Earthrise Map

Discussion in 'Transformers Toy Discussion' started by computron179, Jan 25, 2020.

  1. Phil Bond

    Phil Bond Well-Known Member

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    Somebody is selling just Airwave's box on eBay.
    airwave_box.jpg
    I think I can confidently say it doesn't duplicate anything about any previous piece, even though Wheeljack and the Decepticon clones previously had pieces with this orientation.

    That makes Airwave unique among all the window-boxed standard-sized wave 2 Earthrise releases.
     
  2. Compubotimus

    Compubotimus Well-Known Member

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    is this good enough for Airwave's piece? WIN_20200917_18_51_40_Pro.jpg
     
  3. HeroicC300

    HeroicC300 Chats with Artists

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    No, it has to be an actual scan. But that confirms it goes underneath the Allicon's piece
     
  4. Phil Bond

    Phil Bond Well-Known Member

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    Not good enough for the guy assembling everything digitally, but good enough to document the content. Thank you.

    This confirms my suspicion above, that Airwave has the only unblemished piece among all the wave 2 deluxes, voyagers, and leader.
     
    Last edited: Sep 17, 2020
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  5. Compubotimus

    Compubotimus Well-Known Member

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    i should be able to get a scan tonight or tomorrow if noone else jumps on it. What DPI, etc? You probably went over that earlier in the thread, I know.
     
  6. Phil Bond

    Phil Bond Well-Known Member

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    You’d have to ask @Ikkad
     
  7. HeroicC300

    HeroicC300 Chats with Artists

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    Okay so, it looks like W2 deluxes+snapdragon go this way:
    Arcee and Smokescreen connect, then connect to Snapdragon, while Airwave and the Allicon both connect to each other and Snapdragon
     
  8. Compubotimus

    Compubotimus Well-Known Member

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    Here's the best scan I can do on this system Scan_20200918.jpg
    (without blowing the size limit on a PNG. still, 300 DPI JPEG)
     
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  9. Phil Bond

    Phil Bond Well-Known Member

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    Looks good to me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    It suddenly occurs to me that the un- marked framing sections of the boxes that are supposed to be thrown away might be an invaluable resource to someone who wanted to clean up Hasbro’s mess.

    Still a pretty tough project though.
     
  10. Ikkad

    Ikkad Well-Known Member

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    Thank you so much! 300 pixels per inch is exactly what I've been using for my archive.


    Well I do have a few scans of the full cardboard pieces.. I've been a bit busy though, and that would be a big undertaking.

    Great job on cracking the case btw. The poor packaging designer really borked this one good. I'm glad you puzzled this out because I know I would have been a bit stumped with the new pieces.
     
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  11. Compubotimus

    Compubotimus Well-Known Member

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    @Ikkad and @Phil Bond, I'll be taking full-backdrop scans moving forward for the stuff I haven't opened yet, currently that includes:
    Skywarp & Thundercracker (wtf with this one, I hope we don't end up with a gap because of it)
    Megatron
    Astro Squad
    Race Track Patrol
    an extra Iron Works
    Let me know if you're interested in any of those scans.

    Still haven't received:
    Quintesson Judge
    Arcee
    Fasttrack
    Ratchet&Lifeline
    Ironhide&Prowl
    Alicon
    Runamuck

    Still haven't found at MSRP or better:
    Slitherfang, Sunstreaker, Trailbreaker, Smokescreen, etc & TBAs, although apparently I can order slitherfang through target.com _if_ I spend another $30.
     
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  12. Phil Bond

    Phil Bond Well-Known Member

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    @Compubotimus At this point, I’m wishing I’d scanned everything before cutting it, especially the boxed figures, but I don’t have a scanner. I haven’t done such a serious Photoshop project since about 1998, but it seems fun and doable.

    I haven’t cut my Arcee or Allicon pieces yet. I haven’t decided what to do with them.
     
  13. HeroicC300

    HeroicC300 Chats with Artists

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    I'm waiting to see someone try to connect all the W2 pieces in spite of the errors
     
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  14. Compubotimus

    Compubotimus Well-Known Member

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    Hm, I'll see about picking up the wave 1 and 2 battlemasters again (can never have too many weapons or blast effects, right?) and maybe the wave 1 micromasters; unfortunately everything I had cut out before this weekend, I threw the rest of the backdrop away, and usually the box with it. I'm not willing to rebuy the Wave 1 Voyagers/Leaders/Deluxes just for this. Other than that, I'll post what I get for any who want them.

