44 thoughts on “Amusing Articulations: The line is doomed! DOOMED!!”
Heh. How quickly people forget, right?
Exactly.
Well when you put it like that…
DC Classics is no Marvel Legends.
They may not be the same but they sure seem to be following the same path. Finding a main character like Green Arrow should not be camparible to finding Bin Laden. People will get sick of it sooner or later and stop buying them, I’ve givin up on Marvel Legends entirely because of stores pulling a “Walmart”.
Green Arrow is destined for All-Star status. I don’t understand the well-I-can’t-find-them-so-the-line-is-dying mentality. We all have different experiences. I’ve seen a 9 case three times, but I had to get 8 off eBay. My not finding wave 8 isn’t a deathknell.
And to the OP? DCUC is better. ML laid the groundwork, but this line is running with it. The only trophy ML still has is bigger build-a-figures.
While Arrow may be destined for All-Star status that cannot be said for the rest of wave 9. You may not have found wave 8 at retail and hit ebay (I didn’t find it either at retail and bought it on BBTS), but at least wave 8 isn’t ridiculously priced on ebay since it was seemingly produced in “normal” quantities.
I don’t think they’re “killing the line” but they I’m certainly not going to be the avid collector I was before when my only choice is ebay for figures that should have hit retail.
Maybe I’m foolishly optimistic, but I think the prices will come down.
We don’t really know how rare this line will be. The first sightings were only a few weeks back and the ebay prices spiked due to BBTS and Mattel’s announcement – but we have no idea how it’s going to pan out yet.
The BBTS e-mail was just last Sunday. It feels like longer though.
And, hey, Vigilante is an All-Star!
Maybe fans need to already be encouraging wave 9 figures to be mixed in as future all-stars to compensate for the shortage.
I don’t think Wave8 was produced in normal quantities either.
There seemed to be a shortage of the Hawkgirl/Gntlemen Ghost portion.
I’m still thinking we might see mroe of the second half of wave9 than we do of this first half.
that would suck for me since I want chemo
Actually, the second half of wave nine includes all the pieces of Chemo. Onesies on the first four and doubles on the second.
If only DC Classics would follow the Marvel Legends model of putting out at least one Spiderman, Hulk, Wolverine, or Iron Man in every wave. But no, DC Classics mistakenly chooses to give us a wide variety of characters. Truly, this will be their downfall.
[/sarcasm]
I know right? Give us constant allstar versions and fans complain about no variety. Give us variety and the lineups are weak. I hate being a toy collector sometimes.
I know what you mean.
Who knew the website had sarcasm tags?!?
Did Nick Fury really hang on pegs? I don’t remember a glut of that figure
He was here. He was in wave five and we had him hanging out with eave eight figures. I’m sure there were other pegwarmers. Weapon X was around for awhile. Waves 2 & 4 were all long in the tooth. Nick Fury just popped into my mind first. That psychadelic cover is etched into my brain.
Toy Biz NEVER went out of their way to saboutage their toyline like Mattel! ToyGuru is out to kill this line at retail! Weak lineups, low runs, terrible distribution, it’s all a ploy to sell this line on Matty so they can control the markup. It’s TOTAL BS on their part. I’d quit the line but I’d have to find the DAMN THINGS FIRST!!!!
You’re kidding, right? Mattel makes a ton more money selling tens of thousands of units to stores/online then they could moving them on Matty. Mattel needs the casual purchases at stores to keep the line profitable.
If Mattel thought they could go it alone, they’d abandon JLU @Target and do it their already.
dude, i hate top break this to you, but that’s hogwash. tens of thousands of units aren not getting sold casually, cuz even folks ACTIVELY SEARCHING can’t find them. you’ve got retailers who are getting only 25% of thier orders filled, and no figures to be had in B&M retailers… there are no casual DC fans. i have yet to be in TRU and overhear a child gleefully exclaim to his mother “MOMMY, MOMMY, the blue suited aquaman!! please mommy?” it’s not happening.
and let’s get real for a sec… we know that moving the line to mattycollector will not only save them money on distribution and production, but then they can charge whatever they like for the “collectible.” and apparently, they like 20 dollars a fig. i think there’s a HUGE liklihood that this wave 9 fiasco, amongst others, is in pursuit to get a collective sigh of relief from consumers when they move they like to matty… when we SHOULD be getting suspicious.
i don’t think matty has any intention of killing DCUC yet, they’re testing you DC fans to see how hungry you are. they know you’re 13 bucks hungry, now they want to know if you’re 20 bucks hungry. đ
Respectfully, I think you’re wrong.
There are what 2000 Targets? 500 TRUs? 6000 Walmarts? If Walmart only carries DCUC at 25% of their stores (I’d say it’s more than that based on my own searching), and those three chains sold through ONE case of DC Classics, that’s 40,000 pieces. And the stores around me get more than one case. If each store sold through three cases of a wave (that’s the average around here) then that’s 120,000 pieces.
