1.
Action figure
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An action figure is a poseable character figurine, made of plastic or other materials, and often based upon characters from a film, comic book, video game, or television program. These action figures are usually marketed toward boys and adult collectors, according to a study in Sweden, action figures with traditional masculine traits primarily target boys. While most commonly marketed as a toy, the action figure has gained wide acceptance as an adult collector item. In such a case, the item may be produced and designed on the assumption it will be solely for display. The term action figure was first coined by Hasbro in 1964, joe figure to boys who would not play with dolls. Joe was initially a military-themed 11. 5-inch figure proposed by marketing and it featured changeable clothes with various uniforms to suit different purposes. In a move that would create global popularity for this type of toy, the Japanese had at least two examples where a Hasbro licensee also issued sublicenses for related products. For example, Palitoy issued a sublicense to Tsukuda, a company in Japan, to manufacture, takara also issued a sublicense to Medicom for the manufacture of action figures. Takara, still under license by Hasbro to make and sell G. I, the Microman line was also novel in its use of interchangeable parts. This laid the foundation for both the action figure size and the transforming robot toy. These toys also featured parts, with emphasis placed on the transformation and combination of the characters. In 1971, Mego began licensing and making American Marvel and DC comic book superhero figures, the widespread success of Kenners Star Wars 3-3/4 toy line made the newer, smaller size the industry standard. Instead of a character with outfits that changed for different applications. Led by Star Wars-themed sales, collectible action figures quickly became a secondary business for movie studios. From 1972 to 1986 there was a line of Big Jim action figures produced by Mattel. The 1980s spawned all sorts of popular action figure lines, many based on cartoon series, some of the most successful to come about were Masters of the Universe, G. I. Joe, Thundercats, The Real Ghostbusters and Super Powers Collection and this led to the Micro Change line of toys, objects that could transform into robots. As the 80s were ending, more and more collectors started to surface, buying up the toys to keep in their packaging for display purposes
2.
Television program
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It may be a single production, or more commonly, a series of related productions. A limited number of episodes of a show may be called a miniseries or a serial or limited series. Television series are without a fixed length and are divided into seasons or series. While there is no defined length, U. S. industry practice has traditionally favored longer television seasons than those of other countries, a one-time broadcast may be called a special, or particularly in the UK a special episode. A television film is a film that is initially broadcast on television rather than released in theaters or direct-to-video, a program can be either recorded, as on video tape, other various electronic media forms, played with an on-demand player or viewed on live television. Television programs may be fictional, or non-fictional and it may be topical, or historical. They could be primarily instructional or educational, or entertaining as is the case in situation comedy, a drama program usually features a set of actors playing characters in a historical or contemporary setting. The program follows their lives and adventures, except for soap opera-type serials, many shows especially before the 1980s, remained static without story arcs, and the main characters and premise changed little. If some change happened to the characters lives during the episode, because of this, the episodes could be broadcast in any order. Since the 1980s, there are series that feature progressive change to the plot. For instance, Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere were two of the first American prime time television series to have this kind of dramatic structure. While the later series, Babylon 5 is an example of such production that had a predetermined story running over its intended five-season run. In 2012, it was reported that television was growing into a component of major media companies revenues than film. Some also noted the increase in quality of television programs. When a person or company decides to create a new series, they develop the elements, consisting of the concept, the characters, the crew. Then they offer it to the networks in an attempt to find one interested enough to order a prototype first episode of the series. They want very much to get the word out on what types of shows they’re looking for, to create the pilot, the structure and team of the whole series must be put together. If the network likes the pilot, they pick up the show to air it the next season, sometimes they save it for mid-season, or request rewrites and further review
3.
Hasbro
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/ˈhæzbroʊ/ is an American multinational toy and board game company. Hasbro is the third largest toy maker in the world with revenues of approximately $4.45 billion, Hasbro acquired the trademarks and products of Kenner, Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley, among others. Among its toy and game products are the iconic Monopoly board game, Joe figurine, Furby electronic stuffed animal, Transformers mechanical toys and My Little Pony. The Hasbro brand also spawned TV shows, such as Family Game Night on the Discovery Family network, the corporate headquarters is located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The majority of its products are manufactured in East Asia, in 1923, three brothers named Herman, Hillel and Henry Hassenfeld founded Hassenfeld Brothers, a company selling textile remnants, in Providence, Rhode Island. Over the next two decades, the company expanded to produce pencil cases and school supplies, in 1926, Hassenfeld Brothers was incorporated, with Hillel leaving for another textile business while Henry took charge of the corporation. With cost of rising and their pencil supplier making pencil cases. In the 1940s, Hassenfeld Brothers produced doctor and nurse kits, its first toys, with Hillels death in 1943, Henry Hassenfeld became CEO while his son, Merrill, became president. The company entered the fields during World War II to support its toy line. Hassenfeld Brothers first toy hit was Mr. Potato Head, which the company purchased from George Lerner in 1952, the toy was a smash success. In 1954, the became a Disney major licensee. In 1960, Henry died and Merrill took over the parent company and his older brother Harold ran the pencil-making business, Hassenfeld Brothers expanded to Canada with Hassenfeld Brothers Ltd. in 1961. The company was approached in 1963 to license a toy based on The Lieutenant, instead, in 1964, Hassenfeld Brothers produced the G. I. Joe toy, which they termed an action figure in order to market the toy to boys who wouldnt want to play with dolls, Joe accounted for two-thirds of Hassenfelds sales. Having previously sold toys under the Hasbro trade name, the company shortened its name to Hasbro Industries in 1968, with the unpopular Vietnam War at its height in 1969, Hasbro redesigned GI Joe to be less militaristic and more adventure oriented. Its promotional efforts included the catchphrase Boy Oh Boy and its A Hasbro Toy. in television commercials and print ads. Also in 1969 Hasbro bought Burt Claster Enterprises, which produced Romper Room and had just begun a Romper Room toy line, a month-long teamsters strike and far eastern supplier troubles caused the company to have a $1 million loss for the year. By 1975, the company had ended the nursery chain, Hasbro also entered the cookware field with the Galloping Gourmet line based on a contemporary television cooking show
4.
Toy
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A toy is an item that is used in play, especially one designed for such use. Playing with toys is supposed to be a means of training young children for life in society. Different materials like wood, clay, paper, and plastic are used to make toys, many items are designed to serve as toys, but goods produced for other purposes can also be used. For instance, a child may fold an ordinary piece of paper into an airplane shape. Newer forms of toys include interactive digital entertainment, some toys are produced primarily as collectors items and are intended for display only. The origin of toys is prehistoric, dolls representing infants, animals, the origin of the word toy is unknown, but it is believed that it was first used in the 14th century. Toys are mainly made for children, the oldest known doll toy that has been found is thought to be 4,000 years old. Playing with toys is considered to be important when it comes to growing up, younger children use toys to discover their identity, help their bodies grow strong, learn cause and effect, explore relationships, and practice skills they will need as adults. Adults on occasion use toys to form and strengthen social bonds, teach, help in therapy, most children have been said to play with whatever they can find, such as sticks and rocks. Toys and games have been unearthed from the sites of ancient civilizations and they have been written about in some of the oldest literature. Toys excavated from the Indus valley civilization include small carts, whistles shaped like birds, the earliest toys are made from materials found in nature, such as rocks, sticks, and clay. Thousands of years ago, Egyptian children played with dolls that had wigs and movable limbs which were made from stone, pottery, in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, children played with dolls made of wax or terracotta, sticks, bows and arrows, and yo-yos. When Greek children, especially girls, came of age it was customary for them to sacrifice the toys of their childhood to the gods, on the eve of their wedding, young girls around fourteen would offer their dolls in a temple as a rite of passage into adulthood. The oldest known mechanical puzzle comes from Greece and appeared in the 3rd century BC. The game consisted of a divided into 14 parts. In Iran puzzle-locks were made as early as the 17th century, Toys became more widespread with the changing attitudes towards children engendered by the Enlightenment. Children began to be seen as people in and of themselves, as opposed to extensions of their household, the variety and number of toys that were manufactured during the 18th century steadily rose, John Spilsbury invented the first jigsaw puzzle in 1767 to help children learn geography. He created puzzles on eight themes - the World, Europe, Asia, Africa, America, England and Wales, the rocking horse was developed at the same time in England, especially with the wealthy as it was thought to develop childrens balance for riding real horses
5.
Multimedia
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Multimedia is content that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, video and interactive content. Multimedia contrasts with media that use only rudimentary computer displays such as text-only or traditional forms of printed or hand-produced material, Multimedia devices are electronic media devices used to store and experience multimedia content. Multimedia is distinguished from mixed media in art, for example. The term rich media is synonymous with interactive multimedia, the term multimedia was coined by singer and artist Bob Goldstein to promote the July 1966 opening of his LightWorks at LOursin show at Southampton, Long Island. Goldstein was perhaps aware of an American artist named Dick Higgins, two years later, in 1968, the term multimedia was re-appropriated to describe the work of a political consultant, David Sawyer, the husband of Iris Sawyer—one of Goldsteins producers at LOursin. In the intervening forty years, the word has taken on different meanings, in the late 1970s, the term referred to presentations consisting of multi-projector slide shows timed to an audio track. However, by the 1990s multimedia took on its current meaning, in the 1993 first edition of Multimedia, Making It Work, Tay Vaughan declared Multimedia is any combination of text, graphic art, sound, animation, and video that is delivered by computer. When you allow the user – the viewer of the project – to control what, when you provide a structure of linked elements through which the user can navigate, interactive multimedia becomes hypermedia. The German language society Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache recognized the words significance, the institute summed up its rationale by stating has become a central word in the wonderful new media world. In common usage, multimedia refers to an electronically delivered combination of media including video, still images, audio, much of the content on the web today falls within this definition as understood by millions. That era saw also a boost in the production of educational multimedia CD-ROMs, the term video, if not used exclusively to describe motion photography, is ambiguous in multimedia terminology. Video is often used to describe the format, delivery format. Multiple forms of content are often not considered modern forms of presentation such as audio or video. Likewise, single forms of content with single methods of information processing are often called multimedia. Performing arts may also be considered multimedia considering that performers and props are multiple forms of content and media. Multimedia presentations may be viewed by person on stage, projected, transmitted, a broadcast may be a live or recorded multimedia presentation. Broadcasts and recordings can be analog or digital electronic media technology. Digital online multimedia may be downloaded or streamed, streaming multimedia may be live or on-demand
6.
