Internet Lull

[PrfktTear]

Anyone else notice a lull going on in the community? Just seems like it’s been very quiet on the boards here and several other sites I frequent. I suppose there just isn’t a whole lot going on right now. Once we start getting closer to summer and new products moving out on shelves things will pick up more. Not to mention SDCC…

[zedhatch]

Weather is unseasonably warm for one, people are outside more.

Plus really everything seems to be at a standstill, lots of interesting stuff on the horizon but nothing happening yet and probably won't for a bit. Pretty much everything is catching up here and there and odds and ends.

However, there are some suggestions that there is a down turn coming, even the hard core fans are becoming cherry pickers, combo of economy, changing priorities, and repetitive waves almost anywhere. Lets face it there are only so many Captain Americas, Thors, Iron Mans, Darth Vaders, Supermen, Batmen ect (Insert character here) that one can have, completists are impractical no unless one focuses on one line, which rarely happens.

[dayraven]

yip... not enough money, too much real world out there, too many PACs to donate to to make sure our vote is worth a crap... plus, to be fair, i love IAT, but we're not exactly the hoppinest boards on the web. i'd love to see more regulars here, but we have a really cool cast of regular posters in large part because noisy weeds out the tools and the riff raff and we don't attract the numbers you see at the fwoosh or the mess. i wouldn't trade "cool people" for "more people" if given the chance... would y'all?

that said, i completely advocate some fan based photo threads. take your figs on tour, showcase your home display, your cubey display, whatever you have... maybe craft some noisy style comedy strips... but if IAT is about the lighter side of toy collecting, i think by all means, we should showcase having FUN w/ the toys we already own. that doesn't cost a think other than cash already spent., and it gives us something to talk about.

[PrfktTear]

Oh believe me, I know all about there being too much ‘real world’ out there. I’ve severely cut back on my frivolous purchases and I rarely go out anymore, I just can’t afford it.

I don’t think I’ve bought anything new in two months --- with two exceptions. A few weeks back I picked up TF Prime Wheeljack and I really shouldn’t have, so I returned him a few days later to get the money back my pocket so I could afford gas. I had to do the same with ThunderCats Classics 6” Lion-O and Mumm-Ra. --- I had them for a few weeks and still hadn’t opened them and I found myself in a situation where I needed the money, so with receipt in hand and tail tucked between legs I returned them. I’m disappointed too, because I really did want them both. I might still try and get ‘em again.

As far as the forums go I completely agree that quality is worth more than quantity. I’d rather frequent a board with only a few regulars that I get to know than a board with hundreds of random posters. I’ve posted at Fwoosh or PopCultureNetwork but I don’t get much of a feeling of community there like I do here or OAFE.

I always love collection threads. PCN has a thread to post your new hauls but I personally find that boring because for the most part it’s just stuff in boxes, which I think is kind of boring. If I wanted to look at stuff mint on card I’d go to a store or just look at reviews. Over at OAFE Rustin runs a column, “[url=http://www.oafe.net/blog/?p=8349
]Spoils of the Week[/url]” which he does a little mini-review adding some thoughts on his conquests, which I find at least a little more entertaining because we’re getting some color and get to see what he’s getting.

Most of all I enjoy seeing raw pictures of people’s displays. I think point is less about the toys themselves and more about the person posting them. I can go to Fwoosh, He-Man.org or various other sites and just look at random pics of displays all day long, but if I don’t know the person or rather if they’re not active in a forum I frequent I’m not quite as interested. I think that’s one of the things --- why do we come together? Is it just to commiserate or is there something more here (the proverbial “here”)?


I completely and wholeheartedly agree that we should highlight the fun that we have with toys we already own. All too often it’s easy to get wrapped up in hyperbole and feed into that “gotta catch ‘em all” Pokemon mentality. So much of the community at large seems to be focused on getting the next fix rather than enjoying what we’ve already got. --- That’s where I am right now anyways, enjoying what I do own and not focusing as much on what’s around the corner.

[dayraven]

right on dude!

[NoisyDvL5]

I've spent so much time 'behind the scenes' on the redesign (in addition to the normal amount of stuff on my plate) that I more or less abandoned the forums. My bad.

I think I'm on the other side, though my "Deadline" for having the new launch is fast approaching.

[twofisted]

I usually check in on 4 or 5 sites every day to see whats going on and i've definitely seen a lull. At least for me being pretty much a DC collector, theres not much out there lately. DCUC or All-Stars or whatever they're gunna call it is kinda on hold. I pick and choose the Batman Legacy figures. I pick up the 6" Young Justice figures and i despise the 4" line. So theres not much out there for me.

