Cartoon Viewing Club: Zob's Thoughts on "Money is Everything"

[New and Improved Zobovor]

Was going to review this episode so I went to pop the DVD into my computer, only to find that one of my season three DVD's is missing.  Did one of you guys take it?  That's not cool, man.

"Money is Everything" is episode #89 of the original Transformers cartoon, one of the last episodes of the series.  While "Grimlock's New Brain" would predate this episode chronologically, this episode aired first, and as such was the first televised appearance of the Technobots and Terrorcons.  The episode was the brain child of Carla and Gerry Conway, who had previously written "Forever is a Long Time Coming."  The episode first aired on November 17, 1986.

Our episode begins en media res with Hun-Grrr, the Terrorcon leader, chasing the trader ship Lazy Sue and its crew of one through space.  We don't find this out right away, but the ship's captain, one Dirk Manus, had some dealings with the Quintessons that fell through, and apparently this is how they tie up their loose business ends... by sending a Terrorcon to eat them.  Dirk makes his way to Earth and figures that Earth Defense Command will protect him.  (Manus, incidentally, is voiced by Charlie Adler with all the charisma that he can muster.)  

A quick word on Hun-Grrr's name:  The character's name was inconsistently spelled, provided as "Hun-Gurrr" with a "u" on parts of the Hasbro toy packaging but spelled "Hun-Grr" with only two "r's" in Marvel Comics.  In the G1 series bible, it's spelled Hun-Grrr, with three "r's," so that's the spelling I use when referring to the character in the cartoon.

A nearby Earth Defense tracking station detects Dirk's ship and alerts Captain Marissa Faireborn, who is dispatched to investigate with two of the Technobots.  By this point in the show, we're not offered an explanation of where they came from, but we do get a line of dialogue later about the Technobots "still being new" (we'll see that a superintelligent Grimlock actually creates them in "Grimlock's New Brain").  Scattershot (voiced by the enigmatic Stephen Keener, who also provides the voice for Hun-Grrr) is bored by the idea of being assigned to work with EDC, but Strafe (Steve Bulin) is less concerned about it as long as they get to fight a Terrorcon now and again.  

So, this show was a toy commercial for Hasbro merchandise, obviously.  It arguably featured way too many characters, all vying for their screen time and for space on toy store shelves.  With that said, I was completely blown away when the Technobots made their debut.  The toys hadn't been released yet (they didn't come out until the springtime of 1987) and there was no hint of their existence in any of the toy catalogs up to this point, so they were a total surprise.  You could tell that they were probably a combiner team, though.  Sometimes the media is the message, and all their square-shaped heads pretty much gave away the fact that they had Scramble City intercompatibility. 

The episode doesn't really call attention to Strafe's rather large blunder, but as soon as he sees the Lazy Sue, he opens fire and grounds it.  He's really proud of himself for doing this, too.  "One down!  Down, and I did it!"  That's right, he just blasted the guy who sent the distress signal in the first place and made his ship crash.  Strafe is a danger to himself and others.  Hun-Grr has already collided with Scattershot and takes Strafe down with him as well, crying "Foooood!" the entire time, I guess because he's going to eat the Technobots next.  Well, Marissa seems to have a sense of just how badly this is going, so she contacts Autobot City.  Instead of getting some help, though, she just gets the other Technobots.

The great thing about introducing so many new characters at once is that we always get some fresh voice talent.  Afterburner is voiced by the inimitable Jim Cummings, who was just starting out in 1987 but would later become as big a talent as Frank Welker, performing roles like Winnie the Pooh (and Tigger, too), and had a long stint as Pete from The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  He also played Rippersnapper.  Lightspeed is Danny Mann, who was also Hector the Siamese cat in the Heathcliff cartoon and J. Gander Hooter, the head of S.H.U.S.H, on Darkwing Duck.  Nosecone was voiced by Dave Workman, who also provided one of Sinnertwin's two voices.

So, when the other Technobots get the distress call, each of their personalities becomes immediately evident.  Afterburner is impatient to the point of being frustrated, and Nosecone wants to sit there and carefully deliberate their next course of action.  Lightspeed wisely stays out of the argument, and they all transform and head for the crash site.  An interesting artifact of Afterburner's color model is that the circle on the front of his motorcycle mode (actually a weapon mount on the Hasbro toy) is consistently colored white, like a headlight.

Hun-Grrr toggles between robot mode and his two-headed dragon mode until the other three Technobots show up.  Lightspeed is able to detect a power core instability and exploits it—a concentrated burst from their weapons propels the Terrorcon up into the air and into space.  Manus quickly slips away to hide his cargo, burying it in the sand before introducing himself properly.

Manus seemed quite taken with Marissa, who is flustered by his charm but concerned about his unauthorized flight plan.  He introduces himself as a trader from Epsilon Eridani, which is a real-life star.  Alpha Centauri gets a lot of sci-fi face time as the second-closest star to the Earth, so this is a more original, slightly less obvious reference.  Marissa keeps addressing him as "trader," which sounds a lot like "traitor."  I think this was intentional.  Marissa, incidentally, wears a costume in this episode that we've never seen her in before or since.  Instead of her standard EDC flight suit, she's trussed up in what might be a diplomatic costume.  She kind of looks like a high school drum major, really.  

Marissa tries to arrest Dirk for violating the Earth defense perimeter, until he points out that he was seeking asylum from Hun-Grrr.  He claims that he accidentally discovered a Quintesson base on one of Saturn's terraformed moons, which piques Marissa's interest.  Quintessons operating within the solar system would be a major security threat.  

The Technobots combine into Computron (Bert Kramer) to mull over the problem, with Marissa explaining their vast computational abilities in this configuration.  This a far cry from the Voltron-style approach where the combiner robots only come out during the climax of a battle, and it's kind of refreshing.  Computron considers the available data and, given the Terrorcon presence and the Quintessons' intentions towards humanity, it's at least worth investigating.  Computron advises that they pay Dirk's fee and depart for Saturn in the morning.

That leaves Dirk and Marissa with some down time.  They attend a space-age restaurant, have some dinner, and enjoy a waltz on the dance floor as a Jem leitmotif plays in the background.  (You never hear this music in any of the Jem DVD's, but apparently it was used in the broadcast version of the show.  It's an instrumental variation on the Jem theme song).  Marissa explains that she never learned to dance, but Dirk just replies, "Trust me."  Rule number one is that you never trust anybody who tells you to trust them.  It's going to become a theme with our boy Dirk.

Let's analyze him for just a moment.  A dirk is a type of dagger, and the name Manus is derived from the Latin word for "hand."  So, in a way, his name basically means "dagger in hand."  How suspicious!  He's obviously patterned after Han Solo from Star Wars—the captain of a junk heap space ship, a trader and smuggler, rogueish and charismatic, and a potential love interest for the only girl who exists in the Universe.  Marissa, meanwhile, is playing the role of Princess Leia (and I need not remind you that Susan Blu was also the voice actor for Arcee of the cinnamon bun hairstyle).  Somewhere, an elderly 2006-era Karen Fishhook and Harold Edsel are feeling upstaged without actually knowing why.

After the romantic evening, though, Dirk retreats to the crash site for a clandestine communique with those dastardly Quintessons.  We learn that he actually had a deal with them to sell them something called the recreator for a couple million in Galactic credits (this is what he buried in the sand, and has dug it up presently), a deal that went sour when the Quintessons decided to turn on him and send Hun-Grrr to tie up loose ends... with his teeth.  Dirk is willing to give the trade another go for an additional four million credits, and even offers to deliver the Technobots to them.  The Quintessons balk at his price, but admit that they really need the recreator so they eventually accept.  (Back to the Star Wars allegory, the Quintessons are playing the role of Jabba the Hutt.)

Marissa stumbles onto his dealings and aims her gun at him.  "Trust me," she parrots.  Dirk has a hidden gun that fits in the palm of his fist, though, and knocks her weapon aside.  "That kinda mistake gets ya killed," he promises before we cut to commercial.  Oooh, savage!

Marissa makes a solid effort of wresting the gun from his hand, but he knocks her into a cactus and she's knocked out cold.  He regrets that they're on opposite sides of the law because he's kind of got a thing for her.  Oh, well.  Moving on.

Manus evidently manipulates three of the Technobots off-screen into accompanying him to the Quintesson base, because the next thing we know, Scattershot and Strafe and Lightspeed are rather cluelessly following the Lazy Sue, muttering about how Faireborn never showed up for the rendezvous and how Scattershot seems to think the Quintessons only have a single, easily-disposed Terrorcon at their disposal.  Meanwhile, Dirk has got his feet propped up and is already adding up his profits.

Nosecone and Afterburner, meanwhile, evidently realize that something's gone wrong and are searching for Marissa.  They find her in the desert, tied to the cactus where Dirk left her.  The pacing of this episode is such that we have to infer a lot of story beats.  I actually kind of like this, because the show is only 22 minutes long (third season episodes were even shorter than that, typically) and so every moment that they don't have to show is a moment they can devote somewhere else.

So, Lightspeed and the others head towards Saturn.  I suppose this is as good a time as any to mention that we've already seen Saturn's moon, Titan, in another episode from season two ("The God Gambit").  In that episode, the moon was populated by Titans like Talaria and Jerro, but in this episode they're nowhere to be found.  It's possible the Quintessons exterminated them when they set up operations.  

Lightspeed's dialogue also implies that he's an Autobot who was living on Cybertron until he relocated to Autobot City.  This creates a minor snag, since we see in "Grimlock's New Brain" that he was only recently created.  It's odd for him to be complaining about what life has been like "since leaving Cybertron" since it implies a long-term relocation for him.  (It's a little like the Hasbro toy biography for Snarl, in which he "hates his Dinobot form" and "longs to return to Cybertron."  According to the cartoon, he never lived on Cybertron and has never known any form other than his Dinobot body.)  Lightspeed hasn't even been alive long enough to miss Cybertron, is the point.

Abominus is following them, preparing for an ambush, and successfully guns down Strafe, Lightspeed, and Scattershot before any of them can react.  Abominus aims for the Lazy Sue next, but Dirk executes some fancy moves and manages to evade him.  Meanwhile, Afterburner and Nosecone accompany Marissa aboard an EDC ship to reconnoiter with the others.

