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interests / alt.toys.transformers / Re: Zob's Parade of Inessential Toys: DK-3 Breaker, Galactic Man Shockwave, Red Cog

SubjectAuthor
* Zob's Parade of Inessential Toys: DK-3 Breaker, Galactic ManZobovor
+* Re: Zob's Parade of Inessential Toys: DK-3 Breaker, Galactic ManCodigo Postal
|`* Re: Zob's Parade of Inessential Toys: DK-3 Breaker, Galactic ManZobovor
| +- Re: Zob's Parade of Inessential Toys: DK-3 Breaker, Galactic ManTravoltron
| `* Re: Zob's Parade of Inessential Toys: DK-3 Breaker, Galactic ManCodigo Postal
|  `* Re: Zob's Parade of Inessential Toys: DK-3 Breaker, GalacticGustavo Wombat
|   `- Re: Zob's Parade of Inessential Toys: DK-3 Breaker, Galactic ManCodigo Postal
`- Re: Zob's Parade of Inessential Toys: DK-3 Breaker, Galactic ManTravoltron

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Zob's Parade of Inessential Toys: DK-3 Breaker, Galactic Man Shockwave, Red Cog

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Subject: Zob's Parade of Inessential Toys: DK-3 Breaker, Galactic Man
Shockwave, Red Cog
From: zmf...@aol.com (Zobovor)
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 by: Zobovor - Wed, 12 Oct 2022 23:00 UTC

I had a couple of pre-orders show up today, plus I took advantage of the 20 percent off sale that Target had recently, plus on top of that Amazon was having a sale. So, the point is that I had like five packages waiting for my on my porch when I got home today. Such an embarassment of riches.

Perhaps the only thing I really needed was another couple of multi-tiered acrylic risers for my Detolf shelves so I can space out my G1 toys vertically a bit. Everything else was just me spending money I didn't need to spend.. But, work is absolute hell right now (my job right now seems to be to do everybody else's job, because they can't be bothered to do it) and there are some days where the only thing fun going on is new toys. So, there's that.

DK-3 BREAKER

This guy went up for pre-order back in July, and mine finally shipped today.. I have a rapidly-growing collection of toys in pre-Transformers colors, so evidently I'm committed to doing this. I do sort of like the idea that we've gotten all three characters from the Diakron toy line—blue Trailbreaker, red Sunstreaker, black Ironhide. I imagine one of the only reasons all three were changed from their Diaclone colors was because Takara had already sold them in America.

He's identical in design to Earthrise Trailbreaker. Same head sculpt, same weapons, same everything. He's just blue instead of black. He kind of looks like Marvel Comics Trailbreaker, where all black toys ended up being blue. I imagine this character has two normal hands, to differentiate him from Trailbreaker, who always had a gun-arm.

I kind of wish he'd gotten a better name. DK-3 was literally just his Diakron designation, and tacking on the name Breaker doesn't help to distinguish him from Trailbreaker much. I mean, we've gotten Transformers with similar-but-different names in the past (Snarl/Snarler, Swindle/Swindler, etc.) but they usually look different from each other. (I guess it's still a better name than "Guard," though.) It would have been awesome if Hasbro had named him Guzzler, the original name Budiansky picked for the character. I may continue to call him that anyway.

He was $24.99 on Hasbro Pulse. He's still in stock if you decide you want one. Some day I'm going to have a shelf with a bunch of neo-G1 toys and I'll do one shelf of guys with all these pre-Transformers color schemes. It will be grand and glorious.

GALACTIC MAN SHOCKWAVE

I absolutely was not going to spend $50 on such an inessential toy as this, so for a long time I was content to simply not own this guy. But, as I've said, the #FOMO is strong, and once I realized I was growing a collection of pre-Transformers, I also realized almost all of them were pre-Autobots and that I needed at least one pre-Decepticon, because of reasons. Amazon had a sale and this guy was only $37.09 shipped, which beats the hell out of $52.99 plus shipping.

Look at me, trying to justify to you people why I'm buying even more plastic robots. As if I needed an excuse.

He came in a very large Hasbro Selects box, and being an older release (we've known about him since 2019; he's technically from Siege!) he's still in a plastic tray with plastic ties holding him down.

