#tf howlback

[raringooo]

Workin on Soundblaster for a server I’m in! He is heavily HEAVILY inspired by blueey-jayzilla’s design and is purely just for like fun roleplay with friends

[blighted-lights]

u can trust that i am always thinking of these three all of the time every day btw. more cassette designs to come!

[lovinglonerhybrid]

you should say more on your tfp and ll/mtmte mashup thing :3

Always happy to expand on a topic. 😊

Anyway after meeting jacks (extended) family Miko and raf confront their friend. Jack with permission from his mom shows the others that he is infact a cybertronion cassette. Miko thinks this is so cool especially after Jack introduces her to percepter,drift,whirl, and Rodimus who she inevitably bugs for wrecker story’s. Raf is introduced to first aid and ratchet who is a lot happier here. At dinner time the two meet back at Soundwave house and are introduced to rumble and frenzy rat bat and the bird twins. Ravage and howlback are introduced by June who is actually Glit. As the dinner progresses they find out how all these bots where brought to this dimension (it’s brainstorms fault) and that they can’t return home.

I have more ideas but I’m on my lunch break and am almost out of time.😅

[pluralsword]

ID: A meme using Arial font in white with black at the top and bottom for the text, with Transformers comic and cartoon images, tfwiki text, and/or dialogue focused on Arcee, Aileron, Greenlight, Gauge, Marissa Faireborn, Holiday, Lofty, Anode, Lug, Nautica, the Mistress of Flame, Windblade, Bumblebee, Optimus Prime, Starscream, Howlback, Archadis, Overlord, Nightshade, and Mo Malto, specifically dialogue or actions about transness and/or aesthetic actuation, same gender love, pronouns, gender terminology, playing music, joy, smooching, love, survival, family, medical issues, poverty, value of aesthetic journey in spiritual reforging terms, and criticism/opposition to empire and hegemony.

The meme text reads:

You [(Transformers) fanfic] writer:

Are you normal about trans/expansive people & how our stories are unique?

End ID.

(Please note regarding the image dialogue that Bumblebee and Starscream are not trans canonically yet because of how IDW1 works but nonetheless their stories are uh, not at all standard to the human cisgender experience lmao)

Image sources are: TFWiki Ask Vector Prime Facebook archives for December 23rd 2015, The Transformers #44, “The Transgressors”, The Transformers #50, “All Hail Optimus Part 1: Once Upon a Time on Earth”, The Transformers: Lost Light #2, “Dissolution Part 2: Anomie”, The Transformers: Lost Light #8, “An Axe to Break the Ice”,  The Transformers: Till All Are One #12, “Your First Mistake”, Optimus Prime #16, “The Falling Chapter 2: Another Mine”, The Transformers Lost Light #17, “The Everlasting Voices 2: The God War”, Transformers: Unicron #4, “Road’s End”,  Optimus Prime #24, “A Sunrise Dark”, The Transformers Lost Light #24, “Crucible (Part 6): A Spark Among Embers”, Optimus Prime #25, “Post”, Synergy: A Hasbro Creators Showcase, "An Arcee Sort of Day" (Arcee’s comic is also findable in Transformers: Best of the Rarities),  My Little Pony/Transformers: The Magic of Cybertron #1 “A Real Mother,” Transformers #38, “Darkness, Once Gazed Upon: Part Two”, and Transformers: Earthspark episode 10, “Age of Evolution, Part 2.”

[queen-of-heretics]

Costum Howlback in progress

[chamm0y]

Shockwave bonding and falling asleep with his babies sitting on his lap while Soundwave spies on them 👀👀👀

he tried

i promise i was about to draw soundwave spying on them but one of these thingies exploded on my street and have no electricity as of now 🤧

fortunately i kept these panels on my phone but the quality is uh bad i apologize

[ravage-tf]

To Glitt: what's the worst thing to hear in an operating room?

[tfdaycare]

Okay, things have settled and we need to post something cute. Thankfully, Soundwave and Blaster in our universe have given us a picture of their youngest kids who are barely two years old. So here they are!

These are seven of their eleven kids. Aren’t they just precious? They stay docked most of the time since they’re so little and young, it’s for their own safety but when they are allowed out they cause so much silly mischief!

Also, because we know people will ask, Frenzy’s the purple one, Rumble’s the red one.

[iloveyoubecauseyouarelove]

Pspsps i drew Howlback and she's on Pillowfort

[cleverthylacine]

Japanese G1 continuity is absolutely not normal about girls but damned if they don't give us some of the best ones

There was a significant amount of Transformers continuity released between 1987 and around 2007 that was produced in Japanese and is really only known to most English-speaking fans through fansubs, dubs that were only released in Australia, and the like. Shows like Headmasters, Victory, and Zone. Manga like Victory and 15 Go Go Go Teletraan (which was really mostly Kiss Players). Radio shows like Kiss Players.

