The Random Transformers Thoughts Thread

[FatalityPitt]

You know you've got an unhealthy obsession with Transformers when you start having dreams and/or nightmares pertaining to them.

I dreamt last night that I ordered an expensive figure online, I think it might've been Encore G1 Fort Max (can't remember exactly). Instead of receiving the figure I wanted, the online store posted me 5 or 6 copies of a Voyager Class "Link" figure, which was an unpopular figure that noboby wanted. I was going to email the store, but the website closed down, and their phone number was no longer in service. So instead of having the figure I wanted (...and paid silly amounts of money for); I got stuck with half a dozen copies of a toy no one wanted.

I think this is a sign that I should try to go cold turkey from Transfomers for a while..

.. Oh yeah, and for anyone curious enough, in this dream/alternate universe; the unpopular Link figure was a Legend of Zelda homage toy that was basically a green/brown/yellow redeco of TR Alpha Trion (same mold, except without facial hair on the head).

[GoktimusPrime]

There's a thread dedicated to discussing Transformers dreams here.

I think this is a sign that I should try to go cold turkey from Transfomers for a while..

C'mon, you've lasted 32 years without breaking away from Transformers, why start now?

[FatalityPitt]

There's a thread dedicated to discussing Transformers dreams here.


C'mon, you've lasted 32 years without breaking away from Transformers, why start now?

Wow, this site has everything. I'll be interested in reading about some of these dreams..

Yeah, I suppose that there are worse things I could be addicted to. Even if I do drop Transformers (which would be very VERY hard), I'll probably find something else that'll rule my personal life just as much. Lol

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Wow, this site has everything. I'll be interested in reading about some of these dreams..

Yeah, I suppose that there are worse things I could be addicted to. Even if I do drop Transformers (which would be very VERY hard), I'll probably find something else that'll rule my personal life just as much. Lol

I swing between video games and Transformers personally. If I'm not obsessing over one, its the other. My wife wishes I'd obsess over her

[FatalityPitt]

I swing between video games and Transformers personally. If I'm not obsessing over one, its the other. My wife wishes I'd obsess over her

My main thing were comic books (DC, Marvel, Image, etc) until this year. Before I was just a casual Transformers fan, then when Titan Masters turned up at stores, it became a full blown obsession. The first Transfomers I ever gotten as a child were all Headmasters, and spending most of my childhood in Malaysia; the first Transfomers fiction I watched was the Headmasters anime. So Hasbro/Takara really got me by the balls when Titan Masters were announced.

I suppose it's good timing, since (frankly) Marvel comics had been declining in quality since their AXIS event (actually the crossover events have been sucking for years, except Secret Wars - the only good event since 2010). Though, DC seems too be getting better with the 'Rebirth' relaunch.

[Dinkydarth]

You mean RiD Prime? Yeah, the Deluxe Rachet seemed simple enough, but Knock Out (deluxe) was a mind-boggler. I theorize that they made the transformations simpler because some people might have complained about them being too complex for younger fans. Also, the more complicated the transformation, the greater the risk of breakage, I think. If you're into complex/challenging transformations, you might want to check out RtS Deluxe Perceptor. To this day it still baffles me.

Yeah, I have that figure, quite tricky transformation.

[BigTransformerTrev]

May 2017 be full of TF toys, movies and cartoons to your liking.

Happy New Year!

[GoktimusPrime]

A Transformers New Year greeting to all.

[GoktimusPrime]

Machine Wars was a strange, strange line. Admitedly I didn't buy any of its toys since I was more interested in Beast Wars at the time, and I think I might've been in the majority.. I don't think Hasbro invested much thought into that line either and probably just did it in attempt to please the "trukk-not-monkey" crowd

^Pretty much accurate.

The larger boxed figures in Machine Wars were all just G1 figures redecoed and repackaged, but some of the retooling made them not as good as their original figures. The most noticeable of this was the retooling of G1 Thunder Clash as MW Optimus Prime. While MWOP definitely had better colours, they did remove his rapid fire missile launching gimmick... although it's still mentioned in MWOP's tech specs! The smaller carded Basic figures were all moulds developed but never released for Generation 2.

