Why We Hate Certain Toy Companies

Cliffjumper, commence countdown. Five, four,

three, two... Bugles are the White Castle version

of chips. Yes, they are I Like I like putting

them on my fingers and pretending their claws

and then eating them Okay, like I can just imagine

a dr. Claw bugle Hello and welcome to a special

episode of toy cast I am one of your host here

John Mike and joining me from well now he's affiliated

with toy world order formerly of the pop culture

network we have Puppet Deval. Hello, sir. Hi

How are you? How are you? I'm wonderful. What's

going on, Mikey? Oh, not much, not much. Yeah,

the last time you were on here was episode 78,

which was all supposed to be all about Superman

toys. And I think we spent maybe 20 minutes of

that hour long show talking about Superman toys.

That's what happens. I start to ramble onto other

subjects and it just becomes a a long spiraling

out of control train that you just can't control

and you just got to go along for the ride. So

you have transitioned. You were at one journey

and now you're on another. So inform everyone

because as I said the last time you were on here

you were still involved with PCN. So tell everybody

what the hell you've been up to and the new venture

that you and your partners have going. Well,

you know, after I left PCN, I took a long, well

-deserved break. And then this past August, we

launched toyworldorder .com to a little bit of

fanfare. And then we kind of drew it back a little

bit because we were really confused about how

we wanted to go, how we wanted to proceed. But

we've started to kick things in the high gear

with 2012. And you can find us on toyworldorder

.com. You can also follow us on Twitter underneath

that same handle, toyworldorder. And we got a

lot of good stuff going on. We've got a great

toy news show that's getting ready to start up

here really shortly that's going to be a weekly

video show. We've got Toy Adventures with Deval

that just started, as well as David Deval's Toys

and Collectibles podcast every week. And reviews,

just normal stuff. We're trying to stay away

from becoming a news site, per se, because there's

so many, so many damn news sites out there. And

I don't want to be... I don't wanna seem like

I'm competition to some other news site. I don't

wanna, a lot of these news sites, not the people

that I know, but a lot of them are just very

hardcore, snobbish, kinda, you know, we're better

than you, we scooped you, you know, nobody wants

to work together anymore, and it's kind of a

shame. So we decided we were gonna stray away

from the news and just mostly focus on reviews

and original content, so. We'll see the thing

with the toy news sites I'm gonna call a couple

of them out here toy news in general not not

just any like Okay, you could say TFW 2005 but

that's just transformers I mean, yes, they have

that TFW 2005 comm has their network of they

have his tank and which is GI Joe stuff and they

have other stuff But you know take something

like action figure insider, you know, that's

that's an all genre based toy news site and they've

been around for a while and you know something

that's that established there's no competition

I mean it's kinda like a TV show that's been

on for 25 years and then you know whatever network

it's on decides to air a new pilot if the pilot

doesn't last you know if the pilot doesn't do

well and they decide oh well we're going to give

the show one chance it's like holy crap you know

just throwing the show under the bus for the

same thing with toy news is that you know it

i prefer the more laid -back you know when when

steven i've steve megatron and i were doing all

things transformers which is his podcast his

transformers news podcast you know we would do

two weeks worth of past news so like the last

two weeks from from today we would Record that

news and we were record it late. We're not about

you know trying to get the latest scoop Hey,

if we get you know, if we break some news, that's

great But at the same time it is way too stressful

to try to get The latest and greatest scoop over

someone else, right? I mean there's there's a

lot of sites that just do toy news better than

anyone could I mean I'm look looking at you know

toy news international figures calm Yeah, I mean

those those are the two mainstays of my mind

that have been around forever I mean figures

.com is like one of the granddaddies. They've

been around for as long as I can remember and

Even working for them for a number of years,

you know, they were they were the ones that were

they were well connected They had you know, they

you know, those guys do everyone in the business

everyone in the industry You know, they had connections.

