#alpha trion is also cool as shit

[tricksteroftheheart]

my moot comes into my askbox talking about transformers and i stare at it in awe. how did you know i like transformers . . . /silly

[slimejugular]

SPOILERS FOR TF ONE. PLEASE DO NOT CLICK READ MORE IF YOU DO NOT WANT SPOILERS. ALSO TF ONE WAS GOOD.

disclaimer: i dont have good memory and for that there is likely some inaccuracy to what i claim, wrong terms, etc. also very out of order but i enjoy rambling

somewhat intentionally vague things i liked about the movie 1. the music was swell -the score as to when the main group was on the surface was cool, when they were going between diff. environments

-the ending scene with Optimus being granted the Matrix had a very fitting background score. + also was surprising fitting with the execution of Sentinel Prime that was also occurring atm

-I am not knowledgeable about music, but I assume synths were used a lot, and they were lovely........

2. The animation for high action scenes -was soooooo amazing! in particular There was a lot of creative liberty taken with how the bots would transform parts of their body to fight. Which had shone in Elita's fighting andd i am unsure beyond that. Airachnid's fighting, using her legs to spin and shred and stab aggressively was great too

also I'm biased towards like. them ripping parts off eachother i.e. the fight between Armada Megatron and Optimus is a good exemplar of this. all the greater to see that again in the fight between TF ONE MegOp in their third forms aaaaaaaaa. Seeing Optimus rip Megatron's tank cannon off, almost oxidize his metal by burning it to shit, and so on, that is WONDERFUL. I cannot recall what Megatron did though of course it involved him trying to explode Optimus' face

-not a fight scene but actiony, the Mecha gore of taut wires just wrenched apart w/ the splitting of Sentinel Prime's torso was delectable ha-ha

3. few minor details

-seeing D-16 wipe the dust off of Orion yayy

-Orion (remember from their first meeting!!!!) knows D-16 is a huge fan of Megatronus and so for him to get that sticker, for him, was very cute and loving of him. what a friend. only made it as horrible to see that sticker used to demean and punish D-16 by Sentinel Prime

-the stylization of optics is LOVELY. their repeating shape of iris is great. the different eyes across the characters = great. the fact that they spin around during high times of emotion is sooooooo -------! great. i loved seeing this in D-16, when Sentinel Prime's treachery was revealed! his optics spun very much which i inference as emotional

the eyelid for optics is not a traditional blink, like a whole eye covering shutter. it looked very unique and complex, and you could really observe the design of it in that close up shot of Elita waking up and i found it very nice

-the way post t-cog Orion Pax leaned down to be on equal height / level / eye contact with his fellow mining buddies was a good display of character. showed his genuine heartfelt intent in connecting with them, helps to trust in the incoming truth! just because he has a t-cog now does not mean he will carry himself as if he were greater than them

4. Sentinel prime was cool

-his con-man shtick and unadulterated "I want power" was refreshing and is further bettered if you take into account his status as an Autobot and previous prime. there should be eviler Autobots in the movies

-i dont understand why he has TFP inspired characters as lackeys but fun

-nod to Bayverse Sentinel Prime with his choice of weapon is good

5. Alpha Trion

It was unexpected to see him have an alt mode that was animal-like. i loved it. he is normally a character i dont think much of in terms of any continuity, so it was nice to see him shined on in that brief time

6. models

-the models for the dilapidated figures of the 13 Primes were soooo goood i am in love with them. i am a big fan of the Transformers, as strong and terrifying as they are, painted so frail and weak when left to the sands of time. the overgrowth, the missing parts of their body. the vines. the moss. Delicious !

-i appreciate that they bothered to model t-cog transformations for background characters at the end, even if they wouldn't have been on the screen that long for TF ONE ^_^ although ofc that may be because they'll be reused in the (hopeful) later movies. im going to say that last sentence a lot. their new forms are also crumbs for fans of those characters

7. that one place the main team encountered on the surface?

-so, there is that portion of the movie where they are trying to get to the coordinates of the matrix. but a Quintesson ship appears

maybe i am being delusional but the area reminded me a bit of the Sea of Rust level in CH 4 of Transformers: Fall of Cybertron so that was pleasant

8++++++.

There are tons of other things in TF ONE that I think were great!!!!! I would go on too long to mention them all. Now here is stuff I think would be better.

stuff i think would be better

-more screentime for the Decepticons would have been nice. yet i presume in the later movies in the trilogy that this will be touched on. given that we GET a trilogy

the high command did not get to do much ( i am bitter that Starscream did pretty much nothing out of this group)

-wish there was furthered display of Cybertronian culture? Say like being taken into a scene where we get to view the exterior and interior of a flying bot's home, or any other type of home. anything. see a higher-caste bot's berth? do they all sleep upright?????! fun

as well as food :] was interesting to see Alpha Trion get fed that little cube of energon, or Orion crashing into that establishment into a pile of energon. but what about if they process energon into any other form? if they drink oil? etc? awww? if they take showers????? idk

itd be funny to see D-16/Orion go to a party lol

-more environments beyond the few on the surface and more plants, animals

-i don't prefer Steve Buscemi's voice for Starscream. i mean, in the credits they had Steve Blum? but he voiced minor characters?? ....bummed they did not ask him to voice ......oh...

-the action of the scenes i praised earlier. however thinking about it again, there is slightly too much going on, too many sparks, too much blur, maybe that is just me, it is hard to parse what is going on during fight scenes sometimes. a little more clarity would be amazing. but again i still loved it and was very excited as i was viewing and didnt care too much

--------conclusion

Overall. it is a lot to expect so i understand they couldnt touch on all of this! just a far dream of themes I'll have to collect into a ball from the other outputs of the franchise. I thought it was a pretty good movie in comparison to all preexisting Transformers movies and would pick it over those any day. sorry 1986

good time i recommend seeing it

[chrometheraptor]

i haven’t heard about transformers in a while…. who’s the current fav. have you watched the new movie yet and if so thoughts

YAYAYAYAYAYAY HIIIIII!!!

Current fav is Sentinel Prime from tf one (the new movie)!!! He is so so soooo awful I adore him

Tf one was super good!!! I cannot WAIT to watch it again and I definitely recommend it!! I honestly think that it’s a good way for new fans to get into transformers bc it is set before the war!! So it doesn’t really need established knowledge!! BUT YEAH SENTINEL MY BELOVED

Lookit him!! He’s got cool fuckin wings!! He has commit many murders!! He’s a bastard!!

OH AND THE MOVING LANDSCAPES WERE SO COOL!!!! Finally!!! They utilized cybertron being A Living Dude!!!!

The fight scenes were all sooooooo so so so good they actually!! Utilized them being transforming robots in combat!!

^ Here is a gif I have saved! It’s so neat how Elita’s whole lower body spins around for the kick it’s great <3333

Oh and like the fight scene w Starscream and Megs!!

Thrusters!!

spoilery stuff under the cut <33

UAAAAAHHHHH THE SCENE SHOWING SENTINEL BETRAYING AND KILLING THE PRIMES????? AND D’S MONOLOGUE THING ABOUT WANTING TO KILL SENTINEL AFTERWARDS IS SO GOOD

ALSO SENTINEL KILLING ALPHA TRION!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Sentinel’s death was SO FUCKING GOOD it had me going oh shit!!!!! The way it kept cutting between Megs approaching and Optimus falling towards the core with the layers moving out of the way for him???????? So fucking good!!! And Sentinel’s eyes flickering out and him turning gray!!!!!

Fucked me up emotionally 20/10 <33333333333

[quetzalpapalotl]

I am genuinely curious about why TF One!Alpha Trion is the only iteration of Alpha Trion you like while the others you don’t like. This is coming from someone who really likes TF One!Alpha Trion (his beast mode, for some reason, really reminds me of one of those Chinese lions in lion dances (it’s the horn on the lion’s head, I think)), but sees all the other Alpha Trions as just “some old guys.”

Alpha Trion mostly suffers from the problem that he is supposed to be an Old Wise Guy character, and if I am meant to have reverence for a character you better sell them well to me. It's a delicate balancing act, otherwise I find them annoying.

But it's not like I actually hate him, he doesn't make my blood boil or anything like that I just kinda want to shove him in a locker. He shows up to say wise stuff and I'm like "yeah yeah, I get it", it's even more annoying when he's ~mysterious~. But honestly, a lot of it (especially in TFP) is me projecting my feelings for Exodus!Alpha Trion, and the problem there really isn't so much his character as that Exodus is just not the best written novel.

