What if the TFCC offered a new thing for us fans/club members allowing us to create our own figures?
It could be something as simple as a pre-selected/pre-authorized list of molds (different ones available each year). For each figure we could be given the following options (each choice made during creation displayed in a simple preview):
- Plastic color for parts (up to n# of total plastics for the figure, based on the number of different plastic types available for each of the parts, i.e. the pieces that come from a single sprue must all be the same plastic color)
- Paint pattern/(similar scheme as above with the sprues, but possibly with additional unique/custom options available only to the club, i.e. "retail paint pattern", "custom paint #1", "custom paint pattern #2" etc.)
- Choice of color for each major element of chosen paint pattern from #2 above (limited selection of colors based on those available from the manufacturer/Hasbro since paint color affects pricing)
- Head (select from a few heads, i.e. "retail head", "custom head #1", "custom head #2" etc.)
- Faction (any faction symbols which aren't molded into the figure will be the faction of your choice, i.e. Autobot, Decepticon, Maximal, Predacon, Vehicon, G2 Autobot, G2 Decepticon, SG Autobot, SG Decepticon etc.)
The choices available for each of the above items would obviously need to be pretty limited to be realistic with regards to manufacturing costs, but I think the fans would go for it and I think it would be an opportunity for the club to do something truly awesome for the fans.
I'd go nuts over something like this, especially if they allowed the use of some molds from much older lines like Beast Wars.