#Hasbro Movie Universe

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

"A SUPERSONIC BLUR, CHEETOR IS THE SWIFTEST OF ALL THE TRANSFORMERS BEASTS..."

PIC(S) INFO: Spotlight on poster art for the 7th film in the "Transformers" franchise, Cheetor of the Maximals (plus file card info), from "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" (2023) -- released in cinemas everywhere on this day. Paramount Pictures/Hasbro.

Resolution at 2025x3000 & 2160x2719.

NAME: Cheetor

DESIGNATION: Maximal warrior

CONVERTS INTO: This Maximal warrior converts into a cheetah the size of a small truck with a grace and athleticism that belies his bulk. 

GENERAL DEMEANOR: Cheetor carries himself with the confidence of someone who knows danger can never catch him. Which is pretty much what happens when you mix the fastest animal on Earth with a massive extraterrestrial cybertronian.

COMBAT ABILITIES: A supersonic blur, Cheetor is the swiftest of all the Transformers beasts. His sheer speed combined with his colossal claws means he can strike down his enemies before they even see him coming. 

TRIVIA: Cheetor's pace is his greatest weapon but can occassionally also be a weakness. Always quick to act, he sometimes doesn't think things through.

Source: IMDb & https://2ndopinion.ph/get-to-know-the-characters-of-transformers-rise-of-the-beasts.

[starsqueak]

[jimclassicstoycollection]

Transformers

Collaborative Edition

Deluxe class

Draculus

By Hasbro (2021)

12-16-21

Beast Mode:

Transformation:

Robot Mode:

Final Thoughts:

[kollectorsrus]

[quetzalpapalotl]

Now that I think about it, the fact that that Void Rivals shared an universe with both Transformers and G.I. Joe makes me wonder if that is in any way related to ROTB also throwing G.I. Joe at the very end.

[ethancrossmedia]

While I was out that afternoon, I went out and watched Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. I'm giving this at 10/10. Based on the tabletop roleplaying game by TSR, Inc. (now Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro). The next movie I'm watching in theatres soon is The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and I'll post my review and thoughts on the movie soon after I see it.

@paramountpictures

@universalpictures

@nintendo

[pipermca]

New AO3 Tag Wrangling Policy and the Transformers Fandom

Edit in the event people come back to the original post: Please do not email AO3 about this issue. See their response about this issue!

(This is a long one, folks, but I think it's important.)

A new tag-wrangling policy on AO3 has the potential to create some massive confusion and chaos in the Transformers fanfic community, with regards to fandom tags. There is a Reddit post about it here with a focus on anime fandoms, but I want to give some concrete examples for the Transformers fandom on why we DO NOT WANT this, and why I think it's a horrible idea.

The Problem

Basically, AO3 is looking to get rid of the "All Media Types" fandom tag across the board, either by dismantling them or just not maintaining them. The Transformers - All Media Types tag has been an all-purpose tag that you could select when your story doesn't fall into any one specific continuity. Additionally, all most (see below) TF continuities on AO3 are considered a subtag of the Transformers - All Media Types tag. For example, if you look at the link above for all works in the All Media Types tag, you will see fics that are also tagged ONLY with Transformers: Animated, because it falls under the All Media Types tag.

One exception: With the upcoming Transformers: One movie coming out imminently, there will likely be a big influx of stories tagged with Transformers: One. In fact, there are several already. However, it hasn't been linked to the larger Transformers - All Media Types tag yet. I wasn't worrying about it though, because I know these things can take time.

With information about this new tagging policy, however, I'm now wondering whether it'll EVER get linked to the All Media Types tag. If that happens, and when more continuities are developed in the coming years (since you know Hasbro loves creating new universes) this has the potential to cause massive confusion when looking for stories to read.

Searching for Stories with the New Tagging System

So let's say the All Media Types fandom tag isn't accurate anymore, because it no longer includes ALL of the continuities (such as TF:One). You will need to include ALL the Transformers continuities when browsing for TF fics.

How many tags is that? Well, here are all of the tags currently listed under the Transformers - All Media Types tag:

Note that this doesn't include Transformers: One since it hasn't been categorized yet.

You will potentially have to have 40 or more different fandom tags in your search, just in case the author tagged their story with something you weren't expecting.