In IDW1, JRo writes him deliberately annoying as a sort of affectionate parody in Spotlight: Orion Pax, which is cute. Barber's take is particulary annoying because he did shit like participate in the Antillan colonization and prop up Nova Prime so everything in the series is his fault!! (not really but kinda) And yet he lies about all this and poses as the Wise Old Guy. This isn't actually annoying tho, because the story is well aware of what an hypocrite he is, Shockwave even describes to us how he exploited Trion's character flaws. He also respects Arcee and so that gives him a lot of points in my book. Is very interesting that she inherits his role as the teller of tales, but Arcee, in contrast, tells things as they were, the good and the bad. He sucks and that's good actually, he is a Prime and we are putting that whole legacy under scruntiny, he is a great character, he is fascinating. I still very much want to shove him in a locker.

One is still an Old Wise Guy, but you know, his motivational speech is good enough for a kid's movie, he also tells all the important information right away, when he entrusts the future of Cybertron to the main character is not so much that these guys are special because The Wise Old Guy says they are, but they are the guys that showed up and his best shot against Sentinel. We also see him rage and despair at all his friends getting killed, which are not emotions usual to his character. And also he is cool!! Idk why they gave him a beast alt but is was extremely cool!! And his sand visual show powers are also very cool! No locker for you, sir!!

Anyway, pls don't take my Alpha Trion hate seriously, I just like to bully him for recreation.

[dynamicdragonite]

Finished S2! S1 thoughts here!

(Forgot to post this lmao)

If they're not gonna help him could the 'cons at least get Soundwave some Cybertronian ibuprofen or something? For his back?

3 different clip show episodes! Needed to pad the runtime of this season, hmm?

Orion Pax was very fun and cool

Operation: Bumblebee didn't quite top Stronger, Faster, but it damn sure tried its best

'Though the medic... could have done better' AUGH

That entire exchange between Bumblebee and Knock Out ('WHAT is with the Rent-A-Car????') was absolute perfection, my favourite moment being Knock Out noticing that Bumblebee was no longer chasing him and literally stopping to talk shit in the middle of his mission. We love a man with priorities

RIP Breakdown, you didn't deserve that buddy

People were saying that KO had no noticeable reaction to Breakdown's death, so I was a little wary, but while we didn't get the immediate reaction, we absolutely got the aftermath

Namely, Knock Out becomes increasingly more reckless, speaking out while Megatron is in the room (where before he mostly only spoke when referred to) and becoming bolder in those conversations, such as shouting at the Insecticons, becomes far less focused during missions, preferring to stand and talk shit/make puns, and while he does not visibly mourn Breakdown, he mentions him a fair few times and it's likely he does not even know that he's dead

Triage my beloved. I get it now.

The whole aftermath of Toxicity, and Miko failing to find closure with Wheeljack, and that shot of Wheeljack turning and limping back out of base because nobody will talk to him and he's just made it worse? Perfection.

Bulkhead's healing arc itself was a little. Mmh. Miko why is your characterisation like this?? I want to like you!

My initial reaction to Smokescreen was 'oh I hate his ass' and then now I'm like 'omg Smokescreen hi!!!'

Raf's mom did NOT notice he's been disappearing every weekend and every weekday after school, but him dropping to an A- was what got her attention? Yeah okay lady.

Also, she had no questions to the adult man in a suit being in the 'study group'???

Did she even know which child was hers????

The slow realisation that the 'cons are getting closer and closer to figuring out where the autobot base is? Hell YEAH

Alpha Trion's voice was so similar to a comedy voice I know that I didn't register a goddamn thing he said bc I was too busy laughing, but then the pan back to Optimus' face where he just looks like he's not paying attention at ALL-

KO panicking and trying to yank out the brain wire so Megatron would be stuck in Starscream. Bestie how did you think that would end. You're just lucky Dreadwing was too busy betraying Megatron to tell him about that

Also RIP Dreadwing, you didn't really do... much at all actually, but at least you weren't Starscream so you had that going for you

Jam jars; the perfect human containment systems

Also KO and Starscream fucking with their captives vs Soundwave just holding Raf. He has other priorities okay. Like carrying.

Ratchet's reaction to the mission (anxiety) and then his reaction to the fact that Optimus just destroyed the lock... love that

Ratchet's reaction to Wheeljack turning up, we've only seen him that happy at the end of Operation: Bumblebee and hell YEAH I get it now

They are SUPREMELY good at season endings

[olberic]

ok. things about tfone. spoilers obviously

every group scene i was scanning the background for recognizable characters. i have so many i could comment on but i loved that like prowl AND bluestreak were there and u could tell them apart. and all the seekers and coneheads too

the quintessons!!! they were a total surprise!!! having iacon city be underground too… a great nod to g1 while keeping it fresh and keeping a lot of the aesthetics that idw introduced on the surface

thank you tfa for all your influences… shitty sentinel prime… fliers being generally bigger than grounders… short orion pax… the axe design…

bee is annoying again thank god

the spark of primus YESSIRRRRR

BEASTFORMER ALPHA TRION

airachnid was very cool. very cool interpretation to make the spider -> extra eyes -> high perception -> bodyguard connection. just a really interesting interpretation of her character

making orion pax a miner like megatron but making him scrappy and introduced in a LIBRARY

it did the “optimus was a revolutionary” thing really well. my #1 beef with op in any continuity is that hes a centrist but idk, he only became lame at the end when he stopped megatron from shooting sentinel (who deserved it)

like the “workers worked to excess only for results to end up wasted in a world that only has finite resources” and “leadership making paragons of the working class into tools for controlling the masses into less freedom” and the “shit OSH rules meaning management encourages scapegoats” thing was…. well it was pointed wasnt it

starscream getting weird about getting hit. whyd they decide to do that (this is not a complaint)

WAIT. WAR FOR CYBERTRON TYPE DESIGNS TOO. FOR CYBERTRON

laughed out loud at “you havent got the touch or the power”

cheered out loud when starscream showed up (not the only person in the theatre to do so) and also exclaimed when optimus’ mask snapped into place.

my single first and foremost otp in anything ever had a great introduction and whole seconds of contact while fighting

ALSO cheered out loud when megatron was kicking op’s ass. fave thing in an origin story for these two

THE BRANDDDDDD MEGATRON GETTING THE EMBLEM BURNED INTO HIMMMM

[decepti-thots]

the g1 cartoon megatron-op backstory is the funniest thing in the world. one day megatron is out Being Evil TM but also he looks damn cool doing it. orion pax is at his shitty dockworker job and is all "man. he looks so cool doesn't he" when he sees megatron flying around and shit. who then proceeds to promptly fucking shoot him AND his girlfriend ariel AND his bff dion point blank so he can hold up the warehouse they work at. then orion and ariel (but not?? dion????) get repaired and rebuilt into new Big Sexy TM forms that are way better at punching, because alpha trion is like, huh. seems like we might be in need of people who are good at punching these days. these corpses will do i guess. now OP is the leader of the army bc of this. and so megatron gets to get punched in the face for the next few million years by, essentially, the random NPC guard who he slaughtered in the middle of some sidequest. truly incredible. nobody ever asks why the fuck they apparently just let dion die.

[yes-i-write-fanfiction]

I would like a continuation of TFA Optimus after he became a true prime from the matrix of leadership. AKA: how would Ultra Magnus, Alpha Trion, Sentinel, and lastly Megatron react?

Bonus for Team Prime reacting too

While it’s not the bot he thought the Matrix would chose, Ultra Magnus is nonetheless pleased by the decision. Optimus is loyal to the autobots, hardworking and easy to control. An ideal true Prime, really.

Alpha Trion is likewise pleased with the Matrix’ choice. He knows that Optimus has a kind spark and while some see it as a weakness, he thinks it’s a strength. Is just happy that it wasn’t Sentinel that was chosen.

Now Sentinel is so fucking envious, holy shit. He remembers how the Matrix rejected him, how ashamed and disappointed he had felt and those feelings are coming back tenfold now that he’s heard that Optimus is the new true Prime. He has always prided himself with being in the Elite Guard, in being above Optimus in rank, but now he is his subordinate. Sentinel is very unhappy.

Megatron is angered but also feels a sort of relief at the same time. Yes, he’s angry that he wasn’t chosen, that some lowly autobot is seen as more worthy than him. But at the same time it’s also the very same Prime that defeated him, which makes the fact that he was defeated not as much of a soar point. Megatron had felt bothered by the fact that some random autobot had managed to bring him down but the knowledge that this Prime would then become the true Prime makes him feel better.

