Amph The Hasbro Cinematic Universe (G.I. Joe, M.A.S.K., Micronauts, Visonaries & ROM) Discussion Thread

It would be weird if Cobra Commander and Unicron sound the same in the cartoon.

 

Yeah, I'd forgotten that Welles voiced Unicron (his final performance I believe). I can imagine Welles reading that script and having absolutely no idea what was going on.

Chris Latta's Cobra Commander may have been over the top, but it's certainly iconic, and I just can't imagine the cartoon working as well without it. Does that voice work for the character live-action? No. But for animation, absolutely.

 

In the cartoon Cobra Commander is kind of a joke, he's not so serious or menacing compare to Destro.

In RoC he was portrayed as a menacing and manipulative bastard, which is quite nice.

 

Yes, he completed work in September of 1985 and died one month later. Though due to this, any changes that were required never materialized. This is notable in the scene where Unicron upgrades Megatron, Thundercracker, Skywarp and the Insecticons into Galvatron, Cyclonus, Scourge and the Sweeps. The origin was different initially and was changed, though any possible reworkings of the dialogue couldn't happen.

Wally Burr, the casting director, indicated that he didn't take direction well and didn't read the script until he came in to record his lines. According to Welles' biography.

You know what I did this morning? I played the voice of a toy. Some terrible robot toys from Japan that changed from one thing to another. The Japanese have funded a full-length animated cartoon about the doings of these toys, which is all bad outer-space stuff. I play a planet. I menace somebody called Something-or-other. Then I'm destroyed. My plan to destroy Whoever-it-is is thwarted and I tear myself apart on the screen.

 

That doesn't surprise me. I don't claim to know a lot about Orson Welles--in fact, when I was growing up I only knew him as the old guy from the Nostradamus documentary The Man who saw Tomorrow that they used to run on Cinemax twice a day in the 80s--but I'm sure he walked into that recording booth thinking "What am I doing here? I'm Orson *beeping* Welles.".

 

I don't remember any of these other than GIJOE and MASK.

 

Why didn't they merge TF and GIJOE, so we wouldn't have to endure those boring human characters/human troops anymore.

 

G.ijoe needs a restart.

 

I agree, if you're going to do this, I think it calls for a reboot across the board. Start fresh. Snatch Transformers away from the increasingly ham-fisted clutches of Michael Bay and just put the already soft-rebooted G.I. Joe series out of its misery.

An eventual meeting of G.I. Joe and Transformers has nice event potential, and M.A.S.K. certainly shares a potential synergy with G.I. Joe and TF. And for those too old or too young to remember, M.A.S.K. was a big deal in its own right in the mid-80s. It never managed to reincarnate itself the way the latter two and properties like TMNT have, but it has a warm place in the hearts of many Gen-Xers, and its basic premise still has the potential to appeal to kids.

I can see potential in Micronauts and maybe ROM. But Visionaries? Not sure what the thinking there is. My friend and I reviewed it on our blog a few years ago, and there's little in its history (13 episode cartoon run, about half that as a comic and I believe only one wave/series as a toy line) or premise that suggests a hit waiting to happen.

That is an impressive collection of writers though. I'm excited to see what they come up with.

 

I'm familiar with all the Hasbro Universe IP. Aside from Transformers and GI Joe, ROM was my favorite and I had the entire run of ROM comics, which only lasted two years or so. ROM was not specifically mentioned in Marvel's Infinity (or perhaps in the prelude to Secret Wars) event a year or so ago, but the Spaceknights were and they were wiped out. I've seen some updated artwork on ROM and dude looks pretty cool.

Visionaries was pretty badass. At the time, I felt it was Hasbro answer to Mattel's Masters of the Universe. I don't recall the show featuring any hi-tech devices. The characters' power were derived from magical staffs. Now, if Hasbro still has the rights to Coleco's Sectuars (which was their answer to Masters of the Universe), that's IP they should include in their Universe. Visionaries could be an alien race or "meta-humans/mutants." I don't imagine they'll be faithful to the source material.

Transformers and GI Joe will be an easy crossover, as it happen in the comic books.


Plus, the first two Bayformers films had the Autobots and Military unit working together.

 

I still have a box of Micronauts...mostly bits and pieces, but my 8-year-old plays with them and loves them. Astonishingly I still have all the pieces for this guy:



His name is Baron Karza or something. I have the white guy too but I've forgotten his name.

 

I can't remember the white version of the figure either. However, I do recall Baron Karza having a horse. I had the figure, but never did get the horse.

 

They both had horses and you could make centaurs out of them! I still have the white guy's horse but it only has wheels now...the legs are long gone sadly.

 

A Hasbro Cinematic Universe?

 

Yes, but they were magic-powered, after their planet's civilization underwent some kind of event that stopped all technology, and magic became the dominant force.

(Yeah, it's best not to think about it too much....)

 

How The Newly Revealed 'Transformers 5' Title Could Be Hinting At A Major Crossover

 

How the hell does this thread have 400 posts?

 

I posted this in the Transformers thread, but then I realized It truly belongs here:

Hasbro Trademarks Dire Wraiths for Comic Books, will Marvel Challenge it?

 

I doubt that Marvel will challenge the Dire Wraiths trademark, as they really have used them in the comic books and there was so many other alien races they could use.

However, I'm bummed that ROM isn't part of the MCU. It would have been cool if the character popped up in Guardians of the Galaxy or something.