Infamous incidents in Transfandom.

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Damolisher
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Infamous incidents in Transfandom.

Post by Damolisher »

Saw a similar thread on another board, and thought that I'd do a topic like it here. What are some infamous (Or famous, depending on your POV) moments throughout Transfandom that you've experienced? (And no, the Armada trilogy doesn't count :P).

For me, it was the whole shananigans that went on between Don Murphy's board and Seibertron.com. I feel pretty dumb for blindly sticking up for Seibertron, TBH. I kinda made a prick of myself in the process.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

[pre-emptive play nice everyone message. Discussion of "Infamous" moments can get a bit heated on occasion so lets all take a chill pill first]

The most infamous Transfandom related incident I've ever seen was when Denyer made a typo. Shocking it was. We still talk about it in hushed whispers down the local drinking house.
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Post by Blitzwing »

So by "Transfandom" does that include just anybody who happens to like Transformers?

One incident I remember very well was when I was watching Leno around Christmas '00 and Tom Hanks was on, all of a sudden he started talking about toys he had gotten for his kids and said his favourite were Transformers, and then he started singing the theme song.
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Post by Cliffjumper »

One thing I really remember was Omega Supreme from Transfans managing to get a TF banner on-screen in some sporting event (either wrestling or a hockey match). And, like, everyone was talking about it... it's amazing thinking back, seeing as now you can't spit without hitting somebody wearing something TF branded.
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Post by DrSpengler »

The Seibertron Store.
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Post by Denyer »

The two Allsparks.

Japanese characters/series being the subject of much rumour, and often unduly highly regarded, in the days before much information was available.

Bob Skir death threats.

Pat Lee's business practices and treatment of fan artists / other creators is somewhere high on the list.
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Post by Cliffjumper »

Auto Assembly, Summer 2008. Cliffjumper stabs Furman. RTD's probably surrounded by leather-clad bikers with handlebar moustaches. I must adjust target accordingly.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Blitzwing wrote: One incident I remember very well was when I was watching Leno around Christmas '00 and Tom Hanks was on, all of a sudden he started talking about toys he had gotten for his kids and said his favourite were Transformers, and then he started singing the theme song.

I saw Big for the first time in ages a few weeks ago. I remembered the Transforming city, but was slightly shocked that in his pitch for a better Transforming robot line he basically creates Beast Wars.
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Post by martyboy70 »

Any of the Jafanboys who are into Kiss Players cos they're miniature girls with their pants at their ankles.
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Post by Nevermore »

Raksha.

The Orson's World debacle.

The entire pre-movie bitching, Michael Bay death threats, and all those retarded The-Movie-May-Be-Successful-Now-But-it-Will-Drop-In-Sales-Tomorrow-I-Swear fanboy arguments.
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Post by Damolisher »

If you guys don't mind me asking, what were the incidents with Orson's World and Seibertron's Store? Because while I've heard about those before, but I don't know any of the details.
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Post by Jaynz »

Cliffjumper wrote:Auto Assembly, Summer 2008. Cliffjumper stabs Furman. RTD's probably surrounded by leather-clad bikers with handlebar moustaches. I must adjust target accordingly.
You're sounding more and more like HK-47.

I'm not sure how to accept that.

Anyway, I'll leave out supposed infamy that I've been in for now...

But the worst Transfan moment for me?

Raksha's reaction to the Skyflight's death being announced on alt.toys.transformers. Out of all the fandom incidents that's occurred over the years, this one sticks out the most as the worst example of fangirlism taken to an insane and hateful extreme. Everyone else has moments of pique and stupidity, but this was so far beyond the pale that it wasn't remotely forgivable.

The death threats certainly are up there, starting with Beast Wars and running to this very day. There's been so much of that bullshit that it's been one big ol' blurr to me.

There's a few very infamous moments otherwise, but they're not so much 'fandom' moments as terrible things perpetuated by some fans.
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Post by Jaynz »

Damolisher wrote:If you guys don't mind me asking, what were the incidents with Orson's World and Seibertron's Store? Because while I've heard about those before, but I don't know any of the details.
Seibertron's store was a debacle because it was 'detatched' from the site, and insanely dishonest with its dealings. The owner was basically pocketing the money and pretending that packages were lost, etc... There's more to it, but that's the basics, and I'm not sure what happened to 'settle' it all.

