Back of Package guidelines

[sppower]

When I was a litt'lun back in the days of Generation 2, a wise old elder told me that even if I was going to play with my toys (which, of course, I did), I should save the boxes as they might come in handy one day. My question is, for photo-submitting purposes, how "sealed" do these figures have to be? I understand why you wouldn't want to use, say, an open G2 Combaticon or something, since you can see the bubble from the back just as much as from the front, but if I still have my old boxes, and they're in good shape, do they still have to be sealed? Some things, like beast wars boxes (and maybe cards, I think, too) leave the viewer absolutely no clue as to whether or not they are open when viewing them only from the back. The bubble and/or window is only visible from the front. If, in reality, the box is open, but there would be no way to tell in a photo of the back, is it still okay to submit?

[shmax]

Hi there sppower, welcome to the site and the forums! You'll just have to use your besdt judgment case-to-case, but I think your instincts are correct, and in most cases the back of an opened toy is just as suitable as the back of a sealed one. Planning on attacking those suckers for the contest?

[sppower]

Awesome! Now I can contribute more.

Okay, this may not fit with the thread title, but here's another photo question. It concerns interchangeable parts. I read the bit in the photo guide where you mentioned that if the database entry is for the US version of a toy, than you can't substitute the Takara version. That makes sense. What about, though, for instance, all of the US G2 Constructicons coming with the exact same Devastator Instructions Booklet? As far as I can tell, there is no appreciable difference between the one that would have been packaged with Scrapper or the one that came with Scavenger. Now, I happen to have all of them, but not all of their Devastator Instruction Pamphlets have survived. One of two of them seem to be in good shape, though. Can I just use one copy for all six of them? Would that count for the full six photo's worth of points? Beyond even that, do I need to take six separate photos of the same pamphlet? Now, on top of this, there are twelve G2 Constructicons, if you count the orange and yellow versions, who all came with the same Devastator Instruction booklet. How would you handle and/or score this situation?

Edit: Hmm. . . As I'm examining the photo submission page, it looks like it would distribute the one photo to all 12 pages automatically. I'm still curious exactly how this would work out, though.

[engledogg]

Since the sheet included with each of the G2 Constructicons is the SAME sheet, the photo of the sheet would count as ONE photo.

Here's how it works.  Take a look at the following link:

http://www.shmax.com/results/306

As you hover over each of the occurrences of "Devastator" Instruction Sheet, you'll notice that the link associated with each occurrence of the Instruction Sheet leads to the same record page.  This means that this part (the part record for the G2 Devastator Instruction Sheet):

http://www.shmax.com/part_details/7349

appears in ALL of the G2 Constructicon packages.

Once you submit a photo, and it is approved, your image will appear on all TWELVE of the G2 Constructicon pages as each of of them come with this same "accessory".  And you would be scored for submitting one photo.

If each of the Instruction Booklets were different in some way and a unique one was included with each Constructicon (for example, Scrapper's had "SCRAPPER" at the top of the sheet and Long Haul's had "LONG HAUL", and so on), then each booklet would have a unique record, with a unique id number, which would allow them to be scored separately.  But since the booklet included with each bot is the same booklet, it is just one record and has one photo associated with it.

Hope this clears it up,
MIKE
engledogg