Toyfair weekend comments.

[griffin]

First up, I'm not going to be online much in the next couple of days, as I came back from Melbourne with a cold/flu virus, and staying up all night to 5am to post the details of Toyfair has made it the worse I've had in years.
I knew that if I went to bed last night that I wouldn't get up too early today, so had to post everything I could yesterday so that you guys didn't have to wait for it.
Hopefully Paulbot and Demonac have been able to answer any questions on the day. Gotta make sure they at least get to share the credit for the reporting of the event.
Sorry if the recent influx of visitors caused any problems viewing the boards (if it delayed accessing the board's server). I tried to limit the number of foriegn viewers by pasting the entire posts to the main TFW2005 board, because once the news leaked to the global fan forums, they would have all come en-masse, probably even crashing the board server.
Paulbot should be posting the video clips we took at Toyfair soon, if not already. He was going to upload them to youtube, so that they can deal with the demand, and not drain my server's bandwidth by posting the MP4 links here. Actually, I might still post the MP4 links a few days later, after all the excitement has died down, so you guys can see the full-resolution clips, while the rest of the world can just do with the shrunken down youtube clips. At least we had our one moment on the international stage, and until next year, we can just slink back into the shadows and enjoy and interact on our own local fan issues.

I'd like to do a report on Toyfair every year, now that I know what it is, and how successful this one was. Surprisingly we were ignored for most of the day (could have pinched stuff at times), but when we first showed up, we were scrutinesed a fair bit, so as much as I will try to get other fans to access Toyfair in future years, we might have to consider a quota limit (or space out the arrival of fans), because a large crowd of fans would get in the way of the purpose of the display booth. The three of us kept having to get out of the way of the Hasbro Reps and their presentations to the retailers, so having 4 or more at any one time cramped into the small display spaces and getting in the way of them doing business (the event costs them a lot of money after all) could have Hasbro blocking us coming in. But we'll deal with that next year. Maybe we could even try to talk Hasbro into a day/time for a presentation just for fans.
I've also gotta process the 30 odd new registrations, and screen out all the non-locals (there was criticism on the foreign boards about our 'xenophobic' restrictions, but don't see the need for *local* fan forums in addition to global ones).

[autobreadticon]

first of all let me thank you on your commitment and professionalism, you guys did an excellent job in bringing us the coverage and the extra steps to report the events especially to us board members first, makes me feel all fuzzy inside

[Pulse]

Thank you griffin, Paulbot and Demonac for all your time & hard work these past few days. We truly & honestly appreciate it. :)

[Paulbot]

The videos are now up on YouTube:
http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=869

[Tober]

There were 152 viewers here last night. That's double the amount that are usually in the TFW2005 news forum by itself. Not a bad effort for this little corner of the world :P

Thanks Griffin, Paulbot and Demonac.



I've also gotta process the 30 odd new registrations, and screen out all the non-locals (there was criticism on the foreign boards about our 'xenophobic' restrictions, but don't see the need for *local* fan forums in addition to global ones).

Hypocracy is the greatest luxury. That guy has been called out as being racist on other boards for his views. He is also a member of TAAU which I think has a similar policy of having only local members. To call us xenophobic and then refer to you as his mate in another thread must make you proud...

[Gutsman Heavy]

Big thanks Griffin, Paulbot and Demonac.

I still can't belive we got an exclusive on Silverbolt!

Ozformers rocks!

[roller]

i concur, well done for getting snaps and videos.

Was it like the 2007 movie Press conference at Redfern? As in, us fans be a bit quiet and not cause any trouble?

[TheDirtyDigger]

Thanks Griffin, D-nac and PB for the pics, vid and info.

Awesome stuff...especially the first look at Silverbolt.
The Marvel stuff doesn't really grab me except for maybe Venom. Looks like he has a decent alt mode.





there was criticism on the foreign boards about our 'xenophobic' restrictions,
Why is there a restriction on xenophobes?

[GoktimusPrime]

Because OzFormers is a TF community for Australasian Transfandom. This issue was already discussed here (http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=121)

[griffin]

Thanks Paulbot for uploading the links to the vid clips.

