Hasbro "Transformers Timelines" comic packs

[Platypus Prime]

This reminds me of the time Shockwave went back in time to kill Shockwave and gain the power of Shockwave in order to stop Shockwave's plan and instead ensure that Shockwave would become Shockwave to fight off Shockwave in order to win Shockwave's hand in marriage.

Or was that Optimus Prime...?

 

[Tuxedo Prime]

Well, it was inevitable that one time-travelling Shockwave would be thwarted by another time-travelling Shockwave.

...and that's why the Maximal Imperium interdicted Earth.

Now, where did I put that Beast Machine Episode Generator.... got it off of 3S....

Swindle, Swindle and Swindle - Transformers Wiki

tfwiki.net

 

[NovaSaber]

You don't remember the massive continuity headache that resulted when an American Beast Era name reuse got tied into the Headmasters anime, and then Chip Chase was used to fix it in a callback to the original cartoon?

That wasn't the order of events.

Binaltech used Chip Chase to tie "Prowl II" (from RiD) with Headmasters (because Prowl appeared in Headmasters despite having died in TFTM).

Then the Beast Wars Sourcebook tied that stuff into the fact that there were two Beast Wars Prowls, by saying the owl was also Prowl II.

 

[Princess Viola]

this is why they shouldn't let fans write jive for this franchise

you get all these convoluted explanations instead of just going 'yeah the writers for headmasters fucked up back in 1987, who cares it's a cartoon'

 

[LordGigaIce]

this is why they shouldn't let fans write jive for this franchise

you get all these convoluted explanations instead of just going 'yeah the writers for headmasters fucked up back in 1987, who cares it's a cartoon'

Modern Doctor Who suffers from that. Everyone who's headed the show since it came back was a fan in the 80s.
And that's a great story, fans who followed the show now get to write for it...

... but so many issues I have with modern Who revolve around the Doctor being a pre-destined special chosen one figure, and it all goes back to these people who had these ideas as kids and teens now getting to make their fanfics a reality.

It has a deeper connection with Transformers... much like how a common complaint in Transformers has revolved around Optimus going from a random guy who became a great leader through his own merit to a divinely-appointed saviour, the Doctor started off an oddball reject of his own people who forced those he clashed with to come to him for help because he'd proven himself through his own intellect and cunning.

So like the decision to turn Optimus into a demigod has been met with criticism, modern Who's increasing willingness to make the Doctor Actually The Most Special Boy (or Girl) has not been great.

In short... sometimes fans just probably should be held in check.

 

[NovaSaber]

To be fair, "Binaltech coming up with reasons for its duplicates to exist simultaneously" was a thing it was already doing before it got to the characters whose duplicates it connected to continuity errors.

 

[Sabrblade]

You don't remember the massive continuity headache that resulted when an American Beast Era name reuse got tied into the Headmasters anime, and then Chip Chase was used to fix it in a callback to the original cartoon?

That wasn't the order of events.

Binaltech used Chip Chase to tie "Prowl II" (from RiD) with Headmasters (because Prowl appeared in Headmasters despite having died in TFTM).

Then the Beast Wars Sourcebook tied that stuff into the fact that there were two Beast Wars Prowls, by saying the owl was also Prowl II.

RiD Prowl 2 only got caught up in that tangled mess because of Derik Smith's insistent refusal to accept the idea that that Spychanger toy was just normal RiD Prowl as a Spychanger (like the Spychanger toys of Side Burn and X-Brawn were), using an internal name for the Super Mode version of Prowl, and not his own separate character.

The Binaltech story used the name "Prowl 2" for the Binaltech body controlled by Chip only as a cheeky nod to the Hasbro-original Spychanger toy without said body actually being the Spychanger toy.

After the mess made by the BW Sourcebook tying Transmetal 2 Prowl to the Binaltech story before it could be finished and ended with Prowl 1 being restored to normal, the Ask Vector Prime answer that attempted to clean up the mess added in the Spychanger toy as his own guy for no good reason, all because the wiki was treating the Spychanger toy as its own separate character because of Derik, who likewise believed that the Spychanger toy was part of this entanglement because of his even more delusional belief that when Car Robots was revealed to be part of JG1 all along, that somehow meant that the entirety of the Hasbro version of the RiD toyline with all of its new additions that never existed in the original Car Robots version (Spychanger Prowl 2 included) were ALSO now canon to JG1. And he would not let this go, which all resulted in the aforementioned AVP answer being influenced by his delirious meddling.

(As a refresher, this is the same man who is also the reason why "dimension-hopper Sideways" was believed to be a thing for over a decade)

 

[Princess Viola]

Modern Doctor Who suffers from that. Everyone who's headed the show since it came back was a fan in the 80s.
And that's a great story, fans who followed the show now get to write for it...

