The Random Transformers Thoughts Thread

[FatalityPitt]

I really liked the Hearts of Steel as a concept, I was very tempted to buy some of the unofficial offerings that were made around the year or two after the comic came out.
The other that comes to mind is the Scout Class Biplane that came out around the time of Revenge of the fallen. I really enjoyed that mould.
I would totally get behind a line of voyager and deluxe industrial revolution era transformers.

If HasTak ever run out of ideas, Hearts of Steel would be a great concept to explore. Off the top of my head, I can already think on at least 5 Bumblebee toys that turn into yellow mini-cars (and there's probably more); but I don't think there's ever been a Bumblebee toy that turns into a Victorian/Industrial Revolution era train.

Also, I know we've had loads of Starscreams (and seekers!), and people probably roll their eyes every time another one is announced.. But you can't deny that this is awesome!

RE: this post

What is everyone's favourite Decepticon from the live actions movies other than Megatron, Starscream, Barricade or Soundwave? You must choose a character that you genuinely like, not your least unlikable or most tolerable. It must be a Decepticon that you truly find to be an awesome character. And explain why. GO!

There's no challenge here. I hate the movies! Therefore I hate ALL the transformers that appear in them! And they ALL look like ugly insects to me!

JUST KIDDING (everybody calm down)

Thinking about it more seriously... I thought DOTM Shockwave was pretty cool. It looked like G1 Shockwave (kinda sorta), and like G1 Shockwave; he was quite strong and menacing (enough to duel with Optimus), and he seemed like an evil engineer/mad scientist type (assuming he built the giant millipede thing that destroyed the buildings). But to be honest, his appearance felt more like a cameo because he was barely in it (less than 5 minutes, including the fight scenes), and he only had one line in the whole film (just one word actually, "Optimussss").

[Paulbot]

Your mileage may vary but I liked Wheelie. There's plenty of reasons I could dislike him of course, but he's more interesting than pretty much every other Decepticon in ROTF because he has a personality, adds some comic relief (and is definitely better than the other small cons in the spy role - Frenzy, Ravage, Laserbeak).

[Ploughmans Lunch]

What was the design rationale behind Year of the Goat Soundwave/Laser Prime (Moreso Soundwave)? I mean, all jokes aside, I just don't understand. Year of the Horse Optimus Prime sorta makes sense but... I'm a bit lost. Like, surely they could've done something worthwhile?

Is there anything written anywhere about that or any kind of honest opinion from Hasbro or whatever?

[GoktimusPrime]

Thinking about it more seriously... I thought DOTM Shockwave was pretty cool. It looked like G1 Shockwave (kinda sorta), and like G1 Shockwave; he was quite strong and menacing (enough to duel with Optimus), and he seemed like an evil engineer/mad scientist type (assuming he built the giant millipede thing that destroyed the buildings). But to be honest, his appearance felt more like a cameo because he was barely in it (less than 5 minutes, including the fight scenes), and he only had one line in the whole film (just one word actually, "Optimussss").

I was bitterly disappointed by Shockwave in DotM and I walked in with high expectations for that character. A lot of this had to do with the comics leading up to DotM which portrayed Shockwave as being very much like his G1 Comic counterpart, the cold, highly intelligent and emotionless logic-fiend. But on screen he was nothing more than a keeper for the Decepticon driller beast. He never transformed - he was just a set piece. Even the Rancor Keeper in Return of the Jedi had more personality (we at least got to see him cry after Luke killed the Rancor, showing that he had some modicum of personality). Shockwave was nothing more than a monster controlling a bigger monster. That's it.

I even took Shockwave with me to watch DotM on the opening night because I was really looking forward to enjoying this character. Boy was I let down.

Your mileage may vary but I liked Wheelie. There's plenty of reasons I could dislike him of course, but he's more interesting than pretty much every other Decepticon in ROTF because he has a personality, adds some comic relief (and is definitely better than the other small cons in the spy role - Frenzy, Ravage, Laserbeak).

^I agree. Wheelie was one of the rare moments where the Bayverse character worked out to be superior to the G1 counterpart. Stupid leg-humping aside. I quite like Frenzy though as he essentially played the role of G1 Soundwave in terms of transforming into a regular household object that humans would carry past security. But admittedly it's really the concept of Frenzy that I like rather than the character. Characterwise I agree with your choice on Wheelie.

