Toyguru MOTUC Post-SDCC: Figure Production Numbers Going Down in 2012

[Prince Adam's Dad]

And you still can. Just don't blame Mattel if the figures you want sell out before you get them. They have given fair warning.

I love the "you can still have all the figures you want!" people. They love to leave the $400 condition out of their comments. And people have every right to blame Mattel, because they have now put out a press release admitting to manufacturing intentional shortages on sale dates. It's been rumor to this point, but I guess I can appreciate the fact that they are just coming out and putting their middle finger to the less-than-manic fans in print.

The way I see it, subscribers are the lifeblood of the line that get us from Point A to Point B. Without those guaranteed sales, Mattel wouldn't be able to put all these figures into production. So, in essence, the cherry pickers are reaping the benefits from those who subscribe.

The line was selling out before subscriptions. The subs were supposed to be the "answer for those who wanted everything". The sub holders are only sub holders because people logged into the site on the 15 of every month and bought they toys they wanted.

I don't know why the griping is going on here. If you get in on a sub, then you are guaranteed a figure. If not, then know that you just have to take your chances on the 15th or make friends with EBAY.

Deal with it. Nothing you write here or there is going to change anything. If you say your going to quit the line then do it. Somebody else will buy your figures. You're not important. Accept it and live with it.

The griping is because, as usual, Mattel is showing their true colors. First run figures still sell out in a very reasonable amount of time. If they want to base production on second run figures on the sellout times of first run, that would be reasonable. But they aren't. They are doing exactly what the people with any awareness from the start have been saying-they are going back on/modifying their original claim (see my signature). They gouge their customers, they botch shipping, and now they are putting artificial limitations on the line to prompt more people to spend in excess of $400 for toys that they don't even know they will want. And oh, by the way, they STILL don't have an "all-in" subscription. So they aren't even doing right by the people who desperately want to hand them all their cash.

The big argument from the apologists all along is how Mattel "cares about the fans". Finally, people are waking up and seeing the truth in the bold text. Stop kidding yourselves, people.

[Prince Adam's Dad]

i don't get the "no longer doing second run of figures", does that mean no more reissues?

Yes. That's exactly what it means.

A thread has already been opened regarding this topic:

http://www.he-man.org/forums/boards/...d.php?t=212305

Yes, but it has a less-than-revealing title "Toyguru MOTUC Post-SDCC "Q&A"". Hardly something the less-than-inclined are going to click on.

[fball13z]

The big argument from the apologists all along is how Mattel "cares about the fans". Finally, people are waking up and seeing the truth in the bold text. Stop kidding yourselves, people.

Mattel or at least certain people there do care about the fans, but Mattel as a whole cares about making money, thats what they do.

I have a sub and love it, but I understand its not for everybody, I will not tell ya to just suck it up and deal with it. At least not ugly.

Mattels business plan is to get guaranteed sales with the subs and want to "force" as many people to jump on board with that, but I still think they have been over producing some of these MOTUC figures, at least by their standards. They do not want figures to last a week, they want them all gone in a day, that way there is no storing the figures.

Every extra day they have to store more figures, the more money they lose. You may not like the set up, but it is what it is.

[kylun flac]

what about the consideration for those that are selective collectors & those that do have the subs that want duplicates of certain figures?

after market predators are going to bank from this.

[Zodach]

I think the truth that Scott has stated all along is that this line has limited resources. It's why we don't see packaging changes much. It's why the line has had to slowly build to what it is today, adding a couple new elements each year. It's why there aren't mini comics since someone at Mattel paid for that out of their own pocket. Scott and the MOTU team have to work within that budget each year, so they use most of it to make the best figures they can. They can't afford to have less popular characters sit around the warehouse for months unsold. They have to sell this line to management each year as a whole package, not individual figures. That's why the subscription is so important to the continuation of this line because it sets all that in place.

[fball13z]

I think the truth that Scott has stated all along is that this line has limited resources. It's why we don't see packaging changes much, it's why

that and he is scared of the MOC collectors, when they heard about the adding of the 30th anvi sticker on the cards, they flipped, at least some of them did lol

[Prince Adam's Dad]

what about the consideration for those that are selective collectors & those that do have the subs that want duplicates of certain figures?

You can hope to get lucky and that their terrible website can handle the traffic or you can pay huge markups through resellers.

[PIMPS ADAM]

Mattel or at least certain people there do care about the fans, but Mattel as a whole cares about making money, thats what they do.

I have a sub and love it, but I understand its not for everybody, I will not tell ya to just suck it up and deal with it. At least not ugly.

Mattels business plan is to get guaranteed sales with the subs and want to "force" as many people to jump on board with that, but I still think they have been over producing some of these MOTUC figures, at least by their standards. They do not want figures to last a week, they want them all gone in a day, that way there is no storing the figures.

Every extra day they have to store more figures, the more money they lose. You may not like the set up, but it is what it is.

That'll bout sum it up.

[Tallstar]

P.S. Tally, we should try to get #MastersoftheUniverse trending for the LAST sale day of the subscription (or #MOTUC or #MOTU...Mattel uses one of those two on Twitter).

