Mattel Q&A Roundup for May 1

Here’s your bi-weekly (bi-monthly? I can never remember) roundup of Mattel Q&As for May 1:

Some highlights:

  • The Walmart wave will have 7 figures, not 5 as some have guessed.
  • Brown Man-Bat is confirmed for 2009 and will be in his own package, not a BAF.
  • The Bill Murray sculpt for the Ghostbusters line has still not been approved. (Whether or not they even have the likeness rights was not discussed.)
  • Mattel is working on re-releasing DCSH Catwoman and Two-Face.
  • Mattel has the rights to make Cyclotron and Golden Pharaoh from Super Powers.

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Ask Mattel for May 1

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DCUC Poll Results

19 Comments

  1. Jim

    If you notice on #4….Matty sounds a bit annoyed at fans asking to change the order limit lower than 10.

    I think its a waste of time to request to limit the order at a lower number..ESPECIALLY…if you've told Mattel to INCREASE production runs!

    You can't have an increase in production and then decrease the order limit. That would be a risk and Mattel is sitting QUITE comfortably with these sell outs.

    I paid 2ndary prices because I gotta do what I gotta do. Hell, i even sold ALL my 2002 MOTU figures! lol Despite the frustration, collectors are going to have to stop hassling Mattel. They're going to have to realize that it's this or nothing at all. Mattel has to have all the cards or they won't bother with this line.

    Mattel's turned MOTU's greatest weakness (not being able to compete with GIJOE or transformers) to a STRENGTH by increasing demand for limited produced figures….all the hype caused is working.

    I for one hope the line gets more hype so Mattel can keep making these figures!

  2. Jim

    Matty speaks on Merman Selling Out AGAIN and reveals much new Subscription details

    ——————————————————————————–

    Here it is!

    Quote:

    Hey toy guys and gals,

    So here is the latest. As many of you know Mer Man sold out AGAIN in very little time. We have therefore increased production again on MOTU figures. However, as we need to purchase raw materials for figures sometimes 6-8 months ahead of the "on sale date" the first figure we will be able to increase production on is Tri Klops.

    So Zodac, Hordak and Man-At-Arms will have similar runs to Mer Man (which is still the highest run to date) and starting with Tri Klops we will increase production again. We are committed to continuing to increase the run until we get it just right. Keep in mind, that it wook 41 days to sell as many Beast Man as we sold on the first Mer Man sale. We don't want to get stuck with excess product, so it is a very careful balancing act between producing to demand without over producing. But we have our best folks on it and are working overtime to get it just right!

    But in other news it seems that the sale went off without the major IP issues we had last time. We will continue to improve both product and the sales process every day to meet all of our fans needs. Here are a few more updates and FAQ answers:

    1: We do not yet have prices or limits for the SDCC items. We will reveal these well before the show. Hang tight for now!

    2: The Legion of Superheroes JLU 4 pack and Zodac will both go on sale on May 15th at 12:00 noon.

    4: We have heard fans asking about order limits, but again, we looked at the numbers and the vast majority (close to 90%) of orders are for 3 or less units. Yes there will always be people who buy more to resell or to save on shipping, but unless we see a spike in large orders at the limit we are not going to alter the limits again (except for SDCC items). We set the limits based on fan feedback that 4 was not enough. We are not going to keep changing the limits every month. 10 seems to work for most fans since 90% of you are ordering less than 3 anyway. We announce product about 3 months prior to onsale date, so if you want new figures you will know just when to be online to order!

    6: We won't have any more big reveals until SDCC. Some of our product (like JLU) was held up a bit do to factory issues back in December. We are doing EVERYTHING we can to work with Target to get fresh figures in stock. It is not always easy, but we are extremly committed to this! New JLU is coming!

    8: We are also working out the final details on the MOTU subscription program. Ideally, subscriptions will be open for a set amount of time (10- 15 days). Fans can place as many subscription orders as they want in this time. Each subscription will get you the final 6 or 5 (depending on when we can launch it) figures of 2009. We will then have a new subscription for 2010 for all 12 monthly figures. Subscriptions will not include convention or bonus figures simply because these do not have as firm on sale dates and we don't want to lock in to figures which may move around release dates.

    All figures (both monthly and bonus figures) will also be available to order in the standard way on the 15th of the month per norm.

