Rework's

"Tech Specs - The way they ought to be!"

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Tech Specs are one of the best features of the Transformer line.... But they aren't perfect! Besides the few errors, the quality of the tech specs went steadily down-hill... Year one & two specs had great write-ups and numerical "balance". Leaders had high intelligence, and warriors had good combat specs. Large toys (OP, Jetfire, Soundwave) were generally more powerful than medium cars & jets, who outclassed small toys (mini-bots and cassettes). The later G1 years were OK, but the G2 specs were terrible. And I won't even go into the crap they throw out for the Beast Wars toys. Meg and Op all 10's? Wouldn't want to put any thought into that. And did anyone notice that Inferno, Infantry Commander, would probably get his butt kicked by Rattrap the spy!?! Give me a break. (Please Hasbro, take a clue from the early years! At least make an effort. Heck, let me write them!)
So, I have taken the liberty (it's MY website, I can do what I want!) of revising a few specs to what I think they should have been. I'm not talking major changes... just modifying a few numbers here and there. But I think these make a little more sense.

Starscream: STR 7 INT 9 SP 9 END 8 RNK 9 COU 9 FP 8 SK 8 (Was:7/7/9/7/5/8/7/7)

Skywarp: STR 7 INT 5 SP 10 END 7 RNK 5 COU 8 FP 7 SK 7 (Was:7/9/10/7/9/9/8/8)

Explanation: The popular "legend" is that these specs were accidently switched to begin with. Starscream is supposed to be the #2 Decep, but only has a RK 5 and mostly 7's. And according to the write-up, Skywarp is "not too smart.... useless without Megatron's supervision". Doesn't sound like a RK and INT of 9 to me. So I have reversed most of the specs between the two. The exception being Speed. While I feel the flight SP rank of 10 should be reserved for Jetfire, I can accept it for Skywarp because of his Teleporting ability. Can't get much faster than that!

Sludge: STR 9 INT 3 SP 2 END 10 RNK 4 COU 9 FP 5 SK 5 (Was:9/3/2/10/4/9/1/5)

Snarl: STR 9 INT 6 SP 3 END 9 RNK 5 COU 8 FP 5 SK 4 (Was:9/6/3/9/4/8/1/4)

Explanation: The reason for this is simple: the toys CAME with guns AND missile launchers. That qualifies for a firepower greater than one!
On dinobot intelligence: I think it is fine where it is. The only reason the dinobots are portrayed as complete morons on TV is because the show is aimed at little kids. To get a below average intelligence across to a little kid, that's about all you can do. Despite what my wife thinks, I am not a little kid. I consider this a legitimate Sci-Fi universe. Besides, would a force as technologicly advanced as the Autobots build warriors as powerful as the Dinobots, and make them as dumb as the TV show has them? And make one of them a rank 9? Talk about recipe for disaster...

Hot Rod: STR 8 INT 7 SP 7 END 8 RNK 6 COU 10 FP 5 SK 7 (Was:10/10/9/10/10/7/10/10)

TM Hot Rod: STR 8 INT 7 SP 7 END 8 RNK 6 COU 10 FP 8 SK 7 (Was:6/5/6/8/5/10/7/6)

Explanation: (Oboy... Messing with a fan fav here...) My theory is that someone thought HR's specs were too high the first time and then over-compensated on the TM version. So I suggest we lay these somewhere in the middle. Let's assume that there is SOME benefit to getting the Matrix (HR is actually stronger than Rodimus Prime as is), so we lower them in the original. And, to follow continuity, we can increase the FP of the TM version to show that there is some benfit to having a TM partner. Now isn't that more logical?

Red Alert: STR 5 INT 7 SP 7 END 5 RNK 7 COU 7 FP 7 SK 8 (Was:5/7/3/5/7/7/7/8)

Explanation: Changed only one thing: Speed. Why? Because he's a Lamborgini! Why else? Actually, I had always assumed that he had a speed of 7. All of the other year 1&2 Autobot sports cars had speeds of at least 7. Why should Red Alert be the one who has to trudge along with Ironhide and Hoist and actually get outrun by Trailbreaker? Oh, and did I mention that he's a Lamborgini?

Ultra Magnus - Normal Robot: STR 8 INT 9 SP 6 END 8 RNK 8 COU 9 FP 6 SK 8 (Was:9/9/6/8/8/9/6/8)

Ultra Magnus - Super Robot: STR 9 INT 9 SP 4 END 9 RNK 8 COU 9 FP 8 SK 8

One thing that the Japanese Tech Specs did that I really liked was that they often created seperate specs for different configurations: Overlord has different TS for tank and jet halves, God Gin Rai (PM Prime + Godbomber) has different specs than Super Gin Rai, etc. (I realize that there aren't seperate specs for "Not-So-Super" Gin Rai, but maybe I'll fix that, too.) I think that's a good idea, and it would be neat to do that with Ultra Magnus and a few others. Not that there's anything "wrong" with UM as written, I just like these minor tweaks.

When Ultra Magnus is just "hanging around" Autobot HQ, he would just be in the regular cab robot form. It's smaller, easier to get around in (so he's not always knocking over shelves with those mortar launchers sticking off the shoulders!) But when out and prepared for battle, he'd join up with the trailer section for a stronger "Super Robot" mode. And I don't see any problem with tacking on a few points between endurance and firepower. He is one of the "Big Guys" after all. Significantly bigger than that "shrimp" Rodimus, right?

Jetfire: Normal Jet: STR 6 INT 10 SP 10 END 4 RNK 10 COU 9 FP 7 SK 10 (Was:6/10/10/4/10/9/7/9)

Jetfire: Armored Jet STR 6 INT 10 SP 10 END 6 RNK 10 COU 9 FP 7 SK 9

Like UM, I don't think there's anything "wrong" with Jetfire's specs as written. It's just that he is the coolest Transformer ever made, my personal favorite, and I just want them to be a tiny bit better.

Jetfire is supposed to be (at least in "my" world) the ultimate air combat jet. He has the speed of 10 for it, but I think that he also should have a skill of 10 to go with it. And since Jetfire has removable armor, I want to have some change for his armored form. I know they wanted to give Jetfire a weakness in endurance (maybe assuming that he'd be so fast that no one can hit him, anyway), but for a "Big Guy" I think 4 was a touch low. So how about the armored mode giving Jetfire a few more points of endurance. A "6" doesn't exactly upset the balance. And as a trade-off he'll be reduced back to a skill of 9 to reflect the reduced manuverability due to the extra bulk.

I was very tempted to shave speed by a point in the unarmored form, but that reduces him back to "just another jet". So in both modes, I'm leaving the speed at 10, though the armored mode would be the only one capable of escape velocity. If I believed in the "10+" stat, I'd use it here, but I refuse to use that. To me, it's just a result of bad planning to begin with. If they weren't so overly generous handing out "10's" to begin with, we wouldn't need it.

And I also have no interest in reducing the rank by a point like the Cyberjet version. I'm perfectly happy with a rank of 10. It may not necessarily reflect a command position, but I like Jetfire not having to report to anyone else.

Comments and Suggestions are welcome.

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