Mattel dropped a lot of news yesterday, some good, some bad. (Text after the jump.)
Hey Toy Fans,
They say when it rains, it pours, and they ain’t kidding. We’ve had so much news in the last week on our 2/15 sale, we’re just going to roll it all into one big story. So here’s what’s up…
February 15th Sale is Moving to Tuesday, February 16th
Turns out we were misinformed when we posted on Facebook that our sale would be staying on Monday, February 15th. Our customer service team does indeed have the day off (although a skeleton crew will be available) and because we have so many hotly anticipated items going on sale, we’ve decided it’s better to push the sale to Tuesday, February 16th to ensure we have the support we need for a smooth sale.SUBSCRIBERS, PLEASE NOTE: Your standard monthly “renewal†notice will still be automatically sent on February 15th, but all orders will begin shipping on February 16th (including subscriptions).
Wun-Darâ„¢ Shipping April 15th
Even the Power of Grayskull™ can’t save our shipping conundrum… we just found out we’re not going have our full quota of Wun-Dar™ figures in time to ship with the 2/16 sale items. Rather than split shipments so some subscribers get him in February and some in April, we’re going to hold all Wun-Dar™ figures and the Eternia® maps for mid-April shipment with Evil-Lyn®. Rest assured, although it’ll be a little later than we thought, your subscribers-only Wun-Dar™ and Eternia® map are coming!Battle Cat® Shipping Costs
Many fans have asked if it will cost more to ship Battle Cat® because he’s bigger and heavier than other figures, and the answer is yes. Our standard figures weigh about one pound, while the beefy Battle Cat® tips the scale at over two pounds. The additional cost for shipping will depend on where it’s shipped and the shipping method. When you purchase him, you’ll see the actual charge in your cart before the final check out.Subscribers-Only Savings on Battle Cat®
Along with the guarantee of getting every main MOTU character each month, and the exclusive Wun-Dar™ figure and map of Eternia™ coming in April, we promised some cool stuff when we offered our 2010 Club Eternia™ subscriptions. Subscribers, keep an eye on your inbox, because we’re going to send you an exclusive coupon code good for $8 off Battle Cat®! Just enter your code at checkout and $8 will automatically be deducted from your total order as long as there’s at least one Battle Cat® in your cart. (Please note: each subscriber will receive ONE coupon good for a total of $8 off, regardless of the number of subscriptions you have or the number of Battle Cat® figures you purchase.)Okay, that’s enough news for now! Oh wait, one last thing… we launched our Fan Forums this week, so come meet your fellow toy collectors and talk toys!
—Matty
The coupon for subscribers is a great bonus and is much appreciated, but it does raise a question: I’m ordering a Battle Cat for myself and also for a friend who has a subscription, but I always order his bonus stuff for him, so…can I apply both my sub coupon and his sub coupon to the same order? The answer should be yes, but it’s Mattel and Digital River, so you never know. So I’ve already put in a question about it.
The Wun-Dar news is a bummer, but seeing as how I’d always figured I’d see Wun-Dar in March–and I’m also not that excited about the figure–I can live with it. It’s much better than the clusterflock that halving the orders would have been.
Finally: the sale is a day later. I work Tuesday-Saturday so I was pleased with the Monday sale date, but alas, I’ll simply have to have my lunch break at noon on the 16th and pray it doesn’t take more than an hour to get the order through…
J.Adrian728
I think the Battle Cat coupon is an awesome idea… subscribers basically get to pay the same price for him as any other figure we purchase ( well, after shipping cost anyway ) Very cool!
Though I'm pretty sure that in order for you to use two, like in poe's case, you'd have to log into two separate accounts. The discount codes will be linked through our account names and won't allow you to use more than one code, or the same code more than once. All's fair in toys and discounts I suppose.
I'm not bothered by Wun-Dar's late arrival. He's not exactly on the top of my wish list and like poe, I was expecting him in March anyway:)
DankOne
The BC Coupon is awesome! Perks are good!
PrfktTear
I had the same thought about using the extra sub coupon on the order. I certainly should hope so, but yeah, knowing Mattel and DR, its a crap shoot.
I was looking forward to getting Wun-Dar early, but I always thought it was coming out in March anyways, so having to wait an extra month isn't going to be a big stretch. I think they were wise to hold off, if they can't ship them all at once, then don't ship them at all.
Thomas B
I really look at the coupon alleviating the shipping of. Onus figs more than anything. If you look at it as 8 off your shipping rather than 8 off the figure itself ift makes more sense.
I guess I don't see it as fair if you could use two separate codes in an order as much as I'd like to have it be so
Heli
That $8 discount almost makes up for the extra shipping subscribers had to pay in January if they wanted BA He-Man! What a bonus!
PrfktTear
So offering those who did subscribe incentives/rewards is punishing those who didn't? I don't see how that works. That said, I do not like their shift in the business model from individual orders to subs.
