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DOTM = Fail


WereFox2009

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But when I open my toy I wanna play with it NOW! The idea of collecting a toy piece meal would drive me bonkers. :P Ah well, that's why I just go buy my toys in stores MISP. :) Although with G1 Omega Supreme, I got it second hand loose - but thankfully it was 100% complete with tech specs and decoder. :D

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Let me put it this way, My first MIB Omega after tax cost me $425(this was before Ebay when collector shops reigned) My second going a piece here & there cost me $40 & I'm a third of the way into my well third at $2.

I completely understand wanting a figure now!

-shipping time is the longest time!

But then again, all good things come to those who wait.....

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But when I open my toy I wanna play with it NOW! The idea of collecting a toy piece meal would drive me bonkers. :P Ah well, that's why I just go buy my toys in stores MISP. :) Although with G1 Omega Supreme, I got it second hand loose - but thankfully it was 100% complete with tech specs and decoder. :D

 

But that is half the fun with the old ones, hunting makes it all a lot of fun, you are very impatient Goki

 

And Liege is correct, all good things come to those who wait

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  • 2 weeks later...

I was just thinking earlier today... as much as we often lump crap at Michael Bay... the truth is that Hasbro BEGGED Michael Bay to direct Transformers. He was their director of choice -- when Spielberg initially asked Bay, he was hesitant -- then Hasbro got him to come to their head office in Rhode Island where they put him through "Transformers School" in what would have been a deliberate campaign to convince Bay to agree to direct Transformers. And it worked.

 

So I think Hasbro is ultimately responsible for the outcome of the Transformer films. Michael Bay is very unapologetic about the kinds of films he directs - he's very open about what kind of movies he directs; fast, action-packed, explosion-jammed roller coaster rides... and they ARE fun popcorn flicks. How they hold up as pieces of film literature on the other hand is debatable, but Bay never pretends to be anything else. He's never been one to think, "Oh no, I couldn't possibly use a gratituituous arse shot here or a pointless explosion there... it might ruin my integrity as a film-maker..." -- Michael Bay makes a certain style of movie which he knows full well. He even parodies himself about it sometimes, like in this commercial for the Commonwealth Bank...

 

But of course, Hasbro just measures success according to profit margins. The Transformer movies were all financial successes and it drove Transformer toy sales WAY UP. IIRC when Hasbro showed their TF sales stats at the Melbourne Toy Fair... when they compared the sales of Transformers in the financial year from mid-2007 to mid-2008, Transformer toy sales had about DOUBLED since the previous financial year.

 

Coherent plots and quality story-telling is pretty much irrelevant as far as Hasbro's concerned... just as long as the movies are driving strong toy sales, then they're happy. And that's the way Hasbro has been since like... forever. The G1 cartoon was cancelled due to dwindling toy sales. The G1 comics fell under the same fate a few years later, and it was just when the story telling was at its best -- because you know we had Simon Furman writing both the US and UK comics. Before then we had Budiansky writing the US comics and Furman would write the UK comics in an attempt to expand on what Budiansky was writing, but of course, it wasn't as if Budiansky was directly liaising with Furman, so sometimes there would be continuity issues between the US and UK comics. Also because Hasbro UK were pushing some toys that Hasbro US weren't selling (e.g. Classic reissues) and occasionally when Hasbro UK wanted to cross Transformers over to other UK comic franchises, e.g. Doctor Who (re: DWM: 'Crossroads of Time'). But when Furman came in he was able to 'resolve' some of these continuity gaps, but more importantly, allow both the US and UK comics to build on each other and work in tandem to create a single united continuity, giving us some really great stuff like the Matrix Quest, Unicron, Primus etc etc. He even tried to resolve the Earthforce Saga into mainstream continuity ... although that ultimately proved unworkable and Furman has since stated that Earthforce is an out-of-continuity story.

 

But none of that mattered to Hasbro in the early 1990s... the toys weren't selling well and the comics weren't helping. Not that it's Marvel's fault that Hasbro USA went and gave us those stupid Action Masters and then made them _dominate_ the toyline... (-_-) ... while Action Masters may not have been the cause for the decline in G1, as many have said, it was like the nail that sealed the coffin. So anyway, the comics got canned just as the story was getting really good. Even today many G1 fans consider the story writing at the tail end of the G1 comics to be great. As we saw earlier this year that was an international online campaign where fans signed an online petition supporting Furman to continue where G1 had finished... now it looks like we might FINALLY - after nearly 20 years, see Furman continue G1 after he got axed by Hasbro.

 

And the same thing happened in G2 as well... it gave us a pretty rocking story (I know Furman doesn't like his work on G2, but I think it's pretty good) - but again, Hasbro went and gave them the axe because toy sales just weren't good enough. Furman even expressed his frustration by creating the Decepticon character Jhiaxus ("Gee, axe us").

