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  • Breakout Character: Ilya from the Reforged crew quickly became a fan favorite due to his vast list of unique skills. As a result, he's become one of the main focuses in more recent videos.
  • Broken Base: The changes in Reforged, moving from doing Defictionalization to Crossover mashups, and the "The new guys". A lot of fans were...displeased...with the unexpected changeup, which wasn't helped by the ambiguity about whether Reforged was a replacement or a spinoff, and whether Tony and his crew would be back at some point or not.
    • Based on this, the change is permanent, and now that they've moved from crossovers to this, the base might as well be ground to fine powder at this point.
      • One fact to consider is that Tony always did whatever was required to make his projects functional as weapons, and not just props. Functionality first and authenticity to the source material second. The Reforged guys are using a different methodology and vision. In their desire to make mashups, screw the practicality, they're doing the opposite of Tony. By not seeking practicality first, they're not making weapons. They're just making props, albeit props with sharp edges.
    • Possibly because of this, they seem to have dropped the "mash-up" gimmick and went back to simply forging replicas of fantasy weapons. Whether this completely saves them or not remains to be seen, but some fans are seeing this as, at the very least, a step in the right direction.
    • Judging by the comments section for the original Captain America shield, opinion fall somewhere between this and Epic Fail.
    • There are also distinct differences on how both seasons worked. Tony made the most complex builds by making templates on paper to cut on a band saw, where the Stagmers use AutoCAD. Tony used oxidizing to color metal, where the Stagmers use automotive paint. Finaly, Tony was always the main focus on his videos, with his assistant Brian becoming more prominent in the final episodes, where the Stagmers put much more emphasis on his team, including an episode that was pretty much a contest between them to create the best zombie-killing tool.
      • It's worth noting that as the Reforged team has progressed, opinions on them have changed, as they've not only shown modern techniques, but also done builds with techniques even older and MORE obscure than anything Tony cared to do during his run (such as using traditional katana forging techniques during several builds). There was also that time Tony spray painted the Master Sword's handle blue with regular spray paint; either way, the tide has shifted and fans are now happy with the Stagmer team.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: In August 2014 the Reforged team built a katana with a lightsaber-style hilt. In March 2015 Ahsoka Tano shows up in Star Wars Rebels, wielding lightsabers with katana-style hilts.
  • Milestone Celebration: The Chainsword build was in celebration of their 100th episode.
  • Win Back the Crowd: What eventually happened once the Reforged crew dropped the "mash-up" gimmick.

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