MediaWiki - User contributions [en]

Skyquake (Prime)

2011-03-31T00:25:22Z

24.62.9.241:

{{disambig3|Skyquake}}
{{factions|decepticon}}
:''Skyquake is a [[Decepticon]] from the [[Transformers: Prime (franchise)| Prime]] portion of the [[Aligned continuity family]].''

[[Image:SkyquakePrime.jpg|thumb|300px|Ain't he unglamorous?]]
'''Skyquake'''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s loyalties are unlikely to be questioned anytime soon. A Decepticon guardian sent to protect Earth's energon stocks, he is completely loyal to Megatron. He will not only obey every order, he will follow them until Megatron says otherwise, regardless of the passage of time. He also possesses a rather short temper and is not beyond backhanding anyone who frustrates him.

==Fiction==
===''Prime'' cartoon===
:''Voice actor:'' [[Richard Green]]
[[Image:Masters&Students-MyLittleFriend.jpg|thumb|250px|left|"Now is coward-killing time!"]]

Millennia ago, during the great war, [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]] tasked Skyquake with assassinating [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus Prime]] at the [[Battle of Technar]]. He was later one of a number of Decepticon guardians sent to Earth by Megatron when the planet was seeded with Energon.

In the modern era, he was sought out by [[Starscream (Prime)|Starscream]], who needed a strong presence to inspire [[Vehicon (Prime)|his troops]] into believing his reign would be a successful one. However, Skyquake was less amiable to the idea, firmly announcing both his loyalty to Megatron and his lack of faith in Starscream's claims of Megatron's death. Before the pair came to blows, Optimus and [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] appeared on the scene. Skyquake reminded Prime of their encounter during the Battle of Technar, but Optimus still offered both Decepticons a chance at peace. Starscream showed some interest, as long as Optimus bowed to him, causing a frustrated Skyquake to belt him aside and attack Prime. Bumblebee threw himself into the fray but proved more of a distraction than anything else. He did manage to buy Optimus the time to realise Skyquake still lacked a [[Alternate mode|vehicle mode]].[[Image:Masters&Students-SkyquakeDeceased.jpg|thumb|right|250px|I'm okay.]] Using the canyon they were battling in to their advantage, the Autobots managed to corner Skyquake. Unfortunately, [[William Fowler|Agent Fowler]] appeared in a high-tech military jet, which Skyquake immediately [[Scanning|scanned]].

Skyquake quickly dominated the battle until Bumblebee threw himself on the jet and, as Skyquake tried to shake him off, ripped out his internals. Bumblebee jumped onto Fowler's plane as a heavily-injured Skyquake crashed into the ground. After Skyquake closed his optics for possibly one last time, Prime sadly noted how things might have been different, before burying the Decepticon. {{storylink|Masters & Students}}
{{--}}

==Notes==
* It's a lucky thing Agent Fowler provided a jet with arm and leg kibble underneath for Skyquake to scan!
* While crash-landings have seldom been fatal to [[Transformer]]s in past series, ''Prime'' executive producer [[Jeff Kline]] has stated that "When we kill a character, we kill a character."<ref>[http://www.toonzone.net/news/articles/36193/transformers-prime-premiere-report-and-video-clip-plus-season-two-confirmation ToonZone.net summary of a Q&A session with the ''Prime'' creative team]</ref> If that intent holds true, then Optimus's line about "burying" Skyquake would seem to indicate we won't be seeing him again.
*Skyquake's alt-mode seems to resemble a stylized [[Wikipedia:Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II|F-35 Lightning II]] fighter jet, an alt-mode shared by [[Breakaway (ROTF)|Breakaway]], and his retool, [[Thrust (ROTF)| Thrust]].

==References==
<references />

[[Category:Cartoon-only Transformers]]
[[Category:Prime Decepticons]]

Hasbro

2011-03-12T19:34:49Z

24.62.9.241:

[[Image:Hasbrologo.jpg|right|130px|thumb|Making the world transform. (Well, apart from Japan, [[TakaraTomy|these guys]] handle that.)]]
'''Hasbro''' is a [[toy]] company, and owner of the [[Transformers brand|''Transformers'' brand]] in most markets outside of Japan, where it is owned by [[TakaraTomy]].

==History==
[[Image:Hasbrooldlogo.jpg|left|75px|thumb|Siamese twins at home.]]

Hasbro was originally founded in [[1923]] as "Hassenfeld Brothers" by brothers Henry and Helal Hassenfeld from Rhode Island. The company originally sold textile remnants, but soon moved into manufacturing pencil boxes and school supplies.
In [[1952]], Hasbro first rose to fame with a little toy called [[Optimash Prime|''Mr. Potato Head'']]. You might have heard of it. The company went so far as to purchase advertising time for the toy on a newfangled invention called television. You might have heard of that, too.

In [[1964]], Hasbro had an even greater success with the original ''[[G.I. Joe (franchise)|G.I. Joe]]'' toy designed by Don Levine, which caused Hassenfeld Bros. to grow to be one of the largest toy companies in the USA. In [[1968]], the company would change its name to "Hasbro Industries, Inc."

Through a series of importing licenses and spin-offs, G.I. Joe ultimately led to the ''[[Microman]]'' and ''[[Diaclone]]'' toylines by Japanese toymaker [[TakaraTomy|Takara]], which in turn would lead to Hasbro's release of the original ''Transformers'' toyline in [[1984]]. At that time, Hasbro was employing the services of [[Marvel Comics]] and the advertising agency [[Griffin Bacal]], who helped them come up with new marketing strategies and background stories for their toylines, including the revamped ''G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'' and ''[[Generation 1 (franchise)|The Transformers]]''.

In 1984, Hasbro also bought out a competing toy company named [[Milton Bradley]] (MB), which resulted in the merged company briefly assuming the name "Hasbro Bradley, Inc." After the merger was completed, the company changed its name into simply "Hasbro, Inc." Milton Bradley's European facilities would also be used to distribute the initial wave of [[Toy|''Transformers'' toys]] to be [[Generation 1 (European toyline)|released in Europe]] before the merger was completed. Later in the '80s, Hasbro would go on to release other toy brands such as ''[[Visionaries]]'', ''[[My Little Pony]]'', ''[[Inhumanoids|Inhumanoids]]'', ''[[Robotix]]'', and ''[[Beastformer|Battle Beasts]]''--the latter eventually becoming closely (if strangely) related to ''Transformers''.

In [[1991]], Hasbro bought out former competitor [[Tonka]]—which by that point in time already owned another former Hasbro competitor, [[Kenner]], meaning that this acquisition added ''[[Star Wars (franchise)|Star Wars]]'' to Hasbro's product portfolio. In the same year, Hasbro consolidated most of their international markets: Prior to this point, Hasbro subsidiaries such as the afroementioned Milton Bradley had still been responsible for distributing ''Transformers'' toys in some countries (even though the toys' packaging had sported the name "Hasbro" since [[1986]]). Those subsidiaries were officially restructured and given the parent companies' name in an attempt to establish "Hasbro" as a worldwide household name.

In [[1995]] Hasbro temporarily transferred control of the ''Transformers'' franchise to its Kenner subsidiary, then phased out the Kenner brand in [[2000]].

In the new millennium, Hasbro, following [[Marvel Comics|Marvel's]] example, intends to reinvent itself as an "entertainment" company, [[Hasbro Studios]]. Instead of merely commissioning animated TV shows as advertising vehicles for their toys, Hasbro licenses its brands to [[Hollywood]] studios, which turn them into big budget blockbuster movies, using the toys' established household names as a marketing appeal. [[2007]]'s ''[[Transformers (2007)|Transformers]]'' movie was the first of those feature films. The sequel, ''[[Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen]]'', and a ''[[G.I. Joe (team)|G.I. Joe]]'' movie were both released in [[2009]], and movies based on the successful board game ''Monopoly'' and [[Kenner]]'s old ''Stretch Armstrong'' toy have also been confirmed. Hasbro believes that their new "the movie of the toy" strategy will be more lucrative than the old "the toy of the movie" concept, which involves hefty licensing fees.<ref name="brandweek">[http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/jun2009/db20090611_333306.htm Brandweek article on Hasbro's new movie-related business strategy]</ref>

==Hasbro today==
===Employees===
====Corporate====
* [[Brian Goldner]], Chief Executive Officer
* [[Alfred J. Verrecchia]], Chairman of the Board
* [[Aaron Archer]], Vice President of Intellectual Property Development, Creative Director of ''Transformers''

===Boys' Toys===
* [[Samantha Lomow]], Global Brand Leader, Vice President of Marketing and Design for ''Transformers''
* [[Vickie Stratford]], formerly Sr. Design Project Manager for ''Transformers'', now transferred to the ''Star Wars'' brand as its head of design(?)
* [[Steve Bono]], Design Manager

===Girls' Toys===
* [[Michelle Field]], formerly Director of Marketing for ''Transformers'' and boys toys, now Sr. Director of Marketing for girls's toys

===''Transformers'' Brand===
====Marketing====
* [[Greg Lombardo]], Sr. Director of Global Marketing
* [[Michael Vibede Vanting]], Global Brand Marketing Director
* [[Kristin Hamilton]], international marketing
* [[Michael Ballog]], marketing
* [[Jared Jones]], marketing
* [[Matthew Proulx]], marketing
* [[Forest Lee]], copywriting

====Design====
* [[Jared Wade]], Director of Global Product Design
* [[Brian Chapman]], Head of Design, Global toy/game/IP
* [[Eric Siebenaler]], Senior Product Designer
* [[Bill Rawley|William Rawley]], Senior Product Designer
* [[Joe Kyde]], Designer
* [[Todd Patrick]], packaging design
* [[Michelino Paolino]]
* [[Brian Wilk]]
* [[Alan Roach]]

===Hasbro's regional offices===
Hasbro has smaller offices all around the world, who are not involved in the production of toys, but rather take care of the customer relationships and marketing in their local regions. Known locations of local offices include Denmark (covering the whole nordic region), [[Canada]], [[Germany]] (responsible for the distribution in continental Europe), the [[United Kingdom]], [[France]], [[Australia]] and [[New Zealand]].

===Relationship with fandom===
[[Image:Hasbrotour-fleshlesskitty.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Hasbro showed they love the fans by giving a tour of their offices during BotCon 2007. Hasbro showed they hate the fans by including this!]]

[[Fandom|Fandom's]] relationship with Hasbro is as paradoxical and confusing as our relationships with our [[wikipedia:Alcoholism|parents]]. They are an incredible source of joy and happiness, as well as the focal point of rage and blame for pretty much everyone in the Transformers community. To much of the fandom, Hasbro's actual involvement in the Transformers franchise is rarely acknowledged when not negative. Many view their activities to consist entirely of:

* [[Thundercracker (G1)#Timelines|Slapping fans in the face]].
* [[Trukk not munky|Getting things all wrong]].
* [[For safety reasons|Screwing up Takara's toys]].
* [[Redeco|Being lazy]].
* [[To sell toys|Trying to make money]].
* [[Ruined FOREVER|Ruining everything forever]].

When they found the time to create and maintain a successful, celebrated franchise that was the basis of 26 years of obsession and happiness for the exact same fans is unknown.

===Questionable brand decisions===
* In the early days of the ''[[The Transformers (toyline)|Generation 1]]'' line's run, Hasbro was entirely focused on "product" and viewed the attached fiction as a mere marketing tool. As a consequence, they viewed "[[character]]s" as easily replacable, and their strategy at that time can be summed up as "new toys, new characters". Hasbro certainly didn't anticipate the audience actually to attach to the characters featured in the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|television show]], and were utterly surprised by the fan backlash after nearly all of the 1984-85 cast had been graphically killed off in the [[The Transformers: The Movie|animated movie]] and replaced by newly introduced characters. Hasbro now recognizes that this move was a mistake that hurt the brand.<ref>[http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2007-06-28-transformers-main_n.htm USA Today: "Transformers: From Toy Story to Serious Art?"]</ref> In Hasbro's defense, though, it needs to be pointed out that this wasn't a flawed approach unique to them, as the importance of recognizable characters for the public image of a brand was a novel concept to the toy industry as a whole at that time. Hasbro has learned their lesson, and now [[Jazz (Movie)|mostly]] kill relative [[Blackout (Movie)|nobodies]], and rely a lot more heavily on recurring, recognizable characters across their various toylines and the corresponding fiction.

* Hasbro's corporate executives were eager to make the move to [[multilingual packaging]] for the United States market to save money, forcing that decision upon their ''Transformers'' staff. Although representatives were prepared with responses to fan complaints about how ugly and uninformative it was, the design team eventually managed to convince their higher-ups how ugly it was, so the US packaging returned to normal.<ref name="botcon2005">[http://groups.google.com/group/alt.toys.transformers/msg/0cd6f0724b39615f?dmode=source&output=gplain Steve-o's 2005 BotCon Report]</ref>

* At times, Hasbro has been willing to allow the broadcast of clearly incomplete or poorly-constructed [[Energon (cartoon)|advertising media]].

* Hasbro often have their official promotional [[toy]] [[stock photography]] done by people (both internal and outsourced third party photo studios) who have a tendency to display the toys in awkwardly mistransformed states, sometimes so glaring that the photos could be viewed as really bad representations of Hasbro's products... yet they are used in official advertising, including Hasbro's public website and even on the toys' packaging. Reportedly, Hasbro has recently decided to send a member of the design team (at least an intern) along to the photo studio to transform and pose the toys properly.

* As the toys became more and more complex, Hasbro's official toy [[instructions]] became less and less helpful. Written directions were omitted entirely in favor of pictures-only instructions with the launch of the ''[[Armada (toyline)|Armada]]'' line in 2002, and those pictures-only instructions have a tendency to omit useful steps, are sometimes unclear on vital details, and might occasionally be based on early [[prototype]]s that [[design change|differ from the final toy]], thereby including transformation steps that aren't ''possible'' with the toy in hand. ''[[Universe (2008 toyline)|Universe]]'' [[Sideswipe (G1)|Sideswipe]] even recycled the instructions from his [[mold]]-mate [[Sunstreaker (G1)|Sunstreaker]], even though Sideswipe was supposed to use an alternate transformation as compared to Sunstreaker.

* In the lead up to the [[Transformers (2007)|2007 live-action movie]], to deal with the expected international audience for both the movie and the accompanying toys, Hasbro started to redirect visitors of their official ''Transformers'' website to localized versions of the site based upon their IPs. However, it was obvious that Hasbro's interest in their international markets was rather marginal, as demonstrated by the fact that many of these international localised sites were rarely updated, if at all; and if they were, the updates were still marginal, and the product lists remained incomplete. To the frustration of non-American fans, clicking any links to the US version of the site resulted in the user being automatically redirected to their outdated localized versions. Even bugs that allowed users to circumvent the redirect were eventually "fixed" in favor of an even more aggressive redirect. This was ''finally'' resolved for good in 2009, with the addition of a US-specific website URL that doesn't redirect anyone anywhere anymore.

* The somewhat more "mature" tone of the live action movies, [[Transformers (2007)|''Transformers'' (2007)]] and ''[[Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen]]'', especially the crude, often sexually-themed humor displayed in both films, has been the center of much controversy. In particular, a lobbyist group named the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood repeatedly tried to lobby the Federal Communications Commission into tightening regulations for marketing movies rated "PG-13" and [[Movie (toyline)|associated]] [[Revenge of the Fallen (toyline)|merchandise]] to children.<ref name="fccfilter">[http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/08/transformers-movies-get-caught-in-fcc-content-filtering-inquiry.ars Ars Technica article on the CCFC/FCC story.]</ref> Hasbro themselves appear to be still undecided about their official position regarding the more "mature" tone of the movies and its ramifications for the [[Transformers brand|brand's]] public image, having left several questions to this effect unanswered.<ref name="allsparkqa">[http://www.allspark.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=61539 July/August 2009 edition] of the Allspark [[Hasbro Q&A]]</ref><ref name="tformersqa">[http://tformers.com/transformers-hasbro-answers-your-burning-questions-part-v/12149/news.html July/August 2009 edition] of the TFormers Hasbro Q&A]</ref>

==Home video==
{{factions/body|vhs|dvd|worldwide}}
Hasbro has produced some home video releases as part of their marketing strategies. The earliest of these were VHS tapes of ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' packed with Beast Wars toys. Subsequently, two different ''[[Beast Machines (cartoon)|Beast Machines]]'' tapes, along with another ''Beast Wars'' tape, were produced as giveaways for [[KB Toys]] promotions wherein you would get a free tape for purchasing Beast Machines toys. The promotions were not terribly successful, leading to leftover tapes being disposed of in various ways including being sold by themselves. More recently, Hasbro has produced a variety of [[Pack-in_material#CD-ROMs_and_DVDs|pack-in DVDs]].

