From Earth to Cybertron: the world of the Transformers

Third Party Wars

November 17, 2011Rob Leave a Comment

When your Autobots need backup from Cybertron you can’t always depend on the old faithfuls. Sometimes, you need backup from elsewhere. With that being said who wouldn’t want Targetmasters, who can get down like the big boys. And thanks to MasterShooter Collectibles, we get fully articulated Target Masters.

These bots have bite! Now your Autobots old and new can have some serious firepower.

Checkout their Facebook page here

If that isn’t enough, how about simple upgrades to the Bots you love?

If Igears weapons aren’t good enough for ya, check out these images that will make you scream for joy.

And, soon, your Quintessons will have a bigger and better Armada to institute the laws of being innocent!

So check out Igear’s site here.

Hit up the PCN forums and thanks for reading.

“Till all are one”

Transformers:More than meets the pixels

November 3, 2011Rob Leave a Comment

Over the past 27 years, we have been privy to many tie-in media for the Transformers. Unfortunately, in the area of the video game, this franchise seemed to fall short of the mark.

The Commodore 64: a platform / shoot ’em up game.

It was written by Denton Designs and released by Ocean Software for the Sinclair Spectrum and Commodore 64 home computers in 1986.

The object of the game is to navigate through a blue highway, dodge enemies, and collect pieces of Energon.

Next came Activision

It was the first Transformers game by Activision, which subsequently published more games for the franchise over two decades later.

A few side-notes about the game: for reasons unknown, Rodimus Prime and Hot Rod appear in the game as separate characters, despite the fact that they are the same character. This was also one of the few Transformers games to not include Optimus Prime.

The next big jump into video games came on the Famicom system (when I say “jump”, I mean jumping the shark).

Transformers: Mystery of Convoy or as it’s real title is called, Fight! Super Robot Life Form Transformers: Mystery of Convoy (戦え! 超ロボット生命体トランスフォーマーコンボイの謎(ナゾ)

So what is the premise of the game? Well, if you remember, I talked about the fact that the movie wasn’t released in Japan till 1990. This story is the journey of Ultra Magnus as he goes on a solo mission through various Decepticon strongholds to find out exactly what happened to Optimus Prime. Hence, Mystery of Convoy!

A second game followed called, Transformers: The Headmasters

This takes place after the Mystery of Convoy as you jump from Earth, Cybertron, Master, and Jail.

Over the course of time, we got other Transformer games from Beast Wars: Transformers by Hasbro Interactive. Takara published Transformers: Tatakai,(not real title just fan named) a PlayStation 2 action-RPG. Atari released Transformers (aka Transformers: Armada–Prelude to Energon) and we also got War for Cybertron.

gameinformer has published their latest exclusive Transformers: Fall of Cybertron.

“Transformers: Resurrecting The Dinobots”. <–not sure if this is in the right place…

If you are a fan of the Transformers you will love the idea of having them in this new video game. Check out the images below courtesy of Game Informer.

Hit up the PCN forums and thanks for reading.

“Till all are one”

Kup:The Old Warhorse

October 20, 2011Rob Leave a Comment

In 1986, or the year 2005 depending on how you view the world of the Transformers, we are introduced to a whole crop of new Autobots and Decepticons. One who stands out in mind is the cranky old solider, Kup,

the bitter old war vet who has been in more conflicts and battles than any other members of the Autobots.

Kup is either, A: a mighty warrior, B: a coward or C: a liar. On many occasions Kup tells a story that can affect the outcome of a battle but has no true leadership expertise.

A seasoned war vet should bring more than his fair share of “on the job” training lessons.Yet he plays second fiddle next to the soon to be choose one, Hotrod.

Maybe Kup likes being the old solider? Not being the leader does have its benefits. It is also possible that Kup’s leadership qualities were just merely overshadowed and so was sent to Earth to be a bone-fide crossing guard instead.

Is it possible that Kup chooses not to lead and rather just fight the good fight?

Hit up the PCN forums and thanks for reading.

“Till all are one”

Images courtesy of Transformers WIKI

Make a path for war!

October 6, 2011Rob Leave a Comment

Over the years, war machines have been a vital source of firepower during any war or conflict.

No truer words were ever said. Just like man, the Cybertronians are also war minded. Hence when G2 happened, Megatron became a tank. (Also due to very strict gun laws)

During G1, very few transformers formed into battle tanks and more than half where Decepticons.

