Digital River on Mattycollector: We have “heard you loud and clear”

August 3, 2012 | Poe

OK, I said I wouldn’t talk about the sub anymore unless there was news. Well, there is – and it’s a surprisingly direct address of the problem I mentioned in my editorial earlier this week (definitely not saying I had anything to do with this, but at least they seem to be aware of the problem).

Please Read: A special message about your MattyCollector.com experience from Digital River

Dear MattyCollector.com Customers,

The Digital River Team has heard you loud and clear and we would like to openly address the feedback that you have provided regarding your experience on MattyCollector.com.

We realize that there have been some challenges. And we want you to know that we are fully committed to providing you not only with an easier and simpler way to manage your subscriptions to our clubs, but also an improved customer service experience.  The good news is that we have already taken steps in this direction, and are planning on making even more enhancements in the coming months. Here’s how…

Read the rest after the jump. (more…)

Doc Thomas Reviews > Horde Prime (Masters of the Universe Classics, Mattel)

August 3, 2012 | Doc Thomas

Oh, pardon me, I’m supposed to be fighting Flash Gordon.

Originally with Masters of the Universe Classics I was not intending on being a line completist. There was no reason to: with the poor Australian-to-American dollar conversion rate, and the difficulty in buying ordinary characters who sold out within minutes (grrrrrrrr) there was no point trying to be an obsessive. Fortunately, as the Australian dollar improved, MattyCollector picked up their game and made it possible to acquire any of the toys I wanted. My personal philosophy when it comes to collecting toys is that collectors should have the toys they want available to them, and at a fair price – exclusivity rarely makes things better for collectors, which is why I was frustrated when MattyCollector made Shadow Weaver the exclusive subscription figure for this year. (more…)

MOTUC & DC Sub Press Pics

August 2, 2012 | Poe

OK, I said I wasn’t going to write about the subs anymore and I’m not, but I thought some of you – the ones who never visit any other sites, anyway – might appreciate a look at the press pics Mattel issued yesterday. The text beneath each one is from Mattel.

Club Eternia 2013

Our next POP figure will hopefully be Netossa, one of the hardest of the vintage figs to track down! She comes with a net/cape and her shield! If the sub happens she will be the Jan monthly figure. (more…)

Sightings > The Hero Project

August 2, 2012 | Poe

In theory, I could probably write a Sightings post about a Kickstarter campaign for a toy every day of the year. That said, if one goes out of their way to contact me and has a product that looks pretty good, I’ll pass the word along.

The Hero Project is an attempt to create a toy line that captures the essence of heroes. The project’s founders believe “action figures play an important role in children’s social development. They are pathways for kids to act out their fantasies, to work out for themselves the differences between right and wrong and to push at the boundaries of their blossoming imaginations.”

The line will start with Rama. As you may recall, there have been Rama figures in the past (as well as his monkey buddy Hanuman), but the idea is for the “Unibody” format to be used for multiple heroes throughout history:

The goal for the line is $125,000 – very high for one of these projects, but as they explain on the page, “steel molds used to reproduce a figure are expensive and that expense grows exponentially with scale, complexity and quality. A small and simple Pokemon item may cost $5000 to make a mold, $15,000 for Batman or Ninja Turtles figure, and upwards of $30K for most larger scale figures. Ordering a sizable batch of large, multi-part figures is costly and like most people we know, neither of us has an extra large bundle of C-notes sitting around to front the capital.”

As of right now they have only $21K with nine days to go. $21K isn’t bad at all, but it’s not anywhere near what they need. Still, I wanted to help spread the word – you never know what could get the snowball rolling down the hill.

Poe’s Point > Final Thoughts on Club Eternia 2013

August 2, 2012 | Poe

Until the sub period ends on August 6 or there’s some actual news to report, this post is going to represent a hiatus on my Club Eternia 2013 coverage, as this will officially flog the horse to paste.

I was intrigued by this comment Rustin Parr made a few days ago:

I’d argue too that the subscription is also at fault because it created a false perception of security and success to the Team and Mattel. Because the bulk of us had put in for everything we simply lost our ability to “vote with our dollars” and help guide the team on what kinds of figures and price points were actually desired and viable.

Obviously variations of this argument have been made over the years – often in discussions regarding Mattycollector offering pre-orders – but Rustin articulates it succinctly here. More than once, a figure was revealed that I probably would never have bought in a store for the same price. To its credit, this made MOTUC a wonderfully inclusive line; small subsets of the fandom got figures that a more traditional mass market release would never have gotten around to. But Rustin’s right: denied an ability to vote for specific characters with our dollars (and in fact, forced to subscribe before even knowing half the product we’d be paying for), we had virtually no control over character selection or price point – aside from whether or not we subscribed the following year.

This year, it seems, collectors are indeed voting with their dollars – and suddenly, they’re being listened to. (more…)