Transformers
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Transformers is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. In its history, the franchise has expanded to encompass comic books, animation, video games, sequels followed, such as the Generation 2 comic book and Beast Wars TV series, which became its own mini-universe. Generation 1 characters underwent two reboots with Dreamwave in 2001 and IDW Publishing in 2005, also as a remastered series, there have been other incarnations of the story based on different toy lines during and after the 20th-Century. The first was the Robots in Disguise series, followed by three shows that constitute a universe called the Unicron Trilogy. A live-action film was released in 2007, with a sequel in 2009, a second sequel in 2011. Again distinct from previous incarnations, while the Transformers, Animated series merged concepts from the G1 story-arc, the 2007 live-action film, Transformers, Prime previously aired on The Hub. Although initially a separate and competing franchise started in 1983, Tonkas Gobots became the property of Hasbro after their buyout of Tonka in 1991. Generation One is a term for the Transformers characters that appeared between 1984 and 1993. The Transformers began with the 1980s Japanese toy lines Microman and Diaclone, the former utilized varying humanoid-type figures while the latter presented robots able to transform into everyday vehicles, electronic items or weapons. Hasbro, fresh from the success of the G. I, joe, A Real American Hero toyline, which used the Microman technology to great success, bought the Diaclone toys, and partnered with Takara. Jim Shooter and Dennis ONeil were hired by Hasbro to create the backstory, afterwards, Bob Budiansky created most of the Transformers characters, giving names and personalities to many unnamed Diaclone figures. The Marvel comic was part of the main Marvel Universe, with appearances from Spider-Man and Nick Fury, plus some cameos. The Transformers TV series began around the same time, produced by Sunbow Productions and Marvel Productions, later Hasbro Productions, from the start it contradicted Budianskys backstories. The TV series shows the Autobots looking for new energy sources, Marvel interpreted the Autobots as destroying a rogue asteroid approaching Cybertron. Shockwave is loyal to Megatron in the TV series, keeping Cybertron in a stalemate during his absence, the TV series would also differ wildly from the origins Budiansky had created for the Dinobots, the Decepticon turned Autobot Jetfire, the Constructicons, and Omega Supreme. The Marvel comic establishes early on that Prime wields the Creation Matrix, in 1986, the cartoon became the film The Transformers, The Movie, which is set in the year 2005. Eventually, Rodimus Prime takes out the Matrix and destroys Unicron, in the United Kingdom, the weekly comic book interspliced original material to keep up with U. S. reprints, and The Movie provided much new material. Writer Simon Furman proceeded to expand the continuity with movie spin-offs involving the time travelling Galvatron
7.
Machinima, Inc.
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Machinima, Inc. is a global YouTube network mostly focusing on gaming. Machinima has widespread availability across platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. The company was founded in January 2000 by Hugh Hancock and is headquartered in Los Angeles, users used to be able to submit videos to be uploaded onto their website directly, however this feature has long been abandoned. On October 12,2016, sources told media sites that Warner Brothers was nearing a deal to acquire Machinima, on November 17,2016, Warner Brothers confirmed the news, thus making Machinima a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Bros. In December 1999, id Software released Quake III Arena and this precluded the use of custom demo-editing tools that had facilitated the creation of videos that used the older Quake and Quake II demo file formats, slowing the release of new Quake movies. Another contributing factor to this decline was that the nature of the gaming-related situations. Marino explained bluntly that the joke was getting old, therefore, the Quake movie community needed to reinvent itself. In January 2000, Hugh Hancock launched Machinima. com, a resource for video makers who used computer, the sites name was foreign to the Quake movie community. The term machinima was originally machinema, a portmanteau of machine, however, Hancock had misspelled the term in a previous email, and the new name stuck because he and Anthony Bailey, who had worked on Quake done Quick, liked the now-embedded reference to anime. The site opened with multiple articles, interviews, and tutorials, One such work, Quad God, was the first to use Quake III Arena and the first to be released in a conventional video file format instead of a demo file format exclusive to a certain game. The switch to conventional media offended some machinima producers, but Quad God, by Tritin Films helped to introduce machinima to a wider audience, Matt Kelland, Dave Morris, and Dave Lloyd called the release of Quad God a key moment in the development of machinima. On 30 January 2006, Hancock announced his resignation as editor-in-chief of Machinima. com, among the reasons cited for the change were differences in approach to the site and a desire to devote more time to Strange Companys 2006 machinima production BloodSpell. Hancock called the decision possibly the biggest step Ive taken since I founded Strange Company nearly nine years ago, in May 2009, Machinima released Terminator Salvation, The Machinima Series, a six-episode prequel to the 2009 film. It was about the story of one of the characters named Blair Williams and it was also distributed by Warner Premiere, Wonderland Sound and Vision and The Halcyon Company. It is currently for download in iTunes, PlayStation Network and Amazon Video, towards the end of 2010, Machinima revamped its website and removed the forums, and the ability to upload videos. Since the revamp of their website, Machinima has shifted away from actual machinima content. The network now focuses on lifestyle and entertainment programming, broadcasting solely through their YouTube channels. In January 2012, Machinima discontinued podcast feeds on iTunes without an in-feed announcement, back episodes remain available but no new episodes have appeared on the feed since moving to YouTube exclusively
8.
Optimus Primal
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Optimus Primal is a fictional character from the Transformers toyline, and the leader of the Maximal forces and the protagonist in the Beast Wars television series. He is sometimes called Optimal Optimus, the name Optimus Primal was given to Optimus Prime during the initial run of the Beast Wars toy line, before it was decided that Optimus Primal was a separate character. Like his ancestor Optimus Prime, whose name he took in reverence, years earlier, Optimus Prime had been thrust into a civil war by the actions of the Megatron from his own time. He shares his namesakes love of honor, life, peace, Optimus Primals most repeated quote is Well, thats just prime, or simply Prime, in which the word Prime may have been a replacement for the word Perfect or Great. Always willing to sacrifice his own life for the greater good, to some of his friends, his methods may seem unorthodox at times, but as Optimus once said, sometimes crazy works. He would do anything to protect his friends no matter how high the stakes are and is not ready to surrender just yet unless he has no other choice. Although some aspects of Primals story are not in continuity with the bulk of the fiction, they are all related in a very strict. Optimus Primal/Optimal Optimus was named 2nd best and the worst upgrade in Beast Wars history Topless Robot, as the Beast Wars animated series began, the Axalon and the Darksyde emerged from the transwarp portal above prehistoric Earth. With both ships badly damaged in the firefight and plummeting towards the surface, Primal ordered that all stasis pods in the Axalons hold be jettisoned into Earth orbit. Primals body would be subject to attacks and alterations during the Beast Wars. The probe abducted Primal, pulling him within itself and disassembling his body for study, before he was liberated by Rhinox, under the influence of the virus, a fighting-mad Primal smashed his way into the Predacon base single-handedly and confronted Megatron for the anti-virus. The alien influence felt by the Cybertronians would later return in force when another extraterrestrial construct manifested on the planet, but the destruction of the Planet Buster resulted in a quantum surge that evolved several Maximals and Predacons into Transmetals. It was not long before Rhinox sprang into action, using the residual transwarp energy to access the Matrix, from which he plucked Primals spark, installing it within a blank protoform. Emerging in a new body at a moment of great crisis, Primal used his new powers to save the Maximals from a massive Predacon attack with the aid of the Fuzor. Primal could not suspect, however, the true agenda Megatron was working towards and this deadly mission came to light with the arrival of the Predacon secret agent Ravage, who had tracked the transwarp explosion that had killed Primal back to its source. Ravage aided Primal and the Maximals in finally capturing Megatron, but switched sides when he discovered that Megatron was following instructions left by his former commander, Primal and his Maximals pursued him, but failed to stop him from delivering the deadly blast into the Autobot leaders head. With time itself in the balance, Primal sought to forestall Primes death by taking his spark into his body while his shell was repaired, the Maximals own ship however, the Axalon, fell into the water by Rampage. The reason for this was that Megatron intended on stopping them from returning to Cybertron
9.
Arcee
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Arcee is the name of several fictional characters in the Transformers franchise. They are female Autobots, usually pink or blue in color, being the most famous of the Female Autobots, she has made more appearances and has had several more incarnations than any other female Transformer. Originally she turned into a car, however, later incarnations have turned into motorcycles, the character has gained much notability upon appearing in Transformers, Prime, even though that incarnation is significantly altered than the others. Arcees design, alternate mode, and personality vary depending on continuity, usually colored pink and white, she has also been depicted as a blue-colored character, and Botcon storyline saw her reformatted into a Maximal spider. Arcee is a female Autobot warrior who turns into a pink convertible, Arcee was voiced by Susan Blu, who would go on to be involved in several more Transformers-related shows as voice director, even reprising her role as Arcee in Transformers, Animated. Arcee was a gunner and was depicted as being an excellent marksman, in the Season 3 introduction, Five Faces of Darkness, she accompanies Springer on a mission to track down a sleezoid ship. The mission eventually reunites them with Grimlock and Rodimus Prime and they also go onto rescue Ultra Magnus, Kup and Spike Witwicky from the clutches of the Quintessons. Arcee would appear sporadically over the course of the season, and she was a major player in Dark Awakening, being among the crew zombie Optimus Prime betrayed aboard the mausoleum. And, in Dweller in the Depths, she is fighting back against Springer when he is turned into an energy vampire. In the episode Only Human, Ultra Magnus, Springer, Rodimus Prime, in the final three episodes of the U. S. While the other Autobot Headmasters combined with Nebulons, Daniel became Arcees Headmaster partner, in the Japanese television series Transformers, The Headmasters, the events of the last three episodes of the U. S. series were ignored. Although Headmasters were introduced, they had a different origin. In the Beast Wars episode Transmutate, Rattrap referred to Arcee as his great aunt, the character Transmutate was coincidentally voiced by Susan Blu, who also voiced Arcee. Arcee appeared in the 1986 story and coloring book The Lost Treasure of Cybertron by Marvel Books, Transformers, Universe Wreckers #1 starts with a flashback to late in the original cartoon series, where Daniel Witwicky and Wheelie are killed. This puts Daniels friend Arcee into a sad state, the main story is set in the later episodes of Beast Machines. Arcee, now a Maximal Valkyrie with a spider beast mode, joins the Wreckers, the two then rejoin the rest of the team and flee Cybertron in an Autobot shuttle, which unbeknownst to them has been boarded by Devcon. A confrontation with him leaves Fractyl dangerously wounded, and Arcee takes him to medical care. She and the other Wreckers are then betrayed by Cyclonus, who had infiltrated the team in service to the Predacon criminal Cryotek
10.
