TF Views

andersonh1 wrote:I guess Arcee has had more versions and more screen time than BA, but BA is a much more interesting character. I'll have to remember to put her on the list again next year.

That reminds me, I have a list of characters we voted for in the last Hall of Fame votes which didn't get any votes this time out:

Airazor
Bludgeon
Brawn
Bulkhead (Animated)
Demolishor
Jetstorm (BM)
Kup
Predaking
Prowl
Rattrap
Red Alert
Rhinox
Sideways (Armada)
Skywarp
Springer
Tarantulas
Thundercracker

It really is funny how time changes things. I cannot imagine how Armada Sideways ever got up there, and then I see Tarantulas and I wonder how we forgot about him, how he's slipped through our collective mental cracks - he was awesome! I would bet each of us has that sort of reaction to something on that list. (Then again, I know exactly how Brawn got on that list, I was campaigning for him hard, and this year it just felt like his time had come and gone.)

If I didn't list Tarantulus here, it's only because of the limit to 5 choices. I listed him when I voted over at TFW and Allspark.

I'm surprised AirRazor made it. She's such a bore. Practically a blank slate.

Mako Crab wrote:If I didn't list Tarantulus here, it's only because of the limit to 5 choices. I listed him when I voted over at TFW and Allspark.

I'm surprised AirRazor made it. She's such a bore. Practically a blank slate.

Why would they have more than 5 choices? Actually, I think I ran a Star Wars fans choice poll that way once, doubling up the number of choices gave the data a little more room to breathe, but some voters were daunted by the number of choices. That was more choices though. Maybe we'll do that here next year.

Anyway, your first year of voting here you voted for 5 characters and changed your vote, so here are the six you voted for in order (the 6th being the zeroed vote):
Rhinox
Sky-byte
Arcee (G1)
Sideways (Armada)
Blackarachnia
Scourge (Cybertron)

And the next year:
Sky-byte
Blackarachnia
Jetstorm (BM)
Cheetor
Optimus Primal

And you just voted in your 3rd so no need to rehash that a few weeks later.

As for Airazor, I agree she wasn't that interesting as a character, more interesting as an idea I suppose. I went back and checked, she was added last year by Sparky who put her in his 5th place slot and that was the only vote she got, his reason was:

Sparky wrote:Airazor - Ill admit, I think this is a long shot, but I think Transformers needs to recognize they have more female characters than Arcee and Blackarachnia.

Mako Crab wrote:I'm surprised AirRazor made it. She's such a bore. Practically a blank slate.

She may have been one of the characters to get the least amount of focus in Beast Wars, but she still had some great scenes. She's not a bore. She was one of my favorite characters in the show...

I didn't forget Tarantulus, I just thought that there were other BW characters that were more relevant in other iterations of the franchise and therefore more deserving of being the "representative from BW". But, he was pretty high on my list. Actually just below Blackarachnia.

I cannot imagine how Armada Sideways ever got up there

Circa '09, there was a lot of hub-bub in the fandom about Armada Sideways. I remember the arguments around here primarily circling around "Servant of Unicron," "arguably the same character across all continuities," (then including even ROTF, idiotically) and "Important (for Armada standards)." Honestly, I'm more shocked that Demolishor made the list, although that may also have been an '09 argument, seeing as he was made important around then.

How Thundy or Skywarp aren't in yet, though, is a mystery. I guess they must keep getting ignored for more "unique" Decepticons other than "oh, one of the other jets."

The other sites did only submit 5 winners to Hasbro. But to get those 5 they first had people list off any & all of their favorites. Then something like the top 10 TFs with the most nominations were all put in a poll. And the top 5 from that poll was sent off.

Shockwave wrote:I didn't forget Tarantulus, I just thought that there were other BW characters that were more relevant in other iterations of the franchise and therefore more deserving of being the "representative from BW". But, he was pretty high on my list. Actually just below Blackarachnia.

