Misconceptions and urban legends about Transformers

Over the years, many misconceptions and urban legends have sprung up within Transformers fandom, often resulting from such factors as fuzzy childhood memories, inaccurate catalog illustrations, and mistranslations of foreign material.

Toys

Generation 1

• A now-rare (and thus valuable) blue variant of Bluestreak was available during Generation 1.

The very earliest Generation 1 toy catalogs used a photo of a blue-sided Diaclone Fairlady Z to represent Bluestreak, giving rise to a long-standing myth that a blue Bluestreak toy was sold under the Transformers brand during Generation 1, with some people going so far as to "remember" owning blue Bluestreaks as children, or at least knowing someone else who did. Adding to the confusion, ToyFare magazine has a long history of listing the supposed blue Bluestreak as a "foreign variant" in its monthly price guide.

However, actual samples of a blue-sided Bluestreak in a sealed Transformers box have never appeared, and the collectors who have been at it since the very beginning and amassed insane numbers of rare Transformers have never seen one.

• A show-accurate Skyfire toy was available during Generation 1.

Due to some legal entanglements, Jetfire was renamed "Skyfire" for the Generation 1 cartoon, with a character model that bore only a vague resemblance to the toy. Some confused viewers seem to have come away assuming that there had to be a show-accurate Generation 1 toy by the name of Skyfire. (The Classics Jetfire toy is actually designed as a mix between the original toy and the cartoon character model.)

• A green variant of Trailbreaker was available in some European countries.

This belief seems to stem from the fact that IGA's Mexican version of Hoist (which, like most Mexican Transformers, was widely available on the European gray market circa 1989) used the same head sculpt as Trailbreaker. But like the Bluestreak, no samples have been found.

• Some Generation 1 toy molds were in use as long ago as 1974.

Some Microchange-derived toys have the text "©1974 TAKARA" stamped on them, and as a result are occasionally sold on eBay with descriptions such as "original 1974 Ravage". However, the date 1974 refers to the introduction of the original Microman franchise; the first Microchange toys weren't even designed until the early 1980s.

• A winged variant of Sludge was available during Generation 1.

A Sludge knockoff that featured wings and a pterodactyl-like beast head was fairly commonplace during the Generation 1 era, and in some cases people who owned this knockoff as children seem to have misremembered it as being a HasTak-produced variant. [14]

• A "giant"-sized Optimus Prime toy was available during Generation 1.

In at least a few cases, claims regarding a "giant" Generation 1 Prime may stem from dim memories of coming across oversized Optimus Prime knockoffs that were made in Korea... or because they had the normal Prime as kids, when they (the former kids) were about half the height they are now.

Generation 2

• "Generation 2" means "after The Transformers: The Movie."

This common but explicitly false idea probably stems from the many casual fans who grew up with the original Transformers line but stopped paying much attention around 1986, when the animated Transformers: The Movie debuted and the Transformers craze began to die down. Many such fans regained some interest in Transformers many years later, particularly with hype surrounding the 2007 live-action movie. Seeing the phrase "G2" batted around in fandom, it might seem natural to assume it refers to the big changeover that happened with the animated film. It certainly didn't help that, early in the life of Dreamwave, Pat Lee shared in this misconception, leading other new arrivals to the fandom to ape his use of the term.

While the original animated movie certainly marked a change from one "generation" of toys to another, along some new design trends, the phrase "Generation 2" means a very specific franchise, marketed from 1992 to 1995 -- years after the animated film had come and gone. Its relative obscurity probably contributes to the mis-attribution of the term, as G2 marks a low point in popularity for Transformers as a whole.

Robots in Disguise

• The Robots in Disguise toyline was known as "Transformers 2000" in Japan.

