TFARCHIVE FORUMS

This whole alternator/binaltech thing started out as a really groundbreaking idea: update G1 characters with modern vehicle designs. Shortly after its debut however, this line has seen a turn towards inconsistency, randomness and ill-conceived concepts.

For example, there are no original decepticon molds, all are based on regurgitated autobot designs. Two of the originally intended autobot characters (Suntreaker and Trailbreaker), became decepticons DeadEnd and Swindle respectively. Now Sunstreaker is returning to his originally intended alternator/binaltech mold, which by-the-way, was not the same G1 mold as SideSwipe anyway.

Neither was Trailbreaker a remold of G1 Hound, but alternator/binaltech Trailbreaker became Swindle with Trailbreaker's head! The least that could have been done is create a specific head for Swindle and leave the Trailbreaker head for another original mold.

Grimlock, a dinobot, became a Ford Mustang, and the very autobot responsible for his existence (WheelJack), also becomes a Mustang and takes on the same mold as his brainchild. A similar screw-up occured with Prowl, who was the same G1 mold as Smokescreen and Blue/Silver Streak. But Prowl got a whole new mold and Red Alert, who really should be a repaint of SideSwipe, if you're aiming for G1 accuracy, becomes the repaint of Blue/Silver Streak with his exact head!

Mirage will now be a Ford GT, which would have served the G1 fans better as the original race car that he was. The repaint of Tracks into (of all characters to choose from) Swerve, was the craziest move of Hasbro/Takara until the current debut of the Dodge Ram pick-up truck Optimus Prime. This is an insanely poor choice. Although I would much prefer a Land Rover or Nissan Pathfinder for Trailbreaker, and a Honda Odyssey or Nissan Quest for Iron Hide, the Dodge Ram would have suited those two characters far better than a Prime. In addition to the poor character choice, the robot mode of the Dodge Ram is far below the quality of most previous alternator/binaltech molds.

Franlkly, this new Optimus Prime, if it was not made of plastic, would serve best as toilet paper.

I toatly agree, but I much rather using something with higher quality to wipe my bum:]

Originally posted by GluteusMaximusPrime

You do realize, of course, that the whole concept of transforming is to change from one thing into another, correct? It's intrinsic that things be different than they were...

So why is tracks like tracks, why is smokescreen like smokescreen. Why does prime then have the same head. Hasbro even admitted the reason why they have made this lame alt Prime is so that it will sell in Japan as they don't warm to pick up trucks. The idea was to reincarnate G1 that is evident, but with any good idea in buisness, someone who has no knowledge of the product turns it into something awful.

PS
You do realise that transforming is about transforming from one object to another nothing more nothing less.

You know, why did they necessarily need to release it in Japan? There have been recent releases in their main line of figures that either aren't released by Takara, or are released only under the TFUSA line. I will definitely be waiting for the decepticon repaint (which I hope is black. When I get a car, I want a black dodge ram). The thing is, I really like the dodge ram. It's a big, mean machine, but OP is just lame.

Also, would it have been so hard for Takara/Tomy to have switched the head, and marketed it as convoy in Japan, while the US got a different figure?

Originally posted by frenzy69
The idea was to reincarnate G1 that is evident, but with any good idea in buisness, someone who has no knowledge of the product turns it into something awful.

It doesn't look awful to me and people seem to be missing the point that since the figures are being designed with two wildly different audiences in mind, there has to be compromise.

What do you like about it, it has an awful alt mode and an awful robot mode. Since it looks misstransformed aswell I'm assuming your altering it slightly in your head, at he moment it looks as poseable as a G1 toy even Energon Prime looked better than that with his dumb addons.

I'm just asking if it might be possibly to release two different characters, one in the US and one in Japan, or a US exclusive. Do they need Takara/Tomy to hold thier hand on this one?

I wish Takara jus said to hasbro no thanks and done, bet someone at hasbro got someone from Takara very drunk, very very very drunk.

They have to compromise. It would be nice if the US release got a different head sculpt (that's really all it would need to be called Ironhide), but if it doesn't that's fine with me too. The pics so far are terrible and it looks like it's not transformed correctly, so I'm reserving all judgement until I see something that doesn't look like it's just a test shot done up in a really low resolution. People bitched and moaned about how Prowl was going to be crap, but he turned out to be pretty spiffy.

I agree, Prime is mistransformed. I know eveyone consideres MP Prime as our alt leader, but he is in a different line. The Ram SRT-10 is a bad@$$ truck with a viper engine...come on, what would be better for Prime. Yes I have the him silghtly different in my mind from the pic...the shoulds down and out rather than up and the legs pulled out for flexability. Very promising. He definitely fits the "hood as chest" mold better than Prowl since he is a larger vehicle.

Mirage...what can I can. Has/Tak hit the nail on the head and props to Ford for giving licensing for a $150,000 car (Good to see American Cars aren't so anal about letting their cars be "war machines"). Blue with white racing strips. As far as his repaint goes...yellow with black racing strips...finally a Drag Strip. Can't see Ford caring about the name. Since the car can keep pace with a Ferrari it can clean house at a dragstrip.

Now Chevy needs to since on for a second mold...they already gave us their flagship (Corvette), Kupp as an SSR will be too perfect.

Originally posted by Denyer
Bad guys historically don't sell well in Japan—and whilst Hasbro could choose to only retail the Decepticon version, they've indicated they're more interested in selling both.

It's not a fanwank line—the general premise for releases is one 'street' version of a design, one special edition. Not many F1 vehicles are roadworthy.

Aside from your two points above, the essence of my criticism still remains. The alternator/binaltech line is directionless and a far cry from what it was expected to be from the outset.

