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If anybody didn't want to try their luck with TFSource for MP-12 Lambor, my buddy Ed Bomber is getting a shipment in a week at $99.99 http://www.edbomber.com/main/index.php/japanese-transformers/masterpiece/mp-12-masterpiece-sideswipe-lambor.html
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Jul 3, 2013 06:04
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It's high time for generation 3 featuring a totally different cast and wildly outrageous concepts such as zero-g vehicle combat, genders and star harvesting.
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Jul 3, 2013 06:17
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There's so many good frameworks out there besides doing Secret War on Earth for the dozenth time. Space Opera Post-War (Autobots win, Decepticons on the run) Post-War (Decepticons win, Autobots hunted and scattered) Dystopian Cybertron Naval Adventure Original Star Trek (ie, "Wagon Train to the Stars") Time Wars Cybertronian Manifest Destiny Post-Human Partnership
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Jul 3, 2013 06:26
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Diet Poison posted:Really I just want MTMTE: TAS. Face it, the following are huge reasons why MTMTE is so good: No Optimus. No Megatron. No Bumblebee. No Starscream (I say this as a huge Screamer fan btw). No humans. No Arcee. No Bumblebee (bears repeating).
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Jul 3, 2013 07:03
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Xenomrph posted:Worth pointing out that the RID ongoing has both Starscream and Bumblebee and is also good, for completely different reasons from MTMTE.
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Jul 3, 2013 07:25
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Diet Poison posted:I mean, is anyone gonna argue that MTMTE is the best TF fiction we've had since Beast Wars? Hell, I'll say for the record I think it's the best TF fiction ever. I agree, but I just don't think Hasbro is interested in that kind of thing for their cartoons. They want something quick, clean, reliable, and above all else, risk-free. MTMTE is essentially nothing but risk, issue after issue. Real emotion, real issues, real character development, all the stuff that requires a creative highwire act that's fine for a critically well-regarded comic that satiates the adult fandom, but for a multi-million dollar cartoon series meant to reel in the toy-buying kids? I think it would be warped by executive meddling and syndication sanitization to the point that we'd wish it never happened.
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Jul 3, 2013 08:49
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Maybe Hasbro is releasing the IDW characters as a way of testing the water with MTMTE on the general public? 
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Jul 3, 2013 09:16
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The_Doctor posted:Maybe Hasbro is releasing the IDW characters as a way of testing the water with MTMTE on the general public? I wish this so much. Then I see the BH 2014 line-up and I weep.
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Jul 3, 2013 09:19
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The Rage posted:I wish this so much. Then I see the BH 2014 line-up and I weep. Maybe they're just throwing out both extremes and seeing how many people bite on each one. What I'm saying is, everyone buy 10 Whirls.
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Jul 3, 2013 09:23
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Finished all of MTMTE last night. What an amazing comic. The new thread and OP may have got me to stick my head in, but taking a chance on Last Stand of the Wreckers and MTMTE is what's kept me interested and made me spend money on hunks of plastic. James Roberts does such an incredible job of characterisation and it's the relationships between each of the crew members that makes it such a delight to read. Rewind and Chromedome, Tailgate and Cyclonus, Rodimus and Ultra Magnus, Swerve and everyone, Whirl and everyone... The recent news of MTMTE toys has me giddy as well. I picked up the first trade of RID as well but that hasn't really grabbed me. Is it something that picks up as the series goes on? I think a big part of it is that it really doesn't feel as much of a welcoming jump on point as MTMTE.
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Jul 3, 2013 12:11
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RiD doesn't grab me in the same way too. While MTMTE is awesome hilarious adventure with intricate arc plotting and earned payoff, RiD is all serious and more of the War, even though the War is over/restarting/whatever it's doing.
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Jul 3, 2013 12:18
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I stopped reading RID at issue 8. I think the first 5 issues were good (4 was especially great) but 6, 7 and 8 really were poo poo.
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Jul 3, 2013 12:33
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Plus Ramondelli keeps doing the occasional issue, and I loathe his artwork.
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Jul 3, 2013 12:39
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Yeah, RiD is probably okay really but compared to MTMTE it's just nowhere near as fun or well characterised so it comes off looking lamer than it most likely is. Re. Gamma's earlier post, while I agree in the main, it's also worth looking on the positive side, which is that things are probably better than they've ever been. We've got awesome comics, awesome figures, life is good, guys. 