As information about the then-new Car Robots toyline began to trickle out of Japan in 2000, early rumors purportedly from Japanese sources indicated that it was officially named "Transformers 2000". It's possible those Japanese sources were also going by early, inaccurate rumors or perhaps a soon-to-be-discarded working title for the line. The idea persisted with many Western fans well after the true name of the show was revealed, encouraged by online import retailers (who were equally misinformed) using the title to promote pre-orders on their sites.

Other

• Takara's Japanese-market releases are always of intrinsically better quality than their U.S. counterparts. (E.g., they have sweeter exclusives, and are always more show-accurate, have more accessories, and have tighter quality control.)

This one depends a bit on the speaker, as it can either be a genuine misconception, a matter of opinion, or at worst, willful snobbery. But, like any broad generalization, it does have some basis.

• "Better quality" can refer to the fact that Japanese versions of individual toys sometimes have clear plastic instead of painted-on windows like Movie Bumblebee, or have vac-metallized parts where the equivalent U.S. release doesn't, like Energon Optimus Prime/Grand Convoy. Or, "better" quality can refer to the fact that Japan is a less litigious society, with different toy safety laws, and Takara can thus give Prime toys old-school long smokestacks, which are now shortened in the litigious U.S. These laws also mean that Masterpiece Megatron is freely available in Japan, but hard to get in the U.S. (the exact opposite of real handguns, ironically).

• "More show-accurate decos" does have some basis, as Takara frequently releases its toys later than Hasbro does Stateside, and thus they are better able to reflect discrepancies between late-run changes to a character's coloration in a show (such as with the original Rattrap or Armada's Tidal Wave). The most extreme example of this was 'Beast Wars Returns, the Japanese release of Beast Machines, which was years later than in the U.S., allowing Takara to add a lot of the deco that was added to the characters by Mainframe Entertainment that was not the original toys. (See also: Show-accuracy)

• "More accessories" mostly comes from the fact that some of Takara's releases have some extra accessories, but the only cases of this before the recent reissues were Fortress Maximus's two swords, Megatron's sword and bullets (even though the Japanese release lacked the barrel, scope and stock extensions) and clear cases from the various cassettes. Recently, Japanese reissues have included additional accessories from the cartoon (the axe, chain mace, Energon cubes and gun-mode Megatron in the Transformers Collection reissues of Optimus and Megatron, Insecticons and Starscream, respectively, the Matrix from New Year's Convoy). Some Superlink releases came with redecoed Energon weapons as well.

• "Sweeter exclusives" is really a matter of taste. If endless redecos of Generation 1 toys as completely unprecedented Generation 1 characters, buying $40 worth of toys you got a month ago for a single Mini-Con, and shelling out half your mortgage for Lucky Draw gold chrome figures is what floats your boat, then yeah, Japan has better exclusives.

• "Tighter quality control" is a total myth. Takara products are manufactured under much the same production conditions as Hasbro's (pretty much everything for both markets is made in China), and their standards of quality control are just as likely to let mistakes creep through.

• Hasbro is responsible for your local store not having the newest toys right now.

Hasbro actually has almost nothing to do with distribution (when Product A arrives in Store B) beyond making sure the manufactured product leaves the factories and shipyards of China at the desired time. Once the items arrive on US shores, they are almost immediately sent from the ships to the distribution centers for the retail chains that ordered them. From there, it's more truck rides to various regional warehouses, which is all controlled by the retailers, not Hasbro. After that, the schedule for taking product from those warehouses and putting it on shelves is dictated by each chain's inventory system.

It's conceivable that Hasbro could take more control of the situation, but that would require chains like Wal-Mart to release the vice-like death grip they have on manufacturers' nuts that lets them dictate how the system works... and they're sooooooo not doing that.

Fiction

Generation 1

The original cartoon

• The original The Transformers series was redubbed anime which originated in Japan, just like Battle of the Planets, Voltron, Robotech and other such shows screened in the '80s.

Although most moderate-to-hardcore fans are well aware that this is a fallacy, there are those more casual fans (or those who have not rewatched the Generation 1 cartoon since childhood) who are under the misconception that The Transformers was an anime.

