best/worst of 2012

[Dominic]

And, another year draws to a close.

Rather than make this a formalized list, I am thinking it might be better to make this a list of things that we liked and things that we did not like so much about the franchise this year.

The good:
"ReGeneration 1" has been suprisingly good. In terms of tone, content and pacing, this book is a solid follow up to Furman's run on the old comics. And, that is on top of the fact that there are 2 other TF ongoing books being published now.

The "Asia market exclusives" are (mostly) solid retools and recolours. These things are what BotCon toys should be. They are good recolours of good moulds released as a combination of important and obscure characters. Those Legends figures are especially fun.

The return of merge teams is encouraging. As many valid complaints as there are to make about Bruticus, it was a step in the right direction.


The bad:
Poor distribution of figures. We kicked off the year with cancelled figures. And, there are reports of Wave 1 "Prime" figures being refreshed right before the holidays, which may indicate that later "Prime" figures will be scarce. And, Hasbro is apparently not releasing some figures, despite the existence of tooling (as evidenced by Japanese releases of those toys).

Lazy designs. Facade parts and pieces that are hard to integrate gracefully in to both modes have been making a comeback for the lask few years, and they are now just about standard for the toys.

Fun Publications has continued its worst practices. Their online store is still unable to handle traffic that should be expected at this point. And, this year's comic was exceptionally bad. (I am going to say it was worse than "Infestation".)



Dom
-thoughts?

[Onslaught Six]

Generations continued to be the bomb in the earlier part of the year. I'm not joking when I say Wheeljack is one of the better TFs I've ever owned, and--

This is the part where I remember there was an entire DOTM toyline and an entire year inbetween me buying Wheeljack and right now. Yes, I seriously forgot.

The only Prime toys I've bought, sans Cyberverse, is Soundwave. Yeah, seriously. From Generations, I only bought Shockwave and G2 Bruticus. I didn't even buy any of those foreign guys (although I want Swerve!).

For me, this year has actually been a complete dud in terms of TF. A toylines I care nothing for, and a lackluster followup to what was a great toyline. On top of that, there is very little for me to be excited for in the next year as I see it, at least TF-wise.

I'm not saying I'm going to get out of the hobby---far from it--but things are looking a little grim where I stand. Hopefully the line can revitalize itself in the back half of 2013 before TF4 hits.

[Shockwave]

The good: Comics is what has carried TF for me this year. That and Rescue Bots. Seriously. I know it's geared to a younger audience, but they've really done a good job of having a good TF show without any factions to fight each other. Regeneration 1 is better than it has any right to be and RID and MTMTE continue to hold my interest.

The bad: The toys. Both DOTM and Prime are leaving me with very little reason to go toy shopping. Seriously, I can literally count on one hand the number of times I've been to Toys R Us this year and two of them were searching for the GDO Legends this last month. The FoC line is hit and miss, Shockwave being the best of three toys released so far with the other two being lackluster at best.

[BWprowl]

2012 was definitely a lighter year in terms of TF toys for me, but it wasn’t the complete desert it seems to have been for you other guys. I was surprised by how many TFPrime toys I actually ended up buying, and how much I liked them. Deluxes like Soundwave, Vehicon, and FE Starscream were pretty cool, and almost all the Voyagers I bought (Dreadwing, Thundertron, and Ultra Magnus) were terrific, with only Megatron being the one I felt was kinda ‘eh’, and that’s really just compared to how good those other three Voyagers are. Cyberverse was just okay, I only bought a few of them, since they didn’t seem to sing as well as the DOTM ones I collected in hoards last year, though I at least really liked Tailgate (that color scheme, man).

Props to Hasbro for getting the GDO toys out here (not to mention the reissued First Edition Prime toys), especially since they turned out to be not *that* hard to find (I panicked and ordered Springer, Wheelie, Powerdive, and Laserbeak off of TRU’s website, only to see them multiple times in store later. The Voyagers especially were around in droves). I wasn’t crazy about a lot of them (and that Voyager retool of Bulkhead into Brawn that I kind of wanted seems to have evaporated), but the fact that they actually noticed people saying they’d want them and made an effort to bring them over here says a lot about Hasbro’s relationship with the fans. Not that I feel the GDO retools or the fans getting them because they asked for them are necessarily good things, but that’s a subject for another time.

