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The big thing about beanies was that instead of "dropping" beanies from the line, Ty "discontinued" them, which immediately started jacking up interest in the discontinued babies and started getting them way over - first in Illinois, then all over the shop. Through artificial scarcity and keeping the Beanies in specialised stores (they never went to the big supermarkets until the end) and resolutely never changing the price on active babies (Beanies were a way of getting into "collecting" something that didn't cost much until you got into those discontinued items), they created this huge market. People heard the stories of how early Beanie Baby collectors ended up getting tons of money through buying and selling off some of the early Beanies (e.g. Peanut the Royal Blue Elephant) and as often happens whenever such a "get rich quick" scheme crops up, they think that they can do the same. For several years, discontinued Beanies were snapped up for stupid money as soon as their discontinuation was announced because people were speculating and taking chances on them being another Peanut. The rise of eBay helped massively here - the Beanie craze was essential to eBay in the early years. The 1st Beanie Baby-McDonald's campaign might be the craziest in McD history - stories of people buying, like, 100 Happy Meals and telling the staff to keep the burgers, just the toys 'cause hey, what if one of those is defective or otherwise unique in some way? That's $$$$. And of course, these things are good quality soft plush toys made for kids but before too long, there's no kids buying them whatsoever - it's all adults collecting in this massive secondary market...it all ends when there's just way too many discontinued Beanies out there around 1999 (at one point Ty discontinued the whole line), and they stop increasing in value when they're discontinued. It's funny how Beanies also correlate with (and are heavily connected to) the dot.com bubble. Nintendo do quite a lot of the same stuff - artificial scarcity is a big thing for them, and discontinuing products can be too (I expect that what happened with the NES Mini will happen with the SNES Mini too). They're always a much bigger deal in the secondary market than pretty much any other game company out there, and it helps to increase the "value" of Nintendo products as a whole. They're not exactly the same, but there's similarities...this also explains a lot of the poo poo that happens with Nintendo's pre-orders and launches, and is why it's not likely to change any time soon. (As a postscript, Ty Warner wasn't a big fan of the phenomenal secondary market that developed around Beanie Babies - he was so singularly focused on plush, and didn't much like the collectors making tons of cash from Beanies. Still, he recognised how much money it made him and the company. There's an awesome book on the Beanie craze that's definitely worth reading if you want to know more: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Beanie-Baby-Bubble-Delusion/dp/1591846021)
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Aug 26, 2017 08:39
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IronicDongz posted:they didn't say best thing ever, they said best comic book show That's hundreds of show. Granted, most of that's anime and thus blood, but it's no Rose of Versailles.
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Aug 26, 2017 08:57
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Max Wilco posted:I never read the Static Shock comics, but I was familiar with the animated series. What about it was different/better about the comics, and what was bad about the animated series? The animated series wasn't particularly bad, but was incredibly hobbled by standards and practices. We're talking about a series where the inciting incident for all the superpowers is a full on gang warfare event going even worse than that already implies when the cops decide "this is a good time to test that experimental tear gas on people without any prep whatsoever". Something like 80% of everyone there, cops, bangers, any living being whatsoever, all die on the spot, and the others are mutants of various stripes after. In the comics, Virgil is there because he's sick of being picked on by a dude in school and gets a gun, thinking he'll just take out the dude in the crossfire (before he can't do it when he shows). In the series, he gets pressured into it, someone hands him a gun (he has a hangup about them, because his family lost someone to gun violence! Can't let kids think guns are cool), and the death tolls aren't mentioned, it's just "well everyone mutated". This is where it begins to diverge. By the time the comic is doing arcs about a character being gay, white supremacists, and touching more than once on gun violence in communities like this, the series has a jive-talking Brainiac and an episode about homeless people where an orphan makes blizzards because she's lonely. I'm not saying "it's not mature enough, the show is too kiddy", but for some material that wrote about and handled real issues with a solid touch, having to take off every rough edge with sandblasting to avoid "sending the wrong message" really crippled the cartoon. Also there was a crossover episode with Shaq where Virgil is worried about his secret identity (the lamest plot in comics).