Although the original toyline and thus the characters' basic visual designs were taken from Japanese-originated products, the original characters, names, factions and entire story premise of the whole Transformers franchise were developed in the United States by Hasbro, Marvel and eventually Sunbow. Although the animation was farmed out, the writing and original voice recording of all four seasons of the original series plus The Movie were entirely done in America.

This misconception probably stems from distant childhood memories of the cartoon, coupled with the later realization that shows like the aforementioned Robotech were redubbed anime (presuming they didn't know this when they were kids) and, due to Transformers' obvious Japanese influence, have made the assumption that it too was anime. This may also be due to passing exposure to Robots in Disguise and the Unicron Trilogy shows which, viewed as an adult, are very obviously redubbed anime.

• Headmasters was going to be dubbed into English and shown in America.

In America, "Season 4" consisted of "The Rebirth", a 3-episode mini-series. In Japan, "The Rebirth" was ignored, and a full-fledged series titled Headmasters continued the story instead. Rumors once swirled in the fandom of an American-led dub of Headmasters series; the dub was largely finished, goes the story, till the materials were lost in a warehouse fire.

Given the meandering pace of the series (common for Japanese shows but anathema to American sensibilities), the presence of numerous characters who had no toy equivalent on US shelves, the incompatibility with the "Nebulan" head characters, the number of Japanese cultural references, and the very existence of "The Rebirth", this rumor seems unlikely on the surface.

More to the point, no official confirmation or other evidence has ever surfaced to back it up.

The Transformers: The Movie

• There exists an "uncut version" of The Transformers: The Movie containing all sorts of non-kid-friendly content.

These stories stem mainly from the fact that many home-video releases of The Transformers: The Movie omit two relatively minor instances of characters using profanity, which during the 1990s resulted in some alt.toys.transformers posters advertising "uncut" VHS copies of the movie for sale, thus either intentionally or unintentionally creating the myth of a really foul-mouthed and ultra-violent alternate version of The Transformers: The Movie. A much stranger rumor, whose origins are unclear, claims that the original theatrical cut of The Transformers: The Movie depicted Optimus Prime crumbling into dust after dying, and that that scene was cut by the distributor in mid-release because children were traumatized by the imagery.

• The Transformers: The Movie was never released in Japan.

A widespread (but false) assumption among Western fans holds that The Transformers: The Movie is not part of Japanese Generation 1 canon, and that Scramble City was effectively its Japanese replacement. The Transformers: The Movie went unreleased in Japan until August 1989, and the various discrepancies between it and subsequent Japan-only Generation 1 fiction are largely a matter of the Japanese animators and writers being unaware of the precise details of The Transformers: The Movie.

• The Transformers: The Movie was released in Japan under the title Matrix Forever.

Matrix Forever was actually the title of a 20-minute video created to promote the Japanese release of The Transformers: The Movie, but some Western (and even Japanese) fans have been confused into thinking that The Transformers: The Movie itself was renamed Matrix Forever.

Japanese Generation 1 fiction

• In Japanese continuity, Megatron and Galvatron are two separate characters.

There a few instances of Japanese fiction that would seem to support this notion, all of which can be attributed to a lack of communication between Hasbro and Takara prior to the release of The Transformers: The Movie. There is also a Transformers: 2010 manga story that depicts Galvatron commanding a legion of automatons created in Megatron's image, which some non-Japanese-speaking fans have interpreted as depicting Galvatron and Megatron co-existing.

• In Japanese continuity, the Destrons (Decepticons) were invaders from a planet called Destron.

The Autobots were renamed "Cybertrons" in the Japanese translation, resulting in a misconception that the Destrons must hail from somewhere other than the planet Cybertron. However, the Japanese translation also renamed Cybertron "Seibertron" in order to avoid confusion.

