I'm not disagreeing with anything you just said. What I'm disagreeing with is your assertion that Rampage was only ever classified as a Maximal. Technically, the toy contradicts your assertion, as does his affiliation with the Predacons forced or otherwise. Programming isn't the only determining factor for faction affiliation in BW, it just amplifies certain personality traits. The show itself makes this pretty clear in my opinion.
Some of us can't help it, OCD is a powerful motivator. The toy and his affiliation is officially classified as Predacon by Hasbro, I was just expressing my beliefs on the meta side of things. I'm pretty sure Rampage didn't say, hey, I was created in a lab and totally insane so I guess I'm going to call myself a Predacon now. In his eyes it would be more sadistic if he still called himself a Maximal just to prove the point. He was actually pretty eloquent as a character, I liken him to a Maximal Criminal, and it helps flesh out the universe a bit more if you consider things a bit differently. The Predacon classification and such however is a moot point, he was not born Predacon and he did not undergo any type of reprogramming to my knowledge. Rampage is kind of IDW Megatron/Thundercracker before IDW even existed. A character with a rich potential in backstory and someone who proves that factions in Transformers are not all their set out to be. I suppose the issue is the word Technically. While Technically Rampage was born a Maximal I will concede that in Hasbro's eyes he was classified as a Predacon. The fact that the writers did so much more with him as a character speaks as to the ability of the Beast Era writing staff to make such a distinct and interesting character idea based on so many factors. Philosophically speaking I consider Rampage to be a Maximal and never choosing to adopt a Predacon belief system, he was just batshit crazy and a sadistic Maximal criminal with a penchant for murder. A Hannibal Lecter if you will.
And you quoted me out of context. To be fair, this was in a different post but I didn't feel like mentioning the purple one AGAIN in another post when I already mentioned it in another post. And before you give the "Well I didn't want to read the entire thread" excuse. You didn't have to. You could of simply searched other posts I've made in this thread before responding. It took me less than 2 minutes to find this quote by clicking find other posts by this user. (I couldn't remember exactly what page it was on so I literally had to look up my own post.)
I feel like even if Ramage wasn't forced to become a Predacon he still would have likely allied himself closer to them than the Maximals, but likely more like how Tarantulas was at the end of the show. Megatron could have treated Rampage like he did Quickstrike, letting Quickstrike vent out his violence on the Maximals as long as he remained loyal to the predacons. Megatron however decided not to risk it and instead cut out his spark to force him to serve him to stay on the safe side. I think a major aspect of Rampage's nature can be found in the Transmutate episode. She refers to Silverbolt as "Friend, good" but Rampage as "Friend, dark", not "Friend, evil" or "Friend, bad". Rampage isn't really evil. Yes he's a homicidal cannibal, but he really can't help it, it's something he can't control and despite his best efforts he can do nothing but either be left alone, or give into his "dark" instincts. But Transmutate was one of the only things that he could show compassion and kindredship in. I feel like if the Maximals had let Transmutate live, and let Rampage be with her THEN he would probably turn against the predacons (again, this would be if Megatron took the Quickstrike approach to Rampage).
He definitely was one of the deepest written characters in the show, so much story potential with him
I'm liking the fact that this version is the only Maximal fossilizer from a lore perspective. The notion her pod was damaged still holds, but instead of risking her coming out physically incomplete, they stalled the awakening process to lift fossilizer protocols from the Preds (which was invented trying to engineer soldiers that could take a beating and be fine). The added resiliency saved her, but the ad-hoc conversion and time in distress left damages that resulted in functional issues to overcome.
So how many folks with the BAF gonna be doing this with it? Still want Hasbro to re-release it with articulation added to it.....ah well.
