TF Views

"Armada" Wheeljack is not a bad toy. The problem is that the engineering is uninspired, despite being well executed.

I disagree. The design is good, the engineering is horrific. Those knees! Those shoulders! The one nonsensical moving wrist, the flimsy backpack and ugly feet, the static head! There are so many things wrong with that toy. The first Hot Shot was a better piece of work. But the design is fantastic.

I was thinking "obscure" in the sense that "nobody *outside* the fandom, (most people buying toys at most stores), knows or cares about obscure fandom in-jokes".

Uh. They've been plastering obscure references on toys for years. We're only noticing these now because they're LESS obscure. Example - Armada Hoist has "SD [some date]" tampo'd on his arm. This is a reference to something the designers did in San Diego on that date, I forget if we ever found out which.

They plaster seemingly random numbers and letters on the toys because real vehicles also have identification marks. For those in the know, hey, injoke. For those who aren't in the know, it just seems a random designation. Did you have an issue with Hoist before you knew it was a reference? Do you have an issue with it now?

How about the numbers on the Universe Combaticons that reference their names?

Obscure? jAaM is not obscure--at least, not to anyone who was actually 'around' for Armada, which is likely the kind of collector 25th Hot Shot is attracting.

Not to mention how much it was popularised by Ben!

in the summer, we have The Movie again, with its big-budget mainstreamy goodness. You can bet there won't be any jAaM references *there,* since that's the exact opposite of Hasbro's MO there.

I dunno, the Whirl repaint of Evac has Ovelon on his tail assembly - upside down and in numbers, but still.

Why haven't I seen pics of ClaWeirdwolf asking ClaSlaught about this yet?

Well, I heart Weirdwolf because he's D-86, so..subtle reference to me!

I actually have a fair amount of love for Armada Wheeljack (Though I tend to call him "Runpage" for mostly nonsensical reasons). The vehicle mode is solid, and in robot mode he's at least better articulated than most of Armada (though I'll agree that that wrist indeed makes a negative amount of sense). Plus, I dig the concept quite a bit; he's really one-of-a-kind. That he comes with a solid Mini-Con like Wind Sheer only sweetens the deal.

Of course as we all know, I love Smokescreen, so my opinions on Armada toys are pretty much void.

For what it's worth, the number on Hoist was 74. Apparently the designers said it was an 'appropriate' number for the vehicle. Dave van Doleman offered that the number does *kinda* look like tiny ASCII version of the thing.

Here's what my favourite resource ever had to say:

"The "S.D. 74" on the Hasbro version of the Hoist mold is an in-joke, according to Aaron Archer. He has pointedly and repeatedly refused to explain the joke, so its meaning remains a mystery. However, an explanation of sorts was offered at BotCon 2008: the marking evidently originates from an incident at the San Diego Comic Con involving an unfortunate mix of Hasbro employees, alcohol, and a construction crane. Whatever happened, apparently the Petco Park stadium was nearly not built because of it. Yowza. (How the 74 relates to this, exactly, remains uncertain.) "

The "JaAM" references, even as popularized by Yee, are still pretty well isolated to the fandom. My cousing, (the 10 year old who inspired this thread), would not get (and likely not care about) it. It does not even have the basic, primal (no pun intended), appeal that a Monty Python skit would have.

Easter-eggs in ID numbers and such are one thing, but blatant fan-references need to be stay at the cons.


As for Wheeljack..... The wrists are all a matter of perspective. I always saw the articulated wrist as an extra. (See, I can be positive dammit.). My problem with Wheeljack is that the design is just....uninspired. I have seen elements of that Transform on toys from the 80s. (And, unlike TFU Sideswipe, there is not interesting twist to any of it.) It is not good, but it is not great. The faction sigils are a nice touch, and show the "Armada" line's trademark character focus. But, in a line with so many ambitious designs, (Tidal Wave, Thrust, Demolishor), Wheeljack was just....bland.


Dom
-likes Windsheer.

Y'know, for what it's worth, we've already got an obscure, fandom-geared reference built right into one Universe toy so far: Cheetor's color changing eyes. Of course, it doesn't make Cheetor a better toy at all (Oh that it did!), but the point is they've already *gone* there.

Good point.

But, that at least adds some play value to the toy.

Dom
-really not happy about toys going the way of comics.

BWprowl wrote:Y'know, for what it's worth, we've already got an obscure, fandom-geared reference built right into one Universe toy so far: Cheetor's color changing eyes. Of course, it doesn't make Cheetor a better toy at all (Oh that it did!), but the point is they've already *gone* there.

Too bad it didn't help him out any. That toy is balls.

Dominic wrote:-really not happy about toys going the way of comics.

They aren't, though. There's Animated and crap!

You mean..the line in which every character is a homage to an old one?

onslaught86 wrote:You mean..the line in which every character is a homage to an old one?

Lugnut and Bulkhead disagree. Though I guess you *could* call out Bulkhead as a Hound homage, but that's stretching it. Of course, Sentinel Prime is only a reference in name only, though I guess he still counts even if his character-homage isn't from Transformers...

-BW "Am I the only one who's been referring to the Female Starscream Clone as Megajet?" prowl