Weekly Transformers Feature: Cosmos (Generation One AND Universe)

This coming Monday is the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing. I'll have more to say about that on Monday, but for this week's Transformers feature, I thought it would be appropriate to focus on one of the more explicitly space-oriented characters. Having settled on Cosmos, the question then became "which Cosmos toy should I feature?" I finally decided that neither toy is especially complicated, so why not do both? Generation One Cosmos is represented by the images on the left, while Universe Cosmos is featured in the images on the right. As always, you can get a larger view by clicking on each individual image.

The original Cosmos was part of the same series of Mini Vehicles that gave us Seaspray in 1985. He transforms into a fairly stereotypical (if green) flying saucer. His Tech Specs indicate that Cosmos was primarily used as a communications satellite, and that he would have to remain in Earth orbit for long periods at a time, contributing to deep feelings of loneliness. I really don't remember that the old cartoon (nor the comics, really, but Cosmos didn't really show up much there) ever indicated either Cosmos' communications function nor his loneliness all that much. He certainly wasn't depicted as just "being in orbit all the time" like Robots in Disguise Movor was (I considered doing Movor this week, too, but didn't want to distract from the space-focus by having to deal with the other Ruination team figures, and Movor's pretty boring on his own). For the 2009 Universe updated version, Cosmos' flying saucer mode gets a tail fin in back (replacing the thrusters that you really can't see anyway in the picture on the left) and some strange alien lettering that we're told spells Cosmos' name in Cybertronian, but unlike Banzai-Tron, the lettering used here doesn't actually resemble any pre-existing Cybertronian alphabet yet designed.

Like most of the other 1985 Mini Vehicles, G1 Cosmos has a robot mode that kinda-sorta looks like he's got two legs, but really ends in a single "unifoot." The placement of the heat-sensitive rubsign only serves to highlight the fact that Cosmos's feet are forever bound together. Universe Cosmos corrects this issue by giving the toy two distinct feet, which are actually quite poseable, in theory, but it achieves this poseability by using ball-and-socket joints that are among the loosest I've ever seen on a Transformers toy. I have yet to successfully transform this toy without a leg (and often an arm, as well) popping off. I'm also not particularly thrilled by Universe Cosmos' arms, since the fists are eternally locked inside the casing, making them rather useless. G1 Cosmos may have had to do with eternally-straight thruster-fingers, but I find them quite a bit more believable that the new look, which reminds me of a person wearing a long-sleeved sweater that's really too long for their arms. Still, one has to respect the attempt, not to mention the apparent difficulty of getting us an updated Cosmos toy at all! (There was a previous attempt that didn't make it past the prototype stage) Good luck finding this toy, though. I've only seen it for sale once, myself, and that was at a Rite Aid that charged an exhorbitant $8.99 for toys of this size (roughly twice what I'd have paid if I could have found it at a Toys R Us or a Target). Even the dealers at BotCon didn't have the toys of this wave (except for one, and I don't recall seeing Cosmos even at that one). If dealers can't find a toy, you know they haven't been distributed very well!

Impartial Justices and Compassionate Vision

Back during the last wave of Supreme Court nominees (has it actually been more than three years since then?), I wrote a number of entries discussing the extent to which true "impartiality" is even possible. This time around, there is a sense in which "the shoe is on the other foot," as we have a nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, who was appointed by a Democratic president, but a lot of the same issues started coming up pretty much as soon as Sotomayor's name was announced.

Of course, a good bit of the controversy has come up from her "wise Latina" remarks, but I expect that this would have been the case regardless. I don't really want to try to defend her remarks themselves too much (her actual judicial record seems to do that adequately enough, especially in regard to the issue of whether or not she demonstrates bias), but I am dismayed at how much the words "empathy" and "compassion" are being used in this debate as though they are bad things.