This massively decreases the findability of a story.

Tagging with the New System

The email response from the Tag Wrangling group (see the linked Reddit post above) seems to be a bit flip in the response to the user's concern. "...encourages creators to tag with the media they intend."

While I appreciate what they are attempting to do, this policy change feels like a solution in search of a problem, especially in larger fandoms with multiple continuities, versions, and media types that are all cross-pollinated in both canon and fanon. While I'm focusing on Transformers fandom, imagine a creator in the DC comic universe writing a story that incorporates bits and pieces from a dozen different reboots.

For example, let's say that I am writing a fic about Ratchet. I am using the setting of the original G1 episodes, but I also am using the characterization of him as a bit of an old man grump. That characterization originated in the Animated continuity, but I want to incorporate bits of pieces of his other characterizations as well (old friend of Optimus from TFP, Ratchet ran a faction-free clinic like he did in the War for Cybertron series, he's got a Decepticon boyfriend like in IDW1 - or maybe even Cyberverse, etc.)

With this new tagging structure, I might potentially have to tag the story with ALL of those continuities. So instead of just slapping down the "All Media Types" tag (and maybe one other fandom tag that matches the characters as best I can), I'll have to analyze my story and try to figure out how best to tag for the characters I used.

And what if you're doing a completely AU version of the story? For example, a humanformers story, or merformers? Using the All Media Types tag along with a Alternate Universe - Human or Alternate Universe - Mermaid tag worked perfectly, since you weren't writing the story to fit into one specific continuity. But now, that might not be an option.

What To Do??

The first thing I would suggest is to contact AO3 (using the Feedback and Support page) and let them know (nicely) that you think this is a horrible idea. Give them some examples on how you use the All Media Types tag to find stories to read, or to help you tag a story. People outside of the Transformers fandom don't always appreciate how absolutely tangled the continuities can be with each other, and providing examples might help them see why this would be a really messy change.

Readers: Be aware that when you are looking in the All Media Types tag, it will no longer show newer continuities. And if AO3 starts dismantling that tag like they suggested they are doing, be aware that some stories won't show up in that tag like they used to. You can also create and then bookmark a custom search page that includes all 40+ continuities. REALLY annoying, but it's a workaround.

Writers: Until they start dismantling the All Media Types tag, ALWAYS ALWAYS tag your stories using Transformers - All Media Types... Especially for newer continuities. This will be especially important if you are writing a Transformers: One story. Right now, anyone who is only browsing the All Media Types tag will not see a story tagged only with Transformers: One. Make sure you're aware of how tags work and how they can affect the visibility and findability of your story.

Epilogue

Ugh. That's a lot of words for a long-weekend Saturday. And maybe I'm overreacting a tiny bit. But my work involves information architecture, and this change just absolutely baffles me. It's almost as though they want to make it harder to find stories. Considering that AO3 won a Hugo partially because of its fantastic tagging system, this change seems like AO3 is doing its best to shoot itself in the foot.

When you have a square hole, a round hole, and a rectangular hole… Yeah, you DO want each peg to go in the "right" hole. But if all of the pegs fit in the square hole, who cares? You got the job done.

I love you @ao3org, but please reconsider this change... Especially for IPs that are as old and are as varied as Transformers.

[brambleheartthestrange]

This.

The MCU definitely did things that changed cinema forever. It didn’t save cinema, it didn’t ruin cinema, it introduced a new way of world building and storytelling that one would only see in books and comics, onto the big screen.

Think of all the failed franchise crossovers. Think of the ones that were deemed as childish or cheesy or whatever. The MCU managed to do this in a mature way that made sense, because they had the plan from the beginning.

The only other film franchise that has come remotely close before this was Star Wars, but even then all of the movies at the time centred around the Skywalker family drama, it didn’t really pan out outside of books, comics, and Clone Wars (which at the time was made to bridge the gaps in plot/characters from episodes 2 and 3) until AFTER THE MCU DID IT FIRST.

