Sorry if someone answered this already but I think they say that Delphi's communications are down.

 

Indeed they do.

 

So... #6??

 

Soon. Just a couple of days left.

 

Can. Not. Wait.

Seriously; this and RID keep me glued. I love these books more than any modern era TF stories yet.When IDW launched THIS is what I wanted. Familiar characters, new groundbreaking stories, not G1 told over and over and over.

Hell I'm willing to say F it; this is the official modern canon to me.

 

Yes. This has done more for me in five issues than Prime has in a season and a half. The charatcers here have actual heart and personality and aren't generic cutouts with no sense of life.

 

Part of me wishes they'd do a TV series of this, but Hasbro would probably object to not having Optimus and Bumblebee. Only way something like this could happen is probably if Takara did it on their own. Those guys love Hot Rod/Rodimus!

 

So far, I'm not digging the coloring in these issues. There isn't much variety in the color and the colors aren't rich either. I more like the art in Robots in Disguise.

 

That's because he kicks as much ass as a hamster. Imagine if he was the greatest warrior on the Lost Light AND, unbeknownst to all, had the "brightest spark?"  

Drift was never all that powerful, but the traits that were given to him to set off warning bells (swords, looks cool). Of course, the backlash was simply absurd, which is why he was sidelined so hard Costa didn't dare put a word in his mouth.

Yeah, if I wasn't clear I think it's a smart, almost mercenary decision. Not necessarily the ideal artistic one. But OTOH if the writers and editors want to give Tailgate and his fans a bone and most don't mind, or even like it...could be worse?

It's worse!

It was G2 Hubcap.

The RotF toy actually got this "right!" I find the yellow version hideous.   (Not that I still wouldn't get a "proper" one.)

I actually really liked that the RotF one was a more interesting car...but it was a disappointment that his face didn't have a mouth. Weakened the homage/connection.

But yeah, I think I would be torqued if there was a Hubcap that was all "serious business" or "squeaky clean." BUT, as far as I'm concerned 99% of his life, experiences, and personality could have been left out of that few paragraphs that some stubby wrote about him being a sometime communications officer and somewhat untrustworthy. C'mon, he's millions of years old!

To make matters even crazier, a red Hubcap is virtually Cliffjumper, and since Cliffjumper is in the movie (but not namedropped that often) I had a fairly serious case of confusion between the characters for years. So I have a soft spot for Cliffjumper too, but everyone else seems to as well so it's not really worth mentioning. (Aside: I hate his "glass gas" though, it's never portrayed consistently and it sounds way more like a WMD than a soldier's unique weapon...which IDW has made it into.)

Well you probably don't need to hear it from me, but small worry about that right? Those guys were on the Ark. They are freaking untouchable. Which means, uh, I guess Windcharger will be a bland do-nothing forever. But hey, he looks cool, and magnets! (And I actually like that power!)

Since the ONE year I was a childhood Transformers fan was in 1993, aka "the year that G2 started happening but it was 80% G1 repaints with no new fiction" I sort of had to make my own nostalgia. Even BotCon 2010 didn't really get it right, though it was still a rollicking good story and gave me RAPIDO.

No reason why you should.

In 1993 I had nothing but bios either. BIOS, not profiles. They were terrible. Sure they told me which characters were stuffed shirts and which were rule-breaking rebels, but I couldn't tell what was going on beyond "Bots vs. Cons." So I said screw that, I'll make up my own story. Because I have this Optimus toy, the story must take place before the movie from the video store where he dies. Yes Virginia, I didn't even know they'd brought the bastard back to life (before I was born!)

Yeeeeep. Called it in one.  

Agreed and yet...I think different events are allowed to happen in different G1 offshoots, and different events CREATE different characters. I think IDW pushes the boundary as far as you can go and still feel "G1," but that's GOOD to me. It keeps me on my toes. Plus we have ReGeneration 1 coming and those books need to feel different.

Well we've all been there. I got into shouting matches over Star Wars. That I started.

For sure. Oh, and it's pretty neat IMO that his RotF toy, isn't a Pretender. It's just a green tank that turns into an orange robot, with demonic samurai styling. Simple!  

