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Icebird

2009-05-17T21:19:41Z

69.231.22.43: /* Notes */

{{factions|mutant}}
:''Icebird is a [[Mutant (BW)|Mutant]] from the [[Beast Wars]] portion of the [[Generation 1 (franchise)|Generation 1]] [[continuity family]].''

[[Image:Bw icebird.jpg|right|300px|thumb|O RLY?]]
'''Icebird''' is the wise and powerful leader of the Mutants, though he resents his inability to return to robot mode. He has as a goal to eschew technology completely and evolve to a completely organic existence. As a side-effect of his mutation, he is able to read minds and communicate telepathically, shut down machinery at will, and become invisible.

''Wow.''

==Fiction==
===''Universe''===
[[Image:Icebirddeparture.jpg|left|250px|thumb|Who is morphing? Oh my God, bear is morphing! How can that be?]]

The "discarded children of [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]'s experiments", Icebird and his Mutants were one of several groups summoned by the [[Oracle (BM)|Oracle]] for a greater purpose. They were tasked with traveling to the [[Outer Orion Cluster]], where they would heal themselves by repairing their fractured [[spark]]s and finding their true hidden potential. Before the Mutants could leave on their quest, Icebird attacked [[Optimus Primal]] for not going far enough in his battle against the technological [[Vehicon (BM)|Vehicons]]. [[Tigatron]] separated the two before harm could befall either of them. {{storylink|Departure}}

[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Now you see them, now you don't.]]

However, the Oracle had sent the Mutants on a fool's errand, and Icebird and the others found their destination to be a [[Quintesson]] court. Though the others grew worried and suspicious, Icebird attempted to calm them. He was certain that the Oracle would not lead them astray. Icebird appeared to be mistaken, however, as [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticons]] swarmed his group and began devouring them gruesomely. {{storylink|Betrayal}}

Icebird and [[Poison Bite]] managed to survive, using their incredible senses-warping abilities, and the two revealed themselves to the Quintessons while most of the five-faced beings were busy, light years away, invading Cybertron. Icebird and Poison Bite began to glow, and technorganic plants bloomed and surrounded the Quintessons and their Sharkticon army. As their would-be-executioners were slaughtered, Icebird glowed brighter still. His polar bear head morphed into a monstrous blue face through which [[Primus]] himself spoke. "Thank You For Your Role In This, Quintesson. I Can Always Count On Your Interference To Drive My Children Forward." The Quintesson judge [[Heirodyus]] felt his body melt away as Primus bid him adieu. Icebird and Poison Bite had found their balance and their purpose. {{storylink|Wreckers: Finale Part II}}

===IDW ''Beast Wars'' comics continuity===
Icebird was one of the many [[protoform]]s from the remaining ''[[Axalon (BW)|Axalon]]'' [[stasis pod]]s to be reactivated by [[Razorbeast]]. He and his fellow Mutants took up residence in a swamp. When a [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] scouting party intruded on their home, Icebird was the first Mutant they spotted. Their leader [[Transquito]] followed him, fooled by his seemingly-harmless owl mode. Once he had lured him into a remote location, Icebird transformed into his bear mode and mauled the hapless Predacon while declaring that both [[Maximal]]s and Predacons were unwelcome in the Mutants' lands. {{storylink|The Gathering issue 3|The Gathering #3}}

==Toys==
===Beast Wars===
[[Image:Icebird-toy.jpg|right|300px|thumb|One day, Hedwig got really sick of carrying Harry's letters...]]
* '''Icebird''' (Mutant, 2000)

: Part of the final year of ''Beast Wars'' toys, Icebird is a [[deluxe]]-sized toy that transforms between two organic beast modes: a snowy owl and a polar bear. In bear mode, his "true" robot-mode head is revealed by flipping open the back panel and tucking away the bear-mode head. His owl-mode's beak moves up and down to to a button-activated spring-loaded plunger mechanism, but it doesn't work particularly well. In both modes, the panel with his Mutants [[faction symbol]] (on his right foreleg in bear mode, or his leg leg in owl mode) can be flipped up to reveal mechanical detailing.

::* ''[http://tfu.info/2000/Mutant/Icebird/icebird.htm More information on Icebird at TFU.info]''

{{-}}

==Notes==
[[Image:BM-toy IcebirdRedhead.jpg|right|150px|thumb|]]
* Official Hasbro stock photography of the Icebird toy shows him with metallic red machine-bits rather than the metallic blue of the final toy. Why this change was made is unknown. Maybe the red "damage panel" seemed a little too much like bloody gibblets of torn flesh?

[[Category:Beast Machines characters]]
[[Category:Beast Wars characters]]
[[Category:Fuzors]]
[[Category:Universe characters]]

Soundwave (BW)

2009-05-17T21:13:30Z

69.231.22.43: /* Notes */

{{factions|mutant}}
{{disambig3|Soundwave}}
{{picsneeded}}

:''Soundwave is a [[Mutant (BW)|Mutant]] from the [[Beast Wars]] portion of the [[Generation 1 (franchise)|Generation 1]] [[continuity family]].''

