The Loyal Subjects Transformers and G.I.Joe Vinyl Figures

The Loyal Subjects Transformers Wave 1

Launched around late June 2013, The Loyal Subjects vinyl Transformers figure line burst on to the collectible  vinyl scene like a super nova but somehow didn't really make a huge mark in the Transformers toy collector world. Initially I wasn't a fan. I admit I was pretty biased toward Transformer merchandise that didn't transform. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of a toy line titled "Transformers." Reading the online comments was a litany of negative opinions ranging from too cartoony, too expensive, and the randomness of the blind box release left the main focus group of the figure series in the lurch. Transformers collectors just weren't excited.

The Loyal Subjects 8-inch Dead Prime

Despite this, I thought the designs were rather clean. It so happened that my buddy Shanti picked up 3 figures on his break during Botcon and he brought them back to our booth. We opened 2 of them and saved the third for his girlfriend to open. It turns out I got Optimus Prime and he got Soundwave. Knowing that he collects Optimus Prime figures we traded and that's how I got my first The Loyal Subjects figure.

Coming back from Botcon 2013, I didn't think much about Soundwave. He was on my table. Then I moved him to my desk. I picked him up and played with him a bit. Having very limited articulation and being 3-inches tall, there isn't much you can do with these figures. But still, he was cool. The super deformed art style was cute and the fact that he came with a weapons was a plus.

BAIT exclusive 8-inch Bullet Prime

It wasn't until several weeks later at San Diego Comic-con that Shanti asked me to visit The Loyal Subjects booth and pick up their exclusive 8-inch Dead Prime figure. I put it on the list of things to get in line to pick up. After researching the release time at the Loyal Subjects booth, I came to discover they had a horde of SDCC exclusive figures at multiple retailers. In addition to the 8-inch Dead Prime, there was the BAIT 8-inch Bullet Prime, Toy Tokyo 3-inch Sunstorm, and The Loyal Subjects had 3-inch Cybertron Megatron, 3-inch 2 pack Radioactive Snake Eyes and Camouflage Storm Shadow, and 2 pack Iron Grenadier Destro and Gold Cobra Commander. Additionally, they would have the new G.I.Joe wave 1 line for sale. Holy crap.

Exclusive Iron Grenadier Destro and
Gold Cobra Commander

I was already tasked to pick up Dead Prime for Shanti and I also planned on picking up the Bullet Pirme from BAIT's booth since one of my coworkers knew them and was going to head over there to pick up some stuff for himself. After the first day, I walked the floor with our management team and we ended up passing by The Loyal Subjects booth. I headed over to talk to them to ask when the Dead Prime would be released and when should I come over to stand in line. Since I was there I picked up 6 blind box figures (3 Transformer, 3 G.I.Joe) and their exclusive 3-inch Cybertron Megatron to show a little support.

I was pleasantly surprised by the selection of figures I got from the blind box. In my opinion they are all winners. I got Optimus Prime, Megatron, and Grimlock for the Transformers blind box lot. I got Snake Eyes, Duke, and Destro for the G.I.Joe blind box lot. 

The Loyal Subjects G.I.JOE Wave 1 (minus Storm Shadow)

The following day I headed over to pick up the Dead Prime figure in between business appointments and I picked up another 2 blind box figure. If you can't tell I'm hooked by now. I got a duplicate Optimus Prime and Snake Eyes.

After coming back from SDCC, I did a little research on the rare figures, and also was lucky enough to stumble upon both rare figures from the Transformers Wave 1 series for cheap. I picked both of them up for $5 over their retail price. Score!  Welcome Illest Jazz and Cybertron Bumble Bee.

The compulsion continues. Since my first Soundwave, I have picked up both 8-inch Primes (Bullet Prime and Dead Prime) and I own 15 of the 3-inch figures now. After my initial skepticism, I've become a big fan of this series. Yes, they are expensive for what they are but the artistic aesthetic they exude and the limited nature of their production runs really resonate with me as a collector. I'm hoping to see wave 2 soon. Gah, plastic crack. Crack, crack, crack.