I'm gonna be super up front. Japanese G1 is not normal about femmes in any way, shape or form. At the same time, it gave us some of the BEST and most underused female characters in the Transformers universe.

Headmasters, which came out right after the US G1 show ended, is particularly egregious. In Headmasters, Arcee has been reduced to Fort Max's administrative assistant, uses ridiculously polite and subservient language, and is also the only medic. And being a medic would be kind of badass if they let her be as badass as Ratchet, you know? But they absolutely do not.

Also, in Headmasters, Carly (now married to Spike) allows her son--a freaking child, not even a teenager--to go on missions when Spike can't and a human is needed, because uh, for some reason it's better for a 12 year old boy to go, not an adult woman?

But most of the good femmes don't come from Headmasters. And some of the best femmes we have are from Japanese G1.

Super-God Masterforce made it up to us by giving gave us Minerva, a human girl who is a Headmaster with a robot body (transtector) making her basically a bad ass mecha pilot, and who actively does fight.

The Victory manga gives us Esmeral, Deathsaurus' incredibly classy wife, and Lyzack, Leozack's twin sister, who is in charge of defending the homefront but really does want to go out and fight. Illumina appears in both the Victory manga and the anime. She's a little human girl who has a crush on Jan Minakaze and is always trying to get people to choose nonviolence.

(Lyzack later appears in an English-language comic - the Wings Universe--wherein she's basically Deathsaurus' servant and Starscream hits on her. I don't like that.)

There are a number of great femmes who were only ever toys. The Cobalt Sentries set gave us Howlback, leader of the Decepticon military police (called the Cobalt Sentries). She is basically Ravage's twin sister but instead of being super stealthy she can turn your attacks right back on you.

(Later she appears in several English language comics and in at least one she is canonically trans. I'm not a fan of her depiction in the SG Recordicons Batman tribute arc, though.)

The Unite Warriors toyline - Takara's response to Combiner Wars, basically - gave us the combiner Megatronia, made up of Megaempress, and her four guards, Lunaclub (sometimes called Luna Clover or Luna Trefle), Flowspade, Moonheart, and Trickdiamond. They are incredibly awesome.

(IDW 2019 used Trickdiamond, but none of the others. Tricky was one of Swindle's contacts.)

Then there's the elephant in the room that everyone pretends isn't there...Kiss Players.

So, okay. There is nothing normal about Kiss Players whatsoever. On the other hand, I'd rather listen to KP than watch RID2015 which is just blatant copaganda from hell.

Kiss Players had an interesting plot involving little bits of Galvatron and Unicron getting into humans and creating the Kiss Players--humans who could give TFs a powerup by kissing them and then merging with their internals somehow. Then there are the Legions, the dick-tongued monsters that everyone who hasn't actually listend to the show or read the manga thinks are Megatron.

The dick-tongued monsters are gross. It is also gross that some of the Kiss Players are barely teenagers and definitely not adults and are constantly ending up in Situations.

But the plot centres around the apparent rise of Convoy, or Optimus, from the dead, and his transformation into a weird groomery dude, which many people don't understand there was an actual reason for, because it's not Optimus, it's someone else riding around in his body.

Melissa Faireborn is like if you chopped Marissa Faireborn's IQ in half, dyed her hair blond and threw out any pants or skirts that covered her knees. She is nothing like Marissa and I treat them as cousins, but Xiaoxiao Li is amazing and her real lover.

Anyhow, this female scientist (Dr Amaou) lost her mind over the loss of her daughter during the events of the 1986 movie et sequelae, and she's got to be stopped from turning Atari and her Autorooper robot pal into a permanent fusion to reincarnate her daughter Shizuku (whom for some reason I always want to call Setsuna instead).

It's a little confusing because most of the really good parts of the plot got jammed into a few episodes near the end of the season, although once you know what it is, it's clear that it's being set up. That artist just likes borderline lolicon way too much.

The second season of KP is very squeaky clean and sends the girls out to collect what they think are Allspark fragments, and they are very annoyed because Ravage, whom they call "black panther man" keeps getting in their way and fucking with them, only to later find out that the bots who gave them this task are Unicronian heralds and Ravage is trying to stop them from helping Unicron do what Unicron does.

Rosanna, everyone's favourite robot pop idol, comes from the second season of KP, although you don't see very much of her or her companions Glit and Sundor.

Incidentally KP sets up the Unicron Trilogy and some of its characters end up in the UT--which did come to the US, and gave us Alexis Thi Dang.

