I don’t own any of them, ‘cause they’re all just repainted G.I. Joe vehicles in Transformer colors. So, eh. I dunno. The Starscream Skystriker looked kinda nice.
The upcoming Dr Biggles-Jones and Marvel Ratbat would like a word with you.
I don’t think of those as really, truly “crossover” toys. I mean, I realize I’m defining the category distinctly from how probably the original asking person was, but Dr. Biggles-Jones is a GIJoe figure and Marvel Ratbat is a Transformer. There’s no real crossover going on, inherent to the toy itself as an individual entity.
Whereas there are Skystriker Starscreams and HISS Shockwaves and… a Joe-scale Bludgeon. Joe-scale Bludgeon wins.
Transformers with accentsare a dime a dozen. Aside from any number of regional American accents, and plenty of British ‘bots, there are French Transformers, Australian Transformers,Scottish, Russian, and German Transformers, and more! But on St. Patrick’s Day, we lament that there’s never been an IRISH Transformer!
So the best we can offer you today is a collection of green Transformers from across the continuities…. annnnd… ummm… a picture of, uh… Nick Roche, why not.
transformers 1: they’re here
transformers 2: they were here before
transformers 3: they were here BEFORE before
transformers 4: they were here before BEFORE before
These dancing gifs were the work of Dave “Zobovor” Edwards - Transformers superfan from the days of alt.toys.transformers on Usenet - who created them for a “Transformers Dance” spoof of the old “Hamsterdance” phenomenon.
Whenever I see these I remember the fine print at the bottom of the website: “All animated .gifs were created by me and are not to be used on any other site without my express permission, but they may be saved for personal use and/or archival purposes.”
My niece will play with my Transformers when my nephew does, but she has never shown a real interest in my Transformers comics before. Until I showed her Windblade #1 and told her it was about girl Transformers and she pounced on it like a parched man on a desert oasis. I didn’t realise she wanted female Transformers that much. (She wants a Chromia toy now.) My dream of sharing my hobby with her has come a little closer.
You want to know why Windblade matters? This is why Windblade matters.
The Rise of the Robots: The History of the Transformers
This is an infographic on Transformers. Robots had never been the same after Transformers was introduced in the early 80s. The Transformers toy line had its beginnings in 1983 when Hasbro representatives attended the Tokyo Toy Fare to find something promising that could be imported to the North American market.
Blackarachnia’s not the first female Transformers toy. She’s not even the first in America! The first American female Transformers toy was BotCon 1995’s Nightracer and the first ever anywhere was Japan’s Minerva. (Freezon was released earlier, but her gender wasn’t decided upon until decades later.) Blackarachnia is the first American mass-retail female Transformer, but that’s kind of a lot of qualifiers.
Also some of those silhouettes chosen for use in places seem kind of weird. I’m pretty sure those are Classics Mini-Cons (2006) they use to represent Armada (2002). ROTF Devastator and Fall of Cybertron Slug stand in for their 1985 versions. And I don’t want to try to figure out what that Robots in Disguise silhouette is.
The Rise of the Robots: The History of the Transformers
This is an infographic on Transformers. Robots had never been the same after Transformers was introduced in the early 80s. The Transformers toy line had its beginnings in 1983 when Hasbro representatives attended the Tokyo Toy Fare to find something promising that could be imported to the North American market.
Blackarachnia’s not the first female Transformers toy. She’s not even the first in America! The first American female Transformers toy was BotCon 1995’s Nightracer and the first ever anywhere was Japan’s Minerva. (Freezon was released earlier, but her gender wasn’t decided upon until decades later.) Blackarachnia is the first American mass-retail female Transformer, but that’s kind of a lot of qualifiers.
Also some of those silhouettes chosen for use in places seem kind of weird. I’m pretty sure those are Classics Mini-Cons (2006) they use to represent Armada (2002). ROTF Devastator and Fall of Cybertron Slug stand in for their 1985 versions. And I don’t want to try to figure out what that Robots in Disguise silhouette is.
