The Energon Pub

Transformers changed a lot through the years. Desings and styles are very different from lines to lines and that's a good thing. However, many design tropes still remain strong. However, through the years, despite all the changes in style and design, some TF trope still remain strong.

It's nothing dramatic and I'm not hipster enough to shout "RUINED FOREVER" for something that was always there. Call it some personal pet peeves.

First of:

TINY THIGHS, HUGE FORELEGS.

Sure, many TF's transformation schemes depends of the tiny, tiny thighs with HUGE forelegs design. On a normal human body, the thigh is the longest part of the leg. Sure, robots are not humans and yadda yadda. But man, even if the transformation don't require it, around 90% of every transformers ever have that trope! Some are somewhat proportionate like Generations Metroplex or MP-10. We can argue that they have huge boots or something. However, way too often, the thighs are just micro ridiculous stomps compared to the rest of the leg:




I'd like to see some new design where the thigh is more proportionate to the rest of the leg. Without having it to be beast war or a fembot.




Do you have any pet peeves about transformers design that you'd like to share?
Also, let's keep it at one pet peeves per posts. I have some more that I'll share later.

Unpainted faces or optics. The G1 Seekers were the biggest culprit for that.

Painted over light piping optics.

Windsweeper wrote:Unpainted faces or optics. The G1 Seekers were the biggest culprit for that.

Painted over light piping optics.

Hey, they gave us a GIGANTIC eye sticker that cover half of his face... That's something, right?

Speaking of paint, unpainted rims and rear lights on cars. Talk about cheap.

Those eye stickers were as lousy as the cardboard heads we got with Encore Ironhide and Ratchet.

The world's smallest seekers actually got painted faces and optics and looked great.

-Kanrabat- wrote:TINY THIGHS, HUGE FORELEGS.

Sure, many TF's transformation schemes depends of the tiny, tiny thighs with HUGE forelegs design. On a normal human body, the thigh is the longest part of the leg. Sure, robots are not humans and yadda yadda. But man, even if the transformation don't require it, around 90% of every transformers ever have that trope! Some are somewhat proportionate like Generations Metroplex or MP-10. We can argue that they have huge boots or something. However, way too often, the thighs are just micro ridiculous stomps compared to the rest of the leg:

I'd like to see some new design where the thigh is more proportionate to the rest of the leg. Without having it to be beast war or a fembot.


Do you have any pet peeves about transformers design that you'd like to share?
Also, let's keep it at one pet peeves per posts. I have some more that I'll share later.

I honestly have to disagree with you on this one, mainly because any machine the size of a typical TF would NEED larger feet and calves in proportion simply to keep from sinking two feet deep into the pavement. That, and I like the look a LOT better.

My personal pet peeve, however, is when gimmicks (that are not line-wide) otherwise destroy a decent figure. A perfect example?



Payload.

Ignoring the tendency of parts like the neck/head and the front grill to simply fall aff when you look at them funny (something that can be fixable), the extremely long 'capture claw" arm gimmick makes him utterly incapable of standing on his own in a standing pose, let alone any form of action pose. He can't be put on a shelf in robot mode without something under that awkward arm, and any view other than straight on makes him look like he's been impaled on something from behind.

Return back to the G1 face design style and not the noseless Crimson chin style

Use die-cast AS NECESSARY only, especially on parts that are prone to stress or breakage (I'm talking about you 30th Jetfire and that nose cone connector)

Lay off the battery gimmicks.

Fix the figure first before you release it! (30th Blitzwing,Generations Jazz, Ironhide and ratchet) The shoulder and chest that don't lock in when you swing the arms up, drooping head........UNFORGIVABLE!

Combiner kibble. I've said it before and I'll say it again; if you possibly can work a part of a combiner into the individual robots, do so. Feet are hardly difficult to ork in- all you need is a flat surface after all. Hands are more difficult, but...why does a robot built purely for war need humanoid hands?

Another one is panels that just float there for no reasons. Sure, I can accept some form of shellforming. However, the panels must be either eliminated by folding around the limbs, or become cool armor bits like shoulder pads or "skirt". A top car just hanging off the robot back also count as a wrong way to deal with panels.