... but so many issues I have with modern Who revolve around the Doctor being a pre-destined special chosen one figure, and it all goes back to thea people who had these ideas as kids and teens now getting to make their fanfics a reality.

It has a deeper connection with Transformers... much like how a common complaint in Transformers has revolved around Optimus going from a random guy who became a great leader through his own merit to a divinely-appointed saviour, the Doctor started off an oddball reject of his own people who forced those he clashed with to come to him for help because he'd proven himself through his own intellect and cunning.

So like the decision to turn Optimus into a demigod has been met with criticism, modern Who's increasing willingness to make the Doctor Actually The Most Special Boy (or Girl) has not been great.

In short... sometimes fans just probably should be held in check.

everyone wants to leave their mark on their fave franchise once they're able to start writing for it, no matter how big or small that mark is

in some cases it's just kinda weird and unneeded but fundamentally minor jive like coming up with explanations for things like prowl appearing in headmasters when he died in TFTM and then specifically name dropped as a dead in an episode of the cartoon after the movie and said name drop was included in the japanese dub so you can't just use 'well TFTM wasn't released in japan yet so they wouldn't have known the specifics of what happened/who died'

and then other times it's 'uhh actually dr who isn't just a renegade time lord who left his people and planet cuz they were bored they are actually like SPACE JESUS and also the source of how the time lords got regeneration too'

 

[lastmaximal]

This reminds me of the time Shockwave went back in time to kill Shockwave and gain the power of Shockwave in order to stop Shockwave's plan and instead ensure that Shockwave would become Shockwave to fight off Shockwave in order to win Shockwave's hand in marriage.

Or was that Optimus Prime...?

So, wait, OPTIMUS PRIME is SHOCKWAVE?

That explains so much...

 

[Sabrblade]

in some cases it's just kinda weird and unneeded but fundamentally minor jive like coming up with explanations for things like prowl appearing in headmasters when he died in TFTM and then specifically name dropped as a dead in an episode of the cartoon after the movie and said name drop was included in the japanese dub so you can't just use 'well TFTM wasn't released in japan yet so they wouldn't have known the specifics of what happened/who died'

Thankfully, the actual explanation is much less complicated than anything Ask Vector Prime cooked up.

Since Binaltech eventually got split off from the main timeline into its own splinter timeline, the Prowl and Wheeljack of the Binaltech universe traveled over to the main universe circa 2011 for some supplies, but got stuck in the main universe when theirs got closed off by a Quintesson quadrant lock (something from the G1 episode "The Face of the Nijika"). Unable to return back home to the Binaltech universe, the two decided to stay in the main universe since their counterparts there had died in TFTM back in 2005, so now the two could simply take their places as though everything was normal (even if everyone knew deep down that these weren't the same Prowl and Wheeljack who died in TFTM, but the differences were about as negligible as when Harry Kim took the place of his counterpart who died in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Deadlock").

 

[Blot]

Transformers fans: We'll Overthink An Owl Joke

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

So like, did Prowl do anything of note in Headmasters to warrant all this? Or did he just appear in a scene as little more than an animation error and people ran (wild, apparently) with it?

Aside: I'll even consider just "speaking" as something of note, since they'd have to get the voice actor in for that. Just being more than an extra in a crowd is what I mean.

 

[Sabrblade]

So like, did Prowl do anything of note in Headmasters to warrant all this? Or did he just appear in a scene as little more than an animation error and people ran (wild, apparently) with it?

Aside: I'll even consider just "speaking" as something of note, since they'd have to get the voice actor in for that. Just being more than an extra in a crowd is what I mean.

He appeared in Episode 1 and Episode 3 as part of Ultra Magnus's unit of Earth-based Autobots and had a speaking line during the fight he partook in during Episode 1. His appearance in Episode 3, however, was more of just a cameo, but was consistent with his Episode 1 appearance as he was again working with Magnus on Earth:

 

[LordGigaIce]

and then other times it's 'uhh actually dr who isn't just a renegade time lord who left his people and planet cuz they were bored they are actually like SPACE JESUS and also the source of how the time lords got regeneration too'

Steven Moffat is on record saying that the idea that show under him canonized that the Doctor is the reason the word "Doctor" means what it means, since their time travel adventures seeded the association of "wise man and healer" through time.
Which is the kind of thing you think of when you're sixteen and think you're the smartest mfer around without thinking it through.

Meanwhile I'm going

 

[The Mighty Mollusk]

Transformers fans: We'll Overthink

That's all you needed there.

