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September Photo Contest ResultsOur third photo contest brought in 4087 new photos, which is more than our previous contest. If I sound a little amazed it's because I was sure that after the effort he expended in May, that Engledogg would rather tromp through his toy collection with soccer cleats on than ever touch his camera again, but somehow he rose to the challenge once more. However, the other players put up a much better fight this time--contributing more than 45% of the photos--and I'm pleased to report that everyone who participated managed to qualify for one or more prizes. I want to recognize Hellscream333 for displaying Engledogg-like levels of madness with his 1271 photos, newcomer LongHaul for his impressive freshman showing of 222 photos, and our new friends from Poland, Meewash and Wallas, who managed to scrape together 204 and 98 photos, respectively. Squallte brought up the rear with a respectable 74 photos, which is nothing to sneeze, hiccup, or belch at.Folks, please don't let little details like no contests being active prevent you from contributing photos. The contests take a lot of time and resources to organize, and it takes time to scrounge prizes together for you fussy connoisseurs, but in the meantime those new releases keep appearing on shelves. Please try to get in the habit of shooting your toys before and after you open them and submitting them to the site, so we can all enjoy them. End of PSA. Thanks again for all the photos, everybody! The next contest will be in a month or two, depending on when the next pile of prizes arrives. Keep an eye on the front page for updates.
Sure, most rules suck, but don't worry, ours are relatively harmless--you don't even have to wear pants.
Look 'em over and make sure you know what you're getting into.
The contest will run from Dec 31, 1969 until midnight of Dec 31, 1969 (current time is 01:30:15 AM, Aug 1st ).
You're certainly encouraged--begged, even--to keep submitting photos after that if you like, but photos submitted after the contest is over will not be tallied
when divying up the prizes.
Anyone can participate in the contest, including site moderators. Heck, you don't even need your parent's permission--they'd only slow you down. But any photos you submit must be yours with no exceptions. The toys don't need to be yours, but the photos do. Please, please
don't try to snare anything from eBay, or seibertron.com, or anywhere else.
Only photos that meet the photo guidelines will be
accepted by the contest judges. We're quite strict
about enforcing them, but we're also eager to
help you in any way you can if you're having
trouble, and you'll find it's possible to take
very high quality photos with a minimum of
equipment. See the photo tutorial for a lot of good tips.
A key point is that you don't have to restrict
yourself to items in the database that are missing photos
(though that's what we're most interested in)--if
you see any bad photo at all you are welcome to submit your own
in its place (though for less points--see the
section on scoring below). Don't worry,
nothing will happen to the old photo, it will just
get moved into the gallery. So what are bad photos?
Any that are smallish, grainy, too dark, too
bright, and so on. We're also not particularly
fond of stock photos (
such as the ones that come from Hasbro), so they're definitely fair game.
Okay, we're getting a little fancier with scoring for this contest, so listen up, shutterbugs. Whenever a photo
you submit is accepted by a moderator, you will receive
either 3 points for filling in a missing image,
or 2 points for improving
on an existing image. A little
elaboration may be in order:
If the photo you're submitting is filling in a "missing image", you'll get
more points than the same photo would get if it were replacing an existing image.
Note that we consider photos from any of our "photo donors" to be missing
(not that we don't love them, we'd just rather feature member photos), so you'll
also get full points for replacing any photos
from Hasbro,
RavisCollectibles,
or BigBadToyStore.
If you come across a photo in the database that you think you can improve on
you're welcome to submit your own, superior photo in its place. The catch is that you won't get
as many points for it. Be aware that your replacement photo will only be accepted if
it is very clearly of superior quality. Why are we getting all fussy
with the points like this? To drive home two ideas: 1) We're more interested in filling in
missing images than we are in improving on existing
photos, and 2) you should always submit the very best photo
you can, so that other submitters will be less likely to get
the bright idea to stomp over your work.
One last thing--you can safely replace your own image without fear of losing any points. In other words, if you fill in a missing image, but are a raving perfectionist and decide you want to replace your own image with an even better photo, you will still get the full points. Here's where it gets a little tricky. Basically I'm trying to arrange
it so that all the prizes are given away and so that high volume submitters can win more than one
prize each. Here's how it works:
Here's the list, complete with percentage scores.
Keep an eye on this list, as we'll be adding new
prizes prior to the start of the contest.
17.44%
 If you're like me, your greatest regret in life is never managing to get ahold
of a Soundwave toy back when the original Generation 1 toys first changed our lives.
If only we had procured one, our collections would have been complete, our destinies fulfilled.
We'd have gotten the 6-figure job, married the supermodel, and moved out of our parent's basements.
Well, it may or may not be too late for most of that stuff, but with the miraculous release of this
exclusive Comic-Con rendition of Soundwave, at least one small part of our dreams can still come true.
---
 BigBadToyStore.com
has decided to trump all the other prizes in the list by generously contributing a
$50 store credit. Yep, you can choose your own prize from
their online store. It doesn't even have to be a Transformer--if you want
to pick out something else that's entirely up to you!
---
 Does the word "exclusive" do anything for you? How about
"exclusive to a certain book available only in Japan that is now sold out"?. Yes,
ordinarily the only way to lay your hands on this clear-styled
incarnation of Mirage is to live in Japan, somehow get ahold
of a copy of the Transformers: Generations book, tear
out the postcard in the back, and mail it in along with 4000 yen.
Or you can just enter my silly little contest and submit a
few photos. So what's it gonna be, shutterbug?
---
If you like the other one, you're gonna like this one even more, because it's even more
like the other one than the other one is like this. Plus it smells better.
---
 Sure, Alternity toys are nothing new. And neither is Alternity Convoy, nor
even repaints of Alternity Convoy, but do you have the black
Alternity Convoy repaint?
---
 This toy is quite similar to Alternity Convoy, only Megatronnier.
2.33%
 Okay, so there's nothing particularly exotic about this one--you can
pick one up just like it at your local Target. But in order to do that
you would have to find your keys, get dressed, fish around for matching
socks, drive across town, and so on. Or, you can just submit a few
measly photos to our humble little contest and it will show up in the mail.
You won't even have to put on pants!
2.33%
 You don't see too many boats in the Transformers Universe--something
to do with them being made of solid metal and criss-crossed with seams and holes--but
that doesn't mean they don't make for awesome toys when they do come along.
This one in particular will make a fine addition to your navy--just make sure
you keep it out of the bathtub.
2.33%
 Sure, sure, you already have more robots that turn into
microscopes in your collection than you know what to do with,
but why not add one more? Then you can pretend that your bedroom
is a laboratory, and you're tantalizingly close to
discovering the cure for Gold Plastic Syndrome
---
 In Japan, the toys that you know as Revenge of the Fallen
legends-class figures are sold in convenience stores in little
boxes with no windows in them, so that you have no idea
what you're buying. You might have to buy 50 of the damn things
just to complete the set! Sound like fun? Well good, this is
your chance to experience it for yourself! I haven't opened
these toys (though I can, if all of the winners want to work out
between themselves who gets what once the contest is over), so
I can't tell you what exactly you're going to get. But come on,
who can resist the mystery box?
---
Another mystery box.
---
C'mon, I know you're dying to know what's inside. What if it's a puppy?
---
You know, I think this is the good one. It just... feels like the good one.
---
I think I hear this one ticking.
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