The Energon Pub

Maybe this has been said before, but Burn, maybe it is the fact that the innovating gimmicks of the current toy lines are not clearly labeled as they were in the past, is what is troubling you. In G1, every triple changer was labeled as such, so was every bot in the master lines, and during Unicron Trilogy the gimmicks were shown up front from the get go because they were spread to the entire line.

Now a days Hasbro doesn't bother to label the secondary gimmick anymore, because doing so would limit them creatively and from a business stand point. While we don't pay much attention to it, the secondary gimmicks were clearly labeled on the packaging, any catalog advertisements, any commercials, toy stores and the instructions in the old days. That adds up. If Hasbro were to do so now, then they would either have to waste money explaining the different gimmicks for every toy, or, and this the reason why I don't mind the lack of labels/advertisements for gimmicks, is that they would have to spread the same gimmick across the entire line again. As you said, not every toy in the Unicron trilogy pulled their gimmick that well. In fact some were down right terrible. Also, the money spent on labeling/advertisements on gimmicks seems to be spread to specific same gimmick oriented lines. For instance the Battle RPM guys (the alt-modes that have weapons pop out of them), the Fast Action Battlers, those Robot Replicas, and the legends toy line.

When I think of TF toys, my focus is narrowed entirely on scouts, deluxes, voyagers, ultras, leader, and the occasional supreme toy. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that's where most people on the board focus their wallets on too. Let's just call this the main line. Since Hasbro has to sell not only the main line, but the ancillary ones as well, their marketing budget must be stretch thin for this.

However, gimmick innovation is alive and well in the main line, you just have to use the word of mouth/internet to find it. Case in point: within the movie lines we have Sea Spray and Mindwipe. Both are Voyagers, and have fairly normal looking heads too, but they also have the ability to combine in their altmodes with specific scouts, Skystalker and Breacher. While all four do not suffer from skull head syndrome, Sea Spray's and Breacher's designs clearly harken back to the days of solid bodies. In fact, Breacher is a marvel of a scout. His limbs are all nice squares, rectangles and cylinders, while the face is classically simplified, instead the detail is spread out over the helmet, as it should be. I'm dying to find more of this guy. He just screams army builder to me. He seems so out of place in the Hunt for the Decepticons line.

Speaking of Breacher and the HFTD line, there is a gimmick that slowly seems to be picking up steaming that I hope will become as standard as the 5mm peg: Snap on weapons. I adore this gimmick. It's nice, it's simple, it can easily be spread to other figures, and best of all: it doesn't hinder the main TF toy in anyway at all. All hasbro has to do is just add a few bars on a figure, and they're done. So far the core of this gimmick is Recon Ironhide (He's got so many extra snap on weapons to share), and Brawn, Breacher, Sea Spray, Sky Stalker, and their respective repaints support this feature and in some cases add more weapons to share. Also, this gimmick is spreading to the Generations line in the form of Darkmount and Skullgrin.

Other innovations exists, but so far they seem to be character specfic, but that's okay to me. It does add a sort of charm to the individual figure. HighBrow's helmet is a cool touch, and it compliments his WWII alt mode nicely. Or in the case of upcoming Wreck-Gar toy, you can buy two of them and make one ride the other! I bet you dollars to donuts that we'll see another toy from another mold able to ride him as well.

May I add a quality over quantity approach then? Back in the G1 days (sure the 'bots were off scale to each other) the TF lines were just one well......... line.

Pardon my loss for words on how to describe them but, well you have Optimus Prime sold as that, Optimus Prime with the big@ss trailer. No Jumbo Prime, mini me Prime, etc. Get my point?

In Japan, it was a different matter because they sold a Jr. version and a Choro Q version but over all, just one mold of Optimus. The next Optimus that was released was Powermaster Prime/Ginrai.

Sure, Optimus was quite popular, but well, they concentrated on a single mold. Too much version of a single mold(ahem Movie Bumble B for instance)is milking it too much that it punts innovation over, well profit. Profit is important of course, but over exposure of a particular product and you run the risk of turning people off (again, the exact term in my economics class eludes me but to simplify, too much of a good thing removes the good in the thing)

Man....an Optimus toy that actually came with a trailer. Those were different times indeed!

