Thirtieth Anniversary Countdown articles

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inflatable dalek
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Thirtieth Anniversary Countdown articles

Post by inflatable dalek »

I'm pleased to introduce a whole new series of articles, one a month, counting down the year to Transformers 30th anniversary. It's early days yet, but hopefully we'll be getting a variety of writers looking to talk about various varied aspects of Transformers, both in terms of fiction and real world references.

This thread is both for discussion and feeback, and also for anyone who has a burning desire to write about [insert your thing of choice] to put themselves forward for a slot.

We do have a potential list of ideas which I'll post in here when I'm 100% sure what has and hasn't been taken to see if anyone fancies a punt on any of them, but we're also open to fresh suggestions as well.

First up, the four million year sleep:

http://tfarchive.com/fandom/features/th ... niversary/
REVIISITATION: THE HOLE TRUTH
STARSCREAM GOES TO PIECES IN MY LOOK AT INFILTRATION #6!
PLUS: BUY THE BOOKS!
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Denyer
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Post by Denyer »

Not necessarily a limit, any number of extra slots can be open if stuff is interesting.
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numbat
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Post by numbat »

Enjoyable read!

I guess the modern take on Transformers tend sto use the stochastic equilibrium approach to the war. But I always did love the idea of these massive alien robots lying dormant on Earth while people moved about their everyday lives oblivious to them. The first live action Transformers movie does also play on this with Megatron being frozen, but the timeframes are unclear and the muddle created with Sentinel Prime and the Ark in Dark of the Moon leaves the duration of Megatron's slumber even more uncertain I think. But he could have been there for as long or almost as long as Sentinel was on the Moon. However long that was.

I'll look forward to more articles!

New sale thread added with a range of Transformers including Masterpiece, Botcon, CHUG, RID, Movies etc.

Looking for MP-11T Thundercracker and MP-9 Rodimus v2 (Takara version with as few QC issues as possible).


Check out my new sale thread now!

Also items on eBay.
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inflatable dalek
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Delayed in bumping the thread due to my exciting holiday, but the second feature looking at the sexism/or lack thereof in ther Bay films is now up:

http://tfarchive.com/fandom/features/th ... ansformers
REVIISITATION: THE HOLE TRUTH
STARSCREAM GOES TO PIECES IN MY LOOK AT INFILTRATION #6!
PLUS: BUY THE BOOKS!
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Post by Kungfu Dinobot »

I'm afraid I'd have to disagree with you on one thing Dalek, Leo is the 2nd best character in ROTF*. I like him because he is reacting to the world around him in a very realistic manner. I mean how many people have met think they're so swag about life before being confronted cold, hard reality:lol:?


*1st best is Jetfire.
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Post by electro girl »

Very enjoyable, I just love discussions on gender in pop culture and I'm always keen for strong female characters. I do take issue with the part on male objectification though because the difference is that the sexy men in the films are more like male power fantasies than sexy sex objects what with all that running about with guns and being all commanding and badass. The short history given at the start was very nice and I would like to see more as well maybe a bit of theory like the male gaze or how societal gender roles effect what we see on screen and vice versa. Great read.
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numbat
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Post by numbat »

Another great read. I do think the Transformers films get unwarranted panning on the merit that they are directed by Michael Bay, and are based on a series of toys. As you've shown, they are in many ways more progressive (note the use of the word 'more') than a lot of other mainstream blockbusters.

I don't want to have to bang this drum forever, but it annoys me that people lay in to them so much as being silly, or unrealistic, or too comic: Transformers is about a bunch of alien robots that turn in to cars (and other assorted things). After accepting that premise, you just have to go with it to enjoy the ride. It's a lark!

:)

Avengers delivers the same sort of tone - light-hearted comic tongue-in-cheek uber disaster - but seems even more formulaic to me. And, as you say, is less inclusive than Transformers. Certainly just as daft. I enjoy both very much, but struggle to understand why one is viewed as absolutely phenomenal, and the other as a complete joke. It's particularly funny as Empire say about Transformers Dark of the Moon that because it was such a huge financial success doesn't mean it's a good film, whereas in the same issue just a few pages away they use the argument that the huge box office success of Avengers shows how great a film it is. (They also say just because a film is a box office flop doesn't mean it's bad, using John Carter as the example, and I do agree with that... Dredd is another case-in-point...)

:swirly:

As a side note - Dredd is really a truly brilliant film. Beautifully filmed, perfectly acted, wonderfully scripted and directed, intelligent, brutal and the best use of 3D I've seen (the only artistic use of 3D I have seen for sure anyway) (still hate 3D though...). Such a shame it flopped in the States.

New sale thread added with a range of Transformers including Masterpiece, Botcon, CHUG, RID, Movies etc.

Looking for MP-11T Thundercracker and MP-9 Rodimus v2 (Takara version with as few QC issues as possible).


Check out my new sale thread now!

