TF Views

Things have been kind of slow here of late. Hopefully, this thread will get things rolling.

This thread is for talking about random things (characters, toys, episodes, or simply parts of those things) that appeal about TFs. For example, a number of years ago, several people at the old BWTF boards had an appreciation for the "flippy-bit" on the back of "Armada" Sideswipe.


What do I randomly appreciate?


Bluestreak/Silverstreak:
For the purpose of this, put aside the name confusion. Put aside the question of if IDW counts them as two different characters.

Silverstreak is just a good generic Autobot. As much as I like to have command and infrastructure characters (Jazz, Prowl, Ratchet, Blaster), there is something to be said for having a toy of a generic soldier type character on a shelf. Every Blue/Silverstreak toy to come out has been a good visual representation of what the line, transforming from a good car (allowing for differences in price and design standard) to a good robot. If you look at Silverstreak, you are probably going to think "that is a Transformer".

In context, Silverstreak is a good idea for a character. He as the quirk of being talkative and is usually presented as one of the lighter characters. He rarely takes center stage in the cartoons or the comics. But, he tends to just sort of "be there" for stuff. (Bluestreak is present for the battle for Autobot city, the attack on the Decepticon space cruiser, the Dinobot hunt, a "where do we go from here" discussion during McDonough's run on the comic, he is the guy in the explication scene with Optimus early in "The War Within", and of course he is part of the highway battle in "Man of Iron".) His character profile consistently describes him as being haunted by the destruction of his home city in the early days of the war, which ads depth to the character without requiring a casual fan to have encyclopediac knowledge of the franchise.


Dom
-of course, Windcharger is the light, the way and the truth.

One thing I still have an appreciation for? The Classics Seeker mold. I recently got Generations Thundercracker and Classics Starscream. And they look pretty good together. I still find that the colors are bright and the articulation is good enough that it can take most poses that I would want to put them in. And the alt mode is a fair representation of the F-15 Eagle.

What do I randomly appreciate?

Masterpiece Transformers,I view them as the best TF toys ever. their the ultimate perfection TF toys that are aimed at adult collectors.
Obviously I only buy the Hasbro MP TF toys because their 75% cheaper than the Takara versions.

Leader sized Transformers toys have a good track record of making decent toys. Clearly these toys are being designed & aimed at teenagers & adult fans. even in the worst TF toy lines,the leader sized toys are still made awesome & top notch.

Transformers Prime,Weaponizers usa $29.99 Optimus Prime is my favorite toy of the TFP toy line thus far. other decent TFP toys are airachnid & TFP Deluxe Vechicon.

I think FOC Bruticus was a step in the right direction. hopefully hasbro releases a 1985 G-1 colored version with vortex being medium grey & blastoff being chocolate brown colored. I'm hoping hasbro/takara creates more deluxe sized five team members that form a gestalt. it would be extremely cool if different teams had the interchangeable scramble city gimmick.

The return of voyager sized TF toys for Generations is pure awesome. I really like Grimlock's & Soundwave's toys. I'm excited to see what other new molds voyagers are comming in 2013.

The up comming voyager toys for Transfomers Prime,Ultra Magnus,thundertron,Skyquake,dreadwing & that newly released pic showing off Takara's voyager sized Lio Convoy all seem like must get toys.

Well first of all, I’m pretty sure the reason things are slow around here is because we have a total of maybe 5 actively posting members. Usage has really dropped off this year, as people’s lives seem to be creeping in on their post-on-the-internet-about-action-figures time. We should break into advertising! I’d totally try and plug us on, say, TFW2005, but that place is currently a perpetually-crashing virus-infested hellhole, or so I hear. Anyway, I’m certain we’ve had this topic before, but what the hell, who doesn’t like fun things? Some things I like:

Boats: There aren’t that many boat TFs, comparatively speaking, so it makes them one of the more entertainingly novel TF altmodes when they do show up, and for whatever reason, the ones I get anyway tend to be pretty awesome. I loved the Sea Mini-Con Team back in the day (it helped that they were insanely articulated for Mini-Cons at the time and had a sweet color scheme), and the semi-recent Undertow from PCC is pretty awesome as well (chainguns!). Depth Charge/Sonar, the Basic gunboat mold from ROTF was great too. I still need to check out some of the boats I didn’t get, like Tidal Wave and his upgrade Mirage (who always looked like a really awesome toy anyway). Maybe even Thunderblast, much as I tend to be against fembots. But back to Sonar, speaking of him…

