I got an e-mail from Brian at the Transformers Collector’s Club regarding the free membership figure for this year, the repaint of Classics Rodimus into RID Side Burn:

This is going out to all members. 

Provided that your membership was in good standing on March 16th (which makes you eligible to receive this year’s free figure) the domestic figures are now in the mail.  If you joined after that date, you will receive next year’s figure.

Your Sideburn will arrive via standard rate mail so this can take as much as 3-4 weeks.  If you do not receive your figure by Sept 1, please let us know.  Please do not contact us before that date. 

For those not in the US:

The foreign mail pieces will depart by next Tuesday.  They go via DHL Worldmail.  DHL forwards them to your county’s mail system and then your postal carrier will deliver your piece.  These should be in your country’s mail system by the end of next week.

Thanks for your patience with the delivery on these figures!

Brian

I learned at Comic-Con that the head of Hasbro’s Star Wars figure sculpting department, Dave Vennemeyer, handles the Transformers Human Alliance humans, as well as the Star Wars Transformers heads? It’s true! He even had the original sculpts on hand alongside his Star Wars head sculpts on display at the Hasbro booth as he was showing off sculpting and discussing the art with con-goers. The detailing on the Sam Witwicky, Captain Lennox, and Agent Simmons original sculpts was outrageously accurate, done in one-to-one scale no less, before they got turned into molds and given production paint. Dave and his team also do the generic Human Alliance figures that are helmeted, many of which are found in the basic HA line, and said any scale issues are unintended. Dave doesn’t personally do all the figures, for example, I asked him about the Sgt Epps figure and he knew that one only based on its flaws, not its name.