 

I love well written stories, but as far as Hasbro's concerned, success is measured in dollars. Money talks and B.S. walks.

 

The best thing for everyone would be a movie that is both well written AND a financial success... ya know, like The Empire Strikes Back or The Dark Knight. Man... if Christopher Nolan agreed to direct the next Transformers movie, I'd start doing a little dance for joy. :) He's currently working on the next Superman movie (Man of Steel) which I'm looking forward to seeing. :D Though I might have to wait for the DVD... not easy to always find a baby sitter to go see movies... :( So many movies that I wanted to see this year but haven't (e.g. Green Lantern, Captain America etc.) - so now I'm just waiting for the DVDs to come out. But I refuse to be one of those parents who bring their small children to cinemas and end up having them cry or make noises (e.g. TALKING) during the movie, spoiling it for everyone else who've paid to watch the film. I know some little kids are good and can sit down for an entire film... but I know that my kid's not one of them! :P But I digress...

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When it comes to the Bayverse overall, I think the hate is spawned largely from a problem of perception, and peoples refusal to see outside the established norm.

 

Bay was definitely being Bay in these movies. People were taking too much of the movies way too seriously, especially when it comes to the humor. I've called out people and their "potty humor" remarks and how full of it they are. We've ALL laughed at the same types of jokes in movies before. Of course the programmed response is always that it's not appropriate in a Transformers movie. Bullcrap!

 

There was really nothing at all there as far as humor goes that couldn't be found on network TV. That 70's Show had worse jokes and any kid of any age can pretty much find that show whenever they want. So exposure to content shouldn't be the issue...so what is? Did we lose sight of the fact that the entire movie universe has a quirky cartoony like edge to the characters? Seeing we're talking about a movie that depicts a middle ground reality between cartoon/comic and reality I'd say the over the top characters fit in just fine and provided enough release of tension so that it wasn't overly serious.

 

Cartoons and comics are generally more fast paced. Development there comes with simply having a lot more time and opportunity to play things out. The movies have much smaller time frames to deal with and much larger demands for certain characters. I can say, it's a job I don't envy very much!

 

Over the years I've heard so much criticism about the various figure lines and quite honestly...I don't know what people want or expect. I think often times people set themselves up to like or not like certain things and it has little to do with how the characters/figures actually are. If it's not exactly what certain people want, it just sucks...plain and simple. They'll find the same old gripes and pretend it's something new.

 

I just don't think things are that easy. Having notions of what something "should" or "shouldn't" be is silly. I'm talking well beyond simple expectations here...people seem to think that because they've been fans for 25+ some odd years that that should grant them some special entitlement to have their asses wiped by Hasbro. I learned a long time ago, that you can never tell how much you can really enjoy figures until you're actually holding them. I've had many, MANY figures I've found rather unimpressive, or downright hated pictures of that ended up being favorites.

 

 

I think a lot of older fans have fallen into the same trap the younger generation has. We expect everything to be perfect so we don't have to use our imaginations anymore. It's kinda sad actually.

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I like a fair few of the DotM deluxes. Some are really nice designs, like Barricade.

 

Personally I think the deluxes have been a big strength of the line thus far. The new Ratchet mold is amazing. I'm also a huge fan of Topspin, Starscream, BB and Nitro BB, Prime, Barricade, and Sideswipe.

 

Even what I consider as the lower tier are pretty damn good in my book Jolt, Crankcase, Roadbuster, and Laserbeak.

 

 

Hell, that's pretty much all of the new deluxe molds! If there weren't so many damn repaints this would be one of my all time favorite lines.

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I think one of the reasons I like the Bayverse more than some is I had a long break from Transformers before the movie came out. The last TF show I watched was Beast Machines. I don't want anyone to think that show put me off TFs. It was good. Not great, but good. No, after BM I just grew up and got busy. I was vaguely aware of R.i.D. and A/E/C but that was about it. It wasn't until I looked through my swag bag from the 2006 Chicago Wizard World Comicon and saw an Autobot symbol magnet with 7-4-07 across the bottom that I even realized a Transformer movie was planned. I was interested in catching TF07 in the theater but didn't make it a priority and wound up missing it. I mentioned how I used to be into TFs to my wife and she happened to pick up the novelization for me. I read it and for the first time found myself really interested in catching the movie, but the only reference I had to the style was some vaguely remembered commercials.

I guess what I'm trying to say is I went into the Bayverse with no preconceived notions. I put the DVD in and by the time I got to the scene where Optimus, Jazz, Ironhide, Ratchet, and Bumblebee transform in the alley my reaction was something like "Oh, so that's how they're doing that. Cool!"

I kept that attitude going for the next 2 movies as well as Animated and Prime, although it does take me a minute to stop comparing the new shows to G1. As a result, I think I've been more accepting of these new TF experiences and have enjoyed them more.

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