Adam Riches needs to be given around the neck for Megatron's wrong Decepticon insignia.

 

I don't like when they put these kind of covers on books that don't have that sort of content, if you see what I mean.

 

Winston forgot to list the real first step: \"Receive letter from Hasbro instructing \'Please create barely-veiled product promotion as an actual comic cover.\'\"

 

Always cool to see a talented fan hit the professional league. Been following Winston on Twitter for a while now. Glad to see him doing some official work.

I think the whole “barely-veiled product promotion” comes as written when discussing a franchise that, at its core, exists purely to sell toys.

 

Riveting.

 

Always cool to see someone respond before understanding my post. My comment had nothing to do with the quality of Winston's art (which is good). It has to do with the primary, and almost sole driving force behind this series, which is undoubtedly Hasbro corporate's edict to sell the toys.

Now, obviously, that's always been part of the equation with TF. But there's a difference between advancing the franchise and shameless hocking of your goods. And this series seems to fall far more into the latter than MTMTE/Lost Light or any of the previous continuity. I mean, it's not even subtle.

 

I agree. I don't know what this story is about but I'm pretty sure Siege figures don't need promotion as the only people who buy them are G1 fans. Unless I'm mistaken

 

It's got this very Geof Darrow look to it. Kinda like Big Guy and Rusty Lite. I dig it.

I don't think @CleverNamePendingatron's post had really anything to do with your thoughts on whether or not Winston Chan was a good or bad artist. It looked more like a wry comment on the fact that Transformers books overall are toy promotion rags (and always have been and always will be for the foreseeable future) to me.

As for this book more or less being an attempt to ram toys i.e. Siege and prior CW/Titans/PotP designs down our throats: I think it was pretty clear from the get go that Hasbro planned to reign in control after what IDW did with the book prior. Not to say what IDW did was good or bad, but Hasbro is on this big "unified initiative" kick for a bit. It wants all it's stuff marching in lockstep and it was kind of announced going in. So you're right, it's not subtle, but they basically telegraphed this book as being what it currently is several months before the thing even came out.

 

This.

Hasbro release Generations figures with gimmicks that tie lines together, but in the end what characters make it into any corresponding fiction are usually pulled from various eras of Generations, which, as a toy line seems more devoted to simply releasing updates to beloved G1 characters with no story (other than G1) to which they can collectively refer.

Then the comics come in and mix all these line designs, eras, and characters together, don't explain anything, claim a "G1" universe and don't reference the source G1 material on which the characters and their actual Generations toy updates are based.

It just seems pointless. I collect Generations because of G1 source material and characters, which increasingly the toys are being designed to honor, not this IDW mess. If I want a corresponding fiction, I watch G1. If I'm a young kid and I want new fiction, I don't collect G1 based Generations, I buy/watch RID, Cyberverse, etc.

Clearly, this doesn't account for every collector's perspective or tendencies, just my own.

 

You don't, but there've been a few people look at the book and go "what design is that?" and then go rush off to pick up some Combiner Wars toy they might have missed. Also, some of the books seem to tease incoming designs that people are speculating might appear.

The new IDW books even moreso than the old ones are cross promotion for the toys. They're not meant to do much more than go "LOOK, OH YE POSSIBLY NEW ADULT COLLECTOR. MAYHAPS YOU HAVE MISSED A TOY WITH A DESIGN YOU LIKE SO THAT YOU MAY REMAIN A FAN FOREVER."

Ultimately, it's a long game with Hasbro reinforcing the brand. Even if they're not picking up dollars in an aftermarket sales, they're reinforcing a fanbase. It's likely not some 1:1 "Book for toys" thing and certainly if you're you're just picking up toys on the force of G1 alone, the book isn't targeted at you.

 

Personally, I live for the day Generations becomes a celebration of the whole franchise again, and not just the few different flavors of G1.

 

Fair enough, but my point is not inconsistent with that view. You're pulling a bit of a "straw man" by leaving out my last sentence.

In any case, I tried collecting Siege as a "new story" as if Armada. But lines like Armada didn't claim a G1 universe. They instead had some G1 influence, many original characters, character toy designs, stories, etc.

