#maltos

[bizarre-disjointed]

christmas movie where they end up fixing their relationship because some kids want them back together

[thatonegothgirl]

Iacon Chronicle's Terran designs.

They're a little messy, but I'm happy with them.

[lush-specimen]

Here's my @secretsolenoid-revived gift for @chryscare !!! I had a great time working on them! Nightshade invented a mass displacement device so Tarantulas secertly could hang out!

[lazy-pan-tf-fan]

Working on packaging sticker sets for CybFest NW!!

If you want a PNW Transformers convention, consider coming to CybFest NW on July 11th 2026!! It's only $10 to preregister your tickets. I'll have all of my headshot stickers, lino buttons, bags, bookmarks, plushies, and more!

CybFest NW Website

[treethis]

I was watching season 1 episode 3 "Moo-ving In" and noticed this in the background

That is not the Malto's house and that is not the Malto's barn. The Malto house is much smaller and yellow and the barn has a triangular roof. In fact there are two barns, one barely visible behind the house, and the top of a silo visible between the house and barn. Here's the Malto's house and barn for comparison:

I'm putting this forth as evidence that the Maltos definitely do not own the cows but this raises another question: how the hell have they been hiding from their rancher neighbors?

Bonus screenshot of the barns and possibly two silos (one can barely be seen behind the center barn) from another angle:

[dynared]

Earthspark is over, and well, it was a whimper. With a finale that was disliked by most viewers, and a Hasbro that seems to be shifting its focus towards more traditional battles in the surprisingly successful Cyberworld, and the pre-planning for the Energon Universe, Earthspark is left as the odd show out, with ideas about family, navigating a post-war culture, and identity being jettisoned for stories set during the war and establishing clear battle lines.

While I fully expect a much clearer picture of what went down in a few years when NDA's expire, and the writers feel more comfortable telling us what happened, there's plenty of blame to go around now for what went wrong. The closest we have to ANYTHING concrete are some statements from S1 writer Mae Catt, who admitted during several conventions she wanted to include Dratchet (Drift and Ratchet as a couple), transgender Arcee, and Transmutate as autistic representation, all of which were shot down by Hasbro and tossed aside when she left with most of the Season 1 crew. I still think that a lot of where the casual audience fell off is due to the setup. Not the characters themselves, the Terrans had plenty of potential on paper, but how they were ultimately written to be subservient to everyone's favorite cult, the Maltos, and how a lot of that is because of the rejection of ideas that were deemed "toyetic" or liked by "those people" crippled any ability to visually show development or allow the Terrans to come into their own without feeling they needed the Maltos or the legacy bots at every step.

Before we start, let's get the obvious out of the way.

It's not Nightshade's fault. A lot of people on the right want to blame Nightshade, but the truth is, Nightshade is as much a victim of the issues with how the Terrans are presented as any of the others. Anyone claiming the issue is Nightshade and their gender identity is selling you a false bill of goods.

No, the problem is that the Terrans don't really advance in any notable way visually. In the giant robot genre, advancements tend to be the domain of two concepts that are often associated with John Hasbro's goal of selling toys: introducing new techniques and attacks (showing an advancement of knowledge that is visually expressed as power), or power-ups, such as acquiring new weapons, armor, or combining with new characters to form more powerful forms.

Video from an unrelated show (that was the inspiration for the pro wrestler of the same name), but you have a visual symbol of their development, the new suit of armor, which likely means a new toy at retail.

The Terrans didn't get that. Closest they got to it was Twitch throwing the Matrix at someone in the finale, which is extra hilarious because the Matrix's whole deal in the original series and the original comic was unlocking the power of those it deemed worthy.

The Terrans, in contrast, got no sort of visual changes, not even a change in color (and in fact, their recolors were defined as being pure evil). So the audience sees these characters, who are already significantly smaller and less impressive than most of the legacy bots, continue to be small and unimpressive, forced to rely on the Maltos to carry the load in conflicts.

Why take away this visual storytelling tool? Well, look at the writers, who are mostly Western. In the West, a lot of the modern cartoon writers were either directly taught by or influenced by the cartoonist revolution of the late 80s/early-to-mid 90s which had a clear disdain for things like toy selling, power-ups, or anything they felt handcuffed them from their goal of writing (and in the case of the really hardcore cartoonists, anything that wasn't funny).

Now's a good time to mention a LOT of the talent behind this so-called revolution were later outed as complete scumbags with accusations of things such as grooming minors (Oh hai John Kricfalusi. Yeah, I'm bringing that up every time he gets mentioned).

Anyway, because a lot of these Western writers viewed these concepts as inherently anti-art and bad without understanding them, they fundamentally crippled their way to visually get across progression lest they feel like they were just selling toys and not making it about the characters. No flashy super techniques from Metallikato, no combiners, no power-ups that visually change the characters in any way, shape, or form.

And because the Terrans were so boxed in from a design standpoint, they were also boxed in from a storytelling perspective. They physically could not beat Decepticons or other enemies without help. So the audience saw no reason to really root for characters who almost felt like they were hindrances, and taking time away from the legacy bots that were allowed to be powerful and cool.

Arguably, it's why the Maltos did do so much fighting in their Tron suits. Their powers and abilities were not toyetic in the least (not helped by their...odd design choices), so the writers felt way more comfortable letting them be heroic than the robots.

Visual storytelling is very important, but given that the writers were so terrified of using any tool that could be seen as selling a toy, the characters they wanted to promote came off as second-string and boring, subservient to characters that weren't under those restrictions. And it ended up boring the casual audience to tears, which is why Earthspark toys litter discount retailers, while Cyberworld toys in contrast, which shows no such fear of looking toyetic, is actually selling rather well in comparison.

[beetle-luvr]

Can I request a doodle of Swindle (any version) trying to sell bootleg transformers toys to unsuspecting humans? Thank you.

Its all fun and games until Dorothy hears about it

That bootleg looks like it needs a candy bar or smth with nuts in it.

[cozzzynook]

Curious about you Bee murder bot au, how do you think things will go if it was in Earthspark, how will relationship with the Maltos and Optimus, heck, how even his relationship with Megatron would go?

With the malto’s he would be so hesitant to stay since he used to be a spark snuffer ( i want to use this as the term killer )

Bee is not willing to be alone with the kids or sparklings since he doesn’t want to hurt them or accidentally say the wrong thing but eventually his nerves tone down and he’s not feeling so out of place around them.

It helps that Megatron is there since he’s murdered a lot of sparks as well.

His relationship with Optimus would be sire & son as always. But Optimus is more reluctant to have Bee on his own. Not because he doesn’t trust him but because he worries even more about Bee’s mental state than Bee does.

Megatron & Bee can talk about their regrets & the horrors of snuffing sparks together. They have a familial bond that is just between them & Optimus respects their privacy greatly