===Releases===
;VHS
* '''''Beast Wars: Transformers''''' — '''[[Aftermath]]''' & '''[[Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)]]''' (1998, packed with [[Airazor (BW)|Airazor]] or [[Razorclaw (BW)|Razorclaw]])
* '''''Beast Wars: Transformers''''' — '''[[Aftermath]]''' (1998, UK exclusive [[Claw Jaw]] pack-in)
* '''''Beast Wars: Transformers''''' — '''[[Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)]]''' (1998, UK exclusive [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]] pack-in)
* '''''Beast Wars: Transformers''''' — '''[[Bad Spark]]''' & '''[[Code of Hero]]''' (1999)
* '''''Beast Machines: Transformers''''' — '''[[The Reformatting]]''' & '''[[Master of the House]]''' (1999)
* '''''Beast Machines: Transformers: Battle for the Spark''''' — '''[[Sparkwar Pt. I: The Strike|Sparkwar Part I: The Strike]]''' (2000)
<center><gallery>
Image:Hasbro BW Combo 1 VHS.jpg|The Aftermath & Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)
Image:Hasbro BW Aftermath VHS.jpg|The Aftermath
Image:Hasbro BW Fuzors VHS.jpg|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)
Image:Hasbro BW Combo 2 VHS.jpg|Bad Spark & Code of Hero
Image:Hasbro BM Combo VHS.jpg|The Reformatting & Master of the House
Image:Hasbro BM Sparkwar VHS.jpg|Sparkwar Part I: The Strike
</gallery></center>

;DVD
=== [[Beast Wars 10th Anniversary]] ===
* '''''Beast Wars: Transformers''''' — '''[[Equal Measures]]''' (with [[Cheetor (BW)/toys#Beast_Wars_10th_Anniversary|Cheetor]])(2006)
* '''''Beast Wars: Transformers''''' — '''[[A Better Mousetrap]]''' (with [[Rattrap#Beast_Wars_10th_Anniversary|Rattrap]])(2006)
* '''''Beast Wars: Transformers''''' — '''[[The Spark]]''' (with [[Rhinox (BW)#Beast_Wars_10th_Anniversary|Rhinox]])(2006)
* '''''Beast Wars: Transformers''''' — '''[[Spider's Game]]''' (with [[Tarantulas (BW)#Beast_Wars_10th_Anniversary|Predacon Tarantulus]])(2006)
* '''''Beast Wars: Transformers''''' — '''[[Possession]]''' (with [[Waspinator (BW)#Beast_Wars_10th_Anniversary|Waspinator]] or [[Optimus Primal/toys#Beast_Wars_10th_Anniversary|Optimus Primal]] vs. [[Megatron (BW)/toys#Beast_Wars_10th_Anniversary|Megatron]])(2006)
* '''''Beast Wars: Transformers''''' — '''[[Code of Hero]]''' (with [[Dinobot (BW)#Beast_Wars_10th_Anniversary|Dinobot]])(2006)

=== Others ===
* '''''[[Cybertron (cartoon)|Transformers: Cybertron]]''''' — '''[[Hidden]]''' (2006)
* '''''[[Optimus Prime vs Megatron: The Ultimate Battle]]''''' (2006)
* '''''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]''''' — '''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)/home_video#Pack-in_disc|The Battle Begins]]''' (2008)
* '''''[[The Transformers (cartoon)|The Transformers]]''''' — '''[[More than Meets the Eye (episode)|More than Meets the Eye]]''' (2008)
<center><gallery>
Image:Hidden DVD.jpg|Hidden
Image:Ultimate Battle DVD.jpg|The Ultimate Battle
Image:Animated Battle Begins DVD.jpg|The Battle Begins
Image:25th Optimus MTMTE DVD.jpg|More than Meets the Eye
</gallery></center>
{{-}}
==Notes==
* The [[Decepticon]] [[Flamewar]] collects Hasbro memorabilia.
* Hasbro isn't all about [[To sell toys|selling toys]] and making money. According to [[Transformers (2007)|''Transformers'' live-action movie]] writer [[Roberto Orci]], some at Hasbro argued against updating some returning characters in ''[[Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen]]'', so that parents would '''not''' have to buy the same toy twice for their children just because of a minor change or modification to the characters' designs. <ref>[http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/showpost.php?p=2186879&postcount=171 Roberto Orci posting at TFW2005.com]</ref> (We will just point out now that they [[Bumblebee (Movie)/Toys|still]] [[Optimus Prime(Movie)/Toys|did that]].)
* According to Hasbro Australia representatives and designer [[Eric Siebenaler]], all of the Transformers toys jointly developed between Hasbro and Takara/TakaraTomy are manufactured at factories contracted to the Japanese toy company. This means Takara is indirectly responsible for whatever [[quality control]] problems you have been having with your toys, so you can stop complaining about it being entirely Hasbro's fault.
* Hasbro is the patron of the [http://www.lifespan.org/hch/about/ Hasbro Children's Hospital]. See [[Toy Fair 1986#Transformers Fan Community Charity Drive|here]] for how the [[fandom]] contributed to it in 2010.
{{-}}

==See also==
*[[The Hub]]

==Footnotes==
<references/>

==External links==
*[http://www.hasbro.com/ Hasbro's official website]
*[http://www.hasbro.com/transformers/ Hasbro's official ''Transformers'' website]

[[Category:Companies]]
[[Category:Hasbro]]

Hasbro

2011-03-12T19:30:37Z

24.62.9.241:

[[Image:Hasbrologo.jpg|right|130px|thumb|Making the world transform. (Well, apart from Japan, [[TakaraTomy|these guys]] handle that.)]]
'''Hasbro''' is a [[toy]] company, and owner of the [[Transformers brand|''Transformers'' brand]] in most markets outside of Japan, where it is owned by [[TakaraTomy]].

==History==
[[Image:Hasbrooldlogo.jpg|left|75px|thumb|Siamese twins at home.]]

Hasbro was originally founded in [[1923]] as "Hassenfeld Brothers" by brothers Henry and Helal Hassenfeld from Rhode Island. The company originally sold textile remnants, but soon moved into manufacturing pencil boxes and school supplies.
In [[1952]], Hasbro first rose to fame with a little toy called [[Optimash Prime|''Mr. Potato Head'']]. You might have heard of it. The company went so far as to purchase advertising time for the toy on a newfangled invention called television. You might have heard of that, too.

In [[1964]], Hasbro had an even greater success with the original ''[[G.I. Joe (franchise)|G.I. Joe]]'' toy designed by Don Levine, which caused Hassenfeld Bros. to grow to be one of the largest toy companies in the USA. In [[1968]], the company would change its name to "Hasbro Industries, Inc."

Through a series of importing licenses and spin-offs, G.I. Joe ultimately led to the ''[[Microman]]'' and ''[[Diaclone]]'' toylines by Japanese toymaker [[TakaraTomy|Takara]], which in turn would lead to Hasbro's release of the original ''Transformers'' toyline in [[1984]]. At that time, Hasbro was employing the services of [[Marvel Comics]] and the advertising agency [[Griffin Bacal]], who helped them come up with new marketing strategies and background stories for their toylines, including the revamped ''G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'' and ''[[Generation 1 (franchise)|The Transformers]]''.

In 1984, Hasbro also bought out a competing toy company named [[Milton Bradley]] (MB), which resulted in the merged company briefly assuming the name "Hasbro Bradley, Inc." After the merger was completed, the company changed its name into simply "Hasbro, Inc." Milton Bradley's European facilities would also be used to distribute the initial wave of [[Toy|''Transformers'' toys]] to be [[Generation 1 (European toyline)|released in Europe]] before the merger was completed. Later in the '80s, Hasbro would go on to release other toy brands such as ''[[Visionaries]]'', ''[[My Little Pony]]'', ''[[Inhumanoids|Inhumanoids]]'', ''[[Robotix]]'', and ''[[Beastformer|Battle Beasts]]''--the latter eventually becoming closely (if strangely) related to ''Transformers''.

In [[1991]], Hasbro bought out former competitor [[Tonka]]—which by that point in time already owned another former Hasbro competitor, [[Kenner]], meaning that this acquisition added ''[[Star Wars (franchise)|Star Wars]]'' to Hasbro's product portfolio. In the same year, Hasbro consolidated most of their international markets: Prior to this point, Hasbro subsidiaries such as the afroementioned Milton Bradley had still been responsible for distributing ''Transformers'' toys in some countries (even though the toys' packaging had sported the name "Hasbro" since [[1986]]). Those subsidiaries were officially restructured and given the parent companies' name in an attempt to establish "Hasbro" as a worldwide household name.

In [[1995]] Hasbro temporarily transferred control of the ''Transformers'' franchise to its Kenner subsidiary, then phased out the Kenner brand in [[2000]].

In the new millennium, Hasbro, following [[Marvel Comics|Marvel's]] example, intends to reinvent itself as an "entertainment" company, [[Hasbro Studios]]. Instead of merely commissioning animated TV shows as advertising vehicles for their toys, Hasbro licenses its brands to [[Hollywood]] studios, which turn them into big budget blockbuster movies, using the toys' established household names as a marketing appeal. [[2007]]'s ''[[Transformers (2007)|Transformers]]'' movie was the first of those feature films. The sequel, ''[[Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen]]'', and a ''[[G.I. Joe (team)|G.I. Joe]]'' movie were both released in [[2009]], and movies based on the successful board game ''Monopoly'' and [[Kenner]]'s old ''Stretch Armstrong'' toy have also been confirmed. Hasbro believes that their new "the movie of the toy" strategy will be more lucrative than the old "the toy of the movie" concept, which involves hefty licensing fees.<ref name="brandweek">[http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/jun2009/db20090611_333306.htm Brandweek article on Hasbro's new movie-related business strategy]</ref>

==Hasbro today==
===Employees===
====Corporate====
* [[Brian Goldner]], Chief Executive Officer
* [[Alfred J. Verrecchia]], Chairman of the Board
* [[Aaron Archer]], Vice President of Intellectual Property Development, Creative Director of ''Transformers''

===Boys' Toys===
* [[Samantha Lomow]], Global Brand Leader, Vice President of Marketing and Design for ''Transformers''
* [[Vickie Stratford]], formerly Sr. Design Project Manager for ''Transformers'', now transferred to the ''Star Wars'' brand as its head of design(?)
* [[Steve Bono]], Design Manager

===Girls' Toys===
* [[Michelle Field]], formerly Director of Marketing for ''Transformers'' and boys toys, now Sr. Director of Marketing for girls's toys

===''Transformers'' Brand===
====Marketing====
* [[Greg Lombardo]], Sr. Director of Global Marketing
* [[Michael Vibede Vanting]], Global Brand Marketing Director
* [[Kristin Hamilton]], international marketing
* [[Michael Ballog]], marketing
* [[Jared Jones]], marketing
* [[Matthew Proulx]], marketing
* [[Forest Lee]], copywriting

====Design====
* [[Jared Wade]], Director of Global Product Design
* [[Brian Chapman]], Head of Design, Global toy/game/IP
* [[Eric Siebenaler]], Senior Product Designer
* [[Bill Rawley|William Rawley]], Senior Product Designer
* [[Joe Kyde]], Designer
* [[Todd Patrick]], packaging design
* [[Michelino Paolino]]
* [[Brian Wilk]]
* [[Alan Roach]]

===Hasbro's regional offices===
Hasbro has smaller offices all around the world, who are not involved in the production of toys, but rather take care of the customer relationships and marketing in their local regions. Known locations of local offices include Denmark (covering the whole nordic region), [[Canada]], [[Germany]] (responsible for the distribution in continental Europe), the [[United Kingdom]], [[France]], [[Australia]] and [[New Zealand]].

===Relationship with fandom===
[[Image:Hasbrotour-fleshlesskitty.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Hasbro showed they love the fans by giving a tour of their offices during BotCon 2007. Hasbro showed they hate the fans by including this!]]

[[Fandom|Fandom's]] relationship with Hasbro is as paradoxical and confusing as our relationships with our [[wikipedia:Alcoholism|parents]]. They are an incredible source of joy and happiness, as well as the focal point of rage and blame for pretty much everyone in the Transformers community. To much of the fandom, Hasbro's actual involvement in the Transformers franchise is rarely acknowledged when not negative. Many view their activities to consist entirely of:

* [[Thundercracker (G1)#Timelines|Slapping fans in the face]].
* [[Trukk not munky|Getting things all wrong]].
* [[For safety reasons|Screwing up Takara's toys]].
* [[Redeco|Being lazy]].
* [[To sell toys|Trying to make money]].
* [[Ruined FOREVER|Ruining everything forever]].

When they found the time to create and maintain a successful, celebrated franchise that was the basis of 26 years of obsession and happiness for the exact same fans is unknown.

===Questionable brand decisions===
* In the early days of the ''[[The Transformers (toyline)|Generation 1]]'' line's run, Hasbro was entirely focused on "product" and viewed the attached fiction as a mere marketing tool. As a consequence, they viewed "[[character]]s" as easily replacable, and their strategy at that time can be summed up as "new toys, new characters". Hasbro certainly didn't anticipate the audience actually to attach to the characters featured in the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|television show]], and were utterly surprised by the fan backlash after nearly all of the 1984-85 cast had been graphically killed off in the [[The Transformers: The Movie|animated movie]] and replaced by newly introduced characters. Hasbro now recognizes that this move was a mistake that hurt the brand.<ref>[http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2007-06-28-transformers-main_n.htm USA Today: "Transformers: From Toy Story to Serious Art?"]</ref> In Hasbro's defense, though, it needs to be pointed out that this wasn't a flawed approach unique to them, as the importance of recognizable characters for the public image of a brand was a novel concept to the toy industry as a whole at that time. Hasbro has learned their lesson, and now [[Jazz (Movie)|mostly]] kill relative [[Blackout (Movie)|nobodies]], and rely a lot more heavily on recurring, recognizable characters across their various toylines and the corresponding fiction.

* Hasbro's corporate executives were eager to make the move to [[multilingual packaging]] for the United States market to save money, forcing that decision upon their ''Transformers'' staff. Although representatives were prepared with responses to fan complaints about how ugly and uninformative it was, the design team eventually managed to convince their higher-ups how ugly it was, so the US packaging returned to normal.<ref name="botcon2005">[http://groups.google.com/group/alt.toys.transformers/msg/0cd6f0724b39615f?dmode=source&output=gplain Steve-o's 2005 BotCon Report]</ref>

* At times, Hasbro has been willing to allow the broadcast of clearly incomplete or poorly-constructed [[Energon (cartoon)|advertising media]].

* Hasbro often have their official promotional [[toy]] [[stock photography]] done by people (both internal and outsourced third party photo studios) who have a tendency to display the toys in awkwardly mistransformed states, sometimes so glaring that the photos could be viewed as really bad representations of Hasbro's products... yet they are used in official advertising, including Hasbro's public website and even on the toys' packaging. Reportedly, Hasbro has recently decided to send a member of the design team (at least an intern) along to the photo studio to transform and pose the toys properly.

* As the toys became more and more complex, Hasbro's official toy [[instructions]] became less and less helpful. Written directions were omitted entirely in favor of pictures-only instructions with the launch of the ''[[Armada (toyline)|Armada]]'' line in 2002, and those pictures-only instructions have a tendency to omit useful steps, are sometimes unclear on vital details, and might occasionally be based on early [[prototype]]s that [[design change|differ from the final toy]], thereby including transformation steps that aren't ''possible'' with the toy in hand. ''[[Universe (2008 toyline)|Universe]]'' [[Sideswipe (G1)|Sideswipe]] even recycled the instructions from his [[mold]]-mate [[Sunstreaker (G1)|Sunstreaker]], even though Sideswipe was supposed to use an alternate transformation as compared to Sunstreaker.

* In the lead up to the [[Transformers (2007)|2007 live-action movie]], to deal with the expected international audience for both the movie and the accompanying toys, Hasbro started to redirect visitors of their official ''Transformers'' website to localized versions of the site based upon their IPs. However, it was obvious that Hasbro's interest in their international markets was rather marginal, as demonstrated by the fact that many of these international localised sites were rarely updated, if at all; and if they were, the updates were still marginal, and the product lists remained incomplete. To the frustration of non-American fans, clicking any links to the US version of the site resulted in the user being automatically redirected to their outdated localized versions. Even bugs that allowed users to circumvent the redirect were eventually "fixed" in favor of an even more aggressive redirect. This was ''finally'' resolved for good in 2009, with the addition of a US-specific website URL that doesn't redirect anyone anywhere anymore.

* The somewhat more "mature" tone of the live action movies, [[Transformers (2007)|''Transformers'' (2007)]] and ''[[Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen]]'', especially the crude, often sexually-themed humor displayed in both films, has been the center of much controversy. In particular, a lobbyist group named the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood repeatedly tried to lobby the Federal Communications Commission into tightening regulations for marketing movies rated "PG-13" and [[Movie (toyline)|associated]] [[Revenge of the Fallen (toyline)|merchandise]] to children.<ref name="fccfilter">[http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/08/transformers-movies-get-caught-in-fcc-content-filtering-inquiry.ars Ars Technica article on the CCFC/FCC story.]</ref> Hasbro themselves appear to be still undecided about their official position regarding the more "mature" tone of the movies and its ramifications for the [[Transformers brand|brand's]] public image, having left several questions to this effect unanswered.<ref name="allsparkqa">[http://www.allspark.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=61539 July/August 2009 edition] of the Allspark [[Hasbro Q&A]]</ref><ref name="tformersqa">[http://tformers.com/transformers-hasbro-answers-your-burning-questions-part-v/12149/news.html July/August 2009 edition] of the TFormers Hasbro Q&A]</ref>

==Home video==
{{factions/body|vhs|dvd|worldwide}}
Hasbro has produced some home video releases as part of their marketing strategies. The earliest of these were VHS tapes of ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' packed with Beast Wars toys. Subsequently, two different ''[[Beast Machines (cartoon)|Beast Machines]]'' tapes, along with another ''Beast Wars'' tape, were produced as giveaways for [[KB Toys]] promotions wherein you would get a free tape for purchasing Beast Machines toys. The promotions were not terribly successful, leading to leftover tapes being disposed of in various ways including being sold by themselves. More recently, Hasbro has produced a variety of [[Pack-in_material#CD-ROMs_and_DVDs|pack-in DVDs]].

