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

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Sentinel Red: Nov 13, 2007; Style > Content.

Arquinsiel posted:

The Star Wars stuff is a really difficult sell when you can get a stupid huge playset for your 3.75" figures, or you can get an equally nice version of the same ship to put on your shelf for $20 with free shipping tomorrow from Amazon. If Disney would greenlight a HasLab Ebon Hawk or Moldy Crow you'd see that fund in seconds, but they won't.

OUTRIDER NOW

:colbert:

# ? Feb 10, 2024 00:38

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# ? May 30, 2024 17:47

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

Sentinel Red posted:

OUTRIDER NOW

I knew I was forgetting an obvious one. Thank you for your correction.

# ? Feb 10, 2024 00:45

Nodosaur: Dec 23, 2014

Keldroc posted:

No, it proves people will back a cool design, regardless of continuity. This "silent majority of G1 fatigue" nonsense is exactly that: Nonsense. People like Transformers, period.

Except Beast Machines. gently caress that noise.

When did I say G1 fatigue?

People want it in addition.

# ? Feb 10, 2024 00:49

SlothfulCobra: Mar 27, 2011

Robot Style posted:

Scourge was in Speedia 500, Towline was in Buzzworthy Bumblebee, and Sideburn (from Shadow Striker) is on the leaked list for Wave 3 in July.

Prior to that, Unite Warriors had a Ruination repaint of Bruticus, and Thrilling 30 had Sky-Byte, but that's about all they've done in the past decade or so.

Scourge and Towline are both just repurposed G2 designs. Bruticus counts, but imagine if they designed a new guy from the ground up to be a modern version of the RiD guy, the original is such a hot mess.

Captain Invictus posted:

Skybyte is cool but as a character, his toys are kinda lame because he transforms from a overly greebled sharkman into a statue of a shark, due to how his transformation works. I like him as a dude, a poet/bard/whatever, but his toys are kinda lame. Source: at one point or another I've owned every skybyte

This is a pretty common endemic issue for all beast modes where they end up lacking proper articulation so that they're lovely statues in alt-mode. Often they only really bother with articulation if they can contrive a way to just use the robot limbs as animal limbs, but often the beast mode will still be lacking if they can't work in a head or body joint.

People don't care as much about articulating car parts like doors or giving planes landing gear, but they will grump about tanks without moving turrets.

# ? Feb 10, 2024 01:13

Tighclops: Jan 23, 2008; Unable to deal with it; Grimey Drawer

Keldroc posted:

No, it proves people will back a cool design, regardless of continuity. This "silent majority of G1 fatigue" nonsense is exactly that: Nonsense. People like Transformers, period.

Except Beast Machines. gently caress that noise.

Beast Machines was a bad show and a bad sequel and simultaneously more compelling and thoughtful than everything that followed

the timeline where we got Transtech also has cold fusion and world peace

# ? Feb 10, 2024 01:14

The Last Call: Sep 9, 2011; Rehabilitating sinner

Tighclops posted:

Beast Machines was a bad show and a bad sequel and simultaneously more compelling and thoughtful than everything that followed

the timeline where we got Transtech also has cold fusion and world peace

Hated Beast Machine so much.

The designs were painful. See, Rattrap, hair bat guy, flower girl etc.
The characters were virtually new characters with re designed personilities. ie: Pretty much everyone.
The lava explosions were liquidly.
Special abilities were a knee jerk reaction to guns
The plot could have had potential but it was just not done well.

Pretty much everything lays at the feet of one Dan Didio. At the time Bob Skir and his assistant took all the heat, it wasn't until later that people learned much of the shows failures was thanks to Didio's decisions.
He was the guy that basically said continuity was bad. Beast Machines was such a disaster in the end it was why things changed drastically after. Tranformers as cars were back! The fandom rejoiced.

If you ever looked at the original concepts for Beast Machines it was much more interesting, the Vox would have been the big bads livid how their grand experiment was ruined, and the Maximals would still be more robotic. The Vox used more organic inventions instead of the reverse.

