#i did like parts of it though. megatron had some neat lines

[gammarads]

finished war for cybertron: siege last night and I'm not totally sure how I feel?? it wasn't totally bad but it was just very Eh. very bare bones at times and Too Fucking Slow. I swear I'm gonna have to speed up the other two shows if it continues on like this

[srkizer]

Megatron's Marching Song

Note: Parts marked with brackets [like this] serves as additional descriptions, instead of a part of lyrics.

(Megatron) Let's go! Line up! Louder! Yes! Heave-ho!

Ridding the nature from the planet, as if it mattered ever once everything becomes machines, (That'll do!) make rapid steps, without sleeping or taking a rest That'll make y'all more productive (Great!) With the joy of conforming to the standards No need for amino, but with pulse, future men will grow Working for the ideal society, let's'ragon Megatron

Once the machine body is yours, in all its glory (That'll do!) Personalities can go away; everyone is equal Sleeping or awake, y'all on wireless LAN School or exams can go away (Neat!) To build such future Lunches be skipped; make periodical Energon deposits (For the Space!) To animal lands, firmly saying no, Megatron

(Megatron) Hello, it's boku-chan[me]. It's been a while. I hate to tell you but I must; I can't make it there today. Eh? Uh, no, that's not it; I'm getting scolded right now. Yeah. I'm pretty sure that there's no way this time. No, really, I guarantee you that it's not happening. Even for Beast Wars standards, for this time once ever, I can't be making jokes around. Even for a Beast, when we're doing it, we really are doing it. It's not ha-has and ho-hos all the time; keep that in mind. Yes. Well, you know. It has been 8 whole years since whole Beast stuff happened. Oh, we did have so much fun as actors. They're saying that it's the world first "full CG robot battle animation series" in particular! It's even made in Canada! Yeah, Canada! The country from the song titled "Love Letter From [Canada]"! It's not a half-assed one. Returns[Beast Machines] though, it was pretty tough! Like, I was asked to change outfits. A bagworm outfit that is, with a enormous head, that kinda looked like a fly too. As if that wasn't enough, I even had to put Convoy costume on! Let me tell you, that costume was overused! Not only all that Convoy's sweat were infused into it, but also consider that his hairs were so thick! Every time I had to put it on, his hairs were all over me! That's why I hate organic creatures. What? "When are you coming next time", you say? No, to put it in other way, there is no "next time"! I'm dying! So I've thought to tell you my final words. I love you… What the heck? How dare they hang up on me!? Finally they get to know that I won't make it there ever again, and this is how they treat me? What a pity; they must have forgotten how many times I've been on! (Megatron huffing) Well, I did get toys, and movies[Japanese Beast Wars movie releases] for sure. I think I did make it up to the expectations. If I have some regrets, it's not having had enough number of subordinates. The one to remain to the last was "Bzzzzz, ah, I'm going down-"; how sad! At least, unlike some other gorilla's, mine are wiped clean. Just you wait, Scorpos[Scorponok], Terrorsaur, Inferno, Quickstrike, Rampage, Rampa- ah, well, hm, wotsit, one more; who was it? Think; it's that guy. Him! The one that went around saying pararirapararira[obnoxious motorbike sounds]; I can't remember who that was. Well that's annoying. Hm… Hey, pause the death sequence! Stop! I said stop! Can't you hear!? I got to think fast. No more time I got. Uh, Let's see, a-ka-sa-ta-na-ha-ma-ya-ra-[a-b-c-d-e-f-g-h-i-] sa-ta-na, sa-ta-na-, ta, ta… it was ta, I'm sure of it. ta… Oh, yeah, that's it, it's ta. Uh… Takashi Machine? No… Lesee, Tanokki[raccoon spelt wrong or smth], no, Tara-chan… hm? That's it! Tarans[Tarantulas]! It was Tarans! Finally! It's cool now!

Gorillas, rats, cats, poisonous spiders, (Hey!) falcons, bats, even the monster kid (Ho!) Recycle them, all at once! No transforms for them! (Altogether!) Running away on the stolen ship The planet reached at last only with a head is Seibertron[Cybertron] Even without a single being over there (Today too!) Electric boogaloo (One more time!) Dreaming the future full of machines, Megatron

[ace-of-pythons]

-When Knockout was assigned to the Project Predacon, Shockwave was convinced that he would be hindered by Knockout's presence. He was right of course, but not in the way he thought. Shockwave is a naturally quiet person. He doesn't engage in small talk and when he does there is always purpose behind his words. Knockout on the other hand, doesn't stop talking or flirting. After some time, (quite some time), and many surprisingly insightful comments, Shockwave didn't hate K.O as much.

-One of the most difficult tasks required for Project Predacon, was the re-engineering and altering of the ancient CNA code. Shockwave was struggling with the correct line of code and was starting to tap his foot softly. Knockout had then come over, as his lab partner never taps or fidgets. "Oh what if you reversed the code and filled the gaps with know CNA?" Shockwave stopped what he was doing, looked at knockout, and for a minute, tried to gauge the right course of action, and landed on just patting K.O on the head. "Did you just pat me on the head?" "Was that not the correct gesture for thanks?" " No, maybe next time just give me a hug instead, yeah? Or a quick thank you?" "I see, I shall store that information for later use." "Just anything put patting me on the head, Shocks."

-Knockout eventually creates a program for himself to make his life simpler. He first started to notice that the fins on the side of Shock's face would move in accordance to his (very subtle) emotions. While finding this adorable, K.O also used it to read emotions better. A little drawing here, a line of code there, and Knockout had created the "Eyebrows+" software. What does it do you may ask? Well it takes K.O's line of vision, and any time that Shock's face is in view, it adds a comical eye brow above his one good eye (tm). Now Knockout has to stifle laughter every time he looks in Shockwave's direction. The worst time though, is undoubtedly when He started laughing when giving an update to Lord Megatron. Shockwave look like he was about to sprint out of the room at any second. This was also when Shock found out about it in the first place. He was not happy, but he also can't do anything about it.

- Shockwave isn't a very affectionate person, but Knockout hangs off of him at any possible time. He'll put his arms around his neck, lean against him, or sometimes even wedge himself between Shock's arm and the desk. In the occasional time that Shockwave is actually affectionate, the two will sit on the ground and K.O will sit in Shockwave's lap as he continues to work.

-Shockwave doesn't use nicknames but Knockout comes up with them by the dozens. Shocks, Shocky, Wavey, and even mi amore are all on the table. Glitch is also on the table when Shockwave ignores K.O.

-Knockout is a neat freak and will always keep the med bay as clean as possible. Often times he wonders how Shockwave finds anything. There are piles of stuff just hanging on tables and on the floor. Scrapped inventions, tools and spare parts are every where. Shockwave some how knows where everything is located, but Knockout still tries to clean up his very organized ("It's as far away from being organized as Megatron is to surrendering to the prime!") lab space.

-They also talk about how annoying Starscream is and how he hasn't been offlined by Megatron yet. Knockout taught Shocks how to gossip and now he won't stop. Its quite honestly the only bad thing about their partnership. At least to Starscream that is. Soundwave will sometimes listen in but he'll never admit it.

@sunstar-of-the-north

[elindae-writes]

Ok, this is all about your headcanons. Is Starscream the oldest/youngest/middle member of his trine? Did he get his trine before or after losing Skyfire? During his time in the Decepticons? How did he meet his trinemates? Was there a cool ceremony? Just tell me everything about Seekers! (Without major spoilers, of course.)

He’s the youngest and he trined Skywarp and Thundercracker after he lost Skyfire and also after he first met Megatron. So they were officially in a trine before they joined the Decepticons. He convinced them to join the ‘Cons and without spoiling too much now bitterly regrets roping them into joining Megatron.

The scenes in which he meets the boys and trines them are going to appear later on, maybe during the Orion Pax arc, so I don’t want to spoil those, but I will gladly indulge your request for cool Seeker facts.

Seekers think in three dimensions and not two due to them being flyers and always having to ascend/descend. This is part of the reason they are so claustrophobic, it’s because they are highly attuned to sensing what’s above them at all times and are therefore hyperaware of when the ceiling is too low.

In Seekercant the word for “grounder” is just “taxi-er” because whenever airplanes are about to take off they taxi around first, so Seekers basically just see grounders as wingless bots who taxi everywhere without taking off.

Seekers are unusual in that they see their alt-modes as their true natural forms and think of their bipedal root-modes as their actual alternate modes. This is weird even by flyer standards.

Seekers used to go on giant migrations. I haven’t entirely thought this out because I’m not sure where they’d actually migrate to--maybe they’d just all instinctively fly up and around Vos without leaving the city, or maybe they’d go off and visit ancient older nesting sites built by ancient Seekers. Either way I just like the imagery of thousands of Seekers blackening the skies with their numbers and then the sad image of Starscream trying to complete a grand Seeker migration all by himself because there is no one else left. But someone still needs to follow the ancient winds, so it’s gotta be him.

Starscream is tiny by Seeker standards and Dreadwing and Skyquake are actually more average-sized. It’s also my headcanon his RID frame used to be his old frame, so when Megs downsized him he got fussy about it because he genuinely felt like a bit of his Seeker heritage got taken away.

There were a bunch of different towers in Vos and they all had their own slightly different cultures. Seekers from one tower would whistle and chirp in Seekercant in slightly different tones than Seekers from another tower, like the way whales from different pods have their own unique dialects. Starscream’s fellow Seekers from his tower were infamous for speaking real fancy-like, I don’t know why but I just picture them as speaking in weirdly complex, vague, and mystical ways like the elves from the Lord of the Rings. Despite there being hundreds of different dialects each Seeker is capable of instinctively recognizing the dialect you’re speaking and can just tell what tower you’re from. There was also a Seeker equivalent of Australia somewhere in Vos and it was completely full of weird and intense Cybertronian animals, it was just like that one weird tower where all of the odd little drones and robots ended up. I just like the idea of Vosian Australian memes.

