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===Transformers references===
===Transformers references===
* Pg 9a – [[Jim Sorenson (Animated)|Jim Sorenson]] and [[Bill Forster (Animated)|Bill Forster]] hail from [[universal stream]] Quadwal -3760.925 Theta. Universal streams are a means of classifying the numerous Transformers universes devised by authors [[Greg Sepelak]] and [[Trent Troop]], which first appeared in the Transformers Collectors Club story, [[Withered Hope]]. This particular classification, however, makes no sense, save for the “Theta” suffix, which indicates a “spoken word” or “live performance” scenario. The “-” sign also indicates they're from a reverse parallel universe, akin to the Shattered Glass fiction introduced at [[BotCon 2008]], the only other universal stream to be marked like this. “Don't ask,” the authors say.  
* Pg 9a – [[Jim Sorenson (Animated)|Jim Sorenson]] and [[Bill Forster (Animated)|Bill Forster]] hail from [[universal stream]] Quadwal -3760.925 Theta. Universal streams are a means of classifying the numerous Transformers universes devised by authors [[Greg Sepelak]] and [[Trent Troop]], which first appeared in the Transformers Collectors Club story, [[Withered Hope]]. This particular classification, however, makes no sense, save for the “Theta” suffix, which indicates a “spoken word” or “live performance” scenario. The “-” sign also indicates they're from a reverse parallel universe, akin to the Shattered Glass fiction introduced at [[BotCon 2008]], the only other universal stream to be marked like this. “Don't ask,” the authors say.  
** But we're the goddamned Transformers Wiki, so screw that "don't ask" stuff. We're nerds, we're gonna do this thing. "Quadwal" is an obvious play on "fourth wall," which is what this universal stream is breaking. September 25, 3760 BC is the first day of the Hebrew calendar, specifically the date some believe Creation began. (So that "-" sign has a double meaning!) So Sorenson and Forster hail from the Real Life Universe, or the negative universe version of it, hence why they are incarcerated criminals.
** But we're the fraggin' Transformers Wiki, so scrap that "don't ask" stuff. We're nerds, we're gonna do this thing. "Quadwal" is an obvious play on "fourth wall," which is what this universal stream is breaking. September 25, 3760 BC is the first day of the Hebrew calendar, specifically the date some believe Creation began. (So that "-" sign has a double meaning!) So Sorenson and Forster hail from the Real Life Universe, or the negative universe version of it, hence why they are incarcerated criminals.
* Pg 9b – The Reverse-Pretender technology used by Sorenson and Forster is a reference to several 1980s Transformers toy [[commercial]]s, which featured a child leaping into the air and transforming into Ultra Magnus.
* Pg 9b – The Reverse-Pretender technology used by Sorenson and Forster is a reference to several 1980s Transformers toy [[commercial]]s, which featured a child leaping into the air and transforming into Ultra Magnus.
* Pg 215 - Marty Isenberg mentions a [[GEEWUN|certain group of fans]], canonizing yet another fan-made term.
* Pg 215 - Marty Isenberg mentions a [[GEEWUN|certain group of fans]], canonizing yet another fan-made term.

Revision as of 20:45, 19 August 2013

Transformers Animated:
The AllSpark Almanac 		»

Ratchet's going to have his hands full cleaning these two up.
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published August 19, 2009
Written by Jim Sorenson and Bill Forster
Continuity Animated cartoon continuity
ISBN ISBN 1600104878

ISBN 978-1600104879

Page count 220
Price $19.99 USD
“ What a brilliant book! Probably the best I've ever read, human or Cybertronian. I can't recommend it strongly enough! ”

—Sunstorm, the rear cover of The AllSpark Almanac

Transformers Animated: The AllSpark Almanac is a lusty happy love-letter written to MediaWiki for our carnal pleasure.

The AllSpark Almanac is an encyclopedic examination of the entire Transformers Animated storyline universe. It presents exhaustively thorough character profiles and summaries of the first two seasons of the cartoon and the Animated Arrival comic book...all written completely in-universe, in the form of "interviews" with the characters or excerpts from their journals and other in-story media.

"Interstitial" interludes are presented out-of-universe and describe the design process behind the art, animation, and locations, as well as brief story summaries of the Titan Magazines Animated issues. Elements of toy design are covered as well, but comparatively briefly.