(This post is brought to you because I just wrote an Esmeral thing and someone was musing separately about Megaempress as a parent and I almost ended up writing this post while reblogging them, because I'm a nerd with a hyperfixation).

[blighted-lights]

canon howlback:

howlback, according to @mohavegecko:

[polyhexian]

Can I ask you to show us all your tf holy grail of toys you have? Or like super rare ones?

Your collection is so cool

CAN you? You know I'll take any opportunity to talk about my collection

Also you gotta remember there's a difference between RARE and EXPENSIVE lol. I have other expensive things. And also rarer stuff but. Grails are favourites.

I'll start with the best. Mg G1 Minerva and my G1 star saber. There's over 500 dollars of market value in this image LOL.

These guys because of the difficulty of acquisition. These are exclusive to China. When I got the one on the left I genuinely might have been the only person in North America to own one LMFAO. I'm certainly not now but when I got it I literally had neeeeever seen a north American who owned one.

Lots of awesome stuff here front and center. My ehobby and Mmc rosannas, my Mmc Howlback. My bootiful girl Optimus. My ripclaw and iron factory arcee in the corner. I adore iron factory figures even if they're not super expensive. Ripclaw is like. A $10 figure but I just fucking love it lol

These lovely ladies are numbered

My APC airachnid! I fucking love APC. They understand me.

And finally, what everyone knows my favourite is lol. My lovely UK magazine whirl jr, now aurographed

Oh, god, dammit, I keep forgetting because it's not actually a toy, but

My hard copy of eugenesis lol! Which, Christ. What is THAT fucking thing worth these days. We all know what the last one sold for, but the fact that was for charity and sooo public makes it a little messier. Is that the real market value?? Hmmmm

Oh and just my old zines in general

[transingthoseformers]

TF Surge: Howlback could be average size instead of a minibot, to help set her apart from Ravage.

On the other hand, a powerful and feared secret police leader being tiny....

That would be so fun, but you're probably right

[queen-of-heretics]

Costum Howlback in progress

[pluralsword]

Bots helping out trans transformers - yes, all the circumstances depicted in this context are derivable from canon at this point. Also a post about part of how we got deep into transformers after watching Cyberverse, learning about trans ones, and the value of the stories. The thoughts are after the image IDs.

ID 1 of 4: A diorama of toy transformers on a trans flag floor in front of a sci-fi polity backdrop. On the bunk lying down is a IDW1 Arcee with her right hand raised in enthusiasm. Her left hand is held by PRID Arcee, who is also holding an energon goods box near her counterpart while turning to look to her left, as is Anode next to Lug, in turn near BBM, ER, IDW2, and Energon Arcees doing the same. Three medics are standing around PRID Arcee: BBM Ratchet with a hand to his head an MP Ratchet medical arm out his back, Minerva with an arm around him & clenching a wrench, & a custom Velocity sticking a cylindrical accessory into IDW1 Arcee's back stack as if a syringe. That Arcee has a cable running into her back. her sword hilts, a rifle, a red jetpack, & her old Spotlight Arcee back stacks by the bunk. In front is S86 Arcee with a sword over her shoulder & holding Jhiaxus's head, while Q-TF Arcee holds his rifle. Road Rage, Sideswipe, Chromia, & Animated Arcee block the entry of Ultra Magnus. End ID.

ID 2 of 4: On the same background as before is a diorama with boxes and books assembled to resemble two small apartment homes. A door made out of a sketchpaper cardboard cover is open to the apartment on the left, with a custom Velocity (from TR Blurr) standing in the doorway. Ahead of her to the right is a custom Nautica (from WFC Chromia) being embraced by a custom Lug (from TR Rewind) while a custom Anode (from RID15 Warrior Windblade) has her hands raised in excitement. Behind her IDW2 Arcee (from WFC Nightbird) shares an embrace with WFC Greenlight while the two have arms outstretched looking at the open home. Jetpack and prime armor accessories are at the feet of Lug, Anode, Arcee, and Greenlight, imitating luggage, and Anode has a fusion cannon firing chamber/grip stored in her back turbine, also imitating luggage of a sort. End ID.

ID 3 of 4: On the same backdrop with no additional structures are just some transformer toys. To the left is PotP Elita with and TR Overlord with arms on the hips or hanging to the side, and Origins Bumblebee waving. The three are watching with pride as BW Archadis and WFC Vertebreak run towards each other, WFC Acid Storm shares an embrace with Ion Storm and Nova Storm, and BBM Soundwave hugs a BBM Howlback who has leaped onto him, head and front legs on his shoulders. Gathered by those last two are BBM Buzzsaw sitting in bird mode, BBM Ravage sitting on back legs with jaws open in a howl, and BBM Frenzy waving back at Bumblebee. End ID.

