AEC recolors: Where to store them?

[Dominic]

"Animated" and "Cybertron" Soundwave are visually homages, but they are not even idiomatically the same character.

In "Machine Wars" and "Generation 2", the character bios indicated that it was either the same Soundwave, or idiomatically the same character.

But, G1 Soundwave is a much different character than the "Cybertron" and "Animated" characters. In G1, Soundwave was a communications officer. In "Cybertron", Soundwave was one of the last survivors of the dead planet, and completely off his rocker. Granted, one could argue that the Soundwave of AEC wandered off years before and settled on the planet that would become Planet-X, but that is a bit of a stretch I think.

In "Animated", Soundwave is clearly created on Earth and has completely different motivations than any other version of the character, making this more different from other Soundwaves than even the G1 cartoon and comic Dinobots were.

Dom
-thinks RiD Axer should not have been written as being *exactly* the same character as the G1 Axer.

[Onslaught Six]

Thing is, though, he's still pretty clearly A Soundwave, in the same vein that one might display Animated Prime next to G1 Prime and Ultra Primal and LioConvoy. He's still a clear throwback to G1 Soundwave in all the ways Mutant Soundwave is not--Mutant Soundwave is simply a guy with the same name, while Animated Soundwave is clearly meant to make you go "Hey! That's Soundwave!"

I agree that they're clearly different characters, but the fact that they share design elements is enough to display them together in that manner.

-thinks RiD Axer should not have been written as being *exactly* the same character as the G1 Axer.

Interestingly, somebody--either us or Japan--went ahead and made them the same character.

Then Takara made Sideways into Doubleface and made 'him' a continuity-hopper too.

So now we've got two motorcycle ninjas chasing after each other through TIME ITSELF.

[Dominic]

TFA Soundwave is a homage in the sense that movie Mudflap is an Erector homage or Inferno is a homage to Tote. They are unrelated characters.

Now, Sideways gets a bit more complicated.

In RiD, Sideways was the Autobot counter-point to Axer. In "Armada", Sideways was a completely new and different character. In Japane, "Armada" Sideways was called Doubleface. In "Robot Masters", the Axer mold was recolored as Doubleface. So, the first Sideways still has nothing to do with the second, despite the second's apparent tendency to dimension hop.

[CrossRook]

UNICRON! It's all due to Unicron!

[onslaught86]

TFA Soundwave is a homage in the sense that movie Mudflap is an Erector homage or Inferno is a homage to Tote. They are unrelated characters.

No, that's completely different. Mudflap and Inferno are repainted versions of existing moulds as homages to past characters, while being entirely new characters. Animated Soundwave was designed from scratch to evoke G1 Soundwave - the whole mould is a reinterpretation of the classic design, down to the colours, name, detailing, accessory, concept, the lot. This isn't "Oh hey, yellow crane." Evolution of design is something that has always fascinated me with Transformers, and is often reflected in my displays. Character is irrelevant to design elements and designer intent, since character in this hobby is defined primarily via a paragraph or two on the back of the box.

So, "Soundwaves proper" is easily defined in this context as characters intended to be, or evoke, G1 Soundwaves. I would be far less likely to display Stalker, Machine Wars Soundwave, or Mutant Soundwave with G1, Actionmaster, Soundblaster, Titanium, Cybertron, or Animated Soundwaves as they do not display visual continuity - they're not designed as Soundwave.

This is fundamentally a 'toy' collector vs. 'character' collector definition. I am a toy collector, character is a bonus, usually it's fluff.

JT?

[JediTricks]

o86 is right that Soundwave from TFA is meant to "be" that universe's version of G1 Soundwave, it's not merely an homage, it's more like an elseworlds thing. (FUCK YOU DC!!! Sorry, sorry, couldn't help it. ) You could say TFA Snarl is that as well, to G1 Slag, and Bumblebee is obviously Bumblebee, they're just reimagined for that particular universe and there's a name-usage-rights issue. But RID Scourge is not Armada Nemesis Prime. Character does have *some* play in it, but it is about the toy first and foremost because that's the genesis of it.


