Ok, everybody, what gives. Obviously, everyone that posts here has a love for custom figures, especially TFs. What i don't get is this - lately, the drama (which has always been present) has gotten really out of hand. I tried to explain it to my radio listeners (i.e., non-TF fans, etc.) and i just couldn't. No one understood why this issue or that was raised, and why it got everyone all flustered. I'm not saying we should all just say nice things, but seriously, the drama is really turning me off to this place. If people like my stuff, great, if they don't, that's ok, i'm just doing this to make myself happy. and to see some people get TRULY bent out of shape about things that simply don't affect them, they just want to get on a soapbox or something, is obnoxious and childish. Granted, being in an atmosphere dedicated to children's toys is like an accellerant to this type of behavior, but seriously guys - Grow up, use actual manners, try and be more respectful. I know not everyone is contributing to this problem. I know there is a lot of support here, it's just been decreasing as of late, or maybe the loud obnoxious threads just cause more attention. Drawing attention away from awesome customs, to be quite honest. That igear thread for instance - holy jeebus. 50some pages back and forth, barely about the figure. I'll admit there are definitely times i get smarmy, and flippant, and smart-assed too. I am not above anybody here. I just want this place to kind of lean back to the supportive community it used to be, and not the Biggest Dick Measuring Contest it's become.
Which drama exactly? I must not be reading the right threads Despite the drama, I think the radicons section is one of the best paces for feedback on customs. Or do yo mean TFW in general?
I believe everyone needs to ignore the bad comments, and move on to the good. that will solve everything.
That I understand, the creative forums, for the most part are kinda quiet. But yeah, I've read some stuff on Igear and their products... yeah, its not so much fun to read especially when it gets repetitive. One thing I have been noticing is all the ppl saying how much they like one custom over another person's, especially in regard to the botcon entries. Like Dak says, keep that carp in the general discussion and dont offtopic those threads. I suppose I'd like the creative forums to be more supportive with constructive criticism, or even some discussion, I like praise as much as the next guy, but when its 30 pages of praise... I guess I need to step up my game as far as dishing out my own criticism. But a lot of guys dont like criticism. Its hard to tell who is ok with crits(especially when the custom is on ebay). So eh, I usually crit things when I'm more familiar with an artist.
Hmm, sorry to say Maximo, but i haven't noticed any of the stuff you mention really escalate recently. It's just the regular 1 in every 15 people that like t be negative (generally me ).
TGPing - i'll admit a lot of times i don't hand out enough crits, and i've been trying to more. It really does show that you're putting thought into what you're saying about someone else's project. Too often i'll just swoop in and go "wow that looks great" and not really give the artist something they can grow with. AM - I feel ya on that. it all comes down to what each of us can do personally to contribute on the positive tip.
I get what you are saying MP. I do. Things have changed. I think what happened was, at one time, the bashing community was a more close knit community. Pretty much everyone that bashed was friends or at least got along with everyone else that bashed. Ideas were more commonly shared, folks had no issues showing how they did "mod A" to a certain figure. It was more of a "fun" hobby than anything else. Now, for the most part, its pretty much become a "look at what I can do and you don't know how" thing, you know, the e-penis rule. For those of you that will disagree with me on this one, that's your prerogative. I can for a fact remember back in the day, that if you saw something cool done, the originating artist had no issues showing you it was done. It's quite hard to find that being done now.....granted, there are some that still do, and you know who you are, but for the most part, it just doesn't happen anymore. I don't know if it's become a fear of being ripped off or what, but it happens. I think another thing that caused things to change, was that, with the movies, what we do became more mainstream, and almost "cool to do"...you know, at one time, when folks found out you "played" with toys, you were looked at as a "nerd" or "strange". There's a whole new generation of folks doing this now, and for it to go back to what it was? I don't believe that will ever happen. That iGear thread?....that was a joke....as I stated there, hypocrisy at its finest. Remember how way back in the day, you could leave your car doors unlocked, and not worry about anything happening to it?....
Back in the day, someone made the first Devastator and gave you the blueprints right away. Now you have to figure it out yourself. In terms of idea sharing, yeah it has been slightly more...uh, secretive recently. It's much harder now to even get someone to tell you which Gundam they stole a gun off of... Although to be fair, i wasn't into this thing back when you guys were, so maybe i'm just more used to the 'current' way of "creating awesome things, while making sure no one else can". Movies made us more mainstream? I know it certainly did that for Transformers in general, but i still get those weird looks from people when they find out i like to 'play with toys', as they would put it. In short, i'd say bashing has become much more commonplace...just not the type of bashing that most of us are used to. Y'know what i mean...
