IDW and longevity

[andersonh1]

I'm a fan over quality over volume.

I’d just like to point out that if the quality wasn’t there, it’s unlikely that IDW would have reached the volume of comics that it's reached.

(1) Since 2012 thru 2013,the revamped newer TF designs in the IDW comics are so awful,Hasbro can't even translate these current comic designs into toy designs. At the very least Don Figuroa's & Pat lee's TF art was easy for Hasbro to Translate into newer TF toys based off their current TF comics designs.

I wasn’t aware that Hasbro was trying to create figures from IDW’s designs. The reverse of this is true, actually. Hasbro asks that some of their more recent character designs be included in the comics, such as WFC Bumblebee or Universe Warpath. My impression is that the toys and comics each do their own thing, with the occasional intersection for marketing purposes.

And the comic to toy designs don’t always work either. Titanium tried some of Don Figeroa’s War Within designs, with varied results.

(2) Starting with 2011 IDW TF comics,their were 2 main TF comics with totally differently drawn TF characters in them. IDW's cheesy reason was to give the artist more creative freedom.

And they’ve since addressed this problem. It’s no longer an issue.

(3)Starting from 2011,Bumbleee has been the Autobot supreme faction leader for 2+ years. Marvel & Dreamwave would have never made bumblebee the faction leader.

There’s nothing wrong with trying something different. It’s clear that Bumblebee just doesn’t have the personality or leadership qualities of Optimus Prime, and thus we’re getting to see the Autobots following (or not following) a weak leader. And Bumblebee is a peacetime politician, not a wartime general like Prime.

It’s an interesting situation, and one that suits the current political climate of the book. I find it refreshing to read every month. Not that I don’t love the Prime/Megatron dynamic and formula, but I’m enjoying a change of pace.

(4) The IDW TF comics stories are just pure garbage. IDW does a great job at pumping up future TF comics stories but never delivers on the hype. IDW'S biggest TF Stories problem is getting rid of the current writers & replacing them with newer writers that re-write everything. Often times current writers get replaced in the middle of their TF stories,like the Chaos saga. IDW has rebooted the TF comics universe more than anyone else has. In fact marvel & Dreamwave never rebooted & kept the same universe for their entire runs. Dreamwave gets points for trying to cleverly tie it's TF Comic universe into marvels TF comics & the 1980's TF cartoon.

IDW has never rebooted. We’re still in the same continuity, with events that occurred under other writers still affecting the characters in the present. We get different writers who focus on different things and tell their own stories, and admittedly there are continuity glitches between writers, but it’s the same ongoing universe. Furman’s stories led to McCarthy’s, which led to Costa’s, which led to the two current ongoing series.

I really enjoyed Dreamwave, but they didn’t keep things consistent either. Wheeljack clearly died at the end of their first mini-series, for example, but was alive and well later on.

And hey, at least IDW has been able to stay afloat and keep publishing, something Dreamwave couldn’t manage to do with ten times the sales volume per month.

(5) Getting rid of Simon furman on the main IDW TF G-1 comics was a huge mistake. The writers that replaced simon can't compare to simon's Awesome TF IDW G-1 comics.

Sales were plunging. I loved Simon’s slow burn approach and all the new ideas he brought to the table, but it wasn’t working for whatever reason. Sometimes a shake-up is necessary.

(6) IDW is doing way too many TF character persona's re-writes. Instead of the IDW TF Comics writing TF comics around the established TF characters persona's. Those IDW TF comics writers are adjusting the TF Persona's to fit into there awful written IDW TF comics stories. Examples: Galvatron being a seperate spark entity & not coming from megatron's spark persona. Goldbug & Bumblebee being two different spark persona's.

Yes, heaven forbid they do something new with the characters! They should slavishly adhere to the past!

(7) Showing the Transformers on both factions acting too organic like humans. having the first half of each newer TF IDW comic,where it shows robots sitting in bars,drinking,talking extensively about their ego theories.

So all Transformers should do is fight?

(8) Sorry,I'm not a fan of the IDW TF comics with less fighting.

Then why do you read them? And I guess you answered my last question.

Saving the fighting for every 6th comic issue to round out & close out a volume is just lame-o cheap. it's clearly obvious the fight scenes cost more for the artist to draw. while it cost less money for the artist to draw robot sitting in a chair drinking or standing around talking his mouth off with his ego trip theories. I don't like reading 5 issues of leisure down time,while the 6th issue rushes in all the fights/violence at a super fast pace.