• Black Shadow and Blue Bacchus are both members of a "Space Mafia".

Black Shadow and Blue Bacchus, two characters from Victory, both have their function listed as "Space Gangster". An early fan translation of their tech specs misinterpreted the Japanese word for "gangster" to mean "Mafia", hence the belief that a "Space Mafia" exists in the Japanese Generation 1 universe.

• Metrotitan is a zombie version of Metroplex.

Metrotitan was a Destron redeco of Metroplex from the Zone portion of Japanese Generation 1 continuity. For unclear reasons, Western fans believe that Metrotitan was a "zombified" version of Metroplex, and a stranger variation on this rumor holds that Metrotitan was somehow "regrown" from one of Metroplex's legs.

European Generation 1 fiction

• Starscream and Shrapnel are female characters in the French dub of Generation 1.

This rumor is only partly true. The Transformers Generation 1 animated medium used three different dub teams for the French version: one for the TV show's dub broadcast in Quebec, one for the TV show's dub broadcast in France and one for the 1986 movie used in both countries. Neither of the TV show's dubs use Starscream as a female as he uses a distinctively male voice, however the movie's dubbing team used a female voice for Starscream, and at one point Megatron calls Starscream "une imbécile" (articles in French are gender-specific), clearly cementing Starscream's movie status as a female. All the same is also true for Shrapnel, who is even referred to as "Mademoiselle Shrapnel" by Kickback in the movie.

• The German version of The Transformers: The Movie was edited and didn't depict Starscream's death scene.

German TV didn't air a dubbed version of the Generation 1 cartoon until 1989. The Transformers: The Movie was aired for the first time on German TV in 1994, with only one repeat. For unknown reasons, a rumor was circulating for several years claiming that Starscream's death was considered too "violent" for German TV standards for children's programs and had therefore been edited out. However, recordings of the TV airing still exist, which don't feature any obvious edits other than Spike's infamous "swear" line. Furthermore, a German DVD edition of the movie released in 2004 that features an entirely different dub also depicts Starscream's death in all its glory.

Beast Wars

• In Japanese Beast Wars continuity, Optimus Primal and Megatron were the same characters as their Generation 1 namesakes.

Although the Japanese dub of the Beast Wars cartoon originally did state that Primal and Megatron were new incarnations of the Generation 1 faction leaders (possibly due to a communications breakdown with Hasbro and/or Mainframe), the translators eventually backed away from that idea.

• In Beast Wars II, Apache is a drunkard as part of a Native American stereotype.

Apache did indeed get drunk in the first episode of the Beast Wars II cartoon... but only in grief, believing (erroneously) that his actions earlier had caused the death of Lio Convoy (which didn't happen). He did not get drunk again for the duration of the cartoon, nor did he ever do so in the manga. Outside of that, the Native American stereotype "common" to Japanese fictions is a stoic, silent, and often mystical warrior... none of which could be used to accurately describe Apache at all.

Robots in Disguise

• The Japanese Car Robots cartoon was a direct sequel to Beast Wars Neo.

Some fans seem to have concluded, based on the similar animation style and overall tone, that the Car Robots cartoon was meant to pick up where Beast Wars Neo had left off, but all indications are that Car Robots wasn't meant to take place in any pre-existing TF continuity. But now Takara says it's in the Generation 1 continuity. Along with the 2007 movie. Oooookay.

Transformers (2007)

• Transformers was nearly rated R by the MPAA.

In the spring of 2007, it was reported that Disturbia, a then-upcoming DreamWorks film starring Shia LaBeouf and produced by Steven Spielberg, had received an R rating from the Motion Picture Association of America. That film's rating was eventually lowered to PG-13 on appeal, but in the meantime some Transformers fans became confused and believed that it was Transformers that had been rated R, leading to some heated discussion on Transformers message boards.

External links

• Ten popular but incorrect rumors about Japanese Transformers
  
  
  From Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki, a Wikia wiki.