The Energon Pub

I know, it's only toys, but sometimes things just make me wonder if the guys writing it knew what they were doing.

I noticed today that Axalon Rhinox's tech specs say he can lift 50,000 tons. That's freaking impressive for a Maximal standing what, 10 feet tall or so? He could easily toss around a yorktown class aircraft carrier.

Another one I thought was funny was TM2 Cybershark, who can sense Predacons from 20,000 fathoms below the sea! Obviously the writer watched movies with giant squids, but didn't read the novel. 20,000 fathoms is about 27 miles! The book 20,000 leagues under the sea is a reference to how far he traveled below the sea, not how DEEP. The ocean is only a few miles deep at it's lowest point. Also says he travels at 600 knots, which is just under the speed of sound. I hope they mean flying.

Then we have the opposite side of the spectrum. I'd guess it's t type on Hot Rod's tech spec that he can go 120mhp and has a range of 4 miles. Ooh, he runs out of gas in 2 minutes. Lucky for him the drive back to Autobot City was 1 minute and 56 seconds in the movie.

Anyone else ever laugh when you read a non-sensical tech spec?

You meant tech specs? Anyway I also noticed that initially, Hotrod pre Rodimus Prime transformation had tech spec nearing that of Primes, after relinquishing the Matrix, he experienced a big drop as a Target Master. Inconsistent or way deeper meaning........

I always figured the Targetmaster numbers were more real to just a young, minor, autobot car. The ones on his original were skewed by the writers knowing he was to become Rodimus Prime.

This one I remember: Skywarp having the intelligence rating of nine, whereas Starscream has one of 5. And Starscream is supposed to be a scientist! Thats the only one I know that I got to see.

That is actually explainable. They found the original notes to the tech specs from 1984 a year or so back, and Starscream and Skywarp were swapped.

Yeah and their ranks were switched. Starscream was supposed to be the number #2 man in the 'cons hierarchy together with Shockwave, but just like that, a mismatch in the ranks. Scorponok too was ranked 5.

So they were able to fix them, and the mistakes are no more?

The Tech Spec, for the New Movie Swindle is hilarious.

You have this short guy, that's packing the most powerful weapon, but has an intelligence of 1.

A moron with a Thermonuclear device at his disposal.

No, it wasn't just the ranks. The ENTIRE numbers were swapped (Plus Skywarp's Intelligence was supposed to be 4, they raised it up when it went to Starscream). I know people say "Skywarp could teleport, he should have a 10 speed!", but the 10 speed was Starscream. They were only counting FLYING speed, and Starscream was the fastest seeker. I have seen a copy of the original notes from Bob Budinsky at Iacon One in 2006.

They never really fixed it, and often times the tech specs numbers are still messed up on Starscream and Skywarp. They even messed up on the Classics toys of Starscream and Skywarp.

They also completely swapped Sunstreaker and Sideswipe's toys of course. The tech spec for Sideswipe mentions piledriver arms and a jet pack, but the Sunstreaker toy actually had his motor mounted on his back (the jetpack) and his piledriver arms you can place in his fists. Meanwhile Sunstreaker's tech spec mentions a missile launcher, which is on Sideswipe's shoulder.

I burst out laughing the first time I saw Broadside's tech specs. He turns into a jet and a carrier, yet he's BOTH afraid of heights AND he gets... seasick? How the HECK can a robot get seasick!?!?

With G1 Silverbolt, his fear of heights was at least mitigated by the notation the Prime assigned him as leader of the Aerialbots to give him something more important to think about. Broadside was just LAME.

Scaleface wrote:They also completely swapped Sunstreaker and Sideswipe's toys of course. The tech spec for Sideswipe mentions piledriver arms and a jet pack, but the Sunstreaker toy actually had his motor mounted on his back (the jetpack) and his piledriver arms you can place in his fists. Meanwhile Sunstreaker's tech spec mentions a missile launcher, which is on Sideswipe's shoulder.

I never knew that! I had no idea Sunstreaker's engine was a rocket pack.

