Truth in Advertising? The Wheel of Fortune Million Dollar Prize

Wheel of Fortune started its 26th syndicated season this week. The main change this year: the addition of a million-dollar top prize. You've probably seen the commercials by now: "One Spin. One Solve. One Million Dollars!"

I beg to differ with the claim made in that commercial. In order to actually win that million, a contestant has to successfully complete each of the following steps.

1. Land on the special "Million Dollar Wedge" located on the wheel during one of the first three rounds (Yes, you have to land in the part that says "One Million." Those "Bankrupts" on either side are there for a reason.).
2. Pick a consonant. If it's in the puzzle, you may pick up the wedge. No other contestant will have the chance at the million this episode.
3. Solve that puzzle correctly without hitting a bankrupt.
4. Don't hit a bankrupt for the rest of the game.
5. Win the game with more money than either of your two opponents.
6. At this point, one of the 24 cards on the Bonus Round wheel is replaced with a "$1,000,000" card. You must spin to the space containing that card (Cards are closed before spinning, and not opened until after the puzzle is attempted, so contestants will not know if they got the right card until after they've already solved, or failed to solve, the puzzle.).
7. Solve the Bonus Round Puzzle correctly.

The "One Spin, One Solve" bit only applies to Steps #6 and #7. It totally ignores the hurdles that one has to go through before that, just to earn a 1-in-24 chance of winning the million! Actually, it's considerably worse than that. The contestant who wins the game having successfully completed steps #1-#5 only has 1-in-24 chance of spinning the right card! And those Bonus Round Puzzles are hard! I think it's fair to say that most contestants fail to solve the Bonus Round Puzzle correctly.

I'm not at all bothered that the million is hard to win. It should be. In fact, it should be so hard to win that this whole year could conceivably go by without a single million dollar winner (For comparison, it's been over five years since a contestant won the million dollars on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire). But it's more than a little disingenuous to advertise the big prize as though it isn't all that hard, skipping HUGE steps one has to pass through in order to even be eligible.

Even worse, the Million Dollar Wedge replaces the similarly-designed $10,000 prize, which someone was able to win just by accomplishing the first three steps of this marathon in previous years. Anyone who is eligible for the Million would have had that $10,000 cash under the old rules. I'm sure more than a few of the more than 23-out-of-24 contestants (and there's no way to count how many people earned that $10,000 who would still have lost their million-dollar chance by hitting a bankrupt later in the show, but kept the $10,000 under the old rules) who win the chance to pick up that Million Dollar Wedge would rather have had the 10 Grand sure thing.

(UPDATE: 10/14/08, 7:55 pm - Game show producers just can't help but blab, can they? As was well-known even before now, someone won the million tonight. While I extend my congratulations to the lucky contestant, I'm pleased to note that the only time I heard Charlie O'Donnell say the "One spin, one solve" bit, it was actually relevant, since the contestant HAD passed steps #1-#5 by that point.)

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Weekly Transformers Feature: Battle Unicorn

When the Beast Machines toy line was wrapping up, one of the last toys produced for the line was Battle Unicorn (yet another entry from the "unimaginative name department," I know). Partly because Battle Unicorn was near the end of the line, it was not shipped as widely as some of the other toys, and many fans found themselves unable to find Battle Unicorn when it came out.

Although most fans continue to buy their Transformers at the local toy store, an increasing number do their shopping online. This has led to the creation of several online-only toy stores, many of which specialize in Transformers. It is a widely-held belief that people want what they can't have, and since Battle Unicorn was apparently rare, many fans clamored for a way to get it, many even promising to pay premium prices for the rare item. One particular online store, BigBadToyStore.com, announced that they had worked out a deal with Hasbro to get a supply of Battle Unicorns, and the toy practically became a "BigBadToyStore.com exclusive."

Unfortunately for BBTS, nowhere near as many fans were willing to pay those "premium prices" as BBTS had expected. The price BBTS was charging was admittedly roughly double the price of what Battle Unicorn had sold for at retail, so perhaps it's not too surprising that people had been put off by that (their promises notwithstanding). I'm guilty of some of this, myself. My own specimen came not from BBTS, but from an eBay auction that was ultimately cheaper than BBTS's price (even after accounting for shipping, though in my defense, I never promised to pay those premium prices for this toy). But for whatever reason, BBTS found themselves with a HUGE supply of Battle Unicorns that they couldn't get rid of. In fact, they still have a supply available to this day, despite lowering the price to clearance levels (although I feel sure that I've seen the price even lower than I see when I check these days). If the toy does appeal to you, you can buy it via this link.