Ratchet is fucking relieved that it was Optimus that became the true Prime and not someone like Sentinel. Primus knows how bad that would have turned out. Always had a hunch that Optimus was someone worthy of being chosen by the Matrix so this doesn’t really come as a shock to him. He is however a bit worried that this new title will cause OP even more stress and grief.

Bumblebee is fucking cheering. Hell yeah the boss-bot is the true Prime! Couldn’t be anyone else! Perhaps a tad envious that Optimus is now even bigger but mostly just finds this new frame of his super awesome and cool.

There’s stars in Bulkhead’s optics. He always thought that Optimus was a great leader but he never really considered that he might be worthy to be the true Prime. His admiration of OP just skyrocketed.

Prowl, just like Ratchet, always had the feeling that Optimus might be someone worthy to be the true Prime though his reasons are more spiritual. Happy about the occasion.

[plokoonsdisapprovingeyebrows]

Some Notes on the Iacon Hall of Records:

(I drew this a while back and it needs edited slightly but let’s have it here anyway lol)

The front half, more or less, is the public part of the complex. Past about the admin block you need a Hall ID to get anywhere, or an appointment with someone whose office is back there and a friendly Archivist to show you the way. The Hall has its own clade of security guards and their HQ is in the basement here.

A good chunk of the complex is open to the sky -- the Hall of Records and Scholarship Plaza are right on the edge of Level 46 of High Iacon. A lot of these buildings have various connections to each other from skywalks to some of them sharing a roof structure, so you can usually find a dry way to get from one building to another if you have to, but in general the complex is open to the polar weather. Fortunately Iacon City generates a lot of heat, so the snow doesn't tend to stick around too long.

I don't know what the unlabeled buildings do yet. I'll figure out names eventually lmao.

The Pre-Imperial History department is located in the basement of the Imperial Library, near the Records Hall. The Imperial Library is five storeys tall, if you don't count the basement. (Nobody does, the basement is really not impressive.) Iacon has a lot of Imperial history and not a lot of Pre-Imperial history, so the glitz and glam of the Empire takes up all the space and funding and Alpha Trion has to bug the administrators for scraps every year.

The best basement in the Hall of Records belongs to the Engineering Library to the rear of the Scientific Archives, where, it is rumoured, there is a hot oil tub. 

Orion lives in the front Residency Hall, with a window that's just placed right to be able to see across to the Library of the Arts. Behind that, the roof of the Scientific Archives is just visible, and behind that, there's a large apartment block that houses a load of local uni students. On top of that apartment block is the substructure of Level 47, and, according to the city maps, a kitchen and energon store used to keep the bigwigs in the Citadel well-fueled.

He used to live in the Junior Dormitory, which is used to house Junior Archivists. You're a Junior Archivist if you have less than a thousand vorn work experience. Junior Archivists get shuffled around the Hall a lot for the sake of training in many different areas, and if they show a particular aptitude for one field of work then they'll be given a specialization when they're promoted to regular Archivist. The Iacon Hall always has a lot more Juniors than one might expect, because they provide training not only to their own Juniors but those from other state Halls of Records as well. If you're a Junior Archivist in, say, Kaon, and your Seniors realise that you're doing really well with your work, they can send you to Iacon to get some more more rigorous training. When you hit the thousand vorn mark and 'graduate', you go back to your home Hall and, in theory, excel at your work.

The Gateway Hall of Records is an actual library; it's where the Archivists keep a lot of their high-demand stuff, and things that don't really fit in the other libraries. There's a museum section for some really old and famous hardcopy files, a gallery that tells the history of Cybertron from Dynasty to Empire, and a quiet room where copies of all the official Books of History are free to browse. It also has a cafe, but the Archivists prefer the cafe in the Arts Library because it’s cheaper and there's usually fewer people around.

The Sentinel Zeta Research Library is called that because both Primes personally funded it; Zeta provided the initial investment and Sentinel threw some more money at it to add the circular bit (it's a tower) because he'd had a scandal and his PR people told him it would look good if he paid for something cool to be built. The construction costs blew out because the first construction company undercut in a major way to win the contract and then couldn't deliver on their promises, so Sentinel told them to fuck off and hired someone else. The Archivists were all like "Can't we just fix the leaking gutters first?" except no-one actually said that because who's gonna tell a Prime his vanity project isn't appreciated?

The Hall of Records Sanctuary (a church, basically) and Theological Records live in the same building. Most of the stuff in Theological Records is related to the formation of the Ordo Imperium broadstream (which was deliberately created along with the caste system at the founding of the Empire to foster a sense of global unity) rather than actual religious works (which are kept in the Imperial Library, next to the Imperial History section).

The Grid Cores building should probably be bigger tbh, it's the biggest in the complex. The outer parts are mostly maintenance access and admin; the three circles are the actual core rooms and they're enormous. They house the Iacon server cores for the Grid, which is the part of the Datanet which is government-controlled. They're the reason the Hall of Records was built in a part of the city exposed to the air -- the Cores building uses a shit ton of cold air to keep the servers from combusting and it's a lot more energy-efficient if they don't have to make that air cold themselves.

The Hardcopy Storage Building is the one with the leaky gutters and the waterfall. The inside of the building is extremely climate-controlled because if you let hardcopy get damp it flakes and starts to decay in rapid, smelly fashion. The outside of the building is not given such consideration. The Restoration Building is attached because it's mostly hardcopy that they're restoring.

[geminiofpluto]

So I’m going to talk about Transformers Earthrise

I kinda just wrote each thing after each episode so I won’t forget much.

I’m writing what I remember from each episode

🚨SPOILERS AHEAD🚨

Episode 1: Elita is cool as ever, freeing Decepticons and pulling out “Freedom is the right of all sentient beings” on Jetfire when he was questioning why she wanted to free them.

And then Steeljaw :( He was in cassette mode when they were hurting him. Makes me sad thinking about it. If Blaster is going to make an appearance, I hope Steeljaw will be with him.

Also, I need to know what’s up with Megatron having Ultra Magnus’s head on his table and just talking to him like a normal conversation.

There’s a happy Red Alert moment when he talks about how happy he is to have someone on their team who can fly. I’m calling for a Red Alert and Jetfire friendship.

Megatron acknowledges that Elita is a good leader and saying she could’ve been leaderbof the Autobots instead,. He may have started a war but he still knows what’s good.

The bots at Section 12... I loved them, they were so nice to Megatron and were admiring him a lot. It’s easy to tell it hurt him very much to have to “sacrifice” them for the project. I’m pretty sure all of us were sad. Those three bots were very nice.

Episode 2:

Elita is once again acknowledged by Megatron she is a good leader. He even called her Ariel. I’m wondering if we’ll see the past between them.

When Megatron put them in the cylinder thingies, the Decepticons the Autobots frees the first episode came to save them.

The bot even said “Til all are one”

And Skyfire... this huge dude really did just fall against the glass wall while they were trying to escape all stealth mode.

Luckily Skytread let them escape. It was funny when he asked one of them to punch cause Chromia was like “on sight, bro” and went for it. Like I love Chromia. :D

We also get to see our bots on the Ark again! And we get to see the mercenaries too.

We get to see conehead seekers again dudes! And this is my first time seeing Doubledealer on the screen(might be his first time? I honestly don’t know)

What’s with the gray colored Bumblebee, Wheeljack, and Hound? But yet again, it could just be reusing the same models.

Where’s tiny man Prowl? Where’s Ratchet?

When G. Bumblebee said “Where’s the ugly looking one?”, I was like “sir, you looked in a mirror lately?”

Quintessons! And for some reason, blue spirit mask looking Deseeus just cut off all the Qunitesson other faces just cause she wanted a consensus? Damn

Episode 3: Oh no sad Optimus. D:

BUMBLEBEE!! HE’S GOT THE SIGIL NOW!!

Ooh Ratchet and Wheeljack are working together.

“Bumblebee is correct-“

“I am?!”

Ayyy more Elita and co, they even got a bunch of Decepticon with them. Oop the Reflector with the scars is named Scrapface.

Elita seems more chill with Jetfire now. More friendships! I really like seeing Elita and her group.

Also the Autobots found the Nebulon station.