Overcracker wrote:The Tech Spec, for the New Movie Swindle is hilarious.

You have this short guy, that's packing the most powerful weapon, but has an intelligence of 1.

A moron with a Thermonuclear device at his disposal.

That seems fairly common in toydom to me, an imbecile with super powerful weaponry. If you remember the 80s G I Joe cartoon, Bazooka was like a demolitions/high explosives expert but he was a complete moron.
I think it's a banal form of stereotyping really, that higher strength or power results in a decided lack of intelligence, a real jocks and nerds kind of senario. Devastator, anyone? Six super brilliant minds = a giant idiotic killing machine.

What about the Constructicons? A lot of continuities suggest that they are all geniuses. Look at Scavenger's intelligence of 2 is it? Don't think Bonecrusher is much better.

In fact the tech specs on the Classics Constucticons has most of them of low or average intelligence.

Thank God for Scorponok's chest meter. How did his tech specs get through Quality Control? Strength of 3 or 4. C'mon!!

Nice to see Titaniums are bringing back tech specs. Sorely missed after Beast Wars. At least Dreamwave gave us Armada fact files.

I think they flipped over the red bar on his tech specs. it was upside down and lowr than it should be.

Scaleface wrote:They also completely swapped Sunstreaker and Sideswipe's toys of course. The tech spec for Sideswipe mentions piledriver arms and a jet pack, but the Sunstreaker toy actually had his motor mounted on his back (the jetpack) and his piledriver arms you can place in his fists. Meanwhile Sunstreaker's tech spec mentions a missile launcher, which is on Sideswipe's shoulder.

Interesting! And the shows writers followed the swapped tech specs to the letter, as Sideswipe had the jetpack and piledriver hands in the show. I always wondered where they got the jetpack from.

After checking into it, the Season 3 Mini-bot repaints are a little bit on the odd side. Snippets from their tech specs:

Pipes I always found interesting when I first read his bio:
Fascinated by seemingly worthless Earthen gadgetry -- carrot juicers, musical wrist-watches, electrical hair combers, etc.. Collects them in unused corner of Ark, creating a mini museeum of American consumerisim

Swerve sounds like a drunk:
If Autobots had drivers licenses, his would have be revoked. A menace on highways. Doesn't pay attention to where he's going or the orders he's being given - easily distracted by anything. Gets into lots of accidents.

Tailgate talks to payphones(possibly).
He sometimes has his mind stuck in low gear, believes 55mph, speed limit is infringement on rights of cars. Garages are prisons to him... doesn't understand Earth machines are not alive

Outback screams "gonna be sued for reckless driving"
Thinks going by the book is going the long way. Doesn't follow plans -- or roads! Cuts across parking lots, sidewalks, backyards to get where he's going.

Hubcap is basicly an Autobot Swindle:
Has everybody's friendship, nobody's trust. Affable, witty, generous, charming, but a con artist. Living proof of the Cybertronian adage, "You can't tell an Autobot by its finish."

I now demand a Spotlight of these guys! They sound like a really interesting group!

Duke of Luns wrote:

Scaleface wrote:They also completely swapped Sunstreaker and Sideswipe's toys of course. The tech spec for Sideswipe mentions piledriver arms and a jet pack, but the Sunstreaker toy actually had his motor mounted on his back (the jetpack) and his piledriver arms you can place in his fists. Meanwhile Sunstreaker's tech spec mentions a missile launcher, which is on Sideswipe's shoulder.

Interesting! And the shows writers followed the swapped tech specs to the letter, as Sideswipe had the jetpack and piledriver hands in the show. I always wondered where they got the jetpack from.

After checking into it, the Season 3 Mini-bot repaints are a little bit on the odd side. Snippets from their tech specs:

Pipes I always found interesting when I first read his bio:
Fascinated by seemingly worthless Earthen gadgetry -- carrot juicers, musical wrist-watches, electrical hair combers, etc.. Collects them in unused corner of Ark, creating a mini museeum of American consumerisim

Swerve sounds like a drunk:
If Autobots had drivers licenses, his would have be revoked. A menace on highways. Doesn't pay attention to where he's going or the orders he's being given - easily distracted by anything. Gets into lots of accidents.

