Dave's Transformers Artifact Rant

     Transformers Armada Trading Cards

     Well, I was hoping to wait until I got a full box before reviewing, but
neither Diamond nor Alliance admit that the cards exist yet, so I'll go based
on the twelve packs I picked up at Target (I get a 20% discount through my
comic shop, which is why I ordered a box through them).

CAPSULE

     Transformers Trading Cards: Well, five cards per pack is a bit steep by
my lights, but it HAS been a while since I collected trading cards.  Quality
is good, and if my experience is typical, there's good mixing of the cards
within each box (i.e. you're not gonna buy five packs and get doubles of
several cards).  Has what seems to be a sadly typical rarity system, pretty
much guaranteeing that a complete set is beyond anyone but well-off adult
collectors.  I'd recommend picking up a pack or two for the art and stuff,
but unless you were already planning to get a box, I'm not going to try to
sway you.  $1.99 per pack of five cards.  Made by Fleer.


RANT

     http://www.vigilantstudios.net/transformers/armca/ is an online visual
checklist Richard Mistron is running.

     Packaging: The packs come in two styles of box.  I've only seen the
standard "wax box" with 36 packs crammed together in two side-by-side stacks
of 18 packes.  I've also heard of $9.99 boxes with five packs and a lot of
padding, but I haven't seen any (although I've seen that sort of box for
sports cards).
     The packs themselves are foil (mylar, really), which both looks shiny
and is pretty completely opaque to keep people from trying to see if a pack
has a chase card (more on those in a bit).  Each pack contains five cards.
On the front is art of Prime (non-super mode) and Megatron side by side, with
Sparkplug and Leader-1 in front of them above the Transformers Armada logo,
all on a black and metallic blue background.  A yellow sunburst proclaims
"Look for Pat Lee autographs!"  Below the logo are three lines giving the
odds of "winning" a chase card, then a VERY tiny line about no purchase being
necessary (again, more on that below).
     On the back are the usual webpage info and legalese, and then a
statement of odds for the various cards.

     Chase Cards: One thing trading card companies have been doing for a
while has been putting in a combination of color variants, special feature
and autographed cards that are not in every pack, so you have to "chase"
after them.  Here's the various types of chase card, which I'll describe in
more detail below:
     Gold Card - 1 in every pack
     Poster Card - 1 in every 9 packs (didn't get any)
     Chromium "Autobot/Decepticon" Card - 1 in every 6 packs
     Comic Cover Art Card - 1 in every 9 packs
     "Flapper" Card - 1 in every 18 packs (so 2 per BOX)
     Pat Lee Autograph - 700 in the entire print run
     Sketchagraph Card - 50 unique sketches in the entire run (the text is
unclear about this, saying they're 1:1, but that means they're unique, not
that there's one in every pack)

     The odds are also given of getting the regular checklist (1 in every 6
packs) and the Energon promo card (1 in every 4 packs).
     Now, the thing with chase cards is that they make sales of trading cards
into gambling, under the laws of many places.  In order to get around this,
they offer a free random card to anyone who sends in a 3x5 card with their
name and address.  Since even sending this in an envelope is cheaper than
buying a pack of 5 for $1.99, they only make this available for a limited
time (a limit that arrives, um, tomorrow as I write this).  And because of
Canada's even weirder laws about gambling, Canadians must also solve a math
problem (so it's skill and not just entering) to make it legal.