The Orson's World thing is slightly more bizzare. Basically, either Aaron Archer or Kyde started leaking information (against company policy, I'll add) to one of the websites (TFW? I can't remember which) as a 'secret insider'. This prompted a lot of pissy behaviour both by jealous sites, but also by the staff of the site hosting Orson's World in the first place. In the end , Hasbro stepped in and killed it, causing the bitching to start all over again.
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Post by wolfbolt86 »

TFVanguard wrote:Raksha's reaction to the Skyflight's death being announced on alt.toys.transformers.
Can you explaine this one to me? I've just heard of Raksha and can't find any of her articles like the cons being the good guys and Megs is in love with the drone.
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Post by Cliffjumper »

Please keep the explanation to PM. This topic's walking a fine line.
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Post by wolfbolt86 »

Sorry about that, i just wanted to hear about the topic TFVanguard made.
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Post by Cliffjumper »

Yep, and that's no problem, we just want the old feud details kept off the public boards as much as is humanly possible.
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Post by Nevermore »

Orson's World:

Aaron Archer, then Transformers lead designer with Hasbro, started posting under the alias of "Orson" at the 2005 Boards (then a part of Transfandom.com - or was it .net?) in early 2002 or so (before the launch of Armada). The staff got wind of him being a Hasbro guy and gave him his own sub-forum, "Orson's World", where he was answering fan questions. Eventually, the 2005 Boards split from Transfandom and relaunched at TFW2005, taking "Orson's World" with them (with Aaron's consent).

Then, in the summer of 2003, Aaron was told by his superiors to instantly cease his activities as "Orson" and have his account, as well as all his posts, deleted.

Now, there are at least four different versions of what had happened:

1) TFW2005 owner Tony Bacala and Aaron put the blame on Jack, the owner of TFormers.com. Supposedly, Jack was acting out of jealousy for TFW having an early scoop on a lot of stuff, with Aaron's presence there giving them an "unfair advantage". So Jack sent a "sour grapes e-mail" to Hasbro, Hasbro pulled Aaron from TFW and put up their own news section a Hasbro.com to give all fan sites an equal chance of getting news.

2) Jack and his staff in turn initially rejected any involvement. Later, they blamed Aaron Archer for unprofessional behavior, breach of contract and a lot of other stuff, effectively arguing that the shutdown of "Orson's World" was the best thing to happen both for the fans and for Hasbro.

3) Bodycount, a former TFormers staff member, emphasized the TFW2005 version, but added another twist: Allegedly, Jack himself had asked Aaron to quit TFW2005 and set up shop at TFormers instead. When Aaron rejected the offer, Jack decided for a "scorched Earth" tactic. Unfortunately, Bodycount is not exactly the most reliable source.

4) The most bizarre version comes from a former staff member of Transfandom.com (I forgot the name). Allegedly, it wasn't Jack, but the owners of Transfandom that had been constantly bitching to Hasbro about Aaron's activities at TFW that eventually got him pulled from there.
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Post by Denyer »

TFVanguard wrote:The owner was basically pocketing the money and pretending that packages were lost, etc... There's more to it, but that's the basics
Actually, speaking from what I remember, the store got hit by PayPal claims due to shipping delays, the account got frozen (and at some point thereafter a bank account associated with the store, IIRC) and the capital locked -- preventing shipping of goods, as Ryan didn't have enough personal savings to cover it, and leaving him sitting on a pile of stock whose value was depreciating.

The reason it became a larger debacle was his comments to people who were owed, suggesting that the website was more important than sorting out the business mess, and that people who complained vociferously would be put to the bottom of a list for obtaining redress.

It wasn't entirely Ryan's fault, but it was very badly handled.

Anyone wanting alt.toys.transformers stuff can easily find it on Google Groups, as it's all still there. It's also worth bearing in mind many of the people there were college-age (younger, in some cases) at the time they were posting.
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Post by Civ »

The Takara MP-3 Starscream colors. Biggest moment of fanboy whininess I ever bore witness to. Some people were calling for the designer to be fired since he didn't design Starscream to look like the damn cartoon. I'll be honest, to call for someone's dismissal, who otherwise did a great job designing the toy solely because they didn't like the colors is ludicrous.

The David Kaye incident meeting a certain fan with a live snake around her neck.
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