THERE’S SOMETHING ON THE STATION! WHAT THE FAQ IS ON THE STATION

Bee and Prime walked through the space bridge, and the other side of beautiful. It’s got a similar terrain like Earth’s. It’s leafy and green and colorful.

Oop it’s a giant scorpion on the ship. Is it Scorponok?

Yep it’s Scorponok.

Elita and co are going to stop the remaining Decepticons from getting harvested by the Shockwave. How nice of them :3

ONEGA SUPREME! oh wait dangit it’s a mirage.

Damn Scorponok is tall. He looks like Devestator and RID01 Megatron had a baby.

So Megs finally caught up with the Ark.

Episode 4: I love Ironhide. He may have few moments, but he’s still my fav.

Optimus noooooo

Bumblebee was trying to help, but Optimus is over here being a worried dad.

Ooh, Megatron really shot Scorponok to say “Optimus Prime is mine!”

Soundwave has unleashed his cat :0

Prime’s just trying protect his kids.

So they got knocked out from the blast, and Ravage was sniffing Starscream to check if he was alive, but the dude shoved him off. Rude, he making sure you live.

He thinks Megs is dead so now he’s leader.

Now Prime and Megatron are stuck in a room together, and now they’re talking. Megatron’s got a girder in his chest and he slowly dying.

Here’s a picure I got of the scene ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

The bots and cons are working together now! S not for now though.

Then Starscream starts talking shit to Megs and when he’s done talking about how he’d be a better leader, he says “What’s your argument?”

Megatron just shoots him. Ravage then checks on him again, but he shoves him off again. Why is he so rude?

Oop bots be out here calling Megatron a Quintesson and he’s offended. Quite hilarious

Starscream is really taking command and tossing Barricade aside. Starscream I love you but push him again and I’ll fight you.

So now something happened to the Nemesis ship, or perhaps it was the Ark.

Episode 5: Alpha Trion and Sky Lynx!! Sky Lynx wants to be a Prime too.

So the Autobots are in the Dead Universe. Sky Lynx is still alive and can apparently hear all.

Andddd he’s got some spiritual power and talking to Optimus now.

Sky Lynx is now humbled, I think he’s gonna join the Autobots.

So Megatron alive and he’s boutta pimp slap him.

GALVATRON?! where’d he come from?!

Sky Lynx is really making sad.

And now Galvatron doing the same spiritual thing to Megatron.

OP, let Sky Lynx go with you! Let him be redeemed.

Now Sky Lynx seems to be mentoring OP.

Optimus, Elita isn’t dead! She’s alive!

Yes, Megan. Don’t trust Galvatron! He’s trying to make you kill the bae.

Damn I keep forgetting how much the arena hurt Megatron mentally. :(

Ah yes, OP comforting Sky Lynx

Dang Galvatron don’t got them lips.

Woah the hate plague appears again? Damn Megan what you doing?

Sky Lynx NOOOOOOOOOOOOO

What what Unicron and the golden discs! And now the bots are before Earth. It’s building up to Kingdom!

Episode 6: Megatron still after OP I see.

Wow Arcee strong enough to chokehold Starscream. ,,•^•,,

YES COG, QUESTION OP. Optimus, why you holding a gun to Megatron, trying to force him to accept your apology and forgive you.

COG NOOOOOOO

ah yeah more Elita and co screentime.

Shockwave stalking Elita with a invisibility cloak

And now OP and Megatron yelling and fighting. OP’s officially lost it guys

Ooh Bumblebee is taking charge

Ooh the mercenary gray Wheeljack is named Exhaust and the gray Bumblebee is named Bug Bite

Lol Elita tripped on air. Nvm it was Shockwave.

Shockwave actually believes Elita knew the Guardians.

And now Elita and her team have been compromised. :(

Doubledealer nooooo. Deseeus better let him go

COG, YOU’RE ALIVE?!

okay so Spinister caught Elita’s team, Shockwave has Elita.

COG NOOOO! cog :,(

ELITA NOOOO

EVERYONE NOOOOOOOOO :,,,,0

oh shit Megs got the Matrix, and he calling OP Orion

YEAH BEE! SHOOT MEGS

oh no he got away with the Matrix

Ooh Earth!

RAPTOR! RAPTOR! DINOBOT!!!!!

I finished it ;-; Hope you guys liked the show cause I think it was good.

I miss Cog and Elita ;-;

Also very sad there’s no Sunstreaker

[earthstellar]

INTERVIEW: Transformers lore and characters as discussed with my 74 year old mother

Backstory: I talk about fandom stuff a lot with my mom (she’s one of the original Star Trek fangirls so she knows her fandom shit lmao) and recently I’ve been discussing Transformers with her. 

Me and my mom are very open with each other, and we have some interesting fandom conversations. 

Here are some lines from a recent call with her that I thought might be interesting, regarding Transformers stuff and especially some interesting elderly person perspective on Ratchet. There’s also some talk of the theology in Transformers lore, including Drift and Spectralism, and a bunch of other stuff too.

All conversations transcribed from a recent Skype call, with my mom’s permission.

M is my mom, Me is just me-- So that you can tell who’s talking, lol. When other real people are mentioned, their names are redacted and replaced with an X for privacy. 

Getting Started:

Me: Okay, there are a lot of younger fans for Transformers who might be interested in this kind of discussion, but I don’t see a lot of these conversations saved and shared anywhere, so if you don't mind I want to share some of your reactions to learning about Transformers stuff. 

M: That’s okay, very professional of you to ask! The internet is a job now, I guess. I’m being interviewed, fancy. 

On Ratchet’s Age/Health and older people in media:

Me: Ratchet’s the medic, he’s an old guy. Older than a lot of the other bots. In the comics (MTMTE/LL) he has a chronic illness and he eventually passes away from either that or complications related to it, although we don’t see it happen on the page. It made everyone sad; He’s a fan favourite. 

M: I know how that feels, getting old and dying! I had years of thyroid symptoms before they had to take it out, I had endometriosis and they told me I couldn't have you, it’s an unsure thing. Now I’ve had skin cancers removed, I have too much potassium in my blood, I have fibromyalgia. I never expected to live this long. 

Everyone is really just guessing at health stuff. It’s ironic that the doctor couldn’t diagnose himself, but I think he probably knew what was wrong and couldn't bring himself to accept it. Old people might accept that we can’t do some things any more but we tend to be depressed about it. Nobody really copes with it very well, you know X had a stroke and now she’s aphasic, can’t speak anymore, can’t read anymore, and she used to be a nurse. She’s older than I am, but it’s sad. She’s so smart and clever, and we’re just old. It’s what happens. 

I bet Ratchet was scared. As a doctor, he’d know what can happen when you get old and decrepit. I think he was in denial, a lot of old guys seem to be like that. 

Me: He was the medical lead on their ship, the Lost Light. I think you’re right and he wanted to be functional for as long as possible; He wants to be helpful and his job is his life. It would be hard for him; He struggles with retirement in the comics. 

M: Sounds about right. I’m old as hell and I still work! Although that’s mostly because we all need money to live, and not so much because anybody wants to have a job at this age, but still. If he liked his job, he wouldn’t want to be pushed out. I loved working at the park; When I had to quit, it was devastating, but I didn’t really have a choice. 

By the way, the audiobooks you sent me for X have really made her happy, she can read again, sort of! So thanks for that.

Me: I’m glad the audiobooks I sent you helped!

M: They have, you’re a life saver! 

Me: I’m just glad they’re useful for her! 

I think it’s interesting that his age is a part of his character in terms of personality and story arc; Do you enjoy seeing older characters in media that reflect the realities of age and being old, even when it’s difficult or possibly depressing? 

M: Yes! There aren’t a lot of old characters, and the ones that are out there are mostly just joke characters or you never see them too often. I think the creators must think that old people don’t watch TV or anything, but the reason we don’t tune in is because everything is all about young people, and that can be hard. Watching people run around when you can’t anymore can be painful for those of us who have lost that ability now that we’re elderly, or watching kid-focused stuff can make us miss our families. 

It would be nice to see old characters that are included and are competent. 

Me: Representation is important. 

M: Yes. 

On Religion in Transformers: 

Me: So, you work in a church. Just pointing it out so readers know where we’re coming from on this. 

M: Yep, Episcopalian on the beach here, a small church. Services are mostly online due to COVID so I’ve lost hours on Friday, unfortunately... But I’m not complaining. 

Me: And we both like the more spiritual lore type of content, it’s some good shit. 

M: Always love seeing ancient Gods in space! 

