I understand the opposition to "true fan" gatekeeping but...

...we really do need some sort of distinction between "true fans" that have been collecting 10, 20, or 30 years and "true fans" that 'member the tape deck dude who fought the orange truck head guy.

 

I agree on alt mode scaling. I figure alien robots can come in any size, but vehicles have real life size implications. And I like to display my TFs together mixing robot and vehicle modes.

 

By making that distinction, you're negating a lot of younger fans from their own fandom. Not all of us have even been around long enough to be collecting for multiple decades, we're still fans of the series as true as fans from Marvel #1. Everyone has their start somewhere and by saying they need to have experience with it may push them away from building that experience at all

 

Indeed. And some of us have been around long enough, but were just achy inside for a long time due to IRL, and suddenly went "Wow! Transformers are great!" many years after the fact.

Even though there's orders of magnitude of difference in the size and value of our collections and walks of life, let's always take solace in each other and enjoy this hobby together and chuckle knowing a lot of people would make fun of it even though it's pretty damn fun.

My unpopular opinion is that it's OK to look at things sharply, and categorize, and rank things, and disdain and eschew some of the ones you see as lesser. We have limited scope and bandwidth and money, after all.

But of course, there may be a limit to how much you need to talk about it, also...   Those lesser things might be making someone else really happy. Maybe it's worth letting them keep that feeling, and not worth going out of our way to let them know their part of the hobby isn't as cool as ours. Of course, we also need to stand up for ourselves and love what we want to love even if some other people think it's dumb or don't care. You love that thing for a reason, right!?

This is why I'm gaining a lot of respect suddenly for Rescue Bots and the lower-tier Cyberverse figures. Even though they are filth and I'll never collect them myself.  



And so, here we are.

 

I wish they'd designed the Siege alt modes around the same retrofuturistic design language used for Cybertronian and 'futuristic' (i.e. Hot Rod or Arcee) G1 vehicle modes and vehicles like the Ark and Nemesis. They would've been more unique than 'regular Earth car/truck, but with extra greebles' and they would've fit in much better with Cybertronian-mode figures specifically based on the cartoon. As they are, a lot of the Siege vehicle modes stick out as too modern.

 

There is and always be a "distinction" between fans for any line of collecting... doesn't make most of them any less fans.

I say "most" as I do find that some are just people looking to belong to anything and aren't actually fans of the line, they will usually be loud for a while, get tired of their "position" not living up to what the psychological need was, will sell out of that line and restart on something else. Those burn out fast and leave... which to me, were never an actual fan.

As far as fans goes, we have fans that are:

• there from the start
• those that joined later due to age and exposure to a later line
• those that are more about the cartons, the movies, the comics, all or in part
• those that just like to watch
• those that just like robots
• those that collect some (figures or particular lines such as materpieces)
  
• those that collect all
• those that 3rd parties

And all of these are fans... there isn't really a case of "true" fan.

When lines get blurry is when some take it too far, as this is about toys and fun.

Sadly, some can't wrap their heads around the fact that the stories and everything about the line is fictional, and that the toys ARE toys, and that's the most toxic "fans" there is really. When I see arguments over what Megatron had for lunch on a particular day, I kinda twitch inside. And those are usually the ones that end up pushing new fans away. Seriously, anyone that their lives revolves around something so hard like I've seen, it's a bit scary as it crosses the line form a hobby, a passion and goes into an obsession, a compulsion, which doesn't make them fans to me, but more that "scary neighbor" that no one sees leave their house.

 

Which is why the example given was "'member the tape deck dude." Those people disappeared for thirty years and they'll probably disappear for another thirty soon enough.

Younger fans are a different story. I'm a little tired of people with four whole toys in their collection, all bought within the last week or month, getting upset that I don't share their opinion that the fifth one is teh bestest evar. Maybe I have dozens I think are better. Maybe I miss rubber tires and spring launchers and electronics and thought out decos. Not shrieking with delight at every single reveal doesn't make _me_ less of a fan either.

 

Ok... I do not said this often but damn it, you did get me to laugh today... I'm way too visual with my imagination.

Thanks for that, and yes, I agree about everything you stated here, heck, if I could double-thumb-up a comment, I would have.

What I find so toxic is the constant whining about G1... it's gonna happen, it sells, end of story and we did get lots of variety that wasn't the basic G1 in the last few years, including the combiners, the jumpstarters, and so many others that had never been "redone" since G1. The whole "the G1 fans won't stop" thing in BS, I have so rarely seen what the anti-G1 crowd whine about that's it's like a unicorn to me now... all I see whining are the anti-g1 crowd...all-the-time. (and myself, I don't care whatsoever what line is going on, I care if the robot/alt are cool, nothing else).

