The Pokemon news for those who may be interested............while nothing new and breaking of Sword/Shield has been revealed recently (but for a few game mechanics), if you have Sun/Moon/USun/UMoon and are interested in a Shiny Solgaleo or Shiny Lunala--well, I hope you have the Pokemon Pass app on your phone.

Starting soon, if you go to GameStop and use the Pokemon Pass app, you'll get a code for the Shiny Legendaries in these games. This is definitely Nintendo trying to make you download the apps and get used to using them--as you used to just go to the stores and get a scratch off card for the code. While I don't know the game mechanics of the codes you get via this pass app, I know in the past, if your internet was disrupted while using the old codes, you couldn't get a Pokemon using that code (my GameStop would hand out handfuls of these cards, honestly--I almost never had to worry and could give cards to friends who couldn't get to GameStop). So, is that applicable here, with the code from the pass app? Hunh.........

If you're interested in other Pokemon stuff--the mobile game "Pokemon Masters" is live and running on Apple and Android devices now! Half of me is intrigued and half of me is.........."I know my poor little phone can't handle another game.", when my Futurama mere puzzle game runs pretty laggy half the time anymore. If my phone could handle higher-end mobile games like this, I'd've probably have downloaded the Transformers one a LONG TIME AGO.

That brings up to me, thinking of the future of Pokemon and gaming. Nintendo assumes everyone has internet access and cellphone capabilities now. And while maybe 80% of their gamers do, there's that 20% that fall into a category of don't have access, have limited access or use public access (McDonald's, Panera, local Libraries, cafes, etc.) for their internet. How does this affect them? As a person who works in a Library, one of the many discussions we have at our in-services (as we rent out mobile hotspots now--and trust me, the demand for these is enormous--we nearly have fist-fights break out when people come in to get one, if we have any in!) is how the world is leaving half its population behind and have high expectations of the poor to live lives up there with the well-to-do/rich. With even applying for jobs relying on a person having personal internet or a cellphone nowadays, it makes it nearly impossible for those who don't have these resources to even apply for a job, much less keep one.

But how much of Nintendo's Pokemon fanbase will suffer when Sword/Shield is released and everything about it will mostly rely on internet or mobile app (the Home function, needed for trading) usability? Or has Nintendo already plotted that loss and that's why Sword/Shield looks geared more for multiple player capacity? To rely specifically on the end of the fanbase that has consistent access to such means? In a way, it feels that they'd discarded a portion of their fanbase and little children who play the games..............

This brings me to the collectibility portion I wanted to speak of. As you know, I love Transformers........I have since being a little girl in 1984. Being poor meant as a kid, I barely owned any........and the couple I had were tiny ones to begin with--Bumblebee, Sky Dive (one of the Aerialbots) and a knock-off version of Laserbeak. As I got a little older (1987-88), my dad got a better job and I got Targetmaster Hot Rod and Ultra Magnus..........and my grandma got me a Rodimus Prime.

Off and on over the years, I'd buy Transformers when I had money, even through the Beast Wars era that I was "meh" on. At one point, I stopped getting toys because the plastic was awful and weren't even worth it. It wasn't until the Titans Return line I seriously began collecting again in recent years. But now Hasbro has made so many things ridiculously exclusive to so many outlets it's hurtful to the fanbase, I think. Really, I have to have a Target Red Card to be able to buy Red Wing from Target's online store only? sigh There's the Unicron ($500+ figure) that Hasbro needs 8000 backers (by Saturday!) to make.

I've given up even hoping or longing for the exclusives now. I'm tired of every other figure Hasbro comes out with being an exclusive to one particular store or internet shop or whatever. Wake me up when we do a new Rodimus Prime figure............. sigh

Summer's winding down and we've had fairly decent weather, strangely enough. I wonder if we're looking forwards to an early winter? My life has been personally hectic (thanks to my sister), but I hope everyone else's lives have been going pretty good! :D