I think it sets a priority that we'd want extra heads first, before mini-comics. I think everyone wants mini-comics, but if it were a choice between heads and mini-comics, heads won.Originally Posted by He-Boy
I think it sets a priority that we'd want extra heads first, before mini-comics. I think everyone wants mini-comics, but if it were a choice between heads and mini-comics, heads won.
See what I mean?
Not just heads people.
It would be Tri-Klops without the knives on his back, without the Doomseeker, without the ring.
MAA without all the gear on his back.
Hordak without his bat buddy and staff.
So on.
I understand that - I just don't get it. That's why I'm interested to see the head-usage split. What if everyone is saying that they want multiple heads, but 90% of MerMan owners are using he cardback head?
I always got the impression that the majority of the fans valued the mini-comics as a must-have. These poll results certainly do not suggest that. IMO, if the hard-core audience aren't all that passionate, then there's next to zero chance of mini-comics ever returning.
The results of the fourth poll suggest to me that fans that already have a MOTUC He-Man MIB are more concerned with it being readily apparent that they have the first run of the figure. Rather than making improvements to a figure they already have and likely don't want to have to repurchase.
A poll to determine how many people here have which figures would be interesting.
I voted for mini-comics, but I'll gladly give up the mini-comics for additional tooling and eventual full size graphic novels.
But there's also the people voting that bought from Joe or didn't get a figure because Matty sold out due to all the Joes buying ten figures. Basically, given the rapid sellouts at Matty and the premiums Joe earns on his resales, his slot(s) would quickly be refilled by someone else.
Last edited by BriGuy; July 14, 2009 at 10:13pm. Reason: Automerged Doublepost
Problem with that is Mattel doesn't want the sale from 1 person or another. They want BOTH. Mattel has no reason to dislike re-sellers. A sale's a sale, and the ebay sales are actually a form of promotion for their product. It doesn't make any sense for Mattel to purposely limit their own sales, particularly since the upcoming prescriptions make that pointless.
I'd voted mini-comics over extra heads now that Mer-Man and Man-At-Arms have been made, but I really want a regular comic series based on MOTUC most of all!
Of all the extras, 2 heads for Mer-Man & Man-At-Arms and the classic glow-in-the-dark ring are the only ones I want. Everything else is just unnecessary to me.See what I mean?
Not just heads people.
It would be Tri-Klops without the knives on his back, without the Doomseeker, without the ring.
MAA without all the gear on his back.
Hordak without his bat buddy and staff.
So on.
Last edited by Mr. Shokoti; July 15, 2009 at 02:48am.
They can't have both. If people buy from Matty, then they won't buy from the resellers and vice versa. If they limit the number of items presumably going to resellers, then they have more direct customers. Which is more traffic to their site and more of a chance to entice customers to buy other products. They're not limiting their sales at all, they're just eliminating the middle man. My point is there's no risk in making the resellers unhappy. If they go away, those orders will immediately be filled by end consumers. They're not reaching anyone that Matty can't reach themselves. There's no benefit to Matty in selling to a reseller over an end consumer. Which is why, if anything, a reseller's "vote" should carry less weight in any poll than an end user's because it's the end user that ultimately determines the demand for the product.
King Grayskull - 5000
He-Man - 10,000
Beast Man - 7,500
Skeletor - 10,000
Stratos - 7,500
Faker - 7,500 (we estimate 5000 were taking to NYCC to match what was taken to SDCC for King Grayskull)
Mer-Man - 15,000 (this is where Mattel said they had doubled numbers)
Zodac - 15,000
Hordak - 15,000 (Mattel stated that the numbers of Hordak were not hirer than previous figures)
Wow! That's not very many figures being produced. Kind of scary. I just introduced the line to a few friends of mine. They had no idea that Mattel was still promoting He-Man. Now, they're hooked on the line.
I think the run on each of these figures was higher.
$20 X 15,000 only equals = $300,000... that's nothing for Mattel...
Subtract the cost of tooling, promotion, packaging, design, etc. and you're left in the red.