===Releases===
;VHS
* '''''Beast Wars: Transformers''''' — '''[[Aftermath]]''' & '''[[Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)]]''' (1998, packed with [[Airazor (BW)|Airazor]] or [[Razorclaw (BW)|Razorclaw]])
* '''''Beast Wars: Transformers''''' — '''[[Aftermath]]''' (1998, UK exclusive [[Claw Jaw]] pack-in)
* '''''Beast Wars: Transformers''''' — '''[[Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)]]''' (1998, UK exclusive [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]] pack-in)
* '''''Beast Wars: Transformers''''' — '''[[Bad Spark]]''' & '''[[Code of Hero]]''' (1999)
* '''''Beast Machines: Transformers''''' — '''[[The Reformatting]]''' & '''[[Master of the House]]''' (1999)
* '''''Beast Machines: Transformers: Battle for the Spark''''' — '''[[Sparkwar Pt. I: The Strike|Sparkwar Part I: The Strike]]''' (2000)
<center><gallery>
Image:Hasbro BW Combo 1 VHS.jpg|The Aftermath & Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)
Image:Hasbro BW Aftermath VHS.jpg|The Aftermath
Image:Hasbro BW Fuzors VHS.jpg|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)
Image:Hasbro BW Combo 2 VHS.jpg|Bad Spark & Code of Hero
Image:Hasbro BM Combo VHS.jpg|The Reformatting & Master of the House
Image:Hasbro BM Sparkwar VHS.jpg|Sparkwar Part I: The Strike
</gallery></center>

;DVD
=== [[Beast Wars 10th Anniversary]] ===
* '''''Beast Wars: Transformers''''' — '''[[Equal Measures]]''' (with [[Cheetor (BW)/toys#Beast_Wars_10th_Anniversary|Cheetor]])(2006)
* '''''Beast Wars: Transformers''''' — '''[[A Better Mousetrap]]''' (with [[Rattrap#Beast_Wars_10th_Anniversary|Rattrap]])(2006)
* '''''Beast Wars: Transformers''''' — '''[[The Spark]]''' (with [[Rhinox (BW)#Beast_Wars_10th_Anniversary|Rhinox]])(2006)
* '''''Beast Wars: Transformers''''' — '''[[Spider's Game]]''' (with [[Tarantulas (BW)#Beast_Wars_10th_Anniversary|Predacon Tarantulus]])(2006)
* '''''Beast Wars: Transformers''''' — '''[[Possession]]''' (with [[Waspinator (BW)#Beast_Wars_10th_Anniversary|Waspinator]] or [[Optimus Primal/toys#Beast_Wars_10th_Anniversary|Optimus Primal]] vs. [[Megatron (BW)/toys#Beast_Wars_10th_Anniversary|Megatron]])(2006)
* '''''Beast Wars: Transformers''''' — '''[[Code of Hero]]''' (with [[Dinobot (BW)#Beast_Wars_10th_Anniversary|Dinobot]])(2006)

=== Others ===
* '''''[[Cybertron (cartoon)|Transformers: Cybertron]]''''' — '''[[Hidden]]''' (2006)
* '''''[[Optimus Prime vs Megatron: The Ultimate Battle]]''''' (2006)
* '''''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]''''' — '''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)/home_video#Pack-in_disc|The Battle Begins]]''' (2008)
* '''''[[The Transformers (cartoon)|The Transformers]]''''' — '''[[More than Meets the Eye (episode)|More than Meets the Eye]]''' (2008)
<center><gallery>
Image:Hidden DVD.jpg|Hidden
Image:Ultimate Battle DVD.jpg|The Ultimate Battle
Image:Animated Battle Begins DVD.jpg|The Battle Begins
Image:25th Optimus MTMTE DVD.jpg|More than Meets the Eye
</gallery></center>
{{-}}
==Notes==
* The [[Decepticon]] [[Flamewar]] collects Hasbro memorabilia.
* Hasbro isn't all about [[To sell toys|selling toys]] and making money. According to [[Transformers (2007)|''Transformers'' live-action movie]] writer [[Roberto Orci]], some at Hasbro argued against updating some returning characters in ''[[Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen]]'', so that parents would '''not''' have to buy the same toy twice for their children just because of a minor change or modification to the characters' designs. <ref>[http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/showpost.php?p=2186879&postcount=171 Roberto Orci posting at TFW2005.com]</ref> (We will just point out now that they [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Bumblebee_%28Movie%29/toys|still]] [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Optimus_Prime_%28Movie%29/toys|did that]])
* According to Hasbro Australia representatives and designer [[Eric Siebenaler]], all of the Transformers toys jointly developed between Hasbro and Takara/TakaraTomy are manufactured at factories contracted to the Japanese toy company. This means Takara is indirectly responsible for whatever [[quality control]] problems you have been having with your toys, so you can stop complaining about it being entirely Hasbro's fault.
* Hasbro is the patron of the [http://www.lifespan.org/hch/about/ Hasbro Children's Hospital]. See [[Toy Fair 1986#Transformers Fan Community Charity Drive|here]] for how the [[fandom]] contributed to it in 2010.
{{-}}

==See also==
*[[The Hub]]

==Footnotes==
<references/>

==External links==
*[http://www.hasbro.com/ Hasbro's official website]
*[http://www.hasbro.com/transformers/ Hasbro's official ''Transformers'' website]

[[Category:Companies]]
[[Category:Hasbro]]

Hasbro

2011-03-12T19:29:39Z

24.62.9.241:

[[Image:Hasbrologo.jpg|right|130px|thumb|Making the world transform. (Well, apart from Japan, [[TakaraTomy|these guys]] handle that.)]]
'''Hasbro''' is a [[toy]] company, and owner of the [[Transformers brand|''Transformers'' brand]] in most markets outside of Japan, where it is owned by [[TakaraTomy]].

==History==
[[Image:Hasbrooldlogo.jpg|left|75px|thumb|Siamese twins at home.]]

Hasbro was originally founded in [[1923]] as "Hassenfeld Brothers" by brothers Henry and Helal Hassenfeld from Rhode Island. The company originally sold textile remnants, but soon moved into manufacturing pencil boxes and school supplies.
In [[1952]], Hasbro first rose to fame with a little toy called [[Optimash Prime|''Mr. Potato Head'']]. You might have heard of it. The company went so far as to purchase advertising time for the toy on a newfangled invention called television. You might have heard of that, too.

In [[1964]], Hasbro had an even greater success with the original ''[[G.I. Joe (franchise)|G.I. Joe]]'' toy designed by Don Levine, which caused Hassenfeld Bros. to grow to be one of the largest toy companies in the USA. In [[1968]], the company would change its name to "Hasbro Industries, Inc."

Through a series of importing licenses and spin-offs, G.I. Joe ultimately led to the ''[[Microman]]'' and ''[[Diaclone]]'' toylines by Japanese toymaker [[TakaraTomy|Takara]], which in turn would lead to Hasbro's release of the original ''Transformers'' toyline in [[1984]]. At that time, Hasbro was employing the services of [[Marvel Comics]] and the advertising agency [[Griffin Bacal]], who helped them come up with new marketing strategies and background stories for their toylines, including the revamped ''G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'' and ''[[Generation 1 (franchise)|The Transformers]]''.

In 1984, Hasbro also bought out a competing toy company named [[Milton Bradley]] (MB), which resulted in the merged company briefly assuming the name "Hasbro Bradley, Inc." After the merger was completed, the company changed its name into simply "Hasbro, Inc." Milton Bradley's European facilities would also be used to distribute the initial wave of [[Toy|''Transformers'' toys]] to be [[Generation 1 (European toyline)|released in Europe]] before the merger was completed. Later in the '80s, Hasbro would go on to release other toy brands such as ''[[Visionaries]]'', ''[[My Little Pony]]'', ''[[Inhumanoids|Inhumanoids]]'', ''[[Robotix]]'', and ''[[Beastformer|Battle Beasts]]''--the latter eventually becoming closely (if strangely) related to ''Transformers''.

In [[1991]], Hasbro bought out former competitor [[Tonka]]—which by that point in time already owned another former Hasbro competitor, [[Kenner]], meaning that this acquisition added ''[[Star Wars (franchise)|Star Wars]]'' to Hasbro's product portfolio. In the same year, Hasbro consolidated most of their international markets: Prior to this point, Hasbro subsidiaries such as the afroementioned Milton Bradley had still been responsible for distributing ''Transformers'' toys in some countries (even though the toys' packaging had sported the name "Hasbro" since [[1986]]). Those subsidiaries were officially restructured and given the parent companies' name in an attempt to establish "Hasbro" as a worldwide household name.

In [[1995]] Hasbro temporarily transferred control of the ''Transformers'' franchise to its Kenner subsidiary, then phased out the Kenner brand in [[2000]].

In the new millennium, Hasbro, following [[Marvel Comics|Marvel's]] example, intends to reinvent itself as an "entertainment" company, [[Hasbro Studios]]. Instead of merely commissioning animated TV shows as advertising vehicles for their toys, Hasbro licenses its brands to [[Hollywood]] studios, which turn them into big budget blockbuster movies, using the toys' established household names as a marketing appeal. [[2007]]'s ''[[Transformers (2007)|Transformers]]'' movie was the first of those feature films. The sequel, ''[[Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen]]'', and a ''[[G.I. Joe (team)|G.I. Joe]]'' movie were both released in [[2009]], and movies based on the successful board game ''Monopoly'' and [[Kenner]]'s old ''Stretch Armstrong'' toy have also been confirmed. Hasbro believes that their new "the movie of the toy" strategy will be more lucrative than the old "the toy of the movie" concept, which involves hefty licensing fees.<ref name="brandweek">[http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/jun2009/db20090611_333306.htm Brandweek article on Hasbro's new movie-related business strategy]</ref>

==Hasbro today==
===Employees===
====Corporate====
* [[Brian Goldner]], Chief Executive Officer
* [[Alfred J. Verrecchia]], Chairman of the Board
* [[Aaron Archer]], Vice President of Intellectual Property Development, Creative Director of ''Transformers''

===Boys' Toys===
* [[Samantha Lomow]], Global Brand Leader, Vice President of Marketing and Design for ''Transformers''
* [[Vickie Stratford]], formerly Sr. Design Project Manager for ''Transformers'', now transferred to the ''Star Wars'' brand as its head of design(?)
* [[Steve Bono]], Design Manager

===Girls' Toys===
* [[Michelle Field]], formerly Director of Marketing for ''Transformers'' and boys toys, now Sr. Director of Marketing for girls's toys

===''Transformers'' Brand===
====Marketing====
* [[Greg Lombardo]], Sr. Director of Global Marketing
* [[Michael Vibede Vanting]], Global Brand Marketing Director
* [[Kristin Hamilton]], international marketing
* [[Michael Ballog]], marketing
* [[Jared Jones]], marketing
* [[Matthew Proulx]], marketing
* [[Forest Lee]], copywriting

====Design====
* [[Jared Wade]], Director of Global Product Design
* [[Brian Chapman]], Head of Design, Global toy/game/IP
* [[Eric Siebenaler]], Senior Product Designer
* [[Bill Rawley|William Rawley]], Senior Product Designer
* [[Joe Kyde]], Designer
* [[Todd Patrick]], packaging design
* [[Michelino Paolino]]
* [[Brian Wilk]]
* [[Alan Roach]]

===Hasbro's regional offices===
Hasbro has smaller offices all around the world, who are not involved in the production of toys, but rather take care of the customer relationships and marketing in their local regions. Known locations of local offices include Denmark (covering the whole nordic region), [[Canada]], [[Germany]] (responsible for the distribution in continental Europe), the [[United Kingdom]], [[France]], [[Australia]] and [[New Zealand]].

===Relationship with fandom===
[[Image:Hasbrotour-fleshlesskitty.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Hasbro showed they love the fans by giving a tour of their offices during BotCon 2007. Hasbro showed they hate the fans by including this!]]

[[Fandom|Fandom's]] relationship with Hasbro is as paradoxical and confusing as our relationships with our [[wikipedia:Alcoholism|parents]]. They are an incredible source of joy and happiness, as well as the focal point of rage and blame for pretty much everyone in the Transformers community. To much of the fandom, Hasbro's actual involvement in the Transformers franchise is rarely acknowledged when not negative. Many view their activities to consist entirely of:

* [[Thundercracker (G1)#Timelines|Slapping fans in the face]].
* [[Trukk not munky|Getting things all wrong]].
* [[For safety reasons|Screwing up Takara's toys]].
* [[Redeco|Being lazy]].
* [[To sell toys|Trying to make money]].
* [[Ruined FOREVER|Ruining everything forever]].

When they found the time to create and maintain a successful, celebrated franchise that was the basis of 26 years of obsession and happiness for the exact same fans is unknown.

===Questionable brand decisions===
* In the early days of the ''[[The Transformers (toyline)|Generation 1]]'' line's run, Hasbro was entirely focused on "product" and viewed the attached fiction as a mere marketing tool. As a consequence, they viewed "[[character]]s" as easily replacable, and their strategy at that time can be summed up as "new toys, new characters". Hasbro certainly didn't anticipate the audience actually to attach to the characters featured in the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|television show]], and were utterly surprised by the fan backlash after nearly all of the 1984-85 cast had been graphically killed off in the [[The Transformers: The Movie|animated movie]] and replaced by newly introduced characters. Hasbro now recognizes that this move was a mistake that hurt the brand.<ref>[http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2007-06-28-transformers-main_n.htm USA Today: "Transformers: From Toy Story to Serious Art?"]</ref> In Hasbro's defense, though, it needs to be pointed out that this wasn't a flawed approach unique to them, as the importance of recognizable characters for the public image of a brand was a novel concept to the toy industry as a whole at that time. Hasbro has learned their lesson, and now [[Jazz (Movie)|mostly]] kill relative [[Blackout (Movie)|nobodies]], and rely a lot more heavily on recurring, recognizable characters across their various toylines and the corresponding fiction.

* Hasbro's corporate executives were eager to make the move to [[multilingual packaging]] for the United States market to save money, forcing that decision upon their ''Transformers'' staff. Although representatives were prepared with responses to fan complaints about how ugly and uninformative it was, the design team eventually managed to convince their higher-ups how ugly it was, so the US packaging returned to normal.<ref name="botcon2005">[http://groups.google.com/group/alt.toys.transformers/msg/0cd6f0724b39615f?dmode=source&output=gplain Steve-o's 2005 BotCon Report]</ref>

* At times, Hasbro has been willing to allow the broadcast of clearly incomplete or poorly-constructed [[Energon (cartoon)|advertising media]].

* Hasbro often have their official promotional [[toy]] [[stock photography]] done by people (both internal and outsourced third party photo studios) who have a tendency to display the toys in awkwardly mistransformed states, sometimes so glaring that the photos could be viewed as really bad representations of Hasbro's products... yet they are used in official advertising, including Hasbro's public website and even on the toys' packaging. Reportedly, Hasbro has recently decided to send a member of the design team (at least an intern) along to the photo studio to transform and pose the toys properly.

* As the toys became more and more complex, Hasbro's official toy [[instructions]] became less and less helpful. Written directions were omitted entirely in favor of pictures-only instructions with the launch of the ''[[Armada (toyline)|Armada]]'' line in 2002, and those pictures-only instructions have a tendency to omit useful steps, are sometimes unclear on vital details, and might occasionally be based on early [[prototype]]s that [[design change|differ from the final toy]], thereby including transformation steps that aren't ''possible'' with the toy in hand. ''[[Universe (2008 toyline)|Universe]]'' [[Sideswipe (G1)|Sideswipe]] even recycled the instructions from his [[mold]]-mate [[Sunstreaker (G1)|Sunstreaker]], even though Sideswipe was supposed to use an alternate transformation as compared to Sunstreaker.

* In the lead up to the [[Transformers (2007)|2007 live-action movie]], to deal with the expected international audience for both the movie and the accompanying toys, Hasbro started to redirect visitors of their official ''Transformers'' website to localized versions of the site based upon their IPs. However, it was obvious that Hasbro's interest in their international markets was rather marginal, as demonstrated by the fact that many of these international localised sites were rarely updated, if at all; and if they were, the updates were still marginal, and the product lists remained incomplete. To the frustration of non-American fans, clicking any links to the US version of the site resulted in the user being automatically redirected to their outdated localized versions. Even bugs that allowed users to circumvent the redirect were eventually "fixed" in favor of an even more aggressive redirect. This was ''finally'' resolved for good in 2009, with the addition of a US-specific website URL that doesn't redirect anyone anywhere anymore.

