Spotted Online – Mattel Continues to Do What They Do Best
Namely, frustrate fans and customers. As always, Poe Ghostal has the story, but the basic idea is that Mattel’s subscription service for Masters of the Universe Classics doesn’t include the bonus figures for 2010 because the bonus figures are (in their words):
“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.”
I’m sorry, but the excuse is lame. The bonus figures look to me to be little more than a chance for Mattel to send subscribers back to the ever-sorry Matty Collector website where you can enjoy the excitement of waiting for the server to actually do anything besides show you an overloaded message.
It is unfortunate that another toy company doesn’t own the brand because Mattel only makes me less and less interested in the entire line. Everything they do does not inspire me with confidence.
Phil, what would be your ideal solution to the He-Man question?
If the bonus figures include three re-releases of previous figures that you already have, would you get them just to have one subscription package and not go to the Matty site?
It seems to me that, from reading the comments on Poe’s site and other places, that the main issue comes from people picking and choosing what figures they want. “I’m going to skip Green Goddess because…” But how do you do a subscription with exclusions? Some of the re-releases might be something that the subscriber would want – the V1 He-Man with fixed paint and arms, perhaps, or Skeletor V1 with fixed hands – and if they are excluded from the subscription, then THOSE people are mad.
(I excluded the shipping discussion because I understand why they can’t combine orders from a technical point of view. We just have to face facts that the figures are $28 each.)