One thing I've learned over the past few years of living in Southern California, both from people of other races and from women who care about equality issues, is that people who are actually members of a given minority are more likely to notice when an injustice is being committed against their group than a white male is (incidentally, just to comment on a bit of dialogue from the confirmation hearings, I don't mean "choose to see." I mean "see."). All too often, I've seen complaints made by such minorities written off as being "too sensitive," and not properly taken seriously. I'm not trying to argue that either these minorities or the white males in question aren't biased in some way. I've long maintained that it's impossible to be totally bias-free. Nor do I believe that every time a minority cries "racism" or "sexism" that racism or sexism is actually taking place. But I have come to take those concerns far more seriously, and to give the cases in which those concerns are raised a closer look.

That's what I expect out of a Supreme Court Justice. I expect them to take a very close look at whatever cases are presented before them. I do expect them to try, insofar as they are able, to lay whatever prejudices they have aside. I simply feel that there is a case to be made that a "wise Latina" may well be able to see things that another person may miss on first glance, and that if she is able to bring these issues to the attention of others, then there is a greater opportunity to give those issues close scrutiny that might well be missed if the "wise Latina" isn't present. That's not to say that I think we need to start setting "quotas" for having minorities on the Supreme Court, or necessarily in any other particular place. But it is to say that there is value to be had because a person represents a different group, and that it is unfair to dismiss this value, much less to turn it into a negative.

The Crystal Cathedral Nepotism Continues

More than half a year ago, I commented on the unceremonious dumping of Robert A. Schuller (son of Crystal Cathedral founding pastor Robert H. Schuller) as the preacher on the "Hour of Power" television program. Robert A. was not technically removed as head pastor of the Crystal Cathedral at that time, but since the "Hour of Power" program is just the edited broadcast of the regular worship gatherings there, it's no surprise that he resigned from that position by the end of the year. The July 14, 2009 edition of Christian Century reports that the elder Schuller has now turned over "the administrative duties" of the Crystal Cathedral ministry to his daughter, Sheila Schuller Coleman.

While I am certainly glad to see a woman given such authority in such a stereotypically patriarchal environment, it's pretty much impossible for me to believe that no non-family member could have been found who was more qualified. I'm reminded of a comment a friend made on this blog back when Robert A. was named the new pastor in the first place suggesting that such nepotism was questionable, and here we see it all over again.

Although the article does indicate that officials of the Reformed Church of America (the denomination to which the Crystal Cathedral belongs) supported the elder Schuller in the ouster of the younger, I'm guessing that it wasn't because they had an issue with nepotism (frankly, I'd like to know what the reason for their support was). In any event, the continued use of Robert H.'s children as Crystal Cathedral leadership makes me wonder what Schuller family reunions look like.

I'm also quick to note that Ms. Coleman hasn't been named the new senior pastor, although she will "be preaching occasionally," and I'm curious as to what's up with that, as we're also told that the current interim senior pastor (who seems to be oddly not family-connected) "will continue at the church as a teaching pastor," implying that the interim's days as "senior pastor" are numbered. Maybe I'm just the suspicious type when it comes to issues of women in ministry, but this sounds a lot to me like they'll stop using the "senior pastor" title altogether, rather than give it to a woman. I hope that I'm wrong about that.

Weekly Transformers Feature: Seaspray

When I started college in 1992, the Transformers toy line had been "dead" for nearly two years. I knew nothing, as of yet, about the fact that Generation Two would be hitting the shelves in just a few short months. So far as I knew, the very concept of "Transformers" only continued to exist in the minds of fans like me ("It never ends!" as Simon Furman infamously said at the end of the letter column of the Marvel comic book). I was therefore extremely surprised to find Seaspray sitting on the pegs of a local Woolworth's while in Asheville that Fall. Needless to say, I snatched the toy up immediately!

Finding Seaspray at a retail (not second-hand) store in 1992 was doubly surprising, since Seaspray was released as part of the second wave of Mini Vehicles in 1985. By all rights, this toy should have been bought years before! It's almost as though the toy was just waiting for me to find it.

I've said a number of times before how scale is a bit inconsistent with Transformers toys most of the time. If you look closely at the vehicle mode here, you'll notice a door in the very back of the white portion. If that door is considered large enough to fit a human being, and if Seaspray is supposed to transform without any size-changing involved, he'd have to rival Omega Surpreme in height! As it is, he's pretty consistently depicted as being one of the shorter Autobots.