There are also an insane number of obscure references to Transformers minutiae culled from the 25-year history of the brand, as well as other sci-fi and entertainment franchises as well. Basically, all proper nouns and names refer to something or someone, even if that someone is a possibly non-existent character only mentioned once in a letters page of a foreign comic. And that's before we start talking about the numbers: Almost every seemingly incongruous alphanumeric string is a reference to another franchise, be it a Star Trek stardate or a Terminator's official designation. And that's just the content in English—about a third of the book's pages have large stretches covered in Cybertronix. Deciphered, these are all revealed to be non-Transformers-related passages, including song lyrics, catchphrases, memes, map coordinates and extensive, verbatim quotes from diverse sources ranging from Tennyson's Ulysses to Max Headroom. In particular, the book has a noticeable number of hidden references to Iron Maiden, courtesy of author Bill Forster, a massive fan of the band.

A sequel was published in late June 2010.

Contents

Chapter 1 - Autobots

Chapter one covers all Autobots who appear in the first two seasons of the cartoon.

Transformers references

The language describing Omega's strength deliberately hearkens back to Generation 1 Omega's Transformers Universe profile, describing how he can pulverize “steel cubes” of impressive volume and hit diminutive items from a great distance with his head cannon. Numerous Cybertronian units of measurement are used in the process; Omega is said to be able to lift 600,000 kilo-units (a measurement used by Bulkhead in the Animated episode "Rise of the Constructicons"); the dimensions of the aforementioned cube are given in mechanometers (used in the Generation 1 episode "City of Steel" and mentioned twice more in the book); and the distance at which he can blast a small object is given in hics (from the Marvel UK 1991 annual story "The Magnificent Six!" and used once more in the book).
Omega is also noted to be armed with concussion blasters (the personal weapon of Generation 1 Soundwave), pulsar bombs (used by the Predacons on two occasions in the Robots in Disguise cartoon), quasar beams (Generation 2 Blowout and Beast Wars Cheetor both wielded quasar cannons), friction cannons (G1 Runamuck was armed with a friction blaster) and aquasting missiles (weapon of choice of the Beast Wars Fuzor Injector).
And finally, Omega has armor enhanced with rheanimum.

Real-world references

  • Pg 46 – Ratchet speculates that Wreck-Gar must have “27,000 gags” hidden in his trash bin. The number 27 is a running gag in "Weird Al" Yankovic's songs... Al, of course, being the voice actor who played Wreck-Gar.

Errors

  • Page 33: The Magnus Hammer is referred to as a "Stormbreaker" hammer instead of "Stormbringer," a previously-given name for the weapon.


Chapter 2 - Decepticons

Character models for all Decepticons who appeared in Animated seasons one and two.

Transformers references

  • Pg 60 – Mentioned here and restated on pg 127, Megatron's swords are forged from tironium. As noted in his tech specs, his armor can deflect anti-proton lasers.
  • Pg 66 – As on his toy packaging, Lugnut is referred to with the nickname "The Kaon Krusher".
  • Pg 74 – Shockwave's cannon can fire blasts from anywhere in the electromagnetic spectrum, just like Generation 1 Shockwave could.
  • Pg 77 – Swindle's gyro gun and scatter blaster are named after the weapons of the original Generation 1 Swindle.
  • Pg 81 – Starscream claims to be the handsomest 'bot "this side of the Benzuli Expanse".
  • Pg 83-84 – Having gone unnamed in the Animated cartoon, Thundercracker, Sunstorm and Skywarp were all given names and powers derived from their Generation 1 counterparts when they were released as toys. The liar and female clones did not get toys, but The AllSpark Almanac carries on the trend; the liar clone is named Ramjet and is noted to have a reinforced nosecone for mid-air collisions, while the female clone gets the brand new name of Slipstream (which was previously revealed at BotCon 2009).
  • Pg 88 – Numerous weapons used by Lockdown in the cartoon are here given the names of similar weapons from other corners of the Transformers multiverse. He is armed with Sleep Nets (from the Generation 1 coloring book Bumblebee to the Rescue!), nova spray, and a lightning whip. His chainsaw is also described as being “micro-serrated”, language frequently used to describe the beak of Generation 1 Buzzsaw.

Real-world references

  • Pg 66 - Blitzwing calls Lugnut a “five-eyed, no-brained, flying purple people eater,” paraphrasing the 1958 Sheb Wooley song, “Purple People Eater”.
  • Pg 82 – Starscream's first sycophantic clone is given the numerical designation #2716057, the serial number of hard-drinking robot Bender from Futurama. The first cowardly clone, meanwhile, is marked #3370318, the serial number of Bender's identical duplicate, Flexo.

Chapter 3 - Humans

Character models and the occasional background image for the major humans of Animated.

