The Energon Pub

Thanks for the compliments guys! #9 will most likely be going up tomorrow night.

#9 Reflector

Who?

Way back in 1984, in accordance with the ancient and sacred law that baddies don't sell as well as goodies, the noble Autobots were somehow having difficulty stopping the Decepticons despite the fact that they outnumbered them roughly eleven squillion to one. After leaving Shockwave behind to keep Cybertron scrubbed and well aired the Decepticon assault force consisted of only 10 members.


"But Mr Shue, unless we get two more members we're not going to go to regionals!"

The odd solution posed by Sunbow was to introduce Reflector, a toy who was generally released in Japan but wouldn't be released in the US until 1986, and even then as a mail-away toy only. Thankfully due to his amazing ability to be 12 guys at once he bolstered the Decepticon forces. Or did he?

So what's so weird about it anyway?

It's difficult to find a part of Reflector that isn't weird.


"So three guys walk into a camera..."

There's the part where all his robots talk and act simultaneously like triplets in a low budget thriller movie. There's the part where in the cartoon all the robots look identical except for their tummy circle. But most importantly in a universe where one robot can become a jet, an aircraft carrier or a city-sized dinosaur it takes three guys to become one camera. The first combiner in the Transformers line was this.



And that's what he does in the show. He's a glorified telescope, except less convenient since you have to wait for his picture to print, then after 12 times you have to buy expensive new polaroid blanks and then you run the risk of people thinking you're a hipster for using a polaroid and then you'll never get around to defeating the Autobots on your fixed gear bicycle.

Also lest we forget if Transformers: The Movie is to be believed Cybertronians have mad long distance skillz just by flipping down their visors. Either that was invented between 1984 and the far flung distant future of 2005 or Thundercracker is humouring Reflector.


Aw, it's almost like they're real Transformers.

The sad part being that other awesome mail-away figures such as the Omnibots got about as much screen time as quality programming on Lifetime.

#9: Honourable Weirdness


"I think he's attempting re-entry."

The sadly short-lived Micromaster Combiner was a brave attempt to combine the popularity of Micromasters with that of Connectables (Micromasters being a combination of Transformers and Micro Machines and Transformers being a combination of my bank account and eBay). Such a fun idea never lasted beyond 12 pairs of robots but it did allow you to create space cherry pickers, hover rocket-launchers and best of all the epic back-end-of-a-dump-truck-attached-to-the-back-end-of-a-crane.

Anyway, that's it for this time. Next time we'll carry on keeping it surreal.

Tell my tale to those who ask. Tell it truly, the ill deeds along with the good, and let me be judged accordingly. The rest... is eight more weird toys.

[quote="Optimum Supreme"]


quote]

This picture of Opti-pee Magnus is awesome! And not just for the rare Sunstreaker and two veriants of Mirage.

Back on thread: Yup. Reflector is a combining pile of diode-blowing-dimwittery. But he does make a fun toy.

Which then makes me ask where the Street Speed Minicon team will go in this list: a skateboard, a bicycle, and a scooter. While I give HUGE props (as they're probably one of my 3 favorite Mini-con molds) to the idea of them as toys, as real, functional things? I can imagine they'd roll into battle with the hopes of making the 'cons laugh themselves to oblivion.

Optimutt wrote:Which then makes me ask where the Street Speed Minicon team will go in this list: a skateboard, a bicycle, and a scooter. While I give HUGE props (as they're probably one of my 3 favorite Mini-con molds) to the idea of them as toys, as real, functional things? I can imagine they'd roll into battle with the hopes of making the 'cons laugh themselves to oblivion.

It makes a lot more sense when you remember that Minicons were refugees rather than warriors. It's no surprise that they'd choose small, nimble inconspicuous forms.

Diem wrote:

Optimutt wrote:Which then makes me ask where the Street Speed Minicon team will go in this list: a skateboard, a bicycle, and a scooter. While I give HUGE props (as they're probably one of my 3 favorite Mini-con molds) to the idea of them as toys, as real, functional things? I can imagine they'd roll into battle with the hopes of making the 'cons laugh themselves to oblivion.

