Transformers Venting thread!

[Ralph Wiggum]

I hereby resolve to not look at the Megatron news thread anymore. The ongoing banal discussion about whether this is a replica firearm, how do I get a licence in my state yada yada is just too much for me. No doubt it will continue for the next 6-8 months or so until its release. That discussion belongs in the Gunformers thread but I've already brought that up, which halted it for only a day or so.....

+1. My finger hovered over the gunformers/ Megatron thread and I thought, "Screw it, the discussion is going in circles and people are asking questions to which there are already answers for."

I'll do the exact same thing as I did with MP05 - pick two or three up in Singapore and have my B709 form ready for customs.

[griffin]

Fixed.

[DaptoDog]

Fixed.

Many thanks Griffin.

[BigTransformerTrev]

My MP Optimus Primal was posted to me yesterday, but I just realised that I haven't updated my postal address so it would've been shipped to my old address. I have had mail redirected since moving, but I can't remember if I paid for 6 months or 12. If it's 6, then the redirection may have expired (don't remember exactly).

Does anyone know if Australia Post sends reminder letters to customers before the mail redirection service expires (and thus offering the option to extend redirection)?

Yes they do, or at least did the last few times I've moved

[GoktimusPrime]

I never got the reminder letter. Anyway, I managed to get to a post office this morning and, after jumping through a couple of flaming hoops (), finally managed to get my service extended. And not a moment too soon, as I found out today that my current redirection service expires on Thursday, and the extension of redirection takes 3 days to come into effect (same as if I applied for a new redirection service ), meaning that the new redirection will start on Friday. I was worried that MP Optimus Primal might arrive early on a day where my old redirect has expired but the new one hasn't started yet.

Now that I've done this, any bet that my parcel won't arrive until the end of this month. #murphyslaw

[FatalityPitt]

Looking at pictures of Legends Apeface (the one who's packed with Condor), and comparing it to the one on my desk.

Dammit Hasbro! Why couldn't you paint your Apeface to look more like that? Now I feel compelled to drop money on Legends Condor/Apeface... And I wouldn't even buy the Titan Return Laserbeak even if its on sale..

EDIT: Actually, I take back the last statement about not buying Laserbeak. I think I'd only him if I were to buy TR Soundwave. No Soundwave is complete without at least a Buzzsaw or Laserbeak.

[Paulbot]

Picked up Wolfwire at Target but even at $15 I couldn't do it. There's like four different shades of yellow on that toy. Did they even bother to attempt colour matching!

[Ozgardian]

I always disliked the name Nemesis Prime. I can't believe Transformers has never made a Primaevil! ...such an obvious choice. Reminds me of the villain in the 1986 animated series of Ghostbusters (which also featured Peter Cullen).

[GoktimusPrime]

I quite like the name Nemesis Prime, being Greek & Latin for "Number 1 Enemy." It's better than "Black Convoy" or "Scourge" (not that 'Scourge' is an inherently bad name, but I think that Nemesis Prime suits it better as an antithesis of Optimus Prime). And this is why I think it's cool to have the "Prime" suffix in the name because it symbolises this antithesis. Takara did it by adding "Convoy" on the end.

As we all know, the character concept was born from Car Robot (RiD2001) where Black Convoy was an evil clone of Fire Convoy. In the first episode of Car Robot, one of Fire Convoy's first lines when he confronted the Destrongers was, 「例え宇宙の果てでも、正義の呼ぶ声のあるところに私は現われる！」which means, "Until the end of the universe I will heed the call to justice!" When Black Convoy emerged from his stasis pod, the first thing he said was, 「例え宇宙の果てだろうと、悪を呼ぶ声ある所に必ずやってくる」("Until the end of the universe I will absolutely come to the call of evil.").

I wouldn't like the name Prime-Evil because it's just too corny and childish. This is because "evil" characters don't see themselves as evil (yes, I know that Car Robot throws around words like "justice" and "evil" but we all know that that show was pitched at a very young audience). And there's the issue of the name probably being trademarked by Schaper Toys who made the Ghostbusters toys in the 80s (Schaper has since been acquired by Tyco, which is now a division of Mattel, Hasbro's rival). This is something that I enjoy about the IDW comics where everyone either sees themselves as the good guys, or they just don't care. Characters like Overlord are similar to say the Joker in The Dark Knight -- doesn't register himself as good or evil (these concepts may not even exist for him), but some folks just want to see the world burn. IDW's Nemesis Prime and Sentinel Prime are evil characters, but neither of them see themselves as evil - both see themselves as the good guys and believe that everyone else, including Optimus Prime, have become lost/corrupted.

Remember that "Megatron" is Greek for "great electrical charge," and "Galvatron" is a combination of Latvian/Lithuanian and Greek for "electrically charged head" (perhaps describing the light up gimmick in the toy's head (which illuminates the robot eyes and cannon mode's barrel)).

[Sinnertwin]

Megatron was "Mega" from "Megaton", you know. "Tron" was from "electronics". I can't say for sure, but my belief is that that name became one of the best known. I remember it was in Doonesbury where the son of Doonsbury is saying that the President is Megatron or something like that. I think it's the best known and regarded among a lot of the names I came up with. At the time, Hasbro actually initially rejected it, and the reasoning was "Well, it sounds too scary because Megatron makes you think of nuclear bombs." and I said "Well, he's the head of the bad guys, the whole idea is for him to be scary." They dropped their protest after that. They would reject names every so often for all sorts of reasons. Although they were really happy, I mean they were just ecstatic generally when I came up with a batch of names for them to look at.

I think Bob Budiansky and co were looking for cool/heroic/dangerous sounding names and had absolutely little to no idea about the Greek origins of megas.
We've just assumed that they must have an existing point of origin & went looking accordingly.