Transformers

[Matrim Fox Cauthon]

And Shockwave was renamed into Shockblast and turned into a car. Bluestreak was renamed into Silverstreak since he's silver and not blue. People love Grimlock as a character too much not to make him a toy, but making him into a realistic T-Rex may have been pushing it.

Honestly, if I could see anything for Transformers, here's my wish. Get the writers and animators of Beast Wars and have them write the pre-Earth story of the War on Cybertron. But instead of focusing on the old G1 characters (have them in the background making cameos), focus on other Autobots and Decepticons involved in the war. So totally new characters to sell more toys (from Hasbro's perspective) and a new perspective with new awesome sci-fi transformation models like in Dreamwave's The War Within.

[Derfel Cadarn]

One of the things I preferred about the comics was the attrition rate. Something like one-quarter of all the Transformers died during the various comics and most of them didn't come back: Omega Supreme, Sandstorm, Shockwave, Cyclonus and Scourge, Twin-Twist and Topspin, Mirage, Roadbuster, Inferno, Scorponok, Fortress Maximus and Spike Witwicky, most of the Pretenders and Headmasters...a truly insane casualty list.

I thought Fortress Maximus and Spike survived? Didn't they defeat Megatron near the end of the series? Fortress Maximus was pretty dormant since Spike (FM's 'head') was trying to live a normal life.

Bumblebee was one of my favourites, especially when he became Goldbug though I've seen three different stories about how that happened. In the main comic story he got literally blown to pieces by a time travelling bounty hunter in 1987 only to be turned into Goldbug by the time travelling Wreck-Gar. In an alternate comic story he gets blown up by GI Joe who think he's a monster though they eventually team up with the Autobots and turn him into Goldbug.

The comics were excellent though they handled the movie storyline wierdly. There was so much time-travelling that the movie storyline effectively became an alternate timeline. Prime's death was kind of wierd in the comics; He and Megatron downloaded themselves onto a computer and fought a fight to the death. Prime won but because he killed some of the other characters in the computer game he disqualifies himself and has himself killed. Except that the human who owned the computer downloaded a copy of Prime's memories onto a floppy disk(!) and a long time later he is rebuilt as a Powermaster.

The attrition was insane, in the Time Wars storyline Megatron and Galvatron kill and severely damage a hefty number of the combined Autobot and Decepticon army. When they join forced again to fight Unicron the casualty rate was spectacular; Prime even manages to get killed - again, only for his human powermaster unit to merge with him and become an Actionmaster (the action masters were some of the odler transformers who couldn't transform anymore, they were bulky action figures effectively).

I liked the Blaster/Goldbug storyline when they desert after Grimlock took over leadership after Prime's first death.

[Werthead]

FM and Spike survived Generation 1, but in the first couple of issues of Generation 2 Spike reactivated Fortress Maximus to take on Megatron. There was a truly spectacular fight which ended with Fortress Maximus, Spike and the Ark being blown to pieces and Megatron bailing out in an escape pod.

The US GI Joe/Transformers cross-over mini-series was retconned out of existence for being absolutely awful, so the Death's Head storyline is the Marvel canonical explanation for Bumblebee being turned into Goldbug (a side-effect of the UK writer who wrote that storyline later becoming official writer on the US comic as well). This is confirmed when Ratchet repairs Bumblebee, Grimlock and Jazz as Pretenders and tells Bumblebee he never liked his Goldbug form anyway. This only makes sense with the Death's Head explanation since in the GI Joe crossover it was Ratchet who rebuilt him as Goldbug!

The time travel in the comics created some serious headaches, but basically the events of Time Wars created a different future (the one seen in the later US comics). The destruction of Unicron in On the Edge of Extinction then created a yet different future. Furman wrote himself out of that by explaining that there are myriad alternate dimensions and futures, which is also how he rationalises his War Within storylines for Dreamwave which contradict both the cartoon series and the Marvel comics.

Actually I just did a brief count and at least 120 named Transformers verifiably died for good and never came back in the Transformers comic series. That's not counting the Cybertronians who died in Generation 2 (and there were dozens of them). Also quite a few Nebulans (virtually all of the Headmasters died in the comics, presumably with their companions attached to them) and three million inhabitants of San Francisco got taken out as well (arguably the most horrific moment in all Transformers history).

[Calibandar]

Does anyone know of a site where I could see some previews or samples of the UK comics?

[Blaine]

Oh and check out these toys: Transformer Alternators. The old Transformers with more accurate vehicle models.

Actually the Alternators line released in Japan by Takara under the name "Binaltech" are better. They're the same toys, but made of sweet, sweet, little-brother concussion-causing die-cast metal.

Remember when toys could actually hurt people? Apparently, only the japanese do.

Anyway - the whole idea of the line is to have modern cars represented by better engineered toys with todya's advanced articulation, looks, etc. in robot mode.

