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 Post subject: Re: No more JoeCon/Joe Club after 2016?
PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 12:15 am 
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Joined: Tue Jun 26, 2007 10:19 am
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Lance Sputnik wrote:
Major Creator wrote:


If someone else outbids FunPub, or gets the license in some other way, I sincerely hope they transfer all the existing memberships, and do a much better job of things. (Not that FunPub is doing a bad job, there are just some areas where there could be some improvement)


Yes. They were doing a

BAD

JOB


I'm wondering if the credit card scandal had something to do with them losing the license.
I'm sure the constant convention registration problems also didn't help.


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 Post subject: Re: No more JoeCon/Joe Club after 2016?
PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 12:32 am 
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Goldbug wrote:
I'm wondering if the credit card scandal had something to do with them losing the license.
I'm sure the constant convention registration problems also didn't help.


Are we 100% sure they lost the license? Or are we simply getting carried away?

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 Post subject: Re: No more JoeCon/Joe Club after 2016?
PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 1:05 am 

Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2007 10:04 pm
I've gotta think that they will have some sort of club and convention planned. Fun Pub was bad at everything. How could anyone do worse?


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 Post subject: Re: No more JoeCon/Joe Club after 2016?
PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 2:13 am 
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Bad at everything? There's Convention figures that introduced fascinating new characters and troopers to the line -- COIL Troopers, Dreadheads, Major Bludd's Skull Squad, updated versions of the Red Shadows, exclusive figures like Big Lob -- and when they started doing figures in the modern style, between the Convention Sets and FSS figures, they made not only a number of interesting new characters, but modern versions of established characters that Hasbro NEVER would have bothered with. Do you think there would be a modern version of the Oktober Guard without the Club? Or Topside? Or Pathfinder? Or many of the international characters? Or Pythona?

But, oh, no, Fun Pub was "bad at everything".

Like to see you do better with some of what they had to deal with along the way -- including ungrateful fans.


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 Post subject: Re: No more JoeCon/Joe Club after 2016?
PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 8:56 am 
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Maybe it's time to pass the torch.
The various debacles, the annoying pace of the exclusive reveals and the way things were handled as if it was still 1998...

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 Post subject: Re: No more JoeCon/Joe Club after 2016?
PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 9:59 am 
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The king is dead, all hail the new...whomever wants to take over?

I come to bury Fun Pub, not to praise it. I know, I know, I shouldn't go into internet attack mode before the body is even cold. That isn't really the purpose for this post. This is really about what comes next.

The rampant speculation that Fun Publications (formerly Master Collector) aka the GI Joe Collectors Club and Transformers Collectors Club is done after 2016 is still speculation, albeit more than likely. What does it mean and why? I'm sure the eventual truth will surface, but I think it is safe to assume for now that the contractual license with Hasbro has not been extended further.

As one might expect, the news has been met with equal enthusiasm and sadness. It seemed for every good thing the Club did, it also did something equally absurd. Registration has been a fiasco every year. The data breach. The Club that was run like a business with very little membership involvement. The cost. Holding on too tightly to the fading die hard collectors while eschewing the casual fans.Too slow to adapt to the changing times.

Looking back though, from the original o-ring Crimson Strike set to this year's as of yet unannounced theme, the Club put out a ton of product. Some years they put out more product then Hasbro. Let that one sink in for a minute. Between the Con set, membership figures, Club exclusives, and the Figure Subscription Service, the past few years have put the 50th (51st?) to shame as far as quantity goes. They got Boss Fight involved to create new parts. After years of being on the con survey, they are finally releasing versions of both Billy and Pythona. Whatever the reasoning behind the final decision was, it wasn't because the Club couldn't think of anything to do with the Hasbro molds.

Even the newsletter, if you received it, has improved leaps and bounds over the newspaper version. There is real content in there. Most of it contributed by fans in the community. A decade ago colored, full page comics would have been a welcome addition.

Let's not forget the costumer service, the one area where the Club excelled. I say this with the utmost sincerity and appreciation, anyone who ever had the pleasure of dealing with Angie over the years can back me up on this, the Club wanted us to be happy with their product. Even after telling people repeatedly to check their sets during the show for any possible errors or omissions, they would still replace items months afterwards. Over the years, I may not have always agreed with the response I received from the Club, but I at least got a well thought out response. I don't just mean in regards to complaints either. They have always responded to issues that have come up, wherever it has been brought up, almost to their own detriment. A handful of people put a lot of time and effort into making things they thought Collectors would want.

I say all that to say this, if there even is someone else waiting in the wings, and there's no telling if there is or not right now, they will have some mighty big shoes to fill. The direction of the brand isn't clear. Or I'm just in denial, which is also possible. In either case Hasbro's involvement isn't a given. If I can offer any advise it would be this; learn from previous mistakes, communication is key, get a web developer on staff, use the tools at your disposal, do something for the kids, most importantly be careful what you wish for because it might just come true. As fans it also means I our expectations need to change. We'll either get nothing or what we do get will be very different then what came before. I can only hope that someone else picks up the mantle and is able to bring as many of us together again.

