Regarding the sub or die, Mattel....
If there aren't enough people who want obscure characters to make a profit off of them, yet you choose to produce said characters and coerce people who don't want them to buy them, who's fault is that?Originally Posted by Inhibitor
Apparently TG and Mattel think it's the fans' fault. Well it's not Scott. It's yours. If you and the whiz-bangs at Mattel are such hot-shot businessmen, you should know you don't create a line 33% full of characters that not enough fans want just because you personally do want them. You don't hold the figures people do want ransom in the hopes of forcing your customers to buy stuff they don't want. And you don't implement a business model where customers who don't want everything HAVE to buy everything or nothing. These are things you Scott and Mattel control. These are poor decisions you guys made.
When this line dies, Mattel will blame the fans. First TG and Mattel are blaming the cherry pickers. Next is international subscribers. And when the sub numbers fall even further, they will even blame the subbers. But the fault lies solely on the shoulders of Scott and Mattel, because the demand is there, yet they have driven so many of us away.
Regarding the sub or die, Mattel....
It should have always been like this!!! They overloaded the past few years' subs which I think hurt the line more than anything (despite the fact that we got lots of awesome stuff)
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Yeah, I was expecting subs to drop, but that was a shocker.
Then again, I was not expecting this much of a drop because TG said that MOTUC could loose half of its sub base and still be ok. So either he lied, or more than half of last year's subscribers have dropped out. I find one of these to be very likely, and the other, not so much. I haven't seen half the subbers drop the line before, but the other option...... it's ringing a bell.
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TG's no fan. Not to me. He's a businessman leveraging his interest in He-man into a way to advance his career and profit financially at real fans' expense.
Looks like Spector travelled back in time and talked to the ghosts of Mattels past, finding out how to kill a line prematurely.
I almost forgot to add to my previous post of personal thoughts...
Not only we have Ram-Man this year but Mattlel let another company to make a Castle Grayskull... (not in scale but in Classics style after all)... we have a spanish expression: they're burning their ships.
That's like saying McDonald's should load up their burger window JUST IN CASE a lot of people want to buy them at the last minute.
Mattel is producing enough to meet demand. That's not leaving money on the table because demand has steadily trickled away.
200X fan? Classic fan? What does that mean? I'm a MotU fan!!!
If...big IF...the MOTUC line comes to a close this year or at the end of 2013, that would be sad. It would be sad because the Filmation licensing has hardly been explored, many fans of the PoP & NA lines would be left with a minimal showing, & Fuerza-T fans would have nothing.
I subscribed last year and this year. When I do, I know I am not going to get a figure I am 100% in love with every month. If there is a figure I particularly don't like, I'll give it to one of my little cousins who will LOVE it. Sometimes I'll do that with variants as well, after I raid it of any accessories or armor I like.
Should Mattcollector stop producing MOTUC, I hope they'll at least license the...errr, license to the Four Horsemen design studio. Even if we only received 3-4 figures a year from them at least that would be something and their 7th Kingdom & Gothitropolis lines show they can do parts reuse with the best of 'em.
Again, that's if the line comes to a close at Mattel. I hope it doesn't though so I guess I am going to need to start carrying around spare pennies and looking for wishing wells.
Ask not for whom MOTUC is made, it's made for thee.
I think too many people are reading into this. Early Access is for none sub items like weapon packs and other possible items, these are the items that may sell out before day of sale. Figures available in the subscription will not have early access, so there will be a limited amount just as always of figures like Ram-Man and Jitsu. Also for everyone saying Scott is terrible at managing this line, just remember you asked for more figures to come with extra heads, mini comics, Filmation Rights, and more accessories. He gave you all of that!! It is not his fault that the economy has caused a rise in production, fuel, and shipping cost. Just remember if you demand more you will have to do more. Scott also takes more time than any other brand manager to give continuous updates on the lines status than any other current toy line. With Playmates and Hasbro you are lucky if you hear anything in six months to a year, heck many times they don't tell you something has been cancelled. As far as I'm concerned MOTUC is the first toy line I haven't had to go store to store sifting through dusty figures hanging on shelves, wasting gas, and coming home empty handed.
I know, I can clearly see it in his eyes but thats not what he wanted you to believe. and a lot of people actually supprting him saying hes doing the best for us fan. thats sad.
That's indeed the saddest part of all.
Hey Toy Guru, I have a solution for one of the problems with the international subs. You'll send us the figures and we'll pay if we get them. How about it? Seems as fair to me!
Jokes apart, I'll only subscribe 2013 if there's a change for us "internationals", if not, my MOTUC collection ends December 2012.