Me: So, there’s another old guy character, Alpha Trion, who’s a kind of sage-like mentor to Optimus Prime. 

M: Optimus! He’s the truck! Everyone knows him, he’s the main guy. 

Me: Yep! So Alpha Trion is an archivist, and when Optimus Prime was younger, depending on what version of the story we look at, he also used to be an archivist. 

M: Librarian truck! 

Me: Yes! 

M: I love it. You worked at a library for a little bit. 

Me: That work placement was the best, loved it. But Alpha Trion, depending on which version of the lore we look at, is hinted to be one of the formative deity-entities on their home planet, Cybertron. 

M: Cybertroooooon. Haha! Good robot planet name. I’m into this so far, very cool.

Me: It is! And Alpha Trion is sort of the living memory of the early days of their planet and civilisation, but nobody knows. Everyone just thinks he’s a kind of cryptic weird old guy. 

M: Relatable. I like this concept.

Me: It’s pretty good. So generally, things vary a lot from version to version of the story, but there are usually a handful of beings, early Transformers, who make up the character of their ancient lore. These are called the Primes, named after Primus, who pretty much always is depicted as their main God. Like Zeus, or Odin. 

M: Very cool. Optimus is a Prime! 

Me: Right! In a few versions of the story, he is the final Prime essentially reincarnated. The Thirteenth Prime. 

M: That’s very cool. 

Me: And in some other stories, Prime is mostly purely a title that has political connotations as well; It gets into a sort of weird Divine Right kind of area to help underscore some of the problems in their planetary political structure that led to the conflict that eventually became their civil war. 

M: That sucks, but unfortunately, also relatable. It’s very real world, especially right now. It’s interesting how Transformers is so incredibly in depth; I never would have guessed from the cartoon ads that were on TV when you were little. 

Me: Yeah, they seem to hide a lot of the lore, which is a shame. The comics are more adult than most of the TV shows, I think you’d like them. 

M: Sounds like it. I love the spiritual robot stuff. 

Me: In the comics, there is a religious practice called Spectralism that you might really like. They see auras by filtering different light wave bandwidths through their optics in order to detect mood, and all the colours have meanings assigned to them. They change their paint colours in accordance with those colour meanings as well, on some occasions. Meditation is part of the practice. One of the transformers, Drift, had at least one vision; It’s hinted there might be more to Spectralism, but we don’t see all that much of it in any further detail, unfortunately. They also believe in Primus as a deity. 

M: It’s a shame they don’t elaborate more on it. It sounds very cool, like the stuff we were doing in the sixties and seventies. I bet Drift has some black light posters in his room, we had tons of them. Loved the velvet ones. 

Me: He does have an altar, I think. Or a least a prayer area, it’s mentioned he meditates fairly frequently, from what I remember. 

M: (Starts singing Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple) That was the best, put some tunes on... Good driving music, too! 

On Femme Transformers and Sexism in Sci-Fi: 

Me: So there are some lady Transformers, too! 

M: Ooh! 

Me: There’s Arcee, who is the pink one you probably remember from the ads or the cartoons, and in the comics she’s officially transgender. 

M: Excellent! Trans-formers. Good. 

Me: Yes! And there’s not just her, there’s Nautica and Velocity in the comics as well, plus Elita-One... (I showed her pictures of each.) 

M: I like Velocity. I love the teal, the Thunderbird on the back is excellent. 

Me: I like Velocity, too. 

M: Elita has the head cones, not sure how I feel about that. She’s also pink, it’s hard to keep track of them all. I like Arcee, she has the Princess Leia hair helmet! 

Me: I figured you’d like that. It’s pretty good. 

M: I like Arcee and Velocity the best so far. 

Me: There’s quite a few female or femme transformers now. There didn't used to be, and there were some mistakes made here and there, but nowadays there’s a much wider cast. 

M: That’s good, I’m surprised, but in a good way. There were never women main characters in sci-fi stuff when I was a kid, it’s why Star Trek was such a big deal, and even then, it wasn’t all that great. There was Uhura, Nurse Chapel, but there were a lot of weird episodes...

Me: I love the Romulan Commander, though. 

M: She was the best! Wished we got to see her more. 

Me: Me too. But in Transformers, they’re doing a good job with the female coded characters, as least as far as I’ve seen.

M: That’s good to know. I’m glad that exists for girls who want to play Transformers, too. It always seemed like such a macho thing, the way they advertised it. 

Me: Yeah, that’s still a problem to some degree, but I remember it being way more aggressively worse in the 80s/90s. 

M: It was worse in the 50s when I was a kid! Cooking sets were the girl toy. They made Star Trek for boys, but when all the girls ended up being the main demographic that watched it, they cancelled it. It was Lucy from I Love Lucy who brought it back, I remember you told me that! 

Me: Yep!

M: I’m glad little girls have Arcee. And little boys. They’re robots, they don’t have gender! 

Me: Exactly! 

--

If this kind of interview/conversation excerpt type thing is interesting to anyone, we’re happy to keep doing it! 

Give me questions or things to ask my mom, she’s happy to give you some “old lady perspective”, lmao. ❤️ 

[blunightskyy]

I JUST FINISHED CHAPTER 1 OF WAR FOR CYBERTRON

SO IM GONNA TALK ABOUT IT

⚠️SPOILER WARNING⚠️

it’s actually very reminiscent of the wfc games!

That’s to be expected, but the animation and storytelling in this series is PHENOMENAL

Ngl I didn’t really like the first three eps (basically the first half of chapter 1 shakdkdkalnf)

It may have been due to me watching to with someone who pokes fun at my interests so it sorta distracted me but whatever

AND WE’VE GOT THE RETURN OF THE OG OPTIMUS PRIME VA!!!

Love that guy

ANYWAY

HhhOOLY SHIT I WAS NOT PREPARED FOR EP 4

MAGNUS JUST STRAIGHT UP DIED AND GAVE INFORMATION TO BEE?? BECAUSE HES TRUSTWORTHY??? H E L L O ????

If I remember correctly ultra magnus thought bumblebee was hella shady because he wouldn’t pick a side and stayed a neutral energon scavenger (for the most part)

But no, he actually trusted bee the most (besides OP because the trion thingy)

That’s actually really interesting in how we see that play out (even tho the virus knocked out all that important into but Jdksknfowjf STILL)

literally every girl I’ve seen has TITS and THIGHS and they make SURE you know about them but NOBODY beats shockwave fr

shockwave BIGGEST tiddies 2020

We see starscreams g1 frame

Nice

the bastard man returns

ALSO

We actively see cons turning to bots??

Like that was so cool

We got to see jetfire convert and he’s got some good reasons, and then impactor as well!!

Impactor was an autobot in G1, but here we see him turn neutral!!

Or like an almost autobot?

He fought deceptions that’s what matters ajdkdkg

And MAGNUS FAKING MAGATRON OUT???

Holy shit

Had me in the first half ngl like

Oh my gosh I FULLY expected him to give up the location of the arc

I was secretly like “would they ACTUALLY??” Because COME ON its MAGNUS but fjoskf I was releaved

Oh!!

On the more heavy side we see really detail war stuff, which was awesome

The darkest tf continuity we’ve had so far (that’s a show) is TFP

But now we have this! And I really like how they portray it!

Very much a War Is Hell kinda show, but it’s really interesting to me

Both optimus and megatron believe they’re right and the lines of good and bad are blurred a bit

(Gotta love that grey morality)

Makes for good angst content shskdksk

megatrons fucking lips

holy shit did he get lip injections???

looks like one of those tiki heads

OH and moonracer dying?? THAT was unexpected

She had a nice design too 😞😞

Oh but it would have KILLED me if she turned into one of those (assumedly dark energon) sea of rust zombies and THEN she got dusted cuz of the allspark

also RIP skywarp shskskfkakf

OH OH AND OMEGA SUPREME IS ONE OF THE GOD THINGIES???? THAT WAS SO GOOD

I remember in tfa that he was the alt mode of the arc/teletraan I, but that’s about it

So the take on him being one of the 13 or in relation to alpha trion is really cool!!

Idk what he is in Idw (like mtmte/lost light) but the idea is cool!!

That’s about all I got, and most of the stuff is from the second half of the first chapter cuz I just binged it, haha

[thanksjro]

Spotlight: Orion Pax - Because Hasbro was Getting Antsy About Their Golden Boy Having Faffed Off into Space

Oho, you thought we were done with Optimus Prime, did you?