The only thing stopping Abominus from catching up to Manus is a timer mechanism that the Quintessons saw fit to incorporate into his design, forcing him to separate into his component Terrorcons.  Rippersnapper (Jim Cummings again) isn't thrilled about giving up, and Cutthroat (Tony St. James, the voice actor for Brawl) is dismayed that they haven't finished their hunt.  I love the Terrorcons, but their Sunbow depictions take some major liberties with their designs.  All the small Terrorcons from 1987 had these pathetic, stubby robot arms and giant tree stumps for legs.  Of course, all the Terrorcons were drawn with normal, humanoid body proportions.  It's false advertising!

A word on the Terrorcons:  They're obviously Decepticons.  They have Decepticon insignias (something that cannot be said of the cartoon Sharkticons) and red eyes, and those are two major indicators of Decepticon technology.  And yet they're working for the Quintessons.  It's implied that the Quintessons created them and own them.  As I've said, this was their first episode, so I pretty much took all this as a given.  When we flash backwards to "Grimlock's New Brain," though, which depicts the origins of the Technobots, the Terrorcons are in that one, too, but they're working for Galvatron, with nary a Quintesson in sight.  So, how does that work?  Did the Quintessons make them but they occasionally loan them out to the Decepticons?  (Compare this to the Predacons, who were dispatched by the Quintessons in their first episode, but acted as full Decepticons during every other appearance.)

Oh, just one more thing about the Terrorcons.  Their animation models were designed so that their weapons were drawn separately, so the animators could see how their bodies were designed without all the guns and things in the way.  The Technobots were like this, too, with arrows pointing to the spots on them where their guns attached.  In this episode, the animators took those arrows to be part of their body designs themselves.  So, instead of having his backpack and gun mounted on his back, Blot's weapons are weirdly positioned, situated high above his head, just as the backpack appears in his animation model.

Blot, in fact, gets to be the test subject for the recreator, after Dirk hands it over and the Quintesson (voiced by Rege Cordic in this episode) is eager to put it into action.  He presses a button with his tentacle and Blot (also Tony St. James) momentarily vanishes, only to reappear in a different spot.  Dirk explains that not only is it a molecular disassembler/reassembler, but it also fixes damages and illness.  "Uh... Blot feel sick..." is Blot's commentary.  Blot, as we all know, is the most disgusting of all Transformers, so the fact that he's been taken apart at the molecular level and put back together properly probably means that he's not oozing the usual foul trail of oil and slime.  The fact that he feels weird because of this is kind of hilarious.

There's another funny moment where Dirk wants to cement their deal with a handshake, but thinks better of it after a moment.  Maybe the best part of the episode, though, is when Dirk wanders off, muttering "slimy, worm-fingered creep!" under his breath while the Quintessons are remarking "unlikable, dry-skinned biped!" at the same time.  Quintesson humor is never not funny.

Dirk scoops his fingers through a box of credits that the Sharkticons delivered to his ship, but the coins are actually mimic dust, evidently a substance with the approximate shape and weight of real money, but it crumbles to dust when handled.  It turns out Dirk's decision to plant a micro-sized nuclear nullifier on the recreator was a well-founded one.  This is, incidentally, the only such use of the term "nuclear" on a show that had actually specifically forbade references to nuclear weapons (witness the euphemistically-named "nova energy" from "The Insecticon Syndrome").  However, the Quintessons thought of everything—the detonator activated by Dirk sets off a Quintesson bomb on board his own ship, disabling it and grounding him a second time.

The three Technobots who followed Dirk to the moon are damaged and angry.  He tries to play innocent, even warning them of a Sharkticon ambush, but they refuse to fall for that trick and Lightspeed takes a shot in the back as a result.  The Sharkticons circle as we reach our second commercial break.

I think a different animation studio, or at least a different team of artists, worked on the third act of the episode.  Before the second commercial, the Autobot symbols on Scattershot's chest were drawn with white outlines.  When we come back after the break, suddenly the characters are drawn more dynamically, the Technobots are carrying their guns, the Sharkticons have differently designed guns, and the symbols on Scattershot are drawn with black outlines.  
Marissa and the other two Technobots show up and drive off the Sharkticons.  Marissa wants to take the Technobots back to Earth for repairs, but Manus warns them that the recreator that he sold to the Quintessons makes them even more powerful.  The Technobots are too damaged to combine into Computron to consider the circumstances, but Dirk says "trust me" again and that makes everything okay.

Marissa and Dirk have a Millennium Falcon moment where she calls him a scoundrel and he suggests she needs a scoundrel in her life.  Well, not really, but they might as well have.  An alien vine grabs Marissa by the arm (watch Strafe immediately open fire), giving Dirk a chance to play the hero, not only coming to the rescue but slipping her some tongue, too.  (Watch Strafe and Scattershot exchange a confused look.)  Oh, and then he steals her gun.  What a charmer.

Dirk delivers Marissa and the Technobots to the Quintessons, who express surprise that he's still willing to honor the agreement.  Dirk points out that since his ship was damaged, he didn't have much of a choice.  Also, the Quintessons still haven't paid him properly.  "That's all you care about!" balks Marissa.  "To you, money is everything!"  Well, you know.  Title of the episode had to come from somewhere.

Hun-Grrr and Sinnertwin and Hun-Grr and Sinnertwin get into a friendly sparring match, in which Sinnertwin occasionally interjects nuggets of sage wisdom like "rip metal!" or "eat food!"  Jared Barclay (also the voice of Cerebros) provides Sinnertwin's high-pitched voice in this episode; in other episodes like "Grimlock's New Brain," you can hear him arguing with himself, and Dave Workman provides his other, lower-pitched voice.

What's odd is that Dirk is now suddenly settling for a measley thousand credits from the Quintessons along with a ship back home.  This is the first sign that he's got something up his sleeve.  He claims to want revenge on the Technobots for causing him so much trouble, so he zaps them with the recreator, causing them to disappear into the ether.  Marissa is duly concerned and screams.  She makes an aggressive move towards Manus, but the Terrorcons are ordered to defend him.  It's a little weird seeing Hun-Grrr and Sinnertwin depicted as the exact same size.  Not very toyetic.

While everyone is distracted, Dirk activates the recreator again, summoning the Technobots back into existence... and now they're fully restored.  An uncharacteristically angry Quintesson throws the recreator at Marissa, who ducks, and then that's the last we see of the thing.  What, is it suddenly worthless?  What happened to "the recreator is crucial to our operation in this solar system"?  Well, anyway.  He threw his new toy and he done broke it.

The Terrorcons are ordered to combine into Abominus and the Technobots respond with Computron mode.  It's weirdly appropriate how Computron is busy making calculations during the battle and Abominus (Jim Gosa) just growls in frustration at him.  (He delivers a single line of dialogue later in "The Return of Optimus Prime" part 1; prior to that, I didn't think he was even smart enough to talk).  

Computron triggers the timer mechanism with a precision laser blast, separating Abominus back into the Terrorcons.  He calculates their ability to beat him at something like four point one percent.  He suggests they scoot, and the Terrorcons do indeed scoot.  Marissa smirks at Dirk.  She's either missing her lipstick, or she's stuffed her lips into her mouth.  Not sure which.

Marissa apologizes that they can't give Dirk the credits that the Quintessons left behind, because there are EDC rules about paying out rewards.  Dirk seems strangely fine with this, because he's already raided the EDC vault and loaded the credits on his ship.  He rockets off, only to discover that Marissa knows how to play this game, and left more mimic dust in the vault for him to find.  Marissa laughs; Lightspeed does not.  Just another odd human custom, I suppose.

As a showcase for the Technobots, this episode really shines.  It gives each of them at least a moment or two in the spotlight and you get a really good feel for their personalities.  The Terrorcons are cool-looking monsters, but they're a little less developed, as is typically the case with the bad-guy characters.  (Also, I think Blot's single line of dialogue was the only such time he got to speak on the entire show.)  

In some ways, Dirk is a cookie-cutter character, ripped right from the pages of the Journal of the Whills, but he's fun to watch.  He's smarmy and conniving and Charlie Adler does such a great job with his characterization.  Also, he nearly gets into Marissa's pants, and what teenaged boy watching this show in the 1980's didn't want that?  

This is arguably one of the best episodes of the series.  It doesn't have any moments that make me want to cringe, it didn't have any animation mistakes that were glaring enough for me to want to make fun of, and it's got an interesting story.  Not bad for an episode that doesn't feature a single one of the established Autobots or Decepticons from the third season!  


Zob (still deciding whether I want the Hasbro or Takara version of Combiner Wars Computron)

[Cappeca]

As usual, I'm watching all of these in portuguese if possible. Most if not all of the original brazilian broadcast was recovered thanks to our local fanbase working together, sharing their own personal VHS tapes so that we could reassemble remastered video from the market release of the DVDs with local audio in portuguese. Great work if I may say so.

Em quarta-feira, 16 de agosto de 2017 00:39:09 UTC-3, New and Improved Zobovor escreveu:
> Our episode begins en media res with Hun-Grrr, the Terrorcon leader, chasing the trader ship Lazy Sue and its crew of one through space.

I don't know the original dialog in english, but in portuguese he keeps saying "Fome" (Hunger) and "Raiva" (Anger) which I think was a mess-up by voice acting direction.

> The Technobots combine into Computron (Bert Kramer) to mull over the problem, with Marissa explaining their vast computational abilities in this configuration.  This a far cry from the Voltron-style approach where the combiner robots only come out during the climax of a battle, and it's kind of refreshing.  Computron considers the available data and, given the Terrorcon presence and the Quintessons' intentions towards humanity, it's at least worth investigating.  Computron advises that they pay Dirk's fee and depart for Saturn in the morning.

In the portuguese dub they keep calling the Terrorcons "Terracons", which sounds way too weird.

> That leaves Dirk and Marissa with some down time.  They attend a space-age restaurant, have some dinner, and enjoy a waltz on the dance floor as a Jem leitmotif plays in the background.

For a while now I believe that in every piece of music, film or animation where the characters "dance" together, it's a metaphor for sex. They went at it, pure and simple.