Generations definitely seems to be getting off to a slow start. Jazz was just okay while Shockwave was pretty good, but aside from them and another-goddamn-Optimus-Prime, that ‘line’ had nothing save for exclusive versions of the Bruticus Bunch until their retail versions FINALLY started trickling into stores around last month (stores’ annoying as hell way of handling toy stock being mostly to blame for stuff like this, I’d wager). Mind you, Amazon G2 Bruticus turned out to be a rather impressive package, and priced decently even, but that hardly mitigates the same three toys hanging around on pegs representing a whole *line* for the better part of six goddamn months. At least TFPrime semi-regularly had new toys I was interested in.

Comics have been fine. Aside from Rage of the Dinobots, which just came out, the three main TF books are still holding up shockingly well, with even my personal least favorite, MTMTE, still being ‘okay’. Cartoons I can’t comment on, as I gave up on TFPrime last year (I *might* jump in with Beast Hunters, just to see) and haven’t been able to be assed to watch Rescue Bots, despite figuring I’d probably find stuff to like in that one. Aside from general musings on how the year went, here’s some specifics:

Best TF toy of the year: Thundertron. He’s not technically the ‘best’ TF toy I’ve ever seen, or maybe even the best of the year (the Beast Mode definitely leaves something to be desired), but he’s everywhere I think TF *should* be going. A new character, a new faction, a design that carries both and represents the toy well on its own. It is a fucking travesty that something brilliant like this is confined to a shortpacked single release inside the main line, while the rest of that line gets by on umpteenth boxy geewun rehashes. At the very least, Thundertron deserves a repaint somewhere down the line. This toy gives me genuine hope for the brand.

Worst TF toy of the year: GDO Megatron. No one asked for that toy, no one needs it, and they half-assed it accordingly. The GDO line generally had stuff that was at least interesting, but this thing was definitely a mis-step within that.

Best Repaint: TFPrime Hot Shot. Because as mediocre as the base mold is, how long has it been since we got a repaint of a Bumblebee as someone other than Bumblebee? The fact that the colors are *really* pretty on this one and they went the extra mile with the fold-down goggles doesn’t hurt either. GDO Laserbeak’s a runner-up due to my love of that mold and how well it works as a version of that character.

Best Transformation: TFPrime Wheeljack has some really impressive bits, the amount shifting going on in the legs alone is quite nifty. But even he can’t hold a candle to the marvel of engineering that is PRID Vehicon. That toy is insane. In all the best ways.

Best Esoteric Character: Amazingly, these still happen? Flamewar and Marlboor Wheeljack happening as Cyberverse toys for one. And guys like Powerdive and Thundertron might count as well. Hell, next year we’ve got Impactor getting a toy. But the best of these sort of things that happened this year? Wipeout, in the two-pack with United Windcharger. That toy happening is completely insane. Runner-Up to the Gutto-Kuru figures of Minerva and Ginrai, since toys like that, of those characters, in this day and age are things I would never have thought would happen.

Favorite general ‘thing’ about TF: Random new category for me, just a general thing in TF I appreciated – toy-only characters in the mainline. It didn’t matter so much to me, since I’m not even watching the show, but to see guys like Ultra Magnus, Kup, and Rumble get put out onto the shelves alongside over-promoted show personalities really helped keep the flavor of the line at a level where it continuously interested me.

