Why not pre-orders?

[Swifty]

The ONLY way that the preorder system would work is if we fans are willing to pre-order an item with just the character name revealed.
Producing a prototype "sculpt" would be a "sunk" development cost for Mattel is the figure didn't hit the pre-order mark.
Are you willing to pre-order a figure without seeing it first? Personally, I am. It really isn't much different than the 60% revealed sub we blindly buy already.

I pointed this out to TG today and he replied simply with "Buying a sub IS preordering."

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The sub is basically a pre-order. I may be wrong but i imagine a pre-order for each individual figure is difficult to do. How could it work? Do you charge when the pre-order is placed? Then offer refunds if it doesn't meet the minimum? If you charge when it ships, then there is no guarantee of a sale for mattel as people would try to cancel, or not have funds in an account months later. Pre-orders just don't seem like a good business. I could be wrong but it just doesn't seem profitable and even more complicated of a system.

Yes that is exactly what you do. Like you said the sub is a pre-order and if it does not meet the minimum all purchasers will receive refunds. This is how a figure by figure pre-order should work.

[bskcase]

You have to understand that TG is right. Subscribing is a Pre-Order. You are investing in Masters of the Universe. Not in a figure, but in the toyline. The same thing is going to happen with GIJOE and Star Wars when they get their subscriptions up and running. They are not going to say which figures are coming in the next year, but the subscribers know they are getting Joes and Star Wars guys.

Support Masters of the Universe. Together, we can get all our figures.

[Barnster]

I don’t know if this has been discussed before, but after the successful pre-order run of Castle Grayskull I thought, could this work on other figures/vehicles/beasts, too?

All Mattel would have to do is show us a fully drawn picture of the character they want to make and we decide over changes that might have to be done and THEN put him/her up on Matty’s site for pre-order. If the item reaches the minimum - fine, if not, then we got no one to blame but ourselves.

At some point I think the subscription will not work anymore with still lots of characters left on the table, so pre-order figures, offered maybe 4-5 times a year, could keep the line alive for quite some time.

Of course the details need to be worked out but as a rough concept, what do you think??