Studio Series Sweep (2021)

I haven't exactly been kind to Scourge in the past few months. Despite being one of the most prominent of the new characters created for The Transformers: The Movie, I find that he was never given much of a personality. In my review of Scourge's Titans Return figure, I blamed some of that on his being given command of a group of identical troops, called "the Sweeps." But while I find Scourge's personality rather forgettable, the toys he's been given in recent years have been interesting takes on the movie's character model. So, given that Scourge's Studio Series toy was given a redeco (and slight remold) as a Sweep, this seems an opportunity to redress the balance.

The Hard Life... Lives, Plural... of Professor Martin Stein: A Follow-Up

A lifetime ago...  more than 17 years, as it happens, I wrote a trio of posts about the then-history of Firestorm, arguably my favorite super-hero, specifically through the lens of Professor Martin Stein, who for much of Firestorm's history was one-half of the composite character. I observed that Stein had really been put through the ringer, and indeed when I was writing in 2009, it wasn't entirely clear what was going on with the character. I later learned that this was more or less the reality for the writers, as well. DC's publishers really didn't know what to do with the "old guy" (as they sometimes derogatorily referred to Professor Stein, despite the character having been consistently middle-aged at the most). Now that Firestorm is back on comic book shelves again, and selling extremely well by all indications, it seemed that it was time for a follow-up. While I'll try to avoid significant spoilers for the current series, be warned, I consider anything more than a few years old to be fair game.

Generations Selects Cyclonus & Nightstick (2022)

As was the case with both Scourge and Galvatron, Cyclonus was created when Unicron changed an existing Decepticon's body into a new warrior, but the identity of the Decepticon who became Cyclonus has been the source of debate for many years. Was he previously Skywarp, which would be consistent with Scourge's transformation from Thundercracker, or was he in fact Bombshell, who was the first and most prominent of the two Decepticons seen being reformatted into Cyclonus-like forms in The Transformers: The Movie?¹ Perhaps it doesn't really matter, since (like Scourge) Cyclonus' antecedent is generally assumed to have been dead prior to reformatting, and the subject was never brought up again until self-conscious fan-oriented fiction came along.²

Fall of Cybertron Ultra Magnus (2012)

Most of the original characters introduced in The Transformers: The Movie were actively created for the movie, and indeed had their robot modes mapped out even before toys had been designed for them (very much the opposite of the usual process at the time). Ultra Magnus, who seemed to serve a "red herring" role in the movie as the heir apparent to the role of leader of the Autobots after Optimus Prime was killed, was the exception, in that he was created to be attached to a pre-existing mold, which itself was created for the Diaclone line (as was the case for many of the first couple of years' worth of Transformers toys) as the "Powered Convoy," released in Japan two years before the Transformers themselves began to come out. While the Diaclone "Battle Convoy" came to America as "Optimus Prime," the "Powered Convoy" (which shared the same basic truck cab as "Battle Convoy"... only in white... but came with a new trailer which could combine with it to form a larger robot) became the original "Ultra Magnus" toy.

This feature is not about that original toy, which I haven't owned in many years.^*

Family Feud at 50

Family Feud set from 1976-1981.
Art by "wheelgenius" on Deviant Art

The classic game show, Family Feud premiered on July 12, 1976 on ABC. While it's run since then has not been entirely uninterrupted, it's been on the air far more often than it's been off of it. There are so many episodes now in existence that there are two distinct 24/7 streaming channels, each devoted to a different era. Family Feud is so deeply embedded in our culture that it's fair to say that the phrase "Survey Says!" immediately brings the show to mind for the vast majority of people, and that if one mentions "three strikes," there's nearly as much of a chance that one will think of this show as that they'll think of baseball.

Titans Return Scourge (2016)

When Megatron was transformed by Unicron into Galvatron in The Transformers: The Movie, he was not the only character given an upgrade. Thundercracker, one the original Decepticon jets, was reformatted into Scourge, although unlike Galvatron having been Megatron, Scourge is almost always considered a new character entirely, and no one seems to care about his having previously been Thundercracker except as a strictly academic exercise. The usual explanation for this is that Thundercracker was dead when his corpse was used to create Scourge, but since Thundercracker was clearly still alive when tossed out of Astrotrain, I really don't see why we should assume he simply "fell offline" while floating in space when Megatron didn't.^* Such are the thoughts of the obsessive Transformers fan....

