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Zob's Thoughts on BotCon 2011 "Shattered Glass" Thundercracker
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Zobovor
Aug 2, 2012, 11:49:04 PM8/2/12
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In 1990, when cancelled the original Transformers toy line in America, the toy line continued in Europe, resulting in numerous Action Masters that were never sold in the U.S. They experimented with different types of Action Masters, including Action Master Elites (which did transform, after a fashion) and Action Master Exo-Suits (serving as powered suits for the action figures). Other classic characters were added to the line-up, including Sideswipe, Tracks, Bombshell, and Thundercracker.
Thundercracker, of course, was a redeco of Action Master Starscream. The problem was that Starscream's colors were based on his Pretender toy, which made numerous concessions due to the simplicity of the toy's design, and the end result was that Starscream, or at least parts of him (his arms and legs, mainly), already had Thundercracker's color scheme. To do a normal-colored Thundercracker would be conspicuously close to a Starscream retread, so apparently the decision was made to make Thundercracker different... VERY different. The late G1 toy assortment made liberal use of fluorescent colors, and Thundercracker was no exception. He really is quite hideous, all purple and pink and turquoise and lime green, with a gold-painted helmet just to top things off. He comes with an exo-suit called the Solo Mission Jet Plane, but nobody remembers that. By contrast, everybody knows what Action Master Thundercracker looks like because he's gone down in history as one of the most absolutely garish Transformers toys ever devised.
Thundercracker is presented here as the "Shattered Glass" incarnation of the character, a universe in which the Autobots are evil, the Decepticons are good, and Thundercracker is a vital and supportive member of the cause. I've never been crazy about the Shattered Glass concept. It's impossible to take seriously since it depends on everything behing the exact opposite of what we're familiar with, making we, the audience, a necessary meta-component to make the concept work. Mirror universes have been done to death; it's a tired and boring concept that I don't find the least bit engaging. I don't care how they had to market or label the toy to get it produced, ultimately. The point is that I actually own a neo-seeker toy of Action Master Thundercracker. It's an amazingly fanboyish concept that I thought would require liberal use of model paints to ever see fruition. I can't believe Hasbro actually approved this. He's just so deliciously ugly.
(Now, I'm not pretending that I hold exclusive rights to crazy Transformers redeco ideas. However, I would just like to say that four years before BotCon introduced the Shattered Glass concept and printed the lithograph that showcased characters in crazy color schemes, I did something very similar for CybCon 2004, taking the same idea (doing artwork in tribute to the battle scene on the G1 packaging from 1984) and populating it with the same types of characters (familiar robots in bizarre color schemes). One of these, incidentally, was Thundercracker in his Cybertronic tetrahedon jet mode, only in Action Master colors:)
http://zmfts.t15.org/cybcon_2004_art.html
Okay, so suffice it to say, I love the Decepticon jets. I love the fact that, despite the fact that there were only six Decepticon jets of this body type, there are over 30 background characters running around who share this design... all of them unnamed and largely ignored by Hasbro. (I celebrate Transformers by delving into its obscure elements and reveling in them. Other people have to invent different universes so they can get Terrorcons who are colored like Technobots. Whatever floats your boat, I guess.) Anyway, there's something inherently more appealing about the Decepticon jets than most other Transformers toys. Maybe it's got to do with their uniform appearance, making them armybuilders with personalities. Every time they produce this toy as a new character, or in a new deco, I go ga-ga over it. I can't explain it.