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Jul 3, 2013 13:00
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You know, with Prime pretty much wrapped up (save for lovely 2014 toy dregs), Hasbro have to be at least planning for the next tv series, right? What was the turn around between Animated ending and Prime being announced? Deceptive Thinker, any vague word you can say?
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Jul 3, 2013 13:26
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I don't think Transformers is going to die, but it is in a slight decline, at least from a purely financial standpoint. Profits peaked with the 2007 movie and ROTF, and have been going down since then. Now, of course, that's no indicator of quality, as even fans of the Michael Bay movies will generally admit that ROTF was poo poo. Prime isn't doing as well as Animated, probably for a few reasons - mainly that it's on the Hub, which most households don't get (and is in general a big disaster of a network), and Animated came out when the movies were at their most popular. This is being as objective as possible and not taking in account my feelings on Prime as a show and toyline (which you all know isn't terribly positive.) The toys are in decline too, in case you didn't notice those blown up legends they're calling deluxes. Of course, that's due to the economy and rising oil prices more than anything else, because all of Hasbro's toylines have been taking a huge hit. Star Wars figures are returning to 1970's levels of articulation. Have you seen those awful 10" Spider-Man toys in the store that just have swivels at the arms and nothing else? Hasbro seems to be trying to hold on to modern toys though, with Transformers Generations and Star Wars: Black. Cheaper, simpler toys of past seems to be the trend regarding what they market to kids the most, though. Of course, if they're going back to 80's tech, I would prefer G1 \ Brave \ Power Rangers styled big bricks over sized up Legends, but c'est la vie.
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Jul 3, 2013 13:39
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Profits peaked with the first two films, yes, but what remains is still a substantial improvement over pre-film years, so "decline" isn't really the correct word for the situation. The films did exactly what Hasbro wanted them to do, which is to catapult the general income from the brand over what it was before the films. Every year can't have a multi-million dollar international ad campaign with marketing tie-ins, so peaks in the film years are to be expected. I don't think the sized-up Legions are any indicator of decline, either. I think they're an indicator that they got rid of a bunch of designers, those that are left are working primarily on Movie 4 toys for next year, but they have to fill the shelves with something until May. Kids don't really care that much about articulation and detail (which is why those awful Spider-Man figures you mention still sell), so closing out the kid-targeted Beast Hunters line with sized-up Legions is a cheap and probably effective way to keep product on the shelves without reinventing the wheel, so to speak. If it really were a sign of serious decline, I don't think we'd be getting IDW characters and a Voyager Rhinox of such quality. Transformers are more than fine. What I would really like to know is (and maybe it's common knowledge among collectors of such things, but I haven't really looked), why are the Marvel toys so awful? Why was there almost zero toy push accompanying The Avengers last year aside from roleplay items and repackaged Marvel Universe figures? Do kids not "collect them all" anymore so full lines are pointless these days? Are there no adult collectors of Marvel figures, so there's no reason to put out product on the level you see from Transformers or the higher quality Star Wars figures? Those movies make insane money and it seems like the toys are barely an afterthought. I always look at the Marvel figures in the TRU aisle with the TFs and think how lucky we are as a fandom that we get quality product on a regular basis.
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Jul 3, 2013 17:43
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GD_American posted:Post-War (Decepticons win, Autobots hunted and scattered) The_Doctor posted:You know, with Prime pretty much wrapped up (save for lovely 2014 toy dregs), Hasbro have to be at least planning for the next tv series, right? What was the turn around between Animated ending and Prime being announced? I think it was about a year and a half between series.
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Jul 3, 2013 18:03
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Superhero toys are in a pretty crummy state. Granted, many of them are geared towards little kids, but its kind of odd that they tend to be say, just variations of Iron Man \ Captain America \ Spider-man with different action features and little else. Now, these aren't Hasbro lines, but Mattel's Superman and Batman lines are like, crazily lovely. An overwhelming majority of the Batman figures were just Batman with 90s articulation in different colors with different accessories. As far as other characters go, I think there was a Joker for Dark Knight and a Bane for DKR, and that was it. As a kid, I always thought "What good is a superhero toy if he doesn't have any bad guys to fight?" Now that I'm a collector and I display figures rather than really play with them I don't care about that, but if you're a child who actually plays with toys, you gotta have more than just one character or else you can't make a story.