And a HUGE thankyou to Hasbro and Kristin Hamilton (Senior Product Manager), who were very helpful and accomodating, allowing us full access to their products and info at a Trade Fair (which they could have rightfully refused us access for being non-retailers). When we were walking around the rest of the Trade Fair, there were a number of exhibitors who would only allow access if you had an appointment, so we were lucky that Hasbro's exhibit was open and they didn't object to us being there as media.


Hypocracy is the greatest luxury. That guy has been called out as being racist on other boards for his views. He is also a member of TAAU which I think has a similar policy of having only local members. To call us xenophobic and then refer to you as his mate in another thread must make you proud...

Really, he called me a mate? I saw the very negative criticism about our 'xenophobic' board, but not the other one. A bit disappointing.


Was it like the 2007 movie Press conference at Redfern? As in, us fans be a bit quiet and not cause any trouble?

We were constantly dodging and moving out of the way of the people there with 'the big retailer bucks', so as not to upset Hasbro before we got all the info and photos we needed. We wanted to make sure we respected their purpose for being there, and not have them regretting giving us permission to cover the event, so that it was win-win for everyone (we get access to the new info for the fans, and Hasbro gets some free publicity of their products).


Why is there a restriction on xenophobes?

Hmmm, a poll on allowing xenophobes perhaps... ;)

On that issue though, the poll to exclude non-locals ended up being a good thing, as the first 'Toyfair sneak peek' posting annoyed alot of non-members because (I didn't know this though) attachments weren't viewable by non-members.
But even if they were viewable, if we were open to all fans, we had over 8000 hits for the different Toyfair postings. Even if you divide it by 4 to cover one person looking at each topic, we could have easily had up to a thousand people registering to post comments or questions. I would have had to spend hours processing them all, and then never see them again.
And we had one global fan forum claim that the (mistaken) posting with the attachments was a membership drive, because they required membership to view them. When in fact the opposite is true, and I tried to limit the number of people coming here and draining our limited resources.
Ah well, there will always be critics to everything...

[TheDirtyDigger]

Hmmm, a poll on allowing xenophobes perhaps...

LOL. Thank you for getting my witticism Griff.:)



We wanted to make sure we respected their purpose for being there, and not have them regretting giving us permission to cover the event, so that it was win-win for everyone (we get access to the new info for the fans, and Hasbro gets some free publicity of their products).


Yeah they should definitely appreciate the free publicity as you've given a preview to masses of potential customers now, whetting the appetites of us all.

Maybe next year they should pay you off in prototypes and test shots.

[Robzy]

Thanks Griffin, Paulbot and Demonac! :) Silverbolt exclusive... yet another reason why Ozformers is NUMBER 1!!!

[griffin]

The coverage has been more prolific than I expected. As most have noticed, we had over 8,000 hits between the different Toyfair postings, each time downloading the photos in each one. This caused a drain on my server to the tune of 38Gb up to today, just for the month of April. In the last two days, we have had more bytes downloaded than in the three prior months (Jan-Mar). Since I have a 40Gb monthly limit, and there is still about 24 days left on this month, I paid for more bandwidth, so we can stay on the air. Yay! :)
I was actually quite surprised to have one of the people from my host server phone me up a couple of hours ago to not only alert me to the rapidly shrinking amount of bandwidth remaining, but to also comment rather excitedly that I had eclipsed their previous record with their server clients. Admittedly, they aren't a big internet host, but it was obviously a big deal for them. I guess it gives their business a boost, statistically.
At least this will all die down within a day or two. And then we can go back to being a small little fan community tucked away in the corner of the internet universe. At least until next April... :)

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Why is there a restriction on xenophobes?


