MattyCollector’s Subscription Practices and Line Viability

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Toycast and we are entering into the realm of

a special episode with Matty's fear -mongering

tactics. I am of course TFG1Mike. And joining

me is Mike Lacey from What the Shell, the best

Teenager Ninja Turtle podcast title ever that

he stole, and Masters Universe Chronicles. How

I've kind of met up with Mike online was through

Masters Chronicles, actually. I don't know how

we found each other on Twitter, but it was through

Masters Chronicles, it was through one of the

old Pop Culture Network posts or something like

that. And Mike is a Masters fan just as I am.

Say hello to the people. Hello, people! Yes.

Mike is a husband, a father, and a Masters in

the Universe lover and collector, and he is,

I think, the only person that I know that has

four subscriptions to the line. Masters in the

Universe classics. So before we go any further

than that, you want to explain exactly why you

have four subscriptions to Masters Classics?

It's because I'm a glutton for punishment, apparently.

We'll get into that. No, I have a seven year

old son. And basically what I do is I order two

for him and two for me, one for each of us to

open and one for each of us to keep mint on the

card. Not that they'll ever end up being worth

anything but basically the idea for him is that

he can take them out and he can you know mash

them up and play them you know play with them

together and beat them all up and get them just

ripped to shreds and then when he gets older

should he decide to become a collector he'll

have a fresh batch ready to go that he can just

open up and put on his shelves that are in you

know in good condition and not all paint worn

and chipped up and whatnot Yeah So okay, let's

let's break the fun, you know, and I you know,

I know you work very hard and you know You're

you know all this stuff and I'm sure obviously

you're earning enough money to be able to afford

obviously every everything else in your life

and These these four subscriptions, but let's

break it down four subscriptions that's That

is yeah roughly about 40 two forty four hundred

dollars yeah it comes to around five thousand

dollars a year with with all of their you know

quarterly variants and beasts and all the other

bullshit that they have going on yeah yeah um

that's nuts that's wow and apparently i'm nuts

as well so well you know i mean You know, let's

hear another. Now, you know, we all love the

line, you know, since 2008. Yes, there have been

tons of issues. And I don't understand this.

How can Mattel and Matty Collector and Digital

River, because the way I look at it is they are

three different companies. Mattel is the one

that, you know, licenses out. you know, for the

Four Horsemen to make these figures and, you

know, sometimes they do in -house sculpting which

never works. But they licensed it out to the

Four Horsemen and then mattycollector .com is

a separate division and then Digital River is

the third separate division which they, you know,

were the lowest bid. Since Masters Classic started,

It has been a very uphill climb and it's the

uphill climb is not over I mean, it's you know,

it's like walking to school in a snowstorm that

there's already, you know six feet of snow on

the ground and You just not gonna get to the

top of the hill to get to school uphill both

ways. Yeah, exactly Oh man and since comic -con

happened last week a couple weeks ago The 2013

subscriptions have been announced and Wow, that's

all I can say is a wow We knew that the that

the price hike was going to happen Okay, yeah,

here we go Just to run it down for everybody

and we ran this down in the team bottom s variety

our episode 24 when we weren't done again uh...

club attorney of details there's a lot of information

here so please read carefully before making your

purchase on mattycollector .com the twenty thirteen

membership subscription purchase period ends

on monday august sixth at eleven fifty nine pm

pacific standard time there will be no extensions

so get yours now i need to point this out It

when it says and after and then it says there

will be no extension So get yours now is in all

bold lettering It's not in all caps, but it's

in all bold see and that's different for them

because in previous years They've constantly

extended it and extended it and extended it until

they got the number that they were looking for

Exactly, and that's what makes me highly suspicious

of it because they're going I guarantee you if

DC doesn't doesn't do what it's supposed to do

or if heaven forbid watchmen doesn't do what

it's supposed to do why the fuck are they doing

a watchman line anyways anyways uh this i do

not believe i i refuse to believe this that there

will not be any extensions so get yours now i

don't believe that whatsoever because every time

in uh you know going into this year every time

that they wanted to get people to subscribe to

DC at the time when the Club Infinite Earths

was coming up for 2012. They're like, oh, we

haven't met our quota, so we're gonna extend

it. And we're not just gonna extend it for Club

Infinite Earths, we're gonna extend it for all

of our subscriptions. So I I don't believe that

at all that there is no extensions on this one.

I do not believe that No, I think that when August

5th comes around because because the deadline

is August 6 when August 5th comes around You're

gonna see you know Twitter posts and Facebook

posts that oh by the way, you know We're gonna

open it back up for another week or another two

weeks or whatever. It is exactly The total commitment

for 2013 is five hundred and five dollars plus

act little taxes and fees and shipping varies

depending on your location and shipping method

if you choose this includes 12 monthly figures

12 at $25 apiece equals $300 for beast slash

variance slash multi packs one each at 25 30

50 and $75 equaling out to $180 and a $25 membership

fee for the total of 505 plus shipping taxes

fees all that stuff My question is, what in the

hell beast, variant, or multipack can they put

out that is worth 75 fucking dollars? Unless,

the only thing I can think of, and I don't know

if this is true, this is just me speculating,

the only way I would pay 75 dollars for a multipack

is if it was a 10 pack of horde troopers. Well,

that's 75 pack is the is the fighting foeman

three. Yeah, that's that's right And that's just

three figures though, isn't it? It's three figures,

but I believe it's got like a shit ton of accessories

And that's the other thing and we'll get into

this here in a minute But um, what do you think

of the the pricing breakdowns? I don't have that

much of a problem with it. You know, it's only

a five dollar hike and Scott's released a couple

of videos over the past week or so and He even

mentions it in there and I kind of agree with

them that back in 2008 When they started this

line and it was a $20 price point, you know We

were you know at retail at Toys R Us if you went

to go buy a six inch figure You were probably

looking at you know, like $12 where now four

years later at 2012 you're looking at $20 at

retail So there was a bit of a markup back in

2008 to the $20 price point. So now Twenty five

dollars is is a little bit more than you're paying

at retail So it's not that much of a difference

as to when the line was introduced Right. I mean

all is I can say is and I'm not counting the

subscription. I'm actually gonna come I'm actually

an account the the day of which is $27 if you

take $27 and say you get the USPS shipping, which

I know is 870 That's $35 .70 for a regular figure.

And people tend to not really factor that in.

They always tend to give you that $25 or that

$27, and they never add in that extra between

$8 and $10, whatever shipping ends up going up,

if the shipping ends up being a little bit more

in 2013. Yes, you really don't look at it as

you're basically paying $35 for the failure Yeah

Obviously, you know it also includes these club

Exclusive King he man which is an older version

of him and I like that idea But Almost yeah,

I think besides besides the subscription figure

of King Heman and two other figures for 2013

There's only three figures I'm interested in

that are in 2013 and I don't mind cherry picking

them if I was still collecting the line Which

I'm not three figures I would like is obviously

the subscription of King Heman which you know

I'd have to pay outrageous eBay prices for whatever

There's no way King He -Man is going to go for

a hundred and something dollars like Shadow Weaver

is now. There's just no way. He might be popular,

but he ain't that damn popular. The only other

two I saw from the Matty Palooza thing that I

was even remotely interested in, and it kind

of just really gets my goat because I'm not collecting

the line anymore, is they finally put out Eternian

Randor. A randor that does not look like the

Burger King, thank God. Filmation randor, which

would go great with obviously Queen Marlena.

And Ram Man. Now, to me, we have... When I was

collecting the line we have we had been waiting

for two very specific heroes at that point in

you know 2011 in early bits of 2012 Which were

mackinac and which we're getting in 2012 and

ram man, which we're getting in 2013 now to me

Most people unless you're like count Marzo who

just bend over and let Maddie fuck you up the

ass To me, people are going to get Ramman and

are going to be like, OK, my heroes are complete.