Weekly Transformers Feature: Animated Prowl

I've managed to do this weekly feature for more than half a year now without featuring a specimen from the current line of toys: Transformers Animated. Mostly, this is because I have more of an interest in detailing the history of the Transformers line than I do in advertising for currently available toys. However, having spent the past two weeks detailing some of Hasbro's attempts at motorcycle Transformers, Animated Prowl deserves some attention.

The Animated line has taken a distinctively more stylized approach to designs than other lines in the past. More angles and curves, kind of a pseudo-Japanese-anime approach. In some ways, this makes things easier on the designer, since there's less pressure to make the character look somehow "realistic." The bar for suspension-of-disbelief is placed in another atmosphere entirely. It certainly allows for some of the most cartoon-accurate toys to come along in quite a while, although there are still a few toys that fail to match their cartoon counterpart all that well. Prowl is definitely one of the "winners," though. Not only in terms of cartoon-accuracy, but just in terms of being a decent robot despite the motorcycle alternate mode. In fact, I'd say a person would be hard-pressed to find a motorcycle Transformer with a better robot mode. One does wonder at the inclusion of the traffic light/weapon, though, since it never appears in the cartoon. I've heard it said that it was originally intended to, but I haven't seen the evidence.

But, in keeping with the other motorcycle reviews thus far, it's time to pull out Cobra Commander again to ask "how well scaled is this motorcycle to allow an existing action figure to ride it?" In my personal opinion, it's not too bad a fit. Not quite right, but passable. Of course, since Cobra Commander is the leader of a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world, it's probably safe to assume that this scene could never actually happen unless Cobra Commander had somehow incapacitated Prowl, a member of the heroic Autobots, to bring him under Cobra control.

And, although I consider such issues of scale to be an exercise in insanity when it comes to Transformers, we also need to have the figure-to-robot comparison one last time. Prowl's pretty tall. Cobra Commander probably hopes that Prowl is under his control if ever the two of them should meet! But the scale issue is brought into question even by that traffic light. Of course, I don't usually stand close enough to traffic lights to really know how closely I'd measure up to them, so I won't make too firm a judgment on that one. But if the traffic light Mister Rogers used to have in his "neighborhood" home is any indication, this scale's probably not too bad....

Weekly Transformers Feature: Energon High Wire with Kicker

Last week, I mentioned that Hasbro has had a rather mixed record of success (or lack thereof) when it comes to Transformers that turn into motorcycles. This week, we'll look at Energon High Wire. This is a larger version of the same character that was sold as a Mini-Con as part of Energon Perceptor. Included with High Wire is Kicker, a human who played an important part in the Energon cartoon. To the best of my knowledge, this is the only time in the entire history of American Transformers toys that a non-transforming humanoid action figure was sold in a main line (Nebulans, included with the Headmasters and Targetmasters, could of course transform. Also, there have been a few figurines, but these don't really qualify as "action figures," and a couple of Japanese exceptions, as well^*).

Since the human action figure is specifically included with a Transformer it's intended to "ride," one would assume that the two would be in scale to each other, but I think the motorcycle is a bit too large. In fact, I'd argue that Axer's motorcycle mode was a much better scale match for Cobra Commander (shown here to demonstrate that the two figures are the same size), and that wasn't even intentional!

High Wire has essentially the same transformation as his Mini-Con counterpart, with a couple of tweaks available due to the larger size. The right fist is an actual fist now, although the left arm still ends uselessly with the wheel on the end. In fact, it's really one of the most pathetic-looking excuses for a robot mode I've ever seen, especially in a toy of this size. I picked this one off of eBay pretty much exclusively for the Kicker figure, since Kicker is a unique oddity in the history of the line. But apparently my High Wire specimen is a bit unusual, in that most High Wires have an Autobot symbol on the gas tank that mine lacks. The seller told me that this was because it was either a prototype or a production sample, although I think a lot of eBay sellers throw those terms around anytime they have something unusual, and don't make any guesses as to the veracity of that claim. I certainly have no idea if the lack of an Autobot symbol makes my toy any more valuable. That's generally not why I buy these things, anyway!

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^*Obviously, I wasn't considering Action Masters as "main line" when I wrote this. This is odd, since I typically do. Or maybe I didn't think of them as "humanoid." I don't remember.

