Category Archives: Collector’s Club

All news pertaining to the G.I. Joe Collector’s Club and their events will be posted here.

GIJCC: New store details and information about renewing memberships online

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The GIJCC is in full damage-control mode these days after their databases were hacked and membership information was compromised.  Here’s the latest information from the Club about how to renew online and the future of the Club’s online store.

Hello and thanks for your patience.  We have come a long way since we turned off the stores approximately two weeks ago.

For those of you who are interested in the ongoing investigation, our original server has been taken offline and will be undergoing an investigation over the coming days.  The current server online is a clone of the original with all of the critical data removed.  If we find a reasonable cause for the security issue, we will let you know.

We have decided to change our store and forum software.  It has been many tedious hours converting the existing data to work with our new store.  All the membership data is loaded in the store.  The forum will be brought online at a later date.

With our new store software, we have figured out a way to extend the deadline a few days.  This means that everyone’s April magazine will run 7-10 days late.   Our new cutoff date and time is Wednesday March 21, 2012 at 5pm Central Time.

The store has been brought online before its completion to allow renewals and new memberships.  All of the features are not implemented at this time.   We apologize for the length of this email but there is a lot of new information that affects all members.

PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO READ THROUGH THIS THOROUGHLY BEFORE YOU TAKE ANY ACTION.  Here are the parameters for the new store:

1.  Each membership must have its own UNIQUE email account.

2.  Your store log in is the email address that this message came to.  Your password is the same as the one you have been using at the former club store and forum.  If you have forgotten your password, you can use the “remember me” function.  It only sends your password to your email account; it does not send your login.

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GIJCC News: new site and store are on “imminent”… Renewal deadline extended.

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Collector’s Club members received the following email this afternoon:

Dear G.I. Joe Collectors’ Club Member,

We have been working diligently to get a replacement store online for you. This is still in progress. However, we are ANTICIPATING that a temporary solution will be available later today (Friday). This is a totallly new website, with totally new software, at a totallly new provider. This commercial software has hundreds of stores and is fully PCI and PCI DSS complient. Their facility has been described to me as a military grade security facility.

Do not go to the old store site. I will provide you with the new url for this system in a later email and we will change the links at that time.

In addition, we have figured out a way to extend this month’s deadline for a few days (because of the new software). We are extending the deadliine date to Wednesday, March 21st, at 5pm central time in order for all of the mail that is enroute to arrive.

However, this will effect EVERYONE’S monthly magazine. The April issues will be approximately 7-10 days late.

Also, we will not be able to reinburse anyone who spent money on expediting renewals to us.

We again apologize to everyone for all of the issues we have been having. We think that you will be very pleased with the new features this store will offer you.

Brian

Knock on wood that the Club can get all of their current issues resolved.  2012 has not been a good year for them with continual delays with the much publicized Figure Subscription Service, delayed newsletters, and a vast data theft that left countless members’ personal information compromised.

March Collector’s Club newsletter delayed…

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It would seem that the GIJCC is going for the “hat trick” of issues with their monthly newsletter.  Both January and February announced that members were in the middle of the subscription service period for the FSS and now we have the following update from Brian regarding the March newsletter.

Hello,

It seems when it rains it pours.  We just found out this morning that our printer has failed to mail you the March issue. This will be going out by Friday so they are incredibly late.  If you don’t get yours by the end of the month, please let us know.  We apoligize [sic] for the delay.

Brian

It’s been reported on some forums that the Club was unaware the newsletter had not shipped until active members called in to report it.  Granted, some of us miss the days when we could just get a .pdf copy of the content on the club’s web page.   In this day and age, a reduced rate subscription with a .pdf-only option with email delivery seems to be a no-brainer.

Hasbro addesses fan concerns over credit card fraud with Fun Publications

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HunterPR, Hasbro’s PR firm, released the following statement regarding the cyber-security issues experienced by Fun Publications over the past few months:

“To the G.I. Joe and Transformers fan communities and Fun Publications customers,

Thank you for bringing your concern to our attention and for giving Hasbro the opportunity to respond to a matter that impacts its G.I. Joe and Transformers brands.  Please know we take all consumer concerns very seriously and are in regular contact with Fun Publications (our licensee) about the possibility of a breach in security to their online purchasing system for the G.I. Joe and Transformers Collectors’ Clubs.  Fun Publications is also taking this matter very seriously and is diligently working at identifying any problems, the number of customers affected and ways to ensure it does not happen to any more customers. Hasbro wants consumers to have a positive experience at all touch points for its brands, including transactions with its licensees.  As such, we are confident that Fun Publications has detailed instructions and pertinent information available for those consumers who believe they may have been targeted by credit theft via their portals.

Based on our extensive conversations with the Fun Publications team Hasbro wants to convey the following to the fan communities:

Fun Publications has assured us that they are taking necessary measures to curb additional issues, and they are working with third party experts to identify the problem.  They anticipate knowing and communicating the cause of the breach as soon as possible to those affected.

– They believe that the number of customers affected is low relative to the volume of sales transactions made.