You fools.

This is Transformers- we’re legally obligated to have Optimus Prime in some form or fashion running around at all times. This is just Hasbro catching up.

Fun fact: this was published on December 12th, 2012!

Our issue opens up with Orion Pax strapped to the top of a shuttle that’s careening towards a city.

But that’s the hook, so we won’t get to see what that’s all about just yet. No, first we’ve got to see just what all led to this point.

Earlier in the day, Orion Pax got refitted with a hot new bod, courtesy of Wheeljack, and now he’s showing off his new look to historical constant Rung and Kaput, who are here to assist in acclimation.

This is Kaput’s first appearance in the comics, but it’s not his first entry into the IDW continuity. He was introduced in the  Last Stand of the Wreckers prose story Bullets, where he diagnosed Ironfist with dead, in so many words. Kaput’s here currently because he specializes in sparks, and he’s going to make sure that Orion’s doesn’t explode in his chest thanks to the frame change. No word on whether the wheel was something he came into the world with or a modification.

But enough medical nonsense, let’s see the star of the show.

That’s not how reflections work!

Orion’s first point of contention is the fact that his lucky faceplate is missing. Wheeljack replaced it with a proper face, because that’s the new hotness right now. I guess when you’re a race of space robots who can change their bodies the way humans change their clothes, fashion is a lot more work. I wonder if faces out out of vogue in the present- there’s a lot of guys without one on the Lost Light.

Rung offers Orion some reading materials to help him cope with the sudden change, but it isn’t necessary. Orion fully intends to switch back to his old bod after his mission is over.

If you couldn’t tell by this point, this whole “frame change” thing is a plot contrivance to explain away some of the design clashing between comics set during this time period.

This is Zeta.  

Yes, really, they’re the same guy. I don’t think Senator Shockwave would have had him modified for Matrix carrying if he’d known how tacky he was going to be about it.

Zeta Prime seems to think that haute couture is exploding a Galapagos turtle and then strapping the smoking remains to your back.

Zeta leads Orion over to where Nightbeat’s waiting with a slideshow he spent hours on. Nightbeat, at the time of this story, is a hostage negotiator, and today his mission, as well as Orion’s, is to retrieve our beloved Ratchet from a Decepticon terrorist cell hiding somewhere in the Rust Spot. The Rust Spot’s some heavy duty danger, hence the reformat for Orion.

They’ll also be bringing on Alpha Trion, #1 Rust Spot navigator, philosopher, polymath, polyglot, historian, and all-around grandpa.

His beard gets a D+, however.

Note the quotation marks on “he” here; it looks like even Roberts was sick of the Furmanism that is “genderless robots that all appear to be male”. We’ll get more into that sticky situation later on. What I want to focus on right now is our artist for the issue, Steve Kurth.

Kurth is from Wisconsin, and doesn’t have a ton of pencil credits to his name in the Transformers franchise. He mostly does work for Marvel, and while it appears his art blog hasn’t been updated in a few years, the publishing company still has a tag for him. He’s done the Avengers, if that’s your thing.

Anyway, so nobody knows who’s in the back.

I gotta say, Alpha Trion, you got some brass fucking balls to insinuate that the cops forgot to put the hostage tradeoff in the trailer, in front of said cops.

The fellas transform and roll out, Orion pulling the trailer because anything else would be blasphemy, as Alpha Trion guides them to the meet up point. As they drive, the old man regales the young whippersnappers with his tales of friendship and adventure alongside Metroplex the Titan. They were, like, best friends. Seriously.

Storytime gets interrupted however, as our heroes are attacked from beyond the mists.

You know, when I was a kid, my mom had a car that looked exactly like Nightbeat here, paint job and all.

Alpha Trion got so wrapped up in blathering away, he forgot to mention that they were in Slicer territory, and might want to be on the lookout. Thanks, Alpha, way to be a pal.

Nightbeat refers to the creatures as “throwbacks”, something that’s never elaborated on, but I’m going to guess it means something along the lines of being primitive, or perhaps animalistic.

Holy fucking shit, that’s terrifying.

These awful things start swarming Orion, Nightbeat, and Alpha Trion, who all start punching and shooting with wild abandon, making short work of the mass. Orion gets a few paper cuts for his troubles, but they’re all more or less alright.

The trailer can’t say quite the same though; the door’s popped off, and the contents have either escaped or never existed in the first place.

Schrodinger wept.

Alpha Trion pulls the prisoner out of the fog… and then so does Nightbeat.

It’s a two-for-one sale at the Hostage Emporium.

Rack and Ruin haven’t really done anything to warrant being worth a whole entire Ratchet, so Orion decides to have a little chat and see what’s up.

Oh, that’s what Nightbeat meant by Ruin being the ugly one.

Orion’s chat reveals these two chumps to be even bigger losers than they first appeared to be- their only talent seems to be instantaneous conversion, which involves shutting off all the safety protocols for one’s transformation cog for a faster switch.

Orion switches trains of thought, asking about the Decepticon cause and its whole deal. This is a bit after the events of the heist, so the rhetoric has become a bit more violent by this time, and he wants to know what the hell happened.

But there’s no time for philosophic musing, because that’s when the Decepticons show up. Thundercracker escorts our group to the hideout to meet Bludgeon, and the exchange is made, albeit with a pro bono thrown in.

Well, shit.

This was why the Decepticons wanted to meet in the Rust Spot; because they knew only Alpha Trion would be able to guide the cops to the tradeoff point. But what are they going to do with robot grandpa? Why, use him to find Metroplex, of course!

There’s a rumor that Titans have the capabilities to create space bridges inside them- we as the reader know this to be true thanks to the 2012 MTMTE Annual, but let’s not tell Bludgeon about all that, yes?

Orion, please, this is hardly the time.

Luckily for Alpha Trion, Orion stuffed some guns into the bottom of the trailer, as is made apparent when he starts throwing them to his buddies. Why he and Nightbeat weren’t carrying any weapons on their person isn’t addressed, but at least the idea here is kind of cool.

Alpha Trion  easily escapes his bonds, because a noose isn’t really worth much to a species that doesn’t breathe and can literally survive not having a head.

We are just laying it on THICK today, aren’t we?

Rack and Ruin lead the other not-Decepticons into the tunnels towards safety- not sure how exactly, considering they’ve got their sensory deprivation helmets back on- as Orion Pax is dogpiled into submission.

Bludgeon might need a hobby. Might I suggest jigsaw puzzles?

Orion’s about to hit the loop that was created by the first page of this issue, so he tries to stall for time to think of a way out of all this. He halfway succeeds, in that he gets a little more time, but doesn’t come up with anything. Down on the ground, all his friends watch the shuttle shoot into the sky, probably wondering what all that’s about.

Bludgeon was aiming for this shuttle to hit a populated area, but it would appear that he’s an idiot and overshot by a wide margin. Cool beans.

Ah wait, we still have another three pages of story to this.

Hey, y’all remember Hoist’s tragic backstory, where he wandered the Rust Spot alone until he almost died of exhaustion?

Yeah, that was Orion’s fault.

The Fault of Our Star, if you will.

(I’ve never read anything written by John Green, what the hell am I doing?)

Because he just bounced off the underside of Hoist’s shuttlecraft, Orion’s hurtling towards the downtown section of Iacon, which is absolutely a populated area and exactly what Bludgeon was going for. Orion’s going to have to think fast if he’s going to get out of this one. Good thing Rack and Ruin told him their super secret transformation technique.

Thinking quickly, Orion transforms into a truck, breaks his bonds, somehow manages to not fly off the side of the shuttle due to wind pressure, transforms back to root mode, shuts off the autopilot, slams into a wide open field just outside of town, and survives well enough to be more concerned about Wheeljack being mad he scuffed up his new body than his own safety. Good on you, Orion! You saved the day!

To celebrate, he takes an old hubcap or something and shoves it over his face, because I guess only he gets to know how he’s feeling.

Don’t look at me like that, it’s not my fault the story just kind of ends here.

[elindae-writes]

there i was

young, naive, foolish, reminiscing the old days

y'know, i thought to myself, i should catch up on my favorite franchise!

