TFARCHIVE FORUMS

Based on the confusion regarding the upcoming blue version of Prowl, it came to my attention that some people seem to be under the misconception that Takara actually released a toy officially named "Zoom-Zoom".

In fact, Takara did release two differently colored versions of the Mazda RX-8 mold, one in white, the other one in red, at the same time. Both toys were numbered as "BT-08" and named "Meister". The red version's packaging had an additional text box saying "Velocity Red Mica Edition" ("Velocity Red Mica" is the official name of the red color on the real-life RX-8). See attached Fig. 1.

Now, where did the name "Zoom-Zoom" originate from?

The "system description" from the booklet (which came with both the red and the white version), written by fan artist-turned-Takara-employee Hirofumi Ichikawa (who also writes the Binaltech story and the character bios), was the only time the name was used. See attached Fig. 2.

Here's a translation of that passage, quoted from Doug Dlin's version at BWTF (emphasis added by me):

This other Meister, with his whole body colored bright red, is the Autobots' replica automaton, the original result of the BT-08 Plan research. Although his artificial intelligence, designed to emulate Meister's personality programming, is still insufficient for it to be thought of as a proper lifeform, he is able to take a high level of autonomous action and is perfectly capable of being sent into actual combat under Meister's remote control. In befriending this A.I. robot, which is like a brother or son to him, Meister has nicknamed him "Zoom-Zoom," and has been giving him dance and music lessons when opportunity allows.

So, in other words, the name "Zoom-Zoom" is a nickname given to him by Meister (the white one). There's no indication that anyone else besides white Meister is actually referring to him by that nickname.

Thereby, "Zoom-Zoom" is just as much the official name of this toy as BW Optimus Primal's official name is "Bigbot" (a nickname used only by Cheetor).

Now, what's the story behind this nickname?

Basically, Hasbro and Takara usually design the toys, and then Takara confront the aforementioned Hirofumi Ichikawa with the task "write us a story for this toy". And since Mazda had demanded an additional red version of the "Meister" toy, Ichikawa-san thought it'd be funny to address this in some sort of way. In fact, he likes to include those "real-life behind the scenes" decisions in his Binaltech story and the bios because he thinks it would make the story more "complete". For the same reason, he also came up with the idea of Dead End and Swindle using stolen Autobot bodies, since their head sculpts were originally designed with Sunstreaker and Trailbreaker in mind, respectively.

For the red version of Meister, Ichikawa-san came up with the "clone" concept that was originally introduced with Smokescreen GT, but this time he decided to make the "clone" an individual entity, at least to some extent. The nickname "Zoom-Zoom", in return, was a tongue-in-cheek joke based on Mazda's trademark slogan which was also used in the old Flash animation which gave us the first hint at Meister.

Ichikawa-san already confirmed that the name "Zoom-Zoom" was not included at the request of Mazda, it was solely his own decision to include the slogan because he thought it would be funny to reference Mazda insiting on a red version.

For the same reason, that bit from Overdrive's system description about him only being used for "humanitarian" services was also a tongue-in-cheek joke based on Honda USA insisting on the gun barrel being omitted. Like "Zoom-Zoom", it was all Ichikawa-san's own decision, not something the car manufacturer insisted on.

So, the bottom line: "Zoom-Zoom" - nickname taken from the official system description YES, official name of the toy NO.

I wrote a MTMTE style profile for Zoom-Zoom recently - here's hoping it didn't add to the confusion.

Sure, the red version shares the same number thingy as the white one (BT-08, right?) But... if that's the nickname Meister's given his Red counterpart in the Binaltech story then it's as good a name as any. Otherwise we have to refer to Meister and um... the other Meister.

:\

Unlike the yellow and blue Tracks figures, the two Meisters are obviously meant to be two separate bodies in the story. So calling him Meister isn't exactly right either, since he clearly isn't.

I suppose we could call him "The Autobot With No Name..."