"Try to deny it" huh? Very nice. If you don't mind, I'll share my thoughts:

Marvel: Yes, all characters sound a bit like Furman, particularly Decepticons who aren't Scorponok or Megatron, but (in the US) we meet Thunderwing as a confident warlord and are subjected to his deterioration into obsession with the Matrix. The drama comes from his subordinates trying to reign him in. No apparent religion or belief in destiny...he just knows that he has an affinity with the Matrix, and then it essentially takes hold of him and uses him mercilessly. Bludgeon OTOH is introduced to us as a subordinate and assassin without apparent ambition...he lurks in the background. He becomes Decepticon leader almost by default but quickly proves absurdly competent, which inspires total loyalty. He is very religious but keeps it to himself until he actually sees his god flying into battle with an Autobot sigil. After a brief period of yammering, he gathers himself and goes right back to ruthless and competent.

Dreamwave: Bludgeon is a mystic who is Faust to the Fallen's, well, Robot Devil. Thunderwing...uh, is he even in it?

IDW: Bludgeon and Thunderwing have this weird, almost symbiotic relationship. At the period of Thunderwing's life that is relevant to us (he used to be a rationalist and Cassandra figure) he has no mind and is just a powerful weapon. Bludgeon manipulates him like a puppet, but at the same time worships him.

So they are both connected to Matrix/Primus mysticism in one way or another consistently, but they don't actually act like each other very much. If anything, Dreamwave Bludgeon is a bit like Marvel Thunderwing. In particular, Marvel Thunderwing is an objectively terrible leader (though the Matrix may actually have been steering him wrong from afar), while Marvel Bludgeon has more of a knack for leading the Decepticons than, well, anyone.

...I'm not sure we can be friends anymore.

I literally grew up with that show. I was born in '87 and watched it every week with my parents till it ended. My first action figures weren't no effing Transformers, try Picard, Riker, and Data.

I see your point though. While you are being almost farcically uncharitable to the program and in dire need of reviewing, well, virtually all of season 3, you are right in that the holodeck was a shitty plot device due to its early definitional episodes painting it far too broadly. Sometimes good holodeck episodes happened to happen, but the concept went on to badly pollute and corrupt Voyager to a far greater extent. (In DS9 they were ok cause they were just the freaking brothel.)

Of course, those shows also had the transporter, and offshoot technologies such as the replicator. But, while these insan-o technologies were never completely explored, there were very real attempts to describe their limitations and to write episodes based on their implications. It's forgivable for a show to skip ahead to the fun that their technology enables, i.e. the good bits of Star Trek, Doctor Who, etc.

Anyway, not intending to go round and round on personal preference again. I just would wonder why, say, Skywarp, Cliffjumper, Mirage et al are not so many slabs of meat on Shockwave's operating table. It's not as if Megatron would hesitate to fillet Skywarp in order to find out how to replicate what he does. If you want to just declare "well his spark lets him," sure, but then you kind of ceded the right to pick on Star Trek.  

 

But then the story would be terrible and ruined by so many anime cliches and character alterations it wouldn't be worth it.

 

i know, i was just saying that because it COULD be misdirection. that was my point  

 

I sort of like that Roberts has "rescued" him from his stigma somewhat... Drift, despite the debacle surrounding him, is a sensible new character, in that he occupies a role and "schtick" that isn't really covered already by another character (though I agree that there are plenty of Autobots who could have been revealed as former Decepticons, if you really wanted to play with the concept).

Did the ROTF bio reference Hubcap in any way? I figured it was just a name-slap (on a mold that if anything referenced one of the G2 Laser Rods). It was a great figure though, mouthplate or not. I always wanted to score one of those diecast KO versions, but I missed the boat.

Not that they seem to change much in all that time.  

I agree that you can write around the existing material, or play with it in interesting ways. I just don't think it should feel irrelevant. I think you can flesh out Hubcap and make him a fantastic character, but being a sleazy comms guy with a penchant for misusing information would still need to be in there, especially since it's those traits that make him practically unique among Autobots.

It's one of those things... is it any more useful than a well-placed missile or plasma blast? Probably not. Is it another unique and unusual TF weapon? Yep. I always figured it to be a short-range mist that probably loses its potency in the atmosphere after a few seconds. Probably best used to "soften up" an opponent just before Cliffy plants a fist on them (especially since CJ is not particularly strong... that little jerk needs the help!  )

Because of my penchant for analyzing every new toy that passed through the racks, I made an early distinction between CJ, Hubcap, and those weird yellow Cliffjumpers that made the rounds (along with Red Bee). Different head, no spoiler, distinctive orange face, yellow. I guess that's sort of distinct enough.