Considering I was expecting Battle Cat to cost at least $50, $35 is already a deep discount.
Griffin
As someone who did not subscribe, I’m a little annoyed by the coupon, which feels like I’m being punished for not subscribing since there was no foreknowledge of this. Did Mattel say that discounts on bonus figures were a possibility? I also feel like the business model shift from individual orders to subscription has swept the rug out from under me a bit. I still won’t subscribe because i’m not paying $28 for a figure I don’t wont to save $8 on a figure I do.
Poe
@PrfktTear: There’s a good chance the coupon is tied to individual account numbers, so I suspect I won’t be able to use them. Which means you’d probably have to pay full price for your Battle Cat unless you could order it yourself.
But we’ll see–I’m sure Mattel will answer this question beforehand.
@Griffin: I can’t remember for sure, but I want to say Mattel did mention discounts as one of the possible benefits of subscribing.
Poe
I got a reply to my question–it's one coupon per order, as I suspected.
Griffin
@PrfktTear: I'll admit that I'm having a little sour grapes, but this discount is clearly aimed at getting those who don't subscribe to subscribe, and keeping those who already subscribe doing so. What I'm more upset about is that I feel like this wasn't a part of the original deal of the subscription, and that Mattel is saying to me, "See you should have subscribed." If Poe is right, and Mattel did say discounts might be available then I have less to stand on, but I don't recall.
Scott
@Poe:
Actually, I'm not sure he was really answering your question. His answer was basically saying: "No you can't, because you'll only have 1 code so there's nothing to combine." In your case that's not true.
You probably won't know for sure until you try.
Thomas B
@Griffin:
they did mention that other things such as discounts or special offers could be given to subscribers.
i'm not sure why people are mad about saving ONLY 8 bucks. it is better than 0 which they could have done.
if i buy 1 or 2 figures shipping is 8.70.
if i buy 10 my shipping is still only about 16 bucks. each figure is about 1 lb. BC is about 2 lbs or equal to about 2 figures.
i bet my shipping for my BCs come to about what i'd pay to ship 4 figures which is about 10-11 bucks.
so basically i am paying the same as if i bought TJ&BC together like non sub people. we are all even. how are people MAD?? are they mad cause they want him CHEAPER than non sub people?
poe- no offense to yourself and wanting to use 2 codes but by buying your friend's BC you both are still getting the same deal everyone else is. i am not sure if you were mad about this or if the question was just one of curiosity.
again- if i am wrong and shipping for BC is CRAZY high then you can all rake me over the coals. i still feel 8 bucks is prob what i'd have been charged extra had i bought all the BC/TJ together rather than split like the sub people have to do.
we are all even. be happy people. no one is being unjustly enriched more than another.
clark
I was pretty upset about the sale date, I am in class all day Tuesday, there is a slim chance that I can sit in the back row with my laptop, but the wifi on campus is not that great.
Kid Nicky
I always post something negative about the way they've handled this line,and I usually bash Mattel at every opportunity,but Griffin,they definately did make at least a vague statement about additional benefits to subscribers to be revealed later.
PrfktTear
@Thomas B: Poe was mostly asking for my benefit, not himself. I am the friend who he is ordering for, though I'm sure there are others who may double up on ordering to save money on shipping or for other circumstances, such as myself who has no way of ordering from work. So basically he's in like Flynn, if there's a chance my sub coupon code works, great, if not, its no big deal. Any savings that could be made would just go to s&h.
@Griffin: I can fully understand being a little miffed, but that said, I still don't find anything wrong with Mattel "showing their appreciation" to fans who took a leap last summer and bought a sub. Though at that point the line was well on to being a hit, from what they had to say in the State of MOTUC address, things were pretty shaky up through Hordak/Man-At-Arms, so at any time they could have pulled the plug on the line and that would have been it.
Andrew
I am disappointed about having to wait Longer for Wundar, but that's just life.
The thing to remember about the Battle-Cat coupon is that subscribers are no more guaranteed to get these figures than anyone else – most of the time I'm not around when these sales starts because of work. It's a nice gestures to subscribers, but you know, it's not as if it punishes non-subscribers or anything. Considering how quickly Adora sold out, I probably won't even get to use mine.
Mark
I am confused, surely if you subscribe should that not entitle you to the figure?
Dan C.
Push it up one month, and back 2 months. Par for the course considering Matty.
Matty's also nice to his employees with the holiday that should already be observed anyway. Tell me this, do their factory workers in China get February 15th off too?
J.Adrian728
@PrfktTear:
I think your best bet would be to have poe log into your account on matty to use your discount code. I don't know how close ya'll are, so maybe you're not comfortable with that but in my retail/discount experience that'd be the only way to use both your discounts.
Poe
@Dan C.: Actually they get the whole month off.