The Round Stable

(?) · by **DarkMatter** (?) » Wed Feb 15, 2012 5:15 pm

Oh, well, that makes sense. Teenagers are pretty terrible. I guess I just get lucky because if I ever go to Hot Topic it's usually on a weekday when those darn teenagers are in school.

(?) · by **Aramek** (?) » Wed Feb 15, 2012 5:58 pm

I went in a Hot Topic one time. It was filled with lousy music, and they didn't sell any nice clothes. The girl working at the counter gave me shit for lookin' nice.
I haven't been back. :vogue:

(?) · by **Artificer** (?) » Wed Feb 15, 2012 6:54 pm

Yeah, I'd like to see a Sweetie Belle Rage Against the Machine PMV now, even if she is a toaster. :allears:

(?) · by **Pocket** (?) » Wed Feb 15, 2012 7:21 pm

I don't have the problem with the stupid crap Hot Topic sells or the people who shop there; I have a problem with the fact that it leads to people buying and wearing merch of shows they've never even seen because "It was in Hot Topic it must be the latest fad." If I spot someone in a FIMshirt, it'd be nice to be able to know I've actually spotted a fellow fan.

Getting back to the topic at hand, how did this shirt end up at Hot Topic anyway? Does We Love Fine just pick out certain designs and say "This one'll be a Hot Topic exclusive"?

(?) · by **kefkafloyd** (?) » Wed Feb 15, 2012 7:52 pm

I don't know the politics behind it. I'm guessing they might supply based on how much they expect them to sell or how easy it is to mass produce. If you look at Hottopic.com versus what's available on welovefine it's very mainstream-type stuff. The most obscure joke shirt would be the dumb fabric one.

The Pinkie is Watching You Forever one can be screen printed because there's no real shading and it's few colors — It's all vectors in Illustrator. It's quite a bit cheaper to make in volume so I guess it would go better in stores. The FOREVER shirt, on the other hand, is a bit complicated with its transparency and probably doesn't screen very well... So it probably works a lot better on dye-sub direct-to-garment printing processes. I haven't seen the shirts in person yet so I can't make any judgments on the processes or quality.

(?) · by **Hollow** (?) » Fri Feb 17, 2012 7:11 am

The first time I've ever agreed with Hot Topic merchandise. As they say, DO WANT.

(?) · by **DarkMatter** (?) » Fri Feb 17, 2012 10:09 am

I think I want this. :iamapony:

(?) · by **Herr General** (?) » Fri Feb 17, 2012 12:14 pm

DarkMatter wrote:
I think I want this.

It's beautiful. :-D

(?) · by **drunkill** (?) » Fri Feb 17, 2012 6:03 pm

I'll post my topshirt, for those wanting to see the quality of print on the front. (it's an awesome shirt BTW)

I'll have to think about picking up a pony shirt or two sometime, some more subtle ones.

(?) · by **Stuff** (?) » Sun Feb 19, 2012 9:38 pm

That "Forever" shirt was shown on EqD today. yay kefka! :thumbsup:

(?) · by **reidransom** (?) » Thu Feb 23, 2012 7:49 am

There are too few shirts offered in heather grey. I just feel that needs to be said. :rainbert:

(?) · by **Mordja** (?) » Tue Feb 28, 2012 7:57 pm

Any Canada-ponigoons order from WLF and used USPS? Because it's been almost a month since my shirt shipped... :gonkity:

(?) · by **DarkMatter** (?) » Wed Feb 29, 2012 5:31 am

Octavia might take this as a good sign. Considering these shirts are approved by Hasbro first it looks like at this time Octavia can be considered her canon name.

I keep checking Hot Topic each time I'm out at the mall. Still no sign of Kefka shirts. :fluttersmith:

(?) · by **Venusy** (?) » Wed Feb 29, 2012 3:30 pm

Mordja wrote:Any Canada-ponigoons order from WLF and used USPS? Because it's been almost a month since my shirt shipped...

I'm in the UK, ordered a couple of shirts on the 28th of January, and only got a letter indicating a customs charge this morning. Lesson learned, only order one thing at once from them, otherwise you get gouged (both on shipping and customs, and the latter adds a fair bit to shipping time as well). :bluh:

(?) · by **kefkafloyd** (?) » Thu Mar 01, 2012 6:33 am

If you want a FOREVER shirt and don't want to deal with going into an actual hot topic store, they're now available online.

(?) · by **reidransom** (?) » Thu Mar 01, 2012 7:03 am

Venusy wrote:I'm in the UK, ordered a couple of shirts on the 28th of January, and only got a letter indicating a customs charge this morning. Lesson learned, only order one thing at once from them, otherwise you get gouged (both on shipping and customs, and the latter adds a fair bit to shipping time as well).

Unless you ordered like 10 shirts, you should have been well under the limit, so long as they weren't marked as being for resale or anything like that. Charging customs duties on small and inexpensive personal goods shipments isn't worth the time and effort it takes to collect them, generally, and would grind processing to a halt just on sheer volume of packages. They must've done something screwy on the customs declaration.

