>Leader of giant alien robots who drain other planets of their resources >Turns into a dinky little handgun ... Alright, I know Transformers started out as Diaclone/Micro-Change rebranded by Hasbro for western markets, meaning they had to create something around the pre-existing designs (and if there was a Diaclone anime, it's likely that would have been dubbed instead). But out of nearly 100 toys licensed, why pick the handgun as the enemy leader?
Also, has any Transformers material depicted Megatron as a handgun since the original toy went off the shelves?
And while we're at it, why alien robots? The Diaclone toys came with little pilot figures, they could have easily been mechs and there's a pretty good reason mechs are the norm in giant robot fiction.
These days he's generally a tank which is a fine compromise, though I love gun Megatron. He did have a gun toy in 06 or so, look up Nerf Megatron. There was also a small Legends toy where he was still a gun, though with orange cap.
Dylan Ramirez
Here's another question in ragards to writing characters around existing toys, why wasn't Ultra Magnus just Optimus Prime? It was the same exact toy with different accessories.
Human drama. Either the Transformers are hiding and get rather limited interactions with other characters, or they don't bother and somehow giant alien robots walking around is treated like no big deal. This is why practically every single Transformers cartoon is either partially or really about some human kids, the concept of the series is kind of unrelatable otherwise.
Having the robots be piloted would also fix some other issues with the franchise that something like Gundam doesn't have. If you want to introduce a new robot you wouldn't have the problem of adding too many characters or arbitrarily replacing others, they can simply just be new mechs for the same pilots. And in reverse, just like how Gundam doesn't have to be piloted by Amuro Ray, Optimus Prime's iconic design wouldn't have to be tied down to a specific personality and backstory.
Transformers was only 3 years old at the time, cartoons and comics that existed to sell toys were a new thing, everyone was still figuring out how it worked, what you could and couldn't do. Mattel chose to release versions of He-Man and Skeletor in a new costume every year, so the main characters were always available, while Hasbro tried introducing new leaders for Transformers and GI Joe, because leader characters are important so always sell well. Nobody understood how attached kids had become to Optimus Prime until it was too late.
Andrew Reed
>Also, has any Transformers material depicted Megatron as a handgun since the original toy went off the shelves?
The early days of IDW, and (somehow) the Combiner Wars webtoon.
he already has the cannon on his arm, why transform at all??
Owen Lewis
>But out of nearly 100 toys licensed, why pick the handgun as the enemy leader? With all the extra attachments (Scope, silencer, stock), Megatron was the only figure of a comparable pricepoint to the truck robot (with its trailer).
I still have my Psycho toy ("I" in the picture), never knew that was his name, one of my favorite toys as a kid. My brother had the "S" Optimus Prime set.
>>polishing him one across the tailpipe w-what? is this an edit?
Henry Ward
They meant "waxing" and "polishing" in the "smack around" sort of way, but since we're talking about cars, the inneundo unintentionally came out more like Cy-Kill keeps him in line with sexual favors.