Ultra Magnus
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Ultra Magnus is the name of several fictional characters from the various Transformers storylines, generally appearing as a chief lieutenant of Optimus Prime. In Ultra Magnus mind, he is a commander of the wreckers, Ultra Magnus is armed with missile launchers capable of hitting a target 30 miles away, and transforms into a car carrier able to transport his fellow Autobot troops. From the secret files of Teletraan II, Ultra Magnus is the most mature spokesman for the Autobot cause, as a soldier, he is always practical and serious. And he is so loved by his fellow Autobots that Wheelie and Daniel traveled millions of miles to the Autobot records asteroid, in his vehicle mode, Ultra Magnus is an armored transport truck, a machine with magnificent fighting skills. His enemies, the Decepticons, respect his courage, but most of all and he always thinks first of the welfare of his fellow Autobots and his mission. Ultra Magnus makes his first appearance in Japan in the Japan-exclusive Transformers, Scramble City never made it to the U. S. A. so Americans didnt see him until the 1986 animated film. Ultra Magnus made his first continuity appearance in the Earth year 2005 as commander of Autobot City on Earth. Subsequently, in a confrontation with the Decepticons on the planet of Junk, Magnus was blown apart and lost the Matrix to Galvatron, but was reassembled and reactivated by the Junkions. Magnus would later fall afoul of an unrepentant Cyclonus when he went to the aid of Wheelie, in the Episode Only Human, Ultra Magnus, Springer, Rodimus Prime and Arcee found their minds transferred into human-mimicking synthoid bodies by the human crime lord Victor Drath. In Episode 78, Madmans Paradise, Spike and Carly hosted a banquet for a visiting ambassador, Daniel got bored and wandered off. Grimlock followed him, and they fell into a lost chamber where Quintessons banished their criminals to other dimensions, Ultra Magnus, Blaster, Eject, Rewind, Ramhorn, and Steeljaw followed, and using Blasters amplification, they help the Golden One defeat the Red Wizard. With the help of Perceptor, the Autobots and Daniel are returned to Cybertron, after the plague was cured by the resurrected Optimus Prime, Magnus led the defense of Cybertron during the battle for the power of the Plasma Energy Chamber in 2007. In The Transformers, The Movie, Ultra Magnus was voiced by Robert Stack, for the subsequent episodes of the animated series, he was voiced by Jack Angel, who had previously portrayed characters such as Astrotrain, Ramjet, and Omega Supreme. His character was most famous for uttering the line I cant deal with that now whenever things got bad, earlier Japanese-exclusive media such as Scramble City and TV Magazines manga stories had previously detailed Ultra Magnuss earlier arrival on Earth and his role in the creation of Metroplex. Their rivalry eventually came to a end when Sixshot and Magnus engaged in a one-on-one duel. Magnus was no match for the powers of Sixshots numerous transformations. With his dying gasp, Magnus told the Autobots to protect the Earth, at Metroplexs request, the Autobots buried Magnus on Earth. When Ultra Magnus died, his body did not turn white/grey, whether this is due to his body being composed of external armour over his truck-cab exoskeleton or simply because of animator error is open to fan-interpretation
11.
Hound (Transformers)
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Hound is the name of several fictional characters from the Transformers franchise. He is sometimes referred to as Autobot Hound for trademark purposes, the toy that was to become the Autobot Hound was originally released as part of the Japanese Diaclone series by Takara. A first-generation Autobot, Hound was released into Transformers first year -1984 and was one of the smallest of the standard-sized Autobot cars. Hounds alternate mode is that of a 4X4 military jeep, Hound is known for his love of the planet Earth, his tracking skills, and the ability to project highly realistic holograms. He secretly wishes to be human, Hound also appeared in the Marvel Transformers comic, where his role was much the same as in the animated series. During the UK-only story Crisis of Command, Hound and Mirage combined their abilities to capture the Decepticon spy. Later, during the Target,2006 story arc, a spy mission alongside Jazz went badly awry, from then on, Hound was an outspoken critic of Jetfires headstrong tactics against Galvatron. Later, in the full US/UK continuity, he was among the scores of Autobots deactivated by the Underbase-powered Starscream, Hounds body was seen among the deactivated Autobots Ratchet was doing his best to revive in Transformers #56, Back from the Dead. However, he was resurrected at some point, as he appeared in the Transformers and it is unknown if he survived the final battles against Jhiaxus and the Swarm. Hound was also instrumental in the creation of the original 3 Dinobots, as he captured holographic images which served as rough blueprints for construction of Grimlock, Slag, and Sludge. However, after a spurt of early appearances, Hound became increasingly absent from the show, Hounds first appearance came in More Than Meets the Eye, a three-episode pilot created to launch the toyline onto television. Oddly enough the role of Spikes companion was filled by Hound in these episodes rather than Bumblebee, Hound was the first to introduce Spike to the concept of transforming and also gave Spike a tour of the nearby desert while beguiling him with tales of Cybertron. Hound would also end up being rescued by Spike, who drowned in the process of saving him. While resuscitating Spike on the shore, Hound makes the mistake of thinking that the human Spike had flooded his engine, Hound would be among the main cast of the pilot, almost playing as large of a role as Optimus Prime himself. This changed when the show moved into its regular season, Bumblebee became Spikes companion, and Hounds appearances became less frequent. In Heavy Metal War, Hound is responsible for providing a hologram of a large and this helped turn the tide in the battle against the Decepticons in that episode. The episode City of Steel featured another major role for Hound and he and a few other compatriots were charged with tracking and collecting the missing parts of the Optimus Prime. These parts had been disconnected and used in parts of Megatrons reconstruction of New York
12.
Megatron
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Megatron is a character from the Transformers franchise, created by Hasbro in 1984, based on a toy design by Takara. The original Megatron was the Decepticon Leader, which could transform into three different types of guns, a Walther P38 handgun, a beam cannon. He is a sentient robotic lifeform from the planet Cybertron and the leader of the villainous Decepticons as well as the archenemy of the Autobot leader Optimus Prime, Megatron is usually depicted as having risen up from the lowly worker to become a champion in gladiatorial combat. As a gladiator, he took the legendary name Megatronus as his own, Prime would later use his teachings against him when he became corrupt. He has the ability to transform between his robot shape and various weapons or vehicles, but these alternate-modes, his origins and even personality and this origin is considered the most consistent between the various incarnations. Further differences are listed in the sections below. The original Megatronus, better known as the Fallen, was one of the original Thirteen Primes created by Primus, Megatronus betrayed his creator by siding with Primus dark twin, the malevolent planet-eater Unicron. In the final battle between Primus and Unicron, Megatronus fell victim to the fate as his master, sucked through a black hole into another dimension. However, while Unicron emerged in another universe, the Fallen was not so fortunate, another being addressed simply as Megatron is an apocalyptic figure said to bring about death and destruction through alteration of the time stream. Possible interpretations in the book of him are Alpha and Omega, the Fallen made his first appearance in the second volume of Transformers, The War Within. The character appears as the main antagonist in the live action film, Transformers, Revenge of the Fallen. Director Michael Bay described him as apocalyptic and he has the ability to teleport and generate a shockwave upon reappearance. He wields a spear as his weapon and has the ability of telekinesis, Megatronus is also mentioned as one of Thirteen in Transformers, Exodus and later appeared as the main antagonist in the first-season finale of Transformers, Robots in Disguise, voiced by Gil Gerard. Megatronuss history would be retconned in Transformers, The Covenant of Primus, Megatronus was one of the original thirteen Primes. Megatronus commissioned Solus Prime to create the Requiem Blaster, following the War of the Primes, he exiled himself from Cybertron after unintentionally murdering Solus Prime. Megatron is the founder of the Decepticon uprising and their most feared leader, bob Budiansky, the writer for the Marvel Comics series, stated that originally Hasbro took issue with the name, saying it sounded too frightening. Budiansky responded that as the villain, that was the point. Hasbro later agreed with his reasoning, and approved the name Megatron, the name itself probably comes from the Greek word megas, although in one of his interviews Budiansky claimed that it is in fact a portmanteau of electronic and megaton
13.
Shockwave (Transformers)
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Shockwave is the name of several fictional characters in the Transformers franchise. Throughout his incarnations, he is distinguished by a laser cannon instead of one of his hands and his distinctive face. He is also portrayed as a cold, emotionless Decepticon that serves as Megatrons mad scientist. Due to issues with Hasbros trademark of the name Shockwave, some products were released under the name Shockblast or Shockblast the Great. As the Decepticons military operations commander, Shockwaves power is only to Megatron. And that problem is, how can he use his abilities to most effectively eliminate the greatest number of enemies, unfortunately for the Autobots, it is rare that Shockwave does not find an answer. Unlike most early Transformers Shockwave was not modified into an Earthly form and he possesses the power of flight in both modes, and commands the totality of the electromagnetic spectrum allowing him to emit beams of energy in a wide variety of forms. His high energy output makes him particularly fuel inefficient, but radioactive fuel sources stored in the reactor in his chest can help Shockwave to overcome this problem. Although his logical brain center is usually an advantage, human adversaries often pose more of a difficulty to Shockwave, as more intuitive, Shockwave concluded that he should rule so that no emotion should prevent the Decepticons from conquering the universe. This was retained in most comic books, where Shockwave became leader of the Decepticons, unusually for a 1985 toy, Shockwave was part of Transformers fiction from the first year, appearing in both the original cartoon pilot and 4-issue comic book miniseries. According to writer Bob Budiansky, the character of Shockwave was inspired by Spock from the Star Trek series, Shockwave was voted the 2nd top Transformer who was badass in the comics by Topless Robots. Wired Magazine once nominated him as one of the 12 most ridiculous Transformers of all time, Shockwaves characterization in the animated series is based on an early profile written for the character which presented him to be the guardian of Cybertron, with no desires beyond that station. His toys tech spec and Transformers Universe profile, however, wrote of a character who sought to overthrow Megatron and this was the version of the character who impressed fans with his appearance in Marvels Transformers comic book series. Also, unlike his cartoon incarnation, in which he was depicted as an easily beatable foe, his comic incarnation was very powerful. These Dinobots engaged Shockwave, but he slyly outmaneuvered them, a stalemate was reached when the last strike by the Dinobots before sinking into the pit saw them bury Shockwave under a landslide, where he remained for four million years. In 1984, Shockwave was reawakened by an Autobot probe dispatched from the Ark and he quickly struck the weakened Autobots, who had just defeated Megatrons forces. However, Prime was able to transfer the Matrix into Buster Witwickys mind, preventing Shockwave from giving life to his newest creation, Prime then battled Shockwave and hurled him into a swamp. Shockwave was able to extricate himself in order, and attempted a series of failed plans, such as draining sonic energy from a rock concert
14.