Starscream was from a really high-ranking family, aka the equivalent of Seeker nobility, and was maybe in line to become or at the very least is closely related to the Winglord. That’s why it was such a scandal when he got the heck out of Dodge and decided to abandon his proud noble military family so that he could go blow stuff up in a lab in Iacon.

Shuttles have their own culture, but are weirdly symbiotic with Seekers. I just like the imagery of throngs of tiny Seekers who wandered around their towers with the occasional giant shuttle just lumbering through. Shuttles adopted Seekers and vice versa. Seekers were extremely touchy about whoever adopts baby Seekerlings and shuttles were the only non-Seekers who were allowed to adopt them. When Starscream moved out of Vos and got himself a roommate in Iacon his family was like “who?? who is dwelling with you, I refuse to allow you to have a non-Seeker roommate, we’d much rather have you dwell alone then dirty yourself by living with an Iaconian--”

And then Starscream just sent over a picture of Skyfire and then his family just said  “we will make an exception for him because he looks very polite”

Seekers were infamous across Cybertronian for being--I’m not sure if this is the right word--cryptids? They hate using doors, so if you’re a grounder and your Seeker buddy is bopping by for a visit you’ll just hear a soft tap tap tap by your window and you’dlllook over and see your winged friend waiting for you to open it up and maybe you’d shout something along the lines of “THE DOOR WORKS FINE”

And then your Seeker friend would just flare his wings and get all offended and it would be a whole thing--

Seekers very rarely make non-Seeker friends, but when they do they tend to make friendships for life. That is not foreshadowing, no, not at all. Non-fliers back on Cybertron would even leave their windows unlocked for their Seeker friends--even though the door would work just fine.

Another weird thing about Seekers is that they hate it when people actually see them entering or exiting a room. You’ll just turn around and a Seeker will be there, and then suddenly they won’t be, hence their cryptic reputation around Cybertron. They are infamous for being overdramatic and theatrical, but they just think of everybody else as being underdramatic.

They have no concept of personal space when in bipedal mode. When flying they normally have to fly wide apart in order to avoid collisions (military trines or just trines that are really in-synch are the exception, they normally flew only a few inches apart) so when in bipedal mode they make up for the lack of physical contact during flying by skooching up real close to each other when back on the ground. Seekers are very very good at forming neat and orderly lines. They have a tendency to sandwich confused and surprised grounders who are shocked to have their personal space so suddenly taken up by a bunch of pairs of wings.

Back when Vos was intact there was a big debate going on as to the proper way to teach your Seekerling to fly. There were two schools of thought:

Send your Seekerling to a school with safety nets and attentive instructors and teach the Seekerlings to just hover, then ascend three feet off the ground, then five feet, and then so on.

Or just chuck your Seekerling out of a tower 10,000 feet in the air while shouting “fLAP” and then just hoping for the best. That was how Starscream was taught. It’s also how he taught Eradicons to fly. He’d have them walk up to the edge, he’d go behind and just give them a good kick, and then shout “THIS IS THE VOSIAN WAY”

And then they’d return to the deck of the Nemesis, cold and shaking, and ask “why?”

And then Starscream would whisper back even more gently “it’s  t r a d i t i o n”

Whenever Seekerlings were really really tiny, as in only a few weeks or months old, the adult Seekers would transform, then also have their Seekerling transform into a very smol plane, and then they would secure the Seekerling to their back before taking flight. It’s like when that Boeing jet carried space shuttle Endeavour around, but much cuter. Seekers carried their newsparks around on their backs between their wings and their wings would widen in order to create more room. You can actually tell if a Seeker has tended to newsparks by just looking at their back. Starscream babysitted a lot, so he has this modification. I just like the idea of Seekers walking around like possums with like six Seekerlings on their back, they gotta make room, it’s the only way I could think of to accomodate all the kiddos

Seekerlings are like newborn horses. They can get up and run--or in their case, transform and fly--right after being sparked. The moment their systems go online they then immediately fly off and crash somewhere. Seekerling caretakers had it rough.

Seekers had potlucks. Their systems require very fine and refined energon, so they are very good at tasting subtle flavors. In other words, Vos was home to the Cybertronian version of professional chefs. Their energon was famous for being gourmet and it would be served in fine-dining restaurants throughout the rest of Cybertron. But back in Vos they’d just casually serve each other what was essentially gourmet energon during potlucks like it was no big deal. Like imagine going to the neighbor’s potluck and they’re all eating caviar.

Seekers instinctively cluster around each other in multiples of three. Three’s a very a lucky number in their culture and they had a base-six counting system.

Trinebonds are mostly just full of a very intense and platonic brother love, but there were some trines in which you’d have two Seekers adopt a more parental role towards the third, and in some other trines there would be more romance involved, but for the most part they were just bros through and through.

When a Seeker dies the other two feel an agonizing pain, but will eventually re-trine with a new third in an attempt to feel whole again. Seekers who lose both trinemates will tend to have a full-on mental breakdown and will get so stressed that their spark will actually begin to flare erratically, which unfortunately prevents them from re-trining. Seekers who lost both trinemates and yet who managed to pull through the pain and trine again were treated with great respect.

Trined Seekers are capable of sensing what kind of vague mood their two buddies are feeling at any given time. They can detect when their trinemates are in root-mode or alt-mode or when they’re healthy or sick. Seekers will lose the ability to sense their trinebonds when there’s too much distance between them or whenever their trinemates go into a deep coma-like stasis that slows their spark down.

All of the Seekers in a tower would be almost always all distantly related. The Seekers who lived beneath you were your distant cousins on one side of your family and the Seekers who lived above you were your even more distant cousins but like 53 times removed, but still family and therefore still invited to the family potluck!! They’re all like hobbits in that they are obsessed with genealogy and will gladly talk about it for hours on end. Seekers will greet each other by explaining their genealogy. This really confuses grounders.

Some random grounder: “Oh, hi, how are you?”

Starscream, probably: “I AM STARSCREAM SON OF STARFLIGHT SON OF SKYECHO SON OF AIRHALO SON OF SWIFTWING--”

The poor grounder: *softly* “What the fuck”

If you don’t interrupt the Seeker then they will just keep recounting their genealogy on the assumption that you are actually intrigued. This can go for hours. Seekers are mortified when they learn that grounders do not know the names, personalities, likes, dislikes, and favorite childhood snacks of their distant great-great-great-great-great grandfathers.

Orphaned Seekers who didn’t know their genealogy had multiple options: get adopted, then just list off the adopted family’s bloodline, or if they didn’t get adopted then they’d just list off the names of Vos’s mythological heroes and figures, or maybe even just claim Primus as their ancestor (which isn’t even wrong.) This is kind of like how people in ancient times claimed to be descended from gods. The human equivalent of this would be some dude walking up to you and saying “I am Bob, son of Zeus!”

Some Seeker towers had certain naming conventions. Like you’d have one tower full of Seekers who are all named after cloud formations, and another tower full of Seekers named after noises, like “whistle” or “blast,” and you guessed it--maybe even “scream.”

To be honest I’m not sure if I want Starscream to be a very common or very rare name. Vos was made up of ancient warring clans that all united under the first Winglord (he/she took Vos under their “wing” hence the title) and maybe they could’ve been named Starscream? In most human societies everybody and their neighbor always would want to name their kiddos after the current ruler, but in Vos maybe it was very rare and very bold of Seekers to name their child after the current ruler because it would be seen as an attempt to snatch up that ruler’s glory. So to name your Seekerling Starscream would be the Vosian equivalent of naming your son Gaius Julius Caesar. He’s an intense bot so it makes sense that he’d also have a very intense name.

But then again I also like the idea of the Autobots just thinking of Starscream’s name as being weird and rich and odd and  e x o t i c  but then finding out it’s the Vosian equivalent of John Smith and that there were eight Starscreams on any block at any given time.

Maybe Seekers would change their name whenever they have a big event happen to them, like a trining for example. I think a culture obsessed around airflow would be fine with people changing aspects of their identity like that because then you’re being like the wind, flowing and changing with the same wind that carries you. It’s also my headcanon that this is why Seekers change their frames a lot more. Your frame isn’t you, it contains you, and if you change then it would be really weird not to change the way you look too. 

Despite being really lax about some things Seekers can be very very strict and traditional about other things, such as etiquette. If you’re meeting a new Seeker for the first time and you rotate your wings 70 degrees clockwise that means “may the skies of the holy 70th tower of Vos bless you” but if you rotate your wings anti-clockwise it means “I curse your grandfather!” And then Starscream would just gasp in horror and then shout “DO NOT BESMIRCH THE MEMORY OF SKYECHO”

Some Seeker names were common--like, too common. There were a few thousand Skyechoes, Windblasts, and Driftwings who drifted around at any given moment. This made role-call in school very painful. Some caretakers would try to be edgy about it. “Oh, my son isn’t named Driftwing, he’s named Dreadwing!”

Seekers cremated their dead but in the most intense way possible. They took their dead up and just let them burn up in the atmosphere so that they can become one with the sky. This resulted in some pretty spectacular meteor showers.

Same random grounder: “What a beautiful shooting star!”

Starscream, casually: “Oh, that’s my grandpa, SKYECHO SON OF AIRHALO SON OF SWIFTWING--”

Same unfortunate grounder: “wHAT--”

Seekers make noises all the time and are very rarely silent. They hum when content, beep when excited, chirp when riled up, rumble when confused, trill when happy, and so on. Starscream used to be a chatterbox but was forced to repress his chitterings because Megatron would always tell him to shut up. He’s going to trill more and more throughout Unburied, especially around Optimus.

Seeker towers were infamous for their weird architecture. They weren’t designed to ever be wandered around in while in your bipedal mode. No staircases, period. Just extremely tall ceilings and arches with curved corridors everybody flew through with lots of balconies you could land on. There were lots of holes in the wall that they could fly through that led to actual rooms where they would transform and be bipedal (berthrooms, washracks, etc) but then after they slept/ate/partied they were just like “that was fun guys, gotta go” and then just flung themselves out of a hole in the wall over a 1,000 foot drop and then just transformed in midair and flew off. Grounders couldn’t visit the towers due to there being no grounder-friendly infrastructure. Special buildings had to be built near the ground to help accommodate visiting grounders, but you only ever really saw these kinds of grounder-friendly accommodations in towers meant to receive diplomats.

