Should we do a Year in Review thing?

[Shockwave]

Double post due to that wierd ass skipping thing (seriously, can't something be done about that?) Anyway...

Best repaint: Red Alert. But he had some tough competition. Skullgrin, Rapido, Breakdown (Botcon),

Worst repaint: Oil Pan: It's literally ROTF Breakdown but with slightly darker colors. Seriously, they're almost identical.

Best WTF? Botcon Skybyte. Every year, a figure comes out that makes fans go WTF? This year it was Skybyte, being included in a set based on G2, not RID. Although it does kind of make sense since next year is the 10th anniversary of RID IF it leads into next year's set being based on that. With Side Burn slated as the freebie, this seems likely. Anyway, it's a repaint of the Energon Sharkticon mold with a new head and it was really a great interpretation of the character.

Worst WTF? Tuner Skids. You've got millions of Tuner Mudflaps stinking up the toy aisles so what do you do? Release Tuner Skids of course. ???

Best TF fiction (non comics): War For Cybertron. Despite connection errors, lack of host migration and limited color palletes, it really is a fun game with a decent story mode and a lot of versatility in MP mode.

Worst TF Fiction (non comics): Prime. In less than five episodes it turned into Transformers: 28 Cycles Later. Even I don't care if I miss the rest of it.

[Shockwave]

And in summation: All in all it has been a GREAT year for the hobby, we've had a LOT of great toys over the year, great comics and even a decent video game to boot. Prime didn't work out so well, but there's still so much to come in 2011 that I'm really looking forward to it!

[Onslaught Six]

Okay, time to make a new thread about this thing.

[Dominic]

I tend to not count BotCon toys as they are so rare/expensive. But, yeah, there were some good ones this year though.

Best Comic: Ongoing. Much as I liked LSOTW, this is where it's at for me. If for no other reason than I've always wanted to see what could happen with Thundercracker and it was never explored. Now it is. He's been turned into an actually interesting character as opposed to "random seeker grunt number 2".

This has just been a good year for comics all around. TF has topped my pull-list for well over a year now.

Worst Comic: Sector 7. Honestly do I really need to justify THAT response? They couldn't even keep the names consistent in the first issue and it had me actually considering dropping a TF book. Even the Fanfic-I mean Fan club comics didn't manage that.

Yeah, you do. At least "Sector 7" has a high concept beyond the "look, toys from your teen years are back" schtick of G2-redoodoo. "Sector 7" was hurt by sloppy execution. But, at least it had a solid premise. (Still, the execution was really bad.)

Dom
-still amazed by all the hate for PCC.

[BWprowl]

Honorably mention for Rapido. Antonio Banderas as an Autobot? Awesome! And the Tech Spec was completely in Spanish too.

Okay, I've been meaning to hit this for a while: I really do not get what's so great about this 'Rapido uses extraneous Spanish' thing. I like the idea of an Autobot manufactured in a foreign country who has a native tongue other than English, but when it's handled via that annoying 'replace one random word every few sentences with a word from First Year Spanish' method, it just seems stupid and pointless. Saying 'si' instead of 'yes' does not make a character Antonio Banderas. And what the hell is so awesome about a techpec entirely in Spanish? That it cuts those of us who aren't bilingual off from reading about the character?

Sorry Trek, this wasn't really directed at you. Mostly at all the 'BotCon Rapido is Muy Excelante!' stuff I've been seeing since he came out.

[Shockwave]

Well in all fairness I've been the one who's been saying it on here, but no big. I guess the main reason I like Rapido so much is the concept that you mentioned: One of a TF being manufactured in another country with English as a second language. Now, I've actually known people that spoke like that, so it came across as natural and authentic to me so I guess that's what I like about Rapido specifically (add to this the fact that I am part Spanish and can speak a little Spanish and there ya go).

[Gomess]

I think I'm with BWprowl on this one, but it IS a step in the right direction... Someday we might even get a TF series where the factions are defined by their country of manufacture, and negotiating a method of communication might be a mitigating factor in that series' obligatory war!

[Shockwave]

To add to the last post, the Spanish only tech spec is available in English online. And again, I found the dialogue to be just fine since I have actually talked to people that did talk like that. Remember, English is his second language. And this leads nicely into the other thing I was asked about...

Sector 7: At least the Botcon comic (as lacking in concept as it might be) was able to keep all of the names of their characters consistent. I'm having a similar response to Sector 7 as I did with the Armada cartoon: If the editors aren't going to care about editing it, I'm not going to care about watching/reading it.

[BWprowl]

Well in all fairness I've been the one who's been saying it on here, but no big. I guess the main reason I like Rapido so much is the concept that you mentioned: One of a TF being manufactured in another country with English as a second language. Now, I've actually known people that spoke like that, so it came across as natural and authentic to me so I guess that's what I like about Rapido specifically (add to this the fact that I am part Spanish and can speak a little Spanish and there ya go).

Sorry for coming on so strong, it was just really bugging me. I dunno, if it sounds natural to you and you know people who actually talk like that, that's fine. Like I said, I really dig the concept they had going, but since the only other character I'd ever heard talk like that was El Dorado from the SuperFriends, it left me pretty cold. None of my Latino co-workers mix Spanish in like that, generally just using it for more abstract, esoteric concepts, or more often, to swear. Though maybe Rapido's random-easy-word-switch thing is more of a Central American thing than a Mexican thing, I don't know.

In that respect I can see how the Spanish techspec is kinda cute, but I hardly see what makes it *awesome*.

[138 Scourge]

Y'know, Rapidio...if he's Antonio-bot Banderas, that's okay and all. But if they get around to making a Danny Trejo-bot, I will totally be in for that.