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 Cars are great, robots are great, cars that turn into robots are DOUBLE GREAT. That's probably what the enterprising minds at Takara thought when they created the Diaclone: Car Robots toyline in 1982, which would be brought to the rest of the world two years later by Hasbro under a name you might recognise: The Transformers. While the first thing that will come to mind upon hearing that name is probably the 80s cartoon show Hasbro launched to advertise the toyline and the second those new live-action movies everyone's going on about, the franchise as a whole is much, much broader than that and has been going more-or-less strong in animation, comics and, of course, plastic crack for the last 29 years.  Quite frankly, most of it is not very good, but over 30 years, they were bound to hit the mark occasionally. Here's a very shallow overview of the more well known series, if you'd like some more info on an individual one please feel encouraged to just ask.  - The original cartoon, Transformers G1: Goody-two-shoe Autobots and EEEEEEVILLLLLL Decepticons crash land on earth, hijinx ensue. Incredibly 80s and often rather silly, G1 is the kind of thing you watch moreso for its cultural significance and "what the gently caress were they thinking?"-factor than any serious expectation of good storytelling or quality animation. Still fun if you enjoy that kind of 80's weirdness, but then, if that's your thing, then you probably already saw it, didn't you. However, The 1986 movie is where it's really at. While certainly not without its flaws, it's all the fun and sillyness in a much tighter, better written and fantastically animated package and can pretty much be watched as a standalone if you know who Optimus Prime is (you do). Orson Welles plays a giant robot that eats planets, Eric Idle is in it and a loootta people die.  - The Marvel comic series: Actually pre-dating the cartoon but running all the way trough 1991, there's actually two versions of this one, a US one and a much more extensive (332 issues!) UK one. The former is mostly written by the kind of shaky Bob Budiansky, while its end and the UK-unique content were penned by Simon Furman, one of the biggest names and most popular people in Transformers. It's not much of a question which one is better. In its totality the series contains some of the dumbest things ever put to paper, but also some actual Good Writing many fans prefer over the much more well known cartoon. If you like G1, may as well give them a try.  - Beast Wars: Goody-two-shoe Maximals and EEEEEEVILLLLLL Predacons land on earth, hijinx ensue, but this time it's the past and Optimus is an ape. This is far and away considered the best written Transformers cartoon series, and if you can deal with the horrible 90s CGI at all you should watch it. Followed up by Beast Machines, but that one is... Odd, and probably best avoided.  - The various Japanese cartoons, Headmasters, Masterforce, Victory, Robots in Disguise, Armada, Energon, Though actually, it turns out that there's people who like Headmasters (falling under that terrible-but-hilarious thing) and Galaxy Force (for basically being a Brave Series show with transformers). Huh!  - The Dreamwave comic series: PPPPPFFFFFFFFFffffffhhhahahahahahaha Alright, fine. Actually a not insignificant chapter of TF history that started the modern revival of G1, but... Not exactly worth reading nonetheless.  - The life-action movies: Questionably goody-two-shoe Autobots and really kind of pitiful Decepticons crash land on earth, violent murder ensues. Basically responsible for a massive financial and cultural revival of the franchise and a fascinating cultural signifier in general, but also nigh loving unwatchable. It takes a very particular mindset to enjoy them, and if you just want a big action movie about robots, you're probably better served elsewhere.  - Transformers Animated: Goody-two-shoe Autobots crash land on earth with magic McGuffin, EEEEEEVILLLLLL Decepticons want their magic McGuffin, hijinx ensue. A more modern attempt to make a fun and lighthearted cartoon show for children, this one is... Pretty alright? Opinions are actually fairly split on it, many people consider it the second best Transformers cartoon while others, well, don't, but either way there's no harm in trying it out and seeing for yourself. Unfortunately however, it was abruptly cancelled before the planned fourth season.  - Transformers Prime: Goody-two-shoe Autobots and EEEEEEVILLLLLL Decepticons are already on earth(!), hijinx ensue. The currently ongoing series, in its third and final season. You know there are some series that some people absolutely hate and others completely adore? Well, Prime is not such a show; Even in the realm of internet hyperbole responses are pretty, hm, measured. The writing is largely just too safe to ruffle feathers one way or another, but its very solid presentation (animation and so on) has drawn a number of fans. Worth trying out, just don't expect to be blown away.  - War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron: Goody-two-shoe Autobots and EEEEEEVILLLLLL Decepticons are not on earth yet(!), third person shooting ensues. The video games. In what may be starting to be a pattern, they're alright, but didn't exactly set critics' pants on fire. If you just want to play as a robot who turns into a space car, they will do just fine.  - The IDW comic series: Alright, now we're talking. IDW is the company behind the current line of Transformers comics and employer of James Roberts, whose writing may well be the best in the franchise. Early IDW's continuity is a bit of a clusterfuck and you'll have to reference TFWiki to get a semblance of a reading order (and even that's spotty), but you really don't need to bother unless you're curious. What you do need to do, however, is read these four things: Last Stand of the Wreckers: A five-issue series by Nick Roche and James Roberts and inevitably the very first thing that is recommended when a person asks for a TF comic to read. A terrifying Decepticon warrior hijacks his own superior's siege on a massive prison complex and, after taking it, promptly declares it his personal entertainment paradise. And who else can stop him but the Wreckers, a misfit team of fearsome cannon fodder with nothing to lose!? Well, except their lives, that is. The Death of Optimus Prime: A one-shot by Roberts and John Barber, this one sets up the two currently ongoing series. Long after the end of the great war, the big O.P. himself awakens on a vastly changed Cybertron he does not recognise. Now, he must go on an introspective journey to find his place among what were once his people... Or die, I suppose, if the title is to go