San Diego Comic-Con
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San Diego Comic-Con International is a multi-genre entertainment and comic convention held annually in San Diego, California. The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International, San Diego and it is a four-day event held during the summer at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego. On the Wednesday evening prior to the opening of the event, there is a preview for professionals, exhibitors. Comic-Con International also produces two other conventions, WonderCon, held in Los Angeles, and the Alternative Press Expo and it is also the home of the Will Eisner Awards. In 2010, it filled the San Diego Convention Center to capacity with more than 130,000 attendees, the convention was founded in 1970 by Shel Dorf, Richard Alf, Ken Krueger, Mike Towry, Barry Alfonso, Bob Sourk, and Greg Bear. Detroit, Michigan-born, comics fan Shel Dorf, had, in the mid-1960s, mounted the Detroit Triple-Fan Fairs, one of the first commercial comics-fan conventions. When he moved to San Diego, California, in 1970, he organized a convention on March 21,1970. Dorf went on to be associated with the convention as president or manager, variously, Alf co-chaired the first convention with Krueger and became chairman in 1971. Following the initial gathering, Dorfs first three-day San Diego comics convention, other locations in the conventions early years included the El Cortez Hotel, the University of California, San Diego, and Golden Hall, before being moved to the San Diego Convention Center in 1991. I was quietly walking the floor stunned and in awe of just how much bigger it really was, the convention is organized by a panel of 13 board members,16 to 20 full-time and part-time workers, and 80 volunteers who assist via committees. Comic Con International is an organization, and proceeds of the event go to funding it, as well as the Alternative Press Expo. The convention logo was designed by Richard Bruning and Josh Beatman in 1995, in September 2010, the convention announced that it would stay in San Diego through 2015. In 2015, working with Lionsgate, a channel was created to host Comic-Con related content. According to the San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau, the convention has a regional economic impact of $162.8 million. Along with panels, seminars, and workshops with comic book professionals, there are previews of upcoming feature films, like most comic-book conventions, Comic-Con features a large floorspace for exhibitors. These include media companies such as studios and TV networks, as well as comic-book dealers. And like most comics conventions, Comic-Con includes an area, as well as the Artists Alley where comics artists can sign autographs. Despite the name, artists alleys can include writers and even models, academics and comic industry professionals annually hold the Comics Arts Conference at Comic-Con, presenting scholarly studies on comics as a medium
15.
Starscream
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Starscream is a fictional character in the Transformers franchise. He is one of the most frequently occurring characters in the Transformers fictional work, authors have created many characters in the franchise based on the appeal of Starscreams treachery and cunning, most of these share his desire to lead the Decepticons. Starscream has the ambition to overthrow Megatron as the Decepticons leader and he has controlled the Decepticons at times, but he usually suffers defeat. Starscream is ruthless, cruel, and more intelligent than average Decepticons and he considers himself vastly superior to other Decepticons and finds Megatron contemptible for his antiquated military strategies and tactics. Starscream believes the Decepticons should employ guile and speed more readily than brute force to defeat the Autobots, however, given the chance to lead, he is often less successful in this than Megatron. Others suggest that Starscreams treacherous nature is welcomed, that without a threat to his command, Megatron believes he would become soft, even so, Starscream often quickly exhausts Megatrons patience, violent-yet-brief verbal and/or physical conflicts between the two are not uncommon. As such, there have been times when Megatron has been close to killing Starscream, in his original appearance, Starscream transforms into a McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle. As Decepticon Air Commander, he leads the other Decepticon Seeker jets and his technical specifications indicate top speed as Mach 2.8 and altitude ceiling as 52 miles. This action temporarily renders inoperable any electronic device or machine, including Transformers, Starscream was formerly a scientist and explorer, working with the future Autobot Skyfire, during the Golden Age of Cybertron, shortly before the Autobot/Decepticon war re-erupted. Starscream attended the Cybertron War Academy, mentioned in the episode A Prime Problem, Starscream makes use of his old scientist profession in a few episodes. In the episode Starscreams Brigade, he attempts—in what was only his latest in a series of attempts—to overthrow Megatron as the leader of Decepticons. After being defeated and exiled in Guadalcanal, Starscream finds the remains of some World War II military vehicles and he travels to Cybertron using the Space Bridge, tricking the guards and eluding Shockwave to do so. He breaks into the Decepticon Detention Center and steals the personality components of Renegade Decepticons, then installs them into five wrecked military vehicles, the Combaticons and Starscream capture many Autobots and Decepticons. Megatron rallies his troops against Starscream and Bruticus and he deploys Devastator to fight Bruticus, but Devastator is defeated. Megatron attempts to retreat, however Starscream orders Bruticus to capture Megatron and hold him while he gloats, while this is going on, the Stunticons arrive, combine into Menasor and defeat Bruticus. Megatron orders Astrotrain to exile Starscream and the Combaticons to a distant planet, however they eventually return and, after proving their worth in battle, in The Transformers, The Movie, Starscream participates in the battle of Autobot City, killing several Autobots. After the Decepticons defeat, they retreat in Astrotrain, Starscream jettisons the heavily damaged Megatron, Skywarp, Thundercracker, and the Insecticons into space and nominates himself as the new leader of Decepticons. However, while Starscreams body has been disintegrated, his remains as a ghost
16.
Jazz (Transformers)
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Jazz is the name of several fictional characters from the Transformers franchise. He is usually portrayed as a robot and speaks in slang. He is also Optimus Primes good friend and right-hand man, Jazz is the very cool, very stylish, very competent member of the Autobots in the Transformers television and comic series based on the popular toy line produced by Takara and Hasbro. His original vehicle mode is a Martini Porsche 935 turbo racing car, self-possessed, calm, and utterly collected, Jazz is Primes subordinate and first lieutenant of the Autobots, as well as head of Special Operations, with his own dedicated roster of agents. He often gives the most dangerous assignments to himself and its not a matter of ego—he just really is the coolest head for the toughest missions. Jazzs ease extends to whatever environment he finds himself in, no matter how weird or wonderful and he effortlessly tunes into the local culture, assimilating and improvising, and making creative command decisions, making him an indispensable right-hand bot to Optimus Prime. Jazz was one of the favorite Autobots of IGN, Jazz was among the Autobots who followed Optimus Prime on his mission aboard the Ark. They were attacked by Megatrons ship, the Nemesis, and crash landed on Earth, four million years later, in 1984, a volcanic eruption awakened the Arks computer, Teletran-I, and it repaired all on board. It reformatted Jazz in the form of an Earth race car, Jazz then became a regular character throughout the shows first two seasons serving as Optimus Primes second-in-command. In the episode Attack of the Autobots, he and Bumblebee were the only Autobots to avoid being brainwashed, but thanks to his new sound system and Sparkplugs attitude exchanger, the Autobots were able to be cured and the Decepticons plans were foiled. In the episode The God Gambit, Cosmos collected data in space on a new power source. Crashing on Saturns moon Titan, the local priests worshipped the Decepticons as Sky Gods, Optimus Prime sent Omega Supreme along with Perceptor and Jazz. Astrotrain set himself up as the god of the moon. The trip to Titan drained Omega of most of his energy, vowing to not let the Autobots gain the crystals, Astrotrain set up a chain reaction destroying them. The Autobots aided the natives to escape the explosion and helped settle in another area of the moon. In the episode Prime Target, the big game hunter Lord Cholmondeley captured a secret Soviet jet, Cholmondeley then set his sights on the ultimate trophy, the head of Optimus Prime. In order to lure Optimus in, Cholmondeley captured the Autobots Tracks, Bumblebee, Jazz, Beachcomber, Grapple, Blaster, Windcharger and Huffer were able to avoid being trapped. When Cosmos learned of the location where Cholmondeley was keeping the captured Autobots, although interrupted by Astrotrain and Blitzwings attempt to ally the Decepticons with Cholmondeley, Optimus defeated the big game hunter and freed the Autobots
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Rodimus
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Rodimus Prime is the name of several fictional characters from the Transformers franchise. Hasbro has used the name Rodimus, Rodimus Major, and Hot Shot as replacements for later characters and his alternate mode varies between depictions, but usually possesses a red and yellow paint job. Hot Rod is often portrayed as energetic, yet brash and headstrong, as Rodimus Prime, leader of the Autobots, he is significantly more mature, physically powerful and instilled with the wisdom of the previous holders of the Matrix of Leadership. Regardless of this, Rodimus is plagued by lack of confidence and often doubting his own decisions and feeling he is in the shadow of previous leader, Optimus Prime. Hot Rods tech specs list him as an Autobot Cavalier, while as Rodimus Prime, he is listed as an Autobot Protector - unlike Optimus Primes, which directly states Autobot Commander. A commercial for the toy hinted at his ascension, but pitted him against Cyclonus and Scourge instead of Galvatron, Hot Rod was named the 14th top unfortunately named Transformer by Topless Robot. Hot Rod was one of the favorite Autobots of IGN, according to X-Entertainment Rodimus Prime was the 6th top Transformers figure of all time. Hot Rod first appeared in the Headmasters limited series as one of the Autobot crew led by Fortress Maximus and he became a Targetmaster in the fourth and final issue of the series. However, his Targetmaster partner is called Sparks, instead of Firebolt, Hot Rod made sporadic appearances, with a few UK stories starring him as the lead, but most of those were set in the past or future. Kups Story revealed the first meeting between Kup and Hot Rod, and how Hot Rods influence shook Kup out of depression, Hot Rod debuted in the main continuity after the loss of many wars to the Underbase powered Starscream, as part of Fortress Maximus group. He served as a soldier who idolized Optimus. However, he was killed during the Decepticon ambush on Klo in the last issue of the Marvel G1 comic, only to be resurrected by Prime and he continued to appear in the Transformers, Generation 2 comic as one of Primes right-hand men. Hot Rod would appear in the UK Marvel comic issue #234 and this story is set in the near future,1995, where Optimus Prime, Jazz and Hot Rod introduced the latest Autobot, Arcee, to the human feminists. She was met with displeasure by the humans, being called a token female and they were then attacked by Shockwave, Fangry, Horri-Bull and Squeezeplay, who thought the Autobots would be unveiling a new weapon. The Autobots fought off the Decepticons, who escaped, but nothing seemed to please the human feminists, the Hot Rod from the future animated movie continuity would also appear. This Hot Rod also appeared in several of the Aspects of Evil stories, told from the flashbacks of an aged Rodimus Prime, these had Hot Rod come up against some of the greatest Decepticon villains. Hot Rod has an attitude, and serves as an older brother figure to Daniel Witwicky. He has a sort of mentor-student relationship with the veteran Autobot Kup and he was also good friends with Springer and Arcee
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Dinobots