Let her live??? She was going to explode and die anyway, they were trying to be humane about her death to prevent the pain. Rampage was mostly hoping she could survive and her death was the greatest moment in the entire episode as a character of pure innocence she used her power to try and stop the fighting between the two that had touched her the most in friendship. Rampage would never have sided with the Maximals even had Transmutate survived, he was hopelessly insane and completely unwilling to compromise in the slightest. He fought Silverbolt to have control/ownership of Transmutate because he felt she was only his by right of their similar circumstances. In the end he destroyed the very thing he cherished most because he refused to allow a Maximal to have any say in the matter. Rampage ultimately, in my eyes, would have remained completely neutral had Megatron not taken steps to hedge his bets. And protect his investments. Seriously there is no way Rampage would have ever chosen to side with the Predacons based on how he was presented and portrayed in his introductory episode. The only reason he didn't kill Tarantulas when he tore him apart probably was because he saw more use for the Predacon as a show of what would happen to those who crossed him. He was beginning his acts of terror once again. Megatron cutting out the core of his spark was the only way to actually control him, preventing him from acting by forcing stasis lock, in my eyes he was always a reluctant instrument of Megatron's will.
Consider that Transmutate is a Copper/Bronze Sculpture of a T-Rex Skeleton found in front of a Natural History Museum. Due to it being out for years, it has a major patina on some of the parts. However, due to kids crawling around it, some of the patina has been rubbed off, revealing the fresh copper/bronze beneath. A beautiful thought.
She wasn't going to explode and die, her exploding and dying was a result of jumping in between 2 projectile explosives and using her power to stop them from moving forward, thus causing them (the missiles) to explode and blow her up
No they aren't... In other continuities they are as characters can change faction without being reprogramed and can be reprogrammed without changing their faction. But in Beast Wars changing your faction requires reprogramming and reprogramming changes your faction which make them the same thing. Some examples in case you're confused. The G1 Constructicons were reprogrammed in one episode but they were already wearing Decepticon insignias before being reprogrammed. The reprogramming didn't make Autobots into Decepticons they always were Decepticons. Every Predacon who was reprogrammed in Beast Wars was originally a Maximal. Armada Starscream changes his allegiance to the Autobots but continues to wear Decepticon insignias while doing so. Every time a character in Beast Wars changes their allegiance they literally have to reprogram their activation code and insignia that they wear. If programming and allegiance were not the same thing they would not consistently happen at the same time throughout the entire series. Both of these are incorrect. Dinobot was only a Predacon in the pilot and REPROGRAMMED his activation code and insignia to Maximal after his disagreement with Megatron in the first episode. He had intended on challenging Primal for command of the Maximals but he was programmed Maximal from the moment he changed his allegiance. Blackarachnia on the other hand was never of Maximal allegiance until she got her TM2 form... Well she was a Maximal as a Protoform too of course but her original spider form was always a Predacon. She may have worked along side the Maximals but working together is not the same as alignment to the same faction. Another example of this is Ravage who was working along side the Maximals when he first showed up in the series but was never aligned with the Maximals. His true alignment has always been Decepticon/Predacon. When he "switched sides" to help Megatron, betraying the Maximals there was no change of alignment from Maximal to Predacon cause he already was a Predacon. This was more a matter of changing his mission from capturing Megatron for the Tripredacus Council to following a message left by the original Megatron on the Golden Disk. His actual allegiance to his faction never changed but who he chose to follow within his faction did. The only reasons he was ever working with the Maximals is because at the time they were working towards a common goal which had nothing to do with allegiance to a particular faction. Blackarachnia even stated herself that her allegiance was Predacon. She had no allegiance to Megatron... and given how nearly every Predacon except Scorponok and Inferno tired to betray Megatron at some point those two are the only ones who were truely loyal to him. BW Megatron also wasn't the leader of all Predacons in the Beast Era so it makes sense that there can be characters who align Predacon but don't align with Megatron. Until Blackarachnia is reprogrammed Maximal she isn't aligned Maximal, she's simply a Predacon working towards a common goal which is not the