Talk:Squawkbox

Is this Squawktalk/Beasty Bos's Squakbox's first appearance... anywhere? (Hearts of Steel is awesome.) -Derik 00:23, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes, it is his Hearts of Steel body.

I'm sorry, 42.246, but that artwork is directly from the B cover to issue 3 of Hearts of Steel, and looks nothing like the toy, and very little like his (rare) appearances in more mainstream G1 continuities. I have no problem with using HoS art for this page (it's not like we have a lot to choose from) but it should be labeled as such. Unless there's massive dissent, I'll restore the caption in the near future. JW 23:43, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

We don't usually have a disclaimer note about what piece of fiction the picture is from. I object. - Starfield 14:35, 23 April 2009 (EDT)

Yes, but usually the main image is of the main/standard version of the character, and not an alternate reality version. I think this is necessary clarification. Though the best answer would really be for someone to track down a different image of Squawkbox, and just move this to the Hearts of Steel section of the page. Unfortunately that is easier said than done :S --Loudstone 14:45, 23 April 2009 (EDT)

I repeat my contention that this isn't his HOS body. -Derik 14:49, 23 April 2009 (EDT)

It may not be the one they eventually used, but it IS from the B cover of issue 3, and the full cover makes it pretty obviously a concept sketch: [Transformers: Evolutions 3-B on Comic Collector Live]. Maybe we should clarify this more, but it isn't his unaltered G1 body either. --Loudstone 15:11, 23 April 2009 (EDT)

And that is the source of the confusion. But it's not "his hearts of steel body." (Which looks entirely different in both design and colors.) It's not even an alternate character design-- it's 1 100% vanilla rendering of the G1 toy. I mean-- just look at the fucking toy photograph. No design elements not present int he G1 toy, and no color changes from the G1 toy. That is the G1 toy.

Fergods sake-- the Illustration in More Than Meets the Eye looks less like the G1 toy than this does! Someone screwed up on the IDW-side... probably the artist did a sketch figuring out what Squawkbox looked liked before he went about redesigning him, someone in the office went "Ooh, that looks nifty!" and used it withotu realizing it wasn't the HOS-version.

This is a perfectly representative picture of Squawkbox. -Derik 15:27, 23 April 2009 (EDT)

That's not entirely true, if you look at the full image, there are small gears, gauges, and rivets that heavily imply this was MEANT for HoS. The coloring is more muted and HoS-like as well. So I do agree that this is not his final "Hearts of Steel" body, but it's not purely his standard G1 body either, so the caption probably needs something. --Loudstone 15:44, 23 April 2009 (EDT)

You are picking nits over something that does not exist. Are you going to argue that Starscream (G1) needs its main image to have a caption saying "IDW promotional art" because it looks different than most artwork of the character? 129.89.158.215 15:48, 23 April 2009 (EDT) (Interrobang, at work)

IMHO it's different, since this was intended to be HoS variation of Squawkbox, where the other was just intended to be the standard G1 Starscream (with artistic license). But this is just my opinion on the matter, and the general consensus is what is important. I have no problem with it being changed at this point. I only undid the change the first time because the previous consensus (by silence) on here seemed different. --Loudstone 16:21, 23 April 2009 (EDT)

The kind of stylistic gloss you're talking about is just normal artist-to-artist variation though. Nick Roche drew Kup more 'different' than this in his spotlight, but it didn't represent a different body. Don's art of the G1 cast always looks distinctly Don, but that's not supposed to be a different incarnation. This if his G1 form. It has not been redesigned.

