Circular reporting
From Transformers Wiki
As befitting a franchise that has run continuously for 41 years, theTransformersbrandis a vast and sprawling one. However, as an intellectual property based around the inherently transient medium ofmerchandising,bothHasbroandTakaraTomyhave, historically, taken a laissez-faire approach to storytelling and don't have a complete, centralized repository of internal reference material.
As a result, the largest compendium ofTransformersknowledge is, in fact, thisvery websiteyou are reading this article on right now, and many creatives have confirmed that they have used our wiki when writing stories or looking for toy references. While wikis have a few advantages over "in-house" lore bibles—they can be edited by anyone, not just professionals, for instance—their main downside is that... well, they can be edited by anyone. Although we at TFWiki.net strive for accuracy and neutrality when coveringTransformerstopics, there have been cases where inaccurate, misleading or misinterpreted information on this very wiki have gone on to inform officialTransformerstoys and fiction.
Of course, people working on official Transformers work use references outside of the wiki, namely other sites reporting onTransformers,leaving the door open for many, many more errors. See themiscoloringspage for more information.
This phenomenon is formally termedcircular reporting,commonly nicknamedcitogenesisdue to a 2011xkcd webcomic stripthat satirized the concept. This article provides a non-comprehensive cross-section of such mishaps.
Contents |
Hasbro's in-house continuity documents
In the mid-2000s, Hasbro licensees were provided with copies ofSimon Furman'sTransformers: The Ultimate Guideas reference—notably,Roberto OrciandAlex Kurtzmanregularly consulted the guide while writing the 2007Transformersmovie. In a similar vein,IDW Publishing's reprints ofDreamwave Productions'More than Meets the Eyeprofile series were directly referenced forThe Art of Transformers: Fall of Cybertron,and have been used by other licensees such asFun PublicationsandSpace Ape Games.
The only known example of a high-level continuity document designed solely for internal use was the 2010Binder of Revelation,compiled to help new creatives in the franchise get up to speed with key characters, concepts, and settings, to bring the various stories they were producing at the time into alignment. This lore bible went on to inform vast swathes of modernTransformersstorytelling, most notably thePrimecartoon, which proved extremely influential in its own right.
As the creatives behind the Binder have moved on from the company over the years, however, it appears to have fallen by the wayside, with Hasbro happy to have different concurrent media diverge entirely so long as some key synergies remain—such as theCyberversecartoon being informed by the script for the 2018Bumblebeemovie—directing writers to the wiki for lore nitty-gritty.CyberverseshowrunnerRandolph Heardcites this as one reason for the show's starring roles for many more obscure fan-favourite characters.[2]Another franchise newcomer,Brian Ruckley,writer ofIDW Publishing's rebootedTransformersseries, plucked a large number of obscure characters from the wiki, in particular a great manyfemale Transformers.All of this is to say that the referencing of fan wikis is perfectly normal and can often be positive. It's also why the wiki should strive for completeness and accuracy when documenting theTransformersuniverse—as the following cautionary tales show...
Examples of circular reporting through TFWiki.net
Absence of evidence
In the2008comic storySpotlight: Hardhead,theMicromastertoy characterTailwindwas given a cameo as one of the manyGorlamitesattackingHardheadandNightbeat—but for many years, Tailwind was the only one whose appearance in that comic was not documented on his own wiki page. As part of a general desire to make use of characters who had yet to be introduced to theIDW continuity,writerJames Robertsevidently decided to check him off the list by writing a full-sized Cybertronian Tailwind intoMore than Meets the Eye#12,being bisected byDrift.
Similarly, the 2007 onlineTransformers Collectors' Clubprofile forFlashdrive—based on the Japanese-exclusive Mini-Con Processor—refers to a teammate called "Trickshot",clearly intended to be his fellowMicron Boostertoy Triac; the wiki failed to note this, and soon thereafter the Mini-Con bio regimen ended without Trickshot's own profile being published. Thusly, the 2015Ask Vector Primecolumn would instead give Triac the localized identity of "Bingo".