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Aug 26, 2017 09:02
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Kim Justice posted:The big thing about beanies was that instead of "dropping" beanies from the line, Ty "discontinued" them, which immediately started jacking up interest in the discontinued babies and started getting them way over - first in Illinois, then all over the shop. Through artificial scarcity and keeping the Beanies in specialised stores (they never went to the big supermarkets until the end) and resolutely never changing the price on active babies (Beanies were a way of getting into "collecting" something that didn't cost much until you got into those discontinued items), they created this huge market. People heard the stories of how early Beanie Baby collectors ended up getting tons of money through buying and selling off some of the early Beanies (e.g. Peanut the Royal Blue Elephant) and as often happens whenever such a "get rich quick" scheme crops up, they think that they can do the same. You're so great <3
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Aug 26, 2017 09:49
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Junpei Hyde posted:You forgot Batman the Brave and the Bold I Before E posted:Brave And The Bold Yeah what they said, B&TB is clearly the best comic cartoon since Batman the Animated Series purely because it was so different to everything that came before it or since. Kim Justice posted:The big thing about beanies was that instead of "dropping" beanies from the line, Ty "discontinued" them, which immediately started jacking up interest in the discontinued babies and started getting them way over - first in Illinois, then all over the shop. Through artificial scarcity and keeping the Beanies in specialised stores (they never went to the big supermarkets until the end) and resolutely never changing the price on active babies (Beanies were a way of getting into "collecting" something that didn't cost much until you got into those discontinued items), they created this huge market. People heard the stories of how early Beanie Baby collectors ended up getting tons of money through buying and selling off some of the early Beanies (e.g. Peanut the Royal Blue Elephant) and as often happens whenever such a "get rich quick" scheme crops up, they think that they can do the same. This is honestly super interesting, I don't think Beanie Babies were that big of a thing in Australia (or at least I can't remember, I was still in the single digits age wise) so I only really know of the off-hand remarks on certain collectables being the next Beanie Babies. The artificial scarcity that the creators used was pretty sketchy no matter how much Warner didn't like the secondary market. Testekill fucked around with this message at 13:17 on Aug 26, 2017 |
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Aug 26, 2017 13:13
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I got one thing a little wrong - Ty didn;'t "discontinue" babies, they "retired" them. One day at a toy fair a bunch of Ty folk were telling people in the morning that certain lines were discontinued, and that kinda killed their interest. Over lunch they pondered how to sort it, and one suggested saying they were "retired" instead. In the afternoon, people who were told about retired toys were suddenly way more interested in them...and thus a lot of money was made. Funny how this poo poo works sometimes. EDIT: And yeah, it is sketchy in ways - they're mass-produced after all. Ty Warner is this really odd, interesting guy mind - one of the few things he was highly interested in aside from plush was the conditions of the sweatshops in China/Korea where the Beanies were made - they had to be good or no business. Beanies were this strange result of Ty thinking for decades about plush, designing a product down to the last bean for maximum poseability. Literally thinks about nothing else. Even at it's height the Ty business would perhaps be too small to handle a full supermarket-based production because Ty was such a micromanager (and would rather most money go to him in any case). A complete mess in his personal life. Kim Justice fucked around with this message at 13:53 on Aug 26, 2017 |
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Aug 26, 2017 13:47
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I wish people would stop beating around the bush and say outright that they mean "superheroes" when they say "comic books". That way I can point out that the phrase "best superhero show" is like the phrase "best cancer". The best cancer is the benign tumour Batman: the Brave and the Bold. BravestOfTheLamps fucked around with this message at 14:59 on Aug 26, 2017 |
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Aug 26, 2017 13:48
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Testekill posted:This is honestly super interesting, I don't think Beanie Babies were that big of a thing in Australia (or at least I can't remember, I was still in the single digits age wise) so I only really know of the off-hand remarks on certain collectables being the next Beanie Babies. The artificial scarcity that the creators used was pretty sketchy no matter how much Warner didn't like the secondary market. I don't think they were A Thing here either. I do remember we had Tazo's to take on Pogs though.
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Aug 26, 2017 14:06
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Neddy Seagoon posted:I don't think they were A Thing here either. I do remember we had Tazo's to take on Pogs though. Dude, the DBZ tazos were my poo poo growing up.
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Aug 26, 2017 14:09
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Testekill posted:Dude, the DBZ tazos were my poo poo growing up. Looney Tunes ones were far superior and I will Fight. You. on that, Mate.  What the hell was the larger notch in them for? Never could figure that one out.
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Aug 26, 2017 14:12
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BravestOfTheLamps posted:I wish people would stop beating around the bush and say outright that they mean "superheroes" when they mean "comic books". I mean I wish you would stop posting but we can't always get what we want
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Aug 26, 2017 14:13
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BravestOfTheLamps posted:That's hundreds of show. Granted, most of that's anime and thus blood, but it's no Rose of Versailles. Rose of Versailles is loving amazing.
