Greetings from Tripredacus

[Tripredacus]

How are you gentlemen.

I am willing to give this site a try. I attempted this type of website when I recreated my site as it looks now. I didn't have the time to do it, but as a result I still have beta tables sitting in MySQL.  :oops: Of course this site looks to be much simpler than what I had attempted... I had planned out stuff like mold and color searches, a marketplace and a billion other things. Perhaps I can lend these design ideas to this site.

And SHMAX, if you need info or pics, let me know. I don't know if you know who I am or anything but... I've got a list... A BIG LIST. I've got a lot of pics too. Feel free to IM me.

[shmax]

How are you gentlemen.

I am willing to give this site a try. I attempted this type of website when I recreated my site as it looks now. I didn't have the time to do it, but as a result I still have beta tables sitting in MySQL.  :oops: Of course this site looks to be much simpler than what I had attempted... I had planned out stuff like mold and color searches, a marketplace and a billion other things. Perhaps I can lend these design ideas to this site.

And SHMAX, if you need info or pics, let me know. I don't know if you know who I am or anything but... I've got a list... A BIG LIST. I've got a lot of pics too. Feel free to IM me.

Hey there, welcome to the fun. I must confess I'd never been to your site before, but I just checked it out, and it looks like it's coming along nicely. If you dig a little deeper, you may find that this site is a little more sophisticated than you first thought. My advanced search isn't quite ready yet, but all the components are there--you can even browse by alternate form (any other sites do that?), and my color scheme system is unique in all of Transformerdom in that you can tag as many colors as you like for a toy. So when I get around to providing a UI for the advanced search, I dare say it will be the most powerful toy identification system online.

Or it would be, if the database were a little more fleshed out.

All ideas and suggestions are welcome, I consider each and every one very carefully, and give priority to the ones that show the most promise. I've already put in Tec's wishlist, and Hellscream's remold and repaint info, and shared name info.

As for them photos, gimme! Actually, if you're really feeling ambitious, you can go ahead and do the data entry yourself. Just click on the "Add Package" link when browsing by package, and there's a very friendly form that I hope is fairly self-explanatory. Once you have a package, you can add a figure, by clicking on the "Add Figure" link when browsing categories by figure.

I'm always online, and always eager to chat about this stuff, so don't be shy about participating. Heck, you can even Yahoo me as "Skipwhistle". Welcome aboard!

- shmax

[Tripredacus]

To tell the truth, I've got way more information than I have up on my site. I only work on it once a week as it is. I originally designed it to be a database, but the only thing that is reliant upon a database is the nav menu! I gave up on the project of making a database, so you may be surprised that all my pages are in fact flat files. I've got lots of pictures, but not much after 2006. I've got between 1790 and 1846 Tranformers toy images, and that's just in the package! But I specialise in international toys as well so that adds a bit.

My other question is if the search only shows db entries that have pictures. I haven't seen any entries for items without pictures. You are going to need this capability because some items have really hard to find pictures.

Also, is your database capable of supporting Pre TFs such as Diaclone or Beetras?

[shmax]

To tell the truth, I've got way more information than I have up on my site. I only work on it once a week as it is. I originally designed it to be a database, but the only thing that is reliant upon a database is the nav menu! I gave up on the project of making a database, so you may be surprised that all my pages are in fact flat files. I've got lots of pictures, but not much after 2006. I've got between 1790 and 1846 Tranformers toy images, and that's just in the package! But I specialise in international toys as well so that adds a bit.

My other question is if the search only shows db entries that have pictures. I haven't seen any entries for items without pictures. You are going to need this capability because some items have really hard to find pictures.

Also, is your database capable of supporting Pre TFs such as Diaclone or Beetras?

If you want to just FTP 'em all to me, I'd be thrilled to have them, but I'd love it even more if you could help out with the actual data entries. I've really got my hands full with coding--you must know how it is.

No, a picture isn't required to add an entry, but I generally won't approve one without a picture. At least not until I get the user-mods system in place. Otherwise, the ball is in my court to come up with one, and I don't have any.

As for Diaclone and Beetras, there's certainly no reason they couldn't be added, though at some point I may move them to a different module, as they're not technically "Transformers", are they? I really don't know much about them, but if you want to start adding them, just tell me where I should add a subcategory, and you can dive in.