You know, I was thinking before that maybe PCC was pretty innovative. Little Commander dude with a bunch of non-transforming drones that made up the limbs of his larger body. Sure, they suck in the end but it was a different take on the gestalt idea.

Then I remembered Energon Optimus Prime, you know, has four non-transforming drones ... make up the limbs of his larger body.

Yeah ... I didn't think I could dislike PCC more, but I do now.

Counterpunch wrote:::Nominates thread for best disscussion with respectful discourse in forever::

When I read CPs post I decided not to say *ANYTHING* here, since I live in a social backdrop (Greece!!!) where arguing is has different mechanics. I was confident I'd destroy what you guys have maintained,so I left well alone.

I am one of the first people who started calling Hasbro lazy on this site, as Burn has done above.As such I feel strongly that I should step forward and stand by Burn (and my words) now, or else make myself accountable. I sent a PM to Burn explaining my resignations about posting here but he has encouraged me to put in in the thread as it will help stimulate the discussion.So here I go:

The G1 toys deserve every scrap of upgrading that has been invented or introduced over the past 26(?) years.They are the catalysts who sparked it all.They caused the upgrades and the continuities to exist. They were raped and cast aside, if you will, for Hasbro to cash in.No matter what some say, the Fanbase has pushed back to make sure the G1s get what they deserve,and the G1s simply deserve it since they went through all the abuse without a peep.(Becaue they are chunks of plastic that can't stand up for itself).

All lines that followed up from G1 deserve to get the best of any G1 honorary treatment-that's what G1 does:it goes first, so that all others can continue to survive.When these 'best ofs' culminate into periods or eras, the G1s deserve getting redos all over again.

Hasbro HAS been lazy, and sneaky, but not every day of the year. It only takes one greedy headman to say "focus on the money", (make more and spend less) and every designer will suffer from (our backlash at) the result, no matter how much they wanted to pour their hearts into the work they were ABOUT to do.

If *one* designer is unbelievably talented, with the energy to apply a new innovation to each individual model, chances are he/she will be snagged and put in charge of a project.The whole project will then get an 'overall innovation' and the next project will 'go in a different direction'.

I am fully confident, that at least once, a Hasbro exec has said "They'll buy what we tell them to buy, and they'll thank us for it as well".When somebody is going to make money anyway, he shouldn't sabotage.When he does, he deserves to get sniffed out and called on it.

The united TF designing authorities, INCLUDUDING the comic-book people, have redone TFs in heaps of different stories with no attempt at consistency.NOT continuity, but Consistency. To me, one of the best jobs in the world that a TF fan could ever have is explain what happend to (whichever TF bot) since (whichever last appearance),let alone write the next step in his story.They don't even TRY to tie stuff in.This is LAZY.They DESERVE to have someone new step in and tie it all in properly, and then have veteran fans (not me-YOU-I don't buy comics and don't own the films on DVD) point at them and tell the newbies "Don't buy HIS stuff-he spits on your mind for a dollar".

The Mottos weren't even mottos, just typical quotes.If theres that much neglect going on on the outside the box, what's going on inside? It's not difficult to press a few buttons on a PC terminal and change "Motto" to something else.

In my head, there's a new period happening right now where the companies and the fanbase(s) are beginning to liaise more eye-to-eye.My deepest wish at this point in time is that an innovation will be put in place where toys that are likely to sell out will be produced in greater numbers-case in point: Classics Smokescreen and Inferno, and Generations Jazz.I guess they already do that up to a point-but I know all of Eastern Europe has trouble getting the greatest pieces.

Models such as Tomahawk, and the head/neck automorphing (sort of) mechanism on Animated Shockwave, show that the innovators are still there.They always were, but the old days of freeforming are gone.Everything is a competition now,even our final purchasing of the piece we want, it's a competition to make sure we find the one we want.Needless to say, the designers are competing against the molds,now, in some instances, fitting so much bot into so little vehicle.And they'r managing to get the molds to sit up and do tricks.

