However my collections leap to the small screen has now officially been made! On Sunday night myself and my Transformatorium were featured on Channel 10’s The Project, a nationaly aired television program here in Australia.
They interviewed me about my years of collecting Transformers and some of my various figures. They also featured my wife who looked beautiful on camera and my son who was an absolute star!
As well as airing it on Television, The Project also uploaded the video to their YouTube Channel. So check out Trev & The Transformatorium below!
Shelf Lighting by Aguirre Electrical
Trev’s hair by Mick of Cutthroat Barbers
Makeup Mentoring by Sherie
Disappointingly all the footage with my daughter was cut, so I feel compelled to put a photo here of my darling daughter Acacia who deserved to be in the spotlight too, and who is more special to me than all the Transformers in the world.
Thank you so much to all the people on social media that gave a truly staggering amount of positive feedback after the show aired! If you would like to see more of The Transformatorium, head over to my personal YouTube Channel, or check out the link below.
I’ve actually been sitting on this review for months, but due to the non-disclosure agreement I signed at the Preview Screening, I have been unable to publish until now. But the embargo is officially lifted and off we go!
Transformers cartoons and comics get rebooted every few years, and now it seems the movie part of the franchise is following suit. After the stand alone 1986 movie we had what many people called the Bayverse, 5 live action movies over the course of a decade. Several years later we had the Bumblebee Moviefollowed by last years sequel Rise of The Beasts, a soft reboot of the Bayverse.
Now it appears we have yet another Transformers movieverse to explore. Whether it is a full reboot of the entire film franchise, or is going to run concurrent to the live action movies is at this time unknown, but it is the first time in 38 years a Transformers animated movie has hit the big screen – and so we have Transformers One.
Note: This is a movie review – so SPOILERS AHEAD!
Chronologically Transformers One is set before the great Cybertronian Civil War began, but after their war with the Quintessons. Cybertron is under the thrall of a cast system, with the Cogless (those without Transformation Cogs and thus no ability to transform) performing all the grunt work of society, everything from mining to waste reclamation. Those with Transformation Cogs live a more privileged life, however a life still constrained as Cybertron is no longer producing Liquid Energon, the lifeblood of the Transformers race, and the only Energon available is that mined from the depths of Cybertron by the aforementioned cogless miners.
We are quickly introduced to Orion Pax, the bot destined one day to become Optimus Prime. This is a version of Orion we have not seen before, even in the comics he was still very Optimus’esque with a strong sense of responsibility. This Orion is impetuous, adventurous and happy to break societies rules when it suits him. Though many fans have cried foul of the character not being voiced by Peter Cullen, it is easy to see why they went with the younger Chris Hemsworth, Cullens strong and older voice would not have suited such a youthful interpretation.
The only thing I am missing is Cyber-acne
After a chase between Orion and two security bots, where Orion so conveniently watches a holovid talking about the disappearance of The Matrix and its effect on Cybertron (and thus the main plot of the film), we are introduced to his best friend D-16, who will one day don his big bot pants and become the maniacal Megatron.
My eyes aren’t red, that means I’m not evil… yet.
Through the optics and treatment of Orion and D-16, we see how oppressed the mining-class are, though many of them don’t see it that way as they feel they are serving a useful function for their society. However unlike his comrades Orion is not content to merely mine for the greater good, he wants to find the Matrix and bring it to their societies leader, Sentinel Prime, who is a hero of D-16’s, second only in his optics to Megatronus who was one of the Original 13 Primes who disappeared at the end of the Quintesson War.
Through a series of misadventures Orion & D-16 end up on the surface of Cybertron, having picked up the unwilling Elita 1 and the very willing Bumblebee along the way, and off for the Matrix they search. Transformers movies always seem to resort to a ‘we have to find the….’ plotline. Whether it’s a Matrix, an Allspark, a Cyberforming Seed, a Spacebridge Pillar, a Transwarp Key or even the Staff or Merlin, the writers of Transformers movies sadly resort to the same old trope in order to move the plot along. Given what they have to work with – giant alien shapeshifting robots – you would think the script writers could come up with something a bit more creative than another round of ‘hunt the shiny’.