Enter Warpath: the Autobots’ military force. For a good long time Warpath was the sole Autobot tank.

He charged into battle as a GM Sheridan tank. In toy form, he was little more than a minibot colored red and grey.

Where he lacked in size he made up in durability, as being one of the only transformers from the 80’s that has the unique advantage of survival. Where most kids can destroy a transformer in mere minutes, Warpath is as sturdy as a tank (pun intended). He has survived almost three decades. Look on any auction site and you will find Warpath in a solid grade of 8 or 9.

The reasons aren’t really known why he survives so well. Could it be his simple transformation or his compact size? In the end, all that really matters is for collectors looking to boost up their Autobot ranks, adding Warpath to the front lines is a perfect purchase.

Side-note: For all you Masters of the Universe fans, Alan Oppenheimer voiced Warpath on the cartoon series.

Hit up the pop culture network and thanks for reading.

“Till all are one”

Images courtesy of TFWiki, Robot Japan and Seibertron.com

Transformers: Knowing is half the battle

September 22, 2011Rob

Through out the 80’s many beloved animated toy icons told us right from wrong. GI Joe, He-man and a slew of other cartoon classics have always given advice to kids.

So it should come as no surprise that the world of beings that are more than meets the eyes would tell us what to do as well. These PSAs are nothing short of super creepy and sometimes border criminal activity.

Bumblebee talks about the dangers of running away.

Tracks talks about why its wrong to steal cars!

(yes some kid almost car jacks Tracks)

Red Alert talks about being seen at night while riding on a bike.

(Red Alert almost kills these kids on their bikes)

Seaspray talks about making sure if you’re on a boat you must always wear a life jacket!

Powerglide talks about equal opportunity.

No matter what you think about these PSAs. They hit a common nerve that is so typical in many lives of kids even today.

check them out below!

Hit up the Pop Culture Network forum and thanks for reading

“Till all are one”

Transformers:Scramble City

September 8, 2011Rob

With the release of the Transformers animated movie being held until 1990, The Japanese market needed a filler show to bridge the gap between season two and season three of the Transformers cartoon series.

This show would introduce characters that only debut in the animated film. Ultra Magnus and many of the films co-stars needed to be seen as soon as possible as well as add them into the mythos of the Universe of the Transformers.

The show starts off with a recap of the Transformers coming to Earth. It quickly covers the story of Devastator as well, and then gets right into the action.

The Autobots are shown in the middle of constructing the powerful “Scramble City,” Metroplex for the G1 purist. Its construction is being held by Ultra Magnus. The Decepticons send out Soundwave’s minions Laserbeak, ravage and ratbat to see what the autobots are doing and soon learn of the build. Megatron sends out his mighty Combiners or if you prefer Gestalts and soon all hell breaks loose!

A battle between them and their Autobot counterparts turns into an old ECW match. This animated one off wanted to focus on their “Scramble abilities “which is their interchangeability of their outer extremities.

(Get it? Cause you can scramble the limbs up!)

So much so that at one point, Breakdown of the Stunticons connects into Superion’s leg to damage him (it looks a bit weird but I assume Cybertron doesn’t have a good sexual assault law). As the show comes to a close, Scramble City himself is activated and Transforms its super cool robot mode Metroplex!

The Decepticons however, have an ace in the hole and from the deep dark part of the ocean comes Godzilla ….wait no sorry about that, it’s the Decepticons’ very own base, Trypticon.

Scramble City is one of those amazing animated shorts that we wished was in our collection but due to a whole bunch of copy right legal mumbo jumbo its only a part of the Japanese continuity.

Hit up the Pop Culture Network forums and thanks for reading

“Till all are one!”

Shout! Factory: the complete Japanese Transformers

August 25, 2011Rob

In the Grand scheme of life, you wait and you wait. Sometimes, waiting isn’t good enough. You can only wait but for so long!

Shout! Factory announced that they would be releasing a complete box set of the entire Japanese Transformers cartoon series. This box set would include Headmasters,Victory, and Master force.

Checking Shout’s website as of late has been showing dead links and error messages. The only possible ray of hope was this product lithograph image for the complete box set.