Transformers references

  • Pg 94 – Swindle plans to imitate Angry Archer's antiquated dialect to help facilitate his next deal with the Darkling Lords of Prysmos. This is a reference to the 1987 Hasbro toyline, Visionaries; Prysmos was the planet upon which that series was set, and the Darkling Lords were the villains of the franchise. Visionaries was also a back-up strip for the UK Marvel Transformers comics.
  • Pg 101 – The name of Prometheus Black's company is given as Biotech Unbound, referring to the Greek poem, “Prometheus Unbound”, which was also the title of a Beast Machines episode.
  • Pg 103 – In the Animated cartoon, the bat-monster is noted as having formerly been Meltdown's lawyer. Here, Captain Fanzone notes that the shark-monster was his stock broker. In addition, he calls it a "Seafood Louis creature", and claims that it "kicks some serious fin," one of the multiple catchphrases of the cartoon series Street Sharks.
  • Pg 105 – Solon Kitakaze is named after Deathsaurus's cyborg son from the infamously kooky Victory manga.

Real-world references

  • Pg 97 – Slo-Mo is here given the first name of Samantha, and on pg 143, the surname of Lomow. So hey, it turns out that her real name is the same as Hasbro Senior Vice President of Global Marketing Samantha Lomow, on whom she was based.
  • Pg 105 – Ming-Li is named after author Jim Sorenson's wife, Ming-Li Wang. Shana Story is named for a friend of author Bill Forster, Shana Storey, who is credited in the acknowledgments section of their previous book, Transformers: The Ark II.
  • Pg 106 – Porter C. Powell's limousine is branded as a "TUX model", named for the GoBot it was designed to resemble.

Errors

  • Page 85: The "d" is left out of "Powdered Sugar."

Chapter 4 - Events

The episodes and comic stories that make up the primary Animated continuity, in order.


