More previews have popped up from the upcoming issue of Windblade via iBooks, where you can pre-order the digital copy. This sneak peek however has full pages including artwork and dialogue so if you don’t wish to be spoiled, look away!
From the looks of it, this next issue will have quite the blast from the past as we see some old, familiar faces in a new story and new artwork. How will they play into Windblade’s story though? Check out the images we’ve mirrored after the jump to see what everyone’s up to!
ZeroiaSD
I like that!
Here's another one-
Jhiaxus visited this world. He did combiner experiments, eventually resulting in Magnaboss and Tripredacus (the locals *did* recognize combiners as a thing, after all!), but had to flee when the locals turned against him before he could see the results and decant the subjects from the transformative tanks they were in.
Among the experiments was Under-3, found in a tank by that name, along with… other bodyparts, who died among emerging. 'Under 3' actually stood for Underperforming-3, but no-one knew that and the place was smashed, so people saw Under-3 and thought it was his name.
Since then, Under-3 has become a bit of a trickster, learning how to position himself so opponents think he's part of a much larger lion, and frightening them off. He even created a fiction that he is 'Under 3, servant of the Great Lion, and unworthy of a name so I go by my designation as the Great Lion's third servant!'. Which is complete crap, but he makes it work.
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Basically lifting the Ambulon origin a bit, and tossing a bit of cleverness in ^^
SMOG
I don't know why, but I just have to say that I'm utterly charmed by Scylla's bot mode. They should design fembots based on blocky Scramble City combiners more often.
I've never seen her in the Japanese series, but she sounds like a pretty terrible character though.
zmog
T-Hybrid
I wouldn't count out Generations Black Arachnia. I know it's personal preference but using the Takara Animated retool that was revealed recently would be a fine option. That was a good mold.
GoLion
This.
I also think she's a far cooler looking character.
Verno
I'm glad I could entertain I've been called many things in this thread, but the truth is, I'm simply passionate about Beast Wars.
My disappointment that Claw Jaw wasn't used stems from him being a mass-retail release, and thus more likely to be recognizable to a larger audience who may have been into Beast Wars as a kid.
I would have been delighted to have seen K-9 or Polar Claw in Cheetor's stead, but as this is the first introduction to this planet, they have to wheel out a couple of the big guns to start with.
Ambulon was mentioned before, and the fact that he only transforms into a leg. The IDW universe if full of questions we don't yet have the answers to. Using Scylla would just have added another question to the mix. No real harm done.
kaijuguy19
I wouldn't rule that out just yet. I mean CW Cyclonus looks nothing like the MTMTE design for Cyclonus in IDW so I think there's still a chance that we may get a easons 1 and 2 toy of BW Blackarachnia sometime in the future.
Autovolt 127
Totally. Though with Blackarachnia being her TFA design. I doubt we'll be seeing a proper Season 1 Blackarachnia any time soon.
kaijuguy19
I've read Scott's answer on her Tumblr page to a fan who asked why does Blackarachnia have her TFA design and she said it was likely the artist's intention to do so and Scott really had the BW version in mind like writing her words in the original BA voice actress.
ebonyleopard
That name wins a comment award.
optimusmegas
i think you should have
go big or go home
T-Hybrid
I should've just gone that far with the name. Shouldn't I?
optimusmegas
what about the heavy metal bug BEETALLICA???
T-Hybrid
Would that be a good use of the BW Appreciation thread maybe?
Also, thanks. Though for every "Spindra" there was a "Beetallic" or "Panthor"…
Zook
I never took happy meal toys seriously. They were the cheap "knock offs". I can't even remember if Manta Ray was included in my adventures, but I do remember making fun of it every time I came across it. The only happy meal toy I ever cared about was the Men in Black neurylizer from Burger King. Sadly the batteries died years ago…
I used to create new characters with existing GIJoes. Night Creeper Leader was The Lowcrasher, a parody of Highlander, who was a blind moron. Another Cobra was Gun Happy, who was constantly killing innocent people and himself. A Cobra Guard was Hemo, a hemophiliac who would die from the slightest touch, but there was a Hemo machine that would keep creating more. They would all start out as tadpoles. A group of Crimson Guards had their own spy agency. That kind of stuff is fun, but those Beast Wars McDonald's toys are so horrible that at least in my case my imagination couldn't save them.
But in the end, I really don't care. If this issue gets some more BW toys made, it's fine by me. The animation and writing still sucks though.
