Transformers Discussion Thread

[Tekania]

So I picked up my first Titans Return figure at TRU today. Triggerhappy to be exact.

He is good, he is damn good. Like I'm not saying that he's perfect or that he's suddenly shot up to being my favorite figure EVERRRR, but he perfectly encapsulates what I think makes a good Transformers figure.

He's got a great robot mode with no extraneous kibble and really good articulation, his transformation is fun and enjoyable, and his alt mode looks nice and doesn't have any obvious robot bits.

He's just an all-around great figure.

Yes, Triggerhappy is handsdown one of the best Deluxe figures in the TR line. Wave 3 Deluxes he was one of the only 2 figures I got in that wave, him and Twinferno (aka Doublecross).

[Tekania]

My first figure purchase of 2017. Badcube Oldtimers Serties, Lorry (aka Hoist)

Robot mode


Comparison with Ocular Max Terraegis (aka Trailbreaker).


Vehicle Mode.

Nice animation style Hoist look to him. Though is transformation is very fiddly and not that enjoyable. If you're looking at easier transformation Ocular Max would be the way to go with this character.

[Hespero-Belkia]

So I picked up my first Titans Return figure at TRU today. Triggerhappy to be exact.

He is good, he is damn good. Like I'm not saying that he's perfect or that he's suddenly shot up to being my favorite figure EVERRRR, but he perfectly encapsulates what I think makes a good Transformers figure.

He's got a great robot mode with no extraneous kibble and really good articulation, his transformation is fun and enjoyable, and his alt mode looks nice and doesn't have any obvious robot bits.

He's just an all-around great figure.

Easily the best Deluxe in years.

Also you're only just now getting your first Titans Return figure? Well, better late than never! Welcome aboard!

I also ordered Legends Ginrai from TFSource today. Can't wait for it to arrive!

[Gandoor]

So I picked up the triple-changer voyager Optimus Prime at Walmart a couple days ago.

It's...alright? Like his robot mode is really nice and his truck mode is decent, but the horrible stickers that are peeling off out of the package and the really meh jet mode sort of sour me on the figure.

[Hespero-Belkia]

So I picked up the triple-changer voyager Optimus Prime at Walmart a couple days ago.

It's...alright? Like his robot mode is really nice and his truck mode is decent, but the horrible stickers that are peeling off out of the package and the really meh jet mode sort of sour me on the figure.

It'll look better when it's Octone- I mean Octane.

[Gandoor]

So I picked up the triple-changer voyager Optimus Prime at Walmart a couple days ago.

It's...alright? Like his robot mode is really nice and his truck mode is decent, but the horrible stickers that are peeling off out of the package and the really meh jet mode sort of sour me on the figure.

It'll look better when it's Octone- I mean Octane.

I never noticed that the shoulder-things look better on the Octane version of the mold than than on Prime.

I keep them folded down on mine. I know that it's supposed to be a Laser Prime update, but the figure's colour scheme and his fake chest window being styled after Star Convoy's chest means that the homage just doesn't work for me.

Also those goddamn head-bulk things are the worstttttt. I don't mind them on the Astrotrain mold, but on figures like Prime where they're supposed to actually make the head look 'bigger' just don't work for me.

Basically, I have my figure looking like this.

[Tekania]

The absolutely gorgeous addition to my masterpiece type collection.... FansToys FT-10 Phoenix, aka Skyfire.

[imghttps://img.gemr.com/small_light(autoorient=y,jpeghint=y,of=jpg,q=30,dw=535)/0c7a0900-9e4c-48e1-bf10-b0f905d47808.jpg[/img]

This figure is absolutely phenomenal.

[Hurdergaryp]

The design for Skyfire, or at least its original toy, used to be an exact copy of a variable fighter design from the classice anime series Macross. Licensed and everything, I believe. Later an effort was made in order to actually create a somewhat original design for said Autobot.

[Tekania]

The design for Skyfire, or at least its original toy, used to be an exact copy of a variable fighter design from the classice anime series Macross. Licensed and everything, I believe. Later an effort was made in order to actually create a somewhat original design for said Autobot.

The specific change was because Hasbro got the license for the Jetfire Toy from Bandai who had recently acquired it through their buyout of Takatoku Toys, which allowed them to use it in the US toyline. It was unusable by Takara though as Bandai was a competitor in their market.... to compound the issue even more, while Hasbro got the toy license from Bandai, who had the toy license from Takatoku acquisition.... they could not get license to use it in cartoons, as the on-screen license was owned by Harmony Gold. Which is why the animation model was done so differently... as Sunbow could not use an animation model for Jetfire for Skyfire as it was owned by a competitor, a new animation model was invented that did not exists with any toy, and the story bible was written to limit the use of the Character.

As such, until recently we never got a Cartoon skyfire toy..... first real one would be thrilling 30 generation JEtfire, who had a alt mode similar to the Valkyrie model and a bot mode reminiscent of the cartoon Skyfire. and some years back Dacatoys Kronos which was a mess of a figure owing to partsforming and bad QC in production.