The original Galactic Man from the 1980's was less of a pre-Transformer and more of a parallel-with-Transformers. He was officially licensed to Radio Shack by ToyCo. at the same time that Hasbro licensed the toy, and had some slight differences (different gun trigger design, different colors) but made all the same electronic sounds. I think a lot more kids owned Galactic Man because Radio Shack sold him for cheaper (about $14.99), and as a result a number of adult fans have said they remember Shockwave being grey, probably because they actually owned the "Shackwave" toy instead.

Hasbro could have been cheeky and given this guy a new name, but they already owned the Shockwave trademark, so it was probably just easier and less costly to compound it with existing dictionary words than to coin a new name for him.

He's mostly a neutral grey, but his add-on parts (extra arms, elevator shoes, etc.) are black, creating a bit of a contrast. I understand that this was the first Voyager-sized toy they tried to sell as a Leader-class toy, so it was important to bulk him up in the box and make you feel like you were getting your money's worth. But, I will not be having him wear the ridiculous extra arms and things.

The top part of his chest actually reads "GALACTIC MAN" which is authentic and silly, and his eye is translucent red and glows brilliantly under a light source.

There are instructions on how to turn him into a submarine-or-whatever, but no instructions to combine his extra parts together into that surfboard thingy that the original Siege Shockwave was pictured riding on his packaging.. It's been a long time since I got Shockwave, so I have zero recollection how to achieve that transformation, because I am an Old Person™ and my brain doesn't retain facts any longer. Guess I'll be doing some hunting online later.

RED COG

I was waffling for a long time over whether I actually wanted to get this guy. I fall into this habit of buying pretty much any neo-G1 toy by default, and I was at a point after getting Naked Dinobot, Slightly Different Terrorsaur, etc. that I asked myself, did I really need another Cog toy in the wrong colors? Especially for $30? So I had him on my "maybe some day" list for a long time, and finally got him on sale for closer to $20.

Target's trade dress is red, so they really seem to like red-colored exclusive toys. Redwing, Thrust, Terrorsaur... you get the idea. I'm sure Hasbro named him "Red Cog" just to make them happy. He's sold in Legacy packaging with no plastic window.

He comes with a lot of goodies, 12 accessories all wrapped in white tissue paper and stuffed underneath the toy behind the cardboard tray. (By the way, there is no way to mount the parts to his chest in the way the stock photos indicate. You can stick them to his chest, but it won't look like the picture. They obviously "built" the toy with a CGI mock-up but didn't know where the actual peg and peg-holes were going to be yet.)

He's similar to the version of Cog that came with Grand Maximus, the Japan-only redeco of Fortress Maximus from Super God Masterforce. The color mapping isn't quite right, but I suppose this would be an acceptable version of Cog if you wanted to accessorize your Titans Return (well, Legends) version of Grand Maximus sold by Takara. Officially, though, this toy represents one of the generic Autobot soldiers as seen in the Netflix CGI series.

In addition to the two guns that the previous Cog came with, he's also got a medical repair tool for Ratchet (the short flask-shaped gun); a "sticky" time bomb that can separate into two halves so you can mount it to toys and blow them up (not really); a rifle and barrel extension so you can build the weapon Elita One carried in the Netflix show (which itself borrowed heavily from the signature gun for Ultra Magnus); two additional barrel extensions, including a triple-barreled one specifically modeled after the weapon for Combiner Wars Streetwise; one with a pink painted exterior that looks like an extra-tall TCRI mutagen canister or something; and a gun that also doubles as an adapter for Arcee, specifically made to allow her to wear Cog's parts as a Weaponizer as seen in the Netflix show.

It's a good way of accessorizing other toys, too, if there are figures that don't have their signature guns (think Power of the Primes) and you don't mind if they borrow somebody else's firepower. (Technically, Cog carries two Cerebros guns.) Some of these guns would be a good way to G2ify a toy, too, since everybody in the G2 comics seemed to eschew their signature weaponry for some 90's-style, completely-over-the-top firearms.