– However, if you believe fraudulent charges have been made to your credit card after making a purchase with any portals for the G.I. Joe or Transformers Collectors’ Clubs, we urge you to contact Fun Publications immediately and provide them with the information requested at https://www.transformersclub.com/tccccinfo.cfm or http://gijoeclub.com/ccinfo.cfm by using the “Contact Us” link at the bottom of these pages.

– Fun Publications can also be reached at the following number for additional consumer affairs inquiries relating to the G.I. Joe and Transformers Collectors’ Clubs at (817) 448-9863 during regular business hours.

– As more information becomes available, they will be contacting all affected customers who have notified them about the issue.

Thank you again to all of the fans of our Transformers and G.I. Joe brands for their continued support and for the opportunity to respond to this matter.”

Fun Publications also mentioned the following information on their Facebook page:

As we continue to work on our systems, you will see some of our services go offline and then come back, so please be patient as we preserve data and clone servers and websites.

We are also taking this opportunity to remove all non-essential services from our ecomerce server. So in the short term in the next day or so, the club forums will be discontinued. It will be several days until we are ready to bring them back under an entierly new piece of software. I know alot of you have been asking for this so, we have decided to replace several of our systems with new packages. This means that you will not have access to the forum for a while at all. We do plan to make the old forum viewable (no posts) in the future.

Since we do not know exactly what data was taken, we are recommending that if your have used common logins or passwords with our system and any other system that your change your passwords in those systems immidiately (especially any financial sysstems)! We will be resetting all of the passwords in our system very soon. Please don’t delay in changing your passwords in other locations.

In addition, we have found a few recent aticles concerning security issues with other vendors. If you use these services, these issues could possibly impact you. Please read the attached links:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/10/itunes-hack-unauthorized-charges-apple_n_1268593.html?

http://www.greenpois0n.co/itunes-accounts-being-hacked-to-steal-money-from-store-credit.html

Thanks for your support in this difficult time. We will continue to work with our vendors to correct the issues and we apologize for any inconvenience this has caused any of our members.

JBL will continue to provide updates as this situation develops.

Deadline for GIJCC renewals is STILL March 16th

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It’s been no secret that the G.I. Joe Collector’s Club has fallen on some pretty hard times lately in terms of public relations.  First, there have been the continual delays in launching the Figure Subscription service.  Secondly, the convention date and hotel were changed weeks after being formally announced.  Mostly recently, members of both the G.I. Joe and Transformers Collector’s Clubs have been reported fraudulent charges used at Fun Publications in the past few years.  The club was slow to respond but finally acknowledged the issue last week — by suspending online ordering capabilities.

The big question on EVERYONE’S mind has been — what are we supposed to do about renewals?  March 16th is the deadline to renew membership in order to receive either the 12″ Man of Evil or the 4″ Footloose action figure premiums.

Yesterday, Brian Savage set out the following email stating that, regardless of any security issues, the March 16th deadline is firm.

    This update is going out to all members:

Due to the issue with processing credit cards we have currently suspended your ability to renew and join the club online. The deadline is coming March 16th for you to be eligible to receive the 2012 free club exclusives.

On Monday, we will have a pdf online on the club site for membership renewals and new memberships that you can mail in with a check or money order.  We will process your membership as soon as they arrive.

Please note that the March 16th deadline is a hard deadline (in house) so please make sure any mail is in the postal system by March 9th.

If you want to receive the free club exclusive Footloose or Man of Evil, your membership must be active as of March 16th.  At the bottom of this email you will find your expiration date.  If it is after March 16, 2012, you are good to go for the 2012 figure.

Also, please log into the club club site <https://www.gijoeclub.com/club/> and ensure you have the figure selected you want to receive for this year, either 3 3/4″ or 12″.

Thanks for your support and patience during this difficult time.

Brian

Questions/comments about this announcement should be directed to admin2@funpubinc.com .

footloose
man-of-evil

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G.I. Joe Collector’s Club addresses credit card concerns

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It seems that not even the G.I. Joe Collector’s Club is immune to computer hacks and credit card schemes.  Recently, members of both the G.I. Joe Club and the Transformers Collector’s Club began reporting suspicious charges on credit cards used at Master Collector’s web stores in the past year.   Members have reported charges as low as $1 to $1600.00 being attempted from locations all around the world.

If you have been affected by malicious charges on a credit card that has been used at the Collector’s Club site, please send the following information to admin2@funpubinc.com:

We do take information on all customers having an issue with their card so if you did have unauthorized charges on the card, please reply with the following information:

1. Please send the EXACT name of merchant as it is written on your statement for the fraudulent charges.
2. Amount and date of suspect charge.
3. Bank your card is drawn on and if it is a debit or credit card.
4. Device and browser (and version) you used for your last payment with us before you saw a fraudulent charge (ie, android phone, computer, iphone, browser and version).
5. Were you on a public computer? If private, is any wi-fi on the network password protected?
6. Were you on a public wi-fi network?
7. If you were at home or work, what internet provider did you use?
8. On your last transaction with us, did you receive any kind of error message (card declined, 404 error, programming type error). If you did receive an error, how many times did you resubmit your information?
9. Charges listed(name and date) on your credit card in last 6 months.
10. When have you used your card with us, date, item(s), amount in the last 6 months.

