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20th Anniversary Optimus Prime

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14:02 / 23.01.05

What about that one where all the autobots got crucified to the sides of metroplex?

That scene haunted my fucking dreams when I read it as a child on holiday. Nearly ruined my whole week, that did.

"It is a scene that will be forever etched on their horried minds." read the caption. No shit.

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

17:29 / 23.01.05

Dude. It was the cover that shitted me up. Arcee all opened up by laser fire. I had to hide it under my bed at night so I could get to sleep.

17:35 / 23.01.05

there's actually a special cut of transformers: the movie where just before he blows unicron can be heard to mutter the word 'ratbat'. tranformers: the movie II, had we not all grown up (a bit) before they got round to making it, woud have revolved around 'bots and 'cons teaming up to figure out what he meant by this.

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

17:55 / 23.01.05

Prove it.

Haus of Mystery

18:30 / 23.01.05

There was a Transformers:The Movie 2. At least they palmed off some later stuff as that - I think it concerned the powermasters(?), but it featured loads of apeshit characters I'd never seen before. And Fortress Maximus. And a multi-changing decepticon that took out all the aerialbots in about 4 seconds. Was pretty pants, but it had it's moments. None of the pathos and drama of the original of course.

"You got the touch..."

18:32 / 23.01.05

Man, you have got to see the Transformers: Beast Wars series. In these terms, it reads like an early release of the immersive TECHNOCCULT Invisibles game.

I remember watching this. Vaguely. Meaning I watched it while working on things around the house. I DID like it though, as I liked the animal analogy much better than tech... even though them being robots was an added complexity. Optimus Primal. Heh.

Now, Qalyn, are you being serious that it's really as good as I'm imagining your compliment to be? TECHNOCCULT was a strange headwrap everytime it was referenced, and I tend to think of it as a cross between the first Matrix film and GTA: San Andreas.

Speak more of Beast Wars, please. Might one rent it at the local Blockbluster?

18:40 / 23.01.05

mutter the word 'ratbat'

I seem to recall there being a decepticon named Ratbat. I think he was a Headmaster, too. Either way, wasn't he a bit of a "telepath" or hypnotist? I've no idea why I'm contributing this. I just remember loving the animation of transformers post-movie, and only vaguely(heh!) remember the plots and circumstances.

ONLY NICE THINGS

18:53 / 23.01.05

He was a cassette, I believe, and Decepticon Fuel Efficiency Officer - a job so dull that they had to give him psychic powers to make up for it.

19:14 / 23.01.05

Ratbat, eject

A was a vampire-baticon who drank the hot, slick life blood of the finest of automobiles. Diesel was like unto ambrosia to his sensors. Ratbat is dead, long live The Ratbat.

Squeerk!

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

19:39 / 23.01.05

Ratbat was at one point a major threat in the comics. About the same time Starscream ascended to cosmic godhood and exploded (I had forgotten how much these comics disturbed me as a kid, as well as priming me for the work of Grant Morrison - I wonder if there's a statistical link between being a TFUK reader and a grant fan. Hmmmmm). He shows up real quick in Transformers: The Movie, when they smash up the com centre.

"Rebirth" was the Headmasters movie, cobbled together from the three episodes of the cartoon series. And it was the shit. I really really want to go and buy it now.

19:44 / 23.01.05

You know, I'm getting my transformers confused.

Shame.

The decepticon I was thinking of earlier was indeed a Decepticon Headmaster with psychic powers. Mindwipe.

http://tfarchive.com/comics/genone/universe/tfumindwipe.php

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

19:58 / 23.01.05

This site reckons a hybrid transformer cropped up in Wolverine. Anyone have a clue which issue that was?

21:45 / 23.01.05

Ratbat was commander on Cybertron for a while. Quite a step up for a fuel-guzzling rodent.

And MacGyver, are you talking about the Japanese "Victory" series? Was that really pushed as a sequel? I know that the US cartoon took up where the movie left off while the Japanese series (Victory) dealt with the Headmasters/Pretenders and all the other stuff that never showed up pre-2005. (2005 being a significant date in TF lore- the year Unicron showed up and TF: The Movie was set.)

22:38 / 23.01.05

I know this is going backwards but I have an answer to the question over the dinobots.

As memory serves the Ark (the autobot's ship that crash landed on earth) re-designed existing autobots during the Jurassic period to combat the might of Shockwave, who had either woken earlier then the rest or arrived just after the crash. Thus the dinobots were born and thus fitted perfectly in with their surroundings. And I beleive that during their battle with Shockwave all of them were trapped in the tar pits and sunk without a trace. Only recovered several years after the rest of the Autobots had been woken.

