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ok so like you know all the stuff star trek doesn't do anymore? they do that stuff, but they're robots that turn into stuff and there's electric guitar solos
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May 23, 2020 00:15
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That actually does sound like it could own face. All the ships dock and live in a gigantic transformer Enterprise-esque ship that can go to warp, lots of fun with being able to go into hostile environments and how they affect diplomacy.
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May 23, 2020 01:06
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They send in a diplomat but he's a tank, literally a tank and it goes how you'd expect
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May 23, 2020 01:09
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In very specific contexts it is extremely funny to traumatise small children.
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May 23, 2020 01:48
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W.T. Fits posted:Presumably this is the main reason their civil war has been going for over four million years. Kinda, yeah. I feel Transformers is one of the worst offenders with sci-fi writers having absolutely no sense of time scale. The comics do a lot of fun stuff like how the Transformers used to have a strict and oppressive caste system and apparently most of them turn into like, memory sticks. Part of the reason the Decepticons got started was calling bullshit on that, and Orion Pax thought they had a point.
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May 23, 2020 03:20
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nine-gear crow posted:The Five Faces of Evil miniseries/compilation movie goes into it, yes. The Quintessons built the machine race that would eventually evolve into the Transformers, who then overthrew them and drove them off Cybertron. They were so loving pissed about it that when they built Quintessa (the planet that Kup and Hot Rod land on in the movie) as their little Cyberton In Exile planet, they set up a kangaroo court to put all cybernetic life on trial for the crime of rebelling against the Quintessons and stealing Cybertron from them. That's so dumb and weird. I love it.
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May 23, 2020 18:39
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mind the walrus posted:That actually does sound like it could own face. All the ships dock and live in a gigantic transformer Enterprise-esque ship that can go to warp, lots of fun with being able to go into hostile environments and how they affect diplomacy. The Star Trek/Transformers crossover comic had a giant Transformer literally scan and turn into a duplicate Enterprise. There are already canon cases of city-sized Transformers that other Transformers can live in, and are often capable of space travel. And reminded of War For/Fall Of Cybertron and how loving weird Cybertron can be; one mission has you playing as a Decepticon blowing up a bridge, which is harder than it sounds because the bridge is not only massive but actively fights back and adjusts to make up for the damage you do until you destroy every functional component of the thing. Also there's an easter egg where one of the levers you pull in a canned animation throughout the game turns out to be a Transformer that turns into robot mode and dances. Spaceships are kind of weird in Transformers, because they're seemingly the only vehicles from Cybertron that don't transform. And even then some do, or used to. There's at least two cases of a giant Transformer in stasis lock (somewhere between comatose and dead) being used as a functional spaceship. Ghost Leviathan fucked around with this message at 19:33 on May 23, 2020 |
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May 23, 2020 19:31
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I just like the idea of the ship transforming to and from robot mode and having to run through all kinds of crew checklists and sensor routines to make sure no one is in one of the "caution zones" where they'll get absolutely squished during transformation, and because the thing is so drat big and takes so much energy it's basically like the big "win" button they can only pull out when the situation is really dire. Plus the comedy option of "USS Foundation where is the delegate party from the squishy meat balloon planet?" "Oh when I transformed you idiots forgot to put them in a habitat bubble so they got sucked into space and died. You've got to remember not every species has emergency docking magnets and life support systems in their suits."
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May 23, 2020 22:23
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mind the walrus posted:I just like the idea of the ship transforming to and from robot mode and having to run through all kinds of crew checklists and sensor routines to make sure no one is in one of the "caution zones" where they'll get absolutely squished during transformation, and because the thing is so drat big and takes so much energy it's basically like the big "win" button they can only pull out when the situation is really dire. 
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May 23, 2020 22:37
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Yup, that classic joke that's been around since the 80s, only y'know, actually kind-of funny.
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May 23, 2020 22:46
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That reminds me of the episode where two scientists who really loving hated transformers put somebody in an ambulance only to find out that it's another transformer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rhkgPI1Mu4&t=278s When I was a kid, I had a bunch of episodes from the very beginning of the show on VHS along with The Return of Optimus Prime, the two-parter that apparently ended the series, and I just didn't understand why Optimus was gone to need to return in the first place, why there was an entirely different cast of characters, the gently caress is a Quintesson, why there are TWO different two-headed dragons, why is humanity so much more advanced than the real world, what's the matrix, and why does Galvatron say that Autobots can't fly when they were all flying around like nobody's business in the first episode.
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May 23, 2020 23:26
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Oddly enough there's a fairly consistent thing across various incarnations where the REALLY big Transformers are usually kinda dumb, and have very little initiative and will of their own besides to do what someone with sufficient authority tells them to. I feel it kinda makes sense as much as anything with Transformers done; assuming they're running on some variant of the standard Cybertronian brain hardware, the vast majority of their processing power is probably tied up in simply running their massive bodies and all the associated hardware and weapons. Also, oddly enough, the series has done the 'crushed by being caught in a transformation sequence' thing with a Transformer; the fate of Thrust in Transformers Armada hanging around on Unicron. Which I think really cuts to the matter of why Transformers is interesting; because all of the characters are 'robots', you can show them getting into lethal combat, getting brutally injured and killed, and basically tell war stories for kid without having to pull punches.