Although the 1985 Mini Vehicles are a welcome departure from just being "car" modes, most of them (all except for Beachcomber) have one "deficiency" in common. None of them have separate feet in robot mode! The robot mode more or less looks humanoid, as if two separate legs are present, and this is borne out by the package art (as seen above), but the feet are eternally fused together in a single piece of plastic. Ah, well, this is before posability was considered quite as important as it is today, and I really can't complain.

John Calvin at 500

Friday is the 500th Anniversary of John Calvin's birth. Although I am a card-carrying Presbyterian, I'm not such a staunch Calvinist that I'm going to bump my weekly Transformers feature just to make sure that I recognize Calvin's birthday on July 10th, so I have two choices: 1) Do 2 features on Friday, or 2) recognize the birthday a couple of days early.

You can already tell which alternative I've chosen. :)

There is a sense in which Calvin is the guy that Presbyterians (indeed, anyone in the Reformed tradition, which encompasses a number of other Protestant denominations) view as the founder of their branch of theology. Even if Calvin didn't originate a particular doctrine himself (his work owes a great debt to Augustine, in particular), it is often Calvin's particular take on it (often encapsulated in the acronym, "TULIP", which stands for "Total Depravity," "Unconditional Election," "Limited Atonement," "Irresistible Grace," and "Perseverance of the Saints") that Presbyterians look to for authority.

At least, so it is often assumed, both by Presbyterians themselves as well as those outside of the Reformed tradition. In reality, it's generally not so clear-cut. Presbyterians, for example, often either don't know the tenets of "TULIP" (and I don't really blame them, as the acronym's letters each come from the adjective describing the doctrine, and opposed to the core word of the doctrine itself. Knowing "Total, Unconditional, Limited, Irresistible, and Perseverance" doesn't tell you as much as knowing what or who those adjectives refer to, even if you know those things, but don't know the adjectives.) or actively argue against some element of one of TULIP's "petals" (even a Presbyterian pastor might argue against how "limited" the atonement is, for example). Of course, the formulation "TULIP" itself was created in response to Arminian thought by some of Calvin's followers well after Calvin's death, but it nonetheless is considered to be a reliable short-form of Calvin's teachings. In any event, even fewer Presbyterians have an understanding of Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, which detail his thoughts far more thoroughly, than they do of TULIP.

But even if Calvin's teachings are not universally agreed to (and I myself am pretty conflicted on that count), there is a sense in which he left a legacy to which not only Presbyterians are indebted, but indeed the United States and other western democracies in the secular world, as well. For one thing, our representative form of government--in particular, the system of checks and balances inherent therein--is an outgrowth of Calvin's teachings on human fallibility. Of course, Calvin's insistence upon reason and academic study is of great importance to those of us who also try to find an intersection between matters of faith and secular understanding. Montreat Conference Center is hosting a conference, starting today, celebrating Calvin's 500th birthday, specifically calling it "an opportunity to rediscover Calvin’s significant and sometimes misunderstood legacy." One of the professors I work for, Dr. John L. Thompson, will be giving a lecture as part of the conference tomorrow: "Psalms of Cursing and Lament as a Prism for Calvin's Use of Scripture." It's his first trip to Montreat. Wish I could join him.

UPDATE: July 15, 2009. This week's episode of The God Complex featured a discussion of John Calvin's legacy. They were nice enough to give me a shout-out at the end as "Intern of the Week," which means nothing more than that I gave them a theme concept for how they would read the names of the people involved in putting the show together at the end of the podcast. I'd invite you to have a listen, particularly for those credits at the end. Can you guess what theme I gave them? I'll bet you can! ;)

Fourth of July with Family

This past weekend, I took a quick trip up to Placerville to visit family. My parents, who live in Kentucky, are up there visiting their parents, siblings, and other extended family who mostly all still live in the area (or, in some cases, have returned having once moved away). I've been needing to visit my Placerville family for a while anyway, but whenever my parents are expected to be up there, too, I tend to make a special effort. So even though it was a quick trip (at least I got Friday off of work, or even that might not have been possible!), I drove the 400-odd miles from the Pasadena area to Northern California for the holiday weekend.

