Talk:Instructions

Proposal

1. Move to "instructions". Because there are toys that have their instructions printed on the back of their packaging (Minibots and Legends, for example). Unless we have two articles, one for "instructions" in general, the other one specifically for "instruction booklet", which I'd consider pointless.

2. Reorganize the whole article. Instructions haven't really changed that much in the past few years as far as I can tell, so breaking them down by line is also pointless. A better way would be categories such as: "Photographic instructions vs. line-art instructions", "instruction booklets vs. instructions printed on packaging", "image-based instructions with accompanying text vs. images-only instructions", "North American vs. international/European Hasbro instructions" and "Japanese instructions".

Thoughts?--Nevermore 13:45, 29 September 2009 (EDT)

Yeah, it needs to be changed A LOT. It can't posebly cover every kind of instructions like this, the japanese instructions are almost all the time difrent from the US/EU ones, and there is the entire thing about "out of the main line" thing with the Ipod SoundWave and Alternators.--Sunjumper 14:48, 29 September 2009 (EDT)

Agreed, some of them are "instruction sheet", while others are "instruction booklet". "Instruction" seem to be much better. --TX55^TALK 21:13, 29 September 2009 (EDT)

As the guy who did a lot of this article, I'd like to see a sandbox before any wholesale changes. I agree the post-G2 sections are pretty lacking and could probably be consolidated somehow (or expanded! or reorganized.) The G1 stuff, though, I think is pretty solid and doesn't need to change much. The main gist of the article now is "how has the instruction art changed over time". The proposed sections would be an adequate replacement. If somebody's up for taking them on... well, more power to 'em. It sounds daunting! -- Repowers 23:55, 29 September 2009 (EDT)

The G1 section currently isn't covering stuff like Minibots and Micromaster Patrols with instructions printed on the back of the card. Also, an updated article should mention somewhere that the European instructions, with their five million languages, contain some weird errors. For example, the Greek version of "change to robot" is "Αλλαγη σε καταπελτη", which means "change into catapult". Example: Universe Ironhide A Greek fan confirmed that this is a big case of "WTF?" I checked some of my instructions, and it seems the error occurred in the middle of the Universe line's run. Sunstreaker, Prowl and Ironhide still have the correct "Αλλαγή σε Ρομποτ", as do the movie toys before them, but then Sideswipe, Silverstreak and Ironhide, as well as subsequent waves and the ROTF toys, use uppercase and feature the incorrect "ΑΛΛΑΓΗ ΣΕ ΚΑΤΑΠΕΛΤΗ". Furthermore, the Slovakian version of "change to vehicle", "ZMENA NA AUTOMOBIL", might be incorrect in that it uses "automobil" (which presumably only refers to cars) for tanks (Movie Brawl) and helicopters (Movie Blackout) as well. Need to check that with a Slovakian fan, however - assuming I can find one.--Nevermore 08:46, 1 October 2009 (EDT)

Here's my first draft. Opinions please.--Nevermore 18:27, 4 October 2009 (EDT)

Looks good after a quick skim. The text could probably be trimmed down a little here and there, but I'm not in the mood to do it myself (or perhaps, it just needs more images, which I'd argue for regardless.) Definitely a step up from the current page. -- Repowers 20:36, 4 October 2009 (EDT)