Does Matty Collector Need Kickstarter?
Mattel’s Matty Collector website, we now know, is not the success that it appears to be. Despite fast sell-outs of brand new Masters of the Universe Classics action figures we have been told that the line is in danger. I posted yesterday just a few words about this situation (post here), but as I watch the discussion at Poe Ghostal’s site — Mattel: Cherry Pickers Need Not Apply (& Could Ruin It for Everyone) and MOTUC 2013 Sub in Jeopardy? — it makes me think that Matty Collector may need to consider looking at Kickstarter as a way to determine demand for their lines and, specifically, individual action figures and toys for their various collector lines.
Kickstarter, for those of you unfamiliar with the site, is a crowdfunding tool where people — and companies! — can post projects and seek out funding from anyone and everyone. By setting goals, outlining the project, and offering various reward levels a project starter is making a promise that if a set goal is met then the project will become a reality. The reward levels are the things that backers will get if a project is successful. What is most important to this system is that if a goal is not met then none of the backers actually spend any money; Kickstarter only takes cash when a project successfully closes.
I think that this system would be an excellent choice for Mattel since it would allow them to:
- Judge interest in a new action figure before it even reaches prototype stage. Would a toy like Castle Grayskullman (mentioned here) have become a reality if concept art had been posted and Mattel had run a Kickstarter project to bring the toy to life? By offering individual action figures in this way then Mattel would only invest prototyping, tooling, and production costs into toys that enough fans wanted to make it worth the effort.
- Market the Masters of the Universe Classics line somewhere new. I promise you there are Kickstarter users who were kids in the eighties and who do not even know that the Masters of the Universe Classics line exists. By placing Masters of the Universe Classicsprojects on Kickstarter Mattel will tap into a crowd of potential new customers, possibly expanding their customer base and improving the chances of success. By running a project once every few months on Kickstarter they’ll keep the line in front of a bunch of Kickstarter users, many of which just aren’t toy collectors. Yet.
- Offload front end costs onto customers. Beyond the cost of concept art and running the Kickstarter project Mattel can have the line paid for by fans . . . and not the chance of payment but real payment upfront. I seriously doubt we would see delivery of action figures in less than eight months after a Kickstarter project closed, but by being upfront about schedules and keeping fans updated on each individual project I am sure a lot of people would be willing to use this method. It’s when a company takes your money and doesn’t communicate for many months — and keeps blowing promised deadlines without any communication — that fans get upset.
Basically, I am starting to think that not only does Mattel’s Matty Collector website need Kickstarter BUT that all fans would benefit from the approach. There would be fewer toys that not enough people want to make them worth Mattel’s time, fans would get more input in the direction of the line, and Mattel would take less of a financial risk on each action figure in the line.
And by going with an “every other month” schedule the entire line would become easier on fans to collect and may even lead to an overall increase in the number of fans who collect the complete line. And by using Kickstarter Mattel could offer special variants at higher reward levels — variant paint apps or bizarre clear plastic versions or even glows — which would get some fun variants out there without the need to force fans to attend a convention or pay ridiculous prices on eBay.
Mattel, please look at Kickstarter and consider using it as a way to keep the “adult collector” lines like Masters of the Universe Classics active and exciting for fans.
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I hear relatively positive things about the MOTUC line and I’ve had no luck picking up figures that I wanted to just give the line a try. I was in pre-contemplation about a subscription but all of the official statements make me want to steer clear. I would already be uncomfortable with buying something every month with shipping charges whether it is something I am interested in or not in addition to the 4-whatever-the-hell packs. Now I’m getting the message that wanting to be a “cherry picker” is wrong and than fans need to “step up.”
Kickstarter sounds like a much lovelier option.
I know they keep saying that can’t do pre-orders (their idea of a pre-order is a subscription) but a pre-order is exactly what they need to get the money upfront and satisfy ‘cherry pickers.’ I have no problem putting a pre-order down for a figure that looks cool, but I’m not willing to fork over $500 to collect ’em all, sight unseen. Seems like a lot of fans feel this way unfortunately. Just sucks there seems to be no middle ground: Buy them all or miss out entirely.
I would like to see Fisher Price take a shot at the MOTU license. An Imaginext line of MOTU vehicles and playsets would be pretty fun.
It’s a good idea. Too bad Mattel hates good ideas.