TFCC Closing?

[Trent]

You know you're doing something right when news of your clubs closure excites the fandom more than anything you ever did with the license you held

[Paulbot]

I saw this and wondered if they were moving instead to a year by year membership. Primus knows they have trouble keeping things organised so if everyone's membership expired at the same time that in theory would be easier (if their system could cope!).

Still if it's on Seibertron, the official news site of the Club and hasn't been officially contradicted yet...

[DELTAprime]

If they are closing as the fandom is speculating I hope Hasbro brings the club figures in house. Much as I like a bunch of their figures the QC issues (and price) really scare me off.

[griffin]

Still if it's on Seibertron, the official news site of the Club and hasn't been officially contradicted yet...

That's the telling thing isn't it... if it is posted on Seibertron as news and not taken down or corrected by the admin or their FunPub spokesman (Jesse), it does mean that something is definitely changing. (it's just typical of FunPub to stay silent when the fandom's rumour mode snowballs out of control)

But I don't think the Club is closing at the end of 2016... because they are promoting their 2017 Subscription set in the next issue of the Magazine.

I agree with what Paulbot mentioned - that it is likely they are moving to a January-December membership cycle, to make it easier to track, as well as align the club comic to it (which would always be one issue out for their March membership drive/cutoff that a bulk of member would sign up to for the Membership toy). It might also be to give them more consistency with the membership fees, so that people aren't able to squeeze two BotCon discounts out of the one membership fee if you have an April/May convention after a June-September convention.
The drawback of this will be for those who transition and get less than 12 months membership in 2016 despite paying for the full 12 months (even if they get all the same things like the Membership toy and BotCon discount).
It would also make it difficult to encourage people to register between February to October (like at BotCon to get walk-ins to join), as people won't want to pay too far in advance of the next year's membership cycle.

Or... they could be dropping the membership element of the Club completely, and just be a Convention organiser and online store. After all, they can drop the magazine or have it as a paid subscription, and sell the Membership toys like their other exclusives, and business would actually continue as normal (with everything just having a single price instead of a non-members price that no one probably even pays anyway).
After the last few years of no members website or incentive to join if you aren't using it for a BotCon discount or access to a Club exclusive like the Subscription sets, the membership concept is a bit of a dead weight for FunPub, and it couldn't have been making them any money after 6 colour magazines and Deluxe toy (the various member discounts wouldn't be a loss to them as the non-member prices would have instead been a bonus).


For me and for other fans, I just hope this doesn't impact on BotCon, or see its demise, as it is still an iconic event... but a growing number of people are just preferring to sacrifice that experience to make sure FunPub don't get their money.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Or... they could be dropping the membership element of the Club completely, and just be a Convention organiser and online store.

They've pretty much been that since the credit card shambles and their official forum dropped off the face of the internet, so I'd say this as the case. If it is to be so, they will just be another toy store, that do the botcon.

Kinda sad, so much wasted opportunities. I would like Hasbro to step in and slap some customer satisfaction conditions on the terms of the license to be honest.

Wonder what their twitter feed says...? Oh probably nothing, I even have trouble finding it most of the time.

[griffin]

They've pretty much been that since the credit card shambles and their official forum dropped off the face of the internet, so I'd say this as the case. If it is to be so, they will just be another toy store, that do the botcon.

So basically they will now become Men In Black from the 1990s... and we saw how that turned out as an online store hosting a fan convention that flopped and making heaps of exclusive toys that they couldn't sell.

I guess it's no surprise, as someone pointed out a few months back that their facebook banner lists themselves as a toyshop and collectables store.

[griffin]

Looks like I was wrong.... it is the end.

According to Pete's Facebook page, BotCon 2016 is basically going to be a farewell party to FunPub's Transformers elements.
(a screenshot on TFW in case Pete pulls that facebook posting)

Looks like I might have to make sure I go to BotCon next year... just in case there isn't another one for a while, or at all.

I really hope that Hasbro are planning ahead like they did during the collapse of 3H in 2004 (in which they approached Brian the week before the 2004 Official Convention, with the offer of taking on the license).

(I think I've said enough about FunPub in the past, and people here know what I think of them, so I won't be kicking them while they are down... I am more focussed on what next for us in terms of an officially sanctioned Convention and Hasbro fan-targetted toys, as FunPub was the only source of Hasbro exclusives that weren't released by Hasbro (like SDCC exclusives) - TakaraTomy still has Ehobby, Million Publishing and TakaraTomyMall for collector exclusives.)

[CHILENO20]

TBH, are we all really that surprised? Hopefully the license is picked up by someone or maybe Hasbro actually do it themselves.

[fatbot]

Looks like I was wrong.... it is the end.

According to Pete's Facebook page, BotCon 2016 is basically going to be a farewell party to FunPub's Transformers elements.
(a screenshot on TFW in case Pete pulls that facebook posting)

Looks like I might have to make sure I go to BotCon next year... just in case there isn't another one for a while, or at all.

I was just thinking the same thing, It's just a bloody hassle getting there.

[kup]

You know you're doing something right when news of your clubs closure excites the fandom more than anything you ever did with the license you held

Yeah a lot of the fan forums are really positively excited on this news. Sure reflects how horribly they have ran the official fandom and cons.