Obscuricons

I love Acid Storm. I got this guy the other day, and seriously… He’s a happy purchase for me. It’s like an extending of the Seekers ranks. We had the Original Seekers, the Conehead Seekers, and now with Acid Storm and Sunstorm, the Rainmaker Seekers are almost fleshed out. Yeah, I know a lot of people don’t think that Sunstorm is the yellow Rainmaker seeker… To them I say “Bite me.” It’s all interpretive anyway. We all have out own personal canon. And to me, the yellow seeker was Sunstorm. (Making the last one, in my mind’s eye Wind Storm. :P )

It’s an odd conundrum to say the least. With Transformers, I’ve found myself being more fond of the toys than the shows. Of course a lot of the shows were mostly imported and flawed drivel with a few rare occasional gems that sparkle though. (Beast Wars and Transformers: Animated as prime examples.) Beast Machines, while I’m an enormous fan of it, I’m still the first to admit the show’s drastic shortcomings. (Mainly for me it was too dark for the sake of being dark. A little levity wouldn’t have hurt.) Same with Robots in Disguise, which had the opposite problem. While I also did thoroughly enjoy it… RiD was too light hearted. (Yes, I know it was an imported show from Japan meant for small children younger than our usual demographics here.) But with both of these shows, the toys were exceptional. I was able to look at the toys and I could see a deeper universe to it all. (Especially with the non-show characters.) In Beast Machines, if I didn’t enjoy the adventures of Optimus Primal and the Axalon crew, I could imagine that T-Wrecks and the Dinobots were off having adventures that would be more up my alley. The non-show characters were basically fan fiction inspiration. They’re created exclusively to flesh out a wider and more myriad universe.

It’s always been like that really. Whether it’s people giving stories to obscure background Seekers, or thinking about the Japanese exclusive characters like Lioconvoy and Big Convoy and how they would fit into the continuities we all know and loved. Lord, I’ve lost count of the sheer amounts of names thrown out by the fans for Lioconvoy and Big Convoy. I always preferred Leo Prime and Phalanx Prime. (One man army, you know!) Working the Alternators into a cohesive universe, or trying to follow that nonsensical Binaltech story.

That’s one of the cool things about us Transformers fans. We’ve always been a creative bunch. A lot of times our creativity is somewhat limited, as the sheer amount of “Mary Sue Autobot getting the Matrix and defeating Unicron” but generally, we can see potential in even the smallest of details. (Seriously, how many of us wanted to know the fate of Dispensor from the ‘07 Movie? I know I did!) To us there is a literal universe of stories to be told with just about every single character. There’s a reason there’s so many TF comics out there. And if you don’t like one universe, you can follow another one! You didn’t like the Botcon Classics comics, then follow the IDW comics. Don’t like the IDW comics? Follow the Animated Universe. Don’t like that, wait for the Movie Sequel in ‘09. Still not happy? Well, a lot of the Unicron Trilogy was released on DVD as well as Beast Wars, Beast Machines and Generation One. Don’t like those? Then make up your own story! Don’t want to? Are you sure you sure you wouldn’t be happier with Gundam? I personally believe that the creation of the Transformers: Mosaic series is one of the best concept ever created for this franchise.

I enjoy the characters with no history. It allows for creativity, something that’s sorely lacking in today’s realm of entertainment of linear video games and drawn out stories that lead to nowhere. It’s a wonderful thing for children and adults alike. Is developing an obscure character into your own character a bad thing? Only if you insist to others that yours is the only correct interpretation. Otherwise, it’s perfectly healthy and a wonderful exercise of the imagination. And powerful.

I’m wondering now a little more about the TFU Skyhammer…