Sol's news update - Noon 04/27/08
What to expect on the show in the coming episodes:
- More Cybertron
- Constructicons
- Lockdown VS Prowl
- Megatron's Master Plan
- What does Megatron want with Cybertron's best Spacebridge Engineer?
The Toys Blurr - An Elite Guard, he's very aerodynamic, sleek head, winged shoulders, huge wheel feet. He's like a Transtech Cheetor homage.
Swindle - Very
G1 in style, he's still a tan jeep with the huge cannon on his arm, and he'll be voiced by Frank Willard
Prowl will be getting a sidecar that turns into samurai armor, it will be sold at the Deluxe pricepoint and will feature in an upcoming episode, probably A Fistful of Energon.
Lockdown Redeco with some really awesome flame paint apps, as well as a new weapon (his chainsaw), Hasbro also said they will fix the problem with the hands if they can.
Scrapper and Mixmaster - both very
G1 alt modes, Scrapper is quite slim with the head we saw before, Mixmaster is shorter and more bulky looking, and has what looks like the mixing barrel in his chest. Tom Kenny and Jeff Bennet will be providing the voices.
Skywarp is a straight up Starscream redeco and "not a part of a clone army" (although said in such a jokey way it was implied he might be).
Shockwave is back, voiced by Corey Burton in the same way as the original. He turns into a tank that is very similar to Armada Megatron's futuristic tank mode, he has the classic one eye head, big arms, slim body. Head is a bit slimmer than the original though. I think you will either love or hate this one!
Wreck Gar confirmed as a Voyager Class, he is so close to the show it is unbelievable, the writers said they would like to bring him back.
Arcee was shown, concepts only, robot mode from show, pencil sketches for the vehicle. Very hi tech looking vehicle mode, two wheels at the back, one at the front triangle car style. It's all a work in progress and will probably change down the road.
The presentation rounded out with
Jetfire and Jetstorm, a Voyager class two pack of jets. Similar robot designs, different head sculpts, one is orange and the other is blue. They were described as a "fire and ice combiner" although it may be that the jets combine not the robots.
DVD releases
Transform and Roll Out is coming in June 08
Season 1, which includes all episodes from "Home is Where the Spark is" to "Megatron Rising Part 2", will be out in August 08.
Transform and Roll Out will probably not have a commentary track, and while nothing has been done for season 1 yet there is still time so something might come up.
The Q&A Session
- Lockdown had the rub symbol to hide his allegiance. No plans to have him outright declare himself a Decepticon full time.
- The episodes are not delivered in widescreen, so the DVD sets will not be in widescreen, unfortunately.
- There are no plans to do any of the other Combaticons later in the show.
- A Fembot will show up who does not have a tragic past in an upcoming episode.
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I asked about Sari's Rocket Trike for you guys - it was a part of the original plan but was dropped, also the intro was planned to be a full minute long originally without cutting up the tunnel sequence.
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I also asked about Leader Class Lugnut -
There are no current plans to do one.
- Swoop and Snarl are
unlikely to speak due to limitations on the voice cast budget.
- No current plans to add anyone to the main core group of five characters - maybe if the show goes on for a long time, though, something will be done to shake things up.
- Other Elite Guard beyond the three we already know about will be seen - Blurr is an Elite, and others will also show up or get mentioned in future episodes.
- Waspinator's absence from the presentation was brought up - "we've got to leave you wanting something" and "he'll sort of show up" were the answers given.
- They jokingly denied that there will be either an army of Starscream clones or a Thundercracker.
- They really, really want to work Octopunch in there, somehow. Possibly with boxing gloves.
- They have talked about doing Animated Robot Heroes, though nothing yet, maybe next year?
- If there is demand, there may be a made for DVD movie episode, the team said they would really love to do one if they had the chance.
- Season 3 will kick off in a big way.
- Sixshot was brought up -
we will not see him in Animated - the reason given was that he is far too hard to design a toy for, Triple Changers they said was about the limit.
- When asked when the show was set, the team answered "about a hundred years from now in the 22nd century, but we want to avoid setting it with an exact date"
- Captain Fanzone was named after Marty Isenberg's neighbor Carmen Fanzone, which apparently caused a huge stir at Cartoon Network because there were only two or three Fanzones in the Detroit area, so waiver forms had to be signed saying he was not based on a real person etc.
- The comic is all set in season 1 to avoid giving away future plotlines, it is all self contained in each issue, the offscreen stories they didn't get to tell.
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TF Animated will go on for as long as it is profitable, it will not stop or change like previous shows. It's fully ongoing (The team says, "so please buy the toys and watch the show")
Episode Screening - Black Friday (Spoilers abound!)
Stop reading here if you do not want to be spoiled about
TF Animated episode 26, Black Friday
- Optimus and
Grimlock centric episode!
- Sari and Bumblebee approach Meltdown about Porter C Powell, asking if there is some way to bring him down somehow. Meltdown doesn't give them much help but Powell videos the conversation, especially Meltdown's offer "I'll take care of him if you spring me"
- Blackarachnia washed up on Dinobot Island after Megatron Rising and was taken in by the Dinobots. She found Meltdown's human Transformer notes and is trying to use them to purge her organics.
- The Dinobots are great in this episode, especially Grimlock who really steals the show. He gets some very funny lines, and beats up on Optimus a lot. All three Dinobots are crazy for Blackarachnia, and beat each other up for her. She's got them wrapped round her little finger.
- Bumblebee and Prowl have a sidestory about Bumblebee's inability to keep quiet for long. Bulkhead, Ratchet and Sari barely show up this episode - and there is no use of the Key at all!
- Submarauder and Bomb Burst make an appearance, Optimus fights Submarauder and Grimlock fights Bomb Burst. Swoop and Snarl show up to save the day in that fight.
- Meltdown's Genetic Modifier, which Prime and Grimlock got off of Powell, is integral to purging half of Blackarachnia, but Meltdown doublecrosses and plans to remove her technological half instead. During the fight, Prime grabs the modifier and Meltdown attacks him, causing Prime to drop the modifier. Meltdown tries to grab it, but it sends energy through him and causes him to melt.
Meltdown dies! Well, not exactly, the puddle that is left at the end is shown with a very sinister face, but for those of you who didn't like him, he won't be quite the same if he shows up again!
Final thoughts - a great episode, Grimlock stole every single scene he was in. Some good Optimus Blackarachnia stuff too. Meltdown really was second fiddle to everything else that was going on. Good episode!
