#moonracer legacy

[flamewar05]

More Moonrod action scenes

He got wounded but he’ll walk it off

[cleverthylacine]

I'm not well versed in Transformers, but who is your favorite Autobot? What's one thing that if Hasbro called you up right now and said they would do whatever you suggested, you tell them?

My favourite Autobot is easy because I don't like most of them very much. I love Decepticons.

It's either Jazz or Ratchet or Rodimus, depending on the phase of the moon and whether my brain is in RavWaves mode or Deadlock mode.

Jazz and Ratchet and Rodimus are all people who probably would have been Decepticons if it weren't for a stroke of fate.

I also love Rosanna, but she's a civilian and she's been in like 3 things, one of which almost everyone hates.

The problems with Autobots:

they tend to use the same colour schemes which makes them hard to tell apart

many of them are boring af

the Decepticon movement was a legitimate revolution against an extremely bigoted and oppressive government, and the Autobots were the liberals who patted them on the hand and said "we can do this the nice way" even though most of them were from social classes that were literally disposable.

some of them are fucking fascists

some of them are just such goodie two shoes rule bound characters you have to laugh (Star Saber in anything other than IDW was probably the robot version of Sheldon Cooper once)

It's really only in TFA that I don't think Optimus Prime is a giant hypocrite. I don't hate him. I think he's an awesome character. I enjoy him a lot! I also write a lot of fic where he gets his aft handed to him, at least verbally.

But I don't really sympathise with him. Because even when he's unfailingly sweet, like in TFP, he's still...a part of the problem, not the solution.

In some series the Decepticons did become horrible and genocidal, which is wrong, of course, but that led in IDW at least to both sides playing atrocity chicken.

In other series the Decepticons are anti-human mostly because we're in their way and we like the Autobots. In the Bumblebee movie they never even wanted to come here, but they had to--it is Prime's fault that their war came to Earth.

If Hasbro was willing to do whatever I said I would ask them to create a series of all the femme characters most people don't know about. And not make them teeny tiny Core Class dolls. (I own a few of them because they're cute, but.)

I would get them to include Ravage now that ES has confirmed her for a femme. (She is ACAB, assigned cat at birth.)

This would also include:

Esmeral, who should really be a leaderclass because her husband is the size of a small planet (from the Victory manga)

General Strika, who is the least feminine female character in all of transformers and a butch goddess of war (from TFA and Beast Machines)

Botanica because she's cool AF

Rosanna and her evil twin Flipsides (Rosanna's in KP but both of them are in... TFA, I thought? For a heartbeat.)

Howlback (done like her twin sister Ravi, with biped-to-quad transformation that does not involve extra limbs hanging off, because both MMC and Xtransbots have done it just fine) from the Cobalt Sentries who never got a show

Lyzack (from Victory -- the twin sister of Leozack who defends the home front and is a teal and pink seeker)

Nautica (from the IDW comics, who is the most adorable of nerds even if she is Ravage's unwanted aemula/kismesis/hatecrush until they make friends)

the Megatronia combiner which includes Megaempress, Trickdiamond, Lunaclub, Flowspade and Moonheart)

Minerva (yes there's a legacy but it's tiny and they made it a walgreens exclusive)

Clobber (from Cyberverse)

Nightbird (G1 not ROTB)

Termagax (Megatron's mom from the IDW 2019 series)

I have nothing against Elita-1, Arcee, Windblade, Chromia, Moonracer and Slipstream but some people can name hundreds of male characters and only those six and not even all of them.

If I was also G-d of the Transformers franchise as a whole, I would revive Kiss Players, cut out all the bad sex jokes and dropped panties of teenagers, rename a few things -- we do not need a base called "the spiral vagina" -- and take the plot we were actually given in between sex jokes, which was very cool, and write it all out as a comic/story/cartoon. They did the plot in the last few episodes of the radio show after kind of leading up to it very slowly between dirty jokes.

Everyone says Kiss Players is the worst thing Transformers ever made. I'm sorry, that's RID 2015, which is a Transformers show for the "Blue Lives Matter" crowd where the entire plot of the show is to find all these low-class Decepticons who are from denigrated castes that escaped from a prison ship and throw them all back in jail. Like seriously fuck you very much.

I will take perverted panty jokes over asskissing the cops any day. Besides some of the stuff that looks so bad and gross looks so bad and gross because it is--you're not supposed to be down with it, you're supposed to guess that a certain person is being groomed looooong before she figures it out. and the main human characters are actually Secretly Lesbians

I'm sorry this is way more info than you asked for but this is my main hyperfixation other than thylacines, fossas, small wild cats that can't eat you, and other cute weird predators.