There's propably a chaos theory/algorythm somewhere that suggests that the inter-departmental innovations of TF history need to hit the pause button and consolidate amongst themselves,maybe even get Spartan and weed out (or horticultural and cross breed) the weaker constituents.Hopefully such a consolidation will bring each of the manufacturing and purchasing groups a degree closer together for the next cycle.

"We never work what we would have wanted for our childhood until we become solely responsible for the childhod of somebody elses child"
-Ghost Owl.

Respectfully
-Orrie.

I don't know if this is an applicable incident but, the creation/design of henkei Galvatron.

It was quite innovative (IMHO) but........but somewhere along the road, his final form was gutted, instead of a Voyager he got shrunk and lost the 3rd mode. All to make way for animated Shockwave. Well as a result, we got a pretty wonky figure that easily falls apart and, well is just not right....it could have been one kick @ss figure btw.

Sure, 'cons sell less but this is Galvatron aka the 'con who was once known as Megs. You sacrifice his size in place of a character like Powerglide? Or Onslaught?

So innovations are at times stifled by the decisions of the top brass in the corporate hierarchy.

Firstly, i'd like to thank Autobot Smoketreader for joining in, and secondly, i'd like to thank everyone for such a great discussion. Hope you feel okay with joining in now AS.

Autobot Smoketreader wrote:I am fully confident, that at least once, a Hasbro exec has said "They'll buy what we tell them to buy, and they'll thank us for it as well".

I love this part, because it was once reported that Vince McMahon, owner and Chairman of World Wrestling Entertainment, allegedly said something similar.

The result saw a lot of old fans turned off BUT were replaced with a much more valuable commodity. Kids, and subsequently, their parents.

I guess when it comes to TF's i'm falling into the "old fan" category. Every time we see a new photo of something I see a lot of responses along the "Oh yeah that's awesome!" or "Damn you Hasbro, my wallets going to hate me!" yet i'll look at it and go "oh, meh ... another transforming car that's an old canon character ... yay".

Yet I still go out and buy the damn things. I'm so weak. I should probably take up drinking or drugs, give myself another vice to waste money on.

In my head, there's a new period happening right now where the companies and the fanbase(s) are beginning to liaise more eye-to-eye.

ooooo and I dread that.

Case in point, Drift. Not so much of a fan-made character, but a NINJA! You know, those things that are massively popular on the internet! Ninja's are cool. Ninja's are popular. That's all Drift was to me, a character created to appeal to a current internet fad. He, like Sunstorm, are nothing but utter fanwank to me.

I feel the same way about the TFCC stories. It's utter fanwank. And if I want to read fanwanky material then i'll find a fanfic site and read it there, I don't need it from one of the commercially involved companies.

There's propably a chaos theory/algorythm somewhere that suggests that the inter-departmental innovations of TF history need to hit the pause button and consolidate amongst themselves,maybe even get Spartan and weed out (or horticultural and cross breed) the weaker constituents.Hopefully such a consolidation will bring each of the manufacturing and purchasing groups a degree closer together for the next cycle.

This got me thinking, we know Aaron Archer is one of the bigwigs at Hasbro, but who's on the design team these days? How often does staff turn over? Is it made up of people who have been in that position for several years or do they rotate people in and out on a regular basis to "keep things fresh"?

Might be a good question to ask Hasbro some time. Because from my personal perspective i'm betting the design team has been in place for a while. Time for fresh blood maybe?

fenrir72 wrote:I don't know if this is an applicable incident but, the creation/design of henkei Galvatron.

It was quite innovative (IMHO) but........but somewhere along the road, his final form was gutted, instead of a Voyager he got shrunk and lost the 3rd mode. All to make way for animated Shockwave. Well as a result, we got a pretty wonky figure that easily falls apart and, well is just not right....it could have been one kick @ss figure btw.

Sure, 'cons sell less but this is Galvatron aka the 'con who was once known as Megs. You sacrifice his size in place of a character like Powerglide? Or Onslaught?

So innovations are at times stifled by the decisions of the top brass in the corporate hierarchy.

There's a number of figures like that though.

