MOTUC: Looking Ahead at 2014 & Beyond
January 12, 2014 at 11:58am
He-Fans and She-Ravers,
Happy New Year, everyone! And welcome to the top of another exciting year collecting Masters of the Universe Classics on Mattycollector.com!
Here at the top of 2014 is a very interesting point in the line to take a moment and pause for reflection. Not only on where we have been, but on where we are going as well. We are now into our sixth year of the line (I know we had three releases in 2008, but 2009 was really the first full year). It has been a long and amazing ride. Never in my wildest imagination did I think we would get this deep into the line (almost to our 150th figure!) nor did I think I would have the privilege and honor of getting to head-up the line for this long. Truly a personal dream come true as a toy collector and MOTU fan myself!
As we enter 2014, we are clearly at a turning point for MOTUC. No longer are we looking up a big mountain wondering where the peak will be, but rather it is now the point where we are looking down the other side, celebrating the victory of making the MOTUC Castle Grayskull happen (that was all you guys, you know!) as well as the roadmap to “complete the line.”
Some longtime fans know that MOTUC was originally created and always had the intent of being the most all-inclusive MOTU line possible, incorporating characters from the widest variety of source material – from vintage toys to Filmation and mini comics. All sculpted and designed around the same “buck” (or shared part) system to create one unified universal look for all characters. When we kicked off the line back in 2007-2009, a long term roadmap was created that spread out the releases over many years to ensure that each year had a robust selection and we did not burn through too many hot characters too quickly, leaving far out (at the time) years like 2013 and 2014 with very little to offer.
This initial strategy has paid off very well helping to ensure recent years still contained huge fan-demanded characters like Ram Man and Horde Troopers, all deliberately held back for these years to keep the line fresh and hot.
But the inevitable happened and the cost to produce these figures slowly crept up, to the point that in 2013 we finally had to accept a price increase. Along with this, we heard fans loud and clear that the robust nature of the line was getting a little too robust and under the new higher prices more obscure characters like the Fighting Foe Men or Karatii might not be what most fans wanted.
And we listened to you!
As promised back in 2012 when the 2013 sub was sold, we reworked the original roadmap (which stretched out to 2017/2018) and combined the last few years into two “final” years that would be needed to complete all of the vintage MOTU, POP and A-list most fan-demanded figures from other lines such as NA, 200X, Filmation, mini comics etc. We dropped a lot of the “filler” figures and focused on getting the most demanded figures out there before prices rose to the point that it would cost more to make the figure than fans were willing to pay.
So that brings us to 2014…the first year of the “new roadmap.” I’m pretty confident that I can say we held true to our promise. With 60-70% of 2014 already revealed, I haven’t seen much chatter that the figures revealed thus far are “off the map” and new strategy. One of the more “frustrating” things about working in the toy industry is that it takes 12-16 months for any changes to happen. This meant even when we promised fans a new roadmap during SDCC 2012, it still meant 2013 had to be produced under the original road map/strategy of offering the most robust character selection possible. So there were still a few tail-end obscure characters that made it out in 2013.
That all finally changes!
Now we are finally at 2014, just days away from the first “revised roadmap” figure, Two-Bad , shipping to subscribers. Our goal for the next two years is to crank out all of the remaining MIA characters to ensure the vintage roadmap is complete by the end of 2015. As promised in 2012, we are keeping prices flat in 2014 to the 2013 prices, but it is likely come 2015 there will be a very small price increase (in comparison to the large price increase we had in 2013). But they key takeaway is that in order to deliver on fan expectations to complete the new revised roadmap, we need all the SKUs and slots we can get in both 2014 and 2015. Without a 2015 line, we will be a little short.
That being said, a TON of work from Mattel design, marketing and the Four Horsemen went into crafting 2014 and 2015. Both years add up to be two sides of the same coin. Half of the remaining figures will be offered in 2014 and the other half will be in 2015, should we hit the minimum quota to get a 2015 sub.
There are always going to be personal favorites who may not make the list (Filmation alone has hundreds of characters we have not gotten to!) but once all of 2014 and 2015 are announced and sold, I think for the most part fans will look at the two year line-up and be hard pressed to say “that figure/character should not have been released in lieu of this other one” (i.e., are we not going to release Rio Blast so we can do the Guy in Yellow shorts playing tug of war in the mini-comics? I don’t think so!).