Transformers references

  • Pg 112 – An observation of the events of the first issue of the Animated comic by the trans-dimensional Vector Prime. He uses the aforementioned Universal Stream classification system to catalog this manuscript, identifying the Animated cartoon universe as “Malgus 1207.26 Alpha”. The designation is later used again on pg 117.
  • Pg 116 - Presumably, the trans-dimensional magazine Venus is named for Beast Wars Blackarachnia's voice actor, Venus Terzo. Whatever currency its cover price is in, it's represented with a “B” in Predacon Cybertronix! Blackarachnia wears the crown, shoulderpads and cape donned by Generation 1 Starscream for his coronation in The Transformers: The Movie. References on the cover include:
  • “Sparkmate” is a term used in the N64 Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals video game, to describe Tigatron and Airazor's romantic bond.
  • Chain of Command is the title of a Beast Wars episode.
  • Readers are invited to compare several pairs of Decepticon and Predacon fembots:
    • Clio is a Decepticon Powermaster mentioned by Blaster in the letters page of issue #315 of Marvel UK's Generation 1 comic. She is pitted against Lyzack, sister of Decepticon Breastforce warrior Leozack, who appears in the final issue of the Victory manga.
    • Manta Ray is a Beast Wars McDonalds Happy Meal figure, who was established as being female by IDW Publishing's Beast Wars Sourcebook. She is up against the equally aquatic Scylla, from Beast Wars II.
    • Flamewar and Nightracer are both BotCon exclusive female Decepticons, from 2005 and 1995, respectively. The match-up has a deeper meaning; Nightracer was created by notorious Decepticon fan Raksha, and some fans believe that Flamewar's personality is based on Raksha, though her creator Ben Yee denies it.
  • Revenge of the Fallen's Pretender Alice teaches readers how to disarm a foldspace warhead, a weapon which appears in the second issue of the UK's 2007 live-action movie comic.
  • The magazine's gossip columnist is Freezon, the Decepticon car included with Tyco's Transformers Electric Racing Set released in the 1980s. She is dishing the dirt on Lugnut and Strika's relationship, which was established in Strika's profile, published in issue #24 of the Transformers Collectors Club Official Magazine.
  • Beta Maxx is the partner of BotCon 2007 exclusive Alpha Trion, while Caliburn is partnered with 2004 exclusive, Megazarak. The cover identifies them as Mini-Cons, despite the fact that no previous writing has ever done so (Caliburn is explicitly a Micromaster, while Beta Maxx has only been referred to as an Autobot). Funnily enough, in late 2008, author Jim Sorenson was involved in an argument on the Transformers Wiki about Beta Maxx being a Mini-Con... hmmmn. Anyway, they're talking to Cybertron Thunderblast.
  • Pg 119a – Most of the weapons Swindle sells Lugnut and Blitzwing, and the planets he gets them from, are established, if obscure, Transformers items and locales. Most of them were named in the comic story this page covers, "Everything Must Go", but a few more things are named here. The full list includes:
  • Pg 119b – Optimus's evaluation form is rendered in the style of classic Transformers Tech Specs, but not any one particular design. The training exercise from the comic story “Survival Skills” is revealed to have taken place on Kaiba-5.
  • Pg 124-125 The article text of the Detroit Powell Press included in the AllSpark Almanac contain numerous references.
  • Irwin Spoon was a journalist who appeared in a three-part story in Marvel UK's Generation 1 comic.
  • Quake-Maker is a supervillain from the UK's Animated comic.
  • The Mechanic is a human criminal who battled the Autobots in two issues of the Marvel's original Generation 1 comic.
  • The Jack Boys are a motorcycle gang from the Super-God Masterforce cartoon.
  • Jake Lomax is a mob boss from issue #13 of Marvel's Generation 1 comic.
  • Jacob Lee Bonaventure is an industrialist from IDW's Hearts of Steel mini-series.
The sidebar on the page also makes numerous references:
Adverts refer to:
  • Dancitron, a musical event named for a dance club from the Generation 1 cartoon episode "Auto-Bop". Cold Slither is playing here, a band from the G.I. Joe cartoon episode of the same name, created as part of an evil Cobra plot. The piece of music composed as their signature tune was used as incidental music in several Transformers episodes.
  • Wyatt Toys, the toy store named after Animated art director Derrick J. Wyatt which appears in several episodes of the cartoon. The advert notes that the store sells Diaclone and Microman figures, the two toylines that were Transformers' progenitors.
  • Roadhog Horton's Motorcycle Show, named after Randy "Roadhog" Horton, a member of the bounty-hunting motorcyclist Roadjammers from issue #46 of the Marvel Generation 1 comic. His show also features autograph signings from Rorza, a reference to the Rocket-Cycle Racer from Rigel III of the same name from issue #44.
  • A horror movie named “Monster from Mars”, an elaborate reference to the movie of the same name that was the central plot element of "Monstercon from Mars!", issue #45 of the Marvel comic. In said issue, Decepticon Pretender Skullgrin starred in the title role; this poster features a monster designed to look like Skullgrin in the style of Meltdown's fusion creatures, in reference to the fact that Skullgrin's fellow Pretenders Submarauder and Bomb-Burst were the base for the two fusion creatures in the cartoon. In both the original comic and this version, the movie is directed by Rollie Friendly and stars Jake Colton and Carissa Carr; this version also adds Karen Fishook, an actress from the Generation 1 cartoon episode, "Hoist Goes Hollywood". The movie's soundtrack is by the High Rollahz, a band featured in The Transformers Trilogy novel, Hardwired.
  • Pg 127 – Unnamed in the original comic "'Bots of Science", Ratchet here notes that he has dubbed the cure for Cosmic Rust "Corrostop". Its ingredients include Ingredient X and razon gas.
  • Pg 134 – The Elite Guard ship is here given the name Steelhaven.
  • Pg 136 – Sari's notebook paper is decorated with an illustration of "Hello Nekomimi Pop-Star", a chibified, "Hello Kitty"-style version of Nekomimi A from the Energon episode, "Distribution". Nekomimi B appears on pg 147 in a similar fashion.
  • Pg 138-139
  • The brand of the tire in the logo is Wheeljack Tyres!
  • In the “fueltritional facts” box alone, there are references to:
  • The word jumble unscrambles to read “You lived like a warrior ans died to an hero”, an infamous quote from the late-1990s fanfic by MG-Dinobot, “Dinobot's Old Technology”, which was itself a misquote from the Beast Wars episode "Code of Hero". The quote went on to become one of the most famous online memes from that era of Transformers fandom.
    • The answer at the bottom of the page, however, claims it actually says “WhY mY ShOuldErs hUrT?”, a tortured quote from British fan Blueshift's famous re-scripting of the first Armada pack-in mini-comic. This was also the source of the above-mentioned “jaAm” line, which was since been immortalized on the license plate and packaging bio of the 2009 Universe Hot Shot figure.

Real-world references

Main article: Transformers Animated: The AllSpark Almanac/Events Real-world references

Errors

  • Page 117: Blackarachnia is spelled "Blacharachnia"
  • Page 133: "...have tried harder to recruit the Dinobots as allies, but I was so angry at Prowl's deception that I..." is repeated immediately following the first use in the third paragraph.
  • Page 145: The "c" is left out of "First (and Second) in Flight."

