Transformers Collaborative series

[lastmaximal]

I like how there's a Kiss Players display at a hobby store here.

I am curious about this, if only because I still want the Autorooper and I am loath to consider buying it from outside the country and potentially having to explain to sketchy customs people inventing things to tax me over why there's a blushing, bothered, young-looking female character hiding an energy gremlin under her skirt on the box.

But given how local specialty and hobby stores price things, especially anything Takara... I'm probably better off not bothering.

 

[Blot]

Funny enough, Age of Extinction also has a concerningly icky bit and the movie has been citationally reduced to being represented almost entirely BY that dumb idea. But, y'know, when you script and shoot and keep a whole-ass sequence about flexing a(n inaccurate understanding of, iirc) the Romeo and Juliet Law complete with corny-ass whipping out a laminated card of it... you've earned that.

Weirdly you don't ever see anyone go like "Wow Titan Grimlock, I can't believe Hasbro is really acknowledging THAT which cannot be named"

 

[LordGigaIce]

I'm just saying there are multiple NGE crossover figures

 

[Sabrblade]

And it's been a hot minute since I've listened to them. I just tend to default to "alien robots and time travel" as "space."

Well, seeing as how the time travel chapters of the audio drama are lost media, I'd be very intrigued to learn how you were able to listen to them.

 

[lastmaximal]

My dude, what exactly are you contributing to the conversation at this point

Weirdly you don't ever see anyone go like "Wow Titan Grimlock, I can't believe Hasbro is really acknowledging THAT which cannot be named"

Wait until it's revealed that Grimlock has a to-scale laminated Romeo and Juliet card from a deleted scene that explains just why Optimus was so unnecessarily hostile to him.

 

[LordGigaIce]

Well, seeing as how the time travel chapters of the audio drama are lost media, I'd be very intrigued to learn how you were able to listen to them.

I have a friend who was part of a fan effort to translate Kiss Players content into English. I wish I could help more than that, but I just knew a guy who had a crap ton of audio files and translations and wasn't really shy about sharing them if you asked. Listening to the actual audio dramas wouldn't do me any good because I can't speak Japanese, but I did read his write ups years and years ago.

Which I suppose is a form of separation from the source material as translation is a filter in and of itself, but I do think there are degrees to this sort of thing.

Actually... I say "knew" a guy but it's more accurate to say "know." I'm still in contact with him. I could ask if he has any of this material available, but that's about it. I don't even have what he shared with me anymore. That was like three computers ago. I was still in undergrad at the time

 

[Sabrblade]

I have a friend who was part of a fan effort to translate Kiss Players content into English. I wish I could help more than that, but I just knew a guy who had a crap ton of audio files and translations and wasn't really shy about sharing them if you asked. Listening to the actual audio dramas wouldn't do me any good because I can't speak Japanese, but I did read his write ups years and years ago.

Which I suppose is a form of separation from the source material as translation is a filter in and of itself, but I do think there are degrees to this sort of thing.

Actually... I say "knew" a guy but it's more accurate to say "know." I'm still in contact with him. I could ask if he has any of this material available, but that's about it. I don't even have what he shared with me anymore. That was like three computers ago. I was still in undergrad at the time

Your friend may have something the wiki has been after for years!

 

[LordGigaIce]

Your friend may have something the wiki has been after for years!

I genuinely had no idea about any of this being lost or rare until this conversation. I just knew a guy who shared some translations with me years ago and that I kinda sorta remember.

I had no idea this was this nuts

I can ask and see what he still has.

 

[Andrusi]

Weirdly you don't ever see anyone go like "Wow Titan Grimlock, I can't believe Hasbro is really acknowledging THAT which cannot be named"

I think this ties into what lastmaximal said about firsthand experience. I would imagine more people have seen AoE than listened to the KP radio dramas, by an order of magnitude at least, and so the person snarking about Transformers is more likely to think of AoE as a movie normal people watched because they wanted to see robots fighting (and therefore its robots that fight might have appeal in of themselves), because they were a normal person (in their own estimation) who watched AoE because they wanted to see robots fighting.

 

[Princess Viola]

all i'm getting from this convo is that modern 'fandom' culture is a ******* plague and the internet was a mistake.

i'm putting fandom in quotes because, and call me a gatekeeper all you want, but i don't think you can actually say you're participating in a fandom if you're not actually engaging with the actual damn work itself. it's like when people say 'omg i love this character!!!' but it's actually their AU version that has a completely different personality, completely different backstory, completely different appearance and the only thing they share with the actual character is the name and like...you just made an OC at that point. that's fine, but it's not the character.