They had bathhouses in their towers, like the ancient Romans but with robots instead of old dudes in togas. Just giant birdbaths basically. Just lots and lots of splashing and chittering.

Seekers preen themselves, their circuitry is delicate and even the slightest of contaminants can cause big problems. That’s why they have such sharp talons---for getting in the small spots. And for stabbing people. That’s a nice bonus, too. They preen each other all the time. There were some regions on their wings that could be preened by anybody, but some other parts of the wings that could only be preened by close friends such as trinemates. So the outer planes of the wing could be preened by just a general buddy, but the actual area where they connect to the back? That’s trinemate-only territory right there. It’s not a sexual thing, just a cultural taboo they had.

When Dreadwing makes his grand debut I think I might have a scene in which him and Starscream are preening each other while angrily bickering, not because they actually like each other, but just because they’re the only Seekers around and Starscream’s had a rock stuck in his wing seam and slag it, Dreadwing is the only bot who knows how to get it out--so it’d just be angry bird bickering and arguing preen time.

“You killed my brother!”

Starscream would then flutter angrily and say something like, “NO, BUMBLEBEE DID, STOP BLAMING ME--please get that rock out of my wing seam k thX--IT WAS THE SCOUT’S FAULT!”

And then Dreadwing would just be like, “Skyquake is dead, and it’s all YOUR FAULT--I also have a rather unfortunate rock located in my wing seam, can you remove that--and it’s because of your cowardice I am now brotherless!”

Seeker talons were actually retractable. Some Seekers would have their talons out literally all the time though, these were Seekers who were high-ranking in the military or who were just on some quest of personal revenge. After the war began they modified their talons to just always be sharp because you don’t want to accidentally retract them when in battle.

I am only just now realizing that this got kind of long, huh. I hope this wasn’t too much!! I might post more Seeker headcanons in the future.

[thanksjro]

Last Stand of the Wreckers PsyOps records- Can we PLEASE Hire Some More Mental Health Specialists?

Rung gets a lot of play in the Last Stand of the Wreckers bonus materials. He was still more of a play-on-words as opposed to an actual character at the time, so I suppose it makes sense.

Rotorstorm walked into his appointment with Rung and immediately started hyping himself up. That’s very telling. When Rung asked about his time at Simanzi, he sort of shut down and wasn’t able to hide behind his defense mechanism of being the funniest, coolest, bravest, all-around-bestest guy in the room.

Rotorstorm was basically born, then thrown into the Aerial Program, where all that awful stuff with Jetstream happened. Dude was beating up an infant.

Motherfucker’s got some trauma, obviously, but apparently that’s not enough to disqualify him from Wrecker duty. Wrecker duty that he didn’t even want, I should add.

You gotta sign up for the Wrecker roster; he’d been on it before, but had dropped out to teach instead. Either someone set this poor guy up to die, or Jetstream was wrong this whole time and he really just is that good. Not that it mattered much- the damage is done. Rotorstorm has crippling self-doubt, and is also dead.

Pyro suffers from a programming disorder known as primus apotheosis, identified by the sufferer’s need to emulate the great Optimus Prime. Many Autobots are afflicted with this disorder, and even a few Decepticons have been known to have it. The fact that Pyro had primus apotheosis makes panels like this:

-all the more sad. This is a guy who’s had his own personality overwritten- by his own hero worship- in an attempt to be greater than himself. Pyro is by no means a slouch when it comes to saving the day- he saved an entire platoon of Autobots as a member of the Resistance.

Then Simanzi happened.

There isn’t a ton known about the Simanzi Massacre, only that it was so bad, the Cybertronian population was halved by the time it was over. Pyro would have been just another statistic, had it not been for Optimus Prime’s intervention. Does survivor’s guilt have some part in his disorder? It’s certainly possible. All that can be said for sure is that nobody got out of Simanzi unscathed.

Pyro was approved for the Wreckers with reservations, seeing as primus apotheosis sufferers can and will sacrifice themselves for others if given any wiggle room in which to do so. The Wreckers were just lucky that Pyro wanted to go out in style. It didn’t really work for him, but points for trying.

Guzzle isn’t his legal name. Much like Chromedome, he’s called what he’s called due to meddling with the war. Originally Pneumatix, and a forklift of all things- the name being a play on the word “Pneumatic”, because forklifts work by using compressed air to lift things- he entered the Body Augmentation Program. This turned him into something called a ruination tank. That’s why his turret accounts for nearly half of his height- they basically turned a Mini Cooper into a weapon of mass destruction. Because he’s meant to be actually very tiny, his body compensates for the added stress by being so insanely fuel-inefficient, he has to constantly eat. Thus the nickname.

Guzzle didn’t exactly impress Rung at his appointment, coming across as a rather cold, distant individual when it came to his own emotions, describing his own near-death experience at the hands of the Decepticons in terms of what weaponry was used to try to kill him. Still, he was approved for the Garrus-9 mission.

It’s at this point that you have to wonder just how many people are actually on the waiting list for this group.

First Aid about had a panic attack when he thought Springer was inviting him to join the Wreckers, so it’s obviously a known thing that members don’t last terribly long, or at least, it’s something that can be inferred through reading about them.

Looking at past members, it’s rather telling what sort of person is attracted to the Wrecker lifestyle; Whirl is an emotional powder keg that’s constantly trying to light his own fuse, Impactor defied wartime sanctions to murder the his rivals, Roadbuster is a hardcore drug abuser who ripped someone’s spine out, and Kup can only function in polite society if he’s smoking medicinal marijuana at all times. These are not stable individuals. Springer is the odd exception, and I’m counting Perceptor as a borderline case, because he went through a massive personality shift that led him to where he was within the group. He may appear “normal” when compared to the others, but that guy’s for sure got some issues that he keeps close to his chest.

Given all of this, it’s not really much of a leap to say that Rotorstorm got thrown back on the list because they didn’t have anyone else who wanted in on this madness. It’s also not much of a leap to say that the only reason any of these guys got approved to join was because there weren’t any other options. The psych-screenings were probably just done as a professional obligation at that point. Rung, for all his faults, was likely working with what he’d been given.

I’m not exactly sure where these profiles were meant to reside within Last Stand’s timeline, given that Rotorstorm and Pyro are classified as being probably alive, whereas Ironfist is not.

Ironfist spends a good portion of his appointment with Rung fanboying over the Wreckers, as he is wont to do. When he actually gets around to talking about himself, he’s not nearly as eloquent or organized. Rung did not approve Ironfist for the mission, based solely on his lack of experience in the field of busting heads. He only got on the team due to Prowl’s interference, as has been established before.

Fisitron is revealed to have been a writer of many talents, publishing articles for all ages and reading levels. He was an author you could grow up on.

Impactor’s profile was written at the time of his probationary hearing, and it seems to imply that Rung may be a bit of an idiot. He had dismissed the guard who was present, in an attempt to get Impactor to be more open with him. This went about as well as that sort of thing usually goes for the only mental health specialist on all of Cybertron.

Looks like someone’s got a fear of mnemosurgery. With this little event in his past, it’s very surprising that Rung tried to offer it to Fortress Maximus in MTMTE #6.

Maybe Rung accidentally stuck a really big magnet to the side of his head at some point, thus erasing his memory files, because I know that I sure wouldn’t be offering that sort of thing if this was the average reaction to it.

After Impactor had had his moment, he shared some of his war stories with Rung- apparently his lack of a right hand was inspired by meeting Death’s Head.

Though Death’s Head isn’t directly named, it’s pretty obvious that’s who it’s intended to be, given that he’s mentioned as “ricocheting from universe to universe after leaping through an exploding time portal.” This is in reference to the events that took place in the Marvel UK storyline “The Legacy of Unicron!” This is also what happened to him prior to the events of Eugenesis.

Rung is aware of these events due to having read Wreckers: Declassified. I’m not sure how I feel about Wreckers: Declassified being a valid resource for Rung to pull from, considering Fisitron self-described with the word “dramatist” in “Bullets”.

The session had to be ended when Rung tried to psychoanalyze Impactor in a way he wasn’t ready for, as the man threatened to crush his brain like a grape between his fingers.

Lot of Eugenesis vibes in this entry.

We don’t get any history on Impactor, as it’s been scrubbed from the record at someone’s request. Is it related to his relationship with Megatron? The events that would eventually be revealed in Sins of the Wreckers? Maybe it’s just left like that to create intrigue for the eventual sequel series, Sins of the Wreckers. Who knows? I certainly don’t.

That’s the end of Rung’s reports, but we still have a couple more characters to get through.

Rotorstorm, Snare, and Swindle must go to the same body shop, because they’re the only guys who have eyes/visors that aren’t a primary color. It’s an interesting little character design choice, and I can’t help but wonder if there was some sort of reason for it.

…I genuinely wasn’t expecting an answer for that. Neat!

Snare’s kind of a loner, which works out pretty well for him, since he’s usually on surveillance duty. He’s also a sadist, having developed some nasty ways to keep prisoners in line. “Morphcore stimulation” is mentioned, and it’s less fun than it sounds, not that it sounds terribly fun in the first place. The fact that even Snare thought Overlord was a bit much is very telling.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term “morphcore”, don’t feel bad about it, because it’s only ever been used in one piece of media up until this point. Morphcores were a small bundle of nerves at the base of the Cybertronian brain that controlled transformation, as explained in Eugenesis. This term would quickly be switched out for the more well-known “transformation cog” for brand cohesion. The really funny thing is that that this section is attributed to Nick Roche. It would seem that TMUK is a hard state of mind to shake off.

This won’t be the only time Roche and Roberts team-up to completely miss the mark on how the IDW continuity functions- the Dire Wraith in The Revolution oneshot they wrote together was running off of the Marvel UK iteration of the species.

Overlord doesn’t have a profile, per se, but rather a transcript of a correspondence between Megatron and a guy named Gorelock.