Yes, the MCU did some things that changed cinema for the worse. But it also ushered in a new era of cinematic storytelling that we will most certainly see develop on the coming decades.

all those “the mcu is destroying cinema” takes are, like, correct, but also… the mcu has found a way to strike a balance between “good entry point” and “rich with previous worldbuilding” that you didn’t used to see. like if you grew up with a pre-prestige miniseries adolescence like i did you have no idea how much you would just get used to the writers, characters, & world careening in the other direction of “anyone can join in at anytime even if you haven’t seen the previous installments.”  there was literally no sense of like… legacy worldbuilding. i don’t mean this in an exclusionary or gatekeepy way but if you enjoy the slow accumulation of in-world history, if that’s a thing about storytelling that appeals to you, that just wasn’t something you got from tv or movies until, basically, the mcu

[gomjabbar]

mattel seeing barbie's success and going all-in on a "cinematic universe" is such a comical morbius-level misunderstanding of why that movie did well. barbie has a long & contentious place in our culture where it's oscillated back and forth, from the "ideal" american woman, to a vapid & toxic female beauty standard, back to something newer generations have an ironic reverence for. love or hate it, you have entire swathes of women who embrace the whole "bimbo barbie" aesthetic and view it through the lens of "women can do both" empowerment. the barbie movie was simply made by a competent director who understood the cultural cache and capitalized on it. that's why it's doing well. none of this shit fucking exists for hot wheels or polly pockets. hot wheels has never been part of a conversation around beauty standards & female empowerment. you don't see male sex workers posting "hot wheels-themed" photoshoots on their onlyfans. there is no greater cultural discussion to be had around any of these movies. mattel's rival hasbro has made bank on the transformers movies and they're still in financial dire straits now because all their other non-tformers movie ventures bombed. your hot wheels movie is going to crash like a toy car skipping off its orange track and hitting your friend in the dick. go die in hell.

[blueikeproductions]

The Quintessons also got cards.

While we don’t know for sure if there’s other members of their race yet, these are a pretty big departure from the original designs, which have remained somewhat consistent.

Most notably the absence of the most recognizable Quintesson Judge is curious. There’s nothing that says they’re not there, but usually the Judge types are front and center for things, so removing them for a new High Command version is interesting.

The High Command and Soldier designs seem closer to some one off Quintessons from the 80’s cartoon.

The Quintessons have a somewhat complex conceptual history.

Their earliest concept looked like this.

A psychic biomechanical humanoid whose psychic abilities were so great they could make a horde of Sharkticons from scrap metal in an instant and probe the galaxy with a simple mind scan. Their head was apparently their true form, as it would eject and fly to another body when Hot Rod tried threatening it. The biomechanical look would persist for their final designs, but more modern media via Aligned and Cyberverse would instead state they’re actually organic creatures that look something like this:

Revealing their robotic bodies as merely being suits they pilot. It’s not clear yet if this is also the case in EarthSpark or ONE, though ONE feels like this is what they’re supposed to actually look like, but more organic this time than robotic as they typically are.

Some further revisions to the 80’s movie scripts and marketing of the time originally cast the Quintessons as working directly for Unicron, their mock trials were to punish and destroy any lingering survivors of Unicron’s wrath that passed by Quintessa. While this idea never made it into the original film, it was used in the Marvel comics and later revisited in early BotCon comics, but never became hard canon. The UK comics would make them into aliens clinging for survival as their home planet was destroyed by a time anomaly caused by the time traveling Galvatron. Running out of options, the Quints attacked Autobot City on Earth to try and colonize it, but were driven off by Rodimus Prime and Metroplex, their fate unknown but nevertheless swearing revenge on the Transformers.

The final version of the Quintessons in the cartoon cast them as the ancient creators of the Transformers, with some media explaining they also created Cybertron by terraforming a planet into a factory world (at least it wasn’t a parking structure planet). The cartoon would also establish them as slimy business men, having their tentacles in the affairs of other species for financial gain. Along with the Transformers starting out as in universe products to sell, it seems the writers might’ve been having a laugh at Hasbro.

The Quints’ primary goal in the cartoon was to push the Autobots aside so they could regain control of Cybertron, often conning the Decepticons into doing their dirty work for them. Where the Quints came from is never clear, as the show implies Cybertron was more their home planet originally due to their sentimental attachment to it. Their supposed home planet, Quintessa, is implied to merely be another planet they terraformed after getting booted off Cybertron.