[arceespinkgun]

Chromia for a character ask?

Character ask game

I've had a lot of fun doing these, but I think I'll have this be the last one!

How I feel about this character

I love Chromia in all continuities I've seen her in. She's so cool and was super deserving of being one of the most prominent women in TF. I love that she's super protective, analytical, and sometimes cold and bitter. Given everything she gets put through, it definitely makes sense!

All the people I ship romantically with this character

I really like Chromlita (Chromia/Elita-1). While it's definitely not a crackship since they of course have been shown to know each other very well, I do know it doesn't have the most basis. I just really think that they deserve an Optimus/Ironhide-like dynamic that gets to have attention, and with the way Elita keeps getting abandoned in so many continuities, I want her to be with somebody loyal and protective who's been close to her for ages. I also do appreciate Chromblade though, mostly because of Cyberverse.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

I actually like Chromia and Ironhide as close friends, if not romantic partners. My favorite friendship is probably Chromia treating Moonracer as something like a younger sister, though.

My unpopular opinion about this character

The Legacy Chromia toy is actually the best design for her!

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I want to know how she met Elita-1 and the other female Autobots, and to see a full story following them. I really do like the entire team from G1.

[pluralsword]

The custom of Windblade’s gamer girlfriend in Shattered Glass who joins her in becoming a Decepticon, Strongarm, is done! Really enjoyed painting her and glad to have her. We seem to have a bunch of one of a kind so far gal customs lmao, others include IDW1 and IDW2 Arcee, pre-reformat Arcee, Shutter, Aileron from Topspin, weaponizer Greenlight, and Sterling.

ID 1 of 4: An SG Strongarm repaint of Warrior Class Strongarm standing on a windowsill diagonally towards the camera with her right arm raised firing her blaster. She is painted in white, orange, and dark-bluish gray, and her face and hands are pink, her frame is bulky, mostly boxy and sloped, with door wings, and has a kabuto-like helm. End ID.

Adorable... we love this pairing and want it in canon again with gamer gal stuff, SG or no.

ID 2 of 4: previously mentioned SG Strongarm custom on a windowsill hugging and sharing a gaze with Titans Return Windblade, who is curvier, taller, and winged, mostly red and black with some blue trim. End ID.

Obligatory Windblade and her friends photo. :3

ID 3 of 4: on a windowsill next to a potted succulent from left to right in action poses with guns and melee weapons bared: BBM Wheeljack in a crouch, BBM Ironhided aiming a rifle, IDW1 Arcee custom (from Legacy Elita) with swords, Cyberverse deluxe Grimlock aiming a gun, SG Strongarm aiming her gun, TR Windblade holding her sword Stormfall and aiming a blue blaster, Siege Sideswipe with a blaster pistol raised towards the sky, Origins Bumblebee with a hand blaster, T30 Chromia with a shield and halberd, Moonracer with a scoped rifle, and Nautica (WFC Chromia custom) with a wrench and blaster. End ID.

And finally, a photo of our Wreckers collection, forgot to put Wheeljack in this XD

Standing on a trans flag and in front of a scifi polityscape backdrop are seventeen toys of characters from transformers fiction with weapons in hand, Kup eating some energon goodies from his box. From left to right: Moonracer, Legacy Bulkhead, Kingdom Tigatron, PotP Ricochet, Wreckers Springer, Minerva (Fans Hobby Athena), S86 Arcee flexing her pistol holding arm, S86 Kup, Kingdom Ultra Magnus, S86 Hot Rod, 3d print Verity Carlo, IDW1 Arcee, Aileron custom (from TR Topspin) Kingdom Cyclonus, Legacy Skywarp, SG Strongarm, and Classics Rodimus.

[thisisbecausepolyvoreclosed]

Main look for Sakai Kaito/Kaito Sakai while in America, in Transformers Prime: Legacy, where he is a transfer student in Memorial High School, having jumped at the chance to do it when his aunt convinced his parents while visiting them in Japan that it'll be the best thing for Kaito and give him the chance to be exposed to new things, his aunt noticing how trapped Kaito felt with everything expected off him while with his parents, who just want the best for their son but in the process, don't notice the effect its all having on him. And despite things at first being pretty boring in America, given his aunt lives in Jasper, a town known for being the most boring part of Nevada, Kaito soon finds excitement in music lessons with the famous musician known as Miko Nakadai and despite starting off pretty badly (at best his parents let him learn classic music, not the type of music Miko teaches), Kaito soon finds himself playing the electric guitar like its second nature and finds himself enjoying being around Miko, whose happy to tell him all kinds of stories of amazing feats, but she's always vague whenever he asks if they true or not. Doing his best in school to continue being in the transfer program, Kaito finds himself having no choice with taking part in the science fair, assuming it'll be just another boring day in school... ...Only to be proven wrong when the science fair soon turns into an attack, one that he finds himself being saved from by a car that turns into a robot named Moonracer, someone Kaito will find himself growing close with over time...

