Weekly World Of Transformers

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Terome
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Post by Terome »

Thanks Skyquake. I came up with another one while I should have been doing some work:


James Roberts has not Tweeted in several hours

BREAKING - It has been several hours since James Roberts, the Transformers comic-writing dreamboat, has posted anything to his Twitter stream.

"Is he sick?" wrote one fan, typing slowly in between prolonged intervals of twisting her fingers, one by one, through a clenched fist. "It's been raining recently in [Roberts' native] Jersey. Maybe he got caught outside and got a cold."

The writer, who has been working as a freelance scripter for IDW Publishing's Transformers comics since 2009, is known for his urbane, witty and lively engagement with the fans. He often answers questions, teases future developments and makes conversation through his social media feed, which has over 3000 followers.

"I'd have thought that he'd have said something by now," said another fan who phoned our offices to alert us of this development. "Maybe a song that goes with the latest issue or an article about the N-H-S that British people have." He then hung up abruptly and called back, saying that he thought he'd seen something but it was just [IDW artist and regular collaborater with Roberts] Alex Milne instagramming a pasta.

Roberts was unreachable for comment about this lack of comment. Speculation abounds but the consensus of community leaders seems to lean towards the 'nap theory.'

"He was up pretty late last night linking to fanart that he enjoyed and approved of. He usually sleeps for 7.5 hours but we know he was up early when he put up the preview pages so it's entirely possible he's making up the sleep debt with a short siesta." Said the Tumblr posting of a noted Roberts expert.

Nobody answering Roberts' description could be found at local A&E or mortuaries so there is every reason to assume that normal social media activities will resume shortly.

"The important thing is not to panic. He hates it when we worry too much," the Tumblr posting concluded.
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Weekly World Transformers
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Location: Getting a head start on your editor. Obviously.

Post by Weekly World Transformers »

Loving these. Been a bit of a format switch, old bean, have PM'd you. If anyone else interested in writing these wants to PM either me or normal me :)
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Dead Man Wade
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Post by Dead Man Wade »

Because Armada Starscream is the funniest thing I've seen in a while...

Hasbro Announces Expanded Generations Line

Hasbro announced today that the success of toys like Generations Armada Starscream and Waspinator have convinced the company to take things even further. Said a spokesman, "These things are a goldmine for us. For a new character, we have to hire artists, designers, sculptors and engineers. For an older character, we can cut our design worforce by 50% or more. Then, all we've got to do is have IDW cram them in a Generation One comic book, and fanboys knock themselves out to find them."

Fans were skeptical when company reps outlined the next waves of the Generations line, many of which were unpopular designs when they first appeared in their respective toylines. However, that skepticism turned to elation when they were told that all of the characters were actually part of the Generation One continuity, and would be playing major parts in upcoming story arcs of IDW's Transformers line.

We spoke to one fan, who gushed, "When Armada came out, I didn't bother with it because it was an error-ridden abomination animated by underpaid Asian slave labor and meant for children, unlike the show I grew up with. Plus, I needed that shelf space for E-hobby repaints of palette-swapped non-characters that appeared in six frames of the original cartoon. But now that I know that Side Swipe is actually the original in a new body, I preordered six: One for me, and five to give out as gifts to family members."

When asked if obscure Japanese characters would be getting the same treatment, the spokesman responded, "Sure. Why the **** not?"
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Notabot
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Post by Notabot »

Generations Line Runs Out of Nostalgic Figures, Laps Itself
With the popularity of the Generations line reaching far beyond what Hasbro originally expected, toy makers have run out of Transformers characters that can still be evoke the nostalgia that the line was originally meant to bring to fans. "To be honest," said one designer, "we just can't think of any more Transformers. Nobody at all comes to mind when we ask ourselves, 'Who haven't we done yet?' We've even dug pretty deeply into comics that normal people don't read. I honestly had no idea who Brainstorm was when I designed him."

Hasbro had intended to bring the line to a triumphant end, but then stumbled upon an idea which will bring in even more money. "We realized that the now-called Generations line has been running for so long that people might actually be nostalgic for figures we did just a few years ago! God bless America's short attention span!"

The first of the new line, dubbed "Robots in Generations of Disguise Origins" by a monkey with a dartboard, will be Generations Generations Bumblebee. "Generations Bumblebee was such a fantastic toy to bring Bumblebee back to the forefront, and that move clearly paid off in spades. We're hoping that the new Generations Generations Bumblebee will exponentially increase his popularity again to the point that we need never make any other characters."

In the unlikely event that Hasbro cannot ride Bumblee into the sunset, though, engineers are halfheartedly developing Generations Generations Optimus Prime who is rumored to be identical to the original Generations Prime but with twice as many joints and half as many colors.

"We're very excited about this new line," stated project manager Hank Ephraim. "Even so, there are two major risks involved. First, with reaching back into the near past, our marketing department warned us that the nostalgia purchases may not be as high as the line initially saw. And secondly, we realize that if we keep up at this pace, we will soon be releasing redone figures before the original figure even comes out."
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