by. Robots in Disguise: One of the two currently ongoing series, penned by John Barber. With the war's brutal simplicity behind them, the former Autobot warriors are forced to place their hands in the sticky, messy world of politics. In a newly charged situation now involving three different factions, they have to try the best to keep things in order and not have the whole planet blow up around them again. More Than Meets The Eye: The second current ongoing and Roberts' brainchild, also this thread's favourite thing in the world. Taking place concurrently with its sister series, one of the Autobots comes into possession of an Ancient Mystical Map™ and promptly concludes that clearly it points the way to the secret utopia of the legendary demigod Knights of Cybertron, who he believes are the only ones able to reunite the people. With some 200 random people on his giant spaceship, it sets off on its mission aaand immediately makes a random quantum jump and gets lost in space. Now this gaggle of weirdoes is stuck with each other on some ship in the middle of nowhere, really not ready to encounter one surprise after the other. All of these works are primarily praised for their very strong character writing, with various unique and relatable robots in new and imaginative scenarios. If you're going to read/watch a single series in the franchise, this is the one to go with. Less extremely beloved but still of interest are the Spotlight: [Character] issues, short stories with a focus on a specific person. Some newer ones written specifically for people coming in without much prior knowledge are Orion Pax, Thundercracker, Megatron, Bumblebee, Trailcutter and Hoist.  - Thew's Awesome Transformers Reviews: Alright, not actually a Transformers show in the conventional sense, but the guy is hilarious and you should watch his videos even if you have no interest in the toys. Speaking of which...  Oh, we all know why we're really here. Toys are great. Fiddling with them is fun, there's some really clever engineering to admire, and of course collecting them satisfies our barely-repressed hoarder tendencies. They run anywhere from $5 to $400 market price, are anywhere between 3 and 60 centimetres tall and range between "changes to robot in three seconds" to "it took me three hours to transform this the first time." A quick overview over the most notable stuff:  - G1: Once again, the one that started it all. Early parts of it consisted mostly of pretty nice and life-accurate vehicles with a satisfying heft due to their metal content that turn into hilariously pitiful robots with no virtually articulation and some pretty whack proportions, but once they ran out of Diaclone toys to repurpose, they started making a lot of just plain weird gimmicky poo poo. Like the cartoon, it's mostly nostalgia that makes this one notable. Followed up by G2, which was mostly the same things but in the most 90s colours imaginable.  - Beast Wars: Animal-based Transformers are here. First line to really realise the potential of ball joints, so now suddenly it's no longer statues that turn into cars, but actual articulated action figures. Beyond your gorillas and cheetahs there's also some odd creative stuff like the incredibly shiny biomechanical Transmetals and genetic laboratory mishap-esque fuzors. Also followed by Beast Machines, and much like the cartoon those toys are... Not great either.  - Machine Wars and Robots in Disguise: Although RID has its own cartoon and independent continuity, it much resembles the half-hearted attempt to return the franchise back from animals to cars that is MW by being a filler line largely consisting of repaints. RID Omega Prime, Rail Racer and Landfill aren't bad, though.  - The Unicron Trilogy, Armada, Energon and Cybertron: Largely abandoning realism, these are some of the most toyetic toys in the line. Hefty, blocky things with odd gimmicks which don't seem too appealing at first, but are pretty nice once you actually hold them in hand. Armada is more than a bit shaky in places, but Cybertron has some great stuff. Unicron and Primus are basically must-owns.  - Classics (also Henkei, Universe, Generations, Reveal the Shield and United, often abbreviated as CHUG): You know how the G1 toys were often not that great? Well how about we take the same beloved characters, but make totally new moulds for them with modern engineering and stuff? BRILLIANT! And it really is, because the classics lines are well beloved and home to some of the best received toys there are. Aside from G1, Hasbro also likes to shove stuff in there they couldn't fit anywhere else, such as video game and comic characters. Particular mention goes to one of SA's favourite robots, RTS Lugnut, who is fantastic.   - Masterpiece: Basically Classics, but in HYPERDRIVE. Generally running you $100-$200 if not more, these are massive, highly complex and supremely engineered super-premium figures of your favourite G1 characters. The two Optimus Primes are serious contenders for most beloved Transformer ever made, but aside from Megatron and Rodimus everyone in this line is basically a winner.  - Alternators / Binaltech: Scale model cars that beat everything else in Transformers on realism, right down to detailed interiors and opening bonnets. However, as nice as the car modes are, the transformations are a great example of how to do complexity terribly wrong and the robot modes don't actually end up looking too great anyway. Follow-up Alternity avoids many of the problems Alternators suffers from, but there's an actual total of four moulds across that entire line.  - Movie: Based on the life-action movies, these carry over their radically modern aesthetic to a fiercely unapologetic degree. With realistic vehicle modes based on specific, often licensed vehicles and rather, um, unique robot modes, these lines have some of the best engineering you can find on an affordable mass-market toy. The look may take some getting used to, but there's a lot to love here. Anything with the prefix "Scout Class" is almost guaranteed to be brilliant, and ROTF Leader Optimus Prime is just a work of genius.  - Animated: You can guess what this is based on. Mostly notable for doing a remarkable job at adapting the series' extremely stylised, somewhat abstract designs into actual physical toys that exist in 3D space. If you like the aesthetic, the line certainly does it justice. The biggest stand-outs are Rodimus, Shockwave and Ultra Magnus.  - Prime: Another series-based line, this one sort of combines the aesthetics of Animated and the movies, which, as odd as it sounds, actually works quite well. Unfortunately, its main sub-line just so happened to be created during that time when Hasbro most felt the troubled economy, and it's something that does come across on many of the toys. Thankfully, the early "First Edition" sub-line managed to sneak into stores before that little cataclysm and is almost consistently great, and the currently ongoing "Beast Hunters" figures show definite signs of recovery. And economy or no, RID Vehicon is another serious fan-favourite.   - Third Party Transformers: Okay, so this is a bit more complicated. Not actually produced by Hasbro or Takara, these are unofficial toys made by adult collectors for adult collectors. Produced on a small scale, their creators don't have to worry about mass marketing, playability, child safety, budget restrictions or any of the other hundred things that tend to make official toys just that bit less awesome than they could be. Just make the best, most massive combiner you can and peg up the price tag until you make back your expenses - of course, as a result, most of these are costly, but you pay for quality - some collectors even have sworn off official toys entirely and gone Third Party only. Many third party companies piggyback on the success of Classics and Masterpiece and make their own versions of G1 characters Hasbro/Takara are unlikely to give the full treatment to, but another popular thing is to create add-ons for official figures that enhance their play value or show accuracy or just generally make them better. Each company has its own stories, style, focus and quirks, and really third party items are one of the biggest topics in Transformers today, but going into details is a bit beyond the scope of this post. So where can you find these? If you live in the US, any store that has toys basically, but while it's easy to find Transformers in general, it's much harder to find something you're actually looking for. Make sure to check often and scan the aisles thoroughly - of course, the best stuff is generally bought out the fastest. Failing that, and for third party items, there's lots of online stores you can turn to: Hasbro Toy Shop (Prices are ridiculously low here, but they run out of stock at according pace. Also doesn't ship internationally) Big Bad Toy Store (The most prolific online shop on this list, a lot of people can vouch for it) Captured Prey (Not as big as other shops, but my experience with them has definitely been positive) TFSource If you live in Europe or on Saturn... Well, you're kind of screwed, because Hasbro doesn't like you. TFs technically still sell in European stores, but the chances of finding anything good are near zero, and the only specifically European-based online shop I know is Kapow Toys, who put such a mark-up on their prices that in some cases it's actually cheaper to order directly from the US or Asia. If all else fails, there's always eBay. While home to notorious scalpers who buy up bulks of figures upon release to re-sell them at absurdly inflated prices and various flavours of stolen Chinese toys, there's also plenty of mothers selling their children's toys and legitimate shops based in it. I buy most of my figures here and all negative experiences I had were entirely customs' fault. It's generally worth it to just look around in the lower price ranges or search for lots specifically. Of course, there's also trade happening at conventions. Transformers has those! Gammatron 64 goes into a bit more detail for us: quote:BotCon, June 27th-30, San Diego, CA Some more Links - TFWiki: The best franchise wiki out there. I'm not sure it's actually possible to give praise more faint, but inbetween the insufferable sperging about continuity there's actually a lot of useful info and stuff written with an actual sense of humour. On the other hand, they also consider "third party" a sort of political un-word, which is just the dumbest thing. - TFW2005 and Seibertron: Two largely analogous sites that serve to bring you the biggest (and smallest) news in the world of Transformers. Also have their own communities attached to them, but, well, you know how fandom communities are. I personally prefer TFW for their site design and that pretty solid podcast they run, but Seibertron has much more extensive toy galleries. - Transformerland Toy Identifier: Have some old TF toy lying around but have no idea who or what it's actually supposed to be? This service might help you find out! - TFU.info is an old, but very comprehensive figure listing that has some extra info such as parts rundowns. - Aside from Thew, two more big name TF reviewers are Internet Personality Vangelus™, a quite amusing fellow with high production values who hits a good balance of being entertaining, showing off a toy and giving his opinion, and Peaugh, who is drier than a desert planet but has a video for basically every single new release that happens, usually before it's even out in stores, and makes pretty objective presentations of what a toy actually is and does. And now that the general stuff is out of the way, let's pick up where we left off:  Wheeljack and Bumblebee have been (tentatively?) announced as the next Masterpiece releases! Unfortunately we don't have pictures or anything yet, but you know a Masterpiece Lancia Stratos robot can't possibly not be brilliant 
Terry van Feleday fucked around with this message at 15:14 on Jun 21, 2013 |
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Jun 20, 2013 20:51
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Sentinel Red posted:As far as the new thread goes, I only wonder if the OP will actually stick around and join in with discussion/update it where necessary. People who barge in outta nowhere, demand to make an OP then vanish never to be seen again are almost the absolute worst, right after people who wear polo necks, or those weirdos who prefer dogs to cats. FOR INSTANCE. You know painting your toys can get pretty intimidating because you have to worry about paint not getting scratched and so on? Well sometimes, all it takes to make a toy look a whole lot better is a minor modification. See, probably the visually most important area of a figure is its face, and factory-applied paint apps can't always make it look quite as it should. Take, for example, Movie Voyager Ratchet.  Hideous, right? It's actually a very nice mold, but there's just too little contrast between the green and the metal and some details aren't picked out in the latter though they should be. Thankfully, we can fix that.  We're going to need to remove the head, it can just be taken apart by removing the screw at its back. Careful not to lose it! Materials we need: A fine brush, some Q-Tips and, of course, paints. In this case, Games Workshop Chainmail for the metallic parts and GW Black Ink for the contrast. You can find these paints in any shop that sells Warhammer or other tabletop stuff, though note that not all GW ranges are any good (the metallics and inks are, though).  