2012 Year in Review (Part 2)

Here's part 2 of my 2012 year in review. While I did

Here are my top 5 Stinkers for 2012:

#5 Transformers Kre-O Collection - Yeah the entire collection sucks. From the confusing ill conceived premise to poor design, this entire initiative by Hasbro has been a huge debacle. I can see why someone in marketing would think that combing Lego type sets with their out performing Transformers line would be peanut butter and jelly time but it is not. It takes hours to build, deconstruct, and rebuild these sets to transform them from vehicle mode to robot and back. Do you think kids have the attention span to do this? Do you think adults do? No one does. The sets try to recreate the characters from the classic Transformers series (be it G1 cartoon, Movie-verse, whatever) but with the absence of abundance of specialized block pieces the Kre-O design sets fail. It was no wonder when these sets started going on clearance halfway through the year. It's baffling to me that they have considered continuing to produce a wave 3 of this toy line, albeit with an emphasis on the Kreon mini figures as opposed to full on deluxe building sets.

*Image Courtesy of Seibertron.com

#4 Transformers Prime RID Airachnia - By far the worse Transformer to come out of the deluxe line in a while is Airachnia. I admit the original Transformers Prime character design is really complex since she is technically a triple changer and super slim but what we got was a rigid brick with the same articulation as a 70's Kenner Star Wars figure. While her helicopter mode looks well and her robot mode kind of represents the character, they failed to give her any articulation of playability. There is absolutely no way she can assume her spider mode transformation without buying 2 or 3 of the same toy and augmenting the chopper blades for extra elongated spider legs. Her gun accessories are also horrific in design. Absolutely the worse toy I've seen in the deluxe scale figures in a long time (not counting the horror of the Bayverse deluxe toys).

*Image Courtesy of Seibertron.com

#3 Transformers Arms Micron Autobot Swerve - This toy is not that bad but the fact that his head broke off seconds after I untied this figure from his plastic tray gives him a place on the 2012 fail list. Quality control has been horrible lately with Takara Tomy / Hasbro figures and Swerve is on this list to represent this fact. I paid $50 for this import figure and his head snapped off out of the box with no pressure applied at all. I expect this will happen more and more and we are all f*cked for collecting Transformers.

*Image Courtesy of Seibertron.com

#2 Transformers Arms Micron Unicon - While the figure looks TV show accurate, his transformation into a rock ship with his face on it and the really lame battle suit mode for RID Optimus Prime and Megatron was really poorly designed and executed. Surprise to me, the figure I got has a small tear in the rubber horns on his head. It looks like his horn was assembled wrong and when the rubber was glued to the PVC plastic base someone tried to adjust the horn to point in the right direction which tore the rubber horn. The horn is pretty secure in its glue and the tear is not loose at all. However whomever tried to adjust the position failed and promptly tied the figure down into it's packaging and moved on with their lowly life, thanks for the defective figure mysteriously incompetent factory worker.

*Image Courtesy of Seibertron.com

#1 Transformers Generations SDCC Bruticus - The worse disappointment in 2012 is SDCC exclusive Fall of Cybertron Bruticus. There was so much anticipation for this set. The first combiner Transformers set in years and we got a very poorly engineered misformed hodgepodge of deluxe figures that mangle themselves together into a Frankenstein monstrosity. The set contains 5 combaticons representing a updated version of the classic G1 progenitor combaticon team. While each figure range from average to above average in vehicle mode, robot mode, and transformation, every single figures combining transformation is a compromise which leads to a misformed mess. With uneven limbs, awkward articulation, and a hollow center mass, Bruticus is a unanimous mess. This toy is my #1 failure of 2012 because it has the most promise to be a centerpiece must have toy of the year but sadly a series of design failures and compromise  hampered it's true potential.

Toy Purchases July 2012

Wow, where did the time go? I blinked and 4 months passed by. Back to catching up with this blog.

July 2012 was a pretty big month for purchasing toys. While I'm usually on the road in June and July, mostly for work, I managed to pick up a bunch of stuff, mainly due to preorders and San Deigo Comic-con. July 2012 is noted for the release of the first wave of the Fall of Cybertron toys, final completion of my Transformers Animated toy collection, and a few Transformers Prime toys.

*Image Courtesy of Tformers.com

Top of the list is the notable SDCC Hasbro Exclusive Transformers toys for 2012. They were the early bird "Rust in Piece" Transformers Prime Terror-con Cliffjumper figure and the Fall of Cybertron Bruticus Set in G1 color scheme. First off is the Terror-con Cliffjumper figure. This figure has a dubious origin as it was originally announced in 2011 under the Transformers Prime First Edition toy line. When that line sputtered out due to what really is considered a mismanagement of channel marketing and sales by Hasbro, the figure was shelved for future release. At the time most Transformers toy collectors did not know if the figure would ever see the light of day until Botcon 2011 when collectors found out the figure was going to released not once but twice. The first release is the SDCC 2012 exclusive figure. The second would be the re-release of the Transformers First Edition Prime series in Fall 2012.

