Transformers: Energon & Beyond

I think two or three mortals could overtake Bumblebee, so not much danger there. :)

I think Bumblebee slipped by Volkswagen before because there were, at least at the time the original Japanese toy was designed, three or four other manufacturers worldwide who made cars that looked almost exactly like Beetles, so at the small scale there was no way to prove he was a Beetle (although we all knew that's what he was). But now, VW is the only manufacturer of the New Beetle, and, unfortunately, a lot of folks consider the Beetle to be an old pice of carp, not the glorious antique it truly is.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tycho

Re:Meister

OK. I thought it was a distempered, anti-social, old man. That doesn't describe Jazz.

---

:confused: :confused: :confused:

where the hell did you get that?

meister was the japanese name for the same character you know as jazz. just like optimus' "real" name is convoy (according to the japanese.) i don't know too many other counterpart names, but most likely the japanese have no idea who any of your favorite characters are - until you show them a picture.

Meister and especially Convoy are both stupid names for those respective characters IMO.

That's a lot like calling Starscream "Air Support."

The reason Hasbro didn't name the Alternator "Autobot Jazz" is because there's already a car on the market now called the Jazz in Japan and Europe, Honda's actually been using the name all over the world for their various cars and motorcycles for quite some time, currently the Honda Jazz is the European name for what we know as the Honda Fit here in the US. If Hasbro had released Meister as "Autobot Jazz" they would have gotten Honda ticked at them.

"Meister" is the name I think of with this figure, he doesn't seem that much like Jazz to me.

Germans *are* sensitive about their products being interpretted as war machines, VW, Mercedes Benz, and Porshe all were products used heavily by the Third Reich, they don't want to be associated with that anymore.

Quote:

---

But in G1, BumbleBee was obviously a Volkswagon, Jazz a Porshe (as was Dead End), I don't think they made any BMW or Mercedes, but why didn't those car companies sue Hasbro?

---

Bumblebee is actually a Penny Racer version of a Volkswagon Beetle, that's why he's that odd shape, the Takara line he came from that was his REAL WORLD size (he was meant to blend in with children's toys, and become a tiny robot in the real world). G1 got away with it because back then it was a lot easier to get away with copyright infringement and the toyline at the time wasn't seen as a threat, none of the vehicles were licensed, Takara made whatever they wanted and Hasbro imported them, but they both knew as they'd change lettering and stuff.


Chux, I guarantee you VW could easily sue over use of the visual rights of the Type-1 (the Beetle), and from what I've read there were only a few small companies who made knockoff Beetles, most of the Beetles from around the world were just VW factories in other countries (the last VW Beetle factory was in Mexico, they stopped producing in 2003). The only people exempt from VW's visual copyright wrath would be Mercedes Benz, whose 170-H came first and is visually very similar because Ferdinand Porsche designed both cars.

These pictures of Alternator MEGATRON surfaced in my MySpace Transformers group!

Check this out!

http://forum.myspace.com/index.cfm?f...upID=101114536

Scroll down my "favorite Alternator thread" and you'll find them. I couldn't directly link to the guy's photobucket pictures for whatever reason.

Meg's a Hummer as many of us predicted he would be.

It's hard to say whether this toy will near the correct size to challenge my "Alternator Prime" - which is namely the MP version. What do you guys think?

I really like this toy and would cringe if I have to pass on him because there can only be ONE Megatron in my collection!

I'd assume the movie one is still on schedule to be an Abrahms tank.

However the movie toys may be cheap mass-market crap, and I may instead be left waiting for some kind of MP Megatron, which would still be an Abrahms tank, one would hope.

But you have to like the Hummer!

So how big do you think this will be? Standard Alternator's price point or a deluxe Alternator going for $30 or $40 or so?

Sorry to doublt post, but looking at him, he looks a lot like he has Wheeljack's forearms and his lower body transforms suspiciously like Wheeljack does too.

That is a kitbash, I've seen it before.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Adam

That is a kitbash, I've seen it before.

---

They did a great job, don't you think?

In any case, as I posted in the other thread, I buy Alternators because I'm sure I'm going to want to "recreate the movie" in my own way - and I want to get Megatron right (Tank vs. Hummer).

But I'm using the MP Prime, MP Starscream (most likely), so Megs must fit into that group and quality level. I guess I made a good call on seeing Wheeljack's forarms on that Megatron in the pictures. They probably were from Wheeljack, LOL.

Right now, MP Prime is the best TF ever done in my opinion.

I still think Hasbro will release mass-market crap for the movie. They'll play the movie line just like every other toy company looks at fad-movie product. But I'm arguing this in my tirade about Zizzle's POTC Black Pearl ship: Star Wars has staying power, and Transformers very much obviously does as well. The movie product need not be crap. Heck they should make an Alternator Quality BumbleBee as a yellow Camaro if they must. But you know they must run a cheap line (mini-bots, whatever) for the average kid when the movie comes out. I don't see why they have to stick it to us that way though.

The characters I'm most concerned about are Megatron, Soundwave, and repaints for Skywarp and Thundercracker of MP Starscream. Rumor has it they got an Alternator license for Jaguar and they are re-doing Ravage (one can only hope). But the Decepticons are very weak for the "high end line" - which is what I'd call the MPs and the Alternators.

That's a fun fake, I bet they had a good time putting that together. The alt mode doesn't look at all like Hasbro's style of design though, that's what told me it wasn't real.

I think the movie TFs won't look much like real Transformers and will be treated as fad crap product, they'll probably end up burying all the other lines (including Alts) and then they'll fizzle out leaving us with another TF void.

Define "Hasbro's style" anyway. I couldn't describe it - but I've never thought about it. Takara designs these things anyway, and Hasbro just buys them, and puts American names and packaging around them, right?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JediTricks

I think the movie TFs won't look much like real Transformers and will be treated as fad crap product, they'll probably end up burying all the other lines (including Alts) and then they'll fizzle out leaving us with another TF void.

---

I thought most "real Transformers" look like crap anyway. It would be a shame if a glut of cheap-end movie product ruined the fun the rest of you guys are having with your Cyberton, Key-Master, Unicron Wars, stuff, etc. (no - I did mean that sincerely because it would affect my Alternators, too)

How long was there a Transformers void anyway?

The G1 line started a while ago in 1984?

It lasted through the neon-colored plastic junk until.......?

Then they brought it back when?

Alternators started showing up in 2004 or ???