G1 Transformers get all the love... but when you actually compare how little fun the robot-mode was to play with and the complete disparity between the look of the robot as a toy vs. a cartoon or comic character... G1 Transformers come up lacking, big-time.

Optimus' arms? Skinny as hell. And you had to attach is hands. Or lose them.

Ratchet? Had a windshield in front of his face.

Megatron? Megatron the toy looked like pure unfiltered anus in robot mode.

[drawkcabi]

G1 Transformers get all the love... but when you actually compare how little fun the robot-mode was to play with and the complete disparity between the look of the robot as a toy vs. a cartoon or comic character... G1 Transformers come up lacking, big-time.

Optimus' arms? Skinny as hell. And you had to attach is hands. Or lose them.

Ratchet? Had a windshield in front of his face.

Megatron? Megatron the toy looked like pure unfiltered anus in robot mode.

One word: Soundwave.

I also really liked Prowl and Tracks, those were cool robots, though Prowl's/Bluestreak's/Smokescreen's feet were bolted together.

The cassetes were fun to play with too, but they broke easily. All G1's broke too easily, that's what I hated about them. My first Prime lost his legs, Prowl became a convertible then broke in half, so did Bluestreak and Smokescreen, On the first day I had them I broke Hound's doors off and Brawn's arms. I never put on the stickers and lost most of them so Iron Hide and Ratchet had no faces, I hated that! Rumble and Frenzy lost thier legs, Ravage and Buzzsaw split apart. Megatron fell all to pieces. Shockwave's legs snapped off.

[Matrim Fox Cauthon]

Actually the Alternators line released in Japan by Takara under the name "Binaltech" are better. They're the same toys, but made of sweet, sweet, little-brother concussion-causing die-cast metal.

Remember when toys could actually hurt people? Apparently, only the japanese do.

Anyway - the whole idea of the line is to have modern cars represented by better engineered toys with todya's advanced articulation, looks, etc. in robot mode.

I may try and pick up Prowl (1st fav TF), Grimlock, Jazz, and then Optimus Prime and Mirage once they are released. I want to grab a Alternator Prowl, but I'm debating about spending money to also buy the Binaltech Prowl. I just prefer my box to be in English, which would be the not so brightside of the Binaltech line. I don't plan on playing with these toys, just look but no touch.

[Werthead]

Does anyone know of a site where I could see some previews or samples of the UK comics?

All the UK Transformer comics covers are shown here:

http://www.seibertron.com/comics/uk/

Along with articles on the Transformers comic continuity. But as far as I can tell, no scans of the issues themselves.

This site has lots of scans from the comics of obscure characters, but it's kind of all over the place.

http://s90690880.onlinehome.us/jhiaxus/archive.htm

Ahhh, here's a reasonable site with a good overview of the comics and some scans:

http://www.oneshallstand.com/articles/overview.html

This is also good as a thumbnail guide to the comics from the UK perspective:

http://www.transfans.net/comics_guide.php?series=2

Christ, I never expected a Google search to turn up this many results for something I thought was relatively obscure. That mid-1980s nostalgia must have kicked in hard for a lot of people!

[kastor]

Bloody hell, I love me some Transformers but I remember barely any of this shit.

[EHK for Darwin]

They're the same toys, but made of sweet, sweet, little-brother concussion-causing die-cast metal.

Eh...reminds me of one of my favorite inside jokes in the Beast Wars cartoons. They uncover the Arc millions of years before it's reactivated. Find a gigantic (compared to them at least), incapacitated Optimus sitting there in a pile of rubble...."I didn't know they'd be so big!" "Die-cast construction. It's a lost art"

I actually found most of my G1 toys to be highly durable and much better made than the shit that came later. Soundwave in particular has been the victim of countless blasts from Megatron, Shockwave, Optimus, and various GI Joe tanks that sent him flying and riccocheting off walls as hard as an 8 year old kid could throw him and all he ever got was a few nicks.

[Werthead]

I actually find it rather odd that this stuff has lodged itself in my brain for the last 15-20 years and steadfastly refused to shift. I couldn't tell you what happened in the news last Wednesday, but I can remember a niggling continuity concern from Transformers #289 that was published in early 1991.

I just picked up the first two issues of the new Transformers comic by IDW. I wasn't expecting much as the previous new series by Dreamwave were pretty lame: lots of pretty pictures but no interesting storylines, even on the Furman-scripted War Within. This new comic (scripted by Furman) though is pretty good, as it updates the story to 2006 with no-one knowing anything about the Transformers (save a few Internet nerds who everyone dismisses as nutters). A lot of the Transformers have been altered so they're more 2006-specific, so Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker are now F-22 Lightnings rather than F-15 Eagles, though a few classics have been left alone (Bumblebee is still a vintage VW, not a new model). The story's concentrated more or less solely on a single Transformer - Ratchet - with a couple of cameos by Decepticons hunting him down. It's an interesting approach and one I think that would work well for the Transformers movie. I note they're already up to issue 4 in the States, so hopefully the next issues will appear soon in the UK. Worth a look.

