The Energon Pub

[Jelze Bunnycat]

You know, I had a rather weird thought about CW and UW, and it concerns UW Blast Off. Bear with me.

I was messing around a bit with my list of CW head counts, organising them with which mold/head goes with which combiner. For the traditional ones, here's what ended up happening:

Superion
Silverbolt: new
Fireflight: new
Slingshot: alternate head of Fireflight
Skydive: new
Air Raid: alternate shell of Skydive
Powerglide: new

Menasor
Motormaster: new
Wildrider: new
Dead End: alternate head of Wildrider (it was him who had the Ferrari altmode in G1, Dead End was a Porsche)
Breakdown: new
Drag Strip: new
Runabout: new

Defensor
Hot Spot: new
Blades: new
First Aid: new
Streetwise: alternate shell of Wildrider/Dead End
Rook: new
Groove: new

Bruticus
Onslaught: alternate shell of Hot Spot
Brawl: new (or alternate head of Rook)
Vortex: alternate head of Blades
Swindle: alternate shell of Rook
Blast Off: ???
Shockwave: new

In short, all traditional combiners have assigned molds and head with no straight redecos between them, except for Bruticus's Blast Off.

We know TakaraTomy engineered the Deluxe Groove for Unite Warriors, but compared to the rest he has two difference from the norm:

1) He has clear plastic sprues, one for the lights and guns (red) and one for the windshield (blue)
2) He has no assigned HFG part, reusing the Blades/Vortex one.

The second TakaraTomy only mold, UW Blast Off, follows convention, by having no clear plastic parts and having his own HFG part. So my query is this: did UW Blast Off actually start out as an abandoned Hasbro concept, similar to Prime's War Breakdown?

I could see Hasbro leaving Blast Off on the table, with him having virtually no future retool options upon first sight, leaving him to TakaraTomy to do whatever

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Interesting theory, and one that I could believe

[Sabrblade]

So my query is this: did UW Blast Off actually start out as an abandoned Hasbro concept, similar to Prime's War Breakdown?

I sincerely doubt it, given how Blast Off's robot mode design attempts to be so slavishly accurate to his G1 cartoon model (right down to the placement of the forward control thrusters on the torso that mucks up the look of the shuttle mode, and the partsforming of the tailfin to attach it to the figure's back a la the cartoon model) that it reeks of Takara's usual "show accurate or else!" mentality, which Hasbro has proven time and again to not subscribe to given their overall attitude towards newer, more original designs.

[King Kuuga]

Perhaps some rudimentary designs were made by Hasbro before they abandoned it, and Takara picked it up and overhauled it in the way you describe, Sabr?

[Sabrblade]

Perhaps some rudimentary designs were made by Hasbro before they abandoned it, and Takara picked it up and overhauled it in the way you describe, Sabr?

I dunno. The the huge chest, tiny waist, thick lower legs/feet that give the figure some rather awkward proportions also don't strike me as part of Hasbro's M.O. when it came to the other CW designs, which were mostly proportionate block people. By contrast, UW Blast Off's silhouette evokes the more atypical proportions one might find more common in Animated (only minus the cartoony elements) or some of the Movie designs. It just feels like the odd one out, along with UW Groove.

[Kurona]

Fellow Seibertronians, at long last we have the final chapter of the Unite Warriors online comic fully translated to English; allowing us to finally see the many revelations it contains - including, but certainly to limited to; UW Grand Scourge being declared as a separate entity to RiD Scourge/CR Black Convoy; a VERY impressive attempt to reconcile the confusing continuity of Galvatron II; and some final closure on UW Roller's identity. Check out the comic below and tell us what you think in the forums!

[william-james88]

So what is the closure with Roller? Is he the G1 beep boop drone that gained sentience and a transformation?

[Sigma Magnus]

So what is the closure with Roller? Is he the G1 beep boop drone that gained sentience and a transformation?

Sorta. Basically, he was G1 Roller, who was shunted to another dimension, presumably an alternate IDW timeline. So...both arguments are valid, I guess.

[Kurona]

It's a bit of a weird, roundabout way to do it and I figure it's literally just so this particular Roller and this particular Optimus can have a connection, but... yeah. Strange.

[Microraptor]

I love how Roller's sheer cry of anguish is just rendered as "BOO HOO!" And hey, Lunaclub used her power with it being creepily fetishistic! That's cool!