Gorelock apologizes for not getting in contact sooner, explaining that the reason he’s been radio silent is because Overlord fucking showed up out of nowhere, after cutting and running from the Decepticause years prior. Whether Megatron had actually heard Overlord’s message or just figured it out from context clues isn’t clarified.

Gorelock super-duper promises that he and his guys didn’t just stand there pissing themselves in fear as Overlord strolled through their ranks, and they super-duper totally fought him until Gorelock decided to hear the guy out. For sure. Absolutely.

It turns out, Overlord was never actually dismissed from the rank of the Decepticons, which means that he outranks Gorelock, and Gorelock was therefore compelled to grant him a favor.

The favor is wrecking an entire empire’s shop. Gorelock complies with this request, purely due to being outranked. Absolutely. For sure.

Once the contract was completed in full, Overlord fucked off into space.

You know, not enjoying your hobbies anymore can be a sign of depression.

And that’s why Gorelock hasn’t kept in touch! I’m sure Megtron will be very understanding about this whole thing.

Or not!

[briangroth27]

Bumblebee Review

Bumblebee is a genuinely fun, kind-hearted family film and it’s very likely the best of the Transformers franchise. I still enjoy the first Transformers, didn’t like the second or third, and never bothered seeing the fourth or fifth, so I can’t be a true judge, but based on what I’ve read about the latter two I’m not planning on catching up. I also wasn’t expecting much from this film given how the franchise has gone, but I came away pleasantly surprised! Bumblebee tells a refreshingly focused and simple story about the friendship forged between the titular Autobot and Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld).

Full Spoilers…

The movie starts off with a bombastic and frantic escape staged by the Autobot rebellion back on Cybertron, and while the action here (and throughout the movie) is cleanly and clearly shot—as I’ve seen noted elsewhere online, a nice change of pace from the other films in the franchise—I can’t say that I’m invested in the Autobot/Decepticon war at all. I’m all for a good ol’ “overthrow the fascist, freedom-oppressing evil empire” story, but this particular conflict just doesn’t hit the right notes for me for some reason. I don’t really know how the movies can fix that at this point (maybe more focus on showing, not telling?). Likewise, the movies haven’t made me a fan of any of the Transformer characters besides Bumblebee (Dylan O’Brien). Maybe that’s because of a lack of nostalgic recognition on my part—I’ve seen a handful of the original series episodes and the animated movie—but my main (and favorite) Transformers point of reference is the Beast Wars CGI cartoon from the 90s (Transformers Prime was also good, but didn’t stick with me in the way Beast Wars has). I think my lack of connection with most of the Transformers is also definitely due to the fact that Bee is the one who gets to bond with the humans most in the films, so I’m much more attached to him than Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) or the others. I know a lot of fans have argued that the humans take up too much focus in these films, but Charlie and Bee (and Sam and Bee in the first one) bonding goes a long way towards humanizing and endearing these aliens. Besides, even in the vast majority of the cartoons, humans played a role.

In Bumblebee, I wish Bee got a chance to show more personality before he lost his voice. B-127 is certainly noble and heroic, but that seemed to be all there was to him at first. The more sheepish, injured version of Bee displays many more volumes of character (maybe because that’s when he gets to interact with Charlie?). I don’t believe for a second that trauma or tragedy makes characters inherently deeper or more interesting/engaging than happy/heroic ones , but because of what little we see of Bee before his voice box is (horrifically) ripped out, the temporary removal of his heroic veneer does a lot to expose other aspects of his character. In any case, Bee’s arc back to his ability to communicate and to reclaim his heroic mantle is solid and his recovery story was very well-told (pairing nicely with Charlie’s own recovery from loss). I also like that this film franchise, if nothing else, has never fallen for the idea that the most popular character (Bumblebee) needs to also be the leader of the Transformers. Not only is that a unique position, but in a way it puts him on the level of the kids he most closely bonds with. They aren’t the “leaders” in their lives either (that would be their parents/authority figures).

Charlie Watson was very likable and Steinfeld did a great job carrying the human side of the movie, perfectly balancing Charlie’s urge to get out and live her life vs. her resistance to change in her family and the dark cloud hanging over her. Her being a mechanic played well with a robot alien and also formed a strong connection to her dad (Tim Martin Gleason), whose loss is the source of her turmoil. That gave her and Bee a stronger bond than Bee playing wingman to Sam in the first film. I also liked that Charlie becoming Bee’s protector, healer, and disciplinarian made for a cool twist on losing her father, instead of Bee becoming her new father figure. While there’s a certain cliché connotation to making a girl into a mother figure in media (especially when there’s only one girl), while I think their relationship forces Charlie to grow up and accept more responsibility I don’t think it goes as far as saying that being a mother is her only destiny. Knowing Bee also gets Charlie to take more chances and move forward with her life, which had come to a stop in terms of fixing her dad’s car and getting back into diving, and I thought that worked pretty well. The car metaphor (Charlie needs to literally work on and repair her feelings about her dad’s heart attack via the Corvette they were working on together) is perfect, but the diving stuff is introduced a little awkwardly. It seemed like the school bully/popular jock Tripp (Ricardo Hoyos) existed almost solely to goad Charlie into jumping off a rock at a beach day hangout. That’s fine—he was barely a presence in the movie, so he truly does solely exist to challenge/further Charlie’s journey—but that scene also being the first big instance of her reluctance to take up diving again made things feel a little off or sudden/slightly random in some way. Still, the loss of her ability to dive is a neat connection to Bee’s loss of his voice; I just wish what it meant to her was a little more fleshed-out. Tripp’s girlfriend Tina (Grace Dzienny) being a mean girl made Charlie an outsider among her peers, which was a pretty good connection to Bumblebee among the humans. I’m glad that Charlie and her neighbor Memo (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.) didn’t end up together (even if she said “not yet”). The chemistry between Charlie and Bee was much stronger than between her and Memo (even though both relationships were platonic), and she never seemed to have a glimmer of romantic interest in him. And that’s totally fine! Healthy, platonic friendships between girls and guys are something we should see more of in movies and TV. Along these same lines, it was refreshing that they didn’t film Charlie with a male gaze. Charlie’s problems with her family (Pamela Adlon, Jason Drucker) moving on with her mom’s new boyfriend (Stephen Schneider) were well-developed and fit with her inability to move on from her dad’s death, but I wish that they’d been given a bigger moment where that family coalesced into a new family unit. The moment where it happens (in the middle of a car chase) is certainly dramatic, but it also felt too quick.

The villains, both human and Decepticon, were used well. Burns (John Cena) made for a good soldier stuck in a bad situation with orders he disagreed with (he’s the only one to point out their name is a big red flag), even if he still mostly follows his orders until the end. I was very happy that the “comedy” of Section 7 from the original Transformers films was largely dropped here, as that was always one of the weaker parts of those films to me. The Decepticons (Angela Bassett, Justin Theroux, David Sobolov) were suitably evil and imposing, if one-dimensional. I don’t need all villains to have a relatable motivation (sometimes evil is just evil), but the fascistic element of the Decepticons could’ve been played up in their dialogue and interactions with Bumblebee.

The effects were well done and I liked the use of the 80s here. The Decepticons gifting the humans the internet (to use it for their own nefarious purposes) was a nice tie back to the first movie’s comment that so much of our technology was reverse-engineered from studying the All Spark and Megatron. The songs they chose were still popular and recognizable, but not necessarily the songs that almost always accompany a trip to the 80s, which was nice. There’s one cliché and overdone bashing of “Never Gonna Give You Up,” but otherwise this was a refreshing change of pace music-wise.

I really wish we could get more adventures with Charlie and Bumblebee teaming up, but they go their separate ways at the end. It feels a little like the filmmakers felt they had to wrap everything up here instead of hoping they’d get a sequel (which is not at all a bad thing!), but closed the loop to the first film a little too tightly. Maybe there’s still a way for Bee and Charlie to meet up again in the future. Either way, this was a very enjoyable flick in the “80s kids meet an alien” vein and I definitely recommend it!

 Check out more of my reviews, opinions, and original short stories here!

[buttonpanels]

Road Trip with the Transformers is what happens when you take a guy who grew up with Transformers (well, Robots in Disguise and the Unicron Trilogy, anyway), who was mildly interested in IDW’s Transformers comics — but too scared to dip too far in — and give him a rebooted Transformers comics line. With this, I’ll be quickly reviewing and then commenting on IDW’s new Transformers comic universe that began in March of 2019! The review will be spoiler-free, while commentary will not. With this, I’ll be chronicling my experience as someone who is a lapsed fan of the franchise from childhood, who has only read a few of the previous IDW Transformers comics. Expect me to forget characters’ names, find it hard to tell them apart and have little to no understanding of references to previous continuities! Does that sound like fun? No? Well, you’re coming along anyway! It’s a road trip! Roll out!

This entry is super late because university eats my time and energy. The Transformers toy hunt is going well, however! I now know the good spots and the good sites, so my onslaught of Siege toys is shaping up nicely. It’s also a nice way to get some exercise into my life of comics and video games. The problem now is that I need a place to put these that isn’t the corner of my desk. Seriously, this is the most claustrophobic war zone ever!

This is getting harder with more toys.

Moving on, the last issue of Transformers was a sluggishly paced exposition dump. We learned more about this new version of Cybertron, but it was mostly limited to random jargon and factoids. However, we did meet Chromia, Prowl and Wheeljack, whose characterisation was fine as a reasonable authority figure, jerk cop and talkative scientist, respectively, and we caught a glimpse of Soundwave. The Ascenticon rally in Tarn, held by Megatron, was attacked by some unknown entity. We also know that Chromia’s security forces are spread thin, and that The Rise are the prime suspects in Brainstorm’s murder — Chromia has ordered the arrest of every member as a result, which can only turn out well! On the good end of worldbuilding, we know that The Rise want the same things as the Ascenticons, but are just more violent about it. Meanwhile, Bumblebee and Rubble were just kind of laying about. It doesn’t sound like much has happened, does it? That’s because it hasn’t. Hopefully things pick up and there’s less focus on disconnected world-building. Here is Transformers (2019) #3.

