New Summer Blockbuster coming

[Great Rao]

And here it is

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/07/04

[MatterEaterLad]

 

That's even better than the Smurfsformers or The Herculoids: Rise of Gomer Pyle, USMC...

[JulianPerez]

Teddy Ruxpin ruled! It was so much fun to switch his tape out and put in a Black Sabbath or Rolling Stones cassette.

Brown Sugar! How come you taste so good? Because you're being sung by a robot bear, that's why!

I'm actually kinda looking forward to the THUNDERCATS movie. Sure, they're going to sell out and make it slick and committee-thinking driven, but Thundercats was ALWAYS kind of lame, so how can Hollywood really mess it up? Now, if they were doing something as "lightning in a bottle" wonderful, a show that was so uniquely the product of a single vision like GARGOYLES or JAYCE AND THE WHEELED WARRIORS...well, now THEN I'd be nervous, because Hollywood won't get it.

Boy, I sure can't wait to NOT see Transformers, or as it should be called, "People That Know Transformers." It wasn't enough you had to rip off PARTS: THE CLONUS HORROR, you had to go after Optimus Prime too, Michael Bay?

[Super Monkey]

speaking of cassete playing toys of the 1980's. My favorite transformer as a kid was Soundwave, once I heard he was not going to be in the new movie, I decided I wasn't going to watch it anytime soon.

Here is the real life story of why he was left out of the new film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TYzRanykbQ

[Criadoman]

Next to Optimus, Soundwave was my favorite.  His cassettes turned into birds and dogs.  Too cool!

[TELLE]

I swore off the movie once I heard the Gobots weren't in it.

[JulianPerez]

What I find interesting about TRANSFORMERS - the original show, that is - is the involvement with comics. Marvel co-developed Transformers with the toy company.

The original proposal for the series was created by Jim Shooter and Dennis O'Neil, after all, at Marvel. The comic itself was written by Marvel editor Bud Budiansky, who created Megatron and Bumblebee, and the concept of the Autobot Matrix of Leadership.

Marv Wolfman wrote the episode "Return of Optimus Prime," and Roy Thomas and Steve Gerber were story consultants for the cartoon.

Great interview with Bud Budiansky (awesome name, by the way) where he talks about his work:

http://www.bwtf.com/interviews/bb204.shtml

[TELLE]

I was a little older than the target demo for Tranformers/GIJOe but watched my share with a much younger brother who would sing the Joe themesong.  I always was intrigued by the presence of 70s Marvel writers in the credits and the story arcs reminiscent of comics melodrama.

I suppose manga and anime properties today are developed the same way.