The Soapbox VII: The Top 10 Transformers of 2008

[GoktimusPrime]

Unfortunately, context doesn't always matter. It's important at times but others it can be utterly irrelevant. To a small segment of collectors, having G1 vintage toys is a very cool thing but as I've aluded to, the vintage collector is a dying breed.

Which is why G1 reissues are made in limited production runs - far smaller than regular line Transformers. They're also marketed directly to older collectors (or what Takara refers to as "high end"* collectors) - hence why they're all "For Ages 15 and Up" and they can ignore child-safety laws, which is why they have small missiles with super-strong launchers that can break the sound barrier.

Hasbro tries to market their toys at children as well as adults, and history has shown that Hasbro reissues flop -- remember how much TRU were slashing the prices of G1 reissues because they just shelf-warmed for so bloody long? They were just desperate to get rid of all that dead stock! Remember seeing G1 reissue Autobot cars reduced from $75 to $25?

And what makes you think that the G1 collector market is shrinking? If anything I'd say it's growing - the fact that we now have a live-action Transformers movie based on G1 (with a sequel on the way) is proof of that. When Beast Machines was out a Transfan in Canberra once told me that they should make a live-action Transformer movie. I laughed in his face and told him that it was downright impossible as we G1 fans are far too small and insignificant a niche market. I still cannot believe that we have a live-action movie and that Transformers has become "retro-cool" so that people walking around wearing TF clothes or with TF logos on their cars are not even necessarily Transfans! We have clearly become a much larger market and one to be reckoned with. The fact that the Classics/Henkei/Universe line is primarily based on G1/G2 tributes is also testament to the current influence of G1 fans. Look at all the G1 homages we had in the Armada trilogy. There was nothing like that in Beast Wars, Beast Machines or Car Robot (RiD).

Look at how our own community has grown. I attended a Transfan meet in Melbourne in 2001. There were three Transfans who attended that meet who were Melbournians - the rest of us were from Sydney, Adelaide and Tokyo. Now you guys have just multiplied phenomenally and having meets on a regular basis with turn out numbers that rival Sydney meets! This was unthinkable 8 years ago!

2001 Melbourne Meet


Sure, G1 fans are still a minority, but we are a growing and undeniably influential minority now.

I think that everything realises that it will not be judged in context but by how people respond to it and that in all of its complexities is only fair. People do not sit down 20 years on and try to appreciate the context in which a said movie was made.

Do you think that most people would watch "Seven Samurai" or "To Kill A Mockingbird" and criticise it for having appallingly bad sound and picture quality by current film standards?

The original Star Wars trilogy's (1977-1983) effects are not as good as the prequel trilogy (1999-2005), yet most Star Wars fans I've met consider the original trilogy to be better than the prequel trilogy - despite the fact that you can see the strings attached to the starfighters. I have the original trilogy DVD box set where they released 2 versions of each movie - unmastered (where you can even see the strings attached to the models) and digitally remastered (where they've used CGI to correct and remake a lot of effects shots). The fact that they've given collectors the option to watch the movies unmastered means that a lot of fans would like to watch the movies without corrections - but it doesn't mean that they would pan out things like the orange vaseline line underneath Luke's landspeeder... they're appreciating that these special effects were groundbreakingly awesome by 1970s/80s standards.

They watch it and either enjoy it or not. And I think the same applies to toys. And often there are a number of reasons as why a person likes a toy. I felt in composing my list that G1 reissues could not make the cut b/c while they fulfilled in 2008 a necessary and desirable niche, it didn't have the balance of nostalgia, engineering and fan/fiction appeal that other toys did.

+ Nostalgia appeal = absolutely there (you can't beat a G1 mould for nostalgia)
+ Engineering appeal = again, it's there so long as you take it in context. It's like appreciating the architectural engineering of say and ancient temple, castle, cathedral, palace etc. - in the context of its time these are impressive constructions.
+ Fan/fiction appeal = G1 absolutely has appeal to fans, especially if you're looking at the hardcore fandom. I'd say the majority of fans would cite G1 as their favourite TF canon. We'll have a better idea of this after we see the results of Paulbot's OzFormers TF awards. I'll be surprised if something else got voted as the most popular over G1.
+ Niche market = yes, G1 is aimed at a niche market. That doesn't mean it's bad. Transformers Animated is aimed at a niche market too - kids. Sure, it's a much bigger niche than G1, but it's there.

So yes, it fulfilled a criteria but it didn't satisfy others in my assessment where I tried to be as unbiased as possible b/c as you can see there are plenty of toys on my personal list that did a lot for me but just couldn't make the cut when I looked at it from a range of other factors.

Fair enough, but for me I found Encore Sky Lynx to be my most satisfying acquisition for 2008. I assess it under different criteria from say Animated and Universe/Henkei - because I think it's unreasonable to assess them all under the same criteria.

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*Takara(TOMY)'s high-end TF lines include:
+ Reissues
+ Binaltech & Binaltech Asterisk
+ KISS Players
+ Masterpiece
+ Music Label
...all these lines are specifically labelled as 対象年齢15才以上 ("For Ages 15 and Up") and are not intended for children, and in the case of KISS Players, contains fictional content not suitable for children.