I'm totally willing to be a participant, but I don't have the strength to be the one to spearhead the campaign, beg for support, etc. So, if you want to take the reigns and the 'keys' to Marlena Glenn's Twitter page, I'm willing to hand it over.

I'm still not over the shock of only 60 or so members retweeting my message out of the 7,000+ members I invited. That's horrible!

[Whiplash7]

I don't have a sub, and can only laugh at their attempts to fearmonger people into purchasing one.
I've never been denied something I've tried to get on sale day. If and when that ever happens, I'll get it on the secondary market if I really want it.
After March, there will only be a small handful of figures left I need for my collection. Anything else is a bonus, and if I somehow can't get it, they've lost a potential sale from a customer who's been there since the first month of the line. OH WELL!

Glad not to have a sub.

[Larry Waters]

Sorry Big Country, but you are wrong on shipping charges, yes sometimes mattel has some weird shipping charge like for BG Teela, but over all their shipping is not crazy. Trust me its what I do for a living, I ship 100s of boxes out for my business daily.

You ship hundreds? Cool, they ship THOUSANDS. I know what I saw at my old job every day.

Also you have to understand you are not just paying for Shipping there is "handling", do you think the DR warehouse houses and ships the figures for free for Mattel?

With as many screw-ups as DR has made, Mattel shoud be getting free "handling"!

And I have never held a MOTUC figure in my hand and said, hmmm this is a cheap $13 figure. Grab one of the $18 Thunder Cats Classic figures and you will say that. A $13 figure is not cheap. I'm simply saying that these things would be $13-17 in a Wal-Mart.



Ha, you just named some of my fav figures in the line, different strokes for different folks.

Different strokes is correct. And none of my strokes pass anywhere near NA, PoP or Filmation.

Let the cherry-picking commence!

I don't have a sub, and can only laugh at their attempts to fearmonger people into purchasing one.
I've never been denied something I've tried to get on sale day. If and when that ever happens, I'll get it on the secondary market if I really want it.
After March, there will only be a small handful of figures left I need for my collection. Anything else is a bonus, and if I somehow can't get it, they've lost a potential sale from a customer who's been there since the first month of the line. OH WELL!

Glad not to have a sub.

My ally!

[fball13z]

Different strokes is correct. And none of my strokes pass anywhere near NA, PoP or Filmation.

Let the cherry-picking commence!



My ally!

well when I say "cheap", i mean in terms of todays toy market.

and yes I get a discount on my shipping from fed-ex/UPS, but I also send my own stuff.

and i will never never never defend DR, they all oh us some "handling"

[Darkspecter]

I'm totally willing to be a participant, but I don't have the strength to be the one to spearhead the campaign, beg for support, etc. So, if you want to take the reigns and the 'keys' to Marlena Glenn's Twitter page, I'm willing to hand it over.

I'm still not over the shock of only 60 or so members retweeting my message out of the 7,000+ members I invited. That's horrible!

Oh...well...hmm. Maybe Mattel will make a message more people will re-tweet?

[Prince Adam's Dad]

I'm still not over the shock of only 60 or so members retweeting my message out of the 7,000+ members I invited. That's horrible!

A bunch of snakebitten, frustrated people didn't take the time to promote a line that has employed strongarm tactics to pass the headache of storage of unwanted figs on to its customers basically since its outset. Imagine that.

After the new information, you'd be lucky to get 30.

[fball13z]

I don't have a sub, and can only laugh at their attempts to fearmonger people into purchasing one.
I've never been denied something I've tried to get on sale day. If and when that ever happens, I'll get it on the secondary market if I really want it.
After March, there will only be a small handful of figures left I need for my collection. Anything else is a bonus, and if I somehow can't get it, they've lost a potential sale from a customer who's been there since the first month of the line. OH WELL!

Glad not to have a sub.

See you have a better attitude than some do about it, you get what you want and if you dont you buy from second market or its Mattels lose

[RockinHard]

Wondering how the "non sub" production number impacts the 30th Anniversary figures... Mattel should produce these in numbers equal to full production numbers for regular figures. I signed up for a sub, but these 30th Anniversary figures have me "worried"... Sight-unseen I really want these figures. Drago-man looks awesome, and I'm curious to see the two new Mattel and the new Geoff Johns figures.

Like many of you, I want to know if this means that the 30th figures will have lower runs when SUB BUYERS can't even put them in THEIR SUB!?

[Zodach]

and i will never never never defend DR, they all oh us some "handling"

I think you guys helped pay for the discount I got on my combined shipping.
Shipping for 2 Stay Pufts, 1 Swamp Thing, and 1 Marlena from CA to OH only cost me $19. Have you seen the size of that Stay Puft box?

[Neil]

Perhaps I'm unduly optimistic, but I don't think this is of much of a concern for those of us who decide not to sign up for the subscription.

If they're lowering produciton runs then it's probably because they're getting a worrying amount of excess stock. The all-star sale, Mad Matty Mondays and also the surprising number of re-releases on some months this year, seem to back this up. We've been told many times that a saturation of product could kill the line - that's why they underproduced figures for so many months. Maybe they've been over-producing for a while and this is just redressing the balance?