This does not mean in any way 2015 is guaranteed to be the last year of Classics. But standing at the top of 2014, I do feel we are clearly looking down a mountain and not up one. For the most part, fans should have a good idea of who is coming in the next 24 months (just look at the vintage lines and see who has yet to be released!). But in order to pull this off and ensure MOTUC truly reaches its end-goal and full potential, we’ll need your help.
The 2015 sub buy-in is only seven months away and we will truly need full support to make this final year happen. Let’s not lose steam now and let a few figs remain in limbo. Mattel and the whole MattyCollector.com team want nothing more than to go out on a high note. So as we head into 2014 and into the revised roadmap that is here at last, let’s not lose sight of the importance of supporting the 2015 sub. We can only make these figures when we have an audience to buy them. And this line has always been by fans, for fans, driven by fan purchases.
This deep into the line, we are definitely hitting what I call 50% territory. There are a lot of figs set for the next 24 months that about 50% of fans love and 50% might be able to do without. Some POP fans want nothing to do with NA and the same the other way around. I see Madame Razz, for example, getting a lot of “I want her!” posts and just as many “please don’t make her!” posts.
But just as with the diversity of MOTU itself, finishing off this line will take all of us coming together. As an example, POP fans need to support NA figs to get their POP collection finished, and NA fans need to support POP figures to get their NA MIA figs made. I know this may mean not every figure will be for every fan. But this line is truly about coming together. If we all support the next two years, we all win. Should any one “sub” group of fans choose to bail, it will only hurt the chances of making us all happy.
So as we enter 2014, let’s unite. Let’s unite as a fan base and show the whole toy collecting world that there are no fans like MOTU fans. Together we can all make this happen. We have 24 months to go to lock this up. No fatigue now. Not the time to bail.
MOTUC has the very real potential of making EVERY figure from the vintage MOTU and POP lines, as well as A-list characters from other cannons and media. We can make this happen. We are so close now, it is not time to lose steam! It will take all of us supporting all of the figures to make every fan happy. The MOTU fan base in unlike any other toy or brand fan group. We support diversity and work together. When we started this line, we all thought it would be cool to get to six figures and an SDCC item. Now we are standing at an unprecedented point about to make the final leap.
The revised roadmap is finally here. All 2013 figures were part of the old strategy and the old roadmap. It is an all new ball game starting with Two Bad, Glimmer and Hydron this quarter. We have a few surprises left, and again, it does not mean 2015 is THE END. As long as we have support we would love to keep this going. But we do have a clear roadmap for the next two years. This is the time to be more excited than ever. We are so close to achieving a rarely accomplished goal in toy collecting – modern interpretations of EVERY vintage fig.
And one last thing to consider, as we head into 2014 and by Grayskull hoping we get to 2015, fans are going to get A LOT more value in their figures. The characters we have left, for a good part, have a lot more tooling needed. Giant wings, backpacks, tails, and a ton of new parts. If you compare 2014 and 2015 to what we offered in 2009, price value, figure to figure, fans are going to be getting a ton more. Zodac was a new head, armor and gun, Extendar is almost fully tooled and comes with a ton of accessories. 2014 and 2015 will be well worth the price of admission!
I couldn’t be more excited for the next two years and I am so glad to share this experience with all of you. Like we did for the Castle, together we can make this happen. It is all in your hands.
Good Journey!
Scott (AKA “Toy Guru”)
“interesting”
As I have no actual skin in the game I’m probably not the right person to bring this up, but:
No mention whatsoever about fixing problems re. Digital River? How much money in lost sales and canceled subs is due to problems with Digital River? How many people are saying “screw it, I’ll get it on eBay” because of Digital River?
Given the ‘lead time’ restated by Scott, I kinda think it’s safe to assume 2015 is the end no matter what. And that’s sad.
“The revised roadmap”. The thing we all wanted… Except Noisy
As far as Scott is concerned, the issues with Digital River have been fixed. In actuality, the only thing that’s been resolved is handling heavy site traffic which isn’t an issue as we’re “down the mountain”.
I think 2015 is the end of the 12+ figure sub, but I suspect there’ll b a few more figures that trickle out alaJLU an DCUC
Okay here’s the thing. If 2015 is so critical to completing the vintage line up and the rest of the vintage figures are split across the next 2 years (2014 and 2015) then why not just tell us the figures on the f-ing list? They don’t have to say when those figures will come out, just state these are the figures we’re planning to do to complete the line and anything else is gravy. But no, then there wouldn’t be any mystery to drive subscription sales. That “what if” factor is what is keeping some people coming back – “what if they make X figure and it’s sub only?” but it’s also what’s keeping even more people away. So just lay it out for us Scott and quit with the “check out the vintage line and you can figure out what’s left” BS.