Least-favorite general ‘thing’ about TF: The complete and utter over-saturation of G1 throughout the franchise. It finally happened, we had NOTHING but completely G1-derived content populating every corner of the franchise all throughout the year, with nary a Movie line or anything else to break it up. Despite there technically being three different ‘lines’, between Generations, TFPrime, and Bot Shots, you pretty well couldn’t pick a TF off the pegs without it being a boxy, generic, car-or-plane bot named after a guy from before I was born. Yes, lots of the toys were fine just as ‘toys’, but if you wanted to get a ‘character’ who wasn’t an Optimus Prime or a Bumblebee or a Wheeljack or a Starscream, you were pretty out of luck. On top of that, we had THREE different TF comics coming out this year (with a fourth just starting up), and all of them with settings designed to cater to nostalgic old people (even if the actual execution overcame that to be good on their own, most of the time). Fortunately, Beast Hunters looks like it should break up some of that ennui early next year, both in terms of ‘new’ guys with altmodes that aren’t trucks and planes, but in having even the established guys have retooled vehicle modes that look somewhat outside the expected.

Non-TF Toy of the Year: Super Robot Chogokin DaiZyuJin. It can’t separate into individual mecha, but it CAN do everything else you would want it to do, and this is still the best ‘Megazord’ toy we’re ever going to get by a country mile. This is the first of this line I’ve ever gotten, and it seeing how good it is in-hand just makes me more excited for the SRC Gunbuster I have pre-ordered.

Not nearly as entertaining a year for TFs as last year, but hardly the total disaster a lot of others want to paint it as. Not that this fandom’s prone to overreacting or anything, no.

[Dominic]

For me, this year has actually been a complete dud in terms of TF. A toylines I care nothing for, and a lackluster followup to what was a great toyline. On top of that, there is very little for me to be excited for in the next year as I see it, at least TF-wise.

Toy-wise, it has been a thin year. As much as I have skipped, I cannot credit will-power alone. Hasbro helped. (When the most exciting thing is a store-exclusive recolour/head-swap series, it is easy to be picky.)

But, TF comics have never been better. (And, remember, I say that as somebody who has generally been happy with IDW for the last four years.) The sheer number of comics we are getting now means that we are unlikely to go more than a few *weeks* without something good. (I am old enough remember having to go *month*, let alone years, without a good TF comic.)

Get yourself to a comic shop O6.

That and Rescue Bots. Seriously. I know it's geared to a younger audience, but they've really done a good job of having a good TF show without any factions to fight each other. Regeneration 1 is better than it has any right to be and RID and MTMTE continue to hold my interest.

I have largely skipped TF on TV since the mid-UT. Since "Armada", I have only caught a few episodes of any given TF series. (I saw a good chunk of RiD, but damned if I can remember any of it.) Some of this has been a question of my schedule being more hectic. But, some of it has also been a lack of time/energy for the show. (The new shows are not appreciably worse than the G1 cartoons from 25+ years ago. But, my standards have gone up since then.)

I have been curious about "Rescue Bots" though, if only for the novelty of a mono-faction TF series.

2012 was definitely a lighter year in terms of TF toys for me, but it wasn’t the complete desert it seems to have been for you other guys.

Odd that we all agree that it was a light year for toys. (This is probably a function of Hasbro not releasing as much this year.)

I have found myself to be completely unmoved by "Generations", which is possibly the biggest shock of this year. I expected Jazz to tempt me, if not be the toy that broke me. Instead, I found myself trying to find a reason to buy the damned thing. (I stopped counting the number of times that I have walked away from that figure at 5 unique store visits.) Hasbro has been getting lazy about design and engineering, and that has been enough to break me of the toy habit. (The same applies with Marvel figures. I have lost county of how many of those particular figures I have skipped for poor execution.)

Worst TF toy of the year: GDO Megatron. No one asked for that toy, no one needs it, and they half-assed it accordingly. The GDO line generally had stuff that was at least interesting, but this thing was definitely a mis-step within that.

I would disagree here. I find Overlord/Gigatron to be a tad worse by virtue of the paint scraping off his face.

Amazingly, these still happen? Flamewar and Marlboor Wheeljack happening as Cyberverse toys for one.

I will give you Flamewar, but not the Wheeljack. That was just a recolour that called back to an old toy. Marlboor, such as he is, is a different guy (having shown up in "War Within" and one or two other places). Flamewar, on the other hand, is a specific toy of a specific character.