The origins of this figure is also quite unique as well. Spoiler alert, in the first episode of the Transformers Prime animated series, Cliffjumper is killed by Starscream. In the following subsequent episode, Cliffjumper is resurrected as a zombie Transformer by Megatron using a fragment of Dark Energon. Poor Cliffjumper has become the first Transformer zombie in the 30 years of Transformers fandom!

Regarding the figure, "Rust in Piece" Transformers Prime Terror-con Cliffjumper, comes in a special box and insert. The box is created to mimic the characters torso and the inner plastic carton that holds the figure is molded and painted in the colors of Cliffjumper's head. Essentially, this give the collector a mini bust of the character to display.

For the toy, the figure takes the First Edition Cliffjumper mold and adds a new damaged paint scheme with a new zombie head. Additionally, the "Rust in Piece" Transformers Prime Terror-con Cliffjumper comes with 2 exclusive accessories, including a clip on shard of Dark Energon that attaches to the figures chest and a separate larger Dark Energon shard piece that the figure can hold. It's important to note that this is the same exact figure that was released earlier in April 2012 under the Takara Tomy Arms Micron Transformers Prime toy line. The only difference is that Japanese exclusive released figure was molded in Translucent Purple, did not come with any accessories but came with his own Arms Micron mini-con. Overall, I like the more show accurate figure than the Japanese version but this figure is not overly necessary for someones Transformers Prime collection unless you think Transformers zombies are cool.

*Image Courtesy of Seibertron.com

*Image Courtesy of Seibertron.com

The second SDCC 2012 exclusive release is the Fall of Cybertron Combaticon team which combines to form FOC Bruticus. The set includes Blast Off, Brawl, Onslaught, Swindle, and Vortex in what is considered the game accurate G1 color scheme. This massive 6 figure box set was much anticipated and sadly sorely disappoints. While the individual figures are great representations of their in-game selves, the color schemes lack a certain authenticity with the original G1 color scheme. Additionally, the combined form of Bruticus is probably one of the most awful combiner Transformers to be released in some time (that's saying a lot considering the horrible Energon/Super Link combiner era). Sadly, Bruticus' arms and legs are disproportional to his body. Some of this is due to the fact that every single Combaticon figure are deluxe class leading to Onslaught (who forms the torso and chest of Bruticus) being too small and thin for his position on the team.

Another issue that exasperated the above situation is the fact that all the other Combaticons are too big when they transform into their limb forms. The original G1 Transformer Scramble City Transformers were made up of what we can consider a single Voyager class figure and 4 scout class figures which lends the size deferential to a perfectly proportioned combiner Transformers for Menasaur, Superion, G1 Bruticus, and Defensor. It's sad that the lessons learned in 1985 have been completely forgotten in 2012, 27 years later.

*Image Courtesy of TFW2005

On top of that, the set was a limited exclusive that many had to stand in line for up to 6 hours for and shell out $100. AND ... the one I got was defective!!! Yup. My Brawl figure has a huge chunk missing from his head where one of his horns would be. It looks like a piece of plastic was removed from his head while the part was being taken off the plastic sprue during assembly. What a pile of poo.

*Image Courtesy of Seibertron.com

Moving on, I picked up 2 Transformers Prime figures in July. I preordered The Takara exclusive Jet Vehicon and also picked up Airacnid at SDCC. I was surpirsed that Jet Vehicon was so similar to the Robots in Disguise Car Vehicon. He's basically the same figure, with wings and a Arms Micron accessory buddy. Overall, this figure is a good toy though and I'm super happy to add another Vehicon to the Decepticon Army. 

Airachnid on the other hand is pretty horrible. She has a great helicopter mode, no arachnid mode at all, and a basic articulated robot mode. Her robot form is more basic than most of the Cyberverse 2-inch figures that price range easily half as much as this figure's MSRP. While my previous rant about FOC Bruticus was bad, Airachnid should not have been released with her crappy articulation and bad engineering. This figure is probably the worse deluxe class figure, per value and design, that has been released in the last 15 years. Wow, what a turd ... and sadly my dumb ass paid $20 for her at SDCC. Damn my completionist impulses.