Since we were up there for the Fourth of July weekend, one of the main items on the agenda was to go to Carson City, Nevada and the Nevada State Railroad Museum. It has been tradition for the NSRM to steam up the Inyo, which at 134 years old is one of the oldest steam locomotives still operating, although "operating" is perhaps used loosely here, since they only steam it up once a year, and it never carries any freight. But the fact that it still can run under its own power is the important thing. My dad is a steam locomotive fan par excellence, and we've taken more trips to more railroad museums than I can count over the course of my life. The NSRM is one of the "special" ones. While I wouldn't consider myself an expert on this kind of thing (my knowledge certainly pales when compared with his), I probably know far more about this kind of thing than most people. Ask me about the significance of the date, May 10, 1869, sometime (and how this engine connects with that date, despite not yet having been built!).

Of course, I was really there to visit with family, and one great way to do that on the Fourth of July is to watch the fireworks. A whole bunch of us found a piece of grass at one of the Placerville-area parking lots from which to watch the show, which lasted about 15 minutes. But before the show could start, we spent a few hours waiting and enjoying each other's company. Here's a shot of one of my cousins playing bubbles with her sons (the other one's out of shot at the moment, but he's running back and forth trying to pop them!).

It was definitely a far quicker trip than I would have liked, especially for such a long drive, but I'm glad I took it. I enjoyed spending time with everyone, and took far more pictures than I can comfortably share here (you can see an album here). Also, I'm increasingly aware that, especially in regard to my grandparents (on both sides, although only one is represented here), each time I see them could be my last. I'm trying to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves.

Weekly Transformers Feature: Energon Arcee

As I mentioned back when I reviewed BotCon Elita-1, "female Autobots" are a bit of a rarity. Of course, being robots, the very concept of Transformers as even having gender is a bit of an oddity, but whether it makes sense or not, most continuities suggest that there are male Transformers and female Transformers, with female ones being quite rare (there are female Decepticons, but they're even more rare!). Perhaps the most prominent female Autobot in Generation One was Arcee. But, to this day, G1 Arcee has still never been given a mainstream transforming toy (there was an exclusive made for BotCon 2001, although quite frankly this toy bears little resemblance to the character she's supposed to represent). In fact, if you only count mainstream retail releases, it took even longer for Hasbro to make any transforming Arcee toy than it did for them to make a Unicron!

The first transformable Arcee available at retail was made for the Energon line in 2004. Arcee turns into a motorcycle, a mode that has since been used for other Arcee toys, and it seems that these toys get repainted to represent other "female" characters quite a bit. In fact, including the BotCon 2005 toys, this particular mold has been reused no fewer than six more times! I'm not at all clear on why a motorcycle is particularly "feminine," but there you go.

Although Energon Arcee is not actually intended to be the same character as Generation One Arcee, the homage is clear enough. Both Arcees have a predominately pink color scheme, and clearly "feminine" curves, including an... *ahem* enhanced chest. Energon Arcee has some of the wimpiest hands I've ever seen on a Transformer (at least, among those that actually have dedicated hands). They almost seem put on there as an afterthought, and aren't really any good for much anything. All in all, this toy is most definitely not what I would consider a movement toward gender equality.

Energon Arcee is a member (in at least some accounts, the leader, perhaps to offset that gender inequity problem) of a subgroup called the "Omnicons." Unlike Generation One, where a "-cons" suffix was a clear indication of being allied with the Decepticons, "Omnicons" are Autobots (there were rumors before Energon started up of this group being called "Omnibots"--no clear relation to these guys--but that name apparently didn't clear legal). "Omnicons" were intended to be unique among Autobots for their ability to work with and shape Energon into tools and weapons. The transparent red star and other similarly colored parts with Arcee are intended to represent such Energon. The stars (called "Energon Chips") could be attached to other Energon Transformers to represent being given a power-up, which the other parts could be rearranged in various ways. Arcee's Energon parts are intended to form a kind of crossbow, but the design of the figure is such that the only way Arcee can actually hold it is to hold it way out to the side and take a wide stance with her legs. Even then, she's rather liable to falling over, so I feel fortunate that this shot turned out so well!