Aerialbots

The Aerialbots (called Airbots in Japan and Aérobots in France) are a group of Autobots that transform into aircraft and combine to form the giant robot Superion. They were introduced into the Transformers toyline in 1985 and sold as a Superion gift set, and then sold separately in 1986 in most department stores (e.g., Toys R' Us, Sears, Kay-Bee Toys). Their archenemies are the Decepticon car team the Stunticons.

Transformers: Generation 1

The Aerialbots are the Autobot's second "sub-group" to be introduced to the animated series (the first sub-group being the Dinobots). The Aerialbots consist of five jet planes. This gives the Autobots a team specializing in air power for the first time, something that had always been reserved in the past by the Decepticons. Aerialbots were created to counter the Stunticons, a newly created Decepticon sub-group that would give the Decepticons mastery of the roads, something that had been reserved by the Autobots in the past.

The Aerialbots would also be the Autobots first "combiner" team of the series. When the Aerialbots merge, they become one giant robot known as Superion, a "Scramble City" combiner, or scrambler for short.

Transformers

Transformers (Japanese: トランスフォーマー, Hepburn: Toransufōmā) is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. Initially a line of transforming toys rebranded from Takara's Diaclone and Microman toylines, the franchise began in 1984 with the Transformers toy line, and centers on factions of transforming alien robots (often the Autobots and the Decepticons) in an endless struggle for dominance or eventual peace. In its decades-long history, the franchise has expanded to encompass comic books, animation, video games and films.

The term "Generation 1" covers both the animated television series The Transformers and the comic book series of the same name, which are further divided into Japanese and British spin-offs, respectively. 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 (Armada, Energon, and Cybertron) that constitute a single universe called the "Unicron Trilogy". A live-action film was also released in 2007, with a sequel in 2009, a second sequel in 2011, and a third in 2014. again distinct from previous incarnations, while the Transformers: Animated series merged concepts from the G1 story-arc, the 2007 live-action film and the "Unicron Trilogy". Transformers: Prime previously aired on The Hub.

Transformers (2003 video game)

Transformers (トランスフォーマー, Toransufōmā), or The Transformers: Call of the Future, is an action role-playing game released by Takara in October 2003 for PlayStation 2 exclusively in Japan. It is based on the popular Transformers animated series. During early stages of development it was led to believe by the media that the game was called Transformers: Tataki (トランスフォーマー: タタキ, Toransufōmā: Tataki), or Transformers: Assault, a title that many fans use to help disambiguate.

Overview

The game allows players to select a side (either Autobot or Decepticon). The Autobot side stars Optimus Prime, Jazz and Wheeljack, who are later joined by Rodimus Prime, Arcee and Kup. The Decepticon faction begins with Megatron (referred to here by his Japanese title Emperor of Destruction), Starscream and Soundwave with Galvatron, Cyclonus and Scourge joining them later on. Other Transformers are unlocked as the game progresses and join their respective factions. These Transformers include such Generation 1 stalwarts as Ratchet, Bumblebee, Hound, Astrotrain, Blitzwing and Shockwave. Later additions from the Transformers movie, such as Springer and Ultra Magnus, also appear. A number of characters from the Japanese exclusive series The Headmasters make appearances as well, notably the Trainbots and Sixshot (who is portrayed as a powerful ninja warrior as he was in the Headmasters anime), also included were Dark Hot Rod (Black Rodimus) and Optimus Clone (Black Convoy).

List of Transformers TV series

Launched in 1984, Hasbro's Transformers toyline was promoted through both a comic book by Marvel Comics and an animated series produced by Sunbow Productions and Marvel Productions. Although the comic outlived the animated series by a number of years, it was the animated series that truly captured the hearts and minds of children worldwide. With the original show's conclusion in 1987, original series exclusive to Japan were created which ran until 1990, and the franchise was later re-imagined with the fully CGI Beast Wars in the late 1990s. The 21st Century saw a total reboot of the Transformers universe, as Hasbro collaborated with Japanese Transformers producers Takara to create a new storyline with Transformers: Armada and its sequels, produced in Japan and then dubbed for English-speaking audience. In 2008, Transformers Animated saw Hasbro take control of the franchise once more through collaboration with Cartoon Network, bringing writing duties back to America, with animation being handled by Japanese studios. Hasbro also reacquired the distribution rights to the original series from Sunbow finally giving them the complete rights to the series based on their Generation 1 toy-line.

Slingshot!

Slingshot! is a quarterly anarchist newspaper published in Berkeley, California since 1988 by the Slingshot Collective. It is a non-profit project of the Long Haul Infoshop. Slingshot provides free subscriptions to prisoners and people with low income in the United States.

The Slingshot Collective also publishes an annual datebook called the Slingshot Organizer.

Most recently, Slingshot has provided a consistent forum for coverage of the Occupy Movement and its many branches especially Occupy Oakland.

External links

Slingshot

A slingshot or slingshut (primarily American), hand catapult (primarily British English), shanghai or ging(primarily Australian and New Zealand), kattie (in South Africa), bean shooter, or flip, is normally a small hand-powered projectile weapon. Wrist-braced slingshots with tubular banding might generically be called "wrist rockets", however, the term Wrist-Rocket is a registered trademark of Saunders Archery. The classic form consists of a Y-shaped frame held in the off hand, with two natural-rubber strips attached to the uprights. The other ends of the strips lead back to a pocket that holds the projectile. The dominant hand grasps the pocket and draws it back to the desired extent to provide power for the projectile - up to a full span of the arm with sufficiently long bands.

History and use

Slingshots depend on strong elastic materials, typically vulcanized natural rubber or the equivalent, and thus date no earlier than the invention of vulcanized rubber by Charles Goodyear in 1839 (patented in 1844). By 1860, this "new engine" had already established a reputation for juvenile use in vandalism. For much of their early history, slingshots were a "do-it-yourself" item, typically made from a forked branch to form the "Y" shaped handle, with rubber strips sliced from items as inner tubes or other sources of good vulcanized rubber and firing suitably sized stones.

Slingshot (film)

Mercy is a 2005 American independent crime film written and directed by Jay Alaimo and starring David Arquette, Thora Birch and Balthazar Getty.

Cast

References

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