So we're all more and more annoyed... is it time for us to do something about it?

[bezem]

Mattel's stubborn and outdated policies being 1. You will buy what we feel like making whether you want it or not. 2. We will make however many figures we want, irregardless of what the customers want. 3. We will hold the customer responsible for our inability to properly guage demand. 4. We refuse to do a preorder system, which would accurately predict how many of each figure is demanded; instead we will insist on a sub just because 5. Because we at Mattel hold all the cards, we will step all over you and not fix problems because we know you will still buy from us.

I'm not holding my breath for Mattel to change anything. But when this is all said and done, the line will end either due to rising prices or Mattel's incompetence. There are other ways to handle this line that make more business sense, but Mattel is way too stuborn.



Well, some of here have a budget. And while I'm able to buy most figures, some months are very expensive, and this year's sub was just too much money. FOr me, it's not that I don't want all of the toys. I would LOVE to have each and every figure up on my shelf. There isn't a single figure (outside the 30th line) that I don't think is cool.

A good business model allows for all differnet price points, and if Mattel's business model is all or nothing, then it is missing out on a lot of money. Like my $1200. A good business wouldn't let that money just sit.

I don't know. I admire your love for the line and for the brand. I don't have a beef with that. BUt I just think it is wrong to say that cherry pickers are the single most damaging thing to the line.

I'd love an example for 1 and 2. 3 I don't think is a real problem since every figure sells out (or is for sale long enough for fans to get to it before it is artificially marked 'sold out'). They don't want overstock of niche product, you can't fault a business for that. 4 preorder system costs money, it's a niche product sold to collectors who usually want everything anyway, why spend money to support cherry picking. 5 This one is 100% true, but it's not that they hold all the cards. They make a product we want, and we pay money for. Major problems have been fixed (the sub used to be a much lauded solution to the WSOD before it turned into Mattel strong-arming the collector). But expecting Mattel to replace everyone's goddess or Roboto and Hsss over barely noticeable reversed shoulders is just not going to happen on a niche product. I doubt it would happen even if Barbie herself had reversed shoulders.

I'd love to hear what makes more business sense. I'm enjoying our conversation and again as mentioned previously I totally understand budgets and life and legitimate reasons for cherry picking. I do. 100% food and family comes first, I will never argue against that point. But different price points are in play, between the figures and the large scale. Unfortunately the days of a $6-8 6" figure are behind us.

[Rodster6]

I'm not annoyed.

[bezem]

I'm not annoyed.

I think I'm just annoyed with everyone being annoyed all the time.

[Uki]

Memorehimtoo. (I'm with these guys.)

Uki's never annoyed!

[EldestSon]

yes. let's all cancel our subs and stop buying figs. things can only get better when mattel sees no one is buying their product.

[Rainboy]

Why do some people want to ruin my happiness? Why?

[fball13z]

Why do some people want to ruin my happiness? Why?

b/c ruining our happiness gives them power and happiness lol

[shadowfall1976]

If people had cherry picked from the very beginning, the line would have ended at Hordak. That's a fact the director's commentaries have proved beyond a shadow of a doubt. The sub was created so that people wouldn't have to worry about the sell-outs; were there no sell-outs in the first place the line would have died with Hordak. No sell-outs would have been due to cherry-picking.

The line was a no sub line until 2010, a whole year, and fast sell outs were only in the very beginning, everyone was a picker from 2008 - 2010, a whole years worth of figures + 2 from '08, no one had a sub in 2009 because it didn't exist....so I don't know what you are talking about. There were sell outs every figure, and everyone picked, that is why the fast sell outs....

The fact is, MOTUC started off as a pickers line, and was so for a whole year before the first sub kicked in. So explain it's success before the sub, the line was such a success, and not one person had a sub the whole first year. The fact is that had it not been for people picking, MOTUC would have never spread in the first place.

So you seriously think everyone bought every figure from the beginning? There are many fans that only want certain characters, only certain factions, only certain series characters, you seriously think everyone that was around from day one 12/08 bought every figure? Maybe the first 8 were bought, but you seriously think everyone bought every figure?