Tales of Arcadia! i heard that there was a grand new series finale movie and so i said "✨i should catch up and watch this rise of the titans! ah, what fun shall be had!✨"

and.

and...

it aged me so much that i can now qualify for senior benefits

you probably have no context for this show because you're all instead tranformers fans, but i'm sorry, i need to air my grievances at large to the world and you poor souls are going to see it on your dashboards

(spoilers obv)

Time Travel fix-it? more like time-travel FUCK IT UP

oh. oh, oh my god. i need to sit down. this means that jim and the Frasier troll won't develop their original wholesome father-son relationship! christ! (i know his name is Blinky, i just like to call him Frasier)

alpha trion = merlin, i don't care how fatherly they made him in wizards, he's still a nasty old man in my eyes. i will not forgive him for manipulating jim into using that nasty bath bomb. also why does merlin wear a plate as a hat?

all my favorites scenes have been ERASED? The goblin forest rescue? The creepy bathtub transformation? The sinking shipping container struggle in the middle of the Pacific? The dinner knife fight duel? CRISPY?

why is bellroc dressed like a decayed furby? why does skrael sound like a possessed chihuahua?

mpreg??? MPREG?? thank primus steve's nasty spawn were erased by the whole time-traveling thing. steve and eli's earlier all-purpose flour baby was superior, rip.

oh my GOD Jim, did Merlin's spooky vision teach you nothing?

where the fuck did that green magic 8-ball come from?

i mean. i like pacific rim. but not that much??? the marriage proposal was cute. (not the mpreg one. the other one.)

why would you invite your evil turtleneck-wearing history teacher to your house? HE'S STILL EVIL. HE'S NOT YOUR COOL STEP-DAD YET

troll jim > human jim I'm sorry but it's true and you know it

The end credits slap tho, I will acknowledge that, especially when the alien's theme comes in

WHY WOULD JIM DO THAT TO TOBY PIE? i bet the amulet just used toby as an uber and said to him "get me to jim right now, he's stuck with my cryptic-ass"

"well, jimmy has all his memories now so he can fix things" excuse me but we're talking about the same kid who forgot he has an ancient egyptian troll assassin pursuing him

that animation was fantastic. it was garbage but beautiful garbage.

i imagined bular playing with beanie babies the same way mcmegatron does and i choked on air

BARBARA DESERVES HER WEDDING

the new scar looks cool tho

that wasn't jim. he wouldn't do that. I bet it was some chucklefuck wearing a glamour mask in his place

i thought TFP's ending was bad but oh no, this shit makes predacon's rising look like a masterpiece by comparison

anyway. aeehhh. i'll just go read some fix-it fics. maybe write one. i just. idk. i want to wander into my own yard and then get lost for a lil while in the bushes

Am I right?

[jimclassicstoycollection]

Transformers: Titans ReturnVoyager classBroadside with Blunderbuss

Broadside is an Autobot triple changer dating all the way back to the G1 era and was also up for the headmaster treatment.

He’s a part of wave 4….maybe 5 of the Titans Return line, I believe, and as most W4…or 5 figures he was very difficult to find in New Jersey. Now he and the rest can be found everywhere!

Blunderbuss as the titanmaster is okay. He’s gray and red, he’s not bad, now, let’s get started with this titanic Autobot! You’ll see what I did there in minute.. ::wink::

I don’t normally like to do this but I want to start off with the robot first this time. Broadside’s kind of a special case with his duel modes, so I think this is something I got to ease you in slowly…

Robot mode is epic! This is one big, badass burly bot……boy-O….

He’s got this big asymmetrical shoulders with missile pods and nonsense, the flaps which hang behind his arms, cool shin guards, big old punchin fists, the details in the chest look really neat, I am digging this robot mode!!!

Right on his chest you do have an Autobot sticker, and I’m not a big fan of stickers. Stickers peal, they fade, they don’t normally age well over time, but it’s just the Autobot symbol here…soo I guess I can give that a pass.

Broadside is armed with a clear blue laser rifle, which also double as a Titanmaster turret. But….why is it clear blue? And why does he only come with one weapon? Most, if not all Titans Returns figures are equipped with two weapons, and if I recall Braodside also had an axe in G1.

And I think other than maybe voyager Galvatron, Broadside is the only other voyager class fig to not have two weapons…This is disappointing…

Okay, well let’s move onto mode number 2!

Broadside transforms into an aircraft carrier. (You see that’s what that ‘titanic’ comment was all about earlier ::WINK::)

An aircraft carrier is kind of a rare thing among Transformers, TBH the only other two I can think other than Broadside the MicroMaster Flattop, and Armada Tidalwave, and that’s pretty much it.

But from most angles this almost looks like a mighty convincing ship indeed. The flat top has all sorts of nicely sculpted details, like these little slots, and hull plating with some….ugh…. More stickers …We’re back to stickers again, and I really hate that.

I’d rather see paint applications as opposed to stickers which will eventually just peel off and it looks as if the runway is already starting to crinkle….and they applied the sticker OVER molded detail??…..this is just laziness on Hasbro’s part.

It really pisses me off how they’re cutting back on spending from painted application and just forcing these stickers on us. while retailers are increasing the price of the figure…. ::GROWL::

Moving on like most Titans Returns figures the flat top has Titan Master pegs so they can stand anywhere and they themselves look like giants standing around.

Also which is a really nice touch, the figure even included miniature Aerialbots to peg onto the ship, and it really hammers home just massive his ship mode is supposed to be. Aircraft carriers are big, they’re like small cities. I mean really Broadsides ship mode should about as big as Fortress Maximus’s carrier mode, if you really think about it.

The command tower on the starboard side looks really nice with it’s tiny railings, and windows, it just has all sorts of cool, little details and stuff!

Now, how exactly does Blunderbuss integrate into the aircraft carrier mode, you ask?

Well that’s simple you just flip open the command tower, and just sit his ass down, like he just owns the place.

It looks silly as hell, but sort of doofy and charming at the same time I guess. Primus bless you Blunderbuss. Bless you for this ridiculous idea…

A nice little work around is that you convert Blunderbuss in head mode and have the back of the head facing out, kind of creating a super tower.

Or just for shits and giggles have the face sitting out, so Broadside’s noggin can BE the command tower and oversees EVERYTHING!

He does have a few ports to mount his…Energon rifle…some of choices made for this toy are pretty odd…but yea it can either mount on the sides, in the center of the flat top….but why? or on the bottom of the ship. and I prefer none, bc it just looks awful.

And for some support Broadside even has three….landing gears? I’m not really sure what to call them, but it helps for display purposes.

and then I realize…the front part of the ship are the legs to Alpha Trion! Broadside….or at least half of him, is Alpha Trions mold-mate….weird…

So yes, this is a semi convincing aircraft carrier mode, presuming you don’t look underneath and see robot and jet kibble everywhere…Oops….Spoilers!

Onto his second mode!!!

Um….so yea….Broadside’s second mode is supposed to be a fighter jet. SUPPOSED to be…

This does not look like a fighter jet. It’s half jet and half disaster…

I mean this is embarrassing. This is WORSE than Sentinel Prime’s ‘train’ mode or Alpha Trion’s….’aircraft carrier’ mode.

This is just pure ineptitude, it’s laughable just how absurd this jet mode is! Un-frakin-beleiveable…

To its credit there is a mounting peg for flight stands, that’s kind of cool. I knew deluxes, and legends class figures had them now, but didn’t suspect voyagers would be having them, as well. So that’s cool, and I’ll have to look at my other voyager class figures and see which ones have it too.

See the irony of Broadside is that he’s supposed to mass shift from a 30ft robot, to a colossal 400ft aircraft carrier BACK to a 30ft fighter jet.

Also (FUN FACT) Broadside is also afraid of heights and afraid of his armor will rusting.

And I’ve always accepted mass shifting to a point when it came to transformers, like Megatron converting from robot to handheld gun was always more plausible to me than a 30ft robot turning into something the size of the USS Enterprise, and then back down to a jet again.

Really Broadside should at least be the size of Fortress Maximus so he can have a carrier mode and just have a really big jet mode/starship mode.

And those are my thoughts on that.

My overall opinion would be a ‘C’

While the carrier mode is passable and the robot mode is amazing, the jet mode is a total fail, and he doesn’t come with his battle axe, and sticker applications are dodgy at best.

Also, I factored in the price of the toy. I bought this figure at Target near my house for about $30 retail…Well Voyager classes have been selling for $25 for about three years now, and REALLY the toy is only worth about $15.

I can promise you, this toy is not worth $30.

Broadside IS supposed to be a triple changer. And what we have here is 2 and a quarter changer.

