Originally posted by Sado22
i don't know about american stereotypes, but i know enough of them to know that americans are to the west as arabs are to the east
~Sado
As a wiki editor myself, I'm surprised to see that you quote the article despite a blatant inaccuracy..could be just syntax, but it's enough to confuse people:
That's the beginning of the inspiration of/for Transformers, not the beginning of the actual concept or story. What I'm saying is, no one at Takara who made the Diaclone Insecticons summoned the marketing and engineering teams together and said "This grasshopper will be called Kickback, this beetle will be Shrapnel, and the other will be Bombshell, and they are part of the Decepticon faction." continues...
Originally posted by Sadako of Girth
Sure.
They often were exactly the same toys.
Name any G1 first season TFS that werent imported form other lines.
The real bit of ingenuity was in the toys.
Without that, Budiansky would have not had anything to go on.
Originally posted by Sado22
ditto.
No Season 1 TFs were original in concept. That does not equate to the concept of Transformers itself originating from Takara, but rather inspired by Takara.
For example, Norse/Anglo-Saxon/Germanic mythology has given us the god of thunder, Thor. I don't know too much about norse mythology so let's say that poet X came up with the idea of Thor and Odin and wrote the myths.
Centuries later Stan Lee and Jack Kirby use that inspiration and make Thor, the god of Thunder, who happens to be an Avenger.
The concept of Thor the Avenger, who has an alter ego on earth is entirely Lee's and Kirby's. The inspiration is from Poet X. However, at no point in his writings that Poet X realize that his works would be used as source material to create a distinct character used in Marvel Comics.
The concept of Thor in the norse myths and the concept of Thor in Marvel Comics are distinctly different, even though one (the marvel comics one) could not exist without the prior being created.
It's the same idea with Transformers. In fact, even if I agree with the logic that both of you are taking:
The MC-12 Gun Robo, which in Transformers lore is Megatron, is from the Takara line known as Microman. In turn, Microman is a miniaturized form of the previous Takara toyline, Henshin Cyborg, which included 12" tall figures/dolls. Henshin Cyborg itself was a derivative of the Takara Combat Joe toyline.
Takara's Combat Joe figure line of 12" dolls is based off a license Takara acquired from Hasbro. You may know this license under it's American name: G.I. JOE
The issue know is that if you're going to argue that the concept is takara's, because without them then budiansky would have nothing to go off of, then Megatron, Thundercracker, Starscream, Skywparp, Insecticons, Bumblebee and the rest of the minibots, perceptor, soundwave, blaster, the cassettes, etc. etc. which were all from Microman, would themselves never be around if Microman hadn't been a spawn of a toyline that was licensed, and based off of Hasbro's GI Joe.
Yup, look it up, Microman, which gave the inspiration from so many Transformers, was itself inspired from GI Joe.
That's why I'm making the distinction between the actual toy design, and the story and concept of Transformers.
on the one hand you have Microman MC-12 Gun Robo. On the other you have Transformers Decepticon Megatron. They are as distinct as much as the Norse Mythology Thor and the Marvel Comics Thor are.
I hope things turn around for you.