Which brings me to this, if 2016 is the last Joe Con ever we should try to be there. All of us. You have 6 months to figure it out. If you aren't stacked 12 people to a room, then you're doing it wrong. Saturday walk in admission is $15, the price of a movie. And this year the Club's "Let's Make a Deal" table should be epic as they blow out everything left in Savage's storage. But more importantly, we'll be there. All of us. Let's do it with gusto and give a proper sendoff, whatever that may mean to you. Let's go out with a bang instead of whimper, not because you want to throw last minute support the Club's way, but because as Yoda put it, "Clouded the future is."

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 Post subject: Re: No more JoeCon/Joe Club after 2016?
PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 11:22 am 
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If the License does change hands, I want some serious benefits for the price we pay each year, at least for the "first time." I'm talking a patch, a membership card, a nifty certificate or a poster, discounts at the store.

Or even just a lower price per year.

If they offer membership figures, they better be something, because FunPub has been doing a pretty good job so far (at least for the Adventure Team figures, I have no input for the little guys).

The Admin and whoever's operating it needs to have a better grasp of things, and they need to not be so tyrannical over the forum.



P.S. I looked, there isn't an Action Man club as far as I can tell. Should we make one?

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 Post subject: Re: No more JoeCon/Joe Club after 2016?
PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 11:26 am 
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I think someone at last year's Joe Con put it best on the survey.

Q: Who is your favorite GI Joe enemy?
He responded: Hasbro.

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 Post subject: Re: No more JoeCon/Joe Club after 2016?
PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 11:47 am 
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What other companies are even in the same business of running another company's fan club, that could be in the running to replace Fun? What else could/does Fun do to earn their living?

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 Post subject: Re: No more JoeCon/Joe Club after 2016?
PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 11:53 am 
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The Club has responded on Facebook to questions with:

"In regard to GIJCC memberships, the only information we have at this time is what is posted online.

Thanks and have a Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays!"

So, to anyone with any knowledge of these types of licensing agreements, if they knew it was over, would they be prohibited from saying so? Why would they stick to the legal talk instead of just saying it outright when asked on social media? Is this just a legal thing where they can't say it's over and the fact that they are not saying they are working towards a deal means it is over or does this possibly mean they are still in negotiations, but they don't know what will happen? In sports, they at least say they are working on a deal when they are.

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 Post subject: Re: No more JoeCon/Joe Club after 2016?
PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 12:08 pm 
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No, P-luv - you guys can't stay at my house for JoeCon.

Zombieguide said he had to sell his house at a loss just to get away from the nerd stank leftover from the couple of times he hosted con-goers...

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 Post subject: Re: No more JoeCon/Joe Club after 2016?
PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 12:21 pm 
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Dusty79, it could very well come down to it not being their announcement to make. If Hasbro forced the change, then it is on them to announce their plans.

If the Club made the change, then they still have a year with the license, a Con, FSS orders to fill, and a bunch of other irons in the fire. Why talk about 2017 when you're still working on 2015-2016?

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 Post subject: Re: No more JoeCon/Joe Club after 2016?
PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 12:49 pm 
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GITrekker wrote:
Bad at everything? There's Convention figures that introduced fascinating new characters and troopers to the line -- COIL Troopers, Dreadheads, Major Bludd's Skull Squad, updated versions of the Red Shadows, exclusive figures like Big Lob -- and when they started doing figures in the modern style, between the Convention Sets and FSS figures, they made not only a number of interesting new characters, but modern versions of established characters that Hasbro NEVER would have bothered with. Do you think there would be a modern version of the Oktober Guard without the Club? Or Topside? Or Pathfinder? Or many of the international characters? Or Pythona?

But, oh, no, Fun Pub was "bad at everything".

Like to see you do better with some of what they had to deal with along the way -- including ungrateful fans.


You're making a false equivalency argument here. You're comparing the items the club put out to Hasbro. Of course, Hasbro wasn't making any of those items, they had the club for that. The correct comparison would be the existing club to their theoretical replacement. It's possible that we would not have gotten some of those items. But, they would have been replaced by other, different items that you'd enjoy just as much.

Most of the items that club put out would have been done by another outfit because they were obvious, fan requested items. If there was another group running the exclusives, you'd probably be just as pleased with what they were doing, even if it were different than what's actually happening since you'd be none the wiser.

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 Post subject: Re: No more JoeCon/Joe Club after 2016?
PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 1:25 pm 
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Someone brought up a good point upthread...are there other companies that even do this sort of thing--3rd party fan clubs producing product and conventions?

Seems like if Hasbro doesn't renew the contract, the whole concept is going to die.

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 Post subject: Re: No more JoeCon/Joe Club after 2016?
PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 1:59 pm 
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I went over to a Transformers site to read their take/comments/rants and saw someone comlaining that the TFClub was just a way to fleece people to get money to sink into the JoeClub, I thought that was funny since we complain about prices too.

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