As a persepctive as a guy who just joined the community a year ago, I would like to put in my input. First off, I’m not a heavy, not a skilled prop builder and wasn’t here years ago when THIS community was still new and Norms plans were the only ones available. However, I had been a fan from when I was a kid. I remember asking for nothing but Ghostbuster toys for my birthdays and christmases. In fact, my 9th birthday cake was shaped like an ectomobile with Peter and Egon it it. But then 1991 rolled around and all of a sudden, there were no toys, no cartoons and no new movies. I moved on.
Fast forward to now.
I have to say that it has never been a better time to be a Ghosthead. The toys, the video game and now finally props are being mass produced! The fact that I can walk into a store and see anything branded with the No-Ghost logo is FANTASTIC. I’m with you guys, some GB merchandise is much better than nothing. A PKE from Mattel is head and shoulders above glueing random ■■■■ to a dollar store lint brush (which is STILL better than nothing!). I don’t even care about the innaccuracies! In my mind, 80% is better that 0% in terms of accuracy. The fact that there is some one out there that is listening to the fans about what they want is a fantastic concept especially now when other franchises are absolutely apathetic and cynical about their fan base. (coughstarwarscoughcough!)
Basically, I can’t wait to get my mitts on a Matty PKE. So what if you have to wait a few weeks to get it? I’ve been waiting for 26 years.
I’m glad to see that many people are reading this thread and taking a breather to maybe fully understand where a lot of us folk are coming from. It is also nice to see a few new members taking a moment to read my ever so long wall of text. A lot of us thought this would sink quickly to the bottom of the threads and go completely unappreciated by folk. I enjoy being wrong about some things.
Ben: I had to take some time to consider your post. I really honestly can’t say that particular members not being as active on the roster as they used to has affected anything. While the three you mention were certainly big names back in the day (and Sean is still very active) we still have several folk around here. Troy is here on the regular, sitting in his rocking chair spouting off to the youth, but no one ever listens to him. Chris from Proton Charging as he runs his own news site can’t seem to get these spoiled rotten kids off his back.
As this thread even shows there are some level headed folk still in this community. (Interestingly not one person who has replied to this have I had the desire to choke to death in the last year, yay!) I think what it comes down to is perhaps we were very lucky that our community was so small at first. Only the true dedicated Ghostheads sought it out. And I don’t mean true Ghostheads in the sense of ownership of some item or another, but in the love for Ghostbusters.
I know it annoys you Ben, but as for myself if there weren’t silly random posts like Fact About Proton Charger, Nice Job you Did or the random Boxxy silliness I think I would have hit the road a long time ago. It’s not that I hate the community, I adore it. I love so much about it, but these damned kids and their rock n’ roll! If you get what I’m saying.
Matt: Respect is a very important issue I think. I can tell you for sure that if people had bona-fide respect for people here we’d get along easer. However, this problem is two fold. We have a lot of members here who I really just can’t bring myself to respect. I just can’t, I generally just try to ignore them on a regular basis, but it can be very difficult. Especially when your instincts are to tell this person to grow the hell up or stop being a dolt. You’ve met me (many of you have) this isn’t some kind of on-line persona. It’s who I am.
So what we end up with is great members who can’t respect some of the new (possibly ■■■■■■ laden) members, and new members (with aforementioned retardation) who couldn’t show respect to anyone or anything anywhere anyway. It’s a vicious cycle that ends up becoming an infinite loop. What would it take to stop this? I would think the older members stepping up to the plate to put some sense into folk. But a lot of us have, a lot of new kin are not listening.
Hot Toys just announced a new Indiana Jones line of figures and most of the feedback/response has been “Ooo, maybe a Hot Toys Star Wars line isn’t far behind.”
At least GB fans dont have it as bad as Indiana Jones fans.
And Star Wars fans? How many different toy lines in how many different scales does it take to make em happy?
Maybe banning together to beat the hell out of Star Wars fans is just what this community needs to bring it all together?
