The Maintenance Period is over, even though behind the scenes the Beasts continue to work on the Beastformers Blog because the endless amount of subjects and topics to be discussed continues to grow. In the end the expectations of finishing everything up within a month was a little tough because there´s literally an enormous amount of info and details about this line that still needs to be processed and added….
This is probably an endless journey but the Beasts have experience facing the test of time so they´ll continue to Battle in the hope that one day this Blog will be completely filled with all the info you´d wish to find regarding the Battle Beasts line!
But despite the fact the huge load of information the Beasts wished to share and add during the maintenance period there is a lot of work done on several levels;
The old theme for the Beastformers Blog was much more chaotic.
Change of Theme
For the WordPress users amongst you it is probably clear that a change of theme (layout/looks) results in a couple of things that need to be tackled before the content of the old theme is working as efficient, and preferably even better, as before. In this case the Beastformers Blog changed its theme from Oxygen to Untitled a theme that has a much smoother way of navigating over the Blog and it has a more calm appearance. Instead of a 3 column main page there´s only one column left on the Right side which mainly contains the Social Media content as well as the Search function. The Layout itself also functions a lot better for the way articles and posts are planned to be published in the future so these are all small steps ahead making the choice to switch from Themes more than acceptable.
Aesthetics
Less is more… The change of theme had a huge influence on the aesthetic appearance on the Beastformers Blog but that´s not the only thing because it is important that the images, scans and other visible digital files shared on this blog really jump into the eye meaning the base of the aesthetics should be strong but not annoying or be to present. As before the Black & White theme continues, since this creates a nice contrast with the colorful Beasts, but some slight details have been changed in order to bring a little bit more color to that as well. Best example of that is the new Header for the Beastformers Blog where the Battle Beasts Logo now holds a clear position as an eye catcher but also to make the clear connection with the Battle Beasts line since that might have not been that obvious in some cases since for most collectors the Beastformers name is not directly, or automatically, connected to the Battle Beasts line. Hence the reason to choose for the BB Logo within the new header. Another thing you´ll find out when navigating through the blog is that the new Header also holds a nice little gimmick meaning the FIRE-WOOD-WATER element that is shown within the Orb of Skull Grotess on the left side changes. This brings back the unpredictable game element this whole line was based on, what element will show up and what will the mean for the Battle?
Categories
Besides the changes in aesthetics and layout also some new categories have been added in order to provide a better and more clear structure for the various amounts of info to be found. The main categories are always shown directly underneath the header of the Beastformers Blog but all of these main categories consist, or will consist, out of various subdivisions narrowing down towards the specific info you are looking for. This should result in a more user friendly and better organized blog.
Beastformers Archaeology (History)
This is probably the most important addition of the recent Maintenance Period (AUG 30 – SEP 30) because within this category some unique Battle Beasts information will be shared explaining about the origin of the line in order to clarify the true history of the Beasts by looking into the real background stories. Also this area is far from complete and a lot of information is still being processed but as of now the following interesting topics can already be found;
Line Art kit 1986 (Hasbro Licensing Department)
Other
Apart from those History topics there´s also a new subject added to the Battle Beasts area explaining about the division of the Battle Beasts into Autobots VS Decepticons and in order to make a stronger connection with Battle Beasts collectors from Japan also a first step into a Japanese area will be created soon under the name of 赤ウサギ (The Red Usagi) for those who are curious about that area have a look at Instagram @TheRedUsagi were you can find some interesting and artistic BB related pictures.
Under the About header also a Links page is added, guiding you towards other interesting and useful Battle Beasts pages on the internet.
That´s all for now but the Beastformers Blog is never done and the Beasts will do their utmost best to keep this blog alive, interesting and loaded with Battle Beasts info, hopefully for years to come.
Enjoy the Beasts!
Beastformers Blog 