#must be a product of all the childhood road trips down the east coast

[franklins-leg]

Honestly a level of radio quality that I will accept on road trips in order to avoid looking for a new station for an additional five minutes

[aeonmagnus]

Happy 20th Anniversary Robots In Disguise!

This year, and today in particular, marks the 20-year anniversary of Transformers Robots in Disguise airing in the United States.  This was the official English language dub of the Japanese show Transformers Car Robots, which aired in Japan the year before.   This show and it’s accompanying toy line were a big shift in the Transformers brand and affected how things moved forward in the new millennium.  It was also a big influence on me and this website in it’s early years, so both the brand and TFW2005 may not be what it is today without it.

We hope you will read on after the break to check out our celebration of Robots in Disguise on it’s 20th!

Intro

The following is not a comprehensive article on the show proper, but rather a trip down memory lane from my personal perspective.  It was a period of change in my life, in the fandom, in the brand, and in the world – all happening at once.  Robots in Disguise was smack dab in the middle of it all and I think that’s why it still resonates with me all these years later.  For a deeper dive into the world of Robots In Disguise you can check RIDForever.info, a site I maintain just about RID and Car Robots. The 2021 updates are here, and the 2017 round of updates are here.  I’d also suggest checking the TFWe issue all about RID over on the 2005 Boards.  Now, onto today’s festivities…

The Show

RID, and yes I say RID as if it is the only RID.  If you must reference that other RID show and it’s off-shoots, refer to it as RID 201x, thanks. 😊 RID aired during the Fox Kids programming block on a Saturday morning, with additional episodes set to air each weekday during the afternoon hours.  Instead of stretching the show out over the course of 30+ weeks with only a new ep each weekend, they were going to blaze through it non-stop.  By the end of the first week, we would have been 7 eps in.  That however hit a big roadblock due to 9/11 just three days later.  While some local markets did air the episodes, many larger city networks, and especially east coast markets, stuck with news coverage.   Many of us did not catch the early episodes on TV the first go around.  In addition, several of the episodes got pulled from TV due to depictions of buildings being destroyed and other similar visuals which understandably could upset children that just experienced 9/11.  So right off the bat, the new millennium and new era of Transformers were dealing with a new reality.

The show, for those that don’t know – was a weird one-off in Transformers history.  We had G1 and then the G2 remixes for a bit.  Beast Wars came on the scene and ran all the way through 2000 with it’s successor – Beast Machines.   During the Beast Wars era – Japan did a couple of their own Beast Wars shows, non-CGI extensions of what we saw in the US.   Their market wasn’t quite ready for full CGI so they stuck with traditional anime.  When Hasbro decided to continue Beast Wars into Beast Machines, Takara went a completely different way – a traditional animated show which brought back Autobots and “Decepticons”, mixing them in with the beasts.  They focused the toys on a couple new and complex molds, then filled the rest of the line with repaints of previous toys.  Old 2nd tier Beast Wars toys, G2 Laser Prime, and even some Generation 1 molds in the form of the Combaticons got new life as new characters in this show, capped with the biggest TF of them all at the time – a repainted G1 Fortress Maximus, now Brave Maximus.  It was the prototype for what the Transformers brand did for years to come – repainting old toys into new characters.  Universe, Classics, Botcon, and even some Generations runs used this method to give us some great toys in the 00s.

While there is a very complicated and long explanation for how every single Japanese show is one continuity, to someone casually starting with Car Robots it was a refresh, a new story, a new arrival on Earth.  The Autobots vs the Predacons, and eventually the Combatrons/Decepticons. It was a hard cut from the last 5 years or so of CGI Beasts.  Hand drawn traditional animation featuring vehicle Transformers.  It wasn’t G1, but many of the folks who grew up with G1 were just getting out of college around this time.  They were rediscovering their childhood love of Transformers through Beast Wars, flea market finds, raids on their parents’ attics and basements, and for the internet savvy – imports of Japanese reissues from Takara.  It was a perfect storm of nostalgia; a return to Autobots and Decepticons was welcomed by kids and adults alike.

