Transformers questions by newbies, and not-so-newbies

[sanbot]

Thanks Paulbot, I'll check it out.

[roller]

we try again

Actionmaster Axer apart from the Arcee spotlight, has he appeared in any other fiction?

[Paulbot]

No, he doesn't seem to have, although I have a vague memory that he's in the background of one of the last Marvel G1 comics.

[Pulse]

Hey Guys, I was wondering if you might be able to provide me with some insight on this issue that's been bugging me. Thanks ahead of time.

Is there any main reason why Hasbro decided to change BW Primal & Megs from a Bat & Alligator to a Gorilla & T. Rex?

Were these 2 original designs "too basic"? Did the target audience not really connect with Primal & Megs being a bat & alligator?

I've been googling this & I can't seem to find anything to answer my query.

[kup]

Hey Guys, I was wondering if you might be able to provide me with some insight on this issue that's been bugging me. Thanks ahead of time.

Is there any main reason why Hasbro decided to change BW Primal & Megs from a Bat & Alligator to a Gorilla & T. Rex?

Were these 2 original designs "too basic"? Did the target audience not really connect with Primal & Megs being a bat & alligator?

I've been googling this & I can't seem to find anything to answer my query.

The original toy only story was that Bat Primal was actually G1 Prime reformatted and Croc Megatron was indeed G1 Megatron reformated using 'genetic experimentations'. The concept of Beast Modes was also considerably different to the cartoon (and following toy waves) in the sense that it was more Beast Machines in Nature. They weren't robots 'wrapped' around artificial organic skin but were actually Cyborgs composed of both robotic and organic parts.

By the time the cartoon was in preproduction, the writers (who did massive amounts of research on Transformers G1&G2) realized that the toy Beast Mode concept would not fly well with fans despite Hasbro pushing it so they changed it completely to make the Alt modes more Pretender like in concept, successfully maintaining the Transformers as robots similar to G1 despite organic looking Beast Modes instead of Cyborg Creatures.

I believe that the Original Bat Primal and Croc Megs were intended to be reformated into Gorilla and T-Rex modes to explain the larger figures but thankfully the cartoon writers decided to make the setting of Beast Wars to take place an untold number of centuries after the end of G2 with a whole new generation of characters.

I believe that this is also a reason why many of the BW cast have G1 names despite being completely different characters. They ware originally intended to be their G1 namesake!

Nowadays G1 names are slapped at random on figures to maintain copyright.

The Bat Primal and Croc Megatron story is only isolated to the initial toy release, it never made it to mainstream canon.

[Pulse]

Thanks kup.

I guess a hell of a lot of planning/research went into the early stages of the BW era. Considering the debacle that was G2, they either had to save TFs or they would have followed the same path of Gobots.

[roller]

in idw its says that the alligator form was optional but megatron went with the stronger trex form

[roller]

is 2007 movie megatron technically a protoform? he never seemed to scan a new mode and he looks the same in the comics, your thoughts?

[STL]

is 2007 movie megatron technically a protoform? he never seemed to scan a new mode and he looks the same in the comics, your thoughts?

My interpretation was that a protoform was a minimalist form for TFs when they go on long travels through outer space to conserve energon. They re-scan a new mode after they arrive at the new destination or access something from their old database.

I figured that since Megatron crash landed on Earth when he was in pursuit, he retained his basic Cybertronian form?

[dirge]

No, because he travelled through space in his established alternate mode, which happens to be a non-Earthen form.