Earlier this week, Mattycollector posted the image at right on their Facebook page. It caught a few of us by surprise as the possibility of figures in 2016 had been bandied about. Toyguru later clarified on the on the Matty Collector forums that, “After we see how 2015 sells we can start to look into a potential 2016 line. But it certainly won’t be called classics and be on green brick cards.” So the line as is will end next December, but the possibility for more remains. Though with rising costs and the line being nearly eight years old at that point, I wouldn’t hold my breath. I’d love to be wrong.
Yesterday, Mattel posted the write-up for the 2015 sub. Some interesting notes – the sub period will start this Friday, early subscribers can get a free set of display stands, there’ll be a Kowlometer to track progress. That’s cool, but there was also this little tidbit:
And second, this year subscriptions are limited to a set number, and once we hit that amount, that’s it… no more subscriptions will be sold.
Is this just a new marketing strategy to try to break up the usual cadence to how the subs sell? Do collectors need to show Mattel higher-ups more enthusiasm in the opening days? Is this new cap lower or the same as the number of folks who signed up last year? We’ll likely never know – and truthfully, it doesn’t matter. As the drama of Mattel subscriptions is about to set itself upon us this weekend, this is as good a time as any to remind everyone to enjoy their toys. If you want to sign up for MOTUC, do so; if you don’t, don’t. If you have signed up, don’t try & bully those around you into doing the same. If you don’t want to sign up, don’t hang around ad nauseum and bash Mattel or those who did sign up, just move along. Let’s see if we can get through this last subscription push with our hairlines intact and ample respect for each other, okay?
It’s really too bad MOTU has such a narrow following. It would be great if there were 3rd party companies to make figures and accessories to supplement t he existing lines, similar to how 3P’s have done with Transformers.
All great toy lines must come to an end. A line I would love to see would be DC figures with the MOTU bodies, like the Batman that came out last year.
I love that Batman. I’m still bummed we don’t have a Superman to go with it!
That’s exactly what I was thinking!
I want DKR Superman so bad my teeth hurt. I also would have liked to see Robin but you just know they would have screwed that up in amazing ways.
There kind of are, at least a handful of people doing heads and weapons. But the market is so small a head ends up costing more than a whole figure, and on top of that the figures aren’t cheap either :-/
I’ve bought a couple, but I certainly don’t feel like I get the value I do from a fully made Transformer third party item.
Agreed. I have seen a few head sculpts and although they are impressive the bodies are so expensive that it’s hard for me to justify in order to have custom figures. $50-$60 total for a He-Man with a different facial expression is steep.
Matty could do well just remaking a few of the hard to find year 1 and 2 items. I didn’t even know MOTUC existed until the 4th line. Beastman and Shadow Weaver would be my first two top picks for another run, for example. They have the molds, why not make a few dollars?
I <3 you, Noisy.
It's too bad about the cap, but I thought the display stand bonus was a perfect stroke. Give subbers a reason to sub early. Love it. I'll dub early for the first time ever and then check out for the rest of the period. Here's to civility!
All that ad does is remind me I should spend my $ on Funko GoT figures rather than Matty antics
i suspect the new line will be very much in the motuc style, and use a lot of that tooling, but aesthetically, will likely cover the new look in the DC comics and perhaps segue into a potential movie look, if the movie differs from the new comic look. it seems the cheapest, easiest way to move forward.
So, a cap? A CAP? Now they want to say “OK, that’s it, we don’t care how many we COULD get, we’re cutting it off HERE?”
OK, look, so why even bother with the sub? Why not just crank out 10k figures (or whatever, I’m guessing closer to 15k is the realistic number with maybe 8,000 being the actual fan base), throw them up on Mattycollector once a month and feed that scalper frenzy?
OK, none of this is what Noisy wanted to hear and I should apologize, but this is so much more ‘in your face’ mismanagement and… argh. How can anyone think this is a good idea?
DR talks as if there’s been some movement on an actual MOTU movie. Did I miss something? I mean, we all know it’ll fall apart and go into development hell in a few months, AGAIN, right?
Somehow, in my brain, Mattel and DC Comics deserve each other. You all know what I mean. 🙂
I would honestly love to hear some of their internal discussions about marketing tactics. You would assume there must be some adults with actual business sense in the room but it’s hard to tell based on the results. It almost seems like some kind of experiment in trying to anger or annoy those interested in buying the product. That’s how it’s worked for me anyway; they’ve managed to kill any enthusiasm I had for one of the favorite toy lines of my youth.
