Nerd Dads! » transformers

Transform And Halloweeninate!

Andrew — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:58:31 +0000

Wow. A big Nerd Dad ups to this guy for being insane. And awesome. And also insane.

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Fan Film - OG Transformers In CG Battle

Steve — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:06:04 +0000

I'll admit it - I paid to see Transformers 2 over the holiday weekend, despite thinking that the first one was a steaming load. What happened is that I happened to have a few hours to myself and Andrew had mentioned that he'd actually gone to see it opening weekend and that it was pretty decent for a summer junk flick. And hey, turns out he was right! There's a lot of problems with it, but much more so than the first one, TF2 is a genuinely enjoyable popcorn flick...once you get past the plotholes and horribly racist Autobot twins. Seriously, Bay - WTF with that?

Having said that, I still don't understand Bay's need to revamp and redesign all of the character into something completely different than their cartoon counterparts. Update and modernize, sure, but to Liefeldize them by adding unnecessary spinny sharp things just still seems wrong. And I'm not even a huge TF fan in the first place - I have fond memories of them from when I was a kid, but that's about it.

Still, it does my heart good when people nerd out completely and produce things like the following fan animation depicting a CG battle between Optimus Prime and Megatron in their O.G. designs.

Toys For Dads - Hot Toys' Battle Damaged Iron Man Currently

Become An Autobot, Entertain Your Kid For 5 Minutes

Steve — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:25:33 +0000

Looking for a quick way to kill a tantrum, or if you simply want to amuse the hell out of your kid for a few minutes, take the time to drop by the Autobotize Yourself website that Hasbro and Paramount have set up. You'll need to have the ActiveX plugin installed on your machine, and a webcam that works fairly well, but the end result will be that you and your kid will take turns "being" Optimus Prime.

I was unable to get the second half of the magic to work - the page refused to recognize my microphone - but The Kid™ had a blast "popping" my robot head with her hand in order to turn herself into a robot. Prediction: "Daddy, I wanna be a RO-bot!" will become a regular mantra around the house for a while.

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Decepticons, HOOOO!!!! Wait, That's Not Right...

Steve — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:02:44 +0000

So, they're asking $43 for this admittedly awesome little USB drive that's engineered to transform into Ravage for you. On the plus side, it looks absolutely great - there's no mistaking that ferocious snarl anywhere. On the negative, it's $43 for a measly 2 gig drive! Kellogg's is giving away 1 gig Star Trek USBs for $8 and a clipped Proof of Purchase! I understand this has movable parts and all, but man - they could have sprung for some decent capacity for that price.

Even better - for an additional two bucks, you can upgrade to the Collector's Grade and get one that's certified C9 mint or better. SRSLY!!

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PAX Gets Swine Flu Well, this
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Autobots: Transform And Checkmate!

Steve — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:38:49 +0000

Discovered by Andrew whilst vacationing in San Francisco this week. Unfortunately, the pieces don't transform and ar completely unrobotic in nature. It's only a matter of time until we get genuine Battle Chess, though, and what a glorious day that shall be!!

Transform And Halloweeninate! Wow. A big
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PAX Gets Swine Flu Well, this

Spotlight On The Man Behind Hasbro

Steve — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 15:37:30 +0000

If you've ever been interested in what goes into the actual marketing and branding of an iconic character or other massively popular kids product line, then this may be the article for you. Brian Goldner is president of all of Hasbro, but this article focuses on his management of the Transformers, what with it being their 25th anniversary, the new movie and all the expanded toy lines and comics and what not. And for all of uor old-timer complaints about how the movie robots look like mindlessly milling about pieces of metal scrap, there's no denying the success of the redesigns and rebranding.

According to Hasbro, Transformers generated $487 million in sales in 2007 (up from $100 million in 2006). Needham estimates revenue from Transformers in 2008 at $395 million and $585 million in 2009, a 48% increase, representing 14% of total revenue, significantly larger than Star Wars and Spider-Man.

Goldner recalls his original discussion with director Michael Bay prior to the first Transformers movie about making the brand come to life. "Michael wanted fans to second guess and be able to look into any parking lot wondering if any of the cars could be Transformers," Goldner says.

"It's a very simple human story," he adds. And, it's all about "more than meets the eye," a phrase Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) uses when answering his high school heartthrob when she asks what he's like. The phrase has also become the basis for product development and promotions.

The rest of the article's here, but be warned - it's interesting, but a lot of the phrases are pretty solidly "inside baseball."

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Hasbro's $10 Christmas Sale Is Kind Of Decent

Steve — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:27:18 +0000

So far there's been nothing to put under the California based Nerd Dads tree, but if you have a young boy then today's $10 deal might be up your alley. Hasbro's got a slew of Transformers on sale with free shipping if you get $50 worth of the robots. It's not the crappy little guys, either - they're all pretty much discounted by 50%, so it's a good deal if you have a budding Autobot fan in the house.

There's different stuff on sale every day for the next 8 days, so you might want to bookmark the site and check back.

It's A Smorgasbord Of Holiday Sales Man, today
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