Transformers: No Gift Receipt, Thanks, These Toys Are For Me

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > BSS: Bisexual Super Son > Transformers: No Gift Receipt, Thanks, These Toys Are For Me

«‹›2275 »

Keldroc: Apr 19, 2004; Marketing materials and speculation are not spoilers. Jesus Christ.

drrockso20 posted:

Yeah that is one of the things that bugs me the most about IDW continuity, well that and most other Transformers "gimmicks" getting treated poorly

Honestly I'm kinda amazed sometimes at how freely Hasbro let's IDW handle their properties(personally I think it's a terrible idea on their end)

Yes, if only Hasbro would closely manage the fiction again so we could get masterpieces like Beast Machines and the Combiner Wars miniseries.

For all its faults, the IDW stuff remains the best TF fiction ever written. I acknowledge that the current creative team has been in place long enough that the inevitable backlash has begun, but I don't agree with much of it. I mean if you're reading a Transformers comic to see them transform instead of see them be actual characters in a story worth telling, I don't know what to say. On the list of complaints I'd have about the current books, that would rank somewhere between "nobody can decide exactly what Rodimus' shade of red/orange was" and "not on the list."

# ? Oct 13, 2017 00:33

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Jun 3, 2024 22:55

The MSJ: May 17, 2010

strangehamster posted:

Masterpiece Class Action Masters confirmed

I think that's what those 3A and Hot Toys Optimus figures are.

# ? Oct 13, 2017 00:43

Arquinsiel: Jun 1, 2006; "There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first."

God Bless Margaret Thatcher
God Bless England
RIP My Iron Lady

Keldroc posted:

Yes, if only Hasbro would closely manage the fiction again so we could get masterpieces like Beast Machines and the Combiner Wars miniseries.

For all its faults, the IDW stuff remains the best TF fiction ever written. I acknowledge that the current creative team has been in place long enough that the inevitable backlash has begun, but I don't agree with much of it. I mean if you're reading a Transformers comic to see them transform instead of see them be actual characters in a story worth telling, I don't know what to say. On the list of complaints I'd have about the current books, that would rank somewhere between "nobody can decide exactly what Rodimus' shade of red/orange was" and "not on the list."

I rather like how it has been handled in the ROM vs Transformers series. There has been a degree of weight and consequence to various transformations that's made it interesting. If you don't include a story requirement for a specific mode shift to take place then why bother wasting a panel on it? Why not just animate a gif of a looping transformation and call it done? Because that'd be boring as gently caress, that's why.

# ? Oct 13, 2017 01:22

drrockso20: May 6, 2013; Has Not Actually Done Cocaine

TheDK posted:

Make Actionmasters Great Again

e: honestly if they had knees and elbows and we're cheap, I'd probably get some.

Agreed, especially if they had good accessories and vehicles/playsets

Keldroc posted:

Yes, if only Hasbro would closely manage the fiction again so we could get masterpieces like Beast Machines and the Combiner Wars miniseries.

For all its faults, the IDW stuff remains the best TF fiction ever written. I acknowledge that the current creative team has been in place long enough that the inevitable backlash has begun, but I don't agree with much of it. I mean if you're reading a Transformers comic to see them transform instead of see them be actual characters in a story worth telling, I don't know what to say. On the list of complaints I'd have about the current books, that would rank somewhere between "nobody can decide exactly what Rodimus' shade of red/orange was" and "not on the list."

I'm not saying it would be good, just that I'm surprised about it(and I meant that it was a bad idea from a business perspective, not a creative one)

I still feel they could handle the actual unique aspects of Transformers much better, and I'm definitely of the opinion that we'll probably get a reboot within the next couple of years, they're kinda running out of things to do and characters to use that are marketable since they are way too quick to kill characters off for cheap drama/shock value

# ? Oct 13, 2017 01:29

Spiderdrake: May 12, 2001

I suspect a reboot happens at about the point Lost Light gets canceled. Be interesting to see if #10 brings up sales a little, since the last issue was only 200 sales above TAAO which had apparently already progressed toward the cancellation line. Otherwise I think we're doing unicron and then a relaunch. Optimus Prime is doing about as bad, so LL is probably the last hold out.

Hopefully someone can give him a better title than Lost Light next time.

I disagree they're running out of things to do.

# ? Oct 13, 2017 01:44

Rhyno: Mar 22, 2003; Can't post for 10 years!

I could definitely see a soft reboot but they've dug them into the entire Hasbro line of comics at this point so resetting everything wouldn't be so easy unless they scuttle them all.