> Nosecone and Afterburner, meanwhile, evidently realize that something's gone wrong and are searching for Marissa.  They find her in the desert, tied to the cactus where Dirk left her.  The pacing of this episode is such that we have to infer a lot of story beats.  I actually kind of like this, because the show is only 22 minutes long (third season episodes were even shorter than that, typically) and so every moment that they don't have to show is a moment they can devote somewhere else.

This episode is quite fast actually. The first and second segments, and the whole animation style make it look almost like real anime. It has that "Headmasters" feeling that other episodes don't.

>  "That's all you care about!" balks Marissa.  "To you, money is everything!"  

Roll credits!

> This is arguably one of the best episodes of the series.  It doesn't have any moments that make me want to cringe, it didn't have any animation mistakes that were glaring enough for me to want to make fun of, and it's got an interesting story.  Not bad for an episode that doesn't feature a single one of the established Autobots or Decepticons from the third season!  
>

It is indeed really good, one of those you'd want to reenact with the toys. Just recently I got the ZJ versions of Abominus and Computron. Abominus is amazing, a very large gestalt for a Scramble City toy. Computron is pretty good and solid too. All I need is Dirk Manus, Marissa Fairborne and the Lazy Sue in KREO form.

I just google Dirk McManus, and it's an actual name. Do you think it's related to any Dirk McManus from the 80s?

[New and Improved Zobovor]

On Thursday, August 17, 2017 at 1:35:51 PM UTC-6, Cappeca wrote:

> I don't know the original dialog in english, but in portuguese he keeps
> saying "Fome" (Hunger) and "Raiva" (Anger) which I think was a mess-up by
> voice acting direction.

He just announces "Hun-Grrr hungry!" and when the satellite falls into his mouth he happily proclaims, "Food!" That's it.

> For a while now I believe that in every piece of music, film or animation
> where the characters "dance" together, it's a metaphor for sex. They went at
> it, pure and simple.

Yes. I agree with this statement completely.

> This episode is quite fast actually. The first and second segments, and the
> whole animation style make it look almost like real anime. It has
> that "Headmasters" feeling that other episodes don't.

In some ways, it's a shame that Transformers mostly got low-budget animation in 1986 while G.I. Joe got a lot more high-quality Toei animation. I suspect that if Hasbro had it to do over again, they might have poured more money into the Transformers franchise, given the comparative state of the two brands today.

> It is indeed really good, one of those you'd want to reenact with the toys.
> Just recently I got the ZJ versions of Abominus and Computron. Abominus is
> amazing, a very large gestalt for a Scramble City toy. Computron is pretty
> good and solid too.

I think Computron's combined form is probably the most successful Scramble City design. Menasor and Superion are so floppy, but Computron is amazing. I dislike how tall Scattershot's toy is, though. He's almost the size of a combiner without help from anybody else!

> I just google Dirk McManus, and it's an actual name. Do you think it's
> related to any Dirk McManus from the 80s?

I tend to think that most of the names of incidental characters are inside jokes by the writers. (Goodness knows I tend to insert the names of my closest friends into my writing whenever I get the chance.)


Zob (not sure if it's a compliment or not)

[Gustavo Wombat]

New and Improved Zobovor <zobo...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Was going to review this episode so I went to pop the DVD into my
> computer, only to find that one of my season three DVD's is missing.  Did
> one of you guys take it?  That's not cool, man.

Not me, I've been sick. And working. Barely had a chance to watch this
episode. Couldn't get out there to steal a DVD.

> Our episode begins en media res with Hun-Grrr, the Terrorcon leader,
> chasing the trader ship Lazy Sue and its crew of one through space.  

While watching this, I was struck by how much of a consistent visual design
there are for space ships in Transformers, and that none of the
Transformers we know and love actually transforms into one of them. Devcon
does, but we don't really know or love him.

>We don't find this out right away, but the ship's captain, one Dirk Manus,
> had some dealings with the Quintessons that fell through, and apparently
> this is how they tie up their loose business ends... by sending a Terrorcon to eat them.  

I think in this episode someone was thinking of the Terrorcons as being
more advanced Sharkticons, and that's why they were with the Quintessons.
The Autobots were mostly cars, and the Decepticons were mostly planes, and
animals? They probably go with the guys with the Sharkticons and the
Alligator things...

But, onto Dirk -- is he human? He says that he hails from Epsilon
Somethingorother, and if that means he's originally from there, then either
he isn't human, or humans there age super quick. Humans didn't have
significant space flight in 1984-85, so even assuming that in 1986 there
suddenly space ships, he would be 19, rather than the 30 or so he appears.

It could also just be where he has been based lately...

>Dirk makes his way to Earth and figures that Earth Defense Command will
> protect him.  (Manus, incidentally, is voiced by Charlie Adler with all
> the charisma that he can muster.)  

Not knowing most of my voice actors, I had to look up who else he played.
Quintesson #4 in one episode. Also, Silverbolt. I actually cannot conjure
up what G1 Silverbolt sounds like, since the name Silverbolt immediately
makes me think of the Beast Wars character.

> A quick word on Hun-Grrr's name:  The character's name was inconsistently
> spelled, provided as "Hun-Gurrr" with a "u" on parts of the Hasbro toy
> packaging but spelled "Hun-Grr" with only two "r's" in Marvel Comics.  In
> the G1 series bible, it's spelled Hun-Grrr, with three "r's," so that's
> the spelling I use when referring to the character in the cartoon.

They were just trying to prepare you for things like Octone. It was good of
them to do so, as we now know that Transformers are not that picky about
their names.

> A nearby Earth Defense tracking station detects Dirk's ship and alerts
> Captain Marissa Faireborn, who is dispatched to investigate with two of
> the Technobots.  By this point in the show, we're not offered an
> explanation of where they came from, but we do get a line of dialogue
> later about the Technobots "still being new" (we'll see that a
> superintelligent Grimlock actually creates them in "Grimlock's New Brain").

I wonder if there is an offscreen adventure where they fell back in time,
shortly after "Grimlock's New Brain". It could make this episode in the
original viewing order also be the chronological viewing order. They have
an adventure, go back in time a few months, and never get rescued.

>  Scattershot (voiced by the enigmatic Stephen Keener, who also provides
> the voice for Hun-Grrr) is bored by the idea of being assigned to work
> with EDC, but Strafe (Steve Bulin) is less concerned about it as long as
> they get to fight a Terrorcon now and again.  

> The episode doesn't really call attention to Strafe's rather large
> blunder, but as soon as he sees the Lazy Sue, he opens fire and grounds
> it.  He's really proud of himself for doing this, too.  "One down!  Down,
> and I did it!"  That's right, he just blasted the guy who sent the
> distress signal in the first place and made his ship crash.

Dirk calls him out on it, wondering why everyone on this planet is crazy,
or something. And then the matter is dropped. But, it wasn't just a single
weird scene that somehow happened because of a story boarding mistake or
something, it was clearly intended.

I have no idea what it is supposed to tell us though.

>  Strafe is a danger to himself and others.  Hun-Grr has already collided
> with Scattershot and takes Strafe down with him as well, crying
> "Foooood!" the entire time, I guess because he's going to eat the
> Technobots next.  Well, Marissa seems to have a sense of just how badly
> this is going, so she contacts Autobot City.  Instead of getting some
> help, though, she just gets the other Technobots.

Ouch. I like the Technobots. They have the processing power of two hundred
super computers, you know. About 40 supercomputers each.

> So, when the other Technobots get the distress call, each of their
> personalities becomes immediately evident.  

I can tell the Technobots apart, unlike the Aerialbots. That's how distinct
their personalities are. No idea who the Constructicons are though, since
they all look alike.

>Afterburner is impatient to the point of being frustrated, and Nosecone
> wants to sit there and carefully deliberate their next course of action.
>  Lightspeed wisely stays out of the argument, and they all transform and
> head for the crash site.  An interesting artifact of Afterburner's color
> model is that the circle on the front of his motorcycle mode (actually a
> weapon mount on the Hasbro toy) is consistently colored white, like a headlight.

While watching them, I could not help but stop and ponder which CW toys
were better. I can actually see the Hasbro Lightspeed making a lot of
sense, even though the Takara one is better. And Strafe really is the
Hasbro toy -- so blocky.

> Hun-Grrr toggles between robot mode and his two-headed dragon mode until
> the other three Technobots show up.  Lightspeed is able to detect a power
> core instability and exploits it—a concentrated burst from their weapons
> propels the Terrorcon up into the air and into space.  Manus quickly
> slips away to hide his cargo, burying it in the sand before introducing himself properly.

Let's take a moment to ponder Dirk Manus's burying skill. With no tools, he
quickly digs a hole big enough for a large device.

> Manus seemed quite taken with Marissa, who is flustered by his charm but
> concerned about his unauthorized flight plan.  He introduces himself as a
> trader from Epsilon Eridani, which is a real-life star.  Alpha Centauri
> gets a lot of sci-fi face time as the second-closest star to the Earth,
> so this is a more original, slightly less obvious reference.  Marissa
> keeps addressing him as "trader," which sounds a lot like "traitor."  I
> think this was intentional.  

Do you think the character intended it, or do you just think it was
something the writers put in for the audience? It seemed weird to me, and
forced, and out of character.

>Marissa, incidentally, wears a costume in this episode that we've never
> seen her in before or since.  Instead of her standard EDC flight suit,
> she's trussed up in what might be a diplomatic costume.  She kind of
> looks like a high school drum major, really.  

Yowser!

> Marissa tries to arrest Dirk for violating the Earth defense perimeter,

That's not the only perimeter he wanted to violate...

>until he points out that he was seeking asylum from Hun-Grrr.  He claims
> that he accidentally discovered a Quintesson base on one of Saturn's
> terraformed moons, which piques Marissa's interest.  Quintessons
> operating within the solar system would be a major security threat.  

You would think that Quintessons and Decepticons would also pique her
interest. Again, I wonder if they were meant to be Decepticons at all in
this story. Or maybe everyone on Earth can't tell their evil aliens apart.

> The Technobots combine into Computron (Bert Kramer) to mull over the
> problem, with Marissa explaining their vast computational abilities in
> this configuration.  This a far cry from the Voltron-style approach where
> the combiner robots only come out during the climax of a battle, and it's
> kind of refreshing.  Computron considers the available data and, given
> the Terrorcon presence and the Quintessons' intentions towards humanity,
> it's at least worth investigating.  Computron advises that they pay
> Dirk's fee and depart for Saturn in the morning.