Studio Series Wreck-Gar (2021)

When discussing the Quintesson Trooper a few months ago, we showcased a character from The Transformers: The Movie that was technically neither Autobot nor Decepticon. The movie featured several such characters, in several different contexts. Wreck-Gar is another example. Although he has traditionally been sold as an Autobot, and is typically seen aligned with them in his fictional appearances, Wreck-Gar is in fact the leader of an independent group of Transformers called "Junkions."

30th Anniversary of the Fox Television Movie Version of "Doctor Who"

So many words to describe a simple, one-off event! Even so, the television movie that introduced the world to Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor in Doctor Who premiered in the US 35 years ago today (technically, the movie aired a couple of days earlier in the UK, which is only fair, but since the movie was made for American audiences, I'll consider today the anniversary).

I'll leave it to others to add commentary. Here, I just want to do my small part to commemorate the event by posting my all-too-quick attempt to emulate the publicity photo above. The Eighth Doctor here is cosplayed by Ezekiel Huerta, who goes by the name "Lethargic Action Hero" online. He's worth a follow if you're interested in someone with real cosplay skills. I've so far limited myself to different incarnations of the Doctor, and the Gallifrey One this past February was my first attempt at a "movie Seventh Doctor."

Fun fact, Paul McGann is actually not demonstrably taller than Sylvester McCoy. In fact, it is reported that they made McGann stand on a box for the publicity photos with McCoy. Since I am pretty tall, I attempted to squat below Ezekiel for the picture here, but in retrospect, it messed up the shot. Sometimes you can only capture the moment you have, but if I could, I admit that I'd do that moment differently.

Buzzworthy Bumblebee Studio Series 86 Kup (2022)

Although the Transformers are nominally robots, they have typically been written more as though they are simply human beings, or perhaps it would be more appropriate to say they were written as "generic (but organic) aliens." The point being that Transformers characters are often seen with traits that don't really make a lot of sense on robotic beings (even "living" ones), but which nonetheless help to make the characters relatable to (human) readers. Thus, when The Transformers: The Movie introduced the character of Kup, his main defining character trait was that he was an old guy. An aged veteran with a lot of stories to tell. When your characters are already millions of years old to start with, just how much "older" should they be acting? Best just to move on....

Generations Selects Galvatron (2021)

For Transformers fans, especially those from the original era, the assertion that Galvatron was a new character introduced in The Transformers: The Movie has to come with a caveat. After all, Galvatron is merely an upgraded body and new identity for Megatron, who had been the leader of the evil Decepticons since the franchise began. That said, it has always been convenient to discuss Galvatron somewhat separately from Megatron, and even the TFWiki gives them separate entries (both of which are considerably longer, and require separate sub-pages, compared to entries for many characters without such ambiguity!), so I feel pretty safe including a Galvatron toy in this series.

Missing Link Arcee (2025)

As I said last month, most of the new characters introduced in The Transformers: The Movie had corresponding toys that came out in 1986 (even if, as I suggested earlier, these will likely not be the versions of these characters I'll be featuring this year on the blog). Such was not the case for Arcee, although for rather different reasons than was the case for the Quintesson Trooper. Arcee was not the first female Autobot to appear in the franchise (there were several introduced in a season two episode of the cartoon^*), but she was arguably the most important. Despite the character's prominence throughout the remainder of the era, the prevailing wisdom was that boys didn't want to buy toys of girl characters, and so fans would have to wait many years before official toys of Arcee were finally made available.

Quintesson Trooper (Buzzworthy Bumblebee Troop Builder Multipack, 2023)

While The Transformers: The Movie did the expected job of featuring characters based on toys that either had already come out, or were scheduled to come out in 1986, it also featured a number characters for which no toy was ever expected. However, given enough time, Hasbro has demonstrated that almost any character featured in Transformers fiction has a decent chance of eventually becoming a mass-released official toy.^* So it is with this "Quintesson Trooper," which appeared as a bailiff in the courtroom scene as a very minor character.

"Classics" Rodimus (2006)

As most Transformers fans already know, 2026 is the 40th Anniversary of The Transformers: The Movie. Having done other celebrations of the movie in the past, I've decided to do something different this year. Most of the time I feature a Transformers toy in 2026, I intend it to be a representation of one of the characters introduced in that movie. It probably won't be the toy that actually came out in 1986 (I've featured many of those already), but it will nonetheless be one of the characters first featured in the movie. To start things off, I'm looking at the "Classics" version of Hot Rod.

