Wanderer's Rest

Idol: Besides Peter Cullen or Frank Welker, who would say is your favorite voice actor from the franchise?

Easily Scott McNeil. All of the Beast Wars voice actors did a great job, but how many other voice actors can say they have multiple episodes under their belt that feature, essentially, them arguing with themselves for 26 minutes? The versatility blows my mind. He’s like the one-man band of VAs. :D

Runner-up is Blu Mankuma, because Poptart and I apparently cracked him up coming up the escalators in our giant cardboard-box Autobot costumes. (I can’t remember if we were Ratchet&Wheeljack then or Jazz&Prowl.) So he’s not the only VA I’ve ever met (if stammering awkwardly while Tara Strong and David Kaye coolly signed autographs counts as ‘meeting’), but the only one I’ve made laugh. Which is something to be proud of, if I don’t get anything else.

Universal Travel: If you could live in any universe of Transformers, what would it be?

Hmm, this is a hard one. *thinks*

The TF:Prime universe seems safest - the Decepticons never really harrassed any humans in that one. Animated-Earth seemed to have this interesting cyberpunk aesthetic to it, which could be fun. Ultimately I think G1 is closest to the ‘real’ world, warts and all - ironically enough. XD Beast Wars - actually, I wouldn’t mind that. I’m pretty attached to my creature comforts, but there’s an attraction to stripping all that away and making your way with just your hands and your head. It’s like the ‘post-apocalyptic survival’ aspect of zombie scenarios without the zombies.

…and with a purple dinosaur on roller skates. :D So there’s your answer, I guess.

Crossover: Is there a series that you'd like to see a crossover of with Transformers?

What don’t I want a crossover of? XD Let me see if I can narrow it down.

-Avengers (MCU) - I’ve wanted this since Iron Man, but the first Avengers movie sealed it for me - it’s so character-driven and heart-driven and genuinely funny and everything I wanted the Transformer movies to be. I want to see the Avengers and the Transformers snarking at each other and being suspicious and fascinated by turns before ultimately teaming up to defeat whoever the designated pinata is that week. I mean, holy shit, Tony would lose his motherloving mind, Steve and Optimus would get along like a house on fire, and Natasha would have the giant robots terrified of her. Also - Thor versus Decepticons. HOW COULD THAT BE ANYTHING BUT EPIC.

-Kingdom Hearts - KH is basically a crossover machine, so I feel like this is cheating, but - come on. Hot Rod wielding a Keyblade. Overlapping and shifting factions just getting more complicated when you add ‘Bots and ‘Cons. And Transformers also has that ‘ancient and deadly secret history’ theme going on, so there you go.

-Jem - because you KNOW Jazz is their biggest fan. Quite literally. You could cross that over with G1 and have it be seamless as far as wacky plots-of-the-week go, and Transformers always needs more amazing ladies.

-Mad Max: Fury Road - I think someone on Tumblr has already played with the idea of a Bayverse-esque Optimus as the War Rig, which really resonates with me. The idea that “everything’s quite thoroughly fucked, how do we come back from this?” is something that Bay!Optimus could probably relate to. So this image of him seeking redemption alongside Furiosa is a powerful one for me.

Choose Your Side: Which faction would you be a part of: Autobots, Decepticons, Maximals, Predacons, etc?

I’ve always been an Autobot. No surprise there, I guess. XD I’m drawn to the ‘building’ and ‘community’ focus, and, well, you don’t get to listen to Optimus Prime’s voice all that often on the Victory. *cough* …anyway, the overall Decepticon culture just seems so unpleasant and backbitey and like you have to be on your guard all the time. I got enough of that in middle school. I don’t do well in high-stress situations, as most of you have probably already guessed. :\

That said, I did civil-partner with a Decepticon-affiliated ‘creature, so what do I know. :D This might be where my taste for cross-faction pairings comes from. X3

Transform and Roll Out!: If you could transform into anything, what would it be?

Don't think for a second that every time I see a cool car or plane or boat I do not immediately adopt it as my TF-alter-ego altmode, but if I'm being honest? A smartcar. Or a scooter. Something tiny and adorable but not much use in a battle situation. Something that goes “puttputtputt” when you press the gas pedal instead of “VROOM.”

Don’t get me wrong, I’d prefer to be a sports car of some description, something fast and agile and tough as nails. (Not being a petrolhead, I have no idea where you’d get a car that has both a high Speed and Armor stat, so if you have any suggestions…) But mired in reality as I am, I must content myself with being a puttputt among high-performance engines. Best I can hope for is a thirty-second clip of being useful to someone per season.

Eh, story of my life.

Game On!: Out of all the Transformers video games you've played, which one is your favorite?

Ahahaha. Aha. Ha. *tears*

Got the first movie tie-in game for my birthday. Sucked horribly at driving. Put it down and never picked it up again.

Got the DS game, which I thought I would like better. Sucked horribly at driving. Put it down and never picked it up again.

I own the TF:P DS game, but I haven’t played it yet because I’ve spent the last few months on Pokemon and Bravely Default.

Still haven’t gotten my hands on WfC/FoC. I will, by God, when I get a job, save up for a PS3 and those two games. But I will probably still suck at driving.

(Seriously, why can none of these games develop driving controls that feel natural? It’s like that time I fell off my bike and knocked the handlebars out of alignment, and I had to bike home like that. I nudge to course-correct and Bumblebee goes careening off the road. Whut.)

I have a feeling there are going to be some repeat answers as I keep going through these.

Holy Grail: Which figure do you want the most?

A figure of my human Beast Wars OC, Playarts-quality with accessories. No, seriously. As long as I’m dreaming I may as well dream big.

Overrated: Which series do you feel is the most overrated?

