The last update we got from Mattel on Demo-Man was on January 4: “MOTUC Fans, we know you’re all wondering where Demo Man is and we’re tracking down the shipment as you read this. The minute we have confirmation, we’ll post it.”
Yesterday, Fearless Photog was added to the Mattycollector website, with a January release date (which he still has as of 4:34pm ET).
Yet, I just received this email:
Dear Poe Ghostal,
Thank you for ordering on MattyCollector.com. The release date for the preorder product has changed. The product listed below will now be available on February 13, 2012.
Order ID: XXX
Product ID: XXX
Product Name: Masters of the Universe® 30th Anniversary Series 2012 Subscription – Initial Figure
The phrase “comedy of errors” gets tossed around a lot these days…
UPDATE: Scott Neitlich posted this on the Mattycollector forums tonight:
Hey folks,
Their have been a few emails flying back and forth from customer service and shipping centers regarding everything from Demo-Man to Photog to the entire 2012 MOTUC line. Let me try and clear the air and end any rumors. 😉
Bottom line is after the issues we had with the full quota of Demo Man not arriving in time for the Dec sale, we decided to hold off on any sale until the full quota of any item arrives at Digital River. Earlier today we found out some of the product originally intended for the Jan. sale has not arrived in full.
Rather than sell a figure that will be on “backorder” until the full quota arrives, we will simply move that figure to the next sale date (i.e from Jan to Feb).
Subscribers and day of customers will still get all the 2012 figures, we just want to be sure the full quotas is available to sell. If it means a 30 day delay, that is a much better option to going through what we just dealt with on Demo Man!
We are currently confirming with logistics on which figures (if any) will be available for the Jan sale. Any fig who does not arrive in full (i.e if like Demo Man we only receive part of the quota) we will simply move that figure to the next month’s sale.
I can tell you for sure their will be quite a few changes in the next 6 months. A few figures are missing their avail date (by sometimes only a few days), but this is enough to push them to the next month to ensure we have the full quota for subscribers first and day-of customers second.
We should be back on track by July, but please be prepared for a revised avail roll out for the next 6 months. A full update will be posted on Facebook in the next 24-48 hours. And again, we should be back on track by mid 2012.
I totally get this is frustrating. As a collector myself, of course we all want the figures as soon as possible. Realistically, we are only talking about a 30 day delay form the original on sale date for some 2012 figures. All of the figures will ship, they just may be in the next month’s sale if the full quota does not arrive in time.
Sorry for any confusion and look for a full update ASAP. I’ll monitor this thread for the rest of the afternoon if their are any other issues I can clarify!
Scott
There were also some follow-up posts:
If Sorceress slips to Feb we will ship her and Fisto in Feb. We want to catch up as quick as possible. Still waiting to hear back from our Distribution Center on who has arrived in full for Jan! Everyone is coming.
We are also being very mindful to spread out figures as much as possible. Ideally we don’t want one month with 1 figure and the next with 5. We are trying to avoid this while at the same time getting figures to you as quick as possible. Their will 100% be quite a few changes in figure release until July, likely no more than 30 days per item. By July we should be back on track.
Regarding reports of smaller white mailers:
This was a cost reduction. The cost of figures continues to rise dramatically. In order to maintain quality for the figures, we had to slightly reduce the thickness of the white mailers going forward. A much better option vs. eliminating accessories or paint ops on the figures!
Bottom line, it appears that Mattel is having trouble getting its entire allotment of Demo-Man and, evidently, Fearless Photog on time. Moving forward, no one gets the figure before the entire stock is available (except for certain privileged members of the press, natch…he wrote with nary a hint of bitter jealousy).
Composite Ghost
I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but… it kind of seems like Mattel is intentionally sabatoging the line at this point. I think they would rather focus on retail and forget all about their mail order collector lines.