[GoktimusPrime]

From here

I personally don't go on the "ruined my childhood" thing and I hate it too. And if anyone makes this claim I'll join you in shutting them down. The funny thing is that when some fans see something in a new continuity that they don't like, they claim that it's "ruined" G1. Yet when the opposite happen, nobody makes the counter claim.
e.g. no matter how awesome IDW's G1 gets, nobody claims that it's "enhanced my childhood!"

The only way that someone might do that is if the story is in continuity with G1 and is officially retconning it - as happened with BW and BM. And BM was the first to cop a lot of the "ruined my childhood" hate (Bob Skir even copped death threats from fans ). One main source of this vitriol was BM portraying Cybertron as having an organic core. But Bob Skir didn't make this up - it originated from G1! In the Marvel Comics, Primus crashed into a rocky asteroid which he then reshaped as Cybertron. It also showed the original inhabitants of Cybertron as being a technorganic looking race of Demons who dwelled in Cybertron's Underworld. Both the G1 comics and cartoon showed Cybertron as having a breathable atmosphere. IIRC Transformers Prime was the first TF story which showed Cybertron as having an unbreathable atmosphere. But the G1 comics showed Cybertron having an organic core, even with water (deep enough for Seawatch to zip through in boat mode, dragging Bludgeon along for the ride!). The G1 cartoon episode "The Dweller in the Depths" showed that Cybertron had an organic core in the G1 cartoon universe, and that the Quintessons' first creations were the technorganic Trans-Organics. So Beast Machines was actually being canonically G1 accurate in showing Cybertron with an organic core.

[BigTransformerTrev]

From here

I personally don't go on the "ruined my childhood" thing and I hate it too. And if anyone makes this claim I'll join you in shutting them down. The funny thing is that when some fans see something in a new continuity that they don't like, they claim that it's "ruined" G1. Yet when the opposite happen, nobody makes the counter claim.
e.g. no matter how awesome IDW's G1 gets, nobody claims that it's "enhanced my childhood!"

The only way that someone might do that is if the story is in continuity with G1 and is officially retconning it - as happened with BW and BM. And BM was the first to cop a lot of the "ruined my childhood" hate (Bob Skir even copped death threats from fans ). One main source of this vitriol was BM portraying Cybertron as having an organic core. But Bob Skir didn't make this up - it originated from G1! In the Marvel Comics, Primus crashed into a rocky asteroid which he then reshaped as Cybertron. It also showed the original inhabitants of Cybertron as being a technorganic looking race of Demons who dwelled in Cybertron's Underworld. Both the G1 comics and cartoon showed Cybertron as having a breathable atmosphere. IIRC Transformers Prime was the first TF story which showed Cybertron as having an unbreathable atmosphere. But the G1 comics showed Cybertron having an organic core, even with water (deep enough for Seawatch to zip through in boat mode, dragging Bludgeon along for the ride!). The G1 cartoon episode "The Dweller in the Depths" showed that Cybertron had an organic core in the G1 cartoon universe, and that the Quintessons' first creations were the technorganic Trans-Organics. So Beast Machines was actually being canonically G1 accurate in showing Cybertron with an organic core.

Some interesting points

[DELTAprime]

When deciding between Takara and Hasbro versions of Generations I normally go for the screen accurate version. But for guys like Six Shot and Fastlane that only had a couple of seconds on screen it really doesn't seem to matter as much. So I'm just grabbing the first release as long as it's not an atrocious colour scheme.

[GoktimusPrime]

How did you display your Transformers as a child and how does it differ from the way that you display your Transformers now?

I first started displaying my Transformers in 1985. As a kid I sorted my Transformers according to faction, so Autobots on one side and Decepticons on the other, then by "teams" or sub-groups. So Autobot Cars, Mini-Vehicles, Jets, Cassettes, Dinobots, Insecticons etc. And it didn't matter what year the toy came from, they were all lumped together by sub-group. e.g. Autobot Cars from 1984-88 were all lumped together; for 1987-88, the Targetmasters and Powermasters were classified as "Cars" to me. Similarly for the Decepticon Jets. All Pretenders were lumped together too, so the 1988 large Pretenders, the 1989 small Pretenders, Classic Pretenders, Pretender Monsters etc. - all lumped together. I continued doing this all the way through the 80s and early 90s.