(Maybe part of the reason I'm so adamant abotu this is that I've owned the toy since it came one and know its lines by heart. That's the G1 toy, no question. It's the least-sucky of the combiner-robots.) -Derik 16:01, 23 April 2009 (EDT)

I understand your point, but I still think it was intended as his HoS version originally. I think we can all agree, though, that it's an awesome picture :) --Loudstone 16:21, 23 April 2009 (EDT)

That is a most-excellent picture of him. I doubt you would find a better one to replace it with. "Alternate reality version"? Every piece of fiction is an alternate-reality. Is HOS some kind of second-class alternate reality? - Starfield 15:14, 23 April 2009 (EDT)

When I say alternate reality, I mean alternate to the standard G1, not alternate to our reality :P. Hearts of Steel was an alternate timeline, and the transformers had different bodies, AKA different visual representations. --Loudstone 15:20, 23 April 2009 (EDT)

I know what you mean, I'm just of the opinion that HOS forms should be singled-out. Transformers have their pre-Earth forms, which are different between Marvel, Sunbow, Dreamwave, IDW... and their Earth forms, and their 19th century Earth forms. Some characters now have 1980's Earth modes that are different than 2000's Earth modes. Which of these are different bodies? Besides, this picture of Squawkbox pretty much looks like Squawkbox. Which is their normal body? Is it always the packaging art? - Starfield 15:38, 23 April 2009 (EDT)

Good point, my wording was poor. The difference to me is that the rest take place in the same timeline, where one character has all those different looks over time. The 19th century version is from a divergent timeline. But I turn it over to the majority rule. --Loudstone 16:21, 23 April 2009 (EDT)

Official Toy Name

This page lists his G1 toy as "Squawktalk & Beastbox (Micro Cassettes 2-pack, 1988)", but Beastbox and Squawktalk's pages list it as "Beastbox and Squawktalk (Cassette 2-pack, 1988)". Anyone know the official name of the pack (as well as whether Micro Cassettes or Cassette should be standard)? --Loudstone 14:19, 23 April 2009 (EDT)

The catalog for 1988 says "Mini-Cassettes". I think that is what we go by. I don't know about the card. - Starfield 14:32, 23 April 2009 (EDT)

I may be nine years late with this, but... [1]--Nevermore (talk) 08:41, 1 April 2018 (EDT)

Main pic

I get that this was discussed wayyy back when the wiki first started out, and I do find the HOS pic to be a pretty appealing image, but in a day and age where we are trying to find more "universally-friendly" main pics, wouldn't it be best to use his packaging art or something like that for his main pic—something that actually represents the cassette altmodes themselves over a "steampunkified" version of the character? As close to the original cassette design as the HOS image is, he does have quite a few straying elements, especially with the train wheels and steam gauges etc. present, and I feel that if HasTak or any of their licensees were to ever come back and utilize the character in the future, be it for a game or a toy, that it could potentially lead to a "circular reporting" incident where they blatantly incorporate train kibble into the final design. Idk, maybe that's just me, but I figured I'd bring it up anyway.

For the record, I'm not saying we can't have the HOS image in the article at all, we have small gallery sections at the bottom of other articles (e.g. Sureshock (Armada)#Gallery), which I think would be a perfectly fine place to put the image, so long as it can't be misinterpreted by the average viewer as cassette Squawkbox, by having it at the top. -- Fanofcoolstuff27 (talk) 20:41, 19 August 2023 (EDT)

Too late, the tabletop RPG had Squawkbox in it, with new art heavily based on the mainpic, even including the sepia effect. Okay, admittedly it's not exactly the most prominant appearance, but still it's a good example of what you're talking about. Utilizing his box art would probably be a good move. Tindalos (talk) 20:53, 20 August 2023 (EDT)

Yikes, really? In that case, a change is very much needed. -- Fanofcoolstuff27 (talk) 22:29, 20 August 2023 (EDT)

Either the box art or Dreamwave MTMTE. --Thylacine 2000 (talk) 23:05, 20 August 2023 (EDT)

As much as I like the Dreamwave MTMTE artwork, I think it similarly lacks a lot of the cassette details, so I think package art is probably the safest bet. -- Fanofcoolstuff27 (talk) 01:58, 21 August 2023 (EDT)