Subscriber Tokens

[Canada-Man]

What if for items that are not included in the sub sub holders get a token for every sub they own to get a first dibs on all none sub items.

This would be perfect for things like Spirit of Hordak and Strobo. You have to either redeem your token/code and get the figures sent to you or you pass and they go to day of sale stock.

I'm sorry but if mattel made less SoH then there are subs thats just low. I'm a completist and I thought the sub would guarantee my collection being complete.

Any thoughts?

[bigsexy_j]

It doesn't matter, clearly Mattel do not care of how the sell they're figures, just that they do.

J

[manowar]

I agree. I thought there was a certain disdain for "chase" figures. I do believe there is a certain "thrill" but on the flip side frustration. I am a completest too, but I don't want to spend $90 on a figure. Even if they, lets say, gave us 3 "chase" figures a year with our subs, and you didn't know which ones you would get, and the aim was to trade your figures to get a set of 3, I could go for that, but not the "If your lucky enough" figures.

[hadley]

I'm a completist and I thought the sub would guarantee my collection being complete.

Any thoughts?

You thought wrong, daddio. There have always been items offered outside of the sub from the beginning. You have no reason to believe a sub gets you every item released.

[darkmoon766]

This is a great idea, but Matty and dr are so inept, they could never implement it technically. Just look at all of the problems people had who could not even log in to ea today. That is just one of MANY technical problems they can't keep straight.

[eCollector]

Well that's basically what we were lead to believe early access was supposed to be; a way for sub holders, ALL sub holders, not just the lucky few, to get first dibs on non sub items.

[AuraBoyX]

This is a good idea - but it will never be implemented. Early Access items should be limited to 1 or 2 per transaction PERIOD. I think that would help. Lift the limit for day of the main sale but Early Access needs to be restricted to VERY low numbers per subscriber.

[Canada-Man]

You thought wrong, daddio. There have always been items offered outside of the sub from the beginning. You have no reason to believe a sub gets you every item released.

I have been a subscriber right from the beginning. So I am aware of the non sub items. I just figured by this day in age and matty knowing that subscribers are more or less in it for a complete collection they could give some sort of option to obtain non sub items and not have to fight for them. Don't quote one comment from my entire initial post attempt to make me look stupid

[jibernish]

What if for items that are not included in the sub sub holders get a token for every sub they own to get a first dibs on all none sub items.

This would be perfect for things like Spirit of Hordak and Strobo. You have to either redeem your token/code and get the figures sent to you or you pass and they go to day of sale stock.

I'm sorry but if mattel made less SoH then there are subs thats just low. I'm a completist and I thought the sub would guarantee my collection being complete.

Any thoughts?

A completely rational idea that would likely never happen. Matty can't even make the site work now. Many people can't log in to early access with their email address, which is just one bit of information. If you add tokens on top of that, you're likely to melt their computers down and destroy the whole building.

- - - Updated - - -

I have been a subscriber right from the beginning. So I am aware of the non sub items. I just figured by this day in age and matty knowing that subscribers are more or less in it for a complete collection they could give some sort of option to obtain non sub items and not have to fight for them. Don't quote one comment from my entire initial post attempt to make me look stupid

During the sell-ins, Mattel and TG are prone to using phrases like, "The only way to guarantee you get all the figures is to subscribe," and "we need our customers to be all-in to guarantee that the line continues." So of course you could get the impression that you have an opportunity to get every figure. You just have to be careful with Mattel because they are very loose with their words. They like to leave themselves an out with everything they say. Their words can't be depended on. They can't even get the time right for a sale, or guarantee every subscriber a Fisto - and what's worse, when they mess up they won't make it right.

[Prince Adam's Dad]

This is a good idea - but it will never be implemented. Early Access items should be limited to 1 or 2 per transaction PERIOD. I think that would help. Lift the limit for day of the main sale but Early Access needs to be restricted to VERY low numbers per subscriber.

It really is simple. Limit "special" EA stuff to the number of subs you have.

But they won't.

[WDWFreak53]

It would be very simple to do. If max is set for "2" per sub...then your "My Subscriptions" page should keep track of how many you can buy. Limit the time to purchase to one day...

[Haradrel]

What if for items that are not included in the sub sub holders get a token for every sub they own to get a first dibs on all none sub items.

This would be perfect for things like Spirit of Hordak and Strobo. You have to either redeem your token/code and get the figures sent to you or you pass and they go to day of sale stock.

I'm sorry but if mattel made less SoH then there are subs thats just low. I'm a completist and I thought the sub would guarantee my collection being complete.

Any thoughts?

You want tokens, so that early access can get first access before the real sale...
No, this is over complicating something very simple.

