Mattel has released packaging shots and the full bio for Clamp Champ, but also some dour news. Clamp Champ won’t be available for on July 15th.Crazy!
The MOTU fandom, and non-MOTU collectors who thrive on controversy, have already twisted themselves into a pretzel over the announcement that no Clamp Champs will be made available, so I don’t have too much to add.
Whether you believe that Mattel is trying to punish non-subscribers or gently reminding current subscribers of exactly why we subscribed, I still just have a hard time wrapping my mind around it. I mean, couldn’t Mattel just as easily run 2%-3% more of the figure and let them blow out in record time with the cover that they “underestimated demand”? That way, they still make the same impact on subscribers + non-subscribers alike, but they don’t look nearly as bad in doint it. It just makes no sense to me that they do it this way unless they just had to. Are DOS sales possibly such a small percentage as to not be worth it? We’ll never know.
Clamp Champ – Heroic Master of Capture, Real Name: Raenius
After Duncan was captured and permanently turned into a Snake Man, Raenius, former Body Guard to King Randor, stepped in as the new royal Man-At-Arms. Although lacking Duncan’s skills as an inventor, Raenius proved his worth in the Masters of the Universe with his ferocious hand-to-hand combat and extensive knowledge of almost every weapon, including his favorite, the techno clamp, for which he earned the nickname “Clamp Champ”. He continued to lead the Masters of the Universe all the way to the Second Ultimate Battleground. Clamp Champ surprises his enemies with his clamping action.
Pretty neutral on the bio, but do you get the idea that his so-called “friends” didn’t nickname him Clamp Champ out of admiration? And who made the clamp? Is it one of Duncan’s last toys or something Raenius made with his limited inventor skills. Is that why it looks like pincers and not a clamp? All these questions that I bet won’t be answered my by continued reading…
oh mattel, they are clearly punishing non-subscribers… which means that they’ll probably pull the same thing with another favorite like Extendar or something…
I want Extendar… I don’t know if I want to subscribe next year… grrrr
I don’t understand the punishment to non-subscribers angle. I mean, I don’t think they’re going to convince anyone who didn’t subscribe in Year 4 to pick up the Year 5 sub with this kind of stuff. If it’s truly nefarious, then I have a gut feeling it’s intended to remind subscribers of why they’re supposed to subscribe.
No one hears about that because subscribers are all getting Clamp Champ. We have no reason to complain.
I think the way things are going, there won’t be much DOS in 2014 at all. If nothing else, Fang Man & Clamp Champ have proven that Mattel can completely write-off the DOS sales and not think twice about it so there’s not much incentive for them this deep into things.
I see your point, but regardless of intent, they ARE in fact punishing non-subscribers.
And at this point, I would be FAR more concerned with the customers I’m alienating than with the ragtag group of diehards who will likely sub up again anyway.
Then I think of all the people that doubled, tripled, or more down on 2013 subs to “save” the line, and I just don’t see that happening again. So Mattel continues to turn off every possible new subscriber while knowing they can’t maintain last year’s numbers.
I jumped on board CIE sub when it re-opened in March, but I did it precisely because I don’t like stalking the DOS. But, if Matty think it is punishing the non-subscribers, it is simply driving them to the retailers who purchase subscriptions and re-sell the figures.
If Matty really wants to push the subscriber only model, it needs to come clean with what figures come with the subscription. I mean, for CIE, it’s still a shot in the dark who the Oct, Nov, Dec figures are. I committed $X to Matty for this sub, I should get priority over the SDCC comic con to know Oct, Nov, Dec. Same for the 2014 sub (which I’ll wait to hear more about). Marketing scheme shouldn’t be given precedence over the customer with money in his hands. Tell me now, and maybe I’ll buy!
The biggest omission to Clamp Champ is his championship belt. He’s the champ and he needs a belt. It’s not like Mattel doesn’t have hundreds of them lying around! Grrrrrr …
I have one championship belt and I gave it to Tomar-Re. Clamp Champ does make a good case to steal it for himself… LOL
Ok, you win. Why did you give it to Tomar Re…?