Due to the more popular Primus origin from the Marvel comics, the Quintessons and their hand in the creation of Cybertron and its people was largely ignored in most mainstream media. While they saw a homage in Alpha Q in Energon (the connection to the Quintessons made stronger in the Energon Dreamwave comics), they didn’t really start resurfacing as major characters again until recently. The BotCon comics attempted to reconcile the two origins, stating the Primus origin was also the case in the cartoon, with the Quints interfering in the process, and this early idea served as the basis for the Aligned canon, where the Quints did the same in Cybertron’s early years, conning the young race into becoming their allies (servants), by bestowing both the futuristic space fairing technology Cybertronians enjoy today, their modern hierarchy (that became the corrupt caste system Megatron fought against) and the ability to Transform. Apparently the robots technically could already Transform as they all had Cogs, they just hadn’t LEARNED to Transform yet. Like the 80’s cartoon, these Quints intended to sell off the Transformers as products to the galaxy, with Sentinel (Zeta) Prime installed as their figurehead leader like in TFONE. Eventually they were chased off like in the old cartoon, but Prime nor RiD15 would ever revisit the Quintessons, though the prequel novels nobody read did claim the Autobots and Decepticons briefly became antagonized by them once more during the hunt for the Allspark in space.

Aligned’s main difference that’s fueled most modern interpretations is the Quintessons are the creations of Quintus Prime one of the newly established 13 original Transformers.

Aligned implies they killed Quintus and stole what they needed from him to become space fairing and eventually go to Cybertron, conquering other planets along the way.

The Quints were intended to be allies to Cybertron, as were other Quintus borne races, but this was not meant to be, due to the Quints’ hubris. EarthSpark’s version says the Quints were the first sons of the Prime, and in trying to discover their purpose, they became bitter and developed daddy issues, going around and killing off their cousins on other planets, attempting to acquire the Emberstone for their own use. The Quints and Transformers are strongly aware of each other, and clearly fought before, but their exact relationship has not been established yet, if at all.

TFONE greatly simplifies it to the Quints being an alien race that attacked Cybertron during the time of the Primes, though the hows and whys aren’t clear. What is clear is the jealous Sentinel made a bargain, helping them destroy the Primes and letting him be in control in exchange for paying them off in Energon to leave Cybertron alone. It’s not clear if Quintus Prime created the Quints in this universe, but there is a resemblance.

Quintus at some point: Sorry guys, you know how kids are!

Despite the Quintus origin, some modern media has gone back to the 80’s cartoon origin. Notably Age of Extinction and The Last Knight returning to the aliens created the Transformers idea, but the movies not directly using the Quintessons. However concept art does suggest the original intent WAS supposed to be the Quintessons…

Instead all we have is an alien hand and later Quintessa to go by.

It’s never clarified if the two are related, with Quintessa possibly being a Transformer and a Prime as well, but she is also called a liar by those formally in her employ so… She IS able to reprogram Optimus into doing her bidding however, so there’s that. She’s clearly inspired by Quintus, but isn’t connected beyond that. Her goal was to restore Cybertron by draining Earth of its life force and destroy Unicron in one fell swoop (as Earth is inexplicably Unicron again like in Prime). The organic Creators meanwhile were responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs, deploying bombs that converted organics into cyber matter that made the metal of the Transformers. Lockdown was working for the Creators, but with the abrupt inclusion of Quintessa, it’s not clarified if he was working for her instead/also.

Cyberverse cast the Quintessons as major villains, but instead of the creation origin, they depicted them as trans dimensional entities that travel to other Transformers universes to judge them guilty and destroy them for no other reason other than they can. Truly the best kind of villain: petty. Still this Dr. Who meets The Matrix direction with them doesn’t appear to be at all popular despite the arc being regarded positively. I still think Cyberverse is awful top to bottom, but the general idea they went for is decent. The Primes exist here, as noted previously with Alchemist Prime, but it’s never stated if these Quintessons are related to Quintus Prime.

Netflix War For Cybertron and Skybound Energon Universe also return to the Quintesson origin for the Transformers, though in the former’s case, their connection, if any, to the Allspark is never clarified. Skybound’s Void Rivals is currently the main component using the Quints, and dialog heavily implies the cartoon origin, though some minor Aligned concepts creep up as well. Nevertheless the Quintus origin doesn’t appear to be as… nailed down as Hasbro probably would like.