I remember as well not, originally being signed up but coming to the site back when it was Gbprops and such. I was around 12 myself when I first set my eyes on Norms Pack plans. I remember how I though I would never be able to build anything so wonderful… being a GBfan, I have always wanted a Proton Pack. and now, I have 4 lol.
There are so many wonderful people on this site I can bravley call friends , it is a shame to see the way things have been going of late. I do my best to give respect to others in order to earn it back. in the end, I’m glad to be here , even though I don’t post a ton, I try to stay engaged with the community to keep a level head on all the news that comes in.
I’m just a newbie compared to a lot of you, but I agree with Dan wholeheartly. I’ve been a GB fan all my life, and I can safely say that we’ve been spoiled recently. There’s so many GB products out there that you’d think the movie just came out or something. Sony resurrected the franchise, and we have so much stuff to choose from that we take it for granted. It could all go away tomorrow, remember that; just like Star Wars did after ROTJ. Example: if GB3 comes out and it’s a flop, GB will disappear forever. And all the cool stuff with it. Up here in Quebec we have a saying: complain with your mouth full. We’re a little guilty of that, and it’s sad. Wake up, people! Our franchise is alive and well! We should be happy and grateful. There’s a lot of other franchise that are dead and buried, and fans of these franchises consider us lucky (at least they should :P) And we should too!
I raise my glass and proudly drink to this thread!
I remember when I was just a lurker on the old boards. I loved reading the comments posted about the newest prop discovery or the GB3 rumors that would always linger on the boards. I too was thrilled when 88MPH announced their comic and even more thrilled when I saw the new toys. That was truly a golden age of being a Ghostbusters Fan because anything you had, you had because you hunted it down and had to work for it. We really do have things so easy now with a website that we can go to and order a new Ghostbusters item practically every month. Not to mention two separate toy lines, comic books, video game(s), the entirety of the RGB on DVD…
We are living a miracle, seeing a license such as Ghostbusters being rejuvenated (in merchandizing) in such a way after such a long time. Thank you for starting such a post as this to acknowledge that. I applaud you, good sir!
Yes, until they officially own up for the Holiday Special. I mean, cmon, GBs have official releases of those horrible Slimer toons…and the second movie
Just want to start off w/ saying though I’m going to quote you here originally, some of what I say in this post isn’t directed exclusively at you.
While I do agree with the concept of the points to your argument, that both just because an item is GB related doesn’t mean it needs to be ■■■■■■■■’d, and that those that act like snobs really need to get a reality check… I do agree with that. But I think perspective is lost on most all parties involved. People aren’t taking a step back, evaluating, and looking at the big picture. The vocal minority are making very brash posts that don’t have a solid foundation to back up their statements.
I’ve demonstrated this in another thread, on this very same subject. Here - GBFans.com You’ll see that there is 1 person in this thread who has said anything that can be chalked up to being negative about a GB product. The overwhelming rest of the comments fall into 2 segments; People saying that “everybody is complaining” (when that’s just simply not happening). And those, that are in the majority, who go on PRAISING the product, elated and quite happy. Yet even when most of the people are giving positive remarks… somehow the *whole *community is complaining? Perspective is completely lost.
The argument that “the community is complaining.” I challenge this because I don’t see that as an accurate statement. I don’t see any bedrock foundation to support such an accusation. I see a very small number of people making anything that could be considered negative, complaining, snobbish. Everybody else is either talking about how great some of the items are, or are crying that “the community is being snobs.”
I see a whole community of people being blamed and degraded for the actions/comments of a very select few. And that is sad and unfortunate. I think some people need to take a step back, breathe, and have another objective look.
I’ve seen this time and time again with various groups of people. In the beginning the group is small and tight, close knit. People are serious about whatever it is that has brought them together. After a while though staleness sets in. Membership to the “group” is opened up, and with more voices, more opinions appear. Because of the dilution of opinion, the focus or original purpose of the group formation is lost. This will *always* when large masses of people gather.