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Jul 3, 2013 18:34
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You need the character's counterpart. If you do a Leader Optimus you need a Leader whoever his antagonist is otherwise you get your toys out and you have a guy who is twice as big as the dude he's meant to be facing off against and it doesn't work. I think kids always want the main character over all others, but in terms of selling stuff I remember my mum always going "but you've already got a Spider-man" and I'd go "yeah! I do!" so unless the toy was drastically different I would skip it in favour of something new, like Morbius or Sandman or Hobgoblin, Scorpion, Vulture, Venom, Carnage heck I even had a Smythe toy! Jesus I had Hydroman! The only actual Spider-men I had were one that shot a thing out of his hand on a string, a super poseable one and one with loads of arms because he was turning into the Manspider. I didn't ask for a Spidermobile for Christmas I asked for the Spiderslayer robots. Maybe I am way outside the norm, but as a child having only Spider-man would have been incredibly boring and impossible to play with without at least one villain to put him against.
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Jul 3, 2013 19:55
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I didn't know the guy who did that amazing spongebob flash was a SA goon, dang, good work new threadGammatron 64 posted:I don't think Transformers is going to die, but it is in a slight decline, at least from a purely financial standpoint. Profits peaked with the 2007 movie and ROTF  though this is the first time I have used this chart for good and not evilAccording to Hasbro Prime year 2 (2013) is so far level with 2012 and not really in decline. I don't know if anyone mentioned it but the Predacons Rising subline coincidences with the DTV movie of the same name that wraps up Prime. So that's a thing I suppose. Have you watched any of season 3 yet Gamma?
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Jul 3, 2013 21:08
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Spiderdrake posted:I didn't know the guy who did that amazing spongebob flash was a SA goon, dang, good work new thread That was actually the chart I was thinking of, just didn't have it on hand. Doing a little better than 2010 when there was no supporting movie \ cartoon. Prime being on a channel that most households don't get certainly doesn't help. I watched the first episode of Season 3, was like "meh" and promptly forgot to watch any more. Maybe I watched two. At the end Shockwave came back and they were like OOOOOHH SHOCKWAVE and that was it. I've actually been marathoning DS9 because I'm in Star Trek mode at the moment. If I want to watch Prime, I have to either find it on youtube before they take it down or some random shady streaming website. Honestly, at this point, I just really don't care all that much.
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Jul 3, 2013 21:45
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I would watch Prime on Hub, but I only get the SD Hub, so it's postage-stamped and ugly as hell. My only options are YouTube or waiting for the Blu-Rays.
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Jul 3, 2013 22:05
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Keldroc posted:I would watch Prime on Hub, but I only get the SD Hub, so it's postage-stamped and ugly as hell. My only options are YouTube or waiting for the Blu-Rays. Yeah that is one of the primary reasons why I stopped watching season 2. Could not get over why the formatting was so drat bad. Charter had HD HUB in time for season 3 but by then I just didn't care about the story anymore.
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Jul 3, 2013 22:07
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Sideswipe arrived today! He's pure Italian supercar love in 6" of red plastic. Soooooo good.
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Jul 3, 2013 22:17
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The Rage posted:Yeah that is one of the primary reasons why I stopped watching season 2. Could not get over why the formatting was so drat bad.
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Jul 4, 2013 00:25
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Gammatron 64 posted:Have you seen those awful 10" Spider-Man toys in the store that just have swivels at the arms and nothing else? There's also some Botcon interviews with Hasbro folks over at TFW where they talk about this too. I haven't listened to them yet but quote:...also touching on the Beast Hunters 2014 assortment upsizing controversy. The main message on that one from both we will share with you right here - complex transformations are not being dropped in favor of simple ones, rather, both patterns will run side-by-side to allow for both an entry level and also a level for those enjoying more complicated toys. The upsized Cyberverse thing is also stated to be a one-time deal, by Movie 4 Deluxes will be more than upscaled Cyberverse though still going for that simpler entry level.
