Let's have a nice, civil thread discussing the Transformers in all their myriad Sup Forums incarnations. From the Marvel comic to GEEWUN to Armada to IDW and beyond, feel free to discuss it.
Starter topic: What's your favorite new take on an existing character? Do you like any of IDWs new ideas for old characters? Or something from RiD (the toon)? Prime?
As usual don't respond to trolls
G1 jets are my jam.
Anyone else feel IDW TF could have used more minis to expand on other characters, like what happened to the first Ultra Magnus, or Throttlebots since Metroplex incident, or, whatever happened to Wheelie and his whereabouts, and so on?
Also unrelated, but do you guys think some characters aboard the Lost Light would be better off somewhere else or in other books like Hoist, Huffer, Brawn and Inferno?
Maybe it's just me, but I don't think Roberts gonna do more with them than he does Rodimus' clique and occasionally Scavengers.
I really mourn the (mostly) demise of miniseries and spotlights. Those were great ways to expand on side stories and characters. But alas they sold far too poorly for IDW to continue doing them.
>What's your favorite new take on an existing character? Do you like any of IDWs new ideas for old characters?
IDW Sixshot, Deathsaurus and Thundercracker are some my favorites, though the last one seems more like an expansion of his bio than a new take.
Also I thought their take on Ultra Magnus was quite interesting, nice callback to his G1 toy.
However, I hated what they did to Arcee, Star Saber and Hellbat.
Always felt like it'd be better to use OCs for their portrayals
Spotlights need a major come back.
also recently Roberts gave this hint of the upcoming Lost Light issues.
>Miss me?
Overlord? Mutineers? Deathsaurus and friends?
Oh wait, let me guess..Pharma?
Sad there might never be a Starscream spotlight or something like Origins.
Alex Milne?
I like a lot of IDW's writing, especially Rattrap. Though I wish Rhinox was used more than just as a cameo back in Nova Prime's time.
I can't wait to see how King Optimus Primal will turn out, even if that story's at least a year away.
More minis would be nice, but I suppose they have their hands full with the whole expanded universe thing.
I want to see more of IDW Tigatron and Airrazor and please oh god don't kill her off in this timeline
I don't know if I'd want to know Starscream's backstory.
If it was too tragic it'd feel like fangirl bait, but if it was 'he's just kind of evil and always has been' it'd feel flat and boring.
Josh Burcham?
How are they going to call him anyway, Optimal Prime?
He's on Optimus Prime now.
I'm more concerned with what they were going to call Hound or Arcee if they won.
Maybe he was incredibly charming and full of himself prior to meeting Megs, maybe he wasn't entirely evil, but saw some stuff, stuff happens to him. Doesn't have to be either or.
But I agree with you, if it were what you said it'd be bad.
Just Prime
I want to see more of them too.
Primal Prime!
Yeah, no idea how are they going to call Shockwave, Thunderwing and TotallynotDeathsaurus either.
Ultra Magnus, Megatron and Star Saber are easier though. Magnus Prime, Megatronus Prime and err, Gladius Prime I guess?
>Primal Prime!
ApeLinq?
I feel like the spotlights would fair a lot better these days. People seem to really be craving those minor character one shots lately.
I'm not seeing much difference from a few years ago. People were asking for new spotlights then too, and when we got some, they still didn't sell much better.
Oh, that's too bad.
I'd love some more standalone stories.
>TotallynotDeathsaurus
UNKNOWN EVIL PRIME
Love these weird old scourcebook things
Just lately I have noticed that this guy is a real transformer.
I used to have his toy, a KO, but I never realized when child.
Even the KO is expensive now.
I want to see more japanese transformers y occidental media, but not like in IDW where they're nothing more than dicks or cannon fodder.
How much LORE can Barber fit onto one page?
The only guess I can really make is that issues 10 to 12 will be about Pharma.
That doesn't contradicts with the history of Soundwave in earth?
We have no idea what else he did on Earth while investigating Bludgeon.
He was Megatron fanboy in his earliest timeline appearance so far.
It's been noted that he has expansive history of all sorts of criminal activity. The implications lean into him having had so before joining the Decepticons, but it's not confirmed.
While I wouldn't mind knowing more about him and the stuff that affects him that we don't know about already; I sort of like his pre-con history being a mystery.
Ambition is such a big trait of his, focusing on his past feels wrong. That and I can't imagine a satisfying backstory for him.
Doesn't help that Megatron, Soundwave and Shockwave have concrete, expanded and sympathetic histories. Having Starscream be the same would feel repetitive.
>He was Megatron fanboy in his earliest timeline appearance so far.
Where was that?
Megatron Origins.