Why doesn't Computron consider Quintessons and Decepticons working
together. Everyone fails to notice.

There's a nice little moment here where Dirk is worried that Computron will
see through him, and asks Marissa if she would trust him anyway, no matter
what Computron says. She says no.

It really helps keep her from being just the butt of a joke throughout the
episode.

> That leaves Dirk and Marissa with some down time.  They attend a
> space-age restaurant, have some dinner, and enjoy a waltz on the dance
> floor as a Jem leitmotif plays in the background.  (You never hear this
> music in any of the Jem DVD's, but apparently it was used in the
> broadcast version of the show.  It's an instrumental variation on the Jem
> theme song).  Marissa explains that she never learned to dance, but Dirk
> just replies, "Trust me."  Rule number one is that you never trust
> anybody who tells you to trust them.  It's going to become a theme with our boy Dirk.

I love the restaurant. It is insane. It should have come up time and time
again. Also, maybe you really can trust Dirk -- he seems so trustworthy.

> Let's analyze him for just a moment.  A dirk is a type of dagger, and the
> name Manus is derived from the Latin word for "hand."  So, in a way, his
> name basically means "dagger in hand."  How suspicious!  He's obviously
> patterned after Han Solo from Star Wars—the captain of a junk heap space
> ship, a trader and smuggler, rogueish and charismatic, and a potential
> love interest for the only girl who exists in the Universe.  Marissa,
> meanwhile, is playing the role of Princess Leia

There's a lot more twists and turns in this relationship than Han Solo and
Princess Leia. I think there were probably other influences too, like "His
Girl Friday" (which is always trotted out as an influence any time a woman
is sassy.

> Marissa stumbles onto his dealings and aims her gun at him.

Why was she following him home? With a gun? It's an awfully suspicious
thing to do.

>  "Trust me," she parrots.  Dirk has a hidden gun that fits in the palm of
> his fist, though, and knocks her weapon aside.  "That kinda mistake gets
> ya killed," he promises before we cut to commercial.  Oooh, savage!
>
> Marissa makes a solid effort of wresting the gun from his hand, but he
> knocks her into a cactus and she's knocked out cold.  He regrets that
> they're on opposite sides of the law because he's kind of got a thing for
> her.  Oh, well.  Moving on.

I always see that scene and assume she must be basically impaled on a
thousand needles.

> Manus evidently manipulates three of the Technobots off-screen into
> accompanying him to the Quintesson base, because the next thing we know,
> Scattershot and Strafe and Lightspeed are rather cluelessly following the
> Lazy Sue, muttering about how Faireborn never showed up for the
> rendezvous and how Scattershot seems to think the Quintessons only have a
> single, easily-disposed Terrorcon at their disposal.  

I think the plan was made earlier, and when Marissa didn't show up, they
just went without her.

> Nosecone and Afterburner, meanwhile, evidently realize that something's
> gone wrong and are searching for Marissa.  They find her in the desert,
> tied to the cactus where Dirk left her.  The pacing of this episode is
> such that we have to infer a lot of story beats.  I actually kind of like
> this, because the show is only 22 minutes long (third season episodes
> were even shorter than that, typically) and so every moment that they
> don't have to show is a moment they can devote somewhere else.

The pacing of these shows is usually incredibly slow, but this one feels a
lot more like a modern cartoon because of the quick pacing. It remains one
of the most watchable and enjoyable episode to this day because of this.

Watch an episode of Knight Rider -- or another show from the same era --
and it is actually pretty painful. Star Trek, the original series, is even
more painful. But this zips right along.

> So, Lightspeed and the others head towards Saturn.  I suppose this is as
> good a time as any to mention that we've already seen Saturn's moon,
> Titan, in another episode from season two ("The God Gambit").  In that
> episode, the moon was populated by Titans like Talaria and Jerro, but in
> this episode they're nowhere to be found.  It's possible the Quintessons
> exterminated them when they set up operations.  

We see it again in FFoD, don't we? No, that's Io. But, yes, they are
clearly wiped out.

The Quintessons probably used them to harvest the crystals for energy.
Perhaps someone should have checked on that other sentient species in the
solar system... oh, what happened to Atlantis?

> Lightspeed's dialogue also implies that he's an Autobot who was living on
> Cybertron until he relocated to Autobot City.  This creates a minor snag,
> since we see in "Grimlock's New Brain" that he was only recently created.
>  It's odd for him to be complaining about what life has been like "since
> leaving Cybertron" since it implies a long-term relocation for him.

>  Lightspeed hasn't even been alive long enough to miss Cybertron, is the point.

He may just really hate Earth. That's how I read it anyway.

The Technobots are young, and they think they know everything, just like
the Aerialbots. Earth just isn't as exciting.

> The only thing stopping Abominus from catching up to Manus is a timer
> mechanism that the Quintessons saw fit to incorporate into his design,
> forcing him to separate into his component Terrorcons.  

The timer is weird.

> A word on the Terrorcons:  They're obviously Decepticons.  They have
> Decepticon insignias (something that cannot be said of the cartoon
> Sharkticons) and red eyes, and those are two major indicators of
> Decepticon technology.  And yet they're working for the Quintessons.
>  It's implied that the Quintessons created them and own them.  As I've
> said, this was their first episode, so I pretty much took all this as a
> given.  When we flash backwards to "Grimlock's New Brain," though, which
> depicts the origins of the Technobots, the Terrorcons are in that one,
> too, but they're working for Galvatron, with nary a Quintesson in sight.
>  So, how does that work?  Did the Quintessons make them but they
> occasionally loan them out to the Decepticons?  (Compare this to the
> Predacons, who were dispatched by the Quintessons in their first episode,
> but acted as full Decepticons during every other appearance.)

Ok, this really helps validate my theory that the Technobots went back in
time to before their creation. This episode is before the Technobots broke
free from their Quintesson masters and became full fledged Decepticons. Or
were sent to infiltrate the Decepticons.

Which happens to match the Predacons -- they start as aligned to the
Quintessons, but become Decepticons later. The Terrorcons have a timer
thing to help control them, too.

After the Terrorcons wandered away, the Quintessons probably built the
Seacons.

> There's another funny moment where Dirk wants to cement their deal with a
> handshake, but thinks better of it after a moment.  Maybe the best part
> of the episode, though, is when Dirk wanders off, muttering "slimy,
> worm-fingered creep!" under his breath while the Quintessons are
> remarking "unlikable, dry-skinned biped!" at the same time.  Quintesson
> humor is never not funny.

Quintesson humor is the best humor. They heard him, and now they are
mocking him.

> Dirk scoops his fingers through a box of credits that the Sharkticons
> delivered to his ship, but the coins are actually mimic dust, evidently a
> substance with the approximate shape and weight of real money, but it
> crumbles to dust when handled.  It turns out Dirk's decision to plant a
> micro-sized nuclear nullifier on the recreator was a well-founded one.
>  This is, incidentally, the only such use of the term "nuclear" on a show
> that had actually specifically forbade references to nuclear weapons
> (witness the euphemistically-named "nova energy" from "The Insecticon
> Syndrome").  However, the Quintessons thought of everything—the detonator
> activated by Dirk sets off a Quintesson bomb on board his own ship,
> disabling it and grounding him a second time.

I thought the Quintessons activated the detonator on the Lazy Sue
independent of Dirk trying to detonate the nuclear nullified on the
McGuffin. The Quintessons wouldn't want someone wandering around the galaxy
spreading tales of them failing to pay, after all.

> Marissa and Dirk have a Millennium Falcon moment where she calls him a
> scoundrel and he suggests she needs a scoundrel in her life.  Well, not
> really, but they might as well have.  An alien vine grabs Marissa by the
> arm (watch Strafe immediately open fire), giving Dirk a chance to play
> the hero, not only coming to the rescue but slipping her some tongue,
> too.  (Watch Strafe and Scattershot exchange a confused look.)  Oh, and
> then he steals her gun.  What a charmer.

I really don't get a Han Solo vibe from him. I may be alone on this, but
Han Solo is a lot less transparent.

> Dirk delivers Marissa and the Technobots to the Quintessons, who express
> surprise that he's still willing to honor the agreement.  Dirk points out
> that since his ship was damaged, he didn't have much of a choice.  Also,
> the Quintessons still haven't paid him properly.  "That's all you care
> about!" balks Marissa.  "To you, money is everything!"  Well, you know.
>  Title of the episode had to come from somewhere.

The Quintessons should have been anticipating his betrayal. But they did
have problems with understanding humans and presumably other organics.

> What's odd is that Dirk is now suddenly settling for a measley thousand
> credits from the Quintessons along with a ship back home.  This is the
> first sign that he's got something up his sleeve.  

Ships cost money, so that is part of it. But, the Quintessons obviously
don't have a lot of money, or else they would have just paid him.

> While everyone is distracted, Dirk activates the recreator again,
> summoning the Technobots back into existence... and now they're fully
> restored.  An uncharacteristically angry Quintesson throws the recreator
> at Marissa, who ducks, and then that's the last we see of the thing.
>  What, is it suddenly worthless?  What happened to "the recreator is
> crucial to our operation in this solar system"?  Well, anyway.  He threw
> his new toy and he done broke it.

Quintessons have a full range of emotions. They are a little cold, but not
unduly so.

> Computron triggers the timer mechanism with a precision laser blast,
> separating Abominus back into the Terrorcons.  He calculates their
> ability to beat him at something like four point one percent.  He
> suggests they scoot, and the Terrorcons do indeed scoot.  Marissa smirks
> at Dirk.  She's either missing her lipstick, or she's stuffed her lips
> into her mouth.  Not sure which.

I would have loved for Quintessons and Computron to argue over
probabilities. Also, Marissa is demonstrating that she knows how to cover
her teeth with her lips to avoid biting down too hard.

> Marissa apologizes that they can't give Dirk the credits that the
> Quintessons left behind, because there are EDC rules about paying out
> rewards.  Dirk seems strangely fine with this, because he's already
> raided the EDC vault and loaded the credits on his ship.  He rockets off,
> only to discover that Marissa knows how to play this game, and left more
> mimic dust in the vault for him to find.  Marissa laughs; Lightspeed does
> not.  Just another odd human custom, I suppose.

