The Energon Pub

News Credits: 6188 · Tue Oct 18, 2016 9:29 am

Along with the news of the new multi-franchise event from Hasbro - taking place in Rhode Island next September - we also have the teaser announcement of their new Transformers-dedicated fan club starting up in 2017, after FunPub and the TFCC end their run with the closing of 2016. No further information on this yet, but stay tuned for more here at Seibertron.com!

we are excited to confirm that the Transformers experience is expanding in 2017 with the new Transformers fan club. The new club will replace the existing Transformers Collectors club which ends December 31, 2016. More details will follow in the coming months so be sure to sign up for the new Transformers newsletter to get the latest and to stay up to date on other brand news, promotions, products, fan events and more.

News Credits: 462 · Tue Oct 18, 2016 9:35 am

Will keep an eye on this.

News Credits: 3646 · Tue Oct 18, 2016 9:54 am

News Credits: 79 · Tue Oct 18, 2016 9:56 am

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

News Credits: 191 · Tue Oct 18, 2016 10:02 am

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

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

News Credits: 16 · Tue Oct 18, 2016 10:03 am

I wonder if Funpub will have any part in this

News Credits: 462 · Tue Oct 18, 2016 10:08 am

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.

News Credits: 16 · Tue Oct 18, 2016 10:23 am

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

News Credits: 349 · Tue Oct 18, 2016 10:24 am

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

News Credits: 16 · Tue Oct 18, 2016 10:28 am

Why am I so itchy all of a sudden?

News Credits: 13 · Tue Oct 18, 2016 10:38 am

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?

News Credits: 42 · Tue Oct 18, 2016 10:43 am

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.

News Credits: 18 · Tue Oct 18, 2016 11:09 am

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

News Credits: 11 · Tue Oct 18, 2016 11:36 am

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".

News Credits: 65 · Tue Oct 18, 2016 12:52 pm

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.

News Credits: 11 · Tue Oct 18, 2016 2:08 pm

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.

MyFigureCollection.net collection · Tue Oct 18, 2016 3:28 pm

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

News Credits: 226 · Tue Oct 18, 2016 4:19 pm

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.

News Credits: 656 · Tue Oct 18, 2016 6:01 pm

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

News Credits: 273 · Tue Oct 18, 2016 6:15 pm

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.

News Credits: 23 · Tue Oct 18, 2016 6:23 pm

hopefuly it will have reasonable prices.

maybe even free membership. :lol:

one can only hope

News Credits: 11 · Tue Oct 18, 2016 8:27 pm

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.

----

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.