    Speaking of... here's Skywarp & Thundercracker, and Megatron
    Scan_20200919.jpg Scan_20200919 (2).jpg

    Whoops, the micromasters and battlemasters don't have full scenes, just the rhombus.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 26, 2020
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  15. HeroicC300

    HeroicC300 Chats with Artists

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    big thanks since now I can print Megs and Prime to fix my own issue of missing Prime and not wanting Megatron
     
  16. ZacWilliam

    ZacWilliam Well-Known Member

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    Edit: Updated the route bellow from the clear scan of Earthrise Megatron's map piece above. (Thanks for doing that.)

    Changes:
    The planet suspected of being Cybertron is confirmed to be Cybertron. The Nemesis' path is shown to originate from Cybertron. The Ark doesn't seem to from this chunk of the planet at least...


    Updated Map Route Post:

    Hasbro has managed to squeeze a surprising amount of story into the Earthrise toyline via promotional art, package art, the Galactic Odyssey subline and the included Galaxy map pieces.

    Though it is still incomplete (and riddled with some obvious printing errors that are thankfully so obvious as to be easily spot-able and easily ignored) the Galaxy map shows the journey that happens in Earthrise. With the amount of toys out now we can finally track the paths of most of the ships on the Galaxy Map on most of their journey to Earth, and use the packaging art and other images to flesh out that journey somewhat.

    After taking a close look at the map pieces I have (everyone out now except Arcee, Smokescreen and Airwave) this is the journey as the current map shows it:


    The Journey Step 1: The Quintessons Move First -
    The Quintesson ship flies from Quintessa to Chaar. It does not leave Chaar again on any pieces so far. But something else does...


    The Journey Step 2: Enter the Mercenaries -
    The Fool's Fortune seems to start near or at Chaar, as far as I can tell with the piece missing above that world, and then its course loops up and around to Gigantion in the map's upper right corner and loops back left off the current map.

    What's the Fool's Fortune? There are four ships listed on the Galactic Map key (on Scorponok's map piece), each seeming to correspond to one of the factions in the toyline: The Ark (Autobot Ship), The Nemesis (Decepticon Ship), The Quintesson (duh), and last the Fools Fortune. The general consensus is The Fool's Fortune is the Mercenary faction ship for a whole bunch of reasons. There's the name, wich is very Mercenary appropriate of course. Also, all the other ships match up to an Earthrise faction leaving Mercenary to pair with this this one. We see in the Decepticon Earthrise Poster that Doubledealer is siting in the Captain's chair of a ship with the Mercenary symbol displayed on one of the screens before him. He appears to have just rescued Megatron, Starscream and Soundwave from floating in space like a bunch of other robots visible through the windows. (Perhaps from the Space Bridge accident at the end of the Seige Cartoon?) Also supporting this, Snapdragon, who was like Doubledealer, originally revealed by Hasbro as a Mercenary, is also pictured on the bridge of this same ship in his own package art (the only other retail Earthrise Con with his picture in that setting). We can say with a decent amount of confidence that the ship in those pieces of art is probably the Fools Fortune and it is the Mercenary ship.

    I would also like to point out here that Mercenaries fight and work for pay. Which means someone needs to hire them. If the Quintessons go to Chaar and then the Fool's Fortune sets off from Chaar it seems pretty likely to me that the Quintessons hired the Fools fortune, probably to track down the Bots and Cons (or Maybe to track them to the Allspark). It's extremely in-character for the Quints and echoes what they do in Five Faces of Darkness. (Interestingly Doubledealer's package art is not snipped from the Poster of the bridge of his ship as Megatron and Starscream's are. Instead it is him on Quintessa. Perhaps a solid hint as to his employer.)


    The Journey Step 3: Enter The Ark -
    The Ark first appears from a place currently off the released map. It does not depart from the upper half of Cybertron (which is Visible on Megatron's piece near the center of the map), but might originate from the lower half of the planet that is not revealed yet. Where ever it begins its flight, the Ark comes looping up from that general direction. The Fools Fortune comes looping down from Gigantion in the upper right and they come together and move to the right to the planet Chaar, they both arrive at Chaar, and then they leave Chaar towards the upper left corner of the map.