The characterization is at least somewhat more original than the plot, with new takes on decades old Transformers staples. As aforementioned, Orion is a far more youthful version of Optimus to what we are accustomed, Elita is pragmatic and in-charge rather than being simply Optimus’ love interest, D-16 is rough but willing to begrudgingly follow Orion along for the sake of friendship, and Bumblebee is almost manic in how much he blathers on, a nice change of pace from the Bumblebee who has to talk through a radio that has graced the big screen for the last 7 flicks.
“I can talk, I can talk, I can talk talk talk talk…’
Eventually our four heroes find the place the Matrix was last seen and discover Alpha Trion, one of the Original 13 Primes and the only one who is still functional. Through him they learn that Sentinel Prime has been lying to the populace – he betrayed the Primes and killed them, causing the Matrix to be lost, and he is having the Energon mined in order to pay off the Quintessons who helped him rise to power. It is the betrayal of his hero Sentinel, along with seeing the remains of his fallen idol Megatronus, that propels D-16 down the path of darkness (anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering – Yoda was right!). Before Sentinels goons find them, Alpha Trion informs the heroes that all Transformers naturally have (are born with? created with?) Transformation Cogs and that Sentinel must have stolen those of the lower caste. Thus Trion in turn bestows upon the quartet the cogs of four of the fallen Primes.
Much like the IDW comics, until this point there had been a disappointing lack of transformation in this Transformers movie. With no altmodes all the lower caste look like Action Masters (similar looking non-transforming blocky robots) and with the exception of a race, we haven’t seen enough of other characters to really get a feel for the shape-changing species. With their new cogs, the four heroes sprout new armour, new weapons, new kibble and increase in size considerably. The payoff for waiting so long is worth it story wise, but it is a long time coming and for the younger viewers the wait is perhaps too long.
Eventually we finally get what everyone wants to see from a Transfomers movie, a big battle! On their way back to confront Sentinel they enlist the help of a group of renegade bots being lead by Starscream, Soundwave & Shockwave, and Orion sneaks back into Iacon to inspire the miners to join the fight. Between the two groups they manage to route Sentinels forces and by capturing Sentinel’s 2IC Arachnid expose his duplicity to the public. Despite having won D-16 is still determined to kill Sentinel, yet Orion leaps in the way of the shot to try and stop him, the shot taking Orion out. D-16, angry at Orion’s interference, announces ‘I’m done saving you’ and drops Orion to his death. D-16 murders Sentinel, takes Sentinels cog (it itself stolen from the corpse of Megatronus) and proclaims himself ‘Megatron’, his new cog beefing him up even further in the process.
‘For a change of pace Megatron is going to usurp me’
Though entertaining, there are a few things that don’t sit quite right at this pivotal moment of the movie. We know Orion is a hero at heart, but why leap in front of the shot meant for Sentinel instead of simply trying to tackle his friend? Why did D-16 not agonize longer about what he had done to Orion, given their close friendship? Why after taking victory and then upgrading did Megatron and his troops subsequently begin to trash the city for no discernible reason? The changeover to old-school Decepticon shenanigans seems too down pat, like the struggle for freedom and the friendship we had watched for the past hour now meant nothing.
Much like in other continuities such as in the War for Cybertron video game and the Prime cartoon, we see Orion, who having fallen all the way to Cybertron’s core, get turned by Primus into Optimus Prime via the power of the Matrix, and then return to fight Megatron. This is actually one of their best fights over the whole 40 year franchise, both utilizing their various weapons and altmodes as they battle for supremacy. After taking victory, Optimus banishes Megatron and his army from the city, before using the power of the Matrix to finally give his cogless former coworkers the ability to transform and the Energon to flow through Cybertron once again. Throw in a post-credit scene of Megatron in the wastes giving his troops the Decepticon brand and that’s a wrap folks.