The one figure that i'd love to see re-done, and done properly ... because he was new, he was fresh ... Vector Prime.

Vector Prime was an awesome new character with an equally awesome alt mode.

But that damn planet key gimmick killed off some aritculation. All for an annoying little speaker.

Why can't we have more new characters and new crazy alt modes Hasbro? Sure, you've given us a bi-plane, but how about some more Cybertronian modes? Let your creative juices flow!

Burn wrote:Why can't we have more new characters and new crazy alt modes Hasbro? Sure, you've given us a bi-plane, but how about some more Cybertronian modes? Let your creative juices flow!

Indeed! You know what would be totally sweet? If Hasbro went and designed The 13 and made toys of all of them, Voyager-sized at least, complete with an upgrade to Vector Prime. Actually, a new series about the Primes and their war with the Quintessons would be pretty sweet!

I agree too; the WFC game has brought us a gold mine of material to make some seriously bad@$$ new toys! Zeta Prime would be awesome, Cybertronian Jazz, Ironhide, Warpath, Airraid, Shockwave, Brawl, the Deceptidrones to name a few. Imagine a WFC Trypticon in the vein of it's G1 predecessor!

This is one reason why I feel that Hasbro is blowing a major opportunity for freshness for the franchise in not making a tv series based on the WFC game (yes, I know in theory WFC is "supposed" to be the same continuity as Prime); I mean same milieu & era as the game, same character designs as the game, only souped up for tv!)
Instead Hasbro's going for that same, dull, extremely played-out routine of bots on Earth. We've just had a human-drama filled cartoon of bots on Earth; two ghastly human-first films about bots on Earth, and now another series about bots on Earth with even more human drama than ever...and all this within the span of 4 years for pity sakes!! Yes, I realize that Corporations love formulas, but the formula now is old, and worse, it's been tainted with this notion that human drama is what makes this party roll. Anyone else seeing warning signs here?
Pardon the rant, had to get that off my chest.

Burn wrote:Firstly, i'd like to thank Autobot Smoketreader for joining in, and secondly, i'd like to thank everyone for such a great discussion. Hope you feel okay with joining in now AS.

>>>>>Thank you, too, Burn. I do feel more comfortable now.

Autobot Smoketreader wrote:I am fully confident, that at least once, a Hasbro exec has said "They'll buy what we tell them to buy, and they'll thank us for it as well".

I love this part, because it was once reported that Vince McMahon, owner and Chairman of World Wrestling Entertainment, allegedly said something similar.

The result saw a lot of old fans turned off BUT were replaced with a much more valuable commodity. Kids, and subsequently, their parents.

>>>>>In my country, kids go on school excursions to the protests and riots.Since the 60's,schoolteachers have taught kids 'on site' how to 'cut'(that is, judge) a protest slogan into legitimate or fake.If it's fake, the SCHOOLKIDS are invited by their teachers to tailor a counterslogan on the spot (in the streets)-and the media cameras are only a few feet away so if you're called out, you're called out nationwide.(The Motto: "Now to face what we all believe in"). After school and work, the family has a meal and a nap and then the whole family goes back to the protests/riots-the parents provide further education.
Later in life,all the boys get conscripted into the Greek army.The girls (who can serve as well if they want to) end up knowing who is standing by what he says and who is talking a walk.

Advertising is met the same way:Most war toys are considered Bullshit,and heaps of young Mums won't buy their sons toy rifles, tho the Dads will still expose them to hunting-but philosophy is ingrained in both the language and the body language.In the case of TFs,removing the old mottos,for example, such as "Logic is the ultimate weapon" and replacing them with crap like "I'm the fastest/coolest/neatest/nastiest around" will still get the toy bought, but best case scenario, nobody will care about the quote (so why print a waste of ink money???),and the parents-any parents,anywhere in the world, will be quick to provide a sub-lesson to the kid about the history of TF incarnations-I guarantee this...In reality,this is a BIG story/lesson about why the kid isn't being provided with the mind exercising devices that accompanied and complemented, if not rounded out/completed the original concept, which not only the parent had access to for free,but is easier to replicate INNOVATIVELY nowadays,and therefore,IMHO shouldn't have disappeared in the first place.
In the end, this all falls back on Hasbro, and specifically, the single Hasbroan who elected to nullify the intellectual stimulus of, in this instance, the motto.No matter how many other decision makers he convinced to accept the idea that removing the mottos was necessary,they all have to end up facing what they believed in, in front of each other,and if Hasbro ever comes to the conclusion that it shouldn't have been done...well, a lot of people told you so.I mean, when you design your stuff, don't you design something you approve of for your own kids to have?
Anybody who elects to remove the capability to advertise their toy as "educational" from amongst the rest of the toys' already impressive resume is a strange, STRANGE person to me, who perhaps shouldn't be allowed to design kids toys' in the first place.What is the target result of such a move?...The whole move strikes me as very peculiar and maybe even strategically shady.