Transformers (2019) #3

Written by Brian Ruckley Art by Angel Hernandez, Cachet Whitman Colours by Joana Lafuente Letters by Tom B. Long Published by IDW Publishing Cover price:

The balance between narrative and world-building is a delicate one. Very rarely are they evenly balanced, but a skilled writer can intertwine the two in a seamless fashion, exploring the world as part of the narrative. Brian Ruckley has not done that beyond the first issue; instead, the plot seems like an obligation, one that feels like it will soon collapse under the weight of itself.

The issue’s most problematic aspect is the pacing. This is a low comic, filled with exposition, and the exposition feels begrudging that it needs to come from characters at all. This issue once again feels like Ruckley is more interested in world-building than actual characters. While the narrative has more focus this time around, the characters almost all feel like the same person, with only Windblade being given something of a unique voice. Everyone else feels like the same character. In contrast to, say, Brian Michael Bendis, who makes all his characters speak in a casual voice that detracts from the tension, Ruckley has all his characters (aside from Windblade) speak in stilted robotic dialogue that reads a bit awkwardly at times. Even if the characters are literally robots, they shouldn’t be talking this way. When he does try to break from this habit, it’s just awkward. It truly feels like this narrative would be better served as a Wikipedia entry, because it’s certainly not being told through compelling characters. Which is a shame, because there is some potential here, with the slow escalation of the Ascenticon/Rise/Autobot conflict about to burst and the vying for Energon, which is the core of the usual Autobot/Decepticon conflict. It’s well-established already, but Ruckley feels the need to move even more pieces around, and I don’t think it will be worth it.

Ironhide randomly changing the subject back to The Rise without telling anyone.

Angel Hernandez, who takes the helm on art this time, seems to have gained a firmer grasp on visual storytelling. Characters look less stilted, panels flow much more naturally and backgrounds have more depth. While there are some awkward moments here, it’s bearable. Cachet Whitman’s contributions, on the other hand, feel very weak this issue. Without the emphasis on wonderment and smaller character moments, Whitman isn’t given much to work with, and everything feels a little flat. There’s no vibrancy or warmth this time around, which is Whitman’s best strength as an artist.

Three issues in and it feels like this story should’ve had more happen. The story is a slog, no character feels engaging and the world-building is overriding everything else. It’s admirable to want to build up a multi-layered story, but there needs to be something to keep the audience’s interest as you do so. Ruckley hasn’t provided anything to engage the audience since issue 1.

2/5 – Below average

“The World in Your Eyes, Part Three”

Here comes the commentary, where I basically give you a much more detailed look at what I think about the issue while somewhat summarising it. Obviously, spoiler warning. And don’t take anything I say here too seriously, most of it is for my own benefit, though I do like to put focus on some moments here and there.

We open with Megatron giving a speech about the assassination attempts from last issue. It’s apparently a video or livestream, and Soundwave introduces the Ascenticon Guard that will protect future Ascenticons in the future: Elita-1, Skytread, Refraktor and Quake. We then get to have a ton of exposition on Quake, who is basically a bloodthirsty soldier who never took to the peace. It’s really not subtle about establishing him as an important player in this plot, despite the abundance of characters already. This is delivered by Froid, who is a therapist and yet another character to add to the pile. At least he has a discernible personality as someone worried about his patients, even if everyone ignores him because of larger concerns. We also get exposition about the Voin; a race of scavengers, and I think the floating head thing we saw in issue 1 before meeting Windblade.

Regarding the actual plot, where Prowl determines that the members of The Rise that were arrested don’t know anything about Brainstorm’s murder, as if they did, they’d have gone into hiding — which he says some members did, the ones involved enough to get a warning. Orion and Ironhide have some pointless dialogue that feels way too awkward, all to establish that Orion doesn’t like The Rise. That and he’s not too keen on his fellow Autobot senators, either.

We jump to Bumblebee and Rubble as Bumblebee shows off his alternate mode. Rubble doesn’t care, however, because he is distracted by the moon from last issue folding its wings. It seems he’s got a bit of an engineering itch, which is nice for making him less of a blank slate. Bee decides to show him Leviathan, a gigantic Transformer that harvests metal ore that Bee says goes into making new Cybertronians. Essentially, they are as much a part of Cybertron as it is a part of them, and change is the nature of everything, which is what Bee’s mentor told him.

No. That’s a foot.

As an aside, I like that Ruckley seems to be making a conscious effort to include more female Transformers. The important figures in his world have so far been largely female, which is nice given Transformers hasn’t been so great with female characters in the past. Plus, in addition to Leviathan and Termagax, we also have prominent characters like Windblade and Chromia, and even Bee’s mentor was a woman. Kudos for that.

Speaking of Windblade, she comes flying in and is established as being very casual. She annoys Bee a bit — and the timing of her entrance makes me think that maybe she was his mentor? Either way, she tells him that Chromia wants to speak to him. Bee tells Rubble to fiddle with his wrist until he figures out how to call him and drives off… but not before giving us a very… unique looking image.

Windblade and Rubble have the perfect expressions for what they’re seeing, and it’s not even intentional.

Windblade and Rubble go back to his quarters as he fiddles with his wrist. Rubble says he’s concerned that Bumblebee is disappointed in him (something that wasn’t even slightly hinted at before now, so show don’t tell please), which Windblade says is definitely not the case. Windblade mentions that “forgings” are extremely rare, and will remain so lest Ascenticons get their way — though there’s no disdain in her voice for them. In fact, now that I think about it… there’s not much disdain for them at all in the three issues released! That’s kind of neat.

So what I said in the review section, about awkward dialogue? I think, in the case of Windblade, that contractions are used to give her a distinct voice, to establish that she’s more casual than other characters. It’d definitely fit with her entrance. But it just doesn’t work given how awkward some of it is and it’s a jarring shift since she doesn’t talk that way most of the time. Plus, Rubble starts randomly using contractions (and not even common ones) when talking to Windblade… this is either to establish that his identity and behaviour is so malleable at this point that even brief encounters can heavily affect how he acts… or Ruckley wrote this scene like a day after the first two. I legitimately cannot tell you. That or they just act super formal around Chromia and Bumblebee but together they’re really chill, which would be weird for Rubble given that he’s met Windblade twice.

There’re reasons you don’t randomly start doing this in your dialogue.

Especially with a character who hasn’t used contractions like this before.

The two finally get back to Rubble’s apartment. Chromia is there waiting along with… ugh, yet another character! This guy is named Geomotus and seems to have some mental condition. He has some 3D shapes that he looks at when in unfamiliar locations and he can sometimes see patterns that no one else sees. Well, things to do with the planet anyway. He’s helping the police. Chromia says that Prowl and Barricade — future Decepticon — are tracking “Risers” (that is a dumb term) and Chromia doesn’t want to be alone with Geomotus so she wants Windblade to come along. Before they go, she gives Rubble a way to contact her if need be, and once they leave, Windblade realises that Chromia put spyware into the download! Chromia says she’s pretty sure Rubble has nothing to do with things, but doesn’t want to leave anything to chance. Also, Rubble thinks he sees a titan and I have no idea why that scene is there.

Finally, we follow Orion as he walks through a seemingly deserted road, filled with strange features like corpses embedded in walls. Finally, he reaches his destination: Codexa — yet another character — who is seemingly alive, yet being consumed by the planet. This is probably what was mentioned before, how some people choose become one with Cybertron and essentially die. And so ends the issue, with the story to be continued in two weeks!

This entry took a while to cram out. I actually started working on it the day the issue came out, but I was having some perceptual problems, plus recapping it was a slog because nothing happens. I genuinely considered putting it out without the recap, which I may still do with future issues, at least on occasion. But I powered through anyway, because there was some stuff I wanted to take a closer look at — especially the presence of more female characters. Which, again, I do appreciate. Anyway, that’s it for now. Hopefully next issue is an easier time.

I'm a bit late, but in this entry of Road Trip with the Transformers, I take a look at Transformers (2019) #3, with a brief review before some commentary. Road Trip with the Transformers is what happens when you take a guy who grew up with Transformers (well, …

[bwprowl]

It’s east vs west, Marvel vs DC, and expensive vs cheap tonight, as I roll up lowdowns on red-hot new video game figma, ridiculous new movie toys, and more unexpected entries into our aisles. I’ve also got a quick run-through of some of the newer-wave Titan Transformers I finally managed to find. Hope you enjoy these Tuesday Night Toys!

New Stuff: Red Son

Those DC movies are still happening, and for obvious reasons just don’t carry with them the same anticipatory excitement as the Marvel movies they’re trying to emulate. I mean of course I know everyone’s saying Wonder Woman is good and I do need to see it, but that’s one win out of, like, the last four? Look, I know this is a toy blog not a movie blog, but I don’t think I’m out of line in saying that I’m not really looking forward to a Justice League movie carrying on from the setup from friggin’ Batman v Superman.

Fortunately Mattel’s toys for these things at least look pretty cool, as always! Ol’ Matty’s really stepped up their game with the varied Multiverse line in recent years, and these will be falling under that banner, as usual for the movies. That great Wonder Woman design is in there again, of course, and we get looks at the new Cyborg and Flash. Looks like this will be a decently affordable, easy way to build your League, if you feel so compelled.

But the big shot of adrenaline for me is the new Batmobile they’ll be releasing here as well! This is a huge, ambitious, electronic statement of a thing. It’s basically a big remote control car you control with an app on your phone, and it’s got lights and sound effects and *actual damn smoke* that comes out of the exhaust (do you have to…refill it somehow?) and basically AR effects that you watch through the cockpit on your phone while you’re playing with it. It truly feels like an absurd next-generation play pattern for toys like this, and as someone who’s watched others worry that toys were losing so much ground to electronics and smartphones, seeing them blended together for an ultra-modern take like this is incredibly exciting. This Batmobile is bound to be ridiculously expensive, but I’ll be tempted to go in on it purely for next-level novelty. This is like a new, super-powerful videogame console to someone like me.

Also in the DC corner of things, statue-maker Tweeterhead will be offering a properly tiny displayable version of the Bottled City of Kandor as an SDCC exclusive. This mainstay minipolis from the Superman lore is a great idea for a piece like this. It's even got an actual glass dome! Kinda disappointing it'll only be an exclusive, but at least they're offering people an option to order it non-attendee after the con.

