The official Hasbro China Transformers Weibo account have just uploaded a new Official Transformers Stop Motion Video for your viewing pleasure.
The video is a nice mix of all the recent Transformers lines featuring Earthrise Optimus Prime, Studio Series 86 Blurr and Kingdom Warpath and two more guests. All packed with a classic G1 cartoon background theme! The video is a funny chain of misunderstandings, so we won’t spoil much here.
Watch the video here or a YouTube mirror after the jump, as well as some screencaps. Let us know your impressions on the 2005 Board!
Warpshard
Honestly love the animation for Blurr and Warpath's fight. Impressively smooth and fun to watch.
I would like to know, what purpose did those rocks serve?
Hooper_X
Now THERE'S a strawman worthy of the ATT days. How does a toy commercial aimed at Chinese kids embarrass you in any meaningful sense whatsoever? Are BotBots embarrassing to you as an adult fan?
lol
AnonymousDwell
The official title of the video, as published, was "Hasbro China Official Stop Motion Video." The TFW News Staff posted it as, "The official Hasbro China Transformers Weibo account have just uploaded a new Official Transformers Stop Motion Video…"
How is that click bait? And if it is, how is it the TFW News Staff's click bait, for simply reporting neutral information as published? I get that you aren't fond of it, or expected more from it, which is your call of course. But how else can they report it without shading or framing it in a way other than as published? "The following stop-motion footage is just a cynical toy ad that may disappoint those expecting more substantial plot content," wouldn't exactly be unbiased reporting lol.
cappeca
Heh, I haven't seen a strawman like that since ATT. Good times.
To be honest, the ad is what it is: an ad. There's really no problem with what it does. Does it look like a Kre-o ad? Sure. Does it embarass adult Transformers fans in some level? Naturally. Does it serve its purpose? One can only hope. It's technically good but has no meaninful content – like a mini Michael Bay movie, which is fine.
No, I think the problem lies more with the TFW News Staff presenting ads as original content. It creates a very different expectation. It's not the first time the news page feels like clickbait. If it was written as a "new ad", I wouldn't have clicked it, or judged it as a new stop motion clip. Maybe it's time we have some categories in these news? Or maybe not everything Transformers is "news".
Hooper_X
Whoa, a Hasbro subsidiary in a non-English-speaking country uses emoji to represent the characters\' moods, meaning that the video can be seen and comprehended by speakers of any language and even by children who don\'t know how to read yet?
AND it doesn\'t require animating facial expressions onto the toy at significant expense?
What a bunch of childish Playskool baby bullshit.
Toy commercials should speak directly to me about things I care about. If the next ad isn\'t Megatron delivering a stirring political treatise on Predacon economic theory, I\'m never buying one of these fucking things again.
cappeca
Yeah, the toys currently on the shelves! No shit! Maybe I'm just too old for this, but when I come across any promotion with not-so-popular characters, I tend to check my wallet to see if the money is still there.
sutaseiba94
Yeah! I totally get the language barrier thing – I just think it's a bit lazy (and tacky) and that there are better ways to communicate those emotions with the whole body, which was why I said pantomime – which is universally understood by all cultures (think Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton). A good example would be this dragonball stop motion by the Animist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeQ-caXV-oM I'd definitely recommend checking his other stop motion videos! My criticism in a nutshell is that it can be better, that's all. If you like the way they do things perfectly as is, more power to you. Cheers
Well yeah of course it's for children! But that doesn't mean we should sell them mediocre quality products – including advertisements for them. I mean, look at the old 80s G1 Japanese headmasters/masterforce/victory commercials – I think they're marketed WAY better in terms of effects and quality:
Star Saber commercial
Headmasters commercials
Overlord commercial
Just imagine if their skits had the same production quality! I think it'd be cool
Alex buen19
waaaay better and more exciting.
Beemer
You see, HasTak, when you make good toys, creativity will flourish! I was wondering how they'd get around the language barrier, this seemed effective and fast. More please!
MindChamber
Loving the creatives uses of the transformations. These are always cute and fun.
Xaxis
I totally missed that on first viewing and watched it again after seeing what @Q Prime posted. First time I thought Warpath just couldn’t stack the blocks and was getting frustrated!
Or, even more accurately, it’s cartoonish, as are the sound effects. While the animator could have used effects to change the character’s faces, use of emoji is a modern relatable way to convey emotion that, as @SG Roadbuster said, gets around the language barrier.
What bothered me more than the emoji or the plot was that the trailer supports weren’t used!
John TheDestroyer
It's not amateurish, it's childish. And considering this is a toyline and company aimed primarily at children….
Requiem Prime
I greatly preferred the fighting game series to these \"humor\" ones.
dragon
cringey these are toys they don’t make face expressions they can’t cringe makes most g1 episodes less goofy take more seriously from this video
Q Prime
Because Wheelie was shooting something at Warpath who thought it was Blurr doing it.
SG Roadbuster
emojis are a convenient way to skirt around the language barrier, this is a chinese production, and most of us on these boards speak english as a first language, but were able to understand the emotional states of the characters pretty well without spoken dialogue or the characters actual sculpted faces emoting.
Roadbuster25
Why were Blurr and Warpath fighting?
Robogeek28
Wish we could've seen Warpath and Blurr get their asses handed to them by Grimlock!
sutaseiba94
Agreed. The use of emoji's comes off as amateurish and bit cringey for a stop motion video that's officially sponsored by Hasbro. There are better ways to communicate emotion through pantomime than using emoji's like a crutch.