IT IS THE YEAR 2005

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TedBelmont
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IT IS THE YEAR 2005

Postby TedBelmont » Sun Feb 02, 2014 9:01 pm



HERE WE GO

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Disposable Ninja
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Re: Them Changeable Robots

Postby Disposable Ninja » Sun Feb 02, 2014 9:24 pm

god damn it

god fucking damn it

i was all set to hate this and then optimus prime rode a giant robot dragon

That said, why the fuck do they keep insisting on giving him a mouth. Not having a mouth was what made him look so badass in the first place.
For the White Witch!

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Blossom
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Re: Them Changeable Robots

Postby Blossom » Sun Feb 02, 2014 9:26 pm

That looks more like a giant robot t-rex.

Which is even better.
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ocksi
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Re: Them Changeable Robots

Postby ocksi » Sun Feb 02, 2014 9:31 pm

It's about time the king showed up in those movies. Does this mean there will also be Constructicons?

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Büge
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Re: Them Changeable Robots

Postby Büge » Sun Feb 02, 2014 11:28 pm

munky > trukk
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TedBelmont
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Re: Them Changeable Robots

Postby TedBelmont » Mon Feb 03, 2014 6:36 am

Ocksi, the Constructicons were in the second movie. Devastator had truck nutz. It was not their greatest moment.

Also, yes, the dragon/t-rex guy is Grimlock. The two-headed dragon/pterodactyl/bird thing is Swoop. The green one with the jacket could be Roadbuster; there were rumors that the Wreckers would be coming back, although the only officially confirmed returning Autobots are Prime and Bumblebee.

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ocksi
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Re: Them Changeable Robots

Postby ocksi » Mon Feb 03, 2014 12:23 pm

I feel like I should have known that, but the second Transformers movie was third time I ever fell asleep in a movie theater(and the only time I've done so sober).

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zaratustra
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Re: Them Changeable Robots

Postby zaratustra » Mon Feb 03, 2014 5:06 pm

Should I watch either the second or the third Transformers? I watched the first and it was ok if kind of a blur both visually and plotwise

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TedBelmont
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Re: Them Changeable Robots

Postby TedBelmont » Mon Feb 03, 2014 8:40 pm

The second one is terrible and damn-near unwatchable. The third is okay, but it does have Leonard Nimoy as an old-ass fire truck, so there's that. I doubt either of them will be required viewing before AoE; the Transformers movies have never been big on overarching plot.

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IGNORE ME
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Re: Them Changeable Robots

Postby IGNORE ME » Mon Feb 03, 2014 9:40 pm

It's funny because the third movie spends like 2/3 of its screentime going "Hey remember this thing that happened in Transformers 2? It's not important anymore."

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Re: Them Changeable Robots

Postby Thad » Mon Feb 03, 2014 11:19 pm

They're all on Rifftrax.

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TedBelmont
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Re: IT IS THE YEAR 2005

Postby TedBelmont » Sat Apr 26, 2014 2:06 pm


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Re: IT IS THE YEAR 2005

Postby Mothra » Sat Apr 26, 2014 2:58 pm

Do not watch Transformers 2.

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Re: IT IS THE YEAR 2005

Postby Thad » Mon Nov 27, 2017 9:55 pm

Ohai Transformers thread!

(There is actually another Transformers thread, because I got confused by the lack of context in this thread's title. Admins, if you are interested in merging the one post in that thread with the 14 posts in this one, that is an option.)

I finally got around to writing a couple blog posts on IDW's Transformers comics, as I've been threatening to do for the past year. Look for them tomorrow morning and Wednesday morning. So far they are just "here's what you should read" lists without much editorializing on why I love the damn things so much, but I figured that was good for now since Comixology is having one of its periodic Transformers sales. (Sneak preview: start with Megatron Origin.)

I expect that I will have much more to say in future posts. Maybe Thursday, or maybe I'll talk about something else on Thursday.

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Re: IT IS THE YEAR 2005

Postby Thad » Sun Mar 25, 2018 1:46 pm

Saw an ad for a Unicron series in the latest issue of Lost Light. My first reaction was to roll my eyes and say "You guys promised us no Quintessons or Unicron." Then I thought, well, it's been twelve years; going that long before bringing in Unicron is pretty disciplined. (And for what it's worth, I'm pretty sure we've only had one Quintesson in that entire period, too.)

