The Energon Pub

william-james88 wrote:I have no clue who devcon is but i know the tripedicus council quite well. Tripedicus and Magnaboss were really important toys to me since they were opposing beast combiners and i found it awesome that the components of tripedicus actually appeared in the show.

Hellscream9999 wrote:

william-james88 wrote:I have no clue who devcon is but i know the tripedicus council quite well. Tripedicus and Magnaboss were really important toys to me since they were opposing beast combiners and i found it awesome that the components of tripedicus actually appeared in the show.

Devcon's that one guy who showed up, didn't do anything memorable, then left - never to be seen again, until botcon a couple years ago

ZeroWolf wrote:Can't we all agree however that it's a shame that Magnaboss isn't part of this set as he got nothing from the cartoon (western one at least)

TF_JW wrote:As far as how the Beast Wars Combiner Wars came about, I can't get too much into that. However I will say that Hasbro were very much excited by the concept of Fun Pub using current molds and branding to make the toy line and exclusives more cohesive.

Lucky Logician wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:Can't we all agree however that it's a shame that Magnaboss isn't part of this set as he got nothing from the cartoon (western one at least)

TF_JW wrote:As far as how the Beast Wars Combiner Wars came about, I can't get too much into that. However I will say that Hasbro were very much excited by the concept of Fun Pub using current molds and branding to make the toy line and exclusives more cohesive.

I've got a hunch that Magnaboss will probably be in the souvenir sets. The box set is Combiner Wars Dawn of the Predacus. It only makes sense to include the other figures in with that theme. Heck, other than the Armada Starscream mold that FubPub is using for next year, every other announced figure for 2016 is a CW figure. I'd be surprised if the souvenirs figures are anything but Combiner Wars figures.

As a side-note, FunPub, PLEASE SURPRISE ME. I need that Oilmaster repainted as Optimus Prime / Primal. It is a munky and a trukk. There is absolutely nothing better than that.
THIS NEEDS TO BE MADE!

ZeroWolf wrote:A g2 combiner? Given what molds we have access to and what autobots were out during g2, I guess one of the other figures would be drawn from the stunticon molds...and alpha bravo as rotorstorm. Oh wait! They could do cw prime as thunderclash...but then that just seems a bit of a cop out given the theme

Originally Posted by Cal Shumiatcher
Wow - this really came out of the blue. And you’ve picked one of my favourite scenes from the point of view of innovation on a limited budget. One of the great things about Beast Wars was the creative freedom afforded to directors on the show. And of course the amazing scripts made working on this show so rewarding.

This scene was a typical production challenge and I’m very proud of the results.

Here’s what I was given:

1) the design of a massive spaceship - exterior only. Because this was the only scene that ever takes place within the ship, no interior set was ever designed.
2) Three rough character models that had virtually no moving parts.
3) a three page dialogue scene that was important but virtually all exposition. no action.

Hmmm. How to keep the audience awake? As I recall, the Tripredacus Council were essentially putting a hit out on one of our good guys. So I decided to play them like film noir gangsters, sitting in a smoke filled room under a swinging ‘china hat’ lamp. The swinging lamp was supposed to be the only light source in the room and there was to be virtually no ambient light. I was looking for the super high contrast, film noir look - partially because I love the look and partly because there was no set! So I decided that we’d play the interior of the spaceship like a huge cavernous empty space - almost a bottomless pit with the council members floating in space.

So we set it up, and everything was great, except you couldn’t see the character’s faces. The overhead light was casting such hard shadows. So the supervising animator, Eric Reynolds - (who has gone on to supervise animation on movies like Avatar, The Hobbit and The Hunger Games), suggested the Council kind of ‘sign in’ when they arrived at the table by touching a palm reading pad that would illuminate when their identity was confirmed. The glowing pad provided a soft red light on the bodies. Now you have to remember that these were very rudimentary models that were quickly finished and textured. So I can only imagine that some parts of the characters were more reflective than others. We didn’t really plan it, but it looked really cool when parts of them glowed with red, so we went with it. Sorry, that’s pretty much all there is to it.

I love how the scene ends - one character grabs the lamp to stop it swinging and delivers a line I still remember well - “Terminate, with extreme prejudice”. It was so camp, and so cool all at once.

Thanks for your enquiry - and for picking a scene that I remember so well.

