Wow that was a lota posts to read, haha.
Yea, I guess it so happens that there a lot of people who knew from the start the HOF was just for kicks, sorta in the vein of Transformers being sort of a light-hearted fandom.
I guess there were also those who were hoping it would be a little more serious; perhaps something to raise their own feeling of belonging when the person inducted is actually a TF veteran of the industry, someone who they themselves really appreciate and, in a way, want to feel like they're part of some solid fandom that works on a logical sense, rather than a largely money-based one (of which I am convinced the HOF is).
I didn't really care about the HOF myself, so I guess I can't really complain as there is nothing I have beef with. I believe, like someone else also mentioned, that the movies really did so well due to marketing, and in effect aided Hasbro marketing. Also, when I say marketing, I'm not just talking about lots of trailer air time, but the visual content of them... explosions, lots of CG, lots of eye candy
basically.
I'm just glad I have all the oldschool TF stuff (a lot that I haven't even fully explored yet), and don't have to rely on just the movieverse. There is one sad loss though, If not for some of your posts, I wouldn't know which other people are really great at TF work, and now I have some help in deciding what next cool piece of TF material to get into... the HOF could have done that, if it were more based on quality of work rather than quantity of sales.
You guys gota relax more. Sometimes it's pretty clear from the start that someone feels Bay sucks, okay, whatever, who cares. Discuss with the people who comment positively on him then, and leave others to discuss why they were so terrible. You're not going to change peoples' opinions from forum posts (least it aint likely, since the movie is there for all to see and evaluate themselves).