A Transformers Thread

Yeah, I'd be willing to give Megatron a shot, Bumblebee doesn't do anything for me. A shame really.

The Lego Optimus is cool. I got to take a crack at him for a bit. Pleasently surprised at how much of him is printed rather than sticker based. The arrows on his arms, his eyes, and his insignias, all printed. The lack of knees is a bummer, but it makes sense for stability. I appreciate how much he harkens back to the G1 toy's transformation.

The latest on The Basics, this time on The Great War:

This one was actually a re-post since it got removed, but I watched it anyway.

Man, it really should have been the Autobots who were the repressed working class.

They were literally built to be consumer robots in the cartoon continuity.

Making the Decepticons the oppressed working class did nothing but feed into the desire to make the Autobots look as bad as possible because people thinks it makes them more interesting.

Though some of that is my bitterness showing. Gray-and-Grey Morality can add a nice amount of nuance to a conflict, but I'm not sure if it's always been done well, so much as undermining one side to make the other side look good.

Plus, Real Life has kinda undermined the idea that people can be evil for no reason.

Some times, asshole tyrants are just asshole tyrants.

Not sure if I'm expressing myself well. I never feel like my arguments are solid.

I've noticed that fiction seems to believe that revolutions/rebellions are a generally bad thing as they typically have them as psychotic bomb throwers or end up as bad as their oppressors. The idea that trying to bring down an abusive status quo is a bad things doesn't sit right with me.

Well tbh that's because in real life mot of them if their not non violent usually don't end well.

I am Cuban so I can concur on that.

I see where Rob is coming from. Like, not getting into too much political la-di-da's about real-life revolutions, but at their heart, they break out over genuine injustices in society. With the tropes presented, it feels like sidestepping those genuine issues within a particular work and giving the implication that shining a light on these injustices *at all* is a mistake, or people shouldn't even bother shining a light at all, which is...not a good implication whatsoever?

I don't see why the Decepticons have to be presented as a genuine movement of the oppressed, wouldn't it have been easier to depict them as space fascists?

I take it kinda like the French Revolution where there was good intentions at the start but it whirlwinded into a storm of senseless violence and lost sight of what it was trying to do, ending with the election of a new overlord.

Its just unlike most cases, the Cybertron War never ended.

Edited by slimcoder on Jun 11th 2022 at 2:44:39 AM

I guess in this case, it's different than other examples of this trope by virtue of it being a serious attempt at making the Decepticons more nuanced and sympathetic.

The problem is that they massively failed at this attempt with just how numerous and horrific their crimes are, the original IDW continuity was especially bad about this as it seemed obsessed with making each atrocity worse than the last.

Didn't Animated have its own thing with the Autobots in charge and Decepticons being these insurgents trying to take over?

With more of a grey vs grey morality thing as while the Autobots can be rather oppressive, none of the Cons are ever portrayed as sympathetic with Megatron himself being a revolutionary but a sociopathic uncaring in it for his supremacy.

I think Beast Wars might have been the first to start this trend? It's not very prominent, since the core conflict is set far away from Cybertron. But it's implied the Predacons are treated as second-class citizens on Cybertron. And we do see the Maximal High Council indulge in some shady shit (censoring info about the Great War, their experiments with Protoform X).

Granted, it's not the first series to try to portray the conflict a bit more morally complex. The original Marvel comics showed some sympathetic Decepticons and a few Autobots get up to morally dubious things. But overall, the dynamic there was that the Decepticons were simply power-hungry conquerors and the Autobots were a rebel group trying to reclaim their home and stop the war.

Studio Series Arcee and comparisons. Interesting to see how much was changed from the Generations figure. Damn those back pack comparisons, lol.

Titan Master Arcee will still be my favorite. But I'll pick this one up.

Really loving my 3rd party Arcee (And she got a springer to match. No weird backpack.

I know Silas/CYLAS from Prime was one of the nastiest villains even for a human, but I couldn't help but feel a bit bad for him by Thirst. His end was one of the most horrific of any character, Autobot, Decepticon or otherwise, fused to Breakdown's husk, tortured like a lab rat for months on end, turned into a Zombie Transformer....and by the end of it all he was grateful that Airachnid killed him.

You know the guy has to get his demise, but seeing him as a broken mangled husk waiting for death kinda made it hard to feel much satisfaction.

It's a very brutal end even for such a heinous character. I always wonder if his decision to sink MECH and sign on with the cons was some of Breakdown's circuitry affecting his thinking. Especially with the skull fracture.

Which 3P Arcee is that?

Ocular Max Azalea (And Ocular Max Saltus)

Edited by Ghilz on Jun 12th 2022 at 7:39:19 AM

Uh not a fan. The green has this weird look. Think it's because it's just an odd choice. Would prefer it to be darker.

There's a version with a different darker green (Saltus alternative). I'm quite happy with him. He's a delight to transform. Something too many MP-like figures tend to forget with really annoying transformations.

Edited by Ghilz on Jun 12th 2022 at 7:50:01 AM

Yeah. It seems only the Third Party Arcees are able to avoid massive backpacks.

Rouge is the same way.

I think there's another Third Party Arcee that also does it, but I can't remember the name.

Interesting development: Pluto TV's free 24/7 Totally Turtles channel is transitioning to "Transformers TV" by tomorrow. Currently, as a pre-show, it's airing Transformers: Animated and Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015).

Going to assume this is a (very early) promotional campaign for Transformers: EarthSpark?

Not going to lie. Really excited. Having human characters back will make some interesting interactions.

Especially after Animated and Prime showed they could he done well

Same! It helps that Earthspark's human cast look like they'll be proactive in a few different ways.

Also, minor correction: Transformers TV, which is now live, is its own separate channel (Ch. 1012) instead of replacing Totally Turtles (good news for TMNT fans). Based on the promo and schedule, it seems the channel will cycle through (and offer on-demand):

• Transformers: Prime
• Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015)
• Transformers: Animated
• Transformers: Cyberverse
• Beast Machines
• Beast Wars
• Transformers: Armada
• Transformers: Energon
• Transformers: Cybertron
• Transformers: Generation One
• Transformers: Rescue Bots

Edited by XMenMutant22 on Jun 13th 2022 at 2:10:50 PM

Oh wow. They got Beast Machines.

Didn't expect that.

I think they got everything but Car Robots In Disguise.

Maybe the new Blitzwing should've been a combiner?

(Context: You can disassemble him into a complete jet AND a complete tank)

Edited by Ghilz on Jun 16th 2022 at 8:04:50 AM