I guess when it comes to TF's i'm falling into the "old fan" category. Every time we see a new photo of something I see a lot of responses along the "Oh yeah that's awesome!" or "Damn you Hasbro, my wallets going to hate me!" yet i'll look at it and go "oh, meh ... another transforming car that's an old canon character ... yay".


>>>>>Mine is "They've left room for another rehash again".It's never done perfectly.(Create a need, fulfill that need, create another need, fulfil that need...)
I know how I sound (bitchy, whiney etc- it's not my intention nor preference)-the catch is that if they make the perfect version,its life is over.There's no more room to improve.Downgrading will draw fire...it's a fair bit of a problem...

Yet I still go out and buy the damn things. I'm so weak. I should probably take up drinking or drugs, give myself another vice to waste money on.

>>>>>But, we approve of them (the TFs).We DISPLAY them, see?We don't hoard them, hide them whenever the doorbell rings.We SHARE them because we see something that's very good in them, and we're trying to propagate it.
Waste your money on buying toys for other peoples' kids.Don't drug yourself.

In my head, there's a new period happening right now where the companies and the fanbase(s) are beginning to liaise more eye-to-eye.

ooooo and I dread that.

Case in point, Drift. Not so much of a fan-made character, but a NINJA! You know, those things that are massively popular on the internet! Ninja's are cool. Ninja's are popular. That's all Drift was to me, a character created to appeal to a current internet fad. He, like Sunstorm, are nothing but utter fanwank to me.

>>>>>I see you either left out or didn't consider Banzaitron.Had I been asked in a poll, I would have had these priorities reversed: Banzaitron is a no-need (to my collection).Drift is welcome because he polarizes Mirage during display smalltalk: one questions if defecting to the Decepticons will give him back his older quality of life, the other sees no sincere quality of life achievable by the Decepticon way.Furthermore, If Drift was actually Tigertron as hinted, he was brought around partially by the further-polarizing presence of a cool headed female (Airrazor).Too beautiful business, that!.Too welcome.Tigertrons vicinity to Airrazor gave birth to his zen internalization which became the primary Maximal motivational philosophy during the beast machines war: Don't become what you hate-what you are is a greater superpower.Too welcome in my little world.
I see the lines opening up in this subthemed way: Who sells in GI Joe? Stormshadow.Cool, make an Autobot one.Decep Counterpart? Banzaitron.Okay, one of each and that's the wrap.Next? A Magician? After two swordsmen?Sure! Any samples? Dr.Mindbender,maybe? Cool:Mindwipe can do stuff like that...

I feel the same way about the TFCC stories. It's utter fanwank. And if I want to read fanwanky material then i'll find a fanfic site and read it there, I don't need it from one of the commercially involved companies.

