I've brought up some of this stuff before but thought it prudent with all the recent site improvements I've observed lately (great job on that stuff, by the way
) to consolidate it all here in a single post along with a few new ideas. This stuff is primarily centered around the toy galleries. I realize this would take a long time to complete, but it would make this site's galleries peerless as a reference tool for collectors and enthusiasts alike.
I realize this is a LOT, but please bear with me and hear me out:
- Include descriptive text and/or at least links below images of toys where other figures of the same mold and/or character are featured to explain who they are, who produced them/what line they are from and link to their gallery(ies) should such galleries exist. For example, on this page you can see the featured figure (Electrostatic Soundwave) displayed with all of his mold-mates as well as other versions/molds of the character but nowhere is any info about who those other figures/characters are, where they come from and where their galleries (assuming those galleries exist) can be found (and yes, I know the site does do some level of cross-referencing by listing similar/related galleries beneath via the "Other Galleries You Might Be Interested In ..." area, but it all too often omits many of the figures actually featured for comparison in a figure's gallery and/or is incomplete as a reference for that character/mold; more on that later).
- Include links to other uses of the same mold, including both repaints and retools.
- Include links to other molds of the same character (as in the example of Soundwave above, link to his G1 galleries, his BW figure's gallery, his Masterpiece galleries (for both Soundwave and SoundBlaster, or at least SoundBlaster, since that's who this figure represents pretty much), his Device Label galleries etc. etc., at least via links if not pictures (I realize including an image to represent each could get real busy/crowded pretty quickly, but simply textual links using the figure's name & line it's from and/or name & year it was released/produced should be sufficient if space is a major concern).
- Offer a 'compare' function for a figure/mold via checkboxes or similar to a list of other uses of the mold/versions of the character (including, if possible some reference images of the animation model/character model from pertinent media such as the TV shows, toy commercials, comics, movies etc. where available) allowing collectors and enthusiasts to compare various releases of a mold/character to that character's various incarnations in other media (for example, how often has it come up now that we debate and deliberate over how accurate a Takara and/or Hasbro release of a character/figure is to one incarnation or another of a character in some form of media such as the G1 cartoon, Beast Wars, the Marvel US/UK comics, IDW, Dreamwave etc.?). Providing such detailed comparisons with at least a few basic reference points from commonly known media (like the G1 show, 1986 film, Michael Bay movies, comics, video games etc.) would be the first reference of its kind that I'm aware of and would make Seibertron.com THE place for doing such research, especially for lines like the MPs, CW and the upcoming Titans Return which pay homage to various renditions of previously released/featured characters and figures from Has/Tak's past. This could be accomplished with a sort of table/list system with inline thumbnails from whatever media which perhaps can be clicked on to be expanded and/or launched in a new tab/pop-up window. The table itself could function something like this or similar comparison charts from shopping sites (like Newegg.com etc.).
- Related to the above, something to compare/show the various iterations of a character throughout the years as they appeared in different media such as (for example) showing how Galvatron looked when he first appeared in the 1986 film, then his subsequent appearance in the Sunbow Season 3 G1 series, his appearance in the Marvel US and UK comics, how he looked/looks in the Dreamwave and IDW comics (including each time he changed forms/bodies) as well as his character's/namesake's appearance in the Transformers 4 film as sort of a timeline/evolution chart for the character throughout the years in all the major media they've appeared in since their origin. In fact, if #4 above is too much, then having this and simply linking to/referencing it somehow with the toy galleries should suffice (and it would also be an ideal addition to the site's Vector Sigma database and a great way to merge and/or make that more robust with the various Transformers Series database/reference entries (which currently present a somewhat difficult to navigate, at least in my opinion, reference to the toy galleries on the site).
The things I'm suggesting seem intuitive enough, at least to me, however they will be quite tedious and time consuming. Much of the information already exists on this site in one form or another, it's simply a matter of bringing it all together in a logical way which makes it far more intuitive (and in my opinion interesting) and useful as a reference, sort of like an ultimate Transformers toy/media reference, something befitting of
"The Ultimate Transformers Resource!" 
. It would be a labor of love and certainly couldn't happen overnight, but if you could find some dedicated members (either on staff or volunteers willing to take on the task whom you'd entrust such an effort to, and sorry but I can't volunteer myself as I currently have a more than fulltime job with my current employer working usually far more than 50 hours a week) to make this happen, it would be unprecedented and unparalleled as a true reference resource for the Transformers fan community as well as a great starting point for any curious newcomer looking for more information about these fascinating transforming robots/robot toys and the characters they represent.
The above are the major things, but once all of this is completed and integrated as an ongoing thing for any new figures/galleries/shows/media etc. which gets imported/created on the site it could be used for all sorts of nifty things. For example, if tagged correctly you could also offer things like timelines showing the evolution of a toy for a character and/or its appearance in other media (as mentioned above) and compare the different takes on the same character/figure(s) from the various companies (Hasbro, Takara, Fewture, Sentinel etc.), at least for all of the ones for which you have galleries (particularly poignant for the 'Classics' et al collectors these days ever looking for those 'perfect' versions of their favorite characters from the past but needing a good online reference to truly see the differences between what each company has released and how they size up compared to the various media appearances of the same character from the past).
Such a database could also be used for compiling articles and/or series of articles about how engineering and styles/sensibilities have evolved over the years for the toys/toylines/media as well as highlighting similarities between the various perceived 'cycles' of things getting ever smaller, then larger, then smaller again (as happened with G1 and has continued to this day as reflected over the past several iterations of the major TF toylines from Hasbro and Takara) that could be featured on the site here, particularly when looking to size up upcoming/announced figures and lines as well as just filling in the 'slow' news days/weeks in the TF world (think of it as a sort of 'TF fan site hit generator' of sorts
).
Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2016 6:59 pm