Anyway, I display my stuff based largely on what can believably interact with what. Energon and Armada can coexist with TFA for me, but Cybertron works better with RID and Movie stuff. Obviously that's largely based on visual appeal, but it's also about weaponry and transformations and the believability of these characters existing in those characters' universe. Beast era stuff generally fits with my movie and Cybertron lines, it feels like a fair extension. G1 fits with none of that. And where Universe falls is generally where the mold comes from.

[Onslaught Six]

Now, Sideways gets a bit more complicated.

In RiD, Sideways was the Autobot counter-point to Axer. In "Armada", Sideways was a completely new and different character. In Japane, "Armada" Sideways was called Doubleface. In "Robot Masters", the Axer mold was recolored as Doubleface. So, the first Sideways still has nothing to do with the second, despite the second's apparent tendency to dimension hop.

Until Takara specifically said "Oh, yeah, Doubleface? He's that Sideways guy that we technically never got."

[Decepticon Spike]

Spike, when you say "all Soundwaves", do you mean BW, MW and G1 as well?

As I recall, G1 and MW (along with the G2 GoBot) are the same character. But, BW, "Cybertron" and "Animated" are all different characters.

My instinct is to put the movie recolors with "Universe" (which has since taken in "Classics"), but the packaging and some of bios root these toys in with the movie.

Dom
-got Big Daddy at digital-toys.com.

I don't have BW Mutant Soundwave. Never got into the mutants, but, for the purpose of displaying, I had them all on one shelf.
alas, at the moment, most of them are in a box in storage. The only ones I have on display ATM are my Soundwave bust, and TFA Soundwave. oh, and a KO I got a few days ago.

Thing is, though, he's still pretty clearly A Soundwave, in the same vein that one might display Animated Prime next to G1 Prime and Ultra Primal and LioConvoy. He's still a clear throwback to G1 Soundwave in all the ways Mutant Soundwave is not--Mutant Soundwave is simply a guy with the same name, while Animated Soundwave is clearly meant to make you go "Hey! That's Soundwave!"

I agree that they're clearly different characters, but the fact that they share design elements is enough to display them together in that manner.

-thinks RiD Axer should not have been written as being *exactly* the same character as the G1 Axer.

Interestingly, somebody--either us or Japan--went ahead and made them the same character.

Then Takara made Sideways into Doubleface and made 'him' a continuity-hopper too.

So now we've got two motorcycle ninjas chasing after each other through TIME ITSELF.

Exactly. To the average passer by, who grew up on TF in the 80's, they'll see TFA Soundwave and say "hey, I remember him."

BTW, OS, your "TIME ITSELF" line now has The Rocky Horror song "Planet Shamnet Janet" stuck in my head

[Dominic]

In terms of visuals, I can see the link from G1 to "Cybertron" to "Animated", but in terms of character, it does not work. "Animated" does not ever have the parallels that one would see in a correctly written "Elseworlds" story.

In "Animated", Megatron and Starscream are the only ones who are idiomatically the same as their old counter-parts. I suppose Sentinal and Magnus could also go in that category. Prime is too much the drop-out here, in contrast to the heroic persona in other series.

I tend to see "Armada", "Energon" and "Cybertron" as being similar enough to display together. RiD fits well enough on a Beast shelf. (Of course, early Beast era toys do not look consistent with later ones, which is another problem.)

Stuff like the movie and "Animated" though....those are too idiosyncratic to fit with anything but themselves.

Dom

[Decepticon Spike]

In terms of visuals, I can see the link from G1 to "Cybertron" to "Animated", but in terms of character, it does not work. "Animated" does not ever have the parallels that one would see in a correctly written "Elseworlds" story.

In "Animated", Megatron and Starscream are the only ones who are idiomatically the same as their old counter-parts. I suppose Sentinal and Magnus could also go in that category. Prime is too much the drop-out here, in contrast to the heroic persona in other series.

Which is my big (and mostly only)problem with Animated. Why isn't OP the big leader/hero that he is in every other universe?