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Rumo(u)r Contents
2.
Armada will see Unicron return in all his bad-guy splendor.
Unicron can be lame if overused, but treated as a character and
not a thing movie plot he this could very well make him the most
interesting creations in the Transformers Universe. Of
course, there's no guarantee that this is true, but given the
changes coming this wouldn't surprise me. 5. Armada is going
to entail the following plot points (taken from BWTF.com's General
Message Board):
Before I get into these, let it be known that at
the time of this rumor's posting (11/24/01), we have had
absolutely no details as to the plot of Armada -- if that's even
going to be what it's called. All we know is Prime, perhaps
Galvatron, and Unicron. And that's it. Period.
However, this amuses me, and I want to see how many are true
merely by happenstance. Anyway, on with the rumors... 5.1:
G1 Megatron meets BW/BM Megatron.
...huh? Oh, you mean
*besides* that time in Beast Wars. Ahem. There's
really no way of knowing this, but it's not outside the realm of
possibility. 5.2: Decepticons and Predacons form an alliance.
Again, we have no way of
knowing, but it would seem to make sense. 5.3: Unicron
doesn't have a spark, but is piloted by Galvatron.
Huh? 5.4: Rodimus
Prime is evil.
...buh? 5.5: Optimus
Prime is G1, but with upgrades (like SFC)
Whoever came up with this should
win TFBOoG@LoO!'s first ever "No DUH!" award...
Note:
It should be pointed out that while he's a cab LIKE G1 Prime, it
seems more and more likely that he's a separate entity from the
original. So this rumor is essentially true.
Essentially. We'll know for sure by 2004. 5.6:
Soundwave returns and sets out to hunt for Ravage and co.
As cool as that sounds (it'd be
something for us older fans to nod our heads approvingly at, while
at the same time introduce characters at a reasonable pace), we
still have no way of knowing. We still don't know who the
writers are, or if there even ARE any writers at this point! 5.7:
Starscream forms faction known as Muticons.
Why? Sounds like someone's
[bad] fan fiction to me. Doesn't even look like it's spelled
right.
Note:
Well, two things are true: Starscream is in Armada, and there's a
new faction called the Minicons. Though one seemingly has
little to do with the other. That doesn't make this rumor
true, however... 5.8: Arcee is major character
Wishful thinking? Educated
guess? Complete and total crap? You decide. 5.9:
Autobots find a ship from before G1 called Escaprime.
Okay, this is getting freakin'
ridiculous...
Note:
Not COMPLETELY off-base after all. The Minicons crashed to
Earth in a ship (regardles off what its name is), and it would
place it (chronologically) before the events of G1.
Whether this story is even related to G1 continuity is still up
in the air. 5.10: Maximals and Predacons go fully
Techno.
>yawn< Baseless
speculation >yawn<
Note:
By baseless, I mean that it speculates that Maximals and
Predacons even exist in this show. They don't. At
all. 5.11: Crossover machine
unites G1 G2 BW BM with RiD.
That's what we've been
hearing. The extent of this idea is not yet known, and as
far as we are aware is subject to major tweaking. We
*should* know something by the end of the series. 5.12:
All Maximals from Beast Machines die in the first episode except Rattrap,
Silverbolt, and Blackarachnia.
...and then G1 Scourge shows up
in TransMetal 2 form and explains everything that happened since
the Maximals came to Cybertron, how Megatron took over, and that
Magnaboss is bearer of the Matrix. Then the Maximals travel
to the center of Cybertron where they find Rodimus and Galvatron
buried in ice and locked in battle. Then they get thawed and
Galvatron takes the Matrix from Rodimus and he becomes Hot Rod,
and Megatron loses his beast form and becomes a jet and flies away... 5.13:
Vok hold some secret TF thingy that supposedly opens up Zone of
Vector
With such technical terms as
"thingy", we can be assured that this is quality
information. To sum up: this is all a load of
crap. Don't waste your time reading this. If it's
already too late... I'm sorry. :p 10.
Armada is going to suck.
Yeah, well... maybe.
NOTE: After checking out a
couple of the scans from the Armada preview at Comicon.com, I
have concluded that at the very least the Armada comic coming
out in July shows promise. Oh yes...
NOTE (13.07.02): The comic
does indeed show promise.
NOTE (07.10.02): Well, six episodes into the series
it looks like this is going to be the case. However, I'm
going to give the show a little more time before I call this
thing one way or the other. The comic, late as it's
become, *still* shows promise. 12.
Hasbro is considering canning Armada early because it sucks.
This was seen in the form of an "anonymous
letter" to Seibertron.com,
which I don't exactly think is a reliable source of
information. But, as the rumor goes, Hasbro is seriously
reconsidering its plan to pull Armada through two years of life
on the shelf and television. Why? Supposedly
pressure from Cartoon Network and Takara -- which makes sense at
first, but upon thinking about it really doesn't. Takara
given any outward indication about returning to G1 ever since Beast Wars
started. Cartoon Network maybe, but... What sticks with
me is the claim that Armada isn't selling through as well as
Hasbro had hoped, so they are reconsidering the line
altogether. This assumes two things: 1) That the guys over
at Seibertron.com know what Hasbro was expecting for the line,
and 2) that they are accurately able to gauge how much has been
sold through. First off, checking a store every week or so
and observing a pile of toys on a shelf is not conclusive to how
many are being sold. The idea that the toys are piling up
is silly since stores like Walmart don't put in orders for new
toys until they've sold a certain portion of the old batch, new
waves be damned (this is why I never saw Blast
Punch Primal there -- they refused to buy more until BM
Megatron sold out, and that NEVER happened!). So the
shoddy reporting going into this also does not inspire
confidence. Well, then
there's this line "But the brass see the fandom as little
more than a nuisance and are unwilling to risk a major marketing
campaign to attract more of them" which completely
contradicts what Hasbro's presentation at BotCon was all about
(and I still haven't put up a BotCon 2002 report despite the
'Con being over for over two months now -- sorry!). But I
bet that there are many people in the company, especially
higher-ups, who DON'T take adult fan interest seriously -- just
look at Sci Fi and Farscape. Anyway, back on track,
according to this rumor not many people inside Hasbro paid
attention to the Armada TV show until complaints started rolling
in from fans and some of their own staff. I believe this
mostly because there's no other way such a shoddily-run program
would have been allowed to air. But maybe that's just
me. We'll see. Like anything, time is what tells
about these or any other sorts of rumors. Still, this could
POSSIBLY be true, but I doubt it. 13.
Hasbro is also considering canning their "Final Fantasy"
approach to Transformers, because that sucks too.
I'll admit: these two rumors are exactly the sort of thing I've
been waiting to hear, and I know there are lots of others there
with me. Therefore I have to conclude that they are most
likely bunk. They sound TOO perfect. They sound TOO
attuned to what I think is wrong with the series, and I don't
think Hasbro's ever agreed this much with the fans about
anything. To clarify, Hasbro has no intention of
continuing the storyline from toy line to toy line, and instead
wants to start over fresh and new every year or so. But...
I keep hearing things that could be true, which is why I'm
wavering.
I like the idea of a "serious debate" going on
inside of Hasbro's not-so-hallowed walls regarding the future of
the line. I don't believe everyone to be happy about where
things are going, because I know as a longtime fan I sure as
hell am not. But I'm not putting much stock into any of
this because, as I said, it's exactly what I wanted to
hear. Still, the very inclination gives me hope. I
WANT Transformers to return to an epic Sci Fi storyline, because
that's the vision of the franchise that has stuck with me the
most over the years.
But, we'll see what we shall see, won't we... |