Weekly Transformers Feature: Robots in Disguise Axer

I've already mentioned that the Robots in Disguise line contained quite a few repaints of toys that had previously been used in other lines. I don't think I've yet mentioned that the line, originally created in Japan as "Car Robots," wasn't originally intended for release in America at all, but was eventually brought to the states as something of a time-saving measure. When the Beast Machines line was ending, Hasbro was originally planning to continue the Transformers concept with a line they called "Transtech." Although a number of fans were excited about this line, which promised to return a few Generation One characters alongside Beast Era characters, all in new (arguably more science fiction-based) forms, Hasbro decided to scrap the concept altogether (having seen some of the sketches, I didn't shed any tears over this decision, but your mileage may vary...). Having spent so much time developing Transtech, Hasbro was unable to release a new line of toys in a timely manner, and wanted to make sure to do things right. Since Takara had already gone to the trouble of creating a whole line of toys that hadn't yet had an American release, including a cartoon series that would keep that Transformers concept in the American consciousness, it was a no-brainer to seek the rights to have those toys brought over here. Make a few modifications to the vehicles, dub the cartoon, and viola! "Robots in Disguise": a line of toys able to bridge the gap between Beast Machines and the line that Hasbro would design next (eventually to be called "Armada," which we've discussed a bit already)

However, the Japanese "Car Robots" line wasn't quite large enough to yield sufficient toys to keep customers happy for the whole eighteen months that Hasbro would need to get Armada ready, so Hasbro fleshed out the "Robots in Disguise" line by repainting other molds that they had available. Axer, seen here, was a 2002 repaint of a Generation Two "Laser Cycle" called "Road Pig." Axer was noteworthy as being the first time that one of the "new" Action Master characters of 1990 had a name reused on a transforming toy (in fact, I think it remains the only example of this phenomenon to this day!). And since Action Master Axer himself came with a motorcycle, actually having Robots in Disguise Axer turn into one seems an appropriate choice.

The main gimmick of the G2 "Laser Cycles" was that they had a weapon that would light up when a button was pushed. Axer retains this gimmick.

As previously established, Axer turns into a motorcycle. The Transformers line has had a rather mixed history of success (or lack thereof) with motorcycles, as we'll explore further over the next few weeks.

For now, it's worth noting that Axer is one of few Transformers that is actually just about the right size to accommodate a G.I. Joe figure. It's not a perfect fit, but it's certainly close enough that the Cobra Commander figure shown here (chosen because this is one of few figures I have in my limited Joe collection that wears a helmet! Besides, it's appropriate that the bad guys should be paired up.) doesn't look too ridiculous.

This also gives us a chance to see what at least this character would/should look like in robot mode when compared to a human being. Most Transformers media tend to vary pretty wildly (sometimes even between frames in the same story!), in their depictions of how large Transformers should be compared to humans (check out this picture of Optimus Prime's head for a particular bad example. Snake Eyes could never hope to drive a semi as big as what that Prime would turn into!). Axer doesn't look like he'd be all that tall, really....

Weekly Transformers Feature: Alternators Shockblast

Over nearly 25 years of Transformers product, Hasbro has tried to maintain a balance between coming up with new characters and concepts, and giving homages to characters and concepts that have come before. The first few years of the original line (roughly from '84-'86) are homaged especially often. When the Alternators line came out, there were apparently at least three main goals: 1) Create a line of toys that is entirely within a particular scale (in this case 1:24, which is commonly used for model cars). 2) Create a line of toys that are licensed by the actual automakers themselves, and therefore accurately resemble the vehicles they purport to turn into. 3) Create new forms for well-loved characters from the Generation One era.

Weekly Transformers Feature: Skids (Reissue)

It's Generation One time again! Unlike the other times I've reviewed G1 figures in the past, this one isn't technically from the '80s, but rather is a more recent reissue of a figure from that period. This particular specimen, Skids, is a Japanese reissue, which is notable because Skids never actually got a "normal" release in Japan back in the '80s, having only ever been released as part of a multi-pack with two other figures (both which had also never been released in Japan previously, although one got another release in just another couple of years over there), so the "reissue" was actually the first time that Japanese fans could ever buy Skids on his own.

A lot of fans don't remember Skids. He barely ever appeared in the cartoon, and is arguably the rarest of all the Autobot cars released in the first two years of the toyline. He did, however, have a memorable run in a couple of issues of the Marvel comic. Indeed, he's one of very few Autobot cars to get an issue devoted almost entirely to him. Those fans who do remember Skids apparently only remember him on the basis of this scene, which somehow manages to get mentioned almost anytime the subject of Skids comes up.... (And people wonder why male comic book fans have such a bad reputation....)

Fans also tend to be confused about the actual size and nature of Skids' vehicle mode. The picture linked above clearly shows Skids as the size of a minivan. But Skids isn't intended to be a minivan, but rather is a Honda City Turbo, a vehicle that never saw wide release in the United States. It's far more comparable in size to a station wagon than to a minivan. But when one considers that scale always has been wildly variable in the Transformers line, it can perhaps be forgiven that Americans who (mostly) had never seen a City Turbo before would see Skids' general shape and assume that he turned into a larger vehicle.