Status Report May 16 (IDW Transformers spoilers) · 6:54am May 17th, 2014
Well actually it's May 17 since I'm posting past midnight, but I haven't been to bed yet so it's like the same day to me.
So far I've managed to keep up with, and exceeded, my goal of 1000 word a day, pushing myself to keep going. I'm about to start writing for today and so far I've got 3556 words written for the next chapter of Secret of Andalantis. I'd say I'm halfway done for this chapter so expect an update in the coming week if I keep up the pace! 
Now for something completely different...
I'm a big Transformers fan, been since my childhood really, but its only recently that I've gotten a bit crazy with the collecting. 
This picture is totally not up to date, but you get the idea. I probably had that many more in storage back when I took it.
Anyway I've gotten into the IDW Transformers comic, they're pretty brilliant! Recently they had the big Dark Cybertron event, and one of the biggest and most surprising fallout from that is this:
Autobot Megatron! After the event the story jumped six monthes ahead and we're only getting what exactly happened through periodic flashbacks so for now I'm not quite sure how he ended up as captain of the crew of Misfits aboard the Lost Light, but I can't say I hate it. I really hope they don't go back on this change because it works quite well. Now we just need a good tank megatron based on that design and I could happil slap an autobot Reprolabel on him!
Now where is my Tailgate, Hasbro?!
Anyway, if Megatron can become captain fo a ship full of Autobots I think we can have hope for Corona. I wonder if we might be able to take inspiration from Megatron's trial?
I think that the hope was there all along. All we need to do is to have her fight the Season Two pain in the flanks.
2119256 Yeah but I meant that in the sense that if they can 'redeem' Megatron then I think we call pull it off as writers for Corona.
"Megatron, give us one good reason why we shouldn't slag you."
"I have a ginormous fan base that woud love to see a good version of me, and we already proved it can totally work in that cgi cartoon."
2119936 Starscream presented a very good defence of Megatron by basically calling him incompetent, unintelligent and unable to control the movement he had created
2119948 Yeah I'm not buying that.
So, umm... stumbled across this while looking for that pic of Ziz. Don't really know how that whole arc worked out for Megatron, although I'd wager that one way or another he eventually ended up a bad guy again. Regardless...
...thought I'd check in to see if you were aware that the current version of Megatron on toy shelves now is not only a tank, but also comes with a sticker sheet that includes both Decepticon and Autobot insignias, specifically as a reference to that arc of the comics.
3134088 MEgatron is STILL an Autobot, he's writing poetry again though nobody wants to listen, and he still butts head with Rodimus. He has Ravage with him now on the Lost Light. Ravage has a poor opinion of human entertainment :p
And I DO have the Tank Megatron. Best transformer of 2015 so far for me :D I gave him an Autobot insigna reprolabel for his robot mode but kept the Decepticon symbol visible in tank mode.
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Poetry?
Huh... go figure. Not really sure what to think about that particular comic twist. Really the only incite I had was the pack-ins that came with most of the combiner limbs (where he is definitely a bad guy), but I'm not sure were or if they fall into place on that particular timeline.
Anyway, haven't gotten one myself yet, although I will admit that from the looks of it the figure is really cool. Oddly though, I think I feel myself leaning slightly more in the direction of the Armada repaint version for my current collection. I don't quite know why, but maybe it's something to do with making it easier to justify him and the corresponding Optimus figure not being the same size. Also maybe something to do with "Galvatron" sort of being a combiner torso in this set. Or maybe it's just that I prefer my silver G1 style Megs to be a pistol.
3134125 Well Megatron used to be a writer before he was a fighter, opposing the opressive regime of the Senate and the Functionist Councils with his words.
But after being nearly lobotomized for it he took a turn toward more active protest. There was this hole time travel arc where we learned the major events that shaped Megatron that also showed that without him Cybertron would end up controlled by the Functionists in a super dystopian timeline... but that timeline would be FAR better for the rest of the universe.
Also the organics are starting to fight back with the Black Box Consortia wiping out Cybertronian colony worlds!
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Hmm... while there's some rather interesting depth an nuance to all that, but I'm not really sure it'd be my cup of tee either. Maybe I'm just a little too old school and prefer my TF conflicts a bit more straight forward... o r maybe it's just one of those things that one needs the context of having read it from the start to properly appreciate it.
3134288 Probably. Honestly the TF comics got LOADS better when the war ended.
Because a war of roughly six million year doesn't really 'end' all that quickly. Starscream might have been elected leader of Cybertron by the neutrals, but his former comrades are second class citizens there and really resent him. Soundwave is pretty mad at Megatron and took off on his own to try and establish his dream Decepticon Commune, grabbing Galvatron to lead the troops despite the ancient warlord having dreams of conquest (and being a filthy racist toward 'primitives' like Soundwave's cassettes) and he even managed to convince the humans to ally with him and not the Autobots (who have sided with the war criminal Megatron). Meanwhile Prime realizes he's the symbol of a previous era and doesn't want to lead, but still doesn't want to give Starscream carte blanche in politics, especially since they are establishing contact with the lost colonies... Colonies who see a Prime as a semi-divine being, and due to recent event have a much nicer view of the former Decepticons than Cybertronians. And Prowl doesn't trust ANY Cybertronian with the rest of the universe...