We also found out through pre-order listings that McFarlane Toys will be doing toys based off Stranger Things. There's just mock-ups for now, but at least Eleven and Chief Hopper are due out in November, so if you, like about a zillion people (including myself) are a fan of that show, this'll be worth keeping an eye on.

For the more traditional type of new-stuff hype, figma Red was formally revealed and just put up for pre-order! The original Pokemon trainer (specifically in his FireRed/LeafGreen design) has topped figma wishlists for quite some time now, so seeing Good Smile finally deliver is welcome. Less welcome is the usual odd restrictions with import Pokemon products: Getting Red direct from Good Smile (with the bonus Pikachu) is impossible outside of Asia. The good news is that more universal exporters like AmiAmi seem all too happy to take pre-orders to ship Red anywhere, and he’s discounted decently there besides. Yeah, you miss out on the Pikachu, but at least the option is there.

Now we start demanding Green and Blue

Wishlist: More Heroes

Yes, figma Tracer was revealed last week and yes, she looks great, and yes, you were going to buy her regardless of if I mentioned her or not. Look guys, I’m in the same boat. The day she was put up for pre-order I went in for three: one for me, and one each for a couple of my friends to split shipping with because we all knew we had to have her. Overwatch is a rightfully stupidly popular game, and Tracer is the exceedingly likable, delightfully well-designed face of that game, and Max Factory’s team has brought her to life as well as you expect from the figma line at this point. I don’t even *play* Tracer, but I like her and I want to let MF and GSC know that I’ll go in for more figma of these characters. Guys, I will drop $150+ on a D.va figma with her MEKA.

Also start placing your bets for which alternate skin she gets recolored into first. I’m hoping for Posh, myself

On the complete opposite end of things, I spotted this in Target the other day: A Titan Heroes Scarlet Spider. And not the most recent, genuinely awesome, I-wish-he-was-voiced-by-Crispin-Freeman Kaine version of Scarlet Spider, but the original, 90’s as hell, wearing-a-hoodie-over-a-red-leotard Scarlet Spider! It is frankly ridiculous to see something buried in as much, at this point, niche comic history as OG Scarlet Spider getting an entry in the cheapo directly-kid-targeted toyline like this, and that’s already plenty of amusement value to me (oh my god and I just realized he’s sharing shelf space with the Marvel Legends toy of the god-danged Jackal). As someone with a special place in his heart for Scarlet (and 90’s Spider-nonsense in general), at less than ten bucks I might just grab this dumb thing for myself.

Show this toy to your parents and watch their eyes glaze over with a knowing weariness

Oh, and if you’ve been needing an officially-produced role/cos-play version of Joker’s mask from that popular little Persona game, you can pre-order one now…for way too damn much.

On Desk: Titans Return returns

Stupid Walgreens wave. These newest Titans Return Transformers first, for whatever reason, dropped at the drug-store chain rather than the usual retail spots like Target and Wal-Mart, where they cost even more and were pretty hard to find. I never even saw a trace of them in my local area, and the one I did find at a Walgreens, Krok, I did while I was out of town. So I was pretty glad to find the other two I was looking forward to at Target finally last week.

I was happy to pay too much while I was on vacation for Krok, though. I liked the Skullsmasher mold quite a bit originally, and this version renders it in gorgeous colors, and he’s got a sweet new headsculpt, and he’s a remade Action Master! Oh and he’s a popular guy in those popular current comics so I guess people will like him cause of that too. Really though, it’s just his looks that do it for me. Krok’s original bio was that he was a former cyber-football player, and these colors rather do look like they’d be at home on some sort of sports uniform. Going with the footballer theme, Krok’s old Action Master partner was named Gatoraider (geddit? geddit?), but Hasbro *for some reason* decided that name wouldn’t pass legal now, so his new Titan Master pal is given the even more stupidly awesome moniker of ‘Gatorface’. I love him.

I also love Topspin. Here’s a guy I at least knew I was going to get regardless just to fill out my Wreckers team, but Hasbro sprung a surprise on everyone and made new Topspin a really cool toy! He’s solid and chunky, fitting his root look well while still being dynamic and posable, and his transformation is in-goddamned-sane, especially given that his old version was just a ‘fold in half’ deal. There is so much clever unfolding and compressing going on in this toy. It actually took me a second to figure out how to fold the arms in on their elbows because that is a trick I have legit never seen on a Transformer before! Getting a toy of this level of a guy like *Topspin* in this day and age is, frankly, unbelievable! He’s an outstanding addition to the lineup and I cannot wait for him to be remolded into Twin Twist.

And then there’s Perceptor. Look, Perceptor would have a hard enough time measuring up to the strong starts of Krok and Topspin already, but he’s just kind of an okay toy on his own. I mean, he’s probably better as a toy and as a Perceptor than the *last* Perceptor from Reveal the Shield, but again, not a hard bar to clear. This guy’s just kinda small and gangly and his knee swivels are too loose and the joint his scope slides on is too tight. It is cool that we get the ol’ dumb microscope mode back, as well as the half-assed tank mode (more full-assed here with dedicated parts to transform into it and everything), plus a sniper rifle for good All Hail Megatron homage action. But there’s just too many little niggles that make him not feel as cool as the other guys I got from this wave. Neat, but I really wish he could have been better.

Nerd

So thanks for indulging me in all that everyone! Now you go and have fun, and I’ll see you next time!

[jimclassicstoycollection]

Transformers: Siege: War For Cybertron

Leader class

Optimus Prime (Galaxy Upgrade)

As much as I enjoy the new WFC toyline it's nice to see references from other Transformers lines. This Optimus Prime is based off the old TF Cybertron line of 2006.

It’s odd seeing two Optimus Primes in the same toyline, however I did recently talk about the G2 Generation selects Megatron. 

Vehicle Mode:

It’s a fire truck. Since this is meant homage Transformers Cybertron I’m still not sure if it’s meant to be a future Earth mode, or a Cybertronian mode; I’m not even sure how he fits in the Siege timeline. Maybe this Prime is universe hopping, I don’t know...

Either way it’s a space fire engine. It looks a lot like the 2006 Cybertron vehicle mode, however a bit smaller than the  original version.

Now the original one had wings, making is a flying fire engine, however the way this toy is clipped together this would become impossible.

Though with all these clips, the vehicle is pretty solid.

Optimus Prime (no armor):

The core robot shares many of the same elements of the Siege Ultra Magnus, however with some Transformers Cybertron aesthetics.

This is a stockier, chunkier Optimus Prime; this one’s definitely got a belly. The chest is the front of the cab (in the  original Cybertron version they were his shoulder pads) but Hasbro could only retool this guy some much.

I love the head sculpt. It’s a great Optimus Prime head and those yellow eyes really pop with the blue dome. i wish the voyager Siege Prime’s eyes were also yellow; his just disappear within the head. 

Armor:

The armor consists of the legs, shoulder pads and the backpack/chest combo.

The legs are almost identical to Ultra Magnus’, the back pack is the super mode head, window pecks and wings, while the shoulder pads are faux cab chest. It’s kind of a cheat, but like I said; Hasbro can only retool this guy so much without having to develop an entirely new figure.

Accessories:

Aside from the armor, Optimus Prime comes with three guns. The silver blaster is part of the of the longer gun; it can be attached to either one. The two black guns can be held in either hand and or onto any  of the 5mm ports. Blast effects can be plugged into the barrels.

Galaxy Upgrade Prime:

The figure has got presence. Between huge guns, and the wings, Optimus Prime is ready for some mainframe combat. 

Galaxy upgrade is pretty cool; he’s built, broad, and...really neat. Comparing hims to Cybertron Prime you can see the similarities...you can also see how short the 2019 version is too.,

He’s covered in 5mm ports

There’s a lot fun effects ports for the guns and damage points; I want more blast effects!

Final Thoughts:

The body armor is a clever retool from Ultra Magnus to Galaxy Optimus Prime.

This is a great homage to TF Cybertron Prime. This guy doesn’t pose as well as other Siege figures, but he’s just so much fun.

Recommended.

[transformersaesthetics]

The Aesthetics of Transformers

Hello Tumblr! That time of the month again. Unfortunately, things have been really busy around here lately, and I was unable to get to Beast Wars 1998, so you’ll have to wait another couple weeks for Transmetals to hit the scene. However, today I instead present an article on what makes transformers aesthetically valuable. Enjoy!

    What do we find enjoyable about Transformers? 

I’m sure many of us have grappled with that question at one point or another. That day when you buy a figure and realize you don’t particularly care about it, or when you look at an old figure that once was a favorite and feel nothing in particular. Why do I do this? What keeps me coming back? 

    The answer for me is that it was, and is, fun, even though I sometimes lose sight of that. Transformers offer me a simple, pure joy in the appreciation of something cool, or beautiful, or technically impressive, and I find that immensely fulfilling. In a way, it’s the best sort of engagement with life. 

    For a long time, I was at a rough place in my life personally, and it manifested itself in how I engaged with my Transformers. I was obsessed with the idea that aesthetic merit could be reduced to specific features of a toy that we found valuable, and that I could collect all toys that demonstrated a certain level of those characteristics. 

    However, as I pursued that goal, it became more and more apparent that something was wrong with that conception of Transformers. One of the more obvious flaws was that one of the figures I had used to establish my exacting standards in the first place, Thrilling 30 Springer, no longer met them. Indeed, no toy did or could, because no toy is literally perfect. 

    I think I’m at a better spot in my life right now, and I think, once again, that’s reflected in my relationship with my transformers. I’ve come to realize that while, in some ways, I was correct about aesthetic worth being derived from specific qualities of a toy that we value, I was also wrong. I was wrong in the sense that there is no such thing as the perfect figure, one that completely has every single quality of aesthetic merit to the maximum degree. This is often because whether or not a figure demonstrates a certain characteristic is a matter of judgement and taste. Is ROTF Leader Optimus a bad figure with an annoying backpack, or is it the best representation of Movie Optimus? 

