The Energon Pub

Today the Transformers Convention Club Advisory Panel held a bit of a club meeting for those that wanted to attend. They took questions, and left some very leading hints as to what is coming, although they would not say exactly on any of them.

-They read the reactions of the fandom to the boxed set, and understand the position of those who are upset, but look at it this way: Hasbro was not going to produce the characters in CLASSICs, so why not make a set of figures that are desired, instead of one that people do not really want.

-The club website is a work in progress still, but they are looking to add pre-order ability to the club store, but otherwise keep things (like the forums) for cost's sake.

-If you don't like the exclusives prices, unfortunately that is not determined by them. Lower production runs cost more money, thus they make the exclusives more expensive to create, thus they need to sell a lot to be able to lower the prices. Takara does not like to make low production runs. If they make them, they like to do the different things at the same time (Example: Club free figure Breakaway, and the convention exclusives were made and shipped at the same time to try to lower costs).

-If you want more club exclusives figures you need to support them by buying what they have made in the past. Air Razor and Astrotrain still have about 200 waiting to be bought...they need support to give us more exclusives. The more support, the more exclusives we will get.

-Benson Yee's, "Razor's Edge" story is complete, and will be posted soon!

-The club would like to be able to offer its members access to HASBRO toys before other stores get them, but HASBRO's toy allocation department does not consider them a priority due to the lack of numbers interested in buying from them. If you would like that to change tell HASBRO.
Walmart is basically the company who calls the shots on case sizes and assortments, etc., because they are HASBRO's largest source for allocating sales.

-If you would lile to purchase things like the upcoming SDCC exclusives from the club store, tell HASBRO. Brian said they were allocated none of them this year!

-Brian mentioned the size of the Transformers Club Membership would soon surpass the size of the membership in the GI Joe Club.

TOY NEWS!!!

-Universe Seacons- brought up a couple times. They tried to dodge the question by saying...
"This Seacon thing sounds a little fishy to me."
"What's a Seacon? Some kind of bug?"
*I took the meaning of their gestures, playfulness, and seeming lack of knowledge to mean, they are on the way!"

-Unproduced Titaniums- If you've looked at the site galleries of the HASBRO tour, I am sure you saw the prototypes for Arcee, Cosmos, Shockwave, and Bumblebee/Cliffjumper. A member asked about them, and they danced around it (similar to the Seacons) saying that those may appear somewhere in the near future...They would not say where or how, but again, vague in answers.

-Choices on exclusives were explained (like blue translucent CLASSICs Mirage, instead of transparent clear), and they discussed some ideas they had that would never see fruition (Deluxe Insecticons set made from BW Insecticon molds).

Finally, they asked about locations for future Botcons, would people like a Transformers/Joe Convention together--which they mentioned, could lead to some very interesting exclusives, anyone want it to happen at Disney World or Disneyland, and that they would try to go Spring and Summer alternating for the two conventions. Europe and the UK were brought up, but they said it would be too cost prohibitive to get everyone and everything over there (sorry guys). Canada was also brought up, and there was a low moan from the crowd, indicating that they really didn't support it (sorry to you guys too!).

Overall, it was quite informational. They asked if people would like to see a leader class size exclusive, for a small percentage increase in price (10%, I think).

They stressed that they try to do everything keeping cost at a minimum amount, and trying to make it affordable. If we want things to be more affordable, more people need to be committed to being in the club, buying the exclusives, and participating in the events. If more items are produced or needed, the price goes down overall for those who are purchasing.

Electronic Registration was brought up, and they said it would significantly increase the price to have a system like that in place.

Finally, they mentioned that they do look at suggestions for the club, the club exclusives, and so forth. They asked the members in the audience a lot of questions, trying to involve us in the decision making process. Unfortunately we were no help, as we seemed to be equally split on everything.

I want the boxed set, seacons and titaniums.

I think someone on this board's gonna be extra happy about the Seacons.

tigertracks 24 wrote:TOY NEWS!!!

-Universe Seacons- brought up a couple times. They tried to dodge the question by saying...
"This Seacon thing sounds a little fishy to me."
"What's a Seacon? Some kind of bug?"
*I took the meaning of their gestures, playfulness, and seeming lack of knowledge to mean, they are on the way!"

...







....

After I went and spent a ton on G1 Seacons...UGH!

Well....I will buy these too. Still want Neptune.

So nothing really interesting, just them talking themselves up.

It didn't sound like they were "just talking themselves up to me". If I understood the story right the Collector's Club wanted to engage the fandom and solicit ideas from the fandom. Hell, they even addressed the cost issue of the convention exclusive set. I'll bet they shot some people's marketing theories out the water.

what I took from that is they wanted more ideas from the fans on what to do with the club and they may as well talked to potted plants for feedback.

I look at the club from a website point of view and it looks stillborn wasted potential. Little to entice new members aside from the few exclusive figures and sounds like those are hard to get out the door due to cost, and they don't sell as well since there are fewer members, which comes back to lack of content aside from figures.

Looks like a cycle to me.

and for the record I am a member and will continue to be one, just wish there was soemthing more that could be done to entice others to join and get some cooler stuff offered.

Oddly these day it seems everything they DON'T make I want, and nearly every thing they do make I don't want.

Well see tommorrow as they are suppose to unveil the 2008 release line. Maybe I can remeber to ask a few questions there..lol

Yo. when I think about it, all the stuff we've seen from BotCon thus far, Hasbro is scraping some real good figs for massproduced overdone repaints, and I don't care the Seeker set is just lube on something that just isn't going to be comfortable!

Thanks for bringing us inside to show us the depths of how much you suck Hasbro!

If they make the unproduced Titaniums as club exclusives (which I hope they don't, I'd rather they be store exclusives or in another line) I'd probably rejoin. I would also hope they'd sell them individually, because at club prices, the only one I would buy would be Shockwave. I'd also like to get the Seacons.
Right now, I don't see much reason to join the club. If you aren't going to botcon, for whatever reason, there seems to be very little advantage to club membership, unless I'm missing something.

It was certainly an informative panel, and they were really trying to get feedback from those in attendance. They do want suggestions on club things we'd like to see, exclusive toy repaints we'd like available, etc.

I knew Skowl would be happy. It only needs to be officially said...today maybe?

I missed the roundtable. They need to keep the exclusives seperate! I love TF, but I am not really a fan of GiJoe at all. So what is they're both Hasbro properties and have had a few comic book crossovers? I wouldn't even want crossover exclusives. I have nothing against Joe or anything, I'm just not into it and really don't see what there is to gain from having the conventions together, other than making it easier for Fun Publications. Overall, I would view it as a step backwards for both brands (its like admitting that neither property has to fan base to warrant thier own convention, so they had to combine them).

Yes, that was me who asked if they'ld consider bringing BotCon to Canada 1 year. Just 1 year! And because toy laws in Canada are more relaxed than US laws, it could make for some interesting exclusives. They could repaint/reissue that they have the mold for, but are technically illegal in the US. Like G1 Megs or Fort Max and stuff. And the thing about it being more expensive? I don't think that's true. Pick any city in Canada, they're starving for tourism.