@ProtectronPrime I absolutely love your post about Arcee. My thoughts exactly

@GWolfv2 Coincidentally I went to watch Blade Runner on the weekend with a buddy who works in branding. She's worked with some big companies (including Hasbro). She was telling me that in the industry right now there's no big brand movies planned for the next 10 years that are new. Everything is a sequel/remake or whatever. This got me to complaining about Transformers and how corporate it is (Hascon instead of Botcon, Endless crossover comics pushing these old toy lines etc...). So us fans have to work extra hard to blurr the lines and believe in 'lore', but inside we all know its toy selling bullshit. She said its the same thing (as the movie thing) its all about risk. Its apparently the shape of the market right now. There's no new people coming in with new ideas, its all about constantly reinventing (or re-selling) the wheel. So Hasbro is using its TF brand to see if it can relaunch a few old things too. Your comment made me think back to the 90's and my beloved G2. It was a flop because it was nothing new so forced Hasbro to make something totally different: Beast Wars. It's just the cold hard truth (IMO) is, Hasbro is not catering to us. There's no point hoping it will. Even if I was to believe in capitalism (which I don't) market forces wouldn't work in our favour because we'll never be the key consumer. Does that make sense? I feel like I've mixed up different points

 

Red and black makes someone an edgelord? Damn, I guess Perceptor is the edgiest MFer around. And Cliffjumper, and Chase, and Blaster, and Inferno, and ... Well, I'll give you Sideswipe.

As for swords, all of the Dinobots, Sideswipe (well, really big knives), Prime Wheeljack, Arcee, WfC Bumblebee and Cliffjumper, multiple Maximals, Chromia, Mirage has that Gundam-ish gunblade ...

Seriously, the idea that Windblade is somehow edgy or an edgelord anywhere other than the crappy CW Machina series is utterly laughable.

 

No, she is being pushed in an attempt to MAKE her popular. The media blitz of Transformers in 84 wasn't because they were already popular. I can't even figure out how someone could make this leap in logic. Movie Bee is an exception to this as his popularity directly resulted in more toys and more prominence. If Jazz had sold more figures than Bee, then we'd be seeing something totally different.

 

Perceptor in AHM was pretty damn edgy.

 

I thought the whole point of Windblade was fan identification, insofar as she's supposed to be the first "fan made" transformer. Ostensibly, out of all the variables provided, she was what the fans picked. Certainly there's no small element of marketing there - getting people to feel like they're part of a brand is a big thing these days, butI don't know if it's shoving it in our face, or attempting to say 'Oh hey, that thing you guys all voted on? Guess what - she's part of all the things we're making going forward because we want to show you that your voting mattered.'

In addition, I've never felt like she was any more of a "Mary Sue" or an "Edgelord" or whatever the term du jour is for "really shitty, shallow, under-characterized, overpowered character". Her appearance in all other things than the Combiner Wars Machinima has usually been either an Ace type in the RiD with some flaws that usually come with the archetype, and/or a naive, charming sort of idealistic character who is rapidly getting the naivete beaten out of her in the IDW books. Her RiD persona isn't really that obnoxious with the only truly goofy thing being her being 'chosen' by whatever and given special powers.... which Transformers is rife with in the form of:

1) G1 Rodimus Prime's Matrix Power Up; 2) Beast Wars Rampage's Indestructible Spark; 3) BM Botanica and/or Optimus Primal's Connection with Nature/the Oracle; 4) Sideways in the Unicron Trilogy's Pan-Dimensional nature; 5) TF:A's Prowl's Processor Over Matter nonsense and so on.

 

The animation design is a big turn off for me, like with TFA and RiD (2017).

 

Reading with comprehension helps. I know it's a lost art, but still worth giving a try.

Even if the result doesn't fit with the narrative you're creating.

Her visual design is. Pretty edgy example of how something fanmade can end.

That Scott and nobody else aside of the failed CW machinima crew ever tried to roll with this design in terms of her characterisation is a godsend because that's about the only way it can be salvaged. Never, ever trying to use the look in the characterisation (aside of maybe explaining the facepaint and why sword).

And now this look with barely any changes is going to be repeated because it's now one of the faces of this franchise.

But it's not really of any higher quality than G1 Arcee's look.

It's just as terrible, but in a different way.


Now, I don't expect this new show to spawn many figures interesting for older fans. This will be probably like the NuRiD in terms of price poinst and engineering, but minus quirky Con designs... So not really anything interesting.

But just in case... I hope this won't be mostly bazilion of BB, OP and WB variants because there's hardly anything to be excited about any of the three.

 

^^So what makes a good design to you non "edgy" and non "fan fiction" then? Because what may be terrible to you is something amazing to others. Tastes are often times subjective so just because something isn't up to our taste doesn't make it objectively terrible.

 

TBH I'm looking at my shelves and the edgiest figure is Generations Skullgrin, not Windblade.

 

Huge difference. Skullgrin is pure 80's METAL.  

 

Anything new or unusual aside from the soft, rounded look that Floro Dery pooped out after simplifying the initial designs to all hell is terrible. Any attempt to come up with new, visual interpretations or give writers and fans springboards to base additional ideas to a 30+ year old toyline is strictly forbidden.