[[Image:Soundwavemutantcardart.jpg|right|200px|thumb|He's a wild sheila!]]

'''Soundwave''' is a brooder, like his fellow Mutants, with a tendency towards the dramatic. He has ultra-sensitive internal radar, and his tail can send seismic shock waves through the ground.

==Fiction==
===''Universe: Featuring the Wreckers''===
[[Image:Wreckers Mutants.jpg|left|200px|thumb|If only they DID have hands, my woman. If only... they DID have hands.]]
Soundwave and the other three Mutants were discarded offspring of [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]]'s experiments. Despite their "tortured existence", they were given a mission from the [[Oracle (BM)|Oracle]] itself: Travel to the [[Outer Orion cluster]], where they would find a way to restore their true forms and heal their fractured [[Spark|Sparks]]. {{storylink|Departure}}

Arriving at [[New Quintessa|their destination]], Soundwave was increasingly cynical about the nature of their mission. His pessimism seemed justified, as he and the other Mutants were herded into a [[Quintesson]] courtroom and sentenced to death, despite their pleas. Though it appeared that all four were devoured by [[Sharkticon (G1)|Sharkticons]] {{storylink|Betrayal}}, only Soundwave and [[Razor Claw]] met their gruesome end. [[Poison Bite]] and [[Icebird]] survived, revealing the Mutants' role as avatars of [[Primus]] as the remaining two extinguished the lives of their would-be executors. {{storylink|Wreckers: Finale Part II}}
{{-}}

===IDW ''Beast Wars'' comics===
[[Image:Bw soundwave.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Place lame Crocodile Dundee joke here.]]
Soundwave was one of the many [[protoform]]s from the remaining ''[[Axalon (BW)|Axalon]]'' [[Stasis pod|stasis pods]] to be reactivated by [[Razorbeast]]. He and his fellow Mutants took up residence in a swamp. When a [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]] scouting party intruded on their home, the Mutants defended their home vigorously—in the course of the slaughter, Soundwave bit [[Powerpinch]]'s leg off. {{storylink|The Gathering issue 3|The Gathering #3}}
{{-}}

==Toys==
===Beast Wars===
* '''Soundwave''' (Mutant, 2000)

: Soundwave is a [[deluxe]]-sized toy and can transform between bat and alligator forms. He has a panel on the chest of his bat mode that can be lifted to reveal mechanical parts. His robot face can be revealed within the bat's mouth by pressing a spine on the back of the bat head.

: His alligator mode has Reed Richards' arms and looks damned strange.

: This mold was to be used to make [[Leatherhide]], but that toy was ultimately canceled.
{{-}}

==Notes==
* The four Mutants were originally developed as toys for the ''[[Animorphs]]'' line. But with that line's cancellation, the molds were [[retool]]ed to replace the human parts with robotic bits, as well as change the Animorphs logo with the new "Mutant" [[faction symbol]].
* Early pictures of Soundwave showed him with green plastic rather than brown, presumably on the whole "alligator=green" thing... leading to not only a damn strange-looking bat mode, but some color redundancy with Razor Claw.
* Although this redundancy may have been preferrable to the inevitable [[Gold Plastic Syndrome|Gold Plastic Syndrome]] instead.

==External links==
* [http://tfu.info/2000/Mutant/Soundwave/soundwave.htm Soundwave at TFU.info]

[[Category:Beast Machines characters]]
[[Category:Beast Wars characters]]
[[Category:Fuzors]]
[[Category:Universe characters]]

Gold Plastic Syndrome

2009-05-17T21:09:47Z

69.231.22.43: /* Beast Wars */

[[Image:GPSSlingshot.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Emoformer: He breaks himself.]]
'''Gold Plastic Syndrome''' (commonly shorthanded to '''GPS''') is fandom terminology used to describe the phenomenon of a toy's [[plastic]]
decomposing and becoming brittle to the point of shattering or
crumbling under minimal-stress conditions. In the most extreme cases,
toys have been reported to spontaneously crumble to small bits without
any applied force at all, even if they're fresh out of their [[MISB|unopened package]].

This breakage is different from the relatively more common stress-fracture type of plastic breakage that can occur in some [[Toy|Transformers toys]].
All noted instances of GPS have occurred in hard, glossy gold-colored
plastics that appear to have a "swirl" to their coloration.

==Notability==
GPS is notably widespread among toys made in the tail-end of [[Generation 1]], typically the second year of [[Pretender|Pretenders]] and even some European-market exclusives, but examples have surfaced from lines as recent as ''[[Generation 2]]'' and the ''[[Beast Wars (toyline)|Beast Wars]]'' series. Transformers toys are not the only ones to suffer from this; there have been reports of ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' and ''Visionaries'' toys' gold plastics also crumbling seemingly of their own accord.