* The somewhat more "mature" tone of the live action movies, [[Transformers (2007)|''Transformers'' (2007)]] and ''[[Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen]]'', especially the crude, often sexually-themed humor displayed in both films, has been the center of much controversy. In particular, a lobbyist group named the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood repeatedly tried to lobby the Federal Communications Commission into tightening regulations for marketing movies rated "PG-13" and [[Movie (toyline)|associated]] [[Revenge of the Fallen (toyline)|merchandise]] to children.<ref name="fccfilter">[http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/08/transformers-movies-get-caught-in-fcc-content-filtering-inquiry.ars Ars Technica article on the CCFC/FCC story.]</ref> Hasbro themselves appear to be still undecided about their official position regarding the more "mature" tone of the movies and its ramifications for the [[Transformers brand|brand's]] public image, having left several questions to this effect unanswered.<ref name="allsparkqa">[http://www.allspark.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=61539 July/August 2009 edition] of the Allspark [[Hasbro Q&A]]</ref><ref name="tformersqa">[http://tformers.com/transformers-hasbro-answers-your-burning-questions-part-v/12149/news.html July/August 2009 edition] of the TFormers Hasbro Q&A]</ref>

==Home video==
{{factions/body|vhs|dvd|worldwide}}
Hasbro has produced some home video releases as part of their marketing strategies. The earliest of these were VHS tapes of ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' packed with Beast Wars toys. Subsequently, two different ''[[Beast Machines (cartoon)|Beast Machines]]'' tapes, along with another ''Beast Wars'' tape, were produced as giveaways for [[KB Toys]] promotions wherein you would get a free tape for purchasing Beast Machines toys. The promotions were not terribly successful, leading to leftover tapes being disposed of in various ways including being sold by themselves. More recently, Hasbro has produced a variety of [[Pack-in_material#CD-ROMs_and_DVDs|pack-in DVDs]].

===Releases===
;VHS
* '''''Beast Wars: Transformers''''' — '''[[Aftermath]]''' & '''[[Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)]]''' (1998, packed with [[Airazor (BW)|Airazor]] or [[Razorclaw (BW)|Razorclaw]])
* '''''Beast Wars: Transformers''''' — '''[[Aftermath]]''' (1998, UK exclusive [[Claw Jaw]] pack-in)
* '''''Beast Wars: Transformers''''' — '''[[Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)]]''' (1998, UK exclusive [[Spittor (BW)|Spittor]] pack-in)
* '''''Beast Wars: Transformers''''' — '''[[Bad Spark]]''' & '''[[Code of Hero]]''' (1999)
* '''''Beast Machines: Transformers''''' — '''[[The Reformatting]]''' & '''[[Master of the House]]''' (1999)
* '''''Beast Machines: Transformers: Battle for the Spark''''' — '''[[Sparkwar Pt. I: The Strike|Sparkwar Part I: The Strike]]''' (2000)
<center><gallery>
Image:Hasbro BW Combo 1 VHS.jpg|The Aftermath & Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)
Image:Hasbro BW Aftermath VHS.jpg|The Aftermath
Image:Hasbro BW Fuzors VHS.jpg|Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)
Image:Hasbro BW Combo 2 VHS.jpg|Bad Spark & Code of Hero
Image:Hasbro BM Combo VHS.jpg|The Reformatting & Master of the House
Image:Hasbro BM Sparkwar VHS.jpg|Sparkwar Part I: The Strike
</gallery></center>

;DVD
=== [[Beast Wars 10th Anniversary]] ===
* '''''Beast Wars: Transformers''''' — '''[[Equal Measures]]''' (with [[Cheetor (BW)/toys#Beast_Wars_10th_Anniversary|Cheetor]])(2006)
* '''''Beast Wars: Transformers''''' — '''[[A Better Mousetrap]]''' (with [[Rattrap#Beast_Wars_10th_Anniversary|Rattrap]])(2006)
* '''''Beast Wars: Transformers''''' — '''[[The Spark]]''' (with [[Rhinox (BW)#Beast_Wars_10th_Anniversary|Rhinox]])(2006)
* '''''Beast Wars: Transformers''''' — '''[[Spider's Game]]''' (with [[Tarantulas (BW)#Beast_Wars_10th_Anniversary|Predacon Tarantulus]])(2006)
* '''''Beast Wars: Transformers''''' — '''[[Possession]]''' (with [[Waspinator (BW)#Beast_Wars_10th_Anniversary|Waspinator]] or [[Optimus Primal/toys#Beast_Wars_10th_Anniversary|Optimus Primal]] vs. [[Megatron (BW)/toys#Beast_Wars_10th_Anniversary|Megatron]])(2006)
* '''''Beast Wars: Transformers''''' — '''[[Code of Hero]]''' (with [[Dinobot (BW)#Beast_Wars_10th_Anniversary|Dinobot]])(2006)

=== Others ===
* '''''[[Cybertron (cartoon)|Transformers: Cybertron]]''''' — '''[[Hidden]]''' (2006)
* '''''[[Optimus Prime vs Megatron: The Ultimate Battle]]''''' (2006)
* '''''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]''''' — '''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)/home_video#Pack-in_disc|The Battle Begins]]''' (2008)
* '''''[[The Transformers (cartoon)|The Transformers]]''''' — '''[[More than Meets the Eye (episode)|More than Meets the Eye]]''' (2008)
<center><gallery>
Image:Hidden DVD.jpg|Hidden
Image:Ultimate Battle DVD.jpg|The Ultimate Battle
Image:Animated Battle Begins DVD.jpg|The Battle Begins
Image:25th Optimus MTMTE DVD.jpg|More than Meets the Eye
</gallery></center>
{{-}}
==Notes==
* The [[Decepticon]] [[Flamewar]] collects Hasbro memorabilia.
* Hasbro isn't all about [[To sell toys|selling toys]] and making money. According to [[Transformers (2007)|''Transformers'' live-action movie]] writer [[Roberto Orci]], some at Hasbro argued against updating some returning characters in ''[[Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen]]'', so that parents would '''not''' have to buy the same toy twice for their children just because of a minor change or modification to the characters' designs. <ref>[http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/showpost.php?p=2186879&postcount=171 Roberto Orci posting at TFW2005.com]</ref> (We will just point out now that they ''[[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Bumblebee_%28Movie%29/toys|still]] [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Optimus_Prime_%28Movie%29/toys|did that]]''
* According to Hasbro Australia representatives and designer [[Eric Siebenaler]], all of the Transformers toys jointly developed between Hasbro and Takara/TakaraTomy are manufactured at factories contracted to the Japanese toy company. This means Takara is indirectly responsible for whatever [[quality control]] problems you have been having with your toys, so you can stop complaining about it being entirely Hasbro's fault.
* Hasbro is the patron of the [http://www.lifespan.org/hch/about/ Hasbro Children's Hospital]. See [[Toy Fair 1986#Transformers Fan Community Charity Drive|here]] for how the [[fandom]] contributed to it in 2010.
{{-}}

==See also==
*[[The Hub]]

==Footnotes==
<references/>

==External links==
*[http://www.hasbro.com/ Hasbro's official website]
*[http://www.hasbro.com/transformers/ Hasbro's official ''Transformers'' website]

[[Category:Companies]]
[[Category:Hasbro]]

Frank Welker

2010-10-27T23:07:48Z

24.62.9.241:

{{disambig3|Frank}}

[[Image:FrankWelker1.jpg|right|250px|thumb|So good, it's scary.]]
'''Frank W. Welker''' ([[March 12]], [[1946]]–) is <strike>an American voice actor</strike> [[Primus|god]]. Though it is but the tip of the iceberg, some of Welker's most notable roles include Fred (and later Scooby) from ''Scooby Doo'', Ray and Slimer from ''[[Susan Hoffman#Related characters|The Real Ghostbusters]]'', Santa's Little Helper from ''The Simpsons'', Nibbler from ''Futurama'', Dr. Claw from ''Inspector Gadget'' and that parrot that got eaten by the shark in ''Deep Blue Sea''. He has also done nearly all the animal sounds recorded for cartoons in North America in the last few decades. Though he has given voice to numerous Transformers, he is particularly remembered for his portrayal of [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]].

Basically, if you haven't seen a cartoon with him in it then that's because you've never seen a cartoon in your entire life. Unless it was one of those public domain 1930s cartoons which sell for a buck at Family Dollar, of course.

{{Bigquote|Frank would do something ridiculous and then go, "Well, it was either this or college."|[[Gregg Berger]]}}

==Generation 1==
===''[[The Transformers (cartoon)|The Transformers]]''===
{{collist|3|
* [[Blades (G1)|Blades]]
* [[Buzzsaw (G1)|Buzzsaw]]
* [[Chromedome (G1)|Chromedome]]
* [[Frenzy (G1)|Frenzy]]
* [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] (post-[[The Transformers: The Movie|movie]])
* [[Groove (G1)|Groove]]
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] (1989-1990 toy commercials only)
* [[Junkion (species)|Junkion]]
* [[Laserbeak (G1)|Laserbeak]]
* [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]]
* [[Mirage (G1)|Mirage]]
* [[Mixmaster (G1)|Mixmaster]]
* [[Ratbat (G1)|Ratbat]]
* [[Ravage (G1)|Ravage]]
* [[Rumble (G1)|Rumble]]
* [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]
* [[Skywarp (G1)|Skywarp]]
* [[Sludge (G1)|Sludge]]
* [[Soundwave (G1)|Soundwave]]
* [[Steeljaw (G1)|Steeljaw]]
* [[Superion (G1)|Superion]] ("[[The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 2]]" only)
* [[Sweep]]
* [[Trailbreaker (G1)|Trailbreaker]]
* [[Wheelie (G1)|Wheelie]]
}}

===Humans===
* [[Doctor Frankenstein]]
* [[Hector Ramirez (G1)|Hector Ramirez]]
* [[Poplock]]

===Aliens===
{{collist|3|
* [[Delta Pavonis IV|Cat-people]]
* [[Niko Don]]
* [[Pinpointer (G1)|Pinpointer]]
}}

===Creatures===
{{collist|3|
* [[Booper]]
* [[Brutalo]]
* [[Dweller|The Dweller]]
* [[Nitro]]
* [[Groyle]]
}}

===Other===
* [[Auto-combatant]]
* [[Teletraan II]]

Yeah, we're impressed, too.

==Movie franchise==
===''[[Transformers: Beginnings]]''===
* [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]]

===[[Transformers The Game (console)|''Transformers:'' The Game]]===
* Megatron

===''[[Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen]]''===
* [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]]
* [[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]]
* [[Grindor (ROTF)| Grindor]]
* [[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]]
* [[Reedman]]

===[[Revenge of the Fallen (Xbox 360/PS3/PC)|''Revenge of the Fallen'': The Game]]===
*Megatron

==Other==
===''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|Transformers: Prime]]''===
* [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]] <ref name="botcon2010hasbro">[http://mobile.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=ec64a5dd5f/start=2 BotCon 2010 Hasbro panel]</ref>

==Notes==
*[http://www.bwtf.com/bw/tvshow/episodes/seasontwo/agenda2/ According to Ben Yee], [[Bob Forward]] desperately wanted Frank Welker to reprise the role of Generation 1 Megatron for the [[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]] episode "[[The Agenda (Part 2)]]" and even offered to go to Welker's home in California and tape-record his lines there. However, Welker declined the role supposedly because Forward was unable to offer him a sufficient amount of money and his schedule was too busy.

*For an episode of [[Cartoon Network|Adult Swim's]] ''Robot Chicken'' series, "Werewolf vs. Unicorn", Frank Welker reprised the roles of both Soundwave and Megatron.<ref name="adultswim">[http://www.adultswim.com/video/?episodeID=8a25c3921449e2e901144bddc6af00c2]</ref> He reprised the role of Megatron again for the ''Family Guy'' episode "Oceans Three and a Half".

*Throughout the '90s, Frank Welker was the official voice of [[Steven Spielberg]] in all his animated appearances in shows like ''Tiny Toon Adventures'', ''Animaniacs'', ''Pinky and the Brain'' and ''Freakazoid!'' (the only exception being the ''Tiny Toon Adventures'' episode "Buster and Babs Go Hawaiian", in which Spielberg played himself in his first appearance on the show).

*His awesome skills are noted by peers and fans alike. On a ''Futurama'' DVD commentary, Billy West referred to Welker as "a voice-acting god", an appellation that has stuck in various fan communities. On a ''Gargoyles'' DVD commentary, it was claimed that there was an industry joke of "Did you see a cartoon? Frank was in it". And on the R2 ''Dungeons and Dragons'' DVDs, a fan commentary started to identify who in a single scene was voiced by Frank, ending with "and if those horses could talk, that'd be Frank too".

*Welker also provided the voice of the [[Tonka GoBots|GoBot]] [[Scooter (GoBots)|Scooter]], Rest-Q, Zeemon and Blaster, and Rock Lords Pulver-Eyes, Sticks and the [[Narliphant]]s on the ''[[Tonka GoBots|Challenge Of The GoBots]]'' animated series and movie.

*Because of the sheer ''number'' of films he's been in, he's listed as number one in the "All Time 100 Stars at the Box Office" list, in terms of total revenue from his films.<ref name="records">[http://www.the-numbers.com/people/records/ "All Time 100 Stars at the Box Office" list]</ref>

*Welker had originally auditioned for the role of [[Megatron (Movie)| Megatron]] in the 2007 movie. However, [[Michael Bay]] deemed his voice too light for the character and chose [[Hugo Weaving]] instead.

*For ''[[Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen]]'', Welker voiced [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]] not only in the English version, but also in a large number of foreign dubs, including the Italian and French versions. Welker described the process as "very hard".<ref name="welkernewsarama">[http://www.newsarama.com/tv/090915-Animated-Shorts-Welker.html Newsarama interview with Frank Welker], September 2009.</ref> Although Welker is also credited in the German dub of the movie, German dubbing insiders insist that the voice heard in the actual movie has been provided by someone else ([[Horst Lampe]], who also dubbed ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Animated]]'' [[Ratchet (Animated)|Ratchet]]), presumably as a last-minute decision because Welker's "German" performance was considered sub-standard.<ref name="germandub">[http://215072.homepagemodules.de/t511643f11775323-Transformers-Die-Rache-Transformers-Revenge-of-the-Fallen-7.html German dubbing board thread about ROTF, with a discussion about Soundwave's voice]</ref>

==External Links==
*[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0919798/ Frank Welker at the Internet Movie Database]
*[http://www.mkbmemorial.com/FWHp/ The Frank Welker Homepage]
*[http://www.voicechasers.com/database/showactor.php?actorid=1059/Frank Welker's other works]

==Footnotes==
<references/>

{{DEFAULTSORT:Welker, Frank}}
[[Category:Activision]]
[[Category:English voice actors]]
[[Category:French voice actors]]
[[Category:Italian voice actors]]

Frank Welker

2010-10-27T23:06:52Z

24.62.9.241:

{{disambig3|Frank}}

[[Image:FrankWelker1.jpg|right|250px|thumb|So good, it's scary.]]
'''Frank W. Welker''' ([[March 12]], [[1946]]–) is <strike>an American voice actor</strike> god. Though it is but the tip of the iceberg, some of Welker's most notable roles include Fred (and later Scooby) from ''Scooby Doo'', Ray and Slimer from ''[[Susan Hoffman#Related characters|The Real Ghostbusters]]'', Santa's Little Helper from ''The Simpsons'', Nibbler from ''Futurama'', Dr. Claw from ''Inspector Gadget'' and that parrot that got eaten by the shark in ''Deep Blue Sea''. He has also done nearly all the animal sounds recorded for cartoons in North America in the last few decades. Though he has given voice to numerous Transformers, he is particularly remembered for his portrayal of [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]].

Basically, if you haven't seen a cartoon with him in it then that's because you've never seen a cartoon in your entire life. Unless it was one of those public domain 1930s cartoons which sell for a buck at Family Dollar, of course.

{{Bigquote|Frank would do something ridiculous and then go, "Well, it was either this or college."|[[Gregg Berger]]}}

==Generation 1==
===''[[The Transformers (cartoon)|The Transformers]]''===
{{collist|3|
* [[Blades (G1)|Blades]]
* [[Buzzsaw (G1)|Buzzsaw]]
* [[Chromedome (G1)|Chromedome]]
* [[Frenzy (G1)|Frenzy]]
* [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] (post-[[The Transformers: The Movie|movie]])
* [[Groove (G1)|Groove]]
* [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] (1989-1990 toy commercials only)
* [[Junkion (species)|Junkion]]
* [[Laserbeak (G1)|Laserbeak]]
* [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]]
* [[Mirage (G1)|Mirage]]
* [[Mixmaster (G1)|Mixmaster]]
* [[Ratbat (G1)|Ratbat]]
* [[Ravage (G1)|Ravage]]
* [[Rumble (G1)|Rumble]]
* [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticon]]
* [[Skywarp (G1)|Skywarp]]
* [[Sludge (G1)|Sludge]]
* [[Soundwave (G1)|Soundwave]]
* [[Steeljaw (G1)|Steeljaw]]
* [[Superion (G1)|Superion]] ("[[The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 2]]" only)
* [[Sweep]]
* [[Trailbreaker (G1)|Trailbreaker]]
* [[Wheelie (G1)|Wheelie]]
}}

===Humans===
* [[Doctor Frankenstein]]
* [[Hector Ramirez (G1)|Hector Ramirez]]
* [[Poplock]]

===Aliens===
{{collist|3|
* [[Delta Pavonis IV|Cat-people]]
* [[Niko Don]]
* [[Pinpointer (G1)|Pinpointer]]
}}

===Creatures===
{{collist|3|
* [[Booper]]
* [[Brutalo]]
* [[Dweller|The Dweller]]
* [[Nitro]]
* [[Groyle]]
}}

===Other===
* [[Auto-combatant]]
* [[Teletraan II]]

Yeah, we're impressed, too.

