MOTU - Classics!

[Hyperion]

To be clear, it's not Mattel that stresses me out this time of year. It's the collectors. Whatever each of us may think of Mattel or the subscription model, all the shit that goes down between each of us, all the nasty parts of us that get trotted out, are completely on each of us.

You deserve more than one point for this right here. 

[John Moores]

I'll hit DL with a hundred points.

[Hyperion]

Thanks John!

[JerseyManiac!]

Never let facts get in the way of an opinion, huh, JM?

Ummmm what? 

Listen sir, the way Mattel has gone about EVERYTHING in the last 2 or 3 years has been all wrong.  All of a sudden, the biggest toy company in the world needs commitment from fans to buy things before they go ahead and make them.     Alright fine.  HOWEVER, you ALSO need to buy crap you don't want in order to get the stuff you DO WANT!  And at $10-15 plus shipping MORE than the competetors are selling their comperable figures at stores. 

And when things aren't looking so good, their defense is......"Who....US?  No way, its you fans fault.  We did our job to keep prices down and make stuff you want.  Didn't you guys read all those requests for the fucking Fighting Foe Man?"

Come on man.  Those are facts.  And despite what anyone may think....they COULD do things differently.  This is upper management losing sight of everything other than their bonus.  And I say again.  When all three subs fail, what are they going to do instead that you or I may buy?  I can't think of anything.  Time to see how much those moms are willing to pay for a Barbie I guess.   

[Boy Wonder]

[darthfoley]

 

[JQ]

I just don't think this line would survive at retail. Mattel has a minimum profit demand, the brand manager has a limited tooling budget and has to figure out which characters can share parts, some of which have to be made pre-emptively, everyone has their own list of which characters are the most important -- this one because he was in the original line, that one because he looked better on the cartoon, the other because he just looks cool, not that one because he was only on She-Ra ...

Then you have to get retailers on board and they either only want current characters or don't want He-Man because of what happened last time or can only put in a certain amount of orders because they have to allocate space to toys from the current hot movie or fad. And then you have to figure out your assortments because you made that Sea Hawk that the online fans demanded but casual buyers have never heard of and he has to cost out. And everyone seems to want Netossa but you know from experience she'll just hang around on the pegs until guys can get their girlfriends and wives to go to Target to pick her up for them. But if you make the bare minimum of a character that probably won't sell it'll become hot and everyone will want it.

And of course you have to have several characters per wave but people won't buy them all at once because they also collect this and also collect that and there are basic living expenses that need to be taken care of. So they wait to buy them all and they sit on the shelves and the stores don't order more because they aren't selling and

IT'S ALL TOY GURU'S FAULT  

Really I don't see the problem with the subscription model. Once a month you get a character from a line you love. You know when it's gonna happen, you know to have the money ready, and every once in a while you'll get a character that isn't your favorite but you can probably offload at close to what you paid for it.

At worst you have to deal with Digital River's ineptness in handling some customer service issue. At the end of the day though -- or maybe month where DR is concerned -- you've got your favorite toy line on your shelf and everyone gets their favorite characters because everyone pulled together and supported the line. Mattel and the retail stores aren't going to rally behind it like the fans can. They really don't give a crap. If you're being told flat out that the line needs subsriptions to continue, just prepare to move on to the next thing you collect if you don't want to support the line.

[JackKnight]

Really I don't see the problem with the subscription model. Once a month you get a character from a line you love. You know when it's gonna happen, you know to have the money ready, and every once in a while you'll get a character that isn't your favorite but you can probably offload at close to what you paid for it.

In theory that's what should be happening. But instead they added quarterly figures, beasts, 2-packs, 3-packs; and then said you HAVE to buy those too.

And even then if you knew when they were coming, you could budget accordingly. But they haven't been coming on schedule. So some months you get just Spikor. And other months you get the Griffin and the Snake Man-At-Arms on top of the usual figure.

If the subscription stayed on schedule and they didn't keep adding stuff I'd agree with you.

And some of those choices ToyGuru makes (Star Sisters and Fighting Foe Men) alot of us aren't making back what we paid for them. Because at $75 the demand isn't there. I can't even get the $20 back I paid for Slush Head and he's an important New Adventures character. But at least he was only $20.

[levere]

In theory that's what should be happening. But instead they added quarterly figures, beasts, 2-packs, 3-packs; and then said you HAVE to buy those too.

Didn't they do that because a very vocal (but probably small) group asked for it?

It's a shame they didn't offer two options on the sub; one all-inclusive option and one where you would just get the one basic figure every month.