I can just cherry pick the rest. Yeah, I agree

with that. I think that a lot of people were

waiting for those two specifically. And now they're

going to be able to dust off their hands and

say, I'm done with the line as a whole. You might

try and grab this figure or that figure. as far

as grabbing every single figure and the subscription

and all that, you know, and the like. Once people

have their Ram Man, I think they're gonna be,

a lot of people are gonna be done. And that's

why, and that's, you know, to their credit, and

a lot of people complained about it, that's why

they stretched it out so long. That's why you

didn't get all these guys, you know, when the

line started in 2008, you didn't have every main

character by the end of 2009. Oh, right. And

I agree with stretching it out. But I'm just

saying that I completely agree to stretch it

out because it makes the line go longer. You

get He -Man one year, or you get Battle Cat one

year is kind of like a major release. You find

a way to look at 2012. We've got some great figures

that are still coming out in 2012. We've got

some great figures that have come out in 2012.

But 2012 was catered around the fact that...

weaver was this up oh yeah absolutely and that

was the buildup and and that's you know i'd i'd

said this before i was like okay well they're

gonna do the same thing with mac and ram they're

gonna make them either subscription only or they're

going to make them each in their own year and

tailor the line around The fact that hey, you're

finally getting this figure the figure that you

really really want and that's that's just what

they've done Some new things to the subscription

this year new buy a sub get a vote all 2013 club

attorney and subscribers have the chance to vote

on a new 2013 fans choice figure For every subscription

you purchase you'll receive a code to cast your

vote for a figure to be produced in the fall

of 2013 Don't care Yeah, I mean look at look

at the selections the selections are or crash

landing Captain Glenn Yeah, Okan Dagger evil

in gel door mini comic trapjaw Illumina songster

camo con and the mask of power demon You've got

what's that one? To like six or well, it's like

six total choices But it's like like maybe two

or three that are that interesting, but you got

one two three Four repaints. Okay, so they're

not even new figures then you've got one two

Three that are from many comics. Mm -hmm, you

know that you know one from the power tour You

know the songster And then you've got Illumina,

which, you know, is a concept figure that was

basically something that Emiliano drew and threw

into, I think, like a pack -in poster back in

the 2002 MV Creations run of their comic line.

So there's nobody on there. For me, that's like

a, oh my god, I've got to have that figure. For

me, if I was going to, you know, have a choice,

there would probably be Geldor, just because

He's an original character. I don't want Know

this that this voting thing just to get another,

you know a variant Well see and that's the thing

with the whole voting thing is buy a sub get

a vote and I could be wrong I've seen so many

videos. I don't know I believe in one of pixel

dance videos Toy guru said, you know, if you

buy 50 subs you get 50 votes Who in their right?

Right fucking mind would buy 50 subscriptions.

I mean, okay And see this is what doesn't make

any sense to me with this buy a sub get a vote

thing You have third -party sellers like big

bad toy store who are going to buy 50 60 set,

you know, however many to keep their stock going

you know as a as a as a you know a third -party

online retailer you're gonna have these these

companies buying these subscriptions so how does

that affect the voting honestly how how is that

wall as we all know voting is written general

anything when and that's what i was about to

bring up this whole thing came about last year

where they gave uh... they gave him and dot org

one uh... the right to come up with like they

did their own Poll in their own vote and be were

able to come up with their own selection to go

into this mix And I think it was planet attorney

a DE a German site Also got one and then Mattel

got six Which comprises this eight? So, let's

see. They're throwing him in org one bone and

you know a European fan site one bone and then

they get six dogs in the fight you think that

they're really Do you really think that they

didn't have a predetermined? They know what figure

they're making Well, right ready, yeah, I mean

but that but see that doesn't Like I I just don't

see how that is a a Valid You know membership

benefit I honestly don't because of You know

sites like big bad toy store calm and I'm not

saying anything in anything against big bad toy

store calm I'm saying it against Mattel's and

Matty Collector's option of you buy a sub, you

get a vote. Because as I just said, sites like

Big Bad Toy Store will buy 50, 60, 70 subs to

have stock to be able to sell the figures individually

at $34 .99 or $54 .90, whatever the prices are

for the various figures. So the buy a sub, get

a vote thing to me is just, that's null and fucking

void. it doesn't make any sense to me at all

another new part of the uh... Excluded of the

subscription is club exclusive figure includes

two items this year's club exclusive figure is

King He -Man and for the first time he includes

both a map poster of Sub -Attorney and a mini

comic number for the MOTUC series Revealing the

secret origin of Skeletor Go back and watch the

NYP the beginning three -parter there. There's

your secret origin of Skeletor There you go right

there New also the final new part here is New

early access to non -subscription products in

2013 all club subscribers get early access to

non -subscription products regardless of brand

that means you'll have the chance to purchase

items that not available through the subscriptions

before non -subscribers like 2012's the Dark

Knight Rises 8 -inch Batman figure and the Ghostbusters

PKE meter prop replica availability is first

come first served So if products sell out to

subscribers during the early access period, that's

it. No additional product will be made available

to non -subscribers at that time. If you have

questions, click here below. or 2013 or any of

the future subs are going to be out of stock

permanently because look at stuff like Cyber

Monday, Mad Maddy Monday, all this stuff where

they hold over stock. They just do. It's all

it's all a ploy to give you a false representation.

Right. Yes. It's a false representation of of

being a hot seller. Yeah. And the whole thing

of, I don't know if you want to. All right, so

with the price hike, let me just ask you this.

Are you going to be buying four subs for 2013?

No, I won't. OK. I'm cutting my subs in half

to two. OK. Thank god we didn't have to beat

some sense into it. All right, so now that that's

out of the way, just before we started recording

this, PixelDan posted on, or I actually saw it

on Facebook where he shared a link, but... to

the he man dot org website where the horseman

have uh... for horseman who sculpts most of the

master stuff have replied to the subscription

stuff that we want to read this whole thing does

is pretty long as of you if you want to read

this are quick to do we just want to hit on bullet

points here it's probably better just just to

hit on the bullet points yeah uh... well start

shooting Basically what the four horsemen are

saying here is that Apparently around the internet

the the the notion is that Mattel and toy guru

are basically using scare tactics To get people

to subscribe to the 2013 subscription. We heard

last year Scott come out and say oh well the

2012 subscription is the lowest totals since

the line started and Now it seems like this,

you know people aren't exactly flocking in to

grab this 2013 subscription now whether it's

because of the price hike or whether it's because

That price hike in tow for international fans

is going to start causing customs fees basically

because apparently from From the gist that I

get the European fans anything over $20 in value

They'll start getting a custom fee on now up

to this point all the figures were a $20 figure

So they were really only getting hit with customs

on oversized figures and beasts and stuff like

this But now if it's a $25 figure, they're gonna

start getting hit with customs On just a single

figure. Yeah, so not only they getting the regular

price hike. They're getting a price hike in shipping

alone And then they're going to incur customs.

So, you know, that $25 figure is now going to

turn into a $50 figure for just one. So right

there, you're getting a lot of international

customers that are not coming back. They're the

ones that are going to go to BPTS. They're the

ones that are going to go to eBay. And even if

they have to overpay, they're probably going

to get it less than they would have gotten it

from Maticollector. So right there, they shot

themselves in the foot. Maticollector shot themselves

in the foot by alienating that part of the fan

base. So, you know, that kind of seems to be

the feeling around the internet is that Maddie

is, you know, might not necessarily be as in

dire straits as they're saying, but they're trying

to come across as though, you know, hey, they're

basically telling us that if we don't subscribe,

there may not be a line. And here the Four Horsemen

are basically... Coming here and they actually

say Mattel's never reach out to us for our assistance

about anything of this nature in the past in

this case They have so we know that this is serious

and we're hunting and we're 100 % confident that

everything you've heard described by them is

absolutely true so Maybe they actually are in

trouble to me my my wondering is Are the four

have the four horsemen gotten notice is there

a possibility? that if these subscriptions don't

go through or they're not in big numbers as Mattel

wants, is there going to be a decision made by

management that, hey, the Four Horsemen are too

expensive to continue to employ for this line?

Is there going to be a point in time where they

tell the Four Horsemen, OK, we don't need you

on Masters anymore. We're going to use in -house

sculptors for Masters. That's really gonna drive

people away Exactly So seeing the four horsemen

actually post, you know, make this post on I

guess it was on Facebook that Maybe they are

in as bad a shape as they're saying, which completely

contradicts everything that Scott said over the

last year, year and a half. Even last year when

he said that the subs were at the lowest total

since its inception, they said that they were

way over the minimum. the line is healthy and

you know you don't have to worry about it and

this line is going through 2016 in fact when

they got their filmation rights last year at

San Diego Comic -Con they said now we can add

more time to the line you know I'm sorry to cut

you off but this thing that pisses me off about

this whole filmations rights thing which someone

said or something was said after that happened

that They found, I think it was Scott, I could

be wrong. I don't remember who the hell said

it. Someone said online, I either read it or

saw it in a video, that turns out, as long as

Mattel made a figure of a character beforehand,

whether it was filmation design or not, they

had rights to that figure. Rights to make that

figure or whatever else. Hence why Catra looks

the way she does. Catra was made before they

got filmations right, you know. That's what...

