Botcon Transformers Club Panel Information

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Today the Transformers Convention Club Advisory Panel held a bit of a club meeting for those that wanted to attend. They took questions, and left some very leading hints as to what is coming, although they would not say exactly on any of them.

-They read the reactions of the fandom to the boxed set, and understand the position of those who are upset, but look at it this way: Hasbro was not going to produce the characters in CLASSICs, so why not make a set of figures that are desired, instead of one that people do not really want.

-The club website is a work in progress still, but they are looking to add pre-order ability to the club store, but otherwise keep things (like the forums) for cost's sake.

-If you don't like the exclusives prices, unfortunately that is not determined by them. Lower production runs cost more money, thus they make the exclusives more expensive to create, thus they need to sell a lot to be able to lower the prices. Takara does not like to make low production runs. If they make them, they like to do the different things at the same time (Example: Club free figure Breakaway, and the convention exclusives were made and shipped at the same time to try to lower costs).

-If you want more club exclusives figures you need to support them by buying what they have made in the past. Air Razor and Astrotrain still have about 200 waiting to be bought...they need support to give us more exclusives. The more support, the more exclusives we will get.

-Benson Yee's, "Razor's Edge" story is complete, and will be posted soon!

-The club would like to be able to offer its members access to HASBRO toys before other stores get them, but HASBRO's toy allocation department does not consider them a priority due to the lack of numbers interested in buying from them. If you would like that to change tell HASBRO.
Walmart is basically the company who calls the shots on case sizes and assortments, etc., because they are HASBRO's largest source for allocating sales.

-If you would lile to purchase things like the upcoming SDCC exclusives from the club store, tell HASBRO. Brian said they were allocated none of them this year!

-Brian mentioned the size of the Transformers Club Membership would soon surpass the size of the membership in the GI Joe Club.

TOY NEWS!!!

-Universe Seacons- brought up a couple times. They tried to dodge the question by saying...
"This Seacon thing sounds a little fishy to me."
"What's a Seacon? Some kind of bug?"
*I took the meaning of their gestures, playfulness, and seeming lack of knowledge to mean, they are on the way!"

-Unproduced Titaniums- If you've looked at the site galleries of the HASBRO tour, I am sure you saw the prototypes for Arcee, Cosmos, Shockwave, and Bumblebee/Cliffjumper. A member asked about them, and they danced around it (similar to the Seacons) saying that those may appear somewhere in the near future...They would not say where or how, but again, vague in answers.

-Choices on exclusives were explained (like blue translucent CLASSICs Mirage, instead of transparent clear), and they discussed some ideas they had that would never see fruition (Deluxe Insecticons set made from BW Insecticon molds).

Finally, they asked about locations for future Botcons, would people like a Transformers/Joe Convention together--which they mentioned, could lead to some very interesting exclusives, anyone want it to happen at Disney World or Disneyland, and that they would try to go Spring and Summer alternating for the two conventions. Europe and the UK were brought up, but they said it would be too cost prohibitive to get everyone and everything over there (sorry guys). Canada was also brought up, and there was a low moan from the crowd, indicating that they really didn't support it (sorry to you guys too!).

Overall, it was quite informational. They asked if people would like to see a leader class size exclusive, for a small percentage increase in price (10%, I think).

They stressed that they try to do everything keeping cost at a minimum amount, and trying to make it affordable. If we want things to be more affordable, more people need to be committed to being in the club, buying the exclusives, and participating in the events. If more items are produced or needed, the price goes down overall for those who are purchasing.

Electronic Registration was brought up, and they said it would significantly increase the price to have a system like that in place.

Finally, they mentioned that they do look at suggestions for the club, the club exclusives, and so forth. They asked the members in the audience a lot of questions, trying to involve us in the decision making process. Unfortunately we were no help, as we seemed to be equally split on everything.