Scourge qas notorious for it. I personally found it a minor issue on that one that didn't bother me but on Ramjet it's very noticeable.
It's also a bit sad and ironic. I actually like the foam insert as it makes the box nicer and more collectible but this wasn't a problem back when they stuffed the figure in a bag and put the bag in a box.

 

Quite true. I've never really felt the love for the foam, myself. I don't keep boxes (except as things to ship future eBay sales in), and remember arguing (back when we were told that a huge percentage of the cost of producing 3H-era exclusives was in the packaging) that I'd happily go without such packaging if it would bring the cost of figures down.

It became clear not too long into FunPub's tenure that they were simply not interested in doing exclusives (other than the "free" membership incentives) without special packaging...

... until the subscription services, where they kept the foam, but removed the plastic that at least protected the membership incentives.

*sigh*

 

Oh, so it's Spinister... Nice. That will be my first ownership of the mould.

 

Yep, paint worn off of missile launchers on mine too due to poor packing...and cheap paint.

 

Don't want my Ramjet, if anyone wants it, PM $50. Thanks.

 

I was wondering why my Ramjet toy wasn't here yet, despite getting Spinister over a week ago, while most American Club Members got their Ramjet toy a day or two before Spinister.

Now I know why.

The Collector Club sent out an email on the 30th of June, telling its TFs & GIJoe members that their membership toy was sent out in two batches - one batch went out on the 2nd of June, the other batch went out on the 24th of June.... some 22 days later, or 3 weeks and 1 day.
They also note that the two batches were Domestic (America) and International (non-America), which most people know has a 3 week difference in arrival (shipping) times.
So if it takes about 3 weeks longer for non-Americans to get their packages, and they were going to have a 3 week gap between the two batches of packages, can you guess which batch was for Americans and which batch was for non-Americans?

(they note 3-4 weeks for domestic deliveries - hopefully that's an accidental typo on their part and not an attempt to make it look like non-Americans don't wait an extra 2-3 weeks for deliveries, as it only takes 3-4 days for postal deliveries in America, based on the postings on fansites like this one, by Americans who get their toys in less than a week, NOT more than 3 weeks as FunPub's email claims)

So we have a 22 day gap because of the JoeCon on the weekend of the June 18th, which means about a 6 week gap between when Americans get their Ramjet, to non-Americans getting theirs. (American deliveries take 2-4 days compared to non-American deliveries taking 2-4 weeks, on top of the 3 week delay of shipping them out).
You'd think the sensible thing to do would be to send out the non-American ones first, so that everyone around the world would be getting them within a week of each other, instead of a six week gap.

I only recently commented about the (allegedly international) Collector Club never once considering to give non-Americans the chance to receive at least one of their 46 Subscription & Membership toys first, by sending out a single toy just 2 weeks earlier to non-Americans, who would still only receive it at the same time as Americans... and now this email from the Club tells us that they are intentionally doing the exact opposite, just to make sure once again that their fellow Americans not only get their toys first, but are getting it 6 weeks before people in other countries. What is with this overzealous patriotism to American members by this "International" fanclub, to not want to share the joy of getting a surprise (Subscription) toy first or at the same time... instead of having us foreigners know about who each toy is 3 weeks before we get them? (you can't avoid that sort of detail for 3 whole weeks if you regularly browse the 3 major fansites)

Basically, my Ramjet is not expected to get to me for another 2 weeks, while Americans on this site were getting theirs 4 weeks ago on June 6th.... and the Club's email says we can't contact them about this until the end of July.

As great as they were with hosting BotCon for 12 years, and for producing toys that a lot of fans have wanted, Fun Publications just seem to continue to find ways make the Club itself look like a really bad idea to join (if you could still join it), especially to non-Americans.
I think if it BotCon didn't have such a huge discount as a Club Member, forcing the thousand-ish preregistered attendees each year to be a member, very few people in recent years probably would have joined just to be a Collector Club Member.


(okay, that got a bit rant-ish... sorry about that... but when they've cheated me and others out of hundreds of dollars in fake shipping charges, they no longer get the benefit of the doubt on other issues)

 

I'd just like to know when Skywarp is going to be available...

 

@griffin-of-oz - I agree that is very unfortunate; however it looks like they go through an outside source to mass-ship these figures out. And they do so in bulk. Like DHL for domestic releases. Apparently (according to the email) something fell through and they had to go through FedEx for international shipments this time.
IIRC, normally all the figures went out at the same time. This year something out of control happened  
However I don't think it has anything to do with "favoritism."
And honestly, do you expect Hasbro themselves to do a better job?-- assuming they give us a club. (an honest question)

I think Pete said sometime in the coming weeks.
Apparently the comic that is supposed to come with him isn't ready yet (last I heard) -- and was being done locally.

 

^^^^
Agreed.