It is very difficult to track credit card fraud. With your help, we can see if there are any parallels between those reporting an issue.

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GIJCC: 2012 Renewal figure video featuring Footloose

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It seems that everything drops on the weekends I’m away from my computer.

The G. I. Joe Collector’s Club released a new “video preview” of the 2012 1:18 renewal figure– G.I. Joe Infantryman Footloose!  The figure is a great homage to the original, right down to the helmet and rocket launcher.  Lucky fans who were able to acquire one of the Special Mission: Brazil 2 convention sets last year have already had the opportunity to preview the new head sculpt in person as Claymore and Footloose have always been “tooling twins.”

Last year’s renewal figure Dial Tone sold out in record time and is now commanding some decent prices on the secondary market.  If you’re at all interested in this figure, make certain your club membership is active as of March 16, 2012.  Just visit GIJoeClub.com to ensure Footloose will be arriving at your barracks!

*cue the Kenny Loggins music*

Joe Con 2012: A change in the dates and venue

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Members of the GIJCC received the following email this weekend regarding some changes to both the venue and the dates of the 2012 Collector’s Convention to be held in New Orleans, LA:

Please note that due to circumstances beyond our control with the anticipated venue for the convention, the dates of GIJoeCon will now be June 28-July 1 at a new venue, the Hilton New Orleans Riverside. We apologize for any problems or issues this change of date has caused. We hope to see you all in New Orleans June 28-July 1 at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside. Convention (attending and non-attending) registrations will start sometime in February.  Again we apologize for any problems or issues this change of date has caused

You can now make your hotel reservations at GIJoeCon.com.

For those folks who’ve already booked flights, here’s hoping that you can reschedule without too much hassle.  It is interesting to note that this means the con will be the same weekend that G.I. Joe: Retaliation hits theatres.    Gee, I wonder what one of the con events will be this year…

 

 

Update on the Figure Subscription Service from the Collector’s Club

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As some of you might have noticed, the latest Collector’s Club newsletter seemed to get ahead of itself with regards to the “ever-forthcoming” Figure Subscription Service from the G.I. Joe Collector’s Club.

Last night, members of the club received the following update:

Here is the update for the Figure Subscription Service:  When we published the last club magazine, we thought that we had the FSS finished but we found another set of bugs.  We are still hoping to finish this any day as they are very close.

We apologize for this dragging out as we never intended for it to take this long.  We are just as frustrated as you are, so please hang in there. The end date will be adjusted accordingly.

Thanks for your understanding and support,

Brian

So, the news is that there is no news.  While I can understand that this is a brand new endeavor for the club and that there is a bit of a learning curve, it would seem that the PR branch of GIJCC has been putting the “cart before the horse” pretty frequently by speaking well before things were ready.  All of the momentum that was gained by the image releases last year will have to be regained in order for this to be a true break-away success.  Hopefully the folks in Texas can get things sorted out in due time and can give us some actual concrete information in the near future.

Dice
Desert Grunt
Nano-BAT
Quarrel
Topside
firstfiverevealfweb
figsubpackaging
ironclaw
jinxfweb
tntfweb
383009_10150402870317679_7647037678_8122753_467447345_n
01_cover_girl
02_topside
barrelrollfweb
surefirefweb
covergirl2web
bigboafweb
374880_10150393321892679_7647037678_8090462_1507278753_n
nanobatartweb
03_iron_klaw

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Card art for all 12 “Club Sub” figs and terms & conditions released!

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Okay, it’s a mega-update for the G.I. Joe Collector’s Club Figure Subscription Service (aka “Club Sub”) and it’s full of card art and terms and conditions!

First off, over the past few weeks the GIJCC has been releasing images of the card art for all 12 of the revealed FSS figures.  Now, this has caused some degree of controversy over the perceived quality of the art.  Personally, I feel that’s for each fan to decide on their own.  All 12 artwork previews are posted below for your viewing pleasure.

Secondly, the club has released a few head shots of the forthcoming figure including close-ups of Jinx, Topside, Big Boa and, most recently, Iron Klaw.  It seems the beret on the former G.I. Joe Extreme cast member is removable!

Lastly, the GIJCC has posted a link to a “Terms and Conditions” document for the FSS.  (No, the pricing STILL isn’t available– just the same $20 – $25 range that has been tossed around for months.)    It’s a PDF download and can also be accessed on the FSS Subscription page of GIJoeClub.com.

Check out ALL of the released images of the FSS offerings belows!

Dice
Desert Grunt
Nano-BAT
Quarrel
Topside
firstfiverevealfweb
figsubpackaging
ironclaw
jinxfweb
tntfweb
383009_10150402870317679_7647037678_8122753_467447345_n
01_cover_girl
02_topside
barrelrollfweb
surefirefweb
covergirl2web
bigboafweb
374880_10150393321892679_7647037678_8090462_1507278753_n
nanobatartweb
03_iron_klaw

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