TRANSFORMERS 30th Anniversary Prints by Guido Guidi
Celebrate 30 years of TRANSFORMERS with these amazing G1 inspired prints by Guido Guidi! Finally we can show the world this amazing collectable set. Guido is widely known in the world of TRANSFORMERS for his comic book work and many other accolades related to TRANSFORMERS. We were extremely excited to have him work with us on this release. Many of your favorite AUTOBOTS and DECEPTICONS and portrayed in a classic throwback retro style. The regular editions will be professionally printed Giclee fineart prints, printed by the amazing staff over at GicleeToday.com. The variant editions will feature Glow in the Darkand will be screen printed by D&L Screenprinting. See more details about the release below!
Fans Can Soon Create an All New Transformers Character in “Fan Built Combiner Poll”
Pawtucket, R.I. (January 15, 2015) —TRANSFOMERS fans around the world are invited to help create a new character for the popular TRANSFORMERS brand — but not just any character. Following on the heels of the 30th anniversary “Fan Built Bot” poll, which led to the fan-assisted creation of the popular new AUTOBOT character, WINDBLADE, Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS) is launching the new “Fan Built Combiner” poll. This crowdsourcing project seeks fan input to create a new team of TRANSFORMERS robots that combine into one giant new character in celebration of the theme of the 2015 TRANSFORMERS GENERATIONS line, COMBINER WARS!
Starting soon, with exact dates to be announced, the official TRANSFORMERS brand app (formerly the official TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION app) will be updated and fans will be able to log-in and answer a round of questions to help shape the identity of the new Combiner characters. The Fan Built Combiner poll will allow fans to determine everything from the types of vehicles involved, to whether the characters will be AUTOBOTS or DECEPTICONS, and eventually the name of the new character.
Voting for each round will be open for one week, after which the results will be announced and a new round of voting will begin the following week, with three rounds of questions in all. A full reveal of the new Fan Built Combiner is expected later this year, with the character available as a toy in 2016.
“The first ‘Fan Built Bot’ effort was massive, resulting in the creation of WINDBLADE who has her own widely popular comic series from IDW Publishing and toy product,” said Tom Warner, senior vice president of the TRANSFORMERS franchise at Hasbro. “With the TRANSFORMERS GENERATIONS: COMBINER WARS line celebrating the venerable COMBINER characters from throughout TRANSFORMERS history this year, this is the perfect time to let fans help create something even bigger than a new TRANSFORMERS character — a Combiner team that will become part of TRANSFORMERS lore.”
The new “Fan Built Combiner” character will be part of the TRANSFORMERS GENERATIONS: COMBINER WARS toy line. Like all the toys in the line, which debut in stores this month, the new Combiner figure will be able to mix-and-match limbs with other figures in the line so kids and fans can create their own custom TRANSFORMERS COMBINERS figures.
To participate in the vote, fans will need to download the free official TRANSFORMERS brand app on iOS [http://hasb.ro/TF4APAIT514] and Android [http://hasb.ro/TF4APAS514]. Starting with the Fan Built Combiner update, launching soon, the refreshed app will become the premiere destination for TRANSFORMERS fans and will feature first-look and behind-the-scenes images and information on new TRANSFORMERS: GENERATIONS toys. Additional information will be available at TRANSFORMERS.COM as well as the official TRANSFORMERS Facebook page at Facebook.com/Transformers.
