Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

tigertracks 24 wrote:

xyl360 wrote:I guess I'm just bored with the whole 'geewun' thing and seeing stuff like this (and even RiD Sideburn and Skybite, though I'm not an RiD fan) are a breath of fresh air to me.

Bw even had G1 show up in it, so it seems to be an inescapable destiny.

Yep, Beast Wars did have G1 show up, but that's because Beast Wars was actually a continuation of the existing G1 cartoon continuity.

That alone allowed them to reference (and even on rare occasions feature) G1 characters, but the entire primary cast of characters were all non-G1, new characters (again, with the exception of a few cameos).

It would be nice to see Has/Tak do something, ANYTHING that gets away from the Diaclone/Microchange roots like Beast Wars and a few other series did. But now it remains, always Optimus vs Megatron, Autobots vs Decepticons, the same old story 'came to Earth from Cybertron' and 'fighting over Energon'.

Don't get me wrong, I understand why they do it. It allows them to draw from a very rich history of characters and plots and also attempts to avoid alienating us die-hard fans that grew up on the franchise while trying to bring in today's generation of kids as well, but I just feel that a lot could be done that isn't a re-hash of the same old stuff. BW was an example of that, with the entire concept being approached from the point of view of a dramatic science fiction series, and even the movies (which drew most of their ideas from G1), tried to change things up similarly.

I guess I'm just wondering how many versions of the same characters us collectors will buy before we finally stop collecting because we've had enough, but I guess if it hasn't happened after all these year, it's not going to so I'm likely one of the few who is likely to soon end up dropping out of a beloved hobby for lack of interest in seeing the same old stuff over and over again.

xyl360 wrote:attempts to avoid alienating us die-hard fans that grew up on the franchise

Yeah, I think that kinda stopped when they abandoned the original continuity. I personally think fans would be more than happy if they went on to tell the stories of new primes after Optimus/Rodimus and introduce totally new characters. They could still release new versions of old characters when plot permits(how they brought Optimus back in season 3, for instance)

Buuut it's a mess of continuities now. Oh well, at least they're still robots that turn into things. That has always been the best thing about the franchise.

orangeitis wrote:Yeah, I think that kinda stopped when they abandoned the original continuity.

I think they did that simply to keep from alienating the new generation(s) so they don't need to go back and watch a 1980's TV show and movie in order to get caught up with what the heck is going on.

orangeitis wrote:I personally think fans would be more than happy if they went on to tell the stories of new primes after Optimus/Rodimus and introduce totally new characters. They could still release new versions of old characters when plot permits(how they brought Optimus back in season 3, for instance)

Agreed. Not to mention all that time (300+ years?) between the end of season 3 and Beast Wars, but sadly that continuity is dead now.

orangeitis wrote:Buuut it's a mess of continuities now. Oh well, at least they're still robots that turn into things. That has always been the best thing about the franchise.

Now it's a new 'unified' continuity, meaning nothing created can blatantly contradict or conflict with the details written in Hasbro's new Transformers Unified Continuity Bible. That includes Prime and the video games, though that bible itself is based on G1 at its core, at least with regards to core characters and basic elements like Autobots, Decepticons and Cybertron. More specific details are pretty much up for grabs/individual writers' interpretations. Of course, that's also what I hate about it. It's essentially a stripped down re-boot of G1. In my mind it is neither inferior nor superior to G1, but just a derivative of it instead of something more original. It just doesn't offer anything new or very interesting for a fan like me, but I'm probably just being to picky.

I'll keep this reply short, as to not be off-topic too much.

xyl360 wrote:I think they did that simply to keep from alienating the new generation(s) so they don't need to go back and watch a 1980's TV show and movie in order to get caught up with what the heck is going on.

Good point, but there would always be directions the story would go to keep from alienating it's new viewers. Between wars in that universe, for instance.

xyl360 wrote:Now it's a new 'unified' continuity, meaning nothing created can blatantly contradict or conflict with the details written in Hasbro's new Transformers Unified Continuity Bible. That includes Prime and the video games, though that bible itself is based on G1 at its core, at least with regards to core characters and basic elements like Autobots, Decepticons and Cybertron. More specific details are pretty much up for grabs/individual writers' interpretations. Of course, that's also what I hate about it. It's essentially a stripped down re-boot of G1. In my mind it is neither inferior nor superior to G1, but just a derivative of it instead of something more original. It just doesn't offer anything new or very interesting for a fan like me, but I'm probably just being to picky.

Well maybe this generation of children might have fond memories of Transformers on the level that we had with G1. It might be different memories though, but still.

Also, I am kinda glad Hasbro is taking the effort to keep continuity together and all(despite the inconsistencies, though they're different mediums/universes).

And keeping on-topic: I love this mold. I wouldn't mind 3, especially since the 3rd is free with a club membership. On the other hand, I usually don't object to having multiples of the same mold, usually if the characters are different. Plus, I'm short on Maximals.

tigertracks 24 wrote:

xyl360 wrote:Bw even had G1 show up in it, so it seems to be an inescapable destiny.

But at least when G1 showed up in BW, it wasn't a homage, it WAS G1.

