I think it's just harder than it used to be to get companies to cooperate. For whatever reason.
I think it's just harder than it used to be to get companies to cooperate. For whatever reason.
At least IDW2 kinda did it a little better. It was still trying to tell its own story, but it didn't feel like it completely ignored the toys that were being sold either. It felt like a fairly decent compromise between the two. It also ended up convincing me to buy some older toys, like tracking down a Cyberverse Flamewar to have a Micromaster sized one to fit with my decepticon Micromasters, until we got a regular one thanks the SG.
I'd completely forgotten that Titans Return did that, or maybe I tuned them out entirely at the time because I thought they were just generic line promo rather than individual character blurbs. Damn.
I miss lore.
I miss lore.
I do think that is one big thing toys have been missing for a while now. Both Transformers and GI Joe used to have their tech specs and bio blurb right there on the packaging. Give us a little bit of personality, some idea of the tactics they preferred to use, et al. Nowadays that's all outsourced to comics, cartoons, and online media. Things that may not be available to the kids.
I'd like to see these come back in some fashion. Give us some hint of the personality of the character we just bought. Some idea of who they are.
I'd like to see these come back in some fashion. Give us some hint of the personality of the character we just bought. Some idea of who they are.
It's also outsourced in a sense to the *past*-- with legacy characters, you're just supposed to know who Optimus Prime and Megatron and Ferak and Wingblaster and Leader-B and Batman and Scarecrow and Mrs. King and whoever are.
One thing to note about IDW is that when it started, there WAS no toyline. In 2005 we were still in the middle of Cybertron and Classics wouldn't be out for another year. When they had Simon Furman sit down and concept out a new take on G1, it was with the implicit idea that there was no toyline that needed to be promoted, so they were free to bring in whatever characters they wanted. (Which, imo, was a huge boone for early IDW).
Obviously that changed as C/H lead into U and then G and suddenly there were a million G1-inspired toys out.
Obviously that changed as C/H lead into U and then G and suddenly there were a million G1-inspired toys out.
Same thing with Dreamwave's G1 comics, too.
Yes, but there very much was by the time T30 and TR came around, the instances we were talking about.
Thrilling 30 was specifically made to be "IDW1: The Toyline", but only after the IDW1 comics had already long since established themselves. Many of the toys were based on comic-original designs, instead of the comic designs being based on toys. In Thrilling 30's case, it was made to advertise the comic, rather than the comic being made to advertise the toyline.
But even that had its hiccups like Crosscut being a glorified nobody and the whole mess with Jihaxus and Starscream's body changes.
By the time the Prime Wars came along, however, the pattern of regular G1-inspired Generations figures was well established. And while IDW had benefited from a lot of leeway in the past, that also hadn't been the case for a good number of years by that point.
I just don't see the benefit to dragging your feet as a TF licence holder when Hasbro wants you to promote product. The half-assed take on TR couldn't have been better than either fully embracing it or just ignoring it entirely, and the latter was likely never a realistic option.
Yeah, my biggest wish during that time was that they'd have just created a separate book to follow the characters and stories being set up by the Prime Wars Trilogy. Go back to oldschool-style Transformers comic storytelling, maybe have some fun with it -- heck, even lean into it, like they did in that issue where they showed the Ark-1 crew in a more retro Marvel style giving their names an expository dialogue.
But no. Instead, they had to fight against the current.
And considering they did books titled after at least the first two parts, anyway...
Nooooot entirely.
The main toyline at the time was Armada, and that got its own, separate book. Kind of satisfies both sides, in a way.
Weren't G1 reissues coming out at the time, too?
The odd thing is the comics that came with the Armada story were part of a larger story we never got to see or read, it was like snippets of a third armada continuity.
Then Energon came along and it's third comic with Omega Supreme leaned more to the Dreamwave comic especially the one from the summer special.
I wonder what might have been if Hasbro took Prime Wars onwards to Amazon instead of Netflix and Rooster Teeth.
Then Energon came along and it's third comic with Omega Supreme leaned more to the Dreamwave comic especially the one from the summer special.
I wonder what might have been if Hasbro took Prime Wars onwards to Amazon instead of Netflix and Rooster Teeth.
I like the bios being on specialty items. but being a Canadian I've been subject to the "block of text" in multiple languages since beastwars.. and that's not aesthetically pleasing on the box, especially after it started effecting the word count.
Yep. And they used Dreamwave art for the boxes.