# # # About Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS) is a branded play company dedicated to fulfilling the fundamental need for play for children and families through the creative expression of the Company’s world class brand portfolio, including TRANSFORMERS, MONOPOLY, PLAY-DOH, MY LITTLE PONY, MAGIC: THE GATHERING, NERF and LITTLEST PET SHOP. From toys and games, to television programming, motion pictures, digital gaming and a comprehensive licensing program, Hasbro strives to delight its global customers with innovative play and entertainment experiences, in a variety of forms and formats, anytime and anywhere. The Company’s Hasbro Studios develops and produces television programming for more than 180 territories around the world, and for the U.S. on Hub Network, part of a multi-platform joint venture between Hasbro and Discovery Communications (NASDAQ: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK). Through the company’s deep commitment to corporate social responsibility, including philanthropy, Hasbro is helping to build a safe and sustainable world for future generations and to positively impact the lives of millions of children and families every year. It has been recognized for its efforts by being named one of the “World’s Most Ethical Companies” and is ranked as one of Corporate Responsibility Magazine’s “100 Best Corporate Citizens.” Learn more at www.hasbro.com.
So you’re young and queer and everything you know about sex has come from porn because nobody’s teaching it to you at school and frankly some of what you’ve witnessed is terrifying. You’re intrigued by sex and your hormones are raging and you want to have sex but you don’t want to get fisted while someone beats you with a cheese grater. You’re young and your baseline state of being is *uncomfortable* and *powerless* and you just want some semblance of control and something resembling comfort and you want to find people who don’t make you feel so weird all the time. You see queer people reveling in being weird, and you’re panicking that people think you’re like that because the last thing you want is to be seen as weird. You’re gay but you’re not gay-gay, you’re normal if you can just ignore this one small difference.
And then here comes a group of people who commiserate with you, but only on the surface. They, too, hate how weird Pride is, how weird queer culture is, how terrifying queer sexuality is, how awful kink is. They tell you that your discomfort is actually a form of harm, that nobody should ever make you think about the things you don’t want to think about, that you should be protected from it. They use the language of social justice and it feels like social justice to you. People are doing things to you! Without your consent! It’s psychic rape! How dare they?
But then you get older and you scratch beneath the surface and remove the masks and find that underneath, those people who told you that you were being harmed were intense homophobes, who found queer sexuality terrifying because they found queer people terrifying. They don’t “consent” to queers being sexy or kinky because they don’t “consent” to queers existing. They consider all sex bad, and queer people as inherently sexual, so queer people are inherently bad unless they go out of their way to desexualize themselves as much as possible. And you find that they’re transphobes and terfs and they consider trans identities to be fetishes and this is why they want to hide fetish. As soon as they’re done driving all the sexy, kinky, trans queers into hiding with your help, they can move onto the less outrageous queers. They’re moving onto you, even though you’d never call yourself queer because you’re young and uncomfortable and afraid of being weird. They’re uncomfortable and they learned that their discomfort was harm and they never sat down to examine those feelings. They’re the Karens of the world calling the cops on black folks for just existing in their vicinity. They think children should be completely sheltered from all that liberal nonsense.
And the queer elders try to speak up, try to tell the young ones about our history, but it’s so hard when we keep getting entire generations wiped out in the holocaust and the AIDS crisis. Our books burned and our people left for dead. Half of those left only survived through assimilation and internalizing that they needed to shed all of their queerness and become plastic Barbies and Kens, perfect and sexless, and this worked for them, in a way, in that they survived, so they think that this is a reasonable solution. Just cover up and get married and live quietly. Disown the loud queers, the ones still demanding more, the ones still pushing boundaries, the ones who don’t want to hide, who question the rules. They rewrite history to say gay rights were won when marriage was won and now the fight is over and anyone who is still complaining should shut up, lest our overlords hear and take away what little we were allowed to have.
The truth of the matter is that people are more naked at the beach than at Pride. Kink harnesses are normalized in fashion everywhere. Overt displays of heterosexual sexuality are everywhere. Children are not harmed by this. They will not be harmed by all of this in a queer context. No one will be harmed by this because discomfort is not harm and it was never about that. It was about hijacking discomfort for an anti-queer agenda. It’s being driven largely by sheltered teens and homophobes taking advantage of them. But the internet is a big stew where those people have the same platform and reach as queer historians and activists and hot takes spread faster than research and knowledge. We don’t have to engage. It’s settled. It’s done. Wear your gimp mask to Pride. The kids are alright.
rosalarian