#femme_bot_love (EDIT: not my work)

 

I have a concern as to what I think was a pretty big misstep by the company..
I know it's on the top of your priority list, Pete, so bare with me.
Why is it that the GIJCC got the new website treatment before the TCC? I'm not trying to belittle the Joe fan club (as one day I plan on checking out JoeCon), but the TCC is obviously the largest of the two clubs, so I'm having a problem with why the "little brother" had dibs on getting the club-member portion of it's site re-upped first.
From a "business man" stand point, I would have catered to my largest customer-base first.

 

Would FP be intrested in supplying local fan organizations with exclusives, advertisements, news, etc if they were willing to buy such materials so they can hold their own Transformers conventions? For example if the LA Meet Up group had these things, we could hold BotCon in Pasadena every year and FP can still go to a different location next year

 

Have you thought about offering figures still on sprues along with all ready assembled figures? A few people, myself included, would love a chance to paint and assemble Transformers.

 

Botcon does this every year at the custom class. Funpub cannot sell uncut sprues, because someone could sell the sprue to a knockoff producer. Which would then eat in Hasbro, Takara, and Funpub"s profits

 

Then where does the excess paid on postage end up? If the club is issuing refunds for postage based on calculations, should that issue be addressed also to avoid any further overcharges?

 

Hi Pete,
Why does the International membership (https://www.toyarama.com/store/transformers-club-memberships-c3.php?template_package=transformers) cost twice as much as a US membership?

If the extra cost for international members is for shipping the magazines and membership toy, why not add this separately to the worldwide membership fee? All you need is a good postage calculator (which is pretty crucial to your business) and an online registration form.

How about buy the membership now and once the figure arrives send out the postage quotes? Membership would be cheaper and the postage quotes more accurate.

 

Ok, issue 59# is out. Here is the breakdown of it:

•Front Cover: Picture of Tranantulus from the 3.0 Subscription Service being sold by TFCC
•Inside Cover: Editors Note talking about the comic which stars club toys being sold by TFCC. Short blurb from Brian talking about the subscription service toys being sold by TFCC.
•2 pages about the old TF Animated cartoon.
•3 pages about the old G2 toys.
*6 pages of the Comic (starring the Transmutate & Rampage toys being sold by TFCC)
•2 pages of Character Bio’s about characters from the comic
•Back Cover – short strip comic and also comic like TF quiz trivia

So out of 16 pages we have
•8 ½ pages dedicated to the comic, talking about the comic or comic character bios
•1 ½ pages talking about or drawings of TFSS club toys
•5 pages of articles about old toys or cartoons
•1 page of a mini-comic and comic-styled quiz

If you take into account all the comic stuff together it is indeed over half the magazine. But what is more worrying is if you take the 6 pages of comic with Transmutate & Rampage, the front cover with Tarantulus, the blurb about the comic, the blurb about the TF 3.0 – you get 10 of the 16 pages which are in one way or another advertising figures being sold by the TFCC!


What I always hope to see in the magazine and how much content it recieved in the latest issue:
*Articles about new (non-club) toylines coming out – Zero
*Articles about new cartoons coming out like RID or the latest series of RescueBots – Zero
*Articles about developments in TF video games (such as new characters in Universe or even the Angry Birds TF game released) – Zero
*Articles about developments in the (non-club) TF comic world – Zero

So in summary, absolutely no new news whatsoever, a couple of articles about very old stuff and the rest of the magazine is given over to trying to either directly or indirectly sell TFCC merchandise. That is not a magazine, it’s the literary equivalent of an infomercial.


Please bear in mind that it sounds like I'm having more of a go than I actually intend. Others have stated that they prefer the current format and if others enjoy it thats good. Maybe there should be a poll about what people want to see in the mag so we could see what the majority would like. But I hope that you will take this constructive criticism on board and maybe consider putting in more current TF related stories and maybe wind back the comic and selling of your figures. I know that when I have mates drop over for a beer that if I have an issue of the magazine lying around they will often pick it up, flick through it, then sit it back down dissapointed. It would be great to have a Collectors Club magazine that actually talks about relevant stuff that is happening in the world of TF's today  

 

I'm with you, I'd rather see behind the scenes articles and less comic. However there are people who would rather see more comic. As for news, it's hard to beat the information coming out on the web unless Hasbro gives them some exclusive.

 

It's also more difficult for them to stay relevant, with it being bi-monthly.. Although I am one for more fiction, getting a few articles based on "the unknown" would be a plus too.

 

I like him...Spells it out in quite clear and plain facts.

 

I have a feeling this thread was swept under the rug, so I'm quoting my last question.

 

I'm not Pete, but my guess would be that the *plan* was to have them be very similar in design, so they wanted to make changes on the smaller site first to work out problems before drastically changing the larger site.

 

Hmm. Makes sense, I suppose. So if I don't get anything official on it, I'll just take that as reason  
Thanks.

 

Agreed. With a smaller site, it works as a better testing bed.

We all recall the technical issues (and only the technical issues, because I'm not discussing anything else in that regard) with the Obamacare website. It was a disaster.

 

Very true, and that Obamacare site was expected to serve a MUCH larger sect of people than both the TFCC and Joe sites combined
Back on topic, this thread seems to have died, did Pete get a C&D?

 

What a failed idea this has been   It could have been an open and responsive discussion that could reclaim some disillusioned members but I don't think that happened. Sadly yet unsurprisingly most sticky questions were ignored, and the 'I'll get back to it' were never addressed. Shocking of all were the questions relating to postage skimming that were refuted but the silence instead of justifying the inflated figures was damning to me.

So I'll take the questions down to the level that has proven to work the best... Pete how did you get so handsome? How awesome is next years BotCon set going to be?

 

So.... this was back in October 2014 and its now March 2015, I reckon 6 months is long enough. Any progress with these issues you said you would look into?   I know the postage for my club items to Aus has not gone down any

 

Sadly, that's the state of software development today. Even if the FunPub developer knows what he's doing, which is a huge assumption in and of itself, there's no guarantee that he doesn't have difficult/disinterested management holding him back. Some places don't want to deal with in-house dysfunction, so they go abroad in search of it and find Accenture.

 

So…is this the final headsculpt? and if so, will you be updating your web and print materials with it rather then the now misleading original solicit?