Tech Specs

[Shockprowl]

See Also:

Tech Specs tmukhub.proboards.com/thread/7971

Online Tech Spec Chart tmukhub.proboards.com/post/418738/thread

Strength tmukhub.proboards.com/thread/10886

Intelligence tmukhub.proboards.com/thread/10888

Speed tmukhub.proboards.com/thread/10895

Endurance tmukhub.proboards.com/thread/10907

Rank tmukhub.proboards.com/thread/10927

Courage tmukhub.proboards.com/post/409230/thread

Firepower tmukhub.proboards.com/post/413708/thread

Skill tmukhub.proboards.com/post/417214/thread

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Ever wonder if the Techspec Ranks had/need names? This popped into my head, oh a while ago now, and I've been pondering it on a back-burner in my mind ever since. Below is the best I've come up with. I've gone for militaristic 'delegation of command' theme, surely one 'Commander' isn't enough for an army. Logically he'd have Generals and Commanders under him, and he'd be more the 'Supream Commander' chapy. Anyho, anyone got any ideas? Also not sure if 'Bots and 'Cons would have the same names or not. (eagerly awaits Doc's list of silly names for techspecs ranks!)

10. Leader
9. General
8. Commander
7. Sub-Commander
6. Lieutenant
5. Sub-Lieutenant
4. Sergeant
3. Corporal
2. Lance-corporal
1. Trooper


With the above, you see that, for example, the original Ark crew, described as some of the best Autobot warriors, are all of decent rank (although I'm not sure a rank of 5 fits characters such as Brawn or Cliffjumper who are clearly warriors not, no disrespect to them, leaders), A sub-lieutenant being in charge of perhaps a small squad (such as Hound in the IDW-verse). And the likes of Springer would be an 8 (not the 7 on his original techspecs) to reflect he's the 'commander' of a larger, specialised unit. Whereas your Grimlocks, Shockwaves and Prowls are the Generals under their 'Supream Leader'. Also within this structure is the capacity for 'honourary' (can't spell) ranks. Such as Skids's rank of 8 and Ratchet's 7. They wouldn't, necissaryily, command in the field, but have a respected, important possition within the army, scientist and medical officer respectively. Right, I'm rambeling now. Comes from not planning a post ahead of writing it!

[Grand Moff Muffin]

I tried to find some order in the original tech-specs ranks, and most of them may be found here:

www.theunderbase.co.uk/wiki.asp?db=tfdb2000&o=Command%20Structure%20of%20the%20Autobot%20Army

www.theunderbase.co.uk/wiki.asp?db=tfdb2000&o=Decepticon%20Command%20Structure

www.theunderbase.co.uk/wiki.asp?db=tfdb2000&o=Hub/Cybertronian%20Empire

All the characters listed on these pages are either pre-BW toys, with tech-specs ranks taken from the 'Generations' book, or characters from the Marvel TF comics, with ranks assigned by me.

The only tech-specs ranks I dismissed out of hand were Boss, Deftwing, Ironfist, Falcon, Calcar and Fearswoop having rank 10. (With Thunderclash, Skyquake, Pyro, Speedstream, Clench and Rage, they make twelve rank 10 toys released in the space of two years.)

Patterns I noticed included virtually all those with 'Warrior' function being rank 5. Virtually nobody is lower than rank 5 (Hoist, Dinobots, Pretender Beasts, Constructicons), so I assigned most non-toy characters from the comic a rank 4, to make things less top-heavy.

Strangely, some characters that Simon Furman gave high ranks in the comic (Carnivac, Snarler, Krok) have very low tech-spec ranks.

My suggestions for rank names are:

10 - Commander (since Optimus Prime has that as his function) (Liege Centuro = Empire equivalent)
9 - Lieutenant Commander (since Sky Lynx and - if I remember right - Pretender Grimlock - have function 'Lieutenant Commander' and rank 9) (Liege Genero = Empire equivalent)
8 - Sub-Commander (senior Special Team leaders such as Silverbolt, Razorclaw, Snaptrap, Scattershot, Hun-Grrr)
7 - Team Leader (lesser Special Team leaders such as Hotspot, Motormaster, Onslaught)
6 - Specialist (most common rank?)
5 - Warrior
4 - Manual worker
3 - Scum (Snarler, Trainbots)
2 - Nobody (Gnaw)

Who can be lower than a Sharkticon? Rank 1 for Scraplets, perhaps?

