Hmph. Lots of questions this week. Good thing I do so little in Cybertron that I have time to answer, not that I'm bitter ...

Also, hello to those coming in from Seibertron. We notice free advertising and we appreciate it.

First, the questions from the official site:

Q: How did Sideways come back? I thought he was destroyed for good by Armada Optimus Prime.
A: It's a different Sideways. Unicron isn't very creative about naming his minions. After Cyclonus and Scourge, he ran out of good ideas. Just be glad you never ran across Hook, Line, and Sinker.

Q: Who created Primus and Unicron?
A: Hasbro.

Depending on your mythology, Unicron is a force of nature and thus has always existed and Primus was created by the soul of the universe itself to defend against Unicron. Or they're both gods from another dimension, and goodness knows how gods are made. Or Primacron created them and they have a 'brother' named Tornitron.

Q: Does Optimus Prime have a brother and what is his name?
A: In some continuities, it's Ultra Magnus. In one continuity, depending on your definitions, he has a sister named Elita-1. The rest of the time, if Optimus Prime has 'family', he never mentions them.

Q: Was Primus cool?
A: Primus modelled the Matrix on a disco ball. Primus was cool ... in the 70's. He hasn't really kept up with trends since then.

Q: What is the next Transformers series?
A: My cue-cards say it will be Transformers: Insecticons, where everyone has arthropod alt-modes and they're on a quest to find the biggest pudding in the universe. My cue-cards are being held by Shrapnel. The current rumour is that the next toy series will be G1-based, to lead into the new movie franchise.

Q: Who else will combine with Optimus Prime?
A: After a few drinks, Optimus Prime will combine with anybody.

Q: Why was Megatron lost in Energon?
A: Oh, for ... Here's the official answer:

"He was lost because of his ultimate quest for power. His desire to rule the universe blinded him to what was going on, and he became lost."

The official answer didn't actually watch Energon. Megatron found the core of Unicron and absorbed it into himself. Unicron possessed him for a while, but Megatron was able to take control long enough to fly into a ball of super energon in the hopes of destroying Unicron permanently. This had the side effect of creating a sun for a small universe on the other side of a spacial rift. Megatron was the hero of Energon, even though he did it out of spite.

Q: Does Override have a Cyber Key power?
A: She has the Cyber Key power of hotness. Also, it makes her guns flip out.

Q: How did Overhaul turn into Leobreaker?
A: Magic. No, really. He prayed to the Beast Totem - really the Cyber Planet Key - of the Jungle Planet and it reformatted him. He might have been more open to the power of the Key because he was near death, but it was still magic.

Q: Do you know EVAC?
A: EVAC owes me twenty bucks.

And here are questions sent straight to the Insecticons:

Q: What would you do if you ever met Sideswipe and Sunstreaker from G1?
A: Under what circumstances? Generally if I'm with a group of Autobots, it's because I need their help to repair the fabric of reality. I see Sideswipe and Sunstreaker in the 'ignore the old mech' contingiant, though they would be useful in a fight. Probably if I met them, I would ignore them right back, instead directing my attention towards those inclined to listen.

Bah, G1. That continuity's such a mess. No one would notice the difference if I just let it implode. Jetfire's already all over the map ...

Q: What happened to all the classic transformer names. like Tracks, Bumblebee, Springer, et cetera?
A: Hasbro lost the trademarks, but people stick their fingers in their ears and yell, "But they SHOULD use the old names!" when I say that. So here's an in-continuity answer: on Cybertron, as on Earth, name popularity goes through trends and cycles. On Earth, for instance, names like 'Michael' have been popular for decades, while on Cybertron, names like 'Jetstorm' never seem to go out of style. However, names like 'Skye' for a human are merely trendy and rarely seen. 'Springer' is an example of a Cybertronian trend name.

Also, Hasbro did use Tracks recently - the Alternator Autobot Tracks. Agreed that this is a bit silly - like calling somebody Human Steve or Roommate Dave or such - but it's easier to hang on to a simple name like 'Tracks' if it has a qualifier.

Takara seems to still have 'Bumblebee', even if Hasbro doesn't, judging by that Minibots reissue set they put out in 2004. I hear Hasbro is trying to get the name back, presumeably for the movie. The important thing to remember is that no matter how you look at it, 'Bumblebee' is a really dumb name for a robot car.

Q: Have you figured out how to explode and respawn safely yet?
A: Back when I was at the peak of my powers, I had the next best thing - I could see a ways into the future possibilities and could avoid the ones that could get me exploded in the first place. These days, I'm just looking for a way to stop getting backhanded by Megatron.

Q: Do you think Blinky or Juju would make a good Minicon?
A: Certainly. If they were Minicons, like all Minicons, they could unlock the hidden powers of Transformers. And when all else fails, they can be rolled up and thrown at people. Unfortunately, it's more likely that attaching a pillbug to a Minicon port would only compel the user to hug everyone in sight. While a useful power on the Planet Of Open-Minded Supermodels, it is less than helpful against angry Decepticons. Unless they're angry supermodel Decepticons.

Q: When there's trouble do you know who to call?
A: I wish I did. When there's trouble, generally people call me.

Q: Why are you so pretty and shiny?
A: Some of it is because Wayward touched up my paint so my paintjob is even fancier than the one the Japanese version of my toy wears. Most of it involves a lot of hot wax.

Q: From now on every time there's a seemingly irreconcilable continuity error or weird temporal anomaly in Transformers, instead of trying to come up with some logical explanation I'm just going to blame it on you. Is that cool?
A: Argh! No! I'm the one trying to fix the errors. I admit I caused a few of them when I was younger, ridiculously powerful, and not sure how to use my abilities, but I dealt with those ones first. Most anomalies are caused by writers who didn't keep up with one another's work, and most of the new ones occur because Hasbro decided something, like declaring that Cybertron is in the Armada/Energon continuity.

Q: I was wondering if you prefer going without batteries ( to avoid that laser sound when you lift your arm. )
A: In fact, I do, though I didn't have it nearly so bad as the Armada Seekers or Scorponok did. I need to have my Cyber Key enabled and then a ratchet-joint moved. The jets and Scorponok could hardly move without accidentally setting themselves off.

Q: By proportion, how big IS Cybertron Metroplex?
A: The toy or the character in proportion to what? The toy seems to be about twice the height of Optimus Prime in super-mode. Cartoon-wise, super-mode Optimus Prime comes up to his knee.

Q: How do the humans ride in the Minicons in 'BOT mode? Sub-space, or in them in armor?
A: I'm not even sure how they ride inside Minicons in vehicle-mode. I asked Safeguard and all he told me was, "Minicons have eerie powers. Woogy." The little pests were spawned by Unicron. I blame that.