They won’t move like that on Matty. My Target, a week or so back, got in a buttload of Killer Moth, Marvel, and Hawkman. Those are dwindling – there’s less and less each time I go back. They have to stay on the shelves to be viable and Mattel isn’t stupid enough to think otherwise. Plus, those Matty 2pks TANK! It makes no business sense to scale things back and put your product in a spot where you canât sell what you have.
And Thirteen makes an excellent point about JLU. They are trying to keep Target in the loop. If this conspiracy theory had any weight, it would apply to JLU as well. (Heck, it would apply to most toylines – why should Mezco or Neca try to their stuff in stores?). By this theory, Mattel should happily knock off Target and keep the money for themselves, but they donât seem to want to.
The problem right now is a simple matter of *which case* fans are finding. If Wal-Mart were processing Wave 9 instead of those insipid “Best of” cases, we wouldn’t even be talking about this. Iâm ready to burn Sonic Arm Cyborg in effigy. If I went to Wal-Mart everyday and saw the same Deadshot or Gentlemen Ghost sitting on the pegs, thereâd be no issue. Mattel made enough figures to stock the stores, to keep the line going, etc, – they just made the wrong wave. Wal-Martâs order should have been filled with Wave 9.
I also think your example about kids is off-base. Iâve actually seen a kid toting around Aquaman. Our Target is selling off that ridiculous chunk of Hawkmans and Marvels. All those Wal-Marts that got in the Best of case, six months after anyone needed it? Most of those sold through and had to be refilled with the second “Best Of” case. The line moves at retail.
Why does it seem like it doesnât? Well, I have half of wave nine. I have all of wave eight. I donât have to post about it, telling everyone how I have them eight million times over. But when I donât have something? Well, I do feel the compulsion to bitch about it eight million times over. Itâs normal. The people that are missing this stuff are out there, and in wave 9âs case, theyâre probably still in the majority â and they need to be appeased. Wave 9 figures need to be slotted in future all-star waves. But this shortage is not going to kill the line. And, to me, it’s not indicative that Mattel is trying to scale back production, sell less units at a higher price, and essentially blow the DC license. If that were the profitable solution, well Hasbro would only be selling those ML 2pks on HTS right now. Why bother putting them at TRU?
Thatâs what todayâs comic is about. Marvel Legends experienced ALL of these problems (except maybe obscurity, Toy Biz preferred Wolverine no. 37 to bringing me Hellcat or Brother Voodoo â but that line is tons better đ ) and there was plenty of gnashing of teeth over what Toy Biz was doing then too. But the line went on, and heck, itâs STILL not dead.
Anyway, Mattel is a company with one goal. Make money. Limiting the number of places theyâre sold doesnât make money. They may make bendy weapons, miss essential accessories, shortpack popular figures, and do plenty of dumb things. But I cannot buy a theory where they would prefer to mark something up (cost of attrition) to sell less units (lack of distribution).
LOL. Sorry.
I’ve had that pent up for a couple days.
Hogwash is the massive conspiracy theory behind why ONE WAVE was shorted.
We JUST got DC Classics into a ton more Walmarts than they were in last year. Mattel lands the big cheese and we accuse them of trying to go online exclusive. It never ends.
It might be likely they shorted BBTS, CSC, et cetera to setup Matty. That would be a valid conspiracy theory I could get behind. But to blow it out of proportion to them wanting to take it out of retail verges on idiocy.
That’s some funny stuff right there, Noisy.
Thanks!
I’ve never had any problem with the lineups, it helps fill the rosters on the shelves.
Availability is the thing I have issues with.
Some of us don’t live with parents, have kids and responsibilities, and can’t afford to pay upwards of 30 bucks per figure.
I like the lineups. I prefer this to the constant presence of Wolverine, Hulk, Spidey, etc in the various ML lines.
And they do need to be more available. I stand by the fact that Mattel’s mistake is the Best of Cases. I keep finding those and each time I know the store could have been getting the frontline wave instead.
MOTU wasn’t too much of a strain because it was one figure per month… now with bonus figures and possibly entire waves of DCUC at 20 bucks each?? It’s been fun but that may be when I call it quits.
Yeah, it’s hard to collect all the Classics.
Take December on Matty? Randor, Goddess, Winston Zeddemore, B’Wanna Beast, and Animal Man. $100 order right there, 10 days before Xmas. Ugh.
That is pretty hideous indeed. Especially considering, depending on more photos, I want that Superman II 12 inch Zod too. I buy MOTUC, but I’m not a completist there so Green Goddess seems like an easy skip, but I need the Skeletor re-release since I missed him the first time and King Randor looks great.
