#I'm not a fan of how sonic came out but I'm posting this for posterity. for Growth.

[ketchupkio]

I loved how Sonic just fucking talked over him in the English version of SA2, so I drew it 🤣 I cannot play that game at all but I love the soundtrack (and Shadow ofc)

🦔🌴 kofi 🌴🦔

[wordsandrobots]

Hi I saw your old essay post from September 2024, back when the TF One film came out, and I just wanted to say I was one of the people who was very excited over the non-transforming model kits 😅 I did get my own! The big Optimus/Cogged Orion. I specifically wanted a toy that had a super accurate face to the movie and so I was happy that it existed.

I think the difference here is that as a collector of toys, I started out as a huge anime fan so I am very used to buying figurines that don't do anything in order to have the most screen accuracy - not even any articulation at all. As a new fan of TF, the fact that they don't transform doesn't bother me because I care more about what the character represents than something I can play with (though in this case you can because they're still very articulated, unlike anime figures besides figmas). I have a Yolopark "G1" mini non transforming Starscream model kit I got for $10 and I made him hold a tiny pride flag while pointing at me - I cared more about things like his face, wings, and overall accuracy to how I see Starscream in my mind (a silly little evil guy). I genuinely only cared about the fact that he looked very close to the cartoon for a cheap price. I have multiple transforming toys too, and they're fun, but since I don't transform them that often anyway (besides this $10 Galvatron I got that transforms in like less than a minute, I love fidgeting with him), I don't see one type of toy as better than the other.

This isn't really a rebuttal of your essay since your opinions are valid to your lived experiences, I just thought it was interesting how different our perspectives were for a few reasons - I am 21, and TF One was actually the first media I ever engaged with related to Transformers at all. I knew of the Michael Bay films but they didn't appeal to me at all when I was a child because they seemed totally mindless and sexist, and it wasn't until TF One that I even knew who ANY of the characters were (or that there were characters!?) beyond a vague concept of Optimus and Megatron - I went into it almost completely blind because they were promoting it with a free Sonic poster 😭. And it worked...since last September I have bought 7 toys and all of the Skybound comics...😅

I don't disagree that constant reboots and rehashes are definitely a symptom of capitalism (not wanting to lose trademarks, trying to maintain and create a new audience), and it's definitely kind of gross that there is that expectation that of course you should spend hundreds on our franchise - you grew up with it, right? But at the same time I actually kind of like that there are so many different versions of the same characters? I still get what you mean that there should still be a focus on creating new characters, of moving on, since I LOVED TF: The Movie. (Hot Rod/Rodimus is the best). If you haven't checked out the Skybound comics, they're definitely trying to rehash nostalgia with the character designs but they refuse to overly stick to overly used characters JUST for the sake of nostalgia and are willing to kill them off, including Bumblebee in the very first issue. Of course they might not be your thing anyway.

I also personally really loved the fact that Megatron and Optimus were friends first in TF One, and you could maybe attribute that to how I've seen very little superhero stuff, so instead of it seeming like an X-Men rehash it was totally fresh to me. (Well, mostly fresh, friends to enemies is pretty archetypal lol). I was...nine years old when X-Men: First Class came out, and my parents did not care for superheroes (I haven't seen a single Marvel movie and have only seen a few DC ones bc my friend's a fan for the first time last year), so I never even knew it existed until I saw people compare it to TF One. Planning to watch it soon, lol. The whole "OP and Megs were friends first" thing is very fanfiction-y, but if I'm being honest that's what I like about it... I never thought I would get so invested in robot slash but it's everywhere! And wonderful. (Sorry if that's something you dislike).

It isn't the only thing I like about the franchise: the sci-fi space opera vibe the 1986 film developed is awesome, and stuff that could only happen with robots like unique torture such as the "anti-personal mines" or empurata from IDW, the oppressive function based society also from IDW - TBH I think the Stalinist Megatron is cool...I mean like, fascist Megatron is fine (and I see TF One Megatron as a fascist), but the Megatron as a character I want to spend time thinking about and picking apart is the Megatron who wrote poetry and manifestos before being a war criminal, the universal greeting, what forms gender and recreational sex take in a society without sexual reproduction or sexual dimorphism - mostly a fanon thing obviously) but besides all that honestly...if it wasn't for the slash potential I probably wouldn't have gotten invested LMFAO. Yep. I'm just going to own it. I've had a great time with it. In my defense, I'm a lesbian! #representationmatters (Being very tongue in cheek right now)

