The Energon Pub

Welcome to the latest episode of the Seibertron.com Twincast / Podcast! This episode features your host ScottyP with Megatronus, and special guest and news staff member Bronzewolf. Listen in as we discuss the latest news, toys, and more.

Episode #188 "Mutinous Intent" is available directly and in our RSS Feed, and should appear on iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher Radio within 24 to 48 hours of when you see this news post.

Our illustrious news staff member Bronzewolf joins us for this special episode - good old wolfy introduces himself, and we promptly get to business. There are reports Hasbro is looking to acquire TakaraTomy. We discuss the likelihood of this development - and all the more likely it seems given even more recent reports that Hasbro has made on offer to acquire Mattel - and try to puzzle out how a Takara acquisition would benefit our friends across the Pacific.



One graceful transition later, and we're on to Machinima's new Titans Return series. The trailer is up, and we approach the news with caution and trepidation. Will Titans Return be a regrettable repeat of Combiner Wars? Has Machinima found a way to incorporate fan criticism into this new work? Are we growing fatigued with the frame rate? Most importantly, where are the rest of the Cybertronian civilians? We might not see too many lay Cybertronians, but at least we get to meet the cast.



Let's take a Listener Question. Seibertron board member westjames/notirish asks: "What are your thoughts on the RID 15 cartoon as a whole?" This prompts us to relate our individual experiences with Robots in Disguise, especially as compared to Transformers Prime and that golden grail of Transformers animation, Rescue Bots. Even with those big shoes to fill, RID represents an interesting corpus of fiction and has contributed a great deal to the Transformers mythos. For that, and more, we salute it.



Lost Light #10 is upon us, and it's a doozy. Spoilers abound, so beware - in the meantime, you can check out the official Seibertron.com review here. The revelation that the Protectobots and Mirage are caught in a Getaway-induced memory coma has us stuck in 'WOW' on repeat. This twist combined with the character-driven, thriller-inspired narrative has us hooked, and exited for what the remaining issues of the Mutineers Trilogy brings. What else can we uncover in this issue when we go through with our fine tooth combs? A deep reading commences.



Transformers First Strike #1, on the other hand, is truly forgettable. Or is it? While we certainly don't reach the time-loop highs of cult classics like 12 Monkeys, TF First Strike provides crucial context that we can appreciate. As the bulk of First Strike - an event that mostly serves as a vehicle for Visionaries and Unicron - unfolds, this book gives us a chance to catch up with Arcee, Kup, and Blackrock... we just hope this goes somewhere.



A brief mention of the upcoming MP Dinobot's absurd preorder placeholder price (PPP to those in the know) gives way to that special time of the year: Transformersmas 2017. Bronzewolf walks a clueless ScottyP and Megatronus through this fun and engaging series of photo contests through the month of December. Make sure to break out your cameras (or camera phones) to snap shots of your favorite figures for this new-classic Seibertron community event.



Bragging Rights, short and simple - what has the cast bought since our last show?

Thanks for having me on, guys! It was a ton of fun!

My two year old nephew is in love with the flip changing rescuebots. He loves the normal rescuebots and calls these the "baby robots." I may have to buy him all of them...

LE0KING wrote:My two year old nephew is in love with the flip changing rescuebots. He loves the normal rescuebots and calls these the "baby robots." I may have to buy him all of them...

Glad they have an audience, I think it's a fun concept just not crazy about the execution, but I'm definitely not the target audience for them. The vehicle modes remind me of the old penny racers.

Listening to this as I move into a new Apartment...

ScottyP, I sympathyze. I am going from "Totes in a Storage Unit" to "Whoo! I have an ACTUAL Place with WALLS now WHO WANTS DISPLAYED... ah crap, all my shelves have storage stuff on them...

And at that, my modest (by your guys standards) collection going back to RID2001 ain't all gonna get shelved, so then I get to do the whole "WHO GET'S EBAY'D??"

Whooo.....

Harry Potter: BTDubs, the guys who did PokemonGo (My other jam) is doing a new Potter-based game. By hyped

Transformers? What are those?

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Takara-Tomy buyout
I am agreeing with Bronzewolf. and were catering to two different Markets. It makes sense that Hasbro wouldn't change their strategy which has proven successful in the entire rest of the world.