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May 24, 2020 07:11
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they did a comic fairly recently called 'More Than Meets the Eye' (and another called 'Robots in Disguise) that was really good. It got a little weird and lost by the end of the run, but it was amazing in terms of worldbuilding, turning the old one-dimensional(at best) G1 characters into more fleshed out individuals, character development, etc - and with a fresh sort of space-adventure theme as the entire thing is set in a post-war setting. Great art and great writing that is accessible to new fans but has a lot of stuff for old fans, imo it's really really worth it. The other series, RiD, was set back on Cybertron and dealt more with the politics of how a post-war Cybertron would work. It had ups and downs and wasn't as popular, but ties in multiple times with MtMtE and in my opinion was really cool. (There were also MULTIPLE other comics in this time that tied in: dozens of 'Spotlight' one-off issues, several brief miniseries, and so on - so you can really dig in if you want. The complete 'universe' has to have been a few hundred total issues altogether.) ((Now that's all over and they've rebooted it with a new series that is sort of starting just before the war breaks out. It is kinda slow paced but has its charm))
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May 24, 2020 14:35
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How big was Megatron when he was a gun?
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May 25, 2020 13:21
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Big enough.
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May 25, 2020 13:22
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Megatron as a gun is one of those really dumb things that's still really fitting for the character all things considered. Optimus Primal may have been ahead of the curve with a gorilla as a strong but gentle hero who only does violence when necessary.
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May 25, 2020 15:32
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Munky. Not trukk.
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May 25, 2020 18:00
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May 25, 2020 18:22
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May 25, 2020 18:25
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May 25, 2020 18:33
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mind the walrus posted:I just like the idea of the ship transforming to and from robot mode and having to run through all kinds of crew checklists and sensor routines to make sure no one is in one of the "caution zones" where they'll get absolutely squished during transformation, and because the thing is so drat big and takes so much energy it's basically like the big "win" button they can only pull out when the situation is really dire. there's a scene kind of like this in the original Space Fortress Macross https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqsSby3Ev_I&t=1203s
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May 26, 2020 23:14
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Tighclops posted:They send in a diplomat but he's a tank, literally a tank and it goes how you'd expect That's an Asimov robot story. Humans send a robot diplomat to make contact with the denizens of the surface of Jupiter (I think), and it's built to casually handle the heat and pressure of a Jovian atmosphere as well as the vacuum needed to get there. Calmly answers any question about its own nature and capability. Jovians forget, however, to ask what a human is like, because they assume they're already talking to one. They promise to never leave their world and threaten humanity, fearing its wrath.
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May 27, 2020 17:39
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Ghost Leviathan posted:The Star Trek/Transformers crossover comic had a giant Transformer literally scan and turn into a duplicate Enterprise. There are already canon cases of city-sized Transformers that other Transformers can live in, and are often capable of space travel. Man those games are so good, sadly they were my first real introduction to Transformers, as I was born at just the wrong time to see the original series.
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May 27, 2020 18:46
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Vavrek posted:That's an Asimov robot story. Humans send a robot diplomat to make contact with the denizens of the surface of Jupiter (I think), and it's built to casually handle the heat and pressure of a Jovian atmosphere as well as the vacuum needed to get there. Calmly answers any question about its own nature and capability. Jovians forget, however, to ask what a human is like, because they assume they're already talking to one. They promise to never leave their world and threaten humanity, fearing its wrath. Victory Unintentional
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May 27, 2020 18:58
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Hunter Noventa posted:Man those games are so good, sadly they were my first real introduction to Transformers, as I was born at just the wrong time to see the original series. Neither was I but people seem to forget they never actually stopped making Transformers cartoons, there's been like nearly a dozen since the original series and pretty much all of them are at least as good or better. (because it's not a very high bar) (that said, Energon was gaaarbo)
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May 28, 2020 05:53
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SlothfulCobra posted:
The future in the cartoon was cool, the USSR still existed... will exist... exists... What year are we again?
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May 28, 2020 21:48
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Marmaduke! posted:The future in the cartoon was cool, the USSR still existed... will exist... exists... What year are we again? The animated movie took place in 2005.
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May 28, 2020 21:58
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That wasn't what I asked!
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May 28, 2020 22:10
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The cartoon was also way ahead of the curve on post 9/11 racist muslim stereotypes, and one of the VAs quit over it.
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May 28, 2020 22:51
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If you are interested in Transformers and remember them fondly, you should check out the IDW reboot comics (not the current, rather boring run, but the one that concluded two years ago). They went very deep, with robot apartheid, gender identity, "can you forgive literal Hitler", and other things. Brought about largely by James Roberts, a writer that started off with fanfiction and was brought on to do a massive amount of worldbuilding. He does have his quirks that can get annoying (Douglas Adams-esque humor, British-isms leaking through), but in all he was a massive boost to the franchise.