Here's a few examples of bots who deal with panels wrong:


For me, Classic Optimus will never be a perfect TF just because of those arms panels that just hang there.


I see that the intent is to make the panels into armor, but it just fail because the panels are just floating around the bot.


Floating panels. Floating panels everywhere.


I was very dissapointed by Prime's deluxe Smokescreen. I can forgive the faux chest but man, could they have found a better way to deal with these GIGANTIC arms panels?

Now, on to those who make it right:


Despite having the rear of the truck as backpack, AoE Leader Optimus only have 4 panels to deal with. It deal with them in a great way by changing them into a convincing armor skirt and bad-ass shoulder pads.


DOTM Leader Sentinel Prime deal with his panels in 2 magnificent ways. First the obvious ones emulate the cape. Second, there is lots of panellings that just completely dissapear in the legs and feet!

Finally, coming back to Prime, many bots have panels that just wrap around the arms, making full arms and making the panels dissapear.

Honestly the Energon Mirage mold seemed like a good one to me. From what I can see, he only has the arm panels (which aren't great I will admit) and the hip "skirts", which I quite like.

Kibble, especially panels, can give the character a good looking silhouette or a really unique look. At the end of the day, a robot that turns into a vehicle is going to have vehcile bits on him/her, and I'm largely not bothered about it. If it gets in the way of articulation/stability/playbability though I agree, it's annoying.

What annoys me more is when there's whole chunks of the alt mode that are just sticking out of the robot, making no effort to compact or look cool- they're just there. For example, Warbotron Air Burst and FansProject Explorer (yes I know they're third party figures but it is relevant). The nosecone just limply sits on their backs, being very distracting, especially on Explorer. It looks ugly and will probably come loose a lot during posing. A better solution would have been to make the halves of the nosecone turn into Gunbuster-style "shoulder pylons"- whilst it wouldn't be very G1, it would look pretty cool and would be a hell of a lot better than just having the nosecone hanging off the back.

I rase your nosecone for the ENTIRE FRIGGIN VEHICLE:




Still, I bought Universe Silverbolt for that reason. He's hillarious and quite fun actually.

I do no have any pet peeve regarding any Transformer figure. I find them cool in any of the designs.

Those dang "bodybuilder/weight curling" arms. You know, like on Slash and Slog:





It makes posing difficult and I don't understand why they mold them that way. And it could be fixed by simply engineering it with a simple rotating wrist joint. You know what had rotating wrists joints? G1 Smokescreen.

Ah yeah, the good old "gorrilla arms". Seem pretty popular with the AoE Dinobots.

I've kept quiet for a while, but now seems like a good time to reveal my pet peeve:

Telescoping legs

You know the type, that collapses into itself via a sliding mechanism? My main gripe with them is that when they wear out, the figure can't stand properly anymore. It already happened with my G1 Blades and Hot Spot.

Thankfully, another company has anticipated it and introduced locking mechanisms for some of its figures. I want to see that in Transformers more often.

MP11 Starscream . I would have liked the torso to click into the waist to make a secure connection so when i pick him up he's one solid piece .

I think the black die cast tab on the waist is too thin/small to fit in the grey slot in the cockpit .

I'm almost tempted to buy a new one but i don't want to end up with the same QC issue .

Autobot Genocide wrote:MP11 Starscream . I would have liked the torso to click into the waist to make a secure connection so when i pick him up he's one solid piece .

I think the black die cast tab on the waist is too thin/small to fit in the grey slot in the cockpit .

I'm almost tempted to buy a new one but i don't want to end up with the same QC issue .

So, I'm not alone in this. MP-03 lock, but MP-11 don't for some reason. Also, that sonova costed me 200$+ shipped. NOT WORTH THE MONEY.

Delta Magnus wrote:Combiner kibble. I've said it before and I'll say it again; if you possibly can work a part of a combiner into the individual robots, do so. Feet are hardly difficult to ork in- all you need is a flat surface after all. Hands are more difficult, but...why does a robot built purely for war need humanoid hands?

regarding your last bit there, they give them humanoid hands because they would be massive uproar if there wasn't

Now on to one of my pet peeves...Tight joints. I should never have to feel like I'm breaking a figure just to transform it, cyberverse twinstrike is guilty of this with his hind leg armour that you have to rotate.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

Autobot Genocide wrote:MP11 Starscream . I would have liked the torso to click into the waist to make a secure connection so when i pick him up he's one solid piece .