I mean I I don't pay attention to them much anymore

because I'm just so busy with other stuff. But

I know for the longest time there, we were getting

reviews. They get reviews direct from Hot Toys.

They don't have to wait for Sideshow to get them

into the States. They come directly from Hong

Kong to them. I mean, that's how hooked up figures

.com is. And in my mind, it's just figures .com

and Toy News International and then everyone

else's second best right now. Yeah, and I'm sure

I don't I don't say that to like piss anyone

right or anyone's skin I mean that's that's just

from from working in this industry for so long

that that's one of the reasons why I won't do

toy news I mean, you know, we we did it at pop

culture network because it was a means to an

end We decided early on we weren't gonna do it

at toy world order because it really does nothing

for us in the end we're gonna have just as many

people coming to the site to see original content

reviews and as we would with You know with toy

news, so it just made no sense to us We're like,

oh, there's better sites out there that are doing

it. Those guys are doing it full -time I know

the editor of figures .com. That's his full -time

job He that's all he does Monday through Friday

is he sits in front of his computer? At his house

and gets paid pretty well to do it and all he

does is update stories all day. That's it You

you can't compete with something like that on

on our level. It's like I have a full -time job,

BC Direct and David World, they work out in LA

in the entertainment industry, and when they're

working, you're talking 12, 14 hour days, they

don't have time to do that stuff. So it was just

like, why bother? Let's just stick to what we

do best, and this is what we think we do best.

I mean, that's the same with us over here at

GCRN with GeekCast Radio Network. I mean, for

me, because I'm the one that has the most time,

Yeah, I was gonna say, there's a difference.

You guys are like podcasting machines. Right,

but exactly. But see, that's the thing, though.

I can put, for me, GeekCast Radio Network is

my job, even though I don't get any money for

it, which is fine. I'm happy with that, because

I love doing it. But it's very stressful. I just

looked at our show guide. We have, including

one show that we syndicate, there's... that has

joined our network at the end of 2011, a G .I.

Joe podcast called What's on Joe Mind? You know,

we have... What's on Joe Mind? Nothing. What's

on Joe Mind? Nothing, man. What are you talking

about? We have a total of... I hate to interrupt

you. I just had this image of Roadblock and Doc

hanging out in the ghetto. What's on Joe Mind?

I don't know. What's on Joe Mind? Let's go be

some cobras. Yeah, that sounds good. It kind

of reminds me of the vultures in Jungle Book.