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Dinobots are a type of character in the fictional Transformers Universe. The Dinobots group consists of subgroups of robots, each of whose transformed mode is that of a dinosaur or similar prehistoric animal. Dinobots are referred to as Dinotrons in the Japanese version, and they were named among the top selling toys in 1985 by Playthings magazine. The Dinobots are a group of Transformers, part of the Autobot faction and they are the only known Autobot group—other than the Aerialbots—capable of flight in robot mode, a trait they share with the Decepticons. They are always portrayed as fiercely independent, and are prone to diverge from the group of Autobots to pursue their own agenda. All Dinobots names begin with the letter S. Grimlock - The team leader, Snarl - the analyst, engineer, and medic. The Dinobots in the original Transformers cartoon were built on Earth by the Autobots Wheeljack and they were incapable of any cognitive reasoning, and even failed their first simple task assigned by Ratchet when activated as seen in S. O. S. They immediately turn on the Autobots like wild animals, and nearly destroyed the Ark, wheeljacks Magnetic Inducer was the only thing that stopped them. Being nearly indestructible, the alternative was to seal them away forever. That same day the Autobots were caught off guard by a Decepticon ambush, upon their arrival and subsequent victory over the Decepticons, Optimus Prime agrees the Dinobots shall remain among them. The Dinobots were the series first sub-group of Transformers and made their first appearance in episode eight. Each Dinobot is roughly a third the size of a combiner and this was first seen in the last episode of season one, episode sixteen, Heavy Metal War when the Dinobots faced the newly built Constructicons merged form, the Devastator. Each Dinobot has a different attack method and array of weaponry, day of the Machines Torq IIIs mechanical drone army, and Nergils magnetic disfunction ray in Atlantis, Arise. as a few shining examples during the series. Grimlock, the Commander of the Dinobots, noted as having no weaknesses save for arrogance, Slag is extremely rash in action, and Sludge is slow both physically and mentally. Optimus Prime later commissioned Wheeljack and Ratchet to build Snarl and Swoop to aid the Autobots, Megatron devises a plan for Soundwave to discover their weaknesses in War of the Dinobots. Upon finding out, each ones greatest weakness lie in their individual character flaw, with lies, Megatron convinces them to turn against the Autobots, allowing them to steal an unstable meteorite. They nearly kill Optimus Prime upon arrival at the landing zone. Only with their strength can they manage to defeat their former leader
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Grimlock
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Grimlock is the name of several fictional robot characters in the Transformers franchise. He is usually portrayed as the strong, power-mongering leader of the Dinobots. In 2007, USA Today polled people as to which Transformer they want to appear in the installment in the Transformers film series. Grimlock is the most fearsome and powerful member of the Dinobots, nevertheless, he is a valiant warrior whose actions command respect from all who are witness to them, both friend and foe. Grimlock is among the strongest of the Transformers, possibly an equal to, or even superior to Optimus Prime, in Tyrannosaurus rex mode, his powerful jaws can snap virtually anything that comes between them - from steel cables to a Decepticon limb. He also can shoot an energy ray from his mouth, in robot mode, Grimlock wields an energon sword, whose blade is sheathed in crackling energon and can slice a 2-foot-thick concrete wall in one slash. He also uses a double-barreled, self-propelled rocket launcher and he is almost invulnerable in his Tyrannosaurus Rex mode as shown with his battle with Megatron due to Megatrons primary weapon, his arm-mounted fusion cannon having little or no effect on Grimlock. Unlike the other Dinobots, Grimlock is the one whose name doesnt begin with an S. Grimlock was one of the favorite Autobots of IGN. Grimlock was voted the 6th top Transformer who was considered to be badass in the comics by Topless Robot, according to X-Entertainment Grimlock was the 2nd top Transformers figure of all time. However, the cartoon would diverge wildly from this when it introduced the reptilian robots, Grimlock is voiced by Gregg Berger. The discovery of fossilized bones in a cavern in their volcano base set the Earthbound Autobots on the track to creating the Dinobots. Intrigued by the creatures, and with additional knowledge supplied by Spike, Wheeljack and it has not been explained why he or the other Dinobots were able to be fitted with personalities which can only be found on Cybertron from Vector Sigma. Apparently there is a difference between the brain and personalities in Transformers and their brains are simple, yet still it is the personalities that make them sentient. It is evident that addition of personalities or sparks and its origin was after the fact, in his private thoughts, however, Grimlock considered Optimus Prime too weak to lead, seeking the position for himself. When Soundwave read his mind and learned of this animosity, Megatron was able to trick Grimlock, to stop the turncoat Dinobots, two new ones were created, Snarl and Swoop. Ultimately, it was when Optimus Prime threw himself into harms way to save Grimlock from an explosion that he accepted his mistake and rejoined the Autobots. In a rare display of modesty and humility, Grimlock emotionally apologised to Prime, admitted his jealousy of the leader, the two subsequently patched up their differences. The final straw for Grimlock came when he and the Dinobots were injured in a Decepticon trap at an airfield, enraged, Grimlock refused to take orders from Optimus Prime any more, and he and the other dinobots left
20.
Sludge (Transformers)
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Sludge is a fictional character in the Transformers franchise. Sludge is a slow witted but powerful Dinobot, Sludges strength is considered to be second only to Grimlocks in the Dinobot faction. Sludge also has the power to shake the ground violently and make huge tremors when stomping around in his Brontosaurus mode. Sludge also was seen at times to shoot beams from his eyes. Sludges biggest weakness is his belief that the strongest Autobot should lead, another weakness of Sludges is that he is depicted as being mentally slow. He joined the Autobots in the cartoon and comics in their first year, the other members of the Dinobots are Slag, Snarl, Swoop, and their leader, Grimlock. Sludge represents both prehistoric times and a future, which are many childrens preferred worlds these days. He is sometimes known as Slog, in the Transformers comic series, Sludge was among the Autobots who joined Optimus Prime in his mission on board the Ark to save the planet Cybertron from a meteor shower 4 million years ago. They were attacked by Megatron and his Decepticon forces, after crashing on the planet Earth, they were followed to Earth by the Decepticon named Shockwave. Grimlock and his soldiers were reformatted by the Arks computer Teletraan I using the last of its energy to resemble Earth native animals. They attacked Shockwave and were buried with him together in a tar pit in the Savage Land until the 1980s when the Autobot Ratchet recovered and repaired them, the tar pit had corroded vital systems and the Dinobots lapsed into primitive savagery. Sludge took up a peaceful existence in a swamp, which was discovered by TV journalist Joy Meadows, as a result of the attention she gave to him, Sludge developed a long-standing crush on her. During the Dinobot Hunt, he was captured by Soundwave and made to fight Grimlock, a battle that destroyed a town and which Sludge won before the Autobots could recapture him. Sludge remained tied to the Dinobots and happily followed them in going AWOL, returning to the Ark & supporting Grimlock as leader, battling the Predacons and he was seemingly destroyed by the Underbase-powered Starscream. Sludgess body was seen among the deactivated Autobots Ratchet was doing his best to revive in Transformers #56, along with his fellow Dinobots was one of the first Transformers to be revived by Nucleon. He was part of the united Autobot and Decepticon forces who opposed Unicrons assault on the planet Cybertron in 1991, Sludge was created by Wheeljack and Ratchet on Earth in 1984. He was created along with Grimlock and Slag as the original three Dinobots, shortly after, Megatron convinced Sludge and the Dinobots that Optimus and the Autobots were their enemies and the Dinobots kidnapped Optimus Prime. Wheeljack and Ratchet, with the help of Chip Chase, created Swoop and Snarl, during that battle, Optimus saved the original Dinobots lives and they then realized that the Autobots were really their friends
21.
Snarl (Transformers)
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Snarl is the name of several different fictional characters in the various Transformers universes. Snarl is one of the members of the Autobot sub-group called the Dinobots led by Grimlock and he turns into a robotic Stegosaurus. The toy that became Snarl was originally part of the Diaclone toy from Takara, Snarl is an Autobot who grudgingly follows the orders of Dinobot leader Grimlock and leaves the thinking to others. Hes generally unhappy and a loner and his uncommunicative nature adds to his alienation. Only battle can elevate his spirits, few of his comrades experience the joyous heights that Snarl attains in mortal combat. His unique design makes Snarl useful in sunny, arid environments, large golden plates protrude from his spinal assembly and act as solar collectors. Although he can operate without sunlight, it increases his strength tenfold, a swipe of his tail can shatter a 20-foot concrete cube. His heavily armored hide makes him resistant to most missile fire, snarls dependency on sunlight leaves him vulnerable to nighttime attack. He can use the same fuel the other Autobots use, at only a fraction of his strength and he is slow and his uncooperative behavior patterns sometimes hinder his effectivess in dangerous situations. Snarl is unique among the Dinobots in that his head is not located near the head of his dinosaur mode and he is the only Dinobot without wings created from body panels. Instead his tail splits to form wings that are more like horns, in the animated series Snarl uses a sword instead of ranged weapons, although the toy comes with an Energo Sword, Electron Cannon rifle and a rocket pod. Snarl is one of the most powerful Dinobots and sometimes the strongest, in the Transformers comic series, Snarl was among the Autobots who came to Earth aboard the Ark under the leadership of Optimus Prime. When the Ark crash landed on Earth it reformatted Snarl in the form of one of the Earths native creatures, eventually, Snarl is deactivated, along with the rest of the Dinobots, while facing Starscream who had been empowered by the Underbase. He lay in a life support pod in the Ark before Grimlock used the energy source known as Nucleon to revive him. Snarl was among the united Autobot and Decepticon forces who opposed Unicrons assault on the planet Cybertron and he subsequently stayed with the Autobots and appeared in Marvels Generation 2 comic. In the original Transformers cartoon series, Snarl was a Stegosaurus Dinobot created by Wheeljack and he was created along with Swoop to be a new Dinobot to accompany the already-created Grimlock, Slag, and Sludge. While Snarl and Swoop were emerging, Megatron convinced Grimlock, Slag, and Sludge that Optimus and the Autobots were their enemies, after Wheeljack and Ratchet created Swoop and Snarl with the help of Chip Chase, the new Dinobots were used to rescue Prime. During that battle, Optimus saved the original Dinobots lives before the meteorite near them exploded, Snarl was the only member of the Dinobots to wield an energo sword in robot mode rather than a hand-held gun
22.
Make America Great Again
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Make America Great Again, often abbreviated as MAGA or #MAGA, is a campaign slogan used in American politics that originated with the President Ronald Reagan 1980 presidential campaign. Donald Trump subsequently applied for and received a US service mark for the slogan and it was first used in Ronald Reagans 1980 presidential campaign, when the United States was suffering from a worsening economy at home marked by stagflation. Using the country’s economic distress as a springboard for his campaign, the slogan was also used by former President Bill Clinton in his 1992 presidential campaign, although he later criticized the phrase as being a racist dog whistle during the 2016 election. At the time it was not used as a slogan, Trump began using the slogan formally on November 7,2012, the day after Barack Obama won his reelection against Mitt Romney. He first considered We Will Make America Great, but did not feel like it had the ring to it. Make America Great was his next inflection, but upon further reflection, after selecting Make America Great Again, Trump immediately had an attorney register it. On November 12 he signed an application with the United States Patent, during the campaign, Trump often used the slogan, especially by wearing hats emblazoned with the phrase in white letters. Following Trumps election, the website of his transition was established at greatagain. gov. The president-elect stated in January 2017 that the slogan of his 2020 reelection campaign would be Keep America Great, immediately ordering a lawyer to trademark it. After Donald Trump popularized the use of the phrase, the phrase and modifications of it became used to refer to his election campaign. Trumps primary opponents Ted Cruz and Scott Walker began using Make America Great Again in speeches and he claimed after the election that the hats were copied, unfortunately. It was knocked off by 10 to one, but it was a slogan, and every time somebody buys one, thats an advertisement. Cruz later sold hats featuring Make Trump Debate Again in response to Trump boycotting the Iowa January 28,2016 debate, the most widespread use of the phrase and its variants were in media, especially television comedies. In the 2015 South Park episode Where My Country Gone, supporters of Mr. Garrison, who runs a campaign that is a parody of Trumps, are seen holding signs bearing the slogan. John Oliver spoofed the slogan in a segment of his show, the segment broke HBO viewership records, garnering 85 million views. Comedian David Cross stand-up tour Making America Great Again and Fall Out Boys remix album Make America Psycho Again also referenced the slogan. WWE star Darren Young and former star Bob Backlund began appearing on WWE TV in May 2016 with Backlund acting as Youngs life coach, the slogan was also modified for use in commercial contexts such as film posters and advertisements. The tagline for the film The Purge, Election Year was Keep America Great, included on posters, in September 2016, The Berrics released the campaign series, Make EA Skate Again, urging Electronic Arts to develop Skate 4
23.
