Behind the Scenes - 2020 in Review, Shadow Thought Too Much

In our Behind the Scenes article series we lift the curtain and show you what goes on for Titan Owners Club in the background. We let you in on the future, open ourselves up to questions, reveal statistics and plans, and more. The blog tradition begun in 2018 is back, this time with Shadow musing on a rough yet oddly successful year.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed in this article are NOT implied to be the opinions of the entire TOC staff and are the personal thoughts laid out by Shadow.

Yep, you're getting my unbound thoughts again, meaning you'll actually see "I" instead of "we" or "TOC" this go around.  For those of you unfamiliar with why that's so important it's because a lot of times you'll see those words because the staff are close-knit and work together really well.  That has definitely been true this year as we navigated a pandemic and shuttered events (more on that later), but also brought up new ways of doing things to deal with what we lost out on.  

But it's the end of the year, and I enjoy engaging in this blogging world tradition for the hobby.  Like usual, I'll touch on some things for TOC next year that I'm hoping to work on (on a personal level) while also wanting to hear back from you.  Last year we went feet first, this year it's eyes up [I CAN hear you groaning as I make another Bungie-based reference].

2020 in Review

It's so tempting to just say we aren't going to talk about this year.  Short of living under a rock you know why the year on the whole has been absolutely insane in the world for a variety of reasons.  So, I'll grab the bull by the horns, put it in the pen, then move on.

How do you get a global pandemic and stay busy?  If you can figure that out, please let me know; but somehow that's exactly what happened to us.  The glorious thing about the Club is that our stuff is handled in digital format so we were busy with articles, reviews, and new Titans.  We lost our events though [STUPID COVID!!!!] but that will only be a temporary thing and I'm hopeful that 2021 will see us back in the mix and rolling dice.  

I'd say that there was a lot in the background this year but there honestly isn't anything new to talk about.  We let you guys see behind the curtain more than usual this year because of how often we were communicating due to the pandemic and expressing how we felt about the situation.  So, no rabbits to pull out of a hit this year.  What did 2020 give us?

• Seven (7) cancelled events because it wasn't safe to hold them without making people very sick. [Done talking about it now]
• Continued adding to the Global Battlefield and did a few refreshes.
• We'll update them when we have major shifts to show off.
• 500 Titan Celebration!!!!!
• Continued to work on the global Facebook page.
• Announced a new US Branch Chairman
• Started the Adeptus Titanicast Podcast series.

"But Shadow, this isn't much at all.  How can you say you were busy?"  

First up, we didn't just hit 500 Titans, we're already at 595.  We've been posting every other day for the ENTIRE year.  I have been very busy working on these posts and coordinating with a lot of our staff who has also been very busy.  Secondly, Princeps Siph [big shoutout to him] even brought you a Tale of TOC Princeps. Lastly, we worked on Titanicus reviews again.

I'm going to be honest though, the Club's biggest achievements lay in what the membership did during the massive downtime we all had.  I wanted to give you guys a quick snapshot of the meaningful moments that our members experienced this year:

• "Having the Missus finish 2 Warhounds and Buy a Warlord was pretty great! She is going to do a Vulcanum Bauble too soon."
• "Finished my first Warhound. That was pretty neat."
• "My biggest achievement this year was adding 4 Titans to my Legio. Starting the year with the Warlord which I got just before the world turned upside down! It was my go to lockdown project that kept me sane while stuck inside shielding for those months! I added a rescue Warhound, then the Warbringer that I'm finally pushing towards completion, then a new Reaver which had some casting issues and has been an ongoing problem since October, finally sorted out with Forgeworld, I got a full replacement last Sunday so starting next year with a Reaver build gives me something to look forwards to! It's been a heck of a tough year but at least productive if I can find a positive in it."
• "Getting my very first Warhound and Reaver Titan and rebuilding them from the sad states I got them in."

2021- the Future

NOPE!!!!  Not going there.  

Very very brief and fairly small this time around.  I learned my lesson.

• We want our events back if it's safe to do so.  
• We don't know how many we'll get and I trust the US staff to do what is right and safest while the UK staff does the same over on their end.
• I want us to keep registering Titans and being a supportive community.

Simple, easy, achievable during this time.

The Wishlist

The time-honored tradition for hobby blogs returns!  The wishlist for next year.  Just a reminder, I have no insider knowledge and this is just hopeful idiocy.

1. I'm happy with the direction the took Titans in 9th edition 40k; that said, I do want to see void shields FAQ'd and beefed up a wee bit more.
2. I want a stratagem that lets you reignite downed void shields!!!!!
3. I said it before, but new weapon options for the Warhound?  A guy can dream.  Ursus Claws!!!   Got them in Titanicus so it would be wicked to have them in HH and 40k.
4. A complete update of the Reaver Titan.  She's old and could use it.  Still championing it and I know some of you want the Warhound redone too.
5. The return of the Lucius Warhound, be it plastic or resin.  Lucies are too awesome to be gone.
6. Xenos Titan love.
7. Some normal......please?

Yes, I know, I talk a lot.  I'm passionate and that's what the end-of-year article is about.  That said, I'm apologizing again.  What do you guys think?  You know what to do: the comments box is below.  Shutting up now.  :)