I’ve given up on understanding the inner workings at Mattel. It’s as you said.. just like “how many licks does it take to reach the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?”
The world might never know, except for Toy Guru.
Hasbro never gave us this grief during their heyday. Neither did Kenner, Galoob, LJN, or even Mattel itself back in the 80’s. Seriously, I’ve never seen any other company screw over its customers the way Matty has been doing over the past decade.
This is a shoddy business practice I just can’t wrap my around. So, they’re NOT going to sell toys to people. What business are they in, again? They’re telling the customers “Up yours!” — the people who give them money in the first place. Nope. Doesn’t make sense. Baffling.
I know I’m getting into tin-foil-hat territory, but it’s really looking like someone at Mattel is trying to kill this inconvenient line of theirs with a chain of stupid decisions designed specifically to drive off customers with money to burn.
Also infuriating are those subscribers who keep on saying: “Shut up! We told you so! Stop whining! And I’m getting mine, so nyah!” I’ll admit, I put out a couple of “Well, they did say . . . ” posts some months back with Fang Man (for which I want to deeply and unreservedly apologise), but I certainly didn’t do it with the kind of trollish smug intent that these kids nowadays post with.
Cripes, if any of the Mattel board from the 1980s were still around, they’d crucify anyone for lousing up a chance to rake in money.
I don’t think they are trying to kill the line, what I think they are doing is hedging their bets on the secondary market prices driving sales. I think it was after the year of Buzz-Off where they really overproduced the figures to offset the demand of instant sell outs they got left with a lot of stock because they overestimated how much of an audience they had. However the interesting part is TG let a quote slip that “…production will be lower to get secondary prices up.” A lot of people questioned it but he never really addressed it after saying it.
I think the way he thinks a “small run” line like this will thrive is that if there are desirable characters on the secondary market. Which their actions in the past have made sense because they pull stuff off the store as “Sold Out!” and then it shows up en mass down the line. And yeah, high secondary prices will bring some people into a line, it will also put off some people … there is no way to tell but they have been doing it for three or so years now with this plan of attack so I assume the numbers favor attempting to keep releases scarce.
If Mattel wanted the line done it would be gone tommorow. I think asserting they are killing the line on purpose is crazy, they own it and can get rid of it whenever they want. I think whoever runs things thinks the best strategy for a “collector market” is not to advertise, but hope secondary market prices do the advertising for them. Add in scaring your fan base into buying more subscriptions and making videos pleading more people to buy their crap. Its both a shitty and interesting marketting scheme.
Nah, I don’t really believe they’re doing all this to kill the line, but any other explanation I can think of makes even less sense.
“Let’s not advertise anywhere and make as few toys as possible! We’ll make a mint!”
Does not. Make. Sense. Look at the monkey.
not to mention, they pay to maintain and advertise (barely) mattycollector, a webstore with virtually no product. figure that one out.
great example, i ordered the new 52 darkseid from bbts. inside his package, there’s an ad that says “get all the great figures on mattcollector.com… what great figures? those figs aren’t available on matty, and if i were to scour that website, i could find lots of figures pictured that are not, nor will be, for sale. it’s like the worst version of the jcpenny xmas catalog ever.
I don’t think they’re killing the line on purpose, I think they’re just horribly mismanaging it, and it’s alienated a lot of customers. I used to buy at least half the figures each year, and now I haven’t bought a single one in almost two years.
But that’s the aspect I can’t wrap my head around (like Ralph Dibny! ZING!). Why should prices on the secondary market (i.e. eBay scalper land) matter to management? Is that supposed to be some bizarre sign of popularity? Is it supposed to mean that the NEXT figure will sell more somehow?
So that means anyone selling an intact Green Goddess and stating that fact, even spelling out the shattering hip/groin problem, should be able to sell it for crazy money, thus making that a hugely successful figure?