# ? Feb 10, 2024 02:29

Robot Style: Jul 5, 2009

Sentinel Red posted:

OUTRIDER NOW

Only if they get Mark Hamill to record new narration for the commercial.

# ? Feb 10, 2024 02:29

Tighclops: Jan 23, 2008; Unable to deal with it; Grimey Drawer

The Last Call posted:

Hated Beast Machine so much.

The designs were painful. See, Rattrap, hair bat guy, flower girl etc.
The characters were virtually new characters with re designed personilities. ie: Pretty much everyone.
The lava explosions were liquidly.
Special abilities were a knee jerk reaction to guns
The plot could have had potential but it was just not done well.

Pretty much everything lays at the feet of one Dan Didio. At the time Bob Skir and his assistant took all the heat, it wasn't until later that people learned much of the shows failures was thanks to Didio's decisions.
He was the guy that basically said continuity was bad. Beast Machines was such a disaster in the end it was why things changed drastically after. Tranformers as cars were back! The fandom rejoiced.

If you ever looked at the original concepts for Beast Machines it was much more interesting, the Vox would have been the big bads livid how their grand experiment was ruined, and the Maximals would still be more robotic. The Vox used more organic inventions instead of the reverse.

I'm actually really interested on the behind the scenes of Beast Machines and I've never really been clear until this post on who was responsible for a lot of obviously dumb choices. Are there any articles anywhere on this I could read?

I maintain that for all its problems the Beast Machines cartoon could be aired as Prestige streaming show and it would fit right in with a lot of the crap that gets made now

# ? Feb 10, 2024 02:39

Phy: Jun 27, 2008; Fun Shoe

drrockso20 posted:

Beast Machines is a bad show but Vehicons are cool

I never did grab CHUG Tankor, but if they ever did a new Deluxe Jetstorm I would be on it like white on Jetfire in a glacier

# ? Feb 10, 2024 03:10

The Last Call: Sep 9, 2011; Rehabilitating sinner

Tighclops posted:

I'm actually really interested on the behind the scenes of Beast Machines and I've never really been clear until this post on who was responsible for a lot of obviously dumb choices. Are there any articles anywhere on this I could read?

I maintain that for all its problems the Beast Machines cartoon could be aired as Prestige streaming show and it would fit right in with a lot of the crap that gets made now

Not sure if there is a definitive article or site that covers everything. You mainly get various parts from all over.

Here's one article:

https://tfsource.com/blog/2024/01/24/countdown-beast-hunters-12-things-to-know-about-the-early-beast-machines-concept-part-1/

From the TF wiki:

quote:

� I am more proud of [Beast Machines] than anything else I've ever had produced, because I got to do a twenty-six episode novel for television. It almost f**kin' killed me, but I did it! �
�Bob Skir

Writer Steve Gerber had once pitched a "wildly original take on Transformers" (Dan DiDio's words) as part of the development of Beast Machines.[2] Mainframe instead went with a different outline by Marv Wolfman: the Maximals returning to Cybertron and finding Megatron had conquered it. (The Vehicons may be his idea as well.)[3] Back in these early days, the show was to be called "Beast Hunters".[4] Bob Skir and Marty Isenberg were invited into a discussion, despite not knowing much about Transformers, because of their good working relationship with Fox Kids (who they'd worked on shows like Godzilla: The Series for). Skir didn't think he had a shot but it'd be good to network with Mainframe for the future.[5] In the end, Fox said they wanted the duo script editing a show based on Wolfman's outline.[6] (Bob felt a bit bad about that and made sure to hire Wolfman to write episodes.)