No, but the launch of a G1 comic and a G1 reissue line that used the new comic's art seems like a bit more than just a coincidence.
It was, at the very least, fortuitous cross promotion.
With IDW... it's weird. The continuity lasted thirteen years. There are so many iterations of it.
Early IDW was absolutely devoid of any toy tie-ins and I'd agree with Undead Scottsman that it was to its benefit, both in terms of being able to use whoever they wanted character wise and in terms of having the freedom to come up with new character designs. The F-22 G1 Seeker design is one of my favourite TF designs ever and I wish it got more love.
but as Classics turned into Universe and Universe turned into Generations... the comics changed too. From All Hail Megatron, which was supposed to be a soft reboot for new readers to jump on, to the 2010 ongoing, to finally the Barber/Roberts runs.
By the time we got to the Prime Wars toyline IDW and Hasbro had absolutely started to cross pollinate.
And so it should have been no shock to IDW when Hasbro wanted the comics to advertise Titans Return.
"Well IDW didn't have to advertise toys a decade earlier" isn't much of an excuse IMO. A lot had changed.
And it comes around to what LBD said. By dragging their feet it felt like what it was, a half-hearted attempt that the writers wanted to get over with.
They could have instead leaned into it and had some goofy fun. The line was very heavy on the mix and match play pattern and the way the figures and Titanmasters could interact. I have to believe that a properly motivated comic book author could have had a field day just leaning into the line's gimmicks.
Just seemed like it would have been preferable to what they did, which read like it was being written at gunpoint.
It was, at the very least, fortuitous cross promotion.
With IDW... it's weird. The continuity lasted thirteen years. There are so many iterations of it.
Early IDW was absolutely devoid of any toy tie-ins and I'd agree with Undead Scottsman that it was to its benefit, both in terms of being able to use whoever they wanted character wise and in terms of having the freedom to come up with new character designs. The F-22 G1 Seeker design is one of my favourite TF designs ever and I wish it got more love.
but as Classics turned into Universe and Universe turned into Generations... the comics changed too. From All Hail Megatron, which was supposed to be a soft reboot for new readers to jump on, to the 2010 ongoing, to finally the Barber/Roberts runs.
By the time we got to the Prime Wars toyline IDW and Hasbro had absolutely started to cross pollinate.
And so it should have been no shock to IDW when Hasbro wanted the comics to advertise Titans Return.
"Well IDW didn't have to advertise toys a decade earlier" isn't much of an excuse IMO. A lot had changed.
And it comes around to what LBD said. By dragging their feet it felt like what it was, a half-hearted attempt that the writers wanted to get over with.
They could have instead leaned into it and had some goofy fun. The line was very heavy on the mix and match play pattern and the way the figures and Titanmasters could interact. I have to believe that a properly motivated comic book author could have had a field day just leaning into the line's gimmicks.
Just seemed like it would have been preferable to what they did, which read like it was being written at gunpoint.
I recall there started being a push to use toy designs in the comic around All Hail Megatron, so we'd start seeing things like Universe Sunstreaker's look.
If I were Hasbro I'd have just asked for a Titans Return miniseries or something, disconnected from the main comic. Or run it as backup stories in the main comic.
Have Cerebros and Zarak as leaders, focus on the Headmasters and Masterforce era cast. Little one-and-dones about finding more Titan Masters and ultimately finding Fortress Maximus and Scorponok.
That would've been pretty fun stuff on its own, but I guess it might've been viewed as either confusing or dividing the audience.
If I were Hasbro I'd have just asked for a Titans Return miniseries or something, disconnected from the main comic. Or run it as backup stories in the main comic.
Have Cerebros and Zarak as leaders, focus on the Headmasters and Masterforce era cast. Little one-and-dones about finding more Titan Masters and ultimately finding Fortress Maximus and Scorponok.
That would've been pretty fun stuff on its own, but I guess it might've been viewed as either confusing or dividing the audience.
Everything Hasbro put out at that time used Dreamwave art. It was Hasbro's new "house style".
And Commemorative Series did not begin using Dreamwave art. The first few waves used the original G1 box art instead.
If Dreamwave had been writing stories to advertise the Commemorative Series line specifically, then the very first Dreamwave storyline would have put the spotlight on Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, and Hot Rod using the name Rodimus Major.
I'd argue there was some cross promotion there. Dreamwave is, after all, the first time Ultra Magnus' inner white Optimus Prime-esque robot was canonized in the West and that is very specifically a thing the toy can do.