Text transfer
(Heavy) Artillery Drones
TheVehicon dronesbelonging toStrikawere never named in theBeast Machinescartoon,toyline,or related media. Back when TFWiki started out on Wikia (now Fandom),an anonymous usercreated the article for Strika's drones in2008using the fan name "Heavy Artillery Drone". Due to an oversight (as no one knew that itwasn'tan official name), this remained the article's name for nearly a decade.
In a non-visual, text-only instance of this roundabout reporting, the2016prose story "Derailment"officially named Strika's drones as" Artillery Drones "based on the wiki's use of the name" Heavy Artillery Drone ". The article was soon moved to"Artillery Drone"shortly after in early2017,to reflect the official name. But, the official name only came about in the first place because of the wiki unknowingly using a completely made-up fan name.
Loyal SubjectsSwoop
Rise of the BeastsStratosphere
Blokees Classic Class
Coloring conundrums
The use of TFWiki.net images as color references can occasionally result in... interesting... new color schemes. Original colors are given to the left when possible.
IDWRobots in DisguiseHorri-Bull
In theIDW Publishingcomic issueRobots in Disguise#1,Horri-Bull's colorization is apparently based on photos of aphotodegradatedexample of his original toy that was once used on his page. When asked, coloristJosh Perezsaid he chose to use the yellow to "help him stick out a lot more".[3]
Original 1988 toy pictured
Degraded toy pictured
2012 comic scene pictured
It's canon folks!
Fall of CybertronVortex
Vortex's color scheme inFall of Cybertronis an unusual red and beige, derived fromG1 Vortex'sMore than Meets the Eyecharacter art that is his main page image—in particular, our previously-used scan of the artwork makes it appear to have a much warmer tone than it does in print, shifting the gray towards brown and the lilac towards pink. These tones influenced the coloring of Vortex'sFall of Cybertronconcept art,which evolved to the in-game colors.
Original 1985 deco pictured
Better scan of 2003 art pictured
Worse scan of 2003 art pictured
2012 game render pictured
LegendsRoadburner
Roadburner's 2013 appearance in theTransformers Legendsmobile game can only be described as a fit of insanity. His appearance is based on a catastrophic misinterpretation of this wiki's photography for the toy, depicting his partnerWheel Blazeas white... because they didn't understand the greyed-out photo this wiki uses to indicatewhich toy the article isn't about.To make matters worse, it is highly likely Roadburnerwasn't supposed to be in the game to begin with.Considering that the theme ofthe event he appeared inwas basically "These Autobots with military alt-modes do stuff," and the fact thatRoadbusterwould make more sense givenWhirl's prevalence in said event... yeah. Not helping matters is that when in the process of typing "Roadbuster" into this wiki's search bar, Roadburner shows up first in the search results. Someone must have been in a hurry.
1990 toy pictured
2013 art pictured
IDWTransformersAzimuth
Azimuthwas originally a minor character who appeared inThe Covenant of Primus.Beyond a brief namedrop, she went unseen for several years until 2015, when theAsk Vector PrimeFacebook feature revealed that she sported a body based on the gold MC-6Kronoformtoy. However, whena new incarnation of Azimuthappeared in 2020, in IDW'sTransformerscomic, she was colored silver—a mixup that almost assuredly stems from the photo on Azimuth's wiki article more prominently displayingthatfigure, with the "correct" gold figure tucked away on the far right.
Original 1993 deco pictured
2020 comic scene pictured
You know what, you're welcome.
Earth WarsDile
In theTransformers: Earth Warsmobile game,Dilewas revealed as a forthcoming character in early September 2020, sporting an unusual gray and purple deco which doesn't match his toy's colors at all. The following month,Space Ape Gamesput out a new render via their official newsletter, explaining that the original colors were based on the washed out scan of his card art seen at the top of his TFWiki character page. This makes it one of the few known instances where circular reporting was caught and corrected before release. The new render instead uses a more light-green and silvery hue based on a somewhat color-corrected version of the card art, rather than the much more pronounced green ofthe toy itself.
Original 1987 toy pictured
Scan of 1987 art pictured
A washout, that's all you are! A washout!