>>>>>Said!Now let's say the other side, too,for the trust that CP put in what you guys put into this thread.
In defense of fanfic,the beauty of the Fan stuff is that there's no contract to tell certain amounts worth of fill-the-gap, and there's no need for the token-fight-scene- and-flashback-per-issue.Since the Fanfictionist can pick up and cut off anywhere, the bit that is told is directly from the soul.Whether it's good or not is not my position to declare, but at least it's done without a boss standing overhead pushing for dealines.
In defense of Official fic:When I was in my Tweens, TFs were dead and gone. I found a single G1 comic by chance and,back then, I needed it.It was the last vestige of my old relationship with TFs and, I believed, my last ever (re)connection.I had no clue what would be happening today: Tf lines competing against TF lines-but in fairness, I must state that the comics were vital at one point, maybe even a life-support system for an almost-corpse.
Unfortunately, the ressurection is now a Frankenstein as a result.Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,tho, as the saying goes.Every Frankenstein has a backstory that we are already pre-educated to assist rather than target.
What I'm trying to say, in regards to my entry into this entire thread, is that altho there was and still is a prolonged period of chopshopping,it doesn't need to go on anymore on a universal level.Whatever parts of the overall TF multiverse can be stabilized into one REGULARity should be done so.Stabilize what the old is has done and IS DOING now, and let him fade into the backstory with his little flowershop that he always wanted to open.The room is made for the next generation to kick off their story, and make way for the very next gen, and so on.Since no TFs age overnight, no TFs are finally removable.
Yes, TF:Prime is doing it,(stabilizing things) but should do it CAUTIOUSLY.The decision is not the result of the expectation: it's the selection of the expectation:it's still a Looooong road away from the result.Anything that can't gel into the new continuity should stay in the satellite continuities for as long as it needs to.
Returning to Comic defense:If anything, the Comic books' continuity rehashing should, one day when the fanbase is mature enough to handle it, be observed within its' own place of honor as the vital,perhaps field assembled life support system that it was when it came into being.For now, I feel that Hasbros addressing of the root system is very wise and appropriate, and personally, I'm grateful it's happening.They deserve to know that,too.
(Hasbro:Reminder:Speed planet, Jungle planet,Giant planet:Don't throw them away.If you can afford to throw away entire planets you can afford to throw away the whole TF franchise).

There's propably a chaos theory/algorythm somewhere that suggests that the inter-departmental innovations of TF history need to hit the pause button and consolidate amongst themselves,maybe even get Spartan and weed out (or horticultural and cross breed) the weaker constituents.Hopefully such a consolidation will bring each of the manufacturing and purchasing groups a degree closer together for the next cycle.

This got me thinking, we know Aaron Archer is one of the bigwigs at Hasbro, but who's on the design team these days? How often does staff turn over? Is it made up of people who have been in that position for several years or do they rotate people in and out on a regular basis to "keep things fresh"?

Might be a good question to ask Hasbro some time. Because from my personal perspective i'm betting the design team has been in place for a while. Time for fresh blood maybe?

>>>>>I second this. The designers need the elbow room. Hasbro just has to log on here and see our responses to 'latest pics of' a piece to get a gist (and I propose they treat it only as a gist) of which designer is advancing them in which direction.(Following project guidelines/instructions is one thing, being talented at something specific is what got them the edge over the other interviewees and scored them the job, but the onus in on Hasbro to nurture this original gift in the designer, too!).

If I could run Hasbro for a day, I'd make a rule that once a year, each designer (including backstory designers) would get absolutely open creative freedom to design one piece without boss intervention-the only criteria would be as follows: 1)It has to fit into an already existing size category.2)It has to be IN SCALE with that size category.3)it can't rewrite canon (may expand freely) 4)Hasbro (and Takara) can apply bits (such as the new head) to other models.I don't know exactly how these 'wild ones' would be sold because I'm not educated in how to run a megacorp, but still,Hasbro would know.Why not make them charity fundraising pieces?
If I could run Hasbro for a year, I'd buy the machinery to store each mold in PC memory and make them to order.These would get posted out,unassembled and unpainted, but with all the screws and pins in a plastic baggie, to buyers.
If I could run Hasbro for a decade, I'd try to put at least one line (the G1 TFs?) on the world heritage listing (laugh all you want) and declare that a percentage of each purchase would go to whatever world situation needs money.Will this not increase sales? Will it not make TFs a household name? Will others such as car manufacturers not wish to assist? Would I be cheating anyone?[color=#4000BF][/color]

fenrir72 wrote:I don't know if this is an applicable incident but, the creation/design of henkei Galvatron.