[bwprowl]

TakaraTomy’s latest entries in their Transformers run get a look at first tonight, along with the formal reveal and pre-order of the new Nendoroid from a video game that’s kinda popular. Then we’ve got pre-orders for toys bringing back the anime boom of yesteryear, with another Nendoroid of the classic variety, and Bandai of America trying to bottle that Dragonball lightning again. Plus a quick peek at a new Pokemon toy that caught my eye, and a new Transformer hot off the shelf onto my desk, tonight on Tuesday Night Toys!

New Stuff: Fine China

After seemingly staying quiet for some time, TakaraTomy finally saw fit to show off the next entries in their collector-geared Legends line: Targetmaster versions of Kup and Hot Rod, and Sharkticon with a bonus Sweep head. The Targetmasters continue to go as ambitiously above-and-beyond as TT has been getting lately, including multiple retooled parts (including new arms for Kup and a flip-down engine cover for Hot Rod) and completely new-tooling figures of the transformable gun-buddies. Those look great, though a couple things are rather off. Hot Rod’s got his proper magenta colors here, though his flame decal is looking a bit oddly stained-glass-ish. Kup’s colors are the real question mark, desaturating his distinctive teal all the way down to a mix of greys. This seems to be the result of Takara referencing some particularly poorly-colored models from late G1 episodes, and leaves it looking, as a friend of mine said, like a toy of Kup’s corpse. That aside, the new Targetmasters still look very good, and will likely still be worth it to those going in for the new tooling.

Hey TT, if you wanted to throw together a pack of Nightstick and Fracas, I’d be totally okay with that.

Sharkticon is predictably done up in a more specifically cartoony color scheme, and includes an amusingly Wario-esque alternate ‘Sweep’ head for the Scourge body. It’s nice of them to pack two troop-builders together.

Nendoroid Mei from Overwatch was fully revealed and put up for pre-order yesterday. She continues the detailed standard set by Tracer, good to see GSC is not just phoning these ones in. She includes a removable Snowball who can be set up with an effect for her Ultimate (the description even suggests you set up other Nendoroids ‘frozen in place’ within it). Sadly, no tiny Ice Wall or defensive block is included, those would’ve really pushed Snow Waifu over the edge. These Overwatch Nendos could maybe benefit from Zelda-style DX releases with bonus accessories. As-is, she still looks great, and they know people are going to buy her anyway. Apparently Mercy will be next.

Wishlist: Runnin’ in the 90’s

Nendoroid Lum from Urusei Yatsura went up earlier. The classic Alien Girlfriend getting a new toy like this just this year shows the endearing popularity of Takahashi’s formative rom-com, and the toy looks to be a good choice for anyone still nostalgic for it.

I saw that the first few of Bandai of America’s Dragon Stars line of six-inch Dragonball figures was up for pre-order, and that led me down a rabbit hole of finding out that they were actually launching a full Dragonball Super toy line for aisles over here! Not just these premium collector figures, there are also little blind-bagged spin-battling figures, collectible figurines, a fan-launching Goku, and these goofy things that apparently flex and their shirts fall off. It even includes role-play toys like deluxe Scouters and what is probably the greatest Dragonball cosplay accessory ever: A wristband with a firing Kamehameha.

Oh god anyone actually remember Karate Fighters?

Seeing all these clearly kids-play focused gewgaws makes the impending rollout of Dragonball Super in the west an interesting anticipation. DBZ was indeed hot shit in the late 90’s/early 00’s, and toys not unlike these ones were available to kids like me. Bandai made a lot of money off the franchise, and it’ll be interesting to see if they can repeat that success nearly two decades later.

Tangentially, Tamashii’s World Tour exclusives include this very nice-looking Kaioh-Ken-effect Goku SHF.

I haven’t paid enough attention to Tomy’s stateside Pokemon line. For all that some people gripe that Nintendo doesn’t release toys of enough of the Pokemon, Tomy does seem to do their best to make multitudes of miniature and posable figures of a variety of the cute little bastards. Notably, I was in the aisles the other day and came across a new figure they’re done of Mega Mawile! Mawile’s been a sleeper favorite of mine for some time now, and the Mega form was welcome when it appeared in Gen 6, and this new figure is an impressive, decently posable rendition of it. Nice to see Tomy willing to throw some unexpected choices out there along with all the Starters and Eeveelutions. I’ll have to grab this thing at some point, to indicate to them that I’d like more like it.

On-Desk: Couldn’t hit him

Hasbro’s distribution on Transformers has been nothing if not consistent lately. I hear people are finding that Chaos on Velocitron pack in Toys R Us across the country, so I head to my local TRU and there it is! Now just the last few days everyone has been finding the new Broadside in stores, and indeed, I found one for myself. Broadside was an anticipated release for me, not just for completing the Autobot Triple Changers or adding one more to a modern Wreckers lineup, but because he’s always been a rather unique design with a particularly underrepresented alternate mode. So how is the toy itself?

Titans Return Broadside is a ‘retool’ of Alpha Trion in the same way a chicken burrito is like a chicken salad. Some of the same ingredients are there but you’d probably need someone else pointing it out to even notice. Broadside really is pretty much a whole new toy. The robot mode is one of the looser reinterpretations we’ve gotten from the otherwise stringently G1-accurate Titans Return, sporting the character’s artwork-distinctive ‘broad’ grey chest with a cockpit bit in it, and in spite of ‘only’ being a Voyager-class toy, does a good job of ‘looking’ bigger than average, the way Broadside has often been shown in comics. Lots of bits besides his chest contribute to this, from his thick lower legs with the fins jutting out even further in front of them, to his big meaty mitt-hands, to his solid block of a face. He just conveys size, something that’s always cool when toys of any scale do it.

Transformation to his jet mode is shockingly simpler than I was expecting, especially after the enjoyably involved conversions of the previous wave’s Megatron and Optimus. You really just angle his legs up, shift the arms down, and flip up the nose and you’re there! It definitely is more than the sum of its parts, at least. Once it’s all in the right position everything converges together into a decidedly fantastical but still cohesive jet mode. Once again it commands a sense of size, with the bulky back end and chunky cockpit with its big bubble window that can easily be popped open to seat his Titan Master (delightfully named ‘Blunderbuss’). Thanks to a couple well-placed pegs and clips, it even holds together decently, in spite of playing fast and loose with how the transformation itself works. Still, this is definitely the ‘third mode’ of the Triple Changer.

So would a Broadside gijinka just be a KanColle?

The ‘main’ alternate mode would of course be Broadside’s aircraft carrier form. Fully stretching out the robot’s frame and pegging together panels on the top to achieve the ‘deck’ of the ship, this mode delivers the most fully on the ‘big’ promises of this toy. It’s as long as possible, and even stands high thanks to some creative ‘landing gear’ that folds down from the bottom, to help it set stable. There’s a wide variety of details on top of the deck, selling the idea that this is a big ship with lots going on, including an ID number, a runway (made up of some stickers that could be better) a tiny little scale control tower, and plenty of spaces and areas sculpted in for planes (and more on those in a minute). If there are some imperfections like the stickers and top panels not lining up perfectly flush, it’s all kind of swept away in the overall appeal of the toy achieving a big, unique mode like this.

Broadside is complimented with one of the coolest extras I’ve seen included with a mainline TF in some time: A sprue of absolutely tiny scale airplanes, which are actually sculpted in the likenesses of the Combiner Wars Aerialbots! You clip these off and they’ve got holes on their undersides to peg into the standard-scale tiny pegs that all TR toys have in some places (nominally to let Titan Masters stand on them). In Broadside’s case, the deck of his carrier mode is loaded with a bunch of those things, letting the planes be pegged in a multitude of different positions all over it, completing the look of an aircraft carrier and fully selling the size and scale of the thing once and for all. It rather awesomely turns the whole thing into a mini vehicle playset of sorts. It truly brings the toy to life in this mode, and was a super-cool thing for Hasbro to include. These tiny jets honestly make this toy.

Meanwhile, you can flip over the control tower for probably the goofiest Titan Master seating option in the entire line.

Broadside is far from perfect, with each mode having its share of issues or shortcomings. But it’s the way all the good parts those modes also have come together that makes him work as well as he does. He’s unique and fun to play with, and the bonus of the tiny Aerialbots is just a hoot (you can even peg them onto him in robot mode to sell the idea that he’s super-huge in that form). I know most are going to get him just to complete one or another ‘set’ with previous toys, but he is totally worth getting on his own merits.

I’ll see you all next time, and as always, I hope you have fun!