There are many here that have been here since the beginning, and I have read many posts, that not every collector bought or cared about every figure, and there are many more here that have been here since the beginning that did not sub up at all yet.

Everyone has as much right to collect this line as you do. And how will pickers kill the line, how is that even possible in the first place, when the subs are supposedly the life blood now? Mattel supposedly don't need us so what could we possibly do to kill the line that Mattel itself isn't doing?

And I'd like to know how a PO system would cost any more money than a sub system costs, when past initiating it into the code, it's nothing....HTS does it, BBTS does it....so many other countless sites seem to implement it with ease, it's cake for experienced web coders to do so....oh but I forgot were talking about DR here, DR can't do a basic sub right, let alone pre-orders every month.

[Hellvertz]

What about: Media Strike?!?
IE mean, some kind of public announcement, a report or news where these matters get addressed as fraudulent bussiness, or whatever it's called. The thing is to make it sound outside and not only in the forums.. and as soon Mattel sees bad publicity they'll be worried or sumthin... juzt sayin'...

[Ben Solstice-Moon]

As I say, let's have a protected thread (we all know why) and start trying to figure out a message.

Yea Val, I'm all in for this idea as well. Whereas proactive is the way to go, I can also see something constructive like this helping Scott out. Let's do this. I like being of action, not words... and I choose my battles wisely. This is one I will choose to initiate.

[mjw41]

I'm not going to stop buying MOTUC's. Yeah sure there are problems here & there but nothing to warrent me to boycott or strike by not buying what I like. I see postings from unknown users trolling onto Matty Facebook page yelling Boycott mattels products we will teach them a lesson....UM NO! Anyone who wants to do that be my guest but speak for yourself only.
As for me I'm staying with the line

[RUNgZ]

I'm not going to stop buying MOTUC's. Yeah sure there are problems here & there but nothing to warrent me to boycott or strike by not buying what I like. I see postings from unknown users trolling onto Matty Facebook page yelling Boycott mattels products we will teach them a lesson....UM NO! Anyone who wants to do that be my guest but speak for yourself only.
As for me I'm staying with the line

Here here, the rest is gibberish

[musclor]

You mean "hear, hear."

As for me, if things don't improve soon, I will be dropping my multiple subs and quitting this line next year... That's my strike.

[shadowfall1976]

Thing is no one said outright they were going to boycott the line anytime soon (if they did I didn't see the post), as I said many posts ago, it would (if you could even get enough to do it) possibly spell the end of the line. There are better ways to go about it, and still keep the line going.

Others have suggested that boycotting would be a last resort, in the case that a unified voice towards Mattel didn't work....I just said that for one, not enough would quit the line to matter in that department. I'm a picker therefore no one would notice if I up and quit, but I still support having the line and customer service done right and 90% free of all the recent defects that have crept up.

[Blaster]

lol... Good luck with this.

Too much fear that this will kill the line, But if you get some people to support this cause, count me in as well.

What he said. There is still way too much love of this line for 95% of this board, myself included. I did cancel my sub, however it won't stop me from getting the figures I want for the rest of the year, so in essence I guess it will kind of hurt Mattel, not that this was my end result but still if enough people buy from BBTS or ones who have multiple subs rather than buying from them directly, from canceling their subs, Mattel will either get wise, or pull the plug on yet another at-first successful MOTU line.

[Exinferis]

I see a lot of people too the time to read the whole tread and not just the first post about boycotting the line... Oh wait, they didn't!

I'm glad some people haven't had any problems at all in over three years, that's a great achievement for you! I love the, "I'm alright, Jack" attitude, great for the community! :mmshift:

I'll happily join the fight, but like others, I'd like a protected thread for this; I don't want to be be constantly blasted by the Mattypologists for standing up for my consumer rights. Those of us willing to take some action should be free to do so without being lambasted for it.

So, count me in on the basis of a protected thread.