I think come SDCC/sub sign up time, when the rest of 2014 is shown, it’ll be pretty obvious who’ll be the 2015 assortment, like within 1-2 characters degree of accuracy.
And, just to add… IMO the buyer base is what it is at this point. They’ve could’ve handlers things very differently in years past to maintain the close to the peak # of buyers they had, but we all know how so much opportunity and goodwill was squandered. But right now, there’s almost no such thing as a MOTUC who’s gonna look back and go “Why didn’t you tell me Sagitar was gonna be made! I totally should’ve subbed!!!”
Despite Scott’s repeated claims that enough heavy hitters were reserved, we all know that’s nonsense and we’re now left with dregs like Razz or fan faves but relative unknowns like Extendar, which means only self described diehards are pretty much the only ones still at the table. Even to the point where they’ve made it so annoying that staunch anti-subbers like dayraven and myself gave in and subbed just do we could have a seat at the table.
Not to say that all who subbed in 2014 will do so in 2015 (depends on the price bump) but for my part, I’m not gonna have Hiss, Rattlor, Khan, Snake Face, and Sssqueeze but pass on Tung Lashor. I’m not gonna have Blade and Gwildor but say no thanks to Saurod. And I suspect enough fans will feel the same.
I’m like Noisy in that I’m opposed to the new roadmap (gimme Foe Men over any PoP/Filmation any day if the week!) but I think given the givens, specific character selection is moot at this point.
sadly, the idea of the 2015 sub not being the last year is pretty much only tempting to guys like us, who are interested in seeing what the line could do with the non-vintage characters because, if the premise offered is, only the vintage line-up really sells, and we want to burn through that by 2015 to get demand met… what’s left for 2016? concept characters, unproduced protos, or maybe more NEW characters… and d-list variants like thunder punch faker or ice armor he-man 🙂 at that point, i’ll be interested again, cuz the NEW pieces are some of the most interesting for me (and lots of other collectors, who vocally shun the new while simultaneously talking about how vikor is the greatest fig in the line)
truth be told, i think the success of 2014, and even 2015, will be more dependent on the cool shiz the 3rd partiers make for us than the actual released figs. as an example, anyone who has a castle grayskull got an awesome sculpted dungeon grate from WCV (and if you don’t own it, consider the GitD, it’s the best damned glow plastic ever) and now they’re getting an upgraded motuc-worthy tower cannon from zombihamma… will those add-ons sell more castles? likely not… but they will go a long ways towards making the guys who are suffering from buyer’s remorse more likely to forgive and forget that come the next big ticket item. the 3rd party guys have the power to balm the wounds when the production figs cheap out (like not adding the huge cannon thing with two bad) and that will in turn sell subs.
Third party stuff definitely helps, as does the fact that the base bodies make for great custom stuff.
I’ll also be interested to see how the alt head packs pan out and what impact those might have on potentially less desirable figures.
Cause yeah I’m with you, new stuff like Vikor and the unanticipated accessory here and there are where many of the joys have been had with this line. Same old same old we either never wanted even back then, or already had and can be seen coming a mile away….I just don’t really see the point.
I’ve mentioned this before many times, citing my story about asking back in 1986 if they were going to make a Horde Trooper, and getting a memo from Mattel listing everything that would be made up until the end of 1987.
And when I ask why they can’t do that today, I keep getting the “They can’t. Because. Now shut up.” treatment.
Actually, I’ve come up with a theory about this.
First off, one has to accept as probable reality that the Chinese Factory will d**k Mattel over every chance they get. They’ll quote a price but ‘regretfully’ they’ll have to have a ‘bump’ because (excuse). (consider it in the same light as every time gasoline prices jump 20-30 cents overnight. No good, logical reason, it just happens.)
So, Mattel more or less understanding this reality, they pick and choose what figures get made, and lay down the ‘essentials’ over the year, including one ‘big tooling’ figure at the end, but leave the line ‘loose’ during the second and early fourth quarters so they can slap in a ‘low tooling cost’ figure into the line to make up for a random d**k move cost bump. If every figure were announced for the year in advance, the random cost bump may end up making something, some detail, some accessory suddenly unaffordable. Hmmm, hasn’t that happened already? 🙂
I won’t restart my rant about Mattel should just get costs under control by bringing the manufacturing back to the USA, but you know… 🙂
Sounds depressingly credible, Steve, but I’d like to counter with a couple of things:
Firstly, there’s always the “Schedule may change” thing they’ve been using for years that they could hide behind.