==Movie franchise==
===''[[Transformers: Beginnings]]''===
* [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]]

===[[Transformers The Game (console)|''Transformers:'' The Game]]===
* Megatron

===''[[Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen]]''===
* [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]]
* [[Devastator (ROTF)|Devastator]]
* [[Grindor (ROTF)| Grindor]]
* [[Ravage (ROTF)|Ravage]]
* [[Reedman]]

===[[Revenge of the Fallen (Xbox 360/PS3/PC)|''Revenge of the Fallen'': The Game]]===
*Megatron

==Other==
===''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|Transformers: Prime]]''===
* [[Megatron (Prime)|Megatron]] <ref name="botcon2010hasbro">[http://mobile.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=ec64a5dd5f/start=2 BotCon 2010 Hasbro panel]</ref>

==Notes==
*[http://www.bwtf.com/bw/tvshow/episodes/seasontwo/agenda2/ According to Ben Yee], [[Bob Forward]] desperately wanted Frank Welker to reprise the role of Generation 1 Megatron for the [[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]] episode "[[The Agenda (Part 2)]]" and even offered to go to Welker's home in California and tape-record his lines there. However, Welker declined the role supposedly because Forward was unable to offer him a sufficient amount of money and his schedule was too busy.

*For an episode of [[Cartoon Network|Adult Swim's]] ''Robot Chicken'' series, "Werewolf vs. Unicorn", Frank Welker reprised the roles of both Soundwave and Megatron.<ref name="adultswim">[http://www.adultswim.com/video/?episodeID=8a25c3921449e2e901144bddc6af00c2]</ref> He reprised the role of Megatron again for the ''Family Guy'' episode "Oceans Three and a Half".

*Throughout the '90s, Frank Welker was the official voice of [[Steven Spielberg]] in all his animated appearances in shows like ''Tiny Toon Adventures'', ''Animaniacs'', ''Pinky and the Brain'' and ''Freakazoid!'' (the only exception being the ''Tiny Toon Adventures'' episode "Buster and Babs Go Hawaiian", in which Spielberg played himself in his first appearance on the show).

*His awesome skills are noted by peers and fans alike. On a ''Futurama'' DVD commentary, Billy West referred to Welker as "a voice-acting god", an appellation that has stuck in various fan communities. On a ''Gargoyles'' DVD commentary, it was claimed that there was an industry joke of "Did you see a cartoon? Frank was in it". And on the R2 ''Dungeons and Dragons'' DVDs, a fan commentary started to identify who in a single scene was voiced by Frank, ending with "and if those horses could talk, that'd be Frank too".

*Welker also provided the voice of the [[Tonka GoBots|GoBot]] [[Scooter (GoBots)|Scooter]], Rest-Q, Zeemon and Blaster, and Rock Lords Pulver-Eyes, Sticks and the [[Narliphant]]s on the ''[[Tonka GoBots|Challenge Of The GoBots]]'' animated series and movie.

*Because of the sheer ''number'' of films he's been in, he's listed as number one in the "All Time 100 Stars at the Box Office" list, in terms of total revenue from his films.<ref name="records">[http://www.the-numbers.com/people/records/ "All Time 100 Stars at the Box Office" list]</ref>

*Welker had originally auditioned for the role of [[Megatron (Movie)| Megatron]] in the 2007 movie. However, [[Michael Bay]] deemed his voice too light for the character and chose [[Hugo Weaving]] instead.

*For ''[[Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen]]'', Welker voiced [[Soundwave (ROTF)|Soundwave]] not only in the English version, but also in a large number of foreign dubs, including the Italian and French versions. Welker described the process as "very hard".<ref name="welkernewsarama">[http://www.newsarama.com/tv/090915-Animated-Shorts-Welker.html Newsarama interview with Frank Welker], September 2009.</ref> Although Welker is also credited in the German dub of the movie, German dubbing insiders insist that the voice heard in the actual movie has been provided by someone else ([[Horst Lampe]], who also dubbed ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Animated]]'' [[Ratchet (Animated)|Ratchet]]), presumably as a last-minute decision because Welker's "German" performance was considered sub-standard.<ref name="germandub">[http://215072.homepagemodules.de/t511643f11775323-Transformers-Die-Rache-Transformers-Revenge-of-the-Fallen-7.html German dubbing board thread about ROTF, with a discussion about Soundwave's voice]</ref>

==External Links==
*[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0919798/ Frank Welker at the Internet Movie Database]
*[http://www.mkbmemorial.com/FWHp/ The Frank Welker Homepage]
*[http://www.voicechasers.com/database/showactor.php?actorid=1059/Frank Welker's other works]

==Footnotes==
<references/>

{{DEFAULTSORT:Welker, Frank}}
[[Category:Activision]]
[[Category:English voice actors]]
[[Category:French voice actors]]
[[Category:Italian voice actors]]

Smolder (PCC)

2010-09-06T02:01:35Z

24.62.9.241:

{{faction|decepticonfilm}}
:''Smolder is a [[Decepticon]] [[Commander (PCC)|Commander]] from ''[[Power Core Combiners]]''.''

[[Image:Smolder-CyberMissions.jpg|right|thumb|250px|He'll chop your head off!]]

'''Smolder''' uses the powers granted to him by his new [[Mini-Con]] partner, [[Chopster]], to act on all the grudges he's accumulated over the years. Everyone's on his list, and everyone will pay. On his down-time from grudge-holding/revenge-getting Smolder appreciates the destructive beauty of a good structure fire and can be counted on to add to any he might happen across rather than extinguish it. His favorite mode for Chopster is definitely the fire axe.

{{TOCclear}}

==Fiction==
===Cyber Missions===
:''Voice actor:'' [[Tony Gialluca II]]
[[Image:SmolderChopster-CyberMissions.jpg|left|thumb|300px|I will never fall in love because I work all day and all night as an axe cop.]]

Smolder and Chopster arrived on the scene of a huge fire in [[Scramble City]], with fire trucks and firemen nearby. One of the firemen asked Smolder's holographic driver to help them put it out, but Smolder expressed his love of fire. Chopster then activated his flamethrower and set the building even more ablaze, causing it to explode. The devious duo transformed, and Smolder ordered Chopster to destroy the fire hoses so that Scramble City would go up in flames!

[[Bumblebee (Movie)| Bumblebee]] and [[Ratchet (Movie)| Ratchet]] arrived on the scene not long after, and Chopster emerged from the thick smoke and distracted the both of them. Smolder sped out of the billowing smoke and almost rammed Bumblebee and Ratchet. He then braked, allowing Chopster to bathe him in flames. Ratchet was able to knock out Chopster with his EMP, and Smolder transformed and threw him at Bumblebee. The plucky Autobot then charged Smolder, but the Decepticon fire truck was able to subdue him just as Ratchet charged up his EMP blaster. The blast shut down Smolder as he attempted to transform, leaving his legs as the front of his vehicle mode.
{{charstubfiction}}
{{storylink|Cyber Missions 9}}

{{-}}

==Toys==
===''Power Core Combiners''===
[[Image:PCCtoy-SmolderChopster.jpg|right|thumb|300px|[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Bradbury Bradbury-tron] didn't quite roll off the tongue]]
*'''Smolder w/ Chopster''' (Commander Class, 2010)

: Part of the first wave of ''Power Core Combiners'' Commander Class figures, Smolder is a Scout-sized fire department brush truck who transforms into a robot. Smolder can swap between his normal head and a larger head so that he can also serve as a torso for ''Power Core Combiner'' drone-limbs. His chestplate has a flip-up Mini-Con [[Powerlinx]] peg that allows him to use any Mini-Con as chest armor, though the nominal choice is his pack-in partner [[Chopster]].

: This mold was also used to make [[Stakeout (PCC)|Stakeout]].

::*''[http://tfu.info/2010/Decepticon/Smolder/smolder.htm More information on Smolder at TFU.info]''

[[Category: Decepticons]]
[[Category: Power Core Combiners characters]]
[[Category: Revenge of the Fallen characters]]

Mudflap (disambiguation)

2010-09-04T04:47:44Z

24.62.9.241:

'''Mudflap''' is a name used for several concepts in Transformers continuities.

{{disamb|y=2005|[[Mudflap (Cybertron)|Mudflap]], the [[Decepticon]] crane from ''[[Cybertron (franchise)|Cybertron]]''.}}

{{disamb|y=2007|[[Mudflap (Movie)|Mudflap]], the Decepticon crane from the [[Movie (franchise)|2007 movie franchise]].}}

{{disamb|y=2008|"[[Mudflap (slang)|Mudflap]]", a derogatory slang term from the ''[[Transformers Animated (franchise)|Transformers Animated]]'' continuity.}}

{{disamb|y=2009|[[Mudflap (ROTF)|Mudflap]], the Autobot ice cream truck/Chevrolet Trax from ''[[Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen]]''.}}

Mudflap should not be confused with:

* [[Mudbath]] the [[Mini-Con]] ATV from ''[[Energon (franchise)|Energon]]''.

* [[Mudslinger (G1)|Mudslinger]] the [[Autobot]] [[Micromaster]] monster truck from [[Generation 1 (franchise)|Generation 1]].

* [[Mudslinger (PCC)|Mudslinger]] the Decepticon monster truck from ''[[Power Core Combiners]]''.

See also:

[[Shelfwarmer| Shelfwarming]]

{{disambig}}

Shortpacking

2010-08-19T05:36:45Z

24.62.9.241:

A toy is said to be '''shortpacked''' when it is shipped in significantly lower numbers than the rest of its release [[Wave|wave]].

A toy that is shortpacked is typically harder to find than other toys from the same assortment, since there are fewer of it produced. This rarity also makes it attractive to [[Toy scalping|scalpers]]. If a shortpacked toy is also a highly desirable one to fans and/or collectors (for instance, if it represents a popular character who is rarely produced as a toy), then it can become ''extremely'' difficult to obtain.

Sometimes, toys which are shortpacked in one wave are released in greater numbers in a later wave, which really tends to piss off the collectors who bought from the scalpers and delight those who didn't.

While inspiring similar feelings for many fans, shortpacking should not be confused with [[Chase figure|chase figures]] which are aimed exclusively at collectors and generally are intentionally much rarer. (A shortpacked toy may be 2 per [[Case|case]], while a chase figure may appear as seldom as 1 per every 2 cases.)

==Examples==

*Show of hands anyone that DIDN'T find [[Skystalker (ROTF)| movie-verse Skystalker]] at normal retail. Thought so.

{{Stub}}

[[Category:Toys]]

Jetfire (Movie)

2010-08-19T05:35:01Z

24.62.9.241:

{{factions|decepticonfilm|autobotfilm}}
{{disambig3|Jetfire}}
{{featured}}

:''Jetfire is a [[Decepticon]] and [[Autobot]] from the [[Revenge of the Fallen (franchise)|Revenge of the Fallen franchise]] in the [[Live-action film series|live-action film]] [[continuity family]].''

[[Image:ROTF_Jetfire.jpg|thumb|351px|Get off my lawn, you young whippersnippers!]]

In his day, '''Jetfire''' was a living legend both in the air and on the battlefield. Sadly, his day has long since passed. His body went south years back. His bunny is dead on the wheel. He's got rust in places he didn't even know he had. Basically, Jetfire's old! An ancient Decepticon [[Seeker (ROTF)|Seeker]], Jetfire was around long before the war broke out, and unlike many, came to see his "comrades" for what they were. This caused him to defect to the Autobots, something virtually unheard of. As a consequence, Jetfire never managed to fully obtain the trust of the others back in the day<ref>[http://www.hasbro.com/transformers/en_US/discover/Battle-Bios.cfm Hasbro Jetfire Battle Bio]</ref>.

He's still a fine asset, powerful and able to activate a [[space bridge]] to teleport across great distances. This is slightly offset by the fact he's so old.
After years without a proper source of energon, he's practically falling apart. His processor gave up the ghost millennia ago. These days he has a hard enough time remembering his name, and he's lucky if his teleporting puts him on the right planet. It makes him a bit crotchety and also leaves him with the nagging feeling he's forgotten something important.

{{quote|[[Relatives|My father]], why, he was [[Scrounge (G1)|a wheel]]! The ''first'' wheel! And do you know what he transformed into? ''Nothing!'' But he did so ''with honor! Dignity, damn it!''|Jetfire suffers the seven signs of aging|[[Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen]]}}

==Fiction==
===IDW ''Transformers'' movie comics===
[[Image:Defiance4_Jetfire.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Hopefully I won't end up on some [[earth|godforsaken planet]] and be infested with [[Maximal|disgusting little critters.]]]]
In the distant past, the [[AllSpark (Movie)|All Spark]] Cube created [[Thirteen original Transformers|a race]] of powerful, trans-dimensional beings as the first inhabitants of [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. The Cube gave these beings mighty powers, as well as terraforming their world, but it was not limitless, and gradually became depleted. The first beings learned that the All Spark's power could be replenished by harvesting the energy of stars, but they were unable to locate new stars to suit their purposes, despite their amazing ability to travel between dimensions. Once again, the Cube came to the rescue, creating a race of workers who had the ability to change their shape.

Jetfire was among the very first of these new beings, a "[[Seeker (ROTF)|Seeker]]" with the ability to travel across the vastness of space in search of new suns. Once located, he would lead others and his masters back to it so a [[Solar harvester|harvester]] could be constructed to drain the energy of these stars, thus replenishing the All Spark. {{Storylink|Defiance issue 4|Defiance #4}}

[[Image:JetfireROTF-TalesoftheFallen.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Not a great judge of character, that Jetfire.]]

Jetfire served directly under the [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] who would become [[The Fallen]], finding for him various stars to harvest, believing he was serving the [[Dynasty of Primes]] as a whole, rather than The Fallen's machinations in specific. Over time, The Fallen began to open up to Jetfire, his most loyal and capable Seeker, and told him that the Dynasty no longer served Cybertron's best interests. Jetfire had unwittingly sacrificed a populated star system under The Fallen's misdirection, and became confused.

Still, Jetfire continued to work with The Fallen, despite his doubts. His master and a small army of [[Constructicon (ROTF)|Constructicon]] drones had fashioned a new, secret faction called the Decepticons with the intention of eventually subverting the Dynasty. Jetfire followed them to a desert on a small blue planet to build another solar harvester when [[human|primitive]] life made itself known. The Dynasty arrived soon thereafter to put an end to The Fallen's betrayal. Jetfire realized too late that he was on the wrong side, and so The Fallen warped Jetfire and the other "underlings" ''into orbit'' so that the Primes could face each other alone. As they fell planetward, Jetfire fought the Constructicons, and was eventually victorious, but with a price. He crashed from orbit into the Earth and laid dormant for thousands of years.

After he awoke, he wandered across the desert until an experimental craft hit him, exploding. Amidst the chaos, he took its form. {{storylink|Tales of the Fallen issue 3}}
{{-}}

===''Revenge of the Fallen'' film===
:''Voice actor:'' [[Mark Ryan]] (English), [[Hisao Egawa]] (Japanese), [[Engelbert von Nordhausen]] (German)

Jetfire was one of the Seekers dispatched by The Fallen to locate the [[Matrix of Leadership]] after the [[Dynasty of Primes]] hid it on Earth. However, Jetfire and the other Seekers were unable to locate the [[Tomb of the Primes|Tomb]] that the Primes had forged. The only clue they could find was a riddle: "When dawn alights the Dagger's tip, Three Kings will reveal the Doorway". Eventually, the Fallen abandoned the Seekers and they were forced to go into stasis lock out of a lack of energon.

[[Image:ROTF behold Jetfire.jpg|thumb|left|350px|Why am I in some mausoleum? I ain't dead! ...am I?]]

For many years, a dormant Jetfire had hidden in his alternate mode at the [[Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum]]'s [[wikipedia:Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center|Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center]], until [[Seymour Simmons]], [[Sam Witwicky]], [[Mikaela Banes]], [[Leo Spitz]] and [[Wheelie (ROTF)|Wheelie]] broke in with a small fragment of the [[AllSpark (Movie)|All Spark]]. It was only after the All Spark shard hit Jetfire that they bothered to check which side he was on. The sight of the Decepticon [[insignia]] sent the humans scrambling for cover, but the surge of energy awoke him. Confused at the "hideous mausoleum" he was held in, Jetfire decided to head outside to get a better handle on where he was. After his attempts at overriding and shooting the doors failed, Jetfire smashed them aside, then wandered about the planes outside, damaging a few. When the humans tried to talk to them, he initially claimed that he couldn't deal with them, as he had a mission, but did ask what planet he was (he wasn't too fond of the name "Earth", feeling it might as well be called "Dirt"). Jetfire inquired on the state of the civil war, and revealed that he had defected to the Autobots (it's an intensely personal decision). This led the smaller Wheelie to defect to a [[Mikaela Banes|human female]] he dubbed "Warrior Goddess". After the human Sam asked what he was saying, Jetfire, still confused, pounded the ground and shouted that he had a lot of issues regarding his mother, and that his father was the first wheel, who did not transform but performed his functions with honor and dignity. At which point a parachute stored in him suddenly popped open, bringing him down. Sam then tried to explain what was going on.

