Take this with a grain of salt for the moment, but with Toyfair happening this weekend we should have confirmation one way or the other. Thanks to some detective work from 2005 Boardmember jtprime17 via the site Southernhobby, we have a listing for a Leader Class Astrotrain figure. This would be a part of third wave of Siege Leader class figures.
Is it too soon for another Generations Astrotrain figure? What potential repaints/reuses could come from this? Can Siege Starscream throw Megatron out of the side of him to lighten the load on the way back to Cybertron? Sound off on the 2005 Boards!
Hanzkaz
Okay.
Autobot N
Can we stop bumping the thread without news?
PrimalFury
I hope we see this Astrotrain at SDCC
Ramberk Magnus
Yeah, name slapping shouldn't really reappear going forward. If you are a newer fan or a fan that's been away for a long time, you might not realize it but for the longest time HasTak had the habit of (a) rebooting the franchise every few years (examples: BW, RID, UT, Animated) and (b) only producing ONE toyline at a time.
The toyline stills gets rebooted (example: NewRID and Cyberverse) but there's now multiple toylines getting produced simultaneous with their own media (studio series, cyberverse, generations/siege, rescue heroes, reissues?). In the past, Hasbro would do one toyline and one or two side projects. In 2003 they started experimenting with Universe (which was just repaints) and Alternators and in 2006 we obviously got Classics as a tiny "filler" toyline but none of that stuff had a mainstream media push and were really just smaller projects.
The point I'm trying to make is (a) it's amazing that we have 4ish simultaneous toylines that are getting very strong pushes from Hasbro and (b) nameslapping was really just Hasbro's bandaid for keeping copyright on popular names AND a way to market toys for older fans. Hasbro had no clue how ravenous G1 fans were for new figures of older toys. Takara actually understood this. Hasbro also didn't think they could produce a toyline without any strong media attached to it. What's going on with Siege (closely tied comics and the new Netflix show) is breaking new ground because it's all targeting older fans.
marvel b
Sorry, but I must decline. The duties of cleansing the fogginess of lies and doubt is an ongoing job! My people need me!
*Fades out*
….
*Fades back in*
And toys. My people need toys
*Fades out again*
barry
You are a beacon of clarity in a sea of misinformation. Would you like to be the Prime Minister of the UK?
marvel b
That, my friend, is what a certain class of person calls a "conspiracy theory". You see,in Reality Theory, adding more comments to to thread indeed adds to the overall count!
Then there's the madlad theory that Astrotrain often frequents this very thread, waiting until someone gets his molding idea correct so he can give the OK to Hasbro, who in turns, provides the actual reveal.
CALLING IT NOW! ASTROTRAIN TURNS INTO A SUPER RETRO TRAIN BUT A STEAMPUNK SPACESHIP!!!
*patiently waits*
barry
But I thought that adding more comments with no actual information would achieve negative mass and the page count would go down?
I mean, I've always assumed that's why people post in news threads saying "I saw there was activity in this thread and got excited, but there's not even any news? I wish people would stop posting in this thread unless there's new info."
Posting that sort of response for any other reason would be totally crazy, right?
marvel b
LET'S AIM FOR 25!!!!
SG Roadbuster
22 pages and no actual information reveled.
BidoofdudeofOz
That was a pretty huge habit of Hasbro’s throughout the 90s and 2000s, but with the evergreen designs and a lot of new designs for certain characters, it seems like they’re really knuckling down on making an identifiable look for each character and not deviating too far from it.
I think they even mentioned it somewhere. Nameslapping is mostly gone for the forseeable future.
Fenrys
shockwave naming them would be a moot point in that side discussion because the question was when was the last time multiple characters had the same name within fiction
im still going with the theory that astrotrain wont have armor, but will instead collapse from a larger vehicle mode into a voyager ish sized bot (ala ss dotm megatron)
Berser Car
I think Primal and BW Megatron were not called by name at any point, but were listed with their names in the characters page of some chapter.
Still, Shockwave named Megatronus after Megatron as a kind of joke, so it wouldn't be surprising if he also named the beast Optimus and Megatron.
Back on Astrotrain. If it's not a voyager sized base body with armor and limb extenders that combine into a train wagon (?) then I will be making my own custom Astrotrain.
Ramberk Magnus
I knew someone was gonna post examples! lol. It’s still not the norm to have multiple characters with the same name in the same media. Regardless, it’s just an opinion.
And yeah, once you start using derogatory fan terms like “geewunner” (or whatever) you’ve kinda lost your point. Fans can have primary interest in one part of the franchise and be respectful of the rest of the fandom.
Fenrys
Idw 1.0 had fat Tankor (beast machines/thrilling 30) and tall Tankor (octane) as well as Optimus prime and Optimus primal and megatron and beast megatron (not sure if the bw guys were named since I haven’t read unicron). Likewise power of the primes had both Optimus Prime and Optimus primal.
Thundershot
The whole point I was trying to make is that if they tried to force Armada Jetfire or Armada Wheeljack or Energon Ironhide into the current fiction, they should change their names to prevent having two characters in a comic or cartoon having the same name. That’s all.
Rodimus Prime
Like I said, Armada fans seem really hung up on the names. I think that it was you who mentioned that Tidal Wave was Shockwave in Japan, but the way the Unicron Trilogy was made really makes it a moot point when it comes to Shock blast. Tidal Wave was obviously meant to be an original character by Hasbro, and the Japanese basically name slapped the character and added his Cybertronian mode as an easter egg joke since in Japan the G1 character is named laser wave. This never became a problem with Energon introducing Shockwave, who was renamed for copyright reasons, as the character was just called Laser Wave. Heck, the character Mirage from later on wasn't even supposed to be Tidal Wave, but the cartoon writers retroactively made the two the same guy.
All that being said, I am perfectly fine with RID or Unicron Trilogy characters being added to the line. If they do change the names, and you guys throw a fit over it, all you'll be doing is cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Xaxis
And as such, it’s a term that would be better off retired. Using those kinds of derogatory terms for segments of our fandom does more damage than good and perpetuates aggression and division.
I’ve also seen it carelessly applied to fans of G1 who aren’t closed-minded toward other parts of the franchise yet hold G1 as their primary interest.
“Baytards” is the only other comparable term in use that I comes to mind at the moment, and it’s much worse in my opinion than “Geewunner”.
Regardless of how segments of the fandom treat each other, I’m curious to see what this Siege Astrotrain looks like! Even though I’m not collecting the Siege line, there’s been some super awesome designs and I’m enjoying seeing them revealed. A couple have even ended up sneaking into my collection.
Dinobot Snarl
I'd love to see some sketches
Purple Heart
And to that I immensely disagree. If they are intended to be separate characters and not different versions of G1 characters, they should keep their name if they are introduced into G1 continuity, otherwise is robs them.. of their character.
I said that besides the notable exceptions that are intended to be same versions of the same character. No where did I mention Movie, Animated, or Prime Ironhide as being a different character then G1 Ironhide, because they aren’t. If you were insinuating that, then we have been on different pages of the same chapter.
Then I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree. Unless your trying to force Armada Jetfire into G1 and have it not be a new body of G1 Jetfire, I suppose it makes sense. But again I was never talking about that. I was referring only to characters like Energon Ironhide or Cybertron Scourge.