The second five-page comic preview of the day comes from Newsarama for IDW Publishing’s Transformers: Salvation one-shot, concluding the Dinobot trilogy started by Transformers: Punishment and Transformers: Redemption. As the Dinobots search for Bludgeon in the wastes of Cybertron to claim their vengeance on the mad Decepticon, they also find themselves having to stop the titanic Trypticon from flattening Iacon! Read the pages after the break, and pick the one-shot up on June 14.
Boy Blunder
Because whiny adult children want everything to be just like it was in 1984 and refuse to accept change in a franchise about transforming robots.
Danny-Boy
I honestly don't get why people have a problem with Hasbro changing a toy's name. The company found out that a word has certain connotations in various parts of the world and (like any good company) wanted to be able to put their product on shelves without backlash.
Omegashark18
Or Slug as in, slugged in the face.
primalxconvoy
I suspect they were aiming for "bullet", rather than "snail" (as in "Metal Slug").
Anyway, as I said, I think old media is covered fine, which is why "Spasma", "Slag", etc can all be used
In the original shows. In Beast Wars, they say it out in frustration. If they said it to Black Arachnia or Airrazor directly, then there would be a problem.
I just think that Hasbro are being cautious from this point onwards. It's got to start at some point, after all.
BB Shockwave
It kinda matters. Say "Slug", and most people will think of this:
Not the association you want for a ferocious dinobot. I am OK with the renaming, but even Slog was better. Or y'know what, considering they share a motto and tech spec (look it up), why not use the name Charger?
I get WHY they changed it, I don't get why they changed it only just now (or well, around Animated with the triceratops Dinobot – when was that, 2008-9?)
Yeah I heard about the renaming of Spastic to… what was it, Drag Strip? Did not get that PCC toy only his first orange-white paintjob. Again, odd, 'cause I hear the word spastic get used even in cartoons on quite a regular level.
Wonder how this all affects BW reruns in the UK and DVD releases. Were those censored too?
Starscream Gaga
It's only in Transformers fandom that you'll find people complaining about one letter being changed in a character's name. Neithermind the fact that, even without considering the other meanings of the term, it's kind of stupid for a character to have the same name as a Transformers curse word.
Obviously it makes sense for IDW to change (and I can't emphasize this enough) one letter in Slag's name in order to not potentially incite drama. It's only logical, really. It reminds me of the Yugioh fans that can't seem to wrap their head around why a symbol often associated with satanism keeps getting editted out of a main character's card artwork.
primalxconvoy
Especially as they then had the gal to remold the heads as G1 versions and sell them AGAIN.
The Bayformer G1 set in the ark is merely a placeholder until I get some decent Dinobots. I'd even style for OS KOs of the Bayverse Dinobots in G1 colours, and G1 heads.
YoungPrime
No, not really. If Hasbro is smart they'll finally make some Leader/Voyager class Dinobots that are par in epicness that the Phase 6ers are currently but in the POTP line to show that they're still listening. That SDCC Bayformer Dinobot Set with the cardboard base from a few years ago should remain forgettable.
Dramatic Spoon
After what happened with PCC Over-Run, I'm surprised they didn't try to change it earlier.
Emet Baqar
Slag the slagging slags.
primalxconvoy
That's right. "Slag" can mean either "molten metal" or "slut/ugly woman/b2tch" in the UK, and, as far as I can tell, is easily understood as an alternative to swearing in a kids' show about robots.I suspect that Hasbo want's less potential legal hassles by enacting due dilligence for the future. That way, they can avoid similar problems with "spaz", or "spastic" references (which is EXTREMELY offensive in the UK, and other countries with a more British-based English, such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada (they use some Bitiish terms over the US ones at times) South Africa, the Falklands, and other British territories).
Remember, the UK, its territories and/or its lexical/cultural effects on the world can be argued to be as big, if not greater than the USA's. Regardless of just the UK, the amount of non-USA based English is FAR greater in scope around the world than the USA's use. THus, more care needs to be taken in this internet-connected age.
Dramatic Spoon
the wiki calls it a "Two Headed Dragon-like Creature".
As for why it's a Dinobot, it's not like Pterodactyl or Plesiosaur are dinosaurs and they're still Dinobots.
BB Shockwave
I stopped reading any comic from IDW that is not from Roche or Roberts a while ago. I remember a female TF called Swift who turns into a helicopter being introduced, and that weird femmebot who is a Gobots Crusher reference, but Strafe does not ring a bell, sorry, and I don't care enough to re-read the issues again. All I know is that she (would not have guessed from the artwork that she is a girl- then again… this IS Ramondelli) is a weird half-headed bot in Dinobot colors, obviously hommaging the movie Dinobot. Heck, since the first pages do not have Swoop, I though that was him, renamed.
BB Shockwave
The G1 Transformers show – that features the dinobots heavily – was aired even back in 1994 or so on Sky One – with the G2 Cyber Cube scene transitions. Even back then no-one cared about the word Slag.
Oh, and then came Beast Wars and Machines where slag became the trademark curse word of Transformers. That show lasted until, what, 2001?
And from what I heard from Film Brain on the UK satire show \"Fat Slags\", the word had this secondary meaning since the 70ies already in the UK.
So if the name of a robot triceratops and a Transformers fictional curse word did not bother anyone until the last decade, then why change it all of a sudden?
Sockie
Strafe's been around since Redemption, she's not the Technobot. There is no "retconning" involved in how she joined the Dinobots.
BB Shockwave
So they are retconning in ANOTHER new dinobot, if the guy from Monstrocity wasn\'t stressing credibility again? Or they want us to think this is Technobot Strafe???
Sockie
Because Devastator's working for Starscream, and I imagine Starscream doesn't want Iacon trampled by Trypticon.
fishpop
I want a to of Strafe and the IDW versions of the Dinobots.
THIRD PARTIES, GET ON IT!
Emet Baqar
I guess Slag is subjective based on intent. Just the scrap from molten metal or name of a dinobot, a derogatory term towards women in the UK or offensive euphemism. I just wish they would leave originality alone and not worry about offending anyone but I suppose that isn't the case these days unfortunately. At any rate this should be a good book to read.
primalxconvoy
Although I read that Strafe is a dinobot mutant, why did they go to the length to give her alt mode two robot heads cut in half? It looks really odd.
Also, why is Devastator helping them?