With 2018 in progress it is time to give a little bit of insight in the plans for the Beastformers Blog this year but not before we´ve done a little review over a very special last year, 2017!
Review 2017
In 1987 the Battle Beasts were released ¨World Wide¨ (JP/US/CA/EU) so 2017 was a special year knowing the Beasts have now officially turned 30. There were plans to come up with something special for this unique anniversary but sadly enough time was not on our side and there were still to many crucial puzzle pieces missing to come with some kind of publication. But the plans are still there so who knows what 2018 might bring.
¨The Beastformers Blog was visited from 65!!!
different countries in 2017¨
Besides, or maybe thanks to(?), the 30th celebration of the Battle Beasts the Beastformers Blog statistics showed that the in 2013 started line of growth is evolving well. In 2017 the Beastformers Blog was visited and/or consulted by more than 2500 visitors (a growth of +25% compared to 2016 which had a little less than 2000 visitors) coming from 65 different countries! Which based on the results over the years 2013-2016 will be a tough year to beat but of course we´ll try hard to come with unique publications and info in 2018 as well because it is great to see so many fellow collectors and Beast fans appreciating the Beastformers Blog.
Plans for 2018
One of the main, and always ongoing, priorities for the Beastformers Team is to preserve and clarify the history of the Battle Beasts line. Over the past few years some pieces of the puzzle found so far have been connected and the Beastformers Archaeology (BA) project has proven itself a success already but there is still several dozens of puzzle pieces that don´t connect yet. This might be due to the fact that the structure in which we´ve been working so far is not that well organized meaning that we´ve been looking at several subjects individually whereas, as some recent discoveries have found out, there´s often a relation to a much bigger network for example related to the different production locations in either Asia or Europe. So in order to be more successful there, or at least to exclude the risk of overlooking something by being unorganized, a solid framework for the BA project has the biggest priority now. And even though much of this is behind the scenes work it´ll hopefully result into more interesting articles with historical value. Since most of the BA articles from the past years are still only shared via the LittleRubberGuys forum this we´ll also try to transfer some of those onto the Beastformers Blog as well this year.
And of course in 2018 we´ve another anniversary to celebrate because 1 year after the Battle Beasts it´s up to the Laser Beasts (1988) to celebrate their 30th birthday!
¨In 2018 it´s up to the Laser Beasts
to celebrate their 30th birthday¨
Another thing we´d like to focus on a bit more this year are custom related projects because it´s been a while since we´ve had any news on that. Sadly enough the top artists the Beastformers Team is working with all seem to be dealing with some issues causing serious delays on running projects of which some are already entering their 2nd year of delay… But it´s worth the wait and let´s hope there´ll be some positive news on that this year. This year it´s also 5 years since the first Exclusive Gumball Penguin Project (2013) so it might be cool to come up with another project that leads to a limited run of figures that´ll be available. Enough plans on the custom part but as always most of this is depending upon the availability of funds and the time of the artists.
In 2017 we´ve also been distracted by the Battle Beasts ¨inspired¨ Megantik line coming from Italy but in 2018 the focus will be more on the original lines again because in the end there´s nothing that can beat the feel and nostalgia the Battle Beasts bring!
General Notice for 2018
To conclude there´s a few general notices to share because the Beastformers Shop out here on the Blog is not the biggest success, most of the sales/trades go via Instagram these days, so we´ve to consider whether the Shop remains open in it´s current form or whether it might be redone or close completely. The Feedback page, which is not uniquely for the Shop but also or even more for the rating of trades and purchases on other platforms, seems to be working well so this will definitely stay. Than there´s still the Donation button on the right side which is something that seems useless because since it´s been added (in 2016) to the Beastformers Blog, in the hope to raise some funds to maintain this platform, there have been exactly 0 Dollars, Euros, Yen or whatever currency in donations received so there´s still more than enough room for a positive growth there.
Why the Donation button?
Use the Search option
Even though most of the main subjects on the Beastformers Blog are organized and added to the menu in the bar above some of the quick posts are not added or subdivided within the menu. This is done on purpose to prevent extremely long pop out menu´s showing up but the downside of that is that these posts might get out of sight while they are still there. So if there´s something you can´t find via the menu please try to fill in some catchwords or search terms via the Search box on the right to see if there might be any results in most cases you´ll probably get one or more hits and if you don´t feel free to ask. You can use the contact options mentioned in the menu or reach out to the White Rabbit via social media.
All in all there´s enough to do and discover in 2018 because even though we´re collecting a 30 year old toy line now there´s still much to explore and clarify all of which will be shared out here on the Beastformers Blog in order to ensure this line will be preserved in a correct way. We´re far from done but with every added article the database grows and the more loose puzzle pieces will fall into place the completer the true background story gets. The journey of The White Rabbit on Planet Beast will continue in 2018.
Have a great year and as always…
Enjoy the Beasts!
The Beastformers Team
Beastformers Blog 