Secondly, bringing the manufacturing to the States would mean each standard figure would be something like $150. They did a study recently of iPads, and figured that if the manufacturing were brought to the UK, to recoup the cost of wages, union appeasement, materials shipping, and so forth, an iPad in Britain would cost over £8,000.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t, eh? };D
Beedo, I’ve seen reports like that for years. “We can’t do it because”. But it’s all based on various assumptions that just may not hold.
It may well cost so much that a ‘made in England’ iPad would retail for £8000, but that’s after needing to build a manufacturing facility up to the standards needed and so on. But see, you don’t JUST make iPads when you have that! It’s an INVESTEMENT. Make iPhones and iPods and Macs and lease manufacture time to OTHER companies
Same with making action figures in the US. Pick a state other than California with a favorable tax and business environment. Build the factory. Drag the tooling from China (I bet they couldn’t do that, not allowed by China. Just like so much money has to stay in the country. I never hear about the plans to sell He-Man to Chinese kids.) and start making toys. It’s possible. it’s really possible. (comments that may lean into political rants self deleted) But the thing is, somebody has to TRY. It’s a matter of will. I think back to the birth of GI Joe. The owner of Hasbro didn’t want to do it. Just could not see ‘dolls for boys’ really being anything he could sell to Sears and all the hundreds of other accounts. But he was CONVINCED to give it a shot because it was a more simple time and a handful of people excited by the potential of a concept pushed and pushed and never gave up. I think it’s safe to say without the massive success of GI Joe Hasbro would still be selling nothing but vinyl heatsealed over cardboard products.
Look at the history of all key toys. I think most all could be called the result of a company saying “Hell yeah, let’s make it” and NEVER, EVER a company whose first words are “we really can’t…”
But as I’ve said before, I’m crazy. 🙂
The problem, Steve, is fighting corporate inertia. Forget that MOTU once outsold Barbie. Forget that their stock almost constantly sells out. Forget expanding into new markets. Or advertising. Or any further expenditure that might “grow the brand.” Very few businesses want to try anything new or different, which is why everything form the 1980s is making a comeback, and food is so monotonous. (I can get chicken Caesar wraps anywhere, Marks & Spencer, bring back your Cajun chicken pizzatilla!) Don’t get me wrong, I’d really, really like for someone to do exactly as you say and prove you right and me wrong. But I don’t hold out a lot of hope. Tell you what, though, if I ever come into buttloads of money, this is exactly the kind of project I would love to take up.
Also, I believe the £8,000 figure for the British-made iPad didn’t include the cost of building a factory, because we have many unused ones over here. Heck, the telecoms place I used to work just down the road would suffice. Already tool’d up for manufacturing high-grade electronics. And then they started firing people left, right, and center before closing down.
This may sound kind of obvious to any thinking person, but I think most people forget that Mattel isn’t in the business of making toys. They are in the business of making money. What “makes sense” to most commoners doesn’t really jive with any business sense.
Most people think “hey, if Mattel made a bazillion Horde Troopers they’d be giving themselves license to print money” — which to be truthful seems to make a lot of sense, but that doesn’t jive in the business world. Everything is about gain and loss and there are acceptable margains of loss which a company can factor in. If they produced 5,000 Horde Troopers 2-packs and sold all 5,000 that is a WIN! If they produced 10,000 Horde Trooprs 2-packs but only sold 8,000 could be seen as a loss. Then they have excess stock which they have to either pay to store or then sell off to Big Lots to recoup.
I honestly think that 10,000 more sets of Horde Troopers WOULD sell, and sell out within a month. You only have to search for images of Horde Troopers online to see people with 100+ armies of the Vintage HTs. I would personally buy enough to put those slackers to shame, and I’m sure there are lots of others thinking the same thing.
Horde Trooper mini-sub. It just. Makes. Sense. Look at the monkey! };D
I’m not convinced there are enough people who would buy hundreds of troops to balance out the few, like myself, that may only want a handful. I’ve never been a big “army builder” — but I think it would be nice to have at least 4-6 individual troops.