Bob Skir says that other writers came up with the Vehicon Generals and "all the mystical stuff came from Marty [Isenberg] and I, based on Hasbro's request that we add a 'spiritual dimension' to the show". (The phrase "I am transformed" came from Hasbro.) The overall arc of the series also came from Skir and Isenberg "based on many conversations with Hasbro, Mainframe, Fox, and us".[8] Hasbro was quite keen on the spiritual tone out of a desire to try something new with the franchise, while Skir felt nature versus technology was an obvious theme but he felt that was a lazy clich� and the show should be about a balance between the two. (The technorganic characters helped him argue this.)[9] He merrily went all-out with the spiritual aspect, expecting Hasbro to change their mind but he found they liked it and asked for more![10] It was Hasbro itself who said "hey, what if someone turned into a plant?" as part of their drive to stretch the franchise to its limits.[11]

One odd brief was that both Mainframe boss Dan DiDio and Hasbro didn't want Skir and Isenberg to watch old episodes, as they wanted a fresh take and DiDio felt Beast Wars was too continuity heavy. (He'd even told Wolfman that Beast Wars had no ties to the original series and to do as he pleased with Generation 1 continuity when doing his outline.)[12] Again: Beast Machines was a sequel to a sequel. As it turned out, Beast Machines ended up being more continuity heavy and one reason was because Hasbro told them about things like Vector Sigma and the Hate Plague and encouraged them to be used.[13]

Isenberg did most of the work on the first season of Beast Machines due to Skir's workload and a bereavement, while Skir did most of the second season due to Isenberg running Action Man.[14]

Skir originally wanted the character of Nightscream to be a young female Transformer, patterned after the girl, Newt, from the movie Aliens. When that was nixed, Nightscream ended up becoming John Connor in Terminator 2: Judgment Day instead.[15]

Fox Kids' press release in 1999 not only still used the Beast Hunters name, it said the enemies would be Predacons.[4] Shortly after the press release, the production toyed with various titles before finalizing "Beast Machines". The use of the term Predacons in the press release may be an error or a deliberate "well nobody's heard of Vehicons yet" decision, as no other source has talked about Predacons being in it.

As noted there were other concepts, some of which from the main Beast Wars team that included the Vox etc.

It was a show that underwent a lot of potential what if's, ideas, concepts, until it got to it's final incarnation. You really have to go looking for the full scale of it all. There was a ton of unused concepts and designs for characters out there if you go looking. Lots of outlines and ideas that the various writers had.

You could make a book about the whole drat thing if you put it all together.

# ? Feb 10, 2024 03:17

ruddiger: Jun 3, 2004

Dang I wonder what Steve Gerber�s pitch was.

# ? Feb 10, 2024 03:43

Nodosaur: Dec 23, 2014

The Vok are the most ill thought out overarching villains in the franchise. Their motivation literally changes every single appearance. It�s very clear the writers had no overarching plan in place despite using characters that require it.

# ? Feb 10, 2024 04:07

The Last Call: Sep 9, 2011; Rehabilitating sinner

Nodosaur posted:

The Vok are the most ill thought out overarching villains in the franchise. Their motivation literally changes every single appearance. It�s very clear the writers had no overarching plan in place despite using characters that require it.

The Vok had a few concepts and origins as well. Like so many things none of them came to pass.

One of the crazier concepts was that they would be the consumed humanity from the swarm that occurred in the Gen 2 comic.

# ? Feb 10, 2024 04:16

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

drrockso20 posted:

Beast Machines is a bad show but Vehicons are cool

TF Prime perfected the Vehicon and the BM Vehicons can see themselves out.

# ? Feb 10, 2024 04:57

Cowslips Warren: Oct 29, 2005; What use had they for tricks and cunning, living in the enemy's warren and paying his price?; Grimey Drawer

Keldroc posted:

TF Prime perfected the Vehicon and the BM Vehicons can see themselves out.

Tf prime was so underrated, I can even forgive how annoying the stupid kids were most of the time.

# ? Feb 10, 2024 12:11

DoctorWhat: Nov 18, 2011; A little privacy, please?

Prime has no ideas beyond "wouldn't it be badass if...".

# ? Feb 10, 2024 16:39

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."

Hasbro need another crack at Lugnut. The RTS one was so good, but that was 2010 ago. Kids who were in college when he last came out need a new one. It�s me, I�m kids.

# ? Feb 10, 2024 17:24

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

got recommended this impressive shitpost animation :allears:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB0BlIA-9y0&hd=1

# ? Feb 10, 2024 18:43

Cowslips Warren: Oct 29, 2005; What use had they for tricks and cunning, living in the enemy's warren and paying his price?; Grimey Drawer

DoctorWhat posted:

Prime has no ideas beyond "wouldn't it be badass if...".