There's tensions all over the place and it's super exciting! Factions are blurry, characters are full of nuances! It's awesome!
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I'm sure it is, and it's even something I can appreciate to some theoretical existent. Any superficial reluctance I might have to such notions is probably just because of a lack of familiarity with or investment in that particular continuity.
...
Anyway, if you don't mind me veering away from the comics and back to the toys; I though I might ask what your opinions are on the Combiner War sub-brand as a whole? Because personally speaking, for me these are some of the best over all toys in years. Nothing against Animated, Prime, or the new Robots in Disguise, but the design asthetic of the toys mostly just never worked for me aside from a handful of figures I picked up here and there (and lets not even speak of the movie base toys). Classics was great, as was Universe for the most part, but as Generations dragged on, I felt like they were increasingly stretching into more and more obscure characters, which while great for other fans, just didn't really hold my interest. Plus thos local stores have been getting increasingly bad at stocking the TF section, so it sort of reached the point where I just couldn't really be bothered to look anymore.
This year, however, I find myself diving full back into toy collecting in earnest, and spending entirely too much money in the process. I just can really help myself, combiners have always been my favorite, and now I'm getting the chance to own modern reinterpretations of old time favorites that actually look the part in earnest, as opposed to for example back when Energon did it's own variations. Even beyond the combiner teams, I very much find myself looking forward to the new Ultra Magnus. I've owned other versions, before, but this will be my first time getting one that really evokes the classic G1 icon.
...and then there's the upcoming Devastator. My wallet is quaking in fear, but I'm entirely full of giddy anticipation.
3135943 Combiner Wars is AWESOME! I have to hold back on over spending on them! I wasn't even gonna get all of Superion, but then I got wave 2 as a set so I ended up with an Air Raid and I wanted Alpha Bravo because I like Helicopter former... and then last time I couldn't find a Motormaster again so I just said 'screw it!' and got myself Firefly, Silverbolt and... a second Air Raid because Skydive looks dumb as a rock ><
It's a really satisfying combiner! But i had no where to put him... he's so big!! I don't want to displace anyone on my current Autobot shelve and I'd need to move at least two guys to fit him on there :/
I also have First Aid (who has a good role in the comics...) and I got Ironhide on preorder, though I'm avoiding getting the rest of those teams... though i might get Rook if I see him on shelves.
When they do Bruticus though I'm getting him (I kinda want a Ruination repaint...).
I also got Combiner Wars Ultra Magnus on the way!
On the RID side... I got Strongarm, because I like her design and she got a good transformation but no one else in that serie interest me. I might want Drift if only because I have his other two toy (Age of Extinction Drift is an AWESOME toy for a movie one!)... but my heart's not into it. I'll want one of those puck-like Minicons because of Nickel in the comic. I WANT DECEPTICONS DANGIT! The show has a BAJILLION Decepticons, with tons of sweet designs... and what do we get? Steeljaw, Underbite, Thunderhoof and Fracture. And only one of those is a proper warrior class! Can't even be bothered to repaint one of the Autobots into a Decepticon, or even release new characters...NO we gotta have bullshit like 'Alpine Sideswipe' and 'Shadow Bumblebee' AUGH! COM'ON HASBRO!
And as far as stocking Transformers in stores, Canada gets the shaft usually anyway. We never got Arcee or Chromia or Brainstorm. I got mine online because I expected they wouldn't show up. Distribution is janky, with certain Toys R Us not even getting new stock and instead just getting more case of the old stuff! It's terrible.
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I sort of got into Combiner Wars late. When I first saw wave-1 in stores I was super hyped, until I realized they'd only put out 3/5 of Superion. While I do really enjoy the concept scramble combiners, I didn't really want to own an intentionally mismatched set (and at the time I'd also further mistaken Alpha Bravo for Blades of the Protectabots). It wasn't really until a few months later, that bothered looking anything up online again and found out that wave-2 balanced out the Aerialbot and Stunticon teams, with Wave-3 coming soon to introduce the Protectabots.
I'm still working on finding a reasonably priced Motormaster, but I've otherwise got all the currently available teams. Including splurging on a Slingshot. Nothing against AlphaBravo (I own him too), but he was always sort of oddman out on a team where everyone else was plains. I also fully intend to get the full set of upcoming limbs for Optimus's combiner mode. I'd prefer it if they were the ones from the actual Masquerade episode, but I'm just happy to have any limbs at all. In the meantime though Optimus is borrowing the Protectabots from Hotspot. Mostly because I also splurged on a Wilderider, and the exhaust pipe clubs he and Deadend both have for weapons make great smokestacks when plugged into Optimus.
The weird stand out for me so far has been Cyclonus. I'd oginally planed to give him a pass, already having the generally more accurate Universe release. By the time I was preordering the Protectabots though I couldn't really find any Hotspots that weren't prebundled. Besides, I figured his Galvatron torso mode would work as a suitable stand-in until I got a Motormaster. Once I actually had the toy in hand though, I found myself oddly likeing his indivdual robot mode better than his Universe counterpart, despite the inacuracies. So I'm rather glad for the way things turned out.