There is a lot to love in this movie, especially for a dedicated Transformers fan. Many of the background Autobot characters, even before getting their cogs, are recognisable, such as Jazz, Ironhide, Arcee and Wheeljack. Likewise on the Decepticon side we see many recognisable Seekers, the animators even putting in smaller details such as Thrust’s wing turbines. There are small Easter Eggs scattered throughout, Megatron being D-16 (the original Megatron toy’s designation in Japan), Blurr’s name being on the leaders board during the Iacon 5000 race (it itself a reference to the Speedia 5000 race from the Legacy toyline) and many others which will bypass the casual viewer but delight those in the know. The animation is top notch – Cybertron itself looks fantastic, with vibrant cities, dank pits, panoramic landscapes and a world that itself can change its shape, the only confusing thing being the appearance of organic matter on the planets surface. The Quintessons have always been the main off-world enemies of the Transformers, and although not multi-faced do bear their telltale colour schemes and tentacles and their ship looks suitably imposing floating over the abandoned surface.
“Are you guilty or innocent? Wait, thats the other animated movie’
The characterizations and voice acting are both worthy of note, displaying much of the various characters original traits, yet being fresh enough takes to keep things interesting. Perhaps it would have been good to see Welker & Cullen take on the voice acting once D-16 and Orion become Megatron and Optimus respectively, but given this film is likely to be the first of an animated trilogy, one can understand the studios wishing to stick to the younger actors who will be able to fulfill the roles for years to come. What fans will love is that the characters are actually recognizable as themselves; their general appearance, colour schemes, attitudes and altmodes all appropriate. After years of so many beloved characters being made unrecognizable in the live action movies (such as the Wheeljack controversy from ROTB) it was refreshing to see the writers and animators give proper weight to the source material. Speaking of source material, there is much Transformers lore to be found within the film, especially around their god Primus and the Original 13 Primes.
Of course, there are a few letdowns. The primary letdown is the lack of gravitas given to significant events within the film that should hold higher implications. How was Sentinel Prime able to kill the Original 13 Primes so easily in combat? Why would Optimus throw himself in front of a shot which would kill the despot, however after only one short battle permanently banish his best friend and his followers from Iacon to the wilds of Cybertron? Yeah, ok, Megs dropped him into a ravine, I’d be a bit salty about that too, but it would have been more in keeping with the character for him to offer Megatron another chance and for Megs to shun it, rather than so willingly banish so many bots, that had moments ago helped to liberate Iacon, from the city they just helped save. This and similar events make the characters seem more two-dimensional than is satisfactory, especially for a 3D film, though still miles ahead of the ‘murderbots’ of the Bayverse.
Minor quibbles aside this is a great movie, and it is fantastic to see Transformers return to its cinematic roots of animation. It is to be hoped that the movie does well enough at the box office to warrant a sequel. Is this movie for everyone? No. Your average adult viewer is not going to be overly entertained by this flick, however for younger viewers and Transformer fans they are in for a treat which will delight anyone remotely interested in the wonderful world of The Transformers.
Have you seen this movie and what did you think of it? Pop your thoughts in the comments section below!
The first Transformers continuity created by IDW comics is regarded by many as the best Transformer comics that have ever been made. Kicking off in 2005, it ran for an impressive 13 years with hundreds of issues and took the G1’esque universe to places it had never been before, culminating in a climatic battle against Unicron himself.
In 2019 IDW rebooted the Transformers comic universe and it was….. not well received. Many fans had become very attached to the universe of old, especially the adventures of the Lost Light which introduced genuine comedy into the franchise, something it was sorely lacking. One could argue that the first continuity had done so much there was nothing left to do so a reboot was required, but many fans still mourned it’s loss.
Sniff… you were taken from us too soon.
But can the fact that the 2019 reboot was not well loved be solely attributed to the affection fans felt for the old universe? Personally I didn’t know as at that stage I had ‘comic fatigue’ and was not up to investing myself into a new series, especially after I read the first few issues. The new series only lasted 3 years, as opposed to the 13 of its predecessor, and perhaps was a hundred issues give or take all together.
‘A Bold New World’ turned out to be ‘A Bored New World’
Over the past 3 weeks I have binge-read the entirety of the IDW 2019 Transformers continuity. Below are my thoughts on what was good, what was bad, and why ultimately it failed.
The Bad
First and foremost – it started too slooooow.
It’s just more of this for like 10 issues.
