And then all was right in the world.
Post Pictures of your Transformers, Let's see 40 years worth of Transformers!
- Thread starter Ave Destron
- Start date
Very loosely based on an old TFRP I was part of:
"No. Bad boy. You put that right back where you found it!"
Starting to build the RID Autobots. I kinda want them to do an RID Sideswipe, since none of his toys were ever good; but I would really like to find a Battle Grimlock for a decent price...
"No. Bad boy. You put that right back where you found it!"
Starting to build the RID Autobots. I kinda want them to do an RID Sideswipe, since none of his toys were ever good; but I would really like to find a Battle Grimlock for a decent price...
Be sure to post pics when you get it set up. I'd love to see it!
Also @Shadewing, I love little Fix-it!!
I've wanted him since the original line, but never found him in stores, and wasn't doing much online shopping during that time (mostly just exclusives and japanese stuff). So I jumped at the chance to get him when KTD listed him. He's a great little figure. very nice transformation and very posable becuase his torso is on a ball joint; even with his fixed lower half you can get a lot of expression out of him.
These guys go shockingly well together
Fire Gummy Ginrai
Before and after the double meat, double cheese, extra hot sauce burrito
"Decepticons, transform and rise up!" is a great slogan for Megs, but it really only works if he has a flight-based alt mode, imo.
I think maybe it works better, but not only if.
I just enjoy the wordplay. Then again "Decepticons fly and Autobots drive" wasn't even a consistent thing in G1 anyway so ehhhh it's all good.
My Megaplex can't stand up anymore. The ball joints are actually okay, but the spring is completely worn out.
Hug FunPub. I'm still mad.
Hug FunPub. I'm still mad.
I don't think TFOne was the first time it meant that. Aligned had a similar "Megatron is part of an oppressed under-class and becomes a revolutionary" backstory and Megs used "transform and rise up" in Prime.
Even Animated Megs, who was far more blatantly evil coded without even a sympathetic "had a point before he went too far" backstory, would regularly talk about Autobot "oppression." I remember thinking "oh he styles himself a revolutionary" when Animated Megs first coined the slogan. It was maybe not spelled out perfectly, but I think the "defying oppression" element was always there and not a TFOne interpretation.
Though TFO certainly leaned into it with Megatron adopting it after Sentinel mocked him with the phrase.
Thing is, as with "transform and roll out," it works best as a double meaning IMO.
"Transform and roll out" can mean "let's get going," but it can also mean literally rolling because... well... the Autobots were originally all cars and trucks.
"Transform and rise up" can mean both "join me in revolution" and "let's literally fly to action because we're helicopters and planes."
Both phrases don't work super well literally these days because the divide between what types of alt modes Autobots have vs what types of alt modes Decepticons have is practically non-existent (and those walls were crumbling even before G1 got out of season one), but still. I appreciate the wordplay.
I'm a Machine Wars enjoyer, and I do like that BotCon set... conceptually. It's not even the best they could have done at the time, but like... the mould choices back then weren't super great anyway.
The options today are much better, if Hasbro ever wanted to do a MW capsule for Walmart or Amazon, but it's such a niche part of the franchise I doubt they'd bother
Like... MW Soundwave from Doubledealer. That mould's even cassette compatible, and they could do the third bird mode up as Laserbeak. Come on! That'd rule.
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I don't think you can say something is 'such a niche part of the franchise I doubt they'd bother' when we literally had a capsule that was 'cancelled Generation 2 redecoes' lol.The options today are much better, if Hasbro ever wanted to do a MW capsule for Walmart or Amazon, but it's such a niche part of the franchise I doubt they'd bother
It was the first time that that specific context was ever applied to it. Up until TF One, it had only ever been used a few times in Animated, once in Prime, and once in the grand opening ceremony for Transformers: The Ride at Universal Studios Hollywood. And all of these pre-One uses, it was just an ordinary rally cry with no deeper meaning than "Go!"
I'm a Machine Wars enjoyer, and I do like that BotCon set... conceptually. It's not even the best they could have done at the time, but like... the mould choices back then weren't super great anyway.
The options today are much better, if Hasbro ever wanted to do a MW capsule for Walmart or Amazon, but it's such a niche part of the franchise I doubt they'd bother
Like... MW Soundwave from Doubledealer. That mould's even cassette compatible, and they could do the third bird mode up as Laserbeak. Come on! That'd rule.
That was one of the rougher Botcons. Some of the souvenirs were better than the stuff from the box set, which was half not Machine Wars (but which was two very good figures nonetheless) anyway. Just a tough time between available molds and markerable concepts, especially for the numbers Botcon would have to do. So many hoops they had to jump through that I'm glad aren't complicating things as much anymore these days.
That Megaplex is one I was hoping I'd be able to track down eventually, but never got the chance. What's wrong with it?
