The thing that really irks me is that the beast fans should simply know better.
When they first came into the fandom in the late 90s early aughts, they saw plenty of vocal GeeWunners and GeeWunnabees. (The latter being kids who were simply too young to actually have been there during the G1 days, but wanted to pretend they were "true fans" by "remembering" a golden age that they spend in their diapers and cribs.) The GeeWunners might have been anime partisans, (arguing that cell animation is much better than CG for some vague reason), straight-up toyhacks, whatever. But, they refused to accept change and progress, needing everything to be like it was before 1986.
I remember Beast-fans struggling to make other fans understand that BW was not utter shit, that names like Optimus and Megatron could be fungible...... Older fans like me recognized the problem, (if only because we saw it happen with "Star Trek" in the 80s). There was also the fact that GeeWunners went through 5, (albeit non-consecutive), years of getting nothing for their hobby. Granted, this does not compare to the decade or so that "Star Wars" fans dealt with or the 20 years of next to nothing that Trekkies went through.
Us old timers need not be toy-hacks to remember the dark days in the early to mid-90s of looking at our comics (likely found in bargain bins), toys (likely heavily play-worn), and VHS (likely falling apart) and thinking "this is it". This made us very attached to those things, as once they were gone, our hobby was gone.
Remember, the internet was not really a factor, meaning fans were isolated, keeping in touch primarily through mail if at all. I still remember the elation of meeting another Transfan in a comic store, and recruiting another from my circle of friends. We were *it* as far as we knew...until I discovered the Hartmans in an issue of Lee's. That story is hardly unique.
But, we grew past it. Beast-fans should have seen the absurdity of refusing to accept change and yearning for the largely imagined past. They should have seen how much GeeWunners delivered on the damned stereotypes. In other words, they should have learned their damned lessons. (This is especially true for the beast-fans who are less than 5 years my junior, as they should have been well past the "lunatic attachment to non-living things" stage by '95 or so, when BW first hit.)
That fact that the worst "drought" since the beast-era was '04, (when the convention's future was in doubt and there were no comics), means that people who started with "Beast Wars" never had a reason to sit in a room and fondle their old toys for lack of having anything new.
All of the above is bad enough. But, the fact that the obsessive beast fans seem to be more vocal, more obsessed and more dogmatic makes it even worse.
Objectively, I should not blame Bob and Larry. (They are actually really classy fellows.) BW saved the fanchise. And, the fact that a BW character made it into the first 5 should be a sign that we as a fandom are not stuck in the 80s. But, part of me wonders if it is a sign that we as a fandom are just stuck obsessing over different decades.
Prior to this thread, I had no idea who the hell Walky was and I pretty much still don't care who he is.
It is a question of associations though. In a very real way, Walky is the face of the fandom. The fact his web-comic is profitable helps him here. (The over-all quality ranges from self-indulgent trash to genuinely insightful.)
Objectively, you are right. But, I did want to explain my reasoning on this, foolish as it may be.
Easier said than done, but once done, quite liberating.
True enough. Pants off attack, GO!
Dom
-plenty of good toys coming up though. That is good.