Oh, yeah…
See, I just displayed collector tunnel vision right there. I only pointed out what I had to buy as being a burden when there is a ton of other stuff going on sale that month too.
I’d forgotten all about Zod and the Skelly re-issue. The Harvey Dent MM figure and four or five other things too.
So as to not squeeze a reply section down to nothing I’ll continue here.
I never saw wave 8 in person, and wave 9 is simply not going to happen since Target will stock Public Enemies instead and Walmart (I hope) will stock wave 10.
While some figures do seem to move locally others do not. My three closest locations have probably 20 Cyborgs between them (Sonic arm and vintage wave 4) and the local Walmart has had the same wave 6 figures for several months. None of them ever move (plus some Cyborgs and leftover wave 7 Captain Colds).
My problem with what happened with wave 9 isn’t just that I can’t find it at local retail, though that surely annoys me, but more that since the orders were cut off by 75% online that I can’t obtain the wave via a reasonable (still more than Target but still reasonable) price on BBTS or some other online merchant.
I don’t think the line will die, but it certainly hurts my enthusiasm when I can’t get a whole wave. This is more frustrating than Walmart wave 5 too because of the number of good characters in the wave.
Yeah, the comment sections gets tiny (and can only go 10 deep). I’m trying to find a good upgrade.
You probably don’t have a TRU nearby, but I think they’re the best hope for Wave 9. They’ve got nothing else to stock until Wave 11.
Cyborg and Cold are dogs, but that is the inherent danger in the line. Too many cases to one location and that will happen. I’m experiencing the Cyborg pileup right now.
Fans should be annoyed about Wave 9. I’m definitely not saying otherwise. If wave 9 never gets less rare, than I believe we really need to get ahead of Mattel and demand all wave 9 figures be released in all-star packout as soon as possible.
And I hear you about enthusiam. I have a couple unconnected pieces of Chemo right here on my desk. It sucks!!
TRU is not a common sight in my area, but there are a few in the far outlying suburbs. I may make the occasional trip out or at least give them a call now and then to see what they have. Last I heard from a friend all they had was two-packs.
Mattel definitely wants to keep this for themselves! There is no other explanation for why it’s one fiasco to the next for this line!!
I’ve yet to see a single DCUC figure at Wal-Mart. And I’ve looked, a lot. Anymore, I go straight to Target and TRU. I found all of Wave 9 at TRU, except for Green Arrow and Deadshot. And, as lame as it sounds, I’ve pretty much given up on finding either of those.
As for All-Star cases, they’re great for folks like myself who started collecting late. I doubt I’d have been able to find a Green Lantern if it weren’t for them. Same goes for Blue Beetle. And, now that I know he’s out there again, I’ll keep my eyes open for a Hawkman. Bringing new fans in has got to be worth something is all I’m saying.
It’s all a matter of persecutive, I suppose.
Aaron, I forget whereabouts you are after the state level.
All the “remote” WMs here dropped all comic merch altogether. Even some that carried DCUC all year, dropped them. But most of them have them in stock.
If you need a Hawkman, my Target can help you out!
well, to compare notes, here’s what i find… i have a target, a tru, and five walmarts surrounding me. i JUST saw two of the five walmarts in my area stocked up on captain colds. three at one store, two at another (oh, and a ronnie raymond firestorm on clearance for 11 bucks!) the other wallies, there’s not even space for them. target has three cyborgs and two wonder woman. tru has a blue aquaman, two captain colds, vigilante and a blue beetle. TRU has had that exact roster on the pegs now for 3 weeks. target has gone two w/ nothing getting moved. since this is only the first week i’ve seen them in wallies, i can’t really report on peg warming.
but i also have a friend in st louis who hunts between four TRUs, six walmarts and three targets… and has even less luck finding stock than i do. now, i know he’s not exactly captain “scour the aisles,” but i know he keeps his eyes open when out and around. that’s a big market to keep understocked. i’m glad some folks are finding stock, but not everyone is. even if i listened to only every third “i can’t find my DCU” story, they out-number the “i just stumbled onto a full assortment!” stories by 10 to 1. even noisy, who’s playing off how good his success rate is, when he notes his buying trends, he’s filling assortments w/ online shopping, not local lucky finds.
i HOPE i’m wrong. i think matty taking DCU online only would SUCK… but i think, if they even got hint of the notion that by taking the line exclusive, they could drop production by say 40000 units and raise price by 25 or 30 percent, they would jump at the oppurtunity. i think a lot of this hinges on how many units they think they can get you to buy online… a large chunk of the fandom is already filling orders online and not relying on chance encounters at their B&Ms. if mattel reduces production numbers, they can save on material costs, save on shipping, save on warehousing… savings they can pass along to the consumer as a price hike due to “low production run and exclusivity.” i think those 2 packs are absolutely a feeling out process and it’s only by the graces on high that they haven’t sold out yet. plus remember, in modern corporate american, “brand” is the buzzword… and they’re hip deep in building the “matty brand.” once they bring the “regular” mattel store online, and they’re running mattycollector, they don’t want you going to BBTS or CSC or target… they want you coming to matty!