[PhelanArcetus]

I actually found most of my G1 toys to be highly durable and much better made than the shit that came later. Soundwave in particular has been the victim of countless blasts from Megatron, Shockwave, Optimus, and various GI Joe tanks that sent him flying and riccocheting off walls as hard as an 8 year old kid could throw him and all he ever got was a few nicks.

This is true. While sometimes hardly related to the pictures on the box and the comic/cartoons, those toys were built to last. Sure, my Optimus was battered halfway to hell. Lost a hand and a gun, stickers peeled off, and the exhaust pipe on one shoulder was broken. And the trailer was really shot. But he still took punishment better than Rodimus ever did, that plastic wannabe.

I've fiddled with some of the more recent toys (a friend's boyfriend is a goddamn nut about these things, he'll buy two toys; one to play with and one to keep in its packaging, at $100 each or so... did I mention that they're poor?), and while they look better in both robot and vehicle forms, they're much more of a pain to transform, and they feel flimsy. The old ones I could always figure out the transformation without a diagram. (Except for a japanese knockoff that looked vaguely like wreckgar, which I think didn't actually transform... or else someone had spot-welded the joints.)

[Darkostar]

Bloody hell, I love me some Transformers but I remember barely any of this shit.

I grew up with Beast Wars. I'm barely acquainted with G1.

(On a side note- I recently purchased the entirety of Beast Wars on DVD! )

[Derfel Cadarn]

I grew up with Beast Wars. I'm barely acquainted with G1.

(On a side note- I recently purchased the entirety of Beast Wars on DVD! )

That's like saying "Star Wars? Oh yeah, that thing with Jar Jar Binks starring Liam Neeson. There was a trilogy made before it wasn't there?"

My Optimus Prime's head broke off after I decided to turn him into Optimus Magnus and found out the hard way that the Ultra Magnus cab-unit's head was slightly smaller than the Prime one, when I removed the Ultra Magnus 'helmet' head, Prime's came off with it.

[Bazzlebane]

My Optimus Prime only had one leg and one arm (opposite sides) due to an unfortunate stepped-on incident. But Optimus was so strong he could pull his trailer even with only one leg. Optimus rules!

[Calibandar]

I never did care for Beast Wars. Not at all actually. Something of a travesty to my mind.

Werthead, I agree that the new Transformers comic by IDW certainly looks good. I think I'll pick it up once it comes out in trade paperback.

I have The War within TPB as well, but as you say, it's some pretty art with a lame story. I hear the main G1 series was even worse.... ( which IDW is republishing right now btw).

[EHK for Darwin]

Bit of an update on the movies. Some casting unofficially confirmed. Producer (who occasionally drops hints) mentioned a 'VegasPlaya' and 'Cowboy at Midnight'.

Popular speculation is Josh Duhamel (TV show Las Vegas) and Jon Voight (Midnight Cowboy). No mention of whether they'd be human characters or voiceovers for various transformers. Although Jon Voight has the generic look of a potential Sparkplug, he's probably too old. Than again, he plays a much better villain. So the speculation is all across the board with him. Popular theory seems to be some high ranking Gov. official of some sort.

[Werthead]

Could it be the voices for the robots themselves?

Actually this could be a whole new idea for the thread: who is going to do the voices? In the past film we had Orson Welles as Unicron, Leonard Nimoy as Galvatron, Eric Idle as Wreck-Gar and Judd Nelson as Hot Rod. Interesting. Of course, it would also be pretty good if they got the past voice actors from the cartoon to do it. I honestly can't imagine anyone else doing Prime's voice. And they must keep the transforming noise from the cartoons. Otherwise, what's the point?

Calibandar, you have no idea about the G1 Dreamwave comics. I picked them up and nearly vomited. Awful. Brilliant artwork though.

[PhelanArcetus]

You can pretty much bet Frank Welker is going to be in, voicing just about every one of the Decepticons.

[Calibandar]

Cullen and Welker (Prime and Megatron) are widely expected to return, I do believe that this was intended, but they still haven't been signed as far as we know. Having anyone else seems to me like a definite no-no and a pretty clear no-brainer for the filmmakers. I guess a different voice for Megatron could work (since it was always so screechy in the cartoons) but Prime's voice-over was very characteristic for the character.

There was a recent message from Don Murphy which said:

"Because we are making a new Transformers. Live action for the first time. With lots of humans. Using the mythology you love and all, yes. But not slavish to it.

I've told you that from Day One. You didn't want to hear me. Again I am sorry, that's YOUR problem.

I think we are about to make a pretty damn cool film that will spawn more films and make a lot of money and please a lot of people.

But it is not an animated film with giant robots bashing each other.

It's a big summer feature."

I guess this really could go either way.