ID 4 of 4: On the same trans flag and polityscape background as before, a tense situation is depicted with a transformer diorama. On the left side from back to front is Cheetor holding the Allspark & a sword, Legacy Prime Arcee holding the Omega Lock, & the Forge of Solus Prime is seen raised by a barely visible Smokescreen, standing behind the next row of bots: Legacy Bulkhead with his mace & rotary blaster out, FoC Jazz w/ a pistol raised, & Universe Tread Bolt with shoulder cannons up & his blaster over his shoulders. Next up are S86 Rodimus with a pistol and a blast effect lit Matrix, Siege Rung, WFC Airazor, a Mistress of Flame w/ hammer, IDW1 Arcee w/ swords, & CW Pyra Magna with her ax. Last in front are Cyberverse deluxe Grimlock in Trex mode, and TR Windblade holding the T30 Stormfall sword. Opposite the bots are SG Flamewar with a rotary blaster and shield raised, Cyberverse deluxe Dead End, Kingdom Cyclonus, Siege Megs, & Ultra Slipstream with blasters raised, & Motormaster with sword. End ID.

So- First image: IDW1 Arcee did actually have a reformatting surgery of her own volition from Ratchet in MTMTE #27 Dark Cybertron Chapter 10 The Becoming, and she was happy about it, unlike the extra bullshit Jhiaxus tacked on to her surgery from him! Anode helped her out in between those events for a while. Arcees generally, trans or no, care deeply about ethics and compassion of some sort, helping people out and willing to put their all into it. Showing up for the surgery of someone they care about is the kind of thing they'd do. Magnus is there cuz' he arrested her in Spotlight Arcee. Which well, prison wasn't what she (or anyone) needed for what her situation was. Sideswipe was there because even though he didn't understand her much until the end, HE TRUSTED HER ANYWAY, stood by her choices, risked his life for her as she did for him. Chromia is there because of how close she is with Windblade and how Windblade sees things, more on that later.

The second image is because Anode & Lug had been homeless for at least part of the duration of Great War, & Arcee in An Arcee Sort of Day having had trouble getting a housing loan. We chose Nautica to help them because she eventually understood Anode and Lug’s economic reasons for theft after initially taking issue with them.

The 3rd image doesn't have to do with the characters as much as it does things from IDW1 & AVP (although Archadis, Howlback, and Overlord’s gender expansive stories come up in Ask Vector Prime): in the former, the loneliness of trans characters shown, cut off from or having lost community & understanding from people, & eventually finding family. In the latter, working together for euphoria.

The last image is a bit more abstract/cobbled together. The Decepticons in e.g. Cyberverse, sought to meddle with Cybertron's reproductive autonomy: deciding form & role for new gens ('Perfect' Decepticons) with similar assignment for MTOs in IDW1, and forced weaponization (e.g. FoC). The Autobots have also sometimes been guilty of aspects of the latter two, but they more often champion autonomy as a way of life. Remaking/reforging derived from Solus Prime's story is an important metaphor/value for Camiens like Windblade, who respected Arcee when few would. The collective souls of reemerging generations in a cycle of life and death with the AllSpark parallels that reforging view, as shown by the words of Dai Atlas in the Escape miniseries, and the Matrix of Leadership had a direct link to the AllSpark in IDW2 as well.

From all this one can extrapolate that the fate of the AllSpark, the value of recreation of self and the access to capacity to do so have particular connotations both for trans transformers and all bots, just as building reciprocity, trust, wellbeing, and protection from malpractice do. Thus, to us, it's abundantly clear that while Transformers in regards to transformers does not deal with trans issues as a copy of Earth issues [this includes how in IDW1 Cybertronian androcentrism that (trans) gals face is not the same as ours] they speak to timeless aspects of autonomy. It is no accident that a number of trans people have been drawn to these stories over the years. Apart from enjoying them for other reasons, this aspect is there. Even when Transformers media is not talking about trans people, it is often dealing with things that effect us.

And that goes on a less dire level too. Like, the fact characters usually have two or more modes that are very different & related. And body modification is a deep & regular part of these stories, something a lot of people do. And the theme of change and agency itself in stories. This is say: if you either get what's happening in our world where gender expansive folks are in dire straits but we try to make joy and love anyway, just as the trans characters in these stories do, or if you can connect with how transformers is- there is something related.

If this motivates somebody to think carefully about how political engagement choices in how our lives are effected by issues mentioned prior and gets curious about transformer or robot stories that tackle this stuff, then we've achieved something. Thank you for reading :3 <3 ⚧️ 🏳️‍⚧️

[ravage-tf]

who is the LEAST annoying decepticon (besides soundwave)?

(you can ask the other catsettes questions here too, by the way.)