Zob (also got Terror Claws Skeletor, but I won't bore you)

Re: Zob's Parade of Inessential Toys: DK-3 Breaker, Galactic Man Shockwave, Red Cog

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Subject: Re: Zob's Parade of Inessential Toys: DK-3 Breaker, Galactic Man
Shockwave, Red Cog
From: codigopo...@gmail.com (Codigo Postal)
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 by: Codigo Postal - Fri, 14 Oct 2022 01:29 UTC

On Wednesday, October 12, 2022 at 7:00:45 PM UTC-4, Zobovor wrote:

> there are some days where the only thing fun going on is new toys. So, there's that.

Buying toys is cheaper, healthier, and more effective than therapy, alcohol or other drugs. It contributes to the global economy, and supports a creative enterprise that exists to bring joy to countless people around the world. The benefits to mental health are enormous, ongoing, and long-lived. Decades on, your toys can bring you as much or even more joy, not only for what they intrinsically are, but for what they represent about a period in your life. Collecting can bring you into contact with a new community of like-minded people, people with whom you might not otherwise interact due to differences in geography or lifestyle. I find it refreshing in this polarized age to see people from different backgrounds, religions, races, genders, and political beliefs set aside those differences to share in the joy of Transformers.

Maybe we should have Peter Cullen preside over a peace conference between Russia and Ukraine, and have it held at the next HasCon.

>

> GALACTIC MAN SHOCKWAVE
>
> I absolutely was not going to spend $50 on such an inessential toy as this, so for a long time I was content to simply not own this guy. But, as I've said, the #FOMO is strong, and once I realized I was growing a collection of pre-Transformers, I also realized almost all of them were pre-Autobots and that I needed at least one pre-Decepticon, because of reasons. Amazon had a sale and this guy was only $37.09 shipped, which beats the hell out of $52.99 plus shipping.
>
> Look at me, trying to justify to you people why I'm buying even more plastic robots. As if I needed an excuse.

I'm eventually going to break down and buy this, because 1) I don't own this mold, and 2) Amazon keeps discounting him during literally every sales event. Poor guy just needs a home!

> RED COG
>

> Target's trade dress is red, so they really seem to like red-colored exclusive toys. Redwing, Thrust, Terrorsaur... you get the idea.

This makes so much sense.

>
> Zob (also got Terror Claws Skeletor, but I won't bore you)

This might be a better subject for a new thread, but I'd be interested in your thoughts on the new He-Man releases.
Which ones are worth collecting, in your opinion? There isn't the plethora of easily searchable info for He-Man that there is for TF; no TFWiki, no Dave Van Domelen site, or a BWTF, at least not that I've stumbled upon.

From what I can gather, there are three lines, all at 6" scale: 1) the toyline accompanying MOTU: Revelations (the execrable Kevin Smith continuation of the original cartoon), 2) the toyline accompanying the Netflix CGI He-Man reboot (kid-oriented, fast and loose with the mythos, and possibly the best thing to come out of the franchise), and an Origins toyline, which is essentially a recreation of the original toys in their original packaging, but with added articulation - G1 with knees and elbows.

Re: Zob's Parade of Inessential Toys: DK-3 Breaker, Galactic Man Shockwave, Red Cog

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Subject: Re: Zob's Parade of Inessential Toys: DK-3 Breaker, Galactic Man
Shockwave, Red Cog
From: zmf...@aol.com (Zobovor)
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 by: Zobovor - Sat, 15 Oct 2022 16:46 UTC

On Thursday, October 13, 2022 at 7:29:06 PM UTC-6, Codigo Postal wrote:

> Buying toys is cheaper, healthier, and more effective than therapy, alcohol or other drugs. It contributes to the global economy, and supports a creative enterprise that exists to bring joy to countless people around the world. The benefits to mental health are enormous, ongoing, and long-lived. Decades on, your toys can bring you as much or even more joy, not only for what they intrinsically are, but for what they represent about a period in your life. Collecting can bring you into contact with a new community of like-minded people, people with whom you might not otherwise interact due to differences in geography or lifestyle. I find it refreshing in this polarized age to see people from different backgrounds, religions, races, genders, and political beliefs set aside those differences to share in the joy of Transformers.

This is, like, the best argument I've ever seen for continuing to collect. It's not just an obsession. It's a civic duty!