Indeed despite the resurgence in relevance, Hasbro seems somewhat reluctant to use the Quintessons still. The Quintus origin in the modern era had only been used in EarthSpark, and even then it’s not used… super well. The Steven Universe Diamonds that need a family intervention, never mind the genocide they caused, persists here to much chagrin. With the inconsistency on how the Quints came to be in modern media, it also makes Quintus Prime unnecessary, if some media is treating the Quints as separate beings. Even IDW didn’t do anything with this, despite using a lot of the Aligned concepts, and for now Skybound seems content to ignore it also.

I think the reluctance is due to toys of them not doing well, with the Cyberverse ones doing especially poorly. The High Command guy being able to Transform toy wise seems to be an attempt to make it clear they fit in with Transformers, but their peg warming doesn’t seem to be fixing that.

Along with Hasbro and Paramount not handing the transition from Bee to ROTB properly (like how do we jump from what Bee did to suddenly Unicron attacks?), I don’t have high expectations that the Quintessons will be handled well for a possible TFTWO, if they’re even used at all.

Which is a shame because the ONE designs are pretty cool, they made the Quints more appropriately scary and intimidating vs the slightly goofy looking egg shaped Judges. And I like the Judges but still.

[relevant-mtg-cards]

Concerning UB Changes

given the recent changes to UB and the massive blowback from a lot of the community, i feel the need to comment on it. these are just opinions, so you can feel free to disagree, just don't be an asshat when replying.

Universes Beyond

personally, I don't have a huge problem with UB. UB sets that fit in the world of magic (e.g D&D Movie SLD, LotR) aren't a huge problem, however I personally found UB was much more fun when it was limited to Secret Lair, or a couple cards interspersed in an in-universe set, with the LotR (you could also claim the D&D sets were UB) set being flavorfully consistent without sacrificing it's image being fine. The problem with UB (and it always has been and always will be) is that it will make WotC more money than a lot of in-universe mtg sets ever will, since it attracts new players that will then spend more money on mtg products. WotC does not need to worry about keeping older players interested in new sets since you are already bought in. and that's the reality of a company driven by sales. regardless of initial creative vision, Hasbro needs to squeeze as much money as possible out of mtg players and prospective mtg players because the execs want a bigger paycheck. this is the same thing that Hasbro tried to do to D&D with the OGL, so if we fight back there's a chance it could be reversed, but i find it significantly less likely.

Maro/Blogatog

so Maro has been trying his best to do damage control with the news, but he is trying to put out a forest fire with a bucket of water. i do think the hate towards Maro is unwarranted. Maro did not make this decision, greedy execs did, and the mtg community seems to just be directing their hate at the guy who they can communicate with. if you want to express your dislike of the UB decision to Maro, don't direct the hate AT him. i can understand why Maro trying to damage control like this seems like he's being a sellout, but you need to remember in the eyes of Hasbro, he is replaceable. additionally, even if Maro individually supports the UB decision/schedule, he wouldn't even be the root cause of the problem, Hasbro still would be.

basically, don't be an ass to Maro, it's not his fault.

Final Thoughts

the UB decision is motivated by greed on Hasbro's part, not the designer's "selling out." there is still love and soul put into the design of mtg, but Hasbro's corporate interests will always hang over any creativity in its properties.

if you want to send a message to WotC, hit them in their pockets. don't buy new magic cards from new sets, UB or not. this includes buying off the secondary market! that is how you change a company's mind.

-relevant mtg cards

[dynared]

So it looks like when all is said and done, Transformers One is going to potentially break even at best (general rule is to break even a movie must make back 2.5x its budget at the box office once percentages are taken by theaters and foreign market distributors), or more likely, lose money. The first Transformers movie to lose money at the box office as even Rise of the Beasts had some profit, even if it was lower than the height of the Bayverse's power.

So, what happened?

Well, I think the answer is a massive image problem for the franchise, with its direction incredibly muddled by multiple releases under the brand with wildly varying tones, on top of producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura making things more complicated by refusing to let the previous Bayverse go, trying to tie everything back to it despite it being clear to just about everyone else that we're not going back to that continuity.

