Prime Example

Having spent the last couple of days watching the whole of Season 1 of TransFormers Prime on YouTube, I have a few things to say about the experience.

Firstly, it is obvious from some of the comments from the uploaders that Hasbro and The Hub are taking a dim view of their intellectual property being recorded and uploaded to YouTube. Hardly surprising and, to be honest, I can't condone this practice. The background machinations of the contracts between Hasbro and The Discovery Channel - equal partners in The Hub - no doubt involve some kind of exclusivity agreement (and let's be generous and ignore the abrupt end to TransFormers: Animated that seems to have been a side-effect of the deal). The television broadcast of Prime naturally includes advertising, which benefits The Hub, while the very existance of Prime as a series benefits Hasbro because it's a 20-minute advertisement for their latest toy range. Nothing new there.

So when viewers record and upload the series to the internet - going to great pains to express that they don't claim ownership of the show and that "no infringement is intended", one cannot help but feel that they are merely filling a void which Hasbro and The Hub, in their ineffable wisdom, have neglected themselves.

For example, as a UK resident who doesn't feel the need to pay extra for another slew of TV channels I'll never watch, it's unlikely I'd ever see TransFormers Prime until it's eventual release on DVD... which could be more than a year away. In this day and age, I find it unfathomable that niether Hasbro nor The Hub have some kind of online content delivery offering anything more than clips. Undoubtedly, if such a system existed, it would be subscription-based, or pay-per-vew at least.

And while I'm reasonably interested in the TFPrime toys (moreso since seeing the Voyager size Optimus Prime - in photos from the SDCC and NYCC, rather than at Hasbro's booths at things like the London Expo, for example), the Animated/Live Action Movie hybrid aesthetic hadn't really grabbed me in the same way that the G1 fanwank that is the Classics/Universe/Generations toyline, or the overengineered brilliance of the movie line (not so much the Dark of the Moon range, more's the pity, considering that was the best film by far).

It's only having seen the series, thanks to these 'intellectual property thieves' on YouTube, that I'm beginning to feel vaguely compelled to actually buy them.

Seems like a win for Hasbro, if not The Hub... but surely that just shows that someone hasn't been properly covering all their bases.

The series itself is quite brilliant - consistency of character and storytelling that harks back to the quality of Beast Wars and Beast Machines, but with animation that rivals pretty much anything else on kids' television at the moment. Pixar it isn't... but I can certainly see TFPrime making the transition to the big screen, whereas Mainframe's series were well behind what was appearing in the cinemas even back when they first came to television.

It takes the form of your standard 'problem/lesson of the week', just like most kids' television these days, but it has a harder edge to its interpretation of the conflict between Autobots and Decepticons than any previous series, BW/BM included. Battles are far more brutal than anything from any previous series, one of the Autobots is killed off in the first half of the first episode, and it's very obviously final (apart from the prerequisite 'zombification'). The introduction of the human contingent is handled about as well as any of the TV series, and there's even a tiny bit of resentment in at least one of the Autobots about being saddled with a human to babysit.

But, naturally, the characters grow on each other and they become a stronger team, human and Autobot alike, as the series progresses. There's an FBI liason trying to keep on top of events, and even a group of humans who are developing their own high-tech assault force (for reasons as yet unrevealed) who are keen to harvest a Cybertronian robot, and don't much care which side it comes from.

It draws on mythology from many aspects of the TransFormers history (largely the original G1 stuff and the more recent G1 retcons), and has a surprisingly thorough reasoning for the appearance of Dark Energon on Earth, as well its connection to Cybertron and the history and mythology of the autonomous robotic lifeforms which populated the planet. There's even a brief telling of the history between Optimus Prime and Megatron, and how they were once friends back on Cybertron.

Perhaps my favourite part of the show is the brilliantly sinister reimagining of Soundwave. Rather than just ape any of his previous incarnations, including the iconic G1 version, Prime delivers a faceless, virtually silent Soundwave who seems only to communicate by replaying his recordings (apart from one occasion where he laughs, sounding very much like the G1 version). It's implied that he has all the Decepticons under close permanent surveillance and, in one brief fight with 'Airachnid' (possibly the worst TransFormers name ever) that he has his G1 counterpart's mind-reading skill - he blocks her every move easily, even though it's been shown that Airachnid probably has the fastest reflexes of the Decepticons present.

