Reply With Quoteyeah i'm sure varients are not off the table completely, but for now they are since many other characters take priority.Originally Posted by Tallstar
Catra deserves at least one more version.
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yeah i'm sure varients are not off the table completely, but for now they are since many other characters take priority.
Last edited by mjw41; March 6, 2013 at 07:34pm.
I'd REALLY love for this to happen as I'd sub the Filmation one and cherry pick the other... but then would other fans do the same? Sub on one and cherry pick the other?This would likely split the fans (and sub numbers) so neither sub goes through!
The best solution would be to keep Scorpia in the main sub and perhaps Madame Razz in a 6 figure Filmation sub, so fans can afford both. 24 figures plus quarterlies is overkill and likely too much for fans to afford making them choose one sub or the other
Perhaps if they made both subs 12 figures each it could work... I'd sooner they nuke the oversized and variant quarterly items anyway (maybe include a $30 figure like Modulok within the 12 monthlies)
Last edited by blackiecats; March 6, 2013 at 08:09pm.
Top 10 Most Wanted:1/Madame Razz (with Broom), 2/Scorpia, 3/Glimmer 4/Filmation Hordak (with Imp), 5/Kowl, 6/Queen Angella, 7/Two-Bad 8/Modulok, 9/Dylamug and 10/Strong Arm.
Actually, this is the way the Fab Four have always done their sculpting, according to every interview I've read with them where the subject comes up. They like to have some control over the aesthetic of the joints, so they basically sculpt the figure with the joints in place (not working joints, I'd assume, but sculpted so that the joints and their placement and shape are apparent). There are some prototypes they have of Duncan from 2002 with more Marvel Legends style articualiton in place that I've seen in photos from their workshop. I assume Design then takes these and works in the real joints. I recall one time when the said the design team had to thicken a part somewhere to accomodate a joint that would have been too fragile otherwise, so that would tell me the joint was there in some form when they got it. And haven't some of the two-up protos we've seen (some even unpainted) with articulation actually in place come directly from the Horsemen's studio, rather than Mattel's?Originally Posted by bigsexy_j
So according to Scott now, the 4H make all the decisions for articulation based upon they're "unarticulated sculpt" as he's called it. So articulation decisions are up to the horsemen and final sculpting and colours is left to design to make the figures pop. Sounds bass ackwards to me.
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I like that idea. The DCUC sub figure is always oversized, why not for motuc.I'd REALLY love for this to happen as I'd sub the Filmation one and cherry pick the other... but then would other fans do the same? Sub on one and cherry pick the other?
The best solution would be to keep Scorpia in the main sub and perhaps Madame Razz in a 6 figure Filmation sub, so fans can afford both. 24 figures plus quarterlies is overkill and likely too much for fans to afford making them choose one sub or the other
Perhaps if they made both subs 12 figures each it could work... I'd sooner they nuke the oversized and variant quarterly items anyway (maybe include a $30 figure like Modulok within the 12 monthlies)
Comedian on the matty forums.
Three new answers are up! Looks like Snake Mountain is off the table until we get these remaining characters out of the way.
We are way "behind schedule" in the release of playsets. Castle Grayskull should have been released about two or three years ago, and now it seems like Snake Mountain is going to be delayed until after 2015 when the line is likely to be dead or near-dead. Which means we'll never get to Crystal Castle, Eternos Palace, Fright Zone or the Three Towers (let alone Slime Pit, Nordor or Starship Eternia), which means MotUC will forever remain seriously incomplete.
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I know, Gosh, the nerve of people expecting a representative making statements on behalf of a multi-national corporation and the largest toy company of the world to actually keep promises and follow-through.But I can't wait to see this become an issue down the line as seemingly some people like to disect everything Scott says or writes like it's a contract
It's like people expect him to, you know, do his job or something. How dare they.
No we are not behind schedule. Scott said from the very beginning that playsets were a long shot that took an incredible amount of resources, thus not something this small line could handle easily. It is by fluke they were able to even do Castle Grayskull. It is likely the only "playset" were are going to see in this line. I don't understand the need to have "playsets", I don't play with these figures. I would much rather just have diorama pieces for display purposes. I'm not buying Grayskull for that reason, plus the pricetage, plus it is just a update of the vintage castle verbatim (which was flawed to begin with). If you were expecting all those playsets listed above, you are having extremely unreal expectations.We are way "behind schedule" in the release of playsets. Castle Grayskull should have been released about two or three years ago, and now it seems like Snake Mountain is going to be delayed until after 2015 when the line is likely to be dead or near-dead. Which means we'll never get to Crystal Castle, Eternos Palace, Fright Zone or the Three Towers (let alone Slime Pit, Nordor or Starship Eternia), which means MotUC will forever remain seriously incomplete.
Boo! I'm totally ready for Snake Mountain in 2014!
The funny thing is that they can solve the reissues problem and the subscriptions drop problem with only one thing:Before answering your question, let me post my question which was supposed to be answered by Scott :-
Question : “We Tried Over 2 Years Of Reissues” – Fair Statement Scott ???