If you want a higher production number so that everybody gets a figure on the first go it's simple, get friends to subscribe so the amount of figures produced are higher.

[Kid Canada]

So they go ahead and make enough for every sub sold. It turns out that it is a figure that not everyone wants (like Hordak) and when it is all said and done they have several hundred or more leftover in the warehouse. What do you think the odds are that they will ever do that again???

All this fuss about Hordak (and Strobo before him) is for a figure that will be available on and off all year.

[WDWFreak53]

So they go ahead and make enough for every sub sold. It turns out that it is a figure that not everyone wants (like Hordak) and when it is all said and done they have several hundred or more leftover in the warehouse. What do you think the odds are that they will ever do that again???

All this fuss about Hordak (and Strobo before him) is for a figure that will be available on and off all year.

True. Here's the problem. They lowered the amount to 4. Great. Now they release this figure 3-5 times a year. So, the amount a single person can purchase is now 12-20 rather than the normal single release. (Granted, they could log on and make multiple purchases on the single day-of sale...but that would require you to have all that money at once, whereas the same amount would be spread out over months.)

IMO, Do the NEVER BEFORE RELEASED figures with the "token" and Early Access would be for previously released figures.

[Brian Ozone]

It can be done but Mattel dont care who gets the toys there still getting the money

[WDWFreak53]

It can be done but Mattel dont care who gets the toys there still getting the money

That's shortsighted thinking though. If subscribers can't get all the figures, then you'll start to lose subscribers.

[MOTU_Maniac]

It really is simple. Limit "special" EA stuff to the number of subs you have.

But they won't.

I agree that special non-sub items should be limited to 1 per subscription during Early Access. Subscribers get first dibs on these type of figures. If you have made the sacrifice to purchase multiple subs then you get multiple figures, etc. Remaining stock (and Mattel should be sure to make plenty) should then be offered during DOS.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

The biggest problem and only real solution to this is to simply either make more of the figure, and/or make more of them (like the whole supply) available at once.

I understand why Strobo was super limited when he went on sale since he is a traveling convention exclusive.

The way Spirit of Hordak has been handled, both in the lack of timely announcements of when he will go on sale, and the fact that they are rationing him out, is ridiculous. I get that (as ToyGuru has stated a few times in response to questions) there will always be some non-sub items like Bubble Power She-Ra and Granymyr, and that's fine. But in both of those cases and others like it, we had plenty of notice about the sales, and the full run of the figures (save for customer service issue stock) was put up all at once.

It really is simple. Limit "special" EA stuff to the number of subs you have.

But they won't.

While I don't necessarily disagree with this approach, again, this will only work if they have the supply to go with it. The problem here is that if yesterday each subscriber had been able to order the same number of Spirit of Hordak figures as the number of sub they have, all in one, single order, but with the same small handful of them being available in total, then resellers (like BBTS and probably others selling on ebay) who have many, many subs.. possibly 10, 20, even 100, would have been able to order up to that many of the figure.

As it is, the limit per order was 4. And given how fast he sold out, I doubt that anyone was able to get more than 1 order in on any single subscription account. Yeah, this also means that people with one sub could order up to 4 (I actually only have one sub and ordered extras, but I'm helping out some friend/fans who also happen to be sub holders and couldn't be online), but I doubt that anyone managed to get more than 1 order in.

The flaw, of course, is that aside from the sell out time, nothing otherwise really stops people from going in and placing additional orders if they want to. The limit (whether it's 4 like SoH, or 10 for most normal sale figures) is only per order... there's no limit to the number of orders one can put in so long as the item is still in stock.

True. Here's the problem. They lowered the amount to 4. Great. Now they release this figure 3-5 times a year. So, the amount a single person can purchase is now 12-20 rather than the normal single release.

See my point above. Again, the only thing that stopped people from ordering more than 4 yesterday was the amount of time it sold out in. Had he lasted longer, anyone who wanted to could have placed order after order to get more of him. There's a good chance that any resellers who spotted him when he first went on sale by surprise and had a limit of 6 could have done just that since he apparently lasted about an hour or so.

[Prince Adam's Dad]

Then limit the "one per sub per order" to a one-time transaction and make as many as would have been made if it had been a sub figure, minus additional stock for DoS. Not every sub holder will buy the additional figure. Those that don't can be sold as DoS. If it sells out, it sells out. People can bark about "oh, look , another sub exclusive" all they want, but TG can fall back to what he said about a lack of DoS stock last year. It's not like people are going to be exponentially more irritated at not getting a red Hordak than they were about Fang-Man.

No knock on you for pointing out the problems, DoE. But the situation itself really isn't rocket science. This is something that Mattel should be able to handle at this point.