> This might be a better subject for a new thread, but I'd be interested in your thoughts on the new He-Man releases.

The moderators here don't seem to have objected. Mostly because there are no moderators! Mwu ha haa!

> From what I can gather, there are three lines, all at 6" scale: 1) the toyline accompanying MOTU: Revelations (the execrable Kevin Smith continuation of the original cartoon), 2) the toyline accompanying the Netflix CGI He-Man reboot (kid-oriented, fast and loose with the mythos, and possibly the best thing to come out of the franchise), and an Origins toyline, which is essentially a recreation of the original toys in their original packaging, but with added articulation - G1 with knees and elbows.

Obviously, everybody's take is going to be different. Me, I always wanted to collect He-Man when I was a kid, but you have to be choosy when your monthly allowance is limited. I knew kids in the 1980's who had incredibly huge collections (including Castle Grayskull, most of the vehicles, etc.) but I only managed to collect four of the figures and that was it.

So, Origins is, for me, very much a matter of feeding my inner eight-year-old and giving him what he would have wanted in 1983. The modern toys can do more (better articulation) but they also do less (fewer functional gimmicks, like the lack of a spring-loaded waist, no telescoping mechanism for Mekaneck, etc.) which is a weird juxtaposition. But, aesthetically they look like the toys I remember when I was growing up, so that's the appeal for me. They're basically Close Enough versions to my childhood playthings, only without the rubber bands holding them together that will break the first time you twist Beast Man's leg the wrong way.

Revelations seems to be a more mature reinvention of the toys, sort of a "What if Todd McFarlane Designed the Characters?" look. They're not awful, certainly, but it doesn't appeal to me as much as Origins does. And the Netflix version seems targeted towards kids, and it's the most wholesale redesign of the characters (Evil-Lyn has bat wings growing out of her head, Ram Man is now "Ram Ma'am" because Mattel has gone woke, etc.) and I patently reject it.

But, I am also an old codger who dislikes change. I want my He-Man toys to look like they looked 40 years ago, and I want my Transformers to look like terrible, oversimplified 80's animation designs. Deviate from that and invite scorn. Slavishly copy that, and Phillip J. Fry will tell you to shut up and take my money.

Zob (planted some grass seed yesterday, and is expecting results in eight to twenty-one days)

Re: Zob's Parade of Inessential Toys: DK-3 Breaker, Galactic Man Shockwave, Red Cog

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Subject: Re: Zob's Parade of Inessential Toys: DK-3 Breaker, Galactic Man
Shockwave, Red Cog
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 by: Travoltron - Sat, 15 Oct 2022 17:44 UTC

I also endorse the Origins line. But I've missed some core characters
that never showed up at retail like Beast Man, Tri-Clops, and Trap Jaw.
So that's really put me off collecting the rest. I have ordered a few
favorite characters though. But I need to focus my budgeting on
Transformers.

There seems to me yet another MOTU line that I saw at Target yesterday.
They had He-Man in a much larger scale that was highly detailed. Cool,
but switching scales is a pet peeve of mine in collecting figures that I
just don't do.

I was impressed by Playmates' reboot of their Star Trek line. They've
suckered me in and I will be buying all the TOS and TNG merch.

Re: Zob's Parade of Inessential Toys: DK-3 Breaker, Galactic Man Shockwave, Red Cog

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Subject: Re: Zob's Parade of Inessential Toys: DK-3 Breaker, Galactic Man
Shockwave, Red Cog
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 by: Travoltron - Sat, 15 Oct 2022 19:54 UTC

On 10/12/2022 4:00 PM, Zobovor wrote:
> GALACTIC MAN SHOCKWAVE

I really should get that one. I kind of consider Shackwave a canon
character due to that animation error in the Five Faces of Darkness
opening that shows a gray Shockwave.