I think Cliffjumper tended to steal Windcharger's thunder a lot, being the other red, hyper, reckless guy (1984 had 3 of them, even). He ended up mostly just being "tractor beam guy", though I find it interesting how writers for some of the more peripheral media and UK comics often hit upon Windcharger and made him seriously badass.

(I wanted to include the image from the UK comic of Windcharger tossing Megatron through a ceiling, but it's nowhere to be found)

Haha! It is a different perspective... though similar in a way to how I was introduced to the franchise. For me, the bios were the basis of all my play... the cartoon and comics were just some other version, based (often erroneously) on the same source. I never really saw them as being any more authoritative. When Marvel started publishing the Transformers Universe, I pounced on that thing HARD. It was basically what I'd always wanted to go with my Transformers.  

Yeah, not really interested in dredging up the old Marvel continuity... Regeneration One is less exciting to me. And obviously, G1 has had quite different versions of characters in the past, so why not now?

In some sense, maybe because now I want to see a G1 fiction that corrects the mistakes of the past, not one that piles on new ones. I realize that's perhaps a high expectation.

Haha! Star Wars? What are you... some kind of geek?  

Yeah, I like the "fusion" thing they're pulling with most of the Pretenders (Skullgrin and Thunderwing too). I always hated the Pretender gimmick itself, and undeniably, the shells were WAY more memorable than the core bots (well... the Decepticons at least. Does anybody really care about the Autobot Pretenders at all?). It makes a certain amount of sense, though the pure trivia of their core bot modes does hold a certain nerdy appeal.

An astute rebuttal. I still find both of them sort of function the same way narratively, but you've made a good case for their distinctions.

In IDW, I think both of them are pretty much non-characters. Thunderwing is a walking plot device, and Bludgeon had a brief stint as a mad scientist, but never really did much. Both came back later as puppets of the Dead Universe. From the most recent issues, it looks like Bludgeon might get a bit more flesh for his bones at least.

  I had a feeling that would light a fire.

You have my profound sympathies.  

Thankyou for acknowledging that. I AM being farcically uncharitable to the show, of course, for the purposes of making my point. Obviously it had some good stuff in it, and blaming a TV show for being a slave to its formulas is not always fair. Next Gen started when I was much younger, but I didn't have cable at the time. In my first year of university, it was in syndication, and was always on when I was cooking supper, so I absorbed a lot of episodes in a rather rapid succession, and I came to hate some of those plot devices very much.

Also, I found that it lived in an awkward space between the two-fisted idealism and social commentary of the original 60's series, and the nerdy, anally-retentive engineering student demographic of its modern fanbase. Hence, it would often broach heady topics of social reform and the human spirit, but ultimately nerdy technology would save the day... usually because Geordi had been working in the background on some boring solution during the episode that only someone who memorized the schematics of a dilithium crystal containment chamber would appreciate. Man... it really made me miss those old karate-chop-and-a-speech Kirk solutions.  

Which can be interesting. Sometimes trying to write your way out of something stupid can lead to something cool. I think Roberts sort of managed that with his use of holo-avatars. But like replicator tech, there is still something inherently broken about them.

I'm not a big fan of mysticism in Transformers, but sometimes it provides just the right touch to circumvent unknowns like that. Since these powers are undeniably intended to be unique abilities, and have almost always been depicted as such, making them less personalized disrupts the world. As I've mentioned before, the one thing I like about Sparks (souls, I guess) is that they provide that necessary x-factor, the randomization element that allows for such diverse abilities. Finding a workaround in an indecipherable unknown, like the unique "fingerprint" of a Spark allowing different tech to work for different bots, for reasons long since lost to Cybertronian history (perhaps with a hint of cultural taboo as well)... allows the status quo to stand without rocking the boat unduly. Once you open the Pandora's Box, all sorts of shit can get out of hand.

Or, to use your own example... if there isn't a unique factor, and Skywarp is just one guy who happens to have a personal teleporation generator, there really is NO reason why Megatron wouldn't have an army of teleporting, invisible, sonic-boom generating, earthquake-making, mind-reading, fear-inducing, electricity-shooting super warriors. None.