[necile]

Damien got all the way through the prep for a pumpkin pie before disappearing. Atlas finished baking it later, because we're not just gonna throw a perfectly good pie away.

[thelastgherkin]

LEGACY Deluxe Elita-1

I remember when getting one Elita figure was a big deal. Now there's Elita Four!

More like this:

Power of the Primes Voyager Class Elita-1

War for Cybertron Trilogy Deluxe Class Elita-1

BotCon 2009 Elita-1

[silentsoundwaves]

i genuinely enjoyed wfc siege more my second watch bc i’d done my bitching about stuff and then @idkwtftitbh and i talked about how it was a really solid foundation that lacked some stuff more than likely due to time and budgeting so here’s a quick overview of that in five parts

first: the lore

wfc siege is something that, unless you’re a seasoned fan, you probably can’t come into easily. the characters are vaguely explained and the lore is mostly inferred off of other tf knowledge. like, they briefly touch on some elements, like functionism, but nothing else is really explained for the first time viewer?? and it’s not bad if you’re a seasoned viewer but like, there’s not much told to you if you aren’t.

like, for example: what is functionism on a story and functional level? who was alpha trion other than a mentor? why was he so important? what does being a prime mean, especially to new viewers? why did megatron become the Bad Guy when he was fighting for freedom? why did he kill alpha trion?

second: the characters

i genuinely like the characters most of the time. they’re a little flat sometimes and some legacy characters are just. there. for the nostalgia. like, cog gets more speaking lines than sideswipe and that’s just a general complaint but i like cog so it doesn’t matter.

i think ratchet, impactor, and soundblaster were genuinely the most interesting characters. i think elita-1 toed the line between hardened commander and morally upset by the war really well. hell, i even think mirage had a lot of character for having only a handful of speaking lines and i think bumblebee’s new persona was interesting.

the thing that was lacking, which ties into the lore thing, was characters dynamics. wheeljack, ratchet, and bumblebee like, genuinely got the most dynamic relationships with other character by a log shot, though mirage comes a close second if only for his dynamic with impactor.

like! there was a lot of interesting stuff to be explored! starscream and jetfire? hate each other with a passion and like, there’s a vague explanation about it with jetfire thinking he’s arrogant and stuff so it works but there could’ve been that much more flavor to it that would’ve added to the lore (example: starscream hates jetfire bc he’s forged and starscream is not. insert a vindictive exchange about it that would’ve boosted the lore and their relationship)

and jetifre himself was written? sort of wonkily? like i liked his character. i think it was good for a departure. but he wasn’t consistent. and i think a lot of it was that his ruthlessness wasn’t balanced well with the idea of honor they were going with. because an honorable dude doesn’t chop off his subordinates hand bc he’s being a little shit.

also i think that there wasn’t enough space between megatron going “oh hell yeah treaty time” and “let’s reprogram all the autobots” but i genuinely think that’s a runtime problem bc six episodes of twenty minutes each isn’t long.

third: the pacing

okay, so like, you know how the alpha trion protocols were dropped? and the omega guardians were like barely touched upon? i don’t think those are pacing problems. i think they’re run time problems. but the pacing was a little weird at times.

like, the opening scene was a good length, i think. it gave a feel for wheeljack and bumblebee. but a lot of people mentioned line issues and timing things which i think are correct. i can’t say much for this one though bc i’m a big story person. i paid a lot more attention to how the story was told and i do think the run time was genuinely the reason a lot of the pacing was messed up.

like, the most major story beats largely came in the last two eps and things were shuffled around so fast i had to rewind in my first watch and that was definitely a problem with the pacing though.

fourth: the models

i just hate the character models and i think it was because of how smooth some parts were and how clunky others. they moved weird and i didn’t like it. the lip syncing was off sometimes. this is more of a personal complaint. i’m p sure everyone swayed their hips when they walked but elita-1′s character model made it more prevalent on her which is a valid complaint. moonracer was just a straight up chromia recolor. they used the same five models for background characters and it got repetitive.

fifth: the story

okay this fits in with lore but like the story was pretty solid. i think it had a good direction. i think it was good. but i think everything else threw it off and the fact that they couldn’t dwell on some of the more interesting story beats killed it. like, don’t get me wrong. i hated the race thing they had going on. i don’t like that they did that. but most everything else was solid.

to quote becky “the potential was there, but the execution...”