# ? Oct 13, 2017 02:07

Arquinsiel: Jun 1, 2006; "There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first."

God Bless Margaret Thatcher
God Bless England
RIP My Iron Lady

It's possible that they could do things like ROM vs Transformers or Revolutionaries from here on out, but inevitably we'd get the old cry of "Y NO ROBUTT ON CYBORTRON?" from the fans and be back to square one.

# ? Oct 13, 2017 03:03

Rhyno: Mar 22, 2003; Can't post for 10 years!

This guy is awesome

I'm such a mark for Ginrai that I'm probably gonna drop $150 more on dumb upgrades. And then I'll buy the two third party Ginrai's that are releasing as well.

# ? Oct 13, 2017 03:13

Spiderdrake: May 12, 2001

Rhyno posted:

I could definitely see a soft reboot but they've dug them into the entire Hasbro line of comics at this point so resetting everything wouldn't be so easy unless they scuttle them all.

I would think as a huge Green Lantern fan you would be intimately familiar with how incredibly short-sighted and insipid reboots of any sort often are.

Also buy the MT Ginrai. Vehicle mode is crap but oof, leader sized with 3P heft. Feels wonderful.

# ? Oct 13, 2017 03:28

Rhyno: Mar 22, 2003; Can't post for 10 years!

I'm probably getting the MT and the Fans Hobby AND the FH Overlord.

Masterforce/Victory is best.

Not as great as Stunticons mind you

# ? Oct 13, 2017 03:31

M3wThr33: Sep 4, 2004; I gave up long ago trying to contribute anything ever.

Can someone explain to me what the gently caress happened with the The Lost Light focusing on characters that I don't give a poo poo about and I never heard of until recently?

# ? Oct 13, 2017 04:13

Anora: Feb 16, 2014; I fuckin suck!🪠

Roberts tends to play for the long game, so he'll do an interlude, that is boring as gently caress by itself, then tie it in to the story about a year later.

# ? Oct 13, 2017 04:57

Rhyno: Mar 22, 2003; Can't post for 10 years!

My eyes are still dilated so please forgive the shoddy pic.

I installed Jinrai on Magnus Prime. Not much of a visible difference but once the PC-15 arrives the new head and engine will make a noticeable change. Holding off on PC-17 until I find a Godbomber for retail.

# ? Oct 13, 2017 05:42

Spiderdrake: May 12, 2001

M3wThr33 posted:

Can someone explain to me what the gently caress happened with the The Lost Light focusing on characters that I don't give a poo poo about and I never heard of until recently?

You'd have to ask Roberts but the basic chain of events seems to be:

He lost his title and was told he was relaunching
Someone came up with the complete poo poo title Lost Light
Someone told him "You're relaunching so make up a new character to serve as the audience stand in and explain the world to new readers"
Roberts either didn't hear most of that sentence, didn't understand or didn't care and just made up some characters
The new characters waffle about, possibly because he doesn't understand his audience or possibly because Anode Reigns?

_{Someone will get that}

Not really sure what step in there turned into Anode the Hedgehog time but that's basically what happened.

# ? Oct 13, 2017 06:01

SlothfulCobra: Mar 27, 2011

Well all the characters you knew and cared about were either killed, had their personal storylines wrapped up to death, abandoned on an alternate reality, turned traitor, or got forgotten by the writer like Swerve, so all he's got left are these Johnny come latelys who haven't proven themselves yet.

Full reboots are for quitters, but there's nothing stopping them from doing a round of resurrections or whatever.

# ? Oct 13, 2017 06:07

M3wThr33: Sep 4, 2004; I gave up long ago trying to contribute anything ever.

Like, for MTMTE, which had a loving huge following, I thought, it was his pick of the B-class Transformers. Then, somehow, he was able to snag Megatron, and it was compelling, and worked. It really did.

Then Rodimus got the color change, which was explained to me as Hasbro wanting a reason to sell a new toy, and that was the compromise. Then they ended up in that alternate reality, where Rung was being abused to gently caress, and Megatron stayed behind, and... now we're watching completely bullshit 'architects' I don't give a crap about suddenly take up all the time trying to resurrect someone I don't care about with this bullshit "empathy" payment crap that seems like a loving HUGE departure from the crazy stuff before.