as far as target goes, i guess i don’t understand. the scenario, as i recall, is, target doesn’t move units… mattel tells fans they’ve lowered prices (aka CLEARANCED, rather than RECALLED), begs us the fans to buy extra units to save the line, and somehow, target and mattel have a great working relationship? uh… no. target has a contract, matty has to move X units through their store… and mattel was willing to take a hit on their profit margin (you don’t think they clearanced those figs at a loss do you?) to keep from having to cough up the money for target’s downside guaranty (which would constitute a loss for mattel, as they’d have to cough up the downside AND eat their own product.) that’s how a contract works people, dick unto them before they dick unto you.
The notion that my collection has been filled with online purchases isnât the whole picture. With the exception of Wave 5, Deadshot, Black Adam, and Guardian. I have seen at least two of every figure at retail. My DCUC8 does come from BBTS, but I found the first half multiple times at Target afterwards and the second half is pegwarming at Toys R Us as we speak. And I have to say âat least twoâ only because of wave 9 which Vault found at TRU last Wednesday. Iâve seen plenty of the others, given enough time (time being a key factor since fans have only known about shortages for 11 days). Vaultâs collection, with the exception of wave 5, has been built completely from retail and heâs only missing the chase Dr. Fate, Deadshot, Black Adam, and Guardian.
Despite all that, I fully admit that I am possibly as jaded positive about availability as some of the less fortunate are jaded negative. I donât feel this makes my opinion any less valid, however. My experiences are just as likely to be duplicated as a person who canât find any DC Classics. And I still contend those that do find them have less incentive to post more than once, stating their find, and then moving on from the pool of people posting about not having them.
Nine of the twelve area Wal-Marts have added DCUC pegs in Sept. (none had them previously), and all of them received two cases with Sonic Arm Cyborg and Unmasked Batman Beyond. All of them sold through most of that case this month and received a second best of case with Blue Beetle. The Sonic Arm Cyborg is everywhere though, but that is the tradeoff with getting in âenoughâ cases. Wave seven was pretty easy for most collectors, but the tradeoff is 2+ Captain Colds nearly everywhere. Sonic Arm Cyborg is the next Captain Cold.
The 2 Toys R Us stores are like night and day. My local one has been excellent. Despite some gaps, they received 7A, 7B, and 8B multiple times. Theyâve received 9A once. All while sitting on 2 Captain Colds. My primary Target has had every figure from 1-4, 6-8 except for Terrific, Vigilante, and Steel. Theyâve been picking up Best of Cases now and unfortunately, picked up 2-3 Best of Cases this last time leaving them rather clogged, but dwindling slowly.
I am watching this line move through those crap best of cases in 10 local stores. If the stores had gotten wave nine, there’d be tons of access. Mattel overdid the best of, but theyre selling here. Hardly a way to get them off retail shelves. In fact, theyâre moving crappy reissues at retail. Mattycollector.com can’t even move first run 2pks.
The “Matty shift” just doesnât hold water to me. If we extrapolate the conspiracy theory out, then no toy companies should bother distributing toys via retailers. Not one. It literally means Hasbro is inept for bringing that Skrull/Kree 2pk to retail. And the fuzzy math is too simple. We need to be discussing the attrition of casual buyers, which is not dismissed by the notion that collectors always think theyâre the most important demographic. And thatâs not to mention the attrition of the collectors themselves. We need to talk about the lower production numbers resulting in increased costs per figure. Itâs not simple to just cut production and raise prices. We need to discuss the fact that the 2pks, which the fabled collector demographic has complete 24/7 access to canât sell out of a single non-SDCC DCUC item.
And itâs only been 11 days since BBTS informed us about the shortages. The ebay prices, the craze, the gnashing of teeth? Itâs still a rush on the bank. Give it another month and letâs see what happens.
I haven’t seen an entire wave at retail since wave 3 and that was only once.
I love this line but if it does go away at least I’ll be saving more money. I really hope it lasts long enough for me to get a C&C Doomsday though and we still need Fire, Ice, Superboy and a couple others to finish that story line.
That’s a lot of talking. I never did find that Gentlemen Ghost, make of that what you will.
Too obscure, eh? Why, I’d be glad to take that no-name ML thing off your hands…
Oh, I’m just jealous that I hadda settle for Thorbuster Iron Man instead of Destroyer. And there’s no way Fury was as much of a pegwarmer as poor Captain Cold: there’s at least half a dozen on the racks in my area right now; and I didn’t even buy the poor sod since I’ve got the old DCD version.
Personally I’m waiting for Wave 16…which is Spring 2011. AHAHAHAHA…
Heh. How quickly people forget, right?
