And he barely even did anything Titan Master-y.
He didn't even turn into anyone's head, did he?
Oh, but I think he gave Trypticon a power boost after being eaten.
He didn't even turn into anyone's head, did he?
Oh, but I think he gave Trypticon a power boost after being eaten.
The comics wasted them too, Sovereign/Blackrock and Infinitus. Power of the Primes was the trilogy's waste basket.
'Tis what happens when a comic that isn't trying to sell toys is forced to try selling toys, but still tries its darndest to continue not doing that like it had before and after.
My favourite part about TR's comic run was that just before it started Optimus decapitated Galvatron (things got kinda Bayesque for a moment) and everyone rightfully went "oh ofc Galvatron's coming back as a Headmaster" because he was in the first wave of TR toys and he lost his head right before the TR comic line started.
And then... it just didn't happen. Like the setup was right there. It was perfect, and just didn't happen.
A close second was that they did use Sentinel/Infinitus and Blackrock/Alpha Trion but got weirdly indignant about actually selling the toys in the line.
Sentinel showed up with his old (non-toy) Megatron: Origins body wearing black modular armour over it that vaguely looked like his TR toy but not really (the thing doesn't have any black on it) and Alpha Trion was just normal IDW Alpha Trion without even a hint of his unicorn/lion mode from the toyline.
Only they had Infinitus cut off his head and wear his body so you kinda had some representation of the play pattern only not really because the Alpha Trion body didn't look like the Alpha Trion toy. And then Infinitus gave Alpha Trion's body to Blackrock/Sovereign who then turned into an Alpha Trion head.... for reasons presumably to sell the toy, only it didn't look like toy.
Meanwhile Galvatron was still headless, had a Headmaster toy on the shelf in the line the comic arc was named after, and just stayed dead.
It's almost art in how IDW both did and didn't want to play along at the same time. Like f'in Gollum was writing the comics for four months.
"WE WANTS TO SELL THE TOYS!"
"NO WE HATES IT!"
It's kind of a shame after how well everything went (more or less) with Dark Cybertron/Thrilling 30.
My favorite part of the Thrilling 30 character shilling is when Crosscut gets an intro dump that makes him sound like he'll matter later, then he tells Swerve to answer his comm and never really matters again. He's around, but he never actually does anything of consequence.
Yeah, and then there's things like Starscream dressing up like his Armada self just because and Jhiaxus copying it but in orange just because.
Titans Return was like Crosscut's situation but for the concept of Titans Return.
Titans Return was like Crosscut's situation but for the concept of Titans Return.
Honestly it's a little silly but I miss the 80s Marvel Comic era of toy shilling. Where Transformers and GIJoe books had to near constantly introduce new toys while telling their story.
It was one of those challenges that forced the writer to be more creative to tell stories around it. But also, it just gave those books a certain pace and feel that no modern comics have had because no one is forced to tell stories that way and darn it having grown up on those books I'm nostalgic for that feel.
Like next time someone gets the liscense and starts over I'd love either a book that follows whatever the current Generation releases were religiously or one that goes back and does things in order. A year staring 84 toys, then a year staring 85 toys and so through 1990.
-ZacWilliam, or at least a miniseries with one issue spotlighting characters from each year.
It was one of those challenges that forced the writer to be more creative to tell stories around it. But also, it just gave those books a certain pace and feel that no modern comics have had because no one is forced to tell stories that way and darn it having grown up on those books I'm nostalgic for that feel.
Like next time someone gets the liscense and starts over I'd love either a book that follows whatever the current Generation releases were religiously or one that goes back and does things in order. A year staring 84 toys, then a year staring 85 toys and so through 1990.
-ZacWilliam, or at least a miniseries with one issue spotlighting characters from each year.
Or how Starscream learned his new body had swords, because of Jhiaxus fighting with them... who's toy didnt have swords.