 

[LordGigaIce]

all i'm getting from this convo is that modern 'fandom' culture is a ******* plague and the internet was a mistake.

i'm putting fandom in quotes because, and call me a gatekeeper all you want, but i don't think you can actually say you're participating in a fandom if you're not actually engaging with the actual damn work itself. it's like when people say 'omg i love this character!!!' but it's actually their AU version that has a completely different personality, completely different backstory, completely different appearance and the only thing they share with the actual character is the name and like...you just made an OC at that point. that's fine, but it's not the character.

It's ironically gotten worse as there's been less of an excuse to avoid actual works.

Again, I was deeply interested in JG1 stuff as a young teen, and I had to hunt down bad fan dubs of Headmasters, Masterforce, and Victory.

These days? There are so many readily available copies, dubs, subs, whatever, that it's really easy to watch the material in a way you're comfortable with. And yet, because that widespread access to information goes hand in hand with fandom YouTube culture and Wiki culture, more and more people pass on that easily available stuff to just consume it second, third, or fourth hand. And then passionately argue about works they've never actually engaged with.

Treading from Transformers for a bit... Disney still published the old EU books under the Legends banner. These Star Wars "fans" who supposedly love the EU could go buy their supposed favourite books right now and form their own opinions on them, but no... they'd rather a YouTuber read Wookiepedia to them.

I don't want to bash Wikis at all, and TFWiki is one of the best (and most entertaining) but it's ultimately just a resource. I do think it's incredibly unfortunate that so many in this fandom either see the Wiki as a viable alternative to engaging with the fiction, or who actively use it as an alternative to engaging with the fiction.

And I likely wouldn't care so much, if these people who have never read or watched these stories didn't make their fandom of these stories they never read or watched vital components of their personalities as fans.

"FP Nexus Prime means a lot to me bro."

No he doesn't, you've never read anything he's actually been in. STFU.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

There was still no need for Hasbro to mention KP. It isn't, to my knowledge, officially part of the western canon, it's universally disliked by most TF fans (especially outside Japan), contains imagery or themes that isn't socially acceptable in most places (including Japan) and it's been happily living in obscurity for donkey's years.

There was no need at all for them to have dug it up.

Regardless, this reminded me that there's a thread to discuss TF-related gender/sex issues or ideas (especially if they link to evidence, media, etc discussing it).

 

[Princess Viola]

You could literally use the 'not officially part of the Western canon' as a reason for Hasbro to never acknowledge anything from the Japanese side of things lol.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

it's like when people say 'omg i love this character!!!' but it's actually their AU version that has a completely different personality, completely different backstory, completely different appearance and the only thing they share with the actual character is the name and like...you just made an OC at that point. that's fine, but it's not the character.

But enough about IDW.

 

[Sabrblade]

Regardless, this reminded me that there's a thread to discuss TF-related gender/sex issues or ideas (especially if they link to evidence, media, etc discussing it).

Should somebody be offended that he thinks Kiss Players is a series about "TF-related gender/sex issues or ideas"? I feel like somebody should be offended by that.

 

[NovaSaber]

There was still no need for Hasbro to mention KP. It isn't, to my knowledge, officially part of the western canon, it's universally disliked by most TF fans (especially outside Japan),

The existence of the "Kiss Players" singing group (which is the in-universe meaning of the name for the part of that story that the cassettes are in) presumably is now western canon because of these figures.
And that's not a particularly big deal; it doesn't really have to be a reference to the earlier in-universe meaning of the same phrase to be justified.

contains imagery or themes that isn't socially acceptable in most places (including Japan) and it's been happily living in obscurity for donkey's years.

References to it that have not involved those themes (which includes this one) have not been particularly avoided before; in fact they outnumber references to almost any other non-animated Japanese Transformers story (besides Return of Convoy).
Why does just having the initials make that big a difference compared to all the other ones?

 

[Princess Viola]

people have been mad over Kiss Players for twenty goddamn years

twenty years

 

[The Mighty Mollusk]

People have been mad about Prime getting killed in the Movie for forty years.

Some people just like being mad.

 

[LordGigaIce]

HOW DARE HASBRO REFERENCE THE THING THE FIGURES ARE THIS IS AN OUTRAGE

 

[Princess Viola]

honestly i don't know why i'm surprised by this like there are still people mad over beast wars