With that said, the BotCon toy is remarkably faithful to the original color scheme for Action Master Thundercracker. The 1991 toy was originally produced in two colors of plastic (magenta for the body, arms, and lower legs; turquoise blue for the head and upper legs) with parts painted purple and green and gold. (The magenta-blue-purple color scheme is actually quite beautiful, and I've gone on record as saying it's my favorite color scheme of all time, having been previously used for the Seacon Overbite. The green just takes it all the way to Crazytown, though, and the gold is just gratuitous.) Of course, this is a transforming toy, so a few concessions had to be made. The green blocks on either side of Action Master Thundecracker's legs (which ostensibly represent the tail rudders in their folded-up, transformed state) have been replaced with actual tail fins, which are purple. His main wings on his back are likewise purple. (The original Action Master, of course, didn't have wings on his back at all. He's got tiny, vestigial wings molded into his shoulders, but they were magenta like the rest of his upper arms.) I actually like the purple wings; they help to unify his color scheme (which needs all the help it can get!) and help to follow the precedent of no two parts that are touching each other being the same color. Even his missile launchers follow this pattern, with each of them consisting of a green launcher, a blue trigger, a magenta barrel and a purple missile. (Really. Suddenly it's the 1990's all over again and I am reminded of Toxic Crusaders and Captain Planet toys.)
His jet mode, is of course, just as ugly (and by "ugly" I mean "beautiful," and by "beautiful" I mean "OH MY GOD MY EYES"). He clashes so bad that he should play with Pizzazz and the Misfits. Fun Publications had to make and educated guess as to the color of parts that didn't exist on the Action Master toy (the nosecone is purple; the rocket thrusters are black) and overall it's a very good look, though the body of the jet is one solid block of magenta (breaking it up somehow might have been better, but the wings are already purple so making the fuselage purple also would have been a bit much). No attempt is made to hide his robot head, which is a block of gold on the underside of the nosecone. His canopy is translucent green, and nicely mirrors the original toy, whose cockpit was colored a darker shade of green than his feet and gauntlets. The toy has no insignias on its wings; he has a single Decepticon symbol tampo-printed on his left shoulder, yet another tribute to the Action Master toy.
Hasbro's produced lots of ugly toys over the years (Armada Predacon, purple Fuzor Silverbolt, Armada Predacon, RiD Bruticus, Armada Predacon), but this toy was the first one I've ever clamored to own specifically because of its sheer hideousness. I'm so glad he exists.
Zob
Thundercracker, of course, was a redeco of Action Master Starscream. The problem was that Starscream's colors were based on his Pretender toy, which made numerous concessions due to the simplicity of the toy's design, and the end result was that Starscream, or at least parts of him (his arms and legs, mainly), already had Thundercracker's color scheme. To do a normal-colored Thundercracker would be conspicuously close to a Starscream retread, so apparently the decision was made to make Thundercracker different... VERY different. The late G1 toy assortment made liberal use of fluorescent colors, and Thundercracker was no exception. He really is quite hideous, all purple and pink and turquoise and lime green, with a gold-painted helmet just to top things off. He comes with an exo-suit called the Solo Mission Jet Plane, but nobody remembers that. By contrast, everybody knows what Action Master Thundercracker looks like because he's gone down in history as one of the most absolutely garish Transformers toys ever devised.
Thundercracker is presented here as the "Shattered Glass" incarnation of the character, a universe in which the Autobots are evil, the Decepticons are good, and Thundercracker is a vital and supportive member of the cause. I've never been crazy about the Shattered Glass concept. It's impossible to take seriously since it depends on everything behing the exact opposite of what we're familiar with, making we, the audience, a necessary meta-component to make the concept work. Mirror universes have been done to death; it's a tired and boring concept that I don't find the least bit engaging. I don't care how they had to market or label the toy to get it produced, ultimately. The point is that I actually own a neo-seeker toy of Action Master Thundercracker. It's an amazingly fanboyish concept that I thought would require liberal use of model paints to ever see fruition. I can't believe Hasbro actually approved this. He's just so deliciously ugly.