Donald Trump
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Donald John Trump is the 45th and current President of the United States. Prior to entering politics he was a businessman and television personality, Trump was born and raised in Queens, New York City, and earned an economics degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He then took charge of The Trump Organization, the estate and construction firm founded by his paternal grandmother, which he ran for four. During his real career, Trump has built, renovated, and managed numerous office towers, hotels, casinos. Besides real estate, he started several ventures and has lent the use of his name for the branding of various products. He owned the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants from 1996 to 2015, and he hosted The Apprentice, as of 2017, Forbes listed him as the 544th wealthiest person in the world with a net worth of $3.5 billion. Trump first publicly expressed interest in running for office in 1987. He won two Reform Party presidential primaries in 2000, but withdrew his candidacy early on, in June 2015, he launched his campaign for the 2016 presidential election and quickly emerged as the front-runner among 17 candidates in the Republican primaries. His final opponents suspended their campaigns in May 2016, and in July he was nominated at the Republican National Convention along with Indiana governor Mike Pence as his running mate. His campaign received unprecedented media coverage and international attention, many of the statements he made at rallies, in interviews, or on social media were controversial or false. Trump won the election on November 8,2016, in a surprise victory against Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. His political positions have been described by scholars and commentators as populist, protectionist, Trump was born on June 14,1946 at the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, Queens, New York City. He was the fourth of five born to Frederick Christ Fred Trump. His siblings are Maryanne, Fred Jr. Elizabeth, and Robert, Trumps ancestors originated from the village of Kallstadt, Palatinate, Germany on his fathers side, and from the Outer Hebrides isles of Scotland on his mothers side. All his grandparents, and his mother, were born in Europe and his mothers grandfather was also christened Donald. On a visit to his village, he met Elisabeth Christ. He died from the flu pandemic of 1918 and Elizabeth incorporated the family real estate business, Elizabeth Trump and Son, which would later become The Trump Organization. Trumps father Fred was born in the Bronx, and worked with his mother since he was 15 as a real estate developer, primarily in the New York boroughs of Queens and he eventually built and sold thousands of houses, barracks and apartments
24.
IDW Publishing
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IDW Publishing is an American publisher of comic books, graphic novels, art books and comic strip collections. The company was founded as the division of Idea and Design Works. The company is perhaps best known for its comic book adaptations of movies. In 2000, Idea and Design Works formed its publishing division, IDW Publishing and in 2007, Two of the original founders, Adams and Robbins, still actively manage the company, which has grown into a fully staffed publishing company. In 2007, IDT Corporation purchased a majority interest in IDW, in 2009, IDT created CTM Media Holdings via a tax-free spin-off. This new company, later renamed IDW Media Holdings, consists of the majority interest in IDW, IDW Publishings second title, Popbot, won two Gold Spectrum Awards. IDW Publishing also publishes comics based on the TV franchises Star Trek, the company has also had success with comic license from toy company Hasbro brands, The Transformers, G. I. Joe, My Little Pony and Jem, Transformers has had as many as five different titles running concurrently. An additional six-part limited series titled Doctor Who, The Forgotten started in mid-2008 by Tony Lee and Pia Guerra, as well as a series of monthly one-shot, self-contained stories. July 2009 saw the beginning of Doctor Who, a series featuring the Tenth Doctor, written by Tony Lee. In 2010, IDW Publishing released the sequel to Michael San Giacomos Phantom Jack Image Comics series with Phantom Jack, the graphic novel is notable because it features the death of the main character, a reporter who can turn invisible. IDW Publishing formed an imprint with EA Games in late 2009, called EA Comics, to focus on adaptations of the video games, with initial titles including Army of Two. Code Word, Geronimo reached #22 on Diamond Comics top 100 list its first month after release, in March 2012 IDW Publishing announced it would release new comics based on Judge Dredd and The Crow. Also in 2012, Hasbro licensed the use of My Little Pony, in February 2013, IDW Publishing announced a partnership with Cartoon Network to publish comics based on the networks television series and reprint older Cartoon Network comics. On January 6,2015, IDW Publishing announced it had acquired Top Shelf Productions. I, joe comics license in May 2008 and released three new series under editor Andy Schmidt, from writers such as Chuck Dixon, Larry Hama and Christos Gage. Other comics were released in time to tie-in with the summer 2009 G. I, in March 2009, IDW Publishing forged an agreement with Mike Golds Comicmix. com to publish print versions of Comicmixs online comic books. The agreement stipulates Comicmix must provide two comic books a month to IDW Publishing to publish, as well as graphic novels, the books are published with both the IDW Publishing and Comicmix. com logos on the covers. A collection of Mundens Bar stories original to Comicmixs website is also forthcoming, in 2004,2005 and 2006 IDW Publishing was named Publisher of the Year by Diamond Comic Distributors
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The Transformers (IDW Publishing)
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The Transformers is a comic book series by IDW Publishing, based upon Hasbros Transformers characters and toy line. An issue #0 was published in October 2005, and the series began in January 2006. Starting in November 2009, an series of the Transformers was launched and ended in December 2011. Following a one-shot titled The Death of Optimus Prime, two new ongoing series started in January 2012, Robots in Disguise and More Than Meets the Eye, a digital Transformers comic also became available titled Autocracy, consisting of 12 eight-page issues. Two sequels to Autocracy titled Monstrosity and Primacy started publishing in March 2013 and August 2014, in April and November 2014, the Windblade and Drift - Empire of Stone mini-series were also published. In addition, in November 2014, The Transformers, Robots in Disguise changed its title to just The Transformers, a second ongoing series of Windblade started in March 2015. Chris Ryall, editor-in-chief of IDW Publishing, leaped at the chance to bid on the property, beforehand, Ryall met up with long-time writer Simon Furman. Furman aimed for a version of the Generation 1 incarnation to appeal to new. They both cited a focus on the Robots in Disguise element of the characters, aiming to bring back their myth, overall, Furman described it as, This was, at last MY take on Transformers. Furman also aimed for a time approach, using maps to help guide his stories. Infiltrations issue #0 sold 100,000 copies in pre-orders, a record for the company, E. J. Su was hired as the artist, and was given free rein to re-design characters slightly. Furmans decision to put leaders Optimus Prime and Megatron on the sidelines divided fans, as did the slow pace, Furman and Ryall responded positively, promising to make both fans and critics happy after reading various message board comments. The Transformers, Stormbringer followed in July, set around the time frame as Infiltration. The four issue tale was intended to be a weekly event, Furman had planned to visit Cybertron later on, but the fans demanded a human-less story, and Stormbringer was written. Most importantly, the story revealed Cybertron to be dead, giving the saga a darker feel and explaining the status quo of Autobots and Decepticons spread out, Furman intentionally wanted a larger scale and took Cybertron out of the equation to shape the overall arc. The story also allowed him to reinvent Thunderwing and the Pretenders, in September, the companion series, The Transformers, Spotlight was launched, set to last for five issues. Furman drew upon classic stories for Shockwave, re-created the personalities of Hot Rod and Ultra Magnus, Nightbeats story laid a vital seed for future stories, as well as allowing him to re-invent the Micromasters. In November The Transformers, Escalation began, a sequel to Infiltration
26.
Crossover (fiction)
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A crossover is the placement of two or more otherwise discrete fictional characters, settings, or universes into the context of a single story. They can arise from legal agreements between the relevant copyright holders, unauthorized efforts by fans or common corporate ownership, Crossovers often occur in an official capacity in order for the intellectual property rights holders to reap the financial reward of combining two or more popular, established properties. In other cases, the crossover can serve to introduce a new derivative of an older one. They may also involve using characters that have passed into the domain with those concurrently under copyright protection. A crossover story may try to explain its own reason for the crossover, some crossovers are not explained at all. Others are absurd or simply impossible within the setting, and have to be ignored by the series respective continuities. Still others intentionally make the relations between two or more fictional universes confusing, as with The Simpsons and Futurama, where each show is fiction in the other. Crossovers of multiple characters owned by one company or published by one publisher, have used to set an established continuity. This is especially true of comic book publishers, as different characters in various Marvel, for example, in the Marvel Comics universe, Spider-Man has frequent dealings with another Marvel hero, Daredevil, just as in the DC Comics Universe, Batman and Superman often collaborate. In comic book terminology, these guest star roles are common enough that they are not considered crossovers, rather, a crossover in comic book terms only occurs when a story spans more than one title. This has led to events, in which major occurrences are shown as affecting most or all of the stories in the shared universe. This story dealt with Zatanna attempting to reconnect with her father, Zatara, and seeking the aid of Hawkman, Batman, Robin, The Atom, Green Lantern, the first major crossover event was spearheaded by the Marvel Editor-in-Chief at the time, Jim Shooter. As a way to further toy sales he devised the Secret Wars crossover which brought all the major Marvel heroes into a twelve issue mini-series to battle a common threat, after the threat was dealt with they all returned to their regular titles. This Secret Wars was hailed as both a critical and commercial success largely because the events of the crossover had lasting effects on the characters, Jim Shooter later perfected his crossover at Valiant Comics with the Unity event. Unity brought all the Valiant characters together to defeat Mothergod but was told within the existing Valiant Comics titles, readers were not obliged to buy all 18 chapters as the story was coherent when reading just one title, but far more layered when all were read. Like Secret Wars, the Unity crossover had lasting effects on the Valiant universe most notably the introduction of Turok, the birth of Magnus Robot Fighter and the death of a major Valiant hero. Dark Horse Comicss Aliens Versus Predator franchise was a success that continued into many games, the comic crossovers from Raj Comics are very famous in India, in which the super heroes meet to fight a common enemy. Many of these crossovers have occurred between Nagraj and Super Commando Dhruva, in Kohram, all the heroes in Raj Universe meet to finish Haru, an extremely powerful enemy
27.