Fembots, yes or no?
yes
Are you that desperate for the attention?
yeah
>Wyatt-shit
>male character turned female
>called "Drag" strip
POTTERY
Amazingly enough, having a different gender from G1 Drag Strip actually had nothing to do with the name and was due entirely to the toy mold choices available.
Oh good, someone finally made this available.
It's pretty perfect though, isn't it?
It actually isn't, considering TFA Drag Strip was never male to begin with so there's no cross-gender aspect specific to the character.
So...NuCybertronian jets
For once a Cybertronian mode that doesn't suck ass.
>Was a jet made of knives
>Is now a knife made of jet
...
PROGRESS!
Also, he has a faceplate now so he's pretty hellbent in copying Optimus just as he did in the trilogy.
Non-freak Transmutate is QT
>What's your favorite new take on an existing character?
TFA Shockwave being a coldhearted, but still hearted, grey spy was pretty neat
...
>But alas they sold far too poorly for IDW to continue doing them.
Problem is that back then the fandom was different than it is now.
People didn't care for non-season1 cartoon characters like Nightbeat or Sixshot like Furman did. They wanted guys like Trailbreaker and Inferno in Spotlights.
There's also the problem that back then people again didn't really care about individual characters as much they cared about the story and action, so Spotlight being all about characterization were deemed "boooooooring" by the TF fanbase.
Things are different now, the comic fandom is different and if they got GOOD artists and writers people would eat up Spotlights like there's no tomorrow.
Make spotlight be a main series that comes every other month, have it alternate between writers, get good artists like Roche and Milne and Guido and it would sell just as well as the main series.
But this IDW so chances are if spotlight were to be back they'd all be written by Costa & McCarthy and drawn by Livio.
...
>Costa & McCarthy and drawn by Livio.
We could only hope.
...
>there are people who don't want to fuck the boat in this world
There's more than one bootyboatbot to consider.
I remember the hype for spotlights being pretty high.
I remember that too. But apparently anything pre-Roberts is now shit.
>I remember the hype for spotlights being pretty high.
The hype over IDW in the beginning was because it sounded like a dream come true. Simon Furman, the saint of Transformer comic, being given full reign on a main universe book to do whatever he wants and develop the stories how he wants.
But then as time went on, people got more and more buttmad over the slow pace and the art not being like Dreamwave (as in the saturated colours instead of the deep 90s OVA anime shading and designs not being G1 enough) that it turned off pretty much everyone who jumped on the comic bandwagon with DW.
Most oldfags don't really care about story. They want to see their childhood toys looking like toys and doing "good guys shoots badguy" plots for all eternity. They have only gotten more butthurt and more militant in their wishes over the years that I feel like nothing will ever satisfy them anymore.
No I mean people were excited and interested in single character-focused one-shots
What's with the horns?
The IDW books started becoming good once they got a proper ongoing, and not a bunch of random minis where it was impossible to follow the reading order.
Yes, I know that All Hail Megatron was clichéd and fucked up a lot of the things Furman planned, but I have no problems with either of that. The execution was okay, and Furman is way past his prime, his writing is fucking stupid nowadays. He's the Claremont of TF books.
This is wrong
Horned helmets like the vikings
Where is this from?
I'm so glad that FunPub doesn't have a license anymore and all their shit can be swept away.
Farewell TransTech and Shattered Glass, you shall not be missed
I never get TransTech or Wings Universe or what have you, but while I get Shattered Glass, most everything from SG after that April Fools one shot feels disjointed and a little fanwank-y.
Okay, maybe that's not the right word, but it feels like an injoke that went on for too long.
Shattered Glass really had no staying power. There's a reason the Mirror Universe episode of Star Trek was best as a single episode, and every attempt to do it all over again were increasingly crap. Shattered Glass was excactly like that, with the only twist being that the FunPub team chose increasingly cryptic things to homage with their toy decos.
I'm still waiting for my Spotlight Octane.
Revolution #3.
Oh.
I thought there was a newer TF encyclopedia or something.
We are going to start getting that for the whole Hasbro universe in May.
That's insane.
Will the TF segment use exclusively IDW G1?
IDW G1 is what's part of the shared universe, so yes.
si
Holy shit! I remember this cover--I had this issue as a kid!
>Allsparkhasbeentriggered.jpg
>fembots
>combing with other fembots
>not combining with you
Yes.
Glad to see that uploaded. Can't wait for the plot to reach its climax, probably sooner than later...
First might be Circle of Light again. Second...no idea. Third Pharma? Or they make it back to the Lost Light. God damn I still want to aee how the crew reacted when they learn Getaway and by extension the rest of them left them to the DJD.