- shmax

[Tripredacus]

As for Pre-TFs, that is in your court. Do you see them as TFs? I don't but that's just. You would also need to decide if you are going to stop at TF related Diaclones, etc or go for the whole deal. There are even Post-TF Microman toys out there as well. Its a scary thing when it comes to database design!

You may have noticed that I have started to add some Japanese TF entries of which I have pictures of, that is, pictures that are near 500x500. Most of my pictures are resized x200 for ease of use by me. I still have some I can use that I haven't resized yet. This resize issue of mine is due to the fact that my website images have been re-used in my many incarnations (my site has been online for six years lol) But I make the following request/or request for consideration.

As far as the toys themselves go, there is no designation for series on the Japanese packaging, except for Return of Convoy. All Japanese TF packages simply are "Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformer". While this is a mouthful, simply stating them as Transformers is fine. Non-G1 toys had dropped the prefix (FSRL) from toy names with exception to some reissues. However there are sub-lines for the Japanese Transformers toys. They are:

1. Generation One (well to put, standard boxed toys)
2. Scramble City
3. Headmasters
4. Godmasters
5. Targetmasters
6. Pretenders
7. Return of Convoy

However there are additional logos and such that appear on later Japanese G1 releases of which I have not found any translations for.

Also, if you are going to consider International releases, you will need to inject these manufacturers:

IGA
Antex
Estrela
Gig
Milton Bradley

Let us also not forget all current Transformers from Japan are under the visage of Takara Tomy.

If you are going to include Revoltech, then you also need to add Kaiyodo.

Additional countries:

1. Change North America to United States or USA
2. Canada
3. Mexico (IGA)
4. Argentina (Antex)
5. Brazil (Estrela)
6. Europe
7. United Kingdom/England
8. Greece
9. Portugal
10. Japan (its cool the way it is)
11. Korea (aka South Korea)
12. China

[shmax]

Egad, that's a lot to absorb between Mario levels. Whaddya say we put Japanese toys off a bit until I have a chance to absorb all this, and maybe get a book or two on the subject? Or, you can keep adding away if you like, and we can always reorganize the sub-categories later. At some point I'll also need faction symbols for use in the figure entries.

But really, I want to spend some time thinking about what additional refactoring of the system the Japanese toys will require. I'd like to have one figure entry shared by both the American and Japanese packages, but they often have different names. Heck, I'd even like to have the katakana at some point.

Couldn't we just sort of work on fleshing out some of the huge gaps in the American side of things for now, at least until I get a chance to wrap my brain around some of this? G1 is very sparse, and G2 is completely void. Armada is almost non-existant.

Eventually, I promise that I'll have all the countries and all the manufacturers.

Oh, I touched up your Galvatron a bit and approved him. See what ya think.

- shmax

[Tripredacus]

Well its your site. Like I said I planned this all out while considering the international side of things... It was too much for me to do, aside from the fact there was no good CMS integrations out at the time, although Mambo came at a close first but still required massive coding. Thus why I never finished this project almost 2 years ago! I'll try to help you if I can. But still, this is your deal, you need to determine where your boundaries are. Not everyone cares about obscure stuff or package variations or things like that.

[shmax]

Well its your site. Like I said I planned this all out while considering the international side of things... It was too much for me to do, aside from the fact there was no good CMS integrations out at the time, although Mambo came at a close first but still required massive coding. Thus why I never finished this project almost 2 years ago! I'll try to help you if I can. But still, this is your deal, you need to determine where your boundaries are. Not everyone cares about obscure stuff or package variations or things like that.

I care, I care! I just have one or two more major features I want to add first (like advanced search, and user mods), and I just worry about getting too far into the Japanese stuff and then discovering that I need to rework something in order to properly support them, and then going back and redoing a bunch of them. Nothing I haven't done before, and I'm open to whatever; I'm just trying to exercise a little foresight. But really, if the Japanese toys are your specialty and are what you'd like to focus on, then by all means dive in!

- shmax

[shmax]

I just ordered a guide to Japanese transformers, so maybe I can be a little more informed when hashing this stuff out with you. Now then, about those pictures--you say you resized them? And you only have the original large sizes for some of them? Are these photographs you took yourself or otherwise have permission to use?

- shmax

[Tripredacus]

I do not have the originals. They are pictures awaiting a resize to be used on my site eventually.