Transformers: Energon & Beyond

[El Chuxter]

Hey! K-Mart is the same price as Wal-Mart and Target on the Titaniums! That has to be a first. Funny enough, the only two they had were Optimus Primal and The Ark, so I'm set on the little guys.

I didn't even notice Sideswipe and Jazz were Alternators rather than G1 versions. Not a biggie. They look hella cool either way.

I'm passing on Cybertron Megatron. Beast Wars stuff I'll get, as long as they're released rather sparingly. At least they attempted to connect them to G1.

Here's a dumb question: Why did the Transformers change from Autobots and Decepticons to Maximals and Predacons? Was that ever explained in Beast Wars (which I'm not especially familiar with)? I know the frame narrative of the Dreamwave More Than Meets the Eye series explains that a Predacon criminal manages to gain access to Cybertron's central database (The Underbase? Primus? The memory banks of The Last Autobot?) and takes the name Megatron to try to establish a connection with the great Decepticon leader. But why does Optimus Primal have a basic design and name so similar to Optimus Prime? And where did the organic stuff come in? Did some sort of Pretender experiment go awry at some point?

And all the stuff about Primal "bringing back the organic element to Cybertron"--was the supposedly barren planetoid that Primus trapped himself in eons ago actually an inhabited world? (And would this explain that weird plot thread from the post-Unicron issues of the Marvel comic where nasty-looking robots emerge from the depths of the planet following the deaths of Primus and Unicron and start eating Transformers, all the while claiming "Oursss before yourssss thissss world"?)

Yeah, I'm mixing my continuities here. Deal with it.

[Adam]

I'm not familiar with Beasties (HAHA CANADA!) really. Only thing I really know is that the Maximals and the Predacons were decendents of the Autobots and Decepticons. Not sure why they changed names. I need to get those DVD sets, I always hear good things about the Beast toons.

I passed on the mini Cybertron Megs as well, they forgot some paint apps there. That blank spot where his faction symbol should be really kills it.

[Tycho]

I like where El Chuxter is going with his theory.

Machine life could not have just begun. It must have been created by an organic at some point: perhaps Primus was an organic that transferred himself into a robotic planetoid and then decided to reproduce other machine life so he wouldn't be alone in the universe?

The mechanicals could surely evolve.

I see only 2 ways they could die:

1) their programs could be destroyed
2) if they have any organic components (like General Grievous did), those are destroyed.

If not for that: kill them, then reintegrate the CPU into another machine, identical or otherwise, and they are the same personality - thus Ironhide could come back as an airplane or a submarine with as much chance as a red mini-van or a black pickup - unless he really, really likes red mini-vans and black pickups.

Anyway, this theory leaves open the question of whether Spike, if he wanted to be "immortal," could have Ratchet or someone even more skilled, turn him into an Autobot?

Personally, I like my human life a bit and there's things I might not be able to enjoy as an Autobot (fitting through a normal doorway being the least of life's simplest pleasures). So if technology exists to make one immortal as a Transformer, could you just as soon be immortal as a human being and transfer your brain into a human clone of yourself, Brad Pitt, or Harrison Ford or something?

I suppose the technology to make organically based Transformers would have to be lost, or else this would be an issue.

The Decepticons and Autobots DID try to reproduce themselves to grow their own armies:

The Combaticons were organically based I believe. Didn't Starscream infuse each of them with "sparks" from a disembodied prisoner holding facility?

The Dinobots were Wheeljack's handiwork and I don't believe they had any organic or "spark" inspiration but were total prototypes - perhaps explaining why they were also so stupid (as the real dinosaurs were presumed to be).

[Adam]

Anyway, this theory leaves open the question of whether Spike, if he wanted to be "immortal," could have Ratchet or someone even more skilled, turn him into an Autobot?

They already did that in G1. Spike got injured and so they used 1980's logic to transfer his mind into a robot made of spare autobot parts. ( Sparkplug made it so they could transfer Autobot's to it while Ratchet was fixin' um. ) Autobot-Spike they called him, and he went nutzo after watching Frankenstein on TV and joined the Decepticons for a short while. Of course by episode's end he was back in his own body after the surgeon's got through with it.

[Adam]

The much belated Cybertron Quickmix and Stripmine review is here!