Anyway...I'm sorry if none of that made any sense and also for the fact that I just sent you an incredibly unsolicited long af anonymous ask, but I just thought it was so fascinating that you couldn't enjoy TF One for completely valid reasons but those reasons could cause the opposite reaction in me (total obsession and fiscal irresponsibility). I feel like it stems from our age, what media we've seen do things better before (I am eager to experience new media but there is so much out there. I have lived under a strangely shaped rock!), and our approach to media in general probably differs which for me comes from a VERY self-indulgent place. Again, I sincerely apologize but I was glad to read your thoughts and I hope you didn't mind reading my own... Feel free to delete this ask!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Heh. No chance I'm deleting it, Anon - it's great to hear you're getting a start into Transformers like this.

And, first of all, while I've never been invested in TF slash to any degree, I am eternally delighted it exists. Likewise, I'm not particularly serious in my dislike of non-transforming action figures of Transformers except insofar as they lie entirely outside my own enjoyment. A lot of what I love about Transformers as a concept is the tactile thrill of turning a thing into another thing -- the idea each of them is a puzzle. It's partly the engineering challenge and partly just the satisfaction in fiddling with them, like you and that Galvatron. (This is also why I also have little good to say about overly complex and fiddly toys. There's definitely a sweet spot here.)

But that's beside the point. You want something out of your collecting that is different from me and I'm glad you've been able to get it. People liking or disliking things for much the same reasons is common. I don't feel like we're making the mistake of reading against the source material here; TF One just genuinely did something for you in ways it wouldn't for me!

Part of this is definitely age, as I tried to emphasise in the original essay. I'm at the point in my life where I really value novelty and I know where I am and am not likely to find it. I've spent the past few years exploring mecha anime as a category precisely because I hadn't before. While not all of it is new, it's new to me, and I've had a lot of fun as a result. See also Lupin (the French crime TV series), Dungeon Meshi, classic horror movies, and The Count of Monte Cristo. Doesn't always work out -- couldn't get on with Armored Core 6 because, turns out, there are reasons for me not to play games like that, namely I'm not good at them and don't find them fun. But it's ultimately on me to seek out novel things, rather than sitting around complaining the things I used to enjoy have changed or don't excite me any more.

It's fantastic you get to come in and experience Transformers for the first time, in all its many iterations. As I alluded to in the essay, that's kind what it was like for me in the early 2000s, picking my way through a mass of fiction that had come out over the preceding decade and a half. And you've got even more you can take a look at!

(The Michael Bay movies are indeed terrible, but Transformers: Bumblebee is pretty decent, if you want a live-action TF film.)

In terms of personal taste -- well, that's what it is, in the end, when it comes to liking or disliking particular versions. I don't like IDW Megatron because 1) it's a cludge, multiple different writers trying to salvage from the wreckage after early IDW got jackhammered by the 'All Hail Megatron' fiasco and 2) a lot of historical and political buttons it pushes in the name of a moral complexity don't sit well with me (this is more about where it leaves the Autobots than the Decepticons, although I do not like the idea of the 'cons starting in the working classes either, because the Constructicons are an outlier in Generation 1, not the norm *grumble grumble*). Other rants are available; when it comes to Transformers, I've had over twenty years to formulate very specific strong opinions!

Even so, again, someone liking the things I don't just means there's more enjoyment in the world, which is never a bad thing.

I'm still going to find nostalgia-farming icky. I'm still going to have critiques and complaints that I think are, occasionally, worth expressing in public. But I don't see these as any reflection on the people who feel otherwise, at least not outside certain extremes that don't factor into this discussion (when we get into shitty messages and horrible creative figures who benefit from people buying their stuff). Taste is a subjective thing and while it can be developed or refined, those are processes that should ultimately benefit each individual first and foremost. Nobody should be going round with a clipboard, rating us on the things we enjoy, 6/10, must do better. I try, likely with mixed success, to exercise caution over being critical on this blog. Ultimately, what I wrote last time was about business practices I find noxious, not the fans being targetted by them.

If you're getting joy out of TF:One and everything else, more power to you. Sincerely! I hope you'll continue to have fun and that you'll find other people who feel likewise.

Thank you for reading my post, and for sharing your thoughts in return. :)