Or at least, no reason why he wouldn't have one teleporting super warrior who was halfways intelligent.  

That's why I prefer to dial back Cybertronian tech and culture a bit. I always liked the idea of them being advanced in some ways, but also held back by the mysteries of their own biologies and cultural limits (not unlike humans) and the utter devastation of what used to be their civilization. Hence, it's not an arms race. The weapons and powers become unique artifacts, leftovers from a techno-industrial golden age that cannot be completely recovered. Or, expressions of a bot's potent spark or hand-forged origins, part of their inextricable being. I dislike when fictions portray them as too scientific, too civilized or too organized. They are a race in decline, ruined by their own internal strife. It's the only way they really make any sense to me.

Applying Star Fleet science-fiction tropes to Transformers turns my stomach. I don't want Energon and nano-technology, I want combustion engines, and grinding gears and hand-tooled parts. Go Star Wars all the way. Keep it dirty.  

zmog

 

Hell no, it's really just a nameslap. But it's red! Also literally the day before it leaked I had said to someone on the board "You know, Hasbro's never going to homage my first Transformers, G2 Hubcap, but you don't hear me bitching." Yeah.

I didn't get Terradive from the same series though. Terradive was my first Decepticon...but he's black and has a visor face. (He was sort of a proto-Lugnut to me.) It's a cool mold though, which is why I got the Space Case version.

It kiiiinda fits his theme, yeah, but this is where my "ill-defined" protest comes in. In the cartoon, no two things it did were the same, and it was never drawn the same way twice. In the early days of the comic, he got some Seekers to fly through it and they just started to SHATTER. Which if course would happen if you replaced metal with glass, but that is just too powerful and bonkers. Then you have the Shattered Glass (see what they did there?!) comic, in which it's used to collapse a launching pad...but the Decepticons only knew how to do that because they found Cliffjumper. It's not like Cliffjumper knows how to make it, he's no chemist, he just...makes it, for some reason. Clear the room if he ever passes gas...

And of course the other 90% of the time he's written as if he doesn't have that power, because the writer wants to have him fight metal enemies without looking like he's violating the Geneva Convention. Unlike a holomatter taser, the stuff would be brilliant to use if you have a teammate behind you or even just a gun blazing away in the other hand and it can be swept across a whole mass of enemies, giving you the "bang for the buck" that the holomatter taser doesn't. You wouldn't want to fight a duel with it, but it's potentially a very deadly weapon of war.

DEAR GOD. I saw his little day in the limelight vs. Megatron, but not that! Of course it makes sense, since all we know about him is he's fast and powerful. He's a nice example of how the minibots were written to be just as capable as the more, well, expensive 'bots.  

Way I read 'em, Universe is IN Marvel continuity. They got there first, but sometimes they refer to specific events that don't apply to "other" G1. Hell, there are pages and pages written about Nebulans that are complete nonsense in an IDW context.

Well, Budiansky wrote the definitive "this makes no sense but is terrific fun" Pretender story with the Mecannibals. Also, my fiancee has become a huge Metalhawk fan oddly enough, thanks to our run through Masterforce. I kind of dig their elemental theme and the rapport between Cloudburst and Landmine. But yeah, in the end they are fatally boring. The Autobot Small Pretenders are even worse, Furman wrote them a whole issue and they didn't manage to be even the slightest bit fun.

Skullgrin is a great little cult character though. I was unimpressed with the Straxus retool on some level, but eventually got him just cause he was Skullgrin.

In my view the "reason" would be that Skywarp was simply issued the technology. In the IDW-verse, maybe every Decepticon cell has a teleporter. They don't ALL have that module because it's expensive, hard to install, it takes up too much software, it uses up a lot of fuel, and there are other trade-offs that don't make it a no-brainer for everyone. But the Decepticon cause doesn't rely on Skywarp, since he just has a stripped-down version of a space bridge/ground bridge/orbital jump.

There are a couple Decepticons who are described as being cagey about their upgrades, Mindwipe and Spinister. So the way I see it they pilfered their tech from some unfortunate aliens. Skywarp isn't much of an independent operator, though.

