With the upcoming demise of the Beast Wars/Machines line, where do I go from here? Whatever your opinion (and I have mine) about the whole philosophical and politically correct outcome of Beast Machines, it's obvious the writers have painted this storyline into a corner. Optimus and Megs are "gone," Cybertronian technological marvels have all sprouted flowers, and Cheetor, Blackarachnia and the rest of the carnivorous gang have all become vegans. Lots of people are into that kind of Cybertron. I suppose having the lowest average cholestorol count in the known universe must make fans of that Cybertron happy. Hasbro has sunk a lot of effort in the past seven or more years into revitalizing the fad, and now without a commercial outlet in television it's safe to say they won't be devoting that much energy into the project anymore. A year or so of reruns and a few more figures may be in the works, but it's the end of Cybertron as we know it and I feel let down. I'm old school, and it's way past time to get my Transformers fix somewhere else. 

     Despite experiencing some financial difficulties, Takara has created a new line of Transformers called "Car Robots" (aka "Transformers 2000) complete with some new characters blending the synthetic asthetics of Generation 1 with all the organic articulation of Beast Wars and even tweny-some animated episodes. In spite of the language barrier, lots of collectors are flocking to this new standard because, frankly, lots of the running gags and metal-shredding action in these G1-esque plots don't require a college degree to understand. Nobody seems to care that the CGI, Shakespearean monologues and cerebral plots that characterized Beast Wars isn't represented in this new series. Good. After spending the last two years listening to Siddhartha Gorilla getting in touch with his organic side I am ready for the likes of flying sharks, cute little animals beating the crap out of cars, and overall gratuitous robot violence. If you haven't picked up a bootleg set of eps yet, do it now! Kinda like Seattle a few years back, anyone with a Japanese connection has now hereby become cool.

     But fleshling reality has caught up to our collective fantasy, and Takara has been forced to save some money by using old G1 molds to create "new" characters like Baldigus/Bruticus or Brave Maximus/ Fortress Maximus. My immediate reaction was "big deal. Early Generation 1 TF's were basically recolored Diaclones. And at least this isn't a cheap marketing stunt aimed at fanatical collectors like all those recolored 'Fox Kids' Beast Wars repaints were." But then I saw what happened on eBay. As soon as a $150 MIB Brave Max hit the market, MIB G1 Fort Maxes nose-dived from $800 down to $400 or less. The satisfying part was that this devaluation didn't last! Sure the effects are still somewhat evident (I think MIB Fort Max is running about $600 now), but at least people realize that this is a complementary addition and not a wholesale replacement. A crazy idea, sure, but sometimes crazy works.

     Rumor has it that due to overwhelming popularity among us hardcore TF collectors here in the States, Car Robots (both toys and TV eps) may be coming here. What this will do is kindle a demand for G1 products within a new generation of collector. (If you disagree with that point, then why is it so many twenty-something year old collectors out there who weren't old enough to remember Diaclones are gobbling them up now?) And with an expanded customer base, Takara might be revitalized to the point that the year Transformers: The Movie was set in will feel like the year that the movie was made in. Thank God techno-organic flower power is falling before the firepower of lots of big bots beating the wiring out of each other once again.

     Do Transformers dream of electric sheep, and should you start grabbing up all 500 Car Brothers repaints in order to "complete" your collection? Personal aesthetics makes the question moot. Face facts. Unless your last name is Hartman and you've got a million dollar bankroll to spend acquiring every Transformer ever made, chances are you and I will never have that complete collection. Big deal. This is about the fun in collecting Transformers. It doesn't matter if it's a repaint or the latest Car Robot with 20 points of articulation that takes you an hour to transform (I'm still trying to figure out Tripredicus!), it's about your satisfaction. Sure, I'm going to collect the new characters but I'm not going to go overboard with every repaint of the same character. At least give them different personalities like with the original Cheetor and Tigatron so I would at least have a pretext for buying a repaint! This, of course, doesn't apply to my collection of Devastators found here in Yellow Monster. It's not hypocracy unless you don't admit to it. :)

     Sure, unique design concepts are starting to thin. First you had everyday vehicles turning into robots. Then came along sci-fi vehicles that could turn into robots. Of course animals followed and then weird, techno-organic mutants came after. With the new millenium, we've returned to the beginning. Will there come a day when Optimus Prime must die? After some retooling, old concepts are resurrected by new presentations. There will come a day when Optimus will die, but he will be back. As any English geek (me being one of them, but I ain't gonna go into that now) who knows his Joseph Campbell can tell you the idea and popularity of a tranforming hero is older than civilization. Autobots...and Decepticons...are forever.
 

John Koerner wrote the Botcon 2000 article in Action Figure News & Toy Review, and maintains an impressive collection of Devastator variants. If anyone has any questions or comments about this article please e-mail John at jarkoer@juno.com.

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