regular figures...mega sized...what about minis?

FellowWLover

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Originally posted by ResidentLilly

What if, for example, you were able to buy figures from Muppet Central at less than what you pay now? Not saying that would ever even happen, but what if? That would be a members benefit and the site would profit slightly to allow some new aspect to the site that wasn't there before.
Funny that you say that, because just such a suggestion has often been made regarding other merchandise available through MC. I think that would be very fair, and would ease some of the concerns that have been raised, but I realize that it would be hard, if not impossible, to regulate. (Who is an official MC member, and who is just here for the discount? etc. etc.)

And thanks Matt for finding that old post. I appreciate that because it backs up what I said about not coming here to fleece anybody and having been invited to listen to opinions and feedback.
Yes your point has been made, but just to clarify, I never accused you of "fleecing" people. Suggesting that I believe it was your intent to raise interest in, and gain support (and sales) for the line is a far cry from saying that you tried to swindle the people here.
 

Luke

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Ken,

There is definitely a 'more than meets the eye' thing going on here - i don't think you've ever heard or been told the half of it, but thats whats at the root of all this and probably asking around would get you the candy coated version. At one time this site was hosted for free at Geocities and there was much more of a community style atmosphere (even the puppeteers joined in), lots more interaction with the people running the site and less of an emphasis on needing to make money. Then things went .com and there obviously was a certain emphasis placed on raising money because of the costs, but at the same time people liked a non-commercial atmosphere where they didn't see plugs for products continuously. After a lot of discussion on this it seems changes have been made to limit this and to the websites credit, it's got a lot better.

As to why the site shouldn't make money for itself - possibly two reasons. One, it has always been said that the site is non-commercial (unbiased and impartial) and that any money raised from the store goes back into the site running costs. Therefore being reliant on the products for income kinda takes a lot of that away. Also at one time people were asked to support the site store because it was working on a non-profit basis rather than carrying adverts or asking for donations, and quite a few people do so.

Secondly, being a totally unofficial site it uses copyrighted photos and reproduces other matierial without many restrictions because it isn't supposed to trade on the Muppet brand and has a good relationship (i think) with Henson getting the unofficial nod. Toughpigs hardly uses ANY Henson pictures or copyrighted matierial so it doesn't break any copyrights and also exists with no kickback links for Henson licensed products or adverts at all - the webmaster pays himself because of his own fan love (not saying that everyone can afford to do that, or people who don't have any lesser of a fan love though) - i plan to do the same with my ALF site. 'Kermitage.com' IS going to be an officially connected site with Henson, JHC own the domain name - the webmasters (Mar and Michael) have had meetings with Henson on what they can and can't do, what they have access to reproduce, and have even had to sign legal agreements. So basically being licensed characters that Muppet Central doesn't own or have the legal right to use it probably wouldn't be a good idea to go even more commercial - i think Henson have acted pretty well to accomodate all the Muppet websites - most of the Disney and WB fansites are much more restrictive and send out Cease and Desist letters for almost anything.

I'm not sure how i'd feel personally about 'Muppet Central' directly selling the figures at a discount price. On the one hand yes it would benefit fans a lot, but on the other hand, it might be seen as using the other content to drive people towards the figure sales pages, and i'd rather the sites focus was more on news and information rather than having to worry about selling things. I'm sure the Phillip would make the right decision about that, but i think if he could get the official nod from Henson that it's ok to do so, it would help and reassure people tons !

So to sum it all up - it's more about whether it's a bad thing for the site to have a financial relationship with the Muppets, rather than Palisades !
 

Louis Kazagger

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Well, I really don't see what choice the forum has other than to try to generate revenue to keep itself up. It's a lot to ask for the owner to pull money out of their pocket and keep this site up just for us. Over at the Simpsons Collector Sector, they pass the hat once every six months and everyone throws money at them for two or three days through Paypal until they say that they've reach their Target donation amount to fund the site for another six months. But they have a much larger membership group than we do here. I've lived the life where you get bombarded with advertisement on "free" web forums, and I think that's more of a turnoff than someone running an online shop to fund the site.
 

Louis Kazagger

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Originally posted by ResidentLilly
In any case, it's been one heck of an interesting debate to say the least.
I'll say. You just know this is never getting back to the topic of mini figures again. :wink:
 

ResidentLilly

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Yes your point has been made, but just to clarify, I never accused you of "fleecing" people. Suggesting that I believe it was your intent to raise interest in, and gain support (and sales) for the line is a far cry from saying that you tried to swindle the people here.

Oh sorry...my bad. I wasn't referring to anything you said specifically, just a general overview...I know you did not say that specifically.
 

Luke

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Originally posted by Louis Kazagger
Well, I really don't see what choice the forum has other than to try to generate revenue to keep itself up.
Yeah i couldn't agree more. Especially with all the extra members it has and bandwidth it must be using as the popularity increases. This site and also the management of it has improved tons in my opinion over the past year or so. Sure, it still doesn't have as much of the spirit and family atmosphere it once had as a small and very close community but there are a good crop of people and we've gained great features such as the Radio and the collectables section which are both cool and cost in some way.

Thats what i'm saying - you kinda have to maintain the right balance between trying to fund your site, and providing top notch features and content so it doesn't look like you are relying or basing things around sales too much. I guess it's one of the skills you learn as a webmaster and i'm sure ours would make a careful decision as to how things develop (and lets face it - we Muppet fans are pretty vocal if not). You also have to consider that you don't own the properties that your site is based on - a lot of the Simpsons sites didn't consider that and many ended up getting C&D's and getting shut down. Thankfully the Henson company are a little kinder to their fans !
 

beaker

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>>>If you don't want to talk about figures or Ken there are other threads and forums to go to.<<<

I had no idea, I really thought all things pertaining to the figures and Ask Ken was a sticky thread, impervious of non figure related posts^_^

Btw Luke...I remember those good ol times when JHC Muppeteers came on MC! *sigh*
 

FellowWLover

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Thought maybe since the release of "minis" (well, PVCS) has been officially announced it might be fitting to resurrect this thread. If I didn't know better, I would swear that Cory was clairvoyant. :stick_out_tongue:
 

Louis Kazagger

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Who are you, John Henry Williams sister or something? :wink:

Let the dead stay dead, start a new thread.
 

Luke

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Hey Louis,

Who is that in your avatar ? Is it from Fafner Hall or something ?
 
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