The TF Wiki

[Sky Shadow]

Bizarrely, I just learned something new about myself on TFWiki. I invented Gold Plastic Syndrome. That's right - all of you with broken Black Zaraks and G2 Slingshots... it was me! Bwahahaha! (Well, not really.)

(From TFWiki): "The earliest use of the term that can be found in the alt.toys.transformers archives dates to September 2002 in a post by user Sky Shadow".

And this was my post back in 2002:

"I have a MOC Pretender Monster Slog sitting on my desk, just begging me to open him.

However, if Slogs suffer from Gold Plastic Syndrome (i.e. the sort of brittleness that will make me want to cry) then I'd rather not put myself through that sort of torment.

So if anyone has any experience with GPS Slogs (or Bristlebacks, for that matter) could you please let me know? Maybe it's time we came up with a comprehensive list of diseased GPS Transformers.

I know about Black Zarak, Pretender Roadblock and G2 Slingshot. Who else needs to be quarantined?"

[GoktimusPrime]

You broke my Slog and Bristleback you pr1ck! jkz

You need one of those "I'm Famous On The Internet" T-shirts now.

[roller]

i dont think G2 Slingshots should be in the list

mine is super fine and its 2nd hand

maybe gold plastic syndrome doesn't exist, maybe its a ploy to jack the prices of certain toys up

how come Tf wiki doesn't have anything written on Staxx? he's so cool

and claims that in the episode "The Autobot Run" its a continuity error that Shockwave turns up.

I mean, Megatrons brilliant planned almost worked this time. The only reason he didn't succeed is because he took all day just to kill the Autobots in some fancy crusher device, Shockwave probably showed up to see an end to the great optimus prime and others.

i say it aint an error

[FFN]

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Staxx

He hasn't appeared in any fiction, to my knowledge, so all we have is a toy description.

[Kyle]

Noticed that the following page was missing two toys.

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Optimus_Prime_%28Movie%29_toys

1. TransScanning OP toy.

2. The repaint of the "Spychanger" toy - a Japanese movie DVD pre-order/purchase bonus. This toy was not packaged with the DVD but was individually bagged in a small clear plastic bag with its instructions sheet. It was meant as a pre-order exclusive of the DVD, but many retail stores had enough stock of the toy on the first day to hand out to buyers who didn't pre-order their DVD.

[GoktimusPrime]

Noticed on the Blitzwing page:

1) "Blitzwing's earliest Diaclone sculpt had him with a somewhat odd faceless head." - First of all, that variant head isn't truly faceless. COBRA's Vipers, BATs and Cobra Commander's faceplates are faceless... this isn't a humanlike face (i.e.: it's devoid of a mouth, nose and paired eyes) but it's still a face - as much as Roadbuster's face is a face (it's much more of a face than what Shockwave and Whirl have!). Secondly, I'd like to see evidence that early Diaclone Triple Changer Jet Type toys actually had that early concept face or if it was only seen in conceptual art. There's no reference to verify this claim on the page and it's also not supported by the Triple Changer Jet Type page on Diaclone.net (here) nor any mention of it on the Pre-Transformers section of the Complete Variants Page (here).

2) Where it says "Blitzwing's Tech-Spec Bio has a typographical error" I think the word "anomaly" would be better suited. The evidence there doesn't seem to support that the bio & tech specs were necessarily in error... it probably was, but the fact is that the bio & tech specs has effectively made it official (much like the whole Sideswipe-Sunstreaker switcheroonie thing).

3) It says, "The opening sequence of Season 3 features a large row of identical tanks that look suspiciously just like Bliztwing's tank mode, before zooming in on the barrel of one particular tank."
...yeah... go Bliztwing! Okay, this is probably a typo and I think I can edit this without anyone going against me and changing it back - but I would like points 1 and 2 examined please.

[jaydisc]

Why don't you sign up for a proper account and discuss this at the wiki? Posting it here seems like you're asking FFN to do your dirty work for you.

[FFN]

I put up a {{fact}} (citation needed}} on the first point. Second point I left alone, since it's quite possibly a typographical error if the other similarly written bios of the time give him "commando" as his function. On the third point, I don't know what your issue is

Noticed that the following page was missing two toys.

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Optimus_Prime_%28Movie%29_toys

1. TransScanning OP toy.

2. The repaint of the "Spychanger" toy - a Japanese movie DVD pre-order/purchase bonus. This toy was not packaged with the DVD but was individually bagged in a small clear plastic bag with its instructions sheet. It was meant as a pre-order exclusive of the DVD, but many retail stores had enough stock of the toy on the first day to hand out to buyers who didn't pre-order their DVD.

I write quite a lot of the toy stuff on the wiki. I keep forgetting about the Trans-Scanning thing because it's so obscure and hardly anybody owns it. Same goes for the DVD Spy Changer.

Mostly I add stuff when there are stock photos I can use, and unfortuantely, Takara almost never releases stock photos in the quantity and resolution that Hasbro does. They're almost always small, blurry, with possibly some giant watermark over the top of them.

[GoktimusPrime]

Why don't you sign up for a proper account and discuss this at the wiki?

...I'm not sure if I want to get into that level of dedication with the TF wiki considering my opinions about it on the whole.

Posting it here seems like you're asking FFN to do your dirty work for you.

If FFN doesn't like being a "go-between" then I'll happily stop referring issues to him and just continue to keep my yap shut about the many questionable points I find on TFwiki. It's up to you FFN, if you don't feel comfortable about it then I'll stop referring things here.

Second point I left alone, since it's quite possibly a typographical error if the other similarly written bios of the time give him "commando" as his function.

That's the point, it's possibly a typographical error. I think it probably is - but until you know for sure I think it's best to word it more factually, even if you were to say "probable typographical error." I'm quite sure it is an error but yeah... until you have conclusive proof I would avoid making such conclusively sweeping statements like that.

I write quite a lot of the toy stuff on the wiki. I keep forgetting about the Trans-Scanning thing because it's so obscure and hardly anybody owns it. Same goes for the DVD Spy Changer.

Dude, the TFwiki has a lot of stuff that's equally if not more obscure than these toys.

Mostly I add stuff when there are stock photos I can use, and unfortuantely, Takara almost never releases stock photos in the quantity and resolution that Hasbro does. They're almost always small, blurry, with possibly some giant watermark over the top of them.

Trans-Scanning Protoform Optimus Prime pics and here
Trans-Scanning Earth Mode Optimus Prime Pics
DVD Spychanger Optimus Prime pics

I'm sure you can use those images so long as you credit the original sources and provide a hyper-link to those pages or you could message/email those admins directly and ask for permission.