More Mattel updates

Mattel has updated their Facebook page once again with a virtual cornucopia of interesting information…

A few updates for everyone. First off, Skeletor has been flying out of our distribution center much quicker than He-Man or Beast Man. If you want old bones face for your collection, now is the time to place an order.

We are going to cut off sales when we have a few hundred left so he can make it to SDCC along with the few extra He-Man and Beast Man we have. We won’t be doing this with every figure going forward, but since He-Man and Skeletor are keynote figures (and we happen to have some extra Beast Man since he was an early figure), we’d like to have a few pieces of each at the summer shows to help promote the line.

Second off, looks like all is set to get Faker to NYCC. This will be your chance to buy the Evil Robot of Skeletor (well should that be “serving Skeletor”? Well you get the point!) early at the show before he goes on sale at MattyCollector.com on March 15th. He will be $20.00 and limited to 4 per guest. The plan right now is for Faker to go on sale at the start of the show, but we like to be careful with announcing info like this because plans do change. The Faker at the show will be the same figure offered online in March.

Third, we are getting geared up to offer the subscription service for MOTUC. Once it goes into effect, we will offer the remaining 2009 figures in one package deal. Ideally we will offer this package in two ways, 1: Have each figures shipped to you as it is released each month, or 2: have the option to save on shipping and have all figures mailed to you on Dec 15th.

We are still crunching the numbers to make this happen, so stay tuned for future updates!

I’ll probably go with option 1 on the subscription service, although I realize it’ll end up costing me an extra $70 or so on shipping by the end of the year. But I know what I’d be like if I tried to wait, and I just can’t do that to my wife. It’s worth it to both of us to just pony up the shipping.

I had guessed Mattel might pull Skeletor a little early so they can have some for NYCC, though they only mention SDCC in the post. I do believe Skeletor sold faster than He-Man or Beast Man because, let’s face it, he’s probably everyone’s favorite character, and I know at least one collector who got a Skeletor but didn’t get a Beast Man or He-Man. He’s the one even the casual MOTU fans had to have.

Mattel also finally spoke out on the online retailer issue with wave 6 and, apparently, 7.

Two quick updates for those fans who order their DCUC figures through online retailers.

We have been working all year to bring better distribution to the fans and one of those strategies was to offer all DCUC figures “open stock” to the online retailers. (meaning online retailers can order solid case packs of any 1 figure).

Although we had the best of intentions, we did hit a minor snag. The variants for Waves 6 and 7 were unfortunately not produced for the open stock orders. They are still available randomly distributed in the standard retail case packs (which are also available to online sellers). But for reasons way beyond our control, we had a mess up and the variants will not be available open stock until Wave 8.

We sincerely apologize to any fans who were planning to order the variants this way. We are actively working with our plants to ensure starting with Wave 8 that the variants will be included in open stock orders. Any cancellations of variant orders for Wave 6 and 7 is the fault of Mattel and not of any trusted online seller!

And on the “awesome news” front, we were able to redirect the remaining stock of the previous Wave 4 KB exclusive figures “Maskless Batman Beyond” and “Sonic Arm Cyborg” to online retailers. Both figures are available at 5 of each per case. Ask your favorite online retailer for availability today.

Look, frankly I was surprised Mattel offered solid cases of the variants in the first place. It makes sense for the variants that are to be split 50/50, like the two Parademons in wave 8, but I would have thought they’d just mix the variants for Mister Miracle/Dr. Impossible and the two Superman figures in the same ratio–let’s say 70/30–as the brick-and-mortar mixed retail cases; i.e., a solid case of Mister Miracle would contain seven Mister Miracles and three Dr. Impossibles, and the online retailer would randomly pack the variants in sets.*

In any event, the good news for me is that it appears the red/blue Superman is more abundant, which is the one I wanted; although I’ll be getting the Superman/Brainiac two-pack anyway, which has a better head, so I suppose it doesn’t really make a difference. And that’s good news about the Cyborg and Batman Beyond variants for those who really want them (I saw both and passed–I usually don’t care for unmasked variants, and while the sonic arm is cool, I really didn’t want the extra Cyborg figure that came with it).

Matty had yet another update, this one about NYCC.

Wanted to give an update on what to expect at the upcoming shows in New York next month.

First off, we will be using NYCC as our main collector show this year. In fact, more product will be shown at NYCC than we will have at NYTF the following week. For the record, NYTF is more for the industry, while NYCC is for the fans. While we will have a collector night at NYTF on Feb 15th, it will mostly be the same material we presented at NYCC. So for the real scoop, make sure to make it out for Comic Con in the Big Apple Feb 6th through 8th!

And speaking of which, information about our two fantastic fan panels for NYCC is up on the main site. (MattyCollector.com- click on news section at the bottom). We will have a separate fan panel for DC properties in the AM, and a second panel for Mattycollector.com lines in the afternoon. (and yes, we will reveal DCU MattyCollector.com items at our first panel and then repeat them along with info about Cars, Masters of the Universe and other surprise lines at our afternoon panel!)

You can look forward to new reveals for DCUC, Infinite Heroes, JLU as well as Movie Masters and Batman Brave and the Bold at our DC Panel. We will also announce what will be happening with the Infinite Heroes Anti-Monitor points you have all been collecting all year at the DC panel. The points can be redeemed this summer, only at San Diego Comic Con! (and not to worry, fans without the points will have an opportunity to get a similar item at a minimum cost if you have not been collecting points all year). But the more points you have, the more reward you will get!

I sincerely hope that whatever you can redeem with the Anti-Monitor points (which, I think we’re all guessing, will be a DCIH-scale Anti-Monitor) will also be available on Mattycollector.com, and not just SDCC. To do otherwise is to tempt boundless nerd wrath, and frankly, it would be massively unfair anyway. You can’t market your toys with POP incentives like that and then require the buyer to travel to San Diego to redeem them.

It’s interesting they’re making NYCC their big collector show, apparently at the expense of SDCC. It probably makes sense, given what a zoo SDCC has become.

* If you’re worried the online retailers or the stock boys might be tempted not to pack the variants randomly, remember they probably pack all the sets first and slap the address labels on later. To do otherwise would be a huge waste of time. I suppose some particularly unscrupulous retailers could set aside the variant sets for particular buyers, but the logistics of such a thing would probably be a lot more trouble than it would be worth, particularly given the nerd rage and boycotting that would inevitably result were the truth ever to come out.