SWFUK PODCAST Rebranding

Evening Everyone

A couple of our listeners have asked the reasons for our brand change since the release of the newest SWFUK Podcast. We thought it would be best to share the reasons with everyone so that you can see where we are coming from.

1. Possibly offensive logo/name - We all knew the logo and the name was edgy but at a convention where many families attend it became obvious that is was actually quite offensive. It got to the point where it became uncomfortable and a little embarrassing to wear the forum t-shirt. Although these T-shirts are great at more adult orientated events like Farthest From, they were found to be inappropriate at events like Celebration and UK based comic cons where various generations attend the events.
As Edd has pointed out, SWFUK is something which has only appeared recently since the logo competition and is not really how the forum should be referred to, it is Star Wars Forum UK. Should we have rebranded as StarWarsForumUKPodcast? Well maybe, but it is too long, too much of a mouthful and there were also other issues which we'll come to next.

2. UK - It was clear that using UK in our name limited us, this became clear having received feedback whilst in Anaheim. Many people who we spoke with in Anaheim, who said they were interested in the Podcast believed that it was a UK only show and didn't listen due to the fact that they didn't believe it would be relevant to themselves. After discussing this in depth amongst the five of us it was something we had to take notice of as currently only around the 50% mark of our listeners are from the UK, the rest are from various countries around the world and we feel we need to appeal to all nationalities.

3. Palitoy Colours - This had no relevance to the majority of Anaheim attendees who'd never heard of Palitoy. Although this is a minor issue when we decided to rebrand, we did decide to choose a theme and ethos fairly quickly which kept the uniqueness of what we are with a more global appeal.

4. The Forum - Let's be honest here, SWFUK is not a family friendly forum, nor do any of us wish it to be, we like it precisely as it is. However, when the podcast Anaheim attendees were asked by various families about the forum and about how to register because they enjoyed Star Wars it was difficult explaining how the forum worked.


This being said we are really no different than when we first started the Podcast, other than a little bit more wiser and open to more suggestions about how to improve the product. We are all still SWFUK guys at heart and will continue to promote and interact with the greatest forum in the Star Wars Collecting Galaxy. It is all five of our homes and the show will still reflect that in each and every episode.

We all hope you can understand our reasons for rebranding and we hope you all continue to be a huge part of our future. If anyone has any questions regarding the rebranding then please feel free to ask any questions on this thread and one of us will answer as soon as we see it.

Many thanks for your continuing support.

Thanks for posting Stu, all makes perfect sense and as I said to Grant last week I never really thought about the logo being offensive, but it is (hence why I've added the dot in the middle.) Best of luck with the podcast, I'm sure it will continue to grow!

I never saw that either but now it's pointed out, it makes sense.

Good luck with the re-branding I'm sure the Pod Cast will go from strength to strength, it's always been a very entertaining and informative resource and long may it continue!

I like the connection the podcast has with the forum. In the same way the Chivecast feels very much connected to Rebelscum.

If the rebranding is mainly focused on the offensive logo, should we be looking at rebranding the forum as well?

I'll be honest, I'm sad to see you guys move away from the SWF name as I felt that the podcast really worked well as a talk show put together by forum members for forum members because not only did it promote and help the forum to grow, it involved the users heavily too. I'm sure you will manage it just fine but the idea of going it alone and moving away from SWF yet still calling this place home somehow is a little confusing to me and might be to future listeners?

On one hand I can see how (especially after presenting live at Anaheim) you would want to appeal to a larger audience and that's not a bad thing at all but on the other, this thing about offending families + younger people with the name has me scratching my head a bit. Have families + children really been your target audience up to now? If not, are you changing the format of the show to be family friendly? I quite liked the banter!

Also, I'm sure American people would have understood what the U.K. part of the name was all about if the name had simply been changed from SWFUK to SWF U.K. - or? I always liked that while you catered to Vintage fans all over the world you were still distinctly British, so please don't change too much as I fear you might lose your identity!

All I can say is I wish you guys well in the future as you are all very nice chaps, just remember us plebs on SWFUK ( ) when you've become the kings of vintage podcasts!

I really don't think much will change.

SWFUK will always be the first stop and focus and its always been about giving a platform for collectors to talk about the things their passionate about. This is not a critique of our home.

But the one reason we had a booth at Anaheim was to do some market research. And that market research overwhelmingly gave profound evidence to make these decisions.

So, its exciting and worth exploring. If its not fun, its not worth doing. And constantly evolving makes its interesting and worth the heavy commitment.

I'd be surprised if anyone cared at all, but its totally awesome if people do.

Hopefully it will get better and more people will get involved.

I kind of agree with the SWFUK being a tad offensive. It's always reminded me of the FCUK brand. It doesn't offend me personally but you know, maybe some Americans, old folk, prudish mums, church goers etc. It's the sort of thing that little kids might snigger at

Just as well the lads didn't go with the 'SWFUK'ers' design on the t-shirts, eh? :wink:

fuzzybuzzytoys said:

I like the connection the podcast has with the forum. In the same way the Chivecast feels very much connected to Rebelscum.

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I don't see that connection Jamie - very litte RS talk on the chivecast other than the big stories. More of a SWCA link or a link to the 'inner circle'

I also like the podcast's link with this site but it does make it quite niche, and a wider appeal has to be a good thing if they want more listeners - good luck to them

Innercircle yes and Swca absolutely. But they also lift there feedback directly from Rebelscum and also any guests seem to be Rebelscum regulars (and not just the inner circle ones).

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I like a podcast where you can feel connected to the content. When the boys talk about latest acqusitions or fav threads it makes me listen up as it's something I might be aware of or read recently. I think I'm going to miss that connection when they talk about someone somewhere who's done something in the world.

