Hope you had a good Halloween! Here’s some treats from the gang at Mattel.
1) With regards to 2014 / 2015, you’ve said that since there are two Snake Men left it’s likely to see them split across the two years. Does the same kind of rationale apply to Stridor and Night Stalker? Or is there too much tooling to consider them in the “big hitters” category that qualify for the next two years?
Our goal for 2014-2015 is to release all of the basic figures. How many beast or vehicles released has yet to be announced. We can tell you the more tooling a beast or vehicle has the less likely it will be released ?(unless a basic vintage figure like “Gwildor” etc.. which we will prioritize).
2) You’ve mentioned that Club Eternia subscriptions hit “tier 2” for 2014. Since the subscription was described for pre-order purposes, e.g., this many figures at this price, what kinds of differences in the sub are allowed by hitting the higher goal? For example, would that allow for different character choices? Or is it more like you could plus up the existing line-up?
By hitting “tier 2” it allows us to produce more than just 12 partially tool’d figures. The reason you see quarterly items, fully tool’d items and more non sub items is because we are able to hit the min of tier 2 to unlock these resources to expand the line.
3) There’s been a lot of strong reactions to the length and shape of the “skirts” on recent female figures, even after the design team provided the rationale behind the changes. What’s the possibility of looking at this again for future figures, or is this a done deal?
Zero at this time. It has been looked at in extreme detail and design has concluded the type of change fans are asking for is not physically possible with the current level of toy making technology.
4) We’ve heard from so many collectors that they would buy an “unleashed” Doomsday but not a “jail-suit” Doomsday. How much more would the unleashed version have to sell in order to justify the increased tooling cost? With 9 months before SDCC, is there not enough time to change to the unleashed version if enough fans demanded it?
It has nothing to do with the cost or charge or demand for the larger Doomsday. The larger Unleashed Doomsday was contingent on producing 12 partially tool’d figures produced at tier 2 level. Since we did no even get to tier 1, that makes doing a tier 2 level figure that much harder. Fans had their chance to support the Unleashed Doomsday and we did not reach that goal. Asking for him now is akin to losing the Superbowl but asking for the trophy anyway. We simply can’t make this fully tool’d figure without the year long sub of partially tool’d figures at the higher quota (at tier 2) to balance out the cost. No sub, no figure. It is totally a math thing, not a “fan demanded” thing.
5) The Four Horsemen have been longtime collaborators for design of MOTUC and DCUC. What role are they playing, if any, on new items coming to Mattycollector, like the Total Heroes Ultra figures?
The Horsemen are sculpting the TH Ultra figures.
Thanks to Toy Guru and team for another Q&A session. If you have any questions for the folks behind the MattyCollector lines, please leave a comment below.
Losing the superbowl, but asking for the trophy?????? Nice metaphor (sarcasm).
Consumers were unhappy with an inferior product line (a costly toy subscription with sometimes questionable character selection and quality control) which Mattel’s product team was unwilling to revise to increase market demand. The fact that consumers are still indicating a desire for some components of the product line is more a testament to the market demand that remains for a DC 6″ line of characters despite the mishandling of the product line by Mattel.
Here are some thoughts on how the costs could have been mitigated: (1) Cheaper packaging – box inside a box inside a box is too much and should be reduced, (2) Digital Rivers – cut their costs and take a larger % for Mattel, (3) Sell more product: better marketing strategies, multi-order discounts, partnership with brick and mortar or other online stores.
Blaming the consumer, which is all that we hear from Mattel on the failure of the DC sub, is ridiculous. Here’s a great example of why the sub failed: Batzaro.
ghkjlll I’m sad I can only like this once. Crap Figures/choices=Crap sales
This should tell you everything you need to know right here
“It has nothing to do with the cost or charge or demand for the larger Doomsday”
All your BS aside Scott… the word is TOOLED. Not “tool’d”. What is the deal with this?
PS – screw MOTU with a rusty salad fork. Without DC I have no reason to ever buy anything from your company again (thankfully). My wallet bids you farewell.
Bullshit mattel. The only one that’s losing is them, clearly, as we can find other versions elsewhere. Damn, it, Mattel, you had your chance!!
i suppose it’s worth note too that TG has said before that comic con items don’t get budgeted in to the rest of the lines, comic con items get a separate budget for production… but what do i know, right?
i’d love to know too why he’s referring to UDD as the larger doomsday… he’s not larger, he’s the same size, built on the same buck. given the additional hoses and doohickeys, i’d wager UDD is not particularly more costly to produce either. JSDD has more surface area to paint, the same articulation, and is the same size… whatever. if they don’t want me to have the UDD, that’s fine, they don’t want my money. i’m sure UDD will make a nice feather in the next brand manager’s cap when he rides to the rescue and gives us a toy that’s “never been done before!” 😉