You NEEd to post this in the Ask Matty forums! Best post ever!
"Skeletor to King Randor, Skeletor to King Randor, come in you Royal Boob!"
Ok, I do not know whether we speak about the same thing but regular post in Denmark DOES offer tracking. But I do not know about the situation in other countries.
As you said regular post is trackable in US. Since the regular post is trackable in Denmark too I think it should be somehow possible to send a package by regular (= international ???) post and keep a track
I agree, absolutely.
I'm to stop buy MOTUC on december 2012.
There's no way I'm bowing to such a blatant blackmail, and outrageous selling conditions.
Also, I really doubt they would really not do any of the announced 2013 figures... I would be really curious about what they would really do if they don't reach the target subscription number...
GozzoMan, Heroic Cherry Picker
They will give a glow in dark Orko to each subscriber
I really don't think revealing more figures is going to have any effect. My only hope is that if even MOTU can't meet it's quotas, then amend the sub terms, fire off what's been done for all lines and then shutter MattyCollector. The only other alternative would be to pair the figures down in accessories and hunt fr a retail partner - most likely TRU at this point.
I would rather have a non-defective Snout Spout head.They will give a glow in dark Orko to each subscriber
With such a loyal, passionate fan base and great products (minus qc issues, cost cutting, and questionable character selection) the MOTUC line shouldn't even be in trouble. It just shows how badly the brand manager has bungled the line. Instead of expanding the customer base, Mattel has spent a lot of time and effort alienating fans. As a result sales are way down which many of us feared and saw coming months ago. To further exacerbate the situation Scott officially responds in a way which alienates even more people.
Last edited by Hosed Ovor; July 20, 2012 at 08:31am.
No, that's like McDonald's saying "We'll only sell you hamburgers if you'll buy a full year's supply right now." And after delivering hamburgers to subbers, they tell the crowd of hungry patrons outside, "We know you want hamburgers, and we see that you have money, but because you didn't pre-order a year's supply, we can't sell you anything."
There's no JUST IN CASE, and there's no LAST MINUTE. There is a clear, present, and very loud contingent of cherry-pickers here, RIGHT NOW, saying we want, for example, Ram Man and Jitsu. And some of us would even commit to buying those figures right now if Mattel would do a pre-order on a figure by figure basis, something many other toy makers seem capable of doing. Mattel can't because they can't cater to every customers personal buying habits, yadda yadda yadda.
Many of us are saying, "We would like 12 Big Macs please." And they shoot back, "We'll sell you at least two Big Macs, but you have to buy 16 other meals too. Some will be Chicken McNuggets, some will be McGriddles, some will be Filet O'Fish, and some will be Mandarin Chicken Salads. And you have to commit to it all, right now, or you may not get anything to eat next year." Well, if lots of people want to buy 12 Big Macs, you are able to produce 12 Big Macs but decide, for whatever reason, that you don't want to or can't, don't blame the hungry, fat-walleted people outside for you having to lock your doors. I'm hungry, but you won't tell me what, when, and where to eat.
And they are not meeting demand. How many people missed out on Fisto? I personally have wanted a King Randor and He-Ro since 2009. TG said, point blank, that next year in many cases there will not be ANY left for sale on the 15th. How is that producing enough to meet demand? Demand hasn't steadily trickled away. Demand was never there in the first place to warrant production of the obscure characters. They only got made because Mattel said if you want He-man, you have to buy the Fighting Foe Men. The demand for vintage figures is as strong as ever. But Mattel is pushing those people out the door, not only with bad customer service, raising prices, forcing us to buy figures we don't want, bad QC, and bad public relations, but also by saying, "give us all your money or we don't want any."
Business WORKS when a business gauges what potential customers want and then gives that to them at a price they can profit from. If you base your business off of forcing customers to buy 50% (give or take) of product they dont' want in order to get the product they do want, then you are not listening to the market. You are forcing your will onto your customers, and if your business is selling a luxury item, you have doomed your business from day one. If you are selling a necessity, you can get away with coercion, bad customer service, selling bad qc product that people don't want. But if you are selling a luxury, you can only keep up with it for so long.
Mattel has introduced all this other non-sense into the picture, making it a cloudy, muddy mess that they can't see through anymore. Their stipulations and 'my way or the highway' mentality is slowly killing the line, one customer at a time.
And we think prices are bad now ... I can only imagine a TRU exclusive line.
It doesn't work that way in the US. Once an international shipment leaves the US it is only traceable by its custom number. It will only show when it arrives in its destination country and may, depending on the country, show when it's reached it's destination city. You do not get detailed tracking information, so if it goes missing between arriving in country and it's final destination there is little to no recourse.Ok, I do not know whether we speak about the same thing but regular post in Denmark DOES offer tracking. But I do not know about the situation in other countries.
