Introdump

The buying public will never suspect their TRUE NATURES as commercial products until it is TOO LATE!

An introdump (also known as name-dropping, name-checking, forced introduction, or "really awkward self-exposition") is a scene in which new characters are introduced, and the dialog goes out of its way to give each character's name. It is particularly prevalent in certain portions of Transformers fiction.

Sometimes the characters give their own names (referring to themselves in the third person). On other occasions, the characters will work each other's names into the dialog. The classic G1 Marvel Comic was particularly guilty of this, not least because they introduced on the order of 200 characters across only 84 issues (counting Headmasters). In that comic, it was usually signified by the writing of each new character's name in bold typeface.

Because most Transformers fiction exists to sell toys, it seems likely that Hasbro required the writers of the comic to make sure every new character was explicitly named, so the readers could then go out and ask the toy store employee for 'em by name.

Though the G1 comics were particularly notorious for it, introdumps pop up across the whole spectrum of Transformers fiction. In egregious examples, the characters also describe their "selling points" (weapons, etc.)

Here are four examples, from most graceful to least:

Transformers Animated

• Here, the Decepticons bicker, giving their names and at least one important fact per character:

Lugnut: Megatron is wise! Megatron is bold! Megatron will return the Decepticons to Cybertron and...

Blackarachnia: ...and wipe our homeland clean of the stench of Autobot tyranny, blah-dee blah blah blah! Did you memorize that speech, Lugnut? Or is it just hardwired into that thick, one-track processor of yours?

Blitzwing: (as Icy) As usual, Blackarachnia, your demeanor is as unpleasant as that accursed organic mode of yours.

Blackarachnia: Blow it out your actuator, three-face.

Blitzwing: (switches to Hothead) Ze name is Blitzving, insect! Remember it! Cause it's ze last thing you'll hear before I-(switches to Random) express my feelings in song!

• Starscream activates his army of clones and hilarity ensues; although their names are not given, their personality traits are clearly spelled out:

Skywarp, the Coward Starscream: Us? Against Megatron?!? ARE YOU INSANE?!? [Meekly] Ah, I think I just sprang an oil leak...
Thundercracker, the Egomaniac Starscream: Silence, you fool! Megatron is a worthless pile of scrap metal compared to my genius.
Sunstorm, the Sycophant Starscream: Brilliant observation! Brilliant! But your genius pales in comparison to the genius of our leader, the original Starscream.
Starscream: Mmm, I could listen to this one all day!
Ramjet, the Liar Starscream: What are you talking about? I am the original Starscream!
Starscream: Liar! I am the original Starscream.
Ramjet: I never said I was the original Starscream.
Starscream: You just did right now.
Ramjet: No, I didn't.
Starscream: Yes, you did.
Ramjet: No, I didn't.
Starscream: Yes, you did!
Ramjet: No. I. Didn't.
Slipstream, the Female Starscream: Ohh, haven't you figured it out yet? He's a pathological liar. Each of us clones represents one aspect of your personality. [points to each clone in turn] He's a coward... he's an egomaniac... he's a suck-up... he's a liar.
Ramjet: I am not!
Starscream: So, which part of me did you come from?
Slipstream: Don't ask.
Starscream: [sigh] This is going to be a long orbital cycle.

Beast Wars

Painful Introductions The Maximals introduce themselves. — 350 KB

• In the sound clip at right, from the first episode of Beast Wars, the writers at least have the justification that the characters are adopting new names at that moment.
• Why did... why did they need new names?

Marvel Comics G1

Mouseketeer roll call!

• At right, the Stunticons introduce themselves in "Heavy Traffic!". Bonus points for Drag Strip, who goes the extra mile by indicating his personality, too.

Ten characters, nine color schemes, and only six molds.

• A particularly heavy example, from the first issue of the US comic. (Note Rumble's ironic comment of "Can the speeches.")

IDW Comics

By contrast, the IDW comics seem to go out of their way to avoid introdumps, meaning that sometimes a character with an all-new design will go unnamed for several issues, forcing readers to guess who they are. And the occasional new character is tossed in (and left unnamed) just to make things even more of a challenge. (For instance, Drift, who isn't even named in his first appearance except on the retailer incentive cover.) The ongoing IDW series occasionally uses captions to identify some (but not all) characters by name rather than dropping these names in dialogue.

• The exception to the rule is IDW's Animated Movie Adaptation, in which writer Bob Budiansky gives characters whose toys had been available 20 years earlier (!) more blatant introdumps than in The Transformers: The Movie itself. Old habits, probably.

External links

• A parallel coining of "introdump", in the context of prose SF.
• "Infodump", a broader term, at the Wikipedia.;