Zob's Fun Hypothetical Scenario #8: Pick 20

[New and Improved Zobovor]

After several years of delving into characters from the mythos that are increasingly obscure (Scoop, Triggerhappy, Cloudburst, etc.) Hasbro has decided that, going forward, they will focus on producing toys based on a core group of marketable Transformers characters. For the forseeable future, the Transformers toy lines will incorporate only this core cast of characters.

If you had to choose twenty characters who would represent the Transformers toy line indefinitely, who would you pick? Assume that new characters will occasionally be introduced here and there, but if an older character is ever revisited, it will always be one of the twenty characters on your list.

I thought about asking for a list of ten characters, but that list would almost write itself since there are some characters who are so prominent and important that it's almost unthinkable to do a Transformers toy line without them. The list gets a little less obvious after about ten candidates, though, which is why I bumped it up to twenty. I think the responses would be much more varied and interesting.

What would your choices be?


Zob (Slugslinger wouldn't even be in my top 100 character choices, honestly, but I'm still so glad the Titans Return toy exists)

[Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats]

On Tuesday, October 10, 2017 at 9:17:30 PM UTC-7, New and Improved Zobovor wrote:
> After several years of delving into characters from the mythos that are increasingly obscure (Scoop, Triggerhappy, Cloudburst, etc.) Hasbro has decided that, going forward, they will focus on producing toys based on a core group of marketable Transformers characters. For the forseeable future, the Transformers toy lines will incorporate only this core cast of characters.
>
> If you had to choose twenty characters who would represent the Transformers toy line indefinitely, who would you pick? Assume that new characters will occasionally be introduced here and there, but if an older character is ever revisited, it will always be one of the twenty characters on your list.
>
> I thought about asking for a list of ten characters, but that list would almost write itself since there are some characters who are so prominent and important that it's almost unthinkable to do a Transformers toy line without them. The list gets a little less obvious after about ten candidates, though, which is why I bumped it up to twenty. I think the responses would be much more varied and interesting.
>
> What would your choices be?
>

I think this is basically what Hasbro does with the non-Generations line...

Since these are the only twenty, they need to be a well balanced bunch, and allow for the current toyline and future toyline trends.

I've decided to split them 10 Autobots and 10 Decepticons, with two animals on each side, and two females. 20% females might seem like a lot, but it's really a very small number, but allows the toyline to reach out to different audiences.

AUTOBOTS!

Optimus Prime
Bumblebee (sigh)
Kup
Arcee
Smokescreen
Silverbolt
Nautica
Grimlock
Rhinox
Warpath

With the very limited cast, some characters will have to pull in functions from other characters. And I wanted to avoid characters that had too much overlap with the others.

For instance, Hot Rod and Smokescreen were both a bit irresponsible and I don't see any point in having both of them around. Smokescreen is a bit more interesting, since he is more willing to be entirely duplicitous.

Kup would take on the second in command role that Ironhide had, but retain his storytelling and senility.

Bumblebee would be a more G1 interpretation, and would get to play the student role to Kup. He would again become the kid identification character -- a little unsure of himself, and trying to prove himself, but not in an overbearing way.

Arcee would take on more of the elements of TF:Prime Arcee than G1 Arcee -- actually having a personality that is more than being pink, for instance.

Silverbolt remains young and naive, but also gets to take on a bit of Prowl's dickish stickler for details thing. It's a character trait that works well in Transformers, but which also maps nicely onto the Silverbolt template. And the Autobots should have someone who can fly. In some toylines he could be the Fuzor.

Nautica is the least well known of the bunch, but I really don't want Arcee to be the token female. Nautica is, according to TFWiki, a much more fun-loving Autobot with a fondness for dancing, being silly, and engineering. Yes, she's an engineer, a role that needs to be filled.

Grimlock is too well known not to include, and people love dinosaurs. He's dimwitted, violent, rebellious, disrespectful and lovable.

Rhinox might be too close to Nautica, but I also don't want Grimlock to be the token animal. He doesn't dance, and he's a more capable fighter. Perhaps we could push Nautica more towards abstract science, and Rhinox towards engineering?