ROFL
Funniets thing I have heard all week!!!!:D:D

[Kyle]

Thank you Griffin, Paulbot and Demonac for being there and your great reports and vids~! :)

[Borgeman]

The coverage has been more prolific than I expected. As most have noticed, we had over 8,000 hits between the different Toyfair postings, each time downloading the photos in each one. This caused a drain on my server to the tune of 38Gb up to today, just for the month of April. In the last two days, we have had more bytes downloaded than in the three prior months (Jan-Mar). Since I have a 40Gb monthly limit, and there is still about 24 days left on this month, I paid for more bandwidth, so we can stay on the air. Yay! :)
I was actually quite surprised to have one of the people from my host server phone me up a couple of hours ago to not only alert me to the rapidly shrinking amount of bandwidth remaining, but to also comment rather excitedly that I had eclipsed their previous record with their server clients. Admittedly, they aren't a big internet host, but it was obviously a big deal for them. I guess it gives their business a boost, statistically.
At least this will all die down within a day or two. And then we can go back to being a small little fan community tucked away in the corner of the internet universe. At least until next April... :)

40gb in a week.. not a bad effort id say :P

just curious griff, in any old month without big things like this, do we ever get close to 40gb ourselves?

George

[STL]

Thanks to all the guys and Griffin, especially, for the work he puts into this board. I'll see u fellas all next yr now that I know there will be others. :D

[i_amtrunks]

Thanks alot for all the hard work you guys have put into this.

Getting the exclusive on all the US based sites and them going into hissyfits like that though must be Karma...

[griffin]

40gb in a week.. not a bad effort id say :P

just curious griff, in any old month without big things like this, do we ever get close to 40gb ourselves?

George

We usually average 2-3Gb for the whole month. For that to surge to 40Gb in 2 days, you can probably understand why the admin of the host server rang me up personally on a Sunday, half excited and half concerned, wanting to know what I had done. Hotlinking was a major cause, which I was mostly responsible for by posting the reports and photos to tfw2005, but I changed a server setting to block it.

[Borgeman]

We usually average 2-3Gb for the whole month. For that to surge to 40Gb in 2 days, you can probably understand why the admin of the host server rang me up personally on a Sunday, half excited and half concerned, wanting to know what I had done. Hotlinking was a major cause, which I was mostly responsible for by posting the reports and photos to tfw2005, but I changed a server setting to block it.

yeah, i could image the look on their face when they saw the figures :p

George

[Soundwarp]

I hate reading, so i'm gonna come over soon and you can fill me in :P

[griffin]

Wanted to paste up this listing after the Toyfair interest had ended.
The server logs of downloads during April (Toyfair was April 4th). Note that a Gb = 1000Mb, so the 5th had a Bandwidth of 31,000Mb, up from our daily average of 200-300Mb.

Day-Number of visits-Pages-Hits-Bandwidth
01 Apr 2008 329 7334 28620 130.35 MB
02 Apr 2008 297 6634 26794 123.72 MB
03 Apr 2008 295 6456 27402 126.24 MB
04 Apr 2008 1084 14566 60653 357.32 MB
05 Apr 2008 6409 50065 430104 31.08 GB
06 Apr 2008 2521 26133 156896 8.45 GB
07 Apr 2008 1954 24770 115590 4.09 GB
08 Apr 2008 946 14384 64958 1.50 GB
09 Apr 2008 659 11038 50322 910.84 MB
10 Apr 2008 576 11017 44682 821.06 MB
11 Apr 2008 506 9500 39129 562.99 MB
12 Apr 2008 426 7004 31177 399.69 MB
13 Apr 2008 440 8169 35065 400.07 MB
14 Apr 2008 409 9170 39669 361.08 MB
15 Apr 2008 428 9806 42532 332.28 MB
16 Apr 2008 503 10615 43078 328.71 MB
17 Apr 2008 442 9211 39660 270.62 MB
18 Apr 2008 402 9458 39511 260.67 MB
19 Apr 2008 390 8388 33117 246.16 MB
20 Apr 2008 363 7869 33017 250.14 MB
21 Apr 2008 446 9837 41395 310.32 MB
22 Apr 2008 412 8955 36278 225.77 MB

All that attention for a photo of a cardboard cut-out. :p

[Borgeman]

o.O

[iceburn]

did you lose your eyes borge?

[roller]

pudding