Without any particular preparation, I paint in the metal details. This seems like it would require some skill and precision, but it really doesn't: Anywhere I clumsily paint over something I want to remain green, I just use a regular toothpick to scrape the paint back off. Easy. Thanks to the stronger metallic effect it looks better already, but we're not done yet.  For inking, I temporarily screw the head back together on a stick, without the clear blue lightpiping part.  Ink is a special kind of paint that automatically collects in recesses and creates for easy and natural shading. I just follow the lines on the mold with the ink-dipped brush and then use a Q-Tip to wipe away any excess that didn't flow to the right place. Don't be afraid to wipe a line away completely and try again if it doesn't look right. The more molded detail there is the better the results of this technique, so movie models are particularly great for it. And, reassembled back onto his body:   Success! This really is super easy and takes no time at all, so I encourage everyone to try it for themselves. The face is not an area that tends to be subject to much wear, so you won't have to worry about paint scrapes, either. The paints may seem expensive at first, but that impression goes away once you realise just how long they last. Terry van Feleday fucked around with this message at 17:19 on Jun 21, 2013 |
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Jun 21, 2013 15:43
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Decided to actually watch Animated on a whim. Some thoughts on the first half of the first season: The series' greatest strength is, of course, the animation. The cartoon style works very well, and I love the way they use vehicle mode proportions, faction symbols etc, things that would be static on a CGI model, to convey emotion. There's a lot of care and detail to attention. My other favourite thing about the series is the fact that the Decepticons waste no time in being a credible threat. Starscream would have demolished the heroes were he not a complete idiot, to say nothing of Megatron's remarkably effective scheming while being literally nothing more than a disembodied head. The main cast is pretty solid, if fairly simple. I like Ratchet and Prowl a lot, and Optimus and Bulkhead work pretty well too. The odd one out is, of course, Bumblebee. He feels odd as a transparent kid-appeal character because a lot of his kid-appeal traits are already represented in the other characters, but then they are extracted and melted down to specifically to have a space for their own. What, because kids aren't able to relate to any of the other guys? It feels so strange to have the happy-go-lucky small guy be the most cynical and artificial thing in a bright and poppy carton world. Oh, and Sari is a lot less obnoxious than I'd been led to believe. Starscream's defeat and Optimus' death and rebirth are just naff as hell. After three episodes of cartoon plotting, suddenly we get a very literal deus ex machina and sequence of events right out of some actual ancient Greek drama. And I mean, ancient Greek drama is great, but it doesn't square with the previous or subsequent narrative style at all and doesn't feel "earned", if you get what I mean. It also creates a very unfortunate situation in which the credible threat becomes rather softened by the fact that the Autobots' arsenal just so happens to include, oh, the crucible of youth and font of all creation. I figured the writers would get rid of it somehow much earlier, but instead they just sort of awkwardly gloss over it so far. It's... Odd. If there's one thing I'm super glad they kept from the movies it's the fact that Megatron still is a much more interesting character than he has any right to be. He comes across as a genuinely scary and competent guy who's just stuck in a terrible situation. Somehow, the fact that he's allowed to mis-speak and make minor fuckups while still doing the best with what he's got makes him even more relateable than the heroes, and Corey Burton is just knocking it out of the park. Still, this does make me slightly dread the moment when he'll get a new body and the writers'll probably have to artificially dial back his competence so the Autobots can keep winning the day. Well, there's still a chance they'll do it right, but they have yet to earn my trust. Episode 5 (Total Meltdown) kinda came out of nowhere for me. Suddenly the robots are a metaphor for immigrants, and wait, what is an actual Darkwing Duck villain doing in Transformers? What? Episode 7 (Thrill of the Hunt), on the other hand, is definitely my favourite so far. You can practically feel Ratchet's rage at the end, that was just very well done, and Lockdown is a pretty charming guy. Shame about Arcee's victimization, but I suppose she got off comparatively lightly compared too... Blackarachnia. Oh dear. The chances of encountering a non-offensive and interesting "black widow" character are pretty low indeed, doing so in a series where she's the only non-flashback female character at all is practically zero. And wow, they hit every wrong note possible. When she said "...Much as you'd like to give me a face-full of foam..." I actually had to rewind and hear that sentence again because I couldn't believe my ears. The whole thing is just awful and baffling. They're robots! They're robots! I get they were going for some Gargoyles-esque tragic villainess thing with her, but everything about the way they wrote it and wrote her is just bad on so many levels, from the inexplicable romantic/sexual stuff (robots!) to deep subtextual poo poo concerning what her story inevitably says about womanhood without another active adult female character to contrast her to. Overall opinion: So far, I'm... Cautiously feeling it. Animated does enough things right to keep me going at least, but I may straight-up skip future Blackarachnia-centric episodes if the next one is as bad as her introduction, and Blitzwing is already proving to be utterly obnoxious with his horrible put-on "Nazi" accent (would it have been so hard to hire a native German speaker?) and even worse monkey-cheese humour. Then again, from what I hear the series actually gets better in season 2, so maybe this will actually go somewhere. We'll see.
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Jun 25, 2013 23:50
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Sodomy Non Sapiens posted:You know, I saw the new thread and took a look just out of idle curiosity. Gammatron 64 posted:I wonder if TFs caught on in Europe outside of the UK. In unrelated news: I only now realised that Rung's name is a joke on Jung, as in Carl Jung. Wow I feel dense.