There is some good action to be found in the 2019 universe, but it takes so many issues to get to it. The majority of the first dozen issues are characters walking down hallways talking to one another. And the banter is boring. Yes, they were trying to establish that this was a pre-great war Cybertron, and show Orion Pax and Megatron travelling inevitably towards their fates, but Transformers fans don’t primarily read comics for the political discourse – they want to see giant, shape-changing alien robots fighting each other! There was so much blah-blah-blah that when they finally got to the good stuff a lot of fans had tuned out and were no longer interested.
Let us stand in completely neutral poses and talk a lot – the audience will love that.
The characters lack character
This is the exciting Sixshoot from the 2005 continuity…
Lets use Sixshot as a comparison. When introduced into the 2005 continuity it showed him destroying a whole civilisation single handed! And he showed all 6 of his modes in his very first issue! He has a rich backstory of being a one-percenter that gets augmented to become a phase-sixer and after arriving on Earth, it took the combined firepower of Optimus and a whole squad of Autobots to even slow him down. In the 2019 continuity, even after 3 years he still hasn’t used all of his modes, he spends more time talking that fighting, and the first battle between him and Windblade is frighteningly dull. That’s right, they managed to make a fight that involved Sixshot boring.
… and this is the Sixshot from the 2019 continuity. This Sixshot likes to use his words. This Sixshot sucks.
Sixshot is just one example. Megatron never does much except plot and has a total of one brief punch up with Optimus over the entire 3 years – he doesn’t even rant that well. Swindle is always grumpy and talking about percentages rather than being the cheery swindler we all love. The banter between Strongarm and Sideswipe is supposed to evoke their love-hate relationship from the RID2015 continuity but falls flat. None of the characters really evolve or change or grow and their personalities are the same from the first issue they show up in to the last. Very few characters ever display any real passion or panic about anything. I’ll have to note there are a few exceptions such as Flamewar, who is at least goofy enough to be mildly entertaining, as is Skywarp.
Cybertron is artistically dull
Cybertron is a robot alien world, full of wonders and marvels, created from the body of Primus himself. So why does it seem to consist of nothing but corridors and barren landscapes? The background always seems to be mutely coloured in shades of tan and bronze, the buildings are very basic rectangles and nothing pops. There are no interesting details to note, there is not a lot of anything really. Even when huge events happen like an orbital tether collapsing so that a giant cable cuts a swath of destruction across all of Iacon, its unimpressive. As is when the Titan’s fall from the sky. It’s Titan’s falling out of the sky and crashing into Cybertron, and it still looks boring, just rectangular brick looking things hitting empty ground. Given the rather less than awed response from the observing bots, they were not impressed either.
The robots also look dull
Bumblebee: ‘And I’m one of the most artistically detailed characters in the series!’
The artist Angel Hernandez was obviously not a fan of strong colours as even the bots look washed out. There is the occasional pop of colour such as at Swindle’s casino, but not much. The bots are often as blocky as the landscape, with detail only ever given to some of the more major characters such as Bumblebee’s face or Orion’s body. Not a lot of size difference either, everyone is roughly similar heights and shapes, even the Micromasters, with just the odd detail like wings and faces to differentiate them. If you don’t know the characters already, you are hard pressed to tell with many who is male and who is female. Yes, I know that we are all supposed to be ‘blind to gender’ now, but would it really be insulting to let the female characters look female? I had to look up if the character Glyph was male or female as I couldn’t tell from the art, and the likes of Road Rage are only able to be identified as female when you see they have slightly fuller lips. With blocky bodies and little to set them apart from muted colour schemes and a bit of altmode kibble, the alien mechanoid populace of Cybertron have rarely looked so boring. The Wreckers mini-series set on Velocitron is worthy of mention for being the exception to this.
If only the rest of the series could have popped like this.
Barely a Transformation
Lots of Bots standing round – get used to it.
To be fair this is an issue I had with the 2005 continuity as well. Transformers are supposed to, well, transform. But they hardly ever do it! The Seekers showcase the ability the most in order to go into battle, but most other characters, even major ones, either hardly ever transform or never transform at all!. And even when they do, most of the time its just to get from point A to point B, they don’t really use their altmodes for anything but transport. Way to remove a quintessential concept from a franchise. One must wonder if perhaps this is done on purpose as despite Earth never being visited, there are plenty of characters with Earth vehicle modes occasionally on show (based on the then current Siege toyline) – the artists obviously not bothering to come up with Cybertronian modes for them – so the less the audience saw of the altmodes the less they would say ‘Hang on a sec…’
Starscream: “Hey Nautica, we both have Cybertronian alt modes, are in lots of issues yet only ever each Transform once the whole comic run, why is that?” Nautica: “Ask the lazy-ass writers and artists”
The Good
(yes there is some!)