So on the one hand, you have really child-centric products like Earthspark, animated in such a way on Nickelodeon to tell you they're for kids, and then you have the live-action movies whose height of power was the Bayverse, high-octane action films with massive amounts of explosions and women in tank tops showing off their bodies. Over in the comics and print media front, you have the excellent-selling and Eisner-winning Energon Universe comics from Skybound, the same people who bought the world The Walking Dead and Invincible, with all the violence one would expect from those books. This is resulting in a massively confusing and segmented brand which most of the audience is just thinking "cartoon is for little kids, live action is for adults" because of the mixed messaging.

This isn't even the first time the franchise has had this problem, going back to Transformers Armada's debut in the early 2000s. The more mature Dreamwave adaptation of the show coupled with the fact that anime was the hip and new thing, on top of the increasing maturity of shows like Beast Wars and Beast Machines had older fans essentially expecting Gundam SEED and instead getting a "find the Minicons" adventure. But at least there, the massive toy sales and the success with the intended kids' audience overrode any concerns from older, wearier fans. Here, there was no such metric to point to.

At the end of the day, if One bombs, which is looking more and more likely (not to Megalopolis levels, but still a massive letdown all the same) it probably means a full on return to Michael Bay style Bayhem with explosions and scantily clad women. The only other alternative is a few years off at the box office, where Hasbro and Paramount regroup and refocus their ad strategy. If the Gundam and Voltron movies get made (the former unlikely, the second quite likely given set construction), even better since it gives Paramount an idea of how to adjust. But anyone hoping for a Transformers Two shouldn't hold their breath.

[bsigafoos2005]

SPOILERS FOR TRANSFORMERS ONE, IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN AND DON’T WANT SPOILERS, SCROLL PAST NOW

This movie was… perfection. Cinematic perfection. (For at least what animation is capable of)

For an origin story, it did exactly what it promised it would do, it told the origin of Optimus Prime and Megatron, their iconic rivalry, and of the war for Cybertron.

The movie did a lot of things really well that I liked

Character Development was so there for some characters! Sentinel Prime and Arachnid to name a few! I’ll throw Starscream on that list too! The scenes with ‘Scream and Megatron vastly expand the reasoning of Starscream’s deep resentment and hatred for the bot he’s come to know as his tyrannical leader.

Hasbro keeping to the already established lore of the transformers universe when explaining Cybertron, and putting the Quintessons alongside the Primes AND Primus himself in the plot was a must-have, and the movie did all of it almost perfectly (they didn’t mention Unicron, that was my only gripe, especially if this is the starting point for a trilogy which I assume will include him)

I loved Soundwave and Shockwave in this movie, I really did. Soundwave is always entertaining to watch, being the ‘strong, silent type’ and this movie is no different. Shockwave (who had a bit of a personality change for this first movie) on the other hand, normally is the mad scientist but is instead one of Cybertron’s greatest warriors and him being one of the former protectors of the primes was such a nice add-on to his already amazing character.

The brothers to enemies relationship of Orion Pax/Optimus Prime and D-16/Megatron is explored really well, being at the center of this film. Every moment between the two is either super enjoyable or heart-breaking, depending on which part of the movie you are watching obviously lol. For two of my favorite characters, this movie did exactly what was needed for so long, gave Optimus and Megatron a movie that explored why everything is the way it is.

Sentinel Prime is still a backstabbing-son-of-a-bitch. And I’ll forever hate him for it, he’s now canonically the reason that Optimus and Megatron grew apart (at least in this universe, and I’d much rather that then the version they was in my head already) and he’s the reason that the Autobots and the Decepticons are eventually created at the end of the film, and will go to war. Tearing apart the planet that he wanted to see restored (even through his absolutely stupid methods, AKA literally enslaving the planet to pay off his debts to the Quintessons for helping him kill the primes).

I loved the humor too, was refreshing to see a transformers movie with jokes good enough to make my girlfriend and I both laugh in the theater!

I would talk more but I’d explain the whole movie, if you made it this far that means you def either watched it or just didn’t read it, so either way, let me know your thoughts on the movie!