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Jun 26, 2013 19:26
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Animated episodes 10-16 Professor Princess is the worst thing in the world. No, wait, Blackarachnia is still worse. You know, I'm trying not to look at this series from a feminist perspective because TF is consistently woeful in that regard (note: haven't seen Prime yet) and I doubt this thread wants to hear about the robot patriarchy, but this series makes this pretty hard for me. It's strange because Sari herself is actually a pretty good character in that sense - in a show very much aimed at young boys, they chose to add a character for young girls to identify with and saddle her with a very explicit message of "even if society doesn't consider you / doesn't give you the means to be strong or badass, you're still heroic and admirable in your own way". (Whether that's better or worse than just making one of the robots female is probably another discussion.) But then the series goes out of its way to demonise or victimise (usually both!) every single other feminine thing that shows up, here going on a totally random tangent about how "boy" toys like BATTLE ROBOTS and FAST CARS are always better than dumb and irritating "girly" toys so Sari starts feeling less like an inclusive outreach and more like that alienating idea of "one of the good ones". Again, I don't want to make a big deal out of this, but it's actively hampering my enjoyment of the show. Honestly, it wouldn't be as big a deal if there was more positive stuff to focus on so far. Eps 10-14 were largely just bland, and made me really wish they'd stop using human villains. There's no reason for them to be so much less interesting than robotic enemies, but oh boy let's make this guy's dialogue consist entirely of a dated sterotype of leetspeak! Brilliant!! It's clear he's just supposed to be a vector in making an (actually rather good) episode of character development for Bulkhead, but he's laid on so thick that it just makes the good parts rather hard to enjoy. Thankfully, the 15-16 two-parter is a return to the things that actually make me watch this series. Lugnut is a lot of fun, Megatron is still brilliant, and I liked Optimus keying him in the chest because it reminded me of Gurren Lagann (shame we didn't get a scene of him standing ominously with a giant hole in his chest talking about the moon and monkeys). I feel the series is at its best when it just lets the robots freely interact with each other, probably my favourite bit is the strange quasi-three-way-battle between Megatron, Starscream and Bumblebee where they're all trying to follow their own agenda in a somewhat confused situation. If Beast Wars is all this kind of stuff, then I get why people love it so much (still can't actually bear to watch it myself, though). Really this made me realise that TF is consistently at its best when the focus is unconditionally on the characters rather than the plots or conflicts or w/e. The latter tend to be fairly simplistic cartoon fare, but I think there's something inherent about Transformers that makes them really expressive and effective as characters. Sort of like how the author of Lackadaisy cast cats in its roles because their ears and tails and such add more vectors of expression, TF media has settled on a very particular balance between them being mechanical and humanlike that gives them some unique dimensions - think little things like Chromedome being able to recognise a guy and tell their mood by the sound of their Transformation in MTMTE or Optimus Prime curling up into his vehicle form when he's annoyed in Dark Side Moon. In Animated's case, it's mainly the animation itself that carries this stuff, but oftentimes all it does is make me wish the writing would receive the same kind of effort and attention. Onto season 2!
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Jun 27, 2013 17:45
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Normally I really dislike Beastformers, but Rhinox actually looks really good, or at least he will with a bit of gap-filling and a coat of paint. I'm a bit less hyped for all those new releases than most here, but then I'm just a contrarian who's mostly waiting for the new movie toyline. To catch up: Gammatron 64 posted:If Blackarachnia and Professor Princess bother you, then hoo boy, never read Spotlight Arcee. Gravitas Shortfall posted:Why, by the way? Your writeups are great, I'd love to read some on BW. Animated S2 Ep1-7 So far in Season 2 it seems the odd numbered episodes are good to great and the even ones "eh" to terrible. Weird. The elite guard is a great set of characters to introduce now, able to create a more interesting kind of conflict than the simply evil and now just too powerful Decepticons or the laughable human villains. They do a good job of making you wonder what Magnus' deal is (since he's clearly not just the kind of sunshine-and-rainbows Autobot we're used to) and Sentinel is irritating, but crucially, he's irritating in a way that works in the context of the rest of the show. Rather than just being annoying for the sake of providing empty conflict or overbearing "comic relief", he acts as a subject through which to further humanise Optimus, who as a result becomes a much more interesting character. He serves as a perfect contrast to Blitzwing on how to do an annoying character well. Starscream's immortality and subsequent cloning is a really neat idea and gives a previously one-note character a lot more dimension. His little montage in episode 3 was fun and I actually felt for him for once toward the end when he kept being shot down again and again and just became more and more apathetic and weary. The visuals of that sequence are just so good. *sigh* Garbage in, Garbage out. How do you hire Weird Al and then gently caress his part up? So Animated has a lot of little G1 jokes and references to give the adults something to giggle at. Usually, these are fairly obscure and subtle, stuff like a TV losing signal and the "please stand by" image showing a little Kremzeek. That's cute and clever! The problem with Wreck-Gar is that they just decided to get rid of every. ounce. of subtlety. Every single sentence out of his mouth is an obnoxiously overdrawn "REMEMBER THE 1986 MOVIE!? WE DO!" The worst offender for me is the "dare to be stupid" joke, in which the writers have Ratchet cite a set-up that kinda sorta makes sense in context but sounds completely unnatural in that moment and then Wreck-Gar makes a dramatic pause for drumrolls and fanfare as the screen shifts into a cinematic angle and he raises up his finger and, with inflection, says the name of the song. Then confetti falls from the heavens under cheer from the audience as he turns to them and says "GET IT? BECAUSE THAT WAS MY THEMESONG IN G1 AND NOW THEY GOT THE GUY WHO MADE THAT SONG TO VOICE ME! AMAZING!" Okay not all of that actually happens but it really might as well. It's not even a bad joke in concept, but there were so many better ways to execute it. The reason this annoys me is that even if you mute all the dialogue, the episode is already full of clever and subtle nods. Even just Wreck-Gar's character design - the original Wreck-Gar constantly quoted TV and that's where he learned to talk, so they referenced that by making the new one's head an actual TV. Or that one time he throws a suspiciously familiar motorcycle at Ratchet. That's enough! You don't need more! I'm not sure why I liked Velocity so much, but I think it's the small scale of the episode. Rather than another devious plan to blow up half (always specifically half) the city, it's just Bumblebee wanting to figure out what blue car guy's deal is out of sheer curiosity, and although the mystery isn't even resolved at the end, he still emerges a slightly better person. It's a format that works very well for a children's cartoon, and works well for TF because again, it places greater focus on the characters. The little morality tales also work pretty