What you want to do? I don't know. What you want

to do? That very, very urban -esque sounding

voice. What you want to do? I don't know. What

you want to do? Racial ambiguity in the 50s was

a wonderful thing, apparently. Oh, apparently

so. And the sad part is all the four vultures

were supposed to represent the Beatles. Yeah,

that's sad, isn't it? Man. Yeah. The thing of

it is, though, with GCR, I looked at our show

guide. Even with the shows that we have listed

in the show guide that haven't started yet, we

have a total of 24, 26 different podcasts. Some

of them have ended. Some of them have come to

their conclusional run, but still. I'm recording,

editing, and making posts of at least anywhere

from five to 12 podcasts a week. I don't mind

doing it. I'm not complaining about it. I love

doing it. But it's time consuming. And if you

add on top of that having to do a weekly news

show, whether it be video, whether it be audio,

whatever, that's time consuming as well. especially

if you have to get news from Hasbro, news from

Mattel, news from Sideshow, news from Hot Toys,

all these toy companies out there, that's a lot

of freaking work. So I like the more laid -back

of you know, you and Dave just commenting on

two -week -old news It's it's much more relaxed

and you can still give your opinions on the news,

but you're not actually reporting the news Well,

you know, you know what's funny about that is

we we did that for the first three weeks and

then this week we've actually pretty much like

moved away from that completely because I think

we talked about one news item which was the the

neck rocky figures, but uh The more we talked,

the more I was like, I think me kind of controlling

the conversation and letting Dave tell stories

about toys is so much more interesting to me

because there's so many stories that Dave could

tell about just toys in general and just the

wealth of knowledge that he has. I think it's

more entertaining just to hear us just literally

shoot the shit about toys for two hours than

us talk about news and then a story and then

you know so we've kind of kind of moved away

from that with the podcast and so far it seems

to to work you know just from the response from

this week's episode was was pretty good so i'm

happy with the way the show's going um you know

that that was one of those things i had lost

my passion for a while with this after after

leaving pop culture network and starting this

up and in the middle of all that i was just kind

of like i don't know if i want to do this anymore

I was just like, I don't know if I really wanna

want to do this anymore. I'm like, I don't even

know if I like toys anymore. And it took a lot

of soul searching. And finally, I just told Dave,

I'm like, look, you're coming over, we're doing

this podcast. It's going up this week. Because

if I don't start doing something on a weekly

basis to keep my passion alive, then I'm not

gonna have, there's not gonna be anything. We'll

get into that later on my end, but as far as

Toycast goes, I've mentioned this in several

blog posts. I mentioned it in the last episode

of Toycast that we just released all about. Thundercats,

Silverhawks, and Masks, where we talked about

those three 80s toy lines. 2012 is probably going

to be it for Toycast. We are going to consistently

put out episodes this year, but a buddy of mine,

Optimus Scourge, passed away at the end of last

year, and he was one of the ones that helped

me come up with the idea of doing what Toycast

originally was, because originally it was called

Transformers Toycast, because we were all just

Transformers toy fans at the time. And he passed

away, and I just don't feel right going forward

with the show past this year because he's not

here anymore. But consistent content will come

out for Toycast in 2012, and we will still do,

in future years past 2012, we'll still do specials

throughout the year, but it's not gonna be a

weekly thing anymore after this year. I mean,

I feel your pain on that because after I left

Pop Culture Network, you know... and we started

this up, a lot of people were asking if we were

going to do our own version of what that new

Toy Smell was, and I just kept telling people

there's no way. I'm like, it's not, you know,

that show did well when I left because they had

enough, there was enough personality to help

that show along, but I'm like, I literally would

not do a show like that again in that vein that

we created that new Toy Smell. as without Danny

because it just didn't feel right. It didn't

make sense to do that type of show. Now, Toy

Adventures with the Ball, which I started out

with the repair of a talking Mickey toy just

for shits and giggles because I wanted to do

something, that actually is going to become kind

of our retro toy show. But we're under the banner

of, I don't think any of our, except for our

podcasts, none of our stuff is over 10 minutes.

