LRG Turned 18!

It was September 7th 2011 the day that The White Rabbit, back than under another username, joined LRG (LittleRubberGuys) as a complete noob in the world of Battle Beasts collecting. And it is thanks or due to, depending on the way you look at it, this board and online forum and its passionate and inspiring collectors that this whole Beastformers Blog exists.

It all started with that one figure and Google back in the day, read; Robot Animal Takara Hasbro ´86 and it must have been pretty soon that LRG showed up on the radar during the search for more information about this line. No wonder because at that time it was a very lively and active board full of like-minded and passionate collectors. And although it were the Battle Beasts that got me hooked and kept me out there ever since LRG is much broader than just this single toy line, as the name implies, it covers a whole lot of awesome vintage toy lines like M.U.S.C.L.E., Kinnikuman, Monster In My Pocket and many more Little Rubber Guys toy lines! And the best part of it is that ALL is built up thanks to the common effort of collectors from all over the world over many years and with that LRG can literally be considered a digital treasure for everyone and anyone who´s interested in any of the lines it covers.

This weekend, on July 2nd to be precise, this digital treasure for collectors of Little Rubber Guy lines, and thus including Battle Beasts, has celebrated its 18th birthday which means that this collectors based board which was started in 2002 by Jon Karis has now officially become an adult!

Reason enough to celebrate and to give LRG some extra love because again without it also this Beastformers Blog would have never existed. Most of the valuable and cherished connections with fellow collectors, most of who I can know call friends by now, within the BB Community have been found there. Diehard collectors who´ve been collecting for decades and some have never even stopped or paused collecting Battle Beasts from their childhood! It are passionate collectors like these who have been willing to share their stories and experiences that have made collecting this line so much more fun and interesting.

Not a lot of people might know but as of today ALL of the discussions and research projects within the Beastformers Archaeology Project, which originated on LRG back in 2014, are taking place within the secluded Personal Message area of LRG. Simply because the whole group was composed out of LRG members and although some of them have become less active it is still going strong driven by some of the most die hard collectors out there.

But times are changing and with the increasing popularity of Social Media, and Facebook in particular, the whole weight of interest of the collectors world seems to have been shifting with a lot of collectors leaving LRG behind. Resulting in the fact that this once very active board where you´d have new posts and topics within almost every area of the board on a daily base encouraged and driven by many passionate collectors has been loosing a bit of it´s glance over the past year(s).

Yes, it is true that LRG is yet another year older which also makes that the platform, compared to for instance Facebook, might feel more outdated but this is where people in my honest opinion are wrong because in reality…

The glance it might seem to loose is just the dust that´s slowly covering all the precious stories and discoveries that have, in many cases, been meticulously documented and discussed by a well informed and knowledgeable group of collectors. A LOT of the topics and questions we (still) have today probably have been discussed out there already at some point in time during the 18 years it exists. So instead of simply turning your back on LRG leaving it behind as an old and outdated platform try to cherish and respect it more for what it has brought and the value it STILL holds because once you start wiping of the dust searching through all the old topics you will realize that the glance is still there and that all this valuable information about your favorite toy line that is documented there shouldn´t become a lost treasure.

Most of the information out here on the Beastformers Blog is forthcoming or has been inspired by the information from LRG and it´s only been extracted from it in order to compose a more structured digital archive for the Battle Beasts Community in order to make it easier to access all the information and preserving it in the correct way. But that doesn´t make that all the fragmented information on LRG is now meaningless because it has been the base on which all of this has been built. All the lessons, discussions, mistakes and so on made and created on LRG over the last 18 years by fellow collectors before us have contributed to what we are and where we are as a BB Community today!

And therefor this weekend, despite all the ongoing other activities and the maintenance period out here currently, it is time to pause and CONGRATULATE LRG with it´s 18th Birthday and to realize and acknowledge it´s importance for the BB Community!

A special thanks goes out to the man who made all of it possible starting LRG 18 years ago AND keeping it up and running ever since because where would we all be without it… Jon has become a close friend over the years and he has played an important role in the evolution of the Beastformers Collection. And this has directly resulted in the fact that the posts and information out here on the Beastformers Blog are more complete and appealing.

I know Jon as a humble and loyal man and LRG has been a great ally for the Beastformers Blog for years and I´m sure it will be for the years to come because there is still a lot left to explore and clarify. And in numbers LRG might be an adult now but know that with the wisdom of the crowd it is holding it reflects a number that is much closer to it being a sage than just a simple grown up.

Let´s commemorate this moment in time and make it a joined task to make sure that this digital treasure and source of information for our beloved Battle Beasts line, among many others, will stay around for many years to come.

So if you haven´t heard about LRG before than this might be a great moment to start checking it out and become a member, which is completely FREE. And for those who have left it behind in, or have been less active over, the past years I´d say think twice about what you leave behind because as mentioned it STILL is a very valuable source of information. There might have been less activity over the past year(s) but there are still very knowledgeable and passionate collectors out there, including the White Rabbit, to help with the various questions or new discoveries and explore all types of topics. Let´s unite as a BB Community, wipe of the dust, reveal the glance, contribute, discuss, explore, have fun in order to keep on building this legacy that has been started by many collectors before us because now WE are responsible for this treasure, called; LRG!