==Cause of GPS==

{{bigquote|The problem likely arises, as with many composites, when the bonding between the polymer and the dye/particles breaks down. This could occur do to a natural chemical/phase change of the plastic, due to oxidation, for example, or by another mechanism, say the forces incurred by the toy being played with, or more likely, due to some combination thereof. In any case, when the bonds between the particles and the polymers break down, you would get small voids in the plastic structure. If this occurs frequently enough, the structure would become effectively porous (that is, it would be filled with lots of tiny voids/cracks where the polymers and particles have come apart). With even a slight amount of force, some of these cracks/voids could expand, even slightly, to the point where they intersect another void and join, making an even bigger crack. Once a critical crack length is reached, the sample fractures.

So effectively, the plastic becomes more brittle, and this would also explain it "crumbling" as well as cracking.}}
:-Aernaroth suggests a cause for GPS [http://www.allspark.com/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=57191&view=findpost&p=1174876 on the Allspark]

==GPS misconceptions==
[[Image:Brownplasticsyndrome.jpg|right|250px|thumb|The one image for the wiki you don't want to be able to make.]]
The most common misconception about GPS is that ''all''
gold-colored plastic can suffer from this rot. Only certain plastic
grades (described above) have been noted to be susceptible to GPS
crumbling; in the past few years, more durable, pliable plastics have
become the norm for toy construction, so the gold plastic on more
recent toys like [[Cannonball]] are highly unlikely to have the flaw.

Also, not every type of plastic breakage is the kind caused by
GPS. In most instances of broken toys, visible stress marks appear long
before any breakage in the form of discoloration (since these plastics
have a bit more "give" to them), and are typically very clean "snaps"
due to excess pressure.
Even if not subject to "true" GPS breakage, older gold
plastics tend to be rather brittle and more likely than most to snap
under relatively light stresses. But "true" GPS breakages seemingly
come from simple decomposition of the plastic without any form of
excess force at all, and the breaks tend to leave shards of plastic and
dust, appearing similar to dry Play-Doh crumbling.

Additionally, it is not limited to gold plastic. Some other
older metally-swirled plastics may also suffer. However, it is far less
common and is possibly related, though it is just as likely (such as
Transmetal Megatron) that it is simply cast out of more easily broken
plastic.
{{-}}
==Toys commonly associated with Gold Plastic Syndrome==
====Generation 1====
* [[Scorponok (G1)|BlackZarak]]
* [[Bristleback]]
* [[Roadblock (G1)|Roadblock]]
* [[Skyhammer (G1)|Skyhammer]]
* [[Slog]]
* [[Killbison]]
* [[Thunder Clash]]

====Generation 1-2 Transitional Phase====
* [[Pyro]]

====Generation 2====
* [[Electro]]
* [[Slingshot]]
(Slingshot is infamous for being made almost entirely of gold plastic,
and has been reported to come apart straight out of the package [http://groups.google.com/group/alt.toys.transformers/msg/2b8b3dec846e5479?hl=en].)

====Beast Wars====
* [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]]
* [[Randy (BWN)|Randy]]
* [[Silverbolt (G1)|Silverbolt]]
* [[Soundwave (BW)|Soundwave]]
* [[Torca]] - His legs, tail hinge and sides are prone to Gold Plastic Syndrome.
* NOT Transmetal Megatron. He suffers from something different entirely: Brown Plastic Syndrome.

====Other notable instances====
* [[Predator]] [[missile]] launchers
* [[Serpentor]], while not a Transformer, is also known to suffer from this problem.

==Clear Plastic Syndrome==
There is a similar condition in figures made with translucent and
transparent colored plastics. Though it doesn't seem anywhere near as
bad as Gold Plastic Syndrome (which can affect ANY part of a figure),
it seems to affect mostly the joints, either pivot or ball versions.
The main cause of this is the higher friction ratio the plastic has
(pin joints seem to be more susceptible) and the lower flexibility of
the plastic. Some toys were made entirely of clear plastic and didn't
fare much better than ones made entirely of gold plastic. Sorry, [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]].

==Etymology==
The earliest use of the term that can be found in the
alt.toys.transformers archives dates to September 2002 in a post by
user Sky Shadow [http://groups.google.co.uk/group/alt.toys.transformers/msg/2b3d532961b2c2dc],
though it is unclear from his usage of the term whether or not it was
already in use. A post by Dave "Zobovor" Edwards, meanwhile, made in
June of the previous year,[http://groups.google.co.uk/group/alt.toys.transformers/msg/6ed7e0f3586f37e4], is the earliest identifiable acknowledgment of the widespread nature of the phenomenon within the Transformers fan community.

[[Category:Diseases]]
[[Category:Toys]]