LegionMaximus
I like the idea of Under-3 being a figurehead for a ship, but I also think he would work as a battering ram. (Just alter him a little bit so he has the "log" part of the battering ram as well as the head of it.) His name comes from his boast that he can break through any wall in under three minutes. (Alternatively: real name is Thundertree, but took the Under-3 nickname for reason previously mentioned and also because bots who hadn't seen organic planets kept asking him what a tree was and didn't get the connection between battering ram / tree.)
I'm really enjoying reading the BW play / headcanon memories. Someone should start a thread about them on a different board. Spindra is a great name, BTW.
T-Hybrid
Scylla's also part of a team, and introducing her (and only her) would leave tons of questions as to where the rest of God Neptune (or the Seacons given her origins as Tenta-Kill) which is probably something IDW doesn't want given they're just coming off Combiner Wars and don't want to get people's hopes up too quickly about another team they may not be doing.
People such as myself, who are even bigger Piranacon fans than they are BW fans.
I'm getting to that point as well. It's funny watching people bend over backwards to try and justify their nerd rage using subjective measures of "importance" about a toyline.
That was me, and man I would completely blow people's minds with the continuity I invented in my mind as I got new toys to play with.
Did you know in my universe Silverbolt the Fuzor was a mutated Wolfang because I got Magnaboss before the Fuzors came out and thus already had one Silverbolt?
Or that I never had an Optimus Primal toy, and therefore when I finally got Optimal Optimus he turned out to be a new body for Optimus Minor after he nearly died protecting Spindra?
Wait. You guys probably never heard of Spindra. That was what I called the Transmetal Black Arachnia Happy Meal toy. She eventually ended up leading the Maximals when they returned to Cybertron and I got the Black Arachnia Beast Machines toy.
I also never had a Tarantulas figure growing up. So Insecticon ended up being my scientist. I never actually read his bio back then, so I have no idea if that was what he did…but I didn't care because they were toys.
Other random figures that ended up being key in my universe:
– B'Boom (lead the Maximals briefly because I never had a Primal and damn if a baboon wasn't close enough)
– Snapper/Wolfang (the first two Beast Wars toys I had, thus they were originally on the same side attempting to rebuild after a devastating battle that I used as backstory whenever I needed to justify why a current character wasn't around.
– "Slag" (the TM Dinobot happy meal toy. He arrived with Spindra and ended up eventually regaining his memories of being Megatron's son. Eventually rejoined the Predacons and eventually grew into their leader when his father was killed and in his dying breath handed over the tools needed for him to assume a new dragon form…aka TM2 Megatron)
– Spindra (her friendship with Slag prior to them both gaining new bodies was a huge part of the storyline as they attempted to reconcile the war)
– Optimus Minor (took over leading the Maximals after B'Boom's death, forget the name I gave him…but Optimus Minor because his nickname as a result of assuming control)
I could go on an on…but you get the point.
optimusmegas
but you can chalk that up to artist limitation…the artist doesn't really seem dynamic it's more cartoony..like something you'd find from one of marvel or dc's all ages series of comics.
with better artist comes better designs. i mean look how generic and bland everyone looks when rojo draws an issue of MTMTE compared to milne? rojo's bots all have the same blocky generic look and he just adds a wing or tire and calls it a day where milne has distinct looks with each character. it's like how crappy ultra prime looked in his CW debut compared to maybe how just about anyone else would design it….
oh come on you really can't believe that can you? there was someone in this thread earlier that stated he used the mcdonalds beast wars toys as a big part in his play time because they were blank slates and he can do what he wanted with them. he seemed to care and have nostalgia just as verno seems to have that with claw jaw….another character with zero history and no real ties to beast wars other than being a toy in the line. the same could be said for any representative…instead of cheetor why not polar claw or k9?
scott gave her reasons for using manta ray and i can accept it. aquatic only alt mode and female to represent tribe placement and diversity. i get that. scylla may be a problem since the seacons are already present and a japanese repaint of the same team with a different name may not be something to use. that or she had no idea who scylla is.
SPLIT LIP
Scylla would be a pretty good fit, actually, with her bizzare terrestrial water-based beast mode. It's a squid on legs, with a big scary face, but turns into a very G1 robot. Would definitely make this planet seem more abnormal. Plus she could be an allusion to beast combiners. AND she'd be acknowledging the Japanese BW series to boot.
See, she has multiple purposes. Still not my prefered choice, but infinitely more interesting and useful, whilst still being an obscure female beastformer with an unconventional design.
Zook
I can understand the anger though. There are so many cool Beast Wars non-show characters that deserve some attention, and they give it to the goofy McDonald's toy (which I used to have by the way, and always treated as a joke) that no one can connect with or even have any nostalgia towards. More like a "the Happy Meal toy? I remember that. What a piece of crap".