[A C Enforcer]

Understand the frustration. I too went red faced when faced with RSOD all those months ago. Now? Well I love the line (especially since I decided MOC was for the birds!!) - so Salute to those that feel better service is required (Exfinferis - you absolutely make total sense), and hats off to those "I'm alright Jack" buyers (great term Exinferis) who I reckon just want the line to continue. I don't see that as mutually exclusive - who doesn't want better service? For me - well Iam a 'hey, it'll happen" - I love receiving the 'special box' every month (even if its out of sinc! - a total aside - my wife still doesn't understand the joy of getting the next toy!!). Mine is a little voice (I post seldom but read often) so I just say I just want the line to continue - that I don't get everything as fast as I would like - mmh - end of the day its a luxury item and I'm just happy to see more.

[Skystalker]

Count me in as one who has experienced very few problems. I've had no bad experiences with DR personally, and only a few minor QC issues beyond the universal Roboto/Hiss shoulder issues. Having said that, however, I will be happy to help because QC on things such as joints should definitely be improved.

But I've already seen some insults directed toward Scott, which are completely inappropriate. The man can only do with what resources he's been given. The key will be to focus on demanding better production, which is something we will have to focus our attention on upper management. We have to get them to demand better processes at Mattel's factories. Getting mad at Scott for loose ankles is not the way to go about this...

A protected thread is a great idea, as long as people can focus their attention on the real problem and the real solutions.

[bowspearer]

Understand the frustration. I too went red faced when faced with RSOD all those months ago. Now? Well I love the line (especially since I decided MOC was for the birds!!) - so Salute to those that feel better service is required (Exfinferis - you absolutely make total sense), and hats off to those "I'm alright Jack" buyers (great term Exinferis) who I reckon just want the line to continue. I don't see that as mutually exclusive - who doesn't want better service? For me - well Iam a 'hey, it'll happen" - I love receiving the 'special box' every month (even if its out of sinc! - a total aside - my wife still doesn't understand the joy of getting the next toy!!). Mine is a little voice (I post seldom but read often) so I just say I just want the line to continue - that I don't get everything as fast as I would like - mmh - end of the day its a luxury item and I'm just happy to see more.

Exactly, any of us who've bought more than one figure or set clearly don't hate the line. People who are quitting the line are doing so because they feel they have no other choice and would love nothing more than for the line to continue. People complaining about people complaining don't help things at all.

Yes it's wonderful that some people have had no problems- heck, it should be the way things are for all of us, but how do those people who've had no problems know they wont have the same problem others have had?

Really if one of us has a problem which doesn't fit into the category of "random bad luck" but is an issue with systems of staff in place, then it should be a concern for all of us, because it's something which can and in all likelihood eventually will, happen to all of us.

But I've already seen some insults directed toward Scott, which are completely inappropriate.

Scott is his own worst enemy here though, with many of his responses coming across as canned lines and in some cases like he hasn't even read what people have said.

Case in point with the whole situation with the new CS team. What's come out in the past day is that there's a serious backlog of issues which the new CS team are playing catchup with. Yet for the past few weeks, when it comes to the issue of DR CS, we've been getting a canned line of "there's a new CS team, you'll see improvements soon". It's as vague as you can get and honestly comes across at this point as an empty promise that people have heard one too many times.

What Scott should have said right when they started and it came up was something along the lines of "we've just launched the new CS team and they're slowly working their way through a large backlog of emails and issues. I realise there have been problems for quite some time now and that we have been promising a solution for some time now. However I'd ask people to be just a little more patient while they work through the backlog and get things up to date. We're going as fast as we can through the backlog and expect to be caught up and giving you a level of CS you'll find refreshingly great in the near future."

Something like that levels with people, explains why there are delays and actually makes people feel like the company cares about them and their business.

Yet it just hasn't been happening and people have been frustrated with him. Evil Skeletor who was meant to be there but has seemingly disappeared hasn't helped matters either. I honestly think that Evil Skeletor would be copping a heap of criticism too for really dropping the ball, but he's seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth without a replacement and so people would be screaming at dead air.