I'm in the UK, and part of the 'second batch' still waiting on their figure.

Whilst the club does cater to international customers, they are based in the USA and as such it's only natural for their more 'local' customers to get their stuff in first.

I mean, I'm just grateful that we have access to the stuff AT ALL. We don't have BotCon over here, but we still get access to (some of) the toys via the club shop, and thankfully FunPub have made a few of the other exclusives available at UK cons. When you consider some of the hoops we have to jump through to get figures (entire waves - such as CW wave 2 - not appearing in UK shops, instability of the Pound affecting import costs, no access to the Hasbro Toy Shop etc. etc.), I'm just grateful for the opportunity to get these club figures in the first place. A few weeks' wait is worth it, IMO.

 

Why are people still complaining about this terrible company and this laughable club? This is what they do. Your subscription is the problem, their incompetence has long been known and has remained consistent. It is one problem after another, most of them easily solved by someone with even the most basic of business sense.

Hopefully whatever happens next, we can be a smarter fandom and not help things like this exist for way longer than they ever should have.

 

Yes, they noted that they had to resort to a different shipping company, but the toys appear to have left FunPublications in two batches... not sent off all at one time and another business decided to wait 22 days to send off the foreign ones - FunPub was the one deciding to wait 22 days because they were busy with JoeCon in June.
Fair enough on prioritizing the convention, but if they knew that they didn't have enough time to send out all of the toys, why not have the International ones be the first batch, or included in the first batch? Why leave them for 22 days just because we already have to wait 2-3 weeks after American members anyway, so what would it matter adding another 3 weeks to the wait?

My frustration is that, if they have all the Subscription toys on hand at once (from China), and they get the shipping companies to come in on multiple days to pick up the *pallets* of toys (we're not talking about a couple of boxes being picked up by the shipping company, or being dropped off at the local post office)... why can't they send out their non-American batch of Subscription toys (or Magazine) with a 2 week headstart, so that they arrive at the same time as Americans... or occasionally even earlier, so that someone outside America gets to be the first person to announce to the world who was sent out that month.
If I was running the Club, I would be mindful that there are members who are not able to enjoy talking about the toys and magazine for weeks after the hype has died off on the major fansites. Like, I won't see Windsweeper for another week or two - who here is going to care about me posting in 2 weeks time about how awesome I think it is, or join in with my enthusiasm about finally having a homage to this Gen1 toy and discussing how it exactly looks like, or doesn't look like, the original toy?
That outsider feeling non-Americans would feel when being a member of "their" Transformers Club is probably why I struggle to get other Australians to join, and I don't think anyone is a member just to be a member - they join just to gain access to BotCon toys/attendance or Subscription toys.

I don't mean to sound like I'm having a cry (because I've been with the Club long enough to not be surprised by any of this)... I just don't think they get it. And I don't think too many American members understand what we go through for our "twice-the-price" club... when it wouldn't cost the Club anything in time or money to just do one or two things that benefit non-American members, for all the extra money we pay for membership and the exclusive toys.

Hasbro probably wouldn't be able to do better if they were forced to run the Club (like in 2004 when they had to send out the pre-paid Sentinel Maximus toys and Collector Plates, which naturally arrived at my place a few weeks after Americans got theirs)... but if they chose to have an official club and set up a department for it that needs to make revenue to pay for its own budget, they'd probably put in the same over-the-top effort they put into attending BotCon (which is also just for a very small number of fans that realistically wouldn't make sense for a big multi-national corporation like Hasbro to be doing at such great expense).
Remember, Hasbro went to a lot of trouble getting together a "fan council" for Fun Publications in 2005, which they didn't need to do, so I think that if they had of set up their own Club, they'd be making sure that they had similar fans working for them or advising them.

Don't worry, I wasn't being too serious about the favoritism bit, but the focus of the Club has always been seen by us foreigners as an American fanclub that just allows non-Americans to join, but doesn't do anything aimed at us or prioritizing us. The Club costs us twice as a member (for membership fees and buying exclusive toys), so it would be nice to have something occasionally thrown our way to offset that much higher expense (and delays for toys & magazines), if they had ever had us in mind.
For over 11 years of operating, they couldn't once do something for the non-American members first?

Yes... I don't bag on everything FunPub touches just because I've been seriously burnt by one element of theirs. I give them credit where it is due, and support or participate in the things I like (I have all of their toys and attended all but one of their BotCons).
I indeed will miss a number of their things when it ends this year... but some things I won't miss.

