you folks complaining are forgetting, the hoist issue wasn't found out until AFTER the figures were handed to the people at the con and everyone checked their toys.

there's nothing funpub can do about such a widespread issue. i am mad at funpub at many things, but this one for once is not their fault and at least they are trying to help in someway with this guide to fix at least one issue

 

Fixed my Electro chest. MUCH BETTER. His shoulders didn't have the problem Hoist did. I'll work on Hoist later...

Also Megaplex suffers from the "wrong foot syndrome" that Dreadwing and Skyquake suffered. Fortunately for me they were both wrong and I can just swap them.

 

To me this is truly a sad sad point. They should do more for the people then say take apart your figure and do this......... oh and if it breaks....too bad......

I did not get to go to botcon this year due to several factors but to me this still could be handled so much better by Funpub. Yes they may not be a giant in the world like Hasbro is but they are not a mom and pop store either.

What about all the people that go to these conventions but hardly ever visits any forums?? Yes those people do exist. So they are totally screwed then?? They have no idea their toys are assembled wrong. How do they find out?? IS Funpub sending them an email?? What happens when you break or loose a piece for the Electro chest fix?? Is Funpub going to send out a replacement piece?? What happens when you decide to sell your hoist and the buyer backs out because you cut his arm up so he can reach for the stars?? Is Funpub going to buy it instead?? See my point??

I feel that they (funpub) should know how to transform the toys they sell. Maybe get a few in house samples first and let the guy in the office that knows transformers to QC the toys themselves before a disaster like this happens again. The same ones on here that say it is an easy fix.... how would you feel if you broke hoist trying to transform him?? You would not be so calm then.

QC is messed up sure. No argument here. IS Funpub to blame?? Maybe not totally but as they are selling the product. They should have better knowledge of what they sell and do their own QC checks.

 

My thinking on this is that FunPub definitely isn't to blame for the mistake, but they are entirely responsible for how it was handled. They didn't handle this mistake well. I'm not saying that they should have given us a free figure, but how about additional casino vouchers? Or a free drink at the convention center, or $5 in show bucks to spend at a vendor? Something to say we acknowledge that there was a screw up and we can't fix it.

I'm not really moved by the "small business" so it's too high a cost arguments. When I buy something from a vendor and the vendor screws up, I tend to get a discount. If I'm buying something for someone else and the vendor screws up and I get the discount, I should pass that along to the customer. Here, I think it's reasonable to presume that the second FunPub realized that all the Hoists were misassembled, they called the factory and got a refund for some of what they paid. They have apparently captured that discount for themselves, which doesn't seem fair. Now perhaps the factory told them to screw off, or they didn't ask for some compensation for the mix up, but I think both of those scenarios are unlikely.

At bottom, I'd like to see FunPub issue an actual statement acknowledging the mistake and apologizing for it.

 

Woah, there! That's a HUGE assumption, on the basis of what? I see no reason to assume FunPub has been compensated for the factory error here, let alone can do anything to pass that compensation on to us.

 

I would love to see that as well. I am by no means a Funpub hater. In fact they have always treated me right when things have messed up. I won a 2007 TC at the 2008 casino night and he was missing a missile. They found it and mailed it to me. A friend got me the SG junkion set as I could not go and one was missing his axe. Same thing Funpub sent one out right away. So I have no beef with them at all. I do feel however they should have somone in house the WC checks a few samples before the rest are made.

And I see no reason to assume that the didn't or possibly in the process of trying to get compensated for this. Maybe that is why we have yet to hear from them on the forums about this. They may be trying to do something for else to fix the issue. But again I could be wrong.

 

I'm not sure about anyone else, but when I brought my Hoist to the information booth, the guy said that they couldn't fix it there, but there would be a fix posted on twitter (and other places), Even if you don't follow forums, or have a twitter, you can still go to THEIR twitter and see if they posted the fix yet.

 

I don't want to seem like I'm piling on, but I DO see at least part of this as Fub Pub's responsibility...Yes, the factory screwed up...did they make the same mistake on the samples? Because if so this should have been caught early on. But the bigger issue for me is that once they knew there was an issue it seems (and looking at the website continue to do so) sell the toys at theri prices without any disclaimer about the flaws. Takara and Hasbro ship out in one big shot, once it's in the wild it's gone...with FP they were still right there in front of them IMHO they should have told their customers up front instead of just selling them the rest of the weekend without any word to the unsuspecting buyers like nothing was wrong.

I get in defective product on occasion, and YES, I can call in and get credit for defects and then sell the flawed items at a markdown. Happens all the time with my distributors. I'm not privvy to what the contract FP has with the factory is, but there should be a clause about defects.

I have seen what factory defects can do to a company...I had friends with Palisaides Toys and the Micronauts fiasco absolutely killed them. But this is hardly th efirst time we've seen QC issues with FP and been told to fix it ourselves. Eventually your customers stop buying at the higher prices I can fogive Hasbro a lot more QC issues on a $10 figure that I grabbed at my local big box store, than I can on a $60 one that I travelled to get.

 

Just did this to my Hoist. Took 5 minutes. Thanks for the tutorial.

 

Before I can further comment on anything I guess we need to agree on the meaning of greed. Businesses need to be allowed to make money but HOW much money? Where is the line between greed and not greed?

I do not know what contract clauses FP has either but it's been hinted at the the situation is a cluster. FP has to go through Hasbro which has to go through Takara who is the one that communicates with the factories. As others have mentioned, we have yet to see Hasbro or Takara do anything about their own mistakes (AM Unicron, MP Rodimus) so what makes us think they'll go out of their way to fix FP's problem. And as Hasbro and it's licensed products are FP's sole source of revenue how much of a fuss can FP really raise. What could any other company do?