I dont post often on forums, mostly because either somebody else has posted the same opinion and i do. Another reason why i dont post that much...and this is just my opinion...most site seem to wallow in negativity. I just think back to the days before the internet when we were all kids and we didnt have pics from Toy Fair or armchair quarterbacking from SDCC. The only way we knew if there were new toys out there...was we saw them at the stores. None of this prejudging on toy lines that wont show up in stores for months and months. It kinda takes the fun out of collecting when you know whats coming out for the next 2 years. Most reviews i read...pertaining to what i collect at least is full of negativity, wether its character selection or paint or just about anything. Dont get me wrong, i believe most of the collectible toy industry is targeted towards adults..and we're more opinionated and most definitely passionate about our hobby...but i think at least lately most collectors have become very cynical and extremely negative towards the hobby.

I constantly try and always keep things in perspective when it comes to my hobby. We all collect toys..wether its to recapture our childhoods to compensate for an ever gloomy real world...they're still toys meant for children. I've always thought...like i also do with the comics industry, that the toy industry has instead of trying to keep things new and fresh for children...they keep trying to cater to their built in audience...us. The older we get...the more we have a "been there, done that" attitude. Theres very little out there that amazes us or surprises us like when we were kids. I think just like comics and movies and a great deal of pop culture in general...theres a lull in creativity.

I do think in general most collectors are great people, but i think most of us are frustrated with our hobby in general. I try and not be that way, as i think we all do. But its tough to be so passionate with what we love when theres not alot out there to keep that love alive.

Hehe...guess that kinda went off topic. Thats just my opinion on maybe why things are kinda slowing down

[zedhatch]

I dont post often on forums, mostly because either somebody else has posted the same opinion and i do. Another reason why i dont post that much...and this is just my opinion...most site seem to wallow in negativity. I just think back to the days before the internet when we were all kids and we didnt have pics from Toy Fair or armchair quarterbacking from SDCC. The only way we knew if there were new toys out there...was we saw them at the stores. None of this prejudging on toy lines that wont show up in stores for months and months. It kinda takes the fun out of collecting when you know whats coming out for the next 2 years. Most reviews i read...pertaining to what i collect at least is full of negativity, wether its character selection or paint or just about anything. Dont get me wrong, i believe most of the collectible toy industry is targeted towards adults..and we're more opinionated and most definitely passionate about our hobby...but i think at least lately most collectors have become very cynical and extremely negative towards the hobby.

Just to point out, we did have the backs of the figure cards and those inserts in the vehicles and playsets that pretty much told us everything for the year (back in the days when a toyline would only switch once a year, if then).

But something about your post stuck out:

Another reason why i dont post that much...and this is just my opinion...most site seem to wallow in negativity.

The other day I was talking about this on twitter and realized something I had to point out. Often there is so much negitivity that if you have a POV or a complaint that might have a basis in legitimacy you get the appologists who then try to tell you that you are wrong (because of whatever exuse this week is). Point being is that not only is the negitivity (which is pretty vast BTW, I agree with you there) making it tough to post on message boards, the counters to it actually create MORE negitivity (due to thier dismissive nature and often out of context rebuttles which often end up in flame wars).

Making it even worse is those who seem to never be pleased and BOOM if you say something counter to whatever "status quo" is at the moment, you get shoved into that catagory. It's a real mess and hard to just express your opinion in a clear manner and it seems no matter what you say or how you say it you are blasted for it.

A prime example was a reviewer posted on one of the GI Joe boards a review of the recent Storm Shadow figure, his review was favorable but he had some issues with it. He was blasted for saying anything negitive about the figure (even though his comments were well thought out IMO, even though I also didn't agree with him). I simply posted "Hey, don't let it get you down, I don't agree with you but I see where you are coming from, great review" as a responce, but I was sickened (well in as much as I can be sickened anymore, Kind of getting a thick skin about the internet) by the "YOU SUXXORS!" remarks, and even in light of that he came back with calm, clear, and intellegent responces, oh well.

The internets done got a case of the crazy I suppose

[PrfktTear]

This is great stuff guys!

There are a lot of forces at work here --- Sometimes I think we’re in a bubble and at some point I think that bubble is going to burst.

Its almost surreal how much different things are now compared to ten or fifteen years ago. It goes without saying that the Internet has played a huge role in growing our hobby. Looking back at the mid-to-late 90’s there were a few handfuls of sites dedicated --- and countless “free” GeoCities sites with ten bazillion animated gifs.