BotCon - great.
Exclusive toys - mostly good. Probably too many grouped together in expensive batches (BotCon, Subscription sets), but a large range to interest more than just mainstream fans.
Magazine - neglected for a few years but this last year has been pretty good.
Club - a good idea in theory, but never seemed to work effectively, and had so many problems (like credit card security) that then affected the way fans saw or supported their other elements.
Promotions - they never seemed to maintain any momentum, which kills off the hype when you don't hear anything from them for weeks or months at a time (like before BotCon Pre-registration opening), or we didn't hear anything from them for weeks after missing their own announce scheduled dates, instead of letting us know of the significant delay before the date is reached. I had recommended to them a couple of years ago to have a weekly updates email from the Club, to keep members regularly informed of their future dates and projects, so that as they change (most often due to waiting on Hasbro approvals), we'd know about it... or just know when something expensive is coming and be ready for it.
Club Store - overcharges shipping on most orders and only refunds if chased up, but knows what amount people paid to know when to re-charge the small number of people who were undercharged for postage. This amounted to several hundred dollars over-charged just for me, which after several emails and expensive phonecalls (from Australia), was told it would be refunded, but most of it wasn't.

 

Right oh! Keep on fighting that good fight and making a difference! You'll sure show them! Power to the people!  

@griffin-of-oz
There was a LOT of text in that post so I'm going to try to hit on the points I can remember  
I get that it's frustrating not being able to be "first" to get stuff. Everyone wants to have a slice of that pie. And (especially for) stuff like the FSS... You can't expect to just go internet dark for a couple of weeks either. But it was beginning to look like there would have been a promising relationship with the Club and the international members... What with RORC getting Botcon exclusives this year and last; I think they even set up their own registration for RORC attendees to order the Botcon & JoeCon Box sets.
Does it suck that it took so long? Yeah. But relationships; trustworthy relationships have to be forged for those type of cool things to happen. Its more tragic that it began to pick up more speed as to what you and other international fans began to want in the last year of its activity.
The club and convention have been the best fan service we have received in the brand's history. Now we'll just be another profit-margin in the eyes of Hasbro; if that.

As for "who wants to talk about Windsweeper or whatever FSS or club toy by the time you get yours in hand, there are plenty of people to revel in the excitement of you getting yours. It's not like we get these toys and are only happy and talkative with them for one weekend and then promptly forget about them  

Maybe Hasbro's next endeavor will prove to be more pleasing for you. And I hope that it is.

 

Just got mine yesterday, shipped to Canada. He's nicer than I initially thought, might actually keep him. He does have paint rub on the top of the cannons, like everyone else. Really liking the headsculpt though.

 

Agreed. Got mine today and I'm actually liking him more than I expected to despite the paint wear. I'd still sell him but if I don't he looks good on the shelf. Now where's my Windsweeper? I want him to arrive before TFCon this weekend.

 

Sorry about that. I find with social media and forums, if you don't explain yourself completely, someone out there is going to misinterpret something, or intentionally pick on something that was a little vague.

I just can't understand why they waited 4 whole weeks to tell us of the delay, having us worry that it got lost in the mail.
If FunPub were intending to send everything out on the 2nd and the long-distance carrier fell through, I would have been okay with them needing to wait until after JoeCon to sort out a new carrier... IF they had told us back then, not 6 days after they were finally sent out on the 24th.

 

It's all good  
And I mean it could boil down to their manpower, or lack thereof. I know they're normally a week before a con starts getting everything together, and IIRC a week after it ends getting everything back and checked in, etc...
It's all very possible that things fell through with the international shipment the week they were gone for JoeCon. Although that I don't know. No one likes to give them the benefit of the doubt; and sometimes that's all it takes (not saying you aren't; and not saying if you don't that you're a bad person). I would guess like I said above, it has to do with the labor force at FunPub. It isn't like there are a ton of people on staff.
All of that aside; I will agree with you. It sucks that you guys had to wait so long before you got/get your figures  

 

I don't know why, but I enjoyed this figure a lot more than my Generations Armada Starscream - maybe because it felt somewhat more unique rather than pushed in, especially in the IDW comics.

My review of Timelines Ramjet


Overall - surprisingly good!  

 

Mine finally arrived, with the paint rubbed off like everyone else (not sure why there wasn't a layer of foam on the top like the subscription toys)...

I can't imagine it taking much manpower to type up an email of 1 or 2 sentences on the 2nd of June instead of the 30th of June, to let us know that Ramjet will be sent after JoeCon. I just think someone who sends out the emails forgot for 4 weeks, which means we aren't high on their priority list.
But moving on, as Ramjet is now received, and we still have another five months of other issues from FunPub to look forward too.  

 

Fixed that for you  
And when you're spread thin; you would be surprised. You don't just set up dates with a hotel and *poof* the convention magically happens. Ideally, yes it would have been peachy if everyone had known before the figures shipped out what the deal was; but they're people; not programs. We often forget to consider them as such.
Also, apparently for whatever reason they were received without the foam "hat" from the factory (or wherever the figures come from before being boxed up). Not much else is known about it.

 

Ramjet joining the rest of the 2016 class of FunPub toys...