Earth Date 5.3.10 - Continuity

A logo has been released for the upcoming cartoon, Transformers: Prime.

As I grew up and out of cartoons, I lost touch with the Transformers. But things like Optimus Primal, the rest of Beast Wars, nor the Armada or Energon realities did much keep my Transrormers interest. Their design seemed very "bubbly," I guess would be the best way to state it.

G1 loyalists (Hello, me and people who I hope to have read this blog) have to be delirious that the live action movies used the original G1 font, and now the new cartoon will do the same.

Is it possible that we get a cartoon with artwork and tone extremely comparable to the one we grew up loving? Watching the recently released original cartoons fills a void for me, but as nostalgic as they are, they're also unmercifully dated. Now all I have to do is find The Hub on my cable when it debuts, or hope that episodes can be viewed online.

Earth Date 5.1.10 - A Sequel?

Because it's what we do in these times. Let's look ahead. We're going to officially put the sequel before the prequel. What? Remember, WFC is a prequel to the Transformers landing on Earth, millions of years ago.

With yesterday's news that Christopher Nolan's next Batman installment will be released in the summer of 2012 - same time frame as Spider-Man reboot and The Avengers - you can only wonder what contribution the Transformers franchise will make to that year.

It's pretty much confirmed that Transformers 3 (give me Dinobots and Unicron of Galvatron) will hit theaters next year. And you'd have to assume even if the movie franchise were to continue, there's no way Michael Bay can, or would, get it out in 2012. So that leaves the door open for a War For Cybertron sequel as that year's offering to the Transformers mythos. Much in line with how DC kept the Batman franchise from laying dorment and risking irrelevency without a movie, by delivering to us the astonishing Arkham Asylum. That sequel is already in the works, which I imagine will be out in 2011.

Again, in this day and age, it's not far fetched for sequel rumors to fly even before the release of the initial project, so consider my thought, the beginning of the rumor mill that WFC2 will be out between May and July and 2012.

But wait. What if WFC ends on Earth with The Ark plunged into the volcanic mountain? Uh oh, no sequel, because the traditional continuity could get extremely mangled.

A prediction for the conclusion of WFC, while leaving the door open for a plausible and anticipated sequel...?

No idea.

However, it's science fiction and fantasy, so if the game is half as good as the hype, and it surpasses the amount of copies expected to sell, there will be a sequel. Regardless of how the game concludes. That's what black holes, and time travel are for!

Earth Date 4.29.10 - POW! BLAM!

The onomatopoeia-ic(?) Autobot Warpath is the latest (along with the Decepticon Barricade) character to be added to the growing list of War For Cybertron participants. A stellar selection in my opinion. Once he was introduced, Warpath seemed to play a rather integral role in the G1 cartoon. Certainly an underrated Autobot, detailed by the fact that even though he didn't make the G1 movie, he was one of the few Autobots who survived, albeit modestly, into the third season. Good for him, BLAM! (Warpath fans get that)

One thing that puzzles me today, though, is that Warpath was definitely diminutive like Bumbleblee and Seaspray. A Mini-Bot. Yet in the show, he was about as large as Trailbreaker, who was clearly a larger toy. Yea - it's Transformer fueled minutiae like this that populate my thoughts over the course of day.

WFC once again hit's a homerun (POW!) with their interpretation of Warpath.

Can't say much about the inclusion in WFC for Barricade. Had no idea who he was until the 2007 movie. Though he does have one of the more memorable non Optimus Primes lines of dialogue in the movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0QIZL3Mm14

Aside from Drift and Demolishor, Barricade is the only non G1 character amongst the cast of WFC.

Who would've been a better G1 selection? I'll continue my Constructicon campaign, but it'll be disappointing without any of Soundwave's (Ravage,Lasebeak, etc...) minions available for gameplay. A triple changer, Insecticon or to really keep the character with wheels on the ground, another Stunticon would've been a wise selection.

Earth Date 4.26.10 - The Beginning

A main rule of writing - know who your audience target is. Ummm, other fanatical G1 Transformers idealists like myself.

Some example criteria:

- You're beyond aggravated that Michael Bay turned Bumblee into an ass kicking, bad ass that his "twin" Cliffjumper was known to be.

- Optimus Prime's death has emotionally scarred you for life, and the thought or sight of it even 25+ years later stills works over your tear ducts.

- You can pinpoint obscure details and comparisons, such as the Decepticons ending the More Than Meets The Eye story arc at the bottom of the ocean, and Michael Bay's Megatron ending up in a comparable place to conclude his Transformers.

Without further ado I present the content of today's post. Another iconic G1 star - or in this case - a rock star has been added to the cast of War for Cybertron.

The amount of detail on WFC Jazz that pays tribute to G1 Jazz is to be highly commended.

The choice of place to purchase WFC has become quite contentious. Do you preorder now, and go for Jazz from Best Buy, Shockwave from Gamestop, or the less interesting (not a G1 character!)Demolisher from Amazon?

If you purchase now, you risk yet ANOTHER store such as Target or Walmart offering some exclusive download content. Then again, you could always buy the game multiple times, or just try attempt a shrewd Google closer to the game's release and hope you can find the codes for all the unlockables in a timely fashion.

What other DLC characters would be alluring from othe retailers? WFC already features Air Raid and Silverbolt, perhaps Target could offer the other three Aerialbots. Speaking literally and figuratively, there's a devastating absence from the list of Decepticons, so I'd be more than happy to make my preorder at Walmart if they were to offer the Constructicons and their giant gestalt.

That's it for now. As I anxiously await the arrival of my G1 Jazz reissue and G1 painted Transformers The Movie Starscream.