 

[lastmaximal]

Fans: We'll Overthink

 

[Tuxedo Prime]

Multiquote time! Thanks to CloudFlare, I missed a lot, but I'm catching up.

and then other times it's 'uhh actually dr who isn't just a renegade time lord who left his people and planet cuz they were bored they are actually like SPACE JESUS and also the source of how the time lords got regeneration too'

Some of this, to be fair, goes back to Andrew Cartmel's Master Plan, back when Sylvester McCoy was still on screen in the late 1980s fighting a losing battle against Coronation Street in the ratings. His plan (to have the Doctor be the reincarnation of one of the founders of Time Lord Society alongside Rassilon) only got as far as vague hints in multiple TV stories, but some threads continued in the Virgin New Adventures books.
Then there were the various if-we-get-picked-up-for-a-series story bibles for the US TV Movie with the Pertwee Logo.... but that's for another thread.

RiD Prowl 2 only got caught up in that tangled mess [snippety bonk!]

Can we blame Scorponok? I feel as though we haven't blamed Scorponok in a while, what with the whole "All of history is Shockwave's fault" memetic mutation.... and it would be appropriate for Toei-G1.

(As a refresher, [Derik] is the same man who is also the reason why "dimension-hopper Sideways" was believed to be a thing for over a decade)

Well, became a thing thanks to citogenesis, so that even the fanon wiki had to step back and ask "Well, how did we get here?"

"And you may find yourself reading The Allspark Almanac....
"And you may find yourself in a pitched battle in Shanghai....
"And you may find yourself being told about the Transformers...."

Don't get me wrong, I agree that if the wiki's going to be an approved source (as has been the case for a few years and productions now), it should strive for accuracy, particularly in spheres where there are contradictory accounts or we have to overcome pre-Doug-and-Juniper "Let's bad translation!" of Toei's material.

Where I part company with Dave "Zobovor" Edwards is that this is still, at the end of the day, about toys and toy-based fiction: and if we can't allow ourselves the occasional caption such as "LOTS OF FRIES!!" or "died to an hero", then we have, on some level, missed the point. And if anyone wonders, I've been known to mock my own pedantry with regards to the Galaxy Far Far Away, so I am somewhat consistent in this regard.

(Does anyone remember when fandom was fun?)

That's all you needed there.

"Your move, James Roberts...."

 

[Platypus Prime]

Overthinking? Oh, I've been doing THAT for YEARS...but I do still have fun, even if it's at the expense of logic and reason.

Like when Shockwave was at a con with the other Shockwaves and decided to cosplay Shockwave but as usual there was a girl in the group who only barely understood the assignment but got all the attention anyway...

But due to Shockwave also being Reflector at some point at least he got good pictures.

Leading to the revelation that there is at least one Shockwave toy that can facepalm.

Also, Brainstorm is Bigfoot.

So...about the actual topic thread, I do assume that the Japan-themed Transformers mean that Hearts of Steel isn't going to have any more additions till they revisit it later, maybe? I am sort of surprised Steamboat Shockwave wasn't the theme for the fan-vote, though now that I think of it, I guess 'creature' won out despite the aquatic theme...

 

[lastmaximal]

Multiquote time! Thanks to CloudFlare, I missed a lot, but I'm catching up.

(Does anyone remember when fandom was fun?)

I remember a time when I could understand what people were saying.

I read that whole post a couple of times and was entirely lost. The only relevant response I could think of was "I generally don't mind funny wiki captions", but have no idea how relevant that is or isn't.

 

[CrockAlley]

Starscream proves this team can't do Bird transformers.

hasbro should just stop doing birds tbh. they clearly can't do birds.

I didn't realize this was a common sentiment among fans. Maybe I haven't been paying attention, but I really like Kingdoms Airazor, and the two ROTB Airazors were good. Am I going to be crucified for saying I like Earthrise Nightshade? And let's be honest, this bird Starscream isn't much worse that most jets with robot junk hanging off the bottom.

and then other times it's 'uhh actually dr who isn't just a renegade time lord who left his people and planet cuz they were bored they are actually like SPACE JESUS and also the source of how the time lords got regeneration too'

The genius thing about the Timeless Child is that it injected the Doctor's origins with a much-needed dose of mystery without changing anything we or the Doctor have ever known about themself. The First Doctor did leave for all those same reasons, because the First Doctor didn't know that he was the Timeless Child. He was just a bored Time Lord, fed up with the stuffy society. The Timeless Child changed nothing in that regard. And let's not pretend the writers haven't been adding bits and bobs to the Doctor's origins and history from the beginning. In the earliest of episodes, The Doctor was portrayed as a human from the future. The very idea of Time Lords, Galifrey, regenerations, etc. were all retcons.

Having said all this, I do agree with the core premise, re: fans shouldn't be writers. Which is to say, I don't hold a writer's special knowledge of a subject to be inherently better than a writer's lack of knowledge. I just want well-written stories. I don't care about fidelity to the source material, or slavish devotion to decades-old continuity. Just make a good story.