ATTN: Evil King Macrocranios
牛魔王
Do you still have the .rm file (or whatever the source was?)
I think the site you got it from was taken down
TigerMegatron
years.
Season 2 & 3 of beatwars & BM Series was incredible as far as CGI
animation goes.
The year 2004 TF Energon cartoon series did a great job mixing CGI
robots & 2-d cel animated humans+back grounds
Evil King Macrocranios
>
> Do you still have the .rm file (or whatever the source was?)
> I think the site you got it from was taken down
The site I got it from is a database that requires a login reserved
for academic institutions. I think that's why nobody's ever put it up
before-because nobody's thought to do Transformers research using
university publications archives.
Anyways, yes, if you want to download the .rm I have it uploaded to my
webhost and you can get it here:
http://pleasesavemerobots.com/RM/transformers_512k.rm
It's pretty crappy resolution but at least the sound syncs properly
unlike the youtube version. I hope once the new DVD box set comes out
it will be on there in the commercials.
牛魔王
> Anyways, yes, if you want to download the .rm I have it uploaded to my
> webhost and you can get it here:
>
> http://pleasesavemerobots.com/RM/transformers_512k.rm
>
> It's pretty crappy resolution but at least the sound syncs properly
> unlike the youtube version. I hope once the new DVD box set comes out
> it will be on there in the commercials.
THANK YOU!
You might want to contact them on the Shout Factory board and see.
Maybe they might be able to get a better copy from wherever the
University got it..? If not, your copy might be the only viable
source. (I had been looking for that ad for years until you put it up
on YouTube.)
Evil King Macrocranios
I've just read the thread on their forum and it seems to me like the
guy has Hasbro VHS copies so it's probably covered. I can't imagine
Hasbro or Sunbow wouldn't have some sort of copy of their own first
Transformer commercial, and the ShoutFactory guy seems to be in
contact with all the major players.
> Maybe they might be able to get a better copy from wherever the University got it..?
The source of the .rm file is this 2001 interview with Paul Kurnit,
who was executive vice president of Griffin-Bacal during the birth of
the Transformers:
http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/asr/v002/2.2kurnit.html
Anyone with access to Project Muse can log in and check it out. Since
Mr. Kurnit is still active in advertising and has his own website, I'd
say he'd be the best point of contact to try tracking down the reel he
used during the interview. Here's the contact info from his site:
http://www.kidshopbiz.com/t_people.php
> If not, your copy might be the only viable source. (I had been looking for that ad for years until you put it up
> on YouTube.)
Well it's not really *MY* copy. I didn't create it or anything. I just
found it during my Transformers researching.
I suspect the reason it has remained rather obscure is that it may
have been one of two Transformer commercials Hasbro dropped under
pressure from the National Advertising Division of the Council of
Better Business Bureaus. There's a New York Times article titled
"Advertising; Modifying Claims for Crisco Oil" from December 17 of
1984 where it is reported that the NAD's Children's Advertising Review
Unit filed complaints against a Tonka GoBots ad and a Hasbro
Transformer ad. Here's a quote from the article:
"The Children's Advertising Unit of the N.A.D. complained that neither
ad provided information on separate purchase. In addition, the unit
said, both ad campaigns violated its guidelines that say advertising
''should not exploit children's imagination by stimulating
unreasonable expectations'' with special sound and visual effects."
The article goes on to state that Hasbro consequently dropped two
Transformers commercials. The article doesn't go into specifics about
which commercials they were other than that they were for
Transformers, but I have always wondered from my own experience why
that first commercial and the Soundwave one have been so hard to come
by. I suspect those were the two in question but I've never known for
sure. Here's the link to the NYT article (but you need a login to read
it all):
http://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/17/business/advertising-modifying-claims-for-crisco-oil.html
In that interview with Mr. Kurnit he comments on the specifics of the
CARU's complaint. Here's a quote from that:
"What happened, interestingly, when we broke the campaign, was that we
were challenged by the Children's Advertising Review Unit, who
basically said it was too fast. We said, " What do you mean, it's too
fast?" And they said, " We don't understand what's for sale here." We
said to them, "Well, you're not the audience, and you're approaching
this with real adult-think." And we actually went out and did some
research to get a sense of the communication power of the commercial."
But Mr. Kurnit never mentions the commercials being pulled and in fact
he says the CARU eventually rescinded their complaint. Whose account
of the story is more correct and which commercials were the ones that
were dropped? Is Mr. Kurnit speaking of an earlier challenge than the
December story? Is that first TF commercial rare because it was
challenged and dropped, or did it only had a brief airing period and
nobody had their VCRs on that day? If it wasn't dropped, why are
copies of GI Joe commercials from before 1984 relatively abundant?
It's somewhat of a mystery to me.
ShadowWing
"Evil King Macrocranios" wrote
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9-7RjhFzpM
>>
>> Do you still have the .rm file (or whatever the source was?)
>> I think the site you got it from was taken down
>
> (Y)es, if you want to download the .rm I have it uploaded to my
> webhost and you can get it here:
>
> http://pleasesavemerobots.com/RM/transformers_512k.rm
>
> It's pretty crappy resolution but at least the sound syncs properly
> unlike the youtube version.
I kind of like the alternate Ark design, but the one they went with was
better.
Phillip Thorne
<Evil.King.M...@gmail.com> helpfully provided:
>Anyways, yes, if you want to download the .rm I have it uploaded to my
>webhost and you can get it here:
>
> http://pleasesavemerobots.com/RM/transformers_512k.rm
>
>It's pretty crappy resolution but at least the sound syncs properly
>unlike the youtube version. I hope once the new DVD box set comes out
>it will be on there in the commercials.
Ooh! I think I remember this -- or at least the part of it where
Jazz, Prowl and Sideswipe transform and leap away from Megatron's
blast (note the recoil backblast), and Optimus emerges from the smoke.
Footage re-mix/re-use?
However, the alternate spacecraft (grey rectangular Autobot, green
Decepticon), and bucket-head Megatron in animated form, are new to me.
The ships look to have been borrowed directly from "Macross." I
wonder if Hasbro/Sunbow/Marvel decided to go with a "Autobots use
yellow-metal technology, Decepticons purple" because it better fit
their respective personalities?
When the Seekers transform, they make a crane-servo noise. The
classic buzz-crunch is a second later, in the music.
--
** Phillip Thorne ** peth...@comcast.net **************
* RPI CompSci 1998 *
** underbase.livejournal.com ***************************
牛魔王
From my memory ( I was only 8 or 9 at the time), I only recall seeing
the ad once. It was kind of a "holy crap!" moment. "Wow! That
wasn't GoBots!" Kind of thing. I wouldn't be surprised if it only
aired a day or two, and that's why no fan had a copy.
I wonder if the animation from these early ads are from a lost "pilot"
short. The Real Ghostbusters had a lost pilot that was recently
turned up a few years ago by fans:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqcwocNLH00
I would suspect Hasbro/Sunbow would put something like that together
before committing to the 3-part "More Than Meets The Eye".
Onslaught Six
> The year 2004 TF Energon cartoon series did a great job mixing CGI
> robots & 2-d cel animated humans+back grounds
No it didn't.
Onslaught Six
> I would suspect Hasbro/Sunbow would put something like that together
> before committing to the 3-part "More Than Meets The Eye".
I dunno, TF was kinda following the mould of GI Joe at that point.
They'd already pumped in two five-part miniseries for that show, so
doing TF with a three-parter is pretty simple.