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)Originally Posted by Paulbot
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.
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