User:The Wadapan/sandbox/repurposing
Being a fiction-first encyclopedia, TFWiki's toy coverage can often be inconsistent. The overall topic of this sandbox is a common failure mode for articles, where a single toy is used as the basis for two characters which are sufficiently distinct (at least for the purposes of the site's organisational schema) as to warrant two separate articles. The concept of "repurposing" as a shorthand was used on the wiki to document this practise, with toy writeups often being duplicated across both articles. Maintaining these redundant writeups is labour-intensive, or just doesn't happen.
The wiki's organisational schema was conceived at a time when each new Transformers series marked a significant reinvention over those preceding, and it was rare for characters except Optimus Prime, Megatron, etc. to recur more-or-less unchanged across these series. For many years, however, the direction of the franchise has been moving towards a more "continuity"-agnostic paradigm, where the same character can show up again and again from series to series, and where everything broadly resembles G1. It's up to readers to understand our schema, navigating between multiple pages to get the full context for the history of a single character.
In response to this slow paradigm shift, the wiki has developed two main tools. The first is Template:OtherVersions, an infobox which goes at the end of a character article to crosslink to other articles that exist for the "same character", just in different continuities. This infobox is buried at the bottom of the article, if it's even been applied at all, which it usually hasn't. The second is the shorthand "continuity transplant", used to mean a character lifted more-or-less unchanged from a separate continuity family. This is an entirely made-up concept and no official Transformers writer has ever thought about using a character in these terms. Sometimes, the prior term "repurposing" is also used to refer to the same practise. This results in nonsensical sentences along the lines of "Barricade (this continuity) was repurposed as Barricade (that continuity)". I previously brought up that I felt this was silly, and proposed merging a bunch of obvious cases, which basically everyone was reasonably opposed to. User:Broadside mocked up an alternate solution which makes use of Template:Main and/or Template:See to put a link to the relevant information exactly where the reader expects to find it; I felt that this was a great compromise and unambiguously a substantial improvement which would make navigation far easier for readers with next to no upkeep required and no further erosion of the continuity-family-based organisational schema. In cases of so-called continuity transplants, I'm also experimenting with the idea of using Template:Disambig3.5 in conjunction with Template:OtherVersions to have the link at both the top and bottom of the article, as in Bug Bite. More liberal use of Template:Main could also be used to get rid of redundant toy entries, by having repurposed entries simply consist of "Hey, this toy exists, and it was repurposed as this character in this story for xyz reasons," with the main article linkout to the full toy writeup.
I've more recently observed that there are also many cases of almost the opposite situation: huge catch-all (G1) pages, or otherwise characters with a long fictional history, or with lots of toys, where the fictional history of the character and the history in toys are entirely divorced from one another. There's often no way to tell which toy a character appeared as for given events in their biography, or vice versa, what events depicted the character using a specific toy. You just kind of have to look at the pictures, if there was space in the article for pictures.
To help address this, I've put together a new template to specifically cover "toy -> fiction" navigational relationships. A similar template, Template:Repurposed, was created way back in 2011, but had no functionality and was only used on a handful of pages. My new template is designed to apply in a much broader range of situations: Did the toy get used for a "continuity transplant" of the same character? Was it used to represent a character in a specific story? Was it repurposed as a different character? Did a so-called "virtual retool" (another made-up phrasing I've sidestepped entirely here) of this toy appear in a story? In each of these cases, the template can be used to give a link in a consistent format, which will help readers understand where to expect this information in a toy write-up and what exactly it means. In many cases, the information is already there, but my hope is that the existence of the template would help formalise and encourage the addition of this kind of information going forward. I hope it will also let concepts like repurposing, continuity transplants, and virtual redecos be handled more consistently in toy coverage. The tradeoff, as ever, is that templates are unintuitive and offputting to new editors.
I don't currently have a proposed template to cover "fiction -> toy" relationships—along the lines of "In this mobile game, Bumblebee is depicted according to his Reveal the Shield toy." The wiki's fiction writeups being mostly in-universe means it'd need to be a note template of some kind. Hopefully, though, you can get an idea of what I'm trying to address with this template. Feel free to add more examples. I'm interested to hear your thoughts!
