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Codename:
Ask Mattel > 3/13/08
PG: Pre-sale photos of Deathstroke have shown a machine gun, a sword and sheath, a staff and a removable pistol in a holster. Will the retail figure come with all these accessories, and if so, why the bevy of goodies for ol’ Slade?
Mattel’s “ToyGuru”: Yes! Slade in both his standard and chase version will have a staff, which clips to his back, a pistol that fits in his holster, a sword in his sheath and a machine gun with a strap. Why so many accessories–It is friggin’ Deathstroke!!! Why not?
When building a collector-oriented toy line, I believe it’s a risk to offer unique characters as exclusives, rather than redecos of existing characters. A unique character will be a must-own for many, even a majority of collectors. Simply put, a redeco is a nice reward for fans who go to conventions, whereas unique character exclusives seem more like a punishment for those who don’t. What’s the justification for selling unique characters as convention exclusives?
Our goal with the convention exclusives is to do a figure that is not only unique for fans but also might not fit into the mass retail line due to size, scale or logistical issues. You can never please all the fans with every choice but we feel confident that this year’s figures will really raise the bar on convention exclusives forever. Our New York exclusives will be repaints and our Comic Con San Diego exclusives will be new characters. Best of both worlds!
Are there any plans to create an official website for DCUC or JLU?
This is something we have talked about but nothing is ready to be announced quite yet.
How are decisions made regarding the scale/size of the Collect and Connect figures? For instance, many fans think Solomon Grundy may be a bit too large.
Check out Justice League of America # 92 and let us know if you still think Grundy is too large!
This item has 5 comments (now closed):
Pete
03.13.2008 22.19
He raises an excellent point on that last question.
I still want to know about that Black-Suit Superman figure…
Esbat
03.14.2008 17.10
I want a Deathstroke even MORE now.
Paul
03.15.2008 3.24
“Our New York exclusives will be repaints and our Comic Con San Diego exclusives will be new characters. Best of both worlds!”
Uhh that’s not the best of both worlds. That’s repaints and figures that collectors won’t be able to get…
It’s not like fans will be like… well I’m glad I made it to New York so I can get my repaint, I don’t even have to worry about that super rare figure that’s appearing in a couple of months down the road on the other side of the U.S.!
Poe
03.15.2008 10.51
@Paul–ToyGuru hit the nail on the head with the explanation that exclusives allow them to make figures they couldn’t profitably make for retail (I actually realized that and withdrew this question prior to this round, but ToyGuru seems to have used my original set of questions instead of the revised one–no big deal).
Anyway, you can still order last year’s SDCC exclusive from Wizarduniverse.com, so I’m going to give Mattel the benefit of the doubt on this one for now.
Toy Bender » Blog Archive » Mattel Answers Nerd Questions
03.19.2008 13.16
[...] next question comes to us courtesy of a fellow named Poe Ghostal on Poe Ghostal’s Points of Articulation: PGPoA: When building a collector-oriented toy line, I believe it’s a risk to offer unique [...]