User:JW/Sandbox

Dehumanizing

The opposite of humanizing, dehumanizing occurs when the writers of Transformers fiction deliberately remove "human" elements from the characters, replacing it with robot-specific elements. Examples:

"I got something in my optics." (Not "eyes".)

"I used to chase turbo-foxes back home." (Not "foxes".)

"I've got a bad feeling in my carburetor." (Not "gut".)

Sometimes this can get kinda silly.

"You can lead a Cybertronian robo-horse to an oil slick, but you can't make it lubricate."

Toyetic

"Toyetic" can refer to one of two things:

A toy which can easily be marketed in a piece of fiction. (Like Transformers, but unlike a hula hoop, for example.)
An element from a piece of fiction (a character, a prop, a location) which can easily be made into a toy.

The relevance to Transformers is obvious. Uniquely, Hasbro's impetus to create the Transformers brand began with neither a work of fiction they wished to adapt, nor specific toys they wanted to market, but rather simply a nebulous desire to create a new toy/cartoon/comic book property akin to G.I. Joe.

Introdump

An introdump (also known as name-dropping, name-checking, a 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. 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). Presumably, 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. However, it pops up across the whole spectrum of Transformers fiction (though less frequently in fiction not explictly in a "to sell toys" role). In particularly egregious examples, the characters also describe their "selling points" (weapons, etc.).

Here are four examples, from most graceful to least:

Lugnut: Megatron is wise! Megatron is bold! Megatron will return the Decepticons to Cyberton 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 usual, Blackarachnia, your demeanor is as unpleasant as that accursed organic mode of yours.
Blackarachnia: Blow it out your actuator, three-face.
Blitzwing: De name is Blitzving, insect!

—The Decepticons bicker, giving their names and at least one important fact per character.

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.