I like it when robots with similar missions have similar technology (Rumble and toon!Frenzy, Trailbreaker and Defensor). I don't mean to say that I reject your view that sparks are unique and it's been a real long fall since the Golden Age, but unless it's a plot element I think Transformers should do most of their special stuff with powers that they fundamentally understand and can install for a given mission given skilled engineers and lengthy time to prepare.  

Certainly, a robot shouldn't be able to do much of anything that a warship can't when it comes to tactical might and basic technology level.

 

I think the only generics they're doing right now in the IDW comics are the NAILs in RID. Everyone else once had a toy or is a previously established character created for the comics like Rung, Turmoil, Xaaron and Impactor. I believe its so the more informed reader (those who have visited every character page on tfu.info and many pages on the tfwiki) can identify the Autobots and Decepticons from the NAILs.

Thats how it should be. Its a comic based on a toyline so obsviously the toys should appear in the comics. And with a 30+ year history to draw from, including Diaclone and Microman toys, there is no shortage of obscure characters or toys to use if you need to add a generic character for a few panels. I'd rather see Metrodash or even yellow Diaclone Trailbreaker in a comic than some design created for a few panels that has never been seen before and will never be seen again.

Spotlight Cliffjumper annoyed me because the Decepticons got a large role in the comic, even though they all died at the end, and they were all generics. None of them were named. Those Decepticons could have been an obscure but recognisable group of Decepticons that would never have been used in a significant character role.

Drift is acceptable because he got a toy. If he didn't get a toy, I doubt he would have been used this much after All Hail Megatron. Before we knew he was getting a toy, I didn't let myself get too attached to him as a character. But he was nowhere near as hyped up in the actual comics themselves as he was on the internet. Thankfully. But the internet hatedom didn't let that stop them.

While Tailgate and Swerve are decent characters in MTMTE, they really owe little to their original bios. If the same characterisations had been assigned to another character with even less of a bio than those two, we wouldn't have known they should have gone to Tailgate and Swerve. I do think a few more nods to their original function and personality traits should be written into the story. Although I really don't mind their modern characterisation extending upon what we've seen in the original bio. Those characters like Blaster who have had strong differing personalities in the original cartoons and comics do get a nod. We have the cartoon Blaster for those stories set before the betrayal in his Spotlight and Marvel Blaster set after the betrayal. Autocracy Blaster was correctly based on the cartoon Blaster. That too is acceptable to me.

However, there are some strong personalities from previous incarnations I do miss. I miss G1 cartoon Arcee and Marvel UK Ultra Magnus along with some others. The same characters are prominent in the modern day comics but the personalities are completely different. I think I'd be okay with those old personalities being used for other characters so that they are the same character from the eighties in all but name and appearance.

 

Nice! Thanks!  

So hardcore! When I was a kid, the only guys I let Windcharger crush were Buzzsaw and Frenzy. Of course, I didn't own Starscream...  

I'm even surprised they're working up Turmoil at all. To me he seemed like the most generic of generic Decepticons. Boring design, generic evil persona, nondescript head, pretentious name... I was fine with never seeing him again.

However, I still prefer him to Thundertron, the 10-year-old's Mary Sue character. WTF is it with that guy? He makes Drift look like a Budiansky masterpiece.  

It's more than that too... this is a G1 series, based largely on a fiction and toy line that ended 25 years ago. This comic is NOT for kids or casual fans. Obscurity is no excuse. The writers should be writing this for hardcore fans. The writers should BE hardcore fans!

(fortunately, I think Roberts, Roche & co are such fans...)

That's pretty much how I feel... though as mentioned earlier, I suspect the choice of characters might have been somewhat limited just due to the number of cameos IDW has already throw out there, and how Roberts and Barber basically divided up the TF universe between them.

Personally, I never saw a huge conflict between a guy who is a rocker AND a serious warrior when the going gets tough. I think Blaster can easily be both. I mean, liking music doesn't mean that you need to be breakdancing in every scene.  

I don't find this Ultra Magnus that far off from UK Magnus... I mean, he's more anally retentive and OCD, but I don't feel that undermines who he is, only adds another wrinkle.

Arcee on the other hand... well, that's a whole other can of worms...  

zmog

 

I actually forgot about some generic Autobots and Decepticons in MTMTE. Shock and Ore, Sonic and Boom, plus probably some others. Animus, Pharma and Ambulon were mentioned in Bullets.