And that's just because we feel, you know, if

we can't give you the meat and what you need

to know, as well as being informative in the

shortest amount of time, then there's no need

for us to do this. And so far we've come off

pretty strong doing that because I think the

majority of our reviews have been short, simple,

sweet, to the point, very informative, and show

you exactly what you need to see while cutting

out all the meat. Now, that's nothing against

other reviewers. I mean... you know, guys like

Pixel Dan and guys like Sean Long and those guys

who are doing the same type of reviews online

in the same capacity, you know, those guys can

do, you know, eight, nine, 10, 11 minutes on

an item, but we were just like, man, we want

to move away from these really long reviews and

let's just do, you know, because we do three

and a half, four, maybe five minutes. You know,

I think Toy Adventures with the Ball will be

at the most 10 minutes long each episode, which

doesn't seem like a long time, but... you know

10 minutes is better than nothing so but that's

actually going to become kind of our look at

vintage toys in a way because that it was the

easiest way to go without going well here's that

new toy smell part two no no no with the way

now i know that and i don't really want to get

into this but just as kind of like a ending to

transition off this i'm actually hoping that

they don't do more Epis, you know TNT s episodes

like what they were doing I don't mind them doing

what they're doing now with dirt having the multiple

news desks but the way that that final episode

ended was just Yeah, you can't do You can't go

back to doing what you were doing after that

ending. No, I can I can tell you just from the

conversations Danny and I had when we filmed

that was that That new toy smells gone. It is

it is retired. It's a dead show. It's not gonna

be brought back They kept the TNTS news desk

just for the news desk because that's what it

was. That's a segment of the show that is the

news part of the show and that's what's great

about it. But doing a show like that, and I commend

you and I commend Dan and Dirt and Killen and

whoever else, Scotty and Sween and everybody

that was on that show for the four, what was

it, four years? I don't know how long you guys

were doing it. Almost four years. Yeah, four

years of that that style of internet show where,

you know, it was like a 30 minute, 45 minute

video show. Yeah, that's a lot of work. You know,

you know, I always talk about the the multiple

work I put in all the time. One 35 minute show

with that production quality. That's a lot of

work and that takes up a lot of time. So, yeah,

you know, I've I've said this in the past, even

even after I had left Pop Culture Network, but

That show owes everything to Dan. I mean literally

I mean it was it was fun standing next to him

but he was literally the driving force behind

that because he did you know, he did the the

bare share of the work and You know, I looking

back if I could change things about all of that

I would have but you know He really was the driving

force behind that show and I I agree with their

you know when it finally came time for him to

wrap it up He was like, you know when we talked

finally about it. He was like, you know, it's

just He's like, it's not so much that I want

to end it. He's like, it's just getting too damn

expensive to do these shows. He's like, cause

we constantly have to, you know, they pretty

much went through their collections. I mean,

literally everything that you saw in that new

toy smell was from someone's collection. And

at one, you know, at some point you're like,

okay, we got to stop because now we're buying,

you know, ridiculously priced toy lines and we

just can't do it. So it was a good time for the

show to go out. I think, you know, it went out

on a high note. The ending made a lot of people

happy, I know, who had been fans, but had been

kind of unhappy for a while. But it was a good

experience. But yeah, that's kind of where we're

going with Toy Word Order. You never know. There

may be some team ups in the future with other

guys. But for right now, we're just kind of in

house and doing things our way and having a good

time. So in this special episode, originally

we were going to talk about multiple toy companies

and why we dislike them or why we hate them.

But I think we're just going to cut it down to

one company, the company that has been fucking

up since 2008 constantly. Well, I'm going to

play the voice of reason for the most part in

this. You're going to be an apologist, okay?

No, no, no, no, no. I'm not going to be an apologist.

I'm not going to be an apologist because I want

to make this clear to everyone listening. I have

not bought a toy from this company in almost

two years. You, on the other hand, have started

actively buying toys from them and felt the brunt

of the butt sex, basically. Yeah, so we're going

to get into that after this break here in the

show. What you're going to hear next is something

from a buddy of mine, Ender, from Tformers .com.

On at the time on his podcast Radio Free Cybertron

that Brian Kilby hosts and has been running for

the past 12 years or however long they've been

on on air They were like one of the first ever

radio shows on the internet back in 1999 Ender

was one of their cast members and still is He

basically during one of their shows went on a

rant about this company and this rant is so hilarious

and it still rings true to this day this rant

is like two and a half three years old but it's

still everything everything he points out is

still correct so we'll be back after Ender's

rant 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. They use 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 ten 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

tender 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 lasts more than half an hour.

Mattel, get your together, fire everyone on this

project who is not a designer and sell us toys.

We give you money, you give us stuff! Women and

children in the faint of heart may wish to leave

now. So we are back here on Toycast and that

was Ender from Radio Free Cybertron from one

and a half, two years ago and everything he just

said sadly still rings true to this day. Four

years and they still cannot do a damn thing right

with Masters of the Universe classics. Should

we even... Continue on I think tender covered

it pretty well Continue on because all is the

show would be would be a 20 -minute intro 20

-minute introduction where you and I are talking

about your former and in current projects Yeah,

no, we need to continue on Let's talk about the

beginning. Let's talk about real quick about

how 2008 San Diego Comic Con Mattel announced,

you know early on and before that convention

started that you know, they were, Masters Universe

Classics was gonna debut and King Grayskull was

gonna be exclusive and everyone was happy and,

you know, San Diego that year wasn't too terrible.