Martin

[Shockprowl]

Interesting stuff matey, ta. I like having 'Warrior' as a rank itself. Although I don't like the fact that a Warrior can never improve on a 5. Surely squad leaders are required.

I like your list Mart, it's a 'Function is Rank' style which I considered for my list before opting for a militaristic titles system.

I think Wheelie should be rank 1.

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Well, in the notes to my list I pointed out that while Gears outranks Windcharger (since Windcharger is only a Warrior), Windcharger was temporarily promoted to Team Leader over Gears in Furman's story 'Dinobot Hunt', because while Gears is a Specialist, his specialism didn't make him suitable to lead that team.

Similarly, Shrapnel's function is 'Electronic Warfare', which is kind of a specialist type of warrior, so he's rank 6, but Kickback, being a spy, is able to achieve rank 7 (like Mirage and Bumblebee), which explains why, going by tech-specs ranks, Kickback is Insecticon leader. Spies can be rank 7, but even specialist warriors can't go beyond rank 6. However, because of his leadership inclinations, which Kickback can't be arsed with, Shrapnel acts as leader in the comics.

Tech-spec ranks don't appear to have been assigned by a random number generator, but by someone who at least pays attention to functions.

Your list is good too, though, except that it makes everyone too important. It leaves the army with the most common rank being 'Lieutenant', humble warriors being 'Sub-lieutenant', and then half a dozen unfortunate sergeants, one corporal and no troopers in each army. Good for morale, I suppose!

Martin

[Andy Turnbull]

I imagine that most of the non-combat personnel (especially on the autobots side) would fill the lower ranks on the Tech Specs.

Those random aides to Xaaron and scientists that showed up in the Marvel UK material for example might hold the lower Rank designation.

Andy

[Shockprowl]

martinm said:

...except that it makes everyone too important. It leaves the army with the most common rank being 'Lieutenant', humble warriors being 'Sub-lieutenant', and then half a dozen unfortunate sergeants, one corporal and no troopers in each army. Good for morale, I suppose!

Martin

Well, my thinking there is that we only see the middle order and higher Transformers in toys/comics/cartoons etc. There are plenty of lower ranked characters, but we only get to know the more 'elite' of them, who have higher ranks.

Your theory of specialist not leading, yet having a higher rank is an excellant way to explain alot of the goings on rank wise.

[Dark Stranger]

Great thread! Never really thought about this at all.

[Shockprowl]

I think about this kinda thing all the time... Maybe Mrs Shockprowl's right and I am too obsessed 'bout Transformers!!!

[legios]

Martin, you've had quite a fair stab at that. Certainly a better attempt than I have ever managed to put together.

I do wonder about the use of "specialist " as a rank though. It feels more like a category to me, to differentiate the supporting arms from the fighting commands. "Specialist" makes me think of things like combat engineers, logistics personnel, medical personnel - the unsung parts of an armed force without which it becomes combat ineffective in very short order - all of whom would need rank gradations amongst them I would have thought.

(On that note, did folk like Carnivac actually have high rank in the comic? True, Carnivac lead a special forces unit whose reporting line was fairly high up the chain of command. But he himself wouldn't have needed to be of high rank to do that. The rank and authority might have lain with those to whom he was directly responsible. Of course my memory isn't reliable so I could easily be overlooking a direct statement of his position).

On the other hand the use of "Manual Worker" and "Scum" as ranks makes it seem more like a social class system than an industrial age military, which puts intriquing ideas in my head about how it might have come about.

(Of course, there is always the possibility that the various city-states pre-war all had slightly differing rank structures and that the eventual Autobot army structure is an evolved compromise/hybrid between them).

That said, we haven't really got much to go on in terms of speculating about the Autobot army at its height. We never get a feeling for what kind of formations they use or how their forces are structured. Let alone their rank structure. From issue 1 through to "Return to Cyberton" all we really see is a effectively a special forces unit (often a little laxadasical when it comes to rank in the field) , and after that we discover that the Autobot army for practical purposes no longer exists - broken down into insurgent cells. So there is plenty of room for speculation.

Yes, sorry, I'm rambling now.....


Karl

[The Doctor]

Grimlock is King. That is all.