well: They're sensible, and not too patronising or artificial, just presented as kids learning something from their life experiences. Here's what didn't work, however: Blitzwing. Even beyond his dialogue, Blitzwing is unique in that he's the one character whose presentation is terrible. For every other character, the animation works to convey their emotional state, shifting proportions and such to create a very subtle form of body language. Although Bltzwing's entire gimmick is his extreme emotional states, he's always drawn the same. His face twists around, but the body remains totally static. Why? And then there's the voice acting. The badly faked accent just keeps getting worse, and the actor actually has to pause and audibly draw breath whenever he switches personalities. The whole character feels totally put-on and artificial and completely takes you out of the show the instant he opens his mouth. Rise of the Constructicons is the worst episode of the show. Full stop. Worse than Along Came a Spider. I could start ranting about classism, but I think this summary speaks for itself: Bulkhead befriends two literal newborns who have no idea about the world or what they even are, and when they're forced to pick a side in a war they have zero understanding of, he decides to fatally poison them. When they miraculously survive, but again are without any knowledge or memory, Optimus explains in his best moral-for-children voice that if they side with the Decepticons, it'll be alright to put them down like dogs, because of course they won't go with the guy who bribes them with goods and shelter and empty promises, but will turn to the kind and enlightened Autobots who just assaulted them in the streets, as their first memory in life. Throughout all this, the onus is constantly on them to miraculously intuit that the Autobots are somehow the good guys here and make the right decisions, and no one ever makes an effort to even remotely reach out to them - but this isn't presented as a bad thing, because they should bootstrap themselves into being educated, dammit. What the gently caress!? I could see the movie Autobots pulling this poo poo, but here they've always been presented as good and compassionate. This is completely disgusting and basically totally turned me off Bulkhead and Optimus as characters, possibly irrepairably. Thankfully, Fistful of Energon is a return to full force, and basically on par with Thrill of the Hunt for me. It's amazing how the writers managed to not just make Starscream interesting, but also made him consistently bring out the best in the characters around him. Prowl's writing and presentation is full of little subtleties, and Lockdown in a poncho Lockdown seems like one of the less complex characters in the show at first glance, but I loved the shot of him during Prowl's ending monologue that paints him as very lonely and a little sympathetic. More of that, please.But, because it's bitching hour, I'm going to complain some more: Megatron's character turned out exactly the way I feared. Having back his body, it seems he decided to settle on his throne and mostly glare menacingly at the camera. It's clear he has all the power and could wipe out the Autobots in instants, so the writers have to keep coming up with contrivances over why he doesn't just do that. I mean, why not pick off the repair crew right now just so they won't be around later to bolster the enemy ranks? I'm sure you could come up with some explanation, like that he doesn't want to draw attention or w/e, but that would be rationalising things in hindsight and is in no way organically presented in the show. As a result, his character just suffers, and instead of the clever, somewhat sympathetic but still clearly dangerous head in a lab who grasped at every tiny opportunity that presents itself he's just another ineffectual cartoon villain. So far they even dropped all the little personality touches like his newfound distrust of his own underlings. Between this, Blitzwing constantly taking himself out, Blackarachnia being a bad joke, and Lugnut not getting to do much, literally the only character who still comes across as a serious threat is Starscream of all people. And really, all that is my big problem with Animated: I can't actually give unconditional praise to any part of it beyond the consistently good animation because for every good or great thing it does, it inevitably introduces something else that's absolutely terrible. It's true that Season 2 is so far better than Season 1 in many ways - but it's also worse in just as many, equal ways. As a result it's a show that I mostly enjoy while I'm actually watching, but the more I look back and think about it, the more bitter the whole experience becomes.
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Jul 2, 2013 13:26
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Oh hey, I just got that one in the mail a couple days ago. It's an... Eccentric toy, even more so than most of the movie line. It works a lot better in practice than it does in theory, as various little bits of gimmickry and construction make it very satisfying to handle (the truck bed raising feels surprisingly nice), but a lot of concessions had to be made to fit it into the pricepoint (really should've been a leader class figure), chief of which is the lack of a wrist swivel and a joint at the base of his kibbleshelf-scaffolding to move it further back. Most disappointing for me is the lightpiping. His eyes are made of that same clear red as classics Cyclonus that can cause his face to light up like a pair of windows on a blast furnace, but of course it's totally blocked off by the kibble. Shame. I have to say the mould does look much better in green, but of course Long Haul runs literally four times the price of Payload on eBay. No thanks. On the other hand it really is a toy that begs to be customized; If you could add in the missing joints, connect the big kibbleflap with the cabin to the lower legs via a pair of hinges, So really in the end it comes down to how much tolerance you have for eccentric movie toys, as is standard with that line. I personally do quite enjoy it, but I feel I'll enjoy it a lot more the more alterations I start making to it, once I'm done moving house again.
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Jul 13, 2013 10:04
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Gammatron 64 posted:All 2 of you guys actually excited for Acid Storm better army build that sucker, or else he's never going away. He is not available in Germany. There is no justice in this world. *Actually the only currently released Masterpiece aside from MP-10 I'm interested in period, because I'm weird. It would be Skywarp, but since he uses the old version of the mould which I don't like as much...
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Jul 18, 2013 17:21
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Knormal posted:So is Nova Prime a big deal in the comics or something? I lost track of the comics a long time ago when he was the leader in the Dark Universe or whatever, and the wiki page on him looks like he hasn't done much since then. I mean it is an awesome design, but I don't really get the excitement over the character. I mean I guess it's it's a bit early to get hyped over a couple of CGI renders, but this is MMC and unless they mysteriously totally drop the ball on the execution, the only thing that seems to speak against it is the fact that the transformation appears to be a couple simple flips followed by a whole bunch of partsforming. And even as someone who can't stand partsforming generally I don't think I'll mind too much in this case. Gammatron 64 posted:Oh. I'm confused. Maketoys is doing a Nova Prime too? I thought there was only one 3rd party one. Or is that the Maketoys one? There's an MMC one too?  This is the Maketoys one, heavily retooled from their Battle Tanker for Classics Laser Prime but with its own core figure. To be quite honest, it's not their strongest design.