[[Image:Jetfire-ROTFstandingindesert.jpg|thumb|right|350px|Look, an old man is telling a story!]]
When Sam was finished carving [[Cyberglyphics|Cybertronian symbols]] on the ground, he mentioned Megatron and [[The Fallen]]. Jetfire ranted that The Fallen was the original Decepticon and had left him on Earth to rust. The symbols were a part of Jetfire's mission, and they jogged his memory banks enough to convince him to open a [[space bridge]], teleporting the entire group (including [[Bumblebee (Movie)|Bumblebee]], [[Skids (ROTF)|the]] [[Mudflap (ROTF)|twins]], and Wheelie) to [[Egypt]]. Thankful that he had managed to stay on the planet, Jetfire then told them the story of the Dynasty of Primes and The Fallen, Cybertron's first contact with Earth, the [[solar harvester]] which could destroy a [[Sun]] and convert it to energon, and the Matrix of Leadership needed to activate it, hidden on Earth. He revealed that only a [[Prime (rank)|Prime]] could kill The Fallen, but he believed that none were left. Sam told him of [[Optimus Prime (Movie)|Optimus Prime]]; this caught the ancient Seeker's interest, and he was distraught to hear of Prime's death. Sam then wondered if the Matrix could restore Optimus to life. Jetfire said it was not the Matrix's intended use, but that the power within was unlike any known. Sadly, this was all Jetfire could do for the group, and after telling them of the riddle, he urged them to hurry off and find the [[Tomb of the Primes]].

[[Image:Jetfire-ROTFripoutspark.jpg|left|thumb|350px|Oh, [[Ratchet (Movie)|Ratchet]], you emotionless monster.]]

During the final [[Operation: Firestorm|battle]] around the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] (which contained the Solar Harvester), Jetfire arrived and attempted to "stick" the landing, which didn't go quite as he planned. He immediately decided to "show how they brought the pain in my day", using his axe to slice [[Mixmaster (ROTF)|Mixmaster]] across the chest and decapitate the [[Constructicon (ROTF)|Constructicon]]. He was critically wounded by a surprise attack from [[Scorponok (Movie)|Scorponok]] and although he managed to kill the Decepticon, the injury was fatal. Fortunately, Jetfire was treated to one last wonder, as Sam Witwicky used the Matrix to resurrect Optimus, and Jetfire could hardly believe that he was seeing a living [[Prime (rank)|Prime]]. Unfortunately, The Fallen teleported in and attacked, damaging Optimus and stealing the Matrix, placing it in the harvester. As he lay dying, Jetfire, who felt that during his entire life he'd never done a thing worth doing, offered his parts to Optimus Prime, saying that they would give him "a power like you've never known". Telling Optimus to fulfill his destiny, Jetfire ripped out his spark core and died.

[[Image:ROTF movie Powered-Up Optimus Prime.jpg|right|thumb|300px|I'd rather be a part of someone than in a nursing home!]]

Jetfire's sacrifice was not in vain: within moments of his death, [[Ratchet (Movie)|Ratchet]] instructed [[Jolt (ROTF)|Jolt]] to begin a full transplant of the afterburners and weapons systems onto Optimus. Now equipped with Jetfire's powerful weapons and engines, Optimus broke through a blockade of debris The Fallen had telekinetically erected around the Pyramid and destroyed the Solar Harvester before it could be used against the Earth's Sun. Prime then faced the Fallen and Megatron, using his afterburners to send Megatron flying through some ruins. During the battle, The Fallen pulled off the left wing and afterburner, using them to strike Prime in the face, but Optimus ultimately triumphed and ripped out the Fallen's spark core, killing the treacherous Prime. After the battle, Optimus quickly detached Jetfire's parts. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (film)|Revenge of the Fallen}}
{{--}}

===''Revenge of the Fallen'' novel adaptation===
Immediately after arriving in Egypt, Jetfire was attacked by [[Ransack (ROTF)|Ransack]]. Calling Jetfire a traitor, the smaller Seeker fired a single shot which bounced off his target, and Jetfire promptly stomped Ransack to death, muttering how he'd never liked that guy. {{Storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (novel)}}

===Toy bios===

Sickened by the war, the Decepticon Jetfire left Cybertron and went into hiding on Earth. When the war came to Earth and woke him up, {{storylink|#Leader Class|Jetfire}} he decided to rejoin the fight on the side of the Autobots and use his might to bring his former comrades to justice. {{storylink|#Fast Action Battlers|Photon Missile Jetfire}}

===Titan Magazines===

Jetfire harkens from a time when warriors stood by a code of honour. He was first sent to Earth by the Fallen, and believed he was working in the best interests of Cybertron, and so was a ''little'' upset to find the Fallen was actually an evil bastard. After seeing the Fallen imprison the [[Dynasty of Primes|other Primes]], Jetfire went into hiding. In 1998, he took advantage of the SR-71 being retired to hole up in the National Air and Space Museum as a permanent resident.

At some point, he found himself at odds with the Decepticons' credo and switched sides. ''When'' is not clear. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 2.8|Jetfire profile}}

==Games==
===''Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'' - The Game===
[[Image:Jetfire-ROTFvideogame.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Jetfire only likes to play multiplayer, not solo, if you know what we mean.]]
:''Voice actor:'' [[Clive Revill]]

{{note|On [[August 27]], [[2009]], Jetfire was one of a handful of downloadable characters in a DLC pack for XBox 360 and Sony Playstation 3. He could be used in multiplayer games only.}}

====Xbox 360/Sony PS3/PC====
=====Autobot campaign=====
Jetfire had been dormant for years in the Smithsonian Museum, but that changed after [[Sam Witwicky]] got a tip from [[Seymour Simmons|Agent Simmons]] about his location, and that he would know where the [[Tomb of the Primes|Tomb of the Twelve]] was. Sam woke Jetfire up, and got the sort-of-cryptic clue "When dawn alights the Dagger's tip, Three Kings will reveal the Doorway". After that, Jetfire transported Sam to [[Cairo]] via [[space bridge]] to look for the Tomb, and the Autobots followed.

In Cairo, Jetfire assisted [[Optimus Prime (Movie)|Optimus Prime]] in battle against [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]] and [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]]. The battle went in the Autobots' favor, but Megatron was able to stab Jetfire to death. A while later, Optimus was wearing a new Jetfire suit. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (Xbox 360/PS3/PC)}}

=====Decepticon campaign=====
Starscream was sent to destroy the Smithsonian Museum, where Jetfire laid dormant. He succeeded, but it was too late: both Jetfire and Sam Witwicky had already left for Cairo through a space bridge.

In Cairo, Jetfire battled Megatron alongside [[Bumblebee (Movie)|Bumblebee]]. He was killed. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (Xbox 360/PS3/PC)}}

==Toys==
===Revenge of the Fallen===
====Legends Class toys====
[[Image:ROTF Jetfire 2009 Legends.JPG|right|300px|thumb|It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage.]]
*'''Jetfire''' (Legends, 2009)
**''Japanese ID number:'' '''EZ-05'''
[[Image:ROTF Legends Prime Jetfire combo.jpg|thumb|left|Don't I look glorious as a corpse backpack?]]
:[[pricepoint|Legends]] class ''[[Revenge of the Fallen (toyline)|Revenge of the Fallen]]'' Jetfire transforms from a tiny [[Wikipedia: SR-71 Blackbird|SR-71 Blackbird]] spy plane to a sort of hunchback robot. In a bit of character design accuracy, his left arm has a cane.

:The upper fuselage of the plane mode has a thin rectangular peg to slot into the back of [[Optimus Prime (Movie)/toys#Revenge of The Fallen|Legends class Optimus Prime]] to recreate the powered up mode at the end of the movie. There are no instructions on the packaging making mention of this, but they're hardly needed, as it's as simple as plugging him on and folding his wings backwards.
{{-}}

{{anchor|WarfortheSkies}}
*'''War for the Skies''' (Legends multipack, 2009)
[[Image:KMartROTFJetfire.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Shattered Glass]] Jetfire.]]

:Available only as part of the [[Kmart]]-[[exclusive]] "War for the Skies" Legends battlepack, this release of Legends class Jetfire is a grey and black [[redeco]] - essentially inverting the colors of the regular toy, give or take a few paint operations.

:He comes with the Legends-class figures [[Blades (ROTF)|Autobot Blades]], [[Thundercracker (Movie)|Thundercracker]] and [[Spinister (ROTF)|Spinister]].
{{-}}

====Voyager Class toys====
[[Image:ROTF_Voyager_JetPowerOptimusPrime_toy.jpg|thumb|301px|Use your friends wisely.]]
*'''Jet Power Optimus Prime''' (Voyager, 2010)
**''Japanese ID number:'' '''UA-01'''
**''Accessories:'' 2 rifle/smokestack-fuel tank assemblies, 2 missiles, [[Sword]], Jetfire armour parts
:Jetfire appears in this set as snap-on armour parts for 2007 mold Voyager class Optimus Prime. Obviously the armour fits onto Optimus Prime's robot mode to form the Jet Optimus combination, but when removed can be assembled into a gun platform, or can be fitted to Optimus' vehicle mode as some sort of rocket booster. Optimus Prime himself has been redecoed similarly to Buster Optimus Prime, in that he has an extensive, accurate paint scheme.

{{comingsoontoy}}

{{-}}

====Leader Class toys====
[[Image:Jetfire ROTF leader toy.jpg|thumb|right|400px|"You know, I've personally flown over 194 missions, and I was shot down on every one. Come to think of it, I've never landed a plane in my life."]]
*'''Jetfire''' (Leader, 2009)
**''Japanese ID number:'' '''RA-13'''
**''Accessories:'' Front landing gear/walking stick, rotary cannon missile launcher, projectile

:Jetfire converts into an [[wikipedia:SR-71 Blackbird|SR-71 Blackbird]] spy plane, quite possibly the largest alternate mode yet for the [[size class|Leader class]] price point.

[[Image:ROTF_Leader_Jetfire_PowerUpPrime_toy.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Jetfire died to become a power mushroom. There have been worse fates.]]

:Jetfire features several electronic lights and sounds; in jet mode, pushing the button on his back activates a "swooshing" noise, while in robot mode, a new button is revealed on his rear that triggers mechanical stomping sounds. Pressing the tab on Jetfire's chest activates his moving [[Mech Alive]] gears and head, accompanied by Jetfire announcing: "Jetfire's mah name!". The European version has the clip abbreviated to "Jetfire" (humorously, the way that the original clip is trimmed cuts off the end of the word, so it sounds like "Jetfi-"). Unlike previous ROTF Leader Class toys, this is not the version sold in the UK. In contrast to the film, where the character speaks with actor Mark Ryan's natural Yorkshire accent, the toy is positively Scottish. Despite the back of the package showing two lights within Jetfire's torso, he only has one light, on his left side, while the other slot that would normally house the light is replaced with a button that emits Jetfire's transformation noise when the toy is transformed.

:As seen in the movie, he can combine with [[Optimus Prime (Movie)/toys#Revenge of The Fallen|Leader Class Optimus Prime]] to form Prime's powered-up mode, albeit at the cost of Optimus Prime's leg articulation. A few inaccuracies are present in the combination instructions: for instance, while the instructions say to position the cockpit halves behind Prime's shoulders, they actually are meant to sit on top of them (as seen to the left), and feature small grooves into which the small silver triangular prongs lock. In addition, while Optimus' rear cab sections are shown as being folded out like rectangular wings in the instructions, it appears they are intended to sit flat against the sides of the portion of Jetfire that connects to Prime's back. Jetfire has two tabs that sit directly above the panels when folded back which better support the weight of Jetfire. The struts on which Jetfire's engines are mounted also pivot back to allow exactly enough space for the folded cab panels to fit. The remarkably small text written under the cockpit windows is: ''[[Lt. Col. Brawley|LT. COL. BRAWLEY]] WARNING THIS AIRCRAFT CONTAINS A SEAT CONTAINING AN EXPLOSIVE CHARGE SEE MAINTENANCE MANUAL BEFORE REMOVING''.

:Amusingly, the figure's kibble likes to fall off during transformation. It makes him a little more screen accurate, after all...

{{-}}

{{picsneeded}}
* '''Jetfire''' / '''Buster Optimus Prime''' (Leader 2-pack, 2009)
**''Accessories:'' Front landing gear/walking stick, rotary cannon missile launcher, projectile

:This [[TakaraTomy]] Asian market [[exclusive]] Leader class two pack consists of a redecoed Jetfire and an altered [[Optimus Prime (Movie)/toys#Leader Class toys 2|Buster Optimus Prime]]. Jetfire has a more subtle, more [[show-accuracy|movie-accurate]] colour scheme. Buster Optimus Prime has the head of the first release of ''Revenge of the Fallen'' Leader class Optimus Prime, instead of the new head sculpted for Buster Optimus Prime and prop vehicle-accurate blue pin striping instead of CGI-accurate white.

:In mid 2010, this set was released in Australia.
{{-}}

====Fast Action Battlers====
[[Image:Jetfire ROTF FAB toy.jpg|right|thumb|300px|NOBODY MOVE...I dropped me cane...]]
*'''Photon Missile Jetfire''' (Fast Action Battler, 2009)
**''Accessories:'' "Photon Missile" projectile

: [[Fast Action Battler]] Jetfire is a simplified, roughly Deluxe-sized toy of Jetfire. In vehicle mode, he transforms into a sort of cute, super-deformed SR-71 Blackbird jet. As with most ''Transformers'' toy jets, he has a fair bit of undercarriage junk from his robot mode, though not to the extent of the Leader class toy. In robot mode he has a reasonably accurate depiction of Jetfire's design, though his right arm ends in a spring-loaded projectile launcher shaped like a rotary cannon.It also combines with Optimus Prime.
{{-}}

====Robot Replicas====
[[Image:ROTF Robot Replica Jetfire.jpg|thumb|right|150px|With genuine simulated robo-bursitis!]]
*'''Jetfire''' (Robot Replica, 2009)
**''Accessories:'' Cane

: [[Robot Replicas]] Jetfire is a non-transformable, intended-to-be-accurate representation of his CGI model from the film. He is highly posable, and not much else. Due to his unusually large head and shortened neck, he appears based on the promotional art seen at the very top of this page, whose head and neck are severely foreshortened.
{{-}}

==Merchandise==
===Robot Heroes===
[[Image:Robotheroesmegatronfallenprimejetfireironhide.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Kinda morbid, really.]]
*'''Battle for the Fallen''' (box set, 2009)
:This ''Robot Heroes'' box set of figures comes with [[The Fallen]], [[Megatron (Movie)/toys|Megatron]] (tank mode), [[Optimus Prime (Movie)/toys|Optimus Prime]] and Jetfire combined, and [[Ironhide (Movie)|Ironhide]] (truck mode).
{{-}}
===R.P.M.s - Robot Powered Machines===
====Metal Heroes Series====
[[Image:ROTF-toy_RPM_Jetfire.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Jetfire forgot to tell Hasbro he's claustrophobic]]
*'''Jetfire''' (R.P.M. Mini-Vehicle, 2010)
**''Number:'' '''02 of 08'''
:''[[Robot Powered Machines]]'' Jetfire is a die-cast Blackbird with wheels. It can stand up to reveal a sculpted image of Jetfire's robot mode.
{{-}}

==Notes==
* While all the fictions agree that Jetfire was a Decepticon Seeker who defected and has been stuck on Earth for a long time, none agree on when and why he came to Earth, when and why he defected, or how long he snoozed. Random, confused mythos divergence? Now ''that's'' 80s nostalgia!

* Jetfire's head was redesigned so [[Industrial Light & Magic]] could animate a smirk on the character. This early, mouthless head was still used for the toy designs and promotional art though.<ref>[http://vfxworld.com/?atype=articles&id=4003 Scott Farrar's VFXWorld interview]</ref>

* Jetfire's ancient Cybertronian vehicle mode as seen in [[IDW Publishing]]'s [[Defiance issue 4|''Defiance'' #4]] bears more than a passing similarity with the starship ''[[Axalon (BW)|Axalon]]'' from ''[[Beast Wars (franchise)|Beast Wars]]''.

* Apparently, Jetfire was briefly active during the Cuban Missile Crisis according to one of his comments. {{storylink|Revenge of the Fallen (Xbox 360/PS3/PC)}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Autobots]]
[[Category:Decepticons]]
[[Category:Elderly Transformers]]
[[Category:Revenge of the Fallen characters]]
[[Category:Seekers]]
[[Category:Turncoats]]

==External links==
* [http://www.tfu.info/2009/Autobot/MovieJetfire/jetfire.htm Jetfire at TFU.info]

Talk:Ruined FOREVER

2010-08-18T02:38:01Z

24.62.9.241:

==Regarding deletion==
Shouldn't we add [[Drift (G1| this Mary Sue]] to Runied FOREVER?