[kollectorsrus]

[mirakurutaimu]

Opinion on Ral Zarek now being an Otter in both meanings of the word?

rant time i talked about this on Twitter a bit yesterday but it's so fucking stupid. like it's kinda cute that Bloomburrow has the kingdom hearts lion king world "if you go here you're an animal while you're here" thing, but also the only thing we were really told about Bloomburrow leading up to it was "there will be no humans on the plane". so we're all like oh shit, cool, sounds like it's gonna be its own unique thing without a bunch of Dudes You Know in it since there's no humans in it, right? we can finally escape the cycle of banal, tropey sets that are mostly just "Characters From Magic's History Dress Up In Costumes" (MKM, Cowpokez, NEO, Capenna) but nope. of course not. if you planeswalk/omenpath to bloomburrow, you turn into a furry! now watch them sell secret lair packs of fur-tfed planeswalkers, because of course every set needs to be a vehicle for a bunch of stupid gimmicky Products™️ they can sell to gamers with extremely loose wallets

oh, yeah, and alongside this announcement was that they're cutting off printing of portuguese cards. it's not the Biggest deal since I've heard firsthand in non-English speaking countries that they usually just end up using the English cards anyways (gee I wonder if this has anything to do with the globalization of American culture lol no problems there). but they only decided to cut off the printing of portuguese (and simplified chinese) cards because they're facing a 2% drop in profits this year... because of all the stupid royalty fees they're paying on their dumbass Universes Beyond crossover bullshit lol

i've loved Magic since i started playing in high school, but as of late that love has been waning a good bit. the game is so bogged down by corporate product shilling bullshit. every card needs 900 alternate arts. 900 alternate borders. every set needs a hideous alternate card treatment. every set needs 56 different kinds of booster packs. no more Block-format releases, no more core sets, just products, products, products, products.

i used to be a big fan of Commander/EDH, but ever since it really caught on and Wizards/Hasbro decided "well, this is the most popular gamemode, we now need to design the entire game around it" and it kinda completely ruined commander imo. what was once a gamemode about running weird, niche interactions and building something with a unique flavor or playstyle now boils down to "well, just pick one of the 92849634796782435678 legendary creatures they've been printing for the past few years and run all these extremely pushed commander staples they keep printing" and it just ain't fun anymore. gotta sit down at the table and look at entire Doctor Who decks and Transformers cards and Tomb Raider cards and etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc. Commander tables are just fucking billboards now lmao

it's very clear WOTC/Hasbro has no idea what to do now that they did the Giant Multiverse-Ending Threat of the Phyrexians in All Will Be One. much like the marvel movie franchise which MTG has been so emulating for years now (AND HAS EVEN SIGNED A FUCKING CROSSOVER DEAL WITH AS OF LAST YEAR, SEE YOU IN 2025 THANOS COMMANDER DECK), we're at the period where they're just throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks, twiddling their thumbs with these boring, tropey sets, all the while drowning players in a deluge of alternate arts, secret lairs, crossovers, etc. a common complaint among magic's playerbase is that nowadays they're literally selling too much shit. preview/teasers season for one set will immediately be followed by previews and teasers for another set. there's no time for anything to breathe it's just buy buy buy buy buy buy buy buy buy buy buy buy buy buy buy.

anyways stop giving hasbro money, print proxies and play magic for free :)

[thowawayuntilfurthernotice]

A part of me wishes Hasbro would get the hint and just completely abandon their live action shared universe plans.

It's hard for me to really get behind the idea of a GI Joe and Transformers crossover movie when the live action GI Joe movies have been total shit.

Say what you will about the Michael Bay movies, but at least they had decent action sequences, the GI Joe movies just felt like straight to DVD movies with a slightly bigger budget.

The reason why Transformers One works so well is because Josh Cooley and his team were given free reign to do something new with the franchise.

Yes, it’s a G1 origin story, but Cooley and his writing team actually put in the effort to flesh these characters out.

Like yeah, we all know that Orion and D-16 will eventually have a falling out by the end of the film, but it doesn't make it any less heartbreaking when it actually happens.

Hell, D-16's entire descent into villainy is probably one of the best examples of phenomenal character development to come out of this franchise.

But as always, because Transformers One is an animated movie, studio heads don't consider it to be as important as the live action movies. Because anything animated is automatically seen as nothing more than children's entertainment by these out of touch hacks.

Anyway, Transformers One is awesome, I really hope it does well enough at the box office to warrant a sequel.