Dan if I ever get the chance to meet you in person I will have to shake your hand. I have been a gb fan ever since I can remember and I remember when I was still in diapers. My earliest memory was asking my mom if it was ok to play with my gb toys in my bed when I was sick. All I ever had for most of my life was my proton pack and an entire mountainside to myself. When I discovered this site it was just gbprops and I thought it was one of the greatest things ever. When I finally got the ■■■■■ to join this group I was disappointed and scared by all the bitchy and snobbish comments where people just seemed to try and be better than one another. Not to mention how some of them got into comment fights that though some were amusing others were completely off topic. I didnt come back for a year or two but I always watched from a distance afraid that someone would just treat me wrong if I made a noob mistake because I am a noob I will openly admit that. I want to ask questions but sometimes Im scared to because someone might make a snide comment and link me to the post that I couldnt find but act as if I just wasted their time. I have ideas and plans for my future ghosbusters hijinks and I think that some of them could be really helpful to other noobs in the future.
As for the sudden pke surge of gb products, if you look around and listen to some of the things people talk about we have reached an undifined culture with no real, new, or original icons. The closest thing to that is avatar which I thought was lame. It was a beautiful movie but it had no originality in the story line, as is the common argument. Other than that we have other movies with sequels that everyone else is saying enough! Like Pirates of the Caribbean! Everything else right now is a remake of something that has been done 100 times before or its based after a cartoon from the 80s like transformers. Right now all entertainment and media is doing is bringing back the stuff we remember as kids, the nostalgic products and icons of our youth. Why? because we are the larger demographic when it comes to the total population. Not to mention the demographic that in most cases has the most cash. And with the world being the depressing place it is alot of us will fork out the green for something that makes us feel happy and carefree like we were when we were children. There is also the whole thing with the anniversaries. Once they saw the demand for gb stuff after the 20th anniversary they started planning for the 25th and now we’ve been getting new products consistently for the past two and a half years. And I am happy with what I have been getting. I recently acquired my 7th gb shirt and the rubber keychain not to mention all of the slimer sours I can get my hands on. Hell I go to work everyday wearing my gb belt buckle with pride and I love when someone asks me “Who Ya Gonna Call?”.
I agree with this. And I think that perhaps there is a conflict caused between the old and new members. The old members have heard everything before and are tired, and the new users are rude or put off by the older members.
It might make a whole lot of difference if the older users set a good example for the new users by being as welcoming and helpful as possible. Or in the very least grouping together and working to help out the site in some way like writing a Tutorial or Wiki article…
Granted I havent part of the community as long as some people but I go way back.. Then again I’m not the same person I was way back in 05.. I lost A LOT of interest in the Ectomobiles and it caused me to shut down my site. I still know A LOT about the cars but there are others on here who know more then I know and I’m happy with that…
Also the community has grown so much within the last few yrs that I lost contact with a lot of people on here. I made a lot of friends over the course of the yrs I’ve been around, but friends really dont last forever. I agree that some people need to stop bitching, there are some movie franchises that are lucky to get anything out of Hollywood.
Ben, not sure the youngbloods would even know (or care). Some dude in another thread where sense is attempting to be knocked is convinced I’m a troll. Though all us old-timers still shuffle around, our time is short and if we’re just shaking our canes at the kids on skateboards tearing by us, it won’t help much.
But I whole-heartedly agree that I think a lot of the entitlement stems from being spoiled now.
Back when I was their age I… Wait… Where’re my pants?!?
Meph. I do not know you, and I’m going to try and make this as non insulting as possible. You have an incredible near sightedness in regards to this topic.
This is not just about the PKE Meter, and never was just about the PKE meter. A topic for that has already woefully been compiled. This is EVERYTHING that has been coming to us, in the grand scheme of things the community has in fact been moaning like an eight year old girl who didn’t get a pony for Christmas.