    We are trying to set up the subscription to work in two ways. 1: Figures ship (and are billed to you) each month on the 15th. 2: Figures are held and will ship and bill all at once at the end of the year. Ideally we will have both options up and running. We don't want to open the subscription program until we know 100% it will work and their are no IP bugs. It is coming, please just give us a bit more time to make sure it will run the way we intend it before it is up for sale!

    Okay, that is it for now. Please keep the feedback coming and we will continue to do everything we can to keep the Matty.com experince smooth and easy.

    See you on the convention floor this summer!

    Matty

  3. Scott

    Finally! Thank you.

    We now return you to our regularly scheduled program…

  4. Scott

    Like this?

  5. Megaduce Flare

    Even when they've got nothing in them they still register as code. Dagnabit.

    Let's try this again;

    In place of [b] & [/b], you use LT b GT & LT /b GT.

    Did that make any sense?

  6. Megaduce Flare

    In place of [] & [/], you use & .

    I should've said that the first time.

  7. Scott

    Nope….

  8. Scott

    You mean >BTESTING/B<?

  9. I have walmart induced rage. Next week I shall be speaking to the Corporate Marketing representative in a conference callthats gonna cost me out the ass on my pay as you go Cellphone.

  10. Nicholai

    I can't believe they'd go this far with Ghostbusters without Murray's likeness. Without his likeness this line just won't be nearly as exciting.

  11. Megaduce Flare

    D'oh. The first boom wasn't supposed to be in bold. *facepalm*

    Just replace the brackets, with the greater than / less than signs.

    Boom

  12. Megaduce Flare

    > Scott

    You can do bold, but it has to be in HTML style tags.

    Boom.

    Like that, just without the spaces inbetween the greater than / less than signs.

    Boom.

  13. Scott

    guess you can't do bold on here…

  14. Scott

    From fwoosh:

    2. We have been told that Man-bat will be released in 2009 under the DCUC banner in his brow paint scheme- can you confirm if he will be a single card figure or a Collect and Connect?

    He will be a single carded figure and will come [b]with a piece of a collect and connect[/b].

  15. Poe

    I feel like the Walmart question (much like the Gleek question) has been brought up a lot, and since we know the Mattel staff (or at least Toy Guru) frequents some of the forums, you can be certain they're extremely aware of the unhappiness regarding both Walmart and Gleek.

    At this point, I don't think it's worth much to me or anyone else to waste a question on the Walmart or Gleek issues. They know how collectors feel about them.

    While they probably deserve some of the bad PR for the Gleek thing (there's definitely a discussion to be had about whether convention exclusives are needed or outdated), I think the Walmart issue is simply one of market reality. They need Walmart on board in order to keep producing the line, and as part of that deal, Walmart wants an exclusive wave.

    Once that deal has been reached, Mattel can push for as large a production run as possible, but ultimately it's up to Walmart how much they want.

  16. orionpax636

    I always appreciate these round-ups, Poe. Always great to get all the info about a given topic in one place.

    I haven't gotten a chance to click through all of those, but has anyone asked the obvious enraging question about the necessity of Walmart-exclusive waves?

    It is understood that retailer-exclusive waves are somewhat necessary to maintain retailer/company relations, but I wonder if Mattel sees that Walmart exclusive programs are so much more hated than all the others. While some complaints abound regarding Target exclusives, it's nowhere near as bad as Walmart resentment, and I don't remember Mattel ever doing any Target exclusives.

  17. Cade

    I can not begin to tell you how exciting it is to hear the Golden Pharaoh news. Could care less about cyclotron, but Golden Pharaoh, now that would be awesome.

  18. dayraven

    you know, BM is going to kill this line… he's the last guy to sign on, and he's the hottest character. what a friggin' ass. hudson ought to assualt him on the golf course and yell at him "I NEED THIS!!!!!"

  19. 7 instead of 5… more figures to hunt down!!!

    You'd think they'd have the Murray likeness rights nailed down before they let the cat out of the bag.

    DCSH Catwoman and Two-Face would be great!!! Considering I never collected DCSH, they're two from the Rogues gallery that I need to have!!!

    Golden Pharaoh sounds cool… how about a King Tut figure now?! 😉

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