RID and TFW2005

In the years leading up to Car Robots, I was just getting into the internet, coding, design, some digital music, and all the possibility that came with it.  Beast Wars, especially when it hit Season 2/3 and the inclusion of G1 lore, really got me focusing on Transformers again as a hobby.  I eventually combined the two newfound hobbies into one and Transformer World 2005 was born.  At no point did I ever think it would last 20+ years and take over my life in the way it did.  I started the full version of TFW2005 around April 2000, with some starts and stops before that.  That was right around when Car Robots started airing in Japan.  Through the magic of 56k internet, I was able to connect with folks in Japan and get them to send me VHS tapes of Car Robots.  Really nice, high-quality tapes too, I still have them hehe.  To the younglings reading – try to picture this: no youtube, no video sharing. The concept of streaming anything did not exist yet. Napster and the eventual peer to peer stuff hadn’t fully kicked off.  Plus, we were all viewing the internet on giant computers in our rooms at the speed of 1x on your phone.  Less than 1 bar 3G mobile speeds today.

Yes, someone recorded episodes from TV to video tape over there, did that a couple weeks at a time, then physically mailed them across the world to me, who then got them on the internet.  Can you imagine waiting weeks to watch an episode of TV the size of a twitter profile avatar?  Crazy.  Uploading a full episode to the internet was a big pain in the ass, not easily done.  I decided to get a converter that allowed me to plug my VCR into the computer and encode the tape into digital format.  From there, it was reduced using Microsoft’s WMV technology so that the episodes were about 5 MB each.  30 minute episodes at 5MB each. Dimensions – 176 x 144 pixels.  4k video today – 3840 x 2160 pixels.  You can imagine that video looked like crap.  But we didn’t care – we were blown away.  Old school animation, vehicles, some cool Japanese anime vibes, it was what we as G1 fans kinda had in the back of our heads on what Transformers should be in a new era, and we were seeing it.  Most of us had no clue what they were saying or what was going on.  Also didn’t care.  I still to this day think CR/RID is better like that.

So one of the first things TFW2005 did on the internet was provide these super small windows into Car Robots and what was going on in Japan. It helped get US fans hyped up for what Transformers could be. It got us wanting the toys, and importers bringing the Takara toy line over were moving serious product.  It helped swing Hasbro, who was planning to return to Autobots and Decepticons again down the road, to move that schedule up.  Instead of running Beast Machines until 2002 and then starting what we now know as the Unicron Trilogy, it was cut short.  Robots in Disguise as a toy line and show came over in 2001, ran fast and hard for a year with non stop releases, got extended because it did so well, and then faded into the Universe line of repaints.  The new millennium of Transformers was here and Robot In Disguise kicked it off with a bang.

Wrap Up

As we all continue with collecting Transformers now, regardless if you tagged into the fandom during G1, Beasties, the Unicron Trilogy, the Movies, or just yesterday – let’s take the time to give Car Robots and RID some props!  It set the tone for what the new millennium of the brand would be.  It gave us some toys ahead of their time.  It solidified the repaint as an accepted thing in the hobby. And it gave us one crazy 39 episode run of TV that’s still a fun ride 20 years later.

For those that would like to learn more about RID and Car Robots – I still maintain a Robots in Disguise website that archives everything I have or came across.  There is a lot there if you want to go on a tour of all the awesome Car Robots and Robots In Disguise era stuff.  Check it out at RIDFOREVER.INFO! FIYAH!

Let us know what you think and remember from the good old days of RID on the 2005 Boards here!

Epilogue

If someone over there at Hasbro is reading – can someone please figure out who owns the rights to the show in the US market and then get it out on DVD in full, finally?  Work all that funky licensing stuff out (if there is any) and get it done.  The US has never had access to it via an official release.  Maybe get it up on YouTube like G1?  Something.  Announcing plans for that before the end of 2021 would be a nice 20th anniversary tribute.

[businessliveme]

Here’s the Right Way to Plan Iceland Trip

Icelanders like to joke that during the course of their adulthood they’ll have no less than seven careers—oftentimes two at once. In fact, being busy is such a part of the national identity, Icelanders’ most common greeting roughly translates to: “So, busy as always?”

For Herdis Fridriksdottir, who left a career in education to get busier working in tourism, the answer isn’t just “yes.” It’s “more than ever.”