I do like how it worked the other way around, when Hasbro made toys of a bunch of characters who'd become fan favorites through that era of IDW. Tailgate, Brainstorm, Swerve, Whirl (albeit less MTMTE and more G1)...
I just miss having regular fiction tying in with the toys and bringing things to life in a sense, especially when they get to a point where they influence each other.
I just miss having regular fiction tying in with the toys and bringing things to life in a sense, especially when they get to a point where they influence each other.
The whole Hasbroverse killed two comics and Unicron for me.
I did like how Starscream changing bodies got explained as him just being that vain and deciding he needed a glow up. It's the most Starscream way possible to handle it.
Even that was a miss because Jihaxus wore Starscream's Armada body in orange but... in the comics it was just Starscream's Armada body in orange, but the toy did some remoulding on the wings to change the silhouette of the whole thing.
Honestly? I agree.
Like... it's Transformers. If you get the licence to do media... yeah you're gonna have to sell some toys. If you spent the money to get the licence and produce the media thinking you wouldn't have to then you're a bit of an idiot.
I'd rather the creative team embrace that and do their best to handle what is an intrinsic part of the brand than IDW's half hearted attempts that still woefully missed the mark on things.
Like... I get it, IDW had their creative vision and didn't want to compromise that too much to sell toys, but at the same time... look at the licence you're working on, bruv. Ya gonna have to sell some toys, least you can do is make it fun and not come off like you're only doing it because John Hasbro has a gun to your head.
The 80s were a bit heavy handed. I don't want two page spreads of every character just blurting out the Cole's Notes of their personality but I at least admire the spirit of what they tried to do.
Another thing in TR's favour is that they put work in to flesh the fiction out. The packing had blurbs. Not much but it was something. And they had that PDF that gave expanded notes on everyone and even hinted at some stories.
I'm not someone who thinks Hasbro needs to go back to full bios on the packaging- I think there are viable reasons why this doesn't happen much anymore- but I do want some extra effort on their part. Put up a website with some bios. More PDFs. Stuff like that.
I think it's just harder than it used to be to get companies to cooperate. For whatever reason.
At least IDW2 kinda did it a little better. It was still trying to tell its own story, but it didn't feel like it completely ignored the toys that were being sold either. It felt like a fairly decent compromise between the two. It also ended up convincing me to buy some older toys, like tracking down a Cyberverse Flamewar to have a Micromaster sized one to fit with my decepticon Micromasters, until we got a regular one thanks the SG.
I'd completely forgotten that Titans Return did that, or maybe I tuned them out entirely at the time because I thought they were just generic line promo rather than individual character blurbs. Damn.
I miss lore.
I miss lore.
I do think that is one big thing toys have been missing for a while now. Both Transformers and GI Joe used to have their tech specs and bio blurb right there on the packaging. Give us a little bit of personality, some idea of the tactics they preferred to use, et al. Nowadays that's all outsourced to comics, cartoons, and online media. Things that may not be available to the kids.
I'd like to see these come back in some fashion. Give us some hint of the personality of the character we just bought. Some idea of who they are.
I'd like to see these come back in some fashion. Give us some hint of the personality of the character we just bought. Some idea of who they are.
It's also outsourced in a sense to the *past*-- with legacy characters, you're just supposed to know who Optimus Prime and Megatron and Ferak and Wingblaster and Leader-B and Batman and Scarecrow and Mrs. King and whoever are.
One thing to note about IDW is that when it started, there WAS no toyline. In 2005 we were still in the middle of Cybertron and Classics wouldn't be out for another year. When they had Simon Furman sit down and concept out a new take on G1, it was with the implicit idea that there was no toyline that needed to be promoted, so they were free to bring in whatever characters they wanted. (Which, imo, was a huge boone for early IDW).
Obviously that changed as C/H lead into U and then G and suddenly there were a million G1-inspired toys out.
Obviously that changed as C/H lead into U and then G and suddenly there were a million G1-inspired toys out.
Same thing with Dreamwave's G1 comics, too.