so i'm gonna go ahead and say this to mattel. don't friggin' try to tell me that you aren't making a tidy profit off MOTUC, when you've so far got like two bodies you're re-using over and over, and your figures sell out the entire stock in hours, and you charge $30 per figure once you factor in "shipping" and "mystery fun tax". i doubt tracking down the one or two prototypes or samples that get leaked is worth mattel's time and money. if anything seeing the product like that generates more interest. look how many people were gabbing about hordak being named "hector kerr" or "johnny america smith" or whatever. people were annoyed, but first of all that gives mattel an early, free chance to gauge fan reaction, and second of all, not one of those people whining about hordak's name said "because of this i am not buying hordak". it's pretty much just free press for mattel, and i'm sure they made a few extra figures anyway, to send out to sycophantic review sites or to sit in a warehouse. so i have trouble sympathizing with mattel. once again, as one of the largest toy companies in the world…deal with it.

I'm not saying it's right, and I had no interest in buying those figures whatsoever, I'm simply saying a few figures getting released early, which by their own admission "has always been a problem" is not worth the earth shaking problem people are making it out to be. My point was that their statement of taking action against the buyer was not a good way to handle the issue as they seem to be losing fans and alienating people enough with their actions and inability to make products available to anyone who wants it that they should have bigger and better things to worry about.

Geez.

They wouldn't say that because how much we pay for an item from somebody else is not their concern. Somebody stealing from them is.

I'm not bashing, I'm not dissing. But NON-FINAL products cannot be sold. So how does this hurt them? And how is Mattel suffering exactly? To hear them tell it they only suffer because we don't "Vote with our dollars" often enough to suit them. The people who would buy these are the fans that want to have a unique item, and will buy them at retail, they aren't just turning to ebay because Hourman isn't coming out fast enough to suit them. Why would somebody pay the ridiculous price these are going for instead of just waiting a few months and paying six dollars for one? It's the same principle as the Holiday Hal figure, fans paid a LOIT of money just to own one because they're rare and unique, and those weren't ever supposed to be for sale either, but Mattel seemed not to care then, so what's the problem now? They can't control security for their own items, their problem.

"As you may have heard, some early samples of JLU and MOTUC slipped through the cracks and ended up on ebay. While we'd rather these things be released properly sometimes these things happen, we would like to advise fans to not buy these items, for the simple reason that you'll pay far more now for the same thing which will be available soon for a much more reasonable price."

See? No one gets mad. And I've got news for Matty, these things are coming out of China, I'll be amazed if they get anywhere with their "Resources" as far as dealing with this problem, and once it's on ebay they can't do anything about the seller or buyer unless they can prove the items were stolen, and that doesn't just mean "Well we haven't released them yet." That means concrete proof that the seller himself stole them, which brings us back to the China problem.

And lets not forget their legal resources are the same ones who can't clear the way for them to post updates about their toy lines on their own website.