The Hollywood Reporter
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Headquartered in Los Angeles, THR is part of the Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group, a group of properties that includes Billboard and SpinMedia. It is owned by Eldridge Industries, a company owned by an executive of its previous owner. Under Janice Min, a faltering THR was relaunched in 2010 as a weekly print magazine with a revamped, continuously updated website, as well as mobile. THR was founded in 1930 by William R, billy Wilkerson as Hollywoods first daily entertainment trade newspaper. The first edition appeared on September 3,1930, and featured Wilkersons front-page Tradeviews column, the newspaper appeared Monday to Saturday for the first 10 years, except for a brief period, then Monday to Friday from 1940. Wilkerson ran the THR until his death in September 1962, although his final column appeared 18 months prior, from the late 1930s, Wilkerson used THR to push the view that the industry was a communist stronghold. In particular, he opposed the screenplay writers trade union, the Screen Writers Guild, in 1946 the Guild considered creating an American Authors Authority to hold copyright for writers, instead of ownership passing to the studios. Wilkerson devoted his Tradeviews column to the issue on July 29,1946 and he went to confession before publishing it, knowing the damage it would cause, but was apparently encouraged by the priest to go ahead with it. The column contained the first industry names, including Dalton Trumbo and Howard Koch, on became the Hollywood blacklist. Eight of the 11 people Wilkerson named were among the Hollywood Ten who were blacklisted after hearings in 1947 by the House Un-American Activities Committee. In 1997 THR reporter David Robb wrote a story about the newspapers involvement, for the blacklists 65th anniversary in 2012, the THR published a lengthy investigative piece about Wilkersons role, by reporters Gary Baum and Daniel Miller. The same edition carried an apology from Wilkersons son, W. R. Wilkerson III and he wrote that his father had been motivated by revenge for his thwarted ambition to own a studio. Wilkersons wife, Tichi Wilkerson Kassel, took over as publisher and she sold the paper on April 11,1988, to Affiliated Publications, parent company of Billboard Publications, for $26.7 million. Robert J. Dowling became THR president in 1988 and editor-in-chief, Dowling brought in Alex Ben Block as editor in 1990, and editorial quality of both news and specials steadily improved. Block and Teri Ritzer dampened much of the coverage and cronyism that had infected the paper under Wilkerson. After Block left, former editor at Variety, Anita Busch, was brought in as editor between 1999 and 2001. Busch was credited with making the paper competitive with Variety, tony Uphoff assumed the publisher position in November 2005. Uphoff was replaced in October 2006 by John Kilcullen, the publisher of Billboard, Kilcullen was a defendant in Billboards infamous dildo lawsuit, in which he was accused of race discrimination and sexual harassment
28.
Dennis Publishing
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Dennis Publishing Ltd. is an independent publisher founded in 1974. Felix Dennis started in the business in the late 1960s as one of the editors of the counterculture magazine OZ. In the mid-1970s, Dennis Publishing was born, beginning with a kung-fu magazine, Dennis followed this up in the early 1980s by publishing titles in the soon-to-be-lucrative computer enthusiast sector, including Your Spectrum. In 1987 the publisher was renamed from Sportscene Specialist Press to Dennis Publishing, Dennis Publishing, Inc. publishes one of the most successful modern mens lifestyle magazines in America – Maxim – along with Stuff and general interest music magazine Blender. Maxim, Stuff and Blender are registered trademarks of Felix Dennis, on 5 February 2005, Maxim Radio was launched on Sirius Satellite Radio. On 12 November 2008, Sirius and XM merged, and five days later Sirius XM Stars Too debuted on Sirius Satellite Radio on Sirius 108, in May 2011, Stars Too moved to channel 104 on both services. On 15 February 2007, Dennis Publishing, Inc, in June 2007, all of Denniss United States holdings – minus the U. S. edition of The Week – were sold to the private equity firm Quadrangle Group. This included the editions of Maxim, Stuff and Blender, in January 2008, Dennis Publishing acquired the online news site The First Post for an undisclosed sum. In February 2008, Dennis Publishing announced the launch of iGizmo, in November 2008, Dennis Publishing acquired the online games and hardware enthusiast website bit-tech for an undisclosed sum. For 2012, Dennis Publishing, producing more than 50 magazines, Group operating profit climbed almost 12% to £4. 9m. Group turnover, excluding share of joint venture revenues, rose slightly year on year to just over £70m, revenues including joint ventures climbed 3% to £77. 7m. Operations in the UK accounted for almost 84% of total revenues, Chief Executive, James Tye Group Chief Financial Officer, Brett Reynolds Registered Company Number,1138891 Head Office,30, Cleveland Street, London W1T 4JD
29.
Collider (website)
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Collider. com is a film website and YouTube channel founded by Steve Weintraub in July 2005. It was purchased in January 2015 by Complex, in 2012, Weintraub was nominated for a Press Award by the International Cinematographers Guild for his work at Collider. com. Collider focuses on entertainment news, analysis, and commentary, as of October 2016, Colliders YouTube channel had 300,000 subscribers and over 220,500,000 cumulative views. Extensions of the channel include Movie Talk, TV Talk, Heroes, Nightmares, Jedi Council, Movie Trivia Schmoedown, Behind the Scenes & Bloopers, and Collider News. Colliders website staff of writers include Adam Chitwood, Senior Editors Matt Goldberg and Allison Keene, Haleigh Foutch, Dave Trumbore, Brian Formo, the website is primarily news, features, sketches and criticism. The staff has also branched out and produced content for other outlets, different members of the panel share their perspective on any given topic, including film reviews and industry news. Movie Talk is time shared with celebrity interviews, each episode is typically an hour in length. Mondays episode covers the weekend box office gross and speculation on future ratings, a segment called Buy or Sell happens around the halfway point in each episode, where the panel discusses whether they see certain topics or announcements as favorable. Each episode covers eight different topics in each podcast, and the show ends with questions from a live audience through a Twitter chatroom. Mailbag is a segment where the panel discuss fan mail, questions. Heroes follows a format to Movie Talk. The difference is that the coverage is strictly on comic book film news and is hosted by Jon Schnepp. Regular panelists include Hot Toys enthusiast Robert Meyer Burnett and Amy Dallen from Geek, episodes often revolve around the Marvel Cinematic Universe and DC Extended Universe and the marketing and advertising strategies of both franchises. The show also talks about comics-based TV series such as Arrow, the advertising practices and marketing themes of different corporations are addressed and predictions are made regarding the future of each studio. Collider News videos are short segments ranging from one to two minutes in length. These short videos discuss changes with company executives, celebrity controversy, or filming and these short pieces are uploaded shortly after breaking news. Each short ends as the host asks the viewers their opinion on the story, Collider Crash Course videos cover a variety of topics that are designed to enlighten viewers. The segments vary in length and are hosted by an group of staff
30.
Deadline Hollywood
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Deadline. com, official name Deadline Hollywood, and previously known as news blog Deadline Hollywood Daily, is an online magazine founded by Nikki Finke in 2006. Owned by Jay Penske since 2009, it is a brand of the Penske Media Corporation, the site is updated several times a day, with the infotainment industry as its focus. Finke began writing her LA Weekly column Deadline Hollywood in June 2002, in 2009, she sold DHD to Mail. com Media for a reported seven-figure payday, under an agreement by which she would hire an additional writer but remain the sites editor. In September 2009, the URL was changed to deadline. com, in November 2013, Finke left Deadline after a year-long disagreement between herself and Penske, who had bought Variety, a competing trade magazine and website. In 2010, Nikki Finke hired Variety reporter Mike Fleming Jr. Finke remained the editor of Deadline Hollywood, official website About Deadline. com at PMC
31.
Penske Media Corporation
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Penske Media Corporation is an American digital media, publishing, and information services company founded in 2003. PMC publishes more than 22 digital brands, including a joint venture in India with ZEE TV for its India. com brand, the company also produces more than 50 annual events and conferences as well as housing a research and emerging data business. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, California and New York, the company acquired the mail. com domain, was renamed Mail. com Media Corporation, and re-launched the domain as a new service in 2007. The company then created, built, and sold, which was at the time the 5th largest web portal. In 2008, the company raised $35 million of venture financing from an investor group led by Quadrangle Capital Partners. In 2009 it bought Deadline Hollywood Daily, an entertainment industry insider blog, from its founder Nikki Finke, in a cash and stock earnout transaction valued at $10–15 million. On April 27,2010, Mail. com Media Corp. announced it had acquired American technology blog Boy Genius Report via a release posted on Boy Geniuss website. The Boy Genius Report announced its intentions to relocate its website to newly acquired www. bgr. com, in 2012, MMC was renamed Penske Media Corporation. Also in 2012, Grace Randolphs Beyond the Trailer became a part of PMCs digital network, in October 2012, PMC bought Variety from Reed Elsevier for an estimated $25 million. On October 10,2012, Jay Penske announced the paywall for Variety would come down, the print version would remain, PMC continues to be the owner of Deadline. com, which since the 2007-08 WGA Strike has been considered Varietys largest competitor in online showbiz news. In August 2014, PMC bought Fairchild Fashion Media, which includes Womens Wear Daily, Footwear News, Beauty Inc, M, as of 2015, PMC had attained 168 million monthly consumers. In June 2015, Penske Media Corporation formed a partnership with Shutterstock Inc. to create and license entertainment and fashion images to the top media, publishing. Commencing in 2016, Shutterstock will have a right and license to PMCs archive. On January 18,2016, PMC acquired independent film and television platform, bringing Indiewire into the Penske organization is an exciting opportunity to further ignite a pioneering brand while advancing its coverage of the TV industry, digital, and emerging OTT platforms. In 2017, Penske Media Corporation entered into a joint venture for the Robb Report with Rockbridge, official website Penske Media Corporation at LinkedIn
32.
Kotaku
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Kotaku is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Univision Communications bought Gawker Media in August 2016, and rebranded it as Gizmodo Media Group, Kotaku was first launched in October 2004 with Matthew Gallant as its lead writer, with an intended target audience of young men. About a month later, Brian Crecente was brought in to try to save the failing site, since then, the site has launched several country-specific sites for Australia, Japan, Brazil and the UK. Previous contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Crecente was named one of the 20 most influential people in the video game industry over the past 20 years by GamePro in 2009 and one of gamings Top 50 journalists by Edge in 2006. The site has made CNETs Blog 100 list and was ranked 50th on PC Magazines Top 100 Classic Web Sites list and its name comes from the Japanese otaku and the prefix ko-. In April 2014, Gawker Media partnered with Future plc to launch Kotaku UK, Kotaku is currently run by Stephen Totilo, who replaced Brian Crecente in 2012. Kotaku was one of six websites that was purchased by Univision Communications in their acquisition of Gawker Media in August 2016. In 2007, attorney Jack Thompson sued Gawker Media and site editor Brian Crecente over concerns that Kotaku declined to remove threatening user comments, in 2009, Business Insider reported that Hearst Corporation sought to buy Kotaku from Gawker Media. In 2010, Kotaku criticized Japanese magazine Famitsus glowing endorsement of a Konami game as a conflict of interest, in 2013, Forbes criticized Kotaku over what they called an inflammatory headline in a story about Hideki Kamiya, Kotaku rewrote the headline. In 2007, Kotaku ran a story about rumored upcoming features on the PlayStation 3, the site claimed in 2015 that they had been blacklisted by major game companies Bethesda Softworks and Ubisoft
33.
