Hasbro Announces New Transformers Fan Club

Will keep an eye on this.

Well, this is a relief to see. Wonder if it'll work like FunPub used to...

I can't decide if Hasbro being directly involved in this means it'll cost less or more money

Still, should be good to see. Hopefully it'll be as gloriously fanwanky as funpub has been.

I wonder if Funpub will have any part in this

It Is Him wrote:I wonder if Funpub will have any part in this

As a company, most unlikely.

As individuals (i.e. - the fiction writers and creative thinkers the Club used for their toy characters and fiction), one can only hope. The Beast Wars: Uprising fiction needs to keep going. It's too good to stop at its upcoming four-part finale.

If there's one thing I won't miss, it's the club fiction. The Botcon 2015 was painful to read, and the magazine comics bordered on incoherent. I don't regret letting my membership lapse at all

I look forward to this new club! Out with the old, in with the new!

Why am I so itchy all of a sudden?

This is weird. A new fan club announced after the death of BotCon? This all seems fishy. Was there anything wrong with BotCon or is it just me?

OptimalOptimus2 wrote:This is weird. A new fan club announced after the death of BotCon? This all seems fishy. Was there anything wrong with BotCon or is it just me?

I believe the main thing was that Hasbro will now have complete control over the club rather than working with a separate entity.

Hopefully prices will be more reasonable and they will cater for International fans more.

Oh look if you sign up for the newsletter you can get 20% off TFs at Hasbro's Toy Store which doesn't ship internationally... Not off to the best of starts

leokearon wrote:Hopefully prices will be more reasonable and they will cater for International fans more.

Oh look if you sign up for the newsletter you can get 20% off TFs at Hasbro's Toy Store which doesn't ship internationally... Not off to the best of starts

Perhaps they can actually open a 'Consumer interaction' Department at Hasbro UK that actually has the tiniest of clues about the products they (don't) sell.

If they are smart they will make themselves more flexible and allow themselves to make more of something popular - I hope they don't start wanting bar code clipping or your mobile number and such like.

I would appreciate if they'd have more of a global reach with the club - like for example UK or Canadian Members can sign up in advance then when they make the stuff they can send a portion to those Hub locations to ship out to other places - though post Brexit they might want to draw in one of the European "EU" Hasbro's too.

They'd get way more members if they ran the club on that basis - sort of like how Eaglemoss do their Star Trek Model magazine *only less cackhandedly*

Also they really need to option to ship Magazine less often or only with a toy as who wants to pay a huge premium for a glorified leaflet.

I think if they handle this properly and print some actual leaflets they can make so cool stuff and also offer things directly to club members that they'd not find an easy western retail home for like Metro Titan or a G2 CW Devastator even things from Japan.

They can do shared Exclusives with Takara/E-hobby too - huge potential to get this VERY right - or VERY meh.


I wonder if they were holding back G2 Defensor to use as a club or show exclusive - that he's not on the cards is suspicious as heck to me.

Anyway fingers cross - "Please don't screw it up Hasbro".

Does it bother anyone else that this Optimus Prime artwork features a red "right bicep" and a gray "left bicep"? Oops! It's a nice rendition of G1 Optimus Prime, otherwise.

This certainly sounds interesting. I never bothered with the Collector's Club or Subscription Service because of the high prices, even though there were some figures I would've liked to own. Hopefully this new club will be cheaper than the previous one, but it's definitely piqued my interest.

With this being done directly by Hasbro I wonder if it'll be free to join? I could see that being the case with all content like articles and comics being posted online rather than in print (something I feel Fun Pub should have switched over to years ago if they weren't so paranoid about it being posted off-site).

I would imagine pricing will be similar to that of their Comic Con exclusives rather than inflated third-party pricing. Exclusives should be done in the "made to order" format popular in Japan where a limited pre-order window is opened for an exclusive and then figures are produced according to those numbers. This way they wouldn't run into the same issue of unsold exclusives sitting on the TFCC store or SDCC Fort Max still being available on HTS.