That's good to hear. I haven't heard his name come up in conversation in a while, and the talk of homage figures always lends itself towards BA now so Tarantulus ends up in the scrapheap for that.

Onslaught Six wrote:

I cannot imagine how Armada Sideways ever got up there

Circa '09, there was a lot of hub-bub in the fandom about Armada Sideways. I remember the arguments around here primarily circling around "Servant of Unicron," "arguably the same character across all continuities," (then including even ROTF, idiotically) and "Important (for Armada standards)." Honestly, I'm more shocked that Demolishor made the list, although that may also have been an '09 argument, seeing as he was made important around then.

How Thundy or Skywarp aren't in yet, though, is a mystery. I guess they must keep getting ignored for more "unique" Decepticons other than "oh, one of the other jets."

I forgot that Sideways was being talked about because of the ROTF character, that would explain it.

TC and SW being repaints of Starscream probably is the issue, not unique enough. But having one of them "dead" and the other kinda lost in the comics the past year may have had something to do with it too.

Mako Crab wrote:The other sites did only submit 5 winners to Hasbro. But to get those 5 they first had people list off any & all of their favorites. Then something like the top 10 TFs with the most nominations were all put in a poll. And the top 5 from that poll was sent off.

Yeah, I figured as much. Top 10 gives you more data points, more nuance, each top vote gets 10 points instead of 5, and where our last-place is would be be a whole 6 points there, so you'd be giving out a total of 55 points instead of 15. I do wonder what that would look like with our existing votes, let me run the numbers so our top 5 votes have 40 points total (10-6, the pretense being nobody voted their 6th through 10th lower votes that would have gotten 5-1 points)...

Here's how our votes would look depending on each system:

ORIGINAL SYSTEM _______________ NEW SYSTEM
********************************* Top 5
Optimus Primal _________________ Devastator
Devastator _____________________ Optimus Primal
Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime __________ Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime
Barricade _______________________ Cheetor
Arcee (G1) _____________________ Barricade

*************************** The Rest
Cheetor ________________________ Arcee (G1)
Blackarachnia ___________________ Jetfire
Jetfire _________________________ Sky-byte
Metroplex ______________________ Blackarachnia
Sky-byte _______________________ Metroplex
Lockdown ______________________ Ravage
Mirage ________________________ Lockdown
Ravage _______________________ Tankor (Beast Machines)
Unicron ________________________ Unicron
Galvatron ______________________ Mirage
Swerve ________________________ Swerve
Tankor (Beast Machines) _________ Galvatron
Sixshot ________________________ Sixshot
Cyclonus (G1) __________________ Omega Supreme
Hot Shot _______________________ Hot Shot
Omega Supreme ________________ Cyclonus (G1)
Scourge (RID) __________________ Scourge (RID)
Trypticon ______________________ Trypticon


So why the difference? Because going with a 1-10 voting system with corresponding score rewards volume over passion, which would be fine if we were a big site, but we're a small slice of fandom so we have been trying to mitigate that with passion. Then again, our existing system led to 4 ties in the top 10, while the other system would have led to no ties at all in that range. I suppose we could consider going the other way with it next year, what do you guys think?

I know there's a bit of pushback on making these ranked lists as it is, but the voting data would come out as a more definitive representation.

Yeah, take away the 1-5 ranking and I'd be happy. Just my top 5 in no particular order, y'know? Then just tally how many times the same character's name comes up regardless of where they are on anyone's list.

Mako Crab wrote:Yeah, take away the 1-5 ranking and I'd be happy. Just my top 5 in no particular order, y'know? Then just tally how many times the same character's name comes up regardless of where they are on anyone's list.

I dunno. I think it kind of works better the other way. Because it makes you actually put more thought into the list rather than "here's just five random guys that I like" (I know, we all do put more thought than that, but you get what I mean). And, it means that we also have to really actually consider who is really worthy of that top spot.