(Now, I'm not pretending that I hold exclusive rights to crazy Transformers redeco ideas. However, I would just like to say that four years before BotCon introduced the Shattered Glass concept and printed the lithograph that showcased characters in crazy color schemes, I did something very similar for CybCon 2004, taking the same idea (doing artwork in tribute to the battle scene on the G1 packaging from 1984) and populating it with the same types of characters (familiar robots in bizarre color schemes). One of these, incidentally, was Thundercracker in his Cybertronic tetrahedon jet mode, only in Action Master colors:)
http://zmfts.t15.org/cybcon_2004_art.html
Okay, so suffice it to say, I love the Decepticon jets. I love the fact that, despite the fact that there were only six Decepticon jets of this body type, there are over 30 background characters running around who share this design... all of them unnamed and largely ignored by Hasbro. (I celebrate Transformers by delving into its obscure elements and reveling in them. Other people have to invent different universes so they can get Terrorcons who are colored like Technobots. Whatever floats your boat, I guess.) Anyway, there's something inherently more appealing about the Decepticon jets than most other Transformers toys. Maybe it's got to do with their uniform appearance, making them armybuilders with personalities. Every time they produce this toy as a new character, or in a new deco, I go ga-ga over it. I can't explain it.
With that said, the BotCon toy is remarkably faithful to the original color scheme for Action Master Thundercracker. The 1991 toy was originally produced in two colors of plastic (magenta for the body, arms, and lower legs; turquoise blue for the head and upper legs) with parts painted purple and green and gold. (The magenta-blue-purple color scheme is actually quite beautiful, and I've gone on record as saying it's my favorite color scheme of all time, having been previously used for the Seacon Overbite. The green just takes it all the way to Crazytown, though, and the gold is just gratuitous.) Of course, this is a transforming toy, so a few concessions had to be made. The green blocks on either side of Action Master Thundecracker's legs (which ostensibly represent the tail rudders in their folded-up, transformed state) have been replaced with actual tail fins, which are purple. His main wings on his back are likewise purple. (The original Action Master, of course, didn't have wings on his back at all. He's got tiny, vestigial wings molded into his shoulders, but they were magenta like the rest of his upper arms.) I actually like the purple wings; they help to unify his color scheme (which needs all the help it can get!) and help to follow the precedent of no two parts that are touching each other being the same color. Even his missile launchers follow this pattern, with each of them consisting of a green launcher, a blue trigger, a magenta barrel and a purple missile. (Really. Suddenly it's the 1990's all over again and I am reminded of Toxic Crusaders and Captain Planet toys.)
His jet mode, is of course, just as ugly (and by "ugly" I mean "beautiful," and by "beautiful" I mean "OH MY GOD MY EYES"). He clashes so bad that he should play with Pizzazz and the Misfits. Fun Publications had to make and educated guess as to the color of parts that didn't exist on the Action Master toy (the nosecone is purple; the rocket thrusters are black) and overall it's a very good look, though the body of the jet is one solid block of magenta (breaking it up somehow might have been better, but the wings are already purple so making the fuselage purple also would have been a bit much). No attempt is made to hide his robot head, which is a block of gold on the underside of the nosecone. His canopy is translucent green, and nicely mirrors the original toy, whose cockpit was colored a darker shade of green than his feet and gauntlets. The toy has no insignias on its wings; he has a single Decepticon symbol tampo-printed on his left shoulder, yet another tribute to the Action Master toy.
Hasbro's produced lots of ugly toys over the years (Armada Predacon, purple Fuzor Silverbolt, Armada Predacon, RiD Bruticus, Armada Predacon), but this toy was the first one I've ever clamored to own specifically because of its sheer hideousness. I'm so glad he exists.
Zob
Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats
Aug 3, 2012, 1:25:33 AM8/3/12
to
On Thursday, August 2, 2012 8:49:04 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
> Thundercracker, of course, was a redeco of Action Master Starscream. The problem was that Starscream's colors were based on his Pretender toy, which made numerous concessions due to the simplicity of the toy's design, and the end result was that Starscream, or at least parts of him (his arms and legs, mainly), already had Thundercracker's color scheme. To do a normal-colored Thundercracker would be conspicuously close to a Starscream retread, so apparently the decision was made to make Thundercracker different... VERY different.