Also items on eBay.
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Post by Kungfu Dinobot »

numbat wrote:Avengers delivers the same sort of tone - light-hearted comic tongue-in-cheek uber disaster - but seems even more formulaic to me. And, as you say, is less inclusive than Transformers. Certainly just as daft. I enjoy both very much, but struggle to understand why one is viewed as absolutely phenomenal, and the other as a complete joke. It's particularly funny as Empire say about Transformers Dark of the Moon that because it was such a huge financial success doesn't mean it's a good film, whereas in the same issue just a few pages away they use the argument that the huge box office success of Avengers shows how great a film it is. (They also say just because a film is a box office flop doesn't mean it's bad, using John Carter as the example, and I do agree with that... Dredd is another case-in-point...)
COMEDY GOLD.


Yeah, I like Avengers too, but I have no clue what make it so "great".
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Post by alphaads »

Very nice... 


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Post by inflatable dalek »

This has fallen behind a bit due to me suffering some severe Transformers writing overkill earlier this year, but now we start to catch up with two write ups.


First, Mr. Clay invites you to look at his Hardbone as his examines the explosion of Third Party toys over the last few years:

http://tfarchive.com/fandom/features/th ... ransformer


And I look at how Pat Lee, a man who is already a bit of a bastard even without hyperbole, has gone on to become the big black bogeyman of Transformers comics to a somewhat exaggerated degree:

http://tfarchive.com/fandom/features/th ... on-enquiry
REVIISITATION: THE HOLE TRUTH
STARSCREAM GOES TO PIECES IN MY LOOK AT INFILTRATION #6!
PLUS: BUY THE BOOKS!
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Post by Clay »

I do like writing and thinking about my Hardbone...
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Knightdramon
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Post by Knightdramon »

Hmmm, interesting. Some ideas I have;

--An article about how transformer toys moved from "rounded up to avoid lawsuits" RID car brothers, to purely made up cars/jets [Armada to Cybertron, with few exceptions] and the fact that we, today, enjoy fully licensed cars in the lineup.

--Or something about how toy engineering technology advanced so much from RID to fall down to Armada simplicity, Cybertron robust stuff, only to get more quirky and reach a finite stalemate at ROTF/Animated and regress back to DOTM/Prime/BH stuff.

--Or something about how much the franchise changed and reset itself, from TFTM to Animated to ROTF/DOTM to Prime and beyond.

Is there any deadline? Required word count per article? I could really get behind my first topic and start writing stuff about it.
Few stuff in the UK to trade/sell. Measly sales thread.
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Post by Denyer »

Knightdramon wrote:--Or something about how toy engineering technology advanced so much from RID to fall down to Armada simplicity, Cybertron robust stuff, only to get more quirky and reach a finite stalemate at ROTF/Animated and regress back to DOTM/Prime/BH stuff.
It has been a long road for Hasbro, hasn't it? At least in the main lines... these days they seem to have hit on price/size points and a spread of complexity that's sustainable, even if the distribution management is almost as bad as Mattel's 200x MOTU line at times, but they're now compromising so much on quality and deco with some of the smaller ones that it's amazing the stuff sells.

Deadlines aren't strict (once we're caught up, if there's more than one a month, great). Article length... ideally about the sorts of lengths we've had so far as a minimum, and some pointers on accompanying images would be good.

Happy to entertain any of the topics mentioned. :up:
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Post by Blackjack »

Blackjack likes this. :up:
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Post by Terome »

I, similarly, enjoy reading these articles.
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Post by Ryan F »

I know my post count here is extremely low, and most you don't know me from Adam (I'm a long-time lurker here who only recently signed up), but I too would like to throw my hat into the ring.

I've already written a bunch of essays for Seibertron and tfw2005 back in the day (my one and only Seibertron news credit was for a piece I wrote on why Blot was the best Transformer ever).

By way of auditioning, I've put three of these essays back online:

Why did G1 Die?

The G1 Cartoon - More than Just a Cash-In?

And

Do Transformers Eat Trees?

I'd like to do a piece about Beast Wars, and how it reinvigorated Transformers after the early-nineties lull, if that's okay.

If anyone else is thinking of tackling the same subject, let me know and I'll think of an alternative.
Transform And Roll-Out
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https://telos.co.uk/shop/cult-tv/transf ... -roll-out/
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inflatable dalek
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Top notch, by the look of it you're good to go.
REVIISITATION: THE HOLE TRUTH
STARSCREAM GOES TO PIECES IN MY LOOK AT INFILTRATION #6!
PLUS: BUY THE BOOKS!
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Post by Clay »

Ryan F wrote:
I'd like to do a piece about Beast Wars, and how it reinvigorated Transformers after the early-nineties lull, if that's okay.
The more the merrier. Welcome to our little community!
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Post by Blackjack »

Hee hee hee
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Knightdramon
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Post by Knightdramon »

The Beast Mode article is an entertaining read, though if there's one thing I could change, it'd be removing Furman from the cartoon writers. The guy only wrote [or co-wrote] the final two episodes, two out of 50?

Just nitpicking :up:
Few stuff in the UK to trade/sell. Measly sales thread.
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