The syntax for the template is as follows: {{toyappeared|repurpose=y|virtual=y|as=|in=|with=}}
{{#if: |This toy was repurposed as |{{#if: |The appearance of |}}}}Snow Cat{{#if: ||{{#if: || appeared with this design}}}} in the Beast Wars: Uprising prose story "Derailment"{{#if: | was based on this mold|}}{{#if: |, with a new |}}.
{{#if: |This toy was repurposed as |{{#if: |The appearance of |}}}}Ratchet's vehicle mode{{#if: ||{{#if: || appeared with this design}}}} in The Transformers: Lost Light issue #19{{#if: | was based on this mold|}}{{#if: |, with a new |}}.
{{#if: |This toy was repurposed as |{{#if: |The appearance of |}}}}Bumblebee{{#if: ||{{#if: || appeared with this design}}}} in the Transformers Legends, Transformers: Battle Tactics, and Transformers: Earth Wars mobile games{{#if: | was based on this mold|}}{{#if: |, with a new |}}.
{{#if: |This toy was repurposed as |{{#if: |The appearance of |}}}}Hot Shot{{#if: ||{{#if: || appeared with this design}}}} in the Armada cartoon until he obtained his Powerlinx colors in "Puppet"{{#if: | was based on this mold|}}{{#if: |, with a new |}}.
{{#if: |This toy was repurposed as |{{#if: |The appearance of |}}}}Hot Shot{{#if: ||{{#if: || appeared with this design}}}} in the Armada cartoon beginning with "Puppet"{{#if: | was based on this mold|}}{{#if: |, with a new |}}.
{{#if: y |This toy was repurposed as |{{#if: |The appearance of |}}}}the mass-produced Guardminders{{#if: y ||{{#if: || appeared with this design}}}} in Super-God Masterforce{{#if: | was based on this mold|}}{{#if: |, with a new |}}.
{{#if: |This toy was repurposed as |{{#if: |The appearance of |}}}}Darkwing{{#if: ||{{#if: || appeared with this design}}}} in Generation 2 issue #7{{#if: | was based on this mold|}}{{#if: |, with a new |}}.
{{#if: y |This toy was repurposed as |{{#if: |The appearance of |}}}}Ravage{{#if: y ||{{#if: || appeared with this design}}}} in the Beast Wars Metals manga{{#if: | was based on this mold|}}{{#if: |, with a new |}}.
{{#if: y |This toy was repurposed as |{{#if: |The appearance of |}}}}the Transmetal form for Packrat{{#if: y ||{{#if: || appeared with this design}}}} in Transformers: The Wreckers and other stories from 3H Productions{{#if: | was based on this mold|}}{{#if: |, with a new |}}.
{{#if: y |This toy was repurposed as |{{#if: |The appearance of |}}}}another version of Ravage{{#if: y ||{{#if: || appeared with this design}}}} in Hasbro product copy{{#if: | was based on this mold|}}{{#if: |, with a new |}}. In early 2000, Shadow Panther was offered directly to Western fans via the HasbroCollectors.com online service—but after a few months, it was relisted as "Tripredacus Agent" (the name "Ravage" being unavailable at the time due to trademark issues). The toy's online bio (a translation of the Japanese "Shadow Panther" bio) went unchanged, but was worded vaguely enough to apply to this new identity as well. The bio for the later Walmart-exclusive Transmetals 2 Tripredacus Agent established that the "former saboteur [...] adopted several aliases while involved with the Beast Wars", implicitly establishing that the Tripredacus Agent had previously gone by both Ravage (whose G1 function had been "saboteur") and Shadow Panther.
Like the other running-change redecoes of the Deployers, Rav was originally going to be renamed as a new character—in Rav's case, "Cro". {{#if: |This toy was repurposed as |{{#if: |The appearance of |}}}}Chro{{#if: ||{{#if: || appeared with this design}}}} in Transformers: The Wreckers as Cryotek's Targetmaster pet{{#if: | was based on this mold|}}{{#if: |, with a new |}}.
