... I would have waited an eternity for these...

[heroic_decepticon]

HD: they're your toys and your stickers. You can do whatever you want. You're under no obligation to scan the stickers for anyone if you don't want to really -- it's not like you owe the fandom anything... I just thought it might be a nice thing to do if you wanted to. But if you don't, then that's up to you.

Hey Gok, first off, I need to apologise for perhaps phrasing my response stronger that I should.

For one thing, I love to help the fandom and have been doing so since '99 and even more so after I set up my site in 2007. It's just that I'm becoming frustrated with the way people abuse the material other people have given for free and out of the good of their hearts. Or when people use them to rip other people off or profit in an unscrupulous manner.

KO-ers using things like instruction scans, box art or sticker sheets from what is readily available online is becoming more and more real (and in fact has happened).

It's difficult to describe the rage that (perhaps a relatively small group) of G1-purists felt when we learnt the dino-casettes were being KO-ed. Like many desirable pieces, like even G1 Reflector, there goes many people's chance owning one of these pieces, with the peace of mind. There will always by some measure of doubt, and searching for the 'creme among the crap' would be so taxing and doubly difficult.

Have no illusion that the KO-ers cobble stuff together from online sources. If not the Zhong Jin KOs won't have boxes with misaligned lines, text placement and all that - ie: if all they did were scan the original boxes/cards, then there won't be such discrepancies like "Dinobot Bommander".

You know my personal policy... if I want a Transformer toy (G1 or otherwise), then I'll get it from a local retailer while it's current. *snip*

Hmmm... like mentioned many times, can't argue with this one way or another. Like I said, not many people are fortunate enough to have their childhood collection intact. I think more people fall into the "I didn't have this when young, I want to buy it back now" category.

Now I know someone who has Sky Garry and Grandus from their childhood... if the stickers on those toys started falling off simply due to age -- then I think they would appreciate being able to access reprolabels to replace them rather than paying the ridiculous (IMO) inflated aftermarket prices for some G1 toys these days... just for the sake of new stickers.

Hmmm... I don't know. If I had something left over from my childhood, it'd be in pretty bad condition because I kept playing with them and crashing them around, would have loose joints too. Chances are I would buy another piece in better condition (but still keep my original one)... then, same sticker rules applies I guess.

Yeah alright, I can understand this argument.
*snip*
Although the notion of helping bootleggers is something I hadn't considered and that would bug me.

At the risk of repeating myself above, it's pretty valid. I get quite a large volume of emails on my site either asking for advise on how to distinguish between KOs or telling me that they have been duped into buying KOs.

These things are insidious I tell you.

Well... it depends how much of a reward you want. I'd be satisfied with the knowledge that I'd helped fellow fans.

No, my point is that I don't want a reward. But if they were to offer a reward (and I know Reprolabels to be stingy in that aspect), I think it'd be an insult to suggest that for my contribution, I get a reproduction print of the sheet I just contributed and few generic faction symbol sheets.

Just check out Botch's site. Many of the key pieces of box art in high resolution and sharp as a needle, never before available unobstructed, were scanned, edited and contributed by me. I don't want a reward and have never gotten one.

But it still pains me when people abuse the stuff I have contributed to the detriment of community.

Again, what if the original stickers have deteriorated?

same answer as a few paragraphs above I guess.

Well, I was suggesting doing it as an act of charity for the benefit of fellow fans. But it was just a suggestion. Maybe I'm just naive.

But anyway, it was only a suggestion -- what you choose to do with your stickers is entirely up to you. I appreciate that you at least gave it consideration.

Gok, I think you have a good heart and have the community's interest in your mind.

It's just that I'm getting more and more disillusioned with how people abuse the stuff we provide.

To be honest, there are still lots of stuff I have that I believe bar a few people on TFW, the community has not even seen (or knows exists). Rare pieces of art, character designs, prototypes and all that. I also have lots of high resolution unobstructed box art of Japanese exclusives that I am holding back from Botch's... all these because I am becoming disillusioned and that it would break my heart to see people abuse it after I have given it free for fans to enjoy.

I am not alone in so holding back. There are a small group of us that have these stuff (or other rare unseen stuff), but really not providing to the community because we are just sick of it being abused.