Thanks to Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast, BigAngryTrev.com has once again been given an exclusive reveal for the Transformers: Trading Card Game to share with the world! Rather than a new character, this card is an Upgrade – Armour card from the new Titan Master packs that will be available later in the year.
Note: Neither Hasbro nor WOTC have paid for this reveal and have in no way tried to dictate the content of this review. BigAngryTrev would like to thank both companies for the continuing opportunities to share facets of this card game with the public.
So let’s have a look at the Action Card Electro-Optical Visor.
Using the card in game
The usefulness of the card will rely heavily on what cards you and your opponent are sporting. If you are sporting a team of all Autobots, when you place this on a character and it adds 1 Defence point via an Armour Upgrade to its stats and the cards usefulness stops there.
However, if you have any Decepticons in your team, putting this card on one of them will not only add 1 Armor Upgrade point, but also:
*Makes your opponent reveal their hand
*Your opponent must scrap an Autobot card of their choosing from their hand
Of course, your opponent could quite easily have no Autobot cards in their hand, which means they don’t have to scrap any card at all. But even if this is the case, it still means that you get to have a good look at their hand, see what cards they are sporting and prepare yourself accordingly.
The Artwork
The artwork is lovely, showing Soundwave wearing what one assumes to be an Electro-Optical visor. Oddly I don’t recognise the origin of the artwork, so I am making the assumption it is from the IDW Transformers comics reboot, as I have not read all of them yet. If I am in error, or you know which exact comic, please pop it in the comments section below and I will be sure to credit you.
Note: According to reader ‘Flip Flip Bang Bang’ this is probably new artwork as WOTC no longer uses IDW comic art.
So all in all, depending on the cards you and your opponent have, this could prove to be either an average or a very useful card to pick up. I look forward to getting a physical copy in my hands and trying it out in gameplay.
The new Titan Master Packs for Transformers: TCG are slated for a release on the 17th of April, 2020.
Today at the New York Toyfair the world was treated to the teaser trailer for the new Transformers cartoon trilogy coming to Netflix later this year – War For Cybertron: Siege. Even though this has been touted as ‘Anime’ we are getting a CGI cartoon like the Power of the Prime’s trilogy rather than some stylized Japanese animation. Based mainly on the Siege Toyline, but also reminiscent of the opening sequence to the 2018 Bumblebee Movie, this cartoon has kept many of us in keen anticipation and is set in the final stages of their war on Cybertron. Watch below:
Video from Transformers Official Youtube Channel
So let’s have a quick rundown of what characters we saw in this short video, what they did and what implications it could have for the upcoming cartoons storyline.
AUTOBOTS
Optimus Prime: Voiced by Peter Cullen, we see Optimus doing his usual – saving other Autobots, battling Megatron, protecting the Allspark and so on. More interestingly, you get to see some of his warriors questioning his methods rather than talking about how great he is.
Elita-1: The only Transformer from the video that did not have a toy in the Siege line or the upcoming Earthrise (her figure coming out in POTP). Her line said to Optimus ‘This is not the life I imaged for us’ brings up the question: is she referring to her and Optimus indicating a relationship between the two, or referring to the Transformer race in general.
Ultra Magnus: Instead being his usual ‘Yes Prime’ self, we see him questioning Prime’s methods, and even going in secret to see the Decepticon command. This potentially could be the most interesting we have ever seen him portrayed on screen.
Bumblebee: Another bot that is usually at Prime’s beck and call, we see him telling Prime his attitude to the war will get him killed. Thankfully it seems he is based on his G1 self which will get a toy in the Earthrise line, rather being based on the Bumblebee Movie.
Chromia: Seen fighting Barricade, one wonders with the inclusion of her and Elita, does this mean we will finally get a break from Windblade and Arcee being the two main female Autobots in any given story?
Cog: Seen dying of an injury, but his parts being used by Sideswipe in Weaponizer fashion. Oddly later in the trailer we see a bot that has Cog’s body type but is coloured like Six-Gun running after Elita. A trick of the lighting or the first animation error?
Wheeljack: Like Bumblebee, he has a figure coming up in the Earthrise toyline, so will he transform in the cartoon?
