crazy customizing and creativity questions and discussion

[Dominic]

Hookay...

I have a question of character gender, (growing out of the Samus thread), and othodoxy.

As many of you know, I generally dislike female characters in TF. More propertly, I dislike female TFs. In context, they are robots with no reason for sexual differentiation. Out of context, female characters are most often filler characters who add nothing of value to the mix. I can tolerate them in IDW because they have a good reason to exist that tacitly admits that they are wrong. (Full credit for Furman for that one by the way.) Aside from that, the only female character I like is probably Stryka, because making her a female consort for Obsidian worked in that case.

Now, here is my question. One of my favourite customs is my red RTS Tracks. My general preference with my recolours, (most of which can be seen on my old myspace.com/dominionhub page), is to use names with canonical precedent. (For example, Clampdown for the police Sideswipe. Or, "Spinout" for red Sunstreaker.)

The problem with the red Tracks is that Roadrage is a female character. Now, normally, I would just suck it up and say "yeah, female character". But, RTS Tracks is a character specific mould that looks masculine. It is not ambiguous like the mould used for (male)Mirage, (male) Dragstrip and (female) Fracture. RTS Tracks is pretty male looking.

Here is the problem: I try to keep my customs as consistent with legitimate sources as possible. I have narrowed it down to 3 options and am wondering what people here think is best, or if anybody has a better idea.

-call it "red RTS Tracks": This is quick and easy. I have a "black Ironhide" that is just "black Ironhide. So, no reason not to have "red Tracks". This has official precedent (with a UK released toy. But, I also have a black RTS Tracks, so it feels redundantl.

-call it "Roadrage (female)": This has official precedent. And, it is consistent with my other pre-TF inspired recolours using officially valid names. But, the mould looks very masculine.

-call it "Roadrage (male)": There is official precedent for characters having inconsistent genders between countries, (Starscream, UT Sureshock and one of the Race Team cars), or even in the same country (UT Sureshock again or Japanese Airrazor). So, it would not be completely out of order to say that this is a "male Roadrage" figure. Of coruse, it does feel like a cheat.

Thoughts?


Dom
-no question that Howlback is female, like it or not.

[Onslaught Six]

Isn't Clampdown or Deep Cover female too?

If it makes you feel better to imagine Road Rage as a male, do so. It's not like she has any precedence in fiction; her only appearance is in, what, a club comic where Speedbreaker tries to get into her robopanties? If anything, that should repulse you enough to justify making it male.

[Dominic]

Clampdown and Deepcover are both male, barring a mistake in TFU's translation of their profiles.

I am going for "as close to legitimate" as possible. Roadrage having fictional context, (which I think also includes some Japanese stuff), makes it harder to justify the male option.

It is not about what I like, it is about what has some official legitimacy. (If I had my way, Decepticon Commissar Howlback would be male. But, she ain't, so I ain't gonna argue the point.)


Dom
-but strangely, Glit is male....yeah.

[Gomess]

but strangely, Glit is male....yeah.

You don't do Japan much, do you? =3

Anyway, the answer seems obvious to me. If you can accept (for the purposes of this) the needless existence of "female robots", surely you can accept the existence of transgender robots. Just make Road Rage a male-bodied TF who identifies as a female in her mind. Simples.

[Dominic]

There is legitimate, if inverse, precedent for that in the form of IDW Arcee.

Arcee is supposed to be one fo the first female TFs. She began as male, and was corrupted by an experiment. It far less idiotic in execution than it sounds here.

I do however take issue with that idea being "simple". "Transgender robot" sounds terrible, and it more or less necessitates a fanfic. And, "sounds stupid in theory" is almost always "laughably stupid in practice" when done in a fanfic because it comes across as the fan being uppity.

Generally, I try to use customizing to fill out my collection with legitimate looking toys of characters (or iterations of characters) that are unlikely to be made. I have been superceded by official toys on several occassions. But, generally, if I want a given figure, I have to make it. This scenario is no different. I like *really* like the Tracks mould, and would not mind having other iterations of the character.

But, the cleanest option (red Tracks) is kind of redundant because I also have black RTS Tracks, a colour scheme with no credible alternative.

My inclination is to round out my shelves with additional characters, especially when a custom comes out well enough to be credibly displayed with legitimate toys.

If somebody asks me about a custom, the last thing I (or they) want is for me to give a drawn out "this is a transgendered robot character...no really, there is legitimate precedent for this....and that is why a female character looks male....." That is the kind of thing that *all* fandoms need to avoid. (Trekkies and Transfans fell in to this trap. But, we need to learn from it, not perpetuate the problem.) Similarly, "and that is why I changed the gender in my personal canon" is also pretty bad.



Dom
-figures the heat sensitive sigil and lack of flames point to "red Tracks".....

[BWprowl]

What I mainly find amusing, Dom, is that you're agonizing over identifying a character as female with a 'male-looking' body in the same franchise that gave us Stryka and Sonar. Buck up and just say she's a girl, whoop de doo. If anything this just lets you move past the precedent that all 'female' alien robots somehow have to sport earthen mamillian female features, for some reason.

[Dominic]

Fair point on Stryka, even if she was designed to be more alien.

Sonar was most likely a post hoc decision by Hallit. But, yeah, she is official. (Of course, in context, she is a lab accident, so.....)

But, generally, in TF, girl robots look like human girls/women. And, I want my customs to look as legitimate as possible.


Dom

[Gomess]

Why are you so scared of "transgendered robot"?

I'm serious. If you can say "female robot" with a straight face, why puss out at "transgender"?

"Female robot" and "trans robot" are BOTH stupid phrases, but come on. If you already display your action figures for all to see, and devote time to repainting action figures, I'd expect you to have more balls. Surely you don't care THAT much what other people think.

No ok, ok, I know, there's no "precedent" for overtly transgender TFs referred to as such. Fair enough. But Tracks wasn't exactly the most masculinely-built TF character ever anyway. Tell your friends Road Rage is a girl, they'll buy it.

If you really want her to look like a "traditional female TF", paint a bikini on her and pose her provocatively.

I think we're straying dangerously close to "just follow your heart, Dom!" territory.

[Onslaught Six]

If somebody asks me about a custom, the last thing I (or they) want is for me to give a drawn out "this is a transgendered robot character...no really, there is legitimate precedent for this....and that is why a female character looks male....." That is the kind of thing that *all* fandoms need to avoid. (Trekkies and Transfans fell in to this trap. But, we need to learn from it, not perpetuate the problem.) Similarly, "and that is why I changed the gender in my personal canon" is also pretty bad.

"Who's that?"
"Road Rage. I think she's a girl in Japan."
"Oh."

If they're really inquisitive:

"Why does she look like a dude, then?"
"I don't know. Japan's weird."

[Gomess]

Well, exactly. See, that's how you have balls about your hobby.

But seriously, if ANYONE asks you this:

"Why does she look like a dude, then?"

I will give you a prize.