JB0

While the idea of Voltron being based on schematics hidden in egyptian artwork makes my head hurt.... Black lion WAS parked in a sphynx-like statue originally. And yellow parked in a sphynx. So the connection isn't TOO far out.

You should see the mess here. My area isn't a big Transformers area, sadly. Tend to have minimal shelf space. Local Target cleared something like half an aisle for the movie launch. And as they sold stock, compressed what was left. We're back down to 3 columns, just like it was pre-movie. Toys R Us did pretty much the same thing.

PC game. Interactive novel dealie. It's Japan-developed and on the PC, so it goes without saying it's a porn game.

Nope, this is America, where Transformers are a VERY well-known franchise. Optimus Prime and Megatron were about as recognizable as fictional characters get. People don't need "easing into" the Transformers. That happened years ago. You may make a good Hollywood executive with that sort of attitude, though. They tend to assume that audiences can't process anything that isn't a perfect copy of last year's blockbuster hit. Then totally miss the elements that made last summer's megahit, and conclude the audience is tired of that movie when their copy of it fails. Great example is the animation industry. After stuff like Toy Story and Shrek, they concluded that the key to being a success was making a flashy CG movie. And when all the crappy CG movies bombed, they concluded the audience was tired of CG and they needed to move on. And that's why there's lots of squishies, and almost no Transformers. The last movie that had giant robots in it was Wild Wild West.

Mmmmmm.... Always liked Skywarp's colors. Black and purple go so well together.... or is that not at all together? Either way!

http://www.lilformers.com/home.php I have it bookmarked.

http://transformers.wikia.com/wiki/Piranhaking has a bit more detail. It was gonna be a WalMart exclusive. WalMart had entirely too many exclusives at the time, and most of them weren't moving. So they bailed.

ONE MILLION miles an hour!

I dunno... Max and Millia are looking pretty good for their age... Besides, it's HIGHLY possible there's techniques to restore source DNA for cloning that aren't applicable to the contributor.

You're injecting logic into Transformers. That can't end well. Semi-plausable excuse: He reformats himself after launching Scorponok to cover up the hole.

I need to get a good NSF collection. .... Awww, no Metal Storm? :'(

What are the main engines using for propellant? Belching spent fusion fuel out the back won't generate very much kick. I would assume the main engines require a reaction mass just like the verniers do.

Why would the zentradi cloning process introduce variation? No breeding means no danger of inbreeding, so variation should be less important. .... I guess it could potentially reduce the effectiveness of bioweapons, but... I was under the impression the program was discontinued due to birth defects rising in the natural birth population from accidental incest. It'd be a real concern if you were trying to dramatically boost the population with cloning to re-inhabit the Earth AND colonize other planets and have less than a million individuals for source gene sequences. Sounds like a lot of people, but it's not even 1 percent of the planet's current population. Of course, the speed of repopulating through cloning would be capped by the availability of foster parents. I assume the clones would be released to foster parents as babies and have a "normal" childhood, since NOT having one would kinda torpedo the preserving civilization angle. And probably be a bit too zentradi for people's tastes. I dunno exactly how many kids are managable for a set of parents, but given we survive twins now, I figure you could drop 2 or 3 babies on a set of foster parents, and give them another pair once the first set gets a little older(say 2 years?). Gives clones an edge over naturally-produced humans, which are usually capped at about 1 per year per couple. Yes, foster parents would be VERY BUSY under that plan, but the program's primary concern is boosting the population. It's their patriotic duty as humans to raise armies of test-tube babies, and find time to pop out a natural child or 2 along the way! And there's probably killer government incentives for participating in the program... and even larger incentives for breeding naturally. ... There'd probably be a lot of kids conceived/adopted just for the incentives, actually. ANYWAYS... back in focus... The Chronology entry in the Compendium says "Because of the increase in hereditary children's diseases due to the overuse of cloning, mass cloning is terminated." It doesn't state either direction as the reason.

News flash! Underdog was ALWAYS bad! The original was extra-goofy too. Underdog was a dog in tights. I repeat: A DOG IN TIGHTS. Only thing I want to know is what they'll do in place of the traditional "line at the phonebooth" gag. What with the phone booth being dead and all.

Yeah. But I didn't have a beat to go with it, so I stopped.

Indeed. Prime and Megatron were fairly iffy, but all the rest were pretty spiffy. Though Grimlock's gun was kinda funky. Especially sticking up off his back.