{{#if: |This toy was repurposed as |{{#if: |The appearance of |}}}}Blue Big Convoy{{#if: ||{{#if: || appeared with this design}}}} in the Transformers Legends manga and the Generations Selects Special Comic{{#if: | was based on this mold|}}{{#if: |, with a new |}}.
{{#if: y |This toy was repurposed as |{{#if: |The appearance of |}}}}the Vehicon drones belonging to Quake{{#if: y ||{{#if: || appeared with this design}}}} in Transformers: The Wreckers No. 1{{#if: | was based on this mold|}}{{#if: |, with a new |}}. Quake himself used the same design, but in his original G1 colors.
{{#if: |This toy was repurposed as |{{#if: |The appearance of |}}}}A tape deck which was the last surviving fragment of Soundwave{{#if: ||{{#if: || appeared with this design}}}} in the Transformers Animated episode "Sound and Fury"{{#if: | was based on this mold|}}{{#if: |, with a new |}}.
{{#if: y |This toy was repurposed as |{{#if: |The appearance of |}}}}Wreckage's new color scheme{{#if: y ||{{#if: || appeared with this design}}}} in Transformers: Alliance issue 2{{#if: | was based on this mold|}}{{#if: |, with a new |}}.
{{#if: |This toy was repurposed as |{{#if: |The appearance of |}}}}Lockdown{{#if: ||{{#if: || appeared with this design}}}} in The Transformers: Drift and The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye{{#if: | was based on this mold|}}{{#if: |, with a new |}}.
- {{#if: |This toy was repurposed as |{{#if: |The appearance of |}}}}Lockdown{{#if: ||{{#if: || appeared with this design}}}} in Transformers: Wreckers—Tread & Circuits issue #4, as a potential candidate for the Wreckers{{#if: | was based on this mold|}}{{#if: |, with a new |}}.
{{#if: y |This toy was repurposed as |{{#if: |The appearance of |}}}}Wheeljack{{#if: y ||{{#if: || appeared with this design}}}} in Fun Publications' Shattered Glass stories; he'd debuted with a similar design a couple of years prior in "Dungeons & Dinobots"{{#if: | was based on this mold|}}{{#if: |, with a new |}}. As the Downshift mold had a sculpted-in Autobot insignia, this was picked out with purple paint—which, together with the Decepticon insignias tampographed onto his sides, gives you the choice to use him as either character.
{{#if: y |This toy was repurposed as |{{#if: |The appearance of |}}}}Prima{{#if: y ||{{#if: || appeared with this design}}}} in Transformers: Tales of the Fallen issue #4{{#if: | was based on this mold|}}{{#if: |, with a new |}}. {{#if: |This toy was repurposed as |{{#if: y |The appearance of |}}}}the Vok Novaroids{{#if: ||{{#if: y || appeared with this design}}}} in the Transformers Legends manga "The Road to Legends' Revival Chapter 5: LG-EX Big Powered Prologue Part Two"{{#if: y | was based on this mold|}}{{#if: comet mode sporting a horrible mouth |, with a new comet mode sporting a horrible mouth|}}.
{{#if: |This toy was repurposed as |{{#if: y |The appearance of |}}}}Dead End{{#if: ||{{#if: y || appeared with this design}}}} in the Beast Wars: Uprising prose story "Intersectionality"{{#if: y | was based on this mold|}}{{#if: head |, with a new head|}}.
{{#if: |This toy was repurposed as |{{#if: y |The appearance of |}}}}Bludgeon's head{{#if: ||{{#if: y || appeared with this design}}}} in the e-HOBBY "Cybertron Magna Convoy" comic{{#if: y | was based on this mold|}}{{#if: body based on Titans Return Hardhead |, with a new body based on Titans Return Hardhead|}}.