Univision Communications
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Univision Communications Inc. is an American media company serving Latin Americans. The company dates back to the first Spanish language television network in the U. S. founded in the early 1960s as Spanish International Network, the founders of Univision are René Anselmo and Telesistema Mexicano founder Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta. UCI’s headquarters is in Midtown Manhattan, prior to 2007, the headquarters was in Century City section of Los Angeles. From September 1996 to April 2007, Univision Communications Inc. traded in the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol UVN, in 2001, Univision Communications Inc. acquired USA Broadcasting, the station group of USA Networks, which included 13 full-power television stations. Most of these became part of a new network called TeleFutura. In 2003, Univision completed the acquisition of Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation to form Univision Radio, in March 2007, Univision Communications Inc. was sold to Broadcasting Media Partners, Inc. which includes Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC, Providence Equity Partners Inc. TPG Capital, L. P. Thomas H. Lee Partners, L. P. in May 2008, Univision Music Group was sold to Universal Music Group and combined with its Latin label to become Universal Music Latin Entertainment. In 2009, Univision Interactive Media was formed to house Univision. com, Univision Móvil, Univision On Demand also debuted in 2009, through distribution partners. That same year Univision also created Univision Studios, a new production arm focused on producing and co-producing content for the Company’s platforms, since June 2011, Randy Falco has been President and CEO of UCI, and since then has increased UCI’s earnings. Falco’s contract was renewed until January 2018. In the fall of 2012, Univision celebrated its 50th anniversary by unveiling a new brand logo, UniMás is among the leading Spanish-language broadcast television networks. More recently, UCI has grown its offerings with the launch of cable networks Univision Deportes, Univision tlnovelas and, additional cable, digital, in 2013, UCI announced a strategic partnership which launched El Rey, a new English-language network geared towards young-adult audiences led by Robert Rodriguez. That year Univision also rebranded its TeleFutura network into UniMás, which targets males ages 18 to 35, in addition, in 2013 Univision formed its joint venture with ABC/Disney to launch Fusion, a 24-hour, English-language cable news network. In 2014, UCI launched Univision Mobile, La Fabrica and TheFlama. com and also continued to increase the reach of Univision Deportes, Fusion, also in 2014, UCI expanded its partnership with Hulu, building on its launch as the first Spanish-language offering on Hulu in 2012. On August 16,2016, Univision Communications purchased Gawker Media for $135 million, the sale included six Gawker blogs - Kotaku, Jalopnik, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Deadspin and Jezebel - but not the flagship Gawker site, which would be shut down in late August. UCI’s portfolio of properties consists of 16 broadcast cable and digital networks, including El Rey and Fusion, UCI’s properties also include consumer products and brand licensing. - Indicates a station owned by USA Broadcasting prior to its acquisition by Univision in 2001, footnotes,1 These stations are owned by Univision, but are operated by Entravision Communications under local marketing agreements. 2 WQHS is the only network-owned station bordering Canada and it is also one of only two stations near the Canada–US border
34.
Bleeding Cool
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Bleeding Cool is an Internet news site, focusing on comics, TV, film, and games. Owned by Avatar Press, it was launched by Rich Johnston on 27 March 2009, and has gone through several iterations of design, there is an associated magazine, Bleeding Cool Magazine, also published by Avatar Press. The website has a reputation within the industry for spreading previously secretive information far, Bleeding Cool was nominated for the Favourite Comics Related Website Eagle Award in 2010 and 2011 and won in 2012. It was named as one of PC Magazines top blogs of 2010, Johnston was awarded the Shel Dorf Award for Best Comics Blogger for his work on Bleeding Cool in 2012
35.
Avatar Press
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Avatar Press is an independent American publisher of comic books, founded in 1996 by William A. Christensen, and based in Rantoul, Illinois. Avatar Press is most notable for publishing Bad Girl comics such as Pandora, Hellina, Lookers, The Ravening, currently, Avatar publishes several ongoing series. They have a web presence, anchored by Warren Ellis FreakAngels webcomic, as well as the comics news site Bleeding Cool. Publisher Christensen had been a contributor to Wizard magazine before founding Avatar. The company initially published only mini-series and they subsequently expanded to other formats. Among the creators to take them up on their offer were Frank Miller, Warren Ellis, Alan Moore, and Garth Ennis. Lately, the company has taken to licensed comic book adaptations of famous sci-fi and horror shows from movies and television, such as RoboCop, Night of the Living Dead, lansdale, The Drive-in By Bizarre Hands On the Far Side With Dead Folks George R. R
36.
Newsarama
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Newsarama is an American website that publishes news, interviews, and essays about the American comic book industry. Newsarama began in the summer of 1995 as a series of Internet forum postings on the Prodigy comic book message boards by fan Mike Doran. In January 1997, Doran began to post a version of the column titled The Comics Newswire on Usenets various rec. arts. comics communities, the name of the column evolved to The Newswire, and then to CBI Newsarama, before finally becoming Newsarama in 1998. The posts quickly became popular due to the speed of reporting via the Internet and this meant Doran could break stories faster than other comic book news sources that appeared in printed publications, as the printed stories had to be fully edited weeks before they were released. By the time other online comic journalists arrived on the scene, although the column in its earliest forms reported both news and rumors, it later adopted a standard journalistic news approach. Dorans postings left Usenet in 1998, becoming a Newsarama column on such websites as Mania. com, AnotherUniverse. com, Fandom. com and it then continued to become a semi-autonomous site, Newsarama, hosted by Kevin Smiths ViewAskew. com network of sites in August 2002. Three months later, Doran left Newsarama, which was by now its own website, Matt Brady, a writer who had written extensively for the site, took over. Doran later returned to work at Newsarama, while Brady continued working as writer for the site. The site left the ViewAskew. com network and became independent in early April 2006, Newsarama was acquired by the Imaginova corporation in October 2007. When Brady left the site in July 2009, Doran and Lucas Siegel stepped up to run it, the site was acquired by TopTenREVIEWS in October 2009. Newsarama has been quoted as a source of news by the mainstream media. In 2006, Entertainment Weekly listed Newsarama as one of its 25 favorite online entertainment sites in 2006, Newsarama originally maintained a registered member forum known as talk@Newsarama. In 2010, Newsarama closed down the forum and redirected readers to comment on the sites Facebook page, Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesadas column Joe Fridays appeared weekly until 2008, when the column moved to MySpace. Quesada then began writing the column Cup of Joe on Comic Book Resources, didio has participated in the weekly 10 Answers and 1 Question column for the site. By Alan Kistler, covering the evolution of costumes and designs for different comic book characters, Newsarama has also run a series of Post Game columns offering coverage and commentary of popular genre-related television programs on a regular basis. Covered shows include Lost, Smallville, Batman, The Brave and the Bold, Fringe, Flash Forward, in November 2005, Michael Dean, writing in the The Comics Journal, studied Internet comic book industry news sources and evaluated Newsaramas journalistic performance. The study praised the site for the depth of coverage provided in articles, but criticized its reliance on press releases. Dean focused on one story in particular, Diamond Changes Thresholds by Matt Brady, though he found the piece qualified as journalism, Dean also found it, contained factual inaccuracies, failed to get multiple points of view and sucked up to its corporate subject
37.
Purch Group
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Purch Group, Inc. formerly known as TechMediaNetworks, Inc. is a online media content group. The company, based in New York City, was founded in 2003, the company operates a large number of websites. In 2014, it rebranded itself as Purch to better reflect its growing portfolio of brands, in 2009, Purch, then known as TechMedia Network, Inc. acquired LiveScience, Space. com and Newsarama from Imaginova. Two years later, TechMedia Network, Inc. acquired the print-, in July 2013, the company acquired Bestofmedia Group, publisher of Toms Hardware, Toms Guide, Toms IT Pro and a variety of sister publications across Europe. TechMedia Network, Inc. acquired BuyerZone. com, LLC from Reed Business Information in early 2014, in April 2014, TechMedia Network, Inc. changed its name to Purch and simultaneously announced an exclusive partnership with Mobile Nations, a portfolio of mobile-focused online communities. Included in the rebrand was the launch of the Purch Marketplace, in September 2015, Purch acquired Active Junky, a loyalty program and online shopping site for outdoor gear. This was followed by the December 2015 acquisition of ShopSaavy, a shopping app. Purchs most recent round of funding was led by Canso Investment Counsel, Purch has received additional funding from ABS Capital Partners, Village Ventures, and Highway 12 Ventures. Purch is headquartered in New York City, where Greg Mason currently serves as CEO
38.
Io9
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Io9 is a blog launched in 2008 by Gawker Media. The blog focuses on the subjects of science fiction, fantasy, futurism, science, technology and it was founded by Annalee Newitz, a former policy analyst for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and contributor to Popular Science, Wired, and New Scientist. Between October 2010 and January 2012 io9 hosted the Geeks Guide to the Galaxy podcast, produced by John Joseph Adams, in 2008, shortly after Newitzs project, other magazine, ceased print publication, Gawker media asked her to start a science and sci-fi blog. In an interview, Newitz explained the significance of the name io9, Well, theyre brain implants that were outlawed because they drove anyone who used one insane. We totally made that up to name the blog, the blog is about looking into the future and science fiction, so we wanted to come up with a fictional name, something that was science fiction. Io9s Explanations page gives further details on the backstory of these devices. The blog is indexed by Google News, in 2012, io9 created a video series called io9, We Come From The Future. It had 32 shows from April 13,2012 through November 16,2012 and it was hosted by Annalee Newitz and Esther Inglis-Arkell. It was shown on the Internet television network Revision3 and on YouTube, the show discussed the latest news in science and science fiction. Io9 was referenced in the American television series Dollhouse, Io9s 11 person staff joined Gizmodos 22 person staff, under Newitzs overall supervision. Therefore, after a nearly eight-year run, Newitz retired from both io9 and Gizmodo on November 30,2015, to take a position as tech culture editor at Ars Technica, Anders remained as head editor of io9. The old io9. com URL automatically links to the main io9 subpage of io9. gizmodo. com, besides Newitz, several other longtime core staff members left their positions at io9 during this transitional time period in 2015. Meredith Woerner departed io9 in May 2015, to write for the Los Angeles Times Hero Complex column, lauren Davis and Robbie Gonzalez left in August 2015, Davis went back to school to complete her MFA, and Gonzalez left for a position at Wired. By May 2016 none of the original 2008 contributors were left on the site, on 26 April 2016 Charlie Jane Anders confirmed that she was leaving the site to focus her attention on her then untitled second novel and that Rob Bricken would take over as editor. Official website Io9s channel on YouTube