I still think the Filmation's rights thing is

just one of those things where it was in name

only. Well, yes and no. They did not have rights

to, say, Shadow Weaver. because there was never

a figure of her before, so she was completely

off the table. She was a figure, or she was a

character that was created completely for that

show by Filmation. So there was no way that without

Filmation rights, that you were ever gonna get

that figure. Same thing goes for like, like Shikodi

and Mask, which are two figures, you know, from

one of the, you know, the best two -parters of

that original Filmation run. You would have never

gotten those kind of figures. without obtaining

those rights. Same thing with, like, Granamir.

Oh, no, yeah, no, I understand why that they,

you know, had to acquire the Filmation rights,

but at the same time, like, it didn't make any

sense to me of why they were making such a big

deal out of it outside of what you just said.

I mean, you know, because they could have made

a non -Burger King version of Randor beforehand.

You know um, but but yeah, there's you know,

there's that and We honestly they haven't done

anything with the filmation rights since they

got them Yeah, I mean yes, we got you know swift

wind in the correct color scheme Yeah, we got

it with freaking backwards legs You know two

rights or two lefts, but at least it was colored,

right? It wasn't pink like the original toy version

with you know, you know That being you know here

nor there, but um, we haven't gotten other than

Shadow Weaver We really haven't gotten any original

filmation characters yet We got we're getting

the filmation randor now, but it's not you know

We haven't gotten you know like I mentioned either

mask or shakodi. We haven't gotten no seahawk

or we haven't gotten imp or you know any you

know even a Basically all we've gotten so far

is I know variations. You know basically variants

is what we're getting with with Filmation rights

so far. Okay, this is the one thing in the Four

Horsemen response that I just don't... To me,

it doesn't make any sense, because I set aside

certain things when it comes to Mattel, but part

of it says, as beloved as Master's Enormous Classics

is, monetarily it is a barely a blip on Mattel's

Enormous Radar. OK. Not counting Barbie and Hot

Wheels, what else does Mattel have that they

majorly advertise? Monster High. OK. So to collectors

that are male that don't collect girl toys, what

do they have? That would appeal to us as collectors.

They have masters they have DC universe classics

they have the universe and then movie masters

that are garbage right right right the movie

masters You know, I like a lot of the cars stuff

that they put out You know, they did have the

Voltron line, which obviously will Apparently

not, you know club line is not coming back for

2013 They did have the Ghostbusters line, but

they couldn't get around being able to do anything

with it outside of repaints. Repaints, Jesus

Christ. They could have figured out a way to

do the real Ghostbusters, but anyway. To me,

Masters is Mattel, Matty Collectors. Bread and

butter. It's their big boy property. I understand

That it's been going out of the mainstream consciousness

for for quite a while. Yeah, but back in the

80s, you know There you know if you if you read

the the power and honor foundations catalog It

basically told you that it was right there back

in the you know in the early to mid 80s It was

right there bringing in Barbie numbers Yeah,

I mean it had a five -year run But I mean Barbie

is is a completely different animal Yeah, and

that and that's why it's not that I don't acknowledge

Barbie. It's that I don't can like Barbie Hot

Wheels and Monster High those are all separate

because Well Barbie and Hot Wheels for one are

in stores. You can get them. You know when you

go to any Walmart Target, you know Big lots what

whatever you can find Barbies and Hot Wheels

everywhere exactly Hot Wheels are a dollar. Yes

Unless you're buying the Masters Hot Wheels and

they're $5. Yeah You know, I mean so so I don't

count that as Part of this online stuff. So I

don't see how they can make that statement of

that monetarily Masters is a small blip on Mattel's

radar at all see for me. You would think that

just for sheer history alone That he man would

get you know a little bit more respect than it

gets from Mattel And we've heard Scott say this

over and over again He basically uses it to talk

down to us a lot of times when basically he says

you know You know, we don't make any money on

this line. This line is basically just something

that they've given me to, you know, to appease

me and allow me to do the things that I want

to do. And, you know, there's really no budget

given to it. And even very recently in the videos

that he's posted over the last week, he's basically

saying that they make zero money on Master of

the Universe classes. Well, I don't believe,

I call bullshit on that because companies don't

do things if they're not making money. It's it's

a it's a simple it's as simple as that the fact

is that he man was their gravy train for you

know for boys toys back in the mid 80s and you

know, they I guess that the the cartoon show

ended and They they stopped doing the run on

toys and they basically put it away then 2002

comes out and It was a big success again but

they screwed it up with all of the different

He -Man and Skeletor variants. That's all that

you could find on the pegs. It wasn't the fact

that He -Man wasn't a success when it came back

in 2002. It was the fact that Mattel screwed

it up in the way that they, you know, with their

pack out and their case packs and everything

like that. You would think that this year, this

year, 2012 was supposed to be, you know, it's

the 30th anniversary of He -Man. You would think

that it was supposed to be this big deal, you

know all through 2011 Leading up to to comic

-con 2011 and then you know and and the big announcements

and this then you know that they announced Oh,

well, we're gonna have all kinds of licensing

deals We're gonna have t -shirts and lunchboxes

and all kinds of stuff, you know, it's gonna

be all over the place Well, guess what? None

of that stuff has made it out to anywhere. The

only thing that we've seen in retail, Masters

of the Universe -wise, were those Masters of

the Universe classics versus DC Universe classics

two -packs that were in freaking, uh, in Toys

R Us. And the simple fact of the matter is, when

they first came out, you could not find them.

They blew off the shelves, you couldn't find

them, and then I have a feeling that Toys R Us,

in a knee -jerk reaction, said, you know what,

send me two pallets of them. And then another

show forming and then they couldn't get rid of

them because I think it took me almost a year

to be able to find that second wave the one that

had Hawkman and strados and Merman and Aquaman

and then even now my toys are us now has the

the Green Lantern zodiac and the Shearer Supergirl

ones, but I mean Over the over the past year

now. We've already seen that What they've got

with the licensing is that they do have some

t -shirts But they're online store exclusive,

you know, you can get them at 80s tees calm You're

not finding them at Walmart. You can't walk into

a target and buy yourself a he -man shirt You

know to me that does absolutely nothing. They've

announced. No these tune tubblers again online

exclusive They are the wacky the wacky wobblers

again online exclusive and it guess what? The

time is ticking on 2012, that 30th anniversary.

You know, we're talking about, you know, getting

ready to turn into August. That's the eighth

month of the year. None of this shit is available

to buy yet. Yeah. By the time you can buy any

of this stuff, it's not going to be the 30th

anniversary anymore. You know, the other thing

that really makes me wonder about them embracing

the 30th anniversary wasn't. And this isn't me

saying anything against this company wasn't.

classic media and Mill Creek supposed to Announce

or have the complete 30th anniversary DVD set

of the 83 cartoon either at comic -con or bike

Well, isn't it supposed to be released at some

point this year? Maybe it's maybe it's an October

that I'm thinking I don't remember It's supposed

to be some time. It's supposed to be some time

this year They did come out with the Shearer

the Shearer does have a complete series now That

came out either the end of last year or the beginning

of this year, but you would think that, yeah,

the 30th anniversary, that it would be a priority.

Well, I would have thought that it would have,

you know, with the announcement of Vikron, which

no one gives a fuck about, with the announcement

of Vikron as the SDCC exclusive, I would have

thought that they would have... made the announcement

of, hey, we've also got the 30th anniversary

complete series DVD set here at SDCC. Again,

like I said, unless they're being smart and looking

at the original air dates, which the original

air date of Masters was October 21st, 1983, which

that isn't even a 30th anniversary this year.

