Time to call it a day, Mr. Jackson?

According to Theonering.net, and their various sources.. the already troubled adaption of the Hobbit has hit yet another problem. This time, due to some Minuscule new Zealand actors union.

I have very little time for Unions when it comes to anything to do with the film industry.. they aren't essential to the welfare of the Nation or planet the way that air traffic controllers or coal miners or teachers or firefighters are. And since we are still feeling the effects of the 2008 SWG strike.. in other words I hold them responsible for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.. and a sin of that sort takes a long time to atone for.

Now, Ian Mckellen, Hugo Weaving and Cate Blanchett are all making noise that they may decline to be in "The Hobbit" unless Warner Brothers/MGM and Peter Jackson agree to the demands of this Union. So no Gandalf, no Elrond, and no White Council scene.

I'm going to admit, I'm looking at this only from my perspective. I want the adaptions made, I wanted them made back in 2004, and feel that a lot of the problems the production has been beset by are Peter Jackson's Fault alone. He didn't strike while the iron was hot, he dawdled and made King Kong and the Lovely bones.. two movies which vastly underperformed when compared to the Rings adaptions. I understand that, The Lord of the Rings was an immense undertaking, it was a huge project which consumed nearly a decade of his life. But I still feel that a large chunk of the production problems rest on his shoulders.

But the financial squabbles have plagued the Tolkien adaption since Return of the King swept the Oscars. And they cannot be laid at the feet of Peter Jackson alone. No one cared when they didn't think it was going to make any money.. And yes, a lot of the actors who were in the Rings adaption were treated very shabbily from all indications. The financial problems have come from all directions, from the Tolkien Estate, from Tolkien Enterprises, from New Line, from Peter Jackson, from Warner Brothers. Not even taking into account MGM's own financial problems, which are essentially the Hobbit's financial problems because of the ridiculous Intellectual property laws at work.

But at this point, I feel that if it's going to turn into such a fiasco that they may have to move the production to eastern Europe (following in the footsteps of Voyage of the Dawn Treader) and then do without the few actors who would bring continuity to the new production from the previous films.. it simply isn't worth doing.

It's a huge screw up, and as always, the only people who truly lose out here are the fans, that and the non union people in New Zealand who would stand to make a tremendous amount of money off of the production, not to mention the upsurge in tourism.

I for one, as a fan, am tired of this constant march of good news, bad news. Every time we think something might be maybe going to happen, an actor yaps their gob or column of figures dosen't add up right and we are back to waiting.

So when is it time to throw in the towel?

The Transformers part 2, and Corporate Dicks.

In my last venture here I set to lay the foundations of what exactly The Transformers were. So if you are reading this and are a bit confused I suggest going back and reading the previous post.

So that brings us to what I originally wanted to talk about.

Having grown up as a serious Trans-Fanatic, I was distraught in 1990 (as a 6 year old) to learn that the line was going to be ending. I wrote a letter to Hasbro and received a very nice letter from Head of Boys Toys Development or more like from his Secretary, and a 9x11 color glossy of the artwork from the back of the 1984 packaging. I don't think I have the letter anymore but I do have the photograph.

My mom being a wonderful person called every store in the surrounding area, to try and find out what they had left so she could get me the few remaining bits from the 1990 line I didn't already have. So as a result of it, for a very long time the Micro Masters and Action Masters were my most complete part of my collection. Something I'm forever grateful for.

In 1991, she also went to the United Kingdom to visit relatives, and went to a toy store while she was there, and found that, while the line was no longer produced in the US, it was still being released with new toys in the UK, so I had a very good Christmas Morning that year as I had no idea these toys even existed let alone where " Santa " had found them.. I assumed for a few years that he had made them specially for me.. considering none of the other kids at school had them. They had rather odd names though, Boss and Flash, but others like Thunderclash and Skyquake were perfect Transformers names. Alas I didn't maybe do such a good job putting the stickers on them (yes, we used to have to put the stickers on our own toys for those of you born in 1995 or later).

1992, she eeked out the few last 91's she had purchased in the UK, a set of Yellow Constructicons without their components to combine.. I had many days playing with those in the driveway (sand) and having them build forts and stuff for my other figures.

1993, an odd thing happened.. while everyone else was caught in the midst of Power Ranger Mania.. The Transformers were back. As Transformers: Generation 2. Complete with a Cartoon, and a new comic book. The Comic at the time didn't do much for me.. but the Cartoon was a godsend. It was just a few Season 1 and 2 episodes shown out of order with new 3d bumpers tacked on.. but it was wondrous to me. Since I'd never seen most of these episodes at all.

I was going to include the first 3 episodes of Generation 2 for your viewing pleasure. However some Spanish media company named Selectavisión apparently dosen't want people in the US to be able to view cartoons which originated in the US. So they have had Youtube take the 2nd part of each episode down. Good Job, Dicks. So this leads to the creation of a new rant heading which will show up on this forum from time to time.. Corporate Dicks.

So Instead, Enjoy a montage of the Generation 2 Toy Commercials.