New Galleries: G1 Defensor and the Protectobots Hot Spot, First Aid, Blades, Groove and Streetwise

OptimalOptimus2 wrote:Why did it take so long to release the Protectobot galleries?

Cyberpath wrote:Great gallery. Defensor was my first combiner.

They look pristine with the scrub-down and new stickers. The joints seem tight, too. Is the process very time-consuming?


btw, Streetwise's legs actually extend and his chest is supposed to tab into the diecast like this:

Seibertron wrote:So this particular set of figures, the Protectobots, are something I've been wanting to work on for 11 years. I have received dozens of requests for these galleries, particularly in the past 5 years as their absence from the galleries became more and more obvious. The first time I wanted to do their galleries was way back in May 2004 when I did the galleries for the Universe Micromaster Protectobots galleries. This very G1 Defensor made an appearance in that gallery.



Later that same year, Defensor made an appearance in Menasor's gallery. Fictionally, I always felt the Combaticons were the enemy of the Protectobots but toy-wise I always felt the Stunticons were their opposite.



Anyways, the Protectobots have been on my mind for the past 11 years. I've wanted to do their galleries time and time again and man did it feel great to finally do their galleries after all this time. I can't believe it's been that long. It seems like just yesterday that I did the galleries for the Universe Protectobots and the G1 Stunticons and wanted to do the Protectobots galleries. Time can be my worst enemy when it comes to Seibertron.com. Not that anyone other than me really cares about this accomplishment, but it felt really good to finish them. Finally, they have been completed right before I get my hands on the Combiner Wars Protectobots.

Metroplex, Trypticon, Metrotitan and Gigastorm are the other ones that really drive me crazy that I don't have complete yet. And the large G1 Targetmasters and the G1 Headmasters. One day!

fenrir72 wrote:You don't have Trypticon yet?

fenrir72 wrote:Btw Ryan, do you have the Hotspot/Defensor "metal" version? Same with Bruticus team. I've seen the KO of Hotspot having the metal chest. Would like to see the "metal chest" Onslaught too.

Seibertron wrote:

OptimalOptimus2 wrote:Why did it take so long to release the Protectobot galleries?

Relevancy. The older galleries don't generate as much traffic as newer galleries. With the release of the Combiner Wars Protectobots, the G1 Protectobots are once again relevant since this is the first time ever they've had new molds that are intended to really be the characters they represent instead of repaints or remolds of other characters.

This is usually my strategy but poor ol' Metroplex got the short end of the stick a couple of years ago. Hopefully I can rectify that before the end of the year so that we can finally have galleries of Metroplex, Metrotitan, Trypticon, Gigastorm, and Encore Metroplex. The rumored "Platinum Edition" Trypticon set might give me my next excuse to bust out all of these guys later this year.

Sideswipe29 wrote:So let me get this straight. You wouldn't do a gallery of an older toy until it's relevant again because as you say it's an "older" gallery?

Sideswipe29 wrote:So it's not so much that you couldn't do a gallery for the Protectobots because you always could have but you wanted to wait until they were relevant again so they could be a "new"gallery? So with that logic, why didn't you wait for all older G1 characters to become relevant and then make "new" galleries for them? Why have you bothered to hold out on a protectobot gallery and not other G1 stuff?

Sideswipe29 wrote:Sorry for all the questions. And I in no way mean to criticize you because your galleries are always incredible and it's smart to wait until characters are relevant again. I'm just trying to figure out why you waited to do the protectobots and not wait on others.

steve2275 wrote:how about a G 1 combiners only gallery?
since combiners are currently relevant

Seibertron wrote:

Cyberpath wrote:Great gallery. Defensor was my first combiner.

They look pristine with the scrub-down and new stickers. The joints seem tight, too. Is the process very time-consuming?


btw, Streetwise's legs actually extend and his chest is supposed to tab into the diecast like this:

The "legs" are not supposed to be extended in robot mode. The leg extension is for when he's an arm. I like having the hood of the vehicle folded up like that because it looks more like a robot chest instead of the front half of a car on a robot's chest.

Seibertron wrote:

Sideswipe29 wrote:So let me get this straight. You wouldn't do a gallery of an older toy until it's relevant again because as you say it's an "older" gallery?

There's a lot of factors involved. Everything from relevancy, current workload, condition of vintage figures, trends in the comics, overall character's popularity, etc. I've been working on these galleries for 11 years. In the mid 2000s, I had a lot more freedom to do whatever galleries I wanted because there wasn't this massive onslaught of toys continuously coming out like there has been the past few years.

Older Transformers toys just don't get as much traffic as newer Transformers toys. I was bummed after I launched the galleries of Black Zarak and Grand Maximus a few years ago when I saw how poorly both galleries were performing initially. I thought those two galleries would generate all sorts of traffic due to the novelty and rarity of both items. While they are the end-all-be-all galleries of those two sets, they're just not good traffic generators. Black Zarak (July 2012) has 74,144 pageviews currently and Grand Maximus (October 2012) has 72,604 pageviews. By comparison, Evasion Mode Optimus Prime (which launched April 2014) has 249,116 pageviews.

I've owned every Hasbro Transformers toy (1984 to current) since 2007 and own a sizable portion of the European exclusives (only missing the Motorvators) and a very large collection of Takara exclusives and variants (minus a couple dozen Takara late G1 toys and and minus some regional variants prior to Henkei). If I had it my way, I'd do nothing but work on old Transformers galleries ... they're fun to do and a lot less work than the modern toys are due to their lack of poseability. But "work" comes first ... I have to work on what will generate traffic first, and then work fill in the gaps as time and relevancy allows.