Warpath was mostly chosen just for having an amusing alt-mode.

DECEPTICONS! They are actually way harder... The Decepticons aren't nearly as iconic, since they usually get about a quarter of the screen time and development, and they tend to all have crippling personality flaws.

Megatron
Starscream
Soundwave
Rumble
Lugnut
Tarantulas
Shadow Striker
Barricade
Vortex
Gaslight (a gender swapped Mindwipe)

I assume that Thundercracker and Skywarp appear for free as redecos...

Megatron is obvious, and we cannot avoid him. Starscream too. The relationship between the two of them has been tried out in various combinations in the various animated series, and would still be something the writers could play with. The Megatron/Starscream dynamic usually defines all the Decepticons.

Soundwave is the third most recognizable Decepticon, and he's had enough alt-modes over the years that he allows a lot of flexibility in the design of the toyline.

Rumble -- we need at least one of Soundwave's minions, and if we only have ten characters, I don't want to use one of the ones that don't speak, even though Laserbeak and Ravage are more iconic.

Lugnut is one of the great characters that TF:Animated gave us -- a loyal Decepticon. He's dumb, but not easily led, only doing what Megatron tells him.

Tarantulas fills the scientist role, and he's a beast. He also stands outside the Megatron/Starscream power dynamic, if needed, with his own, larger plans. Or that can be ignored. I might prefer a different Decepticon scientist, but are there any?

Shadow Striker is based on the ROTF character, who was not depicted in the movie at all. She's sarcastic, condescending, and has no real ambitions for power. She can watch the unfolding Megatron/Starscream drama, and just stir things up. And, she's a ground vehicle, for variety. And female. She may be a lot of fun with Rumble. Or is that Frenzy.

Barricade is the best thing to come out of the Movies. He's awesome.

Vortex, a torturer. Why not? And a helicopter is different.

Gaslight is a complete cheat, not being an existing character. But, she fills out the beast quota, and the female quota, and has wacky powers and abilities that don't overlap with anyone else.

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

Ok, my list, I try to keep it balanced, but also I'm not reusing the same molds.

Optimus Prime
Hot Rod as the young kid(we've evaded Bumblebee for awhile)
Arcee - I'd prefer a non pink Arcee (IE Prime) with a power-up repaint in pink.
Ratchet - has for awhile taken on personality traits of Ironhide and Kup, while also being a skilled technician
Sideswipe - not the kid but equally disrespectful of the rules. Often making suggestions to hot rod and enjoying watching the results.
Windblade - the comics version, more independent deadly ninja, goes on secret solo missions, and the Autobot's only air support
Prowl - Second in command,strictly by the book
Grimlock - prone to bursts of blind animal instinct
Seaspray - environmentalists that dislikes violence when possible (I guess we're combining his personality with Beachcomber)
Perceptor - foil to Ratchet, constantly disagreeing with diagnosis, hypochondriac

Decepticons
Megatron
Thundercracker as new second in command incapable of deception(there will be constant references to the effect of don't end up like Starscream)
Shockwave - scientist not a command figure but has his own aspirations. Medic by default of necessity, but bots don't always end up the same after. Avoids missions and combat as a waste of his research time.
Lugnut - the only one dim enough to follow Thundercracker's commands. Or Misfire's commands. Or Rumble's commands. Or any Decepticon commands. Large lumbering and destructive.
Black Arachnia - triple changer spider and some vehicle, the spy. Has a bad history with Arcee, but Windblade tries to keep them seperated.
Shoundwave - Megatron's assistant, the hacker and cyber warfare specialist
Rumble - Soundwave's obnoxious assistant,constantly pestering everyone. Flirts with any fem-bot with bad results. Red
Misfire - criminal on the run taking refuge with Megatron's crew. Constantly has a new scheme to make a credit.
Triggerhappy - Misfire's partner, loose cannon with a pathological need to shoot. Owns a massive arsenal.
Barricade - the front man, makes the human governments trust the Decepticons and attack the Autobots. Has a less threatening robot drone for human interactions. Uses Rumble as the human envoy when the drone is broken, with less successful results.

