User:JW/Sandbox
Beast Wars
Relationship to Generation 1
The relationship between Beast Wars and the Generation 1 cartoon became most prominent at the end of the second season, and throughout the third season. The Maximals and Predacons discover the Ark, and the Maximals spend their time defending it in an effort to preserve their history. This can be seen as a metaphor for the relationship between the two TV series. The Maximals are literally walking among their own history, surrounded by giants out of their past, respectfully striving to preserve it and them untainted. This is a reasonable analogy for how the creators of the Beast Wars handled its relationship to Generation 1, and is part of why the show is admired by fans.
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.