Since 2012, Iceland’s visitor numbers have been growing an average of 32 percent each year. The country gets seven visitors for every local, with travel now contributing more than 10 percent to gross domestic product, making it Iceland’s largest economic sector.

If “overtourism” has become a red flag for the global travel industry, Iceland is a prime example. Some sites are at risk of closing, or have closed, like Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon featured in a Justin Bieber music video. (Even if tourism numbers are forecast to drop by about 16 percent in 2019 after the recent bankruptcy of Wow Air.)

That is, of course, if you’re going where everyone else goes.

“People feel that all of Iceland is crowded … but that’s like saying a rock concert is fully booked when there are 50 people in the front row and no one in the back,” says Runar Karlsson, head guide for Borea Adventures, one of a handful of outfitters helping to redistribute tourist traffic to the country’s less-known corners. Rather than have his visitors bolt up in pricey Reykjavik hotels and crowd around the Golden Circle on day trips, he focuses on Iceland’s stunning Westfjords, which receives only 12 percent of the country’s peak-season tourist traffic.

So if you don’t also want to fall into what Karlsson characterizes as influencer-inspired Instagram bucket lists (Bieber, again) and the lopsided marketing of a handful of key sites, here’s how to do Iceland right.

Instead of focusing on landscapes, focus on locals

“Four years ago, Instagram had 800,000 photos with the Iceland hashtag,” says Gunnar Gunnarsson, a professional photographer who focuses on Iceland’s frigid landscapes. “Today that number is over 12 million.” He says it’s the result of cash-poor operators and freebie-seeking influencers creating an arbitrary (and sometimes destructive) echo chamber of “Insta-famous” and “must-visit” sites.

All this overlooks Iceland’s delightfully quirky culture. The people you meet here can be just as memorable as those ethereal fjords—and Fridriksdottir’s family-run business, Understand Iceland, is making a name for itself by setting up culturally immersive adventures, such as dying wool and knitting with village women.

Instead of international white-glove operators, support small businesses

Even though most white-glove travel agencies use the same inbound operators to source their “exclusive” experiences, small Icelandic tourism outfits are surprisingly high-quality and easy to reach online. The only catch is that they’re often buried under a few pages of Google search results.

Take Midgard Adventure, a mountaineering company based in the unassuming southern township of Hvolsvollur. Book its Super Jeep tour of the Icelandic outback’s hidden gorges and glaciers, and you may well end up at your guide’s house for lamb stew.

Additionally, both Local Guide and From Coast to Mountain deliver on their names, focusing on staffers’ childhood favorite sites such as the great ice caves of Vatnajokull National Park. The Wilderness Centre also tops many insiders’ lists for its unique hikes, which can culminate at one-of-a-kind accommodations such as traditional turf homes from the early 1800s.

Instead of transferring to Reykjavik, go south

Though few first-timers realize it, most flights to Iceland land in Keflavik, an hour southwest of the country’s biggest city. About that: Reykjavik is roughly the same size as Rochester, Minn. It’s charming, but skippable.

If seeing the capital is non-negotiable, cap your time there at 25 percent of your visit. Otherwise, head straight to the south coast, where you can stay in contemporary chalets, chic farmhouses, and small hotels. “Most of the tourists I see spend four, five, even six hours a day driving to and from Reykjavik to walk on the glacier at Solheimajokull or visit the lagoon at Jokulsarlon. It completely baffles me,” says Icelandic expedition leader Sigurdur Bjarni Sveinsson. Plus, when you’re based in the countryside, you don’t need to sign up for a northern lights tour—you can just look out the window.

Instead of dining in the capital, eat in the countryside

“The eastern region has really started to come into its own as a culinary destination,” says Carolyn Bain, co-author of the Lonely Planet guide to Iceland. Case in point: Kari Thorsteinsson, the chef de cuisine at Dill in Reykjavik, the first restaurant in Iceland to receive a Michelin star, is about to open a new concept in Egilsstadir that will focus on local product and wild game. The area is also home to restaurants such as Skriduklaustur and its haute twists on Icelandic home cooking, the Japanese-inspired Nord Austur, and Vallanes, which sources high-quality grains and more than 80 varieties of vegetables from its own farm.

