TF Views

But Ben has a fansite. That's different, and...stuff. Whatever I'm in Anime Club so I don't feel like arguing.

I do like the glossary section. That could be very useful for helping new fans get into the hobby.

Dom

Congrats on the launch, Ben! Glad to see BWTF up and reviewing again. I'm a little curious on your take of the last year's TF experience, not just the "now" stuff but the overall feel of a rather unusual year.


On the Universe 1 / Classics-Universe 2.0 thing, there's not enough in Universe 1 to worry about. Universe 2 has repaints as well, so it's basically the same thing. There are multiple viewpoints even within the fandom, so packaging should win out. Besides, there's not a huge threat of Universe 1 coming out with more fugly repaints that overtake Universe 2.0's standing.

Odd that you and I seem to have reversed on the question of packaging.

I recall you arguing a few years back that the "Classics" Minicons were in fact "Cybertron" toys, (and that I should treat them as such for collecting purposes), despite their packagine. I argued that the packaging made them "Classics" toys.

Now, you are arguing for primacy of packaging.


After the movie, I have reconsidered the idea that packaging trumps all else. I know that packaging is official, but it is really difficult to look at AEC era recolors as having much of anything to do with the movie. Granted, many of them have profiles that are consistent with the movie. But, as much as I like the idea of movie-based Minicons, I just cannot bring myself to display Ratchet and Inferno together.

Dom

Dominic wrote:Odd that you and I seem to have reversed on the question of packaging.

I recall you arguing a few years back that the "Classics" Minicons were in fact "Cybertron" toys, (and that I should treat them as such for collecting purposes), despite their packagine. I argued that the packaging made them "Classics" toys.

Now, you are arguing for primacy of packaging.


After the movie, I have reconsidered the idea that packaging trumps all else. I know that packaging is official, but it is really difficult to look at AEC era recolors as having much of anything to do with the movie. Granted, many of them have profiles that are consistent with the movie. But, as much as I like the idea of movie-based Minicons, I just cannot bring myself to display Ratchet and Inferno together.

Dom

In 20 years, when you've forgotten what's what and you want to know more about that Movie-packaged figure, you're not going to go hunting the review down in the Cybertron section, you're going to look it up based on its title, and perhaps its asst #.

On the other hand, in just a few years, if I find the toy, and am confused, I am more likely to look for it in "Armada", because it looks like Armada/Universe.

Dom
-calls the AEC repaints "Universe" out of habit.

Dominic wrote:On the other hand, in just a few years, if I find the toy, and am confused, I am more likely to look for it in "Armada", because it looks like Armada/Universe.

That is because you are already familiar with the item, but the majority of people coming into this will be looking at the box first, since that's how the product comes. How are collectors supposed to look up, say, 25th Anniversary Prime by your logic?

JediTricks wrote:That is because you are already familiar with the item, but the majority of people coming into this will be looking at the box first, since that's how the product comes. How are collectors supposed to look up, say, 25th Anniversary Prime by your logic?

That is assuming they're looking at a boxed and/or complete figure.

I think, though, that people trying to find out what a specific TF toy is from, they're more likely to search, say, TFU for that info. Ben's Site is more like DVD's, where you go specifically to find a review of That Guy You Already Know And Probably Have But He's Over There And It's So Much Easier To Just Look It Up.

I notice that SSG's forums are set up along those lines, where it is assumed that somebody knows what sub-line a specific variant of a specific character came from. That is one of the reasons I never really got into things there, even before getting out of SW.

Dom

Sites like this are ideal for the enthusiastic fan of Them Thar Moobies to come and learn about the rich and varied history our favourite transforming robots have. I'm glad we have places where a level of knowledge is assumed and can be enjoyed, but I'm also glad it's possible for dedicated individuals to be a part of that too, rather than just every random with google and a movie ticket.