I want "Time travel briefcase" and "Minimus Ambus" storylines back. Things with some tongue-in-cheek humor, like the Rodpod or Swerve's. Hell, even the weird relationship with Tailgate and Cyclonus. Not this weird moody tale about generic looking robots that resemble knock-off Transformers I'd see in the clearance aisle at a Ross after Christmas.

If Hasbro was pushing for new characters (And that's LITERALLY ALL THEY CARE ABOUT, from my understanding), it still doesn't explain this storyline that came up out of nowhere and is almost like Roberts just pissing on us as a test to see how long we'll put up with it.

TAAO was enjoyable as gently caress. Like, it had the threat of the titans, Starscream being himself, and Windblade being more than simply "I'm a nice person".

M3wThr33 fucked around with this message at 07:14 on Oct 13, 2017

# ? Oct 13, 2017 07:12

Lepecard: May 19, 2009; Soiled Meat

Rhyno posted:

I'm probably getting the MT and the Fans Hobby AND the FH Overlord.

Masterforce/Victory is best.

Not as great as Stunticons mind you

I love the Fansproject Menasor in it's combined form but I must say that that Motormaster is my least favorite robot to transform ever!

# ? Oct 13, 2017 08:03

ShaneMacGowansTeeth: May 22, 2007; I think this is it... I think this is how it ends

M3wThr33 posted:

Like, for MTMTE, which had a loving huge following, I thought, it was his pick of the B-class Transformers. Then, somehow, he was able to snag Megatron, and it was compelling, and worked. It really did.

Then Rodimus got the color change, which was explained to me as Hasbro wanting a reason to sell a new toy, and that was the compromise. Then they ended up in that alternate reality, where Rung was being abused to gently caress, and Megatron stayed behind, and... now we're watching completely bullshit 'architects' I don't give a crap about suddenly take up all the time trying to resurrect someone I don't care about with this bullshit "empathy" payment crap that seems like a loving HUGE departure from the crazy stuff before.

I want "Time travel briefcase" and "Minimus Ambus" storylines back. Things with some tongue-in-cheek humor, like the Rodpod or Swerve's. Hell, even the weird relationship with Tailgate and Cyclonus. Not this weird moody tale about generic looking robots that resemble knock-off Transformers I'd see in the clearance aisle at a Ross after Christmas.

If Hasbro was pushing for new characters (And that's LITERALLY ALL THEY CARE ABOUT, from my understanding), it still doesn't explain this storyline that came up out of nowhere and is almost like Roberts just pissing on us as a test to see how long we'll put up with it.

TAAO was enjoyable as gently caress. Like, it had the threat of the titans, Starscream being himself, and Windblade being more than simply "I'm a nice person".

Well good news, Tailgate is currently buried miles underground on Necroworld, and we're leaving all of Rodimus and his friends behind for three issues while he sorts out Getaway and the actual Lost Light crew

# ? Oct 13, 2017 08:40

The_Doctor: Mar 29, 2007; "The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

Mech Planet keep at it. Them making a Sideswipe might mean I can ignore the IF one...

# ? Oct 13, 2017 09:46

History Comes Inside!: Nov 20, 2004

I want a mech planet everything because the price is ridiculous and they are fun as heck.

# ? Oct 13, 2017 09:48

Arquinsiel: Jun 1, 2006; "There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first."

God Bless Margaret Thatcher
God Bless England
RIP My Iron Lady

A convention over the weekend setup a greenscreen and a cardboard city for the kids to knock over and pretend to be kaiju. They lasted about ten minutes before wandering off, so I decided to have some fun and made a lovely thing.

# ? Oct 13, 2017 10:00

Good Listener: Sep 2, 2006; Ask me about moons
Fact #1 The Moon is really cool

M3wThr33 posted:

Like, for MTMTE, which had a loving huge following, I thought, it was his pick of the B-class Transformers. Then, somehow, he was able to snag Megatron, and it was compelling, and worked. It really did.

Then Rodimus got the color change, which was explained to me as Hasbro wanting a reason to sell a new toy, and that was the compromise. Then they ended up in that alternate reality, where Rung was being abused to gently caress, and Megatron stayed behind, and... now we're watching completely bullshit 'architects' I don't give a crap about suddenly take up all the time trying to resurrect someone I don't care about with this bullshit "empathy" payment crap that seems like a loving HUGE departure from the crazy stuff before.

I want "Time travel briefcase" and "Minimus Ambus" storylines back. Things with some tongue-in-cheek humor, like the Rodpod or Swerve's. Hell, even the weird relationship with Tailgate and Cyclonus. Not this weird moody tale about generic looking robots that resemble knock-off Transformers I'd see in the clearance aisle at a Ross after Christmas.