As you said regular post is trackable in US. Since the regular post is trackable in Denmark too I think it should be somehow possible to send a package by regular (= international ???) post and keep a track
Or a Gygor and Molar.They will give a glow in dark Orko to each subscriber
That's why they need a sub. Because they can't gauge demand. It's not debatable.
Name another retailer willing to take on an exclusive toy line. Action figures are nearing the end f their life cycle. You either pay the higher costs associated with increased collector expectations or you watch a line die.
This recent statement from Scott Neitlich, it hasn't made me angry, hasn't gotten my ire up or even ready to call foul. It's just made me tired. Honestly, I'm so TIRED, not of the toyline, but I won't lie, I've grown a bit apathetic about it over the last few hours. I think that if true, the lack of sub sales for matty's flagship line reflects that I'm not alone. I bought a sub. I considered it for a few days, then bought it just hours before Scott released his statement.
I loved most of the new reveals and was looking forward in some way to all of them. At this moment, it doesn't matter much anymore. I mean it would be a bit of a let down to not get some of the guys I want, it's a let down to have others in the place of ones I want most. But I'm not going to moan about that fact. I'm just tired. I don't want to be insensitive or anything but I feel like through it all, we've had an abusive relationship with Mr. Neitlich. The abuse has gone both ways and I'm not going to get into who struck the first blow, but the truth is, it feels like he holds this line over our heads. We the fans have proven that MOTU is a viable property. since the commemorative line we've kept buying, enough to show MAttel that it can make money, honestly for the last 13 years or so we've bought whatever MOTU product was put out. There are more products coming out from non mattel sources that we will buy too. But now Mr. Neitlich decides the model that this successful line was built on isn’t good enough, now he tells us SUB OR DIE, and as much as I LOVE MOTU, and even though I bought a sub, with this attitude, I feel like DIE. The line is fun, getting the toys is fun, but the rest of the experience now just SUCKS.
Look I buy these toys because they look great, I love the brand and I feel a bond to my childhood with it. I will ALWAYS love MOTU no matter who ****s it up. But now, even though I bought a sub PRIOR to this announcement, I feel like I’m being held at gunpoint. Funnily enough I’m being held at gunpoint AFTER I WILLINGLY gave my money away. Again, I’m not angry, I just feel...defeated.
Collecting this line isn’t fun, not because of the toys, not because of the cost, not even because we have to buy them online. No collecting it isn’t fun anymore because the fans who made Mr. Neitlich look like a superstar in his bosses eyes are being held hostage and being blamed for the apparent drop in subs. The fault lies not with the fans, not with the brand not with the horsemen, but with Mr. Neitlich and Mattel. But to hear him tell it, if we lose this line it's our fault. No Mr. Neitlich, if you look like a failure to your bosses it's YOUR fault, we bought everything you threw at us, even stuff no one asked for was apparently a sell out, so to go from such a success to needing a thermometer to judge sales is the fault of the person who manages the brand, not the customers. They are letting you know how they feel with their wallets, because it's the ONLY language Mattel understands.
We all know the problems, I’m not going to relist them, I just want to say thanks Mr Neitlich for making this experience SUCK.
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I've got everything that I need, right in front of me! Life's a happy song people!
Fear is faith in failure
Ooh! Cool, actually!They will give a glow in dark Orko to each subscriber
Your words sum it all up excellently indeed, man/madam!
GozzoMan, Heroic Cherry Picker
Demand hasn't trickled away, people are just sick of dealing with DR and Mattel's **** ups. No one wants to lock into a sub and be forced to get figures that they have zero interest in. I apologize to PoP fans but I believe the star sisters 3 pack and now the fighting foe men are HUGE reasons why people don't want to sub. it isn't even about CHERRY picking, it's about having zero connection and care about these obscure characters, not to mention the EXTREMELY disappointing 30th line. People are hurt by the blind buy too. I understand they wanted to stretch kthe line, hell I even supported the idea to an extent, but you water down juice enough times it no longer becomes desireable.
Also, the orignal model wasn't sub based, and it did GREAT, this sub only model hurts the consumer and thus hurts the line. Mr Neitlich dug himself into a deep hole and HE doesn't have enough fans to make a long enough ladder to get out of it.
Last edited by krosfyah; July 20, 2012 at 08:38am.
CHECK OUT MY BRAND NEW WEBSITE for my Akil and Saltfish comic strip, more to come soon!
I've got everything that I need, right in front of me! Life's a happy song people!
Fear is faith in failure
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