Re: Zob's Parade of Inessential Toys: DK-3 Breaker, Galactic Man Shockwave, Red Cog

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Subject: Re: Zob's Parade of Inessential Toys: DK-3 Breaker, Galactic Man
Shockwave, Red Cog
From: codigopo...@gmail.com (Codigo Postal)
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 by: Codigo Postal - Wed, 19 Oct 2022 21:12 UTC

On Saturday, October 15, 2022 at 12:46:30 PM UTC-4, Zobovor wrote:
> On Thursday, October 13, 2022 at 7:29:06 PM UTC-6, Codigo Postal wrote:
>
> > Buying toys is cheaper, healthier, and more effective than therapy, alcohol or other drugs. It contributes to the global economy, and supports a creative enterprise that exists to bring joy to countless people around the world. The benefits to mental health are enormous, ongoing, and long-lived. Decades on, your toys can bring you as much or even more joy, not only for what they intrinsically are, but for what they represent about a period in your life. Collecting can bring you into contact with a new community of like-minded people, people with whom you might not otherwise interact due to differences in geography or lifestyle. I find it refreshing in this polarized age to see people from different backgrounds, religions, races, genders, and political beliefs set aside those differences to share in the joy of Transformers.
> This is, like, the best argument I've ever seen for continuing to collect.. It's not just an obsession. It's a civic duty!
> > This might be a better subject for a new thread, but I'd be interested in your thoughts on the new He-Man releases.
> The moderators here don't seem to have objected. Mostly because there are no moderators! Mwu ha haa!
> > From what I can gather, there are three lines, all at 6" scale: 1) the toyline accompanying MOTU: Revelations (the execrable Kevin Smith continuation of the original cartoon), 2) the toyline accompanying the Netflix CGI He-Man reboot (kid-oriented, fast and loose with the mythos, and possibly the best thing to come out of the franchise), and an Origins toyline, which is essentially a recreation of the original toys in their original packaging, but with added articulation - G1 with knees and elbows.
> Obviously, everybody's take is going to be different. Me, I always wanted to collect He-Man when I was a kid, but you have to be choosy when your monthly allowance is limited. I knew kids in the 1980's who had incredibly huge collections (including Castle Grayskull, most of the vehicles, etc.) but I only managed to collect four of the figures and that was it.
>
> So, Origins is, for me, very much a matter of feeding my inner eight-year-old and giving him what he would have wanted in 1983. The modern toys can do more (better articulation) but they also do less (fewer functional gimmicks, like the lack of a spring-loaded waist, no telescoping mechanism for Mekaneck, etc.) which is a weird juxtaposition. But, aesthetically they look like the toys I remember when I was growing up, so that's the appeal for me. They're basically Close Enough versions to my childhood playthings, only without the rubber bands holding them together that will break the first time you twist Beast Man's leg the wrong way.

That sounds like it hits the sweet spot between nostalgia and modernity. I assume He-Man fans are just slightly older than TF fans, and equally flush with disposable income at this stage in their lives. We have Haslab Unicron, and they have this:

https://creations.mattel.com/products/masters-of-the-universe-origins-eternia-playset-hgw42

>
> Revelations seems to be a more mature reinvention of the toys, sort of a "What if Todd McFarlane Designed the Characters?" look. They're not awful, certainly, but it doesn't appeal to me as much as Origins does. And the Netflix version seems targeted towards kids, and it's the most wholesale redesign of the characters (Evil-Lyn has bat wings growing out of her head, Ram Man is now "Ram Ma'am" because Mattel has gone woke, etc.) and I patently reject it.

I generally regard all race and gender swapping as lazy writing masquerading as social progression, but the Netflix He-Man feels sufficiently different to the original that the changes don't bother me (Netflix is to Filmation as Armada is to G1).

>
> But, I am also an old codger who dislikes change. I want my He-Man toys to look like they looked 40 years ago,

OK, we're old.

