Well, whaddya know. A well-informed, articulate, and entertaining media article on the lamest TF characters ever:

Less Than Meets the Eye: The 12 Most Ridiculous Transformers of All Time | Geekdad from Wired.com

Favorite line (involving Arcee):

My inner TF geek was only slightly annoyed that the writer pointed out the cartoon version of Shockwave for his uselessness--which is nevertheless true, but he neglected to mention that the Marvel Comics version of the character was much more competent, ruthless, cooler and likable than his animated counterpart. That's the version of the character that made me a Shockwave fan: a one-eyed, two-horned, badass flying purple people eater.

 

Most of those are pretty dead-on, though I disagreed about Fire Convoy, simply because that was one heck of a toy.

 

I thought most of those were poorly informed and quickly thrown together.

My eyes were rolling. He does'nt really justify for example why ratbat is on here. only to be juvenille and say rumble (ribfir? rirfib?) ravage and lazerbeak were the only real tapes in soundwaves chest.

clearly he did'nt know about ratbat's great career as a accountant and micromaster tormentor in the marvel comic books. Or that the cartoon itself says ratbat is the deep space and tunnel specialist that surpases lazerbeaks functionality for season 3's less atmospheric campaigns.

 

hahaha oh man this both awesome and so strangely cynical at the same time. I do like waspinator....

 

Pretty funny read, but I think Deszaras is awesome.

 

He probably hasn't read Marvel Comics, and what guy honestly says to his three year old the cartoon they like is lame? Man, why do they get the worst writers for mainstream Transformers articles?

 

Comics don't matter. Everyone watched the cartoon.

Didn't you guys know that?

 

What about Twintwist?

 

I'm pretty much disagree on the entire list, but Heinlad deserves to be there.

 

That was good. Especially the entry for Frenzy. Note to everyone else: not everyone is a big enough geek to have read all the comics. For most people, the cartoon is where it was at. Deal with it.

 

He lost me at the Pat Benetar reference. What, did Toyfare stop buying this type of pagefiller schlock?

 

I honestly can't tell if you're being serious or sarcastic. Even I thought Ratbat was lame in the comics, and he served as nothing more than a purple version of Laserbeak in the cartoon. Oh, and "The Car Wash of Doom" was the most laughable moment--the pinnacle of idiocy in the entire run of the G1 Marvel comics, and the entire history of Transformers for that matter.

And to this day I still laugh at the idea of Ratbat being an accountant. Makes you just want to go right out and buy the toy, doesn't it?

I thought the Wired writer was pretty well on-target in every one of the profiles, but then I enjoy sarcasm and satire if the delivery is entertaining. Excepting what I mentioned previously about Shockwave, I agree with pretty much everything he said. I always had a soft spot for Huffer, but he was also the Autobot's resident whiner. I liked Kup too, but I thought he was kinda lame--especially his intergalactic bumper car alt-mode. Ditto for Cosmos even though I liked the chubby little guy and his Peter Lorre-like voice.

 

Yeah, most of the reasons for the characters were pretty lame (Arcee is a girl, Kup is an old bastard, RatBat because he's a secondary tape) but a select few were actually true and made me feel that Magnus is definately better as a city commander, because his mistakes won't cause faction-wide chaos.

Least it's not as bad as the Worst Alternate Modes of All Time. (Soundwave as #1? How DARE YOU!)

 

Maybe you could explain WHY he's wrong then. Because I'm finding myself agreeing with him. Arcee's shoehorning into the Movie didn't add anything apart from metal boobs. In the same way, Kup just brought the old. Nothing useful, just tedious stories no one wanted to hear. He was like Ironhide without the usefulness or charm.

 

The Arcee argument annoyed me. That kind of argument always does. "Durr, female robots? Dat's dumb  " Is it REALLY that hard for people to suspend disbelief and just accept that space robots that turn into car and trucks might have gender roles?

I did however enjoy his referring to Frenzy as "the one that's not Rumble"

 

Yeah, double standards. But I reckon Elita and every female except Blackarachnia are quite interchangeable.

Also, I haven't read much of Marvel. But at least I'm informed to know Shockwave was once the most powerful Decepticon.

 

I'm just saying what I disagreed with, why do I have to explain it?

 

Because an unexplained opinion is worthless. Anyone can say "I don't like/agree with that." Discussion comes from saying why.

 

Oh yeah, he cleaned Megatron's CLOCK in issue #6. One of my all-time favorite issues. The two Decepticons fight in a small Oregon town at the base of the volcano, flattening houses in the battle. Shockwave knocks a water tower onto Megatron, who is vulnerable due to unhealed injuries sustained battling the Autobots. Then, while Megatron's laying in a football field, dazed and shorting out, Shockwave transforms, rises up in the air, and blasts him at full power, driving Megatron into a crater.