KnockOut was pretty drat amazing, so was Arachnid. The autobots, meh, mostly the same. I did like arcee being more kickass though, especially that shot on shockwave.

# ? Feb 10, 2024 19:24

CAPT. Rainbowbeard: Apr 5, 2012; My incredible goodposting transcends time and space but still it cannot transform the xbone into a good console.; Lipstick Apathy

Beast Machines was great, but because it wasn't Japanese, people didn't like it as much as the other Japanese Transformers shows with casual disregard for American G1 continuity (Beast Wars is included in G1 continuity.)

It's me, the guy who appreciates when they swing even if they miss.

# ? Feb 10, 2024 19:29

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

Cowslips Warren posted:

KnockOut was pretty drat amazing, so was Arachnid. The autobots, meh, mostly the same. I did like arcee being more kickass though, especially that shot on shockwave.

Arcee, probably unintentionally via the PTSD "I don't need a partner" storyline, was a really interesting commentary on the surrogate mother figure being someone who actively does not want children and yet has one foisted upon her by society. If that was accidental it's hillarious, but if it was intentional then that's some interesting work.

# ? Feb 10, 2024 19:39

SlothfulCobra: Mar 27, 2011

Beast Wars only ever came on too early in the morning for me to reliably catch it, but I knew a kid with a bunch of the toys that were real cool. The videogame was okay, I rented it once.

Beast Machines I don't really know in what capacity it ever really existed. I never saw any of it onTV, I never saw any of the toys except for when RiD came around, they recycled a lot of Beast Machines molds. Obsidian was really cool. I think the closest I saw was probably this Powerpuff Girls parody.

The premise of the Beast Machines show sounds okay, maybe a little dated. There were a lot of cartoons and stuff about underground resistance movements back in the day, and they were sorta hackneyed by the late 90s before 9/11 made people about face on concepts like that. I wonder if the bad guys being full of faceless drones might've hurt tie-in merch sales. The theme that actually technology and machinery is bad is a tough sell in a franchise otherwise generally about technology and machinery that is cool for kids to play with.

# ? Feb 10, 2024 20:09

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

CAPT. Rainbowbeard posted:

Beast Machines was great, but because it wasn't Japanese, people didn't like it as much as the other Japanese Transformers shows with casual disregard for American G1 continuity (Beast Wars is included in G1 continuity.)

It's me, the guy who appreciates when they swing even if they miss.

Beast Machines is hot dogshit, but I would still probably rather rewatch it than sit through RiD or the Unicron Trilogy again. The problem with BM disregarding G1 continuity is that it's claiming to BE IN THAT CONTINUITY. The Japanese shows of that era are largely their own nonsense, so that criticism of them wouldn't make any sense.

# ? Feb 10, 2024 21:18

Cowslips Warren: Oct 29, 2005; What use had they for tricks and cunning, living in the enemy's warren and paying his price?; Grimey Drawer

Beast machines might have done okay if it did not call itself a direct sequel to beast wars. I mean, massacring in all of the characters you knew and loved (what if we made the sarcastic but brave comic humor into this whiny jerk who couldn't do anything, and what if we took silver bolt and made him into an emo jerk, and how about we make a plant one too). Overall, the art style was horrible, the storylines didn't make too much sense, and stupid little things like how waspinator got there in the first place or Megatron even able to take over just reeks if something from Looney tunes, which fits if that's the theme of your show. But when the theme of your show is more dark and gritty and genocidal, it just comes off as weird. To this day, I don't know a single person who actively liked beast wars and thought beast machines was anywhere decent to watch.

I tried to watch the new show, the earth spark one, but the designs of the transformers just looks so freaking horrible. I couldn't make it past an episode or two. And then seeing how they massacred my boy soundwave was the final nail of the coffin.