It really makes you wonder why they didn't just say "How about Skywarp? Yeah, that one..."
> Thundercracker, of course, was a redeco of Action Master Starscream. The problem was that Starscream's colors were based on his Pretender toy, which made numerous concessions due to the simplicity of the toy's design, and the end result was that Starscream, or at least parts of him (his arms and legs, mainly), already had Thundercracker's color scheme. To do a normal-colored Thundercracker would be conspicuously close to a Starscream retread, so apparently the decision was made to make Thundercracker different... VERY different.
> Thundercracker is presented here as the "Shattered Glass" incarnation of the character, a universe in which the Autobots are evil, the Decepticons are good, and Thundercracker is a vital and supportive member of the cause.
I would have liked had they repurposed Skywarp as Shattered Glass Thundercracker, and Thundercracker as SG Skywarp, just because it would be exactly as stupid as Shattered Glass in general.
> Okay, so suffice it to say, I love the Decepticon jets. I love the fact that, despite the fact that there were only six Decepticon jets of this body type, there are over 30 background characters running around who share this design... all of them unnamed and largely ignored by Hasbro. (I celebrate Transformers by delving into its obscure elements and reveling in them. Other people have to invent different universes so they can get Terrorcons who are colored like Technobots. Whatever floats your boat, I guess.) Anyway, there's something inherently more appealing about the Decepticon jets than most other Transformers toys. Maybe it's got to do with their uniform appearance, making them armybuilders with personalities. Every time they produce this toy as a new character, or in a new deco, I go ga-ga over it. I can't explain it.
> Hasbro's produced lots of ugly toys over the years (Armada Predacon, purple Fuzor Silverbolt, Armada Predacon, RiD Bruticus, Armada Predacon), but this toy was the first one I've ever clamored to own specifically because of its sheer hideousness. I'm so glad he exists.
Actually, I like purple Silverbolt.
Zobovor
Aug 3, 2012, 2:59:08 AM8/3/12
to
On Thursday, August 2, 2012 11:25:33 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> It really makes you wonder why they didn't just say "How about Skywarp?
> Yeah, that one..."
They could have done Skywarp in something approaching his regular color scheme and he would have been sufficiently differentiated from Action Master Starscream. However, then we wouldn't have gotten Shattered Glass Thundercracker, who is six shades of awesome. (Fluorescent shades, to be precise.)
> It really makes you wonder why they didn't just say "How about Skywarp?
> Yeah, that one..."
Hey, is Thundercracker the first character who's gotten two separate BotCon toys? Discuss!
> It doesn't even fit the theme -- it's supposed to be characters in colors
> that aren't their own that are evil, and there's Thundercracker in
> Thundercracker colors.
> I would have liked had they repurposed Skywarp as Shattered Glass
> Thundercracker, and Thundercracker as SG Skywarp, just because it would be
> exactly as stupid as Shattered Glass in general.
> Was there ever an official explanation for why the Seekers all have the same
> design? It the structure a signal of their status? Do the Sweeps just take
> that to the next level with identical color schemes and just numbers instead
> of names?
In defense of the Sweeps, we don't know that "Sweep Six" and "Sweep Seven" are actually their NAMES. They could have just been military designations, like how Luke Skywalker used the call sign Red Five.
> Actually, I like purple Silverbolt.
Zob
Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats
Aug 3, 2012, 12:36:01 PM8/3/12
to
Zobovor <zm...@aol.com> wrote:
> On Thursday, August 2, 2012 11:25:33 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the
> Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
>> It really makes you wonder why they didn't just say "How about Skywarp?
>> Yeah, that one..."
>
> They could have done Skywarp in something approaching his regular color
> scheme and he would have been sufficiently differentiated from Action
> Master Starscream. However, then we wouldn't have gotten Shattered Glass
> Thundercracker, who is six shades of awesome. (Fluorescent shades, to be precise.)