If they were to do a sub they should make the actual nubmer of figures you’re on the hook for very low, like six figures (either individually or sold as 3 two-packs) — and then if anyone did want more they could buy multiple subscriptions (don’t put a cap on how many subs you can buy!).
Well, I was thinking of something like a 6-month thing, like with the other mini-subs. One 2-Pack per month, five standard Trooper 2-Packs, and one Marine Trooper 2-Pack (or something like that, maybe 4-2, I dunno).
Or you could do a Grayskull-type option, where you could order as many 2-Packs as you wanted (allow plenty of time to save up!), and they could set a thermometer goal. It gets reached, we get our armies. It doesn’t, at least we tried, no money wasted in actual production.
And the thing is, though, I see no reason why a second straight-up production run wouldn’t work. If their “largest ever” run of these Troopers sold out in 10 minutes the first time, why couldn’t they sell out again? Even if it took a week or two, it’d still be a win for everyone.
But, of course, nobody will release any data on the subject, or even try to gather new data (such as polling the customers) to see if it would work or not.
Sigh.
Since unlike every other company Mattel doesn’t discount for buying multiples I’d do a single-carded HT pre-order. And no silly laser blasts that look like fingerpaint smudges. Just a nice clean trooper. And give us some better shading so it doesn’t look so toy-y. Charge $30 a fig if you have to. If people are serious about army builders they’ll pay it. I’m no crazy troop builder but even I myself have an extra sealed 2-pack that I’d “trade in” for two better clean versions of. Never opened the second set after I was slightly meh on the one I did.
Battle damage decals.
could be vinyl stickers (as would have been back in the ’80s), could be water-slide transfers, could be rub-down transfers. Or all three. Could also include stencils (using the backing card?) for those that want to paint.
But of course that makes so much sense it isn’t even worth suggesting it as it can never, ever EVER happen. 🙂
All I really got from that is he used a hell of a lot of words to bring up a price increase for next year.
Pretty flowery language for what amounts to begging, LOL!
I’m in this until the end, and if that takes it past 2015, I’m all for it! I love the brand, the characters, and the mythos, and in the end, Digital River and MattyCollector are just annoyances on the road to getting myself a sweet collection, the likes of which I could only dream about when I was a kid.
Damn skippy I’m going to sub up. I hope enough people are dedicated enough to do so to keep us going! Hell, it comes down to it, I’ll make another begging photocomic.
You’re a good man, Charlie Brown.
OK, here’s the thing that makes me crazy. The Line doesn’t HAVE to end. It doesn’t. There’s no reason whatsoever that says it has to end. Other than the ‘industry common practice’ that a line has a 3-year lifespan.
There is a fanbase, a dedicated fanbase. Clearly there’s movement on the secondary market (because for some reason Mattel cares a WHOLE HELLA LOT about that) and like ANY toy line there are figures that are more popular than others but it seems to me that without question they can still sell 5000 of WHATEVER they put out (which again seems to be one of those ‘industry common practice’ things).
MOTU is a Mattel generated and owned property, like Barbie, like Hot Wheels. They could kill off the sub and still whip out a couple figures a year for Mattycollector and maybe SDCC and NYCC. Without the structure of the sub ‘holding them back’ maybe even make a few more vehicles/beasts for all those who have the figures they want. Even, *gasp*, re-pop figures.
I am shocked they didn’t throw MOTU as a subset of Imaginext. THIS MAKES SO MUCH SENSE TO DO!!!!! I am really surprised we don’t have a ‘He-Man and She-Ra’ Barbie and Ken (altho that would be such comedy…). There are ways to keep a brand alive and vital.
But, seems not. Mattel can’t get a movie made so FU to MOTUC.
Maybe Scott can transition to running the super-hot Maxx Steel line…oh, wait, is that dead already? Oops. :devil:
rargh.
Wow, I can’t remember the time I saw such a pathetic instance of on-knees begging for money disguised as bullshit marketing babble. “Not the time to bail, guys!! Keep giving us money!”
Wow.
Given they somehow screwed up my sub order’s shipping and changed it from the UPS shipping I used for the last two years to the Cornerstore Logistics or whatever its called, I’m already not too happy with the start of this new year’s subs.
Also, looking at the previous years, the begging and pleading only goes so far before it gets annoying. You don’t see this much ‘give us money please’ even out of public television when they beg.
You know though that when begging doesn’t work, it turns to threats. “You will never get MOTUC stuff like this ever again! Buy a sub or it’s over!”
Just look at the DC sub and how things worked there.
