[Trivial Psychic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by WallySparks

Excuse me but i just dont like Shartimusprime. He's a moron. Period

and those questions that he asked the Hasbro guys, he claims he's asking those questions for "us" to them. What a crock of BS

The thing is...HE IS asking those questions for us. These are questions that you see the toy community ask every single time a price increase is announced, or why a certain character is favored over another, or when a figure isn't on our favorite body mold of the moment, or a reissue is dealt with more accessories...etc...etc. Just read through the comments or message boards of any toy release on social...and the amount of questions, alongside the bitching and moaning is astounding and often drown out any sort positive reaction there could be.

A great deal of the toy collector community look to these "influencers" as a voice to get our concerns out, as many of them have access and ties to the companies that the average collector can only dream about. We want our concerns, our wants, and our complaints to be heard, no matter how small or minute. Some influencers lob softballs when presented opportunities to ask (Russ and Pixel Dan have been accused and criticized of this for years) and get hit with that "shill" label, while others (like TalkerArt, Retroblasting, Bobby Vala, and Anthony's Customs) tend to play hard ball with the companies and end up getting a reasonable amount of pushback because of it understandably. They might be branded as haters, sometimes honest, but one thing no one can ever call them is a shill.

In the case of Shartimus...he's been dragged as a shill for so long, it's clearly frustrated him. He went into the interview with an intent to prove his fandom wasn't bought and paid for, and unfortunately, it blew up in his face. Honestly...the questions that he asked were good ones and stuff that many of us have asked or complained about here or elsewhere over the years, the problem was his attitude and presentation of those questions. They were not well written, or thought out, and they lacked a lot of tact and bedside manner. He approached it like an inexperienced boxer in a heavyweight fight, hoping to end it quickly with a bunch or haymakers, not remembering that the team at Hasbro has faced far bigger and better foes than him (especially in their own corporate offices, this is their career and livelihood...it's not a hobby to them...) and they simply boxed him into a corner and pummeled him for it.

I give credit to Russ for sticking his neck out for the fans, he seems like a nice enough person who means well, and I find no fault in his quest to prove he's not a shill/sellout or whatever the term is these days, but you catch a lot more flies with honey than you do vinegar. I'm not sure if gaslighting the toy community for this disaster is the best thing for him to do though, because the truth is that a little bit more preparation and a better presentation would have really went a long way and saved him some of the grief he's facing now, especially if it comes at the cost of quite possibly having burned his bridges with a team that he's worked so often with over the years.