(?) · by **Venusy** (?) » Thu Mar 01, 2012 9:28 am

I only ordered 2 shirts (totalling $53). I have no way of knowing until they arrive later, but I suspect they've either factored in the ludicrous $46 shipping charge, or assigned quite a lot of value to the free stuff you get with orders over $50. It does say on the HMRC website that import VAT* can be charged on any item with a value over £15, but the amount they've charged is a lot more than it should be (plus an £8 Parcelforce handling fee, which is seemingly non-refundable regardless :ohrarity:

).

*Should probably have been more specific when I said "customs charge". :modesty:

(?) · by **reidransom** (?) » Fri Mar 02, 2012 8:42 pm

Man, no joke about that free stuff. I just got in some shirts I ordered and they do indeed load you up with swag.

(?) · by **DarkMatter** (?) » Thu Mar 08, 2012 4:42 am

WeLoveFine is going to have another t-shirt design contest. This time the contest will be judged by Lauren Faust herself! (And Sethisto)

(?) · by **Headless Horse** (?) » Thu Mar 08, 2012 4:43 am

Cats and dogs living together.

(?) · by **Herr General** (?) » Thu Mar 08, 2012 4:45 am

DarkMatter wrote:WeLoveFine is going to have another t-shirt design contest. This time the contest will be judged by Lauren Faust herself! (And Sethisto)

Topshot, Kefka, and the rest of the artists here; you're up! Make us proud. :awesomedash:

(?) · by **kefkafloyd** (?) » Thu Mar 08, 2012 5:21 am

The odds of me winning are astronomically low.

(?) · by **Aramek** (?) » Thu Mar 08, 2012 5:29 am

That's loser talk. You're not a loser. You're a winner! :cool:

(?) · by **Geomancing** (?) » Thu Mar 08, 2012 12:28 pm

Kefka has his swag in physical stores, beat THAT, WeLoveFine!

(?) · by **Herr General** (?) » Thu Mar 08, 2012 12:36 pm

kefkafloyd wrote:The odds of me winning are astronomically low.

Nonsense. Fashion is your passion.

(?) · by **kefkafloyd** (?) » Thu Mar 08, 2012 12:58 pm

Geomancing wrote:Kefka has his swag in physical stores, beat THAT, WeLoveFine!

My stuff is in stores thanks to WeLoveFine. I have a pretty good working relationship with them.

Nonsense. Fashion is your passion.

I don't really want to go on a screed about contests, but suffice to say as long as the WLF contests are primarily determined by popular vote, the "best" designs will never win the prizes.

(?) · by **Dong Strongly** (?) » Thu Mar 08, 2012 1:34 pm

I got a couple more topshirts in and with this package they included a sticker, a small poster of Derpy, and a gigantic ass tote bag adorned with steampunk Dashie and steampunk Hello Kitty. How gigantic? 28x23x2.5". That's 17 liters of tote bag capacity. What the fuck am I supposed to do with this? Anybody else get one of these things?

(?) · by **Pony Factory Factory** (?) » Thu Mar 08, 2012 4:27 pm

kefkafloyd wrote:
My stuff is in stores thanks to WeLoveFine. I have a pretty good working relationship with them.

I don't really want to go on a screed about contests, but suffice to say as long as the WLF contests are primarily determined by popular vote, the "best" designs will never win the prizes.

Okay, so instead of pouring your heart into three designs, cut your losses and only pour your heart into two designs. And do it while Art of the Dress is on loop, with occasional interludes to listen to the original Putting It Together.

(?) · by **Herr General** (?) » Thu Mar 08, 2012 6:12 pm

Dong Strongly wrote:I got a couple more topshirts in and with this package they included a sticker, a small poster of Derpy, and a gigantic ass tote bag adorned with steampunk Dashie and steampunk Hello Kitty. How gigantic? 28x23x2.5". That's 17 liters of tote bag capacity. What the fuck am I supposed to do with this? Anybody else get one of these things?

I kinda want to see that bag.

(?) · by **kefkafloyd** (?) » Thu Mar 08, 2012 7:42 pm

Here were, in my opinion, the problems with the previous WLF contests (prizes/results/whatever aside) :

1. There was no adherence to rules. Entries that went outside of the printable areas were not rejected. Size/image placement guidelines were routinely ignored, as well as people not submitting work on the required templates. What's worse is that some of the winners violated these rules, rendering them basically pointless.

2. No quality control. Obviously unprintable or problematic designs were let through, creating a sea of crap that people had to sift through when voting. There was also a lot of people submitting art that wasn't theirs (and I was a victim of this. Fortunately, WLF removed the offending entries when I complained). However, if someone doesn't know their stuff is being ripped... This creates a problem.

3. Strategic / tactical voting. You could have your friends sign up to vote all the "good" designs with a 1. You would think this would balance out as statistical noise but due to the fact that the winning design of the last contest had a high score of a 3.5-ish, you have to wonder.

