Making it fit in the Universe-al

I really love this ride.

I'm ridiculous. You reading this blog already realize this. But, I admit it, I'm ridiculous. Friday afternoon, while out doing some holiday shopping, I was at Ross buying some of the Autobots Unite Legion sets that have been showing up (just need that Megatron/Berserker set now). While in line, I was looking at the toys. They're obviously from the movie universe, but you know what I did? I started talking to my wife about the new Supply Vault Exclusive Snarl toy. He's not in the ride, but he has a ride exclusive toy. Then I looked down at the figures in my hand. Sure, Optimus and Bumblebee are in the ride. But Hot Rod and Ravenspar isn't. The set I haven't found yet, Megatron is in the ride (in an older body, but he's there). Beserker isn't. I'm sure versions of them are for sale in the ride store.

But, really, why would they be? They're from movies that came out after the ride was made. But wait, the ride was first released shortly after Dark of the Moon came out. Yet it heavily features bots from Revenge of the Fallen who (spoilers for an almost 10 year old movie) died in that movie years before the ride came out.

Does it really matter? Well, it is an official Transformers product and it's story line doesn't fit well with the series that it's connected to (yes I know it's just a ride). Sure there's also Generations and Robots in Disguise toys sold in the store, but that's obvious. That's other uses of the Transformers that well stated. Just like the Spider-Man store, they have other Spider-Man stuff. The thing is, you just walked off a very specific version of Transformers and there is branded that version Transformers immediate for sale. There's even figurine sets exclusive to Universal Studios featuring characters not in the ride. I have the set that's themed from Age of Extinction with Stinger, he's not in the ride. Hell, he doen't exist until a post NEST world that the ride is based in. There's a new figure set with bots from The Last Knight. Same post NEST world. Same Universal Studios exclusive set.

Ultimately, I'm thinking too much, but also I'd going to once again state that I'm ridiculous. I'll even risk the embarrassment to admit that thanks to the ride, I have a new found love for the movies. They went from being a summer spectacle based on my favorite toy line that I had a lot of fun with, to being part of my overall love for that ride. When the movies first started, IDW ran comics based in the movie universe that were a little removed. Giving the characters a little time to shine and honestly made some really good Transformers stories. Like the ride, they exist in a splinter timeline. According to the TFwiki, All movie related stories fall into the Tyran Universal cluster. The ride itself falls into the Tyran 1211.03 Theta (who comes up with these names?) stream.

In short, the ride falls into a splinter reality of it's own in the movie's overall setting in Transformers.So really, Hot Rod could just show up without any real rhyme or reason. Maybe he'd be riding Snarl like a cowboy while Ravenspar scanned the scene and reported what's going on during some in line videos. Really, any random Transformers movie character is game. Perhaps Megatron sent Beserker in that mission to grab the Allspark fragment. Maybe, Stinger is just another Decepticon in the fight and Sqweeks is one of Wheelie's buddies. Or even part of a Minion crossover.

Hey, in that meet and greet outside of the Supply Vault... Megatron sure is there. There's even that new nighttime parade in Japan featuring the Transformers. What I'm saying is Universal Studios is it's own Transformers continuity where everything is possible and super fun. I'm a little excited that by the next time I get to ride the ride, the Bumblebee movie will be out. That means 2 movies will have happened since my last visit. I'm excited to see what impact they'll have on the Supply Vault as well as my overall mental version of things.

I said right off the bat that I'm ridiculous.