With the imminent approach of the new Transformers movie, Rise of the Beasts, promotion and marketing is in full swing!
Yours truly was lucky enough to get invited to help represent the Fandom on the opening night of the Transformers Beasts Base CampRoar & Snore Experience at Taronga Park Zoo. Along with a couple of other fans as well as celebrities and media, courtesy of Hasbro we were treated to a truly amazing night!
First off, you knew you were in the right place when there are two big fellas ready to greet you!
Big Angry Trev & Optimus Prime – I smell a spin-off coming!
We were given a guided tour by the keepers around some of the animal enclosures. It was interesting to see just how more active many of the animals are at dusk, it was the most animated I’ve ever seen koalas in my life! The zoo is very cool after opening hours.
They weren’t asleep!
We were subsequently ushered into an auditorium where we were given a special glimpse at some Rise of the Beasts material. A non-disclosure agreement prevents me discussing what we saw, but fans will be very happy indeed!
Surprises on the way!
After our secret viewing we were treated to some displays of the upcoming Rise of the Beasts action figures, due to hit shelves here in Australia on April 10th.
Sometimes it pays to be a superfan
Next a jaumty stroll to Beasts Base Camp – so cool! Everywhere you looked there was jungle-themed Transformer touches on show.
Into the main communial area we were ushered. Plenty of food and drink on offer as we lounged about on Transformers-themed cushions. Time for Big Angry Trev to go to work and shmooze with the other Aussie celebrities.
Miguel MaestreJordan Raskopoulos
As dark approached were escorted to our tents. Each tent was numbered and had its own Transformers theme. My tent-mate (Griffin of Ozformers) and I were in Tent 6 – The Mirage Tent. And talk about the views!
Inside on our beds, we found the very pleasant surprise of gift bags, containing all manner of Transformers merchandise – thanks Hasbro!
Freebies!
After another short tour we were given dinner, a delightful array of different traditional African foods. Then a special after-dark walk around some of the habitats.
No, not a satanic camel. At night the red light bothers the animals a lot less than white light
Next morning its more tours from the incredibly friendly keepers and then breakfast, followed by some up close and personal interactions with some of the animals. I must admit I absolutely ADORE giraffes, so getting to hand feed one was definitely a personal highlight and I was almost in tears, feeling so moved by the experience.
The event finished just as the zoo was opening up for the day, and what a fantastic fun experience it was overall! I’d like to thank Hasbro Australia once again for the opportunity, I can’t wait to bring my son to meet Prime & Primal! Don’t forget that the toys hit shelves on April 10th, and the Transformers: Rise of the Beasts movie will hit theatres on June 8th.
“Don’t mess with us – especially the little bloke below me, he’s angry!”
And so it begins, the great cataloging for my personal and ever expanding Transformers Collection!
And what better place to start than where the whole shebang kicked off – G1! Listed sequentially, and with accompanying photographs, here is the G1 Decepticon toys I have amassed over the last 35+ years.
Transformers Generation One Decepticon Collection
(Note: All figures in photographs listed from Top Left to Bottom Right)
Living in the bush I don’t get to see other Transformer fans very often. I don’t get to pop over to a mate’s house to see his latest acquisitions. I don’t attend meets, I don’t go to pop culture conventions, hell I don’t even get to visit toy stores. So when it comes to talking to others about a shared hobby I have to rely almost solely on the internet.
But the way a large segment of the fandom has been going in the last few years, I find myself thinking more often than not why I bother.
The default expression of an online Transformers fan
I don’t know when this all started. Maybe it was the live action Transformer movies. Most people seemed to like, or at least tolerate, the first movie in 2007. Those raising very vocal hatred for it being largely groups of GeeWunners who wanted it to look like the 1984 cartoon.
But then Revenge of the Fallen came out and a massive amount of the fandom started bitching, and it seems they have never stopped. It’s been years since a Transformers movie directed by MichaelBay (The Last Knight) has been released, and you still can’t surf a Transformers site without there being negative comments and memes threaded throughout screaming about how people hated them and it ‘raped their childhood’. Now in 2024, it’s the same arguments and complaints about the new Transformers One trailer: “Why isn’t this part of the G1 cartoon universe?! It’s a kick in the teeth to all the fans who carried the franchise for 40 years – Habro owes us!” Fans treating it as a personal insult that an animated movie designed to sell children’s toys isn’t aimed soley at middle-aged men – the sense of entitlement is staggering.
‘I was created not for entertainment, but to piss off fans. Didn’t you know that?’