Initial 2020 CG model pictured
Finalized 2020 CG model pictured
SiegeIon Storm
The stock photography forSiegeIon Storm's jet mode mistakenly showedThundercracker's jet instead—which is nearly identical apart from red highlights. With the 2019Rainmakersset being hard to come by, this erroneous image was used on the wiki for a couple of years, and appears highly in Google Image searches—leading Ion Storm's jet mode to be colored accordingly as Thundercracker ina TakaraTomy comicreleased in September 2020 and inan IDW comicreleased in September 2021.
Erroneous 2019 vehicle mode pictured
True 2019 vehicle mode pictured
2020 comic scene pictured
2021 comic scene pictured
Deco disasters
On rare occasions the aforementioned coloring misadventures can escalate to the point of affecting the characters' actual future toys. Once again, original colors are given to the left when possible.
Prime 10 Year AnniversaryIgu
The10 Year Anniversaryreissue ofIgu(Jet Vehicon'sArms Micronpartner from theTakaraTomyPrimetoyline) mistakenly colors him bright silver, as opposed to the black of the original release.
This can be attributed to the set designer using the first image in the "Toys" subheading of Igu's wiki page for reference—which was actually an "elite" redeco packed withJet Vehicon General.The original black release of Igu is used as the article's mainpic instead of being used in the "Toys" section, due to a lack of images of his vanishingly few fictional appearances. From a toy design perspective, this error means that the now-silver Igu breaks aesthetic cohesion with his mostly-black partner Jet Vehicon.
Original 2012 deco pictured
Secondary 2013 deco pictured
Please, "Igu S" was my father.
2020 reissue deco pictured
KingdomT-Wrecks
TheKingdomLeader Class toy ofT-Wreckshas a colour scheme which is much more drab than the originalBeast MachinesUltra Class iteration, with the brown-tinted torso being swapped for a dull grey, and the bright bronze of his helmet being swapped for the same red as his beast-mode skin. More noticeably, only the lower portion of T-Wrecks's crotch is molded blue, with the waist itself being left unpainted grey. It seems that these changes are the result of the wiki's photo of the original toy being primarily used for reference; the lighting in the image is a little misleading, and the toy's posed leaning forward such that its belly overhangs its waist entirely! TheKingdomT-Wrecks's eyes are also yellow rather than the green of theBeast Machinestoy. It would seem thatsome of theother pictureson his page may have played into this color change also.
Finalized 2000 deco pictured
Prototype 2000 deco pictured
2021 toy pictured
His bronze and innocence: Gone.
The big ones
Black Roritchi's antennae
For years, the main image forBlack Roritchion this wiki used an image from the2006MetrodomereleaseMasterforcecartoondepicting him against a pitch-black backdrop, which his equally-black antennae blended into. WhenGenerations SelectsBlack Roritchi was produced in 2020 as a redeco ofFasttrack,the figure was given a custom head solely to remove the antennae under the mistaken belief that he didn't have them. Color-correction in later re-releases of the cartoon would reveal Black Roritchi to have blue antennae against a starfield. The timing of those re-releases?2012.Oops.
Original 1988 toy pictured
2006Metrodomeversion of
1988 anime scene pictured
He's literally about to turn his head and show off his black antennae.
2012Shout! Factoryrestoration pictured
Uh, make that blue antennae.
2020 toy pictured
The only time people wouldn't care if Hasbroaccidently forgot to show off the new head.
Studio SeriesScrapmetal
The character that the wiki identifies as "Scrapmetal"was created through a complicated, decade-long tennis match between the wiki and Hasbro. In 2009, shortly after the theatrical release ofRevenge of the Fallen,the wiki created a page for the then-nameless character under the half-jokey title "Ze little one". Rather than assuming that the character was aScrapperclone, wiki editors at the time decided that he was his own character, as the scene whereConstructiconswent underwater featured a yellow Volvo excavator that didn't match to any of the other characters. "Ze little one" quickly picked up an ironic fan following, and by December 2009 Hasbro called him "Scrapmetal" and identified his alternate mode as "the bulldozer."[4]The wiki documented this and moved on. Around the same time,Revenge of the FallenDevastator's page noted that the film version of the character was formed froman extra bulldozercompared to the official list of his components.