You would be making an excellent point if I was citing these as examples of bizarre deviations from traditional Transformers designs. UNFORTUNATELY, I wasn't. It was a counterpoint to this... They're trying to portray robotic/mechanical life forms from another planet. Who is to say that their bodies shouldn't appear that way? Only geocentric arrogance would require that these bots have bodies that appeal to human aesthetics. You argued the Bayformers didn't need to appeal to human aesthetics, since they were alien robots. I listed a number of ways they DO conform to human aesthetics, which are far more significant than lots of kibble poking out at odd angles. Scorponok was the only 'bot in the movie that WASN'T clearly human, and it was ANOTHER terrestrial animal. Moving on.... General style VS specific model? It's also interesting that you assume I meant the Alternators should've been used in the movie as-is. I cited the photo as THREE alternatives to the junkyard look, one of which was the Bumblebee that gets dragged out by everyone defending SkelePrime and company. Another IS be the Alternator, which was the primary subject of the photo. The THIRD example would be the Pretender core sitting under Shockwave's foot. I'm also far more of a realist than you give me credit for. I readily acknowledge that no toy design is suited for movie usage as-is. Among other things, the Alt. RX8 mold has a chest that sticks out to the 'bot's elbows. It was an example of general style. The design closest to working as-is was the Pretender. It's the best-proportioned, and has no major parts in the way of the limbs. It's only lacking in actual articulation, which is quite easy to add given the design. Except for the whole "use some sharp and jagged lines to make them more uncommon looking" bit, which was the whole reason I dragged the Alternators out in the first place. It's an illustration of the same concept done in a far more aesthetically appealing manner. So way to go at missing the point. And special bonus round! Actually, I'm finding it VERY easy to pick out every single 'bot in your pics. Including all those wierd Prime/Megatron variants I've never seen before. DESPITE the lower contrast level in your pics. It takes a serious degree of concentration to pick a 'bot out of the movie design pic. All the broken jaggy edges make the designs run together, because there's no clearly visible difference between the edges of the 'bots and the .interior details. Case in point: Even though I know EXACTLY what it is, it looks an awful lot like Frenzy is growing out of Starscream's knee. Your example does a great job at illustrating why more solid designs are easier to pick out. The simpler lines give them a firmer outline.

We actually don't know that they didn't. The exact nature of the cloning program isn't known, just that it made a lot of people. It's entirely possible there WAS a bias in the system towards "good" gene sets. Probably not so much, given they'd just come out of a war with a genetically-engineered warrior race, so the whole eugenics angle was more unappealing than usual, but it's still possible.

It's actually almost impossible to do a small plasma at a high resolution(And no one's gonna pay for a standard-def plasma panel). They've had a lot of trouble miniaturizing the gas cells further than they already are.

I spent a while confusing Ironhide for Barricade in the final battle. Then remembered Barricade was MIA, so it had to be Ironhide. It helped tha tboth designs featured lots of black, and wheels on the shoulders. Speaking of geocentric arrogance... 2 arms. 2 legs. 2 elbows. 2 knees. 2 hands. 10 fingers. 2 eyes. 1 mouth. And in Ratchet's case, 1 nose(Seriosuly, WTF? A nose?) They're ALREADY slaves to human aesthetics. And hyper-advanced robots that can change their physical form on a moment's notice just by looking at another machine can't ALSO alter physical appearance between vehicle and robot modes? There's no real reason for the large assortment of vehicle parts lovingly studded across various parts of the Transformer anatomy in the movie aside form "Look at us! We're sticking cylinder heads on the thighs BECAUSE WE CAN!". The alternative you present is more aesthetically appealing, though limited in posability(and of course, those designs were never illustrated to match the toys in fiction partially for that reason). Though you've intentionally pulled out the worst of the bunch and presented an imaginary either-or situation. There are 3 different options in this photo. One of which met Mr. Bay's requirements for no mass shifting(a rule he failed to pass to ILM, but.... whatever).

I thought usually the first one was the best and it was downhill from there. Not that I expect that this time.

True. But the PS3 is still no cheaper than it was at launch. And that's part of the problem. It's just too expensive, especially when the competition's as strong as it is right now. Anyways.... My 360 needs food. I haven't picked a new game up for it in a while.

Yeah.... that wasn't quite what I meant. I just meant that the balance was WAY too skewed in one direction, and if it HAS to be skewed all the way to one side, I'd rather it was skewed towards the Transformers than the humans. If nothing else you need humans to remind everyone the Transformers are huge(unless they're a comic relief blender that turns into a bargin-brand boombox...). Giant robots beating each other up in space isn't near as fun.

There were too MANY humans was the main problem(with the secondary problem being that a lot of them were failing to be funny, or just annoying in general). It almost ceased to be a movie about Transformers and became a movie about a teenager blowing up a massive government conspiracy that just happened to have a few robots in it. But then Megatron got loose. As it was, half the Transformers were props. 2 Decepticons never even speak(save 1-line introductions in Cybertronian), a fan favorite has ONE line of dialog(again ignoring the 1-line of intro text), Ratchet does jack squat(unless I missed him in the fight...), and Jazz exists only to die. Can you honestly say the movie benefitted in any way from dedicating 20 minutes to the governemnt-hired hackers trying to ID Frenzy by listening to a recording of him hacking the Pentagon? Aside from the raw idiocy of the "technical" aspects(Seriously, it's not the 80s anymore. Can we at least TRY for vaguely believable computer plots?), it was worthless drivel that went nowhere and did nothing for the movie. That entire subplot could've been scrapped and the movie would be better for it. About half of the Sector Seven stuff could be shaved out without doing anything but speeding the story up. I'm not saying the next movie should be one giant scrapmetal blastfest, but I hope it's a tighter movie. And yes, I hope it has more and better robot violence too. Give the humans relevance, but don't marginalize the title characters to do it.

You have to fidget it just right. *fidgets with Barricade* That's odd.... It USED to line up... <edit> Hey, I finally got it to latch in! It only took.... 10 minutes of fidgeting? I THINK I had the double-knees latched in the wrong ratchet points, but hell if I can say for sure. </edit> Remember when you just folded the car in half and pulled the trunk down? Yeah, those were the days. If this is the price we pay for joints, than QBert articulation. QBert it up the ass.