And it seems this negativity of the fandom has spread from the movies to encompass any and everything Transformers. Be it comics, cartoons, toys – whatever. If it’s toys it’s all nitpicking about release times, non screen accurate figures and online retailers. If it’s the cartoons then it’s that the cartoon isn’t specifically aimed at demographic X – and if it IS aimed at demographic X then demographic Y kicks up a fuss.
When it’s about the comics people seem to get the most vocal of all (at least in years where a new movie hasn’t been released). Pre the reboot at IDW it was all about the writers having an agenda and virtue signalling and what have you. Now it’s about crossovers. The amount of hatred on the internet about the My Little Ponycrossover coming up has been frankly disgusting. Anyone who isn’t hating on the idea getting accused of being a homosexual or engaging in bestiality. Grown men – grown men – talking about how they despise My Little Pony. Why any grown man without a daughter has watched enough episodes to form such a strong opinion on a cartoon aimed at little girls is beyond me – but they must have watched it because they all seem to be experts on it and hate it. Even one of the artists that did one of the front covers for the upcoming crossover comics has received enough abuse to comment about it publicly. People abusing someone for doing their job and daring to draw a fictional horse on the same page as a fictional robot – way to make the fandom look good fellas.
‘You are destroying my franchise and deserve to die…. apparently’
Now bear in mind I don’t have a problem with people who have a genuine complaint. If you’ve bought a figure that snapped the moment you tried to transform it, despite you being gentle and following the instructions precisely, then damn right you are valid in being pissed off about it. Complain away and you will find a sympathetic ear in me. You got ripped off by an ebay seller and your TR Trypticon turns out to be a pack of beach towels – yell to high heaven! Preach brother! And if you didn’t like a comic or cartoon or movie or toy, then I’ll happily read your opinion if you keep it civil, logical, factual and state your opinion once.
Like Insecticons, angry posts like to clone themselves over and over and over
But it’s the constant bitching I can’t hack anymore. The people who didn’t like a movie and then years later are still writing post after post about how they hated it. People talking about how much a toy or movie sucks before they have even been released yet, like their opinion on something they have yet to personally experience makes it fact. People acting like so-called experts when they know little more than someone who has just entered a toyshop for the first time.
And the bitching about nothing! Sexuality in Transformers? Seriously? That is what brings people to boiling point? People lost their shit when the first wrist-rest mouse padswere released, like the manufactures had made booby pads based on their mothers instead of fictional shape-shifting alien robots. People scream abuse at each other over whether it is valid for Transformers to feel romantic affection for each other since they don’t breed. Is such a thing really worth calling a stranger a ‘f**king c**t’ over?
‘Why does our love cause you such hate?’
So it’s sad to say I’m feeling pretty done right now. I’m sick of clicking on a link or a FB post or a thread on a fansite to find out about some of the latest Transformer news and being confronted with a wall of vitriolic shit. I’m sick of saying I like something and having a dozen people call me an idiot or a faggot or worse for daring to have an opinion different to theirs. Sick of clicking to see if a toy is available only to see the people that got their toys and the people that didn’t, who ordered from the same online retailer, tearing each other a new one.
I know this kind of behaviour is not solely related to the Transformers fandom, it certainly happened in the Ghostbusters fandom with Frozen Empire. Some days it seems it’s the whole internet in general. Maybe I’m too old for the digital world. Whenever I converse online I try to think about, if I said this to a bloke in the pub, would it earn me a punch in the face? Because that was the reality I grew up with, with no internet and texting being easily accessible until I was in my 20’s. When you said something to someone you were saying it to their face. But now we have people who have done nearly all of their socialization their whole lives online, and have grown up in a world where you can say whatever hateful shit you like to someone because chances are that person is on the other side of the planet and you will never have to face consequences for your actions. Yes, the internet is getting too angry for even Big Angry Trev.
‘Can’t we all just peace out?’
Now people who live in GlassGas houses shouldn’t throw Cyberstones, and there are undoubtedly people out there that I have gotten into heated online arguments with over the years over very silly issues. So I am guilty too. But I pride myself that each year I get into less online fights, get into less pointless arguments and get better at cyber-walking away. I’m not perfect but I’m getting better. And maybe that it a goal we could all aim for – to improve our skill of walking away from the keyboard or smartphone when the blood begins to boil, and go play with our Technobots for a while.
So when I go home tonight, I won’t be surfing the big Transformer sites. I’m going to try my best to practice what I’m preaching and be a chilled out fan. I’m going to open up a bunch of new figures I just got and play with them with my son, as a reminder to myself that this hobby should be positive, should be fun, and in the end is about plastic toy robots.
