Quote:
Originally Posted by Abraxys
Its very strange how much business Ontario gets and how little montreal gets. Its definetly the communities, but im curious why people here just dont spend money on these things. This is also apparent by the lack of toy shops we have here. I guess people here love clothes (ie Carrefour's huge transition over the last few years) more than fun? Id love to open up a comic/toy store but its gonna burn to the ground for sure  |
That is the Montreal/Toronto divide. Montreal is laid back, hippy, eurocentric and "cultural"... Toronto is a business city. If you've ever spent time in Toronto, you'll know what I mean. You run into someone in Toronto, and one of the first questions you will always get is "What are you DOING lately?" Torontonians are doers. They have projects. They network. They collaborate. They advance themselves. They don't sit still (and they can't afford to, since the rents are high). Honestly, I couldn't bear to live in Toronto. I just don't have the raw ambition.
Meanwhile, walk down a street in Montreal in the summer in the middle of a business day, and every terrace is full of people slumming, taking it easy, enjoying life, etc... This city is a "work to live, but not too much" kind of place... and our budgets tend to reflect that. We're a great city, but we're a cheap city too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hhai
I grew up in Granby. I liked transformers as toys when I was young but my favorite TV shows were Robin et Stella, Inimagimo, les Mystérieuses Cités d'Or, Sous le Signe des Mousquetaires... and I don't feel at all like I grew up in a "dark ages" or "boring" culture. Quebec is a quite different market for sure, and it has a lot to do with the langage of course, but also for our preference towards fantasy and historical stuff rather than sci-fi stuff. Amos Daragon, Harry Potter an al. will always be more popular here than TFs, super-heroes and sci-fi shows.
In my opinion, when a business tries to enter a new market and fail, only the business is to blame, not the culture.
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I agree... Quebec definitely has a franco-european and heavily Japanese-inflected nerd culture... and I think it's more significant than Proto implies, but it is still very different than Anglo Canadian nerd culture.
Of course, thanks to the internet, global media distribution and the significant surge in nerd culture this decade overall, I think that is gradually changing. You can grow up with Albator and obscure B-D's, but you'd have to living under a rock to not be exposed to mainstream anglo pop culture these days.
I wouldn't say that Quebec nerd culture is necessarily dull, but I can definitely appreciate that it is less financially draining/rewarding. I mean, I'm pretty damn cheap as far as toy/TF collectors go, and I still spend waaaay too much on this stuff.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Abraxys
At TFCON last year I almost beat someone because they kept leaning over my girlfriend making weird sounds. I feel bad for them cause they dont know how to control their emotional urges, but thats not the way its done. Also, a little common sense would be nice, getting touchy-feely by strangers isnt exactly appealing  Some people just need to get full-time jobs and exposure to the outside. That'll sober them up. |
SERIOUSLY? That's downright awful.
I've spent a lot of my life as a "covert nerd"... I like my nerdy stuff, but I've always tried to keep the larger fandom at arm's reach, not because it was "uncool" to reveal that about myself, but precisely for those kinds of reasons (socially clueless behaviour, not unwanted sexual advances that is, LOL!). I've always been pretty nice to those I meet, but sometimes, some people stretch that to the extreme!
However, I was just reflecting the other day on the fact that since I started buying and trading with other TF fans locally, I've noticed that most of them seem to be really cool, apparently balanced, socially capable people... who just happen nurse a debilitating addiction to plastic robots. I've taken to secretly hoping that Transformers fans, despite being low on the geek status totem pole, are actually predisposed to NOT being insufferable. I can dream, right?
Anyway, I almost never go to Cons, because I think I would get frustrated being in one place with such a broad sample of geeks, rather than smaller interactions with a chosen few (how I generally prefer all my socializing, really). I'm also damn cheap, like I said, so there's only so much appeal a dealer room is going to have for me. People like me are the reason why Cons can't flourish here!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Buhawi
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Humbling? How is that? That HOS Optimus design was
never a kitbash... the designer Griffith actually designed it from the ground up in CAD, and printed the pieces out at home on a 3D printer he had purchased. It was his first robot design project, and he walked through the whole process on the TFW2005 forums. Good times.
Knight Morpher has his flaws, but he's still an impressive piece considering the source.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Buhawi
I also remember the whole magic the gathering card games. Some of the guys at card places smell like stale crackers.
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Lucky! If they all only smelled like stale crackers, it wouldn't be so bad.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Buhawi
Only the Rage of Hercules.
This is my current and probably a more permanent Herc configuration. I just put the chest shield lower. find it corrects the following:
- The high placement of the shoulders
- Lanky torso
- Wide arm placement
It also adds:
- a more G1 chest look
- Bulkier and more buffed chest
All of that just by merely moving the chest piece.
And thanks.
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I like it... I'll try that out the next time I assemble the team. Don't you also usually attach the stray cabs to the sides of Long Haul to fill out the torso a bit ?
I've always loved the old Diaclone aesthetic, so I really do like Giant's look. I couldn't tell you which one I think is "better"... saying one is "more complex" means nothing, since simplicity also carries its charms and advantages. But in my case, Hercules was bigger, so that was the deciding factor. One of these days I'd like to hold a Giant in-hand to know whether I think one "feels" better than the other.
zmog
