#i was originally going to do three more robots but i think that would've messed with the composition lmao

[depenndable]

[elfmoon3]

The Hollowed Woods (Transformers Animated story)

Pairings: Prowl x Oc, Bumblebee x Oc, Oc x Oc

Summary: As Halloween arrives, sightings of a tall creature have the Autobots' attention.

In the forest near the Mansion of Unknown, Meagan was walking on a path as she was heading back towards the mansion. However, she felt like she was being watched as she reached the backdoor. She turned around to see nothing, but she still felt like she was being observed. She sighed as she went inside.

Later at the Autobot Hideout, the Autobots and the agents of The Unknown Agency got notified by Captain Fanzone about weird sightings of an entity that he thinks they'd be interested in. "A tall humanoid?" Bumblebee asked, "Captain Fanzone said that he didn't know if it was a creature or if it was a decepticon wondering around. But if I could remember from the height description, it might not be a decepticon at all." Optimus said as Meagan looked through the reports, and her eyes got wide. "I think I know who this thing is." She said as she remembered a mission from her teenage years. "Ok, then what are we dealing with?" Bumblebee asked as she looked at him. "Slenderman." She said as she explained about who and what Slenderman is. A tall, faceless being who was originally known for taking people away to do who knows what to them. She even told them that children are his favorite targets. "Now that's alarming!" Bumblebee said as he didn't know what this thing might do to Cybertronians. "And with it being Halloween, he might be more active. We gotta go find him." Meagan said as Shadow Mist transformed into her vehicle mode. Meagan looked at her fellow agents and picked a few agents who were willing to go on the search for the tall creature.

While one group of the team searches the city, Meagan's group goes to the forest where Slenderman would most likely be. "So, how'd you know about this creature?" Prowl asked, Meagan sighs, "He saved me once. Despite his reputation for being a monster, he can be merciful to those he sees as a person of interest." She explained. She told them the story of how she met Slenderman during a mission from The Unknown Agency when she was sixteen. "He saved you from being attacked by something else that would've tore you to shreds? Wow!" Bumblebee yelled in shock. "By giving me his blood. But somehow, we're still connected in a way." She said as she felt that same feeling she felt earlier. "Stop!" She yelled as they stopped in a clearing. The group noticed a tree that was not like the others in the clearing, and standing in front of it was a tall figure with no face and wearing a suit. "Is that the creature?" Shadow Mist asked as Meagan got off her. Slenderman stared at them as the three Autobots transformed into their robot modes. Meagan got closer with no fear of him. "It's been a while, Slendy. What brings you to Detroit?" She asked him as the creature spoke despite not having a mouth. "I came with a dire message from The Order. They are concerned about the odd energy around the world." He said as Meagan sighed. "And they want The Unknown Agency to deal with it?" She asked him as he nodded. Bumblebee wanted to get closer, but everything he did, his optics get static. "Don't get close to him, Bumblebee. Slenderman has an ability that can mess with technology. That includes Cybertronians." Meagan explained as Bumblebee backed away. "I see you've made some interesting friends during your time here." Slenderman said as the weird tree opens a portal. "I must return to my world. Have a happy Halloween, Meagan." He said as he entered the portal, and it closed. Prowl's comlink soon heard Optimus said that they should return to the Hideout.

Back at the Hideout, Meagan reported to Director Mavis on the phone about what Slenderman told her. "If The Order is concerned about the strange things going on in the world, then we should investigate it before things get worse. I advise you to stay in Detroit since weird things are going on there, also. Good luck, and have a happy Halloween." Director Mavis said as she hung up. Meagan sighed as she was going to be super busy with this mission.

The End!

(Creepypasta meets Transformers is the only idea I have today. Happy Halloween, everyone.)

[blueskyscribe]

Beast Machines: Some Observations on Toys

So I think most TF fans have some notion of the usual arguments about BM (the BW characters being out of character, etc), no matter which side of the argument you fall on.

But I would like to point out how weird BM was as a show tied to a toyline.

The Toys for the Leaders

These were the toys for BM Optimus Primal and Megatron:

Optimus' figure was small and not show-accurate and was one of the weakest BM figures for its price point.

Megatron was even worse. He was TINY (but they sold him at the pricepoint of a bigger toy lololol) and just . . . bad. Look at that dragon tail just hanging off his elbow.

Megatron is supposed to be the Big Bad of the show!! If they didn't want to make a new, big mold for him then why not recolor his final Beast Wars toy (the huge dragon) and sell that again? "Oh dear, I hate my organic dragon form. Buuuut look how rad it looks now that it's silver and black."