Then I saw why: IDW's Transformers is ending.

I mean, I kind of gathered that Lost Light was ending (the last few arcs have focused on winding things down, and in the latest issue it appears that everybody is dead and in the afterlife, and it ends with Rodimus literally calling out God and telling him that they're not done yet), but I didn't realize the entire line was.

Course, as for what that actually means, well, it's kinda buried under a bunch of PR-speak.

Here's what I said in the comments:

The thing is…I’m not sure what the hell any of this actually *means*. I haven’t heard anything about IDW losing the Hasbro licenses, or about GI Joe drawing to a close, though maybe I’m just out of the loop.

Given how much trouble they’ve gone to to establish a Hasbro Shared Universe, I suspect this will end up being some kind of Crisis on Infinite Earths style continuity reset that’ll bring Transformers back to its usual status quo (Optimus Prime’s Autobots fighting Megatron’s Decepticons), and put it in a shared universe with GI Joe from the get-go instead of trying to graft them together ten years on.

Guess we’ll find out.

Regardless of what happens with the Transformers from here on out, James Roberts has written some of the best comics I’ve read in years. If he’s still up for writing more Transformers comics, then I’m still up for reading them. If he’s not, then I hope he gets some work somewhere else; I’ll keep an eye out.

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Re: IT IS THE YEAR 2005

Postby Thad » Sat Apr 21, 2018 11:48 am

I learned a few new things about the coming Transformers finale.

While Barber is writing Unicron #0, the one that's coming out for FCBD, the rest of the series appears to be credited to Roberts (with Milne, who was his artist for most of MTMTE). So I guess I'm picking that up.

They got a good long runway before the end; Roberts says he's finishing Lost Light the way he always intended. Issue #17 just came out, and it doesn't end until #25 (it's going to go biweekly; so is Optimus Prime, but I haven't been reading that).

IDW isn't losing the Transformers license (or any of the other Hasbro licenses). There's going to be a Transformers series after Unicron. But it won't be in the current continuity; it's a reset button, like I figured.

No word on creative teams for the new series yet, but like I said, if Roberts is on one of them then I'm onboard.

Also no word on why everything's getting shut down, but I suspect it's either declining sales, a mandate for a new direction from Hasbro, or both.

It's going to be a real pity to see them hit the Reset button and lose all these versions of these characters -- repentant Megatron (I guess this close to the end it's probably safe to say he's not going to do a heel turn; he really is going to stay a good guy to the very end), uptight, anal retentive Ultra Magnus, scheming Prowl -- we've even seen Starscream grow and change and try to be better.

On the other hand...boy, IDW Phase One was a mess, and while Phase Two did an admirable job of picking up the pieces and reassembling them into something exceptional, this could be a chance to do it right from the beginning.

I sure hope they keep Roberts. Barber's done some fantastic work too, even though I lost interest after he took everybody back to Earth. (I will always love his depiction of Thundercracker, though.) And hey, if Pichelli wants a shot at another series, I'd love to see her tackle one too.

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Re: IT IS THE YEAR 2005

Postby Thad » Sun Aug 05, 2018 1:59 pm

I haven't kept up with the Barber series since...the first or second Galvatron/Earth arc? So there's a lot of stuff going on in the Unicron mini that I'm not quite following.

I like that they're resolving the Liege Maximo storyline by bringing in the cast of Beast Wars (Maximo/Maximals, geddit?) but this late in the game they're glorified cameos. Where Barber, Scott, et al did a great job of integrating Rattrap and, to a lesser extent, Airazor, Tigatron, and Waspinator into the IDW continuity in a way that made them seem like a natural fit, this is just "Hey remember those guys from Beast Wars? Here are some guys that look just like them but are clearly not the same guys. Look, we're even showing Optimus and Megatron fighting side-by-side, a thing that would definitely not happen on Beast Wars."

I'm...not loving Barber's characterization of Starscream. Till All Are One ended with Starscream confessing all his crimes and going to prison; here he makes a couple of allusions to how he became a better person and Windblade learned to trust him, but...none of that is in evidence; he's the same old schemer as before. That doesn't feel right -- but there are still four issues to go; I suspect there's a strong chance this ends with Starscream sacrificing himself. That would certainly conclude his redemption arc from TAAO.