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Jul 4, 2013 02:40
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Knormal posted:They have those for Transformers now too. I was in Toys R Us yesterday and watched a kid pick a 10" hollow rubber Prime Bumblebee over a real Transformer. The kid was like five so he wouldn't have been able to handle anything more than a legend figure anyway, and no young kid is going to pick a 2" figure over a 10" one regardless of quality. Thus the upscaled legends. I stopped by a supermarket to pick up some food and they had these enormous 12" blown up rubber dolls of optimus prime and bumblebee. I am not loving kidding. They looked like those china market knockoffs you buy for a dollar or 2, except these had "HASBRO" on the boxes and were priced at about $18. I could not believe my goddamn eyes. Ka0 fucked around with this message at 04:01 on Jul 4, 2013 |
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Jul 4, 2013 03:50
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Ka0 posted:I stopped by a supermarket to pick up some food and they had these enormous 12" blown up rubber dolls of optimus prime and bumblebee. I am not loving kidding. They looked like those china market knockoffs you buy for a dollar or 2, except these had "HASBRO" on the boxes and were priced at about $18. I could not believe my goddamn eyes. I had the same reaction. Those things are like shampoo bottles. I am not some kind of "lol gently caress action masters" guy-- at least they come with a thing that transforms. But TF toys that have absolutely no transforming element at all are just...even as a little kid I'd rather have a small transformer I hated instead of a giant non-transforming Optimus. I'm not calling that kid dumb, I just hope he doesn't have a buyer's remorse hangover when he gets home.
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Jul 4, 2013 04:22
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Why cookie Rocket posted:I had the same reaction. Those things are like shampoo bottles. I am not some kind of "lol gently caress action masters" guy-- at least they come with a thing that transforms. And more than two joints.
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Jul 4, 2013 05:04
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GD_American posted:There's so many good frameworks out there besides doing Secret War on Earth for the dozenth time. I'd like to add a couple of concepts for this hypothetical G3: - A Nextwave-style comic parody where the second-tier characters branch off to form a new faction - A more political quasi-reboot that examines the reasons behind the construction of Autobot City from the '85 film (but that's just because I'm old) Finally, I've always wanted to see a half-hour live-action tokusatsu/sentai Transformers program in the vein of Power Rangers. It seems like a no-brainer in the aftermath of the films.
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Jul 4, 2013 05:25
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fygar posted:- A more political quasi-reboot that examines the reasons behind the construction of Autobot City from the '85 film (but that's just because I'm old) This brings up the excellent point that they have never actually explored the time period between G1 Season 2 and the animated movie. Seems like there's probably some fertile storytelling ground somewhere in the intervening 20 years.
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Jul 4, 2013 06:23
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fygar posted:I'd like to add a couple of concepts for this hypothetical G3: You know, now I think about it, MTMTE isn't that far off. If it ramped up the wackiness to 11, you wouldn't have to change much at all. Keldroc posted:This brings up the excellent point that they have never actually explored the time period between G1 Season 2 and the animated movie. Seems like there's probably some fertile storytelling ground somewhere in the intervening 20 years. All I can think about there is the Animatrix short 'The Next Renaissance' and the founding of Zero-One, the machine city, and how well that turned out. The_Doctor fucked around with this message at 06:35 on Jul 4, 2013 |
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Jul 4, 2013 06:28
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Keldroc posted:This brings up the excellent point that they have never actually explored the time period between G1 Season 2 and the animated movie. Seems like there's probably some fertile storytelling ground somewhere in the intervening 20 years. Isn't that what the Dreamwave G1 comic tried to do?
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Jul 4, 2013 06:55
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Jul 4, 2013 06:57
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My TRU had 2 MP-10s in yesterday. But at £99 (~$150-160) each, they're not the reselling bargain they might seem.
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Jul 4, 2013 07:04
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Silhouette posted:Isn't that what the Dreamwave G1 comic tried to do? Yeah. I think the story was actually pretty solid, the execution of it was just pretty off.
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Jul 4, 2013 07:09
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GD_American posted:Yeah. I think the story was actually pretty solid, the execution of it was just pretty off.
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Jul 4, 2013 07:11
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Spiderdrake posted:Do you mean the execution of the comics or the execution of not paying the people working on it? Art, disjointed continuity between the miniseries mainly. The pay poo poo was horrible, but behind the scenes.
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Jul 4, 2013 07:34
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Keldroc posted:Speaking of which, you know who's 13 years old next year? This guy: That was before I got back into Transformers and had income to spend. Is he even possible to find in box for a decent price nowadays?
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Jul 4, 2013 08:15
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