I think the black die cast tab on the waist is too thin/small to fit in the grey slot in the cockpit .

I'm almost tempted to buy a new one but i don't want to end up with the same QC issue .

So, I'm not alone in this. MP-03 lock, but MP-11 don't for some reason. Also, that sonova costed me 200$+ shipped. NOT WORTH THE MONEY.

It's so disappointing , i paid £125 for the Takara SS . It has me worried about buying another mp seeker and with the asia skywarp coming out , it's not a piece i want to miss out on .

Guess i'll have to take another chance but this time it's a £150

Autobot Genocide wrote:Guess i'll have to take another chance but this time it's a £150

Holy sh!t! As in, so baffling, I actually pooped and planned to have a priest bless the thing. All that money for a MP-11 seeker! At least Screamers had the excuse of a coronation set. Skywarp have no bonuses! Crazy.

Still, not as crasy as that 1000$ green Bathing Ape MP-10 that come without trailer.


Hey, that's another pet peeves of mine. Overpriced exclusives.

Delta Magnus wrote:Combiner kibble. I've said it before and I'll say it again; if you possibly can work a part of a combiner into the individual robots, do so. Feet are hardly difficult to ork in- all you need is a flat surface after all. Hands are more difficult, but...why does a robot built purely for war need humanoid hands?

Why does an entire species of robot built purely for war need to be humanoid at all? Because fiction aside, people like them that way, and that (usually) means giving them hands.



Anyway, my peeve is missile launchers. I don't know about anyone else, but I'd prefer if parts of my transformers didn't have a tendency to accidentally shoot across the room and potentially get lost. I'm speaking mainly of the spring loaded ones, the pressure ones (like RiD Prowl had) don't go off accidentally, but I haven't seen that type in a while, and don't think they were ever that popular.

Quite often I just take the missiles away and throw them in storage, but sometimes they're an integral part of the look (the Classic/Gen/whatever Seekers) so you just have to be really careful and hope they don't shoot when you aren't intending them to.

I wonder how many more g1 parts I might have lost over the years if Hasbro hadn't nerfed the launchers. That bugged me at the time, but in retrospect, maybe they did us a favor.

Lack of weapons.

Really, in the last couple of years, Hasbro has been really stingy with weapons for their figures. As much as I love the Classics-Generation figures, a lot of them didn't even come with one gun (Grappel, Hot Shot, Bumblebee) I really hate having to buy third party guns just to arm the figures.

I third the 'gorilla arms'. They make posing damned near impossible. And it doesn't even need a wrist swivel. Just make sure the hands are facing the right way! It's so ((&%%$&(()))&$##@% simple!

Loose Pin joints where a ratchets or at the very least a screw together joints should have been used, especially in cases of load bearing joint such as knees, ankles and shoulders. There's no easy or permanent fix for them and they just scream CHEAP. Getting a figure that can't stand properly (Rhinox) or even hold it's weapons straight out (AOE Hound) right out of the package is an infuriating letdown.

I kinda mentionned it before, but I just have when only half of the vehicle transform into a bot, and the other half just hang out on the bot's back. Usually, it's all because of some silly gimmicks.It can be forgiven if the gimmick is fun and work well in robot mode while not hurting the overall look.
Best example, Energon Sharkticon:




However, many could have been much more.
For me, best example is Cybertron Leader Megatron. those huge kibbles at his back could have been incorporated into his arms with much ease, giving him a more powerful look. Instead, Megatron have tiny and fragile arms, making him look weak and deformed.

I agree with gorilla arms and missile launchers, especially the gorilla arms. I've seen so many figures that could have been amazing if not for that.

One thing that's really been bothering me lately is overuse of translucent plastic. I'm not a fan of translucent windows in general. Unless there's a detailed interior all it does is show robot parts. Recently they've been making huge chunks of the alt mode out of translucent plastic, and because of that the paint job suffers. Like Prime Ratchet, Knock Out, and AoE Crosshairs look half painted because they used so much covering all that translucent plastic. Plus it's really brittle and often cracks or breaks completely.