Almost ten years later, Hasbro announced a giant, fully-articulatedRevenge of the FallenDevastatortoy formed from multiple Constructicon figures from theStudio Seriestoyline. It is not 100% clear, but what appears to have happened is that whoever was planning the character selection looked at both Devastator and Scrapmetal's pages and decided to marry these two random tidbits by making Scrapmetal the extra bulldozer.Then,the individual(s) assigned to design Scrapmetal's toy consulted the wiki page to figure out who the character was and instead made them a yellow excavator with the robot mode of the concept art randomly chosen for the main picture of the article—the result of the wiki stringing together tidbits of contradictory information from the movie.
Sideways the dimension-hopper
Walk into my mystery
Step inside and hold on for dear life
Do you remember me?
Capture you or set you free
I am all, I am all of me
Oh dear.
In2002,Hasbro released two motorcycle toys bearing the same name:Robots in DisguiseSidewaysandArmadaSideways.The Hasbro toy bio for the latter recycled much of the same text from the bio of the former, nearly verbatim. This led to speculation at the time about whether or not they were meant to be the same character,regardlessof the differences in toyline release sinceRobots in DisguiseSideways also came packaged withAxer,whose own bio hinted at his being the same person ashis Generation 1 namesake,having crossed dimensions from Generation 1 toRobots in Disguise.
In2004,Takara'sRobotmastersline released another motorcycle toy namedDouble Face,who shared the exact same colors and Japanese name ofArmadaSideways. Since theRobotmastersseries was a big crossover event similar in concept to the concurrentTransformers: Universeseries, compounded by the then notoriously scattershot documenting done for the Japanese side of the franchise, fans in the West initially mistookRobotmastersfor amultiversalevent, with characters crossing dimensions from different universes to team up with each other in a Generation 1 setting (as was the case inUniverse). In actuality,Robotmastersonly featured time travel, not dimensional travel. But because of the initial misconception, what came next was very easily believed.
In early2005,a mere two months after Double Face's release, afan-given claimwas made online about Takara's officialRobotmasterswebsitesupposedly declaring Double Face to be the same character asRobots in DisguiseSideways. When theoriginal TFWiki article for Sidewayswas first being put together in2006,this same claim was reiterated several times on the article'stalk page,which misled the article's original creators to believe it and treat theRobots in Disguise,Armada,andRobotmasterscharacters all as the same Sideways, assuming thatRobotmastershad confirmed the character to have dimension-hopped from another universe into Generation 1 (when it actuallyhadn't).
With the wiki article treating all three as the same person, able to jump from universe to universe, the article went on to inspire later versions of Sideways, likeAnimatedSidewaysandAsk Vector PrimeSideways,who not only wereexplicitlypresented as dimension-hoppers, but also hadimplicitties to the originally-unrelatedRevenge of the FallenSideways,which only led to evenmoredebates about howthatSideways related to the others, and whether or noteverySideways was really thesameindividual!
It wasn't until late2022that the validity of the original claim aboutRobotmastersDouble Face was finally investigated; the results of this investigation revealed that there had actually beenzero evidencein support of the claim found anywhere on the TakaraRobotmasterswebsite. And thanks to this false claim influencing the wiki, Sideways went on to have a reputation for being a multiversal mischief maker who jumps across multiple realities, which was never originally supposed to be the case.
The littlest one
Spelling the word Robo-Smasher
In perhaps the amusingly smallest example of circular reporting from this wiki, the "Robosmasher"from the 1985 cartoon episode"The Secret of Omega Supreme"was in fact written as one plain word in the episode's script. However, as is prone to happening with televised media, the original dialogue's text was not consulted when a TFWiki article for the device was created in2006,under the hyphenated spelling "Robo-Smasher". This spelling was thus used by theAsk Vector PrimeFacebook page as well asBeast Wars: Uprisingtext stories in2015prior to the wiki article being amended in2017to acknowledge the original spelling.
Non-TFWiki misreporting
Of course, people working on officialTransformersmaterial make use of unofficial reference material outside of this wiki, and errors inTransformersscholarship elsewhere are just as capable of leading to incorrect or occasionally, outright made up, information making it into the final product.
