It’sAllTrue will have some Friday links up tonight, but we wanted to put up a link to a thread on He-Man.org we think all MOTU fans needs to see.
SDCC has revealed that the 2010 Subscription exclusive will be Wun-Dar (Savage/Wonder Bread He-Man w/ Black Zodac Armor) and a map of Eternia. It’s $20 to sign up, but is it worth it?
Today, Mattel announced that October, December, January, and February will all have bonus figures. Now the first months aren’t part of Wun-Dar’s subscription, but they’re indicative of what’s going to happen. 2009 subscribers will still be going to Mattycollector in October and December to order the bonus figures separately from the figures pre-ordered through the subscription. That means paying double shipping just so two boxes can ride together in the UPS truck to our homes.
By subscribing to Club Eternia and Wun-Dar, every bonus figure will cost about $9 in extra shipping. So each time a bonus figure is released the cost of signing up for Wun-Dar will increase. Six bonus figures, with six extra shipping charges, will increase the cost of Wun-Dar from the upfront $20 to $72. And with the pace Mattel is setting, there might be more than 6 Bonus figures next year.
Why are we telling you all this? Lay Ze-Man has started a thread on He-Man.org to petition Mattel to include the bonus figures in the subscriptions. It only makes sense, if the subscriptions are for making sure He-Man fans get their figures, or as Matty says, “MOTU figures just show up at your door! No worrying about being logged in when a sale starts, or a figure selling out before you get one.” then there should be the option of including bonus figures. With so many bonus releases, we’re gaining next to nothing. We will still be parked in front of the computer on January 15th ordering the bonus figure while Mattel separately charges and ships the regular figure.
We all know that online petitions can have little effect, but remember that in the toy industry, fans are more connected to the companies than ever. Fans got the headsculpt of DCUC Firestorm changed. Fans got the subscription put into practice. Now, it’s up to the fans to try and get bonus figures included.
Here are the options available to us so far:
- The thread detailing the petition on the .org.
- Mattel’s Custom Service Number: (877) GO MATTY
- Any website that has “Ask Mattel” questions should be asked to include this question.
Let’s get together on this and make sure that we REALLY don’t have to worry about getting these figures. We can convince Mattel to give us the option of including the bonus figures. Let’s get clankin’.
Mattel has responded to fan concerns with two posts on Facebook:
A lot of fans have asked this question and their is a very simple answer. The bonus figures are our insurance policy that at least one new figure will be available each month. In the toy industry, issues arise all the time which delay product. For example, Faker was supposed to be the Feb bonus figure but because Mer-Man ran late he was slotted in as a standard figure. (for those keeping score at home, this also meant every other 2009 figure was bumped up a month from the intended release date…).
So for 2010’s Club Eternia program, the bonus figures, large scale beasts and re-issues will not be part of the subscription in order to have a back up in case anything gets delayed. In time, after we have another year under our belts and can better judge sales over an extended period of time, we can look at the possibility of adding an “all in” option. But for now, please bear with us as we do all in our power to make sure at least one new figure is available each month with some months having a nice bonus figure as well!
And each subscription will get the exclusive Wun-Dar figure, a new map of Eternia in poster size and a few other surprises throughout the year. It looks like 2010 will be a great time to be a He-Fan!
We know a lot of fans are still asking about combining shipping on bonus figures and subscription orders. For this, we went right to our friends at Digitial River for an answer:
“Unfortunately this functionality does not exist because the purchases are from two different transactions. Each transaction is sent individually to the warehouse, which has a unique fulfillment request sent through an integration from Digital River to the DCL warehouse. There is no way to combine separate transactions into one fulfillment request. Furthermore, shipping rates are billed based on weight. There isn’t a way to view a previous transaction, extract the weight from that transaction, add it to the second transaction, and recalculate the shipping cost for the total weight.”
-We’ve been through every possible scenario and unfortunately there just is not a way to work this for 2010. We will do our best to get ahead for 2011 and possibly add the “bonus” figures into the 2011 subscription, but for this first full year in 2010, the scubscription will only include the figures of the month.