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Aug 26, 2017 15:44
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financially racist posted:i've been saying since gears of war 1 that cover-based shooters were the worst thing to happen in gaming, i'm glad other people are finally arriving at the same conclusion. I think for me cover systems are like, maybe fourth on the list of things that bug me about shooter design. They tend to squeak by because developers quickly figured out they should find ways to scramble you out of cover beyond grenades, AI got better so fights are less about each side playing whack-a-mole with each other, and with the rise of RPG systems and other innovations you've often got more to do than just pop and shoot, like with Mass Effect's powers. They're certainly usually less conspicuous or annoying than my top three: Assault rifles, headshot-oriented gameplay, and (screen-obscuring) regenerating health. Though frankly all four of these things are strongly interconnected anyway and pretty much boil down to "cookie cutter console shooter design is boring".
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Aug 26, 2017 17:06
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It looks like JonTron put out a new video. It's on Cool as Ice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J6f6ABLwP8 He also put out a video on the state of his channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voZnWwP2vAg Haven't watched either of them yet, so I wonder how they'll fare.
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Aug 26, 2017 21:12
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I don't find him funny or entertaining, so 
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Aug 26, 2017 21:15
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I find him pretty funny (in edited video form) but no way am I watching any more of his stuff
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Aug 26, 2017 21:34
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I imagined he is dressed as a Nazi and blames it all on minroities and SJWs. I feel I am 100% accurate and won't be clicking the links.
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Aug 26, 2017 21:37
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Max Wilco posted:He also put out a video on the state of his channel: JonTron's channel status:  Congratulations on forever being a Nazi, Jon. Now gently caress off.
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Aug 26, 2017 21:40
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*Jon steps into frame dressed as Waldo* "Where in the world is media coverage of black-on-white violence?" *Carmen Sandiego theme music plays as he dances* *Jon holds up dossier labeled "white genocide" and mugs with wacky expression*
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Aug 26, 2017 21:42
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I don't know why people are whining. Fascism's aesthetic track record is impeccable
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Aug 26, 2017 22:13
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Max Wilco posted:It looks like JonTron put out a new video. It's on Cool as Ice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J6f6ABLwP8 Has he always sounded like the worst linear interpolation of Lowtax and Shmorky?
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Aug 26, 2017 23:23
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Absurd Alhazred posted:Has he always sounded like the worst linear interpolation of Lowtax and Shmorky? Yea that's just him
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Aug 26, 2017 23:27
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The Vosgian Beast posted:I don't know why people are whining. Fascism's aesthetic track record is impeccable yeah well, not anymore
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Aug 26, 2017 23:30
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Absurd Alhazred posted:Has he always sounded like the worst linear interpolation of Lowtax and Shmorky? If that sounds like a bad impression of Nathan Lane, then yes!
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Aug 26, 2017 23:32
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Hm, JonTron comes back directly after Stormfront is shut down?
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Aug 26, 2017 23:36
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Max Wilco posted:It looks like JonTron put out a new video. It's on Cool as Ice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J6f6ABLwP8 He can go gently caress a pine cone with his urethra. It could be the funniest video on the Internet, and I still won't watch it. I've got two dozen RSS feeds for producers, and another dozen tabs open to Youtube for videos I've been meaning to watch (mostly from posts here). I've got way more than enough content to last a very long, long time that I have absolutely no need or desire to in any way support someone as poo poo-fuckingly as awful as he revealed himself to be. Max Wilco posted:He also put out a video on the state of his channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voZnWwP2vAg Unless the state is "All my sponsors have abandoned me, my videos are demonetized, my crowdfunding has all vanished-- because apparently Nazis who only want a sympathetic tool don't actually pay that tool-- well, I'm broke, friendless and have burned all my bridges", I don't give a gently caress.
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Aug 27, 2017 03:52
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lornekates posted:Unless the state is "All my sponsors have abandoned me, my videos are demonetized, my crowdfunding has all vanished-- because apparently Nazis who only want a sympathetic tool don't actually pay that tool-- well, I'm broke, friendless and have burned all my bridges", I don't give a gently caress. why is Jontron getting a million views when Phelous and Allison only getting maybe a 100k views?
