Replying to Madhammer and Diesel...

 

First off diesel if you are going to criticize anyone with out even reading their posts, then it speaks volumes about you and not the other person.  If you had read my post you would see i was NOT going on a tirade against any toys - what i was doing was offering an observation about why people complain, and provided some examples.  My point was mostly in regards to Hastaks communication with the fans... but hey if you want to spend all your time on an internet message board, not actually reading the posts -- thats fine - but uh i could think of a million better things to do with my time

 

OK - MadHammer - most of the time i really enjoy and respect your comments, but lately you have gotten more and more - well - "Grouchy" - to put it nicely.

YOU seem to whine enough for the whole fandom - however your rants generally have to do with: g1 sucks, g1-fanboys grow up - TFs are for kids stop pretending that they arent, and lately Retcon sucks... dont hold yourself on any moral superiority kick over the rest of the fandom -

 

My bottom line is - Assoon as the board stop being entertaining for me - i wont come on.  As soon as the toys stop being interesting to me - i will stop buying.

 

As of right now, i enjoy both.  But if we are going to gather on the boards to share thoughts and ideas regarding the fandom -i think we should have the right to share opinions both good and bad.

It amuses me to no end that you would come on a message board and POST with the sole purpose of criticizing someone else for "wasting their time posting to an internet message board about childrens toys"

haha

 

Lets toast to the internet! And all its worts and giggles!

 

Hunter

 

"old souls and wolf tickets one and all-kids- tel all the old souls heres an anthem for them - i would stand by their sides if i could"

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Well, someone had to say it...

 

 

teh INTERNET drama! Hooray!

Much of my recent "whining" comes from the fact that Has-Tak seems to keep half assedly adressing the fandom - which is not satisfying and condecending.

Now if HasTak took a stand and said: THESE ARE TOYS FOR KIDS - GROW UP AND GO AWAY! It would hurt but we would either accept it or move on - bottom line I could respect the decision.

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

What confuses me more than anything is that Hasbro and Takara seem more responsive to the fans than at any point I can recall. 

 

(this isn't directed to you personally, HR)

Remember all the homages in Energon? Rodimus, Starscream, Galvatron, Downshift, the Dinobots, and most importantly, THE COMBINERS, are all things Hasbro could have easily not done.  Despite being late additions and using repainted limbs, the combiners are something the fans have been clamoring for since RID.  And between all the toys that (amazingly) didn't get a repaint during the line, Hasbro had more than enough to bulk out enough assortments to finish off the line.

 

What about Alternators? Not only have fans clamored for realistic vehicle transformers, but G1 updates, which is primarily what Alternators has offered.

A good percentage of Takara's efforts in the past few years have tied with G1 rather than the main line.

 

I think that many of the people whinning over minor things like show accuracy and such need to keep in mind how things USED to be back during Beast Wars.

We got ONE line, a line that had little to do with classic G1.  Homages were a pipe dream, much like any sort of collector oriented line (like Alts)

There were roughly 19 molds with 3 repaints (Total releases: 21) in 1996

There were roughly 18 molds with 4 repaints (Total releases: 22)in 1997

There were roughly 23 molds with no repaints (Total releases: 23) in 1998

And this was across FOUR priceponts!

 

Now with Energon in 2004, we had 13 unique basic molds (8 of which were repainted), 13 unique deluxe molds (1 of which were repainted/remolded, along with 1 previous line repaint), 7 unique mega molds (3 of which were repainted, along with 1 previous line repaint), 3 new ultra molds (2 of which were repainted, with 2 previous line repaints), 2 new super molds (one of which was repainted), AND a new Supreme mold (which was also repainted).

Total Energon new molds in 2004=39!  If you factor in repaints, you get roughly 59 releases in Energon alone across five pricepoints.  This doesn't include exclusives, Alternators, or Universe (which does factor into total releases)

 

Transfans have it pretty damn good, and I think we have comparitively little reason to complain too much about some issues (but store distribution is really wack and does deserve to be complained about)

Steevy Maximus has some very good points.

I agree with you Steevy but thats why i pointed out some of the flaws - thats why i mentioned them going hal-way in their commitment.

 

For every MP1 we get, there is a swerveWTF.

 

You are right - there have been times in TF-History where Hastak did not address the fans, and guess what - the fandom did exactly what i said- they grumbled, but either moved on or embraced the new line.

 

i love the homages, and the attempts that they are making but it does no one anygood to go about it half assed

 

Hunter

But Why are the TWO most popular figures shortpacked?  Tracks/Meister - that is just bad business.  Meanwhile we have Swindles for miles and miles WTF? (thats like a spider man assortment with 2 maryjanes 2 JJs and one Spidy per case)

Tracks was never shortpacked, he shipped two to a case with two Meisters - the problem was that he only shipped in one wave (while Meister was shipped one to a case for the next two waves). 

my point still stands, trench - one of the most popular charcters is still not being produced in adequate numbers

Hunter, if you pay attention to the point of view expressed in these grouchy posts of mine (rar), you will find a recurring theme. That theme is "pop the fanboy bubble that surrounds your head". The thing I hate the most about fanboyness is that it drains the *fun* out of collecting toys and turns it into an obsessive, distateful thing. I'll admit that I'm more argumentative and opinionated than I need to be. But I don't think I'm alone in that regard.

 

I just wish we could all enjoy Transformers without having to bitch about them all the time. That being said, of course I recognize the fanboy tendencies in myself. It's part of being a Transfan (or an anything-fan). But at least I can stand outside of my fanboyness and laugh at myself for being such a dork. You may not believe me, but I really don't take myself nearly as seriously as you think I do (or perhaps as seriously as you take yourself). I'm sure as heck not going to sit here and read long posts about why we have the right to complain about toys.

fair enough -

if you look over the breadth of my posts i dont see how you think i am taking this tooo seriously either

 

I am not a completionist, i have enjoyed each line for what it was

 

If you cant wast your time with the complaints why are you continuing to post in this thread--- dont read, dont post in the threads you dont like

 

If you look around you will notice i dont post in many threads, just the ones that interest me

 

Hunter

"I met prince phillip in the home of the blues, but he said i cant let nobody see me talking to you - he said hed been abused - by dignity"

I think I agree with Steevy.  We've really been spoiled in the last few years and some of our complaining has been excessive.  We have a variety and sheer amount of product that some other fandoms would kill for. 

 

As far as the short-packedness of Alt. Tracks, how was Hasbro to know that he would be so popular?  He could have easily tanked, so I don't blame Hasbro for not being able to predict the future. 

 

Distribution is the only issue that I think is worth the amount of complaining that it gets.

It's not like you can't get any Transformer you want anyway, thanks to the internet. You just might have to pay more to get it. I remember a time when if it wasn't at the local toy store, you were pretty much screwed.