The sad part is that there's not much they need to fix. Scott needs to learn how to balance breaching NDAs with leveling with people, Evil Skeletor needs to do his job and advocate when CS fails, and the call centre needs a rocket put under it.

But these things, which are the visible, customer service aspects of the business are what are completely letting Matty down.

[Seril]

I still don't think any of this will have the effect that you're after. How many people are actually going to strike, boycott, or even send a letter? Yes there are a few who are ultra irate with this. I keep seeing the same names pop up though. Does that mean everyone else is pretty content like me? True we all should be super mad if someone has a problem but if you're a happy customer, what's the pay off or striking? Getting the same level of stuff you're already getting?

You know I feel bad for Scott sometimes. That guy can't win for trying. Anytime he does or says anything it results in a backlash, good or bad. If I were him I'd stop trying to talk to us...

[mekaneckpain]

You know I feel bad for Scott sometimes. That guy can't win for trying. Anytime he does or says anything it results in a backlash, good or bad. If I were him I'd stop trying to talk to us...

It's all self inflicted. --- If he could just stop talking about himself for a while, maybe there would be less backlash.

Thing is no one said outright they were going to boycott the line anytime soon (if they did I didn't see the post), as I said many posts ago, it would (if you could even get enough to do it) possibly spell the end of the line. There are better ways to go about it, and still keep the line going.

Others have suggested that boycotting would be a last resort, in the case that a unified voice towards Mattel didn't work....I just said that for one, not enough would quit the line to matter in that department. I'm a picker therefore no one would notice if I up and quit, but I still support having the line and customer service done right and 90% free of all the recent defects that have crept up.

On the first page or two the conversation was all about strike, Than JVS3 chimed in and suggested a better approach which is where we are now. There are still people posting "I will not strike" without even reading what we are discussing. It really is sad that SOME people on here have ZERO hope that this can have any positive affect.

[DJ_Convoy]

Yeah, I'm done with this unless this goes to a protected thread. Sad some can't be bothered to read past the first page.

[shadowfall1976]

It's all self inflicted. --- If he could just stop talking about himself for a while, maybe there would be less backlash.



On the first page or two the conversation was all about strike, Than JVS3 chimed in and suggested a better approach which is where we are now. There are still people posting "I will not strike" without even reading what we are discussing. It really is sad that SOME people on here have ZERO hope that this can have any positive affect.

I get that, but if they kept reading they would have seen the theme changed, that was my whole point there, like you just said as well, sometimes no one reads every post, they just draw a conclusion from the first few posts without reading in further, that is the problem with too many here.

And it is sad that so many believe that nothing could possibly change, there is such a thing as hope you know....but as I said they'd rather get a fix every month than see anything change. Me I want the line to continue, but what many are overlooking is for it to continue regardless, things need to get much better than they have been these last few months....come July people will let their discontent speak when it's time to sub up again, and I personally know of 2 friends that will not buy another sub again, and quite a few on here that I have seen that won't. All I can say is we'll see what happens.

[Berserker79]

I'm cherry picking, so I am not supporting many figures of this line, the rate went up this year with around 50% of the figures I don't want in my heavy vintage-based collection like Frosta, Shadow Weaver, Griffin or Fearless Photog.

I think, that sub holders, who wants everything MOTUC are the backbone of this line, they support everything and keep obscure characters alive. For them it's a good thing, for me, it is not, because it takes longer for me to get my vintage characters. And there are others like me, who think the same.

So you'll never get the fan community together to boycott or strike, because personal preferences differs from fan to fan.

[fball13z]

Yeah, I'm done with this unless this goes to a protected thread. Sad some can't be bothered to read past the first page.

I love how you guys want this to be protected, but the complainers have no problem jumping in to every topic that could be a positive out look and spit all over it.

When any of us that do not have any major issues with this line, say so, you guys have to jump in and crap on it