I’m sure artists have the same hourly rate whether they’re drawing a bunch of bots sitting around or fighting. Or per page rate, or however they charge for their work.

(9) I've been studying the IDW TF comics for the past 3+years. the first 6 months of the year from January thru June is always the down time/leisure/no war time. While the 2nd half of the year kicks things up a notch with more violence & fighting.

Assuming this is accurate (and I don’t think it is), I suspect it has more to do with story arcs building up and then wrapping up than the time of year.

(10) Either IDW doesn't get/understand/care about the TF comics liscense or their ANTI-TF,WHERE THERE TRYING TO RUIN STUFF ON PURPOSE TO SEE THE FANS/READERS REACTIONS. Hasbro doesn't care what IDW TF comics does because they know the comics are produced in such low numbers that there basically invisble,thus don't matter in the TF main stream media.

Yeah, Hasbro and IDW want to alienate their audience so they’ll sell less. That makes a lot of sense.

[Onslaught Six]

Hasbro did make a Drift toy, but it was designed almost entirely different from how Drift actually appears. That said, he did have his big sword, and the right head, so.

I’m sure artists have the same hourly rate whether they’re drawing a bunch of bots sitting around or fighting. Or per page rate, or however they charge for their work.

Artists are paid per page, yeah. It doesn't matter if they're drawing dudes sitting around, fighting, or transforming--it's still the same page rate.

In fact, it's actually more difficult to make a bunch of characters talking look interesting on a page than it is to make a fight scene interesting.

[Dominic]

I'm a fan over quality over volume.

Good man. I love to see reasonable posts in this sort of thread. Too often, commentary turns malicious.

As far as comparing IDW TF comics to Marvels G-1 & G-2 USA & UK Comics. The Marvel TF comics stories/character persona's were leaps & bounds better than anything IDW TF comics has created.

Um, yeah, gotta dig "Carwash of Doom", "Afterdeath", "the Underbase Saga", "The House that Wheeljack Built", "Bad Guy Ball" and similar stories.

At the very least Don Figuroa's & Pat lee's TF art was easy for Hasbro to Translate into newer TF toys based off their current TF comics designs.

I really do not want this to turn in to a "shit on Lee" thread. But, really? Pat Lee's designs work as three dimensional toys? That is really impressive, given that they did not even properly work in two dimensions.

(2) Starting with 2011 IDW TF comics,their were 2 main TF comics with totally differently drawn TF characters in them. IDW's cheesy reason was to give the artist more creative freedom.

This is....actually a fair point. (We talked about it a bit above actually.)

(3)Starting from 2011,Bumbleee has been the Autobot supreme faction leader for 2+ years. Marvel & Dreamwave would have never made bumblebee the faction leader.

Bull-hocky. Marvel had BB telling the Autobot leader to stuff it. And, Dreamwave ended in the middle of an arc featuring BB as the leader of the Autobots on Earth.

Dreamwave gets points for trying to cleverly tie it's TF Comic universe into marvels TF comics & the 1980's TF cartoon.

I...I do not even know where to begin.

Examples: Galvatron being a seperate spark entity & not coming from megatron's spark persona. Goldbug & Bumblebee being two different spark persona's.

Get over the 80s. If nothign else, we are getting a conceptually better Galvatron for this. So, why complain about it.

(7) Showing the Transformers on both factions acting too organic like humans. having the first half of each newer TF IDW comic,where it shows robots sitting in bars,drinking,talking extensively about their ego theories.

I do not wholly disagree.

it's clearly obvious the fight scenes cost more for the artist to draw.

Is there any real evidence to support this theory?

(10) Either IDW doesn't get/understand/care about the TF comics liscense or their ANTI-TF,WHERE THERE TRYING TO RUIN STUFF ON PURPOSE TO SEE THE FANS/READERS REACTIONS.

Ya know, I have suspected similar things in the past. The idea is that a license owner, or a license holder, would "test" the market by ever so slighly dropping quality in a good to see *exactly* how much they could get away with before too many of the core customer base simply gave up. And, IDW has definitely put in more than a few yeoman's efforts, the BW sourcebook being the most obvious example.

But, at this point, I tend to think that it is less a question of IDW being anti-TF or not getting TF than IDW trying to pitch better comics. (If you just want fighting and explosions, go watch the Bayformer movies.)

And the comic to toy designs don’t always work either. Titanium tried some of Don Figeroa’s War Within designs, with varied results.