It makes a lot more sense when you remember that Minicons were refugees rather than warriors. It's no surprise that they'd choose small, nimble inconspicuous forms.

Indeed. They're small Transformers that were about the same height as the average young human, therefore it makes more sense for them to take on alt-modes more fitting with human sizes. Expecially when you consider images like this:

Tiny car, or giant kid? It's awkward no matter how you look at it.

That scene with Thundercacker printing out the photograph made no sense then and less sense now.

Yes, Reflector is weird as a toy and character, making little to no sense and qualifying as weird.

Not sure if this should be in the weirdest,the worst,the uglyest or most useless transformers of all time but ROTF Ejector fits in every catagory.
He's a toaster for funks sake only capable of burning finger tips if hunger gets the best of you and that face is just not transformer friendly,
The only thing i can give him is that he's unique as the only transformer kitchen appliance ever atleast to my knowledge.

Messiah Complex wrote:Not sure if this should be in the weirdest,the worst,the uglyest or most useless transformers of all time but ROTF Ejector fits in every catagory.
He's a toaster for funks sake only capable of burning finger tips if hunger gets the best of you and that face is just not transformer friendly,
The only thing i can give him is that he's unique as the only transformer kitchen appliance ever atleast to my knowledge.

But again, he makes perfect sense in context. He's not a Transformer to begin with, he's a normal toaster given life by the Allspark. That certainly explains his odd alt-mode and atypical appearance.

I thought Reflector would be higher on the list.

By the way, are you sticking with actually TRANSFORMING Transformers, and ones in actual Transformer lines (non-crossovers) for this, Diem? Or should we be prepared to see Softimus Prime and Slumblebee, Spudimus Prime, and those new egg things?

Valandar wrote:By the way, are you sticking with actually TRANSFORMING Transformers, and ones in actual Transformer lines (non-crossovers) for this, Diem? Or should we be prepared to see Softimus Prime and Slumblebee, Spudimus Prime, and those new egg things?

Generally speaking things that are intended to be weird or quirky will not be included.

Glad you have gotten a new list going mein freund. Loving it so far, especially the microcombiner mention. I had the front half of shuttle, back half of hovercraft when I was young that I loved. I even had the green constructicon knock-off guys. But I must ask, shall we see R.i.D/Car Robots Megatron in this list? Or perphaps the Sports Label figures? Can't wait to see what you come up with next.

Optimutt wrote:

Optimum Supreme wrote:

quote]

This picture of Opti-pee Magnus is awesome! And not just for the rare Sunstreaker and two variants of Mirage.

Sunstreaker? I thought that was yellow Sideswipe?

Cosmos has to be in there surely. Talk about weird the guy was a flying saucer FFS so much for a disguise!

Diem used Humor!

It's Super Effective!

Forgotten wrote::KREMZEEK: Glad you have gotten a new list going mein freund. Loving it so far, especially the microcombiner mention. I had the front half of shuttle, back half of hovercraft when I was young that I loved. I even had the green constructicon knock-off guys. But I must ask, shall we see R.i.D/Car Robots Megatron in this list? Or perphaps the Sports Label figures? Can't wait to see what you come up with next.

In my childhood I felt the front half of the grey radar truck and the back half of the space shuttle looked amazing together.

...I was a weird kid.

Alright, now, back to work! We're anxiously awaiting the next entry!

Sorry about the delay, I had a non-stop weekend. #8 should be going up tonight.

Time for yet another magical dose of unadulterated weird:

#8:Under-3

Who?

If the name Under-3 didn't just make you nod and go "Oooohhhhhhhh, of course, Under-3" already then I'm about to blow your mind. Under-3 is potentially the most awesome figure you never heard of.

First up, his robot mode bears a strong resemblance to that of Optimus Primal while his alt mode is that of a lion. That's right, your infamous Beast Wars/Beast Wars 2 fanfic "Best Wars" is now a reality. Plus rather than a normal Transformer name like Chargespray, a bizarre Latin name like Ferramagnus Prime or a fanfic name like Death Starfire he has a super cool codename. Under-3?! Could he be the third in a series of ultra powerful Primal clones?