*Image Courtesy of Seibertron.com

I also finished up my Transformers Animated collection by purchasing on eBay the last figure I needed Black Arachnia. I have to say this figure is pretty good and probably the best representation of the Black Arachnia character to date. The original Beast Wars figures were either too skinny or way to fat and top heavy. You've read my opinion on the Prime figure in the paragraph above. The Animated figure has a great transformation sequence, a awesome spider mode, and a very well engineered and sculpted robot mode. Over all, pretty top notch for a deluxe figure. 

*Image Courtesy of Seibertron.com

Additionally I picked up Transformers Generations eHobby Scrapheap on eBay. This figure is only available in the eHobby exclusive 3-pack that comes with Battle Damaged Kup and a transparent blue Matrix Hot Rod. Scrap Heap is the rarest of the Junkion warriors and pretty had to come by on his own. I was lucky enough to outbid my competitors and paid $80 (including shipping) to get him. Overall, he shares the same body as Junk Heap and Wrek-gar but comes with an exclusive retooled head and is molded in a darker brown color scheme. I am super happy I got him and he is by far my favorite of the Junkion figures, including the Maiden Japan and Jolly Rodger add on its. 

*Image Courtesy of Seibertron.com

My last eBay purchase for July is Transformers Cybertron Ramble (AKA Transformers Galaxy Force Scrap Heap). I really did not want this guy other than my compulsion to complete my collection. I had previously purchased the Yellow Japanese Scrap Heap at Mandrake Akiba late last year on my trip to Tokyo, Japan. I decided I should collect all the Ramble / Scrap Heaps and took the plunge to pick up the red version. This figure is actually pretty decent for a scout class figure. He has the Force Chip action gimmick which springs out a hidden blade from his barrel and a decent walking tank vehicle mode. I wish he had a little pilot inside his cockpit but for a scout class figure, he's quality. Now I need to keep an eye out on the last blue colored figure. Then there is the infamously difficult to attain Cody Ramble which as a TRU Gift Set Exclusive. Ugh.

The last trio of purchases in July is the first wave of Fall of Cybertron figures, Optimus Prime, Jazz, and Shockwave. I was excited for these figures and they kind of disappointed me. Optimus Prime was very small compared to the War for Cybertron Optimus Prime. The scale comparison was jarring. While I really liked the mold, simplified transformation (because face it the WFC Prime figure was insanely hard to transform right the first few times around), and a competent robot mode, the small stature of the figure really set the product back. when you think of Optimus Prime, you think heroic leader, brave, strong, large and in charge. This guy looks short and lacking. 

*Image Courtesy of Seibertron.com

The same principle goes for Shockwave. He's a great figure. Good transformation. But his short stature and skinny limbs just make him look diminished. This is definitely not the same G1 Shockwave that stands close to 12-inches tall and towers over all other Transformers. Lastly, Jazz. Poor, poor Jazz. Easily the worst of the trio. His huge chest (man breast hood area) stands out like a sore thumb. Transformation is on the level of a Mc Donald's Happy Meal toy and his gun is more of a pistol. 

Well at least I got my eHobby Scrap Metal this month.

Transformers Quality Control Issues and Customer Service Woes

Bumble Bee, Why You No Have Head?
*Image courtesy of Planet Iacon - Singapore Transformers Fans Unite!

Any Transformers collectors run into quality control issues with the recent toys? I've actually had a bit of bad luck lately with some of my purchases. I've been collecting Transformers for the better part of 13 years now and I have never run into this amount of defects and quality issues with the toys until now. I suspect my own increase in defective or imperfect figures has to do with the fact that I rarely purchase figures at the retail brick and mortar stores anymore so I can't inspect the figures for flaws. Despite this, the number of incidents has occurred alarmingly frequently lately. I have purchased a defective officially produced figure 7 times this year, with the last 5 happening once per month in a row.






