The Energon Pub

Blurrz wrote:How can anyone love an exclusive when it's released to the masses! FansProject makes the exclusive null and void.

It's really easy. You can like something based on how much you like it aesthetically, not based on its rarity.

Tempest in a tea pot. Unless FansProject reissued an identical item, the exclusive version is still an exclusive.

Personally, I hope this (and the BotCon seeker fiasco) does give people pause about hoarding items with the hope of selling them to make a profit later, which increases prices through artificial scarcity. If you want to gamble, go to Vegas or invest in the stock market.

(I realize this will be an unpopular position, especially amongst those that measure their self-worth through the "value" of their toy collections. Screw it. Maybe we, as fans, need to take a long hard look at ourselves and what our traits are that allow us to be parted from exorbitant sums of money for convention exclusives in the first place before we jump down anyone else's throat.)

Edited on account of a slightly more thoughtful statement.

Counterpunch wrote:

metaphorge wrote:I realize this will be an unpopular position, especially amongst those that measure their self-worth through the "value" of their toy collections. Screw it.

*edited on account of edit*

Oh, don't get me wrong, I don't think that's the motivation to get upset here for even a plurality of people who are riled up about this issue, but we both know good and well folks like that are out here, and I don't think they're providing much enhancement to the collecting community.

I'm mostly just tired of the reactionary attacks and moaning that occur anytime a product that is remotely close to an 'exclusive' that has become expensive on the secondary market gets announced (which are even more annoying than the "oh god I can't get that cool exclusive" complaints that inevitably follow when an exclusive is announced in the first place). (And to clarify, I'm not singling out discussion at Seibertron.com; in my view it's a hobby-wide problem.)

Yes, if I paid $300 on eBay because I wanted something, would I be annoyed if something similar enough that I would have been satisfied with it became available that were much less expensive to obtain? Yes, but really, the only person I'd really have to blame for that is myself; potential buyer's remorse should have been part of the purchasing decision in the first place.

Obviously you expect people to have differing opinions on our overly pricey plastic play-pretties, but folks seem to lack a sense of proportionality on how angry they get... and it particularly bothers me to see people jump all over groups like FansProject that have added quite a bit of enjoyment to our hobby without immense gain for themselves.

Then again, a sense of perspective is rare these days.

I just read the TFW thread on this, and I just wanted to say I'm pretty proud of us Seibertronians.

This is a polarising topic that is certainly pushing people's angry buttons - perhaps rightly so, perhaps not - but the discussions here have been almost entirely civil and relatively mature.

It's one reason why I really like the people on this site. The fact that during this sort of incident, which can get people pretty riled up, the conversation doesn't degrade to the level of "You're a whiny b*tch. No, you're a whiny b*tch. I'm gonna smash you."

It may sound weird, but I just wanted to say thanks to all for your maturity as a whole.

Oilspill wrote:I just read the TFW thread on this, and I just wanted to say I'm pretty proud of us Seibertronians.

This is a polarising topic that is certainly pushing people's angry buttons - perhaps rightly so, perhaps not - but the discussions here have been almost entirely civil and relatively mature.

It's one reason why I really like the people on this site. The fact that during this sort of incident, which gets some people pretty riled up, the conversation doesn't degrade to the level of "You're a whiny b*tch. No, you're a whiny b*tch. I'm gonna smash you."

It may sound weird, but I just wanted to say thanks to all for your maturity as a whole.

...and this is one of the primary reasons I even bother to say much on the subject here. ;D

Blurrz wrote:Either way I'm mad, angry, whatever, and I'm not buying another product of theres.

That is certainly your perogative...But you are going to be missing out on some really awesome stuff just because you have a grudge...


I never really blamed them to begin with...The situation seemed a little odd but I care a million times more about the products they release moreso than the exlusivity of the product...I don't care if thousands of other people have the same thing as me as long as I like it and am happy with it...

I don't think I have anything in my collection that I would consider ultra-rare but I love my collection without even giving any regards to that...

metaphorge wrote:

Oilspill wrote:I just read the TFW thread on this, and I just wanted to say I'm pretty proud of us Seibertronians.

This is a polarising topic that is certainly pushing people's angry buttons - perhaps rightly so, perhaps not - but the discussions here have been almost entirely civil and relatively mature.

It's one reason why I really like the people on this site. The fact that during this sort of incident, which gets some people pretty riled up, the conversation doesn't degrade to the level of "You're a whiny b*tch. No, you're a whiny b*tch. I'm gonna smash you."

It may sound weird, but I just wanted to say thanks to all for your maturity as a whole.

...and this is one of the primary reasons I even bother to say much on the subject here. ;D

I agree with you both wholeheartedly. I love this board for the lack of friction and hate that usually is present at TFW. If I gotta post somewhere and my opinions will differ from others, I know I can speak my mind here and still have a civil talk with most of us. That and the TFCC. Both have very good board members and there is just less hate.

Oh, and I'm not as ticked off about PC anymore incase ya'll are wondering.

typh0id wrote:

Blurrz wrote:Either way I'm mad, angry, whatever, and I'm not buying another product of theres.

That is certainly your perogative...But you are going to be missing out on some really awesome stuff just because you have a grudge...

I wouldn't say it like that.. FansProjects is an unofficial product. I don't know if it's gonna break down in a year, 2 years or a decade from now. All I know is that Hasbro will last quite some time. Plus the amount of money that is required to get their products is ridiculous. Yeah it looks nice and all, but the money could be spent on so many other TFs.

