Transformers: The Basics

[Sabrblade]

Is there anything new here for someone who's watched everything thus far?

Asking for a friend.

And by "friend," I mean my wife, who I've watched these with since the beginning, but only have so much time to watch stuff with on the days we get to do it, you see.

New stuff added from TF One, Skybound, and maybe EarthSpark. Plus an overall streamlined presentation.

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

Thanks! Guess I'll try to give it a go.

 

[Cybersnark]

 

[lastmaximal]

Is there anything new here for someone who's watched everything thus far?

Asking for a friend.

And by "friend," I mean my wife, who I've watched these with since the beginning, but only have so much time to watch stuff with on the days we get to do it, you see.

It's pretty neat that your wife shares your interests and good taste in entertainment about entertainment.

My wife, on the other hand, doesn't exist.

 

[Sabrblade]

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

So he can grind it with Megatron?

 

[Tuxedo Prime]

Omni Productions Ginrai: "I'm Optimus Prime. I'm Japanese."
Chris McFeely: "Well yes, but actually no..."

 

[Cybersnark]

 

[Cybersnark]

 

[Cybersnark]

Not exactly The Basics, but McFeely just posted something cool:

 

[Noip]

Huh. I knew...some of that anyway.

 

[Haywire]

Now there's a whole bunch of figures I want to see in the Studio Series Concept line...

 

[Blot]

Now there's a whole bunch of figures I want to see in the Studio Series Concept line...

I thought Hasbro was trying to avoid using fan art for toys.

 

[Haywire]

I thought Hasbro was trying to avoid using fan art for toys.

The Muffler/Muffy character in yellow and pink variants, the female versions of Sideswipe and Starscream, Negator, there's plenty of unused concepts to pull from even before the "show only" characters.

 

[ZacWilliam1]

I thought Hasbro was trying to avoid using fan art for toys.

Why would they use the fan art. That's just one artists guess at the characters in the script Hasbro could/would just do their own designs based on the scripts.

-ZacWilliam, honestly the girls are cool, I'd like them to get toys (Rails too) but it's Muffy I'd like most and that's not a fan design.

 

[Sabrblade]

 

[Sabrblade]

Additional background info regarding the Thirteenth Prime not mentioned in the video, from my talk with Aaron Archer earlier this year at BotCon:

I did also talk to Aaron about the idea of making the 13th Prime be Optimus and how unpopular that decision ultimately was. He said that that actually wasn't supposed to be the case. The original plan was to deliberately lean into the mystery and ambiguity of the 13th's identity and make him just some vague, legendary figure destined to appear when the time is right according to an ancient prophecy that may or may never come true. He also emphasized that the art they produced for the 13th was deliberately faceless and vague in shape. The decision to make Optimus Prime the reincarnation of this nameless, faceless figure came much later, and it was one of those things that just happened to come about when there's a bunch of cooks all working in the same kitchen.

I even brought up to him the idea of how the Last Autobot from Marvel G1 would have been a perfect fit for the 13th since the Last Autobot's whole thing was being the final original creation of Primus before the rest of the Cybertronian race came about, and Aaron said that he simply didn't think of the Last Autobot at the time when he was working on the definitive roster of the Thirteen. His research at the time simply hadn't been thorough enough.

I did actually ask him about the possibility of whether it was ever considered to make Rodimus Prime be the 13th reincarnated, since the Binder described the 13th in a very similar way to the Matrix's Chosen One prophecy from TFTM. Aaron said that he's not certain but did say that it might have been something that they may have possibly considered at one point. But I do recognize that that's a vague enough answer to not have any real weight to say either way.

 

[lastmaximal]

This is equal parts "makes sense", "at least", and "yeeesh".

(I like the idea of Rodimus at least being teased or hinted to link to it, since the 86 movie did have a sorta chosen one, prophecy vibe attached to it. Glad IDW went a slightly different direction and made him insufferable just in general rather than focus on this. But it would be interesting in another story to see Rodimus struggle to live up not just to succeeding Optimus -- the side of it that's gotten more focus -- but to allegedly being THE guy. And then later on, perhaps after retiring or withdrawing, realizing -- or deciding -- that it's an ongoing "legend" they stoke: there's always someone "destined" to one day rise from the ranks and light their darkest hour, and it's all about helping the next generation grow into it rather than anyone being the sole make-or-break hope. Be a neat play on leadership and even individual heroism narratives.)

But then I go back and forth about whether I even really want a "known" Thirteen, or just perennially and persistently rumored but never found ones. I do know I prefer the idea of a plurality of beliefs akin to what we have; it seems more interesting than "validating" one set and making them characters.

I enjoyed the idea at the time of the Guiding Hand and Thirteen somehow coexisting in IDW lore, until they wound up validating one and Shockwave-ing the other, bringing us kind of back where we started.

 

[LordGigaIce]

The idea that #13 needed to be "special" was overthinking things. IMO Megatronus should be the Thirteenth. There were multiple options for that final slot, and they overthought the situation or didn't know about potential choices (Logos Prime, The Last Autobot).

I don't think Archer's lack of fanboy-ness was a problem. It let him lead the franchise with a fresh perspective when it needed that... but ffs, if you're going to do something massive like this... you need to become a bit of a nerd about this stuff.

 

[lastmaximal]

I mean, if the task at hand is to draft something that's supposedly going to align everything and provide a basis for what would come later, you'd think there'd be a more exhaustive effort to gather, well, that everything.

I've toyed with the idea of just combining the Megatronus and Liege characters into one, and having the separation be another of his lies. I agree that the Fallen would work as the Thirteenth if we're going with a Judas archetype anyway. Making the Thirteenth a "The Thirteenth Will Return" archetype might not have been explicitly planned to be Optimus at the start, but it sets up an expectation that makes it all too intuitive to connect those two specific dots (I'm a bit surprised they considered Rodimus since, well, no one does, but it makes sense they would).