Photo of the Day: September 24th, 2009

[shmax]

At Botcon '06, there was a class on "customization" of Transformer toys. Now, my idea of customizing a Transformer toy is to duct-tape it to the dog, or replace the head with a caramel apple, but at Botcon you were instructed to assemble one from component parts. You had to snap the individual pieces from plastic sprues, scrape them all together into a pile without losing or swallowing any, and carefully mash, screw, or glue them together. The "Inferno" in today's photo was assembled by Ravenfyre (and photographed by LongHaul), who passed along the interesting tidbit that she and her classmates were instructed to paint their toys according to Hasbro specifications, using Hasbro paint, under Hasbro supervision. And they didn't allow duct tape anywhere near the place. "Custom", indeed!

[ravynfyre]

WOW, Long Haul takes such fabulous shots! I'm glad I took him my toys to photo, rather than me attempt it myself; he can definitely do them justice!

Now, to be fair, the customizing class doesn't actually require folks to paint the figures to the specs provided - those are just suggestions. They *do*, however, require that you at least assemble the figures in class to keep folks from putting the still-on-sprue figure packs up on eBay. Not even in the factories themselves are the toys *ever* complete-but-unassembled the way you receive them in class, so those packs are amoung some of the rarest in the world. And just being able to hold one complete, unassembled, still-on-sprue figure in your grubby hands?

Man, that's the coolest freaking thing in the world.

Probably about the only way one could ever have the exact figure you want (well, what you can come up with from the mould provided) that's Hasbro sanctioned. Unless, of course, you're an insane garage basher in Japan with money to burn to pay for a one-day Wonderfest Takara license. But that's still Takara, and not Hasbro, so... nevermind. heh.

Now just wait until Long Haul gets that Rumble figure posted. The Coby head *rocks*.

[shmax]

Thanks for the insight! See, if I had known all that I would have written an entirely different snarky story, but nobody ever tells me anything. I'd like to hear more about the one-day Wonderfest license. License to what? Run naked through the factory, accumulating as many raw sprues as you can get to stick to your skin? I'll mention that we have a "comments" field for every sku record, and if you were to go in and add a brief description of what went on in that class you won't hear me complaining.

Now mooching, that's a different story. I see by your "How you can help" page that you have at least 600 toys that we're missing photos for. Didja give them all to LongHaul? Because even if you did he's going to need some help. You're obviously good with glue and tape and X-Acto knives and whatnot--why not build yourself a box and help the poor lad out?

[ravynfyre]

Well, I did give him about 90 figs to play with, several of which he should be able to get a couple pics out of. Sadly, a lot of my collection is sealed, which cuts down on the pics I can help provide. I didn't give him *everything* that I had that needed pictures yet. Didn't want to totally overload him this time. Poor guy has to sleep sometime, after all, plus he's been sickish lately.

I do plan on building myself a photo box, but I just have no time or room right now. Give me another week, and I might be able to be up and running.

As for Wonderfest licenses, it works, as far as I know, like this: You design and build yourself a toy, the toy you have always wanted, or just something that you think is cool. You figure out a way to produce a few dozen or a few hundred. Then you send your design and a prototype off to Takara an apply for a one-day license for Wonderfest, this HYOOOGE toy fair in Japan. If Takara likes your design, or at least doesn't hate it, then you get approved. You pay a sizable fee, and whamo-bamo, your toy is an officially licended (for one day only) Takara toy. You can sell it at Wonderfest as an official Takara release. The day after Wonderfest? Anything you haven't sold yet is no longer a Takara product. It's just a cool scratch-built.

Examples are things like the "Revoltech" G1 armored Ultra Magnus and the "Revoltech" Shockwave figures which Long Haul should hopefully have pictures up of soon. Other examples are the "perfect grade" Gi Wheelie figure from Jizai Toys that came out a couple years ago, and the show acurate Cyclonus that matches him. I'll get images of those up as soon as I get my box built. Jizai toys also did a really rockin' show acurate Powerglide two years ago. Sadly, their train got delayed so badly on the way to Wonderfest that they didn't make it to the show, and all their toys that had that one day license? Can't be sold now because the license is expired. Rather Jizai can still sell them, just not as an official Takara product.

I'll add these notes to things as Long Haul gets them posted for you to add.

[shmax]

Sadly, a lot of my collection is sealed, which cuts down on the pics I can help provide.

Not at all! The ~600 photos figure I came up with takes that into account. If you go to the "How You Can Help" page, it only nags you for loose figure photos for the toys that you list as being either "loose" or "opened". I take my photo mooching very seriously!

Didn't want to totally overload him this time. Poor guy has to sleep sometime, after all, plus he's been sickish lately.

Oh great, you just took all the fun out whipping LH for photos. Well, I'll just ride him twice as hard when he's all better.

I do plan on building myself a photo box, but I just have no time or room right now. Give me another week, and I might be able to be up and running.

Take your time. This contest will be over by then, but there will be another one starting as soon as the next batch of prizes arrives from Japan (a pair of Ghost Starscreams this time), possibly as early as November. Most people need a few weeks to sort of warm up the box and debug their technique, anyway. I know you've got some real gems in your collection, so the other mods and I are very anxious to see what you come up with!

The day after Wonderfest? Anything you haven't sold yet is no longer a Takara product. It's just a cool scratch-built.

Interesting. I wonder if that "Lady Roses" figure that got everybody drooling a while back was a case of something like that happening--it seemed far too flashy to just be a garage one-off.
http://cgi.ebay.ph/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... 0329997544

Examples are things like the "Revoltech" G1 armored Ultra Magnus and the "Revoltech" Shockwave figures which Long Haul should

I see we're pretty sparse on information on those, too--looking forward to having them fleshed-out, particularly the release date and comments fields.

Thanks again for all the info!