Re: Zob's Parade of Inessential Toys: DK-3 Breaker, Galactic Man Shockwave, Red Cog

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From: gustavow...@yahoo.com (Gustavo Wombat)
Newsgroups: alt.toys.transformers
Subject: Re: Zob's Parade of Inessential Toys: DK-3 Breaker, Galactic
Man Shockwave, Red Cog
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2022 10:59:20 -0000 (UTC)
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 by: Gustavo Wombat - Fri, 21 Oct 2022 10:59 UTC

Codigo Postal <codigopostal959@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Saturday, October 15, 2022 at 12:46:30 PM UTC-4, Zobovor wrote:
>> On Thursday, October 13, 2022 at 7:29:06 PM UTC-6, Codigo Postal wrote:
>>
>>> Buying toys is cheaper, healthier, and more effective than therapy,
>>> alcohol or other drugs. It contributes to the global economy, and
>>> supports a creative enterprise that exists to bring joy to countless
>>> people around the world. The benefits to mental health are enormous,
>>> ongoing, and long-lived. Decades on, your toys can bring you as much or
>>> even more joy, not only for what they intrinsically are, but for what
>>> they represent about a period in your life. Collecting can bring you
>>> into contact with a new community of like-minded people, people with
>>> whom you might not otherwise interact due to differences in geography
>>> or lifestyle. I find it refreshing in this polarized age to see people
>>> from different backgrounds, religions, races, genders, and political
>>> beliefs set aside those differences to share in the joy of Transformers.
>> This is, like, the best argument I've ever seen for continuing to
>> collect. It's not just an obsession. It's a civic duty!
>>> This might be a better subject for a new thread, but I'd be interested
>>> in your thoughts on the new He-Man releases.
>> The moderators here don't seem to have objected. Mostly because there
>> are no moderators! Mwu ha haa!
>>> From what I can gather, there are three lines, all at 6" scale: 1) the
>>> toyline accompanying MOTU: Revelations (the execrable Kevin Smith
>>> continuation of the original cartoon), 2) the toyline accompanying the
>>> Netflix CGI He-Man reboot (kid-oriented, fast and loose with the
>>> mythos, and possibly the best thing to come out of the franchise), and
>>> an Origins toyline, which is essentially a recreation of the original
>>> toys in their original packaging, but with added articulation - G1 with knees and elbows.
>> Obviously, everybody's take is going to be different. Me, I always
>> wanted to collect He-Man when I was a kid, but you have to be choosy
>> when your monthly allowance is limited. I knew kids in the 1980's who
>> had incredibly huge collections (including Castle Grayskull, most of the
>> vehicles, etc.) but I only managed to collect four of the figures and that was it.
>>
>> So, Origins is, for me, very much a matter of feeding my inner
>> eight-year-old and giving him what he would have wanted in 1983. The
>> modern toys can do more (better articulation) but they also do less
>> (fewer functional gimmicks, like the lack of a spring-loaded waist, no
>> telescoping mechanism for Mekaneck, etc.) which is a weird
>> juxtaposition. But, aesthetically they look like the toys I remember
>> when I was growing up, so that's the appeal for me. They're basically
>> Close Enough versions to my childhood playthings, only without the
>> rubber bands holding them together that will break the first time you
>> twist Beast Man's leg the wrong way.
>
> That sounds like it hits the sweet spot between nostalgia and modernity.
> I assume He-Man fans are just slightly older than TF fans, and equally
> flush with disposable income at this stage in their lives. We have Haslab
> Unicron, and they have this:
>
> https://creations.mattel.com/products/masters-of-the-universe-origins-eternia-playset-hgw42
>
>
>
>
>>
>> Revelations seems to be a more mature reinvention of the toys, sort of a
>> "What if Todd McFarlane Designed the Characters?" look. They're not
>> awful, certainly, but it doesn't appeal to me as much as Origins does.
>> And the Netflix version seems targeted towards kids, and it's the most
>> wholesale redesign of the characters (Evil-Lyn has bat wings growing out
>> of her head, Ram Man is now "Ram Ma'am" because Mattel has gone woke,
>> etc.) and I patently reject it.
>
> I generally regard all race and gender swapping as lazy writing
> masquerading as social progression, but the Netflix He-Man feels
> sufficiently different to the original that the changes don't bother me
> (Netflix is to Filmation as Armada is to G1).

I tend to think of the lazy writing and race/gender changes as separate
issues. Starbuck as a chick was great in the Battlestar Galactica reboot,
after all.

It can be jarring at first, and if the show is crappy it will just stand
out as being the only thing you can remember in a poorly written show. The
poorly done reboot or adaptation that doesn’t do anything like that just
fades completely from memory.