But the best of these sort of things that happened this year? Wipeout, in the two-pack with United Windcharger.

Yes. Hell, just the fact of the fandom getting another chance at Windcharger was good news. But, yeah, Wipeout was a nice suprise. (I would have liked a new head sculpt. But, as straight recolours go, it is a solid toy.)

The complete and utter over-saturation of G1 throughout the franchise. It finally happened, we had NOTHING but completely G1-derived content populating every corner of the franchise all throughout the year, with nary a Movie line or anything else to break it up.

Complaining about "too much G1" is as bad as the GeeWunners complaining about "not enough G1".

It stands to reason that popular characters are going to get more toys than more obscure characters. And, older characters have had more time to gain recognition. No big shock there.

What would you rather have, good G1 comics or bad comics that are "new and different"? 10 years ago, I was pretty much happy with "Armada" comics. (When Dreamwave went under in '04, I missed "Energon" more than I missed G1.) But, my interest had more to do with how good the comics were than the characters in the comics.


Dom
-and, Wheeljack won the Hall of Fame this year. That was also pretty cool.

[BWprowl]

I have found myself to be completely unmoved by "Generations", which is possibly the biggest shock of this year. I expected Jazz to tempt me, if not be the toy that broke me. Instead, I found myself trying to find a reason to buy the damned thing. (I stopped counting the number of times that I have walked away from that figure at 5 unique store visits.) Hasbro has been getting lazy about design and engineering, and that has been enough to break me of the toy habit. (The same applies with Marvel figures. I have lost county of how many of those particular figures I have skipped for poor execution.)

What reason did you even have to be interested in Jazz in the first place? It's an okay mold, but it didn't have anything on it that would make it something to be highly anticipated.

Complaining about "too much G1" is as bad as the GeeWunners complaining about "not enough G1".

How so? I'm complaining about something we legitimately don't have: non-G1 derived stuff. The Geewunners got EVERYTHING targeted at them this year, and thus have no place to complain.

It stands to reason that popular characters are going to get more toys than more obscure characters. And, older characters have had more time to gain recognition. No big shock there.

You think? Think back to the Unicron Trilogy where even the most 'popular' characters like Optimus Prime or Hot Shot didn't get more than three different toys per line. And almost every character in the line was someone *new*, not just a rehash of a Ratchet, or a Bulkhead, or something. Think of 'Cybetron' and how many of the guys on the pegs were dudes we'd never seen before. Those were amazing times.

What would you rather have, good G1 comics or bad comics that are "new and different"?

Honestly? The second option: Bad comics that actually had 'new' and 'different' takes on Transformers, because at least then the property would be moving forward instead of spinning its wheels in the nostalgia-based past. There are plenty of 'good' comics around, I can keep reading those just for 'good' comics. If I'm going to keep reading 'Transformers' comics, it'd be nice if it wasn't about the same damn dudes I've seen a billion times before.

Dom
-and, Wheeljack won the Hall of Fame this year. That was also pretty cool.

We've had this discussion too. I felt it was a symptom of everything wrong with the property right now.

[Shockwave]

What reason did you even have to be interested in Jazz in the first place? It's an okay mold, but it didn't have anything on it that would make it something to be highly anticipated.

Complaining about "too much G1" is as bad as the GeeWunners complaining about "not enough G1".

How so? I'm complaining about something we legitimately don't have: non-G1 derived stuff. The Geewunners got EVERYTHING targeted at them this year, and thus have no place to complain.

He likes Jazz.

As our resident closest thing to a Geewunner, I had PLENTY to complain about this year. Prime as a series was lackluster with moments of brilliance and the toy line just completely left me flat. DOTM was a let down and it was all movie designs which I really don't like to begin with (not that I was expected a new aesthetic for the new movie but...) I mean, there was Prime, DOTM stuff and Rescue Bots, none of which is targeted to Geewunners. The only things that could arguably be targeted to us was the MP toys and MAYBE Fall of Cybertron. And even that's a pretty big maybe. Even Kreo took largely from either Prime or Bayverse designs.