Hey! If you are a positive person who loves talking about all the things they LIKE about Transformers? Why not restore my faith and write something happy in the comments below!
You know, it’s not all gravy being Big Angry Trev. I know what perceptions that a lot of the public hold of me; that I eat imported lobsters off plates of gold, served up by nubile & busty fangirls who pay for the privilege of catering to the every whim of their idol.
But no, sometimes it’s damn hard work. Especially when your online fandom want a real life public appearance. On this site, of course I am known to you all as Big Angry Trev, purveyor of whimsy and wisdom. Then to the Transformers community I am known as Big Transformer Trev, collector extraordinaire and Ozformer of the Year. It’s an honor to be venerated by ones peers on the world wide web but sometimes you have to give a little something back. You need to show up, shake a few babies, kiss a few hands and generally let people feel the warm glow of bathing in the light of your reflected glory.
To this end, I made a public appearance at the Collectormania Toy & Hobby Fair in Penrith.
It’s a bugger of a drive, I can tell ya that! Espeically on a rainy Sunday morning. The Blue Mountains seem to consist of constantly changing speed limits enforced by a plethora of speed cameras and cop cars just waiting for you to miss a single sign. Combine that with half the time you are driving on the edge of a precipice and it does not make for a relaxing country jaunt.
When I finally reached my destination I was greeted at the door by Shannon, one of the main pillars of my Ozformer of the Year campaign and a stalwart supporter. Like many celebrities I have let many of my basic social and survival skills whither so Shannon was to be my guide to the toy fair as well as a buffer between me and the general public.
Big enough to hold back the adoring hordes
Not long after entering I was quickly accosted by one of my long time fans Adam. Adam has been a bit of a Fanboy of mine for 20 years, even back at the start when I was doing movies and television for a living. Adam had his usual reaction to seeing me – a girlish squeal of delight and the development of a mild erection. Given the regularity I illicit these reactions from my fans I was able to still smile and give him a hug, albeit from the side rather than the front.
“Yes yes, I am your sexy god. I get that a lot”
Shannon then gave me the tour of the Fair. This was my first toyfair and I found that they are significantly different to pop culture expos. No cosplay for a start. No huge displays either. And there were very few women to be seen. I think I saw less than a dozen the whole morning and those that I did see might as well have had ‘wife’ or ‘daughter’ stamped on their foreheads.
It was very hot in there too. I had to lose my trademark black jacket after 20 minutes, lest I start to perspire and smell like a lot of my fellow fair attendees. There was a definite essence in the air that suggested many of these guys were leaving their parents basements for the first time in a long while and bathing beforehand had no occurred to them.
It seemed like most of the stalls at the Fair stocked one of two things – either Pop! figures or Matchbox cars. Neither are really my cup of tea but I was able to find at least one I liked.
And of course, courtesy of my trusty guide Shannon, I was able to locate Transformers. I’ve never been a 3rd Party collector, considering how many official toys there are to collect, but I will say that a 3P Bruticus I came across was a thing of beauty to behold and it took a force of will to walk away.
However I was rewarded with some G2 goodness! G2 Optimus AND G2 Megatron! Shannon was even able to haggle me a better deal on the Optimus. Given how much one pays online for toys like these, I was starting to see the Toy Fair’s appeal.
As Shannon showed me around I got to meet many of my fans from both the blogging world and the Transformers community. I got to meet Cranky – who was surprisingly cheerful – and Carlo and Dallas who couldn’t wipe the smiles from their dials. Also Hursty who has a Soundwave collection that surpasses even my own! Then came Brendan, the self-styled ‘Angel of Death’ who used his dark powers to lure me out to the carpark where… ehem… some shady deals were made (yes I lost LG43 Trypticon but I came home with some G1 goodies to replace him).
The Carlo KidTrev: “So whats your favorite thing about meeting me so far?” Dallas: “Well, we met 2 seconds ago so I’d say ‘this moment right now'”‘Shannon 2’ as my tour guide most unfairly referred to him.Fan sandwich
Soon it was time for refreshment. Meat and beer were highly sought after so I took a cadre of my more presentable fans and we ‘did lunch’. When Dallas turned up with some dark beer it earned him a place of honor next to yours truly, much to the admiration and jealousy of his peers.
Liquid social lubricant
And that was it. Quite the experience. Again, this kind of thing is expected of one from time to time, but I will say that the lads I got to spend time with and the rare toys I walked away with made the trip well worth while. I hope next time I have to do Big Angry Trev – Blogger, or Big Transformer Trev – Ozformer of the Year appearances I get to meet such great guys again.
