JB0

And says "LISTEN TO MY SONG!"

I would assume most, if not all, clones were removed at infancy. It helps preserve more aspects of the society, and there's probably a desire to not be TOO zentradi-like.

They all play DVD. Just like all DVD players play CDs. It's such a cheap feature, there's no reason not to.

If they paint them, it WILL improve the situation a lot. I know. And I lvoed Shockwave, who had a transparent gun barrel and no real disguise to speak of. But it wouldn't be the first time they mounted a light on teh end of the barrel instead of the base, and it WOULD look better and make more sense.

BluRay is the most susceptible since CD, though. CDs were pretty tough on the data side(if it got scuffed, the scratches could be buffed out and the disk would work again), but ANY scratch on the label side stood a very good chance of killing the disk, since the reflector is almost entirely unprotected on that side. DVD, recognizing the flaw of an unprotected reflector, mounted the foil right smack in the middle. Both sides are protected by a fairly thick sheet of plastic. And scratches can be buffed out of it to restore it to operation, just like CD. HD-DVD is constructed much like DVD. BluRay has the reflector almost directly against the read surface. That's why most BR disks on the market have a scratch-resistant coating. They're considered too fragile to sell without one. They were originally considering selling the disks in a non-removable caddy, like a 3.5" floppy or MiniDisk, due to their vulnerabilty. But everyone hated the idea, so they started applying scratch-resistant coatings.

But the zentradi were already engineered to be awesome. If random variation held the potential to massively improve them, their designers did a lousy job. I like my solution better. Overtech face cream: Guaranteed to make you look 20 years younger or your money back!

*bangs head* Can't we put the LEDs in logical places? Rather than making missile turrets glow, why not gun barrels? Preferably just the tips, because completely transparent barrels ruins the "in disguise" part. Some of those terms are used to refer to actual children. IMO, glowing missile launchers is pretty clearly a child-targeted feature. Yay for the comic book market! There's a reason I never got into american comic books. This would be an extreme example of why. I've already got the Infiltration graphic novel, so I'll probably grab a few more. But if I'd known what I was getting into, I'd've left it on the shelf at the bookstore.

While the idea of Voltron being based on schematics hidden in egyptian artwork makes my head hurt.... Black lion WAS parked in a sphynx-like statue originally. And yellow parked in a sphynx. So the connection isn't TOO far out.

You should see the mess here. My area isn't a big Transformers area, sadly. Tend to have minimal shelf space. Local Target cleared something like half an aisle for the movie launch. And as they sold stock, compressed what was left. We're back down to 3 columns, just like it was pre-movie. Toys R Us did pretty much the same thing.

PC game. Interactive novel dealie. It's Japan-developed and on the PC, so it goes without saying it's a porn game.

Nope, this is America, where Transformers are a VERY well-known franchise. Optimus Prime and Megatron were about as recognizable as fictional characters get. People don't need "easing into" the Transformers. That happened years ago. You may make a good Hollywood executive with that sort of attitude, though. They tend to assume that audiences can't process anything that isn't a perfect copy of last year's blockbuster hit. Then totally miss the elements that made last summer's megahit, and conclude the audience is tired of that movie when their copy of it fails. Great example is the animation industry. After stuff like Toy Story and Shrek, they concluded that the key to being a success was making a flashy CG movie. And when all the crappy CG movies bombed, they concluded the audience was tired of CG and they needed to move on. And that's why there's lots of squishies, and almost no Transformers. The last movie that had giant robots in it was Wild Wild West.

Mmmmmm.... Always liked Skywarp's colors. Black and purple go so well together.... or is that not at all together? Either way!

http://www.lilformers.com/home.php I have it bookmarked.

http://transformers.wikia.com/wiki/Piranhaking has a bit more detail. It was gonna be a WalMart exclusive. WalMart had entirely too many exclusives at the time, and most of them weren't moving. So they bailed.

ONE MILLION miles an hour!

I dunno... Max and Millia are looking pretty good for their age... Besides, it's HIGHLY possible there's techniques to restore source DNA for cloning that aren't applicable to the contributor.

You're injecting logic into Transformers. That can't end well. Semi-plausable excuse: He reformats himself after launching Scorponok to cover up the hole.

I need to get a good NSF collection. .... Awww, no Metal Storm? :'(

What are the main engines using for propellant? Belching spent fusion fuel out the back won't generate very much kick. I would assume the main engines require a reaction mass just like the verniers do.

