sonics' still gonna be a terrible movie but at least they whined loud enough to make him look passable for a 2-minute trailer. "yay."

But of course to annoying people there's no such thing as different decisions made for different reasons, there is only "I like it so it's right" and "I don't like it so it's wrong."

Even if we pretend it's objective truth that they were both bad, then they were bad in very different ways.

Sonic's previous movie design looked genuinely bad. The Transformers '07 designs just looked insufficiently like what certain loud and obnoxious parts of the fandom think Transformers are required to always look like.

Um... Purple Monkey Dishwasher?

Do we really need to have Every Movie Transformer Thread Ever in the Squawkbox?

Sure it made money but that doesn’t mean it has appealing character designs. Lot of god awful fugly faces in the Transformers movies.

@Liege My issue with Transformers (2007) were elements I thought were unnecessary.  I know it was supposed to just be a joke, but I didn't ever need to hear about "Sam's Happy Time". >.> Which, being in awe of the first "live action" TF-film, didn't even register until I'd already purchased and watched it on DVD a few times (after seeing it in theaters 3 times).

For all the Bayisms in the 07 movie, it was tempered by Spielberg as producer. Designs aside it was an enjoyable popcorn blockbuster about a boy and his first car who happens to be an alien from another planet. They sequels are just Bay going unchecked after he proved how much bank he could bring in.

I didn't find the designs in the '07 movie to be that bad, personally. What got really offputting was how Cybertronians in general become such huge a-holes in the later films; the designs were very much secondary to their horrible personalities

And yet, Transformers still broke the bank at the box office, opened up the brand to a whole new generation of fans, shot the brand up to mainstream appeal, and enabled all kinds of new collector-oriented lines and other avenues to come about. Not saying Sonic's movie will do the same for his series, but the 2007 TF movie certainly did more good than harm.

Paramount changed Sonic due to fan backlash but refused to redo Transformers 2007 with new cgi appearances based on their classic forms everyone’s knows and loves, and can relate to. Trailer 1 Sonic is as appealing a design as 2007 Bumblebee...

I don't. They're a pain in the ass to repair.

I wish car companies would bring back flip up headlights

Wear a hazmat suit. It's Walmart, they're used to weird.

2 inches of snow on the side of the house, 2 feet of snow on the deck. I hate this winter already.

But that requires actually going IN walmart. ;P

Pro tip for anyone hunting the for the Walmart 35th exclusives: try the seasonal aisles rather than the toy section. I found the display with all the exclusives and a bunch of the reflector wave practically untouched amongst those novelty arcade machines and a bunch of frozen merch.

Although that does spark an idea for me. In a new continuity, Censere the Necrobot could be the herald Cityspeaker for Quintessa the Necrotitan just to play on their monikers utilizing Greek for dead, nekrós.

I hate to burst your bubble, Maximus Ambus, but 90% of things said in IDW turned out to be amnesiac half-rememberings courtesy of Adaptus or outright lies courtesy of Shockwave.

The toy's designed to look like Wipe-Out, anyway.

Didn't they try to retcon that into a figure of speech because that connection went against everybody else's long-term plans?

There's still some connection given Trypticon was created by Mortilus.

Yeah that toy doesn't exactly look like Necrobot.

But.... it's just "Necro" not "Necrobot".

But why does the God of Death need a giant space kaiju? Wait, never mind, answered my own question.

Yowza I just realised Titans Trypticon comes with Necro AKA Censere AKA Mortilus.

I... think the best equivalent would actually be the British "There is room for improvement".

There's always a sense of irony to it, but what the ratio between irony (you really failed) and straightworwardness (at least you achieved something) is depends on the situation and the speaker.

The meaning can be both literal (you succeed on one level but fail on another), or it can be utterly ironic (you fail in every regard but the most technical; or even worse, "you really gave your best"), and anything in between.

For example: A singer can hit the notes really well, but clearly isn't a native speaker and what little of the lyrics you can make out sounds nothing like what it's supposed to be.

The premise seems to be the mixing of technical and aesthetic technical qualities towards the overall success.

But both "hollow victory" and pyrrhic victory" are referring to having lost as much as you've gained. IE; a battle was won but both armies were destroyed. The town being seiged is victorious, but all the soldiers are still dead. Nevermore's concept is more "You did it, but it's so ugly we don't know if you actually succeeded".

Alternately, one could probably also call it a "hollow victory".

Example: In the Powerpuff Girls episode "Uh Oh Dynamo", the monster-of-the-day was a really tough, giant-size one that required the use of a really destructive mech to defeat it. While the monster was ultimately beaten, the city of Townsville was utterly trashed by the mech's weapons in the process. So, while the city was saved from the monster, it was harmed even worse by the mech that saved it, making the victory bittersweet.

@Nevermore, sounds to me like what one might call a "bittersweet victory". The goal was met, but at great cost or by disastrous result that call into question if the achieved goal could even be called a success.

Seems to be close enough to "Pyrrhic victory"

What do you get from putting the German term through a translator?

That is a ridiculously interesting concept. But I don't think english has a singular term for what you're describing.

Is there an English equivalent for what we Germans call "deductions in the B rating"? Context: Someone did something and suceeded on a technical level (as in, achieved the intended goal), but failed to some degree in the details, i.e. there was some collateral damage, or while a technical success, the end result is an aestetic failure. It can be used highly ironically, as in "barely achieved the intended goal, but failed so much in every aspect that's not purely technical that it might as well be considered an utter failure altogether." The German term is derived from the old judging syste in figure skating, which gave separate ratings for "technical merit" and "presentation", with the latter being the origin of the German term.

Huh. I did not know before today that "medieval" had an alternate spelling "mediaeval". Like "paleontology" and "palaeontology".

'Beast Wars in underrated' the comment went. I exploded.

Absolutely.

So... you can look like a cop from the 70's AND a huge nerd at the same time?

I feel like the best way to carry the Switch would be an under-arm torso holster.

It's not. hell. If the 3DS zelda case just stretched a LITTLE more it would fit.

I feel like the Switch Lite is a bit big to have hanging on your belt like that, but I don't take my Switch out with me often anyway.

I must be the only one who wants a switch lite case with a belt loop. o.O

I'm gonna have "Chainsaw Buffet" and "Candy For the Cannibal" by Lordi playing in my head all night.

Trick or treaters can only consent to cannibalism in Germania.