As mentioned, the 2019 continuity eventually does come into its own. Whilst many of the negatives above such as bland landscapes and characters that rarely show strong emotions persist, the storyline starts to move faster, disparate story arcs begin to overlap and intertwine, and we even get a few interesting battles. These are not the only positives:
Overlooked characters getting their shot.
Howlback, Squalktalk and Beastbox joining their more popular compatriots. A shame Howlback looks like a rat though.
The Lost Light comic series set a great precedent, elevating minor characters to places of prominence, and giving characters who have barely appeared over the last 30 years a chance to briefly shine. The 2019 continuity may not do it as well, but it does do it. Chainclaw works security, Howlback works infiltration, Hydrahead and Rage use their liquid weapons to try and assassinate the Insecticons, Redwing leads Seeker attacks. It’s always interesting to see someone different from the main cast get their turn upon the page.
Transformers have ‘Stormtroopers’ too, wonder if their aim is as bad.
Action Masters are cool!
If you didn’t own the toy from G1 I bet you want him now!
It’s nice to see the Action Masters done right! At the time the most reviled of the G1 toys – Transformers who couldn’t transform – Action Masters now experience the same love of much of the old toyline simply due to being G1. In this series they haven’t been retroactively been given altmodes like in others, they are all mode locked and yes, like the original storyline from the G1 toys its due to overuse of Nucleon. The best part is that many seem to come with their accessories: the likes of Axer and Circuit drive their vehicles, whilst characters like Treadshot and Charger have their animal sidekicks. And Charger with Fire Beast – talk about including obscure characters!
‘I bet most of you will have to google who I am’
Interesting-ish Subplots
Oh, if only the characters were given some more, er, character and the graphics a bit of oomph, these could have been great. We see interesting subplots explore the origins of the Constructicons and the Insecticons, how they came to be and where they are going. The Constructicons are, not officially, banished from Cybertron because the populace fears the power of Devastator, and the Insecticons go from walking garbage disposals to cannibals who feast on organics and fellow bots alike. Both these early story lines have a profound affect at the series conclusion, particularly the Insecticons.
Characters actually fulfilling their tech spec functions.
‘Look, we are actually doing computer stuff, not just shooting Autobots’
With so many characters, Transformers comic writers often ignore what they are supposed to do and simply make them one of a multitude of soldiers, especially on the Decepticon side. Not so with this continuity. Sparkstalker for the first time in his existence is actually functioning as a hacker instead of simply breathing fire. Bumblebee is working espionage instead of smiling and being the Transformers poster boy. For a Transformers geek like me, this was a level of detail greatly appreciated.
No Earth, No Humans!
Well, nearly. The only Humans that appear are in the King Grimlock miniseries, a shoutout to the G1 episode Madman’s Paradise. Even then it’s not on Earth so they get a pass.
Too little, too late
So yes, there were positives to be found in the IDW 2019 Transformers Continuity. Unfortunately for them, the first year was so lackluster that most fans (myself included) had tuned out and were no longer buying by the time it started to get halfway decent. Having binged the entire continuity over the last 3 weeks I can say it turned out not as bad as I thought, but it’s nothing I will revisit and am glad I saved my pennies by reading them online rather than purchasing the comics themselves. How did IDW go from making the best Transformers comics ever to the worst? Was it a case of the new writers and artists making bad decisions, them not caring, or did perhaps IDW feel it was done with the franchise and therefore organised a lackluster effort to get them out of their contract with Hasbro? Who knows. But like the cartoon series –Transformers Robots in Disguise 2015 – it seems destined to forever be referred to by fans in the tone of ‘meh, bits were ok, but it was never really that great’.