# ? Feb 10, 2024 21:19

Nodosaur: Dec 23, 2014

CAPT. Rainbowbeard posted:

Beast Machines was great, but because it wasn't Japanese, people didn't like it as much as the other Japanese Transformers shows with casual disregard for American G1 continuity (Beast Wars is included in G1 continuity.)

It's me, the guy who appreciates when they swing even if they miss.

Ah yes, anime, the thing TF fans notoriously tend to build up as a good thing c_c

# ? Feb 10, 2024 21:27

Nodosaur: Dec 23, 2014

Keldroc posted:

Beast Machines is hot dogshit, but I would still probably rather rewatch it than sit through RiD or the Unicron Trilogy again. The problem with BM disregarding G1 continuity is that it's claiming to BE IN THAT CONTINUITY. The Japanese shows of that era are largely their own nonsense, so that criticism of them wouldn't make any sense.

Ya do realize BW conflicts with G1 just as significantly right. It�s also somehow a sequel to both the cartoon and the comics

# ? Feb 10, 2024 21:28

DoctorWhat: Nov 18, 2011; A little privacy, please?

Keldroc posted:

Beast Machines is hot dogshit, but I would still probably rather rewatch it than sit through RiD or the Unicron Trilogy again. The problem with BM disregarding G1 continuity is that it's claiming to BE IN THAT CONTINUITY. The Japanese shows of that era are largely their own nonsense, so that criticism of them wouldn't make any sense.

That's not actually true at all. Beast Wars 2/Neo/Car Robots are all directly in continuity with specifically the G1 cartoon, up to and including the return of Unicron being a major plot point.

Beast Machines is in continuity (as is Beast Wars) with a non-specific version of G1 that's neither the comics or cartoon. It's making fewer claims about what is and isn't canon than JBW. People get very angry when something they've already decided they don't like seems "arrogant" or "disrespectful", I find.

# ? Feb 10, 2024 21:29

Dabir: Nov 10, 2012

The perception, from where I sit, is that the Japanese extended G1 continuity twists itself up in knots to fit itself with what came before, while Beast Machines bulldozes through even its own immediate predecessor. Beast Wars is on a similar line as the Japanese stuff, it tells new stories which occupy a tiny portion of a four million year gap in the G1 timeline, and makes sure to put everything back where it needs to be for More Than Meets The Eye episode 2. You straight up cannot reconcile "ENTER THE DRAGON!" Megatron with anti-organic robot supremacist Megatron, and those are the same guy like a few weeks apart. His opinion of his own alt mode did the hardest 180 in history.

# ? Feb 10, 2024 21:44

Gravitas Shortfall: Jul 17, 2007; Utility is seven-eighths Proximity.

it's not that BM is in continuity with G1, it's that it's supposed to be in continuity with BW, and then takes a massive poo poo on it.

# ? Feb 10, 2024 21:59

The Last Call: Sep 9, 2011; Rehabilitating sinner

CAPT. Rainbowbeard posted:

Beast Machines was great, but because it wasn't Japanese, people didn't like it as much as the other Japanese Transformers shows with casual disregard for American G1 continuity (Beast Wars is included in G1 continuity.)

It's me, the guy who appreciates when they swing even if they miss.

There are plenty of TF series from Japan that people don't like and people did love Beast Wars which was Canadian made. I know, technically American, I'm still saying it was Canadian since Mainframe was. Beast Wars came into the scene with a ton of hate, but it's characters, stories and concept won over the vast portion of the fanbase despite the initial Trukk not munkky talk.

Beast Machines absolutely sunk that good will. Sales itself told the tale.

The fact Beast Machines seldom has been revisited minus the Vehicon concept kinda says a lot.

# ? Feb 10, 2024 22:01

Robot Style: Jul 5, 2009

The Last Call posted:

Beast Machines absolutely sunk that good will. Sales itself told the tale.

I feel like this probably would have happened regardless of the quality of the show. Children grow up pretty fast, and it seems like you can generally get three strong years out of a toyline before the original group of kids ages out. I was right in the intended demographic when Beast Wars started, but my friends and I had almost completely dropped it around the time Transmetal II's were on shelves.