     There are many different ways that transformers can be enjoyed, even for a single individual; we all have our own constellation of aesthetic values. I think that we look at aesthetic criteria for a figure, and, if we like it emotionally or because we chose to or whatever, we can overlook the imperfections or even outright flaws. In this essay, I want to talk about a few of the things that make a Transformer beautiful, as a celebration of beauty and joy, and also to give some insight into how I think about these figures.

I think one of the greatest aesthetic virtues a transformer can have is the simple one of being ‘cool’. I always really liked trains, and I thought it was cool how Classics Astrotrain turned into a train and a space shuttle. I think the P-38 Lightning is a dumb plane and I love it to death, and for that reason, 2010 Highbrow is one of my favorite figures. Cool is intentionally pretty vaguely defined here. It’s really anything that can make you go ‘oh, that’s neat’ when you look at a figure, and obviously that’s going to differ from person to person, based on what your other interests and values are. 

Another thing that makes Transformers desireable is screen accuracy. Until fairly recently, most of the primary Transformers media has been television or movies. That means that we are attached to most of our favorite characters because of their presentation in these media. It makes sense that toys that more closely correspond to the tv representation of a character would have more aesthetic merit. This is especially true for cases like Arcee or Elita-1, where for years there was nothing approaching a screen accurate toy. Something I personally enjoy is toys that are so screen accurate it looks like they just hopped off the screen. Some notable examples for me are the first Transmetal toys from Beast Wars (sometimes, looking at you Waspinator), Transformers: Animated as a line, and a few specific figures like Studio Series Blackout. 

    Transformers are, at their core, action figures, so we want them to be able to do actiony things, like having a full range of articulation or being nicely poseable. Sometimes, of course, it is impossible to include a waist joint or some such and still have the figure transform, so I think the standard for articulation in Transformers is somewhat lower than in other action figure hobbies. 

For me, the normal range of articulation is ball joints or equivalents at the shoulders and hips,and elbows and knees. In this day and age I would say bicep and thigh swivels are also standard, but I do have a couple figures that I really enjoy who don’t have either one or the other, generally because of cleverness with ball joints at the elbow or knee. Head articulation of some sort is nice and pretty common, but again, I do have a few figures with restricted head articulation and it doesn’t bother me so much. Waist and ankle tilts are gravy in almost all cases, though we’re getting a lot more ankles nowadays. 

    Kibble generally refers to parts of a Transformer’s alternate mode that are visible in the robot mode, or vice versa. Sometimes, like with G1 Seeker designs, it’s pretty cool to see a robot made out of parts of f-14, especially stuff like the wings. Other times, like with Movie Blackout, the entire alternate mode ends up on the back of the toy and causes sad feelings the world over. Kibble can also significantly restrict articulation and playability, as with Beast Wars Rampage. 

I tend not to mind kibble so much if it’s subtle, or used deliberately for a cool effect, like on the seekers. Even somewhat more egregious stuff like POTP Predaking or Movie Dropkick doesn’t bug me that much, although it used to. Honestly, shellforming a la TLK Berzerker doesn’t even bug me that much, although it’s self evidently rough. What does get to me is when a toy stops being a toy because of how kibbly it is, like the aforementioned Movie Blackout. Now, I still own that toy and enjoy it, and others like it, but I don’t find that part of it aesthetically pleasing. Of course, this is not to say that kibble is bad or being overly kibbly disqualifies a toy from being good. 

    One of my favorite things about Transformers are when the transformation schemes surprise me. TR Kup, Generations WFC Optimus, Studio Series Dropkick, and 2010 Terradive all are some of my favorite figures, entirely because their transformation schemes are so clever and novel. Of course, I’m also a sheer complexity junky, and I go out of my way to collect toys explicitly because they are complex. Examples include RID Sideburn or ROTF Mixmaster. I really enjoy it when the toy I’m holding is technically impressive for one reason or another, be that it used all of its pieces very well in both modes, was astoundingly intricate, or had a specific neat trick or device it employed. 

Transformers is fairly unique in that there are comparatively few totally generic characters. Each toy has a personality associated with it, even if it’s just the bio card that came with it. The brand has been introducing and exploring characters for close to 35 years now, sometimes more well, and sometimes less well, but undeniably, characters are a huge part of why we involve ourselves with the brand.

 Waspinator is iconic for his comic relief, as is Skybyte. MTME Megatron is one of the most interesting characters I’ve seen in anything ever. Even characters who get comparatively little screen time, like Astrotrain, have dedicated followings, because transformers often does background characters quite well.  I myself own lots of figures I wouldn’t otherwise, simply because I enjoy their characters. To that end, one of the reasons a figure can have aesthetic merit is that it represents a character you like. 

    Something I personally enjoy in a figure is when I’m shocked to discover that it exists at all. A huge example of this is 2010 Highbrow, who I mentioned earlier. I remember clearly, I was just going down a rabbit hole on the wiki when I suddenly stumbled upon a P-38 Lightning-esque transformer, and my first reaction was disbelief. There was no way HasTak made such an obscure figure. But they did, and it’s awesome. A more recent example is TR Gnaw. I was stunned that they were making a Sharkticon toy again after so long. I had sincerely never expected that to occur, but I was so glad that it had. I simply love discovering a transformer in some corner of some obscure line that turns into some alt mode that nothing else does, or something else that, against all the odds, exists. 

    As we touched upon briefly in the “It’s just cool” section, something that can make a transformer valuable is that we just think the alt mode is neat. It can be nothing more sophisticated than “I’ve always liked squids” that draws someone to BW Claw Jaw. Honestly, one of the coolest things about transformers for me is the sheer depth of alt modes that has been covered in the history of the brand. Odds are, if you can name something, there’s a TF of it. Specific Japanese bullet trains? You bet. A WW2 style bomber? Absolutely. A wooly mammoth? Yep, and that one’s an Optimus Prime. There’s even a Soundwave that turns into an Ipad, and a Megatron that turns into an alas undersized nike shoe. 

We can also value transformers because that specific figure is important to us. My RID Ro-tor is that way for me. My uncle bought it for me, years ago, and it was one of my first transformers. I thought it was just the coolest thing, and I spent hours pretending he was an autobot, because I noticed they didn’t have as many fliers and wanted to fill the gap. Every time I look at that toy, I think of my uncle a little, and I’d never want to be without it. Or, for another example, just recently I bought Armada Astroscope again, because I had the Requiem Blaster as a kid and Astroscope was my favorite, but I lost him.  I’m sure everyone who took the time to read this article has some kind of story like that. 

Another reason I personally find Transformers interesting is their historical significance. I think Classics Astrotrain is really cool in its own right, but I also just love that he’s one of only 2 deluxe class triple changers. I think it’s really interesting that Generations Brainstorm kind of serves as a proof of concept of the entire TR line, and that versions of Punch/Counterpunch are basically the only backwards triple changers, with two robot modes. G1 Soundwave probably hugely influenced the development of Minicons in Armada, and smaller toy interaction in every subsequent line. I think it’s really neat to have a part of that history in my collection. 

Another draw of Transformers, as with any collecting hobby, is finding rare figures. Be it expensive, Japan exclusive boys like Masterforce Browning, Arms Micron Breakdown, Dile and Sauru, the vanishingly rare Lucky Draw figures, members of teams that are tough to find on their own for no reason like RID Rapid Run, exclusives, like Botcon figures or Universal Studios Evac, things that barely saw release like DOTM Deluxe Leadfoot, or even holy grails like the G2 Stunticons, getting a rare figure in your collection is always a treat. I personally don’t go in for that hugely myself, in part because it’s expensive and in part because I don’t super value rarity for its own sake. But I would be lying if I said it wasn’t a little cool to own my Chevy Aveo Swerve because it’s rare, even though I bought it because I think it has a super unique artstyle. 

On that theme, an individual TF can also be valuable because it fills a specific hole in your collection. An example of this could be getting TR Blitzwing because you have TR Astrotrain and TR Octone, and he rounds out the trio. Or perhaps you’re only missing a single figure from the entire run of Armada, or you need one last Thundercracker to complete your collection of literally all of them. For me, this tends to be a bit more historically driven, because, I am, if you can’t tell, a nerd. I have my eyes on Transmetal 2 Iguanus, because I don’t own a Beast Wars figure from that year. I’ve thought about buying BW2 Moon, just to have one of the very few new mold BW2 toys. 

The final point of aesthetic merit I want to discuss is kind of a restatement of the first.  Every transformer has specific things about it you like that are unique to that toy, and don’t make sense to discuss on other figures. For example, Energon Sharkticon has soulful eyes, and I love how his dumb physique makes him look like an old style superhero. I love that he looks like he’s wearing a helmet, and that the little guns on his boat mode actually move around. None of that is universalizable, but it doesn’t make me value the toy any less. 

This is, of course, by no means an exhaustive examination of everything that makes a toy aesthetically valuable. As I said earlier, I mean this to be a celebration of some things I find personally meaningful, and to give you some insight into how I evaluate toys. I hope this has gotten you thinking about what you yourself value in a transformer. They really are fun, and even though we can lose sight of that sometimes, it’s always there to welcome us when we come back to it. 

[captainignatiuspigheart]

Every year the horror of a new year looms over the horizon like a Death Star, and the Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar does the vital of work of dampening that future and smoothing the way towards a cheery Christmas. They’ve been releasing them since 2011, which is about five years more than I realised, but it does help account for why I’ve got so many of the internal trays to use for part sorting.

On the part of the Lego designers, it’s a mighty challenge to produce new, cool-looking micro versions of the spaceships and locations we’ve become intimately familiar with. I’ve often been impressed with a new way to construct a Millenium Falcon from seven bricks, or by the splendid Bespin microscale city we got last year. Along with the dinky models we also receive an assortment of minifigures from across the Star Wars universe, building up to a special Christmassy figure on day twenty-four.