-Ralph

[dyrl]

I was always annoyed by the rank system being somewhat arbitrary - I think in reality the hierarchy had nothing to do with the tech-spec rank. It's actually quite a mess that leave a number of questions... here are just some:

1. If Starscream was "Air Commander"... then who is ground Commander? Underwater Commander? Space Commander? Etc...etc..

Attempted Answer: Starscream just calls himself "Air Commander" to sound important.

But I think we have to agree that the Decepticons are not a conventional army. They seem to be more representative of 4GW (4th generation warfare) - a loosely knit organization; non-linear, asymetric.

There are loose rank structures - such as special team leaders and the like - but ultimately it's raw power, ambition and achievement at a given moment which make or break ranks in the Decepticon hierarchy.

The Autobots are similar; albeit within their hierarchy it is deliberation, consent and a certain respect for seniority which make or break rank within their hierarchy.

In other words: the Autobots and Decepticons are actually quite anarchic as far as armies go.

dyrl

[grahamthomson]

Create your own Tech Specs!

You could have fun with this;

www.rfjason.com/techspex/

[Deleted]

Brilliant. It even goes as far as finding an avatar for your Transformer providing you type in a name that can be linked to a picture on the web.

I haven't tried it yet but I might give the Autobots a new member in the form of Vibrator.

[Shockprowl]

Didn't ya just love 'em?! As many a great reviewer, including Daddy Tompson, have said, they are one of the things that got us hooked. They did it for me anyway. The attention to detail! Each character, each figure, jumped out of their packaging at us! Marvelous. I'd love to know the in-depth thought processes that went into designing them, and designing each character. For example, which came first, the name, the alt mode, or the techspecs? I've always found the rationale behind the ranking intriguing- the Autobots seemed carefully structured, but why didn't the Decepticons have more higher rankers? There's only Ravage who's a 7 in the '84/'85 range (off the top of my head). Endurance- I remember having a particular interest in endurance rankings as a child, mainly because prior to getting my first Transformer I didn't know what 'endurance' meant (Transformers are educational too!). I found it fascinating how some characters, such as Bluestreak, had high speed and high endurance, were-as others, such as Windcharger, had high speed but low endurance. And 'Courage', truely a window into a characters' soul. I also feel that as the line progressed, they lost their in-depth feel. Initially the function 'Warrior' had meaning, but later it seemed to me that 'Warrior' was given out whenever they couldn't think of a function for a character.

But these are just the mad ramblings of a handsome yet foolish young man. What are my Cyber Chumbs thoughts and rememberings of Techspecs?

[grahamthomson]

I was completely captivated by the Tech Specs as a child.

I was so disappointed when my STARS kit arrived without the promised "Tech Specs Manual".

When I was studying in Bristol Martin very kindly invited me into his home and generously lent me all the Tech Specs cards he had collected himself over the years.

It's a shame that the Hartman's Tech Specs Archive is no longer online.

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Sept 14, 2010 20:25:42 GMT @grahamthomson said:

When I was studying in Bristol Martin very kindly invited me into his home and generously lent me all the Tech Specs cards he had collected himself over the years.

I don't remember that!

It's a shame that the Hartman's Tech Specs Archive is no longer online.

www.botchthecrab.com/archive/techspecs/

Martin

[grahamthomson]

It was in 96, and you showed me the comic shops in Bristol, then back to yours for lunch. I met your sister and you put some Babylon 5 on.

In fact, the comic shop halfway up Park Street had a load of TFUK comics for 50p.

Thanks for the link! Yay, Tech Specs to look at again!

[Bogatan]

I don' really remember tech specs till the actionmasters. I think I paid some attention to the charts but not so much the bio part. I know I read them and that one crazy afternoon (or morning I) started cutting them off the boxes to put in a scrap box. After about 10 I realised I was suffering some kind of mental breakdown and stopped. So I did read them, but it wasn't until Powerflash that I remember being inspired by them. I suppose prior to then almost every TF got some kind of airtime on tv and comic or ladybird book or something.


Powerflash had no such thing and I had given him a personality, but then I read his tech spec and it was the complete oposite of what I had created, so after that I somehow merged the two versions into one character which to this day remains one of my favourite TFs.

Andy

[grahamthomson]

So what personality did you give Powerflash??

[Bogatan]

He was sort of the illigitimate offspring of Hot Rod and Prowl. Or more disturbingly Arnold Rimmer and the Cat.

So a by the rules thrill seeking egomaniac.

The actionmasters generally made up my Wreckers team as they had lots of weapons and were action figurey if they had back pack type oartners even better. Powerflash and Sideswipe were the hardcases.