Why would the zentradi cloning process introduce variation? No breeding means no danger of inbreeding, so variation should be less important. .... I guess it could potentially reduce the effectiveness of bioweapons, but... I was under the impression the program was discontinued due to birth defects rising in the natural birth population from accidental incest. It'd be a real concern if you were trying to dramatically boost the population with cloning to re-inhabit the Earth AND colonize other planets and have less than a million individuals for source gene sequences. Sounds like a lot of people, but it's not even 1 percent of the planet's current population. Of course, the speed of repopulating through cloning would be capped by the availability of foster parents. I assume the clones would be released to foster parents as babies and have a "normal" childhood, since NOT having one would kinda torpedo the preserving civilization angle. And probably be a bit too zentradi for people's tastes. I dunno exactly how many kids are managable for a set of parents, but given we survive twins now, I figure you could drop 2 or 3 babies on a set of foster parents, and give them another pair once the first set gets a little older(say 2 years?). Gives clones an edge over naturally-produced humans, which are usually capped at about 1 per year per couple. Yes, foster parents would be VERY BUSY under that plan, but the program's primary concern is boosting the population. It's their patriotic duty as humans to raise armies of test-tube babies, and find time to pop out a natural child or 2 along the way! And there's probably killer government incentives for participating in the program... and even larger incentives for breeding naturally. ... There'd probably be a lot of kids conceived/adopted just for the incentives, actually. ANYWAYS... back in focus... The Chronology entry in the Compendium says "Because of the increase in hereditary children's diseases due to the overuse of cloning, mass cloning is terminated." It doesn't state either direction as the reason.

News flash! Underdog was ALWAYS bad! The original was extra-goofy too. Underdog was a dog in tights. I repeat: A DOG IN TIGHTS. Only thing I want to know is what they'll do in place of the traditional "line at the phonebooth" gag. What with the phone booth being dead and all.

Yeah. But I didn't have a beat to go with it, so I stopped.

Indeed. Prime and Megatron were fairly iffy, but all the rest were pretty spiffy. Though Grimlock's gun was kinda funky. Especially sticking up off his back.

You would be making an excellent point if I was citing these as examples of bizarre deviations from traditional Transformers designs. UNFORTUNATELY, I wasn't. It was a counterpoint to this... They're trying to portray robotic/mechanical life forms from another planet. Who is to say that their bodies shouldn't appear that way? Only geocentric arrogance would require that these bots have bodies that appeal to human aesthetics. You argued the Bayformers didn't need to appeal to human aesthetics, since they were alien robots. I listed a number of ways they DO conform to human aesthetics, which are far more significant than lots of kibble poking out at odd angles. Scorponok was the only 'bot in the movie that WASN'T clearly human, and it was ANOTHER terrestrial animal. Moving on.... General style VS specific model? It's also interesting that you assume I meant the Alternators should've been used in the movie as-is. I cited the photo as THREE alternatives to the junkyard look, one of which was the Bumblebee that gets dragged out by everyone defending SkelePrime and company. Another IS be the Alternator, which was the primary subject of the photo. The THIRD example would be the Pretender core sitting under Shockwave's foot. I'm also far more of a realist than you give me credit for. I readily acknowledge that no toy design is suited for movie usage as-is. Among other things, the Alt. RX8 mold has a chest that sticks out to the 'bot's elbows. It was an example of general style. The design closest to working as-is was the Pretender. It's the best-proportioned, and has no major parts in the way of the limbs. It's only lacking in actual articulation, which is quite easy to add given the design. Except for the whole "use some sharp and jagged lines to make them more uncommon looking" bit, which was the whole reason I dragged the Alternators out in the first place. It's an illustration of the same concept done in a far more aesthetically appealing manner. So way to go at missing the point. And special bonus round! Actually, I'm finding it VERY easy to pick out every single 'bot in your pics. Including all those wierd Prime/Megatron variants I've never seen before. DESPITE the lower contrast level in your pics. It takes a serious degree of concentration to pick a 'bot out of the movie design pic. All the broken jaggy edges make the designs run together, because there's no clearly visible difference between the edges of the 'bots and the .interior details. Case in point: Even though I know EXACTLY what it is, it looks an awful lot like Frenzy is growing out of Starscream's knee. Your example does a great job at illustrating why more solid designs are easier to pick out. The simpler lines give them a firmer outline.

We actually don't know that they didn't. The exact nature of the cloning program isn't known, just that it made a lot of people. It's entirely possible there WAS a bias in the system towards "good" gene sets. Probably not so much, given they'd just come out of a war with a genetically-engineered warrior race, so the whole eugenics angle was more unappealing than usual, but it's still possible.