Megatron:Not voiced by Frank Welker, but sounds good all the same. Sporting some battle damage and some big Overlord-style lips. Like Optimus he is doing his usual – inspiring his army and trying to kick Prime’s butt.
Soundwave: Seen standing off to the side of the Decepticon command table. Does this mean he wont be as big a character as usual? Or without Welker’s voice that he may remain silent?
Shockwave: Also seen at the command table.
Refracktor/s: Two Refracktor’s are seen firing over a barricade. The powers that be have obviously gone for the choice of having them all identical like the G1 cartoon, rather than Spectro, Viewfinder and Spyglass getting their own colour schemes and weaponry.
Barricade: I guess this solidifies Barricade’s inclusion to the G1 universe. Seen sitting at the command table as well as putting the smack down on Chromia.
Skytread: Seen getting punched in the face by Optimus.
Jetfire: In a few scenes with Megatron and most definitely sporting the Decepticon symbol. Looks like we will get the inevitable ‘Jetfire swaps sides’ storyline at some point.
Impactor: Like Jetfire we see his Decepticon incarnation. Will he, like Jetfire undoubtedly will, join the side of the Autobots at some stage in the series?
SEEKERS: From some shots it looks like there is going to be a lot of them, perhaps all of them. Here are the ones that were definitely spotted:
Starscream: In both battle scenes and at the command table. Given all the other story implications, we might actually be spared the ‘Starscream betrays Megatron’ story that has been played to death in the past.
Skywarp: Battle scenes and at the command table.
Thundercracker: In a few battle scenes
Redwing and Acid Storm: Seen standing guard as Ultra Magnus approaches the Decepticon base.
So, seems like there may be some interesting story arcs and some interesting takes on characters. One can just hope that this cartoon is better than the last CGI transformers cartoons we received.
What do you think of this trailer? Pop it in the comments section below!
Living in the bush I don’t get to see other Transformer fans very often. I don’t get to pop over to a mate’s house to see his latest acquisitions. I don’t attend meets, I don’t go to pop culture conventions, hell I don’t even get to visit toy stores. So when it comes to talking to others about a shared hobby I have to rely almost solely on the internet.
But the way a large segment of the fandom has been going in the last few years, I find myself thinking more often than not why I bother.
The default expression of an online Transformers fan
I don’t know when this all started. Maybe it was the live action Transformer movies. Most people seemed to like, or at least tolerate, the first movie in 2007. Those raising very vocal hatred for it being largely groups of GeeWunners who wanted it to look like the 1984 cartoon.
But then Revenge of the Fallen came out and a massive amount of the fandom started bitching, and it seems they have never stopped. It’s been years since a Transformers movie directed by MichaelBay (The Last Knight) has been released, and you still can’t surf a Transformers site without there being negative comments and memes threaded throughout screaming about how people hated them and it ‘raped their childhood’. Now in 2024, it’s the same arguments and complaints about the new Transformers One trailer: “Why isn’t this part of the G1 cartoon universe?! It’s a kick in the teeth to all the fans who carried the franchise for 40 years – Habro owes us!” Fans treating it as a personal insult that an animated movie designed to sell children’s toys isn’t aimed soley at middle-aged men – the sense of entitlement is staggering.
‘I was created not for entertainment, but to piss off fans. Didn’t you know that?’
And it seems this negativity of the fandom has spread from the movies to encompass any and everything Transformers. Be it comics, cartoons, toys – whatever. If it’s toys it’s all nitpicking about release times, non screen accurate figures and online retailers. If it’s the cartoons then it’s that the cartoon isn’t specifically aimed at demographic X – and if it IS aimed at demographic X then demographic Y kicks up a fuss.
When it’s about the comics people seem to get the most vocal of all (at least in years where a new movie hasn’t been released). Pre the reboot at IDW it was all about the writers having an agenda and virtue signalling and what have you. Now it’s about crossovers. The amount of hatred on the internet about the My Little Ponycrossover coming up has been frankly disgusting. Anyone who isn’t hating on the idea getting accused of being a homosexual or engaging in bestiality. Grown men – grown men – talking about how they despise My Little Pony. Why any grown man without a daughter has watched enough episodes to form such a strong opinion on a cartoon aimed at little girls is beyond me – but they must have watched it because they all seem to be experts on it and hate it. Even one of the artists that did one of the front covers for the upcoming crossover comics has received enough abuse to comment about it publicly. People abusing someone for doing their job and daring to draw a fictional horse on the same page as a fictional robot – way to make the fandom look good fellas.