I also think these polls are totally innacurate. The amount of votes is actually small... particularly on the 4-answer "Which brand is most important" question.
Plus, you could vote as many times as you wanted. I voted twice (MOTU, POP, 200X, NA). I would be willing to bet that some fans (especially 200X'ers) would be dedicated enough to vote 20 times or more. It wouldn't take much time, and it would be worth it for them. 200X recently took a knock in the Q&A's (even though I cannot understand HOW 200X fans can be unhappy, they have Mer Man's head & trident, Hordak's staff, He-Man's tech sword, Tri-Klops' Doomseeker, Teela's Sword, Webstor's extra legs, and who knows what else coming... that's WAY more than any POP or NA fans have been given this year). Those fans, theoretically, probably SHOULD have voted more than a few times, just to combat the comments Mattel made regarding 200X.
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Filmation Variants: She-Ra, Bow, Mantenna, Leech, Entrapta, Grizzlor, Prince Adam, Glimmer, Adora
Good point.
But what does that matter if we're not just talking about extra heads for certain, but tooling in general for ALL the figures?
It's not that people don't want mini-comics.I always got the impression that the majority of the fans valued the mini-comics as a must-have. These poll results certainly do not suggest that. IMO, if the hard-core audience aren't all that passionate, then there's next to zero chance of mini-comics ever returning.
It's that given the limited budget of MOTUC (so far) most fans will prioritize making the figure itself as cool as possible.
Ymmv, but most fans would say accessories and new parts make the figures cooler than mini-comics do.
Hopefully we'll get to the point where there can be both: fully tricked out figures AND mini-comics.
You would've had a better argument 6 months ago.
The multitudes of resellers making huge profits on recent MOTUC releases just aren't there.
It seems with word spreading, rereleases confirmed, and higher production numbers, that far more of these figures are getting into fans' hands straight from Matty compared to some of the earlier releases.
Well for me, I couldn't be happier that you're in the minority with that view.
I LOVE all the extras that have been coming with the newer figures, and can't wait to see what other surprises the 4H have cookin'!
If you vote more than once you overwrite your previous vote. The last one counts.
JVS3 can probably confirm this. I asked this question for a previous poll.
AND I WANT LION-O EXTRA HEAD
The last user is correct.
Your previous vote was overwritten.
You could only vote once.
Yep, you can only vote one time.
Also,
I disagree 100%.
Please check out this post I made earlier about potential costs involved.
I have no doubt Mattel is turning a profit on 15K units.
They still are there depending on where you are. Maybe in the US market on Ebay.com they're drying up, but try getting a seller that ships internationally and that starting price immediately doubles.
It's those of us from different parts of the world that are getting hit here. Not only do we have to deal with resellers that jack the prices way up, but you've also got to deal with sellers who like to jack up shipping prices so you have to play a game of who sells for the cheapest, as not all sellers state the shipping costs before you bid, and those are generally the ones that end up charging the highest costs.
Fair enough, but aren't international fans some of the most vocal about keeping the limit at 10 so they can buddy up on orders?
I'm not really sure how that hurts my argument. If you're saying resellers are less and less a factor, that would only support my position.
Fair enough, but aren't international fans some of the most vocal about keeping the limit at 10 so they can buddy up on orders?
Not speaking for all, but this international fan would like to see the limit lowered, so I can get my one figure!
With a sellout in a couple hours for Hordak, and 40 minutes for MAA,
I'd say it's safe to say Mattel can definitely lower the limit from 10 to something smaller to insure more people get them.
Besides, they are the one who claimed most fans only order 3 or 4 (I forgot the exact number)
So lowering it shouldn't hurt at all.
I still think the limit should be adjusted by Shipping country.
I KNOW it's possible to program such an option.
10 for outside US,
5 inside US.
It would just automatically adjust in the shopping cart and then prompt the customer once the shipping address is entered.
It can be done.