4. The voting UI sucked. Going through 1,000+ entries to vote on each was a huge chore. I also think a 1-5 scale is problematic with this, a "thumbs up/down" system or a Facebook-esque "collect likes" might work better for the scale of these contests. Being able to use a keyboard shortcut for voting and automatically moving to the next entry would take a lot of the click fatigue out of voting.

These are all beside a more existential question for the contest, and it's that a popular vote type thing has pitfalls. What may be a good T-shirt design that will sell very well is not necessarily something that wins a contest. There were a lot of great entries in the last contest that I thought were deserving winners but were lost amongst the sea of crap. It doesn't help that Sethisto has a conflict of interest as a judge and when he points out things he likes people rush to vote for them. Anything that's Rainbow Dash has a higher chance of winning because she is the most popular fan character.

With these contests you're trying to please fans instead of making the best shirt, and the odds of winning in that environment are so astronomically low. You could try to please Lauren or Sethisto, but that will not net you the top prize. The good thing is WeLoveFine runs the contest above-board and there has been nothing shady about them, which I applaud. The improvements between contest 1 and contest 2 were pretty big, and I hope there's some between 2 and 3.

(?) · by **DarkMatter** (?) » Thu Mar 08, 2012 8:02 pm

Dong Strongly wrote:I got a couple more topshirts in and with this package they included a sticker, a small poster of Derpy, and a gigantic ass tote bag adorned with steampunk Dashie and steampunk Hello Kitty. How gigantic? 28x23x2.5". That's 17 liters of tote bag capacity. What the fuck am I supposed to do with this? Anybody else get one of these things?

I ordered shirts a while back and got the same kind of bag, only mine has Hello Kitty and Sesame Street on it. I keep it folded up in my room because I have no idea what to use it for.

It was pretty handy at transporting all my Christmas presents though. :pinkieshrug:

(?) · by **Electric Pony** (?) » Thu Mar 08, 2012 9:54 pm

I just had this show up in my mailbox today.

Apparently my sister bought it and had it shipped to my house. Thanks sis!

(?) · by **reidransom** (?) » Fri Mar 09, 2012 2:03 am

Dong Strongly wrote:I got a couple more topshirts in and with this package they included a sticker, a small poster of Derpy, and a gigantic ass tote bag adorned with steampunk Dashie and steampunk Hello Kitty. How gigantic? 28x23x2.5". That's 17 liters of tote bag capacity. What the fuck am I supposed to do with this? Anybody else get one of these things?

I got the same one. It's feathering massive. Like, if you actually need a bag that large, you'd probably be struggling to carry it by the time it was filled. Impractically huge. But steampunk Dashie is :3 and it's a fun, free gift, so whatever. I'll figure out something to do with it. Apron maybe?

(?) · by **LASTCAR** (?) » Fri Mar 09, 2012 3:29 am

kefkafloyd wrote:If you want a FOREVER shirt and don't want to deal with going into an actual hot topic store, they're now available online.

That's awesome! Congrats, Kef! :awesomedash:

(?) · by **Dong Strongly** (?) » Fri Mar 09, 2012 5:45 am

I like the tote, I just don't know what on earth I'd do with it.

I included a gamecube controller for scale. As a rough estimate, I figure over 70 of those controllers would fit in the bag without a problem.

(?) · by **londonarbuckle** (?) » Fri Mar 09, 2012 6:13 am

What the heck, that's way better than the Hello Kitty/Sesame Street tote I got from them. :applejargh:

(?) · by **Aramek** (?) » Fri Mar 09, 2012 3:02 pm

When I first started noticing the whole "Steampunk" thing, it was kind of a subtle/dystopian alteration on Victorian themes.
Now, it seems it is simply "Stick brass gears on shit." :-/

Are there any "nice" pony wear yet? Like polo shirts, neckties, or, best of all, Cutie Mark Cufflinks? I would buy the shit out of CMCufflinks.

(?) · by **Venusy** (?) » Fri Mar 09, 2012 3:54 pm

There's a few official polo shirts, but no neckties or cufflinks. I'm sure someone's probably making some unlicensed ones though. :pinkieshrug:

(?) · by **JaceNV** (?) » Sat Mar 10, 2012 8:15 am

I hope WeLoveFine is considering making pony baseball caps. Winter is winding down where I live and I want to represent :ponydrugs:

on my head. They have some beanie hats right now, but I've no idea if they plan on diversifying.

(?) · by **Pocket** (?) » Sat Mar 10, 2012 6:59 pm

The other problem with past contests, from what I hear, was people assuming certain designs were "stolen" because they could remember seeing them before and using 1-votes to "punish" them. There needs to be a stern warning on the ballot pages not to use the votes that way, and to simply report designs people think are stolen to their creators.

Venusy wrote:There's a few official polo shirts, but no neckties or cufflinks. I'm sure someone's probably making some unlicensed ones though.

Aaaaaaaaa how long has that Gummy one been up there I want it I need it forget everything bad I ever said about We Love Fine :awesomedash:

(I know this isn't the first one like it that's been mentioned in this thread, but the other one was from someone else.)

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