It'd be nice if we got our own convention, but I doubt it now.

Emerje

leokearon wrote:Hopefully prices will be more reasonable and they will cater for International fans more.

This!

While it's understandable to cater to the US (and by extension Canada) fan base, because it's the largest, they need to find a way to make it more accessible for international fans.

One thing I never understood is why in this day and age, even when I was a member years ago, that I'd have to wait a month after everyone else to receive my magazine, when it could have simply been delivered electronically.

If it isn't run by Dr. Va'al, we I riot.

I'll reserve strong opinion until we have more details. Did they even actually say Hasbro is directly running the new club?

Hopefully a TF only convention comes with it.

hopefuly it will have reasonable prices.

maybe even free membership. one can only hope

Emerje wrote: This way they wouldn't run into the same issue of unsold exclusives sitting on the TFCC store or SDCC Fort Max still being available on HTS.

Emerje

The joke is that the reason some of the TFCC toys don't all sell out is They insist only on selling them to club members - despite them not having one anymore - also the toys can just as easily be bought elsewhere individually which is either more convenient or cheaper.

Would I like a Bludgeon & Friends - hell yes - but do I want to pay $350.00 for them when there are more a novelty than the definitive version of those characters - not so much.

That is Money that would put me most of the way through a much sexier third party combiner for example - so no hurry there then. The only ones I do pine for a bit I guess are Needlenose, Spinister, Impactor & Bluestreak.
I'm not over bothered by the Beast Wars stuff I'll get it when people get bored with it and start dumping them.

I still have not got Streestar - but I'm in no hurry for the lack It took me 11 years to get Fractyl & Packrat so I don't mind waiting - though I expect some of them will continue to be a pain to get long term like The Cybertron mould Megatron for example. But I managed to get a cheap Timelines Ratchet this year so I'd not discount anything really.

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I don't think it's a bad thing that SDCC Fort Max is still available it's nice for those who want the sword and other Titanmaster to have easy access to it - Heck I was stunned how easy it was for me to get mine and at a reduced price too and I'm in the U.K. it was way easier and even a few pound cheaper than I can get a regular one - and it might be many months before I can get a Takara one as cheap if at all.

Will be keeping a close eye on this one

Btw, apparently if you sign up for the newsletter you get a 20% off coupon for Hasbro's online shop, so if anyone's interested...

Lets see if things are actually affordable in the new club.

It Is Him wrote:I wonder if Funpub will have any part in this

I doubt it. I think Hasbro took it away from them because they weren't doing a good job. Their website was terrible and they couldn't handle any kind of registration or launch without screwing something up or delaying something. It seemed like a half-assed operation being run out of someone's garage.

RAR wrote:I don't think it's a bad thing that SDCC Fort Max is still available it's nice for those who want the sword and other Titanmaster to have easy access to it - Heck I was stunned how easy it was for me to get mine and at a reduced price too and I'm in the U.K. it was way easier and even a few pound cheaper than I can get a regular one - and it might be many months before I can get a Takara one as cheap if at all.

That's a little short sighted. While it's great that people can choose a Fort Max at their leisure Hasbro is used to their SDCC exclusive selling out within days, if not hours, of going live on HTS. The fact that he's still available over three months later could jeopardize the chances of another Titan at SDCC in 2017 since clearly (in management reasoning) we've lost interest in Titans as exclusives.

GuyIncognito wrote:It seemed like a half-assed operation being run out of someone's garage.

It actually is run out Brian Savage's house, the return address on packages from TFCC is his home address. Nice big house in a gated community, hope Fun Pub wasn't his only job...

Emerje

to get the latest and to stay up to date on other brand news, promotions, products, fan events and more.

Is that other news about the Transformers brand, or news about other Hasbro brands? Because the combined HasCon thing, coupled with the Hasbro Cinematic Universe, makes it seem like lately they're trying to just smoosh everything they have together.

Emerje wrote:The fact that he's still available over three months later could jeopardize the chances of another Titan at SDCC in 2017 since clearly (in management reasoning) we've lost interest in Titans as exclusives.

