It is not worth renewing, as an international member. Good day sir.

 

Personally I have not seen the worth of joining from day one, many of the reasons have been spelled out here. I also am a GI Joe fan as I have noted earlier, and aside from some cool (Albeit overpriced) convention exclusives I have no use for their Joe offering as well.

 

I can tell you right now their response will be that the logistics of setting up this system will make it inviable. They'd have to set up a different distribution list in the computer for members who follow this plan, separate from the current monthly plan. This is the reason they've already suggested that they can't forgo the non-TF-club MCs for regular members.

I'm really trying to be fair to FP when making these kinds of comments. I have hopes of seeing the club improve and grow, and would love to participate by submitting articles and convention events (have sent in one of the former, and am working on the latter), so I really don't want to burn my bridges with them. But the inflexibility on this particular issue is definitely a bit frustrating.

 

With this inflexibility/not listening stuff... the thought that strikes me is that, although the TFclub has only been around for 1 year, FP has been in business a lot longer, they've been running a GI Joe club and convention for about 10 years... it makes me think that it's not that they're just "stuck in their ways" and not open to new ideas but... wouldn't a lot of these issues have already come up sometime in the past 10 years? I would think they have been confronted with these or thought of the issues themselves SOMETIME in the past 10 years. And FP have worked them out to the best of their ability to maintain a functioning, profitable business... Why do people assume FP haven't done that? Why do people think they must be the first people to come up with their complaint/issue?

 

The problem is, 10 years ago, FP's way of doing things probably was the best way. Things change, and while there are cheaper/easier ways to do things, FP doesn't want to change/update. One item that supports this theory is FP's insistance that there are more fans off the net then on the net(Their requirement when placing an add, that you include other contact info then email).

 

Well, it'll be their loss when people don't renew because they got a crap deal.

 

It's not so much that it's inefficient to not send out the Master Collector, it's that it's the whole idea to send it out. The fact that most of us don't care or want it is irrelivant to him. That's why he's not listening.

He's using the club to push the stupid mag.

 

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/showpost1278612-p11.html

(just for those wondering - Karl's somewhat bitter comments are related to the previous on-topic replies to his initial post in that thread, not to Jon or the Club)

 

Speaking as an international customer paying the $40 service (more on that later), I feel I've received close to $40 value from the club.

Let's see:

- Skyfall .... around $15.
- The 6 newsletters .... that would be like 3 or 4 comics, so around $10.
- The MCs .... I don't count them as "value", but I knew before I signed in that they were part of the membership, so I gotta acknowledge that part of my $40 go there.

So, that's close to $40.

What I do have a problem with is with Dirge and Landquake.

Dirge because the 7 figure set was so advertised that I never assumed it would be anything less than 7 unique figures. I've read the whole bit about them being "clones", and how it fits the story, but it was something unexpected and I still think they could've told the 7 figure set didn't include 7 unique molds; that's the reason I didn't buy the "Virulent Clones". On this issue, the club seems to be listening and I applaud that.

Landquake because it was promised to have a retool. I can understand the reason why that idea was discarded, but then it's a promise that shouldn't have been made in the first place, and it's a bit of info that should've been made public ASAP.

They didn't because a "free" figure is not that important? Well, that kind of thinking is one of the things that got 3H in problem .... remember LoC Skywarp?

The Botcon discounts are nice, but I don't count it as a club extra because if I intend to go to Botcon and I'm not a member, I'll be paying the club's subscription fee before purchasing Botcon's preregistration package. It's $10 cheaper that way and you susbcribe for a year.

I've been wondering about that myself.

With all the negative comments about the club in the last couple of weeks, I thought they would be coming online with some posts.

Jon and Karl were never involved with any TF fanclub IIRC, prior to the current council. But Botcon (the convention, which is supposed to be a separate entity) is indeed their brainchild.

P.S.: why am I paying $40? I use a service provided by MBE that gives me an address in Florida. If you live in a country like mine, where the postal office's service is not consistently good, services like this are the best way if you want to order online. If I lived in the UK or Japan, I'd probably not use something like MBE, which isn't cheap.