Ditto, though odds on bet is that he'll probably be mostly repaints already. Hotspot seems to have been intentionally designed to also be Onslaught, and I'd wager much the same for Rook and Brawl, while AlphaBravo/Blades is an all to obvious base for vortex, likewise Swindle will probably end up being retooled from one of the Stunticons. The only wildcard would seem to be Blastoff, but seeing as every set so far has had one new team member, I wouldn't be surprised if Hasbro just introduced repainted on of the Aerialbots. Of course seeing as Takara is even going so far as to issue an entirely new Groove mold for their release of Defensor, there will probably eventually be a more accurate version of Bruticus eventually.
In the meantime, my War For Cybertron Bruticus is still holding out, though he looks kind of puny and awkward next to the new guys. I really do hope that Hasbro does put out a Combiner Wars Bruticus, as otherwise I may find myself increasingly tempted to splurge one of the rather expensive third part upgrade kits.
3136081 Optimus' combined mode actually makes an appearance in the comics! Sunstreaker's pet insecticon, Bob, was around when the Enigma of Combination was used on them all, so you can even use Bombshell as a weapon for him :p
I got Wildrider but didn't really care for Slingshot. I think he looks like he's wearing slices of bread as earmuffs and his black hand stand out way too much considering the shape of Firefly's arms. I'm even considering getting another Firefly for a symmetrical Superion.
Considering the amount of remoulding they did between Offroad and First Aid I wouldn't be surprised if Blast Off ends up a more futuristic space plane instead of a basic shuttle. Shuttles are retired anyway.
I think I'll be getting Cyclonus if I see him.
I figured the team for Optimus might have been based on something from the comics and can certainly appreciate it as such. Doesn't change the fact that I 'd still prefer something based of the old show instead. Although Ironhide replacing Windcharger would have been ok, seeing as the latter already has a CW toy that can be used in the chest plate slot instead.
Heh... I suppose. Kind of funny to hear you complain about him and other TF characters though (Skydive above, GunMegs elsewhere). I'm so used to you being the more laid back and easy going guy, so the passion vehemence of such statements is always a little surprising. I will say one good thing about Slingshot, or more accurately Quickslinger. Since he and Firefly are now mold mates, combining them along with Alphabravo and Blades (also white and red mold mates), can make for a nice little bit of mixed symmetry.
Anyway, I suppose it's quite possible that we could see Blastoff as a heavily retooled Aerialbot; I just wouldn't be surprised if he gets replaced by a more basic repaint instead. Not going to let myself get hung up either way, so long as I still get an awesome looking Bruticus out of it.
3136598 I have to be difficult with my Transformers, I only have so much space and so much money for them. Otherwise I end up with stuff like Reveal the Shield Perceptor, which look cool but are just not FUN to handle. Liking a character can go a long way, but I have no attachement to any of the Aerialbots. Don't even have any for the Stunticons but I thought they looked cool. I'm not big on G1 nostalgia really. I got Sky-byte because I loved the guy in the cartoon and he had a good role in the comics recently but his toy is a HUGE pain to transform. Rhinox is the same thing though he's a bit easier to handle.
Warrior Class Steeljaw was interesting, but then I learned he has no heel and can't stand up without his tail acting as a tripod, so I'm not spending money on him (I got the Legion class one, just as nifty).
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I can appreciate that. It's part of why I fell out of the hobbit of collecting TFs for a few years, and it's also why I'm still debating which CW Megaton to get instead of just going with both. That said, I'm not sure it's a requirement to be "difficult" on the figures one doesn't purchase.
I'm more of a mixed bag on that front. I'm not really all that nostalgic for the cartoon; I've got fond memories of it from my childhood, but the reality of it just hasn't aged well for me. I've never really had much desire to collect in of the original toys or reissues either; they might have been good in their day but just can't compare to the detail and possibility of the newer toys.
What I am nostalgic for, however, is always the characters. Things that can remind me of everything that really was great about the old stuff, but without all the shortcomings of the actual originals.
...
Anyway, got my Ultra Magnus yesterday, and It was rather an unusual relief. After my pre-order shipped, I ended up looking up some more info online, found pictures of Takara's upcoming variant, and ended up with just a we bit of buyer's remorse. I don't usually concern myself with imports, the Japanese versions might often have superior and more accurate coloration, but aren't usually enough to warrant the extra expense for me. This time, however, the Takara version just looked so much better in vecle mode, where as the Hasbro release looked more like a cheep knockoff... or at least that's how the stock photos made it seem.
With the actual figure in hand and under normal lighting, the Hasbro version looks just fine though, so the colors didn't end up bothering me after all. My only real complaint is nothing specific to one release or the other. I'd really have preferred a figure with the same kind of hands as the smaller figures. Partially for the sake of being able to interchange weapons, but more so because the joints on his "posable" fingers just aren't strong enough to actually hold his guns securely, meaning they frequently end up flopping about or falling out completely while trying to play with the figure.
On the bright side, due to the way he transforms he can preform an undocumented, but rather amusing power-punching gimmick.