[slyboots-fic]

Ongoing Projects

Tachocracy Anticipated length: roughly 25k? Summary: In the last days of Velocitron’s isolationist policies, Knock Out investigates a string of political murders, nearly causes an international incident, and reckons with his attraction to Moonracer’s bodyguard. Tags/Tropes: KO/BD, political thriller, shiny biopunk dystopia Notes: Originally drafted for Nanowrimo 2019. Some influence from Exiles’s portrayal of the Velocitronian civil war--but not very much. Status: Working on outlining it.

Iddy Iddy Bang Bang fic Anticipated length: God only knows. Summary: On a devastated post-war Cybertron, Breakdown stumbles into the Velocitronian resettlement effort and grapples with the fallen tachocracy’s legacy and his own actions in the war. Tags/Tropes: KO/BD, canon divergence AU, mostly gen, dark, extremely self-indulgent Notes: I got nothin. Status: Outline.

Crash Site follow-ups Anticipated length: roughly 2-6k each? Summary: Holoform shenanigans. Tags/Tropes: KO/BD Status: Brainstorming.

Refugee Clinic fic Anticipated length: 8k? Summary: Ratchet and Knock Out run the only medical clinic on post-war Cybertron. Tags/Tropes: Ratchet-centric, KO/BD, canon divergence AU, dark Status: About half written.

Sparkling!Breakdown fic Anticipated length: 4k Summary: Velocitron is no place for a military-caste sparkling. Tags/Tropes: background KO/BD, fantastic racism, Velocitron worldbuilding Status: Drafting now.

Gestalt Anticipated length: 25k? Summary: After a brutal defeat, the Stunticons cling to life in the Skyquake Pre-Memorial Hospital. Status: Rewriting after substantial plot changes.

Squaddies: Anticipated length: 10k Summary: The Stunticons are not model soldiers. Status: Half done.

[charged-to-be-free]

Optimus Prime’s legacy

“This is the third time he missed his class, Optimus.” Trion said in a concerned tone. “If he’s going to be the next Prime, he has to take this topic seriously.”

“I know this.” The Prime replied, still looking at a datapad. “But he’s still a youngling, Alpha Trion.”

“Youngling or not,  he’s your responsibility. You could at least teach him some proper manners. I can’t believe how arrogant he became over the years.”

Optimus ex vented, putting his servo on his blue healm. “I have no idea where he caught that.”

“I may have some ideas.” The old Archivist walked to his friend and patted him on the shoulder. “I know this is a new situation for you, but Hot Rod needs your guidance. I fear that he might get even more out of control if you will not interfere.” The Prime was silent for a moment, but then he looked at his mentor and nodded.

“You have my word, old friend. Hot Rod will be worthy of becoming my successor. I willl make sure of that.”

------

“Is that all ya got?” Meanwhile, two vehicles were driving on the edges of Hydrax Canyons. Two speedsters, very much different from each other. The red one, and the sea green one. A mech, and a femmie. The red one was slightly smaller than the other. He had fire textures all over it’s hood and on a big yellow spoiler behind; his doorwings were yellow with orange accents. The second had more bulky looking appearance and no spoiler at all; her white accents were reflecting the light of a sun which made the ground beneath her spark. She was more simple.

“No, I was just giving you a chance to keep up!” The sea green femmie chuckled and sped up, leaving the red one behind. Without any more thoughts, the other followed her lead, engine roaring with excitement and determination. Soon, they left a safe area of the canyons and entered more risky teritory. The femmie didn’t took long to notice.

“Hey, Moonracer! Ten shanix that I can cross this path quicker than you?” The red vehicle shouted, closing the distance between the two of them.

“This looks dangerous!” The femmie replied. “We should head back!”

“After I’ll win the bet!” He said, stepping on the gas. Moonracer sweared she heard a big smirk crossing the mech’s faceplates as he drove off. She wasn’t going to quit either.

The road was full of bumps and spikes growing out of the ground. One wrong move, and you’d be stuck for a good while. A perfect place to race!

The red mech sped up, driving right towards the first set of spikes on the road. Before the green femmie could react, he dodged it, leaving a fiery trail behind. The other quickly found a safe spot for crossing and decided to drive around. It would take a while to catch her friend, but at least she wasn’t going to get her frame so recklessly destroyed.

The red mech continued on his way, trying his best to avoid the dangers of his path. Unfortunately, his reflexes couldn’t predict a bump before him, which made him lose his balance. He fell off the road, shouting. He crushed on his T-cog, which forced him to transform back into his robot mode and ultimately offline his optics. The femmie gasped and turned around, transforming as well.