Beast Machines certainly didn't help - a good followup show could have grabbed a whole new group of kids, but it seems like Hasbro's learned they can get about 3 years out of a show or toyline before kids start to tire of it. The Unicron Trilogy, Animated, Prime, RID2015, and the various Generations trilogies all seem to lean into this.

# ? Feb 10, 2024 22:53

Nodosaur: Dec 23, 2014

what you're describing is general toy making wisdom. Kids age out pretty quickly. It's rare that you find a franchise that creates lasting appeal with one incarnation.

# ? Feb 10, 2024 23:03

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

Cowslips Warren posted:

I tried to watch the new show, the earth spark one, but the designs of the transformers just looks so freaking horrible. I couldn't make it past an episode or two. And then seeing how they massacred my boy soundwave was the final nail of the coffin.

Really? I love the designs for it.

# ? Feb 10, 2024 23:09

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

I've had no desire to watch the Japanese Beast Wars shows and thought Beast Machines looked ugly so I never watched it. :shrug:

Doesn't seem like I missed much on either.

I want to watch more Earthspark but I am just very lazy. I've thought of trying to watch Animated again but I can never get past the first couple eps. I like the style now compared to when it first premiered but I just can't seem to get into it.

# ? Feb 11, 2024 01:34

CAPT. Rainbowbeard: Apr 5, 2012; My incredible goodposting transcends time and space but still it cannot transform the xbone into a good console.; Lipstick Apathy

Nodosaur posted:

Ah yes, anime, the thing TF fans notoriously tend to build up as a good thing c_c

People seem to love this Unicron Trilogy and Car Robots stuff, so...

And I was thinking. Part of the concept of Beast Machines was that the Maximals were now part organic. That means their bodies were producing all kinds of chemicals to regulate themselves. That explains, to me, how their personalities changed. Rattrap was a coward all of a sudden, for instance, because he was all hopped up on prey animal brain chemicals.

Chemicals in your brain are wierd, man. I had anxiety-based literal paralysis about some stuff in my life before I got medical help for it and corrected the underlying issues with talk therapy. I'm not gonna say that "free will is nonexistent," but there's a lot of stuff up there in our heads that aren't under our full control.

This may sound like a weird tangent, but if you had your head transplanted onto another body (after being cryogenically frozen and thawed out or not) you would almost certainly develop some kind of psychosis because your brain is accustomed to the precise chemical mix your body produces.

BM Megaton, on the other hand, is no longer being influenced (so much) by OG Megatron and his rage so he's more robot-like, or trying to be.

So... all that's why I'm not too bothered by the personality shifts, specifically.

# ? Feb 11, 2024 02:41

DisposableHero: Feb 25, 2005; bah weep granna weep ninny bong

These sorts of conversations always miss me a bit. Transformers has had some great media I've enjoyed. But... not more than half of the media exists is something I've enjoyed. I've always enjoyed the toys in very nearly every incarnation though.

Ultimately reinventing the characters always works for me in toy form. Sometimes it does in media but often not. When it comes to Unicron Trilogy I really can't stand the shows but the toys were great. At least at the time.

If Beast Machines failed me at all it was a lack of toys that excited me.

# ? Feb 11, 2024 02:46

Joe Fisto: Dec 6, 2002; And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.

Yes, it doesn't transform. I doubt we will get a better representation of Megatron any time soon however. It's drat near perfect.

Yolopark AMK pro model kit Megatron.

# ? Feb 11, 2024 03:56

SlothfulCobra: Mar 27, 2011

I really dug Prime's toys, kinda the extra detail and look like the characters split their altmode into shards like with the bayformers, but this time with actual design aesthetics that were missing from the movie design and characters have REAL FACES that you can look at and immediately identify as a face. There was also some clever mixups of design and engineering that made everything seem real fresh. The 2015 RiD I didn't get into as much into, but I appreciated that it was going for some specific aesthetics and they were going into some weirder gimmicks. I didn't really want to do anything with Transformer bakugans, but I appreciated that they were there. There were a lot of ambitious new designs, vehicles that the franchise often forgets about, some wacky robot modes, it was real neat.