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Aug 27, 2017 04:25
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Intrinsic Field Marshal posted:why is Jontron getting a million views when Phelous and Allison only getting maybe a 100k views? Because God is dead
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Aug 27, 2017 06:41
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I watched that state of the channel video so you don't have to! he's just talking about how he made 3 videos that he threw away because he wasn't happy with them and wants to expand the topics he covers, nothing about being a fascist shithead
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Aug 27, 2017 06:51
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END ME SCOOB posted:The animated series wasn't particularly bad, but was incredibly hobbled by standards and practices. We're talking about a series where the inciting incident for all the superpowers is a full on gang warfare event going even worse than that already implies when the cops decide "this is a good time to test that experimental tear gas on people without any prep whatsoever". Something like 80% of everyone there, cops, bangers, any living being whatsoever, all die on the spot, and the others are mutants of various stripes after. In the comics, Virgil is there because he's sick of being picked on by a dude in school and gets a gun, thinking he'll just take out the dude in the crossfire (before he can't do it when he shows). In the series, he gets pressured into it, someone hands him a gun (he has a hangup about them, because his family lost someone to gun violence! Can't let kids think guns are cool), and the death tolls aren't mentioned, it's just "well everyone mutated". And then there's the episode in which Lil Romeo guest stars and at the end he inexplicably has superpowers that they never mentioned before nor comment on after. It confused the gently caress outta me when I was watching the show.
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Aug 27, 2017 06:52
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cat doter posted:I watched that state of the channel video so you don't have to! he's just talking about how he made 3 videos that he threw away because he wasn't happy with them and wants to expand the topics he covers, nothing about being a fascist shithead did you thumb it down? you should because he's a nazi ...yeah it probably doesn't do anything but still!!
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Aug 27, 2017 06:57
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Tired Moritz posted:did you thumb it down? you should because he's a nazi Thumbs downs count the same as thumbs up for search rankings. Google uses any "engagement" even if it's negative to boost promotion. So not rating is more productive if you don't want someone to see something.
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Aug 27, 2017 07:03
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Intrinsic Field Marshal posted:why is Jontron getting a million views when Phelous and Allison only getting maybe a 100k views? Because Phelous and Lupa don't do popular video games or trendy franchises.
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Aug 27, 2017 07:10
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yeah I don't generally thumbs up or down stuff, I just figured someone should bite the bullet, better that one person can watch and summarise than multiple people watching out of curiosity
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Aug 27, 2017 07:15
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cat doter posted:yeah I don't generally thumbs up or down stuff, I just figured someone should bite the bullet, better that one person can watch and summarise than multiple people watching out of curiosity Or you can watch if you're interested and not watch if you're not.
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Aug 27, 2017 07:22
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Linear Zoetrope posted:Thumbs downs count the same as thumbs up for search rankings. Google uses any "engagement" even if it's negative to boost promotion. So not rating is more productive if you don't want someone to see something. wow thats bullshit. thanks though!!
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Aug 27, 2017 07:35
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Absurd Alhazred posted:Or you can watch if you're interested and not watch if you're not. I'd say it's more about not giving him more views than necessary.
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Aug 27, 2017 07:38
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If Jon came out and apologized for the things he said in the past, would you watch or support his content again? He's been pretty quiet for the last year or so (whenever it was when he had that debate with Omni). I haven't seen or heard anything about him spewing hateful comments or the like since then. There's the possibility that in that time, he's reflected on things he's said and regrets them; it might be that he's just uncomfortable about addressing it, or that he's worried about bringing up politics again.
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Aug 27, 2017 08:17
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Max Wilco posted:If Jon came out and apologized for the things he said in the past, would you watch or support his content again? He's been pretty quiet for the last year or so (whenever it was when he had that debate with Omni). I haven't seen or heard anything about him spewing hateful comments or the like since then. There's the possibility that in that time, he's reflected on things he's said and regrets them; it might be that he's just uncomfortable about addressing it, or that he's worried about bringing up politics again. Yes. I firmly believe that most people can learn from their mistakes, own up to and change because of them.
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Aug 27, 2017 08:20
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Max Wilco posted:If Jon came out and apologized for the things he said in the past, would you watch or support his content again? He's been pretty quiet for the last year or so (whenever it was when he had that debate with Omni). I haven't seen or heard anything about him spewing hateful comments or the like since then. There's the possibility that in that time, he's reflected on things he's said and regrets them; it might be that he's just uncomfortable about addressing it, or that he's worried about bringing up politics again. Sure, if he actually apologizes for it. Radio silence on such a major issue is an acceptable assumption that he's still supporting those lovely politics in some respect or other.
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Aug 27, 2017 08:27
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