It's just surprising that he exists at all, when there's an obvious
> On Thursday, August 2, 2012 11:25:33 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the
> Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
>> It really makes you wonder why they didn't just say "How about Skywarp?
>> Yeah, that one..."
>
> They could have done Skywarp in something approaching his regular color
> scheme and he would have been sufficiently differentiated from Action
> Master Starscream. However, then we wouldn't have gotten Shattered Glass
> Thundercracker, who is six shades of awesome. (Fluorescent shades, to be precise.)
solution to the too similar color scheme. It makes him even more special.
And apparently colorblind.
> Hey, is Thundercracker the first character who's gotten two separate BotCon toys? Discuss!
Combaticons being different folk than the Combaticons we know and love.
>> It doesn't even fit the theme -- it's supposed to be characters in colors
>> that aren't their own that are evil, and there's Thundercracker in
>> Thundercracker colors.
>
> The problem is (if you can call it a problem), there isn't really a good
> Autobot equivalent of the original Decepticon jet trio. I guess they
> could have done Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp in the color
> schemes of Prowl, Bluestreak, and Smokescreen. Although, with
> Smokescreen being a 1985 release, he'd be more the equivalent to Ramjet, Thrust and Dirge.
white.
They could have simply swapped the color schemes, so SG Thundercracker
might have been black with blue hands, or gone the color wheel inverse and
made him orange with white hands... Or anything else.
Instead, we have SG Thundercracker looking just like G1 Thundercracker, and
where's the fun in that?
>> I would have liked had they repurposed Skywarp as Shattered Glass
>> Thundercracker, and Thundercracker as SG Skywarp, just because it would be
>> exactly as stupid as Shattered Glass in general.
>
> It was a cute novelty, but it's dragged on for far too long.
>
>> Was there ever an official explanation for why the Seekers all have the same
>> design? It the structure a signal of their status? Do the Sweeps just take
>> that to the next level with identical color schemes and just numbers instead
>> of names?
>
> The identical designs for certain characters never really seems to get
> directly addressed (though there was one issue of the UK comic where a
> deactivated Skywarp is painted up to look like Starscream to make the
> Autobots think that it's Starscream who gets destroyed). I think they
> were just all part of the same Quintesson production run, and they're a
> rare example of production line models who happen to have stuck together.
> I'm sure that every Transformer from Cybertron has, or had at one point,
> dozens or hundreds of production line brothers in different colors.
>
> In defense of the Sweeps, we don't know that "Sweep Six" and "Sweep
> Seven" are actually their NAMES. They could have just been military
> designations, like how Luke Skywalker used the call sign Red Five.
>
>> Actually, I like purple Silverbolt.
>
> Hasbro did some weird, freaky stuff with the first Transformers: Universe
> toy line. Silverbolt was only the tip of the iceberg. Optimus Primal,
> Razorclaw, Reptillion, Depthcharge... guh. I have this whole box of
> pointless repaints from that era and I wonder why I own any of them now.
TigerHawk, I should have bought Razorclaw.
Zobovor
Aug 3, 2012, 7:37:06 PM8/3/12
to
On Aug 3, 10:36 am, "Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats"
characters are trademarks and intellectual property. To them, Optimus
Prime is Optimus Prime is Optimus Prime, regardless of which fictional
universe he participates in. They don't distinguish between G1 Prime
or Armada Prime or movie Prime or Prime Prime. So, in that respect,
it's the same Thundercracker.
(Way over on the other end of the spectrum, G1 cartoon Optimus Prime
isn't the same as G1 comics Optimus Prime, who isn't the same as UK
comics Optimus Prime, who isn't the same as coloring book Optimus
Prime. They're all G1 Prime but all slightly different iterations of
the character.)
(Have I mentioned how much I missed Old Google Groups? I love you,
Old Google Groups!)
> They weren't always taking colors from other toys though. Ravage is bright
> white.
