Transformers Hall of Fame/2010
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2010 was the inaugural year of the Transformers Hall of Fame. At the ceremony at BotCon 2010, the first set of characters and creators were inducted into the Hall of Fame. The characters were Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Megatron, Starscream, and the fifth character determined by fan vote, Dinobot. The four creators inducted were Bob Budiansky, Peter Cullen, Yoke Hideaki, and Kojin Ohno.
Nomination process
[edit]Running up until April 21, 2010, Transformers fan sites held individual polls to determine the nominees for the final ballot. On May 3 Hasbro began announcing the nominees on the Transformers website, presenting with each of them an all-new bio. The nominees in the fan vote were:
The fan vote began on May 10th, with fans limited to one vote per day until voting ended three weeks later on May 28.
Hall of Fame Ceremony
[edit]The Saturday night of BotCon 2010 was allocated to a Hall of Fame semi-formal dinner. After a short cocktail dinner period (read: cash bar), Primus package attendees filed into a large auditorium with several dinner tables assembled in front of a stage with cardboard standees of Optimus, Megatron, Starscream, and Bumblebee. Two large screens magnified the stage's events to those further away.
The human inductees were introduced first, with a combination of video testimony and personal introductions by Aaron Archer and Greg Lombardo, who were dressed up all snazzy. One by one, clips were played and testimonies given, and human inductees came onstage to receive their trophies and give a short speech.
The robot inductees were each given a short montage of clips from across various franchises, set to a piece of appropriate music. Then the five Fan's Choice nominees were featured with their own music-video montages, with a buildup to the winner... Dinobot! A second montage for Dinobot then played, most notably using clips from "Code of Hero", which had been conspicuously absent from his nomination video.
- Optimus Prime: "What I've Done" by Linkin Park
- Bumblebee: "The Best" by Joe Esposito
- Megatron: "Seek and Destroy" by Metallica
- Starscream: "Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins
- Jazz: "Holding out for a Hero" by Bonnie Tyler
- Soundwave: "I Love Rock n' Roll" by Joan Jett
- Shockwave: "Final Countdown" by Europe
- Grimlock: Godzilla theme
- Dinobot (nomination): "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns 'N' Roses.
- Dinobot (winner): "The Touch" by Stan Bush
Naturally, the videos put up on the website do not use any of those songs (except for "The Touch"), instead using generic music Hasbro would not have to pay licensing fees for.
Before attendees filed out for the evening, a keepsake print with the names of all the inductees was distributed.
Notes
[edit]
- Soundwave's bio retconned his cassette partners into Mini-Cons, and restated an earlier retcon that they were also Deployers. It also revealed that he had deleted his emotions for more efficient information processing. Additionally, Soundwave's bio also included Revenge of the Fallen Soundwave's weakness to "too many sonic booms" from the Cyber Missions.
- Grimlock's bio is largely based on his comic book personas, rather than the dumb, childlike version from the original cartoon. It also revealed that his vocal quirks are the result of damage caused by Scorponok.
- Jazz is now Optimus Prime's best friend from before the war, plus the Transformers Animated aspect of him training to be a Cyber-Ninja is added.
- Shockwave's bio offers no real surprises, but it spells "intentions" wrong.
- The release of Transformers: Exodus revealed that several of these bios (particularly Soundwave's and Jazz's), were almost certainly written with the new continuity of the novel in mind. This was later confirmed in the July 2010 Hasbro Q&A.
- Megatron's inclusion resulted in uncertainty over whether Beast Wars Megatron was included in his induction, but it was later clarified by Hasbro that he was considered a separate character and therefore eligible for the fan vote.
- Dinobot's entry was originally posted with no bio, but one was quickly added afterward. The final sentence is a grammatical mess. (Seriously, try to diagram that puppy.)
- Bob Budiansky's initial response to being in the Hall of Fame was "boy, this sounds really bizarre", followed by being flattered. When he came to the ceremony with his family, he found himself being treated "like royalty".[1]
- Quite honestly, nobody seriously expected Dinobot to win the fan vote. David Willis created a tongue-in-cheek campaign for him, with the central joke being that Dinobot wasn't going to win because he wasn't a 1980s character.
