Talk:Transformers: Universe (2003 franchise)

Universe "2" how do we handle it.

The first pictures of toys in the new "Universe" line packaging have started to show up so I thought it was a good point to ask how we want to handle that line. The old Botcon tied Universe line kind of ended a year or two back now but we've had a few entries still trickling out in that packaging (to clearence storres like Big Lots). I've still been considering those part of the old line even though the main line and fiction had ended.

Now this new Universe banner begins. Is it a seperate thing or a new phase of the old? DO we consider it a continuation of the old Universe franchise even though that's basically been defunct and its a fresh start that "fictionally" will be totally divorced from that line, serveing rather as a blanket label for any non-Animated release regardless of continuity/story matters? Or does the "new start" make it a new franchise necessitating its own page/label. --ZacWilliam 12:52, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Maybe we could use something like "Universe (2008)" for the new Universe line? Hm. --TX55 15:12, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Keeping it in the same place would, in some ways, be simpler... but it would muck up a lot of fiction ideas, especially things like the Universe characters category. Giving it a new name with a parenthetical will also muck things up, because we use franchise names to disambiguate character articles. I'd rather not have an article called, for example, "Prowl (Universe (2008))". So... I'm not sure. --Steve-o 16:05, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

So, have we decided yet? People (not me, I'm waiting) are beginning to add Universe 2008 toy entries, and I am concerned about where we should put them, either under the existing Universe banner or Universe 2008 for guys who have toys back in the original Universe line and the 2008 version. --FFN 03:22, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

I think the new line Universe line should definitely be clearly separated from the old one at all times. The old one had a storyline, the new one is just a catch-all banner for toys that aren't part of the main line. They aren't the same thing at all. --KilMichaelMcC 14:37, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

Same. We really should keep the two Universe lines separate at all times since they really are two very distinct lines. At the moment, I don't know if they're going to even have any new characters in the new Universe line, so I don't know if the above scenario Steve-O created is even likely to happen. If it does, I don't really have a problem with, say, "Prowl (Universe 2008)". --M Sipher 16:12, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

I don't see a likelihood of too much overlap. I say treat the new Universe as a continuation of the old Universe, and handle any continuity headaches if (or when) a company such as Fun Pub actually gives them fiction.--Rosicrucian^Talk 16:23, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

I disagree. 2008 Universe is not remotely the same thing as the first Universe, aside from being a "secondary" line to the main one. We don't have both "Classics" lines treated as if they were a single thing. And on that note, if you think for one second FP won't use the "Classics 2.0" guys in their Classics-based fictions.... --M Sipher 17:10, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

Oh, obviously. However, the Classics 2.0 figures are obviously intended to be their G1 counterparts, so there's no danger of us having to create new pages for them. No continuity headache there.--Rosicrucian^Talk 17:15, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, that's never happened.

But that having been said, I actually don't have a problem with "Prowl (Universe (2008))" or "Prowl (Universe 2008)." Or even, in theory, "Prowl (Classics 2.0)" or just "Prowl (Classics)," since "Classics" was barely a canon designation to begin with. -- Jackpot 19:03, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

However, that may require us to move the pages with "(Universe)" tags to "(Universe (year Universe 1 came out))". Maybe "(Universe 2)"? If anything, we probably shouldn't make a final decision until Hasbro adds the line to their site (i.e. bios, logo pics).

Maybe someone can ask The Angry Aaron Archer at Botcon or ComicCon. After all, isn't that where we got the term "Unicron Trilogy"? --FortMax 19:17, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

The minutiae of the packaging might help us out too, since it's a size class, of all things, that lends legitimacy to the term "Classics." I don't see much need to ask Archer anything, since the Hasbro team has already given us "Classics 2.0."

I'm all in favor of waiting until the toys are out, the bios are up, etc. Anything that people decide to use in the Wiki now will probably end up changing, no matter what conclusion we come to with our limited evidence.

- Jackpot 19:24, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

Character parentheticals are one thing- they go in their home continuity-family by first-choice, right? So if we got a 'Universe 2' Waspinator, since Universe is a G1 Continutiy Family line, that character would be Waspinator (G1), right? We'd only need a more specific designation if there was overlap- like if we got a Universe 2.0 Divebomb figure? -Derik 19:37, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

"that character would be Waspinator (G1), right?"

Uh, no. the new Universe line is not explicitly "G1 only". It's a "not the main line" line for whatever Hasbro feels liek making that isn't Animated (or Movie product, seemingly) and that's about it, as Hasbro said it was at BC07. (That wave 1 is all new-mold G1 guys is just how things worked out.) In fact, both the G1 and Beast Wars Robot Heroes have the new "Transformers Universe" packaging/logo. If we get a toy with a recycled name a toy that cannot be reasonably assumed to be any pre-existing character of that name, then we would have to determine what it goes under by if it has any sort of fictional setting attached to it or not. If we can't figure it out, it'd end up liekly having to be dismbigged by the line name. --M Sipher 20:35, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

Yea, we msy even need the actual cases for some of this. Take the Classics Legends. The toy packaging makes not mention of "Classics", but the case (which was used to ship my Legends Menasor and Whirl, oddly enough) is labeled "TRA CLASSICS LEGENDS ASST WV 2 07". --FortMax 19:54, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

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