Saw someone do an analysis that was pretty good. It was tied in with Megatron's complicated relationship with him. So across the continuities Starscream has been at least scientifically curios. In Aligned he actually was a scientist. They surmised instead of being one he was forced to be a soldier in the aerialbots. He got lured in by Meg's original rhetoric and recruited. Then from there they analyzed how at different times Megatron has said that the next generation of Cons will be Starscream's if he only had the strength to take it. A vote of confidence. Then later Megatron saying he dreads the idea of his pretty competent #2 ever obtaining control. Throw in all the abuse and near death Screamer has suffered at his hands and his primary motivation of not letting Cybertron be destroyed again and we could have a pretty good spotlight. I just wanna know the exact moment Starscream decided he had to kill Megatron to save Cybertron and his race.
Actually they could go with new names. It's apparently tradition if you're chosen by the matrix. Orion Pax to Optimus. Hot Rod to Rodimus. Sentinel to Zeta.
Why?
That Transmutate is from neither.
>Sentinel to Zeta
That was never a thing. Even "Sentinel Zeta Prime" simply had different names depending on the continuity. There's never been a Sentinel that changed his name to Zeta.
Starscream's Spotlight issue was Megatron's Spotlight issue. Most Spotlights actually focus on two characters.
>In Aligned he actually was a scientist.
And, you know, in G1 as well.
Ah. I thought all the G1 cons were military bots for some reason.
Has there ever been an explanation as to why Megatron keeps Starscream around? I mean, I know he’s a main character and all that so, you know, he sticks around for the plot, but other than that.
When Megatron came back in RID (The comic) he just kind of drags Starscream around. Why? Starscream had constantly tried to overthrow him, and now that he doesn’t even want to collaborate with Megatron, he just drags him around anyways? I don’t understand the logic. is Megatron using him as a constant example of how not to try to overthrow Him?
In the Ramjet (spotlight? I’m not sure.) Megatron was told Ramjet was conspiring against him and Megatron kills him IMMEDIATLY no hesitation. He shot him, tore him apart. After one instance of Ramjet trying to go up against him
Then we have Starscream. who is doing that pretty much constantly. So why does Megatron keep him around? Even forces him to stick around (on only one or two occasions I can recall. But still. One is enough)
Now, granted, I’m only four Volumes into the IDW collection, and four Volumes into RID. I’ve only seen all of Prime and G1, and none of the animes or Beast anything. So, there are clearly pieces I’ve missed (even though all of those series might not be in the position to help me)
But even in Prime Megatron kills the guy who’s about to kill Starscream and tells him to not make him regret the decision. THEN STARSCREAM CLEARLY DOES BECAUSE THIS FUCKER NEVER LEARNS. and STILL Megatron doesn’t kill him.
This is the explanation Megatron provides in his Spotlight issue, however his narration throughout the issue, in addition to various moments throughout canon, imply that there’s more to it than said explanation.
Here’s some meta that explores what reasons Megatron might possibly have for not just ripping Starscream’s spark out, if you’re interested (I think there’s some spoilers however).
Pretty much every obscure character that's appeared in MTMTE is an improvement on what they were before in my book. Same goes for LSOTW and SOTW. They made me actually care about Impactor and Springer.
They were designed as military bots by the Quints, but Starscream was a scientist sometime after the anti-quint revolution and the great war
I always liked the explanation that Starscream embodies the Decepticon ideal for Megatron; independent, ambitious and determined.
But war called for authority and compliance over free-thinking, and violence was used to self-regulate the cause. So the cause became destructive and so did Starscream.
Megatron's abuse stems from his own projections of frustrations over what has become of his ideals. He rationalises his actions as having an enemy on the inside to keep him alert and to excert control over as a way of grandstanding to the troops.
But the truth is that his inability to kill or rid himself of Starscream is a reflection of his inability to let his old dreams go.
All that said; my favourite explanation has to be pic-related.
>and so did Starscream
Actually Starscream was against torturing autobots and his own troops. Mostly because he saw it as a waste of time, buy he always complied when ordered to do so. His destruction was centered more around what the decepticons should have stood for and what they've become. And that he had to do things he'd rather not to survive. But with his ambition of course he was never just satisfied with surviving which led him into the scheming and the Starscream we know.
>giant robot lesbian
I think we all know why Megatron keeps Starscream around.
Did you read Megatron's spotlight?
There is nothing in that bio or in any stories that even hints at any of romantic preferences of Victorion or Victorion's components.
Confirmed Transformer lesbians:
IDW Lancer
IDW Greenlight
IDW Proxima
Acceleron
Any obscure others I've missed
...
I would honestly like more human sized transformers. Maybe former saboteurs during the Civil war or something. At worst they could also form an exosuit for a human character if for whatever reason the writer thinks a human is necessary. With them combining the franchises it's bound to happen sooner or later.