Tailgate talks to payphones(possibly).
He sometimes has his mind stuck in low gear, believes 55mph, speed limit is infringement on rights of cars. Garages are prisons to him... doesn't understand Earth machines are not alive

Outback screams "gonna be sued for reckless driving"
Thinks going by the book is going the long way. Doesn't follow plans -- or roads! Cuts across parking lots, sidewalks, backyards to get where he's going.

Hubcap is basicly an Autobot Swindle:
Has everybody's friendship, nobody's trust. Affable, witty, generous, charming, but a con artist. Living proof of the Cybertronian adage, "You can't tell an Autobot by its finish."

I now demand a Spotlight of these guys! They sound like a really interesting group!

I've been saying forever that Hubcap needs more attention.

Dagon wrote:

Overcracker wrote:The Tech Spec, for the New Movie Swindle is hilarious.

You have this short guy, that's packing the most powerful weapon, but has an intelligence of 1.

A moron with a Thermonuclear device at his disposal.

That seems fairly common in toydom to me, an imbecile with super powerful weaponry. If you remember the 80s G I Joe cartoon, Bazooka was like a demolitions/high explosives expert but he was a complete moron.
I think it's a banal form of stereotyping really, that higher strength or power results in a decided lack of intelligence, a real jocks and nerds kind of senario. Devastator, anyone? Six super brilliant minds = a giant idiotic killing machine.

That still happens alot, look at anime. Being one who is trying to advance in weight lifting and body building, this is a bit of a pet subject for me. The biggest, strongest guys in alot of animes are often protrayed as dim-witted, lumbering idiots, having to let the little tiny guy do all the thinking. We seen this in Cybertron with Crumplezone and Ransack.

Though it is slowly changing. For example, in the sacred dragon saga in Yugioh, there was a character named Rapheal, who was a large, muscular guy. Instead of being like a bone head, he was very intelligent ( The two little skinny guys he was partnered with were total idiots for the most part ), and one of that season's most interesting characters really got me into watching that season. In fact, not only did he not fall into the steriotypical strong dumbass, he also dueled Yami....and BEAT him, defeating the 'King of Games'.....fair & square I might add.

I mean, if Megatron and Optimus Prime, who are both big guys who are both strong and smart, why can't other Transformers be the same way.

And one tech spec I find laughable is G1 Jetfire/Skyfire.....he has a very low strength reading, yet he towers over 95% of Autobots and Decepticons. In several episodes, he gets dropped with a single shot and is almost killed. He's pretty much a walking pinyatta.

Plus Brutics and his low intelligence....why would Starscream rebuild the Combaticons, who are supposed to be brillient millitary tacticians and fighters, and have them combine into a giant who could lose a battle of whits to a potted plant?

And how can Ironhide, who is said to be one of the more older Autobots, be able to take on alot of punishment? Would not the more outdated models actually take less punishment compared to his more advanced Autobot commarades?

Emperor Primacron the 1st wrote:And how can Ironhide, who is said to be one of the more older Autobots, be able to take on alot of punishment? Would not the more outdated models actually take less punishment compared to his more advanced Autobot commarades?

Not always. Ironhide might have much simpler internal workings, which thus require more force to damage. Design philosophies may have changed, sacrificing that thick armor he has for lighter plates to conserve fuel. I mean look at it this way:

A 1975 Buick and a 2007 Chevy Minivan get into a head-on collision while both are driving at 40 MPH. How much damage will the Buick take compared to the minivan?

I've just noticed that Cliffjumper's motto is, "Strike first, strike fast, strike hard," even though is actual bio begins immediately with the sentence, ""Let me at 'em," is Cliffjumper's motto." Not only does he have two mottos, but the former is somewhat more poetic than the blunt latter.