If that's the case, then I wouldn't expect sub figures to sell out much less quickly than they do at the moment.

Regarding the non-sub items... well, I would assume that Mattel would make a lot more of them available on sale day than subscription items. Maybe not as many overall, but probably enough to snag if you're then on sale day. I've haven't missed out on anything that I've wanted on Mattycollector since the line started. We'll see in October if my luck continues to hold.

As for no more reissues..... maybe they are ploughing the money they would otherwise spend on the reissues back into the line. There's a great deal of new tooling even in the first three months of 2012 - more than we've seen so far. This may not be a bad thing - although I'll be a bit miffed if we don't have a reissue of Teela with a softer dress at some point.

[Deadpool-Man]

I'm in for the sub Matty. Please let me buy the 6 30th Anniv. figures and the other non-sub items also. Please.


I am groveling now, but soon, soon my plastic armies will bring ruin to all. Muhahahaha.

[DO4M]

wait, so they're making less figures, no reissues and "coaxing" customers into subscribing? This feels "Too much like The Godfather" for my tastes...
I'll try and buy what I want... If I start getting enough holes in my collection (due to Mattel's tactics) I shall "Kwit teh lien..."

[Jedi_Master_Jeremy]

I think most everybody here has good valid opinions and thoughts about what's going on.

I say "to each his own."

But I really love the idea about the pre-order ticket for non-sub items emailed to sub holders to get the shipping under control.

I suspect the idea the 30th anniversary figures have some bearing on the re-issue figure numbers is accurate. Those are six figures they are taking a chance with and I think they want to direct their traffic toward those new figures. That won't seem fair to people who want a re-issue Tri Klops but that's understandable from a business perspective. We have Photog and Draego Man thus far which I think will sell out but what if the next figure just sucks? What if they name him something like "Infection Man" or something and nobody wants it? Then they've got a load of figures they can't move. I also think they are working within a budget and that budget has been increased to include these 6 new figures, another vehicle and even Granamyr later next year but maybe it wasn't increased enough to handle the same number of re-issues. I can't imagine this is a signal of decline with all the new stuff they've come up with and the expense they've had to endure to get Filmation rights. They're also going to be taking some chances with the production of un-proven never before released Filmation figures. As I look at it, I get the feeling Mattel is just being careful until they see how this goes for 2012. But I do think they are trying to drive all this to a subscription only situation at some point because I think they want to know exactly what they are making and that may be a reaction to rising costs. This may be a way of trying to offset their increasing costs due to this economy. Businesses will do whatever they have to do to stay alive or above a certain line even if it ****** off a few people.

Personally, I have purchased two more subs this year. If there are figures I don't want, I'll move them on the secondary market. I've done that with a third Optikk I didn't want. Even if I don't get every penny I want out of it, there are other ways to make it up. I'm willing to deal with the inconvenience to have the sub. Hopefully, Mattel will help iron out these concerns.

[Whiplash7]

See you have a better attitude than some do about it, you get what you want and if you dont you buy from second market or its Mattels lose

That's pretty much all it comes down to though, right? It's not like the early days of the line when the sellouts were fast and the secondary market had insane prices. While that situation may or may not come around again, you'll still likely be able to get figures at a decent price.

Sometimes it's better to buy from the secondary market anyway. Especially here on the org. I was away in December and purchased a Buzz-Off in advance from a fellow orger. It came to me much faster than DR would have shipped it, lol. And that was for the same price shipped as on Matty. There are some great sellers here.

[Croaker]

I'm still not over the shock of only 60 or so members retweeting my message out of the 7,000+ members I invited. That's horrible!

I for one don't have twitter and don't care about it.
(given as an example of the low response)

I used to get 2 subs - because of the multiple heads, but since they said that they aren't doing that anymore, I only ordered 1 sub this year. I agree with those who say that subs will be down in numbers.

[josh]

[...]Your first, best and most reliable way of getting the figures you want is to sign up for the sub[...]

Except, of course, for all the items not included in any kind of subscription whatsoever.

And that's why I'm not getting a subscription. Even if I wanted Shadow Weaver, I imagine it would still be cheaper than all the extra shipping I'd have to pay for the the items I want. It still boggles my mind they couldn't have done a subscription just for the 30th anniversary figures. Of course, at this point I'm surprised a Club Eternia subscription isn't the only way to get Voltron toys.

[cbomb23]

I'm wondering if this isn't a way to get resellers back into buying more subs? This is all speculation now but say in 2010 when a company like BigBadToyStore was buying subs and items were selling out in ultra quick times, people could go to these resellers and pick them up and these resellers could also profit making their subs worthwhile. Fast forward to 2011 and these same resellers are buying more subs and then the figures are plentiful and the resellers are not selling product at a significant profit. Thus these resellers who made up a huge portion of the subscriptions have been absent or drastically lowered their sub purchases, thus Mattel is actually selling less subs than in 2010? It would be like trying to keep your top clients in any other type of business. But I really have no idea just kind of spitballing here?