Shattered Glass Soundwave is just the white-colored MP3 player toy, so
I thought they took their cue from that for Ravage's color scheme.
> They could have simply swapped the color schemes, so SG Thundercracker
> might have been black with blue hands, or gone the color wheel inverse and
> made him orange with white hands... Or anything else.
No, orange with white hands would make him Sunstorm.
> Instead, we have SG Thundercracker looking just like G1 Thundercracker, and
> where's the fun in that?
That's a vast oversimplifcation. Action Master Thundercracker =/= G1
Thundercracker.
> I love that Optimus, and given the yellowing and chrome chipping on my
> TigerHawk, I should have bought Razorclaw.
So many of the toys from that era were hideous. I think the whole
reason Aaron Archer made such a big stink about not releasing a purple-
colored Tidal Wave toy was to overcompensate for the fact that he's
really color blind.
Zob
<gustavowom...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> SG 'Cracker is a different character than G1 'Cracker. Just like FOC
> Combaticons being different folk than the Combaticons we know and love.
There are so many different ways of looking at that. To Hasbro, the
> SG 'Cracker is a different character than G1 'Cracker. Just like FOC
> Combaticons being different folk than the Combaticons we know and love.
characters are trademarks and intellectual property. To them, Optimus
Prime is Optimus Prime is Optimus Prime, regardless of which fictional
universe he participates in. They don't distinguish between G1 Prime
or Armada Prime or movie Prime or Prime Prime. So, in that respect,
it's the same Thundercracker.
(Way over on the other end of the spectrum, G1 cartoon Optimus Prime
isn't the same as G1 comics Optimus Prime, who isn't the same as UK
comics Optimus Prime, who isn't the same as coloring book Optimus
Prime. They're all G1 Prime but all slightly different iterations of
the character.)
(Have I mentioned how much I missed Old Google Groups? I love you,
Old Google Groups!)
> They weren't always taking colors from other toys though. Ravage is bright
> white.
I thought they took their cue from that for Ravage's color scheme.
> They could have simply swapped the color schemes, so SG Thundercracker
> might have been black with blue hands, or gone the color wheel inverse and
> made him orange with white hands... Or anything else.
> Instead, we have SG Thundercracker looking just like G1 Thundercracker, and
> where's the fun in that?
Thundercracker.
> I love that Optimus, and given the yellowing and chrome chipping on my
> TigerHawk, I should have bought Razorclaw.
reason Aaron Archer made such a big stink about not releasing a purple-
colored Tidal Wave toy was to overcompensate for the fact that he's
really color blind.
Zob
William A. Rendfeld
Aug 3, 2012, 7:46:15 PM8/3/12
to
On Thursday, August 2, 2012 11:49:04 PM UTC-4, Zobovor wrote:
> Thundercracker is presented here as the "Shattered Glass" incarnation of the character, a universe in which the Autobots are evil, the Decepticons are good, and Thundercracker is a vital and supportive member of the cause. I've never been crazy about the Shattered Glass concept. It's impossible to take seriously since it depends on everything behing the exact opposite of what we're familiar with, making we, the audience, a necessary meta-component to make the concept work. Mirror universes have been done to death; it's a tired and boring concept that I don't find the least bit engaging.
I'm not particularly crazy about the concept myself, but I love the fiction that's been produced for it. Plus, I can easily justify skipping most SG releases by virtue of them being SG releases; the only 'official' SG toys I own are SG Sideswipe and SG Octopunch, and I only got them for the Mini-Con and because I don't see a proper Octopunch coming in the near-future.
> Thundercracker is presented here as the "Shattered Glass" incarnation of the character, a universe in which the Autobots are evil, the Decepticons are good, and Thundercracker is a vital and supportive member of the cause. I've never been crazy about the Shattered Glass concept. It's impossible to take seriously since it depends on everything behing the exact opposite of what we're familiar with, making we, the audience, a necessary meta-component to make the concept work. Mirror universes have been done to death; it's a tired and boring concept that I don't find the least bit engaging.