I think I would have preferred this is Marissa didn't laugh, and she had
been taken in by the mimic dust as well.

> As a showcase for the Technobots, this episode really shines.  It gives
> each of them at least a moment or two in the spotlight and you get a
> really good feel for their personalities.  The Terrorcons are
> cool-looking monsters, but they're a little less developed, as is
> typically the case with the bad-guy characters.  (Also, I think Blot's
> single line of dialogue was the only such time he got to speak on the entire show.)  

I think Dirk and Marissa really steal the show. The Technobots are there,
but they are not the stars.

> In some ways, Dirk is a cookie-cutter character, ripped right from the
> pages of the Journal of the Whills, but he's fun to watch.  He's smarmy
> and conniving and Charlie Adler does such a great job with his
> characterization.  Also, he nearly gets into Marissa's pants, and what
> teenaged boy watching this show in the 1980's didn't want that?  

Meh. I'm sure she's fine, but I never had an interest in animated women.

> This is arguably one of the best episodes of the series.  It doesn't have
> any moments that make me want to cringe, it didn't have any animation
> mistakes that were glaring enough for me to want to make fun of, and it's
> got an interesting story.  Not bad for an episode that doesn't feature a
> single one of the established Autobots or Decepticons from the third season!  
>
>
> Zob (still deciding whether I want the Hasbro or Takara version of Combiner Wars Computron)

Takara. I prefer the Hasbro Strafe, but Lightspeed is better in the Takara
version. Both Nosecones have issues, but the Takara one is way more
accurate. Scattershot has better combiner elements in the Takara version.
And the big dedicated hands and feet of the Hasbro toy are a step
backwards.


--
I wish I was a mole in the ground.

[New and Improved Zobovor]

On Friday, August 18, 2017 at 10:39:30 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:

> Not me, I've been sick.

I was wondering why we hadn't heard from you. Hope you're feeling better!

> While watching this, I was struck by how much of a consistent visual design
> there are for space ships in Transformers, and that none of the
> Transformers we know and love actually transforms into one of them. Devcon
> does, but we don't really know or love him.

There might be an unspoken distinction between things that Transformers turn into, and things that Transformers get inside of and ride around in. There's nothing to stop a really big Autobot from transforming into the shuttles from The Transformers: the Movie, for example. They have both living vehicles (Omega Supreme, Cosmos, Sky Lynx, Astrotrain) and non-living vehicles (the Ark, the Nemesis, the shuttles from The Transformers: the Movie) so maybe they keep them separate and distinct on purpose... so you wouldn't climb on board a ship expecting to have total control over it, only for it to turn out to be a Transformer that had his own ideas about where and when he wanted to go.

> I think in this episode someone was thinking of the Terrorcons as being
> more advanced Sharkticons, and that's why they were with the Quintessons.

Maybe. And the fact that they are creatures makes a strong argument for them being created by the Quintessons. The Decepticon insignias are a real sticking point, though, since Sharkticons and Crokticons (or whatever they're called) don't have Decepticon symbols.

> But, onto Dirk -- is he human? He says that he hails from Epsilon
> Somethingorother

I tend to think it's just where he's been living recently. Of course, it's also possible that he's lying.

> Not knowing most of my voice actors, I had to look up who else he played.

Silverbolt would be his biggest G1 role, but he was also Eric Raymond on Jem, who was approximately as smarmy as Dirk Manus. (I also just saw a Real Ghostbusters episode recently in which he played a smarmy news reporter. Apparently, Charlie Adler does smarmy really well.)

> They were just trying to prepare you for things like Octone. It was good of
> them to do so, as we now know that Transformers are not that picky about
> their names.

And yet, Marvel Comics Bumblebee argues with people when they say Auto-Bots instead of Autobots. (Seriously, is there even an audible difference? Or can comic book character "hear" the way their names are parsed and spelled?)

> Dirk calls him out on it, wondering why everyone on this planet is crazy,
> or something. And then the matter is dropped. But, it wasn't just a single
> weird scene that somehow happened because of a story boarding mistake or
> something, it was clearly intended.

Oh, I never questioned whether it was meant to be part of the episode. Given what we know about Strafe (he was triggerhappy before Triggerhappy was triggerhappy), it's perfectly in character for him to shoot first, ask questions later, and then shoot a few more times just for good measure.

All of the Technobots have a major personality flaw, including Computron. It's probably got something to do with them being made out of Unicron parts.

> I can tell the Technobots apart, unlike the Aerialbots. That's how distinct
> their personalities are. No idea who the Constructicons are though, since
> they all look alike.

This episode really treats them as individual characters instead of a single group of five robots. It helps that there are no other Autobots to hog the spotlight and relegating the Technobots to being the special guest stars.

Conversely, no episode ever really took the time to explore the Aerialbots or Constructicons individually. (I know them pretty well, but that's because I studied the Hasbro toy biographies like they were Cliff's Notes. On the other hand, I've seen every episode of G.I. Joe and I couldn't tell you the first think about the Dreadnoks. They're literally all the same to me.)

> I can actually see the Hasbro Lightspeed making a lot of sense, even though
> the Takara one is better.

I can't see Hasbro's version of Lightspeed and not see a red-colored Streetwise. It's just all wrong. Takara using the Wheeljack mold was a much, much better choice.

> Let's take a moment to ponder Dirk Manus's burying skill. With no tools, he
> quickly digs a hole big enough for a large device.

The soil on Titan is really loose. It was recently terraformed and stuff.

>> Marissa keeps addressing him as "trader," which sounds a lot
>> like "traitor."
>

> Do you think the character intended it, or do you just think it was
> something the writers put in for the audience?

The way Marissa emphasizes the word suggests to me that she's saying to him she knows he's up to no good. The Quintessons tend to call him "free trader" which offers much less room for interpretation.

> That's not the only perimeter he wanted to violate...

"Hey, baby, are you an Earth Defense outpost? Because I'm about to enter your warp gate."

> You would think that Quintessons and Decepticons would also pique her
> interest. Again, I wonder if they were meant to be Decepticons at all in
> this story. Or maybe everyone on Earth can't tell their evil aliens apart.

I don't think the Terrorcons are identified as Decepticons at any point during the episode. It really is kind of strange.

> Why doesn't Computron consider Quintessons and Decepticons working
> together. Everyone fails to notice.

They just accept that the Terrorcons are agents of the Quintessons. Which would be fine, in and of itself (advanced Sharkticons, like you said), were it not for episode that come before this one ("Grimlock's New Brain") and after this one ("The Return of Optimus Prime") when they're Decepticons working for Galvatron.

Maybe they're just mercenaries-for-hire who obey whoever feeds them?

> There's a nice little moment here where Dirk is worried that Computron will
> see through him, and asks Marissa if she would trust him anyway, no matter
> what Computron says. She says no.

I love her delivery, too. "Uh... not really."

> There's a lot more twists and turns in this relationship than Han Solo and
> Princess Leia.

Oh, definitely. You can't ignore the similarities, though, especially between Dirk and Han.

> The pacing of these shows is usually incredibly slow, but this one feels a
> lot more like a modern cartoon because of the quick pacing. It remains one
> of the most watchable and enjoyable episode to this day because of this.

Yeah, we've talked about this a little bit recently. At first, I didn't really notice how fast-paced modern shows are. The change was gradual and it sort of snuck up on me. Now, though, looking at older shows, it's really obvious. I guess people just have much shorter attention spans than they used to.

> Watch an episode of Knight Rider -- or another show from the same era --
> and it is actually pretty painful. Star Trek, the original series, is even
> more painful. But this zips right along.

This is a weirdly specific thing, but one of the things that bothers me the most about Knight Rider now is all those episode when Michael Knight sneaks into an office building and starts rummaging through filing cabinets. That's so positively backwards now.

Also, I'm in total agreement with what you said above, but... I thought the last time we discussed this, we were at odds? I remember mentioning the 1960's Star Trek, specifically, as an example of a slow-paced show and you seemed to disagree.

> The Technobots are young, and they think they know everything, just like
> the Aerialbots. Earth just isn't as exciting.

They definitely seem to think they know everything. Oddly, they're not really played up as being youngsters the way the Aerialbots were after they were first created.

> After the Terrorcons wandered away, the Quintessons probably built the
> Seacons.

That wouldn't surprise me at all.

> I thought the Quintessons activated the detonator on the Lazy Sue
> independent of Dirk trying to detonate the nuclear nullified on the
> McGuffin.

Could be. The timing seemed to be that as soon as Dirk tripped his detonator, the explosion happened on board his own ship. The way the Quintesson casually flicked Dirk's explosive from the recreator suggests that it had been rendered useless. If the Quntesson explosives were completely independent of Dirk's, then why didn't Dirk's bomb ever go off?

> The Quintessons should have been anticipating his betrayal. But they did
> have problems with understanding humans and presumably other organics.

Dirk is one of those people who's a little bit irrational and a little unpredictable. Also, I think falling for Marissa changed up his game plan. He really would have probably offered up the Technobots to the Quintessons, had it not been for her.

> Quintessons have a full range of emotions. They are a little cold, but not
> unduly so.

I just don't think I've ever seen a Quintesson actually exhibit anger before. They're usually so composed.

> I think I would have preferred this is Marissa didn't laugh, and she had
> been taken in by the mimic dust as well.

That would have been a better ending. No episode is ever served by having character laugh at the end until the credits roll. It's so embarrassing and cheesy that I don't even know how or why it became a thing.

> I think Dirk and Marissa really steal the show. The Technobots are there,
> but they are not the stars.

They definitely make the episode a lot more interesting. It's one of the few times when the human characters really serve the story instead of just being there just to be there.

> Meh. I'm sure she's fine, but I never had an interest in animated women.

April O'Neil is on line two and wants to have a word with you.

> Takara. I prefer the Hasbro Strafe, but Lightspeed is better in the Takara
> version. Both Nosecones have issues, but the Takara one is way more
> accurate. Scattershot has better combiner elements in the Takara version.
> And the big dedicated hands and feet of the Hasbro toy are a step
> backwards.