‘You are destroying my franchise and deserve to die…. apparently’
Now bear in mind I don’t have a problem with people who have a genuine complaint. If you’ve bought a figure that snapped the moment you tried to transform it, despite you being gentle and following the instructions precisely, then damn right you are valid in being pissed off about it. Complain away and you will find a sympathetic ear in me. You got ripped off by an ebay seller and your TR Trypticon turns out to be a pack of beach towels – yell to high heaven! Preach brother! And if you didn’t like a comic or cartoon or movie or toy, then I’ll happily read your opinion if you keep it civil, logical, factual and state your opinion once.
Like Insecticons, angry posts like to clone themselves over and over and over
But it’s the constant bitching I can’t hack anymore. The people who didn’t like a movie and then years later are still writing post after post about how they hated it. People talking about how much a toy or movie sucks before they have even been released yet, like their opinion on something they have yet to personally experience makes it fact. People acting like so-called experts when they know little more than someone who has just entered a toyshop for the first time.
And the bitching about nothing! Sexuality in Transformers? Seriously? That is what brings people to boiling point? People lost their shit when the first wrist-rest mouse padswere released, like the manufactures had made booby pads based on their mothers instead of fictional shape-shifting alien robots. People scream abuse at each other over whether it is valid for Transformers to feel romantic affection for each other since they don’t breed. Is such a thing really worth calling a stranger a ‘f**king c**t’ over?
‘Why does our love cause you such hate?’
So it’s sad to say I’m feeling pretty done right now. I’m sick of clicking on a link or a FB post or a thread on a fansite to find out about some of the latest Transformer news and being confronted with a wall of vitriolic shit. I’m sick of saying I like something and having a dozen people call me an idiot or a faggot or worse for daring to have an opinion different to theirs. Sick of clicking to see if a toy is available only to see the people that got their toys and the people that didn’t, who ordered from the same online retailer, tearing each other a new one.
I know this kind of behaviour is not solely related to the Transformers fandom, it certainly happened in the Ghostbusters fandom with Frozen Empire. Some days it seems it’s the whole internet in general. Maybe I’m too old for the digital world. Whenever I converse online I try to think about, if I said this to a bloke in the pub, would it earn me a punch in the face? Because that was the reality I grew up with, with no internet and texting being easily accessible until I was in my 20’s. When you said something to someone you were saying it to their face. But now we have people who have done nearly all of their socialization their whole lives online, and have grown up in a world where you can say whatever hateful shit you like to someone because chances are that person is on the other side of the planet and you will never have to face consequences for your actions. Yes, the internet is getting too angry for even Big Angry Trev.
‘Can’t we all just peace out?’
Now people who live in GlassGas houses shouldn’t throw Cyberstones, and there are undoubtedly people out there that I have gotten into heated online arguments with over the years over very silly issues. So I am guilty too. But I pride myself that each year I get into less online fights, get into less pointless arguments and get better at cyber-walking away. I’m not perfect but I’m getting better. And maybe that it a goal we could all aim for – to improve our skill of walking away from the keyboard or smartphone when the blood begins to boil, and go play with our Technobots for a while.
So when I go home tonight, I won’t be surfing the big Transformer sites. I’m going to try my best to practice what I’m preaching and be a chilled out fan. I’m going to open up a bunch of new figures I just got and play with them with my son, as a reminder to myself that this hobby should be positive, should be fun, and in the end is about plastic toy robots.
Hey! If you are a positive person who loves talking about all the things they LIKE about Transformers? Why not restore my faith and write something happy in the comments below!
Despite, thankfully, not losing our home like so many other poor souls, our family was affected by the unprecedented bushfires this summer. We had to evacuate our home for an extended period – twice, with the flames getting to within 500m off our back fence and 200m off our side fence. These were scary times for us, like many others across the state. If it wasn’t for the RFS fighting the fires tooth and nail for months on end, I have zero doubt our property would have been consumed and they have our families eternal thanks.
