The Solar Pool
Follow Me For Updates On:
  • Blog
  • Revisitation
  • Transformation
  • Book Shop
    • Heart of the Pool
    • Disclaimer
    • Links

Transformation 220: Giving Head.

29/7/2016

7 Comments

 
Picture
It's the conclusion of the seemingly endless Mechannibals arc, and it's a weight off Cloudburst's shoulers I can tell you.

Also, Skids has some friends round for tea.

All in my look at ISSUE 220!


And if you haven't bought the book yet, the code SHIPSAVE16 will get you 15% off and free shipping on Lulu till Sunday.


7 Comments
Tim Roll-Pickering link
29/7/2016 08:20:39 pm

Regarding Landmine enjoying the attention of women, Budiansky seems to have been caught in the classic confusion of the terms "gender" and "sex" (and just to add to the confusion, "sex" in this context is short for "sexuality" but no, that's not what is meant, so "biological sex" is an easier term to use), which to be fair until recently wasn't often explained outside university anthropology classes. The Transformers reproduce asexually and thus do not have biological sex distinctions but in theory could have a range of gender identities only in practice they seem to have all fallen into the gender roles associated with males in other species and thus not noticed the difference. (That letter seems to have a good grasp of the basics as to how Arcee could fit in.) Thus it's entirely possible for some of them to fall into seemingly masculine roles in an alien society but be utterly unable to comprehend the concept of mating. It's surprisingly sophisticated stuff and really not something dropped into a sub-plot that's trying to pad out an adventure. It would have been fun to take the Transformers out into space more often, especially for the Pretenders who can finally get their disguises to work.

Furman and Reed have done some good horror stories over the years and Survivors is definitely one - and I disagree, I think the black and white really enhances the effects, especially with Skids's nightmares. It's also a surprisingly mature look at the aftermath of battle. This would have made a much better introduction to the black and white format.

The Action Force story is one of a number that had animated adverts created without Larry Hama's input, to his annoyance as he then had to write around the scenes shown. The advert itself is on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZGBZboLPNY Raptor's fairly prominent in it so you can understand Hama's especial annoyance at being forced to use him. (I think that it was also around this time that the G.I. Joe movie came out - certainly the next story reprinted introduces a lot of the new Joe characters from it - and Hama really had to put his foot down against using Cobra-La-La-La-La-La-La-La.) Imagine if Transformers had regularly had such adverts, forcing the writers to use random action scenes, perhaps even featuring characters the continuity made unavailable...

And the letters page... Traditionally this is an assistant's job, though sometimes when promoted they retain it (e.g. Furman) and one effect is they're not always very well acquainted with the title's history and continuity. It's possible this is Euan Peters who maybe didn't know the detail of stories from before his time, but the poor responses coming up about black & white and reprints may well indicate a frustrated assistant who hasn't been at the meetings with senior staff getting annoyed at having to be the one to explain it all.

Reply
Ryan F
30/7/2016 10:50:30 am

I always assumed it was Peters himself doing the answering; the writing style in the letters page seems similar to that of editorial Transformation page at the front - especially when the editorial also starts getting defensive about the black-and-white stories and reprints in a few weeks' time.

Reply
Tim Roll-Pickering link
10/5/2020 12:12:13 pm

Years later but I've remembered somewhere seeing that the Furman/Peters changeover was about issue #219. This would match up the problem exactly that the decision on the switch predated Peters and so he probably hadn't been in a position to fight it or even receive support on how to sell it to the readers but then had to face the fallout head on.

Reply
Ralph Burns
2/8/2016 06:42:48 pm

I can't think of anything to say about this issue. I just had a cookie dough Chunky Kit Kat.



SPECIAL TEAMS!

Reply
Felicity link
20/11/2019 05:22:13 am

Lately I’ve been enjoying Cookies & Cream Crunchers!

Reply
Snowkatt link
14/4/2017 03:10:16 pm

Oddly enough the character calendar lines up with May 2017,
so its not totally useless.
Eh, eh ?

Okay fine, I'll get my coat.

Reply
Felicity link
20/11/2019 05:34:06 am

I never knew the US cover was altered at the last minute to add Cloudburst’s body! That explains why it’s sort of awkward. At least the Femaxian is well-drawn.

Landmine could have been enjoying the attention without planning to do anything physical about it, and the Femaxians could have been attracted to him without knowing he was asexual, but it works either way.

It’s a bit of a messy ending with the Mecannibals. We’ve certainly seen that the Autobots are prone to angst about trading one life for another. Optimus Prime will even tire of the utilitarian argument that many lives for one life is a good bargain, in an upcoming issue. So it makes sense that the Autobot Pretenders wouldn’t take the microchips knowing where they came from.

OTOH, will the Mecannibals really reassamble all the robots they ever ate? What do the Mecannibals actually eat for food if 100% of the robots they digest can be reassembled again? If the Mecannibals hadn’t been so angry at their robot spotters that they abandoned Grand Central Space Station and took off after them, but had instead decided to continue using the robot spotters, wouldn’t that just lead to more robots being eaten? And so on. This is one of those things it probably doesn’t pay to think about.

I never knew Larry Hama had to write around whatever weird thing the toy company put into its animated commercials. I must say he did a good job. Everyone praised “GI Joe” for feeling realistic even when it was doing crazy things to sell the toys.

It will turn out that Billy is indeed a ninja, which is no doubt something Larry Hama didn’t have to be told to do.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Stuart Webb. Who knows everything about nothing and not a lot about that.

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011

    Categories

    All
    Abnett
    Action Force/G.I. Joe
    Animated
    Announcement
    Armada
    Audio
    Avengers
    Baker
    Bay
    Beast Wars
    Big Finish
    Brosnan
    Cannon
    Capaldi
    Carpenter
    Carte Blanche
    Cartoon
    Combat Colin
    Comedy
    Comics
    Computer Games
    Costa
    Cullen
    Davison
    Death
    Dille
    Discworld
    Doctor Who
    Dragon's Claws
    Dreamwave
    Dynamite
    Eccleston
    Ellis
    Fantasy
    Film
    Fleetway
    Frost
    Furman
    Generation 2
    Generation One
    Generation One
    Holmes
    Horror
    IDW
    James Bond
    James Roberts
    Jeffrey Deaver
    John Barber
    Ladybird
    Lanning
    Machine Man
    Marvel
    McCarthy
    Mccoy
    Mcgann
    Mosaic
    Nick Roche
    Nimoy
    Nintendo
    Panini
    Pegg
    Pratchett
    Prime
    Rescue Bots
    Revisitation
    RID
    Rincewind
    Science Fiction
    Science Fiction
    Shatner
    Signature
    Smith
    Sponsored
    Spy
    Star Trek
    Su
    Tennant
    Tipton
    Titan
    Torchwood
    Transformation
    Transformers
    Tv
    Visionaries
    Weatherwax
    Witches
    Wizards
    YouTube

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.