To be honest? Good riddance. They were barely anything different from the retail - Metroplex just had a bigger gun and Devastator had... eyes instead of a visor and awful-looking vacuum-metallized parts. Fort Max at least has his Headmasters/toy-accurate head and a sword, but said sword is extremely bland. Not to mention all these changes are in the Takara versions and for the prices they charge for the SDCC versions, you might as well just go Takara. Could've gone G2 Devastator, could've gone Grand/Brave Maximus, could've gone Metrotitan... but instead they went with a path that's boring, overpriced and outclassed. No wonder people don't have interest in them. I'd argue it's a good thing they aren't selling - they'll finally realise they either have to do something much more different for the SDCC version - like a different goddamn character - or scrap having an SDCC version of a titan altogether so we get something better.

Emerje wrote:

RAR wrote:I don't think it's a bad thing that SDCC Fort Max is still available it's nice for those who want the sword and other Titanmaster to have easy access to it - Heck I was stunned how easy it was for me to get mine and at a reduced price too and I'm in the U.K. it was way easier and even a few pound cheaper than I can get a regular one - and it might be many months before I can get a Takara one as cheap if at all.

That's a little short sighted. While it's great that people can choose a Fort Max at their leisure Hasbro is used to their SDCC exclusive selling out within days, if not hours, of going live on HTS. The fact that he's still available over three months later could jeopardize the chances of another Titan at SDCC in 2017 since clearly (in management reasoning) we've lost interest in Titans as exclusives.

Emerje

I'm sorry, that's bs and you know it. The sheer fact that so many of us clamored for - and then lamented over - the fact that hasbro passed on the opportunity to give us an orange or yellow G2 devs - or even diaclone build king last year and brave max or whatever other repaint the fort max could have been this year goes to show that there's a large amount of interest in getting titan class figures as sdcc exclusives - they just have to merit the price tag and the title of 'convention excluisve'.

But, what we got instead were a couple of lazy and half-assed slight repaints - devs didn't even come with anything other than some garish chrome and a different face (and by this time TT had already shown off their vastly superior version), and sdcc fort max's sword was nearly devoid of any paint and cerebros wasn't all that special what with the legends one on the way - nobody wants to pay premium prices for some sh|t repaints when better options were already available, I'm sorry, this one is on hasbro and no one else.

GuyIncognito wrote:

It Is Him wrote:I wonder if Funpub will have any part in this

I doubt it. I think Hasbro took it away from them because they weren't doing a good job. Their website was terrible and they couldn't handle any kind of registration or launch without screwing something up or delaying something. It seemed like a half-assed operation being run out of someone's garage.

FunPub still did better than 3H after the Hartmans left, especially with OTFCC 2004. Remember Sentinel Maximus, how Hasbro itself revoked the license on the spot and had to pick up the slack afterwards? Those were messy times...

No, the license was just expiring AFAIK, nothing else. Sure, there were bumps, but nothing that forced Hasbro to directly intervene *shudders*

From what I can tell, HasCon sounds more like a general toy show rather than a convention catered to fans of a specific franchise. And to be frank, "Special Limited Edition Hasbro products" really sounds like the kind of mechandise you'd get at NYCC or SDCC, not really BotCon material. Guess I'll wait and see... and lament the fact I never got to visit a single BotCon

Here are some of things I hope will happen with this new club.

1. No cost/small cost for membership: Paying (what was it?) about 80 quid just to join wasn't a smart idea.
2. No elitism: Show anything in our mag to anyone online and you are banned! Seriously? what kind of attitude is that to have, especially when the info was released freely and officially in less that a week.
3. Respect the International fans: Places like Europe kept the brand going after it died in the States, it would be nice if Hasbro remembered that.
4. Free stuff, that is free: Getting a free figure when the entry fee is 80 quid isn't free, it's included in the entry price.
5. Prices down: Some look great, but paying nearly 3 - 4 times the price of a TF, is ridiculous. Similar keep the shipping down.

leokearon wrote:2. No elitism: Show anything in our mag to anyone online and you are banned! Seriously? what kind of attitude is that to have, especially when the info was released freely and officially in less that a week.