But Val, consider this please: I can make and sell 100 Z-Man toys, and if 50 people buy one apiece, and five more people buy ten apiece, then I've sold half my Z-Man toys to those five individuals, and yet I can go online and say that less than 10% of buyers are making large orders, and over 90% are making small orders. By making such a statement, I'm downplaying how important those five people are to me, and yet they're very important to my business, as they account for half my sales volume. I assume Matty is in a similar situation, and I don't blame them for making public only that information that relates to how the ratio of customers breaks down while saying nothing about how the ratio of their volume breaks down between large orders and small orders.With a sellout in a couple hours for Hordak, and 40 minutes for MAA,
I'd say it's safe to say Mattel can definitely lower the limit from 10 to something smaller to insure more people get them.
Besides, they are the one who claimed most fans only order 3 or 4 (I forgot the exact number)
So lowering it shouldn't hurt at all.
I still don't imagine that Matty will have a compelling reason to enact a smaller order limit. Even the fast sell-out of Man-at-Arms just means that Man-at-Arms wasn't made in sufficient supply to meet demand, which is not news of course. Matty no doubt still wants to have the patronage of those large-order buyers regardless of how few in number they happen to be.
Still remembers we paid excessive shipping on Battleground Teela. Is confident Matty will resolve the issue and make it right for us.
I agree with the majority in all of the posts, still bummed about the mini comics.
I think mattel should keep the limit at ten, just keep tweaking the production numbers up slowly like they have been and then issue 2nd runs as needed.
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All the poll did was prove that people LIKE 200X. It gets knocked around alot because some fans are satisfied with the classic based stuff coming out and aren't missing 200X, unlike the hardcore 200X fans who would rather have the 200X versions of the characters.
An accessory is not a figure. MOTUC Skeletor still isn't the version of Skeletor that I'd like. Besides, I would have been satisfied to know if 200X would have been coming to MOTUC--it didn't need to be immediate.200X recently took a knock in the Q&A's (even though I cannot understand HOW 200X fans can be unhappy, they have Mer Man's head & trident, Hordak's staff, He-Man's tech sword, Tri-Klops' Doomseeker, Teela's Sword, Webstor's extra legs, and who knows what else coming... that's WAY more than any POP or NA fans have been given this year).
As for NA and POP, at least those eras are in MOTUC from the beginning (So is 200X...I'm referring to 200X versions of the original characters using MOTUC bucks). For those eras, it's not an "if", it's a "when". You can say with confidence that there will be a She-Ra figure. You can't say that with a 200X version of Buzz-Off.
They don't need to.Those fans, theoretically, probably SHOULD have voted more than a few times, just to combat the comments Mattel made regarding 200X.
The 200X fans tried to get Mattel to change their minds about inclusion in MOTUC with a year long petition.
They didn't bite.
The end.
While many fans were not surprised at 200X's status in MOTUC (despite TG saying otherwise at times), it doesn't mean that everyone hates it.
Last edited by MegaGearMax; July 16, 2009 at 03:25pm.
My only fear with lowering the limit is what if it's not enough?
What if they still sell out in less than an hour? Do they lower it again?
Do they tell me because I live in the US, I should only be allowed to order 2? Then an outfit like BBTS is still going to end up with way more than 10 figures to re-sell, while I won't be able to order for my buddy who can't always be online on sale dates.
If Toyguru is to be believed (we have no reason not to believe him), not many people are ordering 10 to begin with, so are there really going to be that many more people getting figures that are missing out now?
I think the solution is still to continue to bump production up. I also think until the hype and re-seller interest decreases, we won't get an accurate picture. So, it's sort of a catch-22 right now with producing enough, managing sellouts, and accurately upping production.
I think they've said that starting with next months' TRIKLOPS release, the production number was bumped up. They are trying to have supply meet demand. Regardless, it is becoming apparent that they have a runaway hit on their hands!
Toyguru is going to say what Mattel legal tells him he can say and what will not upset fans. I'm not saying he is lying, but there is always at least two ways to tell a story. It depends on who your audience is how you spin, I mean tell, it.
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