Monthly Board Banners and Themes

[griffin]

Each month will feature a themed banner and discussion topics (in this re-labelled 15th-Anniversary section), based on the most significant Series/Eras in Transformers History... primarily the ones with a range of toys and comics/comics, to discuss the good and bad of the product-range and the accompanying fiction.

I want to generate more "reflecting on the past series" interaction, to inspire and enlighten newer members, as well as prevent long periods of apathy towards the franchise just because Hasbro and/or TakaraTomy spend too much time on something unappealing to the long-term members of the fandom.

Twelve themes/Eras/series have have been allocated to each month, chronologically, and as noted above, the Monthly Themes will only cover a series that has a comprehensive range of toy and fiction options for people to comment on.

As of this year, the months will be broken up as follows (future years may need to include new series, which may require bunching up of older ones)

January - Hasbro Generation 1 (1984-1993 - any country)
February - Japanese Gen1 (1984-1993 - emphasis on the elements that are JP exclusive)
March - Generation 2 (1993-1995)
April - Beast Wars (1995-1999 - includes JP elements, because the fiction isn't easily available to warrant it's own month)
May - Beast Machines (1999-2000)
June - Robots in Disguise (2000-2002)
July - Armada (2002-2003)
August - Energon (2003-2005)
September - Cybertron (2005-2006)
October - Animated (2008-2010)
November - Prime (2011-2013) & Rescue Bots (2011-2013)
December - Movies (1986 classic & 2007-2011 current) & "Others" (for those who just need to talk about a series that isn't diverse enough for its own month)

Japanese equivalents would be covered in whatever US series is listed, but unless we had a decent exposure/availability to it, the focus of discussion will be on the US versions.... because that's what almost all of us here will want to talk about or even know enough to talk about.

As noted in the December month - an various JP & US series/lines/Eras that weren't diverse enough to generate much discussion here for a whole month (compared to the other months) will be grouped in with the Movies Month... as few of the long-term fans will be too keen to be too involved with Movies discussion for a while.

If this concept generates enough interest and discussion, it will be a permanent thing each year, with fresh topics posted for the benefit of new members since the last lot, and for the older members who are keen to have their say again.

The Monthly Banners use toy photos to prevent any legal issues with Hasbro (from using any official images or logos). The special effects done to the photos to create the Banners was done by Paulbot.

January's Banner...