Threads on the minimates are littered with people chiming in how they don’t get them or think they’re stupid, and somehow perhaps by proxy those who collect them are stupid. Entire posts dedicated to smashing the “ill quality” of the recent action figures. Entire journals worth of people boasting how they could do better on everything that has been released. Numerous complaints over… Venkman’s pant legs? Inaccurate skin tones? Are we for real? Comic books that have been entirely thrashed upon, even going as so far to dismiss the writers as not being real Ghostheads. It even bubbled into a nerd rage a’ thon of people verbally assaulting IDW to get someone they like published. I still cannot find words to express gratitude for the humble hospitality of IDW for actually signing on Dan Shoeing.
Senseless complaints about the design of the new Real Ghostbusters Figures because they’re not EXACTLY how they want them to be. When was the last time a BRAND NEW RGB toy was produced?
More threads dedicated to complaining about how the video game doesn’t work for them, how they deserve content equivalent to a multimillion dollar expenditure like the Halo franchise. It’s as if they don’t even understand what a miracle it was for the game to be as fantastic as it is (or even be released entirely).
It’s never enough, there always has to be more. Small pathetic children grasping at the candy jar, filling their mouths with product that can and will never sustain their bloated senses of entitlement.
Sure, there are many who whole heartedly support many if not all of the product coming to us. But minority has equal if not more vocal representation, whether you like it or not. The folks who bring us this wonderful cornucopia of Ghostbusters stuff read what we say; if I were in their place I would not be pleased. Nor would I feel appreciated.
Then there is the woeful and downright appalling idea of what a critique or review is within this community. I present to you, an example (for posterity’s sake I made this up, but it is VERY close to what is actually being said.)
How it should be done…
How the majority here do it:
DO YOU SEE THE DIFFERENCE?! Both mock reviews have almost the same information, but one managed to deliver a critique worthy of some thought. The other is nothing but a list of grievances some entitled fan boy yanked out of his ass.
I can appreciate that you’re trying, and no offense to you, but a non-insulting post shouldn’t be a challenge. It should be the norm. Disagreeing with somebody isn’t the end of the world, or a knock on your character.
Absolutely this is not exclusively about the PKE meter, but I was using that thread as an example simply of what I see more often regarding all of this. I don’t see as many people complaining about product quality as you claim to. I see more people THINKING there are a ton of people complaining, so they in turn bombard threads with negative attacks on either individuals or the entire community.
I think people have lost perspective and are blowing things out of proportions to what they truly are. They’ve lost respect for one another also, and without respect their replies are instantly vindictive and cruel in nature in an attempt to “hurt” them so they can “win the argument.” As if you really can “win” somehow.
And this is what I see across the forum, not just that thread. 1 or 2 people will make a negative remark, 10 people start throwing mud at each other, and somehow through all that negativity the people think that “everybody is complaining.” Everybody is not! The majority are quite happy. Only the LOUD MINORITY are being negative nancys.
So we will simply have to agree to disagree. Because I don’t see a whole community complaining. I see a whole community being blamed for the actions of a few.
edit
Oh, but wanted to add. I DO agree with your sentiment though that those who indeed are being extremely nitpicky to the point where nothing honestly would satisfy them… they’re being douches and unappreciative. I will agree to how those people are indeed acting.
I don’t think you’re looking closely enough. There was, for instance, quite recently, an enormous uproar from a lot more than a “few” over the supposedly outrageous PKE shipping delay. I think the annoyed response to all of that was pretty apropos.
I havent been a member here for long either and im sorry if ive came across as disrespectful to some of the more seasoned members or shown a sense of entitlement that i shouldnt have at any point.
With the vast ammounts of information and products available on here not to mention all of the merchandise we now have access to its easy to lose sight of the fact that it wasnt just handed to you guys way back when.
Alot of us newbies come to the site and see all thats available with no knowledge of how much time and effort have been put in to gather the information so its understandable that you get offended and are less willing to help when someone nit picks or complains needlessly about a topic that they know so little about.
At the same time though it doesnt help when a new member has come here looking for help and just becuse they may not express themselves in the best way they are berated or labeled as ignorant instead of being educated.
There is a lack of tolerance to a degree on both sides and unless everyone old and new starts trying to be a bit more patient and respectful towards eachother then we are going to end up with thread after thread of ill founded arguements just as we have been seeing.
