It struck me that, bar a few obscure and challenging points (which wouldn't have been clarified by the instructions anyway), they were not massively complicated... Certainly not as they first appeared five or so years ago, when I picked up the first one. I suppose Smokescreen is a bad example, because his model in particular is very similar to its Generation 1 forebear, but they're actually quite simple to transform.
Sure, some joints are frighteningly stiff and others are annoyingly loose, but they're fun, rather than stressful... these days.
So now, all the Binaltech Autobots are boxed up, and I just have to do the Decepticons and the couple of customs I managed to finish.
I made a start also on the Movie figures...
...which reminds me... the new movie figures are looking pretty bloody amazing. The new Deluxe Bumblebee looks good enough to pick up, even though I ended up getting both iterations of the 2007 movie version and Cliffjumper. The Voyager size Bumblebee looks awesome... Though I'll probably discard the Sam Witwicky 'action figure'.
...But I digress. I eventually stopped transforming movie figures back into vehicle mode - again, for easy storage/transportation, because their weapons tend to stow in vehicle mode - when my mother pointed out that it was bed time. Oops. I still find they are of a more than adequate level of complexity... but I'm looking forward to the new ones.
Speaking of complexity, I have to wonder about the folks I work with sometimes... Let's start with the tendency for certain designers to set their ads in Illustrator (which only the Designers have) rather than Quark (which the Copy Controllers have too), meaning the most pathetically simple changes have to go back in the trays to be picked up by a designer when they become available.
What's the point?
Then there's the Salespeople. The system says "When you make a late sale, email a confirmation to your Production Manager and Copy Controller so it can (a) be placed on the flatplan and (b) generally get dealt with."
So why, one might wonder, would two experienced Salespeople, who've been doing this for months, suddenly 'forget' when they get a new manager who - bizarrely - also seems not only to have 'forgotten' this point of procedure, but has adopted the mistaken belief that the Production Manager on her other magazine doesn't ask for emailed confirmations?
They claim to be busy... but, considering how many late sales they're making this month (which, quelle surprise, mean we're setting lots of late ads), they're not helping themselves.
Gone are the days of closing the magazine a day early, it would seem.
Just about everything has been running late since we got back from Christmas, and I had hoped this magazine would buck the trend and get us back on track. No such luck. I'm getting very behind in all the upcoming magazines... which means my designers aren't getting their flatplans on time...
Worse still, the Salespeople don't understand and/or don't care that their late running impacts not on the next magazine in the cycle, but their own next month's issue. When they should be selling next month, they're still mopping up this month.
It's really rather a simple concept: The knock-on effect just keeps on knockin'
I was faintly amused to find that the... exuberant... manager of one of my counterpart's magazines was quite subdued (both in terms of manner/volume and dress sense) when she came in to sign off stuff for my magazine today.
I'd like to think she's heard that I do not approve of her noise and larking about...
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