Reviews and walk-arounds: instructions

[AnimalToyForum]

I've been mulling over how best to incorporate a sort of review section to the forum - something a bit like the dinosaur toy blog, dedicated to individual figures, but that anyone can contribute to. I decided that a separate forum section would be best, rather than try and shoehorn it into an existing category.

So, this new section of the forum is dedicated to reviews or walk-arounds of individual figures. Hopefully it will become a useful resource! Contributions don't need to be as formal as they are on the dinotoyblog - simple photographic overviews are most welcome, with reviews/comments optional.

I'll create child boards for each of the main lines to make it as easy to navigate, and to keep it tidy, I suggest we standardise post titles as follows:

"Animal name (company line)"

Figures from obscure company lines can be posted in the root forum (where I've just posted this post), but I can create a new child board for lines when appropriate.

I hope this makes sense 

[Battatitan]

Awesome! I think this is a great idea  Being able to see other people's images of a figure is an essential part of confirming (and probably sometimes even changing) people's opinions of a company's releases. With that in mind, a topic like this is a must-have for the ATF.

I myself will attempt to contribute to this 'catalogue' (when I find the time  )

By the way, nice Platypus walk-around, AnimalToyForum 

[AnimalToyForum]

Thanks Battatitan. Yes, sometimes the catalogue images are not enough. 

[tyrantqueen]

Sounds fun. I'll do walkarounds of my AAA cast reptiles, if that is ok

[AnimalToyForum]

Sounds fun. I'll do walkarounds of my AAA cast reptiles, if that is ok

Sure, I'll create a board for them. Is it just AAA, or are they part of a specific line from that company?

[brontodocus]

Ah, that's a great idea! I might have one or two walkaround photo series to contribute...

[tyrantqueen]

Sounds fun. I'll do walkarounds of my AAA cast reptiles, if that is ok

Sure, I'll create a board for them. Is it just AAA, or are they part of a specific line from that company?

They're just labelled "AAA" as far as I know

[AnimalToyForum]

Sounds fun. I'll do walkarounds of my AAA cast reptiles, if that is ok

Sure, I'll create a board for them. Is it just AAA, or are they part of a specific line from that company?

They're just labelled "AAA" as far as I know

OK, just "AAA" it is.  New board added here: http://www.animaltoyforum.com/index.php/board,30.html

[postsaurischian]

Why does it still say "1 Topic" on the front page, although there are already three?

[AnimalToyForum]

I think because it isn't counting topics in the child boards. Oh well 

EDIT - Fixed it! I've changed the setting so that now posts in the child boards are counted in parent's totals

[brontodocus]

Oh, I would have a few suggestions, while maybe some major companies like Papo and Schleich would not require being split up into several child boards for different lines immediately (but I definitely see a future need for that) we should have one for Safari Ltd. Incredible Creatures, it's already a very big line with 83 figures including next year's releases (but not counting those that have been discontinued). Safari's Vanishing Wild Collection is retired but very popular (and often highly prized) among collectors. There are still many more lines that would possibly deserve a child board on their own but these two could be very useful right now (I have only very few Vanishing Wild figures but I know that some of our other members have many more). Perhaps all lines made by Safari (including the MBA Collection) should start with "Safari Ltd." because the board seems to be in an alphabetical order and so all Safari lines would appear close to each other?

[AnimalToyForum]

Thanks Brontodocus, I've updated the titles. I know there are plenty more lines from other companies. Kaiyodo for example, so I'll add child boards as we need them. If anybody wants a particular line listed just ask here and I'll make it so

[brontodocus]

Ah, that's great, thanks! I need to update some of my photos of IC figures, anyway, so today may be a good reason to start.

[postsaurischian]

....... I know there are plenty more lines from other companies. Kaiyodo for example, so I'll add child boards as we need them. If anybody wants a particular line listed just ask here and I'll make it so

Yes, please add Kaiyodo !!

[AnimalToyForum]

I might need help here - how many animal lines do Kaiyodo have? Or shall I lump them all together?

[brontodocus]

Wow, that's a hard question... There are the Aqualand resin models; Animatales or Animals of Japan with at least 11 series (series 1-5 are also named "Choco Egg" and 6-11 "ChocoQ"); The Natural Monuments of Japan; Red Data Animals; Choco Egg Funny Animals; Choco Egg Birds (in flight); Choco Egg / ChocoQ Pets with many series; Birdtales; Souvenirs Entomologiques; Atlas Anima; Aquatales with several series; Various Aquarium series (Enoshima, Shinagawa, Sunshine Aquarium, Capsule Aquarium); Deep Sea Odyssey; Penguin's Lunch; Hamster's Lunch; Asahiyama Zoo; Zoorasia Lunch; Night Aqua Museum; and I'm sure there are tons of others...
I think at least the Aqualand resin models, Animatales, Natural Monuments of Japan, and Aquatales (maybe together with other Aquarium and the Deep Sea Odyssey) would deserve a child board on their own, and maybe there could be another one for the rest - and if that one gets too large, eventually, it can further be split into several child boards for the other lines? Kaiyodo is definitely a difficult task!

[AnimalToyForum]

Kaiyodo is definitely a difficult task!

That's why I was delaying   
Thanks for listing all the lines - I'll follow your advice with the child-boards. Maybe not right now though...

[AnimalToyForum]

I forgot to comment on Brontodocus' copyright watermark - I think it looks great, very professional. I don't think it detracts from the pictures at all, and I also think it is worthwhile to stop them being stolen or used elsewhere, or at least it ensures you get credit if they are used elsewhere. And that font looks rather familiar Did you purposefully pick it to match the ATF title?

You might have noticed I've been watermarking the photos I've been uploading too.

[brontodocus]

I forgot to comment on Brontodocus' copyright watermark - I think it looks great, very professional. I don't think it detracts from the pictures at all, and I also think it is worthwhile to stop them being stolen or used elsewhere, or at least it ensures you get credit if they are used elsewhere. And that font looks rather familiar Did you purposefully pick it to match the ATF title?

You might have noticed I've been watermarking the photos I've been uploading too.

Thanks, Adam! Oh, I didn't even realise how similar the watermark looks to the font used in the ATF title... Actually, it's coincidence, I've been experimenting with a few fonts and "Papyrus" was the one I liked best. Yes, I chose to use watermarked photos because recently I've found a U.S. seller's ebay listings of Safari Ltd. figures and many of them included my photos without permission (there were photos by other collectors, too, and one photo was from the Adam's WS Coelacanth review on the Dinosaur Toy Blog). We've been discussing this via PM and initially I thought about starting a thread that links to ebay auctions that use collectors' photos without permission. I still might start a thread like that, eventually, but it really isn't my style. But for the moment I decided to use watermarked photos instead. There is of course no financial loss I've had since all I'm doing here is non-profit, but I take pride in my photography and if someone pretends my photos are her or his, I'd rather do something to stop it.

And to ebay sellers who might find forums like this useful for getting nice pictures for your listings: Better use your own or catalogue photos instead of those made by people you haven't asked for permission. These people may recognise their own photos or those by others and report your listings. The community of animal figure collectors isn't that huge or anonymous and everyone has her/his own handwriting in her/his photos. Furthermore, potential customers might refrain from buying from you if your advertising includes copyright violation so think twice if it pays to use our photos without permission.

_{EDIT: It's "ebay sellers who..." not "ebay sellers that...", sorry. They are still humans.}

[tyrantqueen]

Thanks, I think I will start to watermark my photos too I doubt that anyone would steal my photos, but it's nice to have a sense of security.