{{#if: |This toy was repurposed as |{{#if: y |The appearance of |}}}}Devil Z{{#if: ||{{#if: y || appeared with this design}}}} in the Grand Maximus Transformers Legends comic{{#if: y | was based on this mold|}}{{#if: head from Scorponok and BlackZarak's color scheme |, with a new head from Scorponok and BlackZarak's color scheme|}}.
Beast Wars: Uprising characters
[edit]This template is intended to better formalise coverage of how Uprising reinterpreted characters; in particular, I think there are many cases where it'd help explain to the casual reader why the G1 continuity family page is separate at all.
The syntax for this one is: {{bwucharacter|minicon=y|bestial=y|mask=y|beastformer=y|character=|adaptation=|coexistswith=}}
In Beast Wars: Uprising, {{#if: |Mini-Cons don't exist|}}{{#if: |bestial Transformers|}}{{#if: |M.A.S.K. vehicles|}}{{#if: |Battle Beasts|}}{{#if: | are reimagined as proto-formers|}}{{#if: |{{#if: |, and |}}Transformers cannot share exactly the same name}}{{#if: |. Wing Saber is therefore|Wing Saber is}} a mode locked transport{{#if: |, coexisting with {{{coexistswith}}}|}}.
In Beast Wars: Uprising, {{#if: |Mini-Cons don't exist|}}{{#if: |bestial Transformers|}}{{#if: |M.A.S.K. vehicles|}}{{#if: |Battle Beasts|}}{{#if: | are reimagined as proto-formers|}}{{#if: |{{#if: |, and |}}Transformers cannot share exactly the same name}}{{#if: |. Photon T-34 is therefore|Photon T-34 is}} a Builder of Cybertron named simply "Photon"{{#if: |, coexisting with {{{coexistswith}}}|}}.
In Beast Wars: Uprising, {{#if: |Mini-Cons don't exist|}}{{#if: |bestial Transformers|}}{{#if: |M.A.S.K. vehicles|}}{{#if: |Battle Beasts|}}{{#if: | are reimagined as proto-formers|}}{{#if: "Generation 1" Inferno and Armada "Thunder" |{{#if: |, and |}}Transformers cannot share exactly the same name}}{{#if: "Generation 1" Inferno and Armada "Thunder" |. Inferno is therefore|Inferno is}} named "Formikon"{{#if: "Generation 1" Inferno and Armada "Thunder" |, coexisting with "Generation 1" Inferno and Armada "Thunder"|}}.
In Beast Wars: Uprising, {{#if: y |Mini-Cons don't exist|}}{{#if: |bestial Transformers|}}{{#if: |M.A.S.K. vehicles|}}{{#if: |Battle Beasts|}}{{#if: | are reimagined as proto-formers|}}{{#if: |{{#if: y |, and |}}Transformers cannot share exactly the same name}}{{#if: y |. Synapse is therefore|Synapse is}} a Micromaster{{#if: |, coexisting with {{{coexistswith}}}|}}.
In Beast Wars: Uprising, {{#if: y |Mini-Cons don't exist|}}{{#if: |bestial Transformers|}}{{#if: |M.A.S.K. vehicles|}}{{#if: |Battle Beasts|}}{{#if: | are reimagined as proto-formers|}}{{#if: a hypothetical Uprising version of Armada Scattor |{{#if: y |, and |}}Transformers cannot share exactly the same name}}{{#if: a hypothetical Uprising version of Armada Scattor |. Scattor is therefore|Scattor is}} a Micromaster named "Skat-or"{{#if: a hypothetical Uprising version of Armada Scattor |, coexisting with a hypothetical Uprising version of Armada Scattor|}}.
In Beast Wars: Uprising, {{#if: |Mini-Cons don't exist|}}{{#if: y |bestial Transformers|}}{{#if: |M.A.S.K. vehicles|}}{{#if: |Battle Beasts|}}{{#if: y | are reimagined as proto-formers|}}{{#if: |{{#if: y |, and |}}Transformers cannot share exactly the same name}}{{#if: y |. Snow Cat is therefore|Snow Cat is}} a Predacon{{#if: |, coexisting with {{{coexistswith}}}|}}.