The question is largely whether Hasbro would change anything, or just do a stock buyout on Takara and leave them to doing their wn thing with a parent oversight. WHich I guess is not working for Tak-Tom right now.

For Takara, and more so Tomy, being in Hasbro's control gets them another avenue to worldwide marketing. We don't think of Takara for much beyond Transformers, but Tomy has a lot of other play lines including battery operated trains and children's learning type toys. Having Hasbro could be good to their Logistics.

And for Hasbro, this may cut down on Licencing. Not sure how that paperwork goes nowadays, but they were importing G1, even though the creative side was theirs/Marvel's, and for a time they were using Takara toy engineers, so eliminating a middleman on that could save both companies some $$$.

Or maybe I am wrong...
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For the Disney example:

Both sides get access to the Licensing for each other Creative Sides. Hasbro getting access to Disney media and Disney getting access to things like Transformers. Disney gets a more experienced and now in-house toy maker than contracting it all the time.

My question is: Mattel/Hasbro. Would that even fly in monopolizing terms or would the smaller toy companies try to fight that? Because those two merging takes control of a HUGE portion of the toy market.
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I agree with Ari: Now that we have seen Ep1 and 2 of Titans Return:

WHERE ARE THE PEOPLE!!?? The only Cybertronians we saw were the Council of Cybertron. but they are the Council of WHAT? THere's Nobody home!!!
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On the whole, I liked RID15. It was a little shaky to begin with and there were some oddball character choices, but the backstory it tackled was nice and different from the during the war type stuff. The ending sure threw in a lot of notable Decepticon leaders that actually sort of added up to something as a whole even though taken individually the Stunticons had almost nothing to do with Soundwave or Steeljaw.

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I have a very hard time calling those guys Minicons. They were accessory drones and I guess that's accurate for Minicons, but the play gimmick only worked with a couple toys and not the line as a whole, and they didn't work with the original Minicons, which wile being 10+ years old now, I still remember vividly. ANd even the Arms Micron/PCC dudes still worked with the Minicon gimmick.

---
Agree with ScottyP. Grimlock was a nicely done comedic take. Sideswipe is only in name, but so is a lot of Sideswipes.

It's the same Prime, the same Bulkhead, its the same Ratchet.

Bulkhead looks funny because he is missing his big lower jaw.

I too wanted to hate that Warrior Soundwave. I so loved Soundwave has a SPY PLANE. That makes so much sense to me that the Decepticon Spymaster would have a Spy mode. But I keep looking at that Deluxe and wanting to buy it.

Revisiting the S1 Decepticons was odd. It really highlighted to me that this would be the last season and this was a good-bye bow. It set up Steeljaw for the finale. So it wasn't entirely pointless, but it coulda been done with any of the ther Con Crews we met this season.

---
Prime Jr is accurate. RID was intended to focus at a slightly younger, less dark and thoughtful market than what Prime was. That was intentional.

....and Ari says my point...

ScottyP: Can you look at Bumblebee from Predacons Rising without looking at Prime the series and see RID Bumblebee?

Bronzewolf: It's not just about children, its about parental expectations of an age bracket. 8-10 is a LOT different than 10-12. Look at how different mentalities are from Elementary to Jr High. Sure, the kids themselves can handle it, but the parents may not want to serve it to them.

---
I remember Prime being critized in its opening because it WAS dark, especially coming from something so bright and cartoony as Animated. That difference is jarring

And remember, Animated got a TON of flack for its animation sequence.

In a nutshell, TTG replaced the original TT with that cheesy CN art style and bad humor and expected it to be the same show.

I LOVED EUREKA!!! I would LOVE to see Sherriff Carter trying to give Sideswipe a Speeding Tocket and rationalizing talking alien car.

And Wheeljack. Because Fargo wasn't bad enough at pressing buttons.

I don't need that Bumblebee Quinjet. I don't need that Bumblebee Quinjet. I don't need that Bumblebee Quinjet. I don't need that Bumblebee Quinjet. I don't need that Bumblebee Quinjet. I don't need that Bumblebee Quinjet. I don't need that Bumblebee Quinjet. I don't need that Bumblebee Quinjet....

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I explictly read LL10 before tuning to this show.