Incorrectly-colored animation models
Accurate model at centre
Off-model 2020 product at right
The1984-1987The Transformersanimated seriesthat has become a centerpiece of the brand was, to be blunt, not a high-quality production in the animation department. All four seasons were prone toanimation errors,adding an additional challenge to modern fans attempting to isolate simple views of any givencharacter model.To make matters worse, Hasbro and licensees have often relied upon a set of fan-colorings from the UkrainianTransformersfan website,Transformers.kiev.ua,that attempted to recreate Sunbow animation models using screen captures of episodes, while eye dropping the colors from said screen captures, and then replacing the heads of the models with traced headshots also taken from episode screen captures. These fan-colorings regularly make rounds on the web since they are readily available on Pinterest and Fandom wikia pages, making it hard not to come across them through a simple Google Search.
On top of all of this, the models Transformers.kiev.ua would frequently use were also the ones published inThe Arkseriesbooks as they were the only real source available for Generation 1 animation models at the time. In the years since, better copies of animation models have surfaced through eBay and various Japanese auction sites, revealing that a large majority of the models used in the books were actually out of date pre-final models that had been revised anywhere from once, to several times afterwards. The author of the books,Jim Sorensonhas also stated in conversation with the wiki team that due to the condition of some of the models he had found or been given access to,Bill Forsterhad to sometimes trace, redraw, and digitally mend models, such as theJunkions,to make them more presentable for publishing; this has also led to several inaccuracies with the original model sheets that have surfaced since.
As can be seen in the example at right, the 2020R.E.D. [Robot Enhanced Design]Soundwavefigure's shins were incorrectly left blue instead of being painted silver/gray due to Hasbro once again basing the figure on theTransformers.kiev.ua fan-colored model.
Hasbro also tends to use the images from Transformers.kiev.ua whole-hog in their social media posts on Instagram and Facebook for memes, visuals for trivia, and holiday celebration posts, as well as using them as placeholder images for pipeline reveals of upcoming figures in the works. A notable example of this was the pipeline reveal ofLegacy: EvolutionDevcon,whoseplaceholder "model" imageisn't even a model at all, rathera couple oftraced screencapsfrom the episode "The Gambler".[5]The same had also been done forSnarl,Bombshell,Dirge,and so on. It's one thing to use them as reference for toys and design inspiration, but the practice of taking them whole-hog without a background check, and using them in official posts is a bit of a shoddy practice, to say the least.
Designs based on "third party" toys
Many illustrations and character models created in the franchise's recent history are based on unlicensed products.
Other oddities
Discmaster
This might be one of the earliest cases of circular reporting in the history of theTransformersbrand and fandom (and one of the rare, non-visual, text-only cases). Thetoy bioforBeast Wars IIAutolauncherrefers to both himself and his rivalMantiswith the turn of phraseenban tsukai( yên bàn sử い, meaning "disc user" ). When the bio was translated into English in the late 1990s/early 2000s, the phrase was written in English as "Discmaster", with the one responsible having likely taken some creative inspiration fromthevariousformsof"-master"technologyofGeneration 1.
During the mid-2000s, when putting together theBeast Wars Sourcebook,longtime fanBen Yee(who was co-author of theSourcebookwithSimon Furman) took this translation to heart and applied the term to the book's profiles for both Autolauncher and Mantis—unaware that "Discmaster" was actually creative liberty on part of the fan translation and not an accurate representation of what was originally written in the Japanese bio text. As a result, the term "Discmaster"now referred to a martial art practiced by both characters, despite the term having never actually existed beforehand in the first place.
Transformers LegendsAxe
In 2014, theTransformers Legendsmobile game added a card based onAxe,a character designed byAlex MilneforThe Transformers: Drift.However, for alt-mode reference, the card directly copied a piece of fanart created by Sara Guyon-Gellin.[6][7]Milne had intended the character to have a land-based mode![8]Also, not cool.
Combiner WarsG2 Menasor
At first glance, Hasbro'sGeneration 2-themed redeco ofCombiner WarsMenasorlooks to be a simple homage to the original, canceledGeneration 2toy. However, a closer inspection reveals that it took some notable inspiration from a 2014 fanmade digibashposted to DeviantArtby longtime fan artist Air Hammer, which was itself based on another fan'shand-painted customizationof the original Generation 1 Stunticons in an attempt to recreate the canceledGeneration 2toys. As an extra, the official Transformers Facebook pageposted a promotional pic of the setthat used the aforemented digibashes of the individual Stunticons instead of their proper stock photos... which featuredOffroadas the fifth member of the team, rather thanBrake-Neck(whoseCombiner Warsversion wasn't revealed yet when the digibash was made) as the official set.