[Skystalker]

So they go ahead and make enough for every sub sold. It turns out that it is a figure that not everyone wants (like Hordak) and when it is all said and done they have several hundred or more leftover in the warehouse. What do you think the odds are that they will ever do that again???

All this fuss about Hordak (and Strobo before him) is for a figure that will be available on and off all year.

Or, they could give sub holders an exclusive right to pre-order non sub items before they go into production.

But Matty can't even make sure something in one's cart will actually get them the item, so I'm not holding my breath.

I'm not holding Scott directly responsible, as his hands are probably tied by Mattel's refusal to put significant money in the property to keep it truly alive even if, for now, it breaks even or slightly loses money. I'm holding Mattel responsible for hiring a company that doesn't know what it is doing in the first place.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

No knock on you for pointing out the problems, DoE. But the situation itself really isn't rocket science. This is something that Mattel should be able to handle at this point.

I agree that fundamentally there should be some way for them to do this. And if they were to have at least enough stock to cover 80% of the subs (since some people just won't want the figure), with people not being able to order more than the number of subs they have (and with there being a reasonable amount of time to order, which means the people that I'm helping out, for example, would have been able to get online to get the figure), I could see this working.

But this is DR we are talking about.... they can't seem to do things that other onilne retailers have been doing since the late 90s.

They can't even combine shipping on orders placed separately within a short time of each other. And the early access items don't even have a combined sale page allowing you to add multiple different EA items to your cart at the same time. As a result, knowing the SoH would sell out fast and I wouldn't have time to add another item to the cart in the same order, I placed one order for those yesterday, then placed a separate order for Stinkor to help out one of the people whom I'm also helping with SoH. And today for the general sale, I'm ordering 2 of the Wally West Flash figure for myself and the same guy that needed the Stinkor and 1 SoH.... another separate shipping charge. All of that in addition to the shipping paid for my sub this month.

I don't understand why DR can't get their act together in the most basic, fundamental ways.

[He-Dad]

I missed out on Strobo. I was a little ticked as I can't make it to a convention. I have a friend that's going to pick me up one and I'm eternally grateful. I was able to score SoH the first time around, off Matty because I work nights, so when stuff pops up in the day, I can. I actually preferred to get him that way. I thought it was fun, new, and different and I enjoyed it. Should he pop up again, I will get another. EA has not been nice to me at all and I don't see it as a perk anymore...it's just a frustration I don't need. So I would love instead to have the ability to blind purchase tokens. They don't even have to tell us what or when they are for. Give us the price, take our money, we take the risk and get our figures.

[Prince Adam's Dad]

They can't even combine shipping on orders placed separately within a short time of each other. And the early access items don't even have a combined sale page allowing you to add multiple different EA items to your cart at the same time. As a result, knowing the SoH would sell out fast and I wouldn't have time to add another item to the cart in the same order, I placed one order for those yesterday, then placed a separate order for Stinkor to help out one of the people whom I'm also helping with SoH. And today for the general sale, I'm ordering 2 of the Wally West Flash figure for myself and the same guy that needed the Stinkor and 1 SoH.... another separate shipping charge. All of that in addition to the shipping paid for my sub this month.

I don't understand why DR can't get their act together in the most basic, fundamental ways.

I can understand why.

Kidding aside, the inability to combine shipping (that is already inflated compared to the speed at which items arrive) is the reason I will never take advantage of the early access.

[jibernish]

That's shortsighted thinking though. If subscribers can't get all the figures, then you'll start to lose subscribers.

Many of Mattel's decisions have been shortsighted and caused people to quit the line. But they know that most of the people left will put up with anything to get these figures.

[wyldman11]

The simple issue Mattel is trying to go for is something that ends up being a fine line to walk. What they are trying to do is create a frenzy on the figures. While many on this site don't like to hunt for the figures, there are also just as many who get some kind of thrill out of hunting figures. (anyone who applies their experience as fact needs to get out more). The second group though some like some hunt, others like a lot of hunt. But those who really like at least some kind of challenge in it, find a line boring and will get out. But the other side those who want easy to get stuff can only put up with so much hunting before they quit. that is the line they are walking. And sometimes what their strategy is works or backfires horribly.

I do think they need to limit early access purchases though to a subscription, not just an order. But people also need to understand we don't know how many are being put up for sale. I wouldn't be surprised if Spirit of Hordak will be up during cyber Monday at least. but I would say the frenzy aspect is making some what this guy more than if they dumped them all on one day, I mean it's a red clear plastic Hordak with a Horde Armband and white crossbow. I know many want the crossbow, but I would be curious how many actually want the figure if it wasn't for the frenzy of omg I missed out on him.