I would be more surprised at the plot twist in the end if the TV show Lucifer hadn't literally JUST done the same Plot Twist this Monday. But otherwise its cool.

Aaannnndddd Scotty slams the shipping delays

Agreed, this was as good as most of anything in MTMTE.

That's a nice thought Ari.

More to come after dinner

Flashwave wrote:I LOVED EUREKA!!! I would LOVE to see Sherriff Carter trying to give Sideswipe a Speeding Tocket and rationalizing talking alien car.

And Wheeljack. Because Fargo wasn't bad enough at pressing buttons.

Holy s***!!!! Somebody else that knows Eureka! We are few and far between. It was such a good show, so disappointed it ended.

Bronzewolf wrote:

Flashwave wrote:I LOVED EUREKA!!! I would LOVE to see Sherriff Carter trying to give Sideswipe a Speeding Tocket and rationalizing talking alien car.

And Wheeljack. Because Fargo wasn't bad enough at pressing buttons.

Holy s***!!!! Somebody else that knows Eureka! We are few and far between. It was such a good show, so disappointed it ended.

That was my Dad's favorite show for a while. I don't remember it well, but I liked what I saw. Is it worth finding and watching online?

Bronzewolf wrote:

Flashwave wrote:I LOVED EUREKA!!! I would LOVE to see Sherriff Carter trying to give Sideswipe a Speeding Tocket and rationalizing talking alien car.

And Wheeljack. Because Fargo wasn't bad enough at pressing buttons.

Holy s***!!!! Somebody else that knows Eureka! We are few and far between. It was such a good show, so disappointed it ended.

Honestly, with as much as I loved that show, I'm not sure how much creativity the writers had left in them. We can look back and come up with all kinds of ideas, but in that moment, i am glad it wrnt out on a high. Even though I miss it terribly.

I have a head canon that the Ice core Eureka drilled out incidentally drilled through the Ancient Decepticon Prison that Crosswise maintained back in Transformers Cybertron. Theyvend up finding and bringing back Decepticon Beasts the way KSI did (I am using the Legion scaled BH Abominus figures as if theybactually were in scale with typical deluxes-- IE closer to human sized) not knowing whT they found, which ends up drawing int he attention of the Autobots and their human allies, and a very cranky Crosswise. Talk about mixing Continuities!

But if you think about it, Zoe Carter wanted to go into medicine, but her aptitude placement was Mechanics. How fitting would it be, if she imterned with the Autobots and used both? She'd also be a great POV character. I feel like most of Eureka would view Cybertronians as giant alien robots, withbfocus on the giant robot parts, and not many of them would click into the idea that these guys feel, nd think, and mourn.

Flashwave wrote:

Bronzewolf wrote:

Flashwave wrote:I LOVED EUREKA!!! I would LOVE to see Sherriff Carter trying to give Sideswipe a Speeding Tocket and rationalizing talking alien car.

And Wheeljack. Because Fargo wasn't bad enough at pressing buttons.

Holy s***!!!! Somebody else that knows Eureka! We are few and far between. It was such a good show, so disappointed it ended.

Honestly, with as much as I loved that show, I'm not sure how much creativity the writers had left in them. We can look back and come up with all kinds of ideas, but in that moment, i am glad it wrnt out on a high. Even though I miss it terribly.

I have a head canon that the Ice core Eureka drilled out incidentally drilled through the Ancient Decepticon Prison that Crosswise maintained back in Transformers Cybertron. Theyvend up finding and bringing back Decepticon Beasts the way KSI did (I am using the Legion scaled BH Abominus figures as if theybactually were in scale with typical deluxes-- IE closer to human sized) not knowing whT they found, which ends up drawing int he attention of the Autobots and their human allies, and a very cranky Crosswise. Talk about mixing Continuities!

But if you think about it, Zoe Carter wanted to go into medicine, but her aptitude placement was Mechanics. How fitting would it be, if she imterned with the Autobots and used both? She'd also be a great POV character. I feel like most of Eureka would view Cybertronians as giant alien robots, withbfocus on the giant robot parts, and not many of them would click into the idea that these guys feel, nd think, and mourn.

That fits really well actually. I stand by the similarities with Rescue Bots though. Henry could even be Doc Greene!