Chapter 5 - Culture

A catch-all for other aspects of Animated including ships, monsters and customs.

Transformers references

Real-world references

  • Pg 164 – Lockdown's spaceship used to be an “IG-2000” class ship, referring to the Star Wars ship that bore that name. It is outfitted with Deckard cannons (named for Rick Deckard from Blade Runner), Samus-blasters (named for Samus Aran from the Metroid series), and isomorphic controls preventing anyone other than Lockdown from piloting it, as does Doctor Who's TARDIS. Lockdown rounds out the paragraph by saying “a bot's got to know his limitations”, paraphrasing Clint Eastwood in Magnum Force.
  • Pg 165 - “A three hour tour!” cackles Blitzwing, quoting the theme tune of Gilligan's Island.
  • Pg 170/171 - Among the Halloween costumes are a Samhain, Headless Horseman, Afro Samurai, Destro, Cobra Commander and General Hawk.

Chapter 6 - Detroit

People, places and things in and about Detroit.

Transformers references

Real-world references


Chapter 7 - Settings

Background pictures and associated character models from the first two seasons of Animated.

Transformers references

  • Pg 200 – The generic Sumdac Systems technicians are named Eddie Fairchild and Matt Conroy. These are the names of two prototypical characters who existed in the development phase of the Generation 1 cartoon, who eventually evolved into Spike Witwicky and Chip Chase.
  • Pg 203 – Noted architect George R. Apple. G.R.Apple? Anybody? Anybody? C'mooon!
  • Pg 206 – The Nemesis is equipped with a Grand Mal class force field, named after the Grand Mal, the giant fortress-cum-giant head occupied by Beast Wars Megatron in the latter stages of the Beast Machines cartoon. It has a cybertroid alloy star drive (just like the Generation 1 Nemesis, as mentioned in the G1 episode Microbots), and has the most sophisticated sensor array this side of the Eshems Nebula, a region of space introduced in IDW Publishing's live-action movie-based Transformers: Defiance series.
  • Pg 207 – To escape the damaged Nemesis, the Decepticons used Devolan escape pods. The planet Devola was the site of a huge victory for the Decepticon Tidal Wave in the Armada universe.
  • Pg 211 – The crashed Decepticon ship on Archa Seven is named the Twilight, after the flagship from the Marvel Generation 2 comics.

Interstitials

The only place in the book where out-of-universe is presented, the interstitial pages covered divergent continuities as well as select aspects of the animation process. These appears at the end of a chapter.

  • Chapter 1: Lighting
  • Chapter 2: Transformations
  • Chapter 3: Opening Credits
  • Chapter 4: Titan Magazine
  • Chapter 5: Design Evolution
  • Chapter 6: Bee in the City
  • Chapter 7: Backgrounds

Literary elements

Including the copyright information, title page, foreword and afterwords, notes from the authors and acknowledgments.

Transformers references

  • Pg 9a – Jim Sorenson and Bill Forster hail from universal stream Quadwal -3760.925 Theta. Universal streams are a means of classifying the numerous Transformers universes devised by authors Greg Sepelak and Trent Troop, which first appeared in the Transformers Collectors Club story, Withered Hope. This particular classification, however, makes no sense, save for the “Theta” suffix, which indicates a “spoken word” or “live performance” scenario. The “-” sign also indicates they're from a reverse parallel universe, akin to the Shattered Glass fiction introduced at BotCon 2008, the only other universal stream to be marked like this. “Don't ask,” the authors say.
    • But we're the fraggin' Transformers Wiki, so scrap that "don't ask" stuff. We're nerds, we're gonna do this thing. "Quadwal" is an obvious play on "fourth wall," which is what this universal stream is breaking. September 25, 3760 BC is the first day of the Hebrew calendar, specifically the date some believe Creation began. (So that "-" sign has a double meaning!) So Sorenson and Forster hail from the Real Life Universe, or the negative universe version of it, hence why they are incarcerated criminals.
  • Pg 9b – The Reverse-Pretender technology used by Sorenson and Forster is a reference to several 1980s Transformers toy commercials, which featured a child leaping into the air and transforming into Ultra Magnus.
  • Pg 215 - Marty Isenberg mentions a certain group of fans, canonizing yet another fan-made term.

Errors

  • Page 2: In the indicia, the latter "r" is left out of "characters".
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