The only good idea I've seen is adding another goodie for appeasement but what would really appease people? It can't be anything exclusive AND official because FP would have to navigate that FP->Hasbro->TT->factory mess again. So what are the options?

 

I certainly have sympathy for how many hoops they have to jump through, but I still think once they knew about the issue, customers that had yet to buy them should have been informed and it's dissapointing from a customer service standpoint that this was not done (and on the website still isn't) Selling product you know has an issue is just poor form IMHO. I think marking the problematic pieces down would also have been appropriate. Yes, you make less profit, and I'm not saying sell them at less than cost, but a "hey this was supposed to be $89 but we're selling them for $75 because Electro's chest is missasembled, we'll be posting a fix online once the show is over, sorry about that" not only eliminates any issue I (or anyone else) could possibly have but gets extra brownie points for customer service...and I think FP needs all the possitive press they can get.

As for what to do now that it's said and done...maybe a shapeways clear laser sword or a black MW Hoist gun (single piece, unpainted...not like it needs to become a car grill after all...) either given away or even sold on the site at cost + shipping would be a cheap way to say "hey, we're sorry this happened, here's a cheap bonus" without having to jump any hoops.

 

You guys realize how asinine some of this is?

All this backseat businessman, theories on how much people are making, what they paid, crazy conspiracy REFUNDS they get from the manufacturer, etc...good lord. Most, if not ALL of you (us), have NO insight into the actual numbers as far as costs and expenses for FunPub. This is ridiculous. And for what are seriously "not that big of a deal". FP got screwed on this too, guys. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - Electro was supposed to be covered in gold paint, and Thundercracker was supposed to glow in the dark. Those things definitely hurt the sale of the toys. Not to mention all the times FP has gotten screwed on head molds from the factory (Punch/Counterpunch, Cheetor, and Nightbeat off the top of my head).

You're embarrassing all of us. I realize it's only like 2 or 3 of you, but geez guys, reel it in.

 

Even in the computer age there are those that still rarely use the internet. Much less Twitter. I personally think poorly of Twitter.

This. Give people options. Post the defects on their website. Mark down the items even by a few dollars. Offer free shipping on a large order. There are several things they can do. First an foremost as someone has mentioned, at least let people know on their sales page the two items where assembled incorrectly. That way buyers can make informed choices.

They may have gotten the short end of the stick but it is us(you/fandom) that is holding the short stick now. They should get samples from the factory before these go full swing. Is that really that hard?? After all how many test shots do we see wind up on ebay and other auctions sites before toys are released?? As far as the paints go, did anyone ever consider Funpub may have changed their mind on the gold or glow in the dark paint for cost reasons?? I am not trying to start a burn Funpub club. Just trying to get everyone to look at all sides of it. As someone that owns P/CP I understand it many not always be in their control, but maybe they need to find a way to get more control over QC issues.

 

The problem there is that, until we hear from someone within FunPub who is at liberty to tell us this info, we can't get all sides of it, so the argument loses steam right out of the gate.

 

I think you're missing my point. The people at the info booth TOLD me, and several others, that there would be a fix posted. I'm not trying to make them seem like they're just innocent and misunderstood, but they didn't say "I dunno, go figure it out yourself", either. The guys at the info booth were actually pretty helpful, despite all the bullshit they were getting from people over it.

You don't need to have a twitter account to check THEIR twitter page. I just said that. Even if you don't have a computer, there are public libraries and internet cafes all over. And if you live in the most remote place ever that has never even SEEN a computer...how did you get your toys in the first place?

Like I said, I'm not making them out to be innocent, they've definitely messed up in some places, but really, they're not the horrible monsters you guys are making them out to be, either. You know there's something wrong with the toy, so either buy it or don't.

 

I don't think it's assinine at all, or being an armchair businessman, to simply say that if you know your product is defective or flawed you should have an obligation to tell your customers BEFORE you take their money for it. Would it change anyone's minds on if they were going to buy it or not? More often than not no, because it's the only version of the toy we're going to get. This is really the ONLY part of this that I put on FP at all, and really had they simply done that and said "we'll be posting a fix after the show" I'd have nothing but good things about how they handled the situation.

 

There's no evidence thus far that they knew about the error(s) before the sets were in attendee hands. For all we know, the test pieces that were shown to them were correctly assembled.

 

But they DID know as soon as attendees started bringing them up to the customer service booth, which usually starts hapening on day 1 when everyone starts checking their figures, and they knew well enough to talk about having a fix that they would be posting online once the show was over (like they told GB Blackrock), so they most certainly knew enough early on in the show that maybe they couldn't tell ALL the attendees before they recieved their figures, but they certainly were still selling them knowing they were flawed without telling people. I'm sorry that several here feel like I'm out of line for saying it, but IMHO as someone who has a business myself, that from a customer service standpoint it would have been the right thing to do to tell people before taking their money rather than waiting until they went to the service desk and the transaction was over.

 

Oh, I'm not saying you're out of line. But the transactions happened months ago, at least for the box sets, so that part is moot. As for telling people, I don't know what the most effective way to let everyone at the convention know all at once and make sure they knew, you know?

 

I can’t believe I just read that.

Fun Pub got screwed? Are you kidding me? You aren’t Brian Savage in disguise are you? (For the record that was a joke.)

Fun Pub will ultimately sell every single one of those toys. The only way they could be getting screwed is if they end up putting a large amount of them on deep discount to get rid of them because people didn't buy them because of the flaw or paint errors, and to my knowledge, other than the 2005 box set and last year’s Spinister/Deep Dive set, what few Botcon toys they have had after the con sell out on the site pretty darn fast.

They may have not been happy with the product not being the way they wanted, but the only way they get screwed is if they lose money they would have made if not for the manufacturing issues.