I'm also curious how Lost Light will factor into the end. Lost Light ends with #25, shipping October 17; Unicron #6 ships a week later. I'd be surprised if the Lost Light crew didn't make it back to Cybertron for the very end. Guess we'll see.

Still no word on what happens next, what the plans are for the inevitable reboot. Hope Roberts sticks around.

Maybe I'll catch up with those Barber issues I missed later on down the line. I wasn't loving the Earth arc (except Thundercracker), and "Optimus annexes Earth and then there's a big crossover with GI Joe, ROM, the Micronauts, Captain Action, and the Visionaries" doesn't sound terribly interesting either, but picking up the Shockwave and Liege Maximo storylines piques my interest. And given that this universe is about to be all out of new stories, maybe I'll catch up on some of the old ones.

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Re: IT IS THE YEAR 2005

Postby Thad » Sun Sep 09, 2018 1:09 pm

I'm not surprised that I'm finding the final Lost Light arc to be far more compelling than the Unicron mini.

But I am surprised that Lost Light actually feels bigger.

Unicron is a story where Cybertron battles a god.

But Lost Light has five of them. Six, if you count the planet-sized false god from an evil parallel universe.

(ETA: When I wrote "them" in the previous paragraph, I meant "gods", but I just realized it could also be taken to mean "Cybertrons"...and that would be equally accurate, including the "Six, if you count..." bit. That's how crazy this book is.)

"We're dealing with some next-level revelations here," Rodiums says, in a bit of the winking metanarrative this series has always had. And he's right.

And it's impressive how Roberts (and his collaborators, chiefly Milne) seeded this climax over the course of two series. One of these days I'm going to go back and look for all the hints they dropped. Everything is falling into place.

But more than that, this is and always has been a series about characters. About a weird fucking family and how they've all come together. Rodimus and Megatron and Magnus and Ratchet; yes, of course. But also Cyclonus and Tailgate, Rewind and Chromedome, Swerve, Brainstorm, Whirl, Rung, and all the rest.

I'm gonna miss these guys. I don't know what's going to come next, after the reboot -- but I know whatever versions of these characters we see, it won't be these versions. (In particular, there's no fucking way we'll see a Megatron like this one after the reboot, at least not for a very long time.)

As far as I know, IDW and Hasbro have both stayed mum about what the reboot's going to look like, or what the teams are going to look like. But I'll say it again: if Roberts is still on-board, I'm going wherever he wants to take me.

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Lottel
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Re: IT IS THE YEAR 2005

Postby Lottel » Sun Sep 09, 2018 3:45 pm

I'm going to TFCon at the end of October and am going to meet James and it's going to be a good time AND I'm told he's going to be pretty talkative about ends and what's next.
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Re: IT IS THE YEAR 2005

Postby Thad » Mon Sep 10, 2018 1:02 am

Well that certainly sounds promising. I've been hoping he'd stay onboard for whatever comes next.

If we've gotta go through another damn reboot, I'd certainly like to see one where Roberts and Barber are the ones in charge from the get-go instead of having to pick up somebody else's story already in progress. (I'd love to see Scott involved too, but I got the impression from her commentary at the end of Till All Are One that she wasn't interested in doing any more. And anyway she seems plenty busy with TV projects. But again, if anything has changed and she wants to come back and take another crack, she'd be most welcome.)

I also really liked most of the artists from throughout the IDW run. Milne in particular complemented Roberts really nicely.

There were some particular styles I didn't care for -- anything where the designs looked too busy, like in the live-action movies -- but I feel like that was probably more of a general directive than any one particular artist's idea. (Even Milne did it, and not consistently. I loved the streamlined, cartoonish look he used for most everybody -- and never liked the way his Rodimus looked. Too many lines.)

I wonder what kind of arc we'll get for Megatron this time. Maybe he'll become Galvatron.

Course what I'd really like to see is what happens after the end of Beast Machines, but if that ever happens it's going to be somebody's vanity project (like Regeneration One), not a flagship book.

...oh hey, speaking of outside-the-main-canon projects, that reminds me, what's Scioli up to? I don't know how he could possibly top Transformers vs. GI Joe, but I'd love to see him try.

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