Indecision

I had grumpily decided after last year’s calendar that I wouldn’t get another Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar because the minifigs and especially the Christmas figures had declined so badly. In fairness, the series began with Santa Yoda, followed by an R2-D2 snowman and Darth Maul, Santa Fett, Darth Vader and so on. This year we got a Porg. Porgs are ace, and I really wanted one because you don’t get many of them in sets. However, it’s just one unique piece (its head) and the rest are generic parts. Kinda feels like they’ve given up. I’d forgotten entirely what the Christmas 2018 figure was – so much so that I missed it out of the pic below – but it was a snowman with a rebel helmet: cack, and barely up from the BB-8 with a Santa hat from 2017. Nonetheless, when I discovered I could get 2019’s calendar for just £12.50 due to some neat Top Cashback thing, I dove in again.

Lego Christmas Figures

The Full 2019 Line Up

Day One: First Order Star Destroyer

Day Two: the Batstarship

Day Three: First Order Stormtrooper

Day Four: Megatron

Day Five: Poe’s X-Wing

Day Six: Resistance shuttle

Day Seven: Lunch

Day Eight: grandparents’ rock garden

Day Nine: Luke the Angry Fisherman

Day Ten: Jakku Quadjumper

Day Eleven: Death Star trench tower

Day Twelve: Death Star operative

Day Thirteen: ENORMOUS mouse droid

Day Fourteen: Johnny 5

Day Fifteen: Roger, it’s Roger, OK

Day Sixteen: Droid transport (from the rear cos I couldn’t figure out what it was)

Day Seventeen: Hint – there are droids inside

Day Eighteen: Rebel meatshield

Day Nineteen: Mynock!

Day Twenty: Hoth base

Day Twenty-One: Bespin Cloud Car

Day Twenty-Two: Cloud Car pilot

Day Twenty-Three: HUGE Christmas Gonk droid

Day Twenty-Four: Santa Porg

Perhaps it was how this calendar began that made me feel I’d been cheated. Day one is a First Order Star Destroyer – an almost entirely flat grey thing (I’m not a huge fan of Star Wars Lego anyway, just because it does tend towards a vast expanse of grey, or perhaps black), followed by a rather flimsy Kylo Ren shuttle. Getting a First Order stormtrooper next was OK, but it just didn’t feel special! (I’m fully aware this is an adult man grumbling about this not being good enough… but I really look forward to this stuff, and when it’s great it can give me a tremendous feelgood boost). I still don’t know what day four was. The outstanding builds are the Cloud Car, Quadjumper and Mynock – the rest I either struggled to identify or felt rather repetitious. The Christmas Gonk droid is cool too, even if he is larger than a minifigure (he’s actually been packed away into our vast box of Christmas Lego for rebuilding next year along with the rest of the Christmassy Star Wars folk).  

Looking back at them now I’m not certain why I enjoyed this so little. The minifigs are fine – getting an old man Luke was cool, and the Bespin Cloud Car pilot is superb. But we’ve had much of this before – I think this is the third Death Star technician, at least the second Rebel commando and I’ve lost count of the soldier droids (not sure they should count as a minifigure anyway). I did appreciate not wasting one or two doors on gun racks, which is a lovely change from usual. It felt bland and the designs particularly phoned in this year. My other half and I usually alternate opening the doors each day, but we were leaving it unopened for whole weeks, and that also made me rather sad. I slightly regret selling on the Harry Potter advent calendar I also bought for half price, as several friends have reported it being good, even though I’ve no love for the franchise and half of it seemed to be flags. What we did get was a bunch of spare parts as usual, a handy internal tray which gets used for general brick sorting, and the satisfaction of dismantling the stuff I didn’t care for.

Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar contents across the years

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

Every year has had the occasional spectacularly crap minibuild, but on balance the range of figures, including really cool figs like the Kanji Club guy from 2018, IG-88, ewoks, jawas, Sabine Wren, Unkar’s Thug… well, they’ve been ace, and this year feels so generic. Last year we even got a character from the little-known Lego Freemaker Adventures! It’s odd, considering that we’ve recently had Rogue One, Solo and the new trilogy that so little of the amazing stuff in them has made it into last year’s calendar. Maybe next year, having no movies out will offer some space to bring back the best and weirdest figures and sets in the franchise – The Mandalorian please!

Now I shall go and dismantle all the minibuilds and feast upon their parts. 

Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar 2019 (75245) review, in which an old man grumbles about a child's toy not being up to scratch :) #lego #starwars #christmas @Lego https://wp.me/pbprdx-8w4 Every year the horror of a new year looms over the horizon like a Death Star, and the Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar does the vital of work of dampening that future and smoothing the way towards a cheery Christmas.

[allspark]

MP-36.  Cartoon Megatron in Masterpiece form.  I have waited my entire life to own the perfect embodiment of the insane leader of the Decepticons.  Does this toy make the cut, or will I still be looking for a future 3P figure to fill the void?  Check out the gallery and review after the break and find out!

Normally I don’t bother posting about Masterpiece figures  Way better photographers than me have posted pics by the time I get mine, so I tend to focus on figures from other lines.  When I got Megatron in my hands, though, I felt like I needed to take a few pictures.  How could you not want to show off such a powerful and impressive looking figure?  So I put together a few images here for your enjoyment.

    Robot Mode

This figure has the classic cartoon Megatron look to nigh perfection.  Sure he has some panel lines and the breaks in the mold for transformation, but otherwise, this is Sunbow Megatron.  I keep clicking back and forth between the animation model and the toy and it feels like they spared no detail.

As far as articulation and posing go, he’s built well enough that the few bits of kibble (if you can even call it that) on his shoulder do not hinder his arm movement much.  You can get a dynamic canon blasting pose, which is the primary pose for a guy with a canon on his arm, I suppose.

    The panels in front of his hips are also mostly nonrestrictive, though they move outwards a little bit if you push the legs a little too far forward.  Megatron’s boots have a nice thickness to them and a curve reminiscent of what we saw with Shockwave.  Fortunately, MP-36, while appearing to have the same design magic in his feet that MP-29 did, he suffers from non of the random panel popping that I saw with Shockwave.  Overall, this MP Megatron is solid, with satisfying ratchet joints where needed (tight, but not too tight).  One neat thing to note about his articulation is that his head is attached to a ball joint at the base of what would be the back of his neck, giving him a very natural looking full tilt.  He can look up at the sky very menacingly, which is how I think I will pose him after I post this review.

  Megatron comes with a ton of accessories:

3 faceplates (calmly menacing, angrily menacing, full-on crazily menacing, and “I got my butt kicked and I’m still coming at you” menacing)

1 laser mace (one loose “real” chain, one molded with joints for action poses)

1 laser sword

1 blaster

1 key to Vector Sigma

1 control helmet

1 beat up chest panel

1 silencer and stock (for the G1 gun turret you know you want to make)

Transformation

As impressive as the MP-36 is, there are some things to be careful of when transforming him.  This is where I am going to break from my norm again and enlist the help of a fellow Allsparker who really summed up nicely all the potential snags.  User mx-01 archon share in this post:

“Sweet monkey Jesus, what demigod of engineering sold his soul to the higher powers to have the skill to realize this frightening masterpiece of plastic origami?  The way everything jigsaws together so perfectly in either mode (with the minor exception of his rather rough-looking back plate) is mind-blowing spectacle.

Also more than a little frightening, at least the first time around, trying to gingerly force small parts into place and judge how much stress they can take.  My crazy ass decided to tackle him without instructions, as I always do (although I had a bit of forewarning about loosening the screw in his pelvis, and sanding down the suppressor innards a bit), and that first go-around took me about an hour (albeit with some distraction as I was also watching TV simultaneously).  The most time consuming aspect of it was just the order of operations of it all.  I didn’t have much trouble figuring out what went where, but there are lots of places where you have to do things in a specific order to create the proper clearances for other parts.  I kept having to reposition the skirt armour and legs trying to get the arms up together, because things were always in the way of each other.  Now that I know what I’m doing, though, the process is far cleaner.  This toy’s certainly got a learning curve.  If you’re concerned about preserving this toy’s paint job, you’ve certainly got your work cut out for you.  If done right, there should be enough clearances everywhere for nothing to scrape against each other, but sometimes, due to the aforementioned order of operations, you really have to work to find that sweet spot.

This toy’s “Masterpiece moment” is definitely in how the lower legs collapse to create the gun handle.  It’s pretty ingenious.  Although, the way his chest and abdomen sort of “builds itself up” bit-by-bit makes for a really cool visual.  Really, there’s all sorts of little things littered all over the figure that come together in a really satisfying way.

Reiterating, this toy is pure brilliant madness, a clear product of engineering hubris more than anything else.  For those of you who prefer a more straightforward transformation and need a Megatron in their collection, I’d probably point elsewhere (MakeToys’ 3P “Despotron” is what I’d suggest, as long as you don’t have particular need for the full gun kit).  For those of you who relish a challenge with satisfying payoffs, this guy’s probably going to be the crown jewel for a long time coming.  Forever more into the future, when somebody online questions TakaraTomy’s engineering prowess and offers up a challenger (usually Bandai in these situations), you’re going to be able to point to this guy and say “yeah…no”.”

  On that note, I will admit I have not transformed mine yet.  In addition to being mesmerized by the amazing robot mode, I had heard there were some issues with the silencer scraping paint.  You can go here to find instructions on how to remedy that and safely transform him.

  One last quality of life issue is the orange plug.  If you have not received your figure yet, fret not.  While some users are reporting that the gun barrel and silencer display varying degrees of difficulty when removing the plug, it appears most have had little trouble.  The glue is fairly soft.  Just be careful and apply steady pressure.

  MP Megatron is truly a Masterpiece.  He has the G1 look perfected, down to the last detail.  While he may be tedious to transform, the final result is reportedly satisfying (hopefully my weekend will be slow enough for me to attempt it).  Take care to read the instructions, and either be extra careful with the silencer or resign to making some minor modifications to ensure you don’t get scratches on the nice paint on the barrel.  In summation, this is the G1 animation Megatron you have been looking for since your childhood…don’t mess him up.

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MP-36 Megatron Gallery! MP-36.  Cartoon Megatron in Masterpiece form.  I have waited my entire life to own the perfect embodiment of the insane leader of the Decepticons.