The Rochert Effect

Hey look! I'm posting on this blog again too!

I thought I'd post here about a new(ish) phenomenon I've been noticing over the past couple of years, so please bear with me... 

Okay Everyone knows about the Furman Effect, which is where a relatively unknown character from the Transformers Archives is used by him and instantly becomes popular, his old toys start getting bought up on Ebay, and for much higher prices etc (case in point, Razorclaw) whom was a relatively unknown Transformer until he used him in the IDW Beast Wars stories, suddenly this Basic class figure with a one step transformation sequence is going on ebay for hundreds rather than just a couple of pounds like his wave mates would.

Now as for my actual reason here...the Rochert effect, named for Nick Roche and James Roberts, in which the Furman effect happens again (unknown characters suddenly become firm favourites) but with the added bonus of a new toy being created for this forgotten character as well, or the sudden usage of that character after many years of nothing in other media, when used in media created from either of these two wonderful men.

Some Examples of this:

Ironfist = Botcon 2011 Fisitron figure

Pyro = Botcon 2010 Pyro figure

Overlord = Botcon 2012 Gigatron figure

Guzzle = DOTM Guzzle figure

On top of these figures we also have just had the announcement of a new Swerve figure in Asia, just after he became a main character in MTMTE

Of course some other characters used prominently by this duo have also had new toys in recent years (Rodimus, Perceptor, Kup to name but a few) but since they were already popular characters already they can't really be counted (which is the same reason why the Furman Effect doesn't work toywise either, since characters like Grimlock, Nightbeat, Bludgeon and so on , who have gone to get new modern incarnations in toylines, were always popular anyway)

I'm sure there are many I've forgotten on this list, but if you look through the character lists of their works and then look at any new toy releases, you're bound to find a fair few correlations.

And remember, when you see a Skids, Tailgate or Whirl toy produced in the next year or so, always remember...Aesir told you so!

Transformers 4ever!

As I'm sure everyone has heard already, Transformers 4 has been confirmed for a release date in 2014, and once again will be directed by Mr Michael Bay.

I'm personally quite happy about this, I'm pretty impressed and happy with the movies thus far (and of course the toylines and comics associated with them as well) but there is one thing that does annoy me about this particular part of the franchise...the fanrage....

The moment this news came up there were angry posts about how Bay has destroyed the fandom and how he's doing it again and whatever. Now I appreciate that these guys are just angry that they didn't make the characters look exactly like their antiquated G1 counterparts or that they actually look life-like etc but that's no reason to besmirch the franchise for a different aesthetic touch to what they were expecting.

Of course I'm also expecting the usual "I CAN'T SEE WOT THEY'RE DOIN!!11!" posts regarding the designs again...which I've never understood...how can anyone get mixed up between the character models on these guys? They all look so different and most have vastly different colour schemes to one another (Bright red Dino vs a Dark Black Dread for example)

What else? Oh yeah all we know about this new film so far is that Optimus and Bumblebee will be returning most likely (:<) and since they're using "4" in this preliminary title it's likely to be in the same continuity (although with a soft reboot most likely as a start of a new trilogy as Sam won't be returning, so they'd have new Human and Transformer characters) again this time.

Due to Megatron's death in DOTM (and them already using a "revive him" plot in ROTF) he's likley to stay dead now, but don't worry kiddies! There's plenty of psychotic characters in the Archives of the franchise (Overlord, Deszarus, Bludgeon to name but a few) and this most likely means a goodbye to other popular villains from the previous films like Starscream, Soundwave or Barricade (unless they can make out that they didn't really die in the battle effectively)

Well in summary, despite the film being a good 2 years away still, it's still worth us having these fun speculation sessions and talking rationally about it. So have fun and don't take it too seriously like most fans do.