She ran to her friend, picking him from the ground and checking his condition.

“Hot Rod?” She shouted, panicking. “Hot Rod???”

“...Uuuugh...” The mech slowly opened back his optics and saw Moonracer above him. “...Hi, Moony.” He found some strenght to smile at her. Without any warning, she tugged him closer and hugged him tightly, making him hiss.

“You absolute moron!” She yelled, both happy and about to commit a murder. “You could’ve died!”

“Ugh... But I didn’t. Moon, you’re crushing me.” The green femmie released Hot Rod from her grasp.

“Are you hurt?” She asked, switching her expression from releaved to geniuenly concerned again.

“No, I think...” The mech slowly stood up with some help from the Moonracer. When he was on his pedes, he looked down and saw how much he scatched his paintjob. He had several big scratches in at least three very visible parts of his frame. Great...

“Optimus will murder me...” He whispered, reaching to his back. Primus, he hoped that his bow was alright.

“I wouldn’t blame him if he did.” Moonracer crossed her arms, frowning. “I told you that it was a bad idea!”

“Yeah, but you followed me anyway!” The red speedster found his bow and activated it. Besides a few tiny marks, it looked perfectly alright. He ex vented in relief.

“Someone has to drag you all the day down, you know. Why even come here, couldn’t we drive to our usual racing spot?”

“Well, I... You see that big mountain over there?” Hot Rod turned around and pointed at the nearest horrizon. Moonracer followed his digit and saw, indeed, a mountain far ahead. “Optimus used to take me there when I was still developing. I wanted to see if it stayed the same as I remember.”

“I see... But why Hydrax Canions? Aren’t there other ways to get on the top?”

“There are, but me and Optimus already crossed them. A couple of times even. . I wanted to try something else with someone else. Create new memories, ya know?”

Moonracer turned to face his friend and gave him a questioning look. Hot Rod’s expression somewhat softened. He deactivated and hid his bow behind his back, looking a bit ashamed of what he did. It wasn’t supposed to go like that. “Because you’re my amica, Moon. That mountain is a bit of a tradition. When I look at this mountain, I think of the ones closest to me, and... I felt like I should include you too.”

“...Oh. Well.” She paused for a second, looking down. Hot Rod was propably the most reckless bot she has ever met in her entire existence, but at the same time she just couldn’t bring herself to hate him. After all, both of them knew each other more than anyone else. They were practically amicas. After some time Moonracer jumped back up and put her servos on her waist. “But that still doesn’t explain your stupid actions, I hope you know that!”

“Oh yeah, I’m sure Trion will make me remember.” The mech scratched his neck cables, feeling surprisingly nervous.

“Yeah... Let’s head back.” The feemie transformed back into a vehicle. Before she drove off, she said: “Oh, and by the way. You owe me 10 shanix.”

“What?! For what?!”

“For making me worried, dummy. And for winning the race.” Before he had a chance to reply, she stepped on her gas and left Hot Rod behind. Soon, the red mech followed her lead.

He sure hoped that Optimus had some really important business trip planned for another century.

[flamewar05]

Moonrod battle scenes

[asherv20-blog]

Transformers are about to get weird

It’s the morning of New York Toy Fair 2018 and this is a feeling I’ve had all week, the brand is about to take a turn and pivot away from the direction its been heading down since the release of the first live-action movie a little over a decade ago. Earlier today at Hasbro’s Investor Preview, they announced that there would be no follow-up to 2016’s Transformers: The Last Knight and after the Bumblebee movie slated for release later this year, the live-action movie series is going to be rebooted. Although, I wonder if some hooks won’t be sprinkled into the Bumblebee movie to make it a spring-board for whatever comes next.

The dealings of the movie-verse aside, there’re other factors at work causing me to feel the brand is setting up for a significant shift. I wanna talk about the collector-focused toy-line Transformers Generations and its two latest refreshes, Titans Return and Power of the Primes. Titans Return re-introduced Headmasters writ large to the brand and quickly brought that play pattern’s most relevant characters along with it. But once the likes of Chromedome, Weirdwolf, Brainstorm and Fortress Maximus were rolled out; it seemed to me the back-half of the line turned its attention to filling in the gaps in our respective collections. We were offered a buffet line-up of characters that had little to do with the head-swapping gimmick of Titans Return, but were long-overdue for new toy treatment, including: Brawn, Seaspray, Kickback, Gnaw the Sharkticon, the Autobot and Decepticon clones, Top Spin and Twin Twist, Twinferno and the Decepticon Targetmasters to name a few.