Sink me, it IS quite the puzzler.
because they’re scalping the extras themselves, duh
I agree with that sentiment. I also hate it when subscribers brag about how THEY are supporting the line, and anyone who wants to cherry-pick or can’t afford a sub are equivalent to something they scraped off their shoe. ANYONE who buys a Classics figure is supporting the line. It’s only in Matty’s warped view of reality that this isn’t true.
And limiting a figure like Clamp Champ, but having copious stock of less popular figures such as Karatti is downright puzzling. Not only does it hurt the big resellers (because I doubt the jump up in price of CC will compensate for the shelf-warmers sitting in their warehouses/stockrooms/basements), but also Mattycollector.com, because MOTUC is their most popular line and an incentive for people to go to their site. You don’t need a fancy business or marketing degree to know this kind of logic is bizarre.
and remember, karatti and clamp champ are both sub figures, meaning, if for example mattel has 6,000 motuc subbers, they figured out that making 8,000 karatti made more sense than making 6,001 clamp champs.
Karatti and the Foe Men had more stock than Clamp Champ… On what Planet a New Adventures C-Lister is more demanded than a MOTUV C-Lister?
I’m certain this will happen again. Perhaps not Castaspella or Mantenna, but maybe the OTHER October Figure…
We MAY HAVE BEEN WARNED by Mattel, but they’ve cried wolf so often… How many times has “teh lien” been in danger?
The problem I have is that SOME Subscribers act like the Day of Sale folks killed their significant other or something.
We’ve been “warned by Mattel,” yes, but the number of subscribers in the course of the year hasn’t changed. Which means that number’s a constant in the equations. Which means the variable is, how many more than that constant does Mattel choose to make? Which means under-producing any particular figure is 100% a conscious decision on Mattel’s part. Which means that, if any figure is not available for day-of sales, that’s just Matty fucking with us.
It’s because he’s black, isn’t it?
https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/5371325440/hAA6717B6/
They may as well remove DOS altogether if they’re pulling this crap. I’ve honestly lost all interest in this line. I’ve got Spirit of Hordak and Octavia sitting at a friend’s house waiting for me to grab them and I’m just so meh about them now (I must admit, I’ve caught the NECA bug :P).
Part of me wonders if they retain a higher percentage of customer service / replacement figures for popular characters?
Or, if they are made in the same numbers, are they earmarked for convention appearances? A particular retailer that will take unsold stock plus some goodies like these? Or they really do love the secondary market as much as they claim to (which is still mystifying to me)?
Or does the factory just say “yeah, may is too busy with these con figures you ordered, so you get just 86% of your regular order for that clamp figure because the machines are too busy…”?
Well, it’s definitely not the factory doing anything without marching orders. Afterall, Mattel does not have a contract with the factory that makes these guys, Mattel owns the factory. Every worker in that factory is a Mattel employee. That’s why it always gets under my skin when TG blames factory mistakes. Factory mistakes are still a Mattel mistake.
I don’t know, Noisy. The threat if not getting Ram Man made me a first-time subscriber this year. I think it does draw in new subscribers, if not in the most positive way.
I think this is Mattel’s stupid (and nasty) way of reminding people they said that possibly not all figures would be available to non-members. This way when they announce the Clubs, they hope to drive collectors into subscribing. They forget about those they will lose from being pissed off with these moronic antics.
Too bad they don’t realize that delivering the product people really want, would be a major boost for them instead of all the nonsense.
This doesn’t make any sense besides as a marketing ploy to increase the number of subscribers for 2014. If there were any figures to limit day of sales, Karatti and the FFM should have been at the top of the list.
Nope not skintone thing, how easy people forget Netossa. (Also all the other races someone whines about about a skin color when still just human) I think they did it do to the hate from Duncan fans on that “mercy killing” which never was. I planned on putting his head on a pike in Duncan’s lab or the real reason why nu52 Teela is such a bitch.
My one true problem with Mattel is how they play such a mighty role in dividing the action figure community. We are all in this together. What happens to one of us effects all of us. I might not be able to get a certain figure today, but it could be you tommorow. I will never understand the “serves you right, sucks to be you” mindset some collectors have. I’m pulling for everyone, regardless of whether they subscribe or not. Situations like Clamp Champ push us further apart. Matty seems to thrive off that.
