^

I agree. Be it G1, Beasties, Rid or the Armadaverse, all TFs IMO are awsome.

 

The best fans I believe are those that can accept TFs for not only what they were but what they are.  :thumb

 

As for Noobz, I think the first week of enrolement should be restricted to only INH as a mental agility test. If you can survive there you can survive anywhere. :thumb

^

,The best fans I believe are those that can accept TFs for not only what they were but what they are.  :thumb

 

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

well I love you too.... :clap

I'm no newbie to Transformers, I just went through that phase that I'm sure a lot of the older fans have through where you think you don't need toys anymore and you get rid of your old collection.

I've got little desire to know everything about TF's, they're toys, that's all.  Well engineered, usually very imaginative toys, but toys none the less.  The collection at current is large, but I have no real idea why I'm collecting them anymore and I'm more interested in history, books and getting the bills paid off.  Maybe it's the engineering of most of them that appeals to me or some inner child thing.  But they're just toys.

 

-Chuckles

I'm no newbie to Transformers, I just went through that phase that I'm sure a lot of the older fans have through where you think you don't need toys anymore and you get rid of your old collection.

I've got little desire to know everything about TF's, they're toys, that's all.  Well engineered, usually very imaginative toys, but toys none the less.  The collection at current is large, but I have no real idea why I'm collecting them anymore and I'm more interested in history, books and getting the bills paid off.  Maybe it's the engineering of most of them that appeals to me or some inner child thing.  But they're just toys.

 

Tony.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

wow, there is such a phase...who knew! Lucky for me I didnt fall into that category.

I have to admit i dont see a problem with new fans. Not everyone could grow up during the 80's  :tfgrin

I am a Noob.  There I've confessed.  I'm one of those guys who had TFs and even a few diaclone at the beginning.  Then when I hit my teens my G1 guys got boxed up or sold off at yard sales as I moved onto other things.  Then seeing the gestalts on Energon brought me back and led to me actually collecting.  But I've only got a small collection, and I've honestly always been more a toy fan then a cartoon or comic fan.  I like the fiction, but its the toys that I loved as a kid, and its the toys that brought me back.

 

Honestly I see the movie bringing back alot of people like me.  Guys and girls who had figures as a kid, then grew out of them, and then they'll see the movie and recapture that magic and start getting back into them.  BW did hte same thing for alot of people plus bringing in a whole new generation of people.  Of course every line has also brought in its share of Afterburners and idiots, but you ignore them and they fade away, nuture the people who want to praticipate in the fandom and want to learn more and share collections and you jsut make the fandom better.

 

Now If you don't mind I'm off to play with my toys:)

I've noticed that this is a major difference between the Noobs and us long term fans - the noobs are more into the toys whereas the long time fans will be more into the mythos.

 

I'd say that this is most likely because you can grow out of collecting toys, but you're less likely to grow out of liking a good story. As other comic book, fantasy and scifi franchises have long demonstrated, you can only build a long-term fanbase if you create a good story with characters that people will actually care about - and this is what Transformers had achieved, moreso with the Marvel Comics than the Sunbow cartoon (let's face it, the G1 cartoon characters were fairly one-dimensional). Long time die-hard fans are often those stooped in the Marvel comic lore, which gave us a rich tapestry of TF canon to sustain us well beyond our early childhood. When Beast Wars first started establishing links with G1, they started off using cartoon references, but it must have become evident to the writers that a lot of hardcore fans were more interested in the comics, hence why we see Beast Wars becoming more dependent on the G1 and G2 comic sources, e.g.: referring to the Autobot ship as "The Ark" (it was never named in the cartoon) and also references to "Primus" (Primus never existed in the cartoon), etc. The fact that we now have a Primus toy is a testament to this. Now, this is not to undermine the success or popularity of the G1 cartoon (noone would underestimate the power of television), but it has been my observation that it has been primarily fans who read the G1 comics who have stayed loyal to the Transformers franchise whereas a lot of cartoon fans who never read the comics are the ones who left the fandom and are only recently crawling, erm, coming back (:D).

 

IMHO, this is because the G1 comics had superior writing with multi-layered story telling and well developed interesting characters - a standard of writing which has only ever been matched by Beast Wars - although IMO, BW still isn't as well written as the G1 comics; Simon Furman has long been Transfandom's favourite writer, even guest-writing the final episode of BW - and he recently wrote some TF stuff for Dreamwave and is now currently writing for IDW's Transformers series. No other Transformers writer has enjoyed this level of popularity from the fans - all because we grew up reading his G1 TF stories - stories which sustained us in our adolescent post-cartoon years.

 

Watching the G1 cartoons today... it just seems so campy. Sure, I enjoy watching it for the nostaglic value, but it's just cheesy. And hey, in the context of its time, the G1 cartoon was really well done - but the G1 comics on the other hand I can still re-read today without that overall feeling of campness.

 

The comic gave us The Wreckers, the Time Wars, Death's Head, Primus and a demonic Unicron. The cartoon gave us the terminally annoying Daniel & Wheelie, contradictory origin stories, Lord Chumley and Kremzeek! In the comics, Galvatron was a god. In the cartoons, Galvatron was retard and Warpath had Tourette's Syndrome. :P

 

 

Just my two cents. :)

The UK TF comic was great, I loved the Unicron story arch near the end and there were a few black and white stories that were really fine.  One in particular was about Prowl, I actually coloured it in and wanted to keep it.  I tihnk it was about Prowl chasing the Stunticons and they tricked him, so he had to figt his way out.  I think it was that anyway.

But I really don't see the point of knowing everything about TF's, knowing the basics is fine enough and it's not like I can talk about TF's to anyone, so there's little point in knowing everything.

 

-Chuckles

The only thing i never liked about the G1 comic was the "Dark God" Unicron, not that the cartoon gave a better origin ( Unicron should have been left as an unknown  force )

I was still surprised at how well the G1 cartoon had aged having not watched the show since the early 90's until 2002, it was better than i was expecting, and i still enjoy the first two seasons.

Sorry i've gone off the topic now  :tflaugh

I see old fans that have been out of the loop for a while popping up.