Machine Wars allowed Hasbro to test the market to see if there was still any interest in vehicular Transformers in 1997 with relatively little cost to themselves since there was 0% R&D into the line. All that effort was being poured into Beast Wars. And you can't blame Hasbro for doing that, because we saw how the vehicle-based G1 ended and G2 utterly failed as an attempted revival. Twice bitten thrice shy.

I was one of the impatient ones who imported MW from the US (as during 1997 it was an US KB Toys exclusive line), only for MW to then be released in other countries in 1998 and in Australia it shelfwarmed badly. Really badly. Kmart even started selling them in "versus sets" which was two toys (an Autobot and a Decepticon) but stuck together via shrink-wrap. This made them better value for money, but I still remember seeing those "versus sets" clogging shelves for yonks. You literally couldn't give these toys away. On the other hand, Beast Wars was a solid seller and bringing the Transformers brand from strength to strength. On the ugly side, BW also attracted toy-scalping scum bags.

(I mean, they made Prowl into a formula 1 car with a green head..).

Meh... considering that this was an abandoned G2 concept it doesn't strike me as odd at all. Remember that G2 also gave us...
* A green Megatron
* A purple Megatron
* A black Mirage
* A purple Ramjet
* A brittle gold Slingshot
* A fluoro "hurt your eyes" Soundwave
* A white Blast Off (hey, that's realistic!) - with purple camouflage (never mind...)
* A blue Sideswipe
* A black Sideswipe (okay, this actually worked well for him; although the weapon colours were still terrible and the MP toy deliberately avoids this)
...etc
A green-headed Prowl wouldn't have looked out of place among these toys. At least the rest of his body spotted the same black and white colour scheme of the G1 toy.

[FatalityPitt]

... And you can't blame Hasbro for doing that, because we saw how the vehicle-based G1 ended and G2 utterly failed as an attempted revival. Twice bitten thrice shy.

......

Remember that G2 also gave us...
* A green Megatron
* A purple Megatron
* A black Mirage
* A purple Ramjet
* A brittle gold Slingshot
* A fluoro "hurt your eyes" Soundwave
* A white Blast Off (hey, that's realistic!) - with purple camouflage (never mind...)
* A blue Sideswipe
* A black Sideswipe (okay, this actually worked well for him; although the weapon colours were still terrible and the MP toy deliberately avoids this)
...etc

In retrospect, Generation 2 also would have been difficult to market. I theorise that G2 didn't catch on mainly because of the inconsistency between the toy aesthetics and the cartoon. If memory serves, the G2 cartoons that aired during the time the toys came out were basically repeats of the original G1 cartoons. The problem: The aesthetics in the cartoons didn't match the toys being sold at the time; e.g. G2 Sideswipe was black (or blue) while he was still being shown in the cartoon as red, G2 Ironhide was either a jeep (powermaster?? I forget the name of the gimmick) or a silver ute (gobot) while his cartoon portrayal still showed him as a red van, etc, etc.

So as you can imagine, the cartoon didn't advertise the toys as effectively as it did in the 1980's.

Dilemma:
1) Hasbro could have commissioned for a new animated series be made for G2, but that would have been expensive and it had already been done (original cartoon).
2) Make the G2 toys look faithful to the cartoon... but if they did that; fans who collected G1 since the begining might complain about not getting anything new and different.

There was of course the G2 comics published by Marvel, which applied the G2 aesthetic to some of the characters featured like Megatron and Sideswipe. However the problem with comics is that they don't reach as wide an audience as a cartoon on free-to-air TV. Also, the comics, to be honest, were pretty violent (Case in point: http://tfwiki.net/mediawiki/images2/...s_Override.jpg). If young kids were the primary demographic to sell the toys to, the comic wouldn't have been appropriate.

G2 was a tough sell. Fortunately, with Beast Wars, they were able to enter fairly unexplored territory that both old and new fans could get into. Plus, some might disagree, but the toys were excellent! The common use of ball joints made the figures more articulated and posable than ever, and the organic exteriors gave the beast modes a somewhat realistic look. Also, because they were all animals (not aliens or mutants); this wasn't a gimmick within Transformers, but something totally new.

I think vehicular modes were dead and done at the start of the BW days, and the only way they could be fashionable again was for old fans to become nostalgic, or for Hasbro/Takara to run out of ideas or gimmicks around Beast Wars that they'd have to go back to vehicles. All of which happened eventually.