Phil’s Masters of the Universe Subscription Plan

Until August 7th you can hit Matty Collector and subscribe to the 2010 Masters of the Universe releases. Unfortunately, the subscription doesn’t get you everything scheduled for 2010 so even if you subscribe you’ll still have to deal with the pain of using the site.

In the comments section to my post of this morning about the subscriptions John K asked:

“Phil, what would be your ideal solution to the He-Man question?”

Well, I understand that it’s easy to criticize and difficult to solve a problem so I’m going to take a few minutes to outline what I would do if the subscription was my show.

1. All 2010 Masters of the Universe would be scheduled and announced the instant the subscription goes live. Subscribers would choose during the subscription registration exactly which figures they want, with each subscriber choosing at least one different figure each month (though subscribers would be allowed to select all of the releases for a month).
   
2. There would be one or two items ready as soon as the subscription is offered that each subscriber would automatically receive. Say an art book and a figure, each priced at $20, so the initial subscription cost would be $40 plus shipping.
   
3. Subscribers would be charged one month before a figure ships, and subscribers who selected multiple figures in a month would have their orders for that month combined and save on shipping.
   
4. People would be able to subscribe until May 1, 2010, with late subscribers receiving figures starting four months after the subscription date. So someone subscribing May 1 wouldn’t start receiving figures until September . . . but they would only pay for figures released between September and December (only one per month).
   
5. I would limit subscriptions to one per household.
   

To keep some excitement and mystery I would list two secret figures for the year – say July and November – that would be over and above the releases for those months. Subscribers would have to make a leap of faith when they subscribe; do you risk adding the mystery figures or do you pass? I would make one of the two a repaint – and make that clear by saying “Repaint” by the mystery figure’s slot — so people would have a tiny bit of info but not much.

Using this system everyone would choose up front which figures are part of their subscriptions and late-comers would be able to step in and pick up at least some of the 2010 subscription.

A monthly newsletter, mailed with each month’s order, would be icing where there would be sneak peeks, interviews, and the other stuff we all expect from clubs.

What I have proposed here isn’t perfect, but I think it would generate fewer complaints than the current system.