I see no point to having this article. --[[User:KilMichaelMcC|KilMichaelMcC]] 07:11, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

:There are 4 instances of Ruined Forever on [[Transformers timeline|this page]] alone. -[[User:Derik|Derik]] 07:16, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

::I see no point to having those, either. --[[User:KilMichaelMcC|KilMichaelMcC]] 07:20, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

:::JaAm has a page. 'Ruined Forever' is used ironically within the fandom- and this is clearly marked as a fandom article just like [[True fan]] is. Ruined Forever is clearly more prominent than [[Dull surprise]], though possibly not as widely as [[Neon]]. (Which now that I look at it need its opening quote reformatted...) My entire impetus for creating it was that Sntint made an ironic Ruined Forever joke on a talk page and I was like- "huh, why dont' we have a page for that?" (Well, also I wanted to wash the bad tast of [[Don Murphy|Don Murray]] out of my brain.)
:::Ruined Forever appears to rest comfortably within the range of existing articles on the Wiki, but I am content to allow others to decide. If a majority think it's not relevant to Transformers the article can be deleted, as always. -[[User:Derik|Derik]] 07:37, 11 July 2007 (UTC)
::::I say it's as relevant as Playskool, neon, and FIRRIB. {{unsigned|Terrocon Blot}}
:::::And Derik on the rebound to make me feel dumber. It's not enough that I misspelled my own screenname, he's also got to sign my posts for me. Damn that Derik. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWN. --[[User:Terrocon Blot|Terrocon Blot]] 07:49, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

I vote for keeping the page. As already stated, a number of other pages already exist to explain similar fandom colloquialisms. --[[User:Sntint|Sntint]] 13:20, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

:I don't see this article as explaining anything. It seems to exist purely to ridicule fandom behavior that we don't like, and thus I see no point to keeping it. --[[User:KilMichaelMcC|KilMichaelMcC]] 19:35, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

I think it needs to stay too. Where else would terms like ''Ruined FOREVER'', [[Furmanism]], and Chewed caramels be documented for all time, if not here?--[[User:Evil-yuusha|Evil-yuusha]] 14:59, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

:Do these fandom terms need to be ones that are famous/infamous, known or used widely? Then how about TFW2005's 'HE TELL ME' (in reference to that guy who claimed Peter Cullen was cast as RID Prime)? TFW2005 is probably the most prominent of the Transformers fan sites, as well as the one that Hasbro seems to unofficially prefer. I personally never even heard of 'dull surprise' until I read it on this wiki. --[[User:FFN|FFN]] 20:49, 11 July 2007 (UTC)
::Nor I. But I don't think we're just documenting memes-- each of these articles, Truk !Munky, Chewed caramels even JaAm are 'about' a belief/response/tendency in fandom- not just the phrase used to illustrate it. Dull Surprise is a belief the masturbatory praise heaped on Superstar Funana was undeserved, JaAm is about the backlash against Dreamwave's style-over-sanity lack of visual storytelling, Truk not Monkey encompasses both knee-jerk hatred of BW and frustration about knee-jerks, and Chewed caramels ''seems'' to be about a desire that all TF toylines subscribe to some broad interpretation of G1's design aesthetic. I doubt anyone put ''conscious thought'' into this, but the fandom-meme articles people found worthy of creating aren't ''just'' about the phrase- they're about phrases that expresses something larger about how fans relate to Transformers.
::(I'm not familiar with 'HE TELL ME' and where it may fall with this.) -[[User:Derik|Derik]] 21:21, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

:::Personally, I think dull surprise is way too limited in use (basically just #wiigii! as far as I know) to really belong here, but Derik does sort of have a point about the article being about a little more than that. I also don't know "HE TELL ME" but it sounds like something worth considering -- claims of unnamed inside sources and all that. --[[User:Steve-o|Steve-o]] 01:27, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

::::Oops, it was actually Peter Cullen as Armada Prime. The posts (being from 2002), no longer exists, but fortunately blitz_64 managed to save the posts for posterity [http://www.geocities.com/blitz_64/HETELLME.html The Saga of HE TELL ME and GoOP].

::::Actually, Steve-o, I'd say "Secret Inside Sources" would be a more appropriate meme/article to describe that last one. Having never heard of "HE TELL ME", and seeing that few others apparently have either, I'm not sure it's as much a meme as "Secret Inside Sources" is.--[[User:G.B. Blackrock|G.B. Blackrock]] 13:45, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

::::Around the same period, I recall some other idiot who claimed to be a Hasbro photographer and described crazy things like the Mini-Cons becoming body armour and Prime's minicon transforming into his Matrix. These claims, while totally false, were important because they apparently spurred Aaron to emerge as ORSON and totally destroy that other dude, IIRC. --[[User:FFN|FFN]] 03:28, 12 July 2007 (UTC)
:::::I remember that quite vividly indeed. The guy who claimed to be the photographer actually revealed himself over [http://www.allspark.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=26415&st=20&p=551756&#entry551756 at the Allspark this year], actually. Oh yeah, and I think the animu thing was 4Chan leakage [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=animu].--[[User:MCRG|MCRG]] 05:46, 19 July 2007 (UTC)
I say we keep it. [[User:Compy-Rex|Compy-Rex]] 18:55, 16 March 2008 (UTC)Compy-Rex
:If this page is deleted I will cry. [[User:(Undecided)|(Undecided)]] 05:14, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

==Usage==
Has "ruined forever" ever been used seriously by fans? While it describes a real and annoying sentiment, I'm not sure I like basing an article on a phrase that was sarcastic in the first place. [[User:Interrobang|Interrobang]] 18:26, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

:Seconded. -[[User:Rotty|Rotty]] 18:32, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

:I'm sure something very similar, at least, has been used. But regardless, you say that it describes a real sentiment, so, what's the problem? Can you recommend a better title for the article? Or are you saying the article shouldn't exist at all? --[[User:Steve-o|Steve-o]] 19:08, 11 July 2007 (UTC)
::Well, my vote is for not existing at all. --[[User:KilMichaelMcC|KilMichaelMcC]] 19:22, 11 July 2007 (UTC)
::: I (and a number of others) used to think "Rapeing my childood" was only used for sarcastic reasons. Then I read the thread on the promo poster for Transformers Animated, which had a number or people using the seriously. --[[User:FortMax|FortMax]] 20:30, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

:Has Trukk not Munky ever been used in a non Ironic/Sarcastic way? It's still a catchphrase used by the fandom, as is this. Both rate articles under the fandom category, IMo.--[[User:ZacWilliam|ZacWilliam]] 20:24, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

:The '''scream your head off in outraged panic''' / '''call for mass-firings or send death threats over something that has/will ruin/ed TF''' ''behavior'' of this article certainly was in evidence during Beast Machines- and I think the "sky is falling" aspect is amply evidenced by the sheer ''number'' of times fans have declared TF ruined forever. (And, clearly, been wrong every time, or every time but 1 depending on your belief system.)
:If you have some other title you'd prefer for this article like 'Clicken-Little Syndrome' by all means propose it and see what people think, but the article speaks to a genuine (and highly mockable) aspect of fandom psychology.
:And frankly, while the ''behavior'' itself is worthy of ridicule, the ''reason'' for it- an exaggerated concern for the health and future of the brand- is actually kinda ''endearing'' and speaks well of fans. At least their ''hearts'' are in the right place. -[[User:Derik|Derik]] 20:32, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

==Paul Dini==

I think accusing the fandom of saying the art style of Paul Dini ''the writer'' being used for Animated will "RUIN TRANSFORMERS FOREVER" is making the article simply too mean-spirited. I've never seen any individual display the idiocy we're accusing the fandom of with that line. -[[User:Rotty|Rotty]] 05:40, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

I have.
Scary, scary stuff.

Also, the last line of the entry seems to cut a little into the humor by overexplaining. Replace it with a "general hasbro idiocy" linking to "transformers" or somesuch?

==Marked for deletion.==

This is getting out of hand.

This page has become the epicenter of an edit war that has gone on for nearly a week now. As of the time of this writing, only six other pages link to this article. While I fully support the light tone of Teletraan I, and I understand that some explanation of aspects of the fandom complete the Wiki, I believe this particular article and debate at this point only detracts from the issue.

I DO agree that it was biased in the form in which it existed before our anonymous editor "friend" decided to change it, but I do not think that matters any longer. This article does not add anything inherently positive to the wiki, indeed, it does not chronicle anything positive ''or'' negative about Transformers itself at all. Its relation to Transformers is tangential at best.

By deleting this, we would not lose anything except the beginnings of what appear to be the modern equivalent of a Usenet flamewar. Deleting it, I believe, can only benefit Teletraan I. --[[User:Sntint|Sntint]] 12:16, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

:I whole-heartedly agree. [[User:Detour|Detour]] 12:23, 8 August 2007 (UTC)
::I agree. I didn't feel this article was necessary, and I still don't. I agree that the fandom is full of idiots who never bothered to grow up after 1986, but our mockery of them doesn't belong in the wiki. Not to say that Mister "integrity of the characters" is right, though. [[User:Interrobang|Interrobang]] 12:30, 8 August 2007 (UTC)
:::I'm putting in a vote for keeping it. It's a fun article to read, and it speaks a lot of truth in it's wonderfully snarky way.--[[User:Gouki|Gouki]] 12:32, 8 August 2007 (UTC)
::::Snarkyness can be fun but this article is just pushing it, IMO. [[User:Detour|Detour]] 12:38, 8 August 2007 (UTC)
:::::I think it should stay, it's funny. Also, if you delete it then the terrorists win.
::::::I would keep it. I think it describes a real sentiment, that needs to be pointed out as overblown. [[User:JW|JW]] 13:55, 8 August 2007 (UTC)
The edit war was only between registered users and a single unregistered dude. I've fixed things, at least for the moment, by protecting the page from unregistered editors. If you're gonna get in a pissy editing war, we'd damn well better know who you are. --[[User:ItsWalky|ItsWalky]] 14:26, 8 August 2007 (UTC)
:Our anonymous friend is from the Netherlands, if anybody cares. [[User:Interrobang|Interrobang]] 14:33, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

This "Ruined FOREVER" article is stupid and don't make any sense. Its just shit

: [[Seafood Louis]]. -[[User:Derik|Derik]] 04:00, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

I don't know if the opinion of an anon means anything, but I think this article is freaking hilarious. I was talking with a friend about TF:Animated and he said that the girl with the transforming bike 'ruined it permanently' so I linked him this article. He laughed and said, 'ok, well maybe I'm over-reacting.'

I think the article is funny and provides valuable perspective. {{unsigned|66.167.253.76}}
: Well said, citizen. [[User:JW|JW]] 16:23, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
:Well, you've cancelled out the other anon from earlier, at any rate. And yeah, I agree with your assessment of it.--[[User:Andrusi|Andrusi]] 22:43, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
:Same --[[User:Chiasaur11|Chiasaur11]]

I happen to think this article is incredibly useful in charting the tendency for all fans everywhere (but especially TF fans) to react in comical and hyperbolic ways. I think the breadth of what people determine can/has ruined TF forever automatically makes the article an amusing and insightful look for the novice fan into the fandom's reactionary past.

Indeed, I actually have shown this article to people just coming back (or getting into) TF. It's inspired about as many laughs as it has genuine curiosity as to what the fandom and franchise are like as entities. Isn't that the idea of this wiki? I would think reference materials as to the history of the fandom, good and bad, are always a boon.

(and that aside, I just think it's really, really funny)

.... Aaaaaaand I had to go and screw up. Bah. That's me above. --[[User:Cmdr Crayfish|Cmdr Crayfish]] 10:24, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

==Where do we draw the line?==
How do we stop this from becoming just a giant list of everything that anyone has ever expressed any dislike for ever? Why, for instance, is ''The Beast Within'' in there? Or Gonzo (which I thought was generally accepted as at least ''better'' than We've, even if not as good at Mainframe)? - [[User:Jackpot|Jackpot]] 18:34, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
:I've kinda been watching this list grow with some mild irritation- it went from about 1 item for every 2 years to ''twice'' that in fairly short order, and that bothers me.
:I've sorta resolved to edit the list down this October, pruning it (so to speak) with some opportunity for people to say what should stay and what should go.
:The Beast Within has to stay though- at the ''very'' least it ruined the Dinobots forever- now whenever George Rodd brings up combiner Dinobots we have to grudgingly admit they're canon. Also, it was the reason for the article's creation in the first place. -[[User:Derik|Derik]] 18:58, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
::Why wait? If we want this to be a list of developments that prompted widespread fury that lingered for years, we can shorten it to "Actionmasters, BW, BM, Armada, Hallit, and Bay," and perhaps a few others, right now. Then a "Trivia" note saying that The Beast Within really DID ruin Transformers, or at least Dinobots, forever. Just a thought... but yeah, having every single series in there dilutes the point. --[[User:Thylacine 2000|Thylacine 2000]] 19:12, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
:::Problem is, how do you decide what deserves to be listed as ruining TF forever, if none of it really did in the first place. I've seen just about everything listed there used as an example of why ____ TF series/movie/toyline will fail--[[User:Carrion|Carrion]] 20:15, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
:::Also, Thy, I'd append your list with a general "*-masters" thing, as a lot of armchair CEOs claim that the entire -master trend killed the line, not the fact that it had, you know, run its course. [[User:Hooper X|-hx]] 14:03, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
:::I'll just basically agree with Thy and Hoop that whatever's listed here should have a certain "endurance" as a scapegoat. The turnaround of opinion on Animated was what, two weeks? "* Masters" certainly counts, as should Pretenders. --[[User:M Sipher|M Sipher]] 14:35, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

:::What, a simple a Google newsgroup search for [http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%22killed+transformers%22&start=10&sa=N&scoring=d&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&|"killed transformers"] ain't enough? /:] -- [[User:Repowers|Repowers]] 05:15, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

:I doubt I'd get objections if I added it, but I'd like to throw it by the community: Should we readd [[Kiss Players (franchise)|Kiss Players]]? -- [[User:SFH|SFH]] 04:53, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

::I really think Animated should stay in there, if only because it's '''such a dramatic departure.''' Turn around was fast, but the initial reaction was strong. I mean, for the first time in fifteen years of being a fan, I actually found myself muttering "My god... they've finally done it. It's ruined..." --[[User:70.190.251.10|70.190.251.10]] 05:07, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

beast wars didnt reuin tf beast machines sorta did but it was still quite good ,if u ignore some minor things - Unsigned post by [[User:80.6.180.141|80.6.180.141]]
:You're missing the point of the article, then. The point is that every time something new comes along, the fandom screams about how it will ruin Transformers forever, when in reality it's usually the opposite. -- [[User:Dark T Zeratul|Dark T Zeratul]] 22:16, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

==Last Deletion Locked in?==
Spotted a couple of points on the list removed by [[Special:Contributions/Teletraan|someone who seems to like deleting stuff just because]], but when I tried to restore the page, it was already locked. Were his edits accepted, then?--[[User:Apcog|Apcog]] 15:30, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
:There are two facets to this. First, without occasional pruning, the list in this article tends to grow, and grow, and grow. Every now and then, someone has to come along and cut it back. Since this is a wiki, the question of what gets cut is made by the person willing to do the cutting.
:The second facet is that the items cut were in fact less core to the "ruined forever" concept. "Runined forever" is a cry that springs up whenever ''something new is added to the Transformers brand'' by HasTak, and it happens every single time. Thus, the fans ''can't'' ruin TF forver, because they don't add new canon. And, while HasTak ''can'' ruin TF forever, it's because they're the only ones who can do so. I.e., one of the cut items was in error, and one was redundant. [[User:JW|JW]] 15:54, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
::Fair enough, I suppose. It was a combination of both the deletions and the person who committed them that made me question their validity.--[[User:Apcog|Apcog]] 17:00, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
:::Yah, user Teletraan is not exactly a primo contributor. Still, this particular edit seems (at minimum) defensible. [[User:JW|JW]] 17:03, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

==Masters of the Universe link==
I've never, ever been interested in MOTU, so I have no idea what was the cause of the revamp line's failure, but given the extreme slant of the article, I can only assume it failed because it concentrated on collectors rather than kids. If so, why does it link to a Wikipedia article that cites Mattel's ''"excessive focus on attempting to mass-market the line to a new generation of children rather than focusing on a safer collector-based approach"'' as the reason for the line's failure? Am I missing something or does that sound like the line tanked because it focused on selling toys to kids rather than what this article is railing against? --[[User:FFN|FFN]] 11:09, 14 January 2008 (UTC)
: Guess who wrote the Wikipedia article. (Hint: It wasn't kids.) [[User:Hooper X|-hx]] 12:04, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

:: The fact is the line failed, no one can say *exactly* why. There are reasons for both oppinions.

::'''Fact:''' The line DID court fans rather than kids in many ways. It didn't reinvent the boat but took the exact looks, exact characters, and in some cases even exact stories the fans clamored for and did them again, only better, prettier, smarter, and more "realisticly". In that respect it was pretty much EXACTLY what older fans of '80s properties clamor for, and said fans generally loved it. But for whatever reason it never caught on with '''actual kids''' in the way the simple, campy, primitive, bowlegged original did. So some see that and blame the line's failure on the older fan mentality.

::'''Also Fact:''' Mattel tried to sell the toyline the way they had Batman. I.E. A million goofy variations on He-man and Skelator (and one or two others) and everyone else was almost impossible to find or didn't get a figure at all. This was very much NOT what collectors wanted. Many blame it for the line's failure at retail, arguing that part of what made the original a hit where the huge variety of strange and different warriors and monsters that Mattel had left out this time in favor of flooding the shelves with He-man repaints and ill-concieved alterations (The entire wave of "samori repaints on stilts" is often pointed to, but are only one of many examples.) Some see this and blame an ill-concieved inapropriate retail stratagy aimed at marketing to kids having crippled the line's retail appeal.