[Sabrblade]

Some translation notes from Jalaguy:

Notes:
- English names and dub attack callouts used again.
- Grand Scourge's combined mode is "Scourge Grand Prime" in the original, I've used "Grand Scourge Maximus" to retain symmetry with "Optimus Maximus".
- The Dinosaurer name thing is impossible to convey in English, so I've just left it as "the earliest version of Trypticon".

Also, the line of CR Black Convoy's/RiD Scrouge's that reads "Show this guy the true power of evil!" should instead read as "Show this guy the true flowers of evil!" Jalaguy thought it was typo for "power of evil", but it really is supposed to be "flowers of evil".

[william-james88]

It's a bit of a weird, roundabout way to do it and I figure it's literally just so this particular Roller and this particular Optimus can have a connection, but... yeah. Strange.

I am happy actually. I preffer my toy being classics G1 Roller than IDW Roller. Because it just didnt work anymore with the fiction on the US side that was used for inspiration dropping the history the toy was supposed to have. And the alt mode is so g1 roller, I thought it was super smart of Takara to do use the Rook mold that way. So I am glad that takara realligned their own fiction to make it so that this is indeed G1 roller afterall and the IDW thing can be something seperate, left to the IDW comics.

Some translation notes from Jalaguy:

Notes:
- English names and dub attack callouts used again.
- Grand Scourge's combined mode is "Scourge Grand Prime" in the original, I've used "Grand Scourge Maximus" to retain symmetry with "Optimus Maximus".
- The Dinosaurer name thing is impossible to convey in English, so I've just left it as "the earliest version of Trypticon".

Also, the line of CR Black Convoy's/RiD Scrouge's that reads "Show this guy the true power of evil!" should instead read as "Show this guy the true flowers of evil!" Jalaguy thought it was typo for "power of evil", but it really is supposed to be "flowers of evil".

Why would they use the phrase "flowers of evil"? And what does he mean by Dinosaurer being hard to convey?

[Kurona]

It's a bit of a weird, roundabout way to do it and I figure it's literally just so this particular Roller and this particular Optimus can have a connection, but... yeah. Strange.

I am happy actually. I preffer my toy being classics G1 Roller than IDW Roller. Because it just didnt work anymore with the fiction on the US side that was used for inspiration dropping the history the toy was supposed to have. And the alt mode is so g1 roller, I thought it was super smart of Takara to do use the Rook mold that way. So I am glad that takara realligned their own fiction to make it so that this is indeed G1 roller afterall and the IDW thing can be something seperate, left to the IDW comics.

I'm pretty cool with it too. IDW Roller is a giant; Ultra or possibly even Leader class. So when I saw Rook done as him, I was like... that's cool, but it doesn't really work.
As a resurrection of the drone? ... weird, but sure, cool. That's a fun thing to add to the Optimus crew and you could explain it with a similar thing to how Allspark shards granted sentience to non-sentient machinery in Animated and the live-action movies.

[Sabrblade]

It's a bit of a weird, roundabout way to do it and I figure it's literally just so this particular Roller and this particular Optimus can have a connection, but... yeah. Strange.

I am happy actually. I preffer my toy being classics G1 Roller than IDW Roller. Because it just didnt work anymore with the fiction on the US side that was used for inspiration dropping the history the toy was supposed to have. And the alt mode is so g1 roller, I thought it was super smart of Takara to do use the Rook mold that way. So I am glad that takara realligned their own fiction to make it so that this is indeed G1 roller afterall and the IDW thing can be something seperate, left to the IDW comics.

The Wiki's basically treating this Roller as being both the very same person as Cartoon Roller and as a JG1 version of IDW Roller, essentially saying that JG1 Cartoon Roller evolved into being a JG1 Cartoon counterpart of IDW Roller.

To give another example, Cartoon Bumblebee and Cartoon Goldbug are the same guy, while in IDW, they are two different people, just as how JG1 Cartoon drone Roller and JG1 Cartoon bipedal-old-friend-of-Optimus Roller are now the same guy while in IDW they are separate entities.

Why would they use the phrase "flowers of evil"?

That was Black Convoy's catchphrase in the original Car Robots cartoon (it was omitted from Scourge's dialogue in the English RiD dub). Black Convoy would often speak such things as "The flowers of evil are beautiful when you allow them to bloom," "I will spread the flowers of evil across the world," etc. 'Course, by this he was speaking metaphorically about the beauty and splendor of evil, creating a sort of poetic side to the character as a nice contrast to Gelshark's own sillier poetic side.