Instead of Gullfoss, choose any other waterfall

A photo of Gullfoss, or “Gold Waterfall,” aptly positioned along the Golden Circle, is one of the snaps most tourists are compelled to tick off their bucket lists, despite the fact that there are over 10,000 chutes scattered around the country. Two worth prioritizing are the bundt cake-shaped Dynjandi in the Westfjords and Aldeyjarfoss, with its organ-pipe basalt columns; they see a fraction of Gullfoss’s tourist traffic and are just as photogenic, if not more so.

Instead of Blue Lagoon, visit the Retreat

There’s a certain Disneyland quality to Blue Lagoon, Iceland’s famous silica-rich swimming experience. An entrepreneur’s vision turned the boiling runoff from a geothermal power station into what’s now essentially an expensive, scenic bath with a swim-up bar (entrance starts at $59). It’s so popular, it’s inspired similar commodified experiences at Fontana hot springs and the (not-so-) Secret Lagoon.

If you’re dead set on checking out the main attraction, beat the crowds by booking into Iceland’s only true five-star hotel, a Brutalist enclave of graciously appointed rooms called the Retreat. Its sprawling spa offers access to a private portion of the Blue Lagoon, the restaurant has an expansive wine cellar, and its guides take guests on tailor-made outings through mossy fields and jagged beaches nearby.

Another approach: Head to one of Iceland’s many dramatically sited municipal pools, like Hofsos in the north or Seladalur in the east. Both are filled with soothing, mineral-rich spring water and command an entry fee of less than $9.

Instead of planning a long layover near the airport, fly farther afield

IcelandAir’s free extended layover program has been a huge contributor to the country’s tourism growth. But short stays needn’t be kept to a tight radius of the airport—particularly now that ample domestic flights have made it easy to get to the remote northeast in just 45 minutes. Here’s the long weekend itinerary, doable either as a series of guided day trips or as a self-guided road trip.

Carve a triangle from Akureyri over to Myvatn’s bizarre collection of earthen anomalies (alien lava fields, volcanic craters, and steaming earth), then up to the adorable port village of Husavik for whale watching. If you have a pinch of extra time, tack on the verdant canyons of Asbyrgi or the waterfall at Dettifoss—Europe’s largest by volume.

Instead of the Ring Road, do the Western Loop

Iceland’s Ring Road is one of the most popular circuits for travelers, largely because it’s well-paved and forms a neat circle around most of the country’s perimeter. However, there’s a quieter and far more picturesque way to see the island in the same amount of time—at least eight days if you want to step foot outside your vehicle.

Iceland’s Western Loop – Google My Maps

This Western Loop, as we’re dubbing it, follows the fjordlets along the western coastline up from Reykjavik, past Borgarnes, through the Snaefellsnes peninsula, across Breidafjordur’s 3,000 islands by ferry, then up into the Westfjords where dramatic, lobster claw-like outcrops snip away at the Arctic Circle. You’ll pass tiny fishing villages tucked under towering, glacially hewn mountain passes all the way to Isafjordur, where you can launch day and overnight trips into the wild Hornstrandir Reserve, home to roving arctic foxes and riotous bird colonies. Follow the craggy coast to Holmavik, where you can use a small portion of the Ring Road to close the gap back toward Reykjavik through the Golden Circle.

Conveniently, the circuit showcases some of Iceland’s best accommodations and cultural attractions, such as boutique digs in an old merchant’s home, an arctic mammal research center, and private cottages on a working ranch.

Instead of shoulder season, go in November

The most obvious way to avoid crowds anywhere is to travel during shoulder season. But in Iceland, even the tail end of summer has become swollen with booked-out hotels. This makes a strong case for visiting in the statistically quietest month: November.

Don’t shudder thinking about the weather. Iceland never promises sunshine—even in summer (it’s like that Vanessa Williams lyric, “sometimes the snow comes down in June”).

And if you’re not going to get great weather regardless, you might as well get a different perk: great lighting. Says Gunnarsson of the six or so hours the sun is up, “At the end of the year, you have a constant ‘golden hour’ glow. It’s perfect for photography.”

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