Transformers: Age of the Primes toyline discussion || update: Prima, Red Alert

LordGigaIce

Another babka?
Citizen
So they know the old lore needed to go. That is promising. I'm still not expecting to care about the Thirteen, but there's a chance.
I didn't care for the Thirteen as presented until TFO actually made me like the concept. So now I'm on board with the broad strokes idea, I've just come to the conclusion that the Aligned/Covenant of Primus take was garbage.

If the brand team uses AotP to soft reboot more of the Thirteen lore then all the better.
 

LordGigaIce

Another babka?
Citizen
We'd be lucky to get a couple sentence blurb that say "Primes strong. Primes gone but now back. Buy all!"
Eh, Hasbro streamlining their packaging layouts to be multi-lingual across the board means on-package bios probably aren't coming back. And as a Canadian... I donno... 🤷🏻‍♂️ ... I guess I don't miss them? Or never had the chance to?

But between getting pdfs out there, using on-package QR codes to link to online bios, and the brand team dropping lore in interviews and social media... well... it seems to me like they're trying to figure out the best way to get this stuff out there.

Point is I'm actually curious to see what they have cooking.
 

LBD "Nytetrayn"

Broke the Matrix
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
HEAD UH-LERT

WOO WOO WOO WOO

More like "Headless Alert."

Eh, Hasbro streamlining their packaging layouts to be multi-lingual across the board means on-package bios probably aren't coming back. And as a Canadian... I donno... 🤷🏻‍♂️ ... I guess I don't miss them? Or never had the chance to?

But between getting pdfs out there, using on-package QR codes to link to online bios, and the brand team dropping lore in interviews and social media... well... it seems to me like they're trying to figure out the best way to get this stuff out there.

Point is I'm actually curious to see what they have cooking.

Look, Grimlock really needs this. He's been down in the dumps since getting demoted to leg, and is looking to broaden his horizons in new and challenging ways.

Don't take this from him.
 

GodSentinelOmega

The Omega Knight Returns!
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
I think one of the Covenants strangest misteps was overexplaining the Thirteen. I mean, they went from ancient nigh mystical figures to ‘here’s their life history’. It was interesting, but yeah. It lead to things like Solus and the Well.

Any new lore that can drop that for something better is a good choice. Plus, make The Fallen fully Corrupted by Unicron, not a misguided good guy.

And I agree that TFOnes total reinvention of the 13 was an intriguing unique take.

I cannot wait to get The Fallen. And, o have caved and bought Legacy Cybertron Vector Prime. Plus, I’ve the DNA 3p upgrade kit on the way too. Though I’m still holding out a slim hope that aotP will have its own new mold Vector in it eventually.
 

lastmaximal

Administrator
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
I think one of the Covenants strangest misteps was overexplaining the Thirteen. I mean, they went from ancient nigh mystical figures to ‘here’s their life history’. It was interesting, but yeah. It lead to things like Solus and the Well.

Any new lore that can drop that for something better is a good choice. Plus, make The Fallen fully Corrupted by Unicron, not a misguided good guy.
I think that was one of its goals, so it was inevitable that they'd dig into it. Just wish they'd dug up something better.

I mean, I'd prefer to leave that all to myth, or lay it out but do the same for multiple competing pantheons and religious frameworks, but when it was designed to be a One True History project all that kind of got ruled out.

But yes, glad to see any more new and better takes on the concept and the characters. (I still like the term "Void Scepter", and may repurpose that to be the name of the spark fuser.)
 

LordGigaIce

Another babka?
Citizen
...but when it was designed to be a One True History project all that kind of got ruled out.
I think even having that as a goal was a misstep.

Transformers has never had a unified continuity. Even back in G1 where you'd think it would, it didn't. The Marvel comics and Sunbow show were totally different. From day one this franchise has been all about different interpretations of broad strokes ideas.

The Beast Era was "in continuity" with G1 but didn't follow either Marvel or Sunbow, taking a bit from column A, a bit from column B, and filling in the rest with its own interpretations for its backstory.