I really like the idea of Nosecone having treads for arms, but I think he's the only Hasbro toy I would pick over the Takara version. Afterburner I could go either way on, but the other Takara versions are just so vastly superior. And also about twice as expensive. Which is why I haven't gotten either set yet. I had at first thought about skipping them altogether, but now that we know new Terrorcons are coming...


Zob (it's Combiner Wars Devastator all over again)

[Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats]

On Saturday, August 19, 2017 at 12:28:56 PM UTC-7, New and Improved Zobovor wrote:
> On Friday, August 18, 2017 at 10:39:30 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
> > Not me, I've been sick.
>
> I was wondering why we hadn't heard from you. Hope you're feeling better!

Nothing terrible -- summer cold hit at the same time that we got all the smoke from Canada burning down, and together it was like being hit with a sledgehammer. And having to get stuff done for work.

> > While watching this, I was struck by how much of a consistent visual design
> > there are for space ships in Transformers, and that none of the
> > Transformers we know and love actually transforms into one of them. Devcon
> > does, but we don't really know or love him.
>
> There might be an unspoken distinction between things that Transformers turn into, and things that Transformers get inside of and ride around in. There's nothing to stop a really big Autobot from transforming into the shuttles from The Transformers: the Movie, for example. They have both living vehicles (Omega Supreme, Cosmos, Sky Lynx, Astrotrain) and non-living vehicles (the Ark, the Nemesis, the shuttles from The Transformers: the Movie) so maybe they keep them separate and distinct on purpose... so you wouldn't climb on board a ship expecting to have total control over it, only for it to turn out to be a Transformer that had his own ideas about where and when he wanted to go.

I kind of like to think that some of those inanimate vehicles are just dead Transformers. Maybe I am morbid.

> > I think in this episode someone was thinking of the Terrorcons as being
> > more advanced Sharkticons, and that's why they were with the Quintessons.
>
> Maybe. And the fact that they are creatures makes a strong argument for them being created by the Quintessons. The Decepticon insignias are a real sticking point, though, since Sharkticons and Crokticons (or whatever they're called) don't have Decepticon symbols.

The writers thought they were advanced Sharkticons, but the animators were working off character designs that had them properly being Decepticons.

In the story, though...

> > But, onto Dirk -- is he human? He says that he hails from Epsilon
> > Somethingorother
>
> I tend to think it's just where he's been living recently. Of course, it's also possible that he's lying.

We will eventually discover that the sentient species on Epsilon Whatever look just like humans, except the females have mustaches and broad shoulders, while the males are even more manly.

> > They were just trying to prepare you for things like Octone. It was good of
> > them to do so, as we now know that Transformers are not that picky about
> > their names.
>
> And yet, Marvel Comics Bumblebee argues with people when they say Auto-Bots instead of Autobots. (Seriously, is there even an audible difference? Or can comic book character "hear" the way their names are parsed and spelled?)

And yet, in the TV show, Bumblebee just sort of sighs and lives with it when Optimus renames him for no good reason. Has Optimus renamed everyone at one point in time?

Was Kup really once named Teaspoon?

> > Dirk calls him out on it, wondering why everyone on this planet is crazy,
> > or something. And then the matter is dropped. But, it wasn't just a single
> > weird scene that somehow happened because of a story boarding mistake or
> > something, it was clearly intended.
>
> Oh, I never questioned whether it was meant to be part of the episode. Given what we know about Strafe (he was triggerhappy before Triggerhappy was triggerhappy), it's perfectly in character for him to shoot first, ask questions later, and then shoot a few more times just for good measure.
>
> All of the Technobots have a major personality flaw, including Computron. It's probably got something to do with them being made out of Unicron parts.

As the toyline went on, everyone's tech spec would give them a terrible personality flaw. Triggerhappy and Misfire should be basically useless in the Decepticon air force...

> > I can tell the Technobots apart, unlike the Aerialbots. That's how distinct
> > their personalities are. No idea who the Constructicons are though, since
> > they all look alike.
>
> This episode really treats them as individual characters instead of a single group of five robots. It helps that there are no other Autobots to hog the spotlight and relegating the Technobots to being the special guest stars.
>
> Conversely, no episode ever really took the time to explore the Aerialbots or Constructicons individually. (I know them pretty well, but that's because I studied the Hasbro toy biographies like they were Cliff's Notes. On the other hand, I've seen every episode of G.I. Joe and I couldn't tell you the first think about the Dreadnoks. They're literally all the same to me.)

I can tell the Stunticons apart. I think the Aerialbots shared three personalities among the group...

> > I can actually see the Hasbro Lightspeed making a lot of sense, even though
> > the Takara one is better.
>
> I can't see Hasbro's version of Lightspeed and not see a red-colored Streetwise. It's just all wrong. Takara using the Wheeljack mold was a much, much better choice.

I can't see Takara Lightspeed as being anything other than a red Wheeljack. Hasbro's version has something of the bubble canopy, at least.

> > Let's take a moment to ponder Dirk Manus's burying skill. With no tools, he
> > quickly digs a hole big enough for a large device.
>
> The soil on Titan is really loose. It was recently terraformed and stuff.

This was on Earth. Right near where Dirk threw Marissa into the spiny cactus.

> > You would think that Quintessons and Decepticons would also pique her
> > interest. Again, I wonder if they were meant to be Decepticons at all in
> > this story. Or maybe everyone on Earth can't tell their evil aliens apart.
>
> I don't think the Terrorcons are identified as Decepticons at any point during the episode. It really is kind of strange.

And the Technobots knew them, or knew of them, at this point, since they mention "just one terrorcon" or something like that.

I really don't like the idea of the Technobots splitting up in this episode -- it just seems like a bad idea. With the power of 200 supercomputers between them, they couldn't forsee a need to form Computron? Doesn't one Terrorcon imply four others?

> > Why doesn't Computron consider Quintessons and Decepticons working
> > together. Everyone fails to notice.
>
> They just accept that the Terrorcons are agents of the Quintessons. Which would be fine, in and of itself (advanced Sharkticons, like you said), were it not for episode that come before this one ("Grimlock's New Brain") and after this one ("The Return of Optimus Prime") when they're Decepticons working for Galvatron.

Even with my belief that the Technobots have fallen backwards in time after their introduction in "Grimlock's New Brain" and are just chugging along, waiting it out until they are back in their own time, they should know this. And be surprised.

> Maybe they're just mercenaries-for-hire who obey whoever feeds them?

Or they are stray Decepticons who the Quintessons found, and who haven't sworn allegiance to Galvatron yet. There should be lots of them out there, and it explains why new toys show up with no way for Transformers to procreate.

> > There's a lot more twists and turns in this relationship than Han Solo and
> > Princess Leia.
>
> Oh, definitely. You can't ignore the similarities, though, especially between Dirk and Han.

More Lando than Han.

> > The pacing of these shows is usually incredibly slow, but this one feels a
> > lot more like a modern cartoon because of the quick pacing. It remains one
> > of the most watchable and enjoyable episode to this day because of this.
>
> Yeah, we've talked about this a little bit recently. At first, I didn't really notice how fast-paced modern shows are. The change was gradual and it sort of snuck up on me. Now, though, looking at older shows, it's really obvious. I guess people just have much shorter attention spans than they used to.
>
> > Watch an episode of Knight Rider -- or another show from the same era --
> > and it is actually pretty painful. Star Trek, the original series, is even
> > more painful. But this zips right along.
>
> This is a weirdly specific thing, but one of the things that bothers me the most about Knight Rider now is all those episode when Michael Knight sneaks into an office building and starts rummaging through filing cabinets. That's so positively backwards now.
>
> Also, I'm in total agreement with what you said above, but... I thought the last time we discussed this, we were at odds? I remember mentioning the 1960's Star Trek, specifically, as an example of a slow-paced show and you seemed to disagree.

Star Trek is slow paced, but still perfectly enjoyable, for the good episodes. The bad episodes are really bad.

> > The Technobots are young, and they think they know everything, just like
> > the Aerialbots. Earth just isn't as exciting.
>
> They definitely seem to think they know everything. Oddly, they're not really played up as being youngsters the way the Aerialbots were after they were first created.

The Aerialbots have that role filled, so there's no need for more youngsters. And they have the cranky wisdom of ancient Unicron...

> > I thought the Quintessons activated the detonator on the Lazy Sue
> > independent of Dirk trying to detonate the nuclear nullified on the
> > McGuffin.
>
> Could be. The timing seemed to be that as soon as Dirk tripped his detonator, the explosion happened on board his own ship. The way the Quintesson casually flicked Dirk's explosive from the recreator suggests that it had been rendered useless. If the Quntesson explosives were completely independent of Dirk's, then why didn't Dirk's bomb ever go off?

They deactivated the bomb he had, and waited for him to try to detonate his before they detonated their own. They kind of like a show, these Quintessons.

> > The Quintessons should have been anticipating his betrayal. But they did
> > have problems with understanding humans and presumably other organics.
>
> Dirk is one of those people who's a little bit irrational and a little unpredictable. Also, I think falling for Marissa changed up his game plan. He really would have probably offered up the Technobots to the Quintessons, had it not been for her.

After the Quintessons double crossed him? I'm not so sure.

> > Quintessons have a full range of emotions. They are a little cold, but not
> > unduly so.
>
> I just don't think I've ever seen a Quintesson actually exhibit anger before. They're usually so composed.

When the time window is going to destroy everything in "Forever is a long time coming", the one Quintesson was positively agitated. It takes a lot to get them to lose their cool, but they can do it.

> > I think I would have preferred this is Marissa didn't laugh, and she had
> > been taken in by the mimic dust as well.
>
> That would have been a better ending. No episode is ever served by having character laugh at the end until the credits roll. It's so embarrassing and cheesy that I don't even know how or why it became a thing.

Star Trek did it...

> > I think Dirk and Marissa really steal the show. The Technobots are there,
> > but they are not the stars.
>
> They definitely make the episode a lot more interesting. It's one of the few times when the human characters really serve the story instead of just being there just to be there.

The humans really are the story. A lot of my favorite Transformers stories are either human focused, or have the Transformers acting very human. TF:Prime's most interesting characters were Jack and his mother. TF:Animated had the main cast each coping with regret -- possibly the most human emotion (you've seen a dog be happy or sad, but have you ever seen one show regret?)