And what does he mean by Dinosaurer being hard to convey?

When Galvatron II explains his backstory, his word bubble in the panel that shows Trypticon refers to that Trypticon as "Dino-saurer [Dainozaurā], the first version of Dinosaurer [Dainazaurā]". This is reference to how, in Scramble City, Trypticon had a different animation model from the one he had in season 3 of the G1 cartoon, and how, in Scramble City, Trypticon was referred to as "Dino-saurer" (ダイノザウラー Dainozaurā) in Scramble City and "Dinosaurer" (ダイナザウラー Dainozaurā) in all other Japanese media. This is Sakamoto's attempting to explain why Trypticon's look and name were different in Scramble City from how his look and name were presented in everything else. Thus, he has now retconned the Trypticon from Scramble City to have been an earlier version from the one who appears to be created later in season 3 of the G1 cartoon.

[william-james88]

And what does he mean by Dinosaurer being hard to convey?

When Galvatron II explains his backstory, his word bubble in the panel that shows Trypticon refers to that Trypticon as "Dino-saurer [Dainozaurā], the first version of Dinosaurer [Dainazaurā]". This is reference to how, in Scramble City, Trypticon had a different animation model from the one he had in season 3 of the G1 cartoon, and how, in Scramble City, Trypticon was referred to as "Dino-saurer" (ダイノザウラー Dainozaurā) in Scramble City and "Dinosaurer" (ダイナザウラー Dainozaurā) in all other Japanese media. This is Sakamoto's attempting to explain why Trypticon's look and name were different in Scramble City from how his look and name were presented in everything else. Thus, he has now retconned the Trypticon from Scramble City to have been an earlier version from the one who appears to be created later in season 3 of the G1 cartoon.

Oh I see. He needed to do that because there were 2 spellings and looks to Dinosaurer. But in the west, we only had Trypticon so there would be no need to rectify anything. But since its a translation of a japanese only thing (which has no name in english) it got a bit tricky. Thanks!

[Sabrblade]

And what does he mean by Dinosaurer being hard to convey?

When Galvatron II explains his backstory, his word bubble in the panel that shows Trypticon refers to that Trypticon as "Dino-saurer [Dainozaurā], the first version of Dinosaurer [Dainazaurā]". This is reference to how, in Scramble City, Trypticon had a different animation model from the one he had in season 3 of the G1 cartoon, and how, in Scramble City, Trypticon was referred to as "Dino-saurer" (ダイノザウラー Dainozaurā) in Scramble City and "Dinosaurer" (ダイナザウラー Dainozaurā) in all other Japanese media. This is Sakamoto's attempting to explain why Trypticon's look and name were different in Scramble City from how his look and name were presented in everything else. Thus, he has now retconned the Trypticon from Scramble City to have been an earlier version from the one who appears to be created later in season 3 of the G1 cartoon.

Oh I see. He needed to do that because there were 2 spellings and looks to Dinosaurer. But in the west, we only had Trypticon so there would be no need to rectify anything. But since its a translation of a japanese only thing (which has no name in english) it got a bit tricky. Thanks!

Yeah, cuz otherwise, the translation would have said "Trypticon, the first version of Trypticon", and we'd be like "LOLwut?"

'Course, if the guy had just stuck to the Japanese names/terms...

[william-james88]

'Course, if the guy had just stuck to the Japanese names/terms...

I think he should have because in some cases, these become different characters with different continuities and back stories (like Trypticon).

[Sabrblade]

'Course, if the guy had just stuck to the Japanese names/terms...

I think he should have because in some cases, these become different characters with different continuities and back stories (like Trypticon).

He's especially fortunate that there happened to be available equivalent names from the English dub for Baldigus's/Ruination's gun attacks that were able to replicate the format of the Japanese gun attack names in this comic cleverly enough, given how inconsistent the dub was about Ruination's attack names.

[Jetstorm92210]

In a way this is the Japanese equivalent of the Combiner Wars cartoon and what the actual show should have been like if they actually cared, major props to Sakamoto for this labor of love.

[Sabrblade]

In a way this is the Japanese equivalent of the Combiner Wars cartoon and what the actual show should have been like if they actually cared, major props to Sakamoto for this labor of love.