That's... that's not really elitism. That's just not wanting material they want you to pay for to be shown for free to anyone.

I was about to sign up, but then I read this:

be among the first to get news on Bumblebee...

so I decided against it.

Hellscream9999 wrote:I'm sorry, that's bs and you know it. The sheer fact that so many of us clamored for - and then lamented over - the fact that hasbro passed on the opportunity to give us an orange or yellow G2 devs - or even diaclone build king last year and brave max or whatever other repaint the fort max could have been this year goes to show that there's a large amount of interest in getting titan class figures as sdcc exclusives - they just have to merit the price tag and the title of 'convention excluisve'.

Why would I post something I knew was BS? We may have interest, but the design team has shown that they're completely out of touch when it comes to exclusives. We're talking about the same people who designed a Titan class Metroplex without knowing who Metrotitan, a guy with Titan right in his name, was. They don't appear to be thinking of secondary characters or existing repaint potential at all. Their only interest for a while now has been premium paint apps and extras based on the retail versions. And it isn't just Titans, they've been doing the same thing with smaller exclusives as well. Think about it, when exactly was the last time we got a wholly new character from SDCC? It was 2008 with Classics Nemesis Prime and Titanium Skywarp. Ever since then they've only done premium versions of retail figures when it comes to normal Transformers toys (2014 Knights of Unicron was an exception, but it was way out there). While it would be great to have Metrotitan, G2 Devastator, and Brave Maximus that's not Hasbro's current line of thinking. Anyone hoping for Gigastorm next year will most certainly be disappointed as we're more likely to get a Trypticon with random purple chrome, if anything at all, at SDCC 2017.

nobody wants to pay premium prices for some sh|t repaints when better options were already available, I'm sorry, this one is on hasbro and no one else.

I wasn't blaming anyone BUT Hasbro in the first place. But Hasbro makes these with the expectations that they've made something incredible that will sell out fast. They're a big company, they aren't going to admit they came up with a bad idea, they'll spin it as a shift in fan interest leading to a decline in sales before they admit they had a bad idea.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:

Hellscream9999 wrote:I'm sorry, that's bs and you know it. The sheer fact that so many of us clamored for - and then lamented over - the fact that hasbro passed on the opportunity to give us an orange or yellow G2 devs - or even diaclone build king last year and brave max or whatever other repaint the fort max could have been this year goes to show that there's a large amount of interest in getting titan class figures as sdcc exclusives - they just have to merit the price tag and the title of 'convention excluisve'.

Why would I post something I knew was BS? We may have interest, but the design team has shown that they're completely out of touch when it comes to exclusives. We're talking about the same people who designed a Titan class Metroplex without knowing who Metrotitan, a guy with Titan right in his name, was. They don't appear to be thinking of secondary characters or existing repaint potential at all. Their only interest for a while now has been premium paint apps and extras based on the retail versions. And it isn't just Titans, they've been doing the same thing with smaller exclusives as well. Think about it, when exactly was the last time we got a wholly new character from SDCC? It was 2008 with Classics Nemesis Prime and Titanium Skywarp. Ever since then they've only done premium versions of retail figures when it comes to normal Transformers toys (2014 Knights of Unicron was an exception, but it was way out there). While it would be great to have Metrotitan, G2 Devastator, and Brave Maximus that's not Hasbro's current line of thinking. Anyone hoping for Gigastorm next year will most certainly be disappointed as we're more likely to get a Trypticon with random purple chrome, if anything at all, at SDCC 2017.

Emerje

There's a difference between saying hasbro's out of touch with what we want and that the fan base has no interest in titan class exclusives, was just pointing that out...

Hellscream9999 wrote:There's a difference between saying hasbro's out of touch with what we want and that the fan base has no interest in titan class exclusives, was just pointing that out...