Man, why can’t the Wikileaks people hack Mattel…
Naw, I have a suspicion they all work in paper, nothing electronic in-house. 🙂
but yes, I am also at a loss regarding these decisions. I mean, it’s not even a number thing. I suspect if one were to average MOTUC sales over the entire run one could have a reasonably solid expectation of actual buyers, end users, customers as opposed to scalpers/speculators. I suspect that number is very solid and better than average sales of any ‘mainstream retail’ line that’s gone out. Everybody loving that current Max Steel line? Y’all got your complete set of ‘Slingshot’ Superman toys?
blargh.
no you didn’t miss anything steve, the movie continues to languish in development hell, but they’ve been talking about it more (despite continuing changes to director and screenwriter) so i’m guessing the intent is to segue comic look to movie look. and it’s very much meant tongue in cheek, cuz i don’t see the movie happening.
what’s more, if sales data of the comic is to be believed, i wouldn’t be re-branding to that either… sales are already less than half what they were when it started, and rapidly plummeting. but they’ve made rumblings like his new look in the comic is the new he-man look “going forward” and god only knows what that means.
i suppose it’s possible that they could re-brand to “dare, son of he-man,” but that is super mega lame and i bet even they know it. but when TG has said “the figures won’t be called classics nor be in the green brick boxes” anymore, that’s kind of more than an implication that the property is not done producing figures.
you know what’d be funny? “He-Man: Sigma Six” that’s be fargin GREAT!
DOH! the right answer to what would be funny SHOULD be… *awaiting his due drum roll*… HE-VOZ!
BWAHH HAHAHAHHAAHAHAHAH
*snork* OK, wrong company, dead on target joke. 🙂
I was very vocal against Hasbro’s Sigma Six from day one. My posts are probably still archived on Rec.toys.GIJoe (I think that was the name, we called it the Sandbox. Ironic, huh?) and I stand behind them to this day. My main crit. wasn’t so much the scale (which was goofy) or the design (which was more goofy) so much as Hasbro had ZERO interest in making toys that actually represented the (halfway decent) cartoon they were putting money into! And of course, no females allowed, even tho Scarlett was the de-facto SECOND LEAD CHARACTER.
In other words, very Mattel-like! 🙂
i gotta be real steve, i have almost a complete collection of sigma six figs, and i love them. i love the locker box packages, the weapons packouts, the scale, the goofy style, all of it. i loved that line.
BUT, i know the jokes were referencing the wrong company, i was teasing that mattel would try to steal ideas from lines that had been successful 20 years ago… since classics is based on a line that was successful 30 years ago.
Hey, I don’t hate on people for loving something. And I was really impressed with the whole ‘endcap of the package is a locker/box’ thing (in the Sandbox many were trying to bug Hasbro to offer those lockers for sale all by themselves. Hasbro, of course turned a deaf ear), and IIRC the weapons actually scale out closer to 1/6- I bought one of the motorcycles and it didn’t seem too out of proportion to my Joes, I assumed they just re-purposed some Action Man thing anyway…
But I can’t forgive that the figures looked nothing like the characters on the cartoon. And no Scarlett or Baroness.
FINALLY ALL THE HORROR OF TUYGURO AND MATTY STORE WILL FINISH THE NEXT YEAR!!!! THANKS GOD!!!
well, from what was posted on the matty boards, the cap is 125%, and apparently this year’s sub maxed out at 115%. So apparently if we just reach 100%, the remaining quota will be available day of sale, but if the subs reach the full 125%, it sounds like there will be little or no day of sale product. I also suspect there will be another mini-sub to round out the rest since I don’t believe there’s enough slots left to cover the rest of the ‘vintage roadmap’ figures unless they’re gonna start doubling up or issuing multipacks. Typically they’re being needlessly cryptic about it all.
OF COURSE THEY ARE!
Never mind they tell us over and over that it takes up to two years for product to get made, so even if it’s the usual one year EVERYTHING MUST BE IN THE PIPELINE RIGHT NOW, right? Isn’t that logical? There’s no real guessing, there’s no real sudden “Hey, let’s do THIS instead of that!” that can happen, it’s done.
Anybody taking bets we get one more ‘vanity’ figure out of Scott? I’ve got a thousand Quatloos burning a hole in my pocket… 🙂
So I am not the only one that it seems that they sit around looking for ways to piss off their primary customers?
No, this looks like a bad marketing decision to me. Or a good marketing decision handled very badly. Frankly, with ToyGuru’s track record, it shouldn’t’ve come as a total surprise.
They can say “We’re not panic-mongering” as much as they like, but I don’t think many people will believe it.
