Mattel - Dont Forget; Tooling Now = Savings for Future Retail MOTU in Movie Year!!

[yodafreakmaster]

Hey Gang. I've been really been concerned about the future of MOTUC's based on the recent news. It has got me thinking quite a bit about what can be done to save the line.

It has been mentioned several times over the years by Toyguru that in a "movie year", MOTUC's would likely hit retail. It would be scaled down a bit and likely have slight changes to deco, etc, but overall the tooling would already be there due to the investment of making these figures through Mattycollector.com/Club Eternia.

With this very important consideration, wouldnt it make alot of sense for Mattel to keep MOTUC's going EVEN IF the sub sales fall a bit short?????? Maybe not if they end up 50% short, but what if they are only 10-20% short of the minimum that Mattel has established....

So "if" Mattel kept the line going without making a profit in 2013 (say breaking even instead), their resources and investment in this line WOULD pay off in a few years when the much anticipated Masters of the Universe Movie rocks the movie world and Mattel cranks these wonderful figures out to retail in droves.

I could see this line absolutely "blowing up" at retail if it had a big studio (Sony) movie to back it up.

I think it would be VERY SHORTSIGHTED for Mattel to forget this fact and pull the plug on this wonderful line as long as we can get things to the "break even" level. If Mattel can stave off the instant gratification of having profits right away, it could really pay off for them as a company in the not too distant future.

I hope this is a non-issue and that the MOTU fandom can keep things rolling by hitting the min number of subs on our own, but I sure hope Mattel/Toyguru consider this key point as well!!!!!!!

What do you all think???? LONG LIVE MOTUC's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[NorthCoast]

Good points, it's all a gamble I suppose. Making a major motion picture is no cake walk, but if they accomplish it, I'm sure they will throw a ton of money at a toyline. 7" may not be in the cards at that point the way the economy is going. Or they may have a rehash of MOTUC for collectors and release a 4" line with vehicles and playsets, only time will tell.

Thinking about it more, if they were to release a line at retail in a movie year using the current buck, they could sneak in figures that didn't make it into MOTUC. Hasbro does this occasionally with the multiple Marvel series.

[yodafreakmaster]

I really dont see it as much of a gamble. If the tooling is already paid for, Mattel should be able to pull a nice profit as retail with a big budget movie reaching the masses;0

[enoch]

No they will do a 3 3/4 line since windraider sales were what they were. The classics mold will be used as a 6 inch movie masters line.

[EtherianChronicles]

I've been saying for awhile, we've been subsidizing the R&D for any potential "movie-year" retail line. It's not a bad thing for either party, really - because if the tooling was ever reused for a retail line, there would likely be less detail/paint apps/accessories/etc., and really all they have to do is pour the plastic in the molds and get them packaged up. Since we know tooling is by far the biggest cost involved, it would make a very cheap line to produce. Heck, even if they needed new heads for the movie, they could do a run of heads and they have tons of body parts to mix and match as well.

I'm sure that's been part of the long term plan since the beginning - I also think Mattel thought that a MOTU movie would have made it out by now, as it seemed imminent in 2007/2008/etc. before it went back into turnaround again.

[wayneepoo]

I agree with you, yodafreakmaster. Now, I'm not a huge corporation, nor have I ever ran one, but they have put a lot of time and resources ALREADY into the 2013 line. All the work that they've paid the 4 Horsemen, Toy Guru, Digital River, and all of that staff to put together the figures, the mini-comic, the artwork, the marketing, not to mention all of the new services they intend to put into place at Mattycollector (early access, my subscription page, fan choice poll, etc). Would they really lose more money going ahead with the line as planned, even if it doesn't reach 100%, than they would just scrapping it all together? I have to think that they could come up with another strategy to still cuts down their losses that doesn't involve scrapping the intended 2013 line. Perhaps they make the 100% minimum number of figures, and the leftovers that don't go towards subscriptions are the Day-Of Sales, and they just charge a higher price for them (like $30 instead of $27). Figures have always sold out on their first sale date. Hopefully they are considering something like that. It just seems terribly drastic to drop it all together or to significantly scale it down.

[audman]

No they will do a 3 3/4 line since windraider sales were what they were. The classics mold will be used as a 6 inch movie masters line.

I just hope we get a sweet throwback line of vehicles and playsets for 3 3/4 line. Imagine the possibilities.


I would buy in if they are better than the dark knight rises figures. I am not the biggest fan of their dc 3 3/4 and so forth so I am hoping they put more into them though they are not horrible for 5 dollar (in todays terms) figures. I just want something in line with the marvel universe stuff. Just want the best for this brand.

[fball13z]

Sorry even if we get a movie. We will not see 7" beefy action figures. They will be smaller and they will not come with the extra pieces like stinkor did.

[Prince Adam's Dad]

Sorry even if we get a movie. We will not see 7" beefy action figures. They will be smaller and they will not come with the extra pieces like stinkor did.

This. No chance there will be figures this size if and when a movie happens. You'll be looking more at the 3 3/4" GI Joe sized scale to be able to support vehicles, accessories, and the like.

[yodafreakmaster]

Gang. I did not come up with this on my own. It has been stated several times over the years that MOTUC's would likely hit retail in coordination with a big budget MOTU movie release. It sounds like the movie "is" going to happen in the next few years. If MOTUC's wraps up at the end of 2014, it would likely be perfect timing for the new movie. I agree that a 3 3/4 line would likely hit the shelves, BUT I also see the real possibility of a relaunch of MOTUC's at retail in the form of a Movie Masters Line.

The tooling is the big investment. The "complete" lineup in nearly finished - only 2 years left according to Toyguru.

I truly hope Mattel takes this into consideration!!!!!!!!

Long Live MOTUC's!

[Umbloo]

The problem is the toys would have to look like the movie figures. Movie characters rarely look exactly like what there based on. Look at Thor. If you never saw the Thor movie or the avengers but you saw the toy, your first impression would be "that's a strange looking Thor". And kids won't buy toys that don't look just the person they see in the movies. And kids are the driving force for the main stream toy industry. That's why all avengers toys look just like the movie.

[yodafreakmaster]

Not so much. There would be a "movie" line of smaller figures based on the likenesses in the characters/actors in the movie and MOTUC's would be more of an add on line for retail. I think kids would go nuts for these over the movie figures.

[Zodach]

I am still not holding my breath for this movie to happen. I hope it does, but it has been in development for a long time and there has been very little progress made, just more names thrown at it which will probably change again in a couple months. I don't see Mattel committing additional resources to Classics because of a "possible" movie sometime in the future. And if Classics wasn't part of their retail program, it would have been a waste of resources. There are too many unknown factors for them to make that type of investment today.