Cyberverse just never really looked good to me. The aesthetic seemed a lot less strong (probably the weakest aesthetic of a cartoon since Cybertron), and the robots all looked kinda stiff and undynamic, while the vehicles were very unambitious, a lot of things that the franchise has done a bunch, and probably done way better before, and then some dumb cybertronian mode crap that doesn't look like anything. The gimmicks were extremely not my vibe, I don't really see the point of flip-out spark armor. I don't like 1-step transformers. The spark armor drones made me grumpy because I'd see them and think "yeah cool I'd want a battleship that turns into a little guy" and then it turns out that it's actually a weird extra set of arms for the worst Cheetor you've ever seen.

I haven't actually seen much of Earthspark yet, but it doesn't fill me with much hope.

The_Doctor posted:

Hasbro need another crack at Lugnut. The RTS one was so good, but that was 2010 ago. Kids who were in college when he last came out need a new one. It�s me, I�m kids.

2019

Better luck in 2028.

# ? Feb 11, 2024 04:33

Nodosaur: Dec 23, 2014

CAPT. Rainbowbeard posted:

People seem to love this Unicron Trilogy and Car Robots stuff, so...

And I was thinking. Part of the concept of Beast Machines was that the Maximals were now part organic. That means their bodies were producing all kinds of chemicals to regulate themselves. That explains, to me, how their personalities changed. Rattrap was a coward all of a sudden, for instance, because he was all hopped up on prey animal brain chemicals.

Chemicals in your brain are wierd, man. I had anxiety-based literal paralysis about some stuff in my life before I got medical help for it and corrected the underlying issues with talk therapy. I'm not gonna say that "free will is nonexistent," but there's a lot of stuff up there in our heads that aren't under our full control.

This may sound like a weird tangent, but if you had your head transplanted onto another body (after being cryogenically frozen and thawed out or not) you would almost certainly develop some kind of psychosis because your brain is accustomed to the precise chemical mix your body produces.

BM Megaton, on the other hand, is no longer being influenced (so much) by OG Megatron and his rage so he's more robot-like, or trying to be.

So... all that's why I'm not too bothered by the personality shifts, specifically.

RID and the UT were heavily mocked and derided by older Transformers fans. The people who appreciate them are primarily those who grew up with them, and are becoming more vocal in the fandom. They didn�t start with BW or BM

# ? Feb 11, 2024 06:10

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# ? May 30, 2024 17:47

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

SlothfulCobra posted:

I really dug Prime's toys, kinda the extra detail and look like the characters split their altmode into shards like with the bayformers, but this time with actual design aesthetics that were missing from the movie design and characters have REAL FACES that you can look at and immediately identify as a face. There was also some clever mixups of design and engineering that made everything seem real fresh. The 2015 RiD I didn't get into as much into, but I appreciated that it was going for some specific aesthetics and they were going into some weirder gimmicks. I didn't really want to do anything with Transformer bakugans, but I appreciated that they were there. There were a lot of ambitious new designs, vehicles that the franchise often forgets about, some wacky robot modes, it was real neat.

Cyberverse just never really looked good to me. The aesthetic seemed a lot less strong (probably the weakest aesthetic of a cartoon since Cybertron), and the robots all looked kinda stiff and undynamic, while the vehicles were very unambitious, a lot of things that the franchise has done a bunch, and probably done way better before, and then some dumb cybertronian mode crap that doesn't look like anything. The gimmicks were extremely not my vibe, I don't really see the point of flip-out spark armor. I don't like 1-step transformers. The spark armor drones made me grumpy because I'd see them and think "yeah cool I'd want a battleship that turns into a little guy" and then it turns out that it's actually a weird extra set of arms for the worst Cheetor you've ever seen.

I haven't actually seen much of Earthspark yet, but it doesn't fill me with much hope.

2019

Better luck in 2028.

I've said this many times in this thread but while the execution is a bit inconsistent one thing I do appreciate about the live action movies and their toylines(especially for the first three movies) is that they're more willing to get weird with the designs than most segments of the franchise, especially for the Decepticons

# ? Feb 11, 2024 06:14

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

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