What's next??? What G1 character will next be assigned to an inappropriate vehicle design? This line had a lot of potential to raise the bar on Transformer concept toy designs, which to a certain degree it has. But, it's too inconsistent and ill-conceived. With every two or three releases, the line becomes even more cheap than before.

Now we have a Dodge Ram pick-up truck as Optimus Prime, when the 20th Anniversary edition was more than enough. I can't wait to see how they'll write some of the last few new characters into the Binaltech story (Sunstreaker, Red Alert, Optimus Prime), given the story's excuses for giving us DeadEnd, Ravage and Grimlock.

The alternator/binaltech line no longer makes any real sense. It can't be a story that takes place before the Great War, as is portrayed in Transformers: The Movie (1986). Why would Optimus Prime temporarily abandon his semi-truck body for a pick-up truck, but then jump back to the original form before all hell breaks loose?

The reason why I am expressing such displeasure is because Hasbro has a major project upcoming for release in the Summer of 2007: the Transfomers live-action movie. Can we expect to see the same inconsistencies, poor quality character designs, and horrible plot development? As it stands now, Hasbro relies on the Japanamation cartoon industry inorder to market its transformer toys. Robots In Disguise, Armada, Energon and Cybertron have all been gross misrepresenatations of the Transformers mythology. And damn it, they all just suck!!! It was my hope that the alternator/binaltech line was for the more adult, serious minded transfomers fans, but my expectations were way too unrealistic.

Oh yeah, and just for the record, I did love the new Acura RSX Prowl from the time he was first displayed. What annoyed me was the choice by Hasbro/Takara to release a Red Alert version of what should have been Prowl. It makes no sense.

These are the only characters I've purchased so far ( I refuse to buy Decepticons until original designs come out).
1. Smokescreen 2. SideSwipe 3. Silverstreak 4. Hound 5. Tracks 6. Overdrive 7. WheelJack 8. Prowl 9. Meister/Jazz and of course 10. 20th Ann. Optimus Prime

When Skids becomes available, I'll get him also, but I'll admit that I am suspicious of his head design. It looks too unlike the G1 Skids and too much like Iron Hide's head, except for the sides of the helmet. Maybe Skids was originally intended for Iron Hide.

Originally posted by GluteusMaximusPrime
These are the only characters I've purchased so far ( I refuse to buy Decepticons until original designs come out).

Then you're missing out, Shockwave and Dead End are both great figures, I reccommend them both.


My prediction for the remould of that ugly ram: Ultra Magnus, possibly with some clip on armour made up of a cover for the deck.

Originally posted by GluteusMaximusPrime
The alternator/binaltech line no longer makes any real sense. It can't be a story that takes place before the Great War, as is portrayed in Transformers: The Movie (1986). Why would Optimus Prime temporarily abandon his semi-truck body for a pick-up truck, but then jump back to the original form before all hell breaks loose?

Well, if you ask that way - what about Grimlock? He´s a totally different figure now as well.

If you ask me, Alternator/Binaltech is a separate line - splitted from somewhere before the movie.
The story for Ravage said as much, AFAIK.

The whole idea that Transformers who have been around for millions of years and have a computer that can reformat their bodies at the drop of a hat need humans to build them superior bodies is fairly unlikely . With the whole project just need to kick the suspension of disbelief into overdrive and go with the flow.

And rack up tje nice highly accurate Transformers with modern Alts.

Originally posted by GluteusMaximusPrime
Now we have a Dodge Ram pick-up truck as Optimus Prime, when the 20th Anniversary edition was more than enough. I can't wait to see how they'll write some of the last few new characters into the Binaltech story (Sunstreaker, Red Alert, Optimus Prime), given the story's excuses for giving us DeadEnd, Ravage and Grimlock.

I'm sorry, but you're an ignorant fool.

Sunstreaker and Red Alert are not part of the binaltech story. They're a subline with a completely different fiction.

Car companies are fickle. Just because a toy was based on one design twenty years ago doesn't mean Has/Tak will be able to get the license for the current model now. Porsche has said no, along with Volkswagen, Mini, and a couple of others. As for Mirage, Ligier didn't like the idea of a toy robot to begin with, so Mirage as a Formula One car is not possible.

These molds are expensive to come up with, so expect the repaints. The only reason we have bad guys in the line at all is because of them, and because Hasbro's Aaron Archer persuaded Takara to abort Sunstreaker for the time being and make Dead End instead.

Learn a little bit about what you're talking about before you whine about it not meeting some idealized, unpragmatic standard.

Originally posted by Clay
I'm sorry, but you're an ignorant fool.

Sunstreaker and Red Alert are not part of the binaltech story. They're a subline with a completely different fiction.

Car companies are fickle. Just because a toy was based on one design twenty years ago doesn't mean Has/Tak will be able to get the license for the current model now. Porsche has said no, along with Volkswagen, Mini, and a couple of others. As for Mirage, Ligier didn't like the idea of a toy robot to begin with, so Mirage as a Formula One car is not possible.

These molds are expensive to come up with, so expect the repaints. The only reason we have bad guys in the line at all is because of them, and because Hasbro's Aaron Archer persuaded Takara to abort Sunstreaker for the time being and make Dead End instead.

Learn a little bit about what you're talking about before you whine about it not meeting some idealized, unpragmatic standard.

I think we all know why they are doing what they were doing, but with a little more thought they could of chose different characters and made the line with a more substantial story to it, the BT story is a joke. Obviously they need to make money back on the licensing and production costs, no one is doubting that, everyone knows that it is impossible for them to get the original licenses that the original characters were. All we are asking is a little more thought goes into what they are doing, as alot of their decsisions are being complained about and plenty of people have given better altern atives that would sell alot more.

If I hadn't been involved with this fandom as long as I have been, I'd be shocked and amazed that people could put the effort into bitching about the best Transformers line ever made. As it is, I still don't understand it.