They do have the complete headmasters available but We demand the complete series. Come on shout! hook us Transfans up

Hit up the Pop Culture Network forums and thanks for reading.

“Till all are one”

Convoy! Convoy! Convoy!

August 11, 2011Rob

If you haven’t learned by now, I am a sucker for anything and everything Japanese related. Make them about the Transformers and I’m about sure to cry.

After the death of Prime, kids and adults alike cried their collective Autobot loving eyes out as they watched the beloved leader of the peace loving protectors of good die.

A real world problem solved with a real world emotion.

Daniel’s reaction was the reaction of us all.

In Japan, the Transformers animated film wouldn’t be released until 1990. It was almost certain that Prime would receive the same reaction.

When season 3 of transformers was about to debut on Japanese television, they needed to explain why good old Optimus Prime was dead.

So they started airing this commercial.

CONVOY, CONVOY, CONVOY!

I just love that this commercial has such a high level of detail given to the fallen Prime.

Hit up the pop culture network forum and let me know what you think and thanks for reading

“Till all are one”

Skyfire and Jetfire

July 28, 2011Rob

In the beginning, the war was divided into two sides, the villainous Decepticons and the heroic Autobots.

And what was an understanding was that Decepticons could fly while the Autobots could not and never the two shall meet. That is in the cartoon medium and in the toy form as the Autobots were primarily cars while the Decepticons were mostly planes.

In season 1 of Transformers, we are introduced to Skyfire.

Skyfire was one of Starscream’s closest and dearest friends. They manage to become lost from each other while on prehistoric Earth eons before the arc. Millions of years later, the Decepticons found Skyfire, encased in a block of ice, and revived him. Later on, he ends up siding with the Autobots.

As for the toy, he was named Jetfire and was a repaint of a Macross VF-1S Super Valkyrie plane. This is why the cartoon is different from the toy release. Takara was none too pleased with a cartoon that had 99% of their action figures promoting a non-Takara toy. So the animators changed him up and his name was changed to Skyfire (I am guessing since he no longer looked like Jetfire to just change the name anyway).

Personally, I think Jetfire was a better name and a much cooler looking figure. In addition this marks the start of Hasbro making an aggressive integration of non-Takara Transforming Robotic figures into the realm of the Transformers. We will, in future episodes, go over the others.

Starting with the second wave of G1 figures, there would now be equal opportunity robots in disguise.

That’s it for this week. Hit up the Pop Culture Network forums and thanks for reading.

‘Till all are one!”

Bumblejumper: The myth and magic.

July 14, 2011Rob

During the Transformers’ hay day, no character was as popular as the best friend of Spike: the little underdog, Bumblebee.

In his toy release, Bumblebee’s figure was one of the highest selling Transformers mainly due to the fact that he was a mini-bot and thus was cheaper than the larger scale toys.

In the same series, we got Cliffjumper.

This was a very similar figure, but was painted red. A lot of kids thought Cliffjumper was Bumblebee and vice versa. This snafu could have been a confusion because of the paint opts. For some unknown reason you would get a red Bumblebee

and a yellow Cliffjumper.

For collectors nowadays, owning both are prized possessions. You tend to pick up both figures for your collection.

One unique figure in the line that came out looked a little (for a lack of a better term) odd! It was this guy..

who was either packaged as Bumblebee and/or Cliffjumper.

Being that he is neither, the Transformers community lovingly refers to this mini-bot as Bumblejumper or Bumper

for his combined look of both Bumblebee and Cliffjumper.

Bumblejumper was part of the Microman Microchange line.

There has never been an official release of Bumblejumper nor has Hasbro ever explained how he ended up on the shelves.

What I believed happened was that Hasbro got so many molds from Takara that this guy was just overlooked or forgotten. When he was produced, he looked so similar to the other two that they didn’t realize he was a different car entirely.

FYI: Bumblejumper is a Mazda Familia 1500 XG.

Sidenote: In South America Bumblejumper or “Robocar” was released in the Transformers line in white. He does not sport any stickers that identify him as an Autobot or a Decepticon.

He has now become part of Transformers lore due to his appearance in Dreamwave and IDW comics continuity.

OK hit up the forums at Pop Culture Network to tell me what you think and thanks for reading.

”Till all are one!”

Thanks to www.tf-1.com,www.toyarchive.com and boltax.blogspot.com for some of the bumbleJumper images.