When Hasbro, Takara or any 3rd party company hints at a new product, albeit one that is months or even years away from seeing production, and it IMMEDIATELY shows up in a dozen wanted threads. Seriously people, if it's not going to hit stores, either online or brick and mortar for six months, no one really cares how bad you want it and it's stupid in my opinion to go off on how much you are willing to pay or trade for it.
On another note in the bst threads when someone posts that they will only pay $x shipped for a figure, basically wanting free shipping or the figure for next to nothing. Shipping does cost, don't pretend it doesn't. End of rants.


For now.

 

Pet Peeves:

1. It's just a toy for a bunch of little boys. Therefore, I should just accept any ol' pile of crap fiction (comics, movies, TV shows, games, etc.) cuz it has the name "Transformers" slapped on it.

2. Any good TF fiction is just a fluke, and I should never, EVER expect anything else to be good. Ever.

3. There's no such thing as girl Transformers. Get those icky girls out of our boys' franchise! Transformers don't know how to love or care about each other! All they do is fight and kill and transform (heard a fan say that verbatim once).

And um. . . yeah, I think those are the top 3 that come to mind.

 

Anyone who thinks I'm a stupid and blind fanboy because I like the movies.

 

...I don't know who you are, but I like you. ovo

 

Thanks  

 

These are mine too, oh so much. Especially the top one, as this gets given a haughty sanctimonious tone to go along with it. It's gets the "You should be GRATEFUL Hasbro gives you anything at all. Transformers are for little kids, not you!"

 

People with super slutty anime sigs/avatars

 

 

Completely agree with all of those.

 

People who think Ratbat is a Pokèmon. Oh, wait:

 

That's the worst, and I'll never understand that point of view. It's demeaning to kids, for one thing, seeing them as the type of consumer that will eat up anything just cuz it has bright colors and whatever else. They won't. Kids are the harshest critics on the planet. If they see something as lame, despite how bright and flashy and awesome it's trying to be, they'll drop it in an instant. Look no further than the battle for coolness between Transformers and Gobots back in the 80s.

The whole "Grateful thing" also ignores the fact, that there are a lot of family-oriented shows and movies out there, that are enjoyable for both kids and adults. Wreck It Ralph is one of my all-time favorite movies, and it appeals to all ages wonderfully. There is no reason that kids' shows have to be crap.

One attitude, that I've seen tacked onto the "You should be grateful," POV is this notion that, "You should be happy for this pile of crap! It's making money, and that means that Hasbro can put more money into the next thing . . . , which, BTW, you still shouldn't expect to be any good."

*High fives!*

 

 
Well, wilting before Megatron is still better than MELTING before Megatron. Cartoon Starscream is both brave AND stupid. Not my favourite version of the character, I have to say.  

  Heartily agree with the first two! I mean, Transformers IS a toy-commercial fiction. That much is true. But that doesn't mean it can't be better, and that we can't ASK for and expect better.

As you already know, we disagree about #3... but not for the reasons you state. I think that a non-gendered Cybertronian species allows us to reimagine our expectations of an alien species in interesting ways. I don't think we need official "girls and boys"... especially because the girls typically follow a sexist logic and aesthetic. The way that MTMTE has explored this concept recently meets fully with my approval.  

zmog

 

Aww yeah!

We do disagree, but I respect your stance on the issue. You've said in the past that the lack of gender in the TFs would actually prompt some really great, introspective stories that could get the audience thinking about gender roles in human culture. That's good stuff. If I were to go all-in with a non-gendered take on Transformers, I'd definitely explore those kinds of topics.

Unfortunately, what I've often seen over the years and across several different TF forums, is a more juvenile, knee-jerk reaction towards female TFs. It can literally be summed up with, "Eww! Girl cooties!" I've seen some very backwards thinking towards the girls like:

* It's alright if there are female TFs, but they shouldn't look female, because this is an alien species. But it's alright if the male TFs look male. (that last part is always unstated, but it's there)

- I totally get not wanting every female TF to look like a super-model with long legs, slender body, etc. And that's cool. More body types among the ladies would be great. But when I see this attitude expressed, it's usually along the lines of, "Stryka was a great female character, because there was nothing female about her!" And I think that's kinda' messed up (especially considering that Stryka had her spark ripped out of her original body and put into a Vehicon body).

You hear that sentiment for years on end, and you really start to feel like a good chunk of the fandom really does want Transformers to be a boys' only club.

Yeah, from what I've seen, they handled relationships in a non-gendered TF setting with some maturity and class. It could've easily devolved into something trite and ham-fisted, but it sounds like Roberts did right by the idea. I'm definitely interested in picking up the trade.

 

I wholehartley agree with your thoughts on the fembot bashing in the franchise.   I mean the whole bashing against them does make no sense like the reasons you state above like it's fine if male characters look and act like human males but not females because it doesn't make sense? This is a franchise that has a premise as well as content that IS pretty much silly and nonesensical to begin with. If we can get by that then how come females are hard to accept? And what abou franchises like Bionicle that has it's own share of females? People never got on them about it!

And that's one of the reasons why I HATE what furman did in IDW with them because not only it unintentionally insults pretty much women,fans of fembots and transgenders in a nutsheel but doesn't give the chance of the fembots in the TF univserse other then Arcee,Blackarachnia,and Airachnid to REALLY shine in it as well as show them that there is poteintal to mkae awesome female characters as well as males.

 

A female Bionicle looks in theme with other Bionicles and if there wasn't for their voice they could easily pass as male ones.

Transformers fembot don't look like that. They look like super sexualised human females with car parts slapped on them. Most of them don't even look like they can transform at all.

What we need is more Strika and less Prime Arcee. Only then will I accept fembots as something worth having in this franchise.

 

I'm actually talking about the fact that a lot of people in the Binocle franchise never seem to question the need for female characters nor question how they came to be along with the male characters in the first place. And there were female characters in Binocle that did look more fememnie like Gali's Mata form,Roodaka obviously as well as Killina from the Glatorian line.

 

Kiina. But yeah her character sucked though.

 

Animated as a safety net really the largest fail of a cartoon transformers has ever launched and if you disagree why did it die so fast. Also animated toys sold so horribly slow and let us not forget hasbro is in it for the money and it's shareholders and the movies made them mega bucks mega mega bucks. So gues what a new trilogy wheeeeee.