Nothing wrong with that, I'd hope.
Onslaught Six
Aug 4, 2012, 2:49:02 PM8/4/12
to
On Aug 3, 2:59 am, Zobovor <zm...@aol.com> wrote:
> Hasbro did some weird, freaky stuff with the first Transformers: Universe toy line. Silverbolt was only the tip of the iceberg. Optimus Primal, Razorclaw, Reptillion, Depthcharge... guh. I have this whole box of pointless repaints from that era and I wonder why I own any of them now.
Looking to get rid of any of them? You might be wondering why you own
> Hasbro did some weird, freaky stuff with the first Transformers: Universe toy line. Silverbolt was only the tip of the iceberg. Optimus Primal, Razorclaw, Reptillion, Depthcharge... guh. I have this whole box of pointless repaints from that era and I wonder why I own any of them now.
them, but frankly I'm wondering why I don't. Razorclaw? Tankorr and
Obsidian? King Atlas? Make up a list of what you're willing to get rid
of...
Zobovor
Aug 4, 2012, 6:45:17 PM8/4/12
to
On Aug 4, 12:49 pm, Onslaught Six <onslaught...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Looking to get rid of any of them? You might be wondering why you own
> them, but frankly I'm wondering why I don't. Razorclaw? Tankorr and
> Obsidian? King Atlas? Make up a list of what you're willing to get rid
> of...
One day, I'm sure.
> Looking to get rid of any of them? You might be wondering why you own
> them, but frankly I'm wondering why I don't. Razorclaw? Tankorr and
> Obsidian? King Atlas? Make up a list of what you're willing to get rid
> of...
Zob
G.B. Blackrock
Aug 5, 2012, 5:34:40 PM8/5/12
to
On Thursday, August 2, 2012 10:25:33 PM UTC-7, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> On Thursday, August 2, 2012 8:49:04 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
> > Thundercracker is presented here as the "Shattered Glass" incarnation of the character, a universe in which the Autobots are evil, the Decepticons are good, and Thundercracker is a vital and supportive member of the cause.
>
>
>
> It doesn't even fit the theme -- it's supposed to be characters in colors that aren't their own that are evil, and there's Thundercracker in Thundercracker colors.
Well, in terms of colors, there IS no unified "theme" and never has been. Remember, for example, how Shattered Glass Jazz is in G1 Jazz colors. He just uses a non-Jazz mold (with a new head) and has "evil" logos on him.
> On Thursday, August 2, 2012 8:49:04 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
> > Thundercracker is presented here as the "Shattered Glass" incarnation of the character, a universe in which the Autobots are evil, the Decepticons are good, and Thundercracker is a vital and supportive member of the cause.
>
>
>
> It doesn't even fit the theme -- it's supposed to be characters in colors that aren't their own that are evil, and there's Thundercracker in Thundercracker colors.
My two cents,
G.B. (ever so happy that AMTC was actually made!) Blackrock
G.B. Blackrock
Aug 5, 2012, 5:42:07 PM8/5/12
to
On Thursday, August 2, 2012 11:59:08 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
> Hey, is Thundercracker the first character who's gotten two separate BotCon toys? Discuss!
>
If I understand what you're getting at, there's Breakdown (Animated version the same year as AMTC, and G2 Breakdown the previous year, to say nothing of 1994 and 2004). Possibly should also include Razorclaw (2009 post-Beast Machines version, and 2008 SG Mini-Con).
> Hey, is Thundercracker the first character who's gotten two separate BotCon toys? Discuss!
>
I assume you're not counting the fact that SG Galvatron (sold in the same package as AMTC) is the same character as SG Megatron.
My two cents,
G.B. Blackrock
(I'm purposely not mentioning "same-character" toys that came in 2012, as that's out of the bounds of the question)
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