You might be thinking, "Wait a minute, I've seen a big, cool toy of Primal that looks just like he did on BM. And I've seen a toy of Megatron as a head-spaceship."

Those toys exist, and they are cool. But they're not Beast Machines toys. They were sold in the Robots in Disguise (2001) line, which came after BM.

The point of a show like Beast Machines is "Child sees character on TV, immediately begs parent to buy representative toy". Not "Child sees character on TV, begs parent to buy a representative toy in three years after show is over."

No Size Consistency

Listen, I don't think the toys need to exactly match the show characters. But I think it's very weird that Nightscream, the bat, ONLY had an Ultra size toy. That's huge compared to his size on the show.

My other main issue, Megatron and Optimus having dinky toys, I've already touched on.

They Skipped the Dinosaurs

Did you know there were Beast Machines Dinobots? No, not Dinobot, the BW character, but Dinobots, like a faction. Their backcards explained that they were formatted using memories / data provided by Dinobot's spark. So it was like Dinobot was reaching out from the afterlife to help his friends.

First, that's a cool and touching idea. Second, they were awesome toys THAT WERE DINOSAURS and yet were never in the show. Even though kids love dinosaurs.

I can't believe we missed out on surprised Pachycephalosaurus with pop-up head.

The Dinobot leader was a repaint of original BW Megatron, which could've played into the whole "BM Megatron hates beast modes now", like he'd be personally enraged to see that. Also, a lot of these could easily have been adapted from BW character models.

The New Guys Deserved Better

There was no way every toy-character could / should be in the show. (It didn't happen in Beast Wars either.) That would be way too many assets and too many bots to characterize well. So I understand why we just had a small crew of heroes fighting Megatron and the Vehicons.

But maaaan, I wish we'd had different heroes from what we got.

First, it would've sidestepped all the "Are the BM bots out of character?" debates. (The answer is yes, btw.) Second, I just think it would've been nice to get to know new characters. Third, a lot of coolest toys never got any screentime.

Silverbolt, who had the worst BM toy, with his head peering out of his crotch in bird mode and wings that looked like a stupid cape, got to be in the show.

But not this cool bull.

Or this cool snake.

Or this cool UNICORN.

Just . . . what a waste.

What I Would've Done

Okay, so here's what I would've done if I had to keep the general premise (the Big Bad has taken over Cybertron and only a plucky group of survivors can defeat him and his Vehicons.)

1. The Big Bad would be Nightscream. This is so obvious it blows my mind. His toy is huge and bats freak out a lot of people. Just change his robot-mode head so it looks villainous instead of emo.

His motivation wouldn't be related to organics, it would be something like . . . he's siphoning off the energy from Cybertronians' sparks to become a god or summon Unicron--you know, anime bullshit.

2. Nightscream has taken over Cybertron via some kind of electrical macguffin, like a stasis grid that covers the planet or something. TFs are lying around the streets in permanent stasis.

But then! Optimus Primal & crew (with Megatron tied to the roof) literally crash into the planet. The crash disrupts the grid in a small area and some TFs awaken from stasis. They start exchanging info with the BW crew. Their sparks are so weak that they have to be transferred to new bodies to re-energize them, so the BW crew uses the protoform pods from Earth--which have been pre-programmed with an encyclopedia of Earth animals, which is how they get beast modes.

But then the stasis grid is put online again. A handful of Cybertronians escape--mostly new guys, but maybe one or two of the BW Maximals. Megatron also escapes.

Maybe over the course of the show more BW characters are rescued and added to the cast. But mostly it's focused on these new guys.

3. I would have half the new guys be Maximals and half be Predacons, for some inter-faction tension. (And ROMANCE?!?!) Nevertheless everyone knows they have to work together to defeat Nightscream.

4. If they really want to sell the crappy tiny Megatron toy, they could have him try to cut a deal with Nightscream, but then Nightscream backstabs him and dumps him in the mini body to mock him, idk.

5. After that Megatron decides he's really going to give it his all to defeat Nightscream. And he decides the way to do this is to clone Dinobot, because he LOVES cloning Dinobot. So he tries, but instead creates these other dinosaur robots. They have Dinobot's independent streak, so they flip Megatron the bird and leave.

6. The Dinobots are also trying to stop Nightscream, but they're constantly messing up the plans of the Predacon/Maximal group, and vice versa.

7. But in the end the good guys win. And they sell a lot of toys.