Exactly.
Well when you put it like that…
DC Classics is no Marvel Legends.
They may not be the same but they sure seem to be following the same path. Finding a main character like Green Arrow should not be camparible to finding Bin Laden. People will get sick of it sooner or later and stop buying them, I’ve givin up on Marvel Legends entirely because of stores pulling a “Walmart”.
Green Arrow is destined for All-Star status. I don’t understand the well-I-can’t-find-them-so-the-line-is-dying mentality. We all have different experiences. I’ve seen a 9 case three times, but I had to get 8 off eBay. My not finding wave 8 isn’t a deathknell.
And to the OP? DCUC is better. ML laid the groundwork, but this line is running with it. The only trophy ML still has is bigger build-a-figures.
While Arrow may be destined for All-Star status that cannot be said for the rest of wave 9. You may not have found wave 8 at retail and hit ebay (I didn’t find it either at retail and bought it on BBTS), but at least wave 8 isn’t ridiculously priced on ebay since it was seemingly produced in “normal” quantities.
I don’t think they’re “killing the line” but they I’m certainly not going to be the avid collector I was before when my only choice is ebay for figures that should have hit retail.
Maybe I’m foolishly optimistic, but I think the prices will come down.
We don’t really know how rare this line will be. The first sightings were only a few weeks back and the ebay prices spiked due to BBTS and Mattel’s announcement – but we have no idea how it’s going to pan out yet.
The BBTS e-mail was just last Sunday. It feels like longer though.
And, hey, Vigilante is an All-Star!
Maybe fans need to already be encouraging wave 9 figures to be mixed in as future all-stars to compensate for the shortage.
I don’t think Wave8 was produced in normal quantities either.
There seemed to be a shortage of the Hawkgirl/Gntlemen Ghost portion.
I’m still thinking we might see mroe of the second half of wave9 than we do of this first half.
that would suck for me since I want chemo
Actually, the second half of wave nine includes all the pieces of Chemo. Onesies on the first four and doubles on the second.
http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/product.aspx?product=MAT11492&mode=retail
[sarcasm]
If only DC Classics would follow the Marvel Legends model of putting out at least one Spiderman, Hulk, Wolverine, or Iron Man in every wave. But no, DC Classics mistakenly chooses to give us a wide variety of characters. Truly, this will be their downfall.
[/sarcasm]
I know right? Give us constant allstar versions and fans complain about no variety. Give us variety and the lineups are weak. I hate being a toy collector sometimes.
I know what you mean.
Who knew the website had sarcasm tags?!?
Did Nick Fury really hang on pegs? I don’t remember a glut of that figure
He was here. He was in wave five and we had him hanging out with eave eight figures. I’m sure there were other pegwarmers. Weapon X was around for awhile. Waves 2 & 4 were all long in the tooth. Nick Fury just popped into my mind first. That psychadelic cover is etched into my brain.
Toy Biz NEVER went out of their way to saboutage their toyline like Mattel! ToyGuru is out to kill this line at retail! Weak lineups, low runs, terrible distribution, it’s all a ploy to sell this line on Matty so they can control the markup. It’s TOTAL BS on their part. I’d quit the line but I’d have to find the DAMN THINGS FIRST!!!!
You’re kidding, right? Mattel makes a ton more money selling tens of thousands of units to stores/online then they could moving them on Matty. Mattel needs the casual purchases at stores to keep the line profitable.
If Mattel thought they could go it alone, they’d abandon JLU @Target and do it their already.
dude, i hate top break this to you, but that’s hogwash. tens of thousands of units aren not getting sold casually, cuz even folks ACTIVELY SEARCHING can’t find them. you’ve got retailers who are getting only 25% of thier orders filled, and no figures to be had in B&M retailers… there are no casual DC fans. i have yet to be in TRU and overhear a child gleefully exclaim to his mother “MOMMY, MOMMY, the blue suited aquaman!! please mommy?” it’s not happening.
and let’s get real for a sec… we know that moving the line to mattycollector will not only save them money on distribution and production, but then they can charge whatever they like for the “collectible.” and apparently, they like 20 dollars a fig. i think there’s a HUGE liklihood that this wave 9 fiasco, amongst others, is in pursuit to get a collective sigh of relief from consumers when they move they like to matty… when we SHOULD be getting suspicious.
i don’t think matty has any intention of killing DCUC yet, they’re testing you DC fans to see how hungry you are. they know you’re 13 bucks hungry, now they want to know if you’re 20 bucks hungry. đ
Respectfully, I think you’re wrong.
There are what 2000 Targets? 500 TRUs? 6000 Walmarts? If Walmart only carries DCUC at 25% of their stores (I’d say it’s more than that based on my own searching), and those three chains sold through ONE case of DC Classics, that’s 40,000 pieces. And the stores around me get more than one case. If each store sold through three cases of a wave (that’s the average around here) then that’s 120,000 pieces.
