The Intergalactic Highway

Wow.. Just wow..

I've never really looked into the tech specs of our favorite bw characters, since I was never a toy collector so I really didn't care much about such things.

But out of curiosity I decided to look up the tech specs of some of my favorite canon characters, especially with the ongoing debate about the rpg stats being based off the toy tech specs..

And much to my surprise I found that the canon tech specs fit very poorly with the characters we all know and love from the show.

Take Tarantulas for instance, a character so creepy yet so intelligent you couldn't help but have respect for the guy on the show..

His tech spec, however, tells a different story..



So let me get this straight.. The evil scientist spider who played such a huge role in the big picture, has an intelligence of a mere 4??? Really?!?! And we are basing our rpg versions of the characters off of this?? I guess he's not even an evil scientist, but rather some ninja spider! Wow, was I ever wrong about the character!



Then Rhinox.. I always considered this character to be something of a scientist type as well, yet according to his tech specs his intelligence is barely above average and oddly, despite his massive spinning guns his firepower seems less than impressive..



Ah.. Good old naive but very much so a gentleman Silverbolt.. Honestly when I think of this smooth-talker, abnormally high intelligence isn't exactly the first thing that comes to mind..

It seems the stats given to these characters were just pulled out of a random hat. Which makes me wonder if this is the system we should be basing our rpg tech specs off of, since there are aspects of an rpg character that are simply not covered by a toy stat. I.E stamina, reflexes, agility, dexterity etc..

In many games I've played, such as the Elder Scrolls, they have a stat system where certain statistics are based on what the character has in other stats. One example is that a character with dense armor (so a high armor rating) will likely be heavy, which might affect their speed stat. Also a character with high strength might be able to carry heavier weapons/items than someone who chose speed and skill as their priorities.

I guess I'm just rambling to try to clear my head, but I'm just boggled by seeing this..

Update:

Just took a look at the updated canon stats for the rpg. Thank goodness Alak updated them according to what the characters were truly like on the show.

The 10th anniversary release of the canon characters updated their stats to be more coinciding with the show. It buffed a lot of characters while making some (i.e.- Primal) seem less invincible. Unfortunately, not every character received a re-release so I left their stats alone.

It's all cool, Alak. The stats on each character seem okay.

If you've been following the RPG, this ones clearly off too.

Switch his intelligence and courage stats and then you'll have our RPG Manterror

The tech specs for many of the core (early) Beast Wars characters were written before the show came out or any personalities for them were really nailed down on said show. In fact, the concept was originally set in present day with the classic leaders having bio-engineered new alt modes: http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Optimus_Primal_vs_Megatron%21

Only around the Transmetals did the bios start to reflect the show characters' actual personalities and the show continuity. (Though even then, new characters often had to have bios written before they appeared in the show-- like Silverbolt.)

Yeah, it's pretty clear the only thing the show characters had in common with the tech specs were their names.. The stats were off the walls, the descriptions wouldn't let me guess who the character was supposed to be at all, and many of them were just so stereotypical that I ponder if the people that wrote the tech specs had any shred of imagination at all.

I am so glad I never played with these toys as a child and based their personalities off the tech specs that came with them, but rather merely watched the show and enjoyed it for what it was.

Phoenix wrote:Yeah, it's pretty clear the only thing the show characters had in common with the tech specs were their names.. The stats were off the walls, the descriptions wouldn't let me guess who the character was supposed to be at all, and many of them were just so stereotypical that I ponder if the people that wrote the tech specs had any shred of imagination at all.

Now, that's a bit unreasonable. The guys who wrote these tech specs were just doing their jobs. They had to write blurbs of characterization with a very limited word count, for a toyline marketed towards kids who were more interested in what the toys could do than who they were. It seems unfair to accuse them of being unimaginative.