On their Facebook page, Mattel has posted a three-part (so far) review of 2009 for the various Mattel collectors brands.
They’re all well worth a full read, and the MOTUC one in particular offers a refreshingly candid peek into the behind-the-scenes decisions regarding the line. But for discussion purposes, here are a few of the highlights from all three posts.
JLU had quite an up and down year. In Jan, we were hit with some issues out of everyone’s control which delayed the singles and three packs and really tossed a wrench in the system. Arrgg. Not fun for collectors, lots of headaches for the brand managers at Mattel! The good news is all of the planned packs did ship, the not as great news is that distribution wasn’t as spot on as we planned.
But as we say time and time again, things in the toy industry change ALL the time. This is one reason we don’t like to reveal a lot of figures too far in advance. We’ll learn from everything in 2009 as we move forward into 2010.
Yup, I said that right. JLU is going to continue in Spring 2010 at Target stores. We’ll have some new figures to reveal at Toy Fair in NY at out collector event on Feb. 14th.
The original plan was to offer MOTU Classic figures in two packs similar to the DCU figures. Three two packs were planned out, He-Man vs. Beastman, Skeletor vs. Stratos and Zodac vs. Mer-Man. The idea was to release one every other month at a $40.00 price point. At the last minute we changed plans betting on this line being a success and the packs were broken up and sold as singles. (gulp – please be a success!) We even added one last character – Hordak – in hope it would take off and we could sell a baseline number of figures each month. Faker became an easy repaint for NYCC assuming again that the line took off. If not, we would have gotten at least to Hordak and that would have been it.
Well obviously the line was a huge success, enough that we planned out a full year of one figure a month ending with Adora in December, making sure we got in one POP figure in year 1.
But Mer-Man ran really late and not only did Faker need to get bumped into a monthly figure slot, but it threw off the rest of the year so that Scareglow was no longer the Halloween figure and Adora had to get bumped to year 2. Not the end of the world, but it showed that we needed a system in place to guarantee at least one figure a month shipped.
Look for some major surprises in Feb with at least 4 new figures revealed and some additional skus no one is expecting! – Oh, and we’ll have images of Evil Lyn with all of her accessories including 3 additional ones not seen yet in early January.
Lastly, we will get to a re-release of King Grayskull with slight deco changes, but don’t count on this until very late in 2010.
The 6″ line is also really taking off. We’ve already got Ray and Winston under our belt with Walter Peck heading your way in a few short months. Walter will come with an in-scale containment unit that works perfectly with the trap already available with 6″ Winston! We’ve got a lot more great accessories for future 6″ figures in the works, many engineered to retroactively work with previously released figures! Just wait for a few great surprises. We’ve got this line well thought out…
We’ve heard all the fan requests for more characters, both good and evil from the GB world. At this point we have secured all of the core likeness rights so look to finish your movie 1 core team by the end of 2010 with plenty of 6″ scale figures offered about every other month only on MattyCollector.com.
At NYTF in Feb. we’ll have at least 2 new 6″ figures to reveal (possibly more if the sculpts are complete in time!). Our collector night is Feb 14th, so be sure to hit your favorite fan web sites for all the new announcements.
I only read the JLU one, but yes, "refreshingly candid" indeed.
Seriously, after last month's Q&As, and now reading this, I have to wonder: Has someone new taken over communication/PR for these brands? Whatever the cause, it's a welcome trend.
Refreshing, like a much needed cup of water in the middle of the Sahara.
I was always wondering where the "two packs" went, but I'm glad they decided to offer single figures instead.
Its interesting to know that had the line not done well enough we may have not even got Hordak.
My wallet and I are certainly thankful that the bonus figures won't be a monthly thing. 3-4 times a year (about once a quarter) is a lot easier to handle.
I'm also glad to know that King Grayskull WILL get re-released! Even if I have to wait till late '10, it'll still be worth it!
Great stuff. I'm looking forward to what they've got to say about DCUC. Glad to hear they're behind Ghostbusters as I was worried based on how long it was taking the figures to sell out. Of course, I have no idea of the number of figures produced in comparison to MOTUC or DCUC.
The MOTUC info was interesting, especially the bit about Faker getting slotted in because of a Mer-Man delay.
I just hope their plans don't require the line to constantly sell-out on release. It would be nice to see these guys last three or four weeks and an end to the constant annoyance on launch days.
See Matty, you can do "honesty" when it suits you. Would it really kill you or anyone else to be honest like this when you are asked routine questions in the Q&A's? I might actually read them again if you did……..
So now the bonus figures for MOTUC are going to be quarterly if at all? And just minor variants of A-listers.
Feels like this was in response to people complaining about too much stuff going on sale at the same time, but we knew the bonus figures we're "wait and see". I'm sure there won't be be many other creatures beyond Battle Cat and Panthor at this point if the line concludes within 3 years. 5 years is a better window but creatures are second priority compared to the main line.
And I guess that decreases the chance of any obscure or cool variants like Savage He-Man or possibly even Demo-Man coming a LOT later than originally expected. How can you even any attention span left by then to even be interested in this line? The mind boggles.