For the record, yes ! You’ve done reissues for 2 years, but what I want you ask is, Are they “Fan Demanded” ????
OK… Let’s keep Sorceress & Fisto aside on this issue. But back in 2010 & 2011, when we fans were clearly looking for the reissues of Scare Glow, Teela ETC, all we got was Keldor, Clawful, Buzz-Off, Sy-Klone & heck, we even got the reissues of reverse shoulder figures like King Hiss & Roboto ! Now, ALL of these reissues were chosen by yourself & NOT by the fans. Worse part was, all of these reissues were sold in about 5-9 months of their original release !
The truth is, the reissues never really worked because of poor figure selection by Mattel ! Had you asked the fans (back in time), their top choices would have been figures like Teela & Scare Glow ETC !!
Answer (By Catra's Wrath) : The trouble is to justify putting a figure back on the line the demand would have to be very high, a couple of hundred wouldn't justify the production costs involved. At this point, whilst there are still collectors who need Teela and Fisto, it's unlikely there's anywhere near enough to cover the costs of putting the figure back into production, so the secondary market really is the best bet.
----------------------
Now, if you read my question, it wasn’t about “Asking Reissues” OR “Reissue Pre-Order” OR “Reissue SUB” ! So the answer given by Catra’s Wrath is technically wrong. Heck, I also mentioned in my question that I am keeping Sorceress & Fisto “away” form this issue !!
My question was about how the reissues were poorly planned & executed & why they never really worked out well ! Let’s face it, Back in 2010 & 2011, Mattel OR Scott never asked the fans which reissues they want. Instead of asking on the much demanded rereleases, some “genius” at Mattel (may be Scott ?? I am not sure) thought “Ok…… let’s make reissues for Buzz-Off, Clawful, Faceless One, Hurricane Hordak, Gygor ETC. BTW, it doesn’t matter if the figures like King Hiss & Roboto have reverse shoulders, let us give a second run for these too. Oh yeah……. This will be a smart move even though they were originally released only before 6-8 months ago” was a bravo of a thing !
And now they are “blaming” the fans for reissues failure ! How fare is that ???
PRE-ORDERS!
They will know exactly how many figures they need without punishin' people that aren't aware of the line since the beginning and without punishin' people that can't afford a subscription.
Plus no more leftovers for them!
It's a no-brain idea but why they don't want do the pre-orders it will bug me until the end of the line...
After two years of sacrifices tryin' to catch the 40 figures that I needed from 2008 to 2012 now they messed up again my collection with Fang Man... thank you so much...
Last edited by JoeyCruel; March 9, 2013 at 01:33pm.
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Snake Mountain will never be done right anyway. As much as I would love one I'd rather they focus on the figures after how CG is happening.
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Funny thing is he is doing his job and his bosses must think he does a pretty good job, he's still got it right? He is the voice of this toyline, but he doesn't get to finalize every decision, he has a budget to keep and when things don't fit in that budget things change. And since he is the spokesperson for the Mattycollector lines people tend to hold him responsible for every single decision. And would I like a larger Grayskull? Sure. Would I like all the accessories and more for Grayskull? Yep. Do I understand that things need to fit in a budget and costs sometimes prohibit the creative process? Completely. Now am I saying for the money we are spending we should get something not worth the money? Nope, and that is upto each individual to decide if Castle Grayskull is worth the price and every person who pre-orders has that opportunity to cancel if they are not satisfied, I for one was very happy with the Toyfair reveal and plan to keep my 4 pre-orders.I know, Gosh, the nerve of people expecting a representative making statements on behalf of a multi-national corporation and the largest toy company of the world to actually keep promises and follow-through.
It's like people expect him to, you know, do his job or something. How dare they.
Last edited by cbomb23; March 9, 2013 at 05:58pm.
I would love to see Snake Mountain sooner than later, but I can wait if we can get the rest of the vintage.
It will be interesting to see what Snake Mountain looks like should we get to it. Filmation? Vintage toy? That vintage toy look is more important to me (it was my first MOTU playset), but it is called "Snake" Mountain, so we might need that Filmation look too. The green snake on the vintage toy didn't have the same presence that face had.
I think they said they would like to do it more in the Filmation/200x look as opposed to the vintage toy. I remember seeing that toy as a kid being utterly disappointed it had zero resemblance to the Snakw Mountain I knew. I did'nt ever own it and I doubt I ever pushed for it from my parents because it was so different than the Snake Mountain I knew.
I wouldn't be surprised if most other kids at the time were in that camp. I guess being the first playset for me, it didn't bother me. I really liked all the crazy features on the original Snake Mountain playset.
I think the problem is that Mattel already has a good idea of the number of people that would sign up for a re-issue pre-order...And it's just not enough to cover the costs of turning the machines back on for them. Most people assume that they can just crank out a couple of thousand units of anything at will, as long as we pay for it, but manufacturing toys at their level doesn't work like that. The number of new collectors would have to match the current collector base to put pre-orders into consideration. Otherwise, they'll be spending the cost of making, let's say...10,000+ Teela's only to sell a couple thousand of them. It sucks but we wouldn't make this call unless we didn't care about losing money...And Mattel cares about these things!