In 1988 Beetlejuice hit the movie screens and fast became a cult classic. Leading to a 3-season cartoon and live stage adaptions, Tim Burton’s horror-comedy told the story of the ghosts of a dead couple being trapped with the family who bought their home, inevitably involving the hijinks of Beetlejuice, the ghost-with-the-most anti-hero.
Well 36 years later we finally have the sequel. Say it once, say it twice – Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
Warning – this is a movie review so SPOILERS AHEAD.
The movie picks up 36 years after the original. Lydia hosts a reality TV show about ghosts that is produced by her exploitative boyfriend, whilst step-mother Delia has become a successful artist. Beetlejuice himself has taken his bio-exorcist business to the next level, even having offices where his shrunken-headed minions answer calls from the dead wishing to scare the living from their homes.
Straight off you notice that Michael Keaton who plays Beetlejuice does not have the same vigour he had in the first movie. And quite rightly so, he is literally twice the age he was when making the original film. At 73 he is not leaping about the screen as he once did, though he does an admirable job reprising the role and it is impossible to imagine anyone else playing the character – this is not Batman.
Winona Ryder is perfection in the role of Lydia. Lydia has been traumatized from a lifetime of being able to see the dead, and obviously suffers from PTSD from her first run in with Beetlejuice decades earlier. Ryder plays her perfectly, Lydia is determined to do right by her daughter, but is dominated by her boyfriend/producer and seems mentally and emotionally frail, not a character archetype one often sees in a comedy.
Catherine O’Hara also reprises the role of Delia splendidly, showing what the character has evolved into from years of success, throwing herself into any artistic whim that takes her, and using the death of her husband to explore new artistic (and narcissistic) challenges.
New to the cast is Jenna Ortega who plays Astrid, Delia’s daughter, and whom the storyline revolves around. Bitter at the death of her father, estranged from her mother whom she believes to be a fraud, Astrid is dragged from school to attend the funeral of her grandfather and clean out the family home, the very house where the first movie was set. While there she begins a tentative relationship with a boy in town, never suspecting that he himself is a ghost who plans to trick her into swapping places with him so that he can rejoin the living.
This plot twist will take many viewers by surprise, as until it is revealed that the boy is a ghost one assumes the main plot is the return of Beetlejuice’s first wife out for revenge, and that the budding teenage romance is merely a side plot to make the movie more amenable to a wider audience. Until it is revealed, only the most savvy would guess that there is anything untoward, and quite quickly the main story proceeds to be set primarily in the afterlife rather than Winter River.
The movie balances the old and the new quite well. Having 3 of the main cast of the first movie return creates an excellent level of continuity, and there are lots of call backs to the the original; Winter River, the house on the hill, the afterlife’s waiting room are all familiar locations, and there are Easter Eggs for fans such as the Delia thinking she spots Maxie Dean in a crowd and Day-O being sung at Charles’ funeral. There is plenty new here as well, introducing the concepts of heaven and hell to the afterlife, the afterlife having their own police department and of course the plots revolving around new characters. As stated, it’s very balanced movie, giving you equal helpings of new and familiar territory.
Is it the perfect successor to the first Beetlejuice movie? No. The visual gags have shifted in tone towards the more gross and graphic than the cartoony. Keaton plays Beetlejuice very well, but you can tell there’s a guy in his 70’s underneath that makeup. The two main villains of the film – the teenage love interest and Beetlejuice’s ex-wife – are both dispatched too easily. One of the great parts of the original was the build up and excitement of other characters trying to stop Beetlejuice from marrying Lydia, sadly no such build up happens here. In fact the ex-wife plot falls flat at the end; all that build up over the movie featuring her sucking souls, yet when she finally finds Beetlejuice she just stands there doing nothing until taken out by a Sandworm. Given she began dismembered at the start of the movie, I would have liked to see her try and reclaim the finger that Beetlejuice had in his pocket from the first film.
Overall however, this is a fun film and a worthy sequel to the original. I saw it with my family and they all said the same thing “I liked it, but I liked the first one better”. It’s possible that no matter what movie they made it would not illicit a better reaction from fans, the first movie being so beloved. This movie does stand on its own, with an interesting, well paced story acted by a superb cast that will keep the viewer entertained throughout.
So get out and see ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’, a title that practically screams for there to be at least one further instalment.