It was quite innovative (IMHO) but........but somewhere along the road, his final form was gutted, instead of a Voyager he got shrunk and lost the 3rd mode. All to make way for animated Shockwave. Well as a result, we got a pretty wonky figure that easily falls apart and, well is just not right....it could have been one kick @ss figure btw.

Sure, 'cons sell less but this is Galvatron aka the 'con who was once known as Megs. You sacrifice his size in place of a character like Powerglide? Or Onslaught?

So innovations are at times stifled by the decisions of the top brass in the corporate hierarchy.

There's a number of figures like that though.

The one figure that i'd love to see re-done, and done properly ... because he was new, he was fresh ... Vector Prime.

Vector Prime was an awesome new character with an equally awesome alt mode.

But that damn planet key gimmick killed off some aritculation. All for an annoying little speaker.

Why can't we have more new characters and new crazy alt modes Hasbro? Sure, you've given us a bi-plane, but how about some more Cybertronian modes? Let your creative juices flow!

The g2s had nice Altmodes.The palettes and a lot of the additional features were a little...standard..but the Altmodes were intellectual considerations of what futuristic cars would look like as according to late 80's,early 90's predictions. It suprises me that they appear to be completely undiscussed in classics redo circles.

DISCLAIMER: I color my text because I'm having trouble working out how to get the program to re-box quotes that I dissect with replies of my own.Also, I'm starting to detest the fact that my posts are aways loooong,so I fully apologize for that ( even to myself!).Sometimes it's pivotal to get a full message out without compromise, such as above where I'm talking about the designers.I can't go stepping on their job futures/parameters without being fully considerate to the consequences of my words no matter how little a voice I can assume I am.I'm working on cutting the crap out of my talk.Will work more.

Quoting 101!

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[quote]Put the quote tags around this text and you get this.[/quote]

Put the quote tags around this text and you get this.

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[quote="Burn"]Add an equals and the name of the person you're quoting and you get this![/quote]

Burn wrote:Add an equals and the "name" of the person you're quoting and you get this!

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[quote="Burn"]Said one thing[quote="Counterpunch"]Said something else and created a multi-quote![/quote]and then Burn continued to waffle on![/quote]

Burn wrote:Said one thing

Counterpunch wrote:Said something else and created a multi-quote!

and then Burn continued to waffle on!

The trick is to always make sure you have your opening and closing quote tags right.

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[quote][/quote]

Rodimus the Prime wrote:

Burn wrote:Why can't we have more new characters and new crazy alt modes Hasbro? Sure, you've given us a bi-plane, but how about some more Cybertronian modes? Let your creative juices flow!

Indeed! You know what would be totally sweet? If Hasbro went and designed The 13 and made toys of all of them, Voyager-sized at least, complete with an upgrade to Vector Prime. Actually, a new series about the Primes and their war with the Quintessons would be pretty sweet!

I agree too; the WFC game has brought us a gold mine of material to make some seriously bad@$$ new toys! Zeta Prime would be awesome, Cybertronian Jazz, Ironhide, Warpath, Airraid, Shockwave, Brawl, the Deceptidrones to name a few. Imagine a WFC Trypticon in the vein of it's G1 predecessor!

This is one reason why I feel that Hasbro is blowing a major opportunity for freshness for the franchise in not making a tv series based on the WFC game (yes, I know in theory WFC is "supposed" to be the same continuity as Prime); I mean same milieu & era as the game, same character designs as the game, only souped up for tv!)
Instead Hasbro's going for that same, dull, extremely played-out routine of bots on Earth. We've just had a human-drama filled cartoon of bots on Earth; two ghastly human-first films about bots on Earth, and now another series about bots on Earth with even more human drama than ever...and all this within the span of 4 years for pity sakes!! Yes, I realize that Corporations love formulas, but the formula now is old, and worse, it's been tainted with this notion that human drama is what makes this party roll. Anyone else seeing warning signs here?
Pardon the rant, had to get that off my chest.

Thank you for posting this. These are my thoughts exactly.

Get the old crew of Budiansky,Bacal etc to make the cartoon too. Sometimes the more things change,the more it stays the same.