Dear Matty,

Congratulations on another great showing at San Diego. Again, you’ve seen fit to tempt us with the delicious candy of your SDCC reveals. Every year, we look forward to being teased by images from the con that will keep us watching our calendars and toy sightings forums for the next few months.

Particularly, I love the product that you and the Four Horsemen have planned for MOTU Classics and DC Classics. I’m down with just collecting those two toy lines, but I might not be able to afford to pick up both.

I’m not a rich man, but I can afford to live comfortably. I can catch a movie or go out to eat if I feel like it from time to time. And I can afford to drop some money on MOTUC and DCUC to keep myself caught up without affecting my lifestyle. That is until you decided to up your production of MOTU by adding a unique “bonus” figure to nearly every month (and making me pay extra shipping because I’m penalized for being a subscriber), to add a sixth wave of DC Classics on to the year as a Target exclusive, and to add a Wal-Mart exclusive five-pack. My normally happy wallet tried to run away from home.

I’m not alone in this. When there are toys to be had, we collectors are willing to suffer for our fix. Sure, we can skip eating out here and there. And sure, maybe we won’t go see every movie at the theater that we thought looked cool. We re-evaluate our budgets, and cut what we can. We can look at the tremendous amount of product you’ve shown at San Diego and say, “well at least it’s coming out over the next five or six months.” We think we can make some changes and handle it.

But wait… then you say DCUC8 will be hitting retail soon and it does. You put your exclusives up on MattyCollector.com about a week after SDCC, then Tri-Klops two weeks after that. DCUC9 is starting to trickle in on the west coast. That Wal-Mart 5pk? The one that was supposed to come out later this year? Well, it’s apparently hitting stores in Texas as I write this. And, in about six weeks that Public Enemies DVD drops. The one that the Target exclusive wave is based on. Do you think that Target will have those toys in time for the DVD’s release? I do. Online retailers expect to receive DCUC11 in September – and shouldn’t DCUC10 come first? Even if a rich uncle left me an inheritance suddenly, I might have to use all of it just to stay caught up on the DC Classics coming out in the next two months. (This isn’t even mentioning the DCUC 2pks on MattyCollector or how the retail releases will coincide with MOTU purchases).

Obviously, spending money on toys is fine with me. I see it as a form of entertainment. But it’s supposed to be fun. It starts to lose some appeal when I start feeling taken advantage of. My wallet used to just hurt a little from an occasional stretching, but after realizing how quickly all of the SDCC product might be hitting, it just sits in the shower, rocking back and forth, crying to itself.

I know that you’re not forcing me to buy all these wonderful toys. That only I can allow myself to be taken advantage of by willingly trying to keep up with the flurry of product you seem intent on releasing all at once. But there needs to be a better symbiosis between the buyer and the seller here. You need to know that sometimes we cut back on eating out, sometimes we cut back on going to the movies, but sometimes we cut back by dropping toy lines too.

Mattel, I’m not the only one suffering the money crunch. Just keep in mind that you don’t have to put everything out at once. Start spreading them out more over the year instead of trying to cram everything into Fall. It’s overwhelming and overwhelmed customers tend to turn into people who stop collecting out of frustration. Or at least turn their attentions towards a toy line that’s less frustrating. And let me tell ya, those GI Joes are looking pretty cool lately.

Sincerely,

Mr. Rant