The 30th anniversary for the cartoon is next

year. It's just that this year is the 30th anniversary

of the overall property. You know you would have

thought that you would have heard more rumblings

about this DVD set because they had a Contest

of hey, and you know and entering your fan submissions

You know you know three minutes in length for

the you know to be featured on the DVD and the

deadline was like June 22nd So you would have

thought that by comic -con they would have had

some sort of something about the DVD set whether

it was coming out in September October whenever

but it's like no I have not seen any news about

The Mill Creek classic media DVD the complete

series DVD set at this point Yeah, I haven't

heard anything either so and I'm sorry regardless

of paying homage to the original create a character

contest that 30th anniversary line is fucking

ridiculous Yeah, I mean to be perfectly honest

with you the only one that was worth anything

was Drago man because that was a sweet that was

a sweet figure Yeah, but as far as no specter

and you know sir freaking laser lot and you know

side shop Whatever this other garbage figure

is I know don't get wrong. I do like Castle Grayskull,

man. I Think that I think it's a pretty cool

looking figure As far as like giving it a bio

and working it into the story as an actual character.

I think that's retarded But, you know, just looking

at the way that the figure looks, I think it's

a pretty cool looking figure. But the 30th anniversary

as a whole, to me, was a complete and utter waste

of time. Yeah. Well, you know... I mean, I'm

glad that we got photog, you know, finally, but

other than that... I don't know, that just doesn't...

And even so on a lot of people's photogs there

was issues with the crack lens and so many and

see there's the thing it's like How do you expect

it? Okay, every toy company in the world has

quality control issues. I'm sorry I've never

seen a toy company have this many quality control

issues from month to month when they release

figures Hasbro puts out figures You know, let's

say for example, Transformers. Let's say they

put War of Cybertron, the new figures coming

out. Let's say they put out Wave 1 the first

week of August. Say they put out Wave 2 the third

week in August. I guarantee you, all of those

figures in Wave 1, maybe going out across the

country, maybe 20 people would have quality control

issues. minimum i would say uh... you know i

i i don't think a lot of people are going to

want to control issues but it seems like every

single time matt tell releases a figure for masters

almost all of the time there's something wrong

with him and there's something wrong with the

answer you know primary care this morning the

second ever figure that they put out he had had

backward shoulders And that use and that's something

that you would forgive them for you say, okay

fine You know is you know, the first run it's

only the second figure that you guys have produced

No, we understand that there's gonna be some

bumps along the road fine You know, they kind

of got a pass for that if anything more people

were more upset about the red eyes on that first

team And then they were about the shoulders,

but then it happens with King Hiss You know,

you have reverse shoulders and then Roboto the

exact same thing Roboto is you know the like

the biggest clusterfuck of a figure that there

is He's got the backward shoulders, and he's

got a giant crack that goes down the center of

his chest It seems like everybody's you know

roboto's are falling apart. Which is why it was

funny in toy gurus and James Sawyer actually

pointed this out to me was that it was pretty

funny that when when toy guru basically was making

his Was making his plea for people to get the

2013 subscription. He's like, you know Oh, you

know, it's like those commercials from back when

we could know for you know, five cents a day

You can get a message universe classic subscription,

you know for the price of a cup of coffee, you

know No, I go into the movies Maybe it's the

time to not do this and devote that money to

message universe classics and he pulls a Roboto

off the shelf and he goes see these these are

gonna last you forever A movie is just a fleeting

thing. You go to a movie, you come back, and

you're done. This you're going to have forever.

And you go, yeah, and it's going to be broken

forever. It was just ironic that he chose to

pick that figure of all figures up off the shelf,

because that's basically the one, other than

the goddess that everybody has had the most trouble

with. The goddess, for Christ's sake, you look

at it wrong, and its pelvis explodes. And not

in a good way. Ew. That's a sticky mess that

I don't want to get into. But you mentioned he

was saying like $0 .05 on the day or whatever

else. The only thing that my brain flashes to

is those children's fun things. Right. That's

exactly what I was saying. Oh my god. I can't

believe. So all right. You're going to cut your

subscriptions in half for 2013. Are there okay

outside of randor and ram man? Are there any

figures in the line that you're looking forward

to in 2013? Oh, yeah The January figures notosa,

you know, it's a prince of power figure. I really

could care less My daughter will probably play

with that But February you have a you know a

double hitter with with jitsu, which looks amazing

And Ram Man is the same month. And then March,

here's where we're talking about filmation. We

get Fang Man, who's a filmation character who

only appeared in one episode. But he's a really,

really cool looking character. So I'm excited

about that. Even the fighting foemen, I don't

like what they are in the storyline. But the

fact that matter is, what they are is they're

the drivers of the vehicles. Yeah from the 80s

you get the driver of the wind Raider you get

the driver of the attack track and the driver

of the roton Okay Now they're all kind of gimmicked

to be it looks like like horde members because

they have horde symbols Or you know whatnot,

but so I mean working with the story I could

care less But they were always you know you always

wondered when you bought a GI Joe You know vehicle

you got a driver with it. Yeah So when you know

whenever you got a Masters vehicle never came

with a driver so but always had one on the artwork

always had one on the package so it was something

that you know when when I was a kid I Didn't

realize that they never made those figures. So

it was something that you know, okay It didn't

come in the box Maybe it's something that I need

to look for on the peg and obviously they they

never made it So, you know, it was you know the

unending hunt Yes, but now I think it's a cool

homage that that they're gonna do that I also

like the fact that they're doing the the traveling

exclusive this year is that Palace of Darkness

Sorceress that is all white sorceress. I could

care less but next year they're doing strobo

Who's basically the the story teller for the

UK comics? Okay, I just think that's I haven't

read a whole lot of the UK comics, but basically

he's the one that tells you the story it's got

like Like he's at the beginning of the issue

and gives you like a like that first page where

he's got like a little introduction of the story

and whatnot. I think he's pretty cool. He's basically

like what songster is to the US fans that have

that cult following for songster. The UK has

the same thing for for strobo and I never knew

anything about strobo until I you know just maybe

Last year or so and I picked up a couple of UK

comics and You know some of those obscure characters.

I kind of dig I don't necessarily dig the ones

that you know somebody pulls out of their ass

But you know ones that kind of have their their

feet grounded in some kind of cannon I'm all

for and the king he man like you were saying

before I Don't necessarily like the concept of

it, but I think it's a cool -looking figure.

I mean I like the There's never been since its

inception. There's never been a he -man cartoon

that allowed us to explore more of the Continuity

past as you know we know I'd rather I'd rather

it have been King Adam Okay, well yeah, but then

he would be purple and pink and no that wouldn't

work, but see here Yes, I I kind of agree with

you with that. You know as far as King Adam,

but With the NYP cartoon we had so much awesome

continuity. It was a strict continuity. It was

a great storytelling piece and It got you know

cut off before its time, and we didn't really

get you know we've never really had that Like

if the NYP cartoon was not still going on now,

but it lasted at least two or three more years

than what it did, we would have gotten more continuity

and we would have seen more stories of He -Man

and Adam's adventures. And I like the idea of

King He -Man simply because whatever story they're

going to tell, it's Adam. As you know as he's

all grown up. He's not 16 years old anymore He's

not you know however old he was in the in the

film nation series 2025 whatever however the

hell it was I'm wrong you know it it gives you

the impression of Adam has grown up, and I like

that most about it the other thing about the

sub is I wish that they would And I know they

won't do this because they don't want to you

know blow their entire load because then people

would really not get the subscription. I wish

every year at Comic -Con they would tell us the

next year's line, the entire line. Yeah, all

12 months. Because this 6 and 6 stuff just...

Because you know first of all they say you're

you know you're getting you know on the website

It says you're getting these these figures these

figures these figures, but you're getting you

know 12 monthlies 12 You know for be you know

whatever it is But they don't tell you what they

friggin are so you have to essentially unless

you're someone who is like us who? Watches these

panels or you know watches the convention coverage

if you're someone that's just you know Oh, you

know, okay. Well again, I can use Marzo just

I know I know he watches this stuff, but we'll

buy it blindly no matter what Unless you're someone

like him. I want to know what the hell I'm paying

for You know and a lot of people have that argument

and I completely I completely see where that

comes from and I agree with it I Mean we only

got the first four months. We got the first quarter

of 2013 Well, that leaves another eight months

of figures that we have no idea what you're getting.