From 2001 with RiD we were well and truly into reboots, and it's never stoped. Now it's just normal for the franchise to reinvent itself with each new show, movie, and comic series. Even comics that are supposed to be "G1" opt for their own interpretations and retellings of what "G1" is. DW, IDW (twice!), Skybound...

So for Aligned to go "this is going to be the new unified mythos and backstory forever, the one true lore dump" was foolish. Never mind that it was middling (it was), even if it had been good there was no way it was going to stick as the One True Version of the franchise from there on out. The cat was already out of the bag.

And we saw that with how the media that came out after the Covenant treated this stuff.
IDW1 reinterpreted Megatronus' murder of Solus to give her more agency, and they replaced Optimus as the last of Thirteen with the Arisen concept to throw some doubt onto that "controversial" revelation.
IDW2 just said whoever had the Matrix was the Thirteenth.
Megatronus and Solus have gone from a creepy one sided infatuation to a legitimate mutual romance, Megatronus from straight up evil to being manipulated, to being not that bad, to being the First Decepitcon™️ depending on the iteration.
TFO just completely de-did the group's backstory, including how they all died, and replaced Optimus/the Arisen with a totally different guy.
Now AotP seems to be reinventing things again, perhaps ditching the notion that Solus just became the planet's babymaker and running with the idea that all of the Thirteen are like the mythical patriarchs and matriarchs of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, who modern day Cybertronians will claim lineages from.

And all of this is fine. In fact it's good. Let every new take do its own thing with these concepts. In fact that's what's been happening as soon as licenced creatives got their hands on the Thirteen.

It just makes Aligned/the Covenant's pretensions as being The One Way Things Will Be Now all the more silly. Franchises with more internal consistency than Transformers still reinvent themselves with every new iteration. What chance did Transformers have?
 

LordGigaIce

Another babka?
Citizen

GodSentinelOmega

The Omega Knight Returns!
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
I kinda like how TFOne made Megatronus the inspiration for the Cons, by simply have Megs by branded with his emblem and take his name. Rather than Megatronus be ‘the first Decepticon’.

While I did enjoy the pre-aligned ‘multiversal singularity’ thing. I do think reinventing the Thirteen for each iteration of TF is good. Like this new angle of them all starting the creation of the Cybertronian race by being the progenitors is great. Finding a good balance between telling just enough backstory to make them myths and legends. Without mapping out everything is a real tightrope walk.

Also, if all the Primes we know are going to combine elements of their designs, it’ll be interesting to see if Alpha Trion will be a cyber lion, a starship. Or both.
 

LordGigaIce

Another babka?
Citizen
Also, if all the Primes we know are going to combine elements of their designs, it’ll be interesting to see if Alpha Trion will be a cyber lion, a starship. Or both.
He was already both in Titans Return.

The smart money's on AotP Alpha Trion being a Thundertron remould.

While I did enjoy the pre-aligned ‘multiversal singularity’ thing...
I admit I didn't. The whole thing only came about because Simon Furman REALLY wanted Armada Unicron to be G1 Unicron for some reason, and everything had to work around that.

But in practice it never really worked. Like... even The Fallen has multiple different interpretations and motivations depending on continuity, and pretending they're all the same guy is just silly. Just let each iteration do their own thing without having to be constrained.
 

GodSentinelOmega

The Omega Knight Returns!
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
That’s fair. I mean, even just counting G1, Unicron alone has to vastly different origins. Either he’s Space Satan, or just a high tech killing machine built by space monkey Primacron in a lab.

TR Alpha Trion was and is very cool. As is the Leo Prime redeco.
 

Sabrblade

Continuity Nutcase
Citizen
The next version of the Thirteen with reinterpret them as members of a traveling circus troupe, with Prima as the ringmaster, Solus and Megatronus as a knife-throwing duo act, Nexus as a five-man team of acrobats, Micronus as a juggling clown, Onyx as the lion tamer, and Alpha Trion as the lion.

:p
 


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