In fact could he be the greatest ever figure and the incarnation of pure awesome oh wait no.

Do we even need to ask where this gets weird?


Beast Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

Well, that wasn't quite what I was expecting. But cheap though he looks and simple though his transformation is maybe the magic is in the alt-mode.


"Sir Hartley Fawcett, crackshot big game hunter, famous for his slogan "shoot 'em right between the eyes!" was eaten late last night by two one-eyed lions walking arm in arm."

Maybe not. He transforms into a head on his own, and presumably his co-Maximals carry him around like something out of a Greek myth. The only place this guy would be able to hide is on the wall of a big game hunter.


Fffffffffffffffffffffff....

To be fair to Under-3 he is a MacRipoff and he is intended for very young children. In fact that's where his name comes from, he's for under-3-year-olds! See what they did there. Sadly while this guy isn't very likely to show up in future fiction (and his future of his Masterpiece figure is a little shaky) he'll always have a special place in my heart, just above my MacDonalds-crippled liver.

#8: Honourable Weirdness


One shall stand, one shall cute.

Chances are you're not familiar with Choro-Q, a series of Japanese car toys that's as long-lived and ubiquitous there as Matchbox cars are in the west. The biggest differences is that the Choro Q cars are styled to be cute rather than realistic and they invariably have pull-back motors.

As a wee mini factoid for those who are reading this list for education rather than irreverence (you poor trusting fools) you may be aware that early Transformer toys came from two lines, one of which featured scaled down cars and jets (eg Prowl, Sunstreaker) and one which featured life-sized gadgets (eg. Soundwave, Laserbeak). What you may not know is that the Minibots like Huffer, Bumblebee et al are from the second group, their alt-modes are life-sized Choro Q cars. For real. That's why they have those cutesy dimensions.

Later on Choro Q later introduced a robot subline featuring Japanese mecha such as Getter-3 (it's okay if you don't know who Getter-3 is, even Getter-2 doesn't know who he is) and eventually because everything has to be meta at some point they introduced a Transformers subline to this subline. This led to cute versions of Rodimus, Optimus and Megatron that turned into cutesy alt modes.

So why am I picking on Megatron? Quite apart from the fact that he's now a tiny tyrant, remember I said every Choro-Q toy had a pull back motor? Every Choro Q toy had a pull back motor.


Prepare a stiff drink and go to 1:39.

Anyway, that's it for this time. One thing I do want feedback on is that I'm thinking of starting a Twitter in order to produce little Diem-esque statements on the latest Transformers news. I was just wondering if anyone thinks it would be a good or bad idea and whether they'd follow it or not.

Say goodbye to the universe, Maximals! The future has changed. Yessssss. The Autobots lose! Diem's list of the 10 Weirdest Toys triumphs! And you...YOU NO LONGER EXIST!

"clicks on video, goes to 1:39"
Who in the hell thought of this? Honorable Weirdness #8 What do you have that can top the stupidity of this?

Side Note: I hope you do make the twitter page. I still laugh at the T-Rex/toddler line you had in the last list.

Nemesis251 wrote:"clicks on video, goes to 1:39"
Who in the hell thought of this? Honorable Weirdness #8 What do you have that can top the stupidity of this?

Stupid like an awesome! I feel at least a faint affection towards all the figures on this list but the Choro Qs are extra special.

Ah under-3. he who's alt form is only relivent for going undercover as the dismembered head of Aslan.

Diem wrote:Prepare a stiff drink and go to 1:39.

That has got to be one of the strangest things I have ever seen on a Transformer.

WeatherManNX01 wrote:

Diem wrote:Prepare a stiff drink and go to 1:39.

That has got to be one of the strangest things I have ever seen on a Transformer.

Or most awesome!!!

Editor wrote:Ah under-3. he who's alt form is only relivent for going undercover as the dismembered head of Aslan.

Believe it or not I was seriously considering doing that very same joke. After all Aslan gets all diembodied all over the place. You can't so much as attempt to abandon your kingdom in order to explore or cast a spell to make yourself look prettier without Aslan's face getting all up in your face.