Interview With Bob Budiansky, The Man Who Named Megatron and Many Other G1 Characters

That was actually a little disappointing. I'm not a G1er, but I'm working on a degree in writing, and seeing a writer look back on a project he spent years on and say that he didn't care about it anymore... that's kinda sad.

LE0KING wrote:That was actually a little disappointing. I'm not a G1er, but I'm working on a degree in writing, and seeing a writer look back on a project he spent years on and say that he didn't care about it anymore... that's kinda sad.

For them, it was just a job (one of many franchised lines Marvel was paid to sell)which nobody really like to take and forced on him by Jim Shooter. It's just us fans who are really "fanatics" for the toyline. (Fyi "fanatic" is the root word for fans and no insult intended to eager beavers out here)

Also

"When I got off the book in 1989, it was a dying franchise, the toy line was not selling. Hasbro had pulled back on production. Comic book sales were going down. It just seemed like it fulfilled its lifecycle like a lot of toys." B.Budiansky

Production was rolled back because it was no longer selling. The fans either grew up and now focused on gals or videogames but that risk is still there if Hb doesn't play their cards right.Hopefully they don't go "bananas" and focused too much on BB etc.

fenrir72 wrote:

LE0KING wrote:That was actually a little disappointing. I'm not a G1er, but I'm working on a degree in writing, and seeing a writer look back on a project he spent years on and say that he didn't care about it anymore... that's kinda sad.

For them, it was just a job (one of many franchised lines Marvel was paid to sell)which nobody really like to take and forced on him by Jim Shooter. It's just us fans who are really "fanatics" for the toyline. (Fyi "fanatic" is the root word for fans and no insult intended to eager beavers out here)

Also

"When I got off the book in 1989, it was a dying franchise, the toy line was not selling. Hasbro had pulled back on production. Comic book sales were going down. It just seemed like it fulfilled its lifecycle like a lot of toys." B.Budiansky

Production was rolled back because it was no longer selling. The fans either grew up and now focused on gals or videogames but that risk is still there if Hb doesn't play their cards right.Hopefully they don't go "bananas" and focused too much on BB etc.

Yeah bobs interviews always catch people off guard and put them off because while he did create so much, it was just a job. He did it and moved on. He says it how it was. A lot of people accuse Hasbro of being lazy nowadays and don't appreciate transformers for what it is but people need to understand that this is a franchise and while it does have a 30+ legacy, the goal is to sell toys and make money.

I'll need to read this later.

Randomhero wrote:

fenrir72 wrote:

LE0KING wrote:That was actually a little disappointing. I'm not a G1er, but I'm working on a degree in writing, and seeing a writer look back on a project he spent years on and say that he didn't care about it anymore... that's kinda sad.

For them, it was just a job (one of many franchised lines Marvel was paid to sell)which nobody really like to take and forced on him by Jim Shooter. It's just us fans who are really "fanatics" for the toyline. (Fyi "fanatic" is the root word for fans and no insult intended to eager beavers out here)

Also

"When I got off the book in 1989, it was a dying franchise, the toy line was not selling. Hasbro had pulled back on production. Comic book sales were going down. It just seemed like it fulfilled its lifecycle like a lot of toys." B.Budiansky

Production was rolled back because it was no longer selling. The fans either grew up and now focused on gals or videogames but that risk is still there if Hb doesn't play their cards right.Hopefully they don't go "bananas" and focused too much on BB etc.

Yeah bobs interviews always catch people off guard and put them off because while he did create so much, it was just a job. He did it and moved on. He says it how it was. A lot of people accuse Hasbro of being lazy nowadays and don't appreciate transformers for what it is but people need to understand that this is a franchise and while it does have a 30+ legacy, the goal is to sell toys and make money.

Indeed. Budiansky did what he did, could, and was willing to do for the comics in the mindset of their being a job for him. He did pull off some pretty good and pretty cool stuff throughout his run (Issues #5-8 being among his best TF work, IMHO), but it was evident from his lesser stories how little passion he could feel for the comic in those cases. And when one gets towards the end of his run, those particular issues just scream "burnout!" One could tell that he was so done with the comic by that point.

Conversely, as much criticism as we give him for his more recent TF works, it was Simon Furman and the rest of the Transformers UK team over at Marvel UK who really seemed committed to putting their heart and soul into most of the issues they created for the comic during Budiansky's run. There's just something about many of those Furman-penned stories that weaved in and out of Budiansky's stories that made them feel much more sophisticated, complex, and at times thought-provoking than most (but NOT all) of Budiansky's run.

