Have you slowed or stopped collecting MOTUC? Official Mattel poll!

[JVS3]

For those of you who still purchase MOTUC with the same passion with which you started, you don't need to read any further.

But if you're a fan who has cut back on your MOTUC purchases, or if you have ceased purchasing MOTUC altogether, Mattel's own Scott Neitlich wants to know why. So Scott sent this official poll to get your feedback!

The poll below has various options to find out your top reason for slowing or ceasing your MOTUC purchases. Please click here to vote today! This poll is open to everyone and will run until 11:59pm EST on Friday, February 1st. Thank you for participating!

[The.Idea.of.Evil]

There's an official poll from Matty asking fans why they don't support the line anymore, and I'm not seeing a thread allowing us to talk about it. Those who do support the line need not reply, but I'm curious as to what people voted for.

I went with "Other - No one takes responsibility for poor figure designs, and I won't support the line until fan input is taken BEFORE a figure is released with its inevitable mistakes."


Here's the LINK to the poll

[shadowfall1976]

Despite having a sub this year, and maybe next, just to get the few big hitters I may want....I am a picker, I am not a completist, and I only want what I want, I can't buy something I don't like for the sake of owning it. The 2013 figures I don't want I'll be selling, or just handing to my son. No other line I have ever collected has almost required you to be a completist. That all being said, I love the line, and even the figures I don't personally like are still nicely sculpted figures.

Mostly the figure prices are what drove me into the sub, $25 is my cap for MOTUC basic figures....the DOS figures figures are not essential unless they are needed figures of mine, which really numbers 4 more, and likely most of those 4 will be in the sub eventually, but I may be willing to buy a couple more outside that if I really love them.

But if something were to happen and prices increased again, I'd be out, I'd buy my last 4, and be done. I get inflation, and materials, and even the labor, but that doesn't change I have no more money to want to give the figures over $25. the $10 USPS shipping for 7 - 11 days is horrible considering it's not really USPS and they're paying an outside carrier to zig zag crap all over the country before it gets to me, the USPS only gets it once it's in your nearest neighborhood. UPS is way too much for lower numbers of figures.

Honestly I will support the line so long as the price is in my budget, and really, it's almost to the point where it is. I want the line to stay as it is, I see no need to change anything, because nothing you will do except deco cuts and accessory drops will cause any significant price drops....and I refuse to buy an expensive collector's figure in a Ziplock brand new direct from the retail source, it's one thing buying a loose figure from Ebay, it's already used and I expect certain things, but brand new...hell no. Plus, it's something I rarely if ever do I own 3 (once Wun-Dar gets here) bought loose figures, and 2 were because I didn't want to pay for the whole set just to get the figure I wanted. And packaging will not cause the price decrease anyone thinks, only cutting tooling and deco will do that, and that is something no one wants.

But for me at the moment I do support the line, I subbed, but I also supported the line before buy buying DOS....I bought 20 figures (out of the 31 figures / sets) from 2012 & the WP#3. I would have bought the Snakemen set, but couldn't at the time, same with Mosquitor, Granamyr took all my money.... That's the most from any year I own, so yeah I think I supported the line in 2012 just fine, sub or not.

2012 was actually a great year for MOTUC. But damn was it expensive.

[EtherianChronicles]

No poll can have every option one could want, and kudos for including an OTHER with a line to write in, but that said my problem is Character Selection, but not "I have all I want", it's that they are making ins I don't want as opposed to ones I do. I hear very few people say "because I have all the ones I want" - yet that is often bandied about by Scott as one of the CYA things he can point to when it does end so as not to lay the blame in all the myriad of other directions he has influence on.

Like the recent cost thread Scott started, based on prior experience I cannot help but feel this is more a way to CYA than a true effort to help us as fans positively, but I sincerely hope that I am wrong and there is some altruistic purpose.

[swind15]

I voted "shipping costs", but that and the higher prices stopped me from picking up Netossa and the Griffin this month. They will not stop me from getting Fang-man, Snakeface, and Octavia though, because they look to be worth the higher price.

[oulala]

I voted 'NOT ENOUGH POP characters'. Which is true. I'd be buying more figures if there were more POP characters!

[Berserker79]

I won't buy another sub in 2014, got 2 this year, not happy but just fine with the character selection.

There's no motivation for me to deal with matty again, I only need around 8 must have characters to complete my collection and I think, I'll get some of those this year, so I'll buy the remaining figures on secondary market next year...

The buying experience on matty is just awful, so I won't have to deal with missing shipments or wrong adresses again, when I buy from online dealer or on secondary market, where the figures are already at hand. I gladly pay more money for less problems.

[Vikor]

What about an "all of the above" category?

[Beast-Man]

What about an "all of the above" category?

This!

[Scorpia]

I voted 'NOT ENOUGH POP characters'. Which is true. I'd be buying more figures if there were more POP characters!

I'm the same. I sold most of my MOTU figures to clear some space (I've kept He-Man, Battle Cat, the Royal Family, MAA, Teela, Skeletor, Beast Man, Trap Jaw and BG Evil-Lyn). The only characters I'll be buying are POP and some Filmation.

So, yeah, I'd buy more figures if there were more of them released too.

[Man-E-Toys]

Is there a link to this poll?

EDIT: Pinned to the top of this forum and on the main page of He-Man.org!