Sideswipe29 wrote:So it's not so much that you couldn't do a gallery for the Protectobots because you always could have but you wanted to wait until they were relevant again so they could be a "new"gallery? So with that logic, why didn't you wait for all older G1 characters to become relevant and then make "new" galleries for them? Why have you bothered to hold out on a protectobot gallery and not other G1 stuff?

As I mentioned above, I've been working on the galleries for 11 years now. Due to less products being released prior to the live action movies, I used to have more time to work on older galleries. Since the movies, it's just been a matter of me finding time to work on older products which I usually try to squeeze in when those characters become relevant again.

Sometimes the relevancy is "self-created" such as in late 2013 when I had 4 complete G1 Reflectors and a really nice modern KO (the one with the new G1 box) to sell in the Seibertron.com Store on eBay. I took that time to do Reflector because I wanted to generate a little bit of interest in him first prior to posting those items for sale in the Seibertron.com Store and because I was excited about having 4 complete ones to sell.

Last summer, I photographed the G1 Powermasters after having two points of relevancy: comparison photos of Generations Doubledealer with vintage G1 Doubledealer and doing the gallery of Fire Guts God Ginrai because of BotCon Ginrai which came out last summer.

Sideswipe29 wrote:Sorry for all the questions. And I in no way mean to criticize you because your galleries are always incredible and it's smart to wait until characters are relevant again. I'm just trying to figure out why you waited to do the protectobots and not wait on others.

These are great questions ... happy to answer any of them. Bottom line is this: there's no black and white rule that I follow. I focus on new/current products first because that is what's most relevant and will generate the most traffic. I work on vintage and other older Transformers products that haven't been photographed as time allows. I generally try to do older figures that are relevant first and then work my way through the ones I want to as time allows.

The same thing applies to when I don't have time to photograph a toy the first time it is released. I'll usually wait until a repaint comes out to get it the 2nd time around and launch both of those galleries at the same time. Million Publishing Artfire is a good example. I really need to do his gallery, but if I'm going to do his gallery at this point, I should do United Grapple, GDO Hot Spot, and 2014 Protectobot Hot Spot's galleries. It's easier to do all of a mold's galleries at one time then it is to do them one-at-a-time.

Hope this all makes sense. If you have more questions, please let me know.

Seibertron wrote:

Cyberpath wrote:Great gallery. Defensor was my first combiner.

They look pristine with the scrub-down and new stickers. The joints seem tight, too. Is the process very time-consuming?


btw, Streetwise's legs actually extend and his chest is supposed to tab into the diecast like this:

The "legs" are not supposed to be extended in robot mode. The leg extension is for when he's an arm. I like having the hood of the vehicle folded up like that because it looks more like a robot chest instead of the front half of a car on a robot's chest.

Ultra Markus wrote:so if the legs are not supposed to be extended in robot mode then why make them look like legs if its just for an arm (usually hes a leg though)then they should not look like legs, i get you are overwhelmed with these awesome galleries and you have control over how they come out but at least use common sense when a figure has legs but you refuse to show them properly its like seeing a mistransformed figure in your galleries and im sure you dont want mistransformed figures in your galleries

MaverickPrime wrote:And Va'al is right, those are Alpha Bravo-ish colors, have you noted that movie 2007 Evac is pretty much movieverse Alpha Bravo?

Amelie wrote:Hey, Seibertron -

Did Astrotrain still have the notorious odd legs that means he often leans to one side?

Seibertron wrote:Only if you don't pull the legs out all of the way. My original G1 doesn't have this problem either.

My original doesn't, but my old Takara TFC:Collection reissue had to almost use his rifle as a makeshift crutch!

Loved the Platinum galleries for Blitzwind and Astrotrain, btw. Its nice to see G1 love every now and then, even though I know it doesn't draw the site traffic like new stuff does.

Amelie wrote:

Seibertron wrote:Only if you don't pull the legs out all of the way. My original G1 doesn't have this problem either.

My original doesn't, but my old Takara TFC:Collection reissue had to almost use his rifle as a makeshift crutch!

Loved the Platinum galleries for Blitzwind and Astrotrain, btw. Its nice to see G1 love every now and then, even though I know it doesn't draw the site traffic like new stuff does.

RhA wrote:Excellent stuff! It's good to see more G1 stuff in the galleries. There's a shortage of powermasters in there.

Seibertron wrote:

RhA wrote:Excellent stuff! It's good to see more G1 stuff in the galleries. There's a shortage of powermasters in there.

Only 3 left! I've had all of these Powermaster galleries finished since before SDCC last year. It was my big gallery push that I did right before SDCC so that I'd have something new to work on for Seibertron.com on the plane and during my travels for SDCC 2014. Unfortunately, that never happened and those galleries, like so many others, just sat on my computer unfinished. Now that I knocked out Doubledealer and Powermaster Optimus Prime, hopefully I can get to the Autobot Powermasters next week during my travels for SDCC 2015.

shajaki wrote:

RhA wrote:

Seibertron wrote:

RhA wrote:Excellent stuff! It's good to see more G1 stuff in the galleries. There's a shortage of powermasters in there.

Only 3 left! I've had all of these Powermaster galleries finished since before SDCC last year. It was my big gallery push that I did right before SDCC so that I'd have something new to work on for Seibertron.com on the plane and during my travels for SDCC 2014. Unfortunately, that never happened and those galleries, like so many others, just sat on my computer unfinished. Now that I knocked out Doubledealer and Powermaster Optimus Prime, hopefully I can get to the Autobot Powermasters next week during my travels for SDCC 2015.

That would be supersweet.

Is there any way you can compare them to their Masterforce versions? In particular the Ranger/Joyride comparison.

shajaki wrote:

The one, single time when Hasbro made the perverse version.