Mindwipe’s Decepticons: For the seriously rough start the ROTF line got off to, it really improved and started doing a lot of things right by the time its NEST revision/subline started in. This one kicked off that trend we had for a while of packaging bios that came together to tell a little story involving all the characters from that wave, and while most of them boiled down to “Some Autobots ran into some Decepticons and they started fighting”, there was a really interesting meta-plot being built behind the whole thing, involving the Decepticon forces being scattered after Megatron and Starscream abscond at the end of ROTF, with this new Mindwipe guy showing up to rally the remnants into his own team. Said team specifically included Breakdown, Sonar, Divebomb, Dirge, Bludgeon, the mercenary Lockdown, and Mindwipe’s right-hand man Skystalker. Plus I liked to include Thrust just because he worked so well as a wingman to Dirge. The idea that this second crew of Decepticons had risen up to give the Autobots and NEST trouble all around the world (as the bios described their scuffles with them) and the completely different dynamics a Decepticon team that didn’t have Megatron leading it and that had guys like a mercenary like Lockdown, or upgraded former washouts like Bludgeon and Divebomb represented, was really appealing, and it’s a shame nothing interesting was done in accompanying fiction with this team, and we got that snore-fest Nefarious instead. An in-betweener comic about these guys, culminating in Megatron making his return with his own (pre-DOTM) troops and involving maybe a big Decepticon civil war, could’ve been really cool. Anyway, this team was on my display shelf for a long time even after all my other movie stuff had been put into storage, I just have a lot of love for them. And specifically…

The Skystalker mold: This might be my favorite Basic ever. The clean, low amount of undercarriage in vehicle mode, the cute legs-deployed officially-in-the-instructions bird mode, the robot mode with its bitchin’ axes with their different mounting positions and the ability to orient the wings in a bunch of different ways to differentiate the different versions of the mold, his cool Cyborg Ninja headsculpt, the interaction with Mindwipe. It’s just a spectacular toy, and I really wish I had the dosh to drop on that Smokecreen/Dreadwing Tokyo Toy Show set so I could have every version of it (the blue on Smokescreen looks really gorgeous too). I’ll just have to settle for having three of it right now, I guess. I’d actually like to get the Fireflight repaint of Mindwipe, just so I have another version of that mold for my Skystalkers to interact with.

My laptop was on the fritz for the better part of the last month before finally giving out; now I have a replacement netbook. It's not much, but it's something. I suspect my absence is part of why we've slowed down, and also a complete dearth of New Stuff To Talk About. For as much TF product is coming out in the near future, there's just...not that much to talk about. Who would've thought that making two entire waves of a single combiner (between Bruticus and the Wreckers next year) would mean we wouldn't have much to talk about! Combine that with Hasbro obviously trying to counter the whole "retailers-overorder-Waves-1-and-2" problem by apparently outright reducing the number of waves they release (just look at Marvel Universe, which is just now getting its first new waves of 2012!) and there's not a whole lot of new stuff to talk about. Even IDW's comics are languishing in discussion because there's nothing we can bitch about anymore!

But back on topic. With the aforementioned lack of computering, I decided to finally sit down and reorganize some of my shelving, which had been languishing in various states of disarray. Basically, at this point, I have one single bookshelf that I can dedicate to toy display. The top is occupied by a fraction of my GI Joes (which may or may not literally be 1/10th) and I get two shelves of Autobots and Decepticons each. Everything else either has to sit in a box or occupy some space on various desks and TVs and such. As such, the shelf basically got populated when the shelf moved in...and has barely been touched since, until the other day. So I had some major intimate time with TFs that I haven't had for a while, and reminded me of why I bought all these--and still buy them--in the first place.

Doom-Lock is pretty cool. What's not to love about a red American 'Zilla Cthulu robot with a big translucent red sword? It's like everything I could ever want in a thing. And his name is hilarious!

Gigatron. I know I said this when I bought him from Scourge (where the hell is he, anyway?) but he's a damned pretty toy. I only had Devil Gigs growing up, who is in a decidedly more bland (although more Megatron-like) colour scheme. He's big and nasty looking, and a very appropriate-looking villain for what RID was. Plus, he's just a solid robot who can do damn well whatever you want him to do.

And yeah, I have to join Prowl's support for the Mindwipe-ROTF brigade. Even some of the Autobots from that subline were good--for my money, that's still the best Movie Ironhide toy, and Brawn wasn't so bad for a Movieverse update. (I liked to have him hang out with Longarm.) And you're right, all of that good concept stuff they had wasn't solidified in much of anything--which I would think is a core problem of Hasbro's TF branding in 2009, and I'm sure part of that led to Prime being developed as the solution. (I wouldn't be so against Prime if it were in a different aesthetic, really wouldn't.)