If Hasbro was pushing for new characters (And that's LITERALLY ALL THEY CARE ABOUT, from my understanding), it still doesn't explain this storyline that came up out of nowhere and is almost like Roberts just pissing on us as a test to see how long we'll put up with it.

TAAO was enjoyable as gently caress. Like, it had the threat of the titans, Starscream being himself, and Windblade being more than simply "I'm a nice person".

I really am sad they decided to end TAAO because like you said, it had some interesting stuff going on and now it's like..what happens to all those little plot thread from Cybertron? Starscream? The combaticons? Ironhide? Windblade? Chromia? I'm sure they'll pop up elsewhere but I liked them having their own contained little story. Plus the art and story was good the whole way through pretty much so it's just like...aw man.

# ? Oct 13, 2017 16:41

M3wThr33: Sep 4, 2004; I gave up long ago trying to contribute anything ever.

And the third title made sense. The Lost Light is forever going to be a self-contained story of them traveling through space, and Optimus Prime is pretty much going to be about Earth, so they needed a Cybertron-centric series.

I mean, that's the big pull right now of the IDW series as a whole. It's different from other iterations because the war is over, and Decepticons and Autobots are pretty much dissolved as factions, so the internal politics of their home planet are the driving force.

At least ROM vs Transformers is great. And Bumblebee is in it, so that helps.

# ? Oct 13, 2017 18:40

Rhyno: Mar 22, 2003; Can't post for 10 years!

If fans wanted to read about Cybertronian politics they would have bought the book. It sold badly and was thus canceled.

# ? Oct 13, 2017 19:24

Spiderdrake: May 12, 2001

Rhyno posted:

If fans wanted to read about Cybertronian politics they would have bought the book. It sold badly and was thus canceled.

Yeah? Good news: All three books are now selling about as badly.

So I guess people don't want to read any of this.

# ? Oct 13, 2017 19:40

Rhyno: Mar 22, 2003; Can't post for 10 years!

Doesn't look like it.

# ? Oct 13, 2017 19:49

GET IN THE ROBOT: Nov 28, 2007; JUST GET IN THE FUCKING ROBOT SHINJI

MTMTE started out so great with funny, likeable characters and great world building. Then after like 40 issues Roberts gradually began running out of steam and the book began to slowly slide into directionless Transformers \ Dr. Who crossover fanfiction.

Maybe the quality began to slip because IDW or Hasbro decided they wanted to be Marvel and started doing big crossover ~~gimmicks~~ events. I mean I am posting this in BSS so this will probably strike a nerve and get my rear end flamed, but the constant big events that hijack stories, issue #1 relaunches and constant shuffling of creative teams are why I got fed up and stopped reading Marvel comics almost a decade ago now. And... it looks like I'm not alone, because now practically nobody is reading them anymore. Which is really loving depressing honestly. Plus the comics community is more toxic and hostile than ever now, and I think I'd rather stick my head in the microwave than talk about comics on twitter because holy poo poo.

I'm honestly kind of envious of you comic store guys that you can remain enthusiastic about superhero books and I wish I could still get enjoyment out of them too. Sorry for the rant, I'm sure you've all heard it a million times before from a million people.

# ? Oct 13, 2017 20:22

Captain Invictus: Apr 5, 2005; Try reading some manga!; Clever Betty

It does sound like Roberts has gotten progressively more cynical about executive meddling in the stories he's writing. I fell off about 10ish months ago but I do remember him getting really snippy on twitter about the comics recently.

# ? Oct 13, 2017 20:24

SpikeMcclane: Sep 11, 2005; You want the story?
I'll spin it for you quick...

Rhyno posted:

If fans wanted to read about Cybertronian politics they would have bought the book. It sold badly and was thus canceled.

If IDW wanted to sell books, maybe they would offer better promotion of their products and wouldn't have frequent reboots, frequent trashy crossovers that interrupt storylines, and repeated confusing name changes of all their supposedly ongoing titles. (This applying to comics as a whole, too.)

# ? Oct 13, 2017 21:33

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Gammatron 64 posted:

MTMTE started out so great with funny, likeable characters and great world building. Then after like 40 issues Roberts gradually began running out of steam and the book began to slowly slide into directionless Transformers \ Dr. Who crossover fanfiction.