Well, I’ve already said enough about IDW, so… G1? Sounds strange, I know, I love G1, but I feel like it benefits from nostalgia-goggles-ness so much that every subsequent attempt to recapture its magic is going to fall flat. Guys, it was a legitimately great show but it was also awful in places. It doesn’t need to be put on a pedestal.

Underrated: Which series do you think is the most underrated?

Honestly? Animated doesn’t get nearly enough credit. I was as guilty of making fun of the CHINS as everybody else, but it was smart and fun and didn’t pull its punches. And Sari was like a self-insert character I would’ve made up, so I can’t help but love her.

Show Me Some Love: Which character do you like that doesn't really get as much attention as he/she should?

I’ve ranted about this before, but - Elita-One and her crew, for definite. Arcee to a lesser degree - she had some badass moments, but I would’ve liked to see more of her because I am thirsty for more ladybots. Nighbird - c’mon, they were blatantly setting up for a “Revenge of the Ninja” ep there. There are some badass human ladies in G1 as well, but seriously - Elita-One & crew get one episode and then never get mentioned again? Seriously, Chromia is fabulous, Moonracer is the action hero I need AND deserve, Firestar is like Hot Rod’s big sister, and Elita is… um… potentially awesome?

…shit.

Look, the writers really have no excuse for this. I don’t care that it was the eighties. There were lots of heroines in media by then. And the fact that they made her crew so amazing just makes it worse that they made Elita a bit of a damsel and then promptly forgot any of them even existed. This is supposed to be Optimus Prime’s equal in rank and her finest warriors, dammit. Hell, Elita doesn’t even have the Matrix - whatever rank she had, she bloody well earned. Can we see that, please? A spinoff? A miniseries? A one-page advertisement for Hostess Fruit Pies? Anything? …yeah, guess not. I swear, I’ve got half a mind to write it myself. Yeah, and it’ll be even better than what they could come up with! That’ll show ‘em!

So, basically: more ladybots. More variety in my ladybots. More ladybots in the bloody spotlight. Strongarm’s a step in the right direction, I guess, but I haven’t actually seen RiD so I couldn’t speak to how her character is being handled.

Masterpiece: Do you own any Masterpiece figure? If so, what is it? If not, which do you want the most?

I don’t have any Masterpieces - even if I could have justified dropping the money, I didn’t really have the shelf/storage space, especially when ‘Boots and I started discussing moving me over to the UK in earnest. I had to be content with my Classics and Generations figures, I guess. ;) (Which I totes am, btw. I love the Classics line, it started up when I really started to get into G1 so I spent many happy hours/paychecks at toy stores. It was like a great big ‘welcome to the fandom!’ from the universe.)

If money/shelf space were no object, my top three Masterpieces to acquire would be Optimus (I know, there’s like 20 versions of the guy at this point, but my dream acquisition would be a hypothetical Year of the Rat version since that’s my Chinese zodiac year.), Rodimus (is anybody surprised by this? Nope.) and Ghost Starscream. Bluestreak and Prowl as a bonus.

Anything Else?: Besides Transformers, what else are you a fan of?

Hee! This is a fun one. *wiggles* And for the record, I would love to see/be prompted for/collaborate on crossovers between any of these things. :DDD

- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. My first fandom, as in “I wanted to date all of them when I was five.”
- Avengers (Marvel Cinematic Universe). I’ve never really been hugely into comics - getting little bits of a story every month, as opposed to books where you get the whole thing, just couldn’t hold my attention - but thanks to scans_daily I was at least passingly familiar with all of the characters. It took the movies to really hook me, though. So now I’m stuck holding my breath for a female-led Marvel movie and that they won’t screw up Spidey again. (Still want a Misty Knight movie, kthx.)
- Sailor Moon. Pretty much my introduction to feminism. Never again would I be satisfied with ‘one girl character who does nothing much’ in my cartoons.
- Power Rangers. I caught a lot of shit for watching this pretty much through middle school. Did I give a shit? I DID NOT. Fuck the haters.
- Final Fantasy VII - my ‘other main fandom.’ Back in my Springkink days I wrote a lot of FF7 fic, and I’m planning on revisiting my postgame-Seph-fixit fic after I’m done with certain poledancing Winnebagos. (Really need to finish Crisis Core one of these days.)
- Final Fantasy IX. I will seriously wave a flag for this game until the day I die. It’s pretty damn near the perfect JRPG. (And I am GOING to LP it with my partner, see if I don’t. I want her reaction to Vivi recorded for posterity.)
- Jem. I barely remember watching the cartoon as a tiny mooglet, but the new comic is all kinds of adorable.
- Star Wars - basically I’m all about the ladies of Star Wars. And making up more of them when canon falls short of scratching that particular itch. (Dear new movie: please don’t suck.)
- Pokemon. I haven’t caught ‘em all, I’ve never participated in a tournament, and I rarely trade - but gdi the worlds are so addictive. I have like four fanchars.
- Bravely Default - I haven’t finished it yet, but through my own fault I’ve been spoilered six ways from Sunday. No big deal, I’ll have everybody’s jobs mastered by the time I’m done. …Also I have Edea as party leader because come on.
- Kingdom Hearts - facilitating all the crossovers! :D Also all the threesomes, apparently. (Please let Kairi be playable in KH3. Or at least give her her own spinoff game for the 3DS which does not suck.)
- RWBY - I’m getting my partner into this. *wicked cackle* It’s actually kind of hard to believe it’s by the same people who did Red Vs. Blue, but there you go. Female-led adventure story ftw!
- Pacific Rim - because who isn't. Anybody else really want to see Raleigh and Mako's post-world-saving Sesame Street appearance?
- Mad Max: Fury Road - are they feminist action movies? Well, yes, in that for once I didn't walk out of the theater feeling like I didn't matter.