However, I agree with TUC138 in that Mattel was foolish to re-issue figures that had just been out that same year and weren't core characters. Then, of course, fans were blamed for not eating them up and now, re-issues are off the table because the fan demand wasn't there. I'm pretty sure that Teela, Sorceress, and Fisto are in higher demand than Gygor, Keldor, and Hurricane Hordak but they don't want to hear it. IMO, re-issues should not have started until last year or so, when the Evergreen figures showed up. Imagine if the Original Eight had been the first set of Essentials on Matty!
It doesn't surprise me, though...The exact same thing happened with WWE Legends figures. It was a promising line but didn't have the best lineup initially because they didn't have all the right contracts with older wrestlers yet. Instead of waiting to have better characters, they jumped the gun and made a K-Mart exclusive "Hall of Fame" series that included straight re-issues of Series 1 & 2 figures that were already readily available in stores. Only one of the six figures was a fan-demanded one, so K-Mart became flooded with pegwarmers...You can probably still find a couple of them in stores today! This, combined with an overproduced TRU Legends 2-pack series that also performed poorly due to lackluster character selection, killed the hopes of expanding the Legends line. Instead, it died out quietly on Mattycollector last year after only six retail waves and within the first year of being on Matty.
It seems to me that Mattel only understands the business model of spamming the market. It works for Barbie, Monster High, and Hot Wheels so it looks like they just apply the same approach to everything they do. If it doesn't stick, they're more eager to shut it down, and move onto the next item on their list, than to adjust their strategies to reflect the actual fan base demand.
However, MOTUC is somehow still around with over a 100 figures, several beasts, a vehicle, and a playset when any other small line would've been scrapped by now. Fan support is phenomenal and it seems like Mattel still has a soft spot for one of their home brands. (Hope springs eternal for the days of being a billion dollar franchise once again, perhaps?) Anyway, Mattel would be wise to build on this goodwill...Few retail lines have this type of longevity, IMO.
Why would they even spend money "turning up the machines"? Would it cost them anything to just open a pre-order sale for Teela? No. Would they need to go ahead if the minimum wasn't met? No. So where's the risk there?
Do they really know what to expect about anything? Do they really know how many people would sign up for a reissued Teela figure? They may think they know, but I doubt it.
The only thing they know is that they have a very popular property in He-man, anything other than that is just a shot in the dark for them. And they also know that the hardcore fans will buy anything, regardless of any major screw ups.
I just think that what's preventing them from opening a pre-order for reissues is that it would move a lot of resources from the line (it's just a deduction from years of reading Toyguru's answers). Seeing how long it took them to get the "my subscription page" up - even though it's a lousy and almost useless interface - it would be a herculean job just to do that reissues pre-order I guess...
Um, actually, the entire Castle's design was their idea. From the Orb room to including the ledge. The only ask from Mattel was to include a slot for Scareglow's key which is being added to the final toy. Pretty much from a design stand point this was all the awesome glory of the 4HM.
I'm pleased with the honest answer to the Snake Mountain question. While I would appreciate Snake Mountain sooner rather than later, I understand that resources are scarce and they should be put into finishing up the remaining figures.
As much as I would like to see reissues as well, it's not as simple as throwing a pre-order up on mattycollector. There are man hours, terms and yes, logistics that need to be used, set up and agreed upon before a preorder system can even be put into place. Mattel logically may not want to invest in all of that if they're already feeling certain that the preorder won't go through. Why put that much effort into preorders when they can focus on new characters that WILL meet their quota (via the sub system)?
There's also PR to consider. Mattel doesn't want to put up a bunch of preorders just to watch them fail, giving the public impression that they've just offered a product that failed. Seriously, the bottom line is that there is VERY little incentive for Mattel to proceed with a preorder, no matter how "brainless" some here think it would be.
So you are saying that the 4H had the idea, but was the implementation of that idea (putting it inside the castle where if one actually used it the entire castle would be largely inaccessible or blocked from view) "Mattel Design" or again on the 4H?
While the idea of a way to integrate it was neat, the way it was done looks absurd, which is why I am sure it was not in display with the castle at Toy Fair (as it also would have shown just how small the castle turned out).
Also, at what point were the 4H instructed to shrink the castle? Fans have been looking at the time line and it seems you must have known of the shrinkage relatively close to when the original presale was still ongoing.
Yeah, until you made them change the design so everything is a compromise of the original plans, essentially throwing the complete castle into a smaller scale ( for 6" figures instead of for 7" figures)
I guess that was the 4HM's idea too?
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There already is a preorder system. They have done it for several items now, including figures (DC).
It's not like they are starting from scratch and need to find a manufacturer, etc. And the molds are already done. I'd rather have more variants (like a Filmation Teela) but since those do not seem to be in the cards, select reissues seem to be the way to go. There are many ways to approach it - put them together in sets, for instance.
The box is only so enclosed if you don't let yourself look at it from any other angle.
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