A lot of that had to do with Hasbro's change in attitude at the time. Prior to the Fun Pub era, BotCon was free to contribute to the mainstream lines of Generation 2, Beast Wars, Beast Machines, and Universe (the latter even being an insisted mandate from Hasbro themselves). Then, in Fun Pub's early years, both BotCon and the TCC made more contributions to the worlds of Beast Wars and Cybertron, and even got to finish off the Classics toyline (the latter of which was, again, all Hasbro's idea; Fun Pub's original idea for 2007 was an Alternators set).
But once the 2007 movie came out, Hasbro suddenly did a 180 on BotCon and forced them to keep away from any and all contemporary mainstream series, resulting in the 2008-2015 convention sets being based either around completely original concepts (Shattered Glass, Wings of Honor, Pirates vs. Knights, Cybertron's Most Wanted) or franchises that had run their course and were old enough to be considered no longer contemporary or mainstream (Generation 2, Animated, Classics vs. Shattered Glass, Machine Wars). Hasbro had become so overprotective of the brand by that point because they wanted to focus all their attention on promoting the Aligned continuity above all else, and basically left Fun Pub out in the cold after having been the most collaborative with BotCon/OTFCC in the late-3H/early-Fun Pub years. Aligned really put a lot of unfair restrictions on what BotCon could and couldn't do during that era.
But by 2016, the pro-Aligned team at Hasbro had been changed out for a new team that was initially all-in on with working close with Fun Pub again, who insisted that that year's set should be Combiner Wars-themed so as to make BotCon match what was going on at mass retail (just like back in the G2/BW/BM/Universe/Cybertron years). Fun Pub even began some early concepts for a 2017 set themed around Titans Return, in order to continue this synergy with the mass retail lines. But then Hasbro got big-headed again and decided they wanted to end BotCon as an official convention and make HasCon instead, only for HasCon to be a has-been that was replaced virtually by PulseCon, making the end of BotCon as an official con seem rather pointless in hindsight.
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That's interesting background, but not really the point I was making. I think what hurt them more was the availability of molds they could use as marketable characters/designs, and the ease or lack thereof of working with the factories to get colors and sculpt ideas across and executed as intended.
I say this because it felt like it made sense and even helped for the club to be looking for the niches and such, as it kept them clear of what Hasbro might or at least could do at regular retail anyway (something that had to be done in a more structured way after the uproar over the 2007 Seekers). [When it worked out that way, at least. I remain annoyed that Botcon was told to keep Sunstorm clear only for plans to change and Hasbro to actually never get around to making a Sunstorm ever.]
Some of those "steer clear" eras were great. There were just some years when it felt they were at a loss for ideas (or their ideas weren't supported properly by available tooling -- the main hoop-to-jump-through I'm referring to) and/or struggled to come up with a story to justify their mold/deco choices. Sometimes it's a neat story that elevates a decent-to-good set (Cybertron's Most Wanted, Pirates v Knights), sometimes both story and set are meh (Invasion, Dawn of the Predacus). But I feel they were really on track for a return to form with the 2017 set... Although that sort of more direct homaging of deep cuts was something Hasbro seemed poised to commit themselves to soon enough, and indeed WFC and Selects really kicked that off.
It was a bit weird for Hasbro to suddenly want to run their own convention and such, but I'm glad that the apparent failure of that led to this current era where they just churn out neat exclusives at retail and so on. While I'm sure a continuing convention would still be a lovely boon for fans, especially those who built their community in that era, I am very glad not to have to deal with the anxiety of tracking down and getting Botcon exclusives from half a world away.
I say this because it felt like it made sense and even helped for the club to be looking for the niches and such, as it kept them clear of what Hasbro might or at least could do at regular retail anyway (something that had to be done in a more structured way after the uproar over the 2007 Seekers). [When it worked out that way, at least. I remain annoyed that Botcon was told to keep Sunstorm clear only for plans to change and Hasbro to actually never get around to making a Sunstorm ever.]
Some of those "steer clear" eras were great. There were just some years when it felt they were at a loss for ideas (or their ideas weren't supported properly by available tooling -- the main hoop-to-jump-through I'm referring to) and/or struggled to come up with a story to justify their mold/deco choices. Sometimes it's a neat story that elevates a decent-to-good set (Cybertron's Most Wanted, Pirates v Knights), sometimes both story and set are meh (Invasion, Dawn of the Predacus). But I feel they were really on track for a return to form with the 2017 set... Although that sort of more direct homaging of deep cuts was something Hasbro seemed poised to commit themselves to soon enough, and indeed WFC and Selects really kicked that off.
It was a bit weird for Hasbro to suddenly want to run their own convention and such, but I'm glad that the apparent failure of that led to this current era where they just churn out neat exclusives at retail and so on. While I'm sure a continuing convention would still be a lovely boon for fans, especially those who built their community in that era, I am very glad not to have to deal with the anxiety of tracking down and getting Botcon exclusives from half a world away.
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