You know, it could be you could be getting three

new adventures figures and four princes of power

figures. Seven of the next eight months. And

that may not be what you want, but you got pulled

into a subscription because, you know, you're

getting Jitsu and Ramman and you're getting a

filmation character. And, you know, you're getting,

you know, you want to make sure that you lock

up your exclusive. which don't get me wrong,

it's not Shadow Weaver, but it's still something,

you know, that's a cool thing that, you know,

that is gonna be, you know, if you're into the

whole, hey, I have something that you don't have,

you know, limited kind of figure thing, it's

cool to have something that's, you know, a limited

run that a lot of people aren't gonna get and,

you know, number one, we can't even get these

at retail, but number two, you're getting something

that even the other people that buy these online

aren't gonna get. So it's cool to have that,

you know, that little incentive. But we know

where is your incentive to blindly, you know

go The next eight months where you could get

another eight months of figures, you know, you

know, you might not want right you get eight

snake -man at arms And eight servant rings right

he's like no hey, you know if they told us in

in 2009 2012 all right here. You know you're

getting four awesome characters, but then in

May you're getting snake -man at arms and in

June You're getting fucking sir laser lot and

July you're getting the mighty specter And you

know people are gonna go screw this I ain't buying

that yeah, yeah, and I mean I I I do understand

it from both perspectives, but at the same time

You know me wanting to know as much information

as i can regardless of you know even though i'm

you know just because i'm not collecting the

toys anymore doesn't mean i'm secretly paying

attention to the news items hence this special

you know i've i've i've stepped away from it

for a long time because of you know the huge

fuck up the ass maddie collector and digital

river gave me and i'm still not going to be buying

any of these figures because i'm not collecting

them anymore but i'm still going to pay attention

to the news here and there and you know be able

to comment on it here and there See for me for

me buying the subscription is about supporting

the line and You know, don't get wrong. I'm I'm

nowhere near as far to the left as count Marzo

is George shriveled noise to the left But any

anything he meant for me is a good thing You

know, yes, I'm going to get characters that I

know I don't particularly care for They're just

gonna go on the shelf and they'll just go behind

the other figures and I won't have to see them

but you know if it means that Getting a subscription

in in in 2013. Yes. I'm not getting four You

know because I it's the simple economics of it.

Yeah, you know just as it's Justice it is hard

for Mattel to justify making the cat the figures

because their price has gone up It's hard for

me to justify buying the characters because the

price has gone up to me So, I mean it's kind

of like a you know a double -edged sword You

know, they're crying that we're not buying them

and that it's costing them so much money Well,

what about the fact that it's costing us so much

money, you know He man was always my number one

line as a kid. It was for me It was always He

-Man, then Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and

then Thundercats. They were my three lines when

I was a kid. And then everything else, Mask and

Transformers and G .I. Joe and all that stuff,

I had a bunch of that stuff. But my three things

that I focused on that if I could only get one

thing, those were the three items that I was

going and looking for. If I can get those, I

mean, we see what Bandai did with Thundercats.

They completely screwed that up. Playmates is

doing a real good job. We just got the... I haven't

seen the classics figures in stores yet. I have

my pre -order with Big Band Toy Store, but I

haven't gotten them yet. But I do have the ones

from the new cartoon. I have the four turtles.

And they're pretty sweet. I think that they're

doing a real good job with that. And hopefully

that continues to go. And then we have Masters

of the Universe classics. Now, we haven't had

Masters of the Universe, anything that we could

buy, any figures we could buy, you know, from

2000, I guess, like 2004 to 2008, okay? There's

only so many times that they're gonna revise

this line. It's not transformers It's not GI

Joe, which basically has has continually stayed

around since the 80s in one form or another You

know it never went away and collected dust That's

the biggest problem is once it goes into the

closet and you turn the lights off and people

forget about it It's hard for them to justify

to the executives. Hey, let's you know, let's

dust You know, let's dust this line off and put

it back out there. That's why we have you know,

a lot of people want, you know, uh, 2000X stylized

figures. Yeah. And we keep hearing that, oh,

well, you know, the 2000X style and the hyper

anime style is retired and this, that, and the

other thing. Well, it's because the, the, the

executives have a bad taste in their mouth from

the way that the 2000X line finished and ended.

So anything that's 2000X, they want taken off

the table. Um, you know, they're like, oh yeah,

you'll, you'll get, um, like NYP characters like,

um, But they'll be classicized. It tends to be

the word that they that they want to use like

we've got You know take battleground evil in

I don't mind that it's the essentially a repaint

of the Classic evil in of you know, the yellow

and blue skin and all that stuff I don't mind

that because it's in the corrected colors of

the NYP style And it's damn sure that sure they

could have given her a cloak or a cape or whatever

else, you know, I well they Didn't they? Didn't

she have a removable cape? I forget. I don't

remember if she did or not. Huh. You know, I

don't remember. You know, I don't mind that if

they include the 2000X, like, homages. Right.

You know, but obviously the 2000X style is not

going to be done again. But you can still incorporate

that style into your current... Model right and

the whole thing is how many times are they going

to put it in the cupboard? And then take it back

out and put it in the cupboard and take it back

out. Yeah, it's either Eventually they're just

gonna say you know what this human thing isn't

working and we're just completely done with it

So I got I have I have less of a problem with

you know upfront you know, committing to figures

that I know that there's gonna be a handful of

figures that I'm not particularly gonna wanna

buy or whatnot. But I also understand the fact

that if I don't put my money where my mouth is,

I can't complain that these figures went away.

Right, yeah. So I see both sides. I understand,

I don't always understand the venomous hatred

that comes with the line, but I also don't understand,

you know, the Mattel can never do anything wrong

apologists either. I fall somewhere in the middle

there in kind of in that that gray area where,

yeah, I realized that Mattel has made mistakes.

I'm not going to sit there and tell them that

it's OK. You know, when I get my figure with

reverse shoulders, I get my figure with two,

you know, two right legs, you know. Alright,

you know get figures with you know paint swatches

all over place and you know, this is messed up

and that's messed up I'm not gonna tell them

that it's okay But I'm gonna continue to buy

the figures so that I can get those awesome figures

that that I do eventually want right and See

for me. It's like, you know regard, you know,

okay, let's just say For example, you know BigBadToyStore

.com. Let's say they buy a hundred Club Eternia

2013 subscriptions to keep their stock That's

100 exclusive figures they can You know, that's

100 King He -mans that they can you know, then

put on their website as a third -party seller,

right? So you so for me if I was still collecting

the line I'm still even though I'm paying Big

Bad Toy Store, they essentially already paid

Mattel for those 100 subscriptions. So if I was

still collecting it and I was going to do the

cherry picking thing, I would cherry pick from

Big Bad Toy Store versus buying a subscription

to figures that I have no idea what it's going

to, you know what I mean? It's one of those things

for me. I can completely understand that. Yeah,

as far as me and Paul being two of the most vocal

Maddie haters, It's not about us hating the line.