The Impossible Cat - A Parody

As longtime readers know, my wife and I have been cat owners for over twenty years now. Sadly, cats have a much more limited lifespan than humans, and thus we've had to say goodbye to two of these cats (Turtle and Kona), but have recently welcomed Earl Grey (pictured) into our home. The following parody (to the tune of "The Impossible Dream" from Man of LaMancha) was written before Earl Grey came to us, and I have to say it doesn't seem to apply to him especially well. Even so, I hope you enjoy it! Maybe someday I'll get around to a proper recording....

That Time the Star Trek: The Next Generation Comic Book Did a Christmas Issue (1987)

In 1987, Star Trek: The Next Generation hit television screens, and although it definitely made waves as a successor to the original series, it wouldn’t be fair to say that it was instantly popular. In fact, it’s pretty much universally agreed that the show took a while to properly hit its stride. The original comic book based on the franchise, a six-issue mini-series published by DC Comics, showed similar growing pains. One symptom of the oddities thus demonstrated is the fact that they did a Christmas story with the second ever issue. Since it’s the season, let’s have a look at this bizarre corner of the Star Trek universe.

In Honor of Dick Van Dyke's 100th Birthday - Faith, Hope and Hilarity (1970)

 

As most anyone with an eye on pop culture is probably aware, television and movie legend Dick Van Dyke will reach the age of 100 on December 13th. Although there will be other sites far better prepared to offer Van Dyke the tributes he's owed for reaching this milestone, I couldn't let this occasion pass by without a comment of my own, which I hope offers a perspective unlikely to be often repeated elsewhere....

20th Anniversary of Hoodwinked! (Limited Release date: December 16, 2005)

Almost twenty years ago, while my wife and I were on vacation, we found ourselves flipping through the channels on our room's television, and we stumbled upon a movie that reminded us of Shrek (already a few years old at this time), but instead of lampooning fairy tales in general, this movie focused on "Little Red Riding Hood," specifically. Upon our arrival back at home, we looked up the movie to secure the DVD, thus allowing us to finally watch Hoodwinked^* in its entirety.

Authentics Elita-1 (2025)

A generation or so ago, most toys came from one of five major retailers: Walmart, Target, Toys"Я"Us, Kmart, and KB Toys. Any toys sold outside of those "Big Five" were thus often referred to as "market six" toys. While many of the toys sold in these retailers were the same toys found elsewhere (sometimes well after those toys had disappeared from the "Big Five"), Hasbro would even create the occasional toy specifically intended for these more obscure venues. Fast-forward to today, and the reality is that three of those "Big Five" no longer even exist (well, as we established a few weeks ago, there is a Toys"Я"Us operating again, but it's really not the same company), and so the term "market six" became less and less accurate, and finally seems to have fallen out of use. 

Batman #457 (1990) and 35 Years of Tim Drake as Robin

In the over 85-year history of Batman, there have been many partners who have taken on the identity of Robin. While the original, Dick Grayson (who was introduced only a year after Batman himself), will probably always be the most well-known (despite now having spent almost half of his existence with a different identity entirely, that of "Nightwing"), the third Robin, Tim Drake, may well be the next-most popular. Tim's tenure as Robin, itself, is now 35 years old,^* and it's time to recognize this achievement.

Happy Halloween with Casper - "The Friendly Ghost" (1945)

If you're reading this on the day it drops, it's Halloween, but how to celebrate? Sadly, there are only so many appropriate Transformers to cover (that last one was, admittedly, a stretch), and I really want to focus on something fun rather than creepy. 

It turns out that Casper, the Friendly Ghost, is just about to celebrate his 80th birthday! Casper first appeared in a cartoon entitled (appropriately enough) The Friendly Ghost, which first appeared in theaters on November 16, 1945 (oddly, a couple of weeks after Halloween!). Also, conveniently, this short is in the Public Domain, so I can safely drop the whole thing right here and not worry about whether or not my usage qualifies under Fair Use doctrine:

Voiced by Walter Tetley (better known to many as the voice of Sherman from the Peabody's Improbable History cartoons that aired alongside Rocky and Bullwinkle), Casper was intended just to be a one-off, but proved so popular that he went on to star in dozens of further cartoons, and I don't think I'm exaggerating to say literally hundreds of comic book stories! Other cartoons often followed much the same plot as The Friendly Ghost. Casper is a lonely ghost, who struggles to make friends because nearly everyone he meets runs away in fear. Eventually, Casper finds another lonely soul, perhaps in danger from some persecutor from whom Casper is able to save them, and the cartoon ends with a new friendship forged. Why Casper always seems to be lonely again by the time the next cartoon begins is never addressed, and it's best not to think about it too hard. The later comic stories tended to give Casper a far more stable social life.

Whatever your Halloween plans, have a happy and safe one!