[Kollec-Tor]

My reasons for wanting to quit this increasingly frustrating line are as follows:

1) The ABSOLUTE worst customer service of any company I've ever dealt with hands down. That department at Digital River would be better off just being called Customer Disservice. They are worse than useless. Especially this one annoying ***** in that department that sounds like Reese Witherspoon's character from "Legally Blonde." I just want to repeatedly slap her upside the head until she gets some common sense knocked into her. I ****ing hate her. I needed help ordering Castle Grayskull and you'd figure that with an extra $250 for them they would want to help. Well, guess what? They told me "tough ****" and to just accept the disappointment. I'd be better off with a kick to the nuts. If Toyguru wants to improve the collectors' morale, he should fix that ****** department.

2) The Quality Control is so ****ing awful too. I don't want to sound like a jerk but do those workers all have Parkinson's or something. FIX THAT ASSEMBLY LINE!!!!! Also, what the **** happened to those Fisto's from last February? How does one miss a huge allotment of those figures? Did those figures just get up on their own and walk out? Or will they mysteriously end up on eBay from sellers located in Asia just like those Nirvana "Pennyroyal Tea" singles did all those years ago (just look it up online)?

3) TOYGURU NEVER KEEPS HIS ****ING PROMISES! Whatever happened to combined shipping for subscription holders who want to add Day of Sale purchases too? What, that just slipped his mind. What about that second production run he mentioned for the "flocked ears" Moss Man figure? Just conveniently forgot that too. What about the first two Weapons Paks? I can't get those but the third Weapons Pak has been sitting around for months. Thanks for ****ing nothing Toyguru.

My venting is done. 'Nuff said!

[oICEMANo]

There were two reasons in there but I could only choose one. So I chose the shipping is too expensive option.

[wolfsfang]

There were two reasons in there but I could only choose one. So I chose the shipping is too expensive option.

same here. It was a toin coss between the figures being too expensive or the shipping. I went with shipping

[Tallstar]

Other.

I'm down to just 1 order for the 2013 subscription, and find myself skipping items (Vykron, Granamyr, etc), where previously I was buying 2 or more of each item. Honestly, what killed a lot of the excitement for me is the lack of toy-based POP figures, little hope of seeing new or existing POP concepts, and how the Star Sisters turned out.

[Skystalker]

Does anybody know if they are going to share the results of this poll with us or if Matty is going to hold the results close to its vest?

[DO4M]

Other: a combination of Value, shipping and QC.
Extreme Cherry picker mode, still with the line but buying less.

[Beastmaster]

I skipped on Griffin this month because of the outrageous shipping costs. So that's what I voted on.

[air23cnhit]

I chose Other, becuase it wasn't just ONE reason. It was QC, Price and the HORRIBLE customer service.

[Faker78]

I chose shipping, but I will continue to buy, albeit less due to high shipping costs.

[Stygian360]

What about an "all of the above" category?

I figured someone would suggest this --^ Seriously though, I cited customer service as the area needing the most improvement. Character selection is something Mattel can improve upon fairly quickly- all things considered- and given that prices are pretty much fixed unless we want to lose some area of quality or abundance of accessories (which personally I don't), then customer service is their biggest and most important challenge. It's also the one area that won't be quickly fixed as unfortunately it appears DR is here to stay. They suck utterly, have always sucked utterly, and they will continue to suck until the day they are cut loose. Not sure how much more succinct it can be said. Replace DR with someone better at what they do, please.

[scott metzger]

Technically I quit Matty collector and not the line, but I still count myself here because I go through the secondary market rather than delaling with DR. I, of course, had to chose "other", because bogus credit card charges aren't listed as a choice.

Honestly, if these folks haven't figured out what is wrong by now with fans making no secret of all the problems they've had, I have to shake my head. There's nothing hidden here, no great, profound discovery to be made. The reasons the line is declining have been clear, and basically ignored, for years.

[JakeofEternia]

I bought only 1 MOTUC figure last year, and I doubt I'll be buying any this year. My issue with this poll that is asks for only one primary reason when really there are several. I chose the Value. Going from $22 day of to $27 is a huge jump and once you tack on shipping to it then you're paying nearly $40 for a figure that's often largely reused parts and a couple accessories. But on top of that I've never supported the blackmail tactics used when it comes to investing such a large amount in a yearly sub when you've only been shown a couple products and have no idea what else you're going to get. I don't want every single character, beast, and vehicle. Some I just don't want and I'm not going to try to make sure I can afford it all if I don't want it all.

I don't want to have to get everything just to get the stuff I liked and what's worse I don't like the marketing of the subscriptions which makes it seem like they just don't care about day of buyers at all. They market the subscriptions like if you don't buy it they'll cancel the line each and every time. Last year it was at it's worse. Last year they made a big plea to buy a Sub and save the line then just a month or two later they announced the whole Castle Grayskull thing. To me that just makes it seem like maybe the line wasn't in so much trouble after all.

After all that drama to put a huge price jump on the figures they're just not worth it anymore. There were other figures released last year that I wanted and a few already announced for this year that I would get, but with their attitude towards this line and it's fans, it's just not worth the price paid to get them. I'll just stick with the DC Comics series for my MOTU fix.

[Prince Adam's Dad]

I chose the shipping selection. I may be a subscriber for the first time this year, but I can't see myself taking advantage of that 'perk' if I will essentially end up paying for shipping twice. Mattel is missing out on my money, and the shipping is completely to blame.

[Crusader]

It's a combination of quality control, figure price and international shipping. But I voted for figure price because it's the figure price that adds the custom fees.

Character selection hasn't been a huge problem until now, but this might change when we'll start getting more Filmation, New Adventures, Son of He-Man, etc. I am not interested in owning every MOTU character from every era and 39$ + customs is a lot of money for a figure I don't care about.