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May 31, 2020 15:30
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That wiki is a treasure just because it is incredibly informative and precisely correct about a lot of the odds and ends of the deep transformers lore that nobody but the most buried turbonerds could possibly know while simultaneously never forgetting that knowing either half of this stuff basically comes with an atomic wedgie quota from the universe at large so the entire thing is never taken that seriously.
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Jun 14, 2020 10:54
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Weirdly enough, some of what I'd call the worst Transformers shows had the best toys. Armada and Energon are super fun with how cross-compatible everything is.
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Jun 14, 2020 13:58
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GD_American posted:If you are interested in Transformers and remember them fondly, you should check out the IDW reboot comics (not the current, rather boring run, but the one that concluded two years ago). They went very deep, with robot apartheid, gender identity, "can you forgive literal Hitler", and other things. Ahhhhhhhh! YOU CAN'T SHOW THAT PANEL! IT'S SO UPSETTING!
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Jun 14, 2020 14:48
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Ghost Leviathan posted:Weirdly enough, some of what I'd call the worst Transformers shows had the best toys. Armada and Energon are super fun with how cross-compatible everything is. Armada had a handful of decent full-sized Transformers figures, but for the most part that entire year was a massive step back in terms of engineering. The main gimmicks were usually over-built for what little they accomplished, the static Minicon ports were nearly always more fun than the spring-loaded poo poo and half the main figures' robot modes were inarticulate bricks just like the ones from the 80s. I'm aware that this was part of a reorientation of the brand towards a younger audience at the time I still think the Tonka toy look was really bad. Energon was a big improvement, and most of the problems the Armada toys had were gone by I think the second or third wave of figures. I was pretty picky about my purchases at the time for those reasons but I've pretty much culled most of the Armada stuff out of the collection since then, obviously excepting stuff like Unicron and Bendy Prime.
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Jun 14, 2020 17:39
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GD_American posted:If you are interested in Transformers and remember them fondly, you should check out the IDW reboot comics (not the current, rather boring run, but the one that concluded two years ago). They went very deep, with robot apartheid, gender identity, "can you forgive literal Hitler", and other things. I've heard it was really good. To be honest, more properties should approach their best fanfiction writers. Then at least you get someone who actually wanted to write for that series. And not someone who, say, turns a franchise that is a unique scifi franchise into a lovely copy of Mass Effect.
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Jun 14, 2020 17:41
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I found out in the past year that one of the two producers of Beast Wars was also one of the guys that worked on Babylon 5, and I was like ohhhhhhh that explains a lot
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Jun 14, 2020 18:35
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I liked Armada a whole lot at the time, and I never watched it again as an adult, which seems fine, seeing as how the show was targeted at kids, like I was at the time. I don't know how well it holds up, but it's not like most of the other Transformers cartoons hold up that well to an adult. Minicons were perfect and amazing, and I don't think Hasbro has really matched the fun of small robots since, although I did enjoy titanmasters some. Sideways had the coolest minicon partner, although the head-mode-with-antlers was ridiculous. The bigger Armada figures...well, they are a bit hit and miss. Beast Wars was really balljoint-crazy, which set a standard of articulation that RiD kinda fell away from with its few original toys, and then Armada stepped back a little further. Not just because of weird minicon gimmicks, but just a whole lot of weird, weird design choices. I think Armada invented the H-tank, and when you look at Demolisher, he has a bit of charm to him, but I'm not sure anything can explain why he is what he is. He has an interesting chair mode though. Scavenger is probably the worst offender, but there's still a little charm in how his minicon can sit in the driver's seat. You can even see a lot of the weird design decisions in the minicons, which is part of why they're so interesting. I don't think articulation is everything for a figure, because the engineering in the transformation and how aesthetically interesting the modes are also are important. Then Energon rolled along and for various reasons I never really watched the show. I liked the robots though, and they increased the amount of articulation. The combination modes were kinda garbage though, but I still feel like the component limb robots from Energon are still my favorite component robots out of any combiner. But I guess "I don't like combiners but these robots are really good independently despite their gimmick" is pretty low praise.
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Jun 14, 2020 21:11
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I had the Armada Tidal Wave toy and it ruled. A 3-ship fleet that combines into a battleship that turns into a robot? yes please! Also Titanmasters are neat but they're literally just the same idea as Headmasters from the 80s.
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Jun 14, 2020 21:37
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I kind of like that they're bringing back old gimmicks and doing them well with modern engineering, it suits the whole retro theme of that line of figures. I hope one day they eventually get around to doing more Armada era stuff because it needs the upgrade. I would love to have a non crappy version of Cyclonus or Demolishor since the originals were so close to being pretty novel that they were frustrating
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Jun 14, 2020 21:48
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Armada Cyclonus was perfect, even if he was basically a helicopter carrying a folded-up robot underneath.Droyer posted:they're literally just the same idea as Headmasters from the 80s. That was the whole point, hence why they did it in the toyline all about retreading their old characters. Not that I wouldn't love it if they did try getting more creative. There's still never been a bus transformer.
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Jun 15, 2020 01:45
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