I can say though, Phoenix is cartoon Skyfire brought to toy form at Masterpiece quality and scale.

[Hurdergaryp]

The design for Skyfire, or at least its original toy, used to be an exact copy of a variable fighter design from the classice anime series Macross. Licensed and everything, I believe. Later an effort was made in order to actually create a somewhat original design for said Autobot.

The specific change was because Hasbro got the license for the Jetfire Toy from Bandai who had recently acquired it through their buyout of Takatoku Toys, which allowed them to use it in the US toyline. It was unusable by Takara though as Bandai was a competitor in their market.... to compound the issue even more, while Hasbro got the toy license from Bandai, who had the toy license from Takatoku acquisition.... they could not get license to use it in cartoons, as the on-screen license was owned by Harmony Gold. Which is why the animation model was done so differently... as Sunbow could not use an animation model for Jetfire for Skyfire as it was owned by a competitor, a new animation model was invented that did not exists with any toy, and the story bible was written to limit the use of the Character.

As such, until recently we never got a Cartoon skyfire toy..... first real one would be thrilling 30 generation JEtfire, who had a alt mode similar to the Valkyrie model and a bot mode reminiscent of the cartoon Skyfire. and some years back Dacatoys Kronos which was a mess of a figure owing to partsforming and bad QC in production.

I can say though, Phoenix is cartoon Skyfire brought to toy form at Masterpiece quality and scale.

Funny how that Skyfire is called Phoenix, given how the original Macross Valkyrie also was used in the BattleTech miniature wargame as the Phoenix Hawk.

[Gandoor]

I can't believe Takara is finally making a new Minerva.

Legit so excite for it.

Don't even care that she's only going to be a headmaster and in a God Ginrai giftset, I don't own God Ginrai yet lmao.

(Shame it's TT Mall exclusive)

[Chinese Regions]

Michael Bay can't resist putting explosions in the middle ages.

[Yes Im Biop]

I just watched the 4th? Movie, the one with the pedo and whatever...and all i can say is Wat. Why is the main character a pedophile.

[Hespero-Belkia]

I just watched the 4th? Movie, the one with the pedo and whatever...and all i can say is Wat. Why is the main character a pedophile.

What are you even talking about? Did we watch the same movie?

[Hurdergaryp]

Michael Bay can't resist putting explosions in the middle ages.

When in doubt, explosions. It's how Michael Bay rolls, and you cannot stop the Bay from turning everything into rapidly expanding balls of fire. Explode ALL the things!

[Yes Im Biop]

I just watched the 4th? Movie, the one with the pedo and whatever...and all i can say is Wat. Why is the main character a pedophile.

What are you even talking about? Did we watch the same movie?

Probably, the maid character is a creep dating a teenager, the dad is exasperated, and the woman is a moron.

[Hespero-Belkia]

What are you even talking about? Did we watch the same movie?

Probably, the maid character is a creep dating a teenager, the dad is exasperated, and the woman is a moron.

That's not the main character....

[Yes Im Biop]

Probably, the maid character is a creep dating a teenager, the dad is exasperated, and the woman is a moron.

That's not the main character....

Is he not? Oh well i was only there to see chicago detonate again,

[Hurdergaryp]

That's not the main character....

Is he not? Oh well i was only there to see chicago detonate again,

Why this unending hate for Chicago?

[Yes Im Biop]

Is he not? Oh well i was only there to see chicago detonate again,

Why this unending hate for Chicago?

Cause New York is to triggered by seeing their building falling around them for movies?

[The first Galactic Republic]

The Last Knight was horrible. As a fan of the other movies, The Last Knight was just terrible. Meh acting, no memorable fight scenes or characters, nonsensical plot, ridiculous dialogue, a lot of cool things that could have been done were ignored, camp and cringey moments out of nowhere, and absolutely horrible editing. It honestly seems like there might have been a better movie in there before the editing happened.

[Chinese Regions]

What are you even talking about? Did we watch the same movie?

Probably, the maid character is a creep dating a teenager, the dad is exasperated, and the woman is a moron.

The dad, Cade Yeager, is the main character...
I'm assuming "a teenager" and "the woman" both refer to Tessa, Cade's daughter.

[Ascoobis]

The Last Knight was horrible. As a fan of the other movies, The Last Knight was just terrible. Meh acting, no memorable fight scenes or characters, nonsensical plot, ridiculous dialogue, a lot of cool things that could have been done were ignored, camp and cringey moments out of nowhere, and absolutely horrible editing. It honestly seems like there might have been a better movie in there before the editing happened.

Yeah, not there best. It left me with more questions then I came in with and almost zero answers.