Shockwave
-And really, it's not so much about complaining as it was just really easy to skip TF toys this year.

[BWprowl]

As our resident closest thing to a Geewunner, I had PLENTY to complain about this year. Prime as a series was lackluster with moments of brilliance and the toy line just completely left me flat. DOTM was a let down and it was all movie designs which I really don't like to begin with (not that I was expected a new aesthetic for the new movie but...) I mean, there was Prime, DOTM stuff and Rescue Bots, none of which is targeted to Geewunners. The only things that could arguably be targeted to us was the MP toys and MAYBE Fall of Cybertron. And even that's a pretty big maybe. Even Kreo took largely from either Prime or Bayverse designs.

Dude, DOTM was last year.

And you seriously don't think TFPrime is targeted at Geewunners? It's almost nothing but rehashed G1 characters, with a setting/plot that takes no chances in terms of non-G1-ish ideas. And it's being solidified as a follow-up to Fall of Cybertron, a game that exists entirely to cater to the nostalgia market.

[Shockwave]

As our resident closest thing to a Geewunner, I had PLENTY to complain about this year. Prime as a series was lackluster with moments of brilliance and the toy line just completely left me flat. DOTM was a let down and it was all movie designs which I really don't like to begin with (not that I was expected a new aesthetic for the new movie but...) I mean, there was Prime, DOTM stuff and Rescue Bots, none of which is targeted to Geewunners. The only things that could arguably be targeted to us was the MP toys and MAYBE Fall of Cybertron. And even that's a pretty big maybe. Even Kreo took largely from either Prime or Bayverse designs.

Dude, DOTM was last year.

And you seriously don't think TFPrime is targeted at Geewunners? It's almost nothing but rehashed G1 characters, with a setting/plot that takes no chances in terms of non-G1-ish ideas. And it's being solidified as a follow-up to Fall of Cybertron, a game that exists entirely to cater to the nostalgia market.

I thought the bulk of the DotM line was this year. My bad.

As for Prime, it's G1 ish is only the most vaguest of terms. The designs look nothing like G1, several characters aren't from G1, and even a lot of the elements aren't from G1 (Dark Energon? Really?). Sure the character names are mostly used, but that's about it. Bulkhead, Skyquake, Airachnid, Knockout, all major characters in this series that had nothing to do with G1. I mean, really, that's like saying a Whopper is based on a Big Mac just because they're both burgers. It really doesn't even compare.

[Onslaught Six]

Skyquake is G1! Ish!

And yeah, Prowl, you are stretching a bit to say Prime is "G1 based." It's certainly full of dudes named and designed after G1 guys, sure, but I do have to commend them for guys like Knock Out and Brakedown (who might have the name of some guy, but is clearly a different dude).

The line is (unfortunately) at the point where some degree of character recycling and permanence is going to be a factor. As much as you or me would LOVE a line without Optimus Fucking Prime in it Yet Again, that's probably not going to happen until Hasbro can outright prove that a toyline without ten Optimus Primes in it will fail hardcore at retail. GI Joe is probably the best example of this--Retaliation had one Duke scheduled for the entire toyline and he was going to die in the movie. (This was before they pushed it back. We're getting at least one more Duke now, but this one actually looks like he's in the movie.)

Because that's what it comes down to--Hasbro is still turning a profit, and they're not seeing anything wrong with their model. I think, on some level, it's being mismanaged. There's got to be a better balance for this. (And someone is going to say, "You're an adult collector so you have a different mindset!" but I've had these opinions since I was a kid. Shit, in 2003, I wanted a new toyline that was all repaints, mostly of BW Neo guys.)

I thought the bulk of the DotM line was this year. My bad.

Just like I thought the end of Generations was earlier this year!

You might be able to say Darksteel and Air Raid's wave was this year, but other than that, it was all pretty much cancelled. We were supposed to get Wheeljack and Soundwave, and then the "Movie Trilogy" repaint waves. (The only one that came out from that was Prime, who I wish I'd picked up.)