Original 1994 deco pictured, left
Purple-faced Menasor, as seen in promotional materials
2015 deco pictured
Why, these limbs are the wrong toolings entirel-Oh, right.
Warriorbot
In2017,a Hasbro license,Open Road Brands,released atin wall signexclusively to Hobby Lobby stores, meant to showcase the manyfaction symbolsfrom thebrand's history, but one symbol stood out. The self-proclaimed "Warriorbots" were never a real thing. So were did they come from? The answer can be found on the "Insignia"page on the Transformers Fandom (formerly Wikia) wiki from 2014 to 2017, with it being listed among the others. In other words: Whoever designed it used that page as reference.
Legacy: UnitedRukus
The2024modernised toy ofRukusreleased as part of theDoom 'n Destruction Collectioncapsule subline ofLegacy: Unitedsports newpaint operationson his forearms. In addition, the suspension springs sculpted into his legs are upside down compared to the original toy andpackage art.The toy was clearly designed with reference to an incorrectly-stickeredsample of the G1 toy, with the hip detailing mistakenly applied to the forearms, and the leg stickers placed upside-down. For several years prior to this incident, the TFWiki itself had been usingimages from Seibertronwith misplaced hip stickers—but the upside-down springs on the legs point towards a different specific sample of the toy being the culprit.
Original 1988 toy withincorrectsticker placement, from Seibertron
2024 toy pictured
References
- ↑"Now, I am not talking about some niche comic book property, I am talking about massively successful film, game and tv properties. Some of the biggest shows and franchises you follow have zero in-house continuity documents. They do everything off of fan wikis." —Gail Simone, Twitter, 2020/09/12(archive link)
- ↑"I came to this, again, without a lot ofTransformersknowledge, and I was directed to TFWiki, and I started reading TFWiki and I'm like, oh my god, I don't understandanything,is this a multiverse, or- why- why are there so many variations on things? I'm never gonna learn this thing or understand it. And fortunately my staff were very helpful in that regard. But I think thatCyberverseto me was like, because I came from the outside in a way, I looked at it as a big box of toys, and I could play with any of them. And you know, that's how kids are, right? They're not going to distinguish between aMarveltoy, aDCtoy, and something else—if they're cool they'll make a battle between anything. And so to me I felt the freedom, like, yeah, I'll just pick stuff and no-one said no. In fact they seemed delighted that we were bringing back characters. [...] I researched lists of 'weirdest Transformers ever.' [...] I said I don't, you know, I confessed toMikiel Houser,and he said that's fine, check out the TFWiki and that'll tell you everything you need to know, and I was kind of like- it told me too much, you know? It was overwhelming. And I love TFWiki—they have such great writers, they're hilarious. "—Randolph Heard is too kind,, Keyan Carlile's Transformer Channel, "The cancelled TF show BEFORE Cyberverse! (Randolph Heard talks Early Development & Seasons 1-2)", 2021/11/20
- ↑Josh Perez, The Allspark forums(dead link)
- ↑Hasbro Q&A December 2009 at TFviews
- ↑Transformers Jan 23 Livestream Recap – Legacy Evolution Wave 2 and More!at TFW2005
- ↑"Nicely done, but the game's artist lacks some creativity IMHO. For the design of jet mode in particular. Done and uploaded in 2011. Nice to know my work is good enough that someone officially hired by Hasbro decided there was no need for further adjustment and simply copied his/her own pictures from it:( I mean, couldn't you at least have changed the tail rudders? </sarcasm>" —Sara Guyon-Gellin, deviantART, "Nice to be an inspiration for official TF artists", 2014/11/16
- ↑Sara Guyon-Gellin, deviantART, "Axe alt modes - studies", 2011/08/14
- ↑"Too bad for the jet part, though, [Alex Milne] told me later Axe was land-based only. Voice of God:/" —Sara Guyon-Gellin, deviantART, 2011/08/30