Oh and Haus, it was always my understanding that in the Headmasters series it was the Decepticons that first used the technology leading to the good "aliens" (I forget their name) bonding with the autobots to battle them.

02:10 / 24.01.05

Speak more of Beast Wars, please. Might one rent it at the local Blockbluster?

I have no idea if it's available anywhere, and I'm not going to be able to describe its awesomeness in any detailed or accurate way. Basically, a bunch of Transformers wake up on a prehistoric Earth with only a vague impression of who they are. Some apocolyptic conflict in the future cast their matrix-thingies back in time, but the trip distorted their basic imprints, so they aren't really sure who's a goodguy and who's a badguy, how to deal with their native antipathy, etc. Little bits repeat on me at the oddest moments, like the badguy wasp-monster who flips out toward the end of the first season and rebels against the Megatron-whatsit's whole paradigm because he's tired of getting his ass kicked by the goodguys. Later, everyone returns to, uh, the home planet thing, where Megatron has won the civil war and the entire planet is under his total control, meaning that it is a totally automated factory, cranking out fleets of decepticons to conquer the galaxy, with no guiding intelligence or genius or purpose, and it takes a while for Megatron to even notice that sentients aside from itself are hanging around.

See, I'm not doing it justice. It's very cool, with a lot of "identity theory" currents.

10:29 / 24.01.05

'As memory serves the Ark (the autobot's ship that crash landed on earth) re-designed existing autobots during the Jurassic period to combat the might of Shockwave, who '

this really only works in the 616 (as i believe the supergeeks - i think most of us qualify given the chatter on this thread - call the standard marvel comics universe). the figure of 'four million years' of post-crash sleepiness is pretty unassailable in transformers mythology terms, and is a bit odd given the last of the dinosaurs fucked off about fifty-six million years before that. luckily they still have dinosaurs in the marvel u, they just live in a place called the savage land in antarctica, where, of course, it's very warm. this is where shockers and the d-bots landed in the comics continuity i think.

the most ipressive thing for me about furman's run on the comic is that the uk stories were carefully designed not to contradict the us stories. they were literally just squeezed in between the budiansky(?) episodes. franchise storytelling at its finest.

11:44 / 24.01.05

Beast Wars is set long after the original series. The Transformers have shrunk in size to better preserve energon. The Autobots are now the Maximals, the Decpticons descendants are the Predacons. The Maximals are lead by Optimus Primal (not actually the Optimus we all know and love, just a leader who took the name out of respect), the Predacons are lead by Megatron (also just a homage, not the real deal.)

Somehow, they all head off into space and get sucked into a time-warp and dumped millions of years into the past. They are reconfigured into beast modes and begin fighting again. Over the course of the series, they realise that they are, in fact, on prehistoric Earth and track down The Ark, which is still buried under what will one day be Mt. St. Helens. They find the deactivated Transformers (their ancestors) and have to protect them from the Predacons.

Cue great scenes which invlove 3D renderings of the original characters, the Matrix, and 3D Optimus Prime getting shot in the face.

The series is available on DVD:
Series 1
Series 2
Series 3

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

11:48 / 24.01.05

He got capped in the grill? Woah.

11:49 / 24.01.05

Forgot to say:

Over the course of the series, the bots go from entirely animal modes to hybrid/cyborg animal-and-machine modes to entirely mechanical modes.

The series leads into "Beast Machines" (never shown in the US or Europe, I think) where, as Qalyn said, Cybertron is under Megatron's total control and it's all very dark and scary. The ending of this series is perhaps the most controversial thing to happen in TF history. I won't spoil unless you really really want me to.

12:07 / 24.01.05

He got capped in the grill? Woah.

Yup.

Complete series run-down with screen caps, Episode Synopsis, Scripts and spoilers a-go-go:

BWTF

12:07 / 24.01.05

the most ipressive thing for me about furman's run on the comic is that the uk stories were carefully designed not to contradict the us stories.

Only, it didn't work perfectly and when it fell apart it fell apart spectacularly. Mainly when the US writers killed off characters who were still active in the UK storylines - witness captions carelessly covered over with TipEx and altered to fit ("Shockwave falls to his death" becomes "Shockwave falls to Earth"). And didn't the US comic have it that all the Transformers could fly when in robot form?

13:51 / 24.01.05

The ending of this series is perhaps the most controversial thing to happen in TF history. I won't spoil unless you really really want me to.

i really want you to.

14:16 / 24.01.05

It's all given away on the BWTF site, diz.

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