Jacob Blackmon Blogs

The contact build for today is the rhyming Autobot survivalist: Wheelie . Most TF fans were introduced to Wheelie via the Transformers Movie in 1986. And frankly, this guy was Jar Jar Binks before Jar Jar ever Jar Jar'd! He was ANNOYING! Sure, he was supposed to be a kid... who spoke in a rhyming method. There are lots of Autobots who have distinct speaking mannerisms. But the voice they chose to use for Wheelie was the most ear-grating high-pitch autotune trash. Like a microphone feedback squelch being put through a synthesizer. Honestly, I think if they'd just gone for a normal voice, it would have been fine. But the voice combined with the rhymes made him unbearable to listen to. And what's worse is he could be an interesting character! Imagine being the sole survivor of your family's crashed starship on a world filled with hostile alien robots that want to eat you! Wheelie survived this! There is even one piece of art that has Wheelie wearing a necklace of Sharktico

The contact build for this article is Tailgate ! Of this generation of mini-bots -- all of those that were basically just repaints of the first generation of minibots -- Tailgate may be one of the worst offenders. He's a repaint of Windcharger, one of the Autobots who was specifically shown in the 1986 film film to be DEAD DEAD DEAD!! And he's just painted... white. Bland, boring.... white! Not only that,  but he even steals from Windcharger in the worst way. Tailgate has a special magnet installed in his front bumper. But instead of having a wicked-cool magnetic power like Windcharger, Tailgate uses this magnet to  be as lazy as possible: he uses it to magnetically follow vehicles in front of him, so her doesn't have to waste fuel while driving. Wow, dude... wow. Otherwise, he's also just an idiot, in the fact that he does not understand that Earth machines are not sentient. He believe that machines Humans are using are secretly alive (they are -- provably -- not) and

Our next Contact build is for the Autobot metallurgist: Swerve ! Swerve is yet another Autobot mini who replaced an existing character simply to sell more toys. In this case, he is modeled after the Autobot Gears. I was really unfamiliar with this character before building him as a contact. He very unremarkable as a character in the classic G1 series. It is in the modern era that Swerve has shined!  He became a popular character with the writers and fan during the IDW comics, where his constant banter made  him an ideal pundit for the goings on in the series. If you enjoy this content, please help my friend Owen with his fight with cancer . SWERVE " Molecular structure is the window to understanding. " Gregarious would be a good word to describe Swerve. So would outgoing, enthusiastic, upbeat, joyfully irreverent, flippant, sarcastic, wise ass, troll, or "total pain in the aft", depending on which side of his weapons-grade mouth you happen to fall on and how long yo

The contact build for today is the Autobot gunner: Pipes! When Transformers the Movie happened in 1986, Hasbro wanted to sell more toys by getting rid of old characters and replacing them with new characters. In terms of the mini-bots, they did this in the most "cost-effective" (aka cheap-ass) way possible: by repainting old figures and saying they were entirely different characters. Now... to be fair, Hasbro isn't the only company to do this. If you glance over at Mattel, their Masters of the Universe line is rife with characters built on mix and matching the plastic pieces of one character and repainting them to make an entirely new character with as minimal effort as possible. It keeps costs down, while maximizing the characters in the series. But, whereas Mattel actually mix-and-matched different pieces from different character to make a new character, Hasbro didn't even do that... they just flat-out repainted an old  character and claimed  it was a new one! It

Today's new contact build if for the rebellious Autobot gunner Outback ! Hot off the heels of Crocodile Dundee, the United States suddenly had a new icon for what it meant to be "rugged" and "masculine"! Real men came from the Outback of Australian and carried a big knife! Not like those soft city folk! Crocodile Dundee was the John Wayne for a new generation! So, of course, Transformers capitalized on this idea by taking of of their old characters (Brawn), giving them a new paintjob (browns and tans, to match Mick Dundee's ever-present outfit), and slapping him with a thick 'Stralian accent! It's no surprise really. If you look at all the Autobots from the first two seasons of the G1 series, how many of them had cowboy or Southern accents, just to prove how tough and cavalier they were? No more of that; we got ourselves an Aussie-bot! And just like Mick Dundee, he doesn't play by anyone's rules! He does  what he wants, when he wants, like a