::Personally I think there's some truth to BOTH. For whatever reason (timing, approach, luck,) the older fan oriented cartoon never clicked with the kiddies, '''AND''' the Batman-style retail stratagy was a bad choice for a MOTU type toyline. --[[User:ZacWilliam|ZacWilliam]] 14:17, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

:::Yes, that was the feeling I got, that is there is no clear cut side to 'blame', and in this case, I think we should ditch the Masters of the Universe link, given the information there contradicts the slant of this article, and in any case it's not a clear cut case of 'it's all the collectors fault'. --[[User:FFN|FFN]] 14:32, 14 January 2008 (UTC)
::::Hrm, there's some legitimate thought there... but it ruins the G.I. Joe comparison. (Why catering to adult collectors and abandoning attempts at reinvention is a losing strategy in the long run necause ther old dudes die off and uyou're not bringing new fans in.)
::::For what it's worth, I meant from design and marketing- I agree that the actual toyline was schitzophrenic- alternating between a slavish adherence to the original designs and case assortments aimed at kida who weren't watching the cartoon.-[[User:Derik|Derik]] 16:45, 14 January 2008 (UTC)
:::::Here's an idea - how about one of you guys (who actually know about MOTU) edit the wikipedia article so it's more balanced, so we don't end up looking like idiots in this article? --[[User:FFN|FFN]] 17:30, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

I think it's worth noting that even in today's environment, the military has ''some'' pull to kids. Not so much the gay, gay fur-bikini barbarians. Sword-and-sorcery has some appeal nowadays, but mostly when it's very Japanesey kids-anime-style. (One could also note that the "big" Joe revival frankly isn't very big. It's pretty damn low-key, really, where He-Man was some major-league THIS WILL BE BIG!!! Lower expectations = greater chance of meeting and exceeding them.) --[[User:M Sipher|M Sipher]] 17:06, 14 January 2008 (UTC)
:Yeah, I'd also imagine that production costs on the 25th anniversary Joe figs are pretty darn reasonable on Hasbro's bookkeeping. They've done similar lines for Star Wars for decades, so they know what they're doing.--[[User:Rosicrucian|Rosicrucian]][[User Talk:Rosicrucian|<sup>Talk</sup>]] 17:10, 14 January 2008 (UTC)
::I'm really annoyed that the GI Joe 25th line isn't available here, because Hasbro AU's last attempt to revive GI Joe in Australia totally tanked. If you can believe it, Toys R Us stores here languished under piles of unsold Cobra Trooper 6-packs, which, as I've read in forums, collectors were fighting over. They're not on pegs anymore, so I guess they've been shredded or incinerated by now.--[[User:FFN|FFN]] 17:28, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

So have we decided on this link yet? The Wikipedia link still contradicts the snarky joke link of this article. --[[User:FFN|FFN]] 13:38, 21 February 2008 (UTC)
:It's always going to, because there will always, ''always'' be enough people who are going to make sure that the bullshit boogeyman "CASE RATIOS!! CASE RATIOS!!! KIDS WANTED ALL THOSE OBSCURE ONE-EPISODE GUYS AND USELESS MINOR VILLANS!!!!!" (while patently ignoring the fact that if you can't sell your ''two primary characters in the line'', maybe there's something wrong with your franchise, not case ratios... it'd be like if a Batman line couldn't sell toys of Batman) is squarely blamed for MOTU's failure. Frankly, I'd say just add a note to OUR article saying "ignore the bullshit about case ratios. Kids just didn't want a line about a boring gay man in a fur bikini." --[[User:M Sipher|M Sipher]] 15:19, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

::Ignoring your general disdain for He-man here, and even the whole case ratio issue, the fact remains that saying (as our snark does) that the newer He-man line "catered exclusively to older collectors" and that this caused its failure is both unprovable, AND very widely disputed. I'd say we should remove the link on those issues alone. --[[User:ZacWilliam|ZacWilliam]] 15:35, 21 February 2008 (UTC) (-'''Edit:''' On a side-note, given the apparent success of the 25th ann. line and the coming movie, the critical G.I.Joe link in there may soon be meaninglessly out of date as well...)

:::And this is my point - we'll start looking like idiots who can't even get our facts or jokes straight if we insist on keeping these links. --[[User:FFN|FFN]] 08:28, 22 February 2008 (UTC)
:::I see Zac's point- but I think he's reacting to something that's not in the article. We're holding the MOTU reboot as an example of a line that abandoned all attempt at reinvention. Since there ''was'' not reinvention in the reboot line, at all, this should not be up for dispute.
:::We do not say that this is ''why'' the line failed. It probably ''was'', but we don't say that. We merely hold it up as an apporach that's probably unhealthy for Transformers to follow.
:::So to be really blunt-- I don't care what whiny fanboys may have edited Wikipedia to say in support of their view that the line was perfect and viable the way it was. '''A)''' That's masturbatory. '''B)''' It's not what this article is talking about, so it's simply not relevant. -[[User:Derik|Derik]] 14:00, 22 February 2008 (UTC)
::::But it says 'cater exclusively to the old-school collectors', which the line evidently did not do. In which case, regardless of if we are holding up as an approach that TF should not follow, it's not a good example in the context of the very joke-link, especially if it sends the reader to an article that disputes the joke. --[[User:FFN|FFN]] 14:28, 22 February 2008 (UTC)
::::In this context, that 'catering' refers to design, not case assortments. We're discussing ''reinvention''. One does not 'reinvent' case assortments! And in terms of designs, characters etc... MOTU ''did'' cater. -[[User:Derik|Derik]] 14:31, 22 February 2008 (UTC)
:::::More to the point- we're discussing changign the content on ''this'' page because highly dubious artument on Wikipedia disagrees with something ''we're not even saying here''.
:::::If Wikipedia had a bullshit argument we were actually refuting I might kinda understand this. But we're not! We are actually arguing about removing a link to an article because fanboys have jizzed across it in ways that contradict things our article ''doesn't'' say, but which 'might run through that same fanboy's mind as they read our article.'
:::::While '''I''' clearly feel the fanboy argument is specious-at-best '''it doesn't matter'''. We say it catered to collectors. That's it! '''It's just an example of one extreme a toyline can take.''' -[[User:Derik|Derik]] 14:40, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

== Why? ==

Why is The [[Armada (franchise)|Armada]] series , [[Beast Wars (franchise)|Beast Wars]] series, the [[The Transformers: The Movie|Movie]], and [[Exclusives]] listed here?[[User:Autobot Soundwave|Autobot Soundwave]] 19:12, 4 April 2008 (UTC)
:Because fans reacted [[Trukk not munky|very]] [[Pokeformers|negatively]] to a lot of these things, which went on to become major successes. It's satire. -- [[User:SFH|SFH]] 19:15, 4 April 2008 (UTC)
:Because they ruined Transformers forever, of course.--[[User:Carrion|Carrion]] 19:16, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

== Adding to the list ==

The Cliff Notes version: there's very little reason to.

The full version: Contrary to what [http://transformers.wikia.com/wiki/Ruined_FOREVER many people think], this is not a list of [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Wookieepedia:Ruined_FOREVER everything Transformers ever]. It is not even a list of everything Transformers that fans have ever complained about. It is a list of the relative handful of times that something ground-shaking and new has come along, something totally different from what's gone before, something that's not exactly like 1984, that causes people to complain that Transformers has irrevocably jumped the shark and begun sinking into an irreversible oblivion. All this doomsaying is then typically followed by the franchise surging back to life as the awful horrible new thing turns out to be a smashing success. Alternately, the horrible new thing quietly fades away while the franchise chugs along to the next new thing.

Thing is, anybody who's stuck with Transformers to this point is used to these reinventions. Perspective has grown long enough that plenty of fans now understand that anything they don't like will be gone in a year or two. Maybe I'm biased 'cause I only read the Allspark boards and they're fairly intelligent, but cries of RUINED FOREVER are increasingly rare these days.

I don't see why Drift is on the list. Plenty of people think he sucks, but nobody's claiming he's going to bring down the whole franchise. ''All Hail Megatron'' would be a better candidate, because people (including myself!) ''are'' claiming that IDW's whole storyline has been permanently destroyed by it. (You could also make a case for ''Energon'' ("bad anime"), ''Prime Directive'' ("MATURE ADULT XXX" or "Buckets of Blood" or "Pat Lee"), and/or Dreamwave ("The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man", "Superstars", "Bankruptcy").

I don't see why stolen prototypes are on the list. Yeah, some of us make a fuss over them. Y'know why? Because HASBRO THEMSELVES HAS SAID THEY ARE A THREAT TO THEIR BUSINESS. There's no ridiculously overblown grasping-at-straws fandom absurdity to mock here.

And I'd need to see a LOT of linked posts before I'd accept ROTF on the list. I can't fathom someone having complaints about ROTF that didn't also apply to the first movie. -- [[User:Repowers|Repowers]] 12:10, 25 June 2009 (EDT)

:There are new complaints about ROTF - about [[Mudflap (ROTF)|these]] [[Skids (ROTF)|two]].--[[Special:Contributions/172.162.17.159|172.162.17.159]] 08:34, 10 August 2009 (EDT)
::I agree with Repowers 100%. If anything, I think the list could use some trimming. Are people complaining about the Twins? Sure! Is ANYONE saying that Transformers, as a franchise, is over/tainted? Umm ... not that I've heard. Certainly no substantial block of the fandom.
::And stolen prototypes, while I DO think people make a somewhat biggish deal about them, don't really belong on the list either. A: as Repowers points out, Hasbro itself has legitimized the concern. B: people getting annoyed about something is NOT the same as saying that the Transformers brand is beyond recovery. Hell, even AHM seems like a stretch. I think that most of the fandom has gained enough hindsight to know that, at worst, AHM represents a change in direction for *IDW'S* story, but certainly not the end of Transformers as we know it. Hell, ROTF and Animated were contemporary, and both were tremendous successes.--[[User:Jimsorenson|Jimsorenson]] 09:48, 10 August 2009 (EDT)

I'm not sure we we can't have Energon on this list, seeing all the complaints on this very wiki, but, eh.--[[User:Spin-Out|Spin-Out]] 08:00, 14 September 2009 (EDT)
:I disagree. I've read on here that people LIKED it at first, but eventually lost faith/the will to live after watching it. The list chronicles the events which work the OTHER way around. [[User:Metal Gear NOIZE|Metal Gear NOIZE]] 09:07, 14 September 2009 (EDT)
::Yeah, I'd say the list has nothing to do with how good something is, but more with complaints from the fandom and especially even before the thing in question has been released. Having said that, does RiD really warrant a place on the list? Was there really that much of a commotion about it? -[[User:Mazenoise|Mazenoise]] 10:10, 14 September 2009 (EDT)
:::I'm surprised "G1 Bayformers", aka Don Figueroa's new drawing style isn't on this list, given that almost every single opinion on it I found was a flame.....--[[User:-Blackout-|-Blackout-]] 12:30, 14 September 2009 (EDT)
::::I loath it to the core of my petty, petty being... but i don't see it as something that will kill or taint the franchise. Kiss-Player is still squicking people ''years'' later... the fact the Japanese owners basically licensed TF loli guro porn is something that genuinely shocks people and lessens their opinion of TF as a whole-- especially since it's not one of those 'worse than it sounds' things, the closer you look, the more disturbing it actually gets. An unpleasant art style inflicted on the comparatively small comic-book audience... just isn't in the same ballpark.
::::I think it's harmed ''IDW'''s Transformers brand equity... people seem a lot more skeptical and a lot more negative of editorially-generated jerking around of the TF brand, because they've now repeatedly dumped directions they committed to in order to chase imaginary gains that never materialized-- apparently heedless of the negative baggage piled on the story in the process. (One more major reset in pursuit of some sort of magical deckchair configuration the editors are convinced is more important than telling good stories... and I might as well be reading DC!) But not the brand overall. -[[User:Derik|Derik]] 05:46, 13 October 2009 (EDT)
:::::Not to get all chat roomy here, but... what he said. Oh dear lord, WHAT HE SAID. (Derik, have you posted that sentiment to IDW's boards?) -- [[User:Repowers|Repowers]] 19:49, 13 October 2009 (EDT)

==How about that B.O.T episode==

To many fans, it's considered to be the worst G1 episode ever, so I think it should be placed here. [[User:Dinoman96|Dinoman96]] 17:23, 23 November 2009 (EST)
:Yea, but this isn't a list of what people just call "bad" - it's a list of the things that threw the fandom into a colossal uproar and actually caused people to say Transformers was ruined forever, more for the fact that they were drastically or outlandishly new and different than for their actually being of poor quality. - [[User:Chris McFeely|Chris McFeely]] 17:46, 23 November 2009 (EST)

Smolder (PCC)

2010-08-15T21:11:59Z

24.62.9.241:

{{faction|decepticonfilm}}
:''Smolder is a [[Decepticon]] [[Commander (PCC)|Commander]] from ''[[Power Core Combiners]]''.''

[[Image:Smolder-CyberMissions.jpg|right|thumb|250px|"You're making the fires worse!" "Worse, or better?"]]

'''Smolder''' uses the powers granted to him by his new [[Mini-Con]] partner, [[Chopster]], to act on all the grudges he's accumulated over the years. Everyone's on his list, and everyone will pay. On his down-time from grudge-holding/revenge-getting Smolder appreciates the destructive beauty of a good structure fire and can be counted on to add to any he might happen across rather than extinguish it. His favorite mode for Chopster is definitely the fire axe.

{{TOCclear}}

==Fiction==
===Cyber Missions===
:''Voice actor:'' [[Tony Gialluca II]]
[[Image:SmolderChopster-CyberMissions.jpg|left|thumb|300px|I will never fall in love because I work all day and all night as an axe cop.]]

Smolder and Chopster arrived on the scene of a huge fire in [[Scramble City]], with fire trucks and firemen nearby. One of the firemen asked Smolder's holographic driver to help them put it out, but Smolder expressed his love of fire. Chopster then activated his flamethrower and set the building even more ablaze, causing it to explode. The devious duo transformed, and Smolder ordered Chopster to destroy the fire hoses so that Scramble City would go up in flames!

[[Bumblebee (Movie)| Bumblebee]] and [[Ratchet (Movie)| Ratchet]] arrived on the scene not long after, and Chopster emerged from the thick smoke and distracted the both of them. Smolder sped out of the billowing smoke and almost rammed Bumblebee and Ratchet. He then braked, allowing Chopster to bathe him in flames. Ratchet was able to knock out Chopster with his EMP, and Smolder transformed and threw him at Bumblebee. The plucky Autobot then charged Smolder, but the Decepticon fire truck was able to subdue him just as Ratchet charged up his EMP blaster. The blast shut down Smolder as he attempted to transform, leaving his legs as the front of his vehicle mode.
{{charstubfiction}}
{{storylink|Cyber Missions 9}}

{{-}}

==Toys==
===''Power Core Combiners''===
[[Image:PCCtoy-SmolderChopster.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Yeah, I stole [[Barricade (Movie)|the other bastard's]] shtick. Get over it.]]
*'''Smolder w/ Chopster''' (Commander Class, 2010)

: Part of the first wave of ''Power Core Combiners'' Commander Class figures, Smolder is a Scout-sized fire department brush truck who transforms into a robot. Smolder can swap between his normal head and a larger head so that he can also serve as a torso for ''Power Core Combiner'' drone-limbs. His chestplate has a flip-up Mini-Con [[Powerlinx]] peg that allows him to use any Mini-Con as chest armor, though the nominal choice is his pack-in partner [[Chopster]].

: This mold was also used to make [[Stakeout (PCC)|Stakeout]].

::*''[http://tfu.info/2010/Decepticon/Smolder/smolder.htm More information on Smolder at TFU.info]''

[[Category: Decepticons]]
[[Category: Power Core Combiners characters]]
[[Category: Revenge of the Fallen characters]]

Golden Disk (disambiguation)

2010-07-28T06:11:59Z

24.62.9.241:

[[Image:GoldenDisksBW.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Don't leave them alone together. They multiply.]]
{{bigquote|If you lose a son, it is ''possible'' to get another! There is only ''one'' Golden Disk.|A grossly misinformed [[Cryotek (RID)|Cryotek]]|"[[Theft of the Golden Disk]]"}}

You can't swing a [[Ravage (ROTF)|dead cat]] in ''Transformers'' without hitting a '''Golden Disk'''.

''[[Beast Wars (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'' introduced a sensible two:

* The ''[[Golden Disk (Voyager)|Sounds of Earth]]'' record from the 1977 ''Voyager'' space probe.
* A [[Golden Disk (Vok)|Vok artifact]] that bears an uncanny <small>(but probably coincidental)</small> resemblance to the ''Voyager'' disk.

''[[Beast Machines (franchise)|Beast Machines]]'' had two in a throwaway scene with [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]] holding some in a [[Optimus Prime memorials|memorial]] outside the [[Cybertron Archives]]. Writer [[Bob Skir]] claims that neither the statue nor the golden disks in its hands were mentioned in the script. However, he [http://bigbot.com/beast-machines-transformers-bob-skir/Beast-Machines-FAQ/Tue_12_Oct_1999.html suggested] that they were either the [[Golden Disk (Voyager)|disks]] from the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes, or that Optimus won them in the 2,395,989th Annual Cybertronian spelling bee. We're betting on the latter.

More followed like roaches in the [[Dreamwave timeline|Dreamwave Generation 1 continuity]]:

* A compilation of the [[Golden Disk (council)|wisdom of past Primes]].
* An [[Golden Disk (ancient)|ancient artifact]] from Cybertron's distant past.
* Its [[Golden Disk (Paradron)|sister-disk]] on [[Paradron]] that holds the secrets of Transformer evolution.
* And a record of [[Golden Disk (MTMTE)|the state of Transformerdom circa 2003]], which the [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] stole and which thus supplants the ''Voyager'' disk that started this whole mess.

[[Takara]] was not to be left out, writing of yet another [[Beast Wars Reborn|Golden Disk]] that was the mysterious power source of a mysterious vessel under mysterious circumstances.

Also, [[Transformers Animated Kellogg's Eggo waffles]]: Moist, delicious repositories of wisdom.

{{disambig}}