Andy

[Shockprowl]

Sept 14, 2010 20:40:56 GMT Grand Moff Muffin said:

It's a shame that the Hartman's Tech Specs Archive is no longer online.

www.botchthecrab.com/archive/techspecs/

Martin

Wow! What an amazing web site!!!!! Mrs Shockprowl's going to very upset when I'm sat on it tonight instead of spending time with her!!!



Ah techspecs. So much of why I loved Transformers as a child is because of them. I remember getting Prowl and reading his techspecs. Previously my brother and I had been wondering what the techspecs of our favorite characters would be like. His favorite character was Jazz, and mine Prowl. We'd hypothesize on what values they'd have, and we guest Prowl's rank to be 7. When I finally got Prowl and saw his rank was 9 and that he was second-in-command, my young little mind was blown away!! Up till then, of course, I only had the cartoon to go by (it was shortly after that we both started getting the comic).

[The Doctor]

Techspecs were what elevated TF's above the likes of Gobots back in the day. I loved that they gave a personality and story to a toy and so I felt I was getting a character straight out of the packaging even if it was someone who wasn't in the comics. Great springboard for the imagination. They were always cut out and carefully stored, and were referred to many times. Sadly, my tub of them was lost a long time ago. I used to think I was a very clever child as I could read the charts without using the techspec decoders!

Looking at them as an adult, I really appreciate the craft in them in that they are quite dense and get a lot of information across in not a lot of space. Much better than one line such as: 'Thrust is a bad flying robot'.

-Ralph

[Shockprowl]

Why can't todays TFs have techspecs like the old days?

[Bogatan]

The US ones still are pretty similar. Its why I sometimes seem a bit obsessive about getting them.

They remain an important parts of the whole toy for me so I'm willing to pay a little more sometimes, or wait for a store exclusive that will just be a direct import from the states half the time, or turn my holiday into an extended tour of Toy r Us and Walmart.

Andy

[The Doctor]

Sept 15, 2010 15:52:54 GMT Shockprowl said:

Why can't todays TFs have techspecs like the old days?

Due to the need for 12 languages on the packaging. That's why we get one brief line about the toy.

US packaging has a full bio on the back.

-Ralph

[Bogatan]

They do seem to have become more about cross promotion recently. Creating rivalries between figures in the same wave. I can the point (besides advertising), but kids really shouldn't need play senarios handing to them unless there has been a sever drop in child imagination in the last 2 decades.

Andy

[Shockprowl]

Sept 15, 2010 16:07:30 GMT The Doctor said:

Sept 15, 2010 15:52:54 GMT Shockprowl said:

Why can't todays TFs have techspecs like the old days?

Due to the need for 12 languages on the packaging. That's why we get one brief line about the toy.

US packaging has a full bio on the back.

-Ralph

Shame init?

[Shockprowl]

Sept 15, 2010 11:55:30 GMT Shockprowl said:

Sept 14, 2010 20:40:56 GMT Grand Moff Muffin said:

www.botchthecrab.com/archive/techspecs/

Martin

Wow! What an amazing web site!!!!! Mrs Shockprowl's going to very upset when I'm sat on it tonight instead of spending time with her!!!

This site really is fantastic! I've still got my techspecs, but they're up in the loft and I haven't read them in years. This site brings back memories! And great to read the specs of figures I didn't have, although I have read them at some point on line, but again not recently.

Reminded me of some old techspecs oddities. Red Alert's speed of 3, Hoist's rank of only 4, is Wheeljack's rank 8 or 9? Shockwave's strength only looks to be 9!!! And I know we've discussed this here on The Hub in the past, but it really bugs me how the Strike Plane's values are all muddled up!

And just to clarify that point, what did we decided last time? That Skywarp's values are meant for Starscream, Thundercracker's are meant for Skywarp, and Starscream's are meant for Thundercracker?

My brain hurts. Where's the Meths?

[grahamthomson]

There were quite a few things muddled up: the Jumpstarters, Scorponok (though I think it was corrected).

And, Ian, can you explain what happened to Cyclonus's, Hot Rod's, et al's powers when they became Targetmasters?

WELL, CAN YOU?!

[blueshift]

I remember I absolutely LOVED the strip of red plastic that came with all Transformers to decode the tech spec squiggle. I never quite understood the lines, and there were always too many words on the spec for me

But DAMN, that red plastic!