LE0KING wrote:

Bronzewolf wrote:

Flashwave wrote:I LOVED EUREKA!!! I would LOVE to see Sherriff Carter trying to give Sideswipe a Speeding Tocket and rationalizing talking alien car.

And Wheeljack. Because Fargo wasn't bad enough at pressing buttons.

Holy s***!!!! Somebody else that knows Eureka! We are few and far between. It was such a good show, so disappointed it ended.

That was my Dad's favorite show for a while. I don't remember it well, but I liked what I saw. Is it worth finding and watching online?

Yes, it 100% is. It was on Netflix for a while but I think netflix has since lost it's Syfy licence. It might be available on Syfy's website...

Bronzewolf wrote:

Flashwave wrote:

Bronzewolf wrote:

Flashwave wrote:I LOVED EUREKA!!! I would LOVE to see Sherriff Carter trying to give Sideswipe a Speeding Tocket and rationalizing talking alien car.

And Wheeljack. Because Fargo wasn't bad enough at pressing buttons.

Holy s***!!!! Somebody else that knows Eureka! We are few and far between. It was such a good show, so disappointed it ended.

Honestly, with as much as I loved that show, I'm not sure how much creativity the writers had left in them. We can look back and come up with all kinds of ideas, but in that moment, i am glad it wrnt out on a high. Even though I miss it terribly.

I have a head canon that the Ice core Eureka drilled out incidentally drilled through the Ancient Decepticon Prison that Crosswise maintained back in Transformers Cybertron. Theyvend up finding and bringing back Decepticon Beasts the way KSI did (I am using the Legion scaled BH Abominus figures as if theybactually were in scale with typical deluxes-- IE closer to human sized) not knowing whT they found, which ends up drawing int he attention of the Autobots and their human allies, and a very cranky Crosswise. Talk about mixing Continuities!

But if you think about it, Zoe Carter wanted to go into medicine, but her aptitude placement was Mechanics. How fitting would it be, if she imterned with the Autobots and used both? She'd also be a great POV character. I feel like most of Eureka would view Cybertronians as giant alien robots, withbfocus on the giant robot parts, and not many of them would click into the idea that these guys feel, nd think, and mourn.

That fits really well actually. I stand by the similarities with Rescue Bots though. Henry could even be Doc Greene!

LE0KING wrote:

Bronzewolf wrote:

Flashwave wrote:I LOVED EUREKA!!! I would LOVE to see Sherriff Carter trying to give Sideswipe a Speeding Tocket and rationalizing talking alien car.

And Wheeljack. Because Fargo wasn't bad enough at pressing buttons.

Holy s***!!!! Somebody else that knows Eureka! We are few and far between. It was such a good show, so disappointed it ended.

That was my Dad's favorite show for a while. I don't remember it well, but I liked what I saw. Is it worth finding and watching online?

Yes, it 100% is. It was on Netflix for a while but I think netflix has since lost it's Syfy licence. It might be available on Syfy's website...

They really are very similar in concept. Especially since the Human POV for both is a Police officer and their child/children. And you are right about Greene and Henry.

And I really want to hear Jeffrey Combs' (that name shouldbbe VERY familiar to modern Trekkies) Ratchet say "Fargo! I NEEDED that!"

Finishing the play through:

To me, I like this morally ambiguous Getaway. Since he is a character with not a lot of backstory, I dont find it as jarring as say Optimis Prime. But whatvis Getaway's motive? Is he simply hung up on the War, the Autobot Doctrine the way Tarn was the Decepticon Doctrine? Is he just going after the Knights of Cybertron? And what about all the other Autobots? I get theyvall didnt like Megatron and wanted rid of him, but are they still themselves moral? I cannot imagine developed characters like Hound or Blaster being knowingly complicit in mind altering First Aid.

Unless Getaway has tinkered with everyone?

What if, the point of the mutiny was to speed up finding the Knights of Cybertron in time for Unicron? If the books all aligned in the publishing schedule, the intention is for Getaway to come riding to the rescue against Unicron with the Knights in tow?

Nah, that's too obvious for James "Red Herring" Roberts

What Doctor Who episode are you thinking of, Bronzewolf? I can't place it.

As small a character as it was, it was nice to see Mirage change stances. He went into Visages and took his place pretty quickly; without First Aid he probably woulda been complacent alongside Hound and others without knowing about anything else. But when First Aid reveals Getaway's hand Mirage takes the side of good pretty quickly

I had forgotten about Mirage's whole visions thing, hence the "Visages" name. Duh...

