An old timer like me.....

Chat about stuff other than Transformers.
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Jetfire
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An old timer like me.....

Post by Jetfire »

I remember when all this was fields. Been more than 10 years since I logged in I think. Hello, I hope everyone is well.

As an old timey brit I was going to visit TF Nation for an dose of nostalgia and maybe fill in a few blanks in my collection, which seems to be the TF con still going in the UK. Is it any good? Decent chance of good stalls? Any other happenings in the TF world?
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Denyer
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Re: An old timer like me.....

Post by Denyer »

Surviving, touch wood. Hope things are okay with you.

There are a few smaller events that maybe have/will re-emerge, but TFN is still the main one having taken over from AA (a lot of the same people involved). The most recent offline ones were pretty big (>1000 attendees if memory serves) and there's usually lots of new/old stuff for sale (not much different to what you can source online) as well as the creators with art/scripts/signings. Lots of hotels in a close radius, assuming the Hilton allocated rooms have sold out, and it's worth doing the full weekend at least once. Usually plenty of fan creators, zines, etc as well.

Just unfortunate that any kind of convention, sports fixture, etc at this point will be a super-spreading event.

TFs... I think IDW are ceding the licence, although haven't been keeping up with the comics since they ended their first continuity and rebooted to considerably less interest. There's a lot of Hasbro playing to adult collectors with special editions and it's increased with the Legacy line, online exclusives and them trying to add value as manufacturing/shipping costs continue to rise. Some 3P companies are still around although that's quietened down.

It's been a pretty good decade for TF lines homaging earlier eras.
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Jetfire
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Re: An old timer like me.....

Post by Jetfire »

Hey, good to hear from you.

I'm alright. Recently ascended to the Property ladder in London, a task as you can imagine is near impossible these days. Still love teaching, but then I love my school.


Had a bit of time coming over the Holidays and after unpacking everything in my new place I somehow over the years lost a few G1 figures (in storage for most of the past decade) and thought I'd go to a convention to find them and enjoy the community.

I have little idea what's going on in current TF community. When I check in I always seen to have missed a reissue I wanted (damn scalpers) to fill in the gaps over the years. Though I picked up the odd modern G1 remake or Masterpiece. But sadly you snooze, then your at the mercy of scalpers who'll rip you off.

Thems the breaks eh?
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Denyer
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Re: An old timer like me.....

Post by Denyer »

People and time mostly seem to have fragmented over small subsets of social media platforms.

It's pretty hit and miss at what point things get clearanced and what point they inflate in asking price once no longer readily available; I think the main takeaway is that there are probably far fewer units in production in the first place as retailers try to avoid sitting on expensive stock. That and Hasbro are cycling through sheer volume of product too quickly to chase a more hesitant and shrinking pool of customers.

Still some stuff to pick up from pre-owned sites rather than speculators, or if you're happy with KOs. For example, Combiner Wars has become surprisingly sought after despite very good reproductions (many with diecast or upscaling) being available of some teams and takedowns of some of those manufacturers and distributors; and despite occasional housekeeping by eBay they're pretty common.

I'd say the bottom has mostly fallen out of the viability of reissues, as most people who wanted them (for the ones TT still has moulds for) got them years ago. Again, some quality KOs out there of figures that don't have official reissues; if there were going to be official Dinobots it'd have happened by now.

Was it English or science (something core curriculum anyway) you were teaching?
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Jetfire
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Re: An old timer like me.....

Post by Jetfire »

Science is my subject :) I recall yours was English I believe?

Am I correct Transfans.com isn't around?

Yeah, I have a few knock-offs as they were the affordable way of grabbing a few when I was a lot poorer post Uni and still paying off debts and the like. Always shocked they never re-released the Dinobots. I know the original molds of them were gone/broken, but given some KO companies in China can reverse engineer them, I'd assume that it would be worth it for Hasbro and Takara for some of their eternally most popular characters and coolest toys.

Still, my goal was always to complete the "Pre-Movie lines" of my childhood and I have more or less done that. A goal I never thought I'd create prior to discovering this place and ebay back in the very early 2000s. I've just somehow lost a couple of them and are occasionally buying re-issues and originals of the odd knock-off. Also the odd gap fill in, like the female Autobot's who were never released, some Knock-off Defcon and I brought the Arc. You know stuff that fills in the G1 "never released" gaps. Who ever though Impactor would be a toy? So I'm pretty happy there and just wondering the best way to present them on a bookshelf in my pad and my inner child is delighted.
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Denyer
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Re: An old timer like me.....

Post by Denyer »

Yep, was English although didn't do much with it apart from various stints of TEFL. Been in more of an IT/audit/fraud role for over a decade at this point.