Outside of characters introduced in 1984/1985, most of these dudes don’t have a lot of cache with the fan base at large. So its kind of surprising that so many of them would indeed get new, and in many cases very excellent toys – unless you look at it through the lens of Hasbro aiming to ‘clear out’ the roster of original G1 characters who’d yet to receive new toys.

Then we get to Power of the Primes, the ‘end’ of the Prime Wars Trilogy that began with Combiner Wars. Through the first two waves, this toy line has proven quite curious. Headmasters/Titan Masters have been side-graded into Prime Masters and though they share the same form factor as Titan Masters, the Prime Masters turn into a ‘spark’ rather than the head of another Transformers character and while they can be plugged into the head socket of any Titans Return compatible toy, they’re intended to socket into the accompanying slot of ‘armor pieces’ included with deluxe and larger figures and imbue that larger character with the ‘power’ of the corresponding Prime. In effect, you’re socketing a headmaster into a chunk of plastic and sticking that onto another Transformers figure.

Speaking of the larger figures, Power of the Primes is shuffling combiners back into the toyline using the technology first seen in Combiner Wars – to the point that some POTP figures feature tooling directly linked back to older Combiner Wars toys. I suppose it could be observed that Power of the Primes is celebrating the toys that came before by retaining the Titan Master play pattern and bringing back combiners.

I’ll take the opportunity here to tangent briefly and talk about the Power of the Primes leader-class toys which bring their own ‘evolution’ gimmick of a smaller figure integrating with an included larger set-piece to evolve into a different iteration of the character: Orion Pax merges with his truck trailer to become a very Masterpiece-inspired Optimus Prime, Hot Rod likewise links up with his camper trailer and upgrades into Rodimus Prime. The forth-coming fan-voted Optimus Primal will also incorporate his Optimal Optimus form in some fashion – this toy hasn’t seen full release yet, so I can’t speak to the specifics on how he’ll work exactly.

Let’s take a look at the characters we’re getting in Power of the Primes: Dreadwind, Darkwing (now Blackwing), Beachcomber, Windcharger, Tailgate, the Duocon Battletrap (made through combining two brand new Legends-sized characters!), the Terrorcons, Predacons, an honest-to-goodness full team of Dinobots! (Not just Grimlock for the first time in ages!) Even some of the female Autobot Resistance Fighters first seen in the G1 cartoon are getting toys at long last. Again, you look at that line-up and it seems to me that Hasbro is aggressively trying to fill out as much of the G1 cast as they feasibly can.

The last two years has given us a metric ton of toys based on characters from 1987/88 of the G1 lineup, often surpassing my wildest expectations: a new Krok, or Grotusque, or Overlord? Even five years ago, there’s no way I could see these guys getting new toys that weren’t convention exclusive repaints or expensive unlicensed toys – never mind in the main toy line and being (almost) readily available. So, what comes next?

Power of the Primes is still in its infancy, what with Wave 2 only just starting to see retail presence …and as I mentioned at the top, it’s the day of New York Toy Fair. We’re all eager to see what’s in store for the rest of the line. A lot of folks are hoping for the return of the Seacons and for the Dinobots to be retooled into either the Dinoforce or the Pretender Monsters. Some are hoping for more 84/85 characters to get revisited as combiner limbs. Personally, I’m hoping for more female characters to accompany Elita-1 and Moonracer, more Throttlebots, or maybe a Leader-class Deathsaurus. But what about beyond Power of the Primes?

The first natural assumption is that Hasbro just continues apace with updating G1 characters. But we’re talking 1989 and beyond which contains A LOT of Pretenders, Micromasters, and Action Masters; in short, a whole lot of characters that, beyond those of us in the fandom with extremely long gazes, most of the buying audience will surely struggle to muster any passion for. Of course, one could argue that you pepper in more releases of legacy characters like Optimus, Bumblebee, Starscream, Megatron, and Soundwave and anything released alongside them will continue to sell; but I have a hard time seeing that happening.

I keep coming back to the way Hasbro has used the phrase “The Prime Wars Trilogy,” Power of the Primes is the ‘final chapter’ of “The Prime Wars Trilogy.” Seems to me, you don’t bandy about branding like that if you’re intention is to continue doing the exact same thing; not after the ‘final chapter’ of your ‘trilogy.’ Which leads me to believe that the Generations toy-line as we’ve known it since 2010 is going to sunset with Power of the Primes. I don’t think it’ll stop entirely, I feel there’s way too much money in the collector-oriented market now for Hasbro to give up on, but Generations, or whatever branding it takes after Power of the Primes will definitely shift focus.

