Misconceptions and urban legends about Transformers
From MediaWiki
Over the year, 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 G1, 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 G1 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 G1 toy by the name of Skyfire. (Ironically, the Classics Jetfire toy is actually patterned after the Skyfire character model to a certain extent.)
- 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.
Fiction
Generation 1
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 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 G1 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 G1 fiction are largely a matter of the Japanese animators and writers being unaware of the precise details of The Transformers: The Movie. [1] [2] [3]
- 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. [4]
Japanese G1 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. [5]
- 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. [6]
- Metrotitan is a zombie version of Metroplex.
- Metrotitan was a Destron redeco of Metroplex from the Zone portion of Japanese G1 continuity. For unclear reasons, many Western TransFans 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. [7]
Beast Wars
- In Japanese BW continuity, Optimus Primal and Megatron were the same characters as their G1 namesakes.
- Although the Japanese dub of the Beast Wars cartoon originally did state that Primal and Megatron were new incarnations of the G1 faction leaders (possibly due to a communications breakdown with Hasbro and/or Mainframe), the translators eventually backed away from that idea. [8] [9]
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 G1 continuity. Along with the 2007 movie. Oooookay.[10]