I’m only in it for the POP figures and would happily sign up for a six figure POP sub, but Matty insist on this you must buy 8 figures you don’t really want for the 3 you do. At the end of the day I’m not in a position to do this, but as Scott say’s I’m not the sort of customer they want, so screw me.
By my reckoning we have 10 POP figures from the vintage line left (No counting variants and beasts) Angella, Double Trouble, Entrapta, Flutterina, Glimmer, Mermista, Peekablue, Perfuma, Spinnerella and Sweet Bee. Of those we have 2 coming in 2014 so maybe a 2015 subscription would be worth my while cause if we are to believe Scott 2015 is going to be a hell of a lot of POP.
Another trick I think they are missing is POP horses in the original line there were 8 of them that were all just repaints or a few were cast in translucent coloured plastic with minimal paint ops. As the horse is already tooled I don’t see how they could fail doing small runs of these.
I don’t see why they can’t do that either — I would happily sign up for a six figure NA sub. Of those POP figures you listed the only ones I really want/need are Angella and Glimmer. I’m very surprised they haven’t done anything w/ Swiftwind, giving us Catra’s ride.
I’m all for a PoP sub as long as that meant them staying out of the main sub. That was a chief complaint (very justified) about Plundor: what the hell was the point of the Filmation sub if they were still clogging up the main line? Yeah yeah yeah, Plundor was already put in motion to be in the sub before Filmation sub plans were made, whatever. Scott blew that one by admitting Plundor was a fave of his. Info enough right there to explain almost every blunder this line has seen. 🙂
Yeah… what are you gonna do though?
Historically, they’ve ended the year off pretty strong: Randor, Buzz-Off, Demo-Man, Mosquitor — and now Plundor. Very odd.
What I’ll do is what I see others doing: selling the PoP figs at a loss on the secondary market.
Unless someone is gonna argue again how Glimmer’s skirt is such a deal-breaker, the logical conclusion is that she’s just not that compelling as an action figure.
At this point, in my mind at least, there are two majority collectors of MOTUC — First are collectors who want this line to go on for as long as it can go, giving us the entire vintage lineup, Filmation characters, prototypes, minicomics, etc. and would gladly sub every year. There is another side which is really looking for an exit strategy. They want the vintage lineup but pretty much after that they’re pretty much tapped out emotionally and financially with this line.
Of course there are miniorities who specifically want POP figures, NA figures, or Minicomics figures too — Personally I’m falling in the category where I want an exit strategy. I would love to see this line continue, occasionally picking up a new release, but I’m at a point where I’ve had enough adn I’m essentially looking for an exit strategy where I can be happy with what I have.
The decision of whether or not to sub for the last two years has been pretty tough. Ultimately I think Ram-Man last year and Two-Bad this year were the biggest selling points. It’s a huge financial commitment and despite the awesome protos they show us at ToyFair, SDCC, PowerCon, and NYCC, we never truly know whats going to show up at the doorstep.
I’m not an exit strategy guy through and through. If I could name the characters, I could design a MOTUC line that would go on for years to come.
I’m only thinking exit strategy because of how many hoops we’ve been made to jump through, and how the collective fan trust in Mattel is at an all time low. But it’s not because I WANT to stop buying the line itself. They’ve crafted a masterful “damned if you do…” scenario.
Heck, the list of characters I would buy would keep this line going for another five years, at least, perhaps seven. (I’ll have to do another tally, soon.)
Just give me a Captain Randor to display with Keldor, Mattel.
Well, speaking as someone whose personal finances (largely informed by an abiding passion for Star Wars, Marvel Universe and G.I. Joe) have restricted me from participating in the subscription system – and whose tiny MOTU Classics collection represents the involuntary helplessness of an old school, 33 yr old MOTU fan lapsing into nostalgia from time to time… I for one am looking forward to the end of the line.
The figures are just too damn expensive.
I don’t mean to be bitter and it is not just sour grapes talking, but obviously the I.P. that is He-Man and the Masters of the Universe won’t lay dormant forever and whatever the next iteration of this property will be, it will surely be quickened by the demise of MOTU Classics…
I realize I am probably in the minority, but even if in a couple of years I am picking up 3.75 inch scale figs with decent articulation based on the inevitable movie treatment of The Masters of the Universe, I’ll be happy to be hunting them off pegs at TRU and Target rather than being on the outside looking in on a subscription service that is simply not tenable for fans on a budget.