We’ll keep working on things to make this the best buying experience possible. I think we’ve made leaps and bounds since we launched last summer and the site crashed when you tried to make a purchase! We can’t solve every issue overnight, but we are commited to working with the fans and doing all we can to make imporvements as we go along! One step at a time for better toys and happier fans!
Obviously, this is disappointing news. The shipping charges are going to keep racking up and Mattel says Digital River is unable to do anything about it. The sad part is that the things Digital River says they can’t do are common practice for other web retailers.
I’m calling Go Matty customer service right now.
Thanks, Ed!
also don’t forget the fact that this subscription service was partly to alleviate the site slamming, well if you still have to go buy the bonus figures then the subscription isn’t helping that at all.
Exactly!
The people still needing the regular will go and everybody will be trying to get the bonus – it’s not solving anything!!!
Stupid!
Ironically, I have a feeling Webstor will still have a lot of traffic. The subscribers will still go gawk.
If it were one or two MOTU bonus figures then whetever, but if they’re going to do a bonus figure nearly every month then that is the point of the subscription at all?
I want Wun-Dar, but damn he might be cheaped in the secondary market than all the added shipping costs.
That’s definitely something to consider and if there is a ton of bonus figures, it might be cheaper.
one of the best post on the .Org states this amazing fact to all those true supporters who are getting subscriptions
“Example:
Non Subscribers will pay: $48.70 a month
Subscribers will pay:$57.40
Mattel needs to fix this. “
That’s the truth.
god yes they do. and just to throw this out there, you know battlecat won’t be shipping for 8.70.
Thanks for putting this up, Noisy!
As has been said, the completist collector who signs up for Club Eternia will be out MUCH more money over the course of the year than a non-subscriber due to shipping costs.
This is really a no-brainer. I can’t believe Mattel thinks some of these offerings would be “fringe” enough that most fans who are signing up for a year’s worth of figures would pass on.
Most of the “bonus” figures shown could absolutely hold their own as a monthly release!
I’m wondering what terminology they used at the convention. Do they just consider Goddess a repaint?
She is I guess, but she’s also much more than that.
she’s only a repaint if I get that figure and it has teela’s bio on the back, if it doesn’t then that’s a new figure…
True. All of them are individual characters.
Some fans might not want Zodak or Green Goddess based on their continuity allegiance, I guess.
But really, true He-Fans can’t pass on any of them.
This is ridiculous. Mattel c’mon. We put up with so much. We try to be positive and endure your poor customer service because your toys are awesome, but this is just a punch in the gut.
You’re making it harder for your most reliable fans to purchase product. We want to pay for the bonus figures, we just don’t want to throw away a $100 a year on extra shipping.
Mattel! You suck!
There are a ton of options to not screw us here. You could let us combine our two orders to save. You could let us customize our sub (I’d love to order all MOTU, all DCUC, all JLU, and 6″ GB), or you could just give the bonus option as an extra thing.
The only part of Mattel that takes care of fans is the Four Horsemen.
So Mattel is trying to save us from the hassle of the website, but only in September and November? Looks to me like I have to go to the site every other month.
what’s really disappointing is we should be discussing is Scareglow the ghost of say keldor when he was merged with demoman?, I Wun-dar a relative of he-man or a cosmic enforce who forsook his ways, to save a planet? why are eternian royalty obsessed with not wearing pants?
No we have to deal with matty stupidface and his bad decision process.
More BS from the world’s worst… I mean, largest toy company.
I guess it’s only fair the the best toys come from the worst place. You can never have it too good.
are you going to help me out and put links of all the pics up for motu?
the figures not the slideshow?
Yes. Just finished dinner. Link amassing will begin in a few minutes. 😀
you know i think most if not all the subscription people wouldn’t mind paying the extra for the bonus figures. i think most of us are playing on getting every figure they put out if we signed up for that knowing that we’d have no clue what 8 or 9 of the figures would be.
this really aggrevates me. i’ll go into more depth on the fan ex boards, but needless to say, i have VERY mixed feelings on this panel.
This totally sucks, Mattel.