In Beast Wars: Uprising, {{#if: |Mini-Cons don't exist|}}{{#if: y |bestial Transformers|}}{{#if: |M.A.S.K. vehicles|}}{{#if: |Battle Beasts|}}{{#if: y | are reimagined as proto-formers|}}{{#if: |{{#if: y |, and |}}Transformers cannot share exactly the same name}}{{#if: y |. Psychobat is therefore|Psychobat is}} a Predacon{{#if: |, coexisting with {{{coexistswith}}}|}}.
In Beast Wars: Uprising, {{#if: |Mini-Cons don't exist|}}{{#if: |bestial Transformers|}}{{#if: y |M.A.S.K. vehicles|}}{{#if: |Battle Beasts|}}{{#if: y | are reimagined as proto-formers|}}{{#if: |{{#if: y |, and |}}Transformers cannot share exactly the same name}}{{#if: y |. The Shark is therefore|The Shark is}} a Maximal named "Aura", after Gloria Baker's Aura Mask{{#if: |, coexisting with {{{coexistswith}}}|}}.
In Beast Wars: Uprising, {{#if: |Mini-Cons don't exist|}}{{#if: |bestial Transformers|}}{{#if: |M.A.S.K. vehicles|}}{{#if: y |Battle Beasts|}}{{#if: y | are reimagined as proto-formers|}}{{#if: |{{#if: y |, and |}}Transformers cannot share exactly the same name}}{{#if: y |. Battlefennec is therefore|Battlefennec is}} a Predacon named simply "Fennec"{{#if: |, coexisting with {{{coexistswith}}}|}}.
Full example
[edit]The next two sections give a mockup for how I think these templates should actually be used on a page. I deliberately picked Snow Cat, a character with practically nothing to him aside from the toy, for the purposes of illustration, though I think this definitely creates an appearance of overkill! In particular, I've never particularly liked Template:OtherVersions—it's huge, it's repetitive, it's got a big picture of two Optimus Primes on it. I'd be in favor of ditching usage of that template unless there are at least three versions of the character; it's just not necessary here. I do think Template:Disambig3.5 has real potential for use on "adaptational" characters as a way of pointing directly back towards the conceptual ancestor; you can see an example of that here. Again, maybe it's overkill, but I'm throwing everything at the wall here to show how much more could be done to tie these extremely-closely-related pages together.
Beast Wars: Uprising is definitely a pet example, hence my creation of a specific template, but I imagine that crosslinking in fiction sections for characters with appearances in multiple G1 stories (like Override (Cybertron)/Override (BWU)) or Barricade (Movie)/Barricade (IDW)) could work similarly—much as Override has a section header for "Cartoon continuity", the very end of her fiction section might have a section header for "Generation 1 continuity family", where rather than giving her biography, there's instead a brief overview of her appearances in G1 stories and a Template:See for more information. Broadside's Cy-Kill mockup is a perfect example. If fiction sections need to be strictly in-universe, maybe it'd be better to have it be a separate section for something like "Other continuities" from a more out-of-universe perspective. I'm totally ambivalent on the exact implementation of this, I just strongly feel that if the continuity family taxonomy exists as an organisational/navigational aid, you should be able to navigate directly from one page to the other. Right now, neither Snow Cat page even acknowledges the existence of the other!
As for the toy entry, you can see that I've trimmed back the entry on the Beast Wars: Uprising page to simply give a basic description of the toy, using Template:See for more information. (There was some brief discussion on Discord about using transclusion to mirror the content entirely, but it seems like an unideal solution.) This may help reduce page length in some cases, where giving the full detail would be redundant and unnecessary. I've also added a note section using the boilerplate text to explain why Snow Cat (BWU) even exists.
In my opinion, an approach along these lines applied site-wide would be straightforward enough, and could stand to significantly improve legibility and navigability for your typical user.
| This article is about . For other uses of "Snow Cat", see Snow Cat (disambiguation)|The name or term "Snow Cat" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Snow Cat (disambiguation).}} |
- Snow Cat is a Decepticon-allied Mini-Con from the Armada portion of the Unicron Trilogy continuity family (via the 2008 Universe toyline).