 

Could we seriously stop with "G1 sells best"? I don't even know if this counts as an "unpopular opinion" but it's a resoundingly unverified one. Every single new iteration of Transformers sold well enough to warrant Hasbro maintaining the franchise. You cannot argue that G1 sells the best when G1 is the most numerous offering in the first place. Prior to Kingdom, representation of non-G1 characters was abysmal. It would be like if someone was selling 10 cupcakes, with 2 being yellow cake, the rest being chocolate. Even if the yellow cake ones sell out, it's impossible for that small offering to stack accordingly to the chocolate. Same issue with G1. You're at a point where G1 Optimus alone had more toys in a single year than most non-G1 characters have gotten in a decade. History shows more than G1 sells. Even the movies proved so financially successful that they were the dominate line for years despite being so different than G1. And it always comes back to this "But we had [insert G1 character] as a [insert gimmick] so isn't that variety?" No, it's not. Every time someone mentions being tired of G1, there's always a flood of "But this obscure mail-in only exclusive with little to no media presence hasn't gotten his toy yet!" or "But we still don't have a definitive [insert G1 character who has gotten plenty of toys but someone wants to nitpick]" All others want is to see the Generations (note the plural) to represent more than just G1 on a regular basis. And adding just the films isn't enough, though even the movie lines are starting to have G1 bleed into it as well.

Some people want to be able to have their nostalgia worked in, some people want to just see more original concepts to fill gaps the franchise hasn't touched on yet. G1 is more than catered to and will never go away, stop being so on the defense at the very notion that people are burned out of G1 and want some variety again. I've said it before and I'll say it again, there's a massive irony in Transformers being a franchise so damn afraid of change.

 

But you don't understand: you don't have kids so your nostalgia isn't valid or.. something. I don't get it either man

 

If your post is in relation to mine, you should read it again... I merrily state that "G1 sells".. nothing more, not best, not even "possibly more", there was absolutely no "unverified one" (how the hell can one "verify" an opinion?), just that it sells enough for Hasbro to keep redoing it, otherwise Hasbro wouldn't keep redoing it. At this point, it feels like some think that Hasbro is still doing G1 just to piss such people off... it's hilarious.

Whining about G1 doesn't change that, it's old, annoying and comes off as a child having a tantrum over and over to get it's way. Yes, I'm blunt, but it's honest. I feels like I see more post that is anti-G1 than anything else in so many threads that it's gone past the point of mere annoyance.

I stated already that I do not care whatsoever about whatever lines is out, I'd rather care about figures that are well designed, and that would be better quality. I cannot care any less if it's the 20th Optimus in the same year if he's got an interesting engineering, is fun and looks good, or if it's a totally new figure that also got an interesting engineering, is fun and looks good.

To many have hang up about characters I find. I'd get a freaking army of any "single character" if each one is an awesome design, got an interesting engineering, is fun and looks good. I enjoy the toy(s) for what it's worth. I guess many just can't do that... so I guess that's my unpopular opinion then:

I enjoy the toy(s) for what it's worth.

 

Uhm, greeble isn’t a nonsense, made up, Transformers related only word though?

 

As has been made known:

It may be a real term but it's still not one I'm a fan of. But at the same time, I'll admit that terms like "kibble" have strangely never bothered me.

 

Not sure how unpopular this is, but I vastly prefer g1 jetfire's toy design over the cartoon one. I would love for them to make a new toy of that design, (I'd get one of the hi-metals but they're out of my price range) but I'm not sure how that would work legally. I know Harmony gold owns macross/robotech right now, but I heard their lawsuit over this was dismissed with prejudice. Does that mean that they could reuse this design theoretically?

 

Yeah sorry... saw that after I posted.

 

Though I do not own any of these, I wholeheartedly agree with this.

The TR mold just feels and LOOKS right, especially the Takara paintjob one

 

Commander rodimus vindicated most of the wfc leaders and voyagers I thought weren’t that impressive... Like shockwave for example.

 

I'm not trying to stir up controversy or insult anyone's tastes (and I'll admit that I've never played with one in-hand), but CW figures look very sub-par to me. I realize some of the redundant designs are because the goal was to have interchangeable limb and torso bots. No matter how well it's executed, a third mode makes compromises to the other two. But even considering that, the CW figures generally just look uninspired and cheap to me.

 

I'm watching a review of Kingdom Rodimus, and I'm struck by how nice the "car" section of the Winnebago mode looks. It's clearly not intended to be used on its own, but the back is much more coherent than SS86 Hot Rod. Not perfect by any stretch, but there's at least something resembling a back end, even if its formed from folded up feet. Yet it's meant to be hidden within the Winnebago ...

It makes me wish we were getting a Kingdom Hot Rod, remolded from Rodimus or at least using a scaled back version of the engineering.

 

I agree for the most part, but find that there are some exceptions that the limb mode components are barely noticeable and the figures can hold their own. (note that I consider all combiners as part of this, including those that came out in the POTP part of the trilogy)

Jazz for example I find that is a fairly solid figure for his appearance. Also the Terrorcons that oddly enough are almost the best combiner of the line as they do stand solid as individuals but make a great Abominus, something I didn't expect as I never really cared for them/it until I started having them in hand.

The remolds or should I say, the recolours of so many did end up taking a lot away from what they could / should have been.

But consider the fembots that Siege Chromia is a redesign from the POTP (but still a combiner) Moonracer and others and side by side, the combining gimmick isn't really noticeable and they look extremely similar.

The biggest issue I had/have with the whole line (trilogy) is the cheap plastic. I don't even remember if I have a single one left that I didn't have to floor polish the ball joints.

The one thing I do have to "defend" the trilogy for is that they were the first proper modernized combiners since G1, and they did look really spot on for what the originals were.