Sabrblade wrote:I'll need to read this later.

Randomhero wrote:

fenrir72 wrote:

LE0KING wrote:That was actually a little disappointing. I'm not a G1er, but I'm working on a degree in writing, and seeing a writer look back on a project he spent years on and say that he didn't care about it anymore... that's kinda sad.

For them, it was just a job (one of many franchised lines Marvel was paid to sell)which nobody really like to take and forced on him by Jim Shooter. It's just us fans who are really "fanatics" for the toyline. (Fyi "fanatic" is the root word for fans and no insult intended to eager beavers out here)

Also

"When I got off the book in 1989, it was a dying franchise, the toy line was not selling. Hasbro had pulled back on production. Comic book sales were going down. It just seemed like it fulfilled its lifecycle like a lot of toys." B.Budiansky

Production was rolled back because it was no longer selling. The fans either grew up and now focused on gals or videogames but that risk is still there if Hb doesn't play their cards right.Hopefully they don't go "bananas" and focused too much on BB etc.

Yeah bobs interviews always catch people off guard and put them off because while he did create so much, it was just a job. He did it and moved on. He says it how it was. A lot of people accuse Hasbro of being lazy nowadays and don't appreciate transformers for what it is but people need to understand that this is a franchise and while it does have a 30+ legacy, the goal is to sell toys and make money.

Indeed. Budiansky did what he did, could, and was willing to do for the comics in the mindset of their being a job for him. He did pull off some pretty good and pretty cool stuff throughout his run (Issues #5-8 being among his best TF work, IMHO), but it was evident from his lesser stories how little passion he could feel for the comic in those cases. And when one gets towards the end of his run, those particular issues just scream "burnout!" One could tell that he was so done with the comic by that point.

Conversely, as much criticism as we give him for his more recent TF works, it was Simon Furman and the rest of the Transformers UK team over at Marvel UK who really seemed committed to putting their heart and soul into most of the issues they created for the comic during Budiansky's run. There's just something about many of those Furman-penned stories that weaved in and out of Budiansky's stories that made them feel much more sophisticated, complex, and at times thought-provoking than most (but NOT all) of Budiansky's run.

Furman gets flak he DOES NOT deserve!

Bacal and son started the spark, Shooter the oxygen, Budiansky (just a job) the match and Furman (especially his Beastwars run) the accelerant.

Did I miss something? I thought everyone praised Furman like a god but Regeneration One and BW: Gathering were a bit polarising.

Kurona wrote:Did I miss something? I thought everyone praised Furman like a god but Regeneration One and BW: Gathering were a bit polarising.

ReG1 left quite an ill impression on the fandom.

Randomhero wrote:

fenrir72 wrote:

LE0KING wrote:That was actually a little disappointing. I'm not a G1er, but I'm working on a degree in writing, and seeing a writer look back on a project he spent years on and say that he didn't care about it anymore... that's kinda sad.

For them, it was just a job (one of many franchised lines Marvel was paid to sell)which nobody really like to take and forced on him by Jim Shooter. It's just us fans who are really "fanatics" for the toyline. (Fyi "fanatic" is the root word for fans and no insult intended to eager beavers out here)

Also

"When I got off the book in 1989, it was a dying franchise, the toy line was not selling. Hasbro had pulled back on production. Comic book sales were going down. It just seemed like it fulfilled its lifecycle like a lot of toys." B.Budiansky

Production was rolled back because it was no longer selling. The fans either grew up and now focused on gals or videogames but that risk is still there if Hb doesn't play their cards right.Hopefully they don't go "bananas" and focused too much on BB etc.

Yeah bobs interviews always catch people off guard and put them off because while he did create so much, it was just a job. He did it and moved on. He says it how it was. A lot of people accuse Hasbro of being lazy nowadays and don't appreciate transformers for what it is but people need to understand that this is a franchise and while it does have a 30+ legacy, the goal is to sell toys and make money.

I get that, but could you imagine Roberts or Barber or even Scott looking back at the idw run and saying that it was just a job?
You can tell there's passion in the books they write (with the exception of the forced collaborations) and it makes the books better.

I find it funny how people criticise Budiansky's later work because I actually prefer it to his earlier stuff.

I loved his Mecannibals and Micromasters stories.

Furman gets praise for his work with Nightbeat and Grimlock among others and rightly so but Budiansky did some nice work with characters too.

I loved the interaction between Cloudburst and Landmine. I also liked that he made Skullgrin more than just the typical thug Decepticon.

