Denyer wrote: ↑Thu Jul 27, 2023 7:31 pm
And they seemed to be doing so well for an image hosting site.
They've been a very good image-hosting site, but it seems like what they and their investors are
trying to be is a social media site. And right now they're hosting a ton of adult images that are being posted to places like Reddit to drive business to OnlyFans, something which I'd imagine makes a lot of money for the girls in question and a metric ton for OF (and probably a bit for Reddit and the other intermediary sites as well). Why would they want to provide free hosting services that make money for, and drive engagement on, every platform
except theirs? So it makes complete sense, as long as you're a venture capital suit who's deluded yourself into believing that imgur is one brilliant idea away from being the next Instagram and not an ugly, buggy website with a terrible UI that looks like it was designed in 1998.
Denyer wrote: ↑Thu Jul 27, 2023 7:31 pmI think TF packaging has reached the point of going backwards and actually putting me off buying. What happened to the paper ties? There's a ridiculous number of plastic tags on this and they're all dangerous to pets and kids. The best approach I've found is to tear the backing cardboard and leave one side of each tag attached, but it's decidedly annoying.
The packaging has gotten progressively more and more hostile over the last couple decades. Between the flimsy cardboard that doesn't actually protect anything, the open boxes with no plastic window and those awful ties that you mentioned, I'd rate the modern stuff about as badly as the all-plastic, hermetically-sealed G2 clamshells.
The paper ties are great because you can just take scissors to them from the back of the card, but they probably take an extra few seconds per toy to assemble in the factory than the plastic ones, so you know what Hasbro's going to go with.
Denyer wrote: ↑Thu Jul 27, 2023 7:31 pmGrimlock has the same transformation as the Cyberverse one but few if any of the same parts. He feels noticeably small compared to the G1 toy and of course most of the stand-out modern versions feel like they've been voyagers rather than deluxes (no idea if that's actually the case, haven't been keeping close track).
I feel like Grimlock's one of those rare characters who've gotten toys in every size bracket from Core to third-party MPs that are almost a foot tall. I'd instinctively say the same thing as you but I don't know either if that's accurate or if it's just because Voyager is about the size that I think he should be thanks to the old Marvel books.
I've never bought one, but a lot of the recent kid-show Grimlocks have had a cute, chunky look to them and this one is no different. I like them but never enough to actually go buy any.
It's been sixteen or seventeen years (!) but I still wish they'd made a full team of Dinobots with the same aesthetic as Classics Grimlock. That's still probably my favourite take on the character.
Denyer wrote: ↑Thu Jul 27, 2023 7:31 pmIt's just annoying that a marketing gimmick more suited to Marvel Legends than a kids line
I feel like it sucks in Marvel Legends too. I have a bin somewhere in the basement with fifty or sixty random arms, legs, torsos and heads that I will never, ever do anything with vs. three completed BAFs. And one of those, I didn't even
want...I just happened to wind up with all the parts more or less by accident. It seems like a monumental waste of plastic, and I'm always surprised to see fans out there who think that BAF parts are a positive.
Denyer wrote: ↑Thu Jul 27, 2023 7:31 pmIn closing, I get the feeling this was designed in CAD software and downsized slightly to achieve a reduction in plastic volume.
A lot of toys these days make me feel this way. Whether because of penny-pinching or alignment to an almighty scale chart, a fair few Kingdom, Studio Series and Legacy toys feel like they're 10% or 20% smaller than they needed to be, to actually be good.
A new acquisition for me:
Legacy Cloudcover
I'm a hopeless sucker for random cannon-fodder Seekers. Between the Classics Deluxe and the Earthrise Voyager I own what is basically the exact same toy eleven times over, and I would happily make it twelve if they announced a new Sunstorm or Earth-mode camo Acid Storm. An intervention might be warranted at this point.
Cloudcover is honestly very eye-catching, though. The baby blue/sky blue/white/black deco is pretty, though the yellow and black checkerboard bits feel a bit out of place. Overall the figure looks classy and subdued, and not at all in keeping with a line of "too ugly even for G2!" redecos. It's easy to look at the other Toxitron Collection figures and see exactly why they went unreleased, but Cloudcover is significantly nicer-looking than either of the G2 seekers that they actually put out in the 90s.
He makes for a nice trio with Sandstorm and Ramjet.