Whether that’s something as simple as turning back the dial and we’re back updating the G1 cast starting with 1984 all over again, or something completely different, I couldn’t say. Personally, there’s been quite a few new characters introduced over the last decade through movies and tv series that I’m super invested in, but they got really bunk toys and deserve another pass. I’m talking movie Blackout, Prime Knockout and Airachnid, Robots in Disguise Steeljaw. Like. Almost. Every. Robots in Disguise Decepticon… I’d love to see a toy-line focused on giving these newer characters better toys.

More than that, there’s an unspoken truth amidst the fandom and that’s that we’re aging up. There are way, way more folks in here with us that were kids during the Unicron Trilogy, or for the start of the live action movies and that’s their onboarding point – not G1. Their nostalgia is every bit as legitimate as the older segments of the community and its beyond time that ‘their G1’ got some love. Some of those early-to-mid 2000s toys are in desperate need of an update, the Armada toy line especially. But even the original 2001 Robots in Disguise could use some love and I’m not talking car brothers, I’m talking updated Spy Changers!

…and of course, let’s not forget the IDW comics. Now, there was a lot of belly-aching in the community the last time the comics got any kind of acknowledgement in the toy line (circa 2012) – unfounded belly-aching, I’ll add. Of all those toys, only like, half-a-dozen were *actually* based on or influenced by comic designs. Everything else was back-doored into the comics. I’m looking at you Armada Starscream, Scoop, Waspinator, and Sky-byte.

Anyway! IDW! Since the Phase 2 re-launch that started with Robots in Disguise and More Than Meets the Eye, we’ve been treated to a smorgasbord of delightful new characters that now, to many, are every bit as significant as any legacy character and every last one of them is aching for a toy. More Than Meets the Eye and Lost Light author James Roberts has utterly stuffed his cupboard with brand new characters that’ve resonated with his audience like Nautica (the Titans Return toy …really doesn’t count), Rung, Velocity, Pharma, and Roller just to name a very few …and of course I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention fandom darlings, the Decepticon Justice Division. Although, the likelihood of a toy being made of a dude who transforms into an electric chair and sold at retail are a little dubious. But the demand is there.

Just off the top of my head, that’s three new directions the future of the Generations toy line could head down once it moves on from updates of G1 characters, which I feel is all but a certainty as we move forward.

I also wanted to take a moment to shine a light on Japan, where it seems the Transformers brand is in a tremendously strange spot at the moment. Takara’s counterpart to Hasbro’s Generations line, Transformers Legends is coming to an end and has recently come to light that for their follow-up, they’re straight importing the Power of the Primes toys with seemingly no changes. This news has been distressing to fans of the Legends line which had become known for heavily modifying Combiner Wars and Titans Return toys for release in Japan – usually to the tune of alternate/additional applications of paint, to changing the visual look of a toy whole cloth, to the addition of completely brand new Targetmaster partners for their releases of Hot Rod, Kup, Blurr (although only included with Doublecross, who’d released after Blurr), Triggerhappy, Misfire, and Slugslinger; even including Targetmasters with their upcoming releases of Windblade, Top Spin, and Twin Twist – seemingly to future proof for any as-of-yet unmade Sureshot, Crosshairs, and Pointblank.

So it has been a bitter pill to swallow for those that were anticipating Dinobots and Optimus/Rodimus with more paint, or the release of Buster and Hydra in place of Dreadwind and Darkwing. Add to that, Takara seems to be doubling down on both Takaratomy Mall exclusives and Masterpiece repaints, and the quiet abandonment of the Transformers Adventure line, I can only wonder if they’re trying to reduce their costs as much as possible while trying to figure out what to do with Transformers in Japan. I have only the barest grasp on the nuances of that market; mostly just a lot of hearsay that Transformers has always struggled in Japan, or the Legends toys simply weren’t selling, or even that the Japanese collector’s market on the whole is shrinking.

Both at home and abroad, I can’t help but feel Transformers is in a weird place and on the cusp of a major shift. After five Michael Bay helmed movies, we’re due for a reboot; which we’ve learned we’re now getting. The current comics feel like they’re all heading towards their own eventual resolution, what with the long-withheld introduction of Unicron to IDW continuity finally taking place later this year; after which, I’m sure there’ll be a reboot of some stripe. Then there’s the Power of the Primes toy-line which as I oft mentioned already is the final chapter in the Prime Wars trilogy. I could wrong, of course, but stands to reason that something different is going to follow on the heels of the Prime Wars period of the Generations toy line.