Snow Cat is a member of the Ground Surveillance Team.
Fiction
[edit]Beast Wars: Uprising
[edit] |{{#if:|, | and }}[[{{{2}}}|{{{2}}}]]}}{{#if:
|{{#if:|, |, and }}[[{{{3}}}|{{{3}}}]]}}{{#if:
|{{#if:|, |, and }}[[{{{4}}}|{{{4}}}]]}}{{#if:
|{{#if:|, |, and }}[[{{{5}}}|{{{5}}}]]}}{{#if:
|{{#if:|, |, and }}[[{{{6}}}|{{{6}}}]]}}{{#if:
|{{#if:|, |, and }}[[{{{7}}}|{{{7}}}]]}}{{#if:
|{{#if:|, |, and }}[[{{{8}}}|{{{8}}}]]}}{{#if:
|{{#if:|, |, and }}[[{{{9}}}|{{{9}}}]]}}{{#if:
|, and [[{{{10}}}|{{{10}}}]]}}{{#if: | (too many parameters in {{main}})}}
Here's where I'd put a brief summary of the key points of Snow Cat's appearance in this continuity—if he had any!
Toys
[edit]Universe (2008)
[edit]- Mini-Con Class 10 Pack (Multi-pack, 2009)
- Series: Armada Series
- Universe Snow Cat is a redeco of Classics Snarl, transforming into a robotic white tiger. He has a (non-firing) blaster hidden in his beast mode mouth. He has a "Powerlinx" socket on his right flank (left shoulder in robot mode) that allows him to attach to larger toys with compatible Powerlinx plugs.
- He was only available as part of a Mini-Con ten-pack with Windrazor, Ransack, Stockade, Overcharge, Sky Shadow, Scavenger, Longview, Treadshot, and Crosshairs. This set was only available at certain retailers, notably Kmart and Meijer in the US, Canadian Tire in Canada, and Tesco in the UK.
- {{#if: |This toy was repurposed as |{{#if: |The appearance of |}}}}Snow Cat{{#if: ||{{#if: || appeared with this design}}}} in the Beast Wars: Uprising prose story "Derailment"{{#if: | was based on this mold|}}{{#if: |, with a new |}}.
| {{#if:Classics|Classics mold:|}} Snarl
{{#if:*Hasbro:
|
style="text-align:{{{align}}};"|}}|
{{#if:||- |
{{{designer}}}|}} | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
See also
[edit]| This article is about the Predacon. For the Decepticon Mini-Con they're based on, see Snow Cat (Universe){{#switch:{{#sub:Snow Cat (Universe)|-1}}|!=|.=|?=|.}} For a list of other meanings, see Snow Cat (disambiguation). |
- Snow Cat is a Predacon from the Beast Wars: Uprising portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
Snow Cat is a member of the Resistance under the command of Twinstrike.
Fiction
[edit]Beast Wars: Uprising
[edit]Snow Cat was a member of Twinstrike's Resistance battalion in Lower Petrohex. Although they made their stand against the Vehicons, the hordes of Vehicons greatly outnumbered them and Snow Cat was forcibly converted. Presumably the former Snow Cat was then wiped out by the self-destructing Twinstrike. Derailment
Toys
[edit]Universe (2008)
[edit]- Mini-Con 10-Pack (Multi-pack, 2009)
- For further information, see: Snow Cat (Universe)#Universe (2008)
Notes
[edit]- In Beast Wars: Uprising, {{#if: |Mini-Cons don't exist|}}{{#if: y |bestial Transformers|}}{{#if: |M.A.S.K. vehicles|}}{{#if: |Battle Beasts|}}{{#if: y | are reimagined as proto-formers|}}{{#if: |{{#if: y |, and |}}Transformers cannot share exactly the same name}}{{#if: y |. Snow Cat is therefore|Snow Cat is}} a Predacon, not a Mini-Con or Micromaster{{#if: |, coexisting with {{{coexistswith}}}|}}.