They won’t move like that on Matty. My Target, a week or so back, got in a buttload of Killer Moth, Marvel, and Hawkman. Those are dwindling – there’s less and less each time I go back. They have to stay on the shelves to be viable and Mattel isn’t stupid enough to think otherwise. Plus, those Matty 2pks TANK! It makes no business sense to scale things back and put your product in a spot where you canât sell what you have.
And Thirteen makes an excellent point about JLU. They are trying to keep Target in the loop. If this conspiracy theory had any weight, it would apply to JLU as well. (Heck, it would apply to most toylines – why should Mezco or Neca try to their stuff in stores?). By this theory, Mattel should happily knock off Target and keep the money for themselves, but they donât seem to want to.
The problem right now is a simple matter of *which case* fans are finding. If Wal-Mart were processing Wave 9 instead of those insipid “Best of” cases, we wouldn’t even be talking about this. Iâm ready to burn Sonic Arm Cyborg in effigy. If I went to Wal-Mart everyday and saw the same Deadshot or Gentlemen Ghost sitting on the pegs, thereâd be no issue. Mattel made enough figures to stock the stores, to keep the line going, etc, – they just made the wrong wave. Wal-Martâs order should have been filled with Wave 9.
I also think your example about kids is off-base. Iâve actually seen a kid toting around Aquaman. Our Target is selling off that ridiculous chunk of Hawkmans and Marvels. All those Wal-Marts that got in the Best of case, six months after anyone needed it? Most of those sold through and had to be refilled with the second “Best Of” case. The line moves at retail.
Why does it seem like it doesnât? Well, I have half of wave nine. I have all of wave eight. I donât have to post about it, telling everyone how I have them eight million times over. But when I donât have something? Well, I do feel the compulsion to bitch about it eight million times over. Itâs normal. The people that are missing this stuff are out there, and in wave 9âs case, theyâre probably still in the majority â and they need to be appeased. Wave 9 figures need to be slotted in future all-star waves. But this shortage is not going to kill the line. And, to me, it’s not indicative that Mattel is trying to scale back production, sell less units at a higher price, and essentially blow the DC license. If that were the profitable solution, well Hasbro would only be selling those ML 2pks on HTS right now. Why bother putting them at TRU?
Thatâs what todayâs comic is about. Marvel Legends experienced ALL of these problems (except maybe obscurity, Toy Biz preferred Wolverine no. 37 to bringing me Hellcat or Brother Voodoo â but that line is tons better đ ) and there was plenty of gnashing of teeth over what Toy Biz was doing then too. But the line went on, and heck, itâs STILL not dead.
Anyway, Mattel is a company with one goal. Make money. Limiting the number of places theyâre sold doesnât make money. They may make bendy weapons, miss essential accessories, shortpack popular figures, and do plenty of dumb things. But I cannot buy a theory where they would prefer to mark something up (cost of attrition) to sell less units (lack of distribution).
LOL. Sorry.
I’ve had that pent up for a couple days.
Hogwash is the massive conspiracy theory behind why ONE WAVE was shorted.
We JUST got DC Classics into a ton more Walmarts than they were in last year. Mattel lands the big cheese and we accuse them of trying to go online exclusive. It never ends.
It might be likely they shorted BBTS, CSC, et cetera to setup Matty. That would be a valid conspiracy theory I could get behind. But to blow it out of proportion to them wanting to take it out of retail verges on idiocy.
That’s some funny stuff right there, Noisy.
Thanks!
I’ve never had any problem with the lineups, it helps fill the rosters on the shelves.
Availability is the thing I have issues with.
Some of us don’t live with parents, have kids and responsibilities, and can’t afford to pay upwards of 30 bucks per figure.
I like the lineups. I prefer this to the constant presence of Wolverine, Hulk, Spidey, etc in the various ML lines.
And they do need to be more available. I stand by the fact that Mattel’s mistake is the Best of Cases. I keep finding those and each time I know the store could have been getting the frontline wave instead.
MOTU wasn’t too much of a strain because it was one figure per month… now with bonus figures and possibly entire waves of DCUC at 20 bucks each?? It’s been fun but that may be when I call it quits.
Yeah, it’s hard to collect all the Classics.
Take December on Matty? Randor, Goddess, Winston Zeddemore, B’Wanna Beast, and Animal Man. $100 order right there, 10 days before Xmas. Ugh.
That is pretty hideous indeed. Especially considering, depending on more photos, I want that Superman II 12 inch Zod too. I buy MOTUC, but I’m not a completist there so Green Goddess seems like an easy skip, but I need the Skeletor re-release since I missed him the first time and King Randor looks great.