    If I were to speculate I would guess this was the Mercenaries either meeting and tricking the Autobots or flat out chasing them right into whatever trap the Quintessons have planed (where they are still hanging out) on Chaar. If that is the case the Ark definitely escapes and books it the other way. The Fools Fortune either goes with them or, probably more likely, chases them as they make their escape.

    *Also this whole leg of the journey seems like the closest the Ark gets to Paradron so is probably the most logical place for Ratchet's Galactic Odyssey side mission #1 to happen.


    The Journey Step 4: A Strange Object by a Stranger Door -
    Map pieces are missing again but it looks like the Fools Fortune and Ark fly parallel paths (either together or one following the other) past what I guessed earlier was Cybertron (perhaps this might be where the Fortune discover's Megatron and Co marooned in space by the Seige Space Bridge accident?) They come back onto the map flyig down by the Ringed version of Caminus and then loop up past the weird broken spaceship/station thing above Quintessa.

    I want to take a moment to talk about this thing. It's weird. It shows up in two, possibly three places. On the Galactic Odyssey map it appears just above Quintessa. At first I thought maybe it looked like a ruined Quintesson ship. But a closer looks says no, that's not it at all. Given the size, and the broken ring at the top it seems to be a space station of some sort, although it also seems to be an old, falling apart one and right on the edge of the first Dead Universe portal, Disney's Black Hole style. The Portal seems to be reaching out energy tendrils to the ruined station. It's kinda creepy really.

    The second place this mystery station appears is on Sky Lynk's package. It is in the background as he fights the Coneheads in space. Not much to say here other than it obviously positions this as a sight of conflict between factions. (Maybe where SL joins up with the Ark?)

    The last place this Station shows up is speculation on my part but I think it makes sense: Scorponok's box. For those who don't have him and havn't seen the box close up. It features Scorponok fighting both Megatron and Optimus Prime on what looks like a Half Destroyed Space Station. Doubledealer is looping around in space outside the Station in bird mode (making it unclear which side he is on) while past all this Bumblebee and some other bots run out of another part of the complex as it explodes behind them. Beneath the broken floor you can see the Ark floating in space bellow the structure. One half-destroyed ruined station in space on the maps that the Ark passes by and one half-destroyed ruined station where the crews of both ships fight Scorponok (Unless he's with the Mercenaries and Doubledealer is looping around to help him. That is again, unclear.) I think this mysterious Station is almost certainly the location of the scene on Scorponok's box

    Are the Quintessons involved at all here? Is this a second trap? Hard to tell, we are close to Quintessa, but it could just be Scorponok hatching his own evil plan on this station outside the Dead Universe portal and our three crews happened to stumble in on him and boom, three factions team up, fight a giant metal Zarak - que mayhem


    The Journey Step 5: Together at Last -
    We can see the Nemesis depart Cybertron in the map center on Megatron's piece and then it's path is lost off released pieces for awhile. Whatever exactly happened at The Station, this point just past it is where it seems to finally come back into play and intersect the other ships. Anyway all three ships, Nemesis, Ark and Fool's Fortune, either together or chasing one another, all enter the Dead Universe Portal near the Station.


    The Journey Step 6: Earthrise -
    All three ships (Nemesis, Fools Fortune and the Ark) emerge from the other Dead Universe portal near the upper left of the map and head left into Earth's Solar System. We know what happens to the Ark at least from there. The other two ships... ?


    Look for this speculative travelogue to be updated/revised as more map pieces are released, more Galactic Odyssey sets are revealed, if we get any more story in the Earthrise toyline somehow, or if I missed something really obvious or made some really dumb mistake somewhere. ;) 


    -ZacWilliam, just finds this stuff really interesting if you couldn't tell. :) 
     
    Last edited: Sep 20, 2020
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  17. Seeaich

    Seeaich Inaction Master

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    Is there another thread besides this one documenting them you could drop a link to? Or is this a reference to this thread due to you crossposting your post elsewhere?
     
  18. ZacWilliam

    ZacWilliam Well-Known Member

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    Second one. ;) 

    -ZacWilliam, s'what I get for just cutting and pasting to try an be quick.
     
  19. Seeaich

    Seeaich Inaction Master

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    Thanks, I thought it was getting pretty well documented in here for there to be another thread doing the same.
     
  20. HeroicC300

    HeroicC300 Chats with Artists

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    no pics of attempted W2 alignment yet?