I agree. So far, the most obscure Combiner-related fiction (the Unite Warriors comics and the TCC's "Of Masters and Mayhem" stories) have been the best, really good Combiner-related fiction of this and last year, whereas the Combiner-related fiction that was actually branded under the name "Combiner Wars" (the IDW Combiner Wars comic story arc, the BotCon 2016 "Dawn of the Predacus" comic, and the Machinima Combiner Wars cartoon) have all been the pits.

[ricemazter]

Can someone explain to me why Optimus only has seven days to live? Did he watch Samara Morgan's video tape or something? Also, is there anywhere online where translated versions of all of these exist in one place?

[Sabrblade]

Can someone explain to me why Optimus only has seven days to live? Did he watch Samara Morgan's video tape or something? Also, is there anywhere online where translated versions of all of these exist in one place?

It's because Optimus had died so many times before that Vector Sigma was only able to revive him temporarily.

As for all five of these comics translated at once, here you go:

Grand Galvatron comic --> http://imgur.com/a/4S1wc

Second Story: Lynxmaster Chapter --> http://imgur.com/a/Mf8v2

Third Story: Megatronia Chapter --> http://imgur.com/a/WqIA9

4th Story: Baldigus Chapter, Part One --> http://imgur.com/a/tm4Gn

Final Story: Baldigus Chapter, Part Two --> http://imgur.com/a/N3swA

[Jelze Bunnycat]

Can someone explain to me why Optimus only has seven days to live? Did he watch Samara Morgan's video tape or something? Also, is there anywhere online where translated versions of all of these exist in one place?

It's because Optimus had died so many times before that Vector Sigma was only able to revive him temporarily.

Here's a head count for the JP cartoon continuity:

0) S2 "War Dawn", as Orion Pax (depending on view point)
1) Transformers: The Movie ("recreated" in the Headmasters episode "Four Warriors come out of the Sky")
2) Kiss Players
3) S3 "Dark Awakening"
4) The Headmasters "Birth of the Fantastic Double Convoy"

And then Unite Warriors, so between 3 and 5 times total, depending on how you count.

[ricemazter]

Can someone explain to me why Optimus only has seven days to live? Did he watch Samara Morgan's video tape or something? Also, is there anywhere online where translated versions of all of these exist in one place?

It's because Optimus had died so many times before that Vector Sigma was only able to revive him temporarily.

Here's a head count for the JP cartoon continuity:

0) S2 "War Dawn", as Orion Pax (depending on view point)
1) Transformers: The Movie ("recreated" in the Headmasters episode "Four Warriors come out of the Sky")
2) Kiss Players
3) S3 "Dark Awakening"
4) The Headmasters "Birth of the Fantastic Double Convoy"

And then Unite Warriors, so between 3 and 5 times total, depending on how you count.

So does this count as "THE" Japanese transformers continuity as far as most fans over there are concerned? Aside from Regeneration One and War for Cybertron, before the aligned continuity absorbed it that is, it doesn't look like the US has anything that stretches that far back. Does Beast Wars, the RiD cartoon, or the Unicron trilogy fit in anywhere?

[Kurona]

Can someone explain to me why Optimus only has seven days to live? Did he watch Samara Morgan's video tape or something? Also, is there anywhere online where translated versions of all of these exist in one place?

It's because Optimus had died so many times before that Vector Sigma was only able to revive him temporarily.

Here's a head count for the JP cartoon continuity:

0) S2 "War Dawn", as Orion Pax (depending on view point)
1) Transformers: The Movie ("recreated" in the Headmasters episode "Four Warriors come out of the Sky")
2) Kiss Players
3) S3 "Dark Awakening"
4) The Headmasters "Birth of the Fantastic Double Convoy"

And then Unite Warriors, so between 3 and 5 times total, depending on how you count.

So does this count as "THE" Japanese transformers continuity as far as most fans over there are concerned? Aside from Regeneration One and War for Cybertron, before the aligned continuity absorbed it that is, it doesn't look like the US has anything that stretches that far back. Does Beast Wars, the RiD cartoon, or the Unicron trilogy fit in anywhere?

Yes.
Their dubs of Beast Wars and Beast Machines are part of the continuity - as well as their own two original Beast Wars shows. RiD (called Car Robots there) takes place in 2000, when all the G1 autobots and decepticons were worn out from battle as shown in the previous comic.