Oh, yeah…
See, I just displayed collector tunnel vision right there. I only pointed out what I had to buy as being a burden when there is a ton of other stuff going on sale that month too.
I’d forgotten all about Zod and the Skelly re-issue. The Harvey Dent MM figure and four or five other things too.
So as to not squeeze a reply section down to nothing I’ll continue here.
I never saw wave 8 in person, and wave 9 is simply not going to happen since Target will stock Public Enemies instead and Walmart (I hope) will stock wave 10.
While some figures do seem to move locally others do not. My three closest locations have probably 20 Cyborgs between them (Sonic arm and vintage wave 4) and the local Walmart has had the same wave 6 figures for several months. None of them ever move (plus some Cyborgs and leftover wave 7 Captain Colds).
My problem with what happened with wave 9 isn’t just that I can’t find it at local retail, though that surely annoys me, but more that since the orders were cut off by 75% online that I can’t obtain the wave via a reasonable (still more than Target but still reasonable) price on BBTS or some other online merchant.
I don’t think the line will die, but it certainly hurts my enthusiasm when I can’t get a whole wave. This is more frustrating than Walmart wave 5 too because of the number of good characters in the wave.
Yeah, the comment sections gets tiny (and can only go 10 deep). I’m trying to find a good upgrade.
You probably don’t have a TRU nearby, but I think they’re the best hope for Wave 9. They’ve got nothing else to stock until Wave 11.
Cyborg and Cold are dogs, but that is the inherent danger in the line. Too many cases to one location and that will happen. I’m experiencing the Cyborg pileup right now.
Fans should be annoyed about Wave 9. I’m definitely not saying otherwise. If wave 9 never gets less rare, than I believe we really need to get ahead of Mattel and demand all wave 9 figures be released in all-star packout as soon as possible.
And I hear you about enthusiam. I have a couple unconnected pieces of Chemo right here on my desk. It sucks!!
TRU is not a common sight in my area, but there are a few in the far outlying suburbs. I may make the occasional trip out or at least give them a call now and then to see what they have. Last I heard from a friend all they had was two-packs.
Mattel definitely wants to keep this for themselves! There is no other explanation for why it’s one fiasco to the next for this line!!
I’ve yet to see a single DCUC figure at Wal-Mart. And I’ve looked, a lot. Anymore, I go straight to Target and TRU. I found all of Wave 9 at TRU, except for Green Arrow and Deadshot. And, as lame as it sounds, I’ve pretty much given up on finding either of those.
As for All-Star cases, they’re great for folks like myself who started collecting late. I doubt I’d have been able to find a Green Lantern if it weren’t for them. Same goes for Blue Beetle. And, now that I know he’s out there again, I’ll keep my eyes open for a Hawkman. Bringing new fans in has got to be worth something is all I’m saying.
It’s all a matter of persecutive, I suppose.
Aaron, I forget whereabouts you are after the state level.
All the “remote” WMs here dropped all comic merch altogether. Even some that carried DCUC all year, dropped them. But most of them have them in stock.
If you need a Hawkman, my Target can help you out!
well, to compare notes, here’s what i find… i have a target, a tru, and five walmarts surrounding me. i JUST saw two of the five walmarts in my area stocked up on captain colds. three at one store, two at another (oh, and a ronnie raymond firestorm on clearance for 11 bucks!) the other wallies, there’s not even space for them. target has three cyborgs and two wonder woman. tru has a blue aquaman, two captain colds, vigilante and a blue beetle. TRU has had that exact roster on the pegs now for 3 weeks. target has gone two w/ nothing getting moved. since this is only the first week i’ve seen them in wallies, i can’t really report on peg warming.
but i also have a friend in st louis who hunts between four TRUs, six walmarts and three targets… and has even less luck finding stock than i do. now, i know he’s not exactly captain “scour the aisles,” but i know he keeps his eyes open when out and around. that’s a big market to keep understocked. i’m glad some folks are finding stock, but not everyone is. even if i listened to only every third “i can’t find my DCU” story, they out-number the “i just stumbled onto a full assortment!” stories by 10 to 1. even noisy, who’s playing off how good his success rate is, when he notes his buying trends, he’s filling assortments w/ online shopping, not local lucky finds.
i HOPE i’m wrong. i think matty taking DCU online only would SUCK… but i think, if they even got hint of the notion that by taking the line exclusive, they could drop production by say 40000 units and raise price by 25 or 30 percent, they would jump at the oppurtunity. i think a lot of this hinges on how many units they think they can get you to buy online… a large chunk of the fandom is already filling orders online and not relying on chance encounters at their B&Ms. if mattel reduces production numbers, they can save on material costs, save on shipping, save on warehousing… savings they can pass along to the consumer as a price hike due to “low production run and exclusivity.” i think those 2 packs are absolutely a feeling out process and it’s only by the graces on high that they haven’t sold out yet. plus remember, in modern corporate american, “brand” is the buzzword… and they’re hip deep in building the “matty brand.” once they bring the “regular” mattel store online, and they’re running mattycollector, they don’t want you going to BBTS or CSC or target… they want you coming to matty!