Through all that though, I’m not preaching doom and gloom. I’m not saying brace for certain disappointment. Just get ready for Transformers to change a little. Wouldn’t be the first time. Heck, we’re not that far removed from a period in the franchise’s life where it was re-inventing itself every 18 months. We’ve just been treated to an exceptionally long period of the films, tv series, comics, and toys all remaining fairly consistent. But all of these facets of the brand need to be shaken up in order to remain viable in the market and it just so happens that shake up might hit each limb of the brand all at once.

I talked earlier about the aging up of the fandom, I’m in my mid-thirties and finally hit a point in my life where I can no longer indiscriminately purchase every single toy I want as soon as it goes up for pre-order and even as a dedicated reader of the comics since the first IDW mini-series, I’m starting to have some difficulty following all the myriad plot threads. Like, I didn’t even catch the part where the introduction of The Visionaries into IDW continuity shut off the Cybertronians from Vector Sigma and now they’re having to import their Energon from Earth? That’s a thing that happened. I didn’t catch it, but it did.

So maybe its time I finally took a break, and if you’ve read all that and you’re finding yourself worried about what’s coming down the pipe for our favorite Robots in Disguise, maybe we take a break together? The Transformers will endure, they’ll be there for us when we come back and there’ll be something awesome that happened for us to get caught up on!

Also. Hey. Its Toy Fair. At the very least, there’s gonna be some cool new toys to look at today!

[pluralsword]

So it seems we have an official or customized autobot gal for all the specializations in the Transformers TTRPG! Going to make pregens for them at some point, would people want google drive access to them or something?

Image description: In front of a sci-fi polity backdrop, fourteen Autobot gal toys pose with their weapons in at ready or battle stances, or in Moonracer's case, is in a  four legged fan-mode with her armor/combiner hand as her head. From left to right: Legacy Road Rocket, PotP Novastar, CW Pyra Magna behind Nautica (custom from WFC Chromia), Vibes (custom from FoC Sideswipe), WFC Siege Chromia, PotP Elita One crouching with her forward fuselage raised to show PotP Solus Prime in spark form inside, both bots behind Moonracer in her four legged creature form. To the right, is Velocity (custom from TR Blurr) with hands on her hip (one holding a blaster), WFC Lancer, Anode (custom from RID 15 Warrior Class Windblade), TR Windblade, Arcee (custom from Legacy Elita), and MP Road Rage. Their names are listed along with roles and specializations from the TTRPG, as follows:

Road Rocket, Analyst Spec Ops. Novastar, Analyst Manipulator. Pyra Magna, Field Commander Strategist. Nautica, Field Commander Ambassador. Vibes, Gunner Gunslinger. Chromia, Gunner Sharpshooter. Elita One, Modemaster Microlinked with Solus Prime. Moonracer, Modemaster Triple Changer. Velocity, Scientist Medical Officer. Lancer, Scientist Gadgeteer. Anode, Scout Outrider. Windblade, Scout Prowler. Arcee, Warrior Sentinel. Road Rage, Warrior Wrecker. End ID.

[pluralsword]

Image description: In front of a sci-fi polity backdrop on a windowsill, a bunch of transformer toys set up together as if engagin a costume ritual (Earth counterparts including Halloween & cosplaying):

-Moonracer in her cat fan-mode.

-Legacy Road Rocket with her wheel pack turned so the armor flaps are like wings, holding Stormfall, arm around PRID Arcee, holding a unlicensed halberd and shield like Chromia's.

-Smokescreen (sparkless bot mold) with his blue shoulder guns.

-BBM Ratchet & Ironhide with switched heads

-TR Windblade with Road Rocket’s wheel-gun in hand, next to T30 Chromia with 3d print Arcee arm blasters.

-Legacy Override w/ MMC Aero Alpha's Great sword & short sword.

 -custom Aileron w/ Grimlock's crown and the Forge of Solus Prime, her being playfully bitten into by Arcee (MMC Azalea the Avenger) with her swords & Fireglide’s ax mode giving her back wings.

-Greenlight with Springer swords, Lancer with Hot Rod guns.

-Legacy Flamewar with her head on Siege Megatron's body.

-Studio 86 Hot Rod & Wrecker Springer hugging, holding Arcee's big stealth deco sword & sword-mode Dazzlestrike. End image description.

A good day to all, and if you celebrate it, Happy Halloween! There's something that really pleases us about Greenlight and Lancer going as Springer & Hot Rod & those two in turn going as Greenlight and Arcee. More than meets the eye in many senses of the word.

Also realized just now that clearly we should write a transbian Hot Rod/Springer pairing in a fic with Arcee as a friend of theirs they were inspired by. Arguably could pull of something like that in the Autosignet Cycle...

[necile]

Another snake! This is Magnus.

[necile]

This random townie showed up uninvited to the twins' birthday party, and then decided to go into labor in the living room. A+.