Unless you know, it's like, cool and stuff like a Ninja Robot that's part of an secret ninja clan that secretly rules the Universe. Oh, and everyone in the clan, like, changes into six things. And can totally murder the shit out of the biggest, strongest Autobots. Then swords and stuff are OK.

 

The design of Airachnid I'm okay with (though in execution as a toy when the smaller figure beats the larger six ways to sunday, you gotta ask what the fuck is going on). It's the fact she was a vapid,shallow character who existed only to kill things and let Arcee be angsty over another dead partner all the time that pisses me off. She contributed nothing to the story that couldn't have been done more convincingly with any other available plot elements.

She wasn't made a spider former because damnit those writers were going to have their blackarachnia wannabe while having that honestly kind of stupid pun of a name.

The only redeeming thing about Blackarachnia is the Japanese version. I still giggle when I remember the "harem of men" detail.

You forgot Smolder (though, ironically he actually is pretty damn edgy with wanting revenge on everybody just because), but it is true that the color scheme is probably one of the least "offensive" details about her. It's just that in light of everything else about her being so super unique and special like a bad OC that the color scheme being also something found on super unique and special OCs works against her in that regard, as opposed to maybe something actually less conventional such as green and white or something.

And how many of those are standard, well-known G1 characterizations? Given Windblade was introduced as a G1 character, that's the standard.

And yes, I know I used G2 Prime, but he's one of the most famous sword-using bots in the entire franchise so I had to.

The problem isn't the edgy paint job, it's that she's a combination of the worst aspects of fan characters because she's too unique. And she's being pushed first and foremost as the fan-built bot nigh-constantly to the point people have trouble actually accepting her as part of the universe. Hasbro's trying too hard to force her into everything as opposed to how Drift was just "there" for a few years and then somebody actually did interesting stuff with him that wasn't front and center.

I honestly still call bullshit on the whole poll because

A) we never saw the hard numbers, meaning Hasbro could have said any combination would have won and had just as much evidence to show for it)

and

B) the fans didn't actually design her, all the fans "did" was make up a bunch of guidelines for three designs to be made, and fans DID NOT GET TO PICK THE ACTUAL FINAL DESIGN WHATSOEVER.

You can say the same of Bumblebee and everybody is sick to death of his overexposure.

Plus, I'm convinced the only reason she isn't in a live action film yet is because she might take away screen time from Prime or Bumblebee as well as actually have to die at some point off screen because Paramount really likes doing that.

And Hasbro can't let their little darling die can they?

You forgot Starscream being immortal.

Again, you don't understand the edgy stereotype.

We're talking about the character, not the toy (since two of her four deluxes aren't red-and-black and those happen to both be the more valuable exclusives with better weapons). And according to the dictionary:

Being shoved into every damn franchise since conception certainly qualifies.

 

This isn't going to be Prime Arcee all over again, is it?

 

This is of true, I think I'm just kind of perplexed they're friends since that doesn't make much sense with any Windblade so far. (Maybe IDW Blade'd get along with Bee, but Bee's kinda ghost/other dimensional entity right now)

Takara has made its' own anime: the Energon Trilogy. And the effort put into those shows was minimal on the part of Takara.

 

Yes it did. It should be noted that America was significantly involved in that trilogy. The storyline seemed non-Japanese. The stuff I liked was the combination of Convoys. What I disliked the the endpoints of Micron Legend and Superlink. It could have been better.

 

I am really trying to refrain from commenting, but I can't ... I just need to vent.

This looks like such a narcissistic Hasbro-wank fest that it's not even funny.
Shelf-warmer AND fan-made-jk-we-made-this-character-and-love-shoving-her-down-your-throats
as the main characters in the same series!!???!
Pinch me, I'm dreaming!!

Now the icing on top of all of it would be if the My Little Ponies show up,
so they can jack their top-selling brand for shameless self promotion like
they did with shit, uh, i mean "HAS"con. Gross...

Yeah, it's judging it before I've seen it, blah, blah.
I don't need to watch shit to know it's shit.

Oh and the style. The style. It's like derivative of their own shit.
I don't even know what to call something like that. It's literally like they took
every recent iteration of these two and crammed them in a blender/
decided not to give any shits. People may say Animated or RID2017 or even Prime
were "off" or too "cartoony" but at least they all brought a fairly fresh angle.
Of those 3 I'd say RID2017 was they weakest because it was a fairly obvious visual
blend of Prime and Animated, but it was still original enough for my taste.
This on the other hand just looks sad.

 

The toys and gimmicks themselves weren't bad, it was the quality of the show itself that suffered during the Unicron Trilogy. I like the toys from that period, but I can't really say that I like the shows that much.
It's hard to sit through an episode of those shows sometimes; and I've got better patience than most fans when it comes to new media.

 

Looks more Gabba house to me  
but i see where you're coming from  

 

What attempt?
She is popular.
So is Bee or scream or Arcee, or any other character they've pushed.
Overexposure works. That's the whole problem.

Still can't get over the fact people are claiming robo-Jane Eyre is edgy (facepalm)

 

Funny, our voices were heard very clear when Bayformers 5 flopped. Which is why Bumblebee is an 80's VW Beetle in this upcoming solo film.

And Generations figures (A line that recreates 80's bots) were the only TF focus at Hascon's debut. So miss me with the bullsh*t! You're talking to someone who's been here for 12+ years and knows better.