> > Meh. I'm sure she's fine, but I never had an interest in animated women.
>
> April O'Neil is on line two and wants to have a word with you.

Nope. Never really watched the turtles though.

Animation also fails to capture humans well, especially 1980s cartoon animation.

> > Takara. I prefer the Hasbro Strafe, but Lightspeed is better in the Takara
> > version. Both Nosecones have issues, but the Takara one is way more
> > accurate. Scattershot has better combiner elements in the Takara version.
> > And the big dedicated hands and feet of the Hasbro toy are a step
> > backwards.
>
> I really like the idea of Nosecone having treads for arms, but I think he's the only Hasbro toy I would pick over the Takara version. Afterburner I could go either way on, but the other Takara versions are just so vastly superior. And also about twice as expensive. Which is why I haven't gotten either set yet. I had at first thought about skipping them altogether, but now that we know new Terrorcons are coming...

I don't love the Blastoff/Strafe shuttle mold. There's something about it that feels like it doesn't belong in the CW toyline, while Hasbro's Strafe is so Combiner-Warsy that it's a little ridiculous.

Nosecone is a little disappointing in both sets -- but Takara's get the colors right in robot mode, and the vehicle mode is spot on, but the big drill gets in the way as a combiner limb and is basically attached with small struts. Hasbro's is just a tank, with a little drill thing.

Neither Lightspeed looks like Lightspeed to me. I prefer the Takara version because the Wheeljack version of the mold looked like crap with that cream color, and this is a much better looking version.

> Zob (it's Combiner Wars Devastator all over again)

As time has gone on, my Hasbro Devastator has had it's two very similar colors of green plastic begin drifting apart. I cannot look at him and not see the color differences, haphazardly scattered across the toy. I would ask if the Takara one has the same problem, but we all know you are colorblind...

[New and Improved Zobovor]

On Saturday, August 19, 2017 at 6:17:33 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:

> I kind of like to think that some of those inanimate vehicles are just dead
> Transformers. Maybe I am morbid.

You'd think that if they were dead Transformers, they would turn grey. And not be able to fly.

> And yet, in the TV show, Bumblebee just sort of sighs and lives with it when
> Optimus renames him for no good reason. Has Optimus renamed everyone at one
> point in time?

Yeah. Sideswipe got his name after Optimus watched him slam into another Autobot on the Iacon interstate. Huffer got his name after Prime caught him snorting a canister of compressed air.

> Was Kup really once named Teaspoon?

Four percent probability of truth.

> As the toyline went on, everyone's tech spec would give them a terrible
> personality flaw. Triggerhappy and Misfire should be basically useless in the
> Decepticon air force...

To be fair, Galvatron may have not been the most discerning when it came to selecting new troops. You're right, though. The first-year Autobots were really on the straight-and-narrow, but as the toy line progressed, they got more and more disturbed. The 1988 Autobots are particularly bad.

> I can tell the Stunticons apart. I think the Aerialbots shared three
> personalities among the group...

Afraid-Of-Heights, Cocky Hotshot, and The Other Guys?

> I can't see Takara Lightspeed as being anything other than a red Wheeljack.
> Hasbro's version has something of the bubble canopy, at least.

But Lightspeed's toy is basically a simplified Wheeljack anyway. It's perfect for him.

> And the Technobots knew them, or knew of them, at this point, since they
> mention "just one terrorcon" or something like that.

There really is a missing story to explain how a) the Terrorcons started working for the Quintessons and b) the Technobots were already familiar with this fact.

> I really don't like the idea of the Technobots splitting up in this episode
> -- it just seems like a bad idea.

It's never a good idea to break up the combiner teams. Every time I see it happen, it just strikes me as a major strategic flaw.

> Or they are stray Decepticons who the Quintessons found, and who haven't
> sworn allegiance to Galvatron yet.

Oooh, maybe. They could even be older military hardware that the Quintessons sold off to some planet, but later recalled.

>> No episode is ever served by having character laugh at the end until the
>> credits roll. It's so embarrassing and cheesy that I don't even know how or
>> why it became a thing.
>
> Star Trek did it...

That's no excuse!

Ever seen the Next Generation episode where Picard gets stuck on board the Enterprise when they're sweeping it with death rays, because he went back to the ship to get his saddle? He spends the entire episode chasing bad guys and trying to avoid the death rays, and at the very end he has to explain that every serious rider has his own saddle. The episode ends with somebody saying "horse" and somebody else following up with "of course." It's a Mr. Ed reference, apparently.

It's mildly comical, but if the episode had ended with everybody breaking out into laughter... that would have ruined the whole damn episode.

> Animation also fails to capture humans well, especially 1980s cartoon
> animation.

> I don't love the Blastoff/Strafe shuttle mold. There's something about it
> that feels like it doesn't belong in the CW toyline, while Hasbro's Strafe is
> so Combiner-Warsy that it's a little ridiculous.

I haven't gotten Blast Off yet. I've been waiting for the interest in him to settle down so maybe I can snag him at a decent price...

> As time has gone on, my Hasbro Devastator has had it's two very similar
> colors of green plastic begin drifting apart. I cannot look at him and not
> see the color differences, haphazardly scattered across the toy.

I would normally question the veracity of this statement, but I've actually seen this sort of thing happen. The orange bits on my Classics Megatron have become decidedly less orangey over time, and he's never been exposed to direct sunlight or anything. Some kind of chemical change over time, I guess. Like Monster Pretenders, only not as goopy and disgusting.

> I would ask if the Takara one has the same problem, but we all know you are
> colorblind...

You're so mean to me!

Which specific parts have you noticed have changed color? My Constructicons are in a box, but I can go dig them out and check if you tell me what to look for.


Zob (still waiting for Masterpiece Ratchet to show up in the mail)

[Gustavo Wombat]

New and Improved Zobovor <zobo...@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Saturday, August 19, 2017 at 6:17:33 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the
> Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
>> I kind of like to think that some of those inanimate vehicles are just dead
>> Transformers. Maybe I am morbid.
>
> You'd think that if they were dead Transformers, they would turn grey.
> And not be able to fly.

I think that when they dug Skyfire out of the ice, after having the
memorial service a few episodes before, they were surprised he was still
alive.

They were digging up his corpse to use as a plane.

>> And yet, in the TV show, Bumblebee just sort of sighs and lives with it when
>> Optimus renames him for no good reason. Has Optimus renamed everyone at one
>> point in time?
>
> Yeah. Sideswipe got his name after Optimus watched him slam into another
> Autobot on the Iacon interstate. Huffer got his name after Prime caught
> him snorting a canister of compressed air.

Probably named Bumper and Cliffbee because they were small and he couldn't
be bothered to learn that many names. At least they got names, unlike the
poor Powerdashers. "Drill Type" probably had a name.

And don't get me started on all the decoys. They might have had names too,
but Optimus couldn't be bothered...

>> I can tell the Stunticons apart. I think the Aerialbots shared three
>> personalities among the group...
>
> Afraid-Of-Heights, Cocky Hotshot, and The Other Guys?

Yes, charitably three personalities. If "other guy" is a personality. And
the overwhelming character trait of all the limbs was "youngster" which was
played up so much it eclipse everything else.

>> I can't see Takara Lightspeed as being anything other than a red Wheeljack.
>> Hasbro's version has something of the bubble canopy, at least.
>
> But Lightspeed's toy is basically a simplified Wheeljack anyway. It's perfect for him.

And the CW Wheeljack toy doesn't transform that way at all...

>> And the Technobots knew them, or knew of them, at this point, since they
>> mention "just one terrorcon" or something like that.
>
> There really is a missing story to explain how a) the Terrorcons started
> working for the Quintessons and b) the Technobots were already familiar with this fact.
>
>> I really don't like the idea of the Technobots splitting up in this episode
>> -- it just seems like a bad idea.
>
> It's never a good idea to break up the combiner teams. Every time I see
> it happen, it just strikes me as a major strategic flaw.

Imagine being the Aerialbot who just doesn't like the others, and has to
keep going everywhere with them... I could see Computron devising
interchangeability just to get rid of Strafe on occasion.

>> Or they are stray Decepticons who the Quintessons found, and who haven't
>> sworn allegiance to Galvatron yet.
>
> Oooh, maybe. They could even be older military hardware that the
> Quintessons sold off to some planet, but later recalled.

Combining seems new, but they could have retrofitted them.

>>> No episode is ever served by having character laugh at the end until the
>>> credits roll. It's so embarrassing and cheesy that I don't even know how or
>>> why it became a thing.
>>
>> Star Trek did it...
>
> That's no excuse!
>
> Ever seen the Next Generation episode where Picard gets stuck on board
> the Enterprise when they're sweeping it with death rays, because he went
> back to the ship to get his saddle? He spends the entire episode chasing
> bad guys and trying to avoid the death rays, and at the very end he has
> to explain that every serious rider has his own saddle. The episode ends
> with somebody saying "horse" and somebody else following up with "of
> course." It's a Mr. Ed reference, apparently.

Don't diss Mr. Ed!

> It's mildly comical, but if the episode had ended with everybody breaking
> out into laughter... that would have ruined the whole damn episode.

The only time I think everyone laughing at the end of an episode has ever
worked was in BOT, where they all laugh when Roland and Martin gag Elise.
It's funny because it's so amazingly wrong.

(It's like when someone says "Do you know what I hate?" and pauses for
effect, but you immediately ask "black people?"... always good fun)

>> Animation also fails to capture humans well, especially 1980s cartoon
>> animation.
>
>> I don't love the Blastoff/Strafe shuttle mold. There's something about it
>> that feels like it doesn't belong in the CW toyline, while Hasbro's Strafe is
>> so Combiner-Warsy that it's a little ridiculous.
>
> I haven't gotten Blast Off yet. I've been waiting for the interest in
> him to settle down so maybe I can snag him at a decent price...

I bought Unite Warriors Ruination so I could get that mold and the updated
Vortex mold. And have Ruination, of course, because Ruination is awesome. I
would happily buy an Urban Camouflage version of the set, if it came out.