While I think it great they are pre-beasting more BW characters, especially Depth Charge, I really don't approve of the mold. Its small, doesn't off any sie comparison to the actual BW Depth Charge mold, minus the head and the trident.

I had originally planned to transform Galaxy Force Soundwave into DOFP Depth Charge, mainly because a majority of the DOFP's set used Galaxy Force molds, and Soundwave has an appropriate head for Depth Charge. Also his chest piece is similar to the (generic) chest piece on the pre-BW body we can sort of see in "Deep Metal".

I had also planned on repainting Galaxy Force Menasor into DOFP's Protoform-X. I felt he offers enough menacing features for him. Any comments?

ssilipino wrote:=While I think it great they are pre-beasting more BW characters, especially Depth Charge, I really don't approve of the mold. Its small, doesn't off any sie comparison to the actual BW Depth Charge mold, minus the head and the trident.=

I had the same thoughts about Tigatron. And the opposite of Airazor. Though I had bigger issues with Airazor aside from size...

ssilipino wrote:But at least when G1 showed up in BW, it wasn't a homage, it WAS G1.

EXACTLY !

ssilipino wrote:While I think it great they are pre-beasting more BW characters, especially Depth Charge, I really don't approve of the mold. Its small, doesn't off any sie comparison to the actual BW Depth Charge mold, minus the head and the trident.

I had originally planned to transform Galaxy Force Soundwave into DOFP Depth Charge, mainly because a majority of the DOFP's set used Galaxy Force molds, and Soundwave has an appropriate head for Depth Charge. Also his chest piece is similar to the (generic) chest piece on the pre-BW body we can sort of see in "Deep Metal".

I could totally see GF SW as a pre-BW DC .

ssilipino wrote:I had also planned on repainting Galaxy Force Menasor into DOFP's Protoform-X. I felt he offers enough menacing features for him. Any comments?

For Protoform-X, I actually just got a Hasbro Rampage (I use a Takara one to actually represent Rampage from the show) and removed all of his kibble. Based on the sillouette you see during the show of him on Cybertron, that's pretty much what he looks like. Just Rampage without the crab kibble. A LOT of the 'Cybertronian' Maximals and Predicons shown during BW and BM seemed to not really have alt modes at all. For those, I actually used a bunch of Action Masters. I just repainted them to make them match the color schemes/patterns I observed during the few occasions they were shown throughout the series (Action Master Bumblebee makes a great Cicadacon with some red and silver paint ).

xyl360 wrote:

ssilipino wrote:But at least when G1 showed up in BW, it wasn't a homage, it WAS G1.

EXACTLY !

ssilipino wrote:While I think it great they are pre-beasting more BW characters, especially Depth Charge, I really don't approve of the mold. Its small, doesn't off any sie comparison to the actual BW Depth Charge mold, minus the head and the trident.

I had originally planned to transform Galaxy Force Soundwave into DOFP Depth Charge, mainly because a majority of the DOFP's set used Galaxy Force molds, and Soundwave has an appropriate head for Depth Charge. Also his chest piece is similar to the (generic) chest piece on the pre-BW body we can sort of see in "Deep Metal".

I could totally see GF SW as a pre-BW DC .

ssilipino wrote:I had also planned on repainting Galaxy Force Menasor into DOFP's Protoform-X. I felt he offers enough menacing features for him. Any comments?

For Protoform-X, I actually just got a Hasbro Rampage (I use a Takara one to actually represent Rampage from the show) and removed all of his kibble. Based on the sillouette you see during the show of him on Cybertron, that's pretty much what he looks like. Just Rampage without the crab kibble. A LOT of the 'Cybertronian' Maximals and Predicons shown during BW and BM seemed to not really have alt modes at all. For those, I actually used a bunch of Action Masters. I just repainted them to make them match the color schemes/patterns I observed during the few occasions they were shown throughout the series (Action Master Bumblebee makes a great Cicadacon with some red and silver paint ).

That's some very creative creating there. Sounds like some good projects.

I lost interest in the brand in the late 80s/early 90s, and only got re-interested again when the live-action movies came out. So I completely missed Beast Wars, RID, Unicron Trilogy, etc. For that, I'm mostly glad, since the Unicron Trilogy seems completely overloaded with characters and concepts. Too much to focus on. My major point in saying all that is that Beast Wars holds no interest for me, and thus nor does this Depthcharge. I AM however interested in some of the other characters they're going to be releasing for the Subscription service.

I'm TOTALLY over the moon that they're going to be releasing Slipstream as a remolded and repainted Prime FE Starscream. I love me some fembots, and I've always thought he had a really feminine body shape, so making Screamer's mold into a fembot just saves me the trouble I'm not so thrilled about the color choices they made for her (I'd always seen or imagined her with a G2 Ramjet deco) in Thundercracker blue, Hot Spot blue, silver and black, but I'll take what I can get with fembots. Now all I need is a Knockout repainted into Freezon (which will never happen since she's too obscure) and Bumblebee repainted into Nightracer (also not happening for a number of reasons).

oops, hit send too soon...

I may just try those projects myself. I figure since Nightracer was something of a Bumblebee redeco, his altmode would work for hers, and Freezon is red anyway, so Knockout's mold should serve as a good and easy donor with minimal repainting. Does anyone else redeco existing molds into fembots?