But times move on and I understand the reasons for wanting a 'bigger audience'.

Just a shame.

There will always be a constant link to LA on this forum as well as other places. SWFUK will always be a priority.

Try this:

We are the SWFUK podcast, linked to a forum but a seperate entity. You dont have to be part of a forum, but we would like you to check it out. The content on that forum is what we are linked to but doesn't reflect what we think as its an open forum. We are from the UK, but we are a global podcast so just because it says UK, it doesn't mean that we are only for people from the UK or talk about UK collectables.

or

We are Vintage Rebellion: A vintage Star Wars collecting podcast.

Can you see the complications of trying to market ourselves?

As stated, not much will change- but things will be easier for us and we are hoping that the work we put in will be enjoyed by more people and we are able to get more varity of people on the show for more enjoyable listening.

Grant_C said:

...Can you see the complications of trying to market ourselves?....

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****ing hell Grant. Another fallen. Day ruined

Jamie, we will still be pulling items out of Latest Acquisitions from the thread as well as discussing threads from the forum as we have always done. In all honesty apart from the name there won't be a mass change, yes we can go and pull stories from Facebook, RS, TIG etc but In fairness we have done that in the past anyway.

We had a vast array of feedback whilst in Anaheim and yes it was predominantly from Americans but the lads also spoke with British and European potential listeners, it was commented on many, many times, this wasn't an isolated incident and we have to take that feedback on board.

I think until we have released a couple of podcasts under the new name it's impossible for us to demonstrate how little change you will see to the format, but hopefully after June/July's episodes you will realise that it's still the same banter/forum recognition etc that there has always been.

I do the focal interview each month and on the first 12 podcasts we had several forum members on (Iain, Jez, Mr Caswell, Jason, Chris, Joe, Gary, Andy) and the other interviewees were more users of RS (Shawn, Tim, Brian, Bruce). The balance for interviews will still be coming from all formats and lots more interviews from this forums users, we have always endeavoured to try and interview all types of collectors from the smaller collector through to some of the worlds largest, and this will not change. In fact we will hopefully have an interview with Mr SWFUK himself over the next few months as I will hopefully be interviewing Edd.

Seriously give the new show a couple of podcasts and then please by all means bring this back up but the forum is still our base and will remain that way.


The statement from a couple of posts up stating all Americans are "****ing stupid" is massively offensive. There are many Americans who use this forum as their main collecting forum and every one of the ones I've dealt with have been top stand out blokes, think that comment from a Mod is a little disappointing to be honest.

Yeah- good post Stu, have to agree that all the Americans i met in Anaheim were legends.

The RS, TIG, SWFUK community is a tiny piece of the vintage collecting community. Rebelscum definatly has the largest foot print.

To neglect other groups and indiviuals is no diffrent than excluding collectors that don't own a cabinet full of grail items.

The concept since inception is to give collectors a platform to share their passion regardless of background and provide information.

Collecting is a celebration and we feel this is a way to expand the party and give better content to any one who listens to it.

I am suprised that people would care or think its anything more than giving a better product. I guess its good that people do.

Stu, my comments are not on the quality of the podcast. I'm sure it will be top notch and we all appreciate the hard work thats involved. My comments are purely about the 'rebranding'. Terms like 'taken onboard feedback..blah blah' and 'marketing ourselves blah blah' etc just leave me a little cold.

We ran it up the flag pole, and saw who saluted...

:lol:

I'm sure the rebranding will be just fine. We all know it's the SWFUK lads doing it. If it opens doors at CE3 and beyond, that's got to be a good thing.

The only thing I would question is the choice of name.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Vintage-Rebellion/317877821572820

Vintage Rebellion are a band with a web presence already. Maybe pick a name with no existing google hits?

cheers Jason

naughtyjedi said:

We ran it up the flag pole, and saw who saluted...

:lol:

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:lol:

from the get go, we employed discontinuous 360 degree thinking. But you can't have your cake and eat it, so you have to step up to the plate and face the music. We didn't want to get into negative territory on this and wrong-side the demographic.

naughtyjedi said:

from the get go, we employed discontinuous 360 degree thinking. But you can't have your cake and eat it, so you have to step up to the plate and face the music. We didn't want to get into negative territory on this and wrong-side the demographic.

Click to expand...

moving forward, im glad your thinking outside the box

fuzzybuzzytoys said:

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I like a podcast where you can feel connected to the content. When the boys talk about latest acqusitions or fav threads it makes me listen up as it's something I might be aware of or read recently. I think I'm going to miss that connection when they talk about someone somewhere who's done something in the world.

Click to expand...

Sorry Jamie, I was answering this query which is about the podcast and like I said we would still cover these topics.

fuzzybuzzytoys said:

Stu, my comments are not on the quality of the podcast. I'm sure it will be top notch and we all appreciate the hard work thats involved. My comments are purely about the 'rebranding'. Terms like 'taken onboard feedback..blah blah' and 'marketing ourselves blah blah' etc just leave me a little cold.

Click to expand...

Ok fair enough, but you're a recognised seller, if you continued to send your products out in say bubble wrap for example that wasn't protecting the items, and several of your customers came to you querying your packaging choices, you wouldn't take their "FEEDBACK" on board?

There is a good comparison between ourselves and you. You no longer put up sales threads on the forum but are a constant on the sales boards on Facebook, clearly because you must have a larger market on Facebook. Is this not similar for both scenarios, a bigger market for both, but however or wherever we take the podcast SWFUK will always be our home, which I will iterate on every post regarding this.