My vision and hope: Kill off the usual suspects. Start a truly new era with new characters, new leaders, new factions, new stories, and create new legends. Like Japan did in the late 1980s with Masterforce, Victory, and Zone.

Taking 35 year old (and 35 years worth of) characters and repeatedly throwing them together in different permutations with half ass histories and no source material accountability is getting old, confusing, and even boring.

The Transformers include characters now at a level of history and popularity similar to other comic franchises, so we're likely stuck in perpetuity with the same characters and general story lines for the rest of time. In exchange for a fixed spot in pop culture history, Transformers has stopped evolving.

 

Cultural appropriation REEEE!!!

 

Er, I guess? Based on the time stamp, it looks like you edited your post about 20 minutes after I quoted you, so there may have been a point where I was working on the post, quoting what was there rather than what's there now. Happens on occasion - ships passing in the night and all. I don't generally do straw man arguments - at least not on purpose.

You cited to this quote:

Your affirmation of the quote was that you also didn't see the point, particularly in how the new comic incorporates its character designs.

The case I'm making is that while it might seem "pointless" and "confusing" or what have you, Hasbro has pretty much set forth that this new iteration is all about brand unity. This new "scrambled" character design approach to the comic is really more this new iteration than anything else, which falls in line with Hasbro's advertising strategy which is to further brand reinforcement to those that are a little bit less prone to just buy the toys purely off of G1 alone. Whether this is boring, unimaginative, or whatever isn't really the issue. That's just a matter of taste. I mean, I don't like the comic much either.

There is a point to what's being done here. It so happens to be one you don't find palatable, which is 100% fine. The Siege toys and this "corresponding" comic is a reset to kind of encapsulate everything that's been attached to G1 over the last few years into something new and cohesive. If it comes out boring or odd to you, that's kind of a QC issue as opposed to an issue of whether there's a point.

If you want to pick it apart, though, most of IDW's prior run /was/ closer to a "new thing" than this run, and IDW1 lasted for a decade. Most characters got complete redesigns, new personalities, etc. Aside from the occasional background nod to other continuities, many of the characters shared names and design elements with the G1 guys, but looked nothing like the G1 toys and shared only the barest scraps of personality. Granted, it wasn't as radical as the Unicron Trilogy and that, but IDW1 was more it's own thing than it was G1-based after the All Hail Megatron series.

In short, there was no "brand unity" - again, the apparent point to the comic and new toyline - aside from a few occasional stabs in the dark with stuff like Windblade, Drift, and Victorion, or some subtle redesigns like Generations Tailgate.

 

Perhaps my claim of it being pointless was a bit rhetorical. I not only see what Hasbro is doing in terms of homogeneity and consistency accross the brand, but I 'feel it' as a long time collector. Everything is going G1-esque, and with a new Generations sub line every year, these fictions are helping tie it all together, which serves, e.g., to market the toys to everyone, and not just original G1 fans/collectors.

I suppose it's a QC issue for me if quality here is predicated on either a consistent adherence to source material, or as you say, "radical" originality. This 'in-between' that Hasbro has "creatively" struck is not for me. But that's me, I'm a fairly predictable G1 collector. For instance, I only buy Siege characters that were in the original Sunbow animation, and largely because I think it's amazing that they're basing designs off of MTMTE's tetra jets and Cybertronian street lamps from Episode 1 (hoping for Wheeljack and Bumblebee's original forms).

But I digress, for someone who doesn't collect comics regularly, I liked what Dreamwave did with G1, just haven't been able to get into IDW, at all.

 

I hear you. Dreamwave really did go back to roots. IDW1 tried to make it the same, but different especially in the latter years. This new version seems to be trying to do the same as IDW1, but doing it in such a conservative fashion it's kinda dull - possibly in part due to the controversial nature of IDW1's later run and also due to Hasbro's new directive to shill toys even harder.

I'm okay with reboots and re-imaginings and the like. It's never bothered me - just tell me a fun story. However, I will say I sympathize with you in part. It'd be nice if someone just came in and dumped over the toybox and started fresh. However, as we've discussed I don't see that happening soon thanks to Hasbro's generational marketing and branding strategy that will be barfing up "G1 but not quite" until the sun burns out.