You were able to get in the Mattel line pretty

decently and in a manner and, you know, get your,

get your Grayskulls and, you know, it was a good

time. And then they announced, you know, he made

a beast man of the first two figures and then...

Lo and behold, they were supposed to come out

in October, if I remember correctly. They were

scheduled to start, both of them were supposed

to come out in October. Then they got pushed

back to December. That was the start of all the

issues. Because those two figures got pushed

back and then, you know, the first year wasn't

too terrible. We didn't have any major server

problems. It was really the second year you start

getting into this line and getting into the meat

of this line. That is when the problem started

because when you look back you look at something,

you know Mattel's distribution for Maddie collector

goes through digitalriver .com Which digitalriver

.com actually started out and I did this research

years and years ago Digital River actually started

out as a company where you could purchase Basically

downloadable games and game licenses. So if you

wanted the later if you wanted the latest leisure

suit Larry game you could go to You know digitalriver

.com click on it pay ten bucks. You'd get a download

code in your email. You download it. You'd have

the game Right, I am guaranteeing and I don't

know this for fact I don't think anyone knows

for this this for fact because I don't think

Mattel's lawyers will ever allow this to be public

knowledge I am pretty pretty damn sure on the

nose that the upper management of Mattel when

When when the the team behind what was Masters

Universe classics because that was the only line

on Matty Klecker at that time The team behind

them were like, we want to sell this line. And

management said, oh, it's Masters of the Universe.

We already tried that. Nobody wanted it. And

it's like, no, you don't understand. You fucked

it up in 2002 and nobody wanted it. We want to

do it the right way. And management said, well,

maybe if we do something online. I guarantee

you they took the lowest bid they could find,

because Mattel knows nothing about this kind

of distribution, nothing. They don't know, they

don't know what's involved, they don't know how

to do it, or else you would have Mattel .com,

Matty would be a sub, you know, a subdirectory.

Sub site, yeah. They have no idea. So they put

bids out there, took the lowest bid, and lo and

behold, the lowest bid is Digital River. Now,

people always blame Matty Collector's servers.

Well, it's not Mattel, it's not Matty. It's actually

Digital River, and that's the thing, you know.

Inder's points were all well deserved, but that's

one of the things a lot of people get wrong is

that they blame Mattel for the server issues.

It's not Mattel. Mattel is paying Digital River,

or rather Digital River, you know, vice versa,

however it goes. Digital River has the contract

from Mattel. Mattel's paying them a nominal fee

to run this site. I guarantee you for the most

part, Mattel's hands are clean when it comes

to ... running that site because. Right, Mattel's

hands are clean, but Matty Collector is not.

Matty Collector, while it might be run by Digital

River, but their individual website, even their

phone customer service line says, thank you for

calling Matty Collector. It doesn't say thank

you for calling Digital River. Right, but what

I'm saying though is Digital River runs all that

for them. That is all out of Digital River's

headquarters. Oh, okay, okay, okay. I got you.

None of that comes out of Mattel. Mattel has,

like, literally has... nothing to do hands -on

with digital river and Maddie collector for the

most part and I can guarantee you this because

the server loads and everything else are all

run by digital river and I I Bet digital river

even though they said they upgraded their servers

I bet you they still have the same amount of

servers and the same amount of speed that they

had when they were selling online games downloadable

Yeah, because when you think about it when you

have I mean, no one knows the numbers. No one

has any idea how many people visit that site

a month, you know, on sale date. Nobody has any

idea what the numbers are like for these figures.

