The other issue is that if people stop buying, Mattel will simply cancel the line and go back to their CARS, Toy Story, Hot Wheels and Barbies. This is arguably little more than a prestige line–a small, if unquestionably profitable, side project to help maintain top of mind awareness of one of their once-great in-house properties (probably in hopes of getting a megahit movie a la Transformers).

All that said, I do think fans have some effect, particularly in regard to MOTUC (vs. DCUC). Look at the way they went to fans regarding Moss Man. And they respond fairly quickly to MOTUC fan issues, even if they continue to bungle them somehow every month.

But the lack of exchanges is a relatively new thing, and a big problem. Once we get an answer to the question, it will be worth following up if it turns out Mattel just isn't holding back any stock for exchanges.

i don't think your views are "apologist", poe, in fact they're quite reasonable…however, as often as you might point out mattel's blunders, it's doubtful that you'll stop buying. and i don't think mattel is going to do anything to address customer concerns unless people stop buying, unfortunately.

@monkey boy: I'm sure this could be interpreted as "apologist," but because this line is sold exclusively online, it's possible a higher-than-usual percentage of its collectors participate in online collecting communities. So the percentage of QC errors within a given MOTUC production run may be the same as standard industry error rates, but due to the relatively small production runs and the higher percentage of online collectors, we hear about it more often.

Put another way, for every collector who gets an error figure, how many collectors get figures that are perfectly fine? Aside from a few loose joints, I haven't had any major issues with my MOTUC figures.

Now, whether the same industry standard error rates should apply to $28 figures is a different discussion. And there's no question Mattel should be offering exchanges. Period. I've already added a question about it in the next Q&A.

I had the MOTU film figures: Blade, Saurod, and even Gwildor. They were all pretty good. Blade was I think of course my favorite of the bunch. My Saurod still makes the sparks from his mouth when you push down the lever on his back. I loved the smell of that.

Although this is offtopic I'm curious about the chance for more re-releases. Since I joined this new line late, I wonder whether there are improvements in Stratos, Beastman, and Faker that could be made in a re-release?