-airfox

 

People leave the fandom every day, but it's sad when a major contributor like Jon (Who I've spoken with several times, although not recently) leaves. I wonder if Karl will follow suit, especially with the impending wedding...

To me it feels like the club is very "back burner". I can't help wondering if it would have been much better to keep the club and convention licenses seperate entities where there could have been cooperation between the two, but with a totally seperate staff, priorities and identity.

 

Just to add to what I posted before, the only thing I was really disappointed with was the lack of club incentives/exclusives and the store. If you’re outside the US your pretty much shut out of the club store as there shipping prices are very much ridicules, don’t even want to imagine what shipping outside North America costs. Was also disappointed as well as I was lead to believe they would do at least one exclusive toy for the store itself.

However like I said before though since Botcon has been announced and since I’m 99.9% sure I’m going I’ll renew, but only because in the end I’ll probably be only paying about $20 for the club itself as the rest of the cost for me is drowned out in the discount for the con.

But ya for me the disappointed has been the lack of incentives for actually being a member of the club itself as a newsletter and a free Energon basic just don’t cut it, especially with the price tag for non-US residence. That and I do feel for those truly overseas Transfans who are pretty much getting a bum deal all around. Not to mention there seems to be a degree of ambivalence on MC end which does little to inspire confidence  

 

I had totally missed this. What a shame. I wish Jon well in whatever pursuits he's decided to follow, however. Thanks, Nevermore, for bringing this to more people's attention.

 

I've made the decision for certain now - I'm passing up renewal for right now, as I'm not willing to accept Landquake as my "gift" for being a member on top of the other unresolved issues. However, if we get something jaw-dropping for a club exclusive that I'd be interested in having, I would gladly pay a non-member price, and by that point my membership would include the THIRD combiner as my freebie instead of Landquake, which would make the situation a bit more bearable. Until then, no dice MC.

 

I'll definitely be re-upping. I colored some stuff that's in the next magazine and I've used the club store on a few occasions so the member's price is nice.

 

If the Canadian price gives me a discount on Botcon when I get to go someday, then I'll become a member simply for that because it saves me money. All the other benefits are useless:
1. Membership toys. Even limited edition basics are not worth the price I'd be charged or the club.
2. Club Store. No good exclusives and no savings in comparison to retail. If something amazing made it into the store then I might think about it, but I could probably get it from other sources without paying the membership price.
3. Master Collector. Don't make me laugh. Classified ads are so 20th century. If I was going to sell my stuff I'd use eBay.
4. Club magazine. Should not exist. Information belongs to the entire fandom, not just people who think they need to be some part of a club to belong.
5. Fan-made content. Like information, it should be shared with the entire fandom. If oyu want your artwork to be seen by other fans then post it on the internet, same with your articles.
6. Club forum. Sorry, but I already have a damn good TF forum.

Really, the entire club should be scrapped. It seemed neat at the time, but all it does is give everyone a hassle and divide the fandom. It's communities like this one that are the real fan clubs. Hasbro's main online store can give us the exclusives, and info can be put on their website. THey gain nothing from having the club. Hell, they lose some publicity (only part of the Fandom gets the info), and eclusives would sell better on the Hasbrop store without another company adding thier markup.

 

i am renewing for hopes of a better second year, and because i think this is the year i will finally go to botcon

 

I'm going to allow my membership to lapse and see if I miss it. I am *so* sick of repaints and if that's all I get as a member, a repaint and some info I can find online the same day anyway, or the next day at the least, T.S. for Fun Productions. We're going to be doing a lot of home renovations, so Botcon is out for at least this year as well.

Basically, I'm getting Primus instead of joining the club. I'm fine with that.

 

really quick, does anyone know what other perks there are to the membership besides just the magazine with the club comic, and the exclusive yearly figure?

I seem to remember something involving convention discounts, but don't remember.

can anyone clarify?