Votez Dinobot!
…and I’m back!
I know. The site has been bereft of new content for awhile and I have no real excuse. As I busy myself getting ready for Botcon, I just haven’t had the focus to put new comment up. But I would be remiss if I didn’t add my voice to the current “election” underway in the Transformersverse.
You see, Hasbro has announced a Transformers Hall of Fame to “honor both “ROBOTS IN DISGUISE” and those influential in creating and building this iconic entertainment brand.” To be inaugurated at Botcon, the first inductees will include Optimus Prime, Megatron, Starscream and Bumblee, plus one additional transformer to be voted on by fans. The full press release can be found here.
Yeah, it seems kind of hokey to me too.
But although the idea has its flaws, there has been a sense of fun that has arisen out of the proceedings as can be seen by the numerous polls and signature files created in support of a myriad of candidates. (For the record, fairplaythings was an early backer of Reflector, a push that didn’t exactly take off…)
In any event, last week Hasbro announced the final five who are in contention for this “prestigious” honour. Anders, Tory, Ellen, Saul and Tyrol… oh wait… wrong list… ah here we go… Grimlock, Soundwave, Jazz and Shockwave were the first four to be unveiled, all excellent choices and none of them a surprise. But it is the fifth candidate that has brought me out to blog anew and elicity your support.
His name is Dinobot and here is why you should back the candidacy of the clone-eating, rat-hating, treacherously noble velocoraptor for the Transformers Hall of Fame:
5. The noble villain
The truly great villains don’t laugh maniacally and proclaim their evilness to the world, but rather see a logic and reason to justify their position. Dinobot may not be a villain for long but it is clear from the beginning that it is tradition and ambition that drive allegiance to the Predacon. But these traits are tempered with a sense of honour that sets him apart from his contemporaries.
4. Becomes the conflicted hero
Yet even when his ambition leads him to make a challenge for command of the Maximals, his switch of allegiences is no less without conflict. For his honour is not their honour and his way is not their way. Hero he may play, but heroic he is not yet.
3. Who meets a worthy end
But having fallen in life, he makes amends with death, as the contraction at the heart of Dinobot’s life is apitomized by the way in which he meets his end. There is a poignancy to the death of a conflicted character who, in his own self-awareness, makes the choice he least expected to make of himself in order to realize his own existence. His reasons are his own and, having made his decision, he died as he lived - with no quarter given or sought.
2. The universe is bigger than the one
Dinobot thus epitomizes a new generation of transformers, one where characterization continues to evolve to facilitate a new fan favourite that has expanded our fandom beyond the confines of “GeeWon”.
1. Rock the Vote
So let’s celebrate this expansion of our universe, not as something that takes away from the cherish memories of the 1980s but ensures that it thrives with new fans in successive generations toward the future. Let’s open the door to the universe and welcome Dinobot into the Class of 2010 by voting here.
Vote once and vote often.