December 2002

Car Robots Brave Fortress Maximus *Image courtesy of TFW2005

This happened a long time ago and my memory is a little hazy on exactly when I purchased my Sonokong Car Robots Brave Fortress Maximus from Big Bad Toy Store. I remember this was the largest purchase I had ever made up to that date and it was a big deal for me. Once the toy arrived, I was super sadden to search the box and to realize he was missing his head master. After silently sulking in sadness, I contacted BBTS and their customer service department. Thankfully they sent me the part I was missing from a sealed set. I will always be loyal and thankful for BBTS's service and dedication to their customers. Their online retail store is a godsend to the toy collecting community and I have been a proud customer of theirs since 2001 (that's 12 years as of this article). In short, BBTS is awesome and this incident was isolated since I have purchased a horde of Sonokong Transformers, Microman, and Yuusha Brave figures since then and they all seemed perfectly fine.

September  2006

Classics AstroTrain *Image courtesy of cliffbee.com

The next run in I had with a defective product is when I purchased a Hasbro Classics AstroTrain, He came with 2 right shoulder joints. Sure the figure came in the package in space shuttle mode but I failed to notice the flaw when I grabbed the figure off the peg at Target. Sadly, I figured out the assembly mistake after I broke open the toy. I really should have returned him but at the time, I just accepted the flaw and moved on with my life. He looks fine in bot mode and train mode but the shoulders do not lineup correctly in shuttle mode. Eventually I picked up the Takara Henkei AstroTrain figure with the cartoon accurate color scheme and my Hasbro White AstroTrain has been at the bottom of a storage bin ever since. 

August 2011

Animated Bulkhead *Image courtesy of tilallaremine.wordpress.com

I really didn't have any other problems with defects for while until last year. I purchased a Transformers Animated Voyager Bulkhead (2008) sometime last summer MISP and his shoulders were miss-assembled.  His right shoulder was his left and vice versea which lent to a bot mode miss-transformation. Unfortunately  there is not a way to correct this assembly defect as pulling the shoulder pins will most likely stress the hinges to the point of shattering. Bulkheads vehicle mode is fine though. I've been content to keep him as placeholder figure for now until I feel compelled to replace this factory reject. Thanks Hasbro, your suckage traveled 3 years into the future to suck.


February 2012

SG Drift *Image courtesy of TFW2005

In February this year, I purchased Shattered Glass Drift from the Official Transformers Collector Club run by Fun Publications. As with many of the figures sold, mine came with mix matched pistol set. I believe I received 2 right side pistols. This really didn't bother me as SG Drift does not come with the companion sniper rife that combines with the pistols like the original Transformers Generations Blurr (2010) figure. The mix matched pistols really do not have corresponding negative effect other than the fact that the set is mix matched. Still, it is rather disturbing that no one caught this at the factory level and that the frequency of the mix matching was throughout the entire product line for this figure. It should not be up to the end consumer to have to contact each other on forum boards to trade parts to get a set that is complete and matching. This shows very poor project management on Fun Publication's part (but of course Fun Publication has become a joke of a organization with leaked credit card information, defective products, and general mismanagement of events, seriously it's like they can not do anything right at all). Fun Publication Majorly Sucks.

May 2012

SG Wrek-gar *Image courtesy of Seibertron.com

Coming off of Botcon 2012, I purchased the Shattered Glass Junkion Set from TFSource. Lucky me. After opening the set I discovered Shattered Glass Wrek-gar was missing his head entirely. I contacted Fun Publications (yup them again) and they told me since the set was sold to a wholesaler I had to contact the retailer I purchased the set from and file a claim through them. Now on a wild goose chase, I contacted TFSource and filed my claim. They told me they submitted the claim to Fun Publications and they were awaiting a reply. It was communicated to me that there were multiple claims through TFSoruce and Fun Publications wanted to sort through them all together at one time. So I waited. I emailed a few weeks later. I waited. Etc, etc. THREE MONTHS ROLL BY. It got to the point were TFSource was not even replying to my emails because they were attending conventions during the summer. I happen to rant about the situation to a friend who knew some of the people at TFSource. I was then contacted by them and the situation was finally resolved. Apparently, Fun Publication reversed their stance and were taking claims directly from consumers with the end product in hand. Fun Publications failed to contact me about this. TFSource failed to followup with my claim because they assumed I was contacted by Fun Publications. Thank you both for a epic failure in customer service. Granted, I got Wrek-gars head after 3 months of waiting. But when you buy a car, do you expect to get the steering wheel 3 months after purchase and when you ask about it do you expect the mechanic and the car dealer both to point at each other? Sigh, EPIC FAIL.