But there are really very few characters that are so tightly defined by
their race or gender that it matters beyond an initial expectation. Black
Panther needs to be black, Wonder Woman needs to be a woman, but both could
be black women.

And sometimes it leads to a few awkward conclusions — there are Black
people in Westeros in House of the Dragon, but by the time Game of Thrones
comes by N years later, there aren’t. There’s a genocide there that hasn’t
been mentioned.

(I am disappointed that the most recent Doctor is likely to end her run
without a single good story — but none of that would have been different
with a man in the title role, as it was just bad, uninteresting stories)

>> But, I am also an old codger who dislikes change. I want my He-Man toys
>> to look like they looked 40 years ago,
>
> OK, we're old.
>

Re: Zob's Parade of Inessential Toys: DK-3 Breaker, Galactic Man Shockwave, Red Cog

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Subject: Re: Zob's Parade of Inessential Toys: DK-3 Breaker, Galactic Man
Shockwave, Red Cog
From: codigopo...@gmail.com (Codigo Postal)
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 by: Codigo Postal - Mon, 24 Oct 2022 04:53 UTC

> >>
> >> Revelations seems to be a more mature reinvention of the toys, sort of a
> >> "What if Todd McFarlane Designed the Characters?" look. They're not
> >> awful, certainly, but it doesn't appeal to me as much as Origins does.
> >> And the Netflix version seems targeted towards kids, and it's the most
> >> wholesale redesign of the characters (Evil-Lyn has bat wings growing out
> >> of her head, Ram Man is now "Ram Ma'am" because Mattel has gone woke,
> >> etc.) and I patently reject it.
> >
> > I generally regard all race and gender swapping as lazy writing
> > masquerading as social progression, but the Netflix He-Man feels
> > sufficiently different to the original that the changes don't bother me
> > (Netflix is to Filmation as Armada is to G1).
> I tend to think of the lazy writing and race/gender changes as separate
> issues. Starbuck as a chick was great in the Battlestar Galactica reboot,
> after all.
>
> It can be jarring at first, and if the show is crappy it will just stand
> out as being the only thing you can remember in a poorly written show. The
> poorly done reboot or adaptation that doesn’t do anything like that just
> fades completely from memory.
>
> But there are really very few characters that are so tightly defined by
> their race or gender that it matters beyond an initial expectation. Black
> Panther needs to be black, Wonder Woman needs to be a woman, but both could
> be black women.

I think passionate fans form parasocial bonds with these fictional creations that are as strong as any real-life attachment - in many cases, perhaps stronger. When someone changes those creations, they're laying waste to the one-sided relationships we have with those characters, and we experience that as a loss.

To me, Roadblock is black, Duke is blond, and Quick Kick is Asian - simply because that's how they were portrayed in the original series. One could argue that their races aren't at all essential to their characterizations, and that's probably true - but that's how we experienced those characters initially, and that's what we bonded with. A race-swapped Roadblock just wouldn't be Roadblock any more, at least not to me, and that would feel like a loss. The Rock is one of the coolest actors in the business; but he's not Roadblock. Henry Golding is charming, and adds some much needed diversity to the screen, but he's not Snake-Eyes. Not to say there couldn't be a great story to be told about a half Asian-American going to Japan and still being an outsider, despite his outward appearance. But that's not true to the way the story was told in the initial comics, and it's as simple as that. (Of course, these might not be the best examples, since the entire G.I. Joe live-action franchise has been less about fighting for freedom and liberty than it has been about taking liberties with the source material. In typing this, I can't think of any instances in which it *was* faithful to the original. Duke wasn't a meathead, Covergirl wasn't a blonde mute, Ripcord wasn't annoying...)

With Starbuck, I'd never experienced the original series (and in fact, was barely aware there *was* an original series), so having her as a badass female never struck me as false. To me, Starbuck *is* a blonde woman, and seeing a male Starbuck would strike me as wrong.

That's not to say that creators aren't free to reimagine characters, but simply that not every objection to race/gender-swapping boils down to some sort of prejudicial narrow-mindedness, as the media would often have it. The world around us is constantly changing, and not always for the better. In a sea of uncertainty and chaos, it's comforting to hold fast to unchanging fictional touchstones.

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