same as allegiance. These are also both incorrect. Quickstrike's activation code and insignia were programmed Predacon. If he still had Maximal programming he would still have Maximal insignias and be using the "Maximize" activation code. These things can't be changed without reprogramming them. Rampage on the other hand was NEVER a Maximal. The thing is the Maximals, except for Primal and Rhinox, weren't even aware that Protoform-X was even on the Axalon. As far as they knew they were a Maximal exploration ship that got detoured when they intercepted the Darksyde. Their true mission was to move Protoform-X off Cybertron, he was the result of a Maximal experiment gone wrong, which means it was the Maximals who were experimenting on him, that does not mean he was a Maximal himself. There's no sign that Rampage was ever reprogrammed, he just already had Predacon insignas and activation codes. This is clearly an exception as this was a PREDACON!... He also wasn't really a Protoform. They just put him in a stasis pod and called him Protoform-X so he'd blend in with all the other stasis pods on the ship. We have seen that you can enter a stasis pod without being a protoform. Protoforms are essentially Cybertronian fetuses. The fact that Rampage already existed on Cybertron as a fully formed Cybertronian means he can't be a legitimate Protoform, calling him that was just part of the cover up. He wasn't really forced to align himself as a Predacon, he was only forced to serve Megatron. He already was a Predacon but had allegiance to anyone but himself. He wasn't reprogrammed to be a Predacon, he was saying Terrorize to transform and had Predacon insignias even before Megatron sliced his spark in two so he could control Rampage though Dinobot. All that did is force Rampage to serve Megatron instead of acting as a free agent. He still would of been a Predacon either way because again being Predacon does not mean serving Megatron.
amazon doesn't typically stock selects, though 3p sellers do. You can find selects at various online stores, usually not exclusive to any one store in particular
Considering how much they're worth? Likely none. Though anyone prepping to toss it can contact me if they'd prefer a potential buyer.
The Maximals wanted to deactivate her because her immense power coupled with her stunted and limited intelligence and reasoning was a huge potential danger to everyone, including herself, not because she was going to explode. When I said Rampage would "ally closer to the Maximals" what I meant wasn't really actively helping them out and being friends, but more buggering off to a cave somewhere and being left alone with Transmutate. It's possible he could potentially form a tolerance for Silverbolt, due to their shared sympathy for Transmutate, but Depth Charge would obviously still prove an issue. That's just how I interpret it at least. You can always see it however you want to because ultimately, Rampage never had the opportunity in the actual show to show what he'd do if he was free from Megatron's torture, so we'll never be able to truly know what the writers would have done.
As long as you've got Premium, Pulse is the best option within the US. Outside of that, BBTS if they've got it. I think they typically sell for $22-24 there, with the option to stack shipping.
I think we should move this entire conversation to a different thread, but I would like to point out two things. Dinobot 'willingly' changed his activation code, at no point did he ever change his ideals, he was still Predacon and often had conflicting ties in a lot of early episdes. He was never reprogrammed into a Maximal. His basic spark and central processing unit was always Predacon aligned. Blackarachnia and all of the others had Shell Programs installed, at least in Season 1, these shell programs were seen in Season 3 when it was removed. Shell Programs forced Protoforms into switching their allegiance and overwrote their base natures. Blackarachnia was always a Maximal, she flat out betrayed Megatron because she was born of a Maximal protoform and with Optimus dead she would have never existed if the timeline changed. She considered herself a Predacon and remained a Predacon until she damaged her central unit and needed to remove the Shell program to survive. Then she became the Maximal she always was meant to be, more or less. The entire point of things was to reprogram Maximals and make them Predacons using shell programs, this means that changing faction, while voluntary, can be controlled by programming. Also when did Protoform X have Predacon symbols? The Maximals would not be experimenting on a Predacon, Protoform X did not start out as a Predacon, he was an experiment and definitely had to be born as a Maximal spark. And I know it's been a while since I've seen the series, but I'm pretty sure until Megatron cut out his spark core he transformed WITHOUT activation code.
Whaaaaaaat? I knew they were doing the Ark, but had no idea it was going to transform. Is there an image posted somewhere? I was going to pass if it was just a spaceship playset, but if it's a bot then I think I'd reconsider.