As you could tell, I'm kinda Decepticon-centric when it comes to what i'm looking forward to in these movies. It felt more like a giant Teaser trailer. It felt like we were gonna get good villains with consistent motives to challenge the heroes for a minute.....and then we switched over to five-year-olds that have nothing to do with the plot trying to do pick up lines, a suspenseless chase with TIE fighters, older relatives ganging up on your love life, Cybertronian Alzheimer's, a history lesson and memorabilia that breaks the continuity of the last four movies, sex jokes, an obnoxious headmaster, and Wreckers playing Volleyball in Cuba instead of helping their comrades. Then we come back to the knight-driven plot and find that more than half of the villain cast(Featuring some prominent Transformers) dead and/or were just cannon fodder and Megatron(Without an explanation for the transfer from Galvatron), for the fourth time, is mysteriously someone else's lackey. I guess Unicron will be next to own him in the next installment. Just as bad, most of the heroes featured aren't even seen for the rest of the movie and pop in and out at random moments(We all pretty much thought Hound was dead for half an hour, right? And where did the Dinobots go?). Seriously? It's almost like we put more thought into the making of these movies than the very Creators(Pun!) do!

I personally think it's better than the fourth, but yet again, they set the bar so low on AoE with the "I can have sex with a minor" scene, that it could only go up from there. However, let me admit, Starscream's head(Fully repaired?) was a welcome sight and Megatron's short interaction with it and the Decepticon "suicide-squad intro" were probably the best parts of the movie, in my opinion. Above all, I was also pumped for Barricade's return. I was hoping we would get a revenge-crazed tactician, bearing scars from his encounter in Chicago, with Bumblebee once again in his Crosshairs{Pun not intended). That maybe their rivalry would get a subplot. How disappointed I was. At least he got a few lines(With the actor that voiced Ironhide, I believe) and his death wasn't confirmed......because he just disappeared in the middle of the action. I guess the writers forgot about him or something.

Here are my thoughts on the series from several emotional posts I made on an RP thread if you wanna know more details on my opinion on the saga.

Visually, they were okay. The CGI was phenomenal(If a little too generic), but they overdid it with the explosions and weird camera angles, and mistakes in visual and audio editing.

Story-wise, its the most inconstant, plothole-ridden, and terrible written cinematic universe that I really know of. They show no love or understanding for the characters. Character development is almost nonexistent to the point everyone is in 2D(Especially the villains). The problems, not matter how earth-shattering(literally in the fifth) are resolved and the 99th age-old conspiracy that the series has been leading up to is solved....again....until the next big conspiracy....

Yeah, what more can be said. They really lost Optimus under the "this SO EPIC let's make him EPIC-ER" that they lost sight of who the character actually is. I mean, if you think about it, what now separates Optimus from Megatron in Prime is now so trigger-happy as the slaughter his opponents without quarter, mercy, chance to surrender, or empathy? It's now become "They stand in my way. Therefore they're bad and deserve to die. I'm the story's good guy and I'm always right and could do anything terrible without consequence and it will be for the greater good. YOU DIE!!!!".

Is there really any difference anymore? Is this the sympathetic Autobot leader we see inside? That finds no joy in the slaughter that Megatron ravishes and only does his duty and is grieved by every death that is caused by his blades. Is it that he has become numb to it all and has been consumed by the war he's been trying to end?

Or is my interpretation of Optimus Prime incorrect?

I'm no Gewunner either. I'm quite open to new ideas if done in a smart way, and as I've said before, my preferred series was Prime. I felt it was the perfect mix of impressive animation, intriguing evolving characters, and an almost series of solid story arcs. Those are concepts I'd love to see come to cinematic universe. Unfortunately, I see that they blow too much of the budget on gunpowder and on how the movie and robot looks rather than on how well-written and consistent to existing canon its story is.(They've changed Bumblebee's and Megatron's forms five times already and they're still pretty much the same characters as when we met them in 2007) And even there they have work arounds(They constantly use the same character models. in TF5 Canopy and Onslaught are almost exact copies of Longhaul, Grindor is a copy of Blackout's model, Nitro Zeus is almost Shockwave, Berserker is Crankcase, Dreadbot is Crowbar, and clones of many Decepticon characters, like Sideways, Brawl, and Longhaul are seen throughout the Battle in Chicago. Let's not mention the two/three varieties of "Deception Drone". Talk about having quantity over quality.....).

But there's hope. TLK was received poorly in the US compared to AoE and got most of its profits from China. Hopefully that kick some sense into Hasbro's head on what to do with Unicron(If anything, he's the victim in this universe. He's the one being attacked without providing any provocation, after all) in TF6.

Yeah, the whole thing just seems slapdash with characters disappearing between films in the series and the constant light-year-wide plot holes and inconsistencies. If they could, they should bring this into the Small screen Marvel-style, just so that they could have the time to explain the plotholes away.

I'd love to continue this talk. Sorry that it's a little lengthy. Good-bye for now!

[The first Galactic Republic]

You know even Megatron's interaction with Starscream's head was kind of a plot hole. Starscream wasn't all that traitorous in this continuity.

[Hurdergaryp]

You know even Megatron's interaction with Starscream's head was kind of a plot hole. Starscream wasn't all that traitorous in this continuity.

PROTIP: fill plotholes with explosions and more explosions.