And while DW didn't focus exclusively on whoever the latest reissues were, it was the first piece of G1-centric fiction in a while that hit when G1 toys were reissued in packaging that used DW art.
I don't think a lot of this was necessarily micromanaged, but you could buy G1 comics and buy G1 toys at the same time for the first time since the Marvel heyday.
Regardless, I feel like the argument here is academic. As far as IDW goes, it went through phases. And while IDW's early phase was detached from any ongoing toyline that had absolutely changed by the time Titans Return launched, and their half-hearted attempt to promote the toys led to a less than ideal story.
I just think that if you want to spend money to aquire the TF licence for media then you need to be ready to sell some toys. And being strangely resistant to that results in sub-par work when John Hasbro finally does call.
And while DW didn't focus exclusively on whoever the latest reissues were, it was the first piece of G1-centric fiction in a while that hit when G1 toys were reissued in packaging that used DW art.
I don't think a lot of this was necessarily micromanaged, but you could buy G1 comics and buy G1 toys at the same time for the first time since the Marvel heyday.
Regardless, I feel like the argument here is academic. As far as IDW goes, it went through phases. And while IDW's early phase was detached from any ongoing toyline that had absolutely changed by the time Titans Return launched, and their half-hearted attempt to promote the toys led to a less than ideal story.
The comic buying public is used to stand-alones and one-offs and mini series. I don't think it would have been an issue.
I just think that if you want to spend money to aquire the TF licence for media then you need to be ready to sell some toys. And being strangely resistant to that results in sub-par work when John Hasbro finally does call.
I think the DW G1 comic/toy overlap was largely coincidental, in that G1 was experiencing a huge revival at the time and both avenues were being used to cash in on it. They weren't actively promoting one another (beyond ads and blurbs). Sure, there'll be some cast crossover, but it's not like either was NOT going to use Optimus Prime or Jazz or Bumblebee. I think the toy half of things was just not at the level yet that it could even do that -- first of all, it was a reissue side line to pad things out, not something they were actively developing and investing in anew. They were finding out what molds were even available, verifying what safety-rule-mandated changes were needed, and so on. Plus the brand team's priority was the main line (I miss the days when some flavor of G1 was not the main line) which DID have a comic explicitly promoting it.
At most, Hasbro and especially Takara (with the gorgeous book-box reissues I sorely want to see revisited) leaned into using the artwork for a lot of stuff, but that was it. It wasn't like Shockwave being the big bad of War and Peace was accompanied by a Shockwave reissue. (Even the Alternator was a year away from the tail end of the ongoing where he showed up again, and even that would've been a streeetch.)
To use a metaphor, they weren't playing together, more like parallel play.
Plus I guess an alternate-continuity thing was not exactly something Barber would have entertained at a time when they were deliberately welding together a big sprawling shared universe. (The alternate-continuity part of my suggestion was specifically so that their main G1 stories could proceed unaffected by new stories and plot devices and maybe different characterization for guys like Chromedome and Krok.)
(I mean, they did years before this put out a bunch of miniseries set in Aligned, so it's not like they were always averse to this.)
At most, Hasbro and especially Takara (with the gorgeous book-box reissues I sorely want to see revisited) leaned into using the artwork for a lot of stuff, but that was it. It wasn't like Shockwave being the big bad of War and Peace was accompanied by a Shockwave reissue. (Even the Alternator was a year away from the tail end of the ongoing where he showed up again, and even that would've been a streeetch.)
To use a metaphor, they weren't playing together, more like parallel play.
I don't disagree, but I think I was considering it more in terms of IDW as a publisher with perhaps smaller margins than the traditional big two -- and at the time they already had a number of things running alongside the "main" books, which were already two books. Churning out another book per month might have not been seen as a good use of money (debatable), considering they also had Revolution and TAAO and other events and series going. And the movie books had themselves gotten wrapped up before even AOE, meaning one less non-IDWG1 continuity being published. (This is why I thought of shorter "backup" stories in each issue instead, but that would have complicated page allotments for the main book and for ads and whatnot.)
Plus I guess an alternate-continuity thing was not exactly something Barber would have entertained at a time when they were deliberately welding together a big sprawling shared universe. (The alternate-continuity part of my suggestion was specifically so that their main G1 stories could proceed unaffected by new stories and plot devices and maybe different characterization for guys like Chromedome and Krok.)
(I mean, they did years before this put out a bunch of miniseries set in Aligned, so it's not like they were always averse to this.)
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