Onslaught Six wrote:I suspect my absence is part of why we've slowed down, and also a complete dearth of New Stuff To Talk About. For as much TF product is coming out in the near future, there's just...not that much to talk about. Who would've thought that making two entire waves of a single combiner (between Bruticus and the Wreckers next year) would mean we wouldn't have much to talk about! Combine that with Hasbro obviously trying to counter the whole "retailers-overorder-Waves-1-and-2" problem by apparently outright reducing the number of waves they release (just look at Marvel Universe, which is just now getting its first new waves of 2012!) and there's not a whole lot of new stuff to talk about. Even IDW's comics are languishing in discussion because there's nothing we can bitch about anymore!

I’ll dare to say thata lack of actual ‘new stuff’ to talk about is the reason for dialled-down discussion. We can only go ‘Oh a new Grimlock!’ so many times before it gets stale, yeah? Hell, this is at least our third new Onslaught. Look at the topics and what got the most chatter recently? The brand-new Beast Hunters stuff.

Blah blah Geewun sux and needs to retire for a while blah this isn’t what this topic is here to talk about blah.

Gigatron. I know I said this when I bought him from Scourge (where the hell is he, anyway?) but he's a damned pretty toy. I only had Devil Gigs growing up, who is in a decidedly more bland (although more Megatron-like) colour scheme. He's big and nasty looking, and a very appropriate-looking villain for what RID was. Plus, he's just a solid robot who can do damn well whatever you want him to do.

I actually greatly like Devil Gigs’ color scheme, I don’t find it bland at all. The white and gold with bits highlighted black, and a sprinkling of the whole rainbow of colours throughout is really very striking, and makes him look, I think, God-like (he’s actually supposed to look like a Japanese death god of some sort, cultural colour association and all). I’ll second the love for that mold though, getting it from my brother recently reminded me just how damn good a toy it is.

And yeah, I have to join Prowl's support for the Mindwipe-ROTF brigade. Even some of the Autobots from that subline were good--for my money, that's still the best Movie Ironhide toy, and Brawn wasn't so bad for a Movieverse update. (I liked to have him hang out with Longarm.)

Oh god, Brawn was awesome! A total panelmaster, but it made him look like this loaded-up overarmored warbot guy, and the dual-wielding guns and back cannon solidified that. You could put him into some really cool John Woo-style jump’n’gun positions, he was badass.

And you're right, all of that good concept stuff they had wasn't solidified in much of anything--which I would think is a core problem of Hasbro's TF branding in 2009, and I'm sure part of that led to Prime being developed as the solution. (I wouldn't be so against Prime if it were in a different aesthetic, really wouldn't.)

I’ve got nothing against Prime’s art style, it doesn’t grab me or anything, but it’s not offensive either, and I rather like the toys from it I have gotten (Dreadwing and Vehicon are really good). It’s the sub-par caliber of the writing that kills it for me, as well as the ennui of *another* cast fielded by Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Ratchet, Megatron, Starscream, and Soundwave. It really doesn’t do anything new, and doesn’t even have the decency to do the old stuff well (in which case it could have gotten away with doing that old stuff). It honestly is just Generic Transformers in the worst way possible.

Goddamit, trying not to make this a bitch thread...

On that earlier point we both just talked about, the expanded movieverse, at least the concept of it, is one thing I really like in TF, for whatever reason. Yeah, the only things worthwhile we’ve gotten out of it are one really good comic series and maybe a couple okay comic series, but for a time there they were really building a solid universe with some interesting concepts powering the whole thing (Transformers treated more like organic alien beings! Autobots and Decepticons beginning as equals and splitting off from each other!), and like we’ve said, some terrific side-characters who never got used. Oh man, you know what could have been really cool? If, instead of TFPrime, we’d gotten an actual Movieverse cartoon! Like, you know how in the 90’s-early 00’s they were just giving out cartoons based on movie properties (like Men in Black or your aforementioned ‘Zilla)? What if we’d gotten one of those based on the movieverse, finally exploiting all those extra toys for episodic plots and nifty new story arcs? You know Mindwipe and his crew would be the ones the writers would roll out whenever they felt like Megatron was getting used in too many episodes.

Okay, now I need to pick out late-90’s FoxKids voice actors for Mindwipe and each of his team members.

I think FOC Bruticus was a step in the right direction.

Fair point. As bad as the toy itself is, it is a step in the right direction. Hopefully, Hasbro will learn from it and release better combiners later.

We should break into advertising! I’d totally try and plug us on, say, TFW2005, but that place is currently a perpetually-crashing virus-infested hellhole, or so I hear. Anyway, I’m certain we’ve had this topic before, but what the hell, who doesn’t like fun things? Some things I like:

It might also be seen as bad form for us to be tying to put this place over on other forums.