I always liked his portrayal of Prowl who was not a prick.
He was logical, reasonable and approachable.

And let's not forget his work with Blaster.

Windsweeper wrote:And let's not forget his work with Blaster.

Oh, definitely! His Blaster stuff was awesome!

And one of his finest one-off, standalone stories is "Decepticon Graffiti!" Runabout and Runamuck were so fun in that story.

LE0KING wrote:

Randomhero wrote:

fenrir72 wrote:

LE0KING wrote:That was actually a little disappointing. I'm not a G1er, but I'm working on a degree in writing, and seeing a writer look back on a project he spent years on and say that he didn't care about it anymore... that's kinda sad.

For them, it was just a job (one of many franchised lines Marvel was paid to sell)which nobody really like to take and forced on him by Jim Shooter. It's just us fans who are really "fanatics" for the toyline. (Fyi "fanatic" is the root word for fans and no insult intended to eager beavers out here)

Also

"When I got off the book in 1989, it was a dying franchise, the toy line was not selling. Hasbro had pulled back on production. Comic book sales were going down. It just seemed like it fulfilled its lifecycle like a lot of toys." B.Budiansky

Production was rolled back because it was no longer selling. The fans either grew up and now focused on gals or videogames but that risk is still there if Hb doesn't play their cards right.Hopefully they don't go "bananas" and focused too much on BB etc.

Yeah bobs interviews always catch people off guard and put them off because while he did create so much, it was just a job. He did it and moved on. He says it how it was. A lot of people accuse Hasbro of being lazy nowadays and don't appreciate transformers for what it is but people need to understand that this is a franchise and while it does have a 30+ legacy, the goal is to sell toys and make money.

I get that, but could you imagine Roberts or Barber or even Scott looking back at the idw run and saying that it was just a job?
You can tell there's passion in the books they write (with the exception of the forced collaborations) and it makes the books better.

There are exceptions to every rule, but generally modern Transformers material has a lot of people working on it that have a passion for it. A lot of that is partly because it's been going so long that some of the people working on it actually grew up with it and loved it (Roberts on the comics, Warden on the toyline, etc), so things like Animated and modern IDW and the Generations toyline have a lot of love put into them. But back when it was starting out and it was an extremely cynical toyline, a lot of people working on the fiction weren't really bothered. Again, exceptions to every rule; but just look at most interviews with people who wrote the cartoon - it was just a job and they didn't care much for it.

Sabrblade wrote:

Windsweeper wrote:And let's not forget his work with Blaster.

Oh, definitely! His Blaster stuff was awesome!

And one of his finest one-off, standalone stories is "Decepticon Graffiti!" Runabout and Runamuck were so fun in that story.

Arm chair Monday morning quarterbacking generals aren't fit to carry these people's shoes. Regardless whether they(critics) like their works or not.They have writers block occasionally or want to express a tale differently from a fan's personal taste. Yet it's them who still get paid (Botcon or comic works otherwise) by the majority of the fans while the latter bellyaches .

Sometimes, I feel the critics criticize because it's "Furman" or it's "Budiansky" for the sake of , well taking a jab out of them.

Everyone's suddenly an expert yet here they(the fans) go still buying their (Budiansky/Furman/Shooter's) offspring/products. Really funny is that were it not for the efforts of these people, the so called experts will be just of one of the numerous wandering faceless Joes/Janes who'd be focusing on another fad/genre.

And my gawd, if their products were treated as "just a job back then" imagine if it were full blown passion? Even the voice actors, though it was just one of those jobs, you can see the effort placed into them back in the G1 show era. Amazin'!

Finally read the interview. This particular bit seems new:

AiPT!: Do you remember any of the rejected character names?

Budiansky: Most of the time they were for legal reasons, because they had a legal department that had to check everybody’s trademark. So if they had a competing product with a similar name, they couldn’t use it. The only name that stands out that they rejected, which I thought was a good name for an Autobot – the initial Autobots were mostly cars or some sort of wheeled vehicle, so I was always looking for cool-sounding car-related names. So I came up with Highbeams, which i thought was a pretty cool name for an Autobot. So the product manager at Hasbro – female by the way – pointed out that in Chicago where she came from, “high beams” was slang for certain part of female anatomy. I was pretty innocent and naive back then, so I had no clue. But in any case, I could not use Highbeams because it had a sexual connotation.

Ironic since the name "High Beam" (singular) would eventually get used as a G2 Go-Bot in 1995.

Get rid of the "s" and it becomes safe. The beauty of the english language