Even Starscream gets a better deal than in other series. Sure, he's a snivelling, scheming coward, always trying to outmanoeuvre Megatron and claim leadership for himself... But, toward the end of the series, having been deserted by his leader and almost killed by one vengeful Autobot, he has an epiphany and strikes out on his own, never to be seen again in the series.

The climax to Season 1 was well-handled. Having done the inadvisable and introduced Unicron to the Prime canon, he is... returned to stasis rather than outright destroyed (which would have had terrible repercussions for life on Earth), but Optimus Prime's heroism leaves him at Megatron's mercy... and we are left with the words "To Be Continued..."

The only thing I really don't like about the series is the movie rip-off Bumblebee. Can't we get past this 'speech impediment' mechanic, and have a Bumblebee with a voice? Really, what purpose does it serve when precious moments have to be spent explaining what his R2-D2 blips and buzzes actually mean?

So, ultimately, while these YouTubers are being rather disingenuous (or naive, or just plain stupid) uploading the series to the Internet, they've done Hasbro and The Discovery Channel one small service - not only will I be picking up some of the toys, but I'll be buying the series on DVD as soon as it's available in the UK.

Score one for common sense.

In other news, I went to the London Expo with my old mate Paul last weekend, and had a rather more successful day than I'd expected, considering Hasbro's lousy UK release schedule for toys. I picked up DotM Deluxe Thundercracker (PLEASE, Hasbro, release Skywarp as well! Just for once, make it easy for us obsessive complusives to get all three Seekers!) and Classics/Universe/Generations Warpath and Wheeljack, the complete series of Witch Hunter Robin (not as exciting as I'd hoped, thusfar), a Shunya Yamashita artbook (One Voice - the easiest to come by), the Alien Vault (a rather more complete view behind the scenes than was offered by the Giger's Alien book), a couple more Genki Gear t-shirts, a FoxHound t-shirt, some ink pens and a Catbus hat. I almost picked up Human Alliance Leadfoot, but that would have completely wiped out the money I'd brought.

Aside from the retail aspect, the show was pretty good fun. Paul was keen to sit in on the Sanctuary and Torchwood panels. Neither offered much, but both had their entertaining moments. The former launched into a synopsis for a hypothetical episode where Tesla starts to glitter like a Meyer vampire (I sincerely hope they really make that episode, as it sounded hilarious), the latter was dominated by Kai Owen's loud antics, but featured the interesting snippet that the cast were not aware that Starz have apparently announced that they don't intend to make any more Torchwood, at least according to the member of the audience who posed the question about their plans for the future...

Early in the day, while still wandering about the show, I accepted a massage from one of the on-site team of masseurs. Paul disappeared almost immediately, which was quite uncanny, but also led to the masseur telling me that a lot of the attendees had declined the offer (a ten minute massage, for which you would pay 'whatever you think it's worth', half of which would go to charity) because they "don't like to be touched". I opined that they were probably at the wrong event, considering how crowded the place was, even on a Sunday.

Weirdly, the MCM Expo folks had set up one hall as 'Memorabilia London', acting as if this was the show's triumphal return to the capital. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Considering early entry to Memorabilia was an additional £16 ticket, I suspect anyone who actually paid for entry to that would have felt utterly cheated... until 1pm, when doors between Memorabilia and the London Expo were opened. It looked more like Collectormania, in that there were far more 'celebrities' lining the walls, and precious little else... Though I did buy a couple of my TransFormers in that hall.

This past week, I've been incredibly lazy... but it's dawned on me that I basically need to do more to keep myself occupied. Larking about on the internet, watching TV or DVDs and playing videogames doesn't get me better versed in the intricacies of InDesign, or any closer to finishing off the many pictures or writing projects I have stuck in my head... Hopefully, I'll be able to drag myself out of the doldrums this coming week...

On the upside, I did manage to pick up a Christmas present for my niece...