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Aug 9, 2013 17:07
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Breacher is a pretty fun guy, but mine came without his gun, so I had to compensate.   No modification to either figure.
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Sep 15, 2013 11:20
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Don't forget that this is basically an upscaled Deluxe. All that shows to me is that Hasbro's idea of simpler, child-friendly toys and the hyper intricate movie designs are two concepts that are simply fundamentally incompatible. Here's hoping for some sort of Black Series collector's toyline that actually gets those designs across properly. That said, what comes across of the design is pretty interesting. I don't know how he looks in the movie of course, but this toy in particular seems to borrow heavily from the general Beast Hunters aesthetic. The way the kibble panels work and the general downward-pointyness (contrasting against the upward-pointyness of the original movie Prime design) gives it a sort of "ancient warrior" vibe that seems like it would go well with the Dinobots. Also that truck mode is rad as hell and no one can tell me otherwise.
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Oct 10, 2013 15:40
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Yonic Symbolism posted:I was wondering if rereads with analysis of the current transformers comics in recommended reading order (Death of Optimus onward) might be possible. I can't do it because I'm literature-retarded but I feel there's a ton in MTMTE that I might be missing and I want to discuss it starting from the first issue.
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Oct 27, 2013 16:05
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Spiderdrake posted:You mean something in the composition bothers you or just you can't articulate what you don't like about the plot? I think one factor is the use of War for Cybertron character designs of all things. I haven't played the original WFC, but FOC gives me the impression that it's all this big shallow action movie in which the designs are hi-shiny and dynamic and pretty to look at, but also not terribly expressive or relatable. For a fairly intimate look into characters and politics, that kind of design language is not even remotely appropriate, particularly for a series that relies as much on its designs to communicate personality as Transformers does.
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Oct 27, 2013 17:14
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The Rage posted:I find this paragraph interesting considering your love of the films.
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Oct 28, 2013 19:08
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"Evasion mode Optimus prime", I suspect. The design'll probably appear for a couple of minutes at the beginning of the film to be upgraded to the shiny new one.
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Feb 7, 2014 10:46
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Rita Repulsa posted:Looks like nothing on the robot forms anything on the jet.  Wings and legs aside, this is about as much as I managed to find, yeah. The whole cockpit section doesn't have any obvious seamlines at all (at least on the pic), so I imagine it just compacts onto his back with the rest of his top fuselage, so half of it goes over the panel with the thrusters and the nosecone hides behind his butt. Basically all of his plane mode just kinda flops onto his back, but I figure the torso has to do some pretty weird stuff to compact into something that isn't an obscene amount of underkibble, particularly with the arms and legs appearing to have literally no transforming parts at all. It really doesn't look like a great sort of transformable figure, but the robot mode sculpt is so strong I'm not sure I mind in this case - though if this is really a Leader class figure, I probably would have preferred them downscaling it into a deluxe.
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Feb 9, 2014 19:29
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I'm not sure how to feel about any of this yet, except: 1. Hound and the purple triceratops robot look fantastic 2.  Face sculpt of the year.
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Feb 15, 2014 21:58
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XavierGenisi posted:It's absolutely amazing, but holy poo poo is it a massive pain to turn into a truck. The G1 stripes on the wings are a nice touch. I'm kinda considering trying to get some other movie figures. Are any of the other leader class figures any good? I kind of have my eye on Jetfire and Sentinel Prime. As far as good Leaders go, there's Starscream (of all people) and Ironhide (who has his drawbacks but is really simple, satisfyingly chunky and has a strong sculpt in both modes). Just avoid the Megatrons. Gammatron 64 posted:Eh, it looks like it's a perfectly fine toy... but Hasbro just kind of announced their own Roadbuster right before it came out.
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Feb 28, 2014 20:58
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strangehamster posted:I wish I could buy one, they're an arm and a leg right? Spiderdrake posted:Evasion Mode Optimus (the G1 looking voyager) apparently comes with Megatron's shotgun from the previous movie, which is more or less designed to be used with the previous voyager.
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Feb 28, 2014 22:47
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Cassa posted:Though I'm not big on this combiner thing of just sticking the transformed model onto the legs of the main bot.
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Mar 22, 2014 15:51
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Well, there's Cybertron Hardtop/Swindle, whose altmode looks really quite similar to Jallguar's. Being a scout he's probably a touch smaller than your other components, but since he's the waist and not a limb perhaps it's not too critical. Sounds like a really interesting/imposing project. Can you share a bit more on how you're going about it?
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Jun 30, 2014 20:01
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What moulds have you picked out for the other guys so far?