The saddest part to me is, last year I would have been mad as hell, now I don’t really care. I believe MOTUC is one of the greatest action figure lines ever, but I’m so weary of Mattel’s management of the line, the self-serving shilling of corporate mouthpiece sites and forum members, and the division it has wrought in our community that I am almost done with it. Congratulations to all involved, this is the line that took the fun out of a nearly four decade action figure habit. Considering how much love, time, and money I have put into this hobby, that wasn’t an easy thing to accomplish.
Thanks to this site for providing me a place to type my mind, as I refuse to join a forum. This is a great place, please stay honest.
It is the reaction that some of the subholders have that makes me sick too. Some of the same guys who just a month ago were so pissed about Spirit of Hordak are almost gleeful that cherry pickers can’t purchase Clamp Champ.
Honestly, I’m not going to be surprised if it ends up Mattel made the same amount of Clamp Champs as any other figure, and he shows up for sale either at the end of this year or for early access next year.
Yeah, even as a subscriber, I’ve got no compunction about putting little trolls like that in their proper place.
For every collector that goes without a figure for stupid reasons (like missing out on Spirit of Hordak every time it’s been offered, or no Day-of-Sale figures, for example), I burn with the rage of righteous justice. And like the rattel, once I start a fight, I don’t stop until the enemy is dead or runs away. ‘Cause another name for rattel is honey badger. And, like said Mustelid, I don’t give a . . . well, you know the drill.
I’m a Cherry picker, too!!!
Stop bullying us Matty.
Times like this make me wish I had better info, and more room. I want to set up a whiteboard and block out dates and events. There is a voice in the back of my head that tells me the limitations on Clamp Champ are due to the runup of all the Man of Steel product.
Annnndd is it just me or does it seem most of that product line is KING DOG DEAD at retail? I mean grief, I can go just about anywhere and grab me a Russel Crowe figure right off the shelf. That’s crazy. Smart money said he was going to be GONE GONE GONE.
well, kinda… though if i had to call out one figure for worst peg warmer at the moment, it’d be injustice batman. they could put that thing up buy 1, get 3 free and there’d still be dozens. i ran into a TRU yesterday that had no fewer than 4 whole pegs of him. by contrast, they only had one MM jor-el.
Ya know what Mattel should have done? Made the ‘Injustice’ Batman a Gamestop exclusive or something.
And I wasn’t calling MM Jor-El a pegwarmer per se, I just ran the whole thing together. The Man of Steel line overall seems to be stagnate and I was expressing shock and surprise that I could even FIND MM Jor-El on a shelf (and here, they ARE on a shelf. No pegs dedicated to these. Like the MOS MM line was expected to just blow out)
Now, it’s not QUITE the complete trainwreck of the Green Lantern Movie line but man that’s a lot of shelf space being taken up.
Where are you at again?
Stores around here were slow to put up MOS stuff, and some aren’t even carrying the MMs at all. One WM restocked their sole case of MM with the 7″ squeeze’n’bash or whatever those things are. the stores I am seeing carry the line got in ONE case of w1 with Jor-El/wetsuit Zod, then went right to Armor Zod/Faora wave (3?) and the Supermen were already overstocked. At least thirty figures at one store that was actually stocked, three of them were NOT based on Cavill.
As for the other DC lines, forget it. hit and more often than not, MISS if they carry DC/Batman Unlimited. The closest store to me that was carrying it went through two cases, then switched the pegs to more animated Bat-stuff when the Justice League promotion came in. I only saw the Planet-X/Batmite figure by going into StL, and chanced upon nu52 Darkseid/Aquaman down at Rolla (college town just north of military base) last wkd, on my annual visit to a friend who works on base down there.
