The Random Transformers Thoughts Thread

[griffin]

The packaging explicitly states "velociraptor".

Well, Gen1 Sludge was also officially a "Brontosaurus", which doesn't actually exist... so descriptive labelling on *kids* toys shouldn't be relied upon as being accurate, or used to prove anything.

[Megatran]

Well, Gen1 Sludge was also officially a "Brontosaurus", which doesn't actually exist... so descriptive labelling on *kids* toys shouldn't be relied upon as being accurate, or used to prove anything.

Stupid Wiki making things up.

Oh wait, The Brontosaurus is back.

[BigTransformerTrev]

Well, Gen1 Sludge was also officially a "Brontosaurus", which doesn't actually exist... so descriptive labelling on *kids* toys shouldn't be relied upon as being accurate, or used to prove anything.

I used to think the same, but:

Wikipedia

However, the 2015 study concluded that Brontosaurus was a valid genus of sauropod distinct from Apatosaurus.

[DELTAprime]

I so wish I was recycling my MP clamshells all along. I really only have enough room in the recycling bin every fortnight to get rid of 1 or 2 large MP clamshells.

[Megatran]

*censored censored censored censored*. 600 bucks for a new TF licensed Monopoly board game.

[GoktimusPrime]

In griffin's defence, the Brontosaurus was considered to be a non-existent dinosaur between 1903~2014, so absolutely in the 1980s it was no longer considered to be a real dinosaur until it was reinstated 30 years later.

so descriptive labelling on *kids* toys shouldn't be relied upon as being accurate, or used to prove anything.

It's not just the printing on the packaging, visually the toy is clearly based off the Jurassic Park velociraptor which was based on the deinonychus rather than an actual velociraptor which are quite small IRL. This was likely done to make them look more imposing, especially when they gang up on the T-Rex.

As you can see there is an uncanny similarity between Dinobot and the JP Velociraptor. You can also see that the JP velociraptor is most similar in size and structure to a deinonychus (albeit plucked) than a real velociraptor or the massive utahraptor. The utahraptor was announced in June, 1993, which was coincidentally the same month and year that Jurassic Park was released in US cinemas. So obviously the JP velociraptors could not have been based on the utahraptors, although Stan Winston did joke about the coincidental similarities ("We made it then they discovered it"). And to be fair to both Jurassic Park and Beast Wars, it wasn't until September 2007 that velociraptors were discovered to have feathers. So you can't really blame 'em for portraying these dinosaurs as being "plucked."

In any case, I would expect an MP Dinobot's beast mode to look more similar to a Jurassic Park velociraptor since that was what the original toy (and consequently cartoon model) was inspired by. One advantage of beast modes is that TakaraTOMY don't have to worry about licensing issues affecting the look of the alt mode. They can make Dinobot's velociraptor mode look however they like. This is different from licensed vehicle modes where the look of the vehicle may need to vary from the G1 model in order to satisfy the vehicle company. And example of this is MP Bumblebee who transforms into a proportionally accurate VW Beetle, not a compacted Choro-Q/Penny Racer style Punch Buggy that G1 Bumblebee transforms into. Thankfully it's still recognisable as VW Beetles are already compact cars. An MP Cliffjumper would be trickier as a real life Porsche 924 Turbo looks quite different from the compacted alt mode that the G1 model has. As far as just proportions are concerned an MP Cliffjumper's alt mode may look more similar to Transformers Prime Cliffjumper than G1.

[DELTAprime]

*censored censored censored censored*. 600 bucks for a new TF licensed Monopoly board game.

How can anyone justify $600 for a board game?

[SuspectimusPrime]

How can anyone justify $600 for a board game?

Unless they came up with a Monopoly 'board' that's a transforming remoulded Cybertron Primus with all house/hotels & game tokens being transformable as well. All currency tokens should be different types of energon cubes.

[GoktimusPrime]

*censored censored censored censored*. 600 bucks for a new TF licensed Monopoly board game.

How can anyone justify $600 for a board game?

Yeeeaaah, I think that I'll be sticking with my old Transformers Monopoly game, thanks.

IMO it's still the best version of TF Monopoly as it actually uses places from the TF universe as the streets, with Cybertron and Earth as the most expensive (which makes sense as these are two most important worlds that the TFs battle over, with Earth being the most 'expensive' as it's the richest in resources for them). More obscure or hidden places like Autobase are the cheapest, which again canonically makes sense cos well... Autobase is an underground dump (what you'd expect when the Cybertron-based Autobots are waging guerrilla warfare against established Decepticon warlords). I also like how the transports are actual forms of transportation (the Ark, Nemesis, Transwarp Drive & Space Bridge), and the utilities are super computers (Teletraan 1 and Vector Sigma). Income Tax is "Cover Detected" (oops, you blew being a robot in disguise!) and Luxury Tax is "Replenish Energon".Then there are the bonus Transformers rules,
e.g.
Double 1 = Transwarp to any square on the board
Double 2 = collect $200
Double 3 = remove Energon Cubes (houses) from another player's property
Double 5 = collect $50 from all players of an opposing faction
Double 6 = attack another player's property (if they don't own the whole set)
(I forget what Double 4 does )

Then there Autobot (Community Chest) and Decepticon (Chance) cards which need to be read with a tech-specs decoder (yay!) and give canonical descriptions for what's happening. e.g. the get out of gaol cards have either Unicron or the Dinobots breaking you out of gaol etc. Everything in the game feels like it's in-universe (except for the four corner squares which remain unchanged, apparently for legal reasons (according to TFwiki) but this new version looks like it has new corner squares ). The new corner squares are the one thing that I like the most about the new game, but I'm not going to pay $600 for it!

I saw this version of TF Monopoly at the EB Games Expo in 2015 and it didn't really impress me. Much like this new version it uses G1 characters as streets instead of locations which doesn't make sense to me. IMHO the 2007 game appeals to all TF fans (the Transwarp Drive and Transwarp rule reference Beast Wars*! ) - casual and hardcore - whereas the subsequent games seem to target Gee-Wunners.

Unless they came up with a Monopoly 'board' that's a transforming remoulded Cybertron Primus with all house/hotels & game tokens being transformable as well. All currency tokens should be different types of energon cubes.

That would barely be worth $200 tops.

------------------------------------------------
*As BW explains that the G1 TFs were developing Transwarp technology but hadn't perfected it by G1 Megatron's time.

[DELTAprime]

I saw this version of TF Monopoly at the EB Games Expo in 2015 and it didn't really impress me. Much like this new version it uses G1 characters as streets instead of locations which doesn't make sense to me.

I saw that version of TF Monopoly at my EB Games/Zing before Xmas. I think they were asking $125 for it which is still way too much.