Quickmix is a homage to the G1 character of the same name. The vehicle mode is a cement mixer, and is the most realistic of the 3 Giant Planet bots. His color scheme also takes after his G1 counterpart, orange mostly, but with with some yellow and black on the body, and grey and white on the mixer. When the top control seat, which is the robots right elbow, is detached the mixer can rotate. The only drawbacks here are the visible head at the back and left arm that is on the right side. The minicon Stripmine looks like a radar type vehicle with a long cannon. Two notes: this minicon has a minicon port, a trait that only Deepdive from the recent Giant Planet minicon set shares. Also, this is the only mincon that I am aware of that that can't be plugged into a minicon port when in vehicle mode; the legs prevent the clearance needed and most be swiveled like in robot mode for it to work. When in robot mode, Stripmine can stand at the mixers controls, secured buy pegs that can be swiveled out that plug into the side of his arms. They key gimmick on QM can be activated in vehicle mode, which splits the mixer revealing the Mixing Cannon inside. The result is a neat turret that Stripmine can man, but its rotation is hindered by the left shoulder. Transformation to bot mode, detach the mixer from the cab, seperate the cab, flip the feet and turn them, turn the two cab sections on the legs. Detach the rear wheels from the back flipping them around, flip the shoulders, flip the chest done, turn the head around, and done. Quick gimmick note: the shoulders and legs are connected so that when the legs are spread out during transformation, the shoulders will move down making him a little bit taller. In the show, he is actually shown both ways, during regular animation he has his shoulders raised up, but in stock footage they are lowered. I don't really prefer one look over the other honestly. Anyway, the key gimmick remains the same in this mode, except the minicon can't man it. Well I guess he could, but he'd be upside down. The left arm has a detachable cannon with a minicon port on it. You can flip it around in robot mode so that the long end his facing outward but it's not really long enough make it worthwhile. If you are into minicons, stripmine makes an ok target master pluggeg into this port. There are three other ports: two on the chest and one on the right leg. The right arm is the mixer. I like the concept here, I don't think that all Transformers need to be 100% humanoid. Crazy crap like mixer arms or gun arms is part of what makes robots cool! The elbow joint is what hurts this figure. It is designed so that when in vehicle mode it can tilt so the mixer is centered with the cab, but it really hurts in bot mode. The elbow looks funny and prevents the arm from staightening, so you can't pose him shooting the Mixing Cannon so that it looks good. Also the orange the used is kinda dull, now that I'm used to it, it doesn't bother me. But when I first saw it, it made the figure look a little bland. Still, I'm glad I picked him up, hes a nice 'bot. Not one of my favorites, but he's deffinately up near there.

[figrin bran]

Chux, i'm not much in the way of an expert but here's my attempt to answer some of the BW questions. Optimus Primal assumed that name as a tribute to Optimus Prime.

When the Maximal and Predacon ships crash landed on prehistoric earth, they found that all the raw energon reserves on the planet were overloading their systems and so they were forced to scan for secondary forms to assume as a means of survival. because it was prehistoric earth and there were no cars or airplanes, the computers aboard their respective ships scanned various animals - gorilla, rhino, cheetah, rat, t-rex, wasp, scorpion, taruntula and so forth.

i'm not familiar with the comics but that Dreamwave narrative you described seems consistent with BW continuity. back on cybertron, megatron stole a golden disk, originally launched into space aboard Voyager (as in the same Voyager that NASA sent up) and he figures out from that disk that there's a planet out there with huge energon deposits and so he and his predacon cronies steal a ship to get off cybertron and to search for this energon filled planet.

however, as the series goes on, we learn that the energon mission is just a cover up and his real goal was to find the autobot ark and destroy the deactivated G1 optimus prime and thus change the course of history. this was actually a plan hatched by G1 Megatron and transmitted to BW Megs via that golden disk from the Voyager.

[El Chuxter]

So, in other words, somewhere along the line the Autobots changed their names to Maximals and the Decepticons to Predacons, but there was no organic element until a small handful landed on prehistoric earth.

How jealous were the Constructicons that the entire race of Decepticons chose the Predacons to be their new namesake?

[Chaddymac]

I am a little bit of an expert on Beast Wars. At the end of the Cybertronian Wars, the Autobots and Decepticons reached a truce. In an effort to conserve energon, the next generation created were downsized into more efficient models. The downsized bots were called Maximals and Predacons, respectively. A few Autobots and Decepticons also made the conversion to Maximal and Predacon. Some Autobots and Decepticons still remain, but the planet itself was basically handed down to the decendants.

In other news, TF The Movie concept pics and toys anyone?
http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/showthread.php?t=108437

Lots of traffic requires lots of patience.

[Tycho]

I'm liking very little of what I see - only the figures I'm not familiar with from G1:

Blackout looks cool.

Scorponok does likewise.

Prime looks too over-complicated.

Starscream looks wrong right down to the headsculpting.

From what I've seen of BumbleBee, I'm inclined to agree with JediTricks that Michael Bay has not made a Transformers movie. He has recreated Bionicles.

[Adam]

Yeah, the movie stuff looks like crap.

Found and bought Galaxy Force Optimus Prime today at TRU. My triumvate is now complete! ( That being the first Prime, the Japanese TRU Clear Galaxy Convoy, and this GF Prime.) One Prime for combining with Leobreaker, one for Wing Saber and one for super-mode! MUAHAHAHAHA!

OH YEAH! Remy Rhodis is my hero, and posted this gallery of the upcoming Classics Optimus Prime (the Voyager one, not the two-pack one)

http://tfkenkon.com/collection/act419/

The man takes some good pictures.