RodimusRex wrote:It was a Twitter survey. They asked which G2 combiner people would like and it was basically a "G2 Defensor or someone else? Tell us what Autobot combiner you'd like" poll.

william-james88 wrote:I dont know what the technical term for it is, but there is a notion that once a piece of art is sent out to the public, what the public makes of it can become as credible an interpretation as the author's. For example, Tommy Wiseau thought the Room was a masterpiece of drama and the audiences thought it was a joke. And it was so overwhelming that he changed his outlook of the film from a marketing standpoint from then on. Anyways, its the long way to say that even though what I write below confirms that the director of the specific Beast Wars scene intended the Tripedicus council to be just grey, the interpretation of Botcon is just as valid, given how the scene actually plays out.

TFW user Verno wrote to Cal Shumiatcher, the director of the Beast Wars Episode the scene comes from (The Agenda Part 1) and he gave a detailed account of his intentions with the light sources and what they meant in terms of the colour of the actual characters:

Originally Posted by Cal Shumiatcher
Wow - this really came out of the blue. And you’ve picked one of my favourite scenes from the point of view of innovation on a limited budget. One of the great things about Beast Wars was the creative freedom afforded to directors on the show. And of course the amazing scripts made working on this show so rewarding.

This scene was a typical production challenge and I’m very proud of the results.

Here’s what I was given:

1) the design of a massive spaceship - exterior only. Because this was the only scene that ever takes place within the ship, no interior set was ever designed.
2) Three rough character models that had virtually no moving parts.
3) a three page dialogue scene that was important but virtually all exposition. no action.

Hmmm. How to keep the audience awake? As I recall, the Tripredacus Council were essentially putting a hit out on one of our good guys. So I decided to play them like film noir gangsters, sitting in a smoke filled room under a swinging ‘china hat’ lamp. The swinging lamp was supposed to be the only light source in the room and there was to be virtually no ambient light. I was looking for the super high contrast, film noir look - partially because I love the look and partly because there was no set! So I decided that we’d play the interior of the spaceship like a huge cavernous empty space - almost a bottomless pit with the council members floating in space.

So we set it up, and everything was great, except you couldn’t see the character’s faces. The overhead light was casting such hard shadows. So the supervising animator, Eric Reynolds - (who has gone on to supervise animation on movies like Avatar, The Hobbit and The Hunger Games), suggested the Council kind of ‘sign in’ when they arrived at the table by touching a palm reading pad that would illuminate when their identity was confirmed. The glowing pad provided a soft red light on the bodies. Now you have to remember that these were very rudimentary models that were quickly finished and textured. So I can only imagine that some parts of the characters were more reflective than others. We didn’t really plan it, but it looked really cool when parts of them glowed with red, so we went with it. Sorry, that’s pretty much all there is to it.

I love how the scene ends - one character grabs the lamp to stop it swinging and delivers a line I still remember well - “Terminate, with extreme prejudice”. It was so camp, and so cool all at once.

Thanks for your enquiry - and for picking a scene that I remember so well.

We didn’t really plan it, but it looked really cool when parts of them glowed with red, so we went with it.

JazZeke wrote:

william-james88 wrote:I dont know what the technical term for it is, but there is a notion that once a piece of art is sent out to the public, what the public makes of it can become as credible an interpretation as the author's. For example, Tommy Wiseau thought the Room was a masterpiece of drama and the audiences thought it was a joke. And it was so overwhelming that he changed his outlook of the film from a marketing standpoint from then on. Anyways, its the long way to say that even though what I write below confirms that the director of the specific Beast Wars scene intended the Tripedicus council to be just grey, the interpretation of Botcon is just as valid, given how the scene actually plays out.

TFW user Verno wrote to Cal Shumiatcher, the director of the Beast Wars Episode the scene comes from (The Agenda Part 1) and he gave a detailed account of his intentions with the light sources and what they meant in terms of the colour of the actual characters:

Originally Posted by Cal Shumiatcher
Wow - this really came out of the blue. And you’ve picked one of my favourite scenes from the point of view of innovation on a limited budget. One of the great things about Beast Wars was the creative freedom afforded to directors on the show. And of course the amazing scripts made working on this show so rewarding.

This scene was a typical production challenge and I’m very proud of the results.

Here’s what I was given:

1) the design of a massive spaceship - exterior only. Because this was the only scene that ever takes place within the ship, no interior set was ever designed.
2) Three rough character models that had virtually no moving parts.
3) a three page dialogue scene that was important but virtually all exposition. no action.