The transfans.com and transfans.net domains are long gone and technically http://transfans.co.uk/community/ is still around (I did a bit of work with Kaylee to keep it online when it reached a point that server upgrades were going to break everything completely) but it's not active, everyone's on other platforms or busy. But you'll almost certainly run into a few people if you go to TFN. If you're looking for anyone specific you might want to try contacting Besters ahead of that.

It's not so much that bootleggers can re-engineer them, the bootleggers seem to literally have examples of the old moulds from warehouse finds/clearances. Back in the day it was common for extras to be created and send to different facilities (often around the world, which is why there are regional variations in moulding of MOTU figures for example, parts and materisl often got substituted). And the moulds got abandoned or sold for use as shipping anchors, etc.

If TakaraTomy were going to reissue without the moulds, they do have the capability to 3D scan and tidy up the models, but it seems to partly be a toy company culture thing to not do this, even though the technology these days makes it more economic. On the flip side, they're competing with good quality cheap KOs. If you can call KOs produced with the original moulds KOs.

I've got some loose original figures and one or two original era KOs but mostly prefer modern updates and went on a 3P kick for a few years when it was at its height. Now in a position to display most of the bits that particularly interest me and have gone the typical route of IKEA detolfs, bookcases, tops of the garage style big shelf units I use for books etc, so that everything's away from the cats.

There are several Impactor releases now, including an upcoming voyager scale one -- https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=impactor+transformers -- I'm happy with the Siege one, personally. Did a custom Xaaron out of Titans Return Perceptor and the Swoop titanmaster. Matt Marshall of Toy-Fu also did some custom Xaaron actionmasters in US/UK colours and I got a US style one to go with the 25th anniversary release Unicron.

Have been paying more attention to MOTU Origins and occasional things like the NECA Defenders of the Earth recently though. Do like some of the King Features, Doc Savage, Phil Farmer homages, etc pulp era fiction.

Detolfs are still pretty cost-effective for display if you haven't looked into cabinets yet.

edit: My picks of the year so far with TFs are the Legacy Dragstrip and Legacy Jhiaxus. One a nice update of the original, much better than Combiner Wars and older Classics style stuff, and with Jhiaxus it's nice to see Marvel G2 getting love finally.
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StoneCold Skywarp
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Re: An old timer like me.....

Post by StoneCold Skywarp »

Heya Jets!

Never been to a tf nation, was well out of the fandom by the time it rolled around, but have heard many good things from those who have.

There's still a few faces around you'll recognise from time to time.

Hope you've been keeping well mate.
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Warcry
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Re: An old timer like me.....

Post by Warcry »

Hey there!
Denyer wrote: Fri Jul 15, 2022 11:45 am If TakaraTomy were going to reissue without the moulds, they do have the capability to 3D scan and tidy up the models, but it seems to partly be a toy company culture thing to not do this, even though the technology these days makes it more economic. On the flip side, they're competing with good quality cheap KOs. If you can call KOs produced with the original moulds KOs.
They have done this occasionally, though, which makes it more surprising which figures they haven't done it for. The recent BW Rattrap reissue is a 100% new mold vs. the 90s figure, with a whole lot of subtle molding differences. I believe G1 Soundwave and Devastator were both completely remade from the ground up as well, and if memory serves they've had to remake the G1 Optimus molds a few different times over the last couple decades because he's been reissued so many times.

Are the Dinobots just not that popular in Japan? That's the only reason I can think of for them getting skipped over, since Takara were usually the ones driving the G1 reissue lines.
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Denyer
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Re: An old timer like me.....

Post by Denyer »

Must be a really big BW fan on staff. For (at least one of) the Soundwave reissues didn't they just use the Soundblaster mould? From memory pretty sure it took two cassettes.

Japan likes dinosaurs, maybe not as much as kaiju, but they got more dino-cassettes, dino pretender shells, etc. And of course they were Diaclone in the first place.
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Sades
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Re: An old timer like me.....

Post by Sades »

o/

Still occasionally here, as long as here is here and I'm still around I'll poke my head in now and again most likely.

I don't collect anything anymore, other than dust and extra pounds. :swirly: :laugh: Though I kind of wish I'd managed to finish collecting the TFC Toys Seacons before doing so meant spending more money than I'm comfortable with (or, y'know, have).
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Jetfire
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Re: An old timer like me.....

Post by Jetfire »

StoneCold Skywarp wrote: Fri Jul 15, 2022 7:38 pm Heya Jets!

Never been to a tf nation, was well out of the fandom by the time it rolled around, but have heard many good things from those who have.

There's still a few faces around you'll recognise from time to time.

Hope you've been keeping well mate.
Yeah I'm good, surviving as everyone is these past few years. Hope you're well.
HotdogDivebomb 2.0
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Re: An old timer like me.....

Post by HotdogDivebomb 2.0 »

Get a job, the lot of you.
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