It's about us hating the business practices of

the website and of Digital River. That's really

what it is. Like, I love the line. The line's

great. The toys are great. Sure. There's a lot

of toys like, like, you know, toys that I just

don't understand get slots right away. Like,

like you mentioned earlier, Fang man, or, you

know, we, we, we, I can do one better, you know,

go to the, the the elephant firefighter want

a character that appeared five minutes or a total

of 10 minutes within two sheer episodes seriously

that gets its own slot for a monthly figure really

you know i i mean the problem is most of us want

to love this line we want to give them our money

yes yet we repeatedly get punched in the face

i know it i mean Well, I mean, like you were

saying earlier with the issues, sure, you're

going to say it's not OK about two right hands

or two right legs or reverse shoulders. The problem

comes in calling them up and saying, hey, I have

an issue. Can you either? But then they tell

you, well, they were all that way. So either

you want your figure that's been assembled wrong,

or you want no figure at all. Because there is

no king hiss with correct shoulders There are

there there is no whether they want to say that

stink or was designed with reversed forearms

or not There there are no stink ors that have

the correct forearms with the with the spikes

on the outside of the arm instead of the inside

of the arm You know, you can't call and get a

replacement for an item that every single figure

in the entire run was screwed up Yeah, I mean

one of the things with um with Paul we did a

With up to bottom us we did an episode of team

bottom us right here. We're talking about What

was it one of his figures was messed up it was

like damaged and He constantly went through emails

between you know him and Maddie collector for

you know I have a damaged figure. I would just

like to exchange it for a new one You know this

I think it was something with his Griffin did

there was no an issue with the Griffin with legs

or something I Forget yeah, I think I think it

actually had a similar It wasn't the entire run,

but I think it had a thing similar to Swift one

Swift one where it was like two left leg. Yeah

Yeah, yeah, that's what it was and he kept going

back and forth with with the automated Mattel

reply email thing Where it's like, you know You

know, he sent this and he's like, okay, well

we need this information, this information, this

information. He sent that in and then they're

like, okay, well UPS will be at your house or,

you know, within, you know, the next three days

to pick it up. They didn't specifically tell

him that the UPS man was coming with a shipping

label that he would not have to. That's the other

thing about the business practices end of mattycollector

.com and the customer services. If you need to

return a product, they make it sound like you

have to pay. for it to be shipped back to them

right which isn't the case right which isn't

the case but the way that the customer services

were and i said this in that episode of that

of the other podcast where what mattel needs

to do maddie collector what maddie collector

needs to do is what iTunes does, okay? You can

send an email to the iTunes, you know, contact

iTunes with your issue thing of, hey, I have

this issue. They will send you an auto -reply

saying, we've received your problem, we've passed

it on to a representative, you will get an email

back from an actual person within 24 to 72 hours,

whatever it is, and then you can have a correspondence

with that person through email versus what...

What many collectors doing now where you email

them and it's constantly automatic responses

of we need this this this this and this Every

other email I know paul has a long email chain

of we need this this this and this and this and

then and then not giving him An answer to the

question. He's asking them The whole And scott

even said the customer service was they're supposed

to have a system in place by this point. I believe

Hell, it's almost the middle of the year I think

he I think he said at the beginning of the year

he said by by San Diego or after San Diego or

shortly thereafter We'll have a you know a new

or working on a new customer service system Where

the hell is it? Exactly even the when we hit

when we did that episode of national universe

Chronicles And it was me you and Chris and and

we were going through that whole debacle Yeah,

and you couldn't get to the my subscriptions

page We had everything in the cart and it was

all screwed up and we were trying to go to my

subscription page and it was down. That page

is still down. I think that was in January. Yes,

it was. This is now July. That page is still

down. The biggest problem with this entire line

is Scott I'm sure is a real nice guy. I've heard

him talk many a times whether it was Rose Google

dinner or whether it's just him putting up the

you know YouTube videos And why he seems like

a real nice guy when he does his walkthroughs

with pixel Dan and stuff like that but ultimately

he's a puppet that's doing a job and I Completely

believe that he has love for this line. I completely

believe that he's a fan first and that he has

a lot of personal stake and love for the line

When it comes to design and the choices of the

figures I will agree with that when it comes

to everything else I don't agree with that. I

think he just sucks at his job I Mean I'm just

dead serious. I mean he Personally he might be

a great guy and I think that he wants to do the

right thing But I don't part of his job as brand

manager is PR And he is terrible at public relations.

Absolutely awful. You look at the posts that

he puts on heman .org or even on the Matty boards,

on mattycollector .com, and a lot of it's just

condescending and talking down. He again I referred

to it a couple times already he in the past two

or three days has put up two two videos up up

onto YouTube and One of the videos he explains

the situation with Digital River Yeah, and we

now finally know who to blame for Digital River

Digital River wasn't apparently wasn't the lowest

bid you know who we need to blame for Digital

River International customers it's their fault

That we got settled with Digital River. Okay,

so just like in January and I'm gonna have to

have you send me the link to that old Chronicles

post just like in January when we did that Chronicles

podcast. This is all Chris Vint's fault It's

honestly all Chris Vint's fault just like in

January when it was his fault when I did that

that second cart through Yeah, it's all it's

all the Irishman's fault Toy Guru's got on there

and he said That we know basically, you know,

I'll paraphrase. He said we know digital original.

We know Digital River fucking sucks. We know

they're terrible, but they were the only shipper

that that would offer international shipping.

He said they went through a bunch of other distributors

and nobody would do international shipping. Digital

River was the only one that said they would do

it. So that's why they went with them. Well,

guess what? When you sign a contract. With a

company and they continually do a bad job over

and over again when you sign a contract and you're

paying them To do work for you They need to answer

to you. You don't just say okay, you're screwing

up over and over again Continue to screw up over

and over again Because basically what he said

was that with some of their other lines like

Barbie and Hot Wheels and stuff if you want to

If you're an if you're an international fan and

you want to buy something What they have to do

is hook you up with a an american like pen pal

buddy And what they'll do is they'll ship the

item to your american friend And then they'll

then ship it to you internationally because they

won't do any direct international international

shipping guess what if I was if I lived overseas

and I watched that video and I got told that

it was my fault that I have sucky customer service

why in the world will I want to resubscribe and

give you my money and come back and then you're

going to sit there and complain that I live in

the wrong country right not only you know not

only can I do I have to pay your increased Price

for your figure then I have then you're telling

me that my shipping is going to be increased

and then I have to pay customs on top of that

and now you're going to tell me that the sucky

customer service is my fault and then I can't

even buy some of the things that I want like

the PKE meter and other things that are offered

on Maticollector .com that don't ship internationally

like the hoverboard I believe and and the The

replica props because they have electronics and

stuff like that the the international fans getting

the shift. Yeah That is they're a large part

of the fan base you that you're completely that

they're just completely cutting off Yeah, and

how do they not see that I? Because they're friggin

blind The thing about the about the shipping

and all that and what I don't understand is thing

what did a river is you know? Okay, so they're

not that they weren't the lowest bit somebody

else was They were the second lowest bid, or

they were the only ones that would do the international

shipping. I still believe that they were the

lowest bid. This is just the bill of goods that

he's trying to sell us in this video. Right,

right. Well, see, here's the thing. This is just

me, you know, understanding general business.

Every year, a contract comes up, whether to renew

or to go somewhere else. Why in the fuck in the

last four years of this line, has Mattel not

investigated other avenues of... Look at... Can

you imagine if Mattel did subscription selling

on Amazon? Amazon has multiple websites. They

have amazon .com, amazon .co .uk. Amazon has

a website for almost every country. in this world

of ours. Right. Okay. Why wouldn't Mattel pay

them the money to fulfill the shipments at whatever

the price is or whatever the shipping options

are? And it would be so much easier and so much

cheaper for everybody because you're getting

a guarantee. Amazon is not just a company run

out of a basement. It's a global conglomerate.

Why wouldn't you go with them and pay them for

a service? to handle the shipping versus a company

that essentially ships to another third company.

You've got Mattel, Matty Collector, Digital River,

and New Logistics in fucking Nevada. Sparks,

Nevada. That's the problem I'm having here with

this whole business practice and shipping aspect

is because yes, Digital River fulfills the order.

Yes, Digital River handles the online customer

service, whatever the hell it is. But they then

in turn, Instead of instead of deliver working

with USPS or UPS or FedEx or you know, whoever

it is instead of working with those companies

directly they then Subcontract the work out to

new fucking logistics in sparks fucking Nevada.

Are you serious? This is exactly why All right,

you know they've said in the past of oh well

subscribers get to You know subscribers will

Supposedly and you can hurt me if I'm wrong on

this wasn't it said somewhere I could be messing

it up Wasn't it said somewhere that subscribers

would get their figures on or by? On or before

the sale date. Yeah, we were supposed they were

supposed to ship and we were supposed to receive

them Before the on sale that they were supposed

to ship a week beforehand half the time We don't

even get charged until after the sale day Exactly.

That's the problem. It's like why is this not

being fixed as far as You know being charged

because it was like when I was going on through

the whole thing It was like I didn't get charged

for whatever it was until like a week and a half

two weeks after the sale date And then I didn't

get my figures until another week and a half

after I got charged well like there was the whole

debacle with the stupid star sisters where they

wanted to break up the payment into two separate

things and oh well you're gonna pay this much

one week and this much the next week and like

for me I didn't pay anything the first week and

I got I got the whole lump sum in the second

week and that's a $60 figure and I got four of

them yeah so it's like oh okay you know big chunk

boom right away and I'm like what the hell man

it should be It shouldn't be, we all love this

line. It has nothing to do with the figures.