Well yeah, I know that, that's why I said "clearly (in management reasoning) we've lost interest in Titans as exclusives." This is the same company that dumped a bunch of highly sought after movie figures on Asia (mainly Deluxe and HA Soundwave of all characters) because allegedly they thought the shelf warming in North America was a sign that fans had had enough rather than due to overstocking unwanted characters and canceled the line here. It's easy for big companies to loose touch with fans when money and sales numbers are more visible, if not flawed.

Emerje

Hasbro just wants money they as a whole (not all of them) don't care about what we want they want our money because they are a business and that's what they are supposed to do.


Them making idw or g1 or obscure characters is for our money.


Not saying Hasbro is evil or this is bad just saying they have priorities besides satisfying the fans 100%.


Point is I don't think they want to pull to big a risk of by making repaints that only a minority will care about.

Deadput wrote:Hasbro just wants money they as a whole (not all of them) don't care about what we want they want our money because they are a business and that's what they are supposed to do.


Them making idw or g1 or obscure characters is for our money.


Not saying Hasbro is evil or this is bad just saying they have priorities besides satisfying the fans 100%.


Point is I don't think they want to pull to big a risk of by making repaints that only a minority will care about.

I'm going to assume you're not referencing the g2 devs thing, because they've made all of the other g2 updates that exist

Deadput wrote:Hasbro just wants money they as a whole (not all of them) don't care about what we want they want our money because they are a business and that's what they are supposed to do.

No successful company is this dumb. They do care about what we want, that's why we got all those G2 box sets and the upcoming TR sets. The problem is sometimes what they think we want isn't what we want at all. They think more paint and maybe some chrome to give the effect of a premium product over the retail release is the way to go, but that's no longer enough. "Better" isn't offsetting the price difference anymore, especially when retail Titans are often heavily discounted not long after release. Exclusives should be something different, not something improved on.

Emerje

Well that's what I meant as well (I'm really bad at explaining things it's my worst trait sorry)


Hasbro should not be releasing better painted versions of things for exclusives and high prices they should be retail.

Platinum stuff should only be either rerelease of old toys with new molding or/and paint like year of the whatever omega supreme or exclusive characters or paint jobs like say G2 repaints.

The problem with something like Metro Titan (that they totally should make somewhere - even if it ends up being an exclusive to a Chinese convention).

Is that compared to Metroplex he might require some mould tweaks to get the plastic running in the right places in the right colours. or they'd have to put some wedges in the mould and run parts of the mould off in multiple colours an multiple passes or they'd have to paint a very large area (which isn't practical in terms of durability of play).

I'd have to look at the colour layout in detail to see if the same thing is true to Grand Maximus too.

So the cost of a whole new colour layout might be more than the effort is worth for a small run.

Which is why I keep saying the things need to be shared exclusives.

But yes I see zero chance of Gigastorm getting made out of Hasbro even having the sense to put a alternative nose part in the mould so they at least give themselves or Takara the option to do it.

Heck Takara had a prime chance to use the Trypticon Reissue's Mould to make a Giga-storm in a premium deco with more pieces - but they didn't.

But then knowing Takara they'd actually take pieces out as they war between common sense and some misplaced sense of "accuracy".

I still am not very forgiving of their previous idiocy of gluing Fortress Maximus' legs closed.

I own a Gigastorm already and I'd still buy another one if it was decorated in metallic paint and had all the Trypticon Accessories as well.

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But yes Low effort repaints of Titan's are not ideal but i'm happy with that both my Metroplex and Fort Max are such exclusives.

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They didn't really have an excuse for not doing a G2 Devastator though as he's exactly the same bar the colour change from green to Yellow or Orange.
The most effort they'd have needed to make there would be to change the logos to G2 logos if they could be bothered to do so.

I think the ship has sailed on G2 Devastator now though unless it's made much later as a partner piece with G2 Defensor -as a convention toy - I can't see it getting a huge interest what with Funpub not being around to keep the G2 flame alive anymore.

I would also be more enthused with the idea if CW Devastator wasn't an atrocious toy.