[JackKnight]

Alot of fans were pissed their wasn't tiered subs. Just the 12 figures or All-In would've been fine. But Mattel squashed the idea for some logistical reason or another. (we want more money probably)

[JackKnight]

This version is equally as likely.

[Xavion]

 

[Hyperion]

From Cornboy on Facebook-

Hey, all of you He-Fans and She-Ravers!

 As we’re sure you’ve all heard by now, the number of subscribers to the 2013 Masters of the Universe Classics Club Eternia at Mattel (MattyCollector.com) has dropped drastically from last year to this year. This has put the future of the line in danger of being cancelled altogether.

 We’ve seen a lot of the discussion on various message boards and blogs surrounding this issue, and many people have commented that this may be some sort of ruse by Mattel just to sell more subscriptions and that there’s no true danger of the line ending. Well, you should know by now that we’ve always tried to be as open, honest and transparent with the fans as we could possibly be, and we’re telling you now that the Masters of the Universe Classics action figure line IS currently in danger of ending sooner than expected because of a sudden and drastic drop in the number of subscriptions to the line.

 Mattel has never reached out to us for our assistance about anything of this nature in the past. In this case they have, so we know this is serious and we’re 100% confident that everything you’ve heard described by them is absolutely true, but it also tells us that there are people at Mattel that are as passionate about this stuff as many of the fans are and don’t want to see it end prematurely again. They’re not trying to get subscriptions because they need the extra money. As beloved as Masters of the Universe Classics is, monetarily it’s barely a blip on Mattel’s enormous radar. MotU Classics is a sort of love letter to all of the fans of the property who’ve kept the Eternian fire alive for this line over the past thirty years, and hopefully will continue supporting the property in their usual rabid manor however they can for many years to come.

 We’re not going to get into the speculation of why or how the number of subscriptions might have so drastically dropped between last year and this year. You’ve probably read all of that stuff over and over again at this point. But we will say that even with the hiccups that have taken place throughout the history of the MotU Classics line, we still feel that it’s still one of the coolest toy lines produced today (possibly ever – at the risk of sounding conceited), and it amazes us that a massive corporation like Mattel has such love for the toy line and the fans that they’d continue to make every effort to produce the figures even without any sort of media backing or any huge return on their dollars invested. What may seem like just a giant toy producing machine to many of you, is actually a large group of people that are just as excited and anticipatory as each of you are about each new MotU Classics figure’s release. When these “hiccups” within the line occur, you can bet that it upsets them just as much as, if not more than, it upsets you and us.

 So what happens now? Well, at this point we’re going to beg you to subscribe if you haven’t already. And the only real reason we’re begging at this point is so we’ll all have a shot at getting all of those awesome characters that you’ve all wanted to see in 3D plastic form in the MotU Classics line since it’s inception. We want them too! Ninjor? Mermista? Dragstor? Octavia? Squeeeze? Hydron? Peekablue? Saurod? Rio Blast? Batros? Gwildor? (okay… maybe not Gwildor) Freakin TWO-BAD?!? C’mon. Cornboy WANTS his Two-Bad… Are you going to make Cornboy cry? Don’t make Cornboy cry. There are obviously many more characters we could list here, but you get the idea.

 We’re not saying that any of the characters listed above are currently scheduled to be made, and we can’t guarantee that we’ll be able to get to every single character that’s been requested, but what we can guarantee is that if the subscription levels needed to keep this line alive are not met, there’s absolutely no way we’ll get to see all of the characters we’d like to see in MotU Classics.

 So, the bottom line is – PLEASE subscribe, and please spread the word as much as possible to get others to subscribe as well. There’s only a little more than a week left to get your subscription rolling, so time is of the essence. You can go here http://www.clubs.mattycollector.com/store/mattycol/en_US/DisplayShopperDefinedBundlePage/OfferID.5373544308 to begin your 2013 subscription to the MotU Classics Club Eternia.

 We’re not asking as a bunch of guys who’re working on the line. We’re asking as fans of Master of the Universe and this toy line. Please subscribe to the 2013 Masters of the Universe Classics Club Eternia.

 Thanks!
-FOUR HORSEMEN-

[JQ]

The solution I think is for Mattel to simply drop beasts and vehicles, take a poll for who the last 12 figures should be, cost out the decos and announce the final cost for a limited edition subscription based on their poorest selling figure. That's it, take it or leave it. If we sell out, tough. After that the line is done and they move on.

[urbanmyth]

Well, if the line dies I just might have to get back into customizing.  The Roadmap would be clear and the figures share a lot of parts already.  I'll start with the most obscure and work back to the more important since I think Mattel might still trickle some bigger names out

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