     Standard Cards: There are 84 regular cards, with package (or package-
style) art on the front and a short bio on the back.  The set starts with the
Mini-Con teams in alphabetical team order (so Adventure Team is first, then
Air Defense, Air Military, etc), then Decepticons and their Mini-Con partners
in no particular order (Decepticon followed by partner, Rook and Crosswise
share a card), then Autobots and their hangers-on.  The Star Saber, Dark
Saber and Perceptor follow their respective teams.  The order breaks down a
little, with Unicron before Hot Shot and Jolt, and then Terrorsaur, Rhinox
and Airazor following Jolt.  The regular set ends with one card featuring the
kid trio.
     All of these cards have three triangular corners "cut off" as borders
(upper left, lower left, lower right) and are embossed to make these corners
recede slightly.  There's a Transformers Armada logo in the upper left, and
it is usually embossed up as well.  Sometimes a bit of a character extends
into one of the cutoff corners, and this bit is raised.  Along the bottom are
a metallic stripe (usually dull silver, sometimes dull gold) with the
character's name in the same metallic color.  Where the main character art
meets the background pattern there's a jagged "artifact" as if the image had
been very roughly cut and pasted on.  This jagged bit helps give the larger
figures a bright border.
     The backs of cards mix elements of the front's background, metallic
stripes and monochrome reproductions of the "bust" of the figure art at the
top.  There's a black stripe with the character's name in white, and then a
darker central area with white text for the bio note.
     Mini-Con cards have a blue and green energy pattern background with
concentric circles and a yellow-white energy burst at the center.  There's a
Mini-Con symbol in the lower right corner where the metallic stripe widens,
and the word "MINI-CON" above the character name, in white on the metallic
stripe.  On the back of the card, the "bust" art is of a color to match the
metallic stripes.  The central area is a darkish blue-green.  The bios are,
essentially, identical for all three members of a team, which was a MAJOR
disappointment.  At best, they'll say something like "Jetstorm combines with
Sonar and Runway" or "Runway combines wtih Jetstorm and Sonar" at the
beginning.  
     Decepticon cards have purple backgrounds with magenta concentric circles
and random blotches, and a yellow-white flare in the center.  Their cut-off
corners are dark violet, and there's a Decepticon symbol in the lower right
corner (plus the metallic stripe has "DECEPTICON" in white on the front).
The monochrome bust starts with the metallic color, but tinges it purple.
The text box is a vivid "Decepticon Purple". 
     Autobot card fronts have about the same design as the Decepticons, but
in red and orange instead of violet and magenta, and the corners are a
yellow-orange.  Needless to say, Autobot symbol in the lower right corner and
"AUTOBOT" above the character name.  The busts on the back are red tinged,
and the text area is red.
     In most cases, the bio notes are identical to those on the official
Transformers.com pages, including the teaser questions at the end of the
older ones.  There are some interesting new bits of information on the cards
for the newer characters, though, such as the Sea Team's allegiance or a
reference to Headmasters on Roll Out (although, for all I know, Hasbro has
these all up on the web now, or will soon).
     The checklist card (card 121) only lists these 84 cards.  It does not
list the puzzle cards or any of the chase cards.  It is also not embossed,
and does not seem to come in gold variant.  [Later correction: the checklist
comes in gold version.]

     Gold Cards: These variants of cards 1-120 are different only in that
they have dull gold metallic ink instead of silver.  But since there's only
one per pack, they represent a parallel set that is four times as hard to
collect, catering to the professional collectors.

     Puzzle Cards: There are four nine-card puzzles taking up card numbers
85-120.  The cardbacks show the completed image and say which puzzle letter
(A-D) and piece (1-9) the card is.  I do not have any complete puzzles yet,
and these do seem to have a higher rate of doubles (i.e. I have no doubles of
1-84 yet, but many puzzle doubles).  There are no embossings on the puzzle
cards.  

     Energon Cards: Card 122 is a promo card with Energon Scorponok on the
front and a checklist of Energon cards on the back.  These are NOT the cards
that initially shipped as techspec cards in Armada products, but they have
reportedly started to ship recently (no, I'm not buying another Hot Shot just
to get his card).  I've seen scans of these cards, they have basically the
same art as the techspec cards, but using the border pattern shown on this
promo card, not the style seen on the techspec cards.  To FULLY complete a set
of the "regular cards", you need to get these 8 extra Energon cards.
Fortunately, these cards don't seem to come in gold variants.  I spit on
trading card companies for making it nearly impossible to get all the cards,
bah.  [Later correction: there is a gold version of the promo card.]