July 2012

FOC SDCC Brawl *Image courtesy of Seibertron.com

During Comic-con this year I purchased the Hasbro SDCC 2012 Exclusive Fall of Cybertron Bruticus Set (2012) through a friend who stood in line for me. The set included a Brawl figure that was missing part of his head. Yeah, he was missing a chunk of his upper head. It's not really noticeable but one of his ornamental horns on his head is missing and it looks like he might have lost it when the part was removed from the sprue after the molding process. I keep the set in Bruticus mode so it really doesn't bother me but still that is a really crappy thing to happen for a set that retailed for $100 MSRP. I'm just glad a friend stood in line for the set and purchased it for me. I would be super duper pissed if I stood in line for 6 hours, paid $100, and found out I got a defect after coming home from the show. Yeah, you suck Hasbro.

August 2012

Arms Micron Swerve *Image courtesy of  Hobby Search

I picked up the Takara Tomy Transformers Prime Swerve in August 2012 and his head actually broke off straight out of the package. I literally took him out of his package and rotated his head 30 degrees and it snapped off. There's nothing worse than  opening a toy and having the figure break in your hands as you take him out of the package. It takes that euphoric moment of joy and dumps it in a toilet bowl full of stagnant putrid crap. I remained composed and put the figure down and did not return to him until the next day. I drilled a pin in his neck base connected to his broken neck ball joint and super glued the pieces together. I then used a X-Acto knife to clean out the glued neck joint of any excess glue. I crossed my fingers and snapped the head back onto the joint. Ultimately  the neck joint is sufficiently reinforced to allow full 360 degree articulation without any undue stress. So, the figure is fixed but that really sucked. This is the first time a Takara Tomy figure failed for me but not the last.

September 2012

Generations Junkheap *Image courtesy of Wikia.com

In September 2012, a friend picked up a Transformers Generations Junkheap figure for me. This was my second Junkheap. I wanted to get him to properly display the Maiden Japan B-01 King Tiger third-party accessories pack that I recently purchased. Sadly, his right bike handle fell straight off the figure when I opened him. It seems the rubber part cracked when it was snapped into place on the securing peg of the figures body. I glued it back in place since I did not want to return him and try to hunt down another one (the figure is a year old after all and not widely available for the MSRP price anymore). The base figure works well displaying the Maiden Japan parts for King Tiger but essentially the Junkheap is broken out of the package. Hasbro Sucks.



October 2012

Arms Micron Gaia Unicron *Image courtesy of Seibertron.com

In October I picked up Takara Tomy Transformers Prime Gaia Unicorn. I know a lot of people had mixed feelings overall with this toy. While the figure looks TV show accurate, his transformation into a rock ship with his face on it and the really lame battle suit mode for RID Optimus Prime and Megatron was really poorly designed and executed. Surprise to me, the figure I got has a small tear in the rubber horns on his head. It looks like his horn was assembled wrong and when the rubber was glued to the PVC plastic base someone tried to adjust the horn to point in the right direction which tore the rubber horn. The horn is pretty secure in its glue and the tear is not loose at all. However whomever tried to adjust the position failed and promptly tied the figure down into it's packaging and moved on with their lowly life, thanks for the defective figure mysteriously incompetent factory worker.

November 2012

GDO Asia Wheelie *Image courtesy of cooksux.com

This month, I picked up Transformers Asia Exclusive GDO Wheelie. Based on the Reveal the Shield Special Ops Jazz mold, Wheelie has a new unique head, sling shot weapon, and sporty orange color scheme. Unfortunately for me, he was also miss-assembled. After trying to transform him I realized his head was not elevating out of his chest cavity fully. His eyes and head visor barely cleared his chest. After comparing him to my other Jazz mold figures (Special Ops Jazz, Kick Off and SG TreadShot, I deduced that the auto transformation mechanism in his chest was misaligned by 2 to 3 teeth. I had to disassemble him and adjust the figure manually to get the head to fully deploy from Wheelie's chest. Anyone seeing a pattern here?

So, if we review the tally, I've had a Transformer purchase failure once a month for the last 5 months straight with 70% of the defects happening this year!!! The big question to ask is, why is this happening so frequently now, especially when they are increasing the MSRP on figures globally. Each of these figures specific issues have marred my collecting experiences  What should be a happy occasion turns into a problem to be solved or an headache to be trudged through. Purchasing products or a service should not be like this. You should not purchase food and get poisoned. You should not purchase a Transformer figure and get something broken or incomplete out of a factory sealed box. 