Had those been made in plastic, at a larger pricepoint, they would have worked. That was all Hasbro's fault, not Figueroa's. (He is typically scrupulous about making his designs workable.)

And hey, at least IDW has been able to stay afloat and keep publishing, something Dreamwave couldn’t manage to do with ten times the sales volume per month.

To be fair, Dreamwave was actually killed by Pat Lee's criminal mismanagement more than the market. I do not know if it is really fair to compare the two companies.



Dom
-figures this was inevitable.

[Onslaught Six]

To be fair, Dreamwave was actually killed by Pat Lee's criminal mismanagement more than the market. I do not know if it is really fair to compare the two companies.

Yes.

[Tigermegatron]

Had those been made in plastic, at a larger pricepoint, they would have worked. That was all Hasbro's fault, not Figueroa's. (He is typically scrupulous about making his designs workable.)

I agree with this ^ above.

Some of the Titanium 6 inch Transformers were pure awesome like as follows: Rodimus Prime,Scourge,The Fallen,Jetfire,G-1 new mold Ultra Magnus & the Cybertronian seeker jet------> HAD SOME OF THESE BEEN MADE AT THE LEADER SIZE OR THE $27 USA ULTRA SIZE OR EVEN VOYAGER SIZE,THESE WOULD HAVE BEEN MORE EPIC AWESOME.

Lets face it,the Titanium 6 inch TF toy lines biggest failure was all of them being made in the Deluxe size scale. The deluxe scale varies from 5 inch to 6 inches in robot height & this is what the Titanium TF toys height/size class was. The smaller the TF toy,the less parts it has,the more tight/compact it is,less gimmicks,lighter/weaker plastic quality,less detailed,etc.....

I could only imagine how awesome Titanium 6 inch Rodimus Prime would have looked as a leader sized 9.5 to 10 inch tall robot mode. I rate the Titanium 6 inch Rodimus Prime toy as the best new mold Rodimus Prime toy released this past 10 years. I even like it better than the MP Rodimus Prime toy.

[Shockwave]

Sorry but that Ultra Magnus was terrible. It could have been saved if it had actually had any way to actually lock together in vehicle mode. But it doesn't and it just flops around randomly as a result. Which sucks because I really wanted to like that figure.

[Tigermegatron]

Sorry but that Ultra Magnus was terrible. It could have been saved if it had actually had any way to actually lock together in vehicle mode. But it doesn't and it just flops around randomly as a result. Which sucks because I really wanted to like that figure.

Smaller figures have less parts. Had that deluxe sized scaled Titanium 6 inch G-1 Ultra magnus new mold been Voyager or $27 USA Ultra sized,It would have come with more parts & all those connector tabs./slots to hold everything together tightly in both modes.

[Onslaught Six]

The biggest failing of the Titaniums line was that it was developed by what used to be the Galoob division. Entirely. Takara, and the main TF team, had no input. This made sense for, say, the tiny statues and stuff like that, but then you shift all that engineering work onto those dudes? Of course they came out like crap. That they were as well-done as they were is a tribute to Don Fig's design sense.

Of course, he ruined Fire Convoy's knees, so he sucks ass.

[Tigermegatron]

The biggest failing of the Titaniums line was that it was developed by what used to be the Galoob division. Entirely. Takara, and the main TF team, had no input. This made sense for, say, the tiny statues and stuff like that, but then you shift all that engineering work onto those dudes? Of course they came out like crap. That they were as well-done as they were is a tribute to Don Fig's design sense.

Of course, he ruined Fire Convoy's knees, so he sucks ass.

The later waves Titanium 6 inch Transformers had better engineering,tighter moving joints & better sculpts like as follows: Rodimus Prime,G-1 1986 Scourge,G-1 1986 New mold Ultra Magnus,The fallen,War within Megatron,MTMTE Prowl,War Within Grimlock & that MTMTE Seeker jet mold.

Not having the main TF team have any input on the creative process behind the Titanium 6 inch TF toys was a positive thing & not a negative one. The current Hasbro creative team is creating the worse TF toys in the world right now. The homage designs in titanium 6 were the most accurate i've ever seen in any TF toy line besides the MP TF toy line.

TF comic art better than the past 3 years worth of IDW "Others" artist TF designs. The newer/other TF comics art designs are so horrible that Hasbro can't even create TF toys out of them.

[Shockwave]

He was actually complimenting Figuroa.