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Jun 30, 2014 20:20
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It's a real shame that there isn't more thematically sound TF fiction, because the very basic image of a robot changing into a car is so innately charged and powerful that just looking at any given toy could give you plenty to work with, and I don't think a lot of writers, even good ones, entirely realise this. (A symptom of this is how you'll usually see Cybertronians hang out in robot mode 90% of the time in fiction, only transforming when the alt mode is required for some utilitarian purpose, treating it like an object of convenience, the way we would, rather than an innate part of their own being.) Like I'll admit I know nothing about Beast Machines, but something about what you're saying already kind of rubs me the wrong way - I understand wanting to make a point about conserving your heritage or whatever, but why would you illustrate it using a species that is inherently fluid and transitive? I mean that dissonance between their nature and the proposed moral stance could be pretty interesting, but then the whole angle of nature vs. technology becomes completely redundant and superfluous. A robot turning into a tank isn't that different from a robot turning into an ape when you get down to it, so why is that your central antagonist rather than, say, something that doesn't transform at all? Like, just a tank with no robot mode, trapped in an endless search for external, appropriated upgrades to surpass its organic counterparts with, frantic in its ambition yet static in its form. I dunno, guess that would be pretty weird.* I think the real problem is just that 30 years later, we've barely taken any steps to shed the whole dumb and primitive "good Autobots protect earth from evil Decepticons" thing. Binary *Animated actually came pretty close to doing something pretty cool with Megatron's immobile severed head, but of course they ditched that whole concept a season in so they could have him ineffectually lounge around on his evil throne instead.
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Jul 2, 2014 22:15
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I just wanna say that the movie has a dedicated thread in CineD, so discussion of it really should go there. On an unrelated note: I do find it funny just how many loving versions of Evasion Prime there are already. It's like a seeker or something, only its all a single character somehow. I guess at least that increases my chances of getting my hands on one eventually.
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Jul 4, 2014 18:47
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I'm curious how the poll combiner is going to work out if the female option wins (I'm going to be very sad if it doesn't). Like, the impression I got is that they're going to be more retools rather than new moulds, and, well, the CW bodytypes aren't exactly effette. I guess Victorion (that's gotta be the winner) is going to make Strongarm look positively dainty by comparison, though I wonder if there's maybe steps they could take to mitigate that.
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Feb 26, 2015 20:27
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Blackheart posted:e: wonder what line these (probably scrapped) prototypes were meant for:
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Mar 7, 2015 17:55
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MinionOfCthulhu posted:The wear issue keeps me from trying my hand at repainting figures. You should always keep the figure free of oil (from your fingers) and dirt - wash it in a bit of soapy water before painting and maybe even wear rubber gloves while handling it. Oils prevent paint from sticking properly. Secondly, remember that acrylics cure fully over the course of months, so after you paint something, it's best not to disturb it for a while (at least a week or two). Primer and topcoat also help, of course. CyRaptor, the splotchy look means your paint's not thin enough. You need to water it down more and paint in many, thin coats, the first few of which don't need to cover fully. When painting white over dark colours, it helps to put down a grey basecoat first. It's always cool to see people painting their toys. Most peeps maybe try once and then get discouraged when it doesn't work out, but, well, you wouldn't expect to draw a masterpiece after picking up a pencil for the first time, right? Get a bit of practice, and you can make your figures look a lot better. Never complain about missing paintapps again!
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Apr 12, 2015 17:45
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I finally decided to see what this whole Combiner Wars hubbub is all about, and got myself a Cyclonus (of all things... drat Hasbro Europe skipping Wave 2!) Only, they didn't have any limb figures I liked in stock, so when I wanted to try out the combiner mode, I had to, uh, improvise. I legit like the fansproject guys as both arms and legs for him, though I should really build some adapters do they don't just kind of hang on for dear life. Also, get Last Chance and the other guy at some point.
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Jul 23, 2015 19:31
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Blackheart posted:Chest still weird (though people keep telling me he has an alternate one somehow) but it looks good.
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Aug 24, 2015 19:36
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I really miss crazy complicated transformations and find it kind of a shame that they're mostly falling by the wayside, but I guess I value the "puzzle" aspect of Transformers a lot more than other people do. It's why I haven't made much of an effort to keep up with current Generations stuff.
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Nov 11, 2015 15:43
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DoctorWhat posted:I have two ROTF Leader Primes (Original and Amazon Jetwing) and I love them both so much. One reason I like movie toys so much is that the ridiculous, clearly physically impossible designs really required the designers to think outside the box and come up with some strange tricks to make them work. Starscream is a seriously ugly thing but both his RotF voyager and leader versions are just really interesting to handle. When it was first revealed that Hasbro would split their efforts into a child-friendly, simple half and one more aimed at adult collectors, I was pretty hyped about the idea of the collector line becoming more involved in its assembly again, but that wasn't the path they ended up taking. Guess I'm just bitter that MP and independent stuff is somewhat hard to get here and kinda out of my price range right now, so I'm stuck with the simpler stuff. Also: Alternity is great.
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Nov 11, 2015 20:25
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I always get kind of disappointed when peeps post photos of their shelves and it's a pile of dudes just kind of standing there. Not only is it boring, it always turns a collection of lovingly designed pieces of toy art into an indistinct mass of primary colours and roboty bits. Which is why I rotate my displays and only show a part of my collection at a time. And because I'm a silly person, I like to pose them into little nonsense vignettes.    
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Jun 23, 2016 21:52
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Why cookie Rocket posted:Between the fandom getting ratholed on weirder and weirder poo poo and the retail product continuing to obsess on the 80s (to say nothing of the movie lines) instead of innovating I feel myself giving less of a poo poo about this hobby. I know I’m only one guy but unless there’s another beast wars level upheaval I’ll probably take a break for a while.
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Oct 27, 2017 13:39
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Arquinsiel posted:I'm finding it mildly amusing that people will state that they are getting bored of the repetitive 80's dipping of the franchise at the same time that people are condemning the comics for being "nothing but OCs talking to each other".
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Oct 27, 2017 17:29
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Spiderdrake posted:On that note I kinda wish we had some stuff in the OP about KOs and, you know, the present comics / media paradigm. It's five years out of date. ...And maybe shorten it a lot? I've fallen out of love with comprehensive "guide" style OPs. Keldroc posted:Also it continually calls the movies "life action." Five years? Seriously? Geez.
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Aug 23, 2018 09:15
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