I'm intentionally omitting large space transports such as Astrotrain, Sky Lynx, or Omega Supreme. This opens up far too much unused potential if they can go to any planet at any time but we are still limited in character choice.

Each side has a girl, I would have liked to use RID Strongarm and/or Nautica, but I would need more characters, I chose my core based on character interaction needs.

[Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats]

On Wednesday, October 11, 2017 at 1:02:30 AM UTC-7, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
> AUTOBOTS!
>
> Optimus Prime
> Bumblebee (sigh)
> Kup
> Arcee
> Smokescreen
> Silverbolt
> Nautica
> Grimlock
> Rhinox
> Warpath

I'm happy with the Autobots, reviewing them a day later. There's a good mix of different types of vehicles, there's a good mix of characters, and some redeco potential to pad out the line.

I wish I could stick in a Bulkhead, but I'm not really willing to remove anyone. I have no deep love for Warpath, but I like that the Autobots have a military vehicle.

> DECEPTICONS! They are actually way harder... The Decepticons aren't nearly as iconic, since they usually get about a quarter of the screen time and development, and they tend to all have crippling personality flaws.
>
> Megatron
> Starscream
> Soundwave
> Rumble
> Lugnut
> Tarantulas
> Shadow Striker
> Barricade
> Vortex
> Gaslight (a gender swapped Mindwipe)
>
> I assume that Thundercracker and Skywarp appear for free as redecos...

The Decepticons I am less happy with. There aren't a lot of deeply interesting Decepticons that I would like to see repeated endlessly, and some of the most iconic are kind of boring.

Megatron is just required, but he fails over and over. I do like what has been done in his name for some of the other series (Animated and Prime, particularly). He has no definitive alt-mode at this point. Either a tank or a Cybertronian vehicle.

Soundwave is one of the most memorable characters from G1, but none of the series after that have really figured out what to go with him, and his original alt-mode is so antiquated that he has been redesigned as everything from a motorcycle to a plane, with missile tank, car and satellite. And a bat/alligator thing. And even in G1 he was memorable mostly for talking in a dull monotone.

Soundwave brings in the minions, who have terrible alt-modes -- what good is a cassette?

Vortex is just pretty random. A helicopter is a nice alt-mode, and its different from all the planes. But... Vortex. Obsidian has too much backstory, Cyclonus is better known as someone else, Spinister wants to be mysterious... and overall they are just a mediocre bunch.

There's a big lack of Decepticon scientists and engineers. Various Constructicons have taken that role at different times, and both Megatron and Starscream have had to step in at various points. Shockwave has a crappy alt-mode, and Megatron has pretty much taken over the Cybertronian alt-modes and we don't need too many of those. I don't dislike Tarantulas, and he has a lot of potential story lines to add to the mix, but you can't really have him and Blackarachnia without them becoming a pair and their alt-modes being redundant.

Let's dump Soundwave and Rumble for having shitty alt-modes.

One of the freed up slots can be filled with Vehicon. The Vehicons were one of the most enjoyable bits of TF:Prime -- they are treated like nameless, interchangeable non-entities by the rest of the cast, but we kept getting glimpses of them talking among each other and being individual. They add a new dynamic to the characters, allow troop building, etc.

G1 had the random Seekers playing the role of disposable troops, but they were never disposed of, and never spoke. They were inferior to Vehicons.

And, let's add a construction vehicle. One of the Constructicons, and I don't really care which one because they were seldom fleshed out enough to have distinct personalities. Scavenger is a nice name, as is Scrapper. One of those two. Whatever construction vehicle strikes the designers fancy.

Still not 100% happy with the set. I would fear adding a triple changer into the mix because the toy is going to suck more often than not.

[New and Improved Zobovor]

On Thursday, October 12, 2017 at 1:08:31 AM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:

> Still not 100% happy with the set. I would fear adding a triple changer into
> the mix because the toy is going to suck more often than not.

You really gave this a lot of thought. That pleases me.


Zob (not that I actually want Hasbro to DO this, but it's an interesting thought exercise)