as far as target goes, i guess i don’t understand. the scenario, as i recall, is, target doesn’t move units… mattel tells fans they’ve lowered prices (aka CLEARANCED, rather than RECALLED), begs us the fans to buy extra units to save the line, and somehow, target and mattel have a great working relationship? uh… no. target has a contract, matty has to move X units through their store… and mattel was willing to take a hit on their profit margin (you don’t think they clearanced those figs at a loss do you?) to keep from having to cough up the money for target’s downside guaranty (which would constitute a loss for mattel, as they’d have to cough up the downside AND eat their own product.) that’s how a contract works people, dick unto them before they dick unto you.
The notion that my collection has been filled with online purchases isnât the whole picture. With the exception of Wave 5, Deadshot, Black Adam, and Guardian. I have seen at least two of every figure at retail. My DCUC8 does come from BBTS, but I found the first half multiple times at Target afterwards and the second half is pegwarming at Toys R Us as we speak. And I have to say âat least twoâ only because of wave 9 which Vault found at TRU last Wednesday. Iâve seen plenty of the others, given enough time (time being a key factor since fans have only known about shortages for 11 days). Vaultâs collection, with the exception of wave 5, has been built completely from retail and heâs only missing the chase Dr. Fate, Deadshot, Black Adam, and Guardian.
Despite all that, I fully admit that I am possibly as jaded positive about availability as some of the less fortunate are jaded negative. I donât feel this makes my opinion any less valid, however. My experiences are just as likely to be duplicated as a person who canât find any DC Classics. And I still contend those that do find them have less incentive to post more than once, stating their find, and then moving on from the pool of people posting about not having them.
Nine of the twelve area Wal-Marts have added DCUC pegs in Sept. (none had them previously), and all of them received two cases with Sonic Arm Cyborg and Unmasked Batman Beyond. All of them sold through most of that case this month and received a second best of case with Blue Beetle. The Sonic Arm Cyborg is everywhere though, but that is the tradeoff with getting in âenoughâ cases. Wave seven was pretty easy for most collectors, but the tradeoff is 2+ Captain Colds nearly everywhere. Sonic Arm Cyborg is the next Captain Cold.
The 2 Toys R Us stores are like night and day. My local one has been excellent. Despite some gaps, they received 7A, 7B, and 8B multiple times. Theyâve received 9A once. All while sitting on 2 Captain Colds. My primary Target has had every figure from 1-4, 6-8 except for Terrific, Vigilante, and Steel. Theyâve been picking up Best of Cases now and unfortunately, picked up 2-3 Best of Cases this last time leaving them rather clogged, but dwindling slowly.
I am watching this line move through those crap best of cases in 10 local stores. If the stores had gotten wave nine, there’d be tons of access. Mattel overdid the best of, but theyre selling here. Hardly a way to get them off retail shelves. In fact, theyâre moving crappy reissues at retail. Mattycollector.com can’t even move first run 2pks.
The “Matty shift” just doesnât hold water to me. If we extrapolate the conspiracy theory out, then no toy companies should bother distributing toys via retailers. Not one. It literally means Hasbro is inept for bringing that Skrull/Kree 2pk to retail. And the fuzzy math is too simple. We need to be discussing the attrition of casual buyers, which is not dismissed by the notion that collectors always think theyâre the most important demographic. And thatâs not to mention the attrition of the collectors themselves. We need to talk about the lower production numbers resulting in increased costs per figure. Itâs not simple to just cut production and raise prices. We need to discuss the fact that the 2pks, which the fabled collector demographic has complete 24/7 access to canât sell out of a single non-SDCC DCUC item.
And itâs only been 11 days since BBTS informed us about the shortages. The ebay prices, the craze, the gnashing of teeth? Itâs still a rush on the bank. Give it another month and letâs see what happens.
I haven’t seen an entire wave at retail since wave 3 and that was only once.
I love this line but if it does go away at least I’ll be saving more money. I really hope it lasts long enough for me to get a C&C Doomsday though and we still need Fire, Ice, Superboy and a couple others to finish that story line.
That’s a lot of talking. I never did find that Gentlemen Ghost, make of that what you will.
Too obscure, eh? Why, I’d be glad to take that no-name ML thing off your hands…
Oh, I’m just jealous that I hadda settle for Thorbuster Iron Man instead of Destroyer. And there’s no way Fury was as much of a pegwarmer as poor Captain Cold: there’s at least half a dozen on the racks in my area right now; and I didn’t even buy the poor sod since I’ve got the old DCD version.
Personally I’m waiting for Wave 16…which is Spring 2011. AHAHAHAHA…