Image taken from the cab of a fire truck on our road the night we had to evacuate. (Photo Credit: R. Oldfield – NSW RFS)
These fires affected our entire family unit. We had to cancel our sons birthday party and all my wifes family coming for Christmas. We had to spend Xmas itself at relatives homes instead of in our own. We had to tear our farm apart to try and make it as fireproof as possible, and we are still now trying to put it back together. We had all our most treasured personal belonging stashed in three other people’s homes and likewise for our animals three more. We stressed and fretted and on one night drove for our lives as the police came down our road on their loudspeaker ordering people to evacuate, our animals and children in tow. We sat up until 1am at my mother-in-laws house watching the reports come in about a house destroyed on our road, wondering if it was ours and if we would have a home to return to. We consider ourselves fortunate that all we lost in the end was a few fridges and a deep freezer full of food (a waste of good ducks though).
So yes, we were much luckier than many, but the NSW fire season was truly a horrible month for our family.
So the RFS saved our home, but what saved our sanity? Easy to answer – community, friends and family. Without these people my wife and I would have descended into madness long ago, and ours is a tale of how people pulling together made what was a terrible experience so much less worse than it could have been.
Here are some of the examples of how we were helped by truly wonderful people:
Community & Emergency Workers
*The Grader Drivers that came to our property on two separate occasions and put in fire break lines everywhere they could, in an effort to stop any grassfires that might make it in onto our land.
*The local branch of the RFS, who provided constant updates and were always able to answer any questions we sent to them, even at 2am while our road burned.
*The local member who posted constant updates and videos about what the fires were doing in our area for weeks on end and was an excellent source of information. I may have been a Greens voter all my life, but there is a National’s member who has earned my vote!
*My sister-in-laws friend taking in our chook and 8 of our ducks for a full month and caring for them, despite never even having met us before.
*Our neighbours across the road and next to us keeping an eye on our property in case there were spotfires while we were evacuated.
Grader driver putting in containment lines in our back paddock
Friends
*My friend Jordan driving over a hundred kilometres and spending 3 hours in 40 degree heat evacuating all goods from the Transformatorium shed into the main house (we thought that the firey’s might be able to save the house but would probably let the shed burn if they had to). Then in the hot sun helped me clean out gutters, that had never been cleaned before, of dead leaves and other flammable material.
*My boss and friend Toni from work storing my 3000+ Transformer action figure collection in her loungeroom for an entire month, despite it meaning she could hardly move in that part of the house.
*Our friends Lisa and Scott taking our pet goats for extended periods on two separate occasions and feeding and watering them every day despite the heat.
*Our new friends and neighbours down the road, Bill and Lynne, feeding the poultry we couldn’t evacuate, even though it meant a daily drive closer to the fire front.
*So many of our close friends messaging us with comforting words and emotional support, yet allowing us the space to breathe when we had to.
Family
*My brother-in-law Matt driving over a hundred kilometres with his chainsaw to cut down every tree within a 5m radius of our farmhouse, then staying the night so the next day he could seal breaks in our guttering so they could hold water in case of ember attack.
*My sister-in-law Jo storing so much of our personal belongings, taking our fish for several weeks, and making us Christmas dinner
*My mother-in-law Noelene putting us up for long periods – twice – while we were evacuated, looking after our dog and storing even more of our belongings (my wife’s family rules!).
*Our children, so young and yet so brave. Being evacuated twice, missing out on birthday parties, missing out on spending Christmas in their own home. That’s a lot for a 4 and 7 year old to cope with and they both took it in their stride.
*And more than anyone, my beautiful wife. By my side we spent so much of our summer trying to fireproof a farm that had never before been threatened by flames and was a tinderbox ready to ignite.
Ours is just one example of how families and entire communities came together to support each other during this horrible time for our state and indeed for our country. If ever there was evidence that the spirit of empathy and generosity is still well alive in this land, it’s been well and truly presented this summer.
So to all our friends, all our family, all the community and all the members of the RFS, on behalf of our family
