Transmasters Magazine, Fall 2014 now available!

Battered, beaten, delayed time and again, the Fall issue of the Transmasters Magazine claws its way to the top, ready to do battle! Watch it destroy all comers here:

http://transmasters.angelfire.com/tmmag/issue22/index1.html


(The toy pics in the toy reviews: They should auto-resize in IE browsers. Mozilla based browsers may need to click on the image to resize it. Just letting you know. :)


Hope you enjoy this issue! :)

Thunder

Review: Transformers Monstrosity

Transformers: Monstrosity

Writers: Christ Metzen and Flint Dille
Artist: Livio Ramondelli
(covers by Livio Ramondelli)
Price: $19.99 USd
Format: TPB (collected edition of previous web series)
Available: December 2013


Summary:  In the early days of the war on CYBERTRON, OPTIMUS PRIME puts everything on the line to unify the planet-but not everyone agrees that this new Prime should be in charge! Meanwhile, the fallen DECEPTICON leader, MEGATRON, begins a journey that will change everything.


Comments:  Monstrosity is the follow-up to the Metzen/Dille story, Autocracy (also a IDW web comic to begin with). Where the first series chronicled the rise of Optimus Prime in the midst of Cybertron's darkest time, its sequel comes off as feeling like it's meandering with no ultimate point. We eventually get to see Trypticon rise and wreak havoc against our heroes but the rest of the story seems scattered... Megatron is exiled only to survival his trials and return. Optimus struggles to lead the various factions under his command and fails miserably in the end to conquer his greatest challenge to date.
   Other then Trypticon being the titular "monstrosity" the story doesn't seem to know what it wants to do. There's not much thematically pulling it all together (contrast this with Autocracy's themes of power corrupting those who possess it). Megatron is challenged and rises above while Optimus has naysayers and self-doubt and ultimately is revealed to be nothing more then a leader with a dream of unity and peace. The thing is, Optimus should be Megatron's equal and while Megatron uses his sheer cunning and will to achieve his ends we should get to see Optimus use his own skill set to succeed. To use him as a whipping boy just dishonors the heart of a character who should be a heroic inspirational leader. There's hints of it in there but ultimately Optimus seems to achieve nothing substantial storywise.
   Ramondelli's artwork is improving as he goes but there is still the odd occasion where I view a panel and have no clue what it is I'm supposed to be looking at. The very first reveal of Trypticon, for example, left me confused. Only the later descriptions of the creature lead me to realize what it was.
   Another annoyance is the robots referring to themselves as "gentlemen" repeatedly (human terminology for robots really distracts me away from a TF story. I also disliked James Roberts usage of a "cyber-aneurysm" in Last Stand of the Wreckers). Grimlock speaks normally in this story too for some reason.
   The story also implies that the Dynobots have dinosaur modes because of the creatures under Cybertron's surface while an earlier tale (Spotlight: Shockwave) stated they got them from Earth when they chased after Shockwave. Presumably the early era of IDW is still in-continuity so I'm at a loss to understand how this makes any sense.
   Megatron encounters a Quintesson (is this the first time we've seen one in IDW?) and somehow uses his Spark to power himself up on planet Junk. I've never seen Sparks referred to as power sources--they're an analogy for souls. This story detail made no sense to me.
   After their first attempt, I found Monstrosity to be a poorly told disappointment... Perhaps the forthcoming Primacy will be more pleasing? 


Verdict:  Average. A pass for me personally... some decent dialogue and mostly good art elevate to an "Average" rating.

The Light Odyssey returns!

A bit off-topic, but...


To commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the original publication of The Light Odyssey, may I present these all-new tales. These stories will eventually help comprise the second volume of the Tales of the Destara (whenever I get it finished). These stories take place after the first story (The Light Odyssey. It's FREE at Lulu.com right now. http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/tkphotonathotmaildotcom ) so I recommend reading that story first so these make sense. 

Dark Interlude. Straxus and Switchblade discuss recent events in their Universe.

The Project. Deceptar schemes to expand his power to the nth degree!

Matters of Survival. A Rebel pilot awakens in the worst possible place and must fight to survive.

The Farewell. Fury lost his twin brother and he must deal with the pain or be consumed by it. 



Comments are always welcome! :) 

- Thunder

The HIstory

A primer on Transformers by @VariantComics, 25 June 2014.
Embeded video is 400 X 220 px.

A 1/4 Scale Transformer Project

I found the original article at Tech Crunch.

Shapeways Superfan Art Disappointment

As many of you know I've been delving into the 3D printing arena and was happy to see that Hasbro and Shapeways had created an official avenue to create Transformer related 3D projects. So, of course, I decided to attempt to create a few of my own to post and maybe sell there. But, when you look into the costs of a project it is kind of ridiculous for anyone to afford. I've included a screen capture of the first project I wanted to post there. It is a G1 Cartoon version of Reflector in Action Master style. They're a bit taller at 100 mm rather than the original 90 mm. Since I was having issues with printing 3 mm posts I decided to use 5 mm ones instead for the weapons/hand holes. The toy requires five screws to hold the back, upper legs and lower leg clamps together (2.5 mm holes, I used screws salvaged from printers). It took me three revisions before I finalize on this one. Using him I've created four more: Ironhide, Ratchet, Makuture, and Calculatom (the last two are my made up characters from long ago). Sadly, I just don't see people wanting to spend $46 bucks (without any profit markup) on an Action Master style figure.

Transformers: Robots In Disguise (2015)

Transformers: Robots In Disguise, 2015. Video is embedded at 400 X 225 px. See it on YouTube for larger display. I discovered this video through Til-All-Are-One (Tumblr). Enjoy!

Matrix of Leadership model file

Just wanted to share this with you, I uploaded a model file to Thingiverse for a Matrix of Leadership. Check it out at:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:474370

These were printed out with filament I made so maybe not the best quality, but that's not the fault of the model. The puke green is kind of a mix from recycled parts. 

A FanFiction App

Transformer fanfictions are available through Wattpad, a smart phone reading app, which I have yet to try. Articles/stories are accessible by desktop/laptop browsers, so you do not really need to download the app? Please share if you have any insights and experience with this new platform. I found one popular fanfiction writer for Wattpad, http://wattpad.com/EraileaEvenstar

LEGO Constructions

LEGO Constructions by Monsterbrick. These figures look like they are based on the G2 series. See Monsterbrick's Flickr album for more photos. Click here