Chapter 67: Mechanical + Alien
The lunch break eventually ended with Milla thinking that she kept him in the dark with her stardom secrets.
She even blackmailed him for the secret divulgence as long as he gives her the new story he was uninterruptibly working on.
Alexander simply gave her a false win as he handed her his RoboCop and Predator notes.
Anyways, he was mostly done with planning for them and he could finally move on to the next piece.
With Milla busy, he could continue with his franchise plagiarizing spree and the contemplation about the ramifications of it.
What could it imply about his character? This was the question that bugged him.
It wasn't the morality of it that he is troubled with but just the deeper reflection and analysis of himself.
Perhaps he has chased flaws in computer programs through all his past-future life that he can't tolerate the pitfalls that the franchises would fall into.
Perhaps he is just embracing the capitalist in him and just as capitalists do, he wants to hog all of it for himself.
Between correcting mistakes or embodying greed, Alexander did not need to trouble himself and just owned up to it.
There was no need to justify plunder as a good thing or boil it down to his newfound profit hoarding orientation. It's just Alexander being Alexander and there was nothing too complicated about that.
What he does know is that aside from the conferred title of Chaos Butterfly, he could now knight himself as the Franchise Plunderer.
He didn't loot through war but he did do it through an attrition of speed and overwhelming advantage against its original source.
And what was the first thing that comes to mind after being the Franchise Plunderer? Of course, it was to plunder another franchise.
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As a kid in 1984 with knowledge of the next 38 years or so ahead, the franchise sources to plunder from seems to be a lot.
A lot of them aren't even risky anymore as the conceptualization year still hasn't even been passed by the present time.
Nonetheless, Alexander wanted to go with another risky route as the rewards in difficult situations are sometimes always worth it.
He didn't even have to stray far from his two recent plunders.
If RoboCop was mechanical and Predator was alien, then all he needed was to combine those simplifications.
There is a lot that comes up with combined alien plus mechanical franchises but nothing else could come close to the success of this certain franchise.
Perhaps only the GoBots could come in second with the alien plus mechanical juggernaut. Too bad that Alexander can't be satisfied with that and eyed the top spot.
There was nothing else that it could be aside from the super famous Car-Robot and Micro Change.
That is its current designations as of this year 1984 and the predecessors to the ever-encompassing Transformers.
In a stroke of early convenience once again and by virtue of his Butterfly effect, Hasbro and Marvel collaborations still haven't been passed around.
Perhaps Creed Comics' success made the toy company skeptical of Marvel's background story-making.
Perhaps the Hasbro executives slept on combining Japanese toy lines as they eyed the toy adaptation of Creed Comic titles.
Whatever the case, it meant that he has a chance and it would be stupid not to take it.
Fortunately, he had set some space in the table as Milla read through his outlines. He needs all the space he could as he didn't want to be confined with the Blocky-formers.
The mid-1980s can't get toy-ly acquainted with 2000s super-detailed BeyFormers yet. However, they could still work with the delicate balance that 2018's Bumblebee movie had achieved.
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The drawing ensued as Alexander kinked out through the details of the future, the past, and the new present.
Diaclone launched in 1980 and consisted of transforming vehicles and robots piloted by miniature, magnet-shoed figures spun off from the prior Microman toy line.
It was only in 1982 that the featured Car-Robot line was introduced.
Micro Change was also a sub-line like Car-Robot but it came from the various action figures of MicroMan.
In a fated 1983 Tokyo Toy Expo, a Hasbro toy developer wasn't interested in the main Diaclone and MicroMan lines but instead gave focus on the convergence of its sub-lines that capitalize on automobiles transforming into humanoid robots.
A pitch was made in Hasbro headquarters and they planned on licensing the two different brands under one toyline when it came into their markets.
Ideas were flowing here and there until they settled on Transformers.
With the concept from Takara, Hasbro would eventually corroborate with third company company for the toyline's storyline and that was with Marvel.
Takara, Hasbro, and Marvel would become a tripartite that seemed impenetrable by any other outsider but that is only when you don't know where to look.
As of this June, Marvel still hasn't been approached for the story and MVP Mr. Legalities had already been laying out the groundwork for the Creed Comics version.
Through the legal insight, Mr. Legalities pointed out the loopholes in transforming automobiles that the little boss could use to his advantage.
The company legal consultant had no clue what was going on but since his stoic little boss commended him, he gave himself a pat on the back for a job well done.
Alexander's plundering was thus legally justified with all the weak points that were pointed out in the Transformers concept.
Hasbro could still have their Diaclone and Micro Change under them to pave the way for their Transformers Generation 1.
Alexander awarded them that while he took Cybertron, Quintessa, Primus, Unicron, Decepticons, and Autobots to himself. The universal view still hasn't been drafted by Jim Shooter after all.
It also isn't like Takara exclusively owned aliens that morph into cars and vice versa.
Alexander just had to register Transformium and having aliens morph between car and robot forms could be justifiedly used by him
As such, the popular characters like Bumblebee, Jazz, and Shockwave and all of them could very well be taken under his wing.
Even better news was the apparent lack of control about the animals transforming into humanoid robots concept.
Thus, Hasbro could only be satisfied with Gen 1 while Alexander already set his sights on the wildly successful Beast Wars.
The mechanical plus alien franchise was slowly coming together and he didn't have to step too much into the toes of the toy giants.
Although, he wouldn't have Transformers under his name but Autobots vs. Decepticons shouldn't be that bad of a placeholder.
Storylines and outlines were also being set in place and it would come as no surprise that Hasbro-Transformers has to step up their game if they want to win on the popularity competition.
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As Alexander worked on the so-called 'Autobots vs. Decepticons' draft, a happy curve appeared in his mouth.
He was genuinely happy at being able to bag one of the most profitable franchises of all time. Trouble in toy manufacturing was still present but having ownership in the core concepts is already a win.
Who could blame him when Hasbro is still slowly piecing things together? The early bird gets the worm after all.
As for Milla who was seeing his rare smile for the first time, she could only feel shocked as she assumed that Alex was physically incapable of doing so.