In my opinion, now, I don't buy any of the hot

toys or super sideshow or even the SH Figure

Arts or anything like that, import stuff. But

as far as regular straight figures that you can

buy, to me, these are the best figures on the

market. There's no reason why it should be this

difficult Just to buy the toys that you want.

Yeah To me it the whole reason to buy the subscription

was to avoid the headache of the white screen

of death on the sale day and From what I come

to understand is it's much easier now to buy

it on sale day than it is To deal with the hassles

of the subscription. Yeah But now Scott's telling

us that we were told at the beginning of this

year At the end of 2011, we were told that because

the sub numbers for 2012 were so low that they

were going to drastically reduce the day of sale

number of figures that were being produced over

and above the subscription number. I haven't

seen a, I think Fisto is the only figure that's

sold out within like an hour. There hasn't been

a problem, you know, yeah, it might, you know,

your figures might still be sold out same day.

But it's not like, you know, if you're... It's

not within like 10 seconds. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly.

So there's not that much of a problem with being

able to get on and buy your figures. But now

Scott's saying that because 13 is going to be

so low that there may be... They're virtually

getting rid of day of sale. There may be no figures

day of sale. Yeah. So you have if you want any

of these figures you have to buy a subscription

Or you're gonna have to go through through a

third -party retailer Amazon eBay big bad big

bad toy store, you know wherever and pay the

markup I Like if I really really wanted to collect

the figures and I still had you know The Castle

Grayscale and all that stuff and I had the space

to to display them, you know proudly I would

most definitely go through Big Bad Toy Store

and pay the markup. For the figures I wanted.

Yeah, if you're a guy that's only going to handpick,

maybe out of the 12 figures, the 12 monthly figures

and the four quarterly figures, if you were only

going to buy a handful of them, then yeah, it's

probably worth cherry picking and paying that

extra $10 or $15. But if you're going to buy

a majority of the figures, then you know and

you decide it probably is just better to get

the damn subscription because There they may

go, you know, you may get to the 15th of the

month and they go. Oh, yeah, by the way There's

no ramans for sale. Sorry They're gonna burn

Mattel to the ground I mean, you know, but again

see it but see that's what I'm saying with 2013

if they don't do day of sales you could go to

Big bad toy store Because Big Bad Toy Store,

and this isn't me saying, you know, oh, hey,

you need to go there versus going into the on

-sale day. But if the on -sale day has no figures,

Big Bad Toy Store, as I said, would have bought

75, 100, however many subscriptions to fill their

stock. So there would be Ram Man's available,

just not on Matty's website. So, I mean - Now,

and there is a - We saw that the the horsemen

were talking about the scare tactics and and

whatnot Toy guru did post on the Matic Collector

boards the fact that now you're gonna get like

this This special advanced being able to buy

other non -subscription items Okay, so and I

think you specifically mentioned, you know, if

they re -release up the pke meter in the Dark

Knight rises Batman they do now if you're big

bad toy store And you've got a hundred subscriptions.

Guess what? None of that shit is making it to

day of sale. No way. They're gonna buy every

single unit that they have. Yep. I mean, it's

just as simple as that. You got no shot. You

know, we got the Wind Raider last year. You know,

God forbid, say they decide that they're gonna

do, you know, the attack track this year. You

know, and everybody wants an attack track. Well,

guess what? It's not in the sub. You ain't getting

it. Now you're paying a hundred dollars from

you know Big bad or whatever cuz yeah any that

this is definitely gonna feed the scalpers. Oh

Yes, most definitely, you know, this has scalp

or written all over it. Yes, it does. So I mean

I Just I don't I don't like being bullied Let

me ask you this. I mean, I know you mainly collect

masters, but you collect other stuff too, right?

Yeah You go to toy stores and stuff like that,

right? Oh, absolutely. Okay. Now, as a toy hunter,

would you prefer if Classics was on shelves versus

dealing with a subscription or versus dealing

with a third party online retailer? Would you

prefer to go hunting for that disco Skeletor?

No. Okay. For me, it's much easier... If this

was done right, and it was simple, and it was

easy, it would be perfect. Because I'll tell

you right now, with the new Turtles that just

came out, I had a hell of a time finding Raphael.

I got the other three Turtles. Toys R Us, it

seemed like I got a lot of notifications on,

because I'm one of the four hosts on the What

the Shell podcast. We all kind of got tweets

from other people that were following us on Twitter,

basically telling us that these figures were

starting to hit all around the country. So I

went to my Twitter Russ, and guess what? They

had nothing. They had absolutely nothing. So

I had to ask the guy, hey, do you have these

in? He tells me, all right, our truck is coming

in on Tuesday. So come in Wednesday and we should

have them. So I went in Wednesday. And they were

already, by the time I got done work at 12, and

I hit the Toys R Us, I got the Toys R Us about

20 after 12, they were already picked through.

So there was not much of anything on the show.

I think that first day I got a Leonardo. And

then they get trucks, I believe, on Tuesday and

Saturday. So Sunday I went in, and they were

pretty much picked through again. And I did get

a Donatello and a Michelangelo, but no Raphael.

So it's been two weeks now and I finally just

got a Raphael So I don't I don't particularly

Prefer to hunt, you know If I can go online and

I can get a figure at a decent price and I you

know I know that I'm gonna definitely get it

I'd much prefer to do it that way. I can't stand

Going into you know, you know if I want Marvel

Legends and I'm going into Walmart three times

a week and I can't find you know the goddamn

spider -man that I want and you know the the

in the the white suit that I've been trying to

find you know a Lot of times they never they

don't even get new cases and when they do get

cases, you know They're they're taking them out

the back door to sell to their scalper buddy.

That's slipping them a $20 bill So no, I don't

prefer the thrill of the hunt. Now, don't get

wrong. Obviously, I'm a degenerate that every

time I go into a store, I have to walk down the

toy aisle. You know, if I'm going shopping, if

me and the wife are going into Walmart for, you

know, I don't know, whatever, you know, who knows

what? You know, I'm going in, I'm going down

the toy aisle. Yeah, just to see what you know

what they have and nine times out of ten It's

the same shit they've had for the last two weeks

because I swear to god they don't ever get a

delivery. Yeah But that's what it is these scalpers

go into the stores They make friends with the

department managers and they tell them, you know

Hey, this is what I'm looking for when the case

comes in, you know, set it aside for me I'll

slip you a $20 bill and I'll take the whole case

off your hands Or you know you buy the case and

I'll meet you out your car and I'll give you

20 bucks You know plus the price of the case

And that case never makes it to pegs. Like you

said earlier, I think if MannyCollector .com

got their shit together and they did the subscription

right as far as the logistics of shipping, it

would be better. But I don't see the bright light

at the end of the tunnel on this one as far as

dealing with the... As far as dealing with buying

a subscription No, we're in a we're in a we're

in a bit a bit of trouble here because Basically

where where we're at now On the 24th of July

there were a lot of stuff started hitting the

fan on mattycollector .com and their Ask Matty

boards And I've got a couple of posts here that

I'm gonna read out to you. The first one is from

Poster Dark Knight. This was on July 24th, and

he writes I'm trying to convince people who don't

buy any more subs I'm always update I'm trying

to convince people who don't buy any more subs.

I'm always trying to update my Facebook page

with 2 ,000 or so people about Master's Universe,

with all the news and support about the line,

because I think it's the best line we're ever

going to get. And I love the fact that we have

a lot of different errors on it, and I'm a completist.

But of course, I prefer the vintage overall.

Please let us know how far from the goal we are

so I can stop biting my nails. Are we at least

close to the 100 % that we need? Now, ToyGuru

posted that same day, we have over 50 % to go.

We're at 46 % of the minimum orders we need as

of right now. If we don't hit 100 % of the minimum,

it means fewer figures at higher prices, i .e.

$30 to $35 per figure, and likely only four to

six figures for the whole year. So they've already

you know, basically what they're saying is if

we don't hit the minimum number of subscriptions

We're only gonna get the figures they're gonna

stop production and we're only gonna get the

figures that they revealed at comic -con Yeah,

so later that day we got another post from poster

just stop where it says so I think we're looking

at a worst -case scenario here just 46 % So you'll

issue four to six figures in 2013 at $30 to $35.

I have no issue paying that much for a figure,

especially since it's only six times a year.

