So at least when it came to Orion Pax and Hot Rod, when they took up the matrix they got a trailer as part of the gig. Optimus turned into a semi truck, but Rodimus was still basically a sports car with a trailer attachment, and as a result looks kind of ridiculous. Anyway, imagine if the next Prime in the line ended up looking like this: Spoiler
It would be great if that was just what happened to Primes. aeroplane with a trailer. Boat with a trailer. Microscope with a trailer.
It's how you can tell that Sentinel didn't actually have the Matrix, because he didn't have a trailer (it would have been hilarious, though, considering that actual Sentinel just turns into a head, at least in IDW). Nova Prime's original design had a trailer, but he gave up the Matrix when he went off exploring. I don't remember if we saw the altmodes of any other Primes.
now i'm pondering possible modes of movement for head-with-a-trailer sentinel. current best idea is a hamster wheel with trailer attachments in which the head rolls around at the speed of sound. second best is head with little arms and legs that manually pull the trailer...
A while back I mentioned how happy I am that MasterMind Creations is making a combiner toy where all of the hands and feet are built into the limb-bots, whereas usually the hands and feet just sort of hang out, or form a clump of nonsense that gets dubbed a "battlestation" or the like. For the Cang Toys not-Predaking combiner, they came up with a different solution: the hands and feet are still separate pieces, but the hands at least combine to form a crab. It's pretty great. I don't know yet if the feet do anything. [EDIT]: Isn't it adorable?
Fun fact: Rampage (tiger, Predaking's left arm) and Razorclaw (lion, Predaking's torso) are also the names of crab-formers from Beast Wars, although only Rampage made it into the cartoon. This does not appear to be the case with Headstrong (rhino, right leg), Tantrum (bull, left leg) or Divebomb (eagle, right arm).
I just realized that technology has advanced to the point where you could make a Reflector toy that acts as a working camera.
A while back I found a Ravage that was a flash drive, although it was ugly so I didn't really care. A friend once found a Soundwave that could play mp3s, although it needed a micro-SD card or something to do storage.
Honestly the parts for an MP3 players or a camera aren't that expensive if you just wanted to mod a toy, although 3D printing custom parts would probably make it easier to get everything fitted in right.
Yeah, it's really getting the custom plastic parts to match the toy that would be the relatively difficult bit these days, not the electronics.
War For Cybertron: Siege is out Short opinion: It didn't suck! But it's not gonna have much of a fandom :/ Spoiler: Long opinion Now I have a really good example to point to when I need to complain about something feeling like a summary. Everything felt staged, the exposition water hose was pointed at the audience the entire time, everyone who didn't have the benefit of a very strong vocal performance (so, everyone who wasn't Optimus, Megatron, Ultra Magnus and Ratchet) had basically no character and what the Absolute Fuck was going on with the few characters that got arcs??? Like, that was it?? That was nothing! Why was Red Alert a medic if nobody was gonna comment on that? Why did Mirage have Hound's holotech and also why did Hound and Ironhide feel like their personalities were switched? Why was Prowl-- actually, no, I liked that Prowl gave off a Garrus Vakarian vibe, that's a fun direction to take him. But what the fuck was up with Impactor and why were the Decepticons so fucking oblivious to the activities of their own faction?? I was really excited for both the Decepticons and Autobots being in a state and neither side really having a good grasp on the war anymore but then it turns out Megatron.... is completely aware and completely okay with his Decepticons enacting unlawful brutalities towards the Autobots...? There was a definite sense that things were just modularly planned to happen, nothing is meaninfully set up, nothing is meaningfully paid off, it's just Go Go Go Get To The Next Plot Point. Honestly, the story of "how the Autobots ran away from Cybertron after losing the war" is still better told in Fall of Cybertron, with stronger characterisation. The production values... IDK. I actually liked how it looked, but more in the "wow this screencaps really well" sense? Everything just reads so well, I just kept wishing the animations themselves weren't so low-fidelity and the performances so stiff. A lot of my favourite acting moments came from Optimus, but everyone else could have used at least two more passes. IDK if that's a sign of my expectations being low or what. Also, some of the fights had laughably bad coreography. It didn't suck! But mostly because there was very little here that they could have screwed up :/
Ratchet was the absolutely best part of the show, though. I already like "tired war vet Ratchet who just wants to be left alone". Also if nobody else writes Ratchet/Impactor for this show, I will.
A short but sweet loving fan spoof of the 80's cartoon, for everyone who ever thought, "I will accept this plot, but I just can't help but notice that it makes no sense."
last night I was struck by the sudden urge to get back into transformers (And also reread all of the triumph of time fics, so that I can first time read the wheels of the world roll under them), but. I have no actual idea what's out recently. What's been good since IDW1 ended?
Got to be honest, I just haven't had the brain power/time to get into IDW2? All I know about it is what's been floating around - it had a bit of a rough start, a mixed bag in some respects, but on the other hand it has so many girls (some new and some old) and also Cyclonus, which interests me, Vigilem is there at least once - Spoiler: vague google image search spoilers Also Arcee has un Wife and un Kid, it's cute, the kid (Gauge) is part of an ongoing arc right now And Nautica basically is a walking chick magnet and Starscream knows it Spoiler: plot related spoilers Unfortunately, it's also by and large a rehash of the 'Decepticons rising up against oppression but being framed as the bad guys' kind of thing, except Megatron's motivations this time around are in my opinion kind of super dumb not at all as relatable as JRo's Decepticon backstory in MTMTE wound up being. I'm ready for a pro-Decepticon narrative, IDW/Hasbro will never let me have it, so on and so forth. It might be interesting to see if they manage to make something original out of it, but mostly I'm just interested in yoinking all their cool female characters until the whole thing is on sale/more complete so it's actually worth binging the archives
Also anyone who hasn't already should read Axiom's End by Lindsay Ellis, which is quite literally Bayverse fanfiction with spark bond analogs, definitely-totally-not-Transformers robot aliens with caste dynamics, and a hilariously relatable girl protagonist who accidentally gets caught up in the gay alien drama. I'm not even kidding. The 'secret Starscream' Lindsay mentions on Twitter is very obvious once you remember it's all just Bayverse but good (Lindsay Ellis wrote TF fanfiction about Starscream and the fact that I will never be able to find it all these years after the fact will haunt me until the end of days)