Meanwhile, Hasbro’s Marvel stock isn’t moving at all. ML, I’m still seeing Hope and Klaw, esp after Target had a sale and restocked all their stores with that wave, which everyone already had. any chance of getting subsequent waves is left to e-tailers. MU isn’t moving, either, with the actual MU mixed in with Avengers and other movie MU stock. No refreshes since the early MU spring sale. and pegs are choking with those godawful IM3 “figures” that fall apart and NO ONE WANTS.
Michigan. West side of the state. OK, Grand Rapids. 🙂
Stores carrying these lines mentioned: Target, Walmart, KMart, Toys r Us and local hypermarket chain Meijers.
Seems NOBODY wants Iron Man 3 toys and who blames them? Junk. Cheap-a** junk.
Meijers is busy filling pegs with that last wave of DCU, the one with Mercury. Wait, that wasn’t last, that was Wave 16! Holy crap they still have cases of THAT clogging the distro center?! AND still at full price.
I’ve seen a few Batman Unlimited, LOTS of ‘Injustice’ Batman, a smattering of Penguin.
Man of Steel is mostly endcap, tombstone or island pallet bait. I would say the mix is about 60% those goofy ‘slingshot’ toys, 30% 4 inch figures, 5% 6 inch figures (both MM line and the ‘action feature’ line) and the last 5% role-play toys, boxed items and that giant vinyl Superman.
Was ANYONE asking for ‘Jumbo Machinder’ sized vinyl figures?
Yeah, I watch this stuff. Old habit. 🙂
Im glad they havnt started doing that with DC…altho it would make things a bit interesting.
Not sure how anyone can be surprised or confused by this course of action at this point in the game. Angry I get… but not surprised or confused. Mattel wants guaranteed sales and they want to increase subscription sales, they want 0 mystery to their bottom line. Since that is what they want, to them, DOS buyers don’t matter. To us, who don’t see the numbers or sales data, that makes absolutely 0 sense. I hold a subscription, and have never been a big Clamp Champ fan, so fortunately I am unaffected by this, but I could understand why someone who only wants vintage figures is angry. Its terrible that people can’t buy what they want,
but Mattel thinks by doing these things (Same with Fang Man who was sub only at a time when the Filmation Sub went up for preorder) that they can increase their guaranteed bottom line. Does it work? Does it NOT work? I don’t know, I don’t have the sales data.
Obviously, Mattel is racist. Why else make it so only a few people get the black guy?
The hell with this, I will not be forced to have 12+ figures I don’t want, I rather pay 50 bucks for him (or any other figure on this line) on ebay and I’ll have just the figures I want, not the one’s this company forces me to have.
Mattycollector’s DC web catalog is sold out of everything, as it always is. Sounds like Mattel is doing just fine with Club Infinite Earth DOS offerings.
Confusing. Toy Guru strikes me as a really eccentric character to begin with. I’m sure his sales strategy is reviewed by other executives–TG isn’t alone acting on whims. But it’s hard to figure all this out.
Well, wait, here’s a hunch–if Mattel curtails DOS offerings, turning non-sub collectors toward the retail outlets or ebay, it does create greater incentive for the retail stores to commit to more subs.
That being said, though, if Matty is recruiting the retail outlets, why not sell them in bulk (all 12 figs for $15 each if you order 10 subs) and kill the Mattycollector online catalog (except for direct-to-consumer sub purchases at the $18 / fig cost).
Offer bulk deals for the more subscriptions you order…
Nothing that Mattycollector does makes sense. 😉 Lesson: Don’t put a geek who collects action figures in charge of a product line???
PS. This business about having to wait until SDCC to learn what my Oct, Nov, and Dec figs will be is also seems like poor marketing. Same with opening the 2014 subscriptions in June before a single figure has been announced. Tell me the incentive not to wait until Jul 17? Only the most diehard subscribers will buy a complete subscription blindly. I imagine even the retail outlets like BBTS would at least like to know a sample before they buy. Who knows? Mattel could give us a bunch of guys in suits for CIE 2014……………………………
MATTEL, YOUR ACTUAL CUSTOMERS MATTER MORE THAN THAT CROWD AT SDCC!!!