If those do well, will that sales model continue

with further figures or are the doors shut? I

think that if people know their purchase will

continue the line, it'll go a lot further than

supporting a deadline. And ToyGuru came back

with, a handful of figures at a higher price

point is a quote unquote best case scenario.

Management could also say quote -unquote we are

done either way any figures we do in 2013 without

a sub would be a very low tool a Figure like

ran man would be very difficult to do without

the full year to bank his tooling with Without

a sub there are a few directions. We might possibly

go in Go in from a few figures to nothing at

all We need to wait and see how the sub sells

in before coming up with with with an alternative

plan if any This is the end of the line What

you're seeing here, this is the end of the line

Last year with Club Infinite Earths. They had

this poll and And they never filled it and no

decided to go forward with it. Anyway, yeah I

think that may be what you get with Masters Classic

this year. You you may I think we're gonna get

a full run this year I don't think that we're

gonna get this You know this doom and gloom Six

figures a year at $35 a figure. I don't think

we're gonna get that because again toy guru even

said that they had a roadmap through 2016 what

they're doing is they're scrapping that roadmap

and what they're gonna do is in 2000 they said

they can't change anything for 2013 Everything

is already set in stone. But what they're gonna

do for 2014 is that What they're gonna do is

wrap up the line They're gonna get every figure,

you know, from the vintage figures that haven't

been made yet. They're gonna try and get all

the major new adventure characters, all the major

princes of power characters, and get them all

into the end of 2013, whichever ones aren't already

shoehorned into 2013 at the end, which we don't

already know. They're gonna put them into 2014,

and they're gonna wrap up the line, and that's

gonna be the end of it. The line's done. Yeah,

there's no way. I don't even know on that previous,

you know, projections how they could have stretched

this from 08 to 16. There's just no way. And

even if they go into that price model of 30 or

35 per, for only six figures a year, if, let's

say, which I know this wouldn't happen because

beasts are obviously more than this, but let's

just say the $35 figure is a beast or a variant

or whatever else. That's with the, If the USPS

shipping is still $870, that's $4370 for a regular

or whatever figure. That's still... At that point,

I probably wouldn't be buying any of the figures.

If you're telling me it's going to cost me $40

to $45 a figure to get it from Mattel to my house,

it's probably not going to happen. I'll only

pay that kind of money for... Vintage on card

figures. I'm not buying any brand new toy for

you know, you know You know SDCC exclusives,

you know aside aside, you know something that

I know that I'm not gonna be able to go and get

myself You know, but as far as just a regular

toy, I'm not paying $40 for a regular toy For

six inch figure that might have reverse shoulders

I'm just I just I just can't I can't I can't

do it You know when I could they know that I

could go out and buy two to three figures depending

on what line it is for that same price No, hell,

I got all four turtles for under $30, you know,

if you look, you know, if you if you do the math,

yeah Oh, yeah, most definitely, you know for

the price of one Masters universe classes figure

as much as I love he man I'm sorry. I just I

just I couldn't do it and and think about the

figures that you're gonna get at that point You

know, it's not going to be your, you know, I

figure you can't live without, you know, do I

want a two bed? Yeah, I want a two bed. Do I

want to pay $50 for two bed? No, I don't want

to pay $50 for two bed. You know, that's kind

of where we're at. You know, I'm kind of, I'm

hoping that we get enough subscriptions for 2013

so we, you know, because at the rate that we're

going, we've been basically getting 20 to 25

figures a year. Yeah. So if we can get this line

to last this year and next year and they wrap

it all up, you're talking about another 50 figures,

we can basically get everything that we need

to have a complete line. We're as complete as

we can get. Would I like to see movie figures?

Do I want a blade and a saw rod and a card? Yeah,

I want those. Do I have to have them? No. I don't

I don't have to have them if that means if if

you basically you're telling me that I'm gonna

get those figures instead of you know, Mantana

or instead of you know You know, madam razz and

broom, you know, I want those figures first.

So yeah Fine, if you're going to retailer the

remainder of the line and get me all of my must

-haves that I need between 2013 and 2014, I'll

sacrifice those other figures that I would have

liked to have had for the figures that I absolutely

want. And if that means you're going to wrap

it up with a pretty little bow after 2014, then

I'm okay with that. Because you know what? I

can't imagine that this line was going to stick

around until 2016 anyway. We know that at some

point, we're going to get a film. And for whatever

reason, these toy companies, you've seen it with

Hasbro, that when retaliation was supposed to

come out, they discontinued the regular line

and decided to go forward with just retaliation

and they didn't have to do that. You know, they

end up, you know, jumping that by eight months,

you know, thank you very much to the movie company.

You know, that's the same thing that Mattel would

have done. There was no way that they would have

had a movie line out there and a classics line

out there at the same time. It was going to be

one or the other. So you know that eventually,

I mean, they're making a movie of everything

else, you know, whether it's going to be good

or whether it's going to be bad, you know, that

there's eventually going to be a Masters of the

Universe movie. And when that time comes, the...

The shelf life for masters was gonna come to

an end So that's fine if you want to get me everything

that you that I feel that I need in the next

two years And then be done with it then I can

I can live with that I just hope that we don't

get this worst -case scenario of hey You're only

gonna get six figures this year, and then we're

completely done Yeah, cuz that would kind of

suck just a little bit. Yeah, so All right, you

got anything you want to pimp out? I know you're

a part of several different podcasts, so. Well,

I'm sure that a bunch of your fans, a bunch of

your listeners to GeekCast Radio Network are

also fans of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We

have a little bit of a show called What the Shell.

It's the best named Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle

podcast ever. It features myself along with Chris

Vint and Dylan Cook and the totally radical Sweene

Halleck, the most knowledgeable Teenage Mutant

Ninja Turtle fan on the internet. You can follow

us on Twitter. We have a Twitter handle for the

show. It's at TMNT Shell. You can also find myself

at MlacyLACEY91 on Twitter for just me. Awesome,

so that has been the Civilized Matty Collector

Mattel discussion here on Toycast, a special

episode. And yay, Mike's not gonna go crazy and

buy four subs next year. So we will catch you

next time when we will have the TFCon post show

with Steve Megatron, myself, and Brutoman. So

we will catch you next time. Keep playing with

your toys. Thank God Hasbro isn't Mattel. Ender,

the floor is yours. Mattel's Masters of the Universe

has gotten to be, like, the most malignant, moronic,

mishandled line in history. Not since Hasbro

Creative Meeting, when one executive blurted

out, let's kill the red truck guy, has a franchise

been handled worse. The Masters of the Universe

classics are an amazing line that used modern

toy -making techniques to bring out the best

of a vintage figure, retaining its charm and

essence while consistently exceeding modern quality

standards and delivering fan -driven fun for

the adult collector at a price that while higher

than average is altogether reasonable. Sadly,

the He -Man genius Falcon reaches its apex at

this conceptual stage and then careens out of

the sky with the aerodynamic grace of a quadriplegic

hippo with an inner ear infection, plummets through

a sky of inept customer service, plows straight

and through a swamp of incompetent planning and

rests broken and ruptured in a bedrock of useless

management. Matty scalper dot com's inability

to even handle its monthly server load much less

the demand for its product has settled into a

comfortable pattern of letting itself be milked

by scalpers at a rate of 10 figures in order

while the real customers wait in error screens.

Meanwhile, scalpers, who are by the way the most

worthless scum on earth, have already posted

their overpriced rip -off auctions on the well

-oiled servers of eBay, touting items rarity

due to a false scarcity they themselves have

created with the foolish help of Mattel. Nothing

endears fans to a brand like having legal tenders

slapped out of their hands as they attempt to

exchange it for your product. The Band -Aid of

a club was offered, seemingly a reasonable fix.

You commit to buying the figures, and they guarantee

you one. Simple enough. Until the line branches

out into non -club figures, and the cycle begins

again, as Battle Cat is snapped up by the scalping

horde, and He -Man fans get shackled with one

DAR, a not -remake of a Never Was exclusive.

Now, underestimating demand for a fan line or

miscalibrating your limits is not an unreasonable

error. They have to make a profit and have to

hedge their bets. However, one might think that

after one and a half to two years might be enough

time to calibrate well enough that your servers

don't crash every full moon and your product

will last more than half an hour. Get your ****

together, fire everyone on this project who is

not a designer, and sell us our **** toys! We

give you money, you give us stuff! You can now

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