Back in the “good old days” we had very few sources of information. The obvious is the images on the back of the figure cards or inserts, and then there were toy commercials, also the wish list catalogues like JCPenny, and finally commercials. By the time it got that stage they were essentially already to rolling off the production line.

Today there is just an extraordinary amount of information at our fingertips. We’ve been given unprecedented access to a lot of these properties that we as consumers never had before. We’re allowed to see the prototypes, works-in-progress, and 1-ups. In a lot of cases we’re getting to see the minutia of these lines from concept to final product. But having this behind the curtain access does open up a Pandora’s Box of sorts. What happens when we see a work in progress and the final product is inferior?

To be honest I’m kind of having a difficult time articulating my thoughts on this matter. I think there is quite a lot at play here --- or maybe I am just making a mountain out of a molehill. There is us the fans, the blogosphere (IAT, PoeGhostal, OAFE, etc), the Fan Sites (He-Man.org, Seibertron, Fwoosh, etc), the retailers (TRU, Wal-Mart, Target, BBTS, etc), and then there are the toy companies (Mattel, Hasbro, NECA, etc.).

Two Negatives do not make a positive. I have been pretty selective about what sites I frequent. I started at OAFE.net oh, so many years ago and intermittently popped in & out over there until Poe Ghostal moved out and started his own blog. Poe’s POA wasn’t quite so insular and I think it was a natural progression that I found sites like Articulated Discussion, Its All True, Toy-A-Day, Battle Grip, and Weirdo Toys, etc. I mostly stuck to the same handful of sites, with Poe’s being my personal “hub” of sorts.

I have never been interested in dwelling on the negative, especially when it came to a line like MOTUC. I just loved the line too much. Of course there were things that pissed me off but for the most part I was happier than a pig in muck.

I think the closest comparison I can make is to the Left-Right Political Spectrum --- on the left your have your apologists and on the right you have the negative reactionaries. There is absolutely nothing wrong with having an opinion, but it seems that there are those in the community who only care about have theirs heard. To me the whole point of getting together is to share our common interests and have a good time. Some people just seem to lose touch of that and it becomes a pissing contest with words.

To bring this on home, we get teasers and know about upcoming figures while they’re still in their planning stages, thus giving us months upon months of speculation. Once the final product is released and starts hitting shelves it’s kind of like putting the cart before the horse. The usual reviews will come out and people can see for themselves but by that anticlimactic. By then there is already something else out there for you to have on your wish list. Its just all too easy to forget to appreciate what you have.

I think for a while I lost my perspective. When I first started collecting I thought it was to recapture my childhood but as things went on it became like Pokémon, got to catch ‘em all --- Hopefully I’ve started to get it back …

[twofisted]

I've always tried to keep an open mind and definitely keep things in perspective. While i love DC comics and all its characters...i tell myself "they're just toys" Its supposed to be fun. I consider myself lucky to have enough disposable income to buy the toys i want for my collection. I realize that Matty is trying to turn a profit..but like all American corporations they want more money for less and less effort. But thats just life. Maybe my problem is that i dont expect much when it comes to toys. I dont expect everything to be on the level of a HotToys Reeve Superman figure. I also dont expect the quality to be so bad that the figure i just bought falls apart in my hands (as some of my Matty stuff has) So i know that Matty has a certain cost range figured in for DCUC and what we get is what we get. I dont really expect anything more. Sometimes they surprise me tho. I get more excited about seeing my favorite DC characters in action figure form. Especially living through very slim pickings in the 80's. In the end...i just love DC Comics characters. In all their differnt forms and versions. I've never complained about character selection through the various waves...because i like them all. I have the big Alex Ross Crisis on INfinite Earths mural framed above the bar at my house. My ultimate wish being a DC collector is to see every character in that mural with an action figure. Now i know thats a pretty tough thing to pull off....but every time i see a new character thats never been an action figure, i get excited. I try to keep that kind of passion and excitement when it comes to my collecting.

I have my small grouping of sites that i frequent. Mainly its to see if theres anything new coming out(which is kind of contrary to my previous post). I get excited about seeing whats new and i look foreward to finding the new stuff in stores. What bugs me the most and keeps me a periphery type of site user is the negativity that follows. Here's new pics of wave such and such....which is then followed by nothing but one negative comment after another. "what a totally crap wave!" "i have absolutely no interest in these" "his head is too small, his gloves are too short" "more garbage from Matty..pass". I'd say that 90% of comments are negative. It gets old after a while. Especially considering we're talking about toys