You are right about real life intruding though.

Boats: There aren’t that many boat TFs, comparatively speaking, so it makes them one of the more entertainingly novel TF altmodes when they do show up, and for whatever reason, the ones I get anyway tend to be pretty awesome.

True enough. Boats are rare in TF.

while most of them boiled down to “Some Autobots ran into some Decepticons and they started fighting”, there was a really interesting meta-plot being built behind the whole thing, involving the Decepticon forces being scattered after Megatron and Starscream abscond at the end of ROTF,

Actually, it most cases, it was less "Autobots and Decepticons randomly run into each other and fight" so much as it was "Decepticons are hiding/living quietly and the Autobots show up to kill them". I really like Deadlift. "He wants nothing to do with the war. He just wants to dispose of bodies and trash in peace. Oh no! Here comes Beachcomber to kill him!" My all time favourite has to be Dirge. "Dirge has been on the run ever since he was discovered hiding out at a NEST base. If he lands, Bumblebee is going to cut off his head and shit down the hole in his neck. But, Dirge cannot stay in the air forever. What will he do?"

That said, I too enjoyed the story based character profiles.

Who would've thought that making two entire waves of a single combiner (between Bruticus and the Wreckers next year) would mean we wouldn't have much to talk about!

Keep in mind, the combiners primarily share mediocre moulding and design. (And, some would argue that calling it "mediocre" is charitable.)

On top of that, we already talked about the more interesting SDCC release. Unless more of us break down and buy a pressing of that mould, and find things to say about it that have not already been covered, how much more can we post about it.

Combine that with Hasbro obviously trying to counter the whole "retailers-overorder-Waves-1-and-2" problem by apparently outright reducing the number of waves they release (just look at Marvel Universe, which is just now getting its first new waves of 2012!) and there's not a whole lot of new stuff to talk about. Even IDW's comics are languishing in discussion because there's nothing we can bitch about anymore!

Spotty distribution is definitely an issue. Even when toys are actually released, (and given Hasbro's cancel rate in recent years that is not a guarnatee), we may not be able to find them easily. (I would really appreciate a return to the days of "toys are mostly easy to find".)

But, the problem is not a lack of new stuff.

There are currently 3 TF comics being released at the moment.

Even putting aside the fact that none of us seem terribly inclined to post an near endless thread of "Swerve is awshum lolololololol", having that many books arguably creates a situation where one book cannabalizes the other. 3 books being published effectively triples the amount of reading and posting that we would do. But, (especially with the above mentioned real-life stuff), it cuts in to the time we can spend reading and posting.

Are any of us consistently watching the cartoon?


The most interesting toys coming out this year seem to be mostly foreign/exclusive recolours. But, the general concensus among most of us is "that __________ set looks okay, but I ain't coughing up money for it".

which I would think is a core problem of Hasbro's TF branding in 2009, and I'm sure part of that led to Prime being developed as the solution. (I wouldn't be so against Prime if it were in a different aesthetic, really wouldn't.)

Exactly. There is plenty of new stuff. But, it is hard to find. And, some of it is hard to appreciate even if you can find it.

Gigatron. I know I said this when I bought him from Scourge (where the hell is he, anyway?).....

Scourge has some real-life stuff to sort out. He is okay, but he is very busy. JT is also busy with real-life at the moment, sorting out things re: a deceased relative.

actually greatly like Devil Gigs’ color scheme, I don’t find it bland at all. The white and gold with bits highlighted black, and a sprinkling of the whole rainbow of colours throughout is really very striking, and makes him look, I think, God-like (he’s actually supposed to look like a Japanese death god of some sort, cultural colour association and all). I’ll second the love for that mold though, getting it from my brother recently reminded me just how damn good a toy it is.

That is one of the few pre-UT figures that survived my mid to end of the last decade purges. And, that is despite me having no contextual attachment. (RiD was the only line that I recall being able to hold my interest purely on the basis of the toys.)

On that earlier point we both just talked about, the expanded movieverse, at least the concept of it, is one thing I really like in TF, for whatever reason.

Agreed. The movie-related comics have some great moments to them.


You know what else I like?

Legends scale figures.

They are small. They are easy to carry. They are relatively cheap. And, for their size, they often have high fiddle value.


Dom
-also likes pondering how to preserve TF branded waffles.

Okay, another "random character" appreciation post:


You know who I like? I like Snapdragon.

Snapdragon is cool because he damned near killed Daniel in the US "Headmasters" series. Seriously. You cannot go wrong with a character who chews up Daniel like a piece of granola.


Dom