Hmmm. How to keep the audience awake? As I recall, the Tripredacus Council were essentially putting a hit out on one of our good guys. So I decided to play them like film noir gangsters, sitting in a smoke filled room under a swinging ‘china hat’ lamp. The swinging lamp was supposed to be the only light source in the room and there was to be virtually no ambient light. I was looking for the super high contrast, film noir look - partially because I love the look and partly because there was no set! So I decided that we’d play the interior of the spaceship like a huge cavernous empty space - almost a bottomless pit with the council members floating in space.

So we set it up, and everything was great, except you couldn’t see the character’s faces. The overhead light was casting such hard shadows. So the supervising animator, Eric Reynolds - (who has gone on to supervise animation on movies like Avatar, The Hobbit and The Hunger Games), suggested the Council kind of ‘sign in’ when they arrived at the table by touching a palm reading pad that would illuminate when their identity was confirmed. The glowing pad provided a soft red light on the bodies. Now you have to remember that these were very rudimentary models that were quickly finished and textured. So I can only imagine that some parts of the characters were more reflective than others. We didn’t really plan it, but it looked really cool when parts of them glowed with red, so we went with it. Sorry, that’s pretty much all there is to it.

I love how the scene ends - one character grabs the lamp to stop it swinging and delivers a line I still remember well - “Terminate, with extreme prejudice”. It was so camp, and so cool all at once.

Thanks for your inquiry - and for picking a scene that I remember so well.

Awesome. I always found that scene so incredibly compelling as a kid.

Sabrblade wrote:I feel that this is the most important part of Shumiatcher's clarification:

We didn’t really plan it, but it looked really cool when parts of them glowed with red, so we went with it.

The final product may not have been what they intended it to be, but in spite of that they liked the "glowing red bodies" look enough to accepted it as such in the end, simply because, to them, "it was cool."

So if the creators say it's fine, that's valid, right?

william-james88 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:I feel that this is the most important part of Shumiatcher's clarification:

We didn’t really plan it, but it looked really cool when parts of them glowed with red, so we went with it.

The final product may not have been what they intended it to be, but in spite of that they liked the "glowing red bodies" look enough to accepted it as such in the end, simply because, to them, "it was cool."

So if the creators say it's fine, that's valid, right?

Yeah totally. And I get it, they agreed with the vision put forth knowing it was not what they were originally going for. Thus, what is truly show accurate is the inclusion of the red (what is author's initial intention would be grey, but then if we go down this path, then MP Ironhide shouldnt have a head).

Hellscream9999 wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:I feel that this is the most important part of Shumiatcher's clarification:

We didn’t really plan it, but it looked really cool when parts of them glowed with red, so we went with it.

The final product may not have been what they intended it to be, but in spite of that they liked the "glowing red bodies" look enough to accepted it as such in the end, simply because, to them, "it was cool."

So if the creators say it's fine, that's valid, right?

Yeah totally. And I get it, they agreed with the vision put forth knowing it was not what they were originally going for. Thus, what is truly show accurate is the inclusion of the red (what is author's initial intention would be grey, but then if we go down this path, then MP Ironhide shouldnt have a head).

Well considering so many people are unhappy with it, that may've been the better course of action

william-james88 wrote:

Hellscream9999 wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:I feel that this is the most important part of Shumiatcher's clarification:

We didn’t really plan it, but it looked really cool when parts of them glowed with red, so we went with it.

The final product may not have been what they intended it to be, but in spite of that they liked the "glowing red bodies" look enough to accepted it as such in the end, simply because, to them, "it was cool."

So if the creators say it's fine, that's valid, right?

Yeah totally. And I get it, they agreed with the vision put forth knowing it was not what they were originally going for. Thus, what is truly show accurate is the inclusion of the red (what is author's initial intention would be grey, but then if we go down this path, then MP Ironhide shouldnt have a head).

Well considering so many people are unhappy with it, that may've been the better course of action

We dont know that. If you tally up the naysayers who believe that them grey is the better option and that its the only reason why they wont buy this set , I would be surprised if you could come up with more than 20. Nobody will feel that.

Remember this, the internet community is loud but very small. People who have no problem with it have no need to post about it.

Pete@BotCon wrote:Original intent was grey robots. What you have in the bulk of the scene is not grey robots. The lamp proves this. Now we know why. Greyscale is boring.
So, to be blunt... They are red and silver. We are keeping them red and silver. I am glad we made them red and silver.

That Bot wrote:Logically that would settle the issue, but how about 5 more pages of complaints and debates anyway?

Sabrblade wrote:

That Bot wrote:Logically that would settle the issue, but how about 5 more pages of complaints and debates anyway?

We wouldn't be this fandom without'em.