TFARCHIVE FORUMS

I originally wrote this up following the "Primus" incident and some of the criticism towards certain "insider" folks following it. To make a long story short, there's been much discussion about the fandom being split into two camps, the "ignorant" ones and the "ones who know".

However, judging from what I've heard and read about in the past few months and years, it appears to me that the latter one (i.e. people with "insider" contacts) seems to be a considerably larger group than any of them might have assumed so far. In fact, it's quite possible that quite a number of them believe to be the "only" guy who actually knows certain things, hence being "ignorant" in a way as well.

Plus, the "inner circle" seems to be in fact a vast variety of "secret societies", who seem often to have nothing to do with each other at all.

The most public one would be the "prototype collectors", who enjoy the fame when bragging about their latest purchases on internet message boards.

Then there's the "lunchtime special" group (remember those crazy clear/metallic versions of the Takara/Hasbro reissues?), which might be divided even further into the "real" (i.e. these things are real, made by Hasbro/Takara for their employees) and the "fake" (i.e. these things are made by someone in the factory during his lunchtime) camps.

Then there's the "rare Diaclone/G1" collector group, which might or might not overlap with the "lucky draw" and the test shot collector groups.

And then there's the "insight" group, which has insight in the production process of the latest toyline/show (split into "contacts inside the production studio" and "contacts inside Hasbro/Takara").

Additionally, there's the "it never came out" group - people who have seen the Transtech molds (!), own the G1 Unicron prototypes etc.

Some people might be part of more than one of these groups. But I highly doubt any single person actually knows of the existence of every Transformers-related "secret society" out there, nor would they actually know how many people are part of any given group.

Am I seeing things? Is there a huge conspiracy going on? Or is it just lots of smaller groups who somehow erroneously have come to believe being some sort of "elite", while being completely ignorant towards the existence of 20 or so similar groups?

Originally posted by Nevermore
Am I seeing things? Is there a huge conspiracy going on? Or is it just lots of smaller groups who somehow erroneously have come to believe being some sort of "elite", while being completely ignorant towards the existence of 20 or so similar groups?

There's lots of little groups, from what I've seen, and they can often blur together at times. (I was in a couple at various spots.. it's not all it's cracked up to be. )

I just think that when youve had an active, loosely organized fandom for *mutter* years, these sorts of things are bound to happen. As far as how the process of the shows and toys are made, the information is out there, and it's very easy to be extremely knowledgable about such things.

Want to know how the shows are made? Start at their websites... want to see prototypes, scour EBay... etc... Want to play a 'mush' , do a google search for them...

Couple the ease of the information with the age of a lot of these 'inside fans' (mostly adults, mostly single with disposable money, etc), and you see how these things get together.

I've bounced around a couple of other collectibles, and from what I've seen, I'd say so.

Whatever the topic is, there's always the 'official' source that everyone knows (i.e. Hasbro, Takara), and then there's people close to, or within, that source that can feed information in advance of the public to the circle of ass-licking sycophants they've amassed to feed their egos.

Can't see why collecting toys would be any different.

i kinda buy what looks cool but im realy part of the

Mini-transformer collector

has a ting for mini transformers myclone, heros of cybertron,and worlds smallest. you can often find him useing them as game peaces

Originally posted by Igos Du Inka
i kinda buy what looks cool but im realy part of the

Mini-transformer collector

has a ting for mini transformers myclone, heros of cybertron,and worlds smallest. you can often find him useing them as game peaces

What? I mean, did you just have a seizure and collapse on your keyboard, or what?

And God, 95% of Transformers fandom makes me ****ing sick.

FANBOY: I have a transparent chrome-plated Binaltech Longtooth Lucky Draw Upside-Down Prototype With A Galaxy Force Skyhammer Head.
ME: I have a girlfriend
FANBOY: ...

I swear when I started getting into Transformers it wasn't just Doctor Who fandom with slightly better effects... no, we have the fans more interested in bitching about other fans than Transformers, we have the "I was here first"ers, we have the "I was involved with X company who made official stuff, so **** you" guys, we have the completist bastards who wiles see us all ****ed over, we have the conspiracy theorists, we have self-aggrandising tosspots taking over the franchise to promote their own ****ty agendas, we have crappy tabloid "news" sources, we have the "downhill from the start" wankers... we've even got tossers who dress like characters. Argh.

This post was brought to you by Sleep Deprivation, the Cybermen voices in 'The Tenth Planet', Bitterness and Hatred.

Originally posted by Cliffjumper
This post was brought to you by Sleep Deprivation, the Cybermen voices in 'The Tenth Planet', Bitterness and Hatred.

Ah, 'The Tenth Planet' can do terrible things to a man. The memory of monsters with sing-song voices, wearing outfits made of vinyl, accordians and sellotape will stay with me for the rest of my life.

And in a valiant attempt to prove the above comment was on topic, look at what happened in the 80's when the 'Doctor Who' production team tried to give the fans what they wanted: the show almost disappeared up its own bottom.

Since jumping into the message boards I'm amazed at how introverted, negative, clique-ridden and petty Transformers fandom is at times. But I see this as proof that there's no vast conspiracy.

Let's face it, we're lucky to get 10 fans who'd all agree on what Soundwave's new alternate mode should be, so the chances of them managing to cooperate on anything actually important are pretty remote.

It's the Transformers subsection of the Freemasons

You forgot the elusive" 22 year old perfectly normal looking guy who secretly watches cartoons and collects toys including Transformers out of the box because he likes to fiddle with them and then let them collect dust and be scoffed at by his girlfriend on his shelf" group.

This group is vaguely aware of other secret transformer groups and is only jelous of theyre rare possessions and periodically go on e-bay buying sprees for pre played with transformers just cas theyre cheaper :\

Originally posted by Gigatron
You forgot the elusive" 22 year old perfectly normal looking guy who secretly watches cartoons and collects toys including Transformers out of the box because he likes to fiddle with them and then let them collect dust and be scoffed at by his girlfriend on his shelf" group.

This group is vaguely aware of other secret transformer groups and is only jelous of theyre rare possessions and periodically go on e-bay buying sprees for pre played with transformers just cas theyre cheaper :\

Hey I think you found the one I belong to

Oh yeh, because we did do a definitive list of everyone.

Don't worry, you guys are dead cool. We all are, none of us want to admit we're not the average joe, do we?

Originally posted by Cliffjumper
Oh yeh, because we did do a definitive list of everyone.

Don't worry, you guys are dead cool. We all are, none of us want to admit we're not the average joe, do we?

You're just jealous cos I ****ing rock, far more than you ****ing rock.

or something...

I'm currently part of the Dear god, Metroplex is a bit of an ugly brick, what possessed me to buy him, still, could be worse, could be Fort Max Society. We're a very select group.

I'm part of the cross-fandom Decepticharge and Louis Marx Dalek's Alliance of Impossibly Long Neck Sections.

I represent the Skystalker for Decepticon leader Faction.

To tell you the truth, I think it's bunk, unless by some accident, our website happens to be the elite. It seems to me that we get more information before anyone else, due to good reporting and scouts, not because we have an in with Hasbro.

Originally posted by RID Scourge
not because we have an in with Hasbro.

*whistles innocently*