TF Views

Dominic wrote:The problems with "Combiner Wars" figures are the issues we have been seeing the last few years. Cheaper plastic, less articulation and the like. (How much better would the Aerialbots look with chest/stomach doors to hide the combiner pegs?)

All true. Even if the chest combiner joints had better sculpted detail, or less gapping around them in the torsos.

The Autobot profiles written by Rung do not strike me as being so out of place. (Rung is not as formalized as Soundwave has generally been depicted as.)

His writing is generally smarter and more insightful, and written professionally from the perspective of a psychologist.

On another note, it is interesting that Hasbro's in-house profiles contradict the logic from the comics. (No enigma of combination bullshit to be found in thost profiles.) Besides this being one of the few times that I have preferred package bios to other content, this pretty much confirms that Hasbro did not mandate the use of a stupid McGuffin and back-writing.

The Enigma, and its baggage, are apparently on Barber.

How do you figure?

Almighty Unicron wrote:

JediTricks wrote:Certainly though, this isn't the first ridiculously leggy Transformer lately, but usually it's the movie figures that carry the burden.

She's got legs... and she knows how to use 'em!

Someone took a class a the Energon-line school of design.

One of the problems with books like "Transformers" is that there is an extra level of editorial control. Generally speaking, at the big two, editorial sets the general tone and directioni of the different series. The writers execute the plan. The editors might even determine the premise of a given series. (We usually hear more about controversial examples, like "One More Day". But, the process is essentially the same.) With TF, there is the added level of Hasbro. The more levels of control a book has, the harder it is to determine how to allocate credit or blame. (Reading back-matter and other stuff helps of course.)

My guess with "Combiner Wars" (and the last year or so of IDW "Transformers") is that Hasbro wanted to have more control over which characters showed up. But, they were not too picky about how and why.

In the case of "Combiner Wars", Hasbro probably said that they wanted to push combiners. But, I was skeptical about them specifying how. While it is still not wholly clear where the idea for Offroad and Alpha came from, it is clear that Hasbro is not worried about how IDW explains them.

In the comics, Alpha joined the Aerialbots to replace a dead/dying Slingshot. Similarly, Offroad joined the Stunticons to replaced an AWOL Wildrider. In contrast, the toy packaging specifies that both Slingshot and Wildrider were basically fired from their respective teams.

And, if I recall, no Hasbro packaging mentions the Enigma of Combination (let along the idiotic backstory used for it in the comics). That would imply that more blame for the stupid McGuffin (and related back-writing) falls on Barber, and is thus harder to forgive. (Barber was not just following a work order, he made a choice to pitch lower.)

His writing is generally smarter and more insightful, and written professionally from the perspective of a psychologist.

Rung is not as established a character as Soundwave (only having been around maybe 3 years or so). Nothing in the Aerialbot profiles jumps out as something that "Rung would likely not say".

But, Soundwave is more established, and is generally depicted as being technical and formal. The profiles for Breakdown ("...a real threat if you happen to be a Cybertronian") and Dragstrip (the line about him being fast and fragile) are written in a more casual town than I would associate with Soundwave.

Dominic wrote:In contrast, the toy packaging specifies that both Slingshot and Wildrider were basically fired from their respective teams.

Where does it specify that? Neither of their bios on the toy packaging says anything about them being fired or leaving their teams for any reason. And of their 'replacements', it only calls them the newest members with out saying why they needed new members.

Dom doesn't recall if it was in the profiles or if it was in Final Crisis.

Go read the profiles.

In the second half of Wildrider's profile, it is noted that he is going nuttier from what is basically robo-concussions. And, the idea of replacing him is floated.

The second half of Slingshot's profile notes that his teammates do not much like him because he is an asshole with bad taste in music.


The presence of Offroad on the Stunticons and Alpha on the Aerialbots would indicate that Wildrider and Slingshot were bounced from their respective teams.

As much as I like seeing G1 teams updated faithfully with the same names and characters for new versions of the figures, it's also enjoyable to see new members added to a team. It gives a sense that the fictional history of the team advances and changes over time, whether or not we know what that story is, if you see what I'm saying.

I know a GeeWunner who would vocally disagree with you. ("It is stupid to make Alpha Bravo and Off-Road new characters when they could use Slingshot and Wildrider!" No joke. People use that line of thinking.)

O6 wrote:Dom doesn't recall if it was in the profiles or if it was in Final Crisis.

Assuming it was actually said somewhere to begin with...

Dominic wrote:Go read the profiles.

In the second half of Wildrider's profile, it is noted that he is going nuttier from what is basically robo-concussions. And, the idea of replacing him is floated.

The second half of Slingshot's profile notes that his teammates do not much like him because he is an asshole with bad taste in music.

The presence of Offroad on the Stunticons and Alpha on the Aerialbots would indicate that Wildrider and Slingshot were bounced from their respective teams.

I did read the profiles. No where do they specifically say that either of them were fired from their respective teams. The Arielbot's not being fans of Slingshot's self-promotion and bad taste in music doesn't mean they fired him at all. It seems like all of those profiles list some sort of negative personality quirk like that. Air Raid being young and fearless occasionally getting him into trouble requiring his teammates to come save him or Breakdown's extreme paranoia for examples. And while Wildrider's profile mentions they may cut him loose if his behavior gets worst, that's not the same thing as specifically saying they have fired him from the team.

Dominic wrote:I know a GeeWunner who would vocally disagree with you. ("It is stupid to make Alpha Bravo and Off-Road new characters when they could use Slingshot and Wildrider!" No joke. People use that line of thinking.)

I can understand that. People want to "preserve" the G1 characters and concepts as they are without too much change. They want technological updates to the figures without changing anything else. Sometimes I feel that way, mainly about character names ("Silverstreak" instead of "Bluestreak" continues to annoy me, even though I get trademark issues). But sometimes it's cool to see that G1 universe expanded, and that's where I come down with the new members of the combiner teams. At least at the moment.

Here's the biggest thing: I don't mind the new characters so much when they A) gave us the "replaced" characters anyway, even if they're in a slightly harder-to-get exclusive wave (although from the press release I saw, everywhere from Amazon to BBTS to Entertainment Earth to TRU will have these, and if the case is as large as a regular case, there will be 6 of each per case, so I don't think anyone who wants these will have a problem getting them) and 2) allow us to viably have other moulds down the line--Alpha Bravo gets us at least Blades and probably Vortex, and potentially even Blastoff. (There is talk from people that the mould could make a good Blastoff if stripped of its copter parts and given new legs, which is not out of the realm of possibility when things like the Protectobots and Cyclonus are being done. But until we see it, it's all just talk. I'm personally not a fan of the idea though, and would sooner see another Aerialbot remoulded.)

Here's my question (mostly to JT since I think he's the only one who has them)--for someone who already owns all of Superion and Menasor (or will own, as soon as preorders come in, in my case), is it worth getting either Slingshot or Wildrider in addition to the other team members? I guess everybody else can chime in on whether they're going to get them or not, too.

Of the two, I don't really think Wildrider is all that interesting--he basically just looks like a colour swapped Dead End, who is more visually interesting deco-wise. (The deep red appeals to me more than the grey.) Slingshot appeals to me a little on the idea of having five jets outright (although directly on the flipside, I like the variety of having more unique members! I am torn between my desires to have uniformity and uniqueness!)