My impression was that the Spotlight Mirage book was an IDW wink at the alternate Universe stuff without going full Shattered Glass.

When Getaway approached members of the Lost Light, tjose who said "No, i will not partake" were nudge gunned to forget the conversation. Getaway explains this in the end of MTMTE. Thats why when First Aid says "I was approached... Lets just say I regretted my end of the conversation" he told Getaway "Yes, i will help you get rid of Megatron." So did Mirage. But the other Protectobots dont remember, because they said "No." This was Roberts way of showing who of the Protectobots did and did not make the Devil's Deal. Which adds another level of "hmm" because we see First Aid chafing against Getaway, and come to find out he had originally agreed to this.

As to the missing crew, I am assuming these are bots who had agreed with Getaway initially but not his methods or bots who had said "No" to Getaway but was not a part of the Rod Squad so Getaway had to get rid of the dissenters somehow.

I wonder if the teeth marks belong to the one crewmember left without a mouth...

Or that Spark Eater.
---
Pretentious Drinks:

Dad went to England for a work conference. Not thinking where he was the first day, he ordered and Iced Tea

"iced tea," the waitress asked, "Iced Tea? ICED TEA?? I say, do we serve ICED tea?
------
I like Centurion's alt mode? I like using Centurion using his alt mode and seatbelt as a prison. I liked the character moments, but I was still baffled by the whole Talisman MaGuffin.

Honestly, Scotty talks about reading things as a whole in Trade. For me, I almost seem to lose more detail binging the stories than trying to do them indivisually. I sm rushing throough, so I fully admit its my own fault and reading on a phone loses something compared to paper in hand.

Scotty: remember the Furman effect on figures like Razorbeast when a throwaway figure was a main character in a good story and suddenly a figure people want.

For that matter, TR may well make me buy a Perceptor...

Flashwave wrote:
What Doctor Who episode are you thinking of, Bronzewolf? I can't place it.

I wasn't really referring to a specific one, it just reminded me of something that could be a Doctor Who episode. I suppose "Heaven Sent" from the recent series comes to mind.

Bronzewolf wrote:

Flashwave wrote:
What Doctor Who episode are you thinking of, Bronzewolf? I can't place it.

I wasn't really referring to a specific one, it just reminded me of something that could be a Doctor Who episode. I suppose "Heaven Sent" from the recent series comes to mind.

Ah. Okay.

As I mentioned, the TV show Lucifer did this exact plot. Halfway through the episode Lucifer mentions that Hell is hm just reliving a guilty memory over and over and then the end of the episode you find out he is in hell in this memory. That was Monday's ep. I read Lost Light 11 on Wednesday.

I finally listened to this!

It's great to finally hear the voice of one of the staffers I have yet to meet, and oh my - so young, so many fandoms, so much excitement! Nicely done episode, all three, felt a lot natural and flowing, and megatronus was on fire with the bantz. More bantz.

As for the points I wanted to raise:

Comics - I listened after LL #11 came out, so a lot of my misgivings about #10 were already addressed in what I said in my own review and in the events of 11. Specifically though, the objective vs plan difference seems to have been a cool line and framework that really did not stick for the second issue. Getaway's plan is to reach the objective, but it's constantly evolving and changing - he does not have a plan, he plans as things happen. Is that bad? No. But it doesn't fit the framework, as it's exactly what Rodimus does, if less focused.

As for the First Strike stuff, I had something to say about that too, but Optimus Prime #13 beat me to it. If you liked Sovereign, read OP.


Bad actors in news swaying: If Alfes or eBay seller lena or Weibo tf-factory started trolling, our news cycle would be screwed. They're the major sources, arguably, of non-Anglophone material in terms of the news, and if any of them decided to play pranks or just entirely sideline their content, we wouldn't pick up on it until too late, given the shared language skills of a lot of the fandom. Sure, there are readers of Japanese and Chinese that we can turn to, but not enough to cover the whole thing.

