Subscription Service 3 figures revealed

Ancillary, non-main-line stuff. Star Wars TF, Speed Stars, Titanium Series, Robot Heroes, that sort of thing. They're kinda neat, but we all know they're not really that important. Admit it, you know it's true.
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Shockwave
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Re: Subscription Service 3 figures revealed

Post by Shockwave »

Dominic wrote:
Why doesn't it work?
If they are going to make a toy of a specific character from a specific story, a specific setting, then maybe they could make a toy that actually looks right (if not exactly like) the character in question. Half assed cross-over is all that thing is. The SDCC toys were better, despite the TFs being recoloured Joe vehicles.

As opposed to liking obscure Decepticon planes for the sake of liking obscure Decepticon planes, which is totally classy and a thing all the cool kids do.
Obscure Seekers are different. This is one of those things I am not sure if you are creatively misunderstanding, or legitimately do not understand. People who remember the old cartoon tend to recall those "other" jets.
Ok Dom, then what current TF mold would you have used for Serpent O.R.? They weren't going to redo a GI Joe figure for this so that's out and any current TF mold is going to take some artistic license anyway. Personally I think they did as good as they could with it, I think of all the molds currently available it's the one that makes the most sense and the paint job looks great on it. Referrences to the characters are going to be solely on the remolded head and paint job anyway, so expecting something page accurate was off the table from the start. And really, as long as the toy is fun and looks good, who cares?

As for the Seekers, it's army building. Let's not even pretend it's anything other than what it is. The only reason people want those "characters" is because they want a larger G1 Decepticon army. No one has any attachment to them as characters because there was no "character" to attach too. Honestly, between these two, I'd want Serpent O.R. more than another random seeker no one actually cared about.
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Re: Subscription Service 3 figures revealed

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No question, the Seekers are army building (if of a looser sort than what we might normally think of as army building). They might not be important characters, but they nicely fill out a shelf.

Ok Dom, then what current TF mold would you have used for Serpent O.R.?
I would not have made Serpent O.R. because there would be no good way to make it. I would have found or come up with something *else*.

There are plenty of custom projects that I have abandoned, delayed or just never started because I could not do them well with the resources that I had.

The one that comes to mind is the Plague Regiment I started using 25A Joes. I never made some of the characters because I could not get the parts necessary to making the figures correctly. As much as I am not always happy with my custom work, I try to reach some bare-ass minimum of quality. I should not have higher standards for this sort of thing than Fun Publications.

Serpent O.R. did not need to be made as a toy. (And, I say that as somebody who liked the basic concept of the series that the character is from.) Fun Publications just wanted to make their own TF/Joe toy, and they went with Serpent O.R. using a mould that did not really work for the character because that mould was available.
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Re: Subscription Service 3 figures revealed

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Well I think it works just fine. Bear in mind that your standard for screen/page accuracy is off the scale compared to most other collectors. It's also concerning because this is treading dangerously close to sounding like exactly the sort of thing you accuse most Joe fans of being guilty of: Resistant to change. Serpent O.R. was one thing in the comic, now he's another thing in the toy. Things change and they don't have to be the same just because "that's the way it was".
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Re: Subscription Service 3 figures revealed

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My complaint is that Serpent O.R. is post-hoc half-assery, not that it is something new.
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Re: Subscription Service 3 figures revealed

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Dominic wrote:If they are going to make a toy of a specific character from a specific story, a specific setting, then maybe they could make a toy that actually looks right (if not exactly like) the character in question.
Based on the one picture of Serpent OR I've seen on the wiki, this actually looks pretty close.

By this metric, Generations Rhinox is a horrible toy because it's not 100% faithful to Rhinox's cartoon design. (But then I remembered you're the guy who thinks Generations Springer, the best TF toy in YEARS, is a horrible toy since the proportions aren't 100% accurate to the LSotW design, so whatever.)
Obscure Seekers are different. This is one of those things I am not sure if you are creatively misunderstanding, or legitimately do not understand. People who remember the old cartoon tend to recall those "other" jets.
And people who remember the latter part of the old toyline tend to recall those "other" Action Masters so no, seriously, what the fuck is the difference?

Nacelle never friggin' showed up in the cartoon. He's as much of an obscure toy-homage as that repaint of the new Laser Prime based on that canceled G2 color scheme.
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Re: Subscription Service 3 figures revealed

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Dominic wrote:My complaint is that Serpent O.R. is post-hoc half-assery, not that it is something new.
It's a new version of him, sooooo... what's the difference?
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Re: Subscription Service 3 figures revealed

Post by Dominic »

Fun Publications started by saying "we are going to make ______________, regardless of how sensible or good an idea it is with what we have for resources", rather than "this is what we can do with the resources we have".

And people who remember the latter part of the old toyline tend to recall those "other" Action Masters so no, seriously, what the fuck is the difference?
As stated above, the jets are just this side of troop-builders that people have wanted for years.
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Re: Subscription Service 3 figures revealed

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I think that's being a little harsh. I suspect it went more like "Hey, this would be a good mold to use for ____." Most of the fandom seems to agree. You seem to be the only one who's complaining about "iT's nOt Teh page accurate!" I mean, come on, nothing from FunPub is going to be unless it's in their own comic. You know this and yet everytime they referrence something else you compain about screen/page accuracy. It's an homage, not an exact representation of what was on page.
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Re: Subscription Service 3 figures revealed

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The mould does not work for Serpent O.R. Fun Publications chooses moulds for characters that sometimes work ("Universe" SunSwipe for Doublespy) and sometimes do not (most of the figures in the '06 convention set).

This one bugs me because I really want a *good* Serpent O.R. I went out of my way to customize a good DDP Serpentor if you recall. I also made *2* General Rey figures (o-ring and 25A). But, Serpent O.R. is something that I cannot just *make*. I need a good official one.
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Re: Subscription Service 3 figures revealed

Post by BWprowl »

Dominic wrote:The mould does not work for Serpent O.R.
But why doesn't it work? What doesn't work about it? Like I said, I just went off the image TFwiki has, and the general design and motif is pretty close. The design of the head in particular makes it a good choice for the character. The shoulders and arms are also reasonably similar. It's not like they just threw a dart at a list of molds, they clearly made a point of picking the one available that best 'fit' Serpent O.R. (and even went with some Japanese-exclusive molding to do it).
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