Maybe the quality began to slip because IDW or Hasbro decided they wanted to be Marvel and started doing big crossover ~~gimmicks~~ events. I mean I am posting this in BSS so this will probably strike a nerve and get my rear end flamed, but the constant big events that hijack stories, issue #1 relaunches and constant shuffling of creative teams are why I got fed up and stopped reading Marvel comics almost a decade ago now. And... it looks like I'm not alone, because now practically nobody is reading them anymore. Which is really loving depressing honestly. Plus the comics community is more toxic and hostile than ever now, and I think I'd rather stick my head in the microwave than talk about comics on twitter because holy poo poo.

I'm honestly kind of envious of you comic store guys that you can remain enthusiastic about superhero books and I wish I could still get enjoyment out of them too. Sorry for the rant, I'm sure you've all heard it a million times before from a million people.

No one reads comics, in general (even if every one of the floppies sold last month was to a different individual, it would still be all of 2% of the US population), and that's obviously not the case. Marvel, in particular, is still the top selling comic company, though their physical copy sales have dropped by about half a million (comparing Sept 2007 to Sept 2017), but I bet they more than make that up in digital sales. But yeah, I don't think anyone would blame you for that, and I've mostly sworn off their event comics myself.

# ? Oct 13, 2017 21:51

TheDK: Jun 5, 2009

I'd read the comics (even the bad ones) if I could get them on something like Marvel Unlimited. It's super easy and convenient.

# ? Oct 13, 2017 21:55

ShaneMacGowansTeeth: May 22, 2007; I think this is it... I think this is how it ends

Last figures I saw, which I think were for March, were Optimus Prime selling 7.4k, Lost Light selling 6.4k and Til All Are One selling 6.2k though I think the figures just before the cancellation announcement saw Lost Light selling the fewest by quite a long margin. Those figures above are also just for physical copies in the US I believe

# ? Oct 13, 2017 22:49

Spiderdrake: May 12, 2001

Googling it brought up

239 234 Transformers Lost Light 9* $3.99 IDW 6,112

The actual number isn't that important, it's the trends, and the trend was a 10% drop from 8 to 9. At that rate of attrition the book is getting canceled soon. But maybe the Lost Light actually being in the Lost Light will hopefully bring sales figures up.

If I didn't have interesting projects on the go I'd probably collect up the sales figures and tie together key events with sales. It would be interesting to contrast the oft complained about stuff like "Magnus not little guy in armor!!!" or "I have a backpack!" and see if they connect to a sales drop.

# ? Oct 13, 2017 23:36

The_Doctor: Mar 29, 2007; "The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

New Thew!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQsBLXyz2M0

# ? Oct 14, 2017 01:58

Good Listener: Sep 2, 2006; Ask me about moons
Fact #1 The Moon is really cool

Also if I remember right, TAAO was less canceled and more they decided to just end it at the story they finished in issue 12 rather than continue?

# ? Oct 14, 2017 02:12

TheDK: Jun 5, 2009

The_Doctor posted:

New Thew!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQsBLXyz2M0

I agree, Quake owns. He's a good stand-in generic deceptigoon.

# ? Oct 14, 2017 02:21

Nodosaur: Dec 23, 2014

They wanted Scott to retool it and Scott didn't really want to retool it.

So they decided to end it.

It was a response to flagging sales, but it wasn't technically cancelled due to low sales.

# ? Oct 14, 2017 02:22

M3wThr33: Sep 4, 2004; I gave up long ago trying to contribute anything ever.

There also was a shitload of backlash just because it was two women writing and drawing it. Holy poo poo. That was a depressing world to peek into every once in a while.

# ? Oct 14, 2017 06:08

TheDK: Jun 5, 2009

That "unofficial g1 photo archive" book kickstarter was "prematurely aborted due to circumstances beyond their control"... sounds like Hasbro shut it down. Kinda sucks, I was looking forward to it.

# ? Oct 14, 2017 14:03

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Jun 3, 2024 22:55

ShaneMacGowansTeeth: May 22, 2007; I think this is it... I think this is how it ends

TFRazorsaw posted:

They wanted Scott to retool it and Scott didn't really want to retool it.

So they decided to end it.

It was a response to flagging sales, but it wasn't technically cancelled due to low sales.

that's the story I heard too. I know that MtMtE sold a shitload of digital copies to end up in the worldwide top 10 on comixology, so maybe the sales there are enough to keep Lost Light going

# ? Oct 14, 2017 15:04

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > BSS: Bisexual Super Son > Transformers: No Gift Receipt, Thanks, These Toys Are For Me

«‹›2275 »