As an example of the power that news outlets have on the fandom: the 'evergreen' designs.
That is not a term. That was a word used by Emiliano Santalucia to describe the designs as 'iconic', 'always usable' - it was never meant to be the name of a line or of the models or anything. But we used it in an ambiguous phrasing, and now it's stuck. All over the fandom. Stuck. And I hate it. No matter how many quotation marks we use or hedging, we called them Evergreen, and that's their name (it's not, the lines are Cyberverse and Authentics, so far).

Va'al wrote:I finally listened to this!

It's great to finally hear the voice of one of the staffers I have yet to meet, and oh my - so young, so many fandoms, so much excitement! Nicely done episode, all three, felt a lot natural and flowing, and megatronus was on fire with the bantz. More bantz.

I'm on fire y'all!

...Bantz = banter?

Va'al wrote:Comics - I listened after LL #11 came out, so a lot of my misgivings about #10 were already addressed in what I said in my own review and in the events of 11. Specifically though, the objective vs plan difference seems to have been a cool line and framework that really did not stick for the second issue. Getaway's plan is to reach the objective, but it's constantly evolving and changing - he does not have a plan, he plans as things happen. Is that bad? No. But it doesn't fit the framework, as it's exactly what Rodimus does, if less focused.

I need to read 11 today to see what you mean... then I'll have thoughts, maybe!

megatronus wrote:

Va'al wrote:I finally listened to this!

It's great to finally hear the voice of one of the staffers I have yet to meet, and oh my - so young, so many fandoms, so much excitement! Nicely done episode, all three, felt a lot natural and flowing, and megatronus was on fire with the bantz. More bantz.

I'm on fire y'all!

...Bantz = banter?

Archbishop of Banterbury.

Va'al wrote:

megatronus wrote:

Va'al wrote:I finally listened to this!

It's great to finally hear the voice of one of the staffers I have yet to meet, and oh my - so young, so many fandoms, so much excitement! Nicely done episode, all three, felt a lot natural and flowing, and megatronus was on fire with the bantz. More bantz.

I'm on fire y'all!

...Bantz = banter?

Archbishop of Banterbury.

Banterbury Tales.

Va'al wrote:
As an example of the power that news outlets have on the fandom: the 'evergreen' designs.
That is not a term. That was a word used by Emiliano Santalucia to describe the designs as 'iconic', 'always usable' - it was never meant to be the name of a line or of the models or anything. But we used it in an ambiguous phrasing, and now it's stuck. All over the fandom. Stuck. And I hate it. No matter how many quotation marks we use or hedging, we called them Evergreen, and that's their name (it's not, the lines are Cyberverse and Authentics, so far).

You mean I am not the only person who sees that and thinks of Gum?

megatronus wrote:

Va'al wrote:

megatronus wrote:

Va'al wrote:I finally listened to this!

It's great to finally hear the voice of one of the staffers I have yet to meet, and oh my - so young, so many fandoms, so much excitement! Nicely done episode, all three, felt a lot natural and flowing, and megatronus was on fire with the bantz. More bantz.

I'm on fire y'all!

...Bantz = banter?

Archbishop of Banterbury.

Banterbury Tales.

Bantersaurus Rex.

Va'al wrote:

megatronus wrote:

Va'al wrote:

megatronus wrote:

Va'al wrote:I finally listened to this!

It's great to finally hear the voice of one of the staffers I have yet to meet, and oh my - so young, so many fandoms, so much excitement! Nicely done episode, all three, felt a lot natural and flowing, and megatronus was on fire with the bantz. More bantz.

I'm on fire y'all!

...Bantz = banter?

Archbishop of Banterbury.

Banterbury Tales.

Bantersaurus Rex.

Banturnturnturn



Oh god we're going down this rabbit hole again...

Banter Who.

Banturducken

Flashwave wrote:

Va'al wrote:
As an example of the power that news outlets have on the fandom: the 'evergreen' designs.
That is not a term. That was a word used by Emiliano Santalucia to describe the designs as 'iconic', 'always usable' - it was never meant to be the name of a line or of the models or anything. But we used it in an ambiguous phrasing, and now it's stuck. All over the fandom. Stuck. And I hate it. No matter how many quotation marks we use or hedging, we called them Evergreen, and that's their name (it's not, the lines are Cyberverse and Authentics, so far).

You mean I am not the only person who sees that and thinks of Gum?

I think of forests. And wolves. But mainly forests.