     Cover Cards: The cover art (without logos) of Armada #1-12 are made into
cards.  The cover art is 7.3cm by 4.4cm, sunken into the surrounding card so
as to resemble an animation cel in cardstock holder.  The border is white
with light blue grid on the right and golden yellow (not metallic) with a
monochrome of the comic art blown up slightly.  A black border runs through
the card and "behind" the art, which is usually sideways from the logo.
     The back of the cover cards has a "certificate of authenticity" which I
suppose might impress a kid, but strikes me as phony-baloney.  The cover art
is also in light gray monochrome in part of the back.  More importantly, the
art credits are on both the front and back of each card, which is nice.  Too
bad there's no art credits on the regular cards.

     Chromium Cards: Chromium is a nifty way of sandwiching plastic, aluminum
foil (VERY thin) and cardstock that was used a lot in the 1990s for special
comic book covers, and still remains used in chase cards for trading card
sets.  It's not foil, not exactly.  These cards enhance the effect by using
non-rectangular cards, the upper border cut away to roughly follow the
outline of the character.
     The fronts have character art taken from sources other than the
packaging (Scavenger, for instance, looks like he's from the pack-in
comic/catalog that he starred in, since he's stomping Buzz Saw).  Below the
art is the logo, a small faction symbol of the relevant faction, then
AUTOBOTS or DECEPTICONS in large letters, then the character name at the very
bottom.  I think my Cyclonus one got mis-inserted, as it has stamping marks
from the crimping-closed of the foil pack.  
     On the back is a rusted metal pattern (red for Autobots and blue for
Decepticons), appears to be a photo.  On a rusted hatch are "N of 9 AD"
(where N is the number of the card), the name in black, and then a pithy
quote.  Cyclonus has "Out of my way!  Attack!"  Scavenger has "Always rise to
the call of duty!"

     Armada Posters: I don't have any of these.  They seem to be very small
reproductions of various Armada posters.

     Flappers: Now, these are neat.  So of course they're as rare as you can
get without being the ultra-chase level.  They're basically two-layers with
fold lines both vertical and horizontal.  Either way, they can fold into an H
shape when viewed from the top or side.  I only have one, Megatron, so I'll
be describing it.
     The first image is of the character in robot mode.  I recognize this pic
from the various sticker books I've gotten.  It's on a blue energy-ish
background, with a blue and white aura surrounding the character.  There's a
small logo at the top, "Transformers Armada" in white letters down both
sides, and the name in small dull silver letters at the bottom.  If you look
at the back, it has an image of the vehicle mode chopped in half as if the
vertical hold was on the blink.
     Pulling the top and bottom forward brings this image forward and puts it
together.  In front of a large silver Decepticon symbol is the vehicle mode.
A Transformers Armada logo is along the bottom, and below that is "Armada
Flappers / MEGATRON".
     Folding the sides forward creates a cross-shaped mode with a different
robot mode picture at the center in front of a medium-sized Decepticon logo,
with "Decepticon" above it and "Megatron: below it.  The art is something
I've seen in kidnovels.
     Finally, pulling the top and bottom bars of the cross forward restores
the rectangular shape (although, to be precise, it's a rectangular bar in the
middle half imposed on the card).  This is basically a techspec card, called
the Power Scale.  Megatron has 10's in everything, and "Fireblast" is used.
Pulling the right and left sides forward restores the card to its original
form.  

     I have never seen a sketchgraph or autograph card, so I can't describe
them.  I suppose checking eBay might reveal some, but I'm not putting my
money into chase cards.

     Anyway, it's a good, quality line, with a lot of nifty things about it.
I don't recommend trying to collect the whole set, or even a reasonable
subset, but a few packs would be worth picking up.

     Dave Van Domelen, hopes the cel-shaded CG animation on Energon improves,
right now it compares unfavorably to first season Zoids in several places.