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View Full Version : New Transformer Search website... by me!



kurdt_the_goat
15th September 2014, 02:34 PM
Hey guys

I've been working on this site for the last couple months and finally just made it live. The url is http://transformersearch.com/

This is the basic premise of the site:


People submit toys & accessories.... i approve the listing and it appears on the site.
Once on the site, people can post corrections to data, submit photos and comment on a listing (reviews).
Registering to the site is only necessary if you want to submit anything - and also has the benefit of being able to choose between Robot/Alt mode for listing pictures and saving your name etc for reviews.


There's sites like this already but the difference with mine is that it has a very powerful and fast filtering system to easily find toys & accessories. The filters adjust based on what you've already selected, to limit further choices to only available options. Accessories are linked to toys, toys are linked to repaints and so on so you can jump around the place quite easily.

I haven't recently tested the registration/submission process but it should be working - it was a few weeks ago!

Let me know if you see some odd behaviour. One thing i haven't been able to do better is when you submit a photo, the confirmation message is displayed in the photos tab (which isn't displayed on page reload - you have to click it again).

This was all a huge undertaking and quite frankly i'm pretty well sick of it by now! But - with my entire collection in there as a starting point, the bulk of my workload is done. So, i'll see if people are interested in submitting themselves and, provided it doesn't turn into a massive pile of work, will continue with the upkeep of it all - but with no promises! :D

Particularly the accessories, they are a massive job - you can see from what's in there already, that accessories account for 2.5x the amount of toys, and even with only 500 listings, it's still pretty hard to identify something!

Don't get too attached to the accessories feature then :p In the future, it may be that i choose to limit accessories to only G1/2 entries... after all that's what most people are interested in. And that'll keep it a light(ish) workload and make the search worthwhile (there won't be 20 entries for Optimus Prime Left Fist etc).

Let me know what you think! But, i'm hoping to take a break for a bit and so any submissions, suggestions and fixes, well i'll get to them when i can :)

Oh and one last thing, at the bottom of the site is a link to an Australian Release Toy Search ... if you click that you'll get an extra option to filter by Released in: Australia. With the way Hasbro's going with releases, one day that might be handy!

Skullcruncher
15th September 2014, 03:18 PM
Nice work, all the best for the site!

kaiden
15th September 2014, 03:43 PM
very nice.

reillyd
15th September 2014, 06:36 PM
The site is looking good, and I'm particularly impressed by the photos - very clear, grey background, and it's easier to search when you don't know the name but remember the toy. But it seems sparsely populated - at least for G1. If you can get word out to more users, the listings will build quickly :)

Trent
15th September 2014, 06:40 PM
Nice. I'll have a good look tomorrow hopefully. I'll definitely register so I can submit stuff :)

kurdt_the_goat
15th September 2014, 06:44 PM
The site is looking good, and I'm particularly impressed by the photos - very clear, grey background, and it's easier to search when you don't know the name but remember the toy. But it seems sparsely populated - at least for G1. If you can get word out to more users, the listings will build quickly :)

Or anyone with G1 toys that they want to give me for free... :)
I know 200-ish toys is pretty sparse compared to most on here but taking all those photos, boy do i wish i had less!

Sky Shadow
15th September 2014, 07:53 PM
Very pretty. Nicely done, Kurdt.

Jetfire in the sky
15th September 2014, 08:10 PM
Perhaps G1 Classic isn't the best description as G1 Classic was the 90's G1 Reissue line that came in the gold packaging, perhaps the word vintage would be better.
Site looks great though and filtered very fast, love the pictures.

kurdt_the_goat
15th September 2014, 08:11 PM
As far as i can recall, the G1 toys that i have from my childhood are (... must have been) the G1 Classic reissues, that's why they're labelled as such!

gamblor916
15th September 2014, 08:14 PM
Very nice. I can see this site getting a lot of use.

Initial_G
15th September 2014, 09:18 PM
Nice site, really good work, the pics are great

AJ_Prime
15th September 2014, 10:47 PM
Wow, well done dude! You can tell that plenty of work has gone into this. Nice, clear pics of the figures too! Once the traffic on this site gains momentum, I can see it being a great resource!

BigTransformerTrev
16th September 2014, 10:51 AM
The photo's are fantastic! Very clear. :D


I'm having a little trouble navigating the site, beside the initial page when I click on anything it comes up blank. I may be doing something wrong.


Looks like you have put a ton of work in mate - very well done! :)

kurdt_the_goat
16th September 2014, 12:05 PM
Everything seems to be in order for me... i should point out, i haven't even looked at the site in Internet Explorer (and don't intend to :). At a guess i'd say it should be fine but maybe that's the problem, or just some temporary loading related issue.

Lint
16th September 2014, 03:38 PM
Love the photography and the accessories list is going to become invaluable. Kudos to you for this massive undertaking!

klystron
17th September 2014, 11:13 PM
Everything seems to be in order for me... i should point out, i haven't even looked at the site in Internet Explorer (and don't intend to :). At a guess i'd say it should be fine but maybe that's the problem, or just some temporary loading related issue.

Shouldn't look at any site with Internet Explorer!

Seriously though, that's a slick site and I love the photos. I looked through a bit (toys and accessories) and it all worked fine.

DELTAprime
17th September 2014, 11:35 PM
If I had a light box I'd submit photos for you. Looks good just needs more entries in the database.

BTW: I'm running Safari in Yosemite which is still in Beta and everything looks fine on the latest build.

5FDP
18th September 2014, 11:07 AM
Bookmarked for future reference. Thanks! :)

Raider
18th September 2014, 12:11 PM
Looks great. Already registered and have taken a few photos of my recent G1 acquisitions. Just need to find the time to submit them. Great work :D

reillyd
18th September 2014, 03:48 PM
Or anyone with G1 toys that they want to give me for free... :)
I know 200-ish toys is pretty sparse compared to most on here but taking all those photos, boy do i wish i had less!


Well I'd be happy to photo them if you don't mind losing the toy :P

Hursticon
19th September 2014, 03:25 PM
Looks and works brilliantly Kurdt, bloody well done! :eek::cool:

kurdt_the_goat
26th September 2014, 01:00 PM
Well 10 days in and i have 5 users but no submissions. Not to say i'm disappointed; to be honest i'm pretty relieved i have no more work to do! This was an interesting experience (as a developer) to get up and running but as i think i realised about half way through, it's a lot of work and not many people can really be bothered can they :P

DELTAprime
26th September 2014, 05:49 PM
Well 10 days in and i have 5 users but no submissions. Not to say i'm disappointed; to be honest i'm pretty relieved i have no more work to do! This was an interesting experience (as a developer) to get up and running but as i think i realised about half way through, it's a lot of work and not many people can really be bothered can they :P

I really would submit stuff to you but the best I could do for you would be photos on my desk with Lego Minifigs, Apple Keyboards and Commander Shepard in the background. If you don't have a problem with it I guess I could submit the text to you and someone else later could submit good light boxed pics.

Found a bug. Every time I go back to the sites home page I have to log in again. Browser is Safari Version 8.0 (10600.1.22)

Sinnertwin
26th September 2014, 10:03 PM
Hey Kurdt, would you like photos of packaging also or just keep it toy related?