Hear this Hasbro, Takara Tomy, Fun Publications, your product quality is getting worse. GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER.

Any of you guys out there have defect stories about Transformers? Please chime in. I'd love to compare notes.

You make Optimus Prime Cry.

Comic-con ... I HATE YOU!

SDCC Crowds *Image courtesy of theworldisraw.com 

Yep, I hate San Diego Comic-con. I think I've always hated Comic-con. Even the first time I went to Comic-con as a fan, I hated it. The convention is just too big, too poorly organized, and you get a  petri dish of humanity, wholesome passionate fans and dregs of humanity. 

Granted, I've been forced to work Comic-con in different capacities for the last 7 years I've attended the show. Everything from going booth to booth trying to drum up business leads, demoing product, managing a booth, to escorting cosplayers around the show floor. I've actually even been on a panel too. Here's my top 5 reasons why I hate SDCC.

Free Garbage *Image courtesy of io9.com

Reason #1 - Self entitled people - I would say a good 75% of the attendees enter the convention with a tad bit of self-entitlement. I'm not judging them as people. I'm saying that the convention is so god awful expensive and exclusive that people can't help but feel like they are compelled to get as much of an experience as possible. This turns normally sane and reasonable citizens into very ugly opportunistic mean people. I've been verbally abused, threatened, and even physically pushed by people who just want something free. Maybe it's a lanyard. Maybe it's a 25 cent crappy promo item. Either way it gets old when every 2 minutes someone comes up to you and asks do you have anything free and gives you a shitty look when you reply no, but we are selling products.This may sound like a shallow complaint but I have been physically assaulted on the show floor, threatened by 5 men who were upset over not receiving a 15 cent lanyard, seen a coworker shoved by a surging crowd for free stuff, heard reports of a female coworker escape a mugging for her show badge. It's just disgusting.

SDCC Perv * *Image courtesy of bleedingcool.net 

Reason #2 - Pervy Men - Ever have to escort a mascot / cosplayer around a convention before. It's actually a great experience. You get to see people get excited for their iconic heroes without being in a uncomfortable costume. I especially love to see the little kids eyes light up. The down side is pervy men trying to grab onto the models and take stealth crotch / boobs / butt shots with their cameras. Yeh, classy doode. I'm sure your mom is proud of you.

Reason #3 - Work - This probably doesn't apply to anyone else but people that have worked the show. If you have a full day shift and have to work the entire event, you're looking at 8-12 hour days on your feet in front of the public, 4 days straight. Even with a few breaks here and there it's pretty taxing. Even when you get breaks and you are off, you're at Comic-con so you go check something out or go buy stuff. It's even worse if you are part of the setup and tear down team for the booths. Oh yes people, everything from booth fixtures to product has to be set up and torn down. It's a seriously tough event to work. No one thanks you, they just ask for free shit. 

Reason #4 - Food sucks. Convention food equals hot dogs and greasy pizza with a 300% markup. The Gas Lamp district is usually overcrowded at night. Good luck finding sustenance away from the public. Luckly, I've been pointed to some great hidden spots over the years. Still, junk food for an entire week sucks.

Reason #5 - Convention Itself - I'm talking convention management. Specifically  the union labor, security company, and management as a whole. The convention is run pretty poorly when it comes down to it. A lot of things are last minute and info packages are riddled with errors. It's a miracle that things actually fall into place every year. The unions overcharge and strong arm vendors to pay outrageous fees. I would not go as far to say it's mafia style, but sometimes it feels like it, especially when they charge you for their mistakes, tardiness, or just because they need to fill overtime. 

Derp * Imagecourtesy of KPBS via flickr

Security is a joke. You have a ton of people who do not know how to control crowds or talk to people. Last year I was refused to go to the restroom from my booth cause the security guard in charge of the area told me I was crowding the aisle. It's a 10 foot wide aisle. I'm one person who needs to take a leak before the show opens. Sigh. I've also seen security artificially create crowds and mobs by improperly denying access to public walkways. Way to go.

In hindsight, yes I am blessed to be able to work in a fun industry and there are joys and small victories at SDCC. I do have great memories with coworkers and friends but I also dread having to attend and work the show every year. It's taxing and I always worry what disaster is going to happen next. Blegh.