It's possible that I have a problem with Combiner Wars sets. I haven't felt
an inkling of an urge to get Grand Galvatron or the Subscription Service
Set (or was that Botcon, or did they both have one?), though, so it's not
too bad.

I do like the panels from the pack in comics that show Clclonus opening his
stomach and having Grand Galvatron's head there, yelling at people, but
Hasbro Cyclonus can do that just as well.

>> As time has gone on, my Hasbro Devastator has had it's two very similar
>> colors of green plastic begin drifting apart. I cannot look at him and not
>> see the color differences, haphazardly scattered across the toy.
>
> I would normally question the veracity of this statement, but I've
> actually seen this sort of thing happen. The orange bits on my Classics
> Megatron have become decidedly less orangey over time, and he's never
> been exposed to direct sunlight or anything. Some kind of chemical
> change over time, I guess. Like Monster Pretenders, only not as goopy and disgusting.

It's possible it's some of my new LED light bulbs making the color
differences more apparent, and that the plastic hasn't changed at all. But
it's kind of jarring.

>> I would ask if the Takara one has the same problem, but we all know you are
>> colorblind...
>
> You're so mean to me!
>
> Which specific parts have you noticed have changed color? My
> Constructicons are in a box, but I can go dig them out and check if you
> tell me what to look for.

If you can't tell, I don't want you to look for it. It will drive you
crazy.

> Zob (still waiting for Masterpiece Ratchet to show up in the mail)

Do you have Ironhide, or is this going to be your first experience with the
mold?

[New and Improved Zobovor]

On Sunday, August 20, 2017 at 6:22:31 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:

> The only time I think everyone laughing at the end of an episode has ever
> worked was in BOT, where they all laugh when Roland and Martin gag Elise.
> It's funny because it's so amazingly wrong.

I actually don't recall anybody laughing at the end of "B.O.T." Are you quite sure?

> (It's like when someone says "Do you know what I hate?" and pauses for
> effect, but you immediately ask "black people?"... always good fun)

I think I would only be able to get away with that kind of humor when I am incredibly ancient and no longer care about what people think of me. In the meantime, I've got a marriage to worry about, job advancement, my kids not being totally embarrassed by me...

> It's possible that I have a problem with Combiner Wars sets. I haven't felt
> an inkling of an urge to get Grand Galvatron or the Subscription Service
> Set (or was that Botcon, or did they both have one?), though, so it's not
> too bad.

Generally speaking, I have bought, or will buy, combiners that are a redo of something that Hasbro did in the USA from G1 or G2. Weird stuff like Galvatron combining with the ghost of Starscream... yeah, no thanks.

> It's possible it's some of my new LED light bulbs making the color
> differences more apparent, and that the plastic hasn't changed at all. But
> it's kind of jarring.

Well, sometimes plastics look different under different levels of luminosity. And all toys will likely look different during the eclipse tomorrow.

(Funny story: I was digging through my Walmart receipts and I found one for what I thought was a pair of eclipse glasses. I know for a fact that I didn't buy an eclipse glasses, so why the hell did I have a receipt that says "lunar eclipse" on it? The answer, which eluded me for several minutes, is that it's one of the tiny Last Knight toys I'd gotten as an eventual stocking stuffer for my son, and it's got that damn stupid fake description. Lunar eclipse, indeed.)

> If you can't tell, I don't want you to look for it. It will drive you
> crazy.

...This is reverse psychology, isn't it?

> Do you have Ironhide, or is this going to be your first experience with the
> mold?

No, this is my first acquisition of this particular toy design. I realized I really needed to do something because they're releasing these things a little bit faster than I've been getting them for Christmas and birthdays. I hate being so behind!


Zob (so, "Grimlock's New Brain" for next month?)

[Gustavo Wombat]

New and Improved Zobovor <zobo...@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sunday, August 20, 2017 at 6:22:31 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the
> Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
>> The only time I think everyone laughing at the end of an episode has ever
>> worked was in BOT, where they all laugh when Roland and Martin gag Elise.
>> It's funny because it's so amazingly wrong.
>
> I actually don't recall anybody laughing at the end of "B.O.T." Are you quite sure?

Let me check.... Oh, god, they don't laugh. That's so much worse than if
they laughed.

>> (It's like when someone says "Do you know what I hate?" and pauses for
>> effect, but you immediately ask "black people?"... always good fun)
>
> I think I would only be able to get away with that kind of humor when I
> am incredibly ancient and no longer care about what people think of me.
> In the meantime, I've got a marriage to worry about, job advancement, my
> kids not being totally embarrassed by me...

I don't think I'm that much more ancient than you, and I get away with it.
It's all in the delivery, as something of an appalled question, almost an
accusation.

Or just give it a try the next time your racist uncle is in town...
although then you might want to go with a more exasperated delivery. "Yes,
uncle Cletus, we know exactly,what you hate..."

It's good for completely disrupting whatever they were going to complain
about. I mean, later they will complain about you, but they probably would
have done that anyway.

>> It's possible that I have a problem with Combiner Wars sets. I haven't felt
>> an inkling of an urge to get Grand Galvatron or the Subscription Service
>> Set (or was that Botcon, or did they both have one?), though, so it's not
>> too bad.
>
> Generally speaking, I have bought, or will buy, combiners that are a redo
> of something that Hasbro did in the USA from G1 or G2. Weird stuff like
> Galvatron combining with the ghost of Starscream... yeah, no thanks.

No Ruination for you, then. He's really very nice, though, and it means you
aren't just buying a set where most of them are minor redecos from what you
have, just to get the right Blastoff.

Also, I really love Megatronia. She's just so good looking, with the limbs
all being black with different accent colors. And she has an origin or
biblically awful proportions. She was built out of spare parts left over
from building Megatron, just like Eve was built out of spare parts from
Adam. Tacky, eh?

>> It's possible it's some of my new LED light bulbs making the color
>> differences more apparent, and that the plastic hasn't changed at all. But
>> it's kind of jarring.
>
> Well, sometimes plastics look different under different levels of
> luminosity. And all toys will likely look different during the eclipse tomorrow.
>
> (Funny story: I was digging through my Walmart receipts and I found one
> for what I thought was a pair of eclipse glasses. I know for a fact that
> I didn't buy an eclipse glasses, so why the hell did I have a receipt
> that says "lunar eclipse" on it? The answer, which eluded me for several
> minutes, is that it's one of the tiny Last Knight toys I'd gotten as an
> eventual stocking stuffer for my son, and it's got that damn stupid fake
> description. Lunar eclipse, indeed.)

Well, after you stare into the sun without any protection, you will
definitely not notice color differences.

>> If you can't tell, I don't want you to look for it. It will drive you
>> crazy.
>
> ...This is reverse psychology, isn't it?

Nope. I just don't see a reason for anyone to go looking for new things to
be disappointed in. Where's the fun in that?

>> Do you have Ironhide, or is this going to be your first experience with the
>> mold?
>
> No, this is my first acquisition of this particular toy design. I
> realized I really needed to do something because they're releasing these
> things a little bit faster than I've been getting them for Christmas and
> birthdays. I hate being so behind!

It's a really interesting mold -- kind of shocking how well they were able
to match the toy's vehicle mode and the cartoon's robot mode. It's one of
the ones where the Masterpiece doesn't really follow the transformation of
the original toy, because how could it?

> Zob (so, "Grimlock's New Brain" for next month?)

Sure. I may even get a chance to watch it ahead of time and write up
something. I'm now convinced that the only way the Terrorcons chronology
makes sense is if "Money Is Everything" comes before it.

[New and Improved Zobovor]

On Monday, August 21, 2017 at 12:42:55 AM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:

> No Ruination for you, then. He's really very nice, though, and it means you
> aren't just buying a set where most of them are minor redecos from what you
> have, just to get the right Blastoff.

I like the idea of Combiner Wars Ruination, but there's a lot of stuff on my want list that would come before him.

> Well, after you stare into the sun without any protection, you will
> definitely not notice color differences.

At least I would have an excuse.

>> ...This is reverse psychology, isn't it?
>
> Nope. I just don't see a reason for anyone to go looking for new things to
> be disappointed in. Where's the fun in that?

The only thing that's really disappointing to me about Combiner Wars Devastator is Mixmaster. But, five outta six ain't bad. Also, color differences don't really bother me the way they bother you.

> It's a really interesting mold -- kind of shocking how well they were able
> to match the toy's vehicle mode and the cartoon's robot mode. It's one of
> the ones where the Masterpiece doesn't really follow the transformation of
> the original toy, because how could it?

I'm excited for him to get here. I'm also getting the grey version of Bluestreak, because it was cheap (knockoff) and because I really liked the idea of a Masterpiece toy that actually looks like the G1 toy I had as a kid. (I recognize that grey Bluestreak isn't cartoon-accurate, but the toy experience was a formative one.)

> Sure. I may even get a chance to watch it ahead of time and write up
> something. I'm now convinced that the only way the Terrorcons chronology
> makes sense is if "Money Is Everything" comes before it.

I guess we'll find out!


Zob (still can't find my DVD, though)

[New and Improved Zobovor]

On Sunday, August 20, 2017 at 5:11:52 PM UTC-6, New and Improved Zobovor wrote:

> Zob (still waiting for Masterpiece Ratchet to show up in the mail)

I guess this wasn't in the cards. Seller took an inordinately long time and I finally opened a case with eBay. Got a full refund, though, so there's that. Ordered Titans Return Six Shot instead.


Zob (satisfaction guaranteed, OR YOUR MONEY BACK!)

[Gustavo Wombat]

New and Improved Zobovor <zobo...@gmail.com> wrote:

Well then, get Ironhide instead.

I didn't want to say anything, since you already had Ratchet on the way,
and why piss on your parade, but Ironhide is better. The screw holes on
Ratchet are much, much more visible because the toy is white. Ironhide's
red and gray hide them a lot better.

[New and Improved Zobovor]

On Wednesday, September 20, 2017 at 1:57:56 AM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:

> Well then, get Ironhide instead. I didn't want to say anything, since you
> already had Ratchet on the way, and why piss on your parade, but Ironhide is
> better.

I appreciate you refraining from parade-pissing. I plan to get both toys, eventually, but at your suggestion, I will likely go after Ironhide first.


Zob (Thylacine 2000 also strongly recommended Masterpiece Shockwave to me)