By the mid-90s I was rapidly running out of space in my childhood bedroom, and so I started abandoning the idea of sorting my toys out so methodically for display. I basically just shoved toys wherever I could fit them. Space was a premium and I just didn't have the luxury to be choosy... but I refused to put them in storage, but looking back it was a real mess. Here's what 1/3 of my collection looked like at the time:


There was a very brief period when I moved out of home as a uni student and had a place to my own. It was there that I put different Transformers (and other toy lines) in different rooms. e.g. BW in the lounge room, G1 in one bedroom, G2 in the bathroom etc. Then I moved back home, although my parents gave me a spare room which was converted into my study and thus I split my collection up between that room and my old bedroom and thus reverted back more towards how I'd displayed my toys as a kid.

By the 2000s I'd moved out of home and was renting, initially with flatmates/housemates, then later on my own. The size and style of display varied depending on where I was living, but just as an example here's what my room looked like in 2005:

I tried to sort them out with some semblance of order, but honestly ended up just shoving toys wherever I could fit them.

It was when my wife and I first moved into our first place together that I had a fully dedicated Transformers room. I decided that this room would be for nothing but Transformers, with all other collectibles being displayed in the garage. This is when I started displaying my Transformers in the way that I display them now - by series and faction.

It started off looking like this just after moving in in 2007...

...to looking like this when we moved out a year ago...

['07Camaro]

How did you display your Transformers as a child and how does it differ from the way that you display your Transformers now?

I first started displaying my Transformers in 1985. As a kid I sorted my Transformers according to faction, so Autobots on one side and Decepticons on the other, then by "teams" or sub-groups. So Autobot Cars, Mini-Vehicles, Jets, Cassettes, Dinobots, Insecticons etc. And it didn't matter what year the toy came from, they were all lumped together by sub-group. e.g. Autobot Cars from 1984-88 were all lumped together; for 1987-88, the Targetmasters and Powermasters were classified as "Cars" to me. Similarly for the Decepticon Jets. All Pretenders were lumped together too, so the 1988 large Pretenders, the 1989 small Pretenders, Classic Pretenders, Pretender Monsters etc. - all lumped together. I continued doing this all the way through the 80s and early 90s.

By the mid-90s I was rapidly running out of space in my childhood bedroom, and so I started abandoning the idea of sorting my toys out so methodically for display. I basically just shoved toys wherever I could fit them. Space was a premium and I just didn't have the luxury to be choosy... but I refused to put them in storage, but looking back it was a real mess. Here's what 1/3 of my collection looked like at the time:


There was a very brief period when I moved out of home as a uni student and had a place to my own. It was there that I put different Transformers (and other toy lines) in different rooms. e.g. BW in the lounge room, G1 in one bedroom, G2 in the bathroom etc. Then I moved back home, although my parents gave me a spare room which was converted into my study and thus I split my collection up between that room and my old bedroom and thus reverted back more towards how I'd displayed my toys as a kid.

By the 2000s I'd moved out of home and was renting, initially with flatmates/housemates, then later on my own. The size and style of display varied depending on where I was living, but just as an example here's what my room looked like in 2005:

I tried to sort them out with some semblance of order, but honestly ended up just shoving toys wherever I could fit them.

It was when my wife and I first moved into our first place together that I had a fully dedicated Transformers room. I decided that this room would be for nothing but Transformers, with all other collectibles being displayed in the garage. This is when I started displaying my Transformers in the way that I display them now - by series and faction.

It started off looking like this just after moving in in 2007...

...to looking like this when we moved out a year ago...

Holy cow, that looks beautiful

Considering that I didn't have too much transformers when I first started collecting, My shelves were pretty much bare. I, too, displayed my transformers by faction; however, I mostly collected Autobots so there was an uneven ratio.

It wasn't untill 2014 where my shelf was full. I started to display them by toy line rather than faction. Leader classes were at the back, voyagers were in front and the deluxes were scattered everywhere. It was a similar formation to that of a class school photo, where you have the tall people in the back and so on. After that, I moved most of my collection where they are displayed in my wardrobe. Takara and Masterpiece figures are kinda mixed in with my Gundams to make up a Japanese robots section. The figures that I cherish the most are used as deskbots. Oh how I love deskbots.

In terms of the changes made, they were quite significant from 2007 to the present day. Now that I have more figures, my room begins to have more character and personality to it.

[Paulbot]

32 years of buying TFs and I still have no real desire to have my TFs on display. Maybe it will click on one day.

But still, I started cataloging my collection on the weekend (using Jaydisc's http://iTFDb.com ) and found I have 91 TFs around my house that I can see without opening a cupboard door or opening a storage tab; so I guess I have some "on display" but a good 30 or more are still MISB.