Still, I’m subbing up, and I hope enough people sign on to make 2015 go through! And enough people every subsequent year to make it go on for another 4 – 5 years after that!
DC Universe ‘Masters’ would be the ideal line for collectors of MOTUC and DCUC.
They just need a MOTUC nipple-less torso mold since the DKR Bats mold is a bit bulkier (perfect for guys like DKR Supes, Bizarro, Major Force, KC Supes, etc.. but not for 1982 style-guide Bats and Supes) new bare forearms and the various shin/booy/underwear combos that apply.
Add C&C pieces, sell at retail and you have the #1 collector line of the year.
Oh, to dream…
Bitter sweet, but I am pretty sure if 2015 sells through we will see a re-branding with 2.0 updated characters, NU52 Designs, throw in various other characters still needing a figure from 200X, NA, Filmation, and Son of He-Man, and call it MOTU Legends, Signature series, Platinum, or whatever else and maybe itll have the classic red and blue card of old, my guess anyway. Maybe it can breath new life in to the line.
and by bitter sweet I mean I just don’t want the line to end, I want it ALLLLLL, Not just figures that had classic toys! BTW! Da Fuq is up with NO King Miro at this point? Hmmmm?
Each to his own as far as the sub goes. I’m doing it but I don’t begrudge those who don’t want to.
What I don’t understand is those people that complain ad nauseum about Matty not revealing the entire year’s line-up up front. If they say they don’t show figures until they are ready to be shown for legal reasons, who are we to argue that point? I’m assuming most of us aren’t experts on the operating procedures of toy company legal departments.
I mean, honestly at this point I’m guessing we know it within a figure or two. We’ve got a Snakeman (probably Tung Lashor) and Eldor in 2014, leaving one mystery figure.
There’s five POP characters left and two spots left in Club Etheria so that’s three of the twelve there.
Final Snakeman (Squeeeze), Ninjor, Blast Attak, and Dragstor make for #4, #5, #6, and #7. Gwildor and Saurod (provided one of them isn’t the aforementioned mystery ’14 figure) are #8 and #9. Huntara is #10.
Leaving #11 and #12 to be New Adventures spots. (Not being super familiar with NA I admittedly don’t know who the likely candidates are.)
The top twins are a two-pack and Multi-Bot is released akin to Modulok.
And that covers everything except NA, which I think most of us are assuming will be this year’s mini-sub.
Back in early 1986, I wrote to Mattel asking if they were going to make a Horde Trooper action figure. I got a nice letter back from them, along with a Xeroxed list of every single product released in MOTU to that point, as well as every product that would be released until the end of the year.
If they could do that back then, I don’t see any reason why they can’t do that now. “Legal Reasons” is a complete cop-out answer. It’s not like there are any other companies scrabbling to acquire the MOTU brand in the 7″ action figure category. It’s not like Wal-Mart has them by the short ‘n’ curlies, because the entire brand is handled in-house. The only two viable reasons for not releasing plans for upcoming figures are:
1) The subscription doesn’t go through, and they’d have to cut the line short. But as you say, since we all pretty much know who’s left to make, it’s just a case of who would get cut? Most probably the NA characters and anyone the Vintage Nazis would complain about.
2) Release schedules might change, and figures might get swapped in their monthly slots. This has happened before, and they’ve covered it with legalese before.
The writing has long been on the wall so this comes as no surprise. I have tried subbing for as long as I could over the years despite being stuck with figures that I had no use for from MOTUC sub-lines or rehashes that I never cared for back in the day. If it got someone a character they wanted, I’m glad to have helped and that’s satisfaction enough. But my budget has been tighter than ever in recent months, so after starting off the year with Two-Bad, I’ve gotten both Blade and Extendar through individual sellers even as my sub went into whatever kind of limbo Mattel calls it when they can’t charge your card anymore. Rio Blast will likely be it for me this year and the same tactic will be applied to any of the remaining 1986/1987 vintage characters which make it into 2015.
In terms of design and selection, MOTUC has had a great run. Much like DCUC, we got what we expected and then some. I will miss the 4H’s innovative work and dedication to the past. I won’t miss Digital River’s continued incompetence, the embarrassing scalper frenzies of the line’s early years, or anything having to do with Scott/Toy Guru’s continued PR BS in his dealings with those collectors and enthusiasts who carried this line forward through sheer dedication, word of mouth, or simply by forking over mucho dinero into Matty’s coffers. To those of you included in these categories, I tip my helmet.
All I want before the line ends, and it’s all I’ve wanted since the first day the line was announced, is a 200X styled Evilseed.
And I know in my heart it’s never going to happen…