Oilspill wrote:I just read the TFW thread on this, and I just wanted to say I'm pretty proud of us Seibertronians.

This is a polarising topic that is certainly pushing people's angry buttons - perhaps rightly so, perhaps not - but the discussions here have been almost entirely civil and relatively mature.

It's one reason why I really like the people on this site. The fact that during this sort of incident, which can get people pretty riled up, the conversation doesn't degrade to the level of "You're a whiny b*tch. No, you're a whiny b*tch. I'm gonna smash you."

It may sound weird, but I just wanted to say thanks to all for your maturity as a whole.

It's funny that the closest person to smashing things would be me. And my namesake is homage to one of the most annoying TFs in history. Just cause we are angry sometimes, doesn't mean we need to have flamewars with other people. We're quite friendly here at Seibertron.com

Well in this instance, I think that ignorance is a reasonable defence. The guys at TFClub certainly know their stuff when it comes to design and build, I guess we should be willing to give them the benefit of the doubt when it comes to an area they are less hot on. Their full and frank explanation and apology ends this here for me.

Seems like a big part of this was the all too common "lost in translation" effect. Something I have to deal with on a daily basis.

One thing that I do take a umbrage at is the animosity from some members of the board towards those of us that consider an exclusive item to be a desirable thing as if we are in to this as some sort of elitist thing.

I admit to being a completest, but this is not for investment, but out of LOVE for Transformers as a brand and what it means to me and what I have gone on to do with my life since i started collecting in 1984 at the age of 8 (designing robots). I still take my toys out of their packaging, play with them and display them.

I put a lot of my hard earned cash into my HOBBY, but that is my choice to do so. That said, I do not want to spend more money than i have to. What riled me about this incident was that I (as many others did) thought that this new release would be almost identical and that, in order for me to obtain the TFCon exclusive and get it to the UK, I had to pay 300 bucks when I could have bought the wide release version locally from Kapow toy for half that.

Others of us (not me) justifiably in my opinion, buy one convention exclusive for themselves as a fan and one to flip after the con to help them cover the cost of their trip. Listen to the guys on the WTF@TFW podcast and you will hear guys talking that LOVE their HOBBY and go to great lengths and sacrifices to get their hands on toys they really want ant to get to conventions to meet with friends that they only see face to face maybe once or twice a year.

I don't want to start an argument, but i just felt that i should make it clear that you disposable income is not inversely proportional to you LOVE of a HOBBY.

Stickshift wrote:One thing that I do take a umbrage at is the animosity from some members of the board towards those of us that consider an exclusive item to be a desirable thing as if we are in to this as some sort of elitist thing.

I admit to being a completest, but this is not for investment, but out of LOVE for Transformers as a brand and what it means to me and what I have gone on to do with my life since i started collecting in 1984 at the age of 8 (designing robots). I still take my toys out of their packaging, play with them and display them.

I put a lot of my hard earned cash into my HOBBY, but that is my choice to do so. That said, I do not want to spend more money than i have to. What riled me about this incident was that I (as many others did) thought that this new release would be almost identical and that, in order for me to obtain the TFCon exclusive and get it to the UK, I had to pay 300 bucks when I could have bought the wide release version locally from Kapow toy for half that.

Others of us (not me) justifiably in my opinion, buy one convention exclusive for themselves as a fan and one to flip after the con to help them cover the cost of their trip. Listen to the guys on the WTF@TFW podcast and you will hear guys talking that LOVE their HOBBY and go to great lengths and sacrifices to get their hands on toys they really want ant to get to conventions to meet with friends that they only see face to face maybe once or twice a year.

I don't want to start an argument, but i just felt that i should make it clear that you disposable income is not inversely proportional to you LOVE of a HOBBY.

Very well put...


I love showing off my collections (though I have rare occasion to do so) and I like saying "Ooh this figure here is pretty rare" but ultimately, I collect figures for ME because I love them, not for bragging rights...

Stickshift wrote:One thing that I do take a umbrage at is the animosity from some members of the board towards those of us that consider an exclusive item to be a desirable thing as if we are in to this as some sort of elitist thing.

I admit to being a completest, but this is not for investment, but out of LOVE for Transformers as a brand and what it means to me and what I have gone on to do with my life since i started collecting in 1984 at the age of 8 (designing robots). I still take my toys out of their packaging, play with them and display them.

I put a lot of my hard earned cash into my HOBBY, but that is my choice to do so. That said, I do not want to spend more money than i have to. What riled me about this incident was that I (as many others did) thought that this new release would be almost identical and that, in order for me to obtain the TFCon exclusive and get it to the UK, I had to pay 300 bucks when I could have bought the wide release version locally from Kapow toy for half that.

Others of us (not me) justifiably in my opinion, buy one convention exclusive for themselves as a fan and one to flip after the con to help them cover the cost of their trip. Listen to the guys on the WTF@TFW podcast and you will hear guys talking that LOVE their HOBBY and go to great lengths and sacrifices to get their hands on toys they really want ant to get to conventions to meet with friends that they only see face to face maybe once or twice a year.

I don't want to start an argument, but i just felt that i should make it clear that you disposable income is not inversely proportional to you LOVE of a HOBBY.

Keep posting perfectly reasonable crap like that and you'll go far in this business. You'll go far my boy!

Not sure if I should be offended or flattered. Let's go for the latter.

Thanks CP



Keep a look out for some evidence of my "True Fan" status over the next month. Hopefully I will have something of interest to report in a week or so.