'd like more of that rather than series reboots every 2 years (although I understand why Hasbro wants those reboots). I think the Mary Sue comments are what's most relevant here though. Sunstorm was generally well received despite being (essentially) a new G1 character, Drift is not because this character is "taking over the franchise" to a degree.

Had he been a story arc or someone in the general cast of characters (eg Emirate Xaaron), rather than being as prominent/powerful as Luke Skywalker, I don't think the animousity would exist.

Personally I'm glad we getting "new" G1 characters - just as I like Road Rage, Crosscut etc, and while Drift's toy isn't very G1 it's a great toy. I'm not a comic reader so he doesn't bother me at all, but I can see why others dislike him.

[GoktimusPrime]

the problem is that Shane McCarthy is not a fan and doesn't care about Transformers. He was given the job to write for IDW and yet couldn't even be arsed to read Furman's work - the universe he was supposed to be working in.

You don't have to be a fan to just be dedicated to your job. Look at Bob Forward and Larry DiTillio - they've admitted that they weren't fans when they were first commissioned to write Beast Wars. They admitted that they knew next to nothing about Transformers at the time. But we all know that they went to a lot of effort to consult fans and even used their own personal time to do homework and research into G1 and G2, thus giving us a widely loved Emmy-Award winning series, considered by many fans to be the best story ever written for a TF cartoon. Forward and DiTillio may have become fans throughout the process of writing Beast Wars, but they weren't fans to begin with. It's just that they cared about what they were writing, and it shows in the final product.