I'm going to say when you have, you know, 1 .8

million people all at once trying to, you know,

eBay has that probably on a daily basis at any

time, and they probably have one, two million

people on their site at once looking at different

things. Well, eBay's got enough servers. They've

been doing this for a long time. They've got

their shit down straight. Digital River either

one doesn't care or two is too scared to increase

You know increase I Don't know how I want to

say this because I don't know how their contract

works I want to say they're too frightened to

increase their bid offer to Mattel in Thought

that Mattel would then take that bid offer from

them and give it to someone else Because right

now digital rivers probably making a shit ton

more money than they've ever made in their existence

and Mattel is their cash cow and they're scared

But they don't have the money or the resources

to do anything about all of these server problems

and these issues Now understand all this is speculation.

I don't know any of this for fact This is all

speculation in all things that I I have seen

that I know how other sites like this work I've

seen the inner workings. I kind of get a feel

for it right, but then you know with all these

server problems in the second year is when shit

really started going downhill because once their

shit started to stink, it all started to roll

uphill to Mattel and it became, we got delayed

figures and screwed up production and we got

toys coming to us with wrong shoulders which

started with He -Man of all things. He -Man had

the wrong shoulders, his shoulders were on the

wrong sides. Right, you know that started the

very you know, the second figure out of the gate

Had damn shoulders were wrong You know, I mean

it just goes back, you know, the quality control

has never been good Although Mattel's main line

their mainstay lines that are in the retail their

quality control is great I've never seen a quality

issue with any of Mattel's lines that are in

stores, you know I've seen you see them every

once in a while but nothing like we've seen with

Mattel nothing like, you know full runs of figures

like he man and King His having completely wrong

shoulder orbit, you know, the sockets, I mean,

just completely, they're on the wrong sides.

Roboto was another one. Swiftwin had the wrong

legs, you know, you just start, you know, looking

at all this, and it may sound like nitpicking,

but you start looking at all the issues Mattel's

had, and all the problems they've had, and all

the quality control issues they had, and you

just look at it and go, how is this online company

still able to survive because And I'll tell you

why it's because for the most part And I've said

this a million times and I'm sure I've got plenty

of enemies and plenty of people who hate me Masters

fans are the most Are the most shit -taking group

of fans I have ever seen that will take so much

shit and then literally close their mouth around

the cock that feeds them Yeah, you know it's

one of those things where Wow, I don't know I

follow that up. It's one of those things where

you know Mattel is like, you know, oh, sorry,

we're having all these problems Here's this here's

this here's this, you know, and of course, you

know all of the Masters fans at least the ones

that are buying the MOTUC figures. I think everyone

is a Maddie apologist Because as soon as they

get a really, really nice figure in their grubby

little hands to either play with or put on display

or do a review of, they're like, oh wow, this

is great, this is awesome, this is great. And

then it goes, it's a vicious cycle, you know,

you have that, and then the next month, oh hell,

something's wrong with the sailor, we're not

gonna be able to make sail data, this, that,

anything else. You know, I was stoked. You know,

2009 I think is, 2009, 2010 is I think when I

started getting figures off of, well, at the

time, because, and this is something we'll talk

about a little bit later because they're starting

to do this now, I understand it's a club. I understand

you have to sign up for the club every year and

you're, you know, you're committed to buying

those 20 figures for that year. However, for

those of us, at the time who didn't want to be

locked into $400, $500 yearly things of toy buying

and just wanted to cherry pick the toys that

we wanted to get, it's like you have to be here

on this date and you have to make sure you don't

have a white screen of death or else fuck you,

we're not selling you these figures. Because

as soon as they're sold out, that's it. that's

all that's all she wrote soon as it's done so

then you have to go to ebay or or amazon or big

bad toy store com or uh... you know places like

that to get them but then you're getting them

at those stores markups and that's like wow really

holy shit uh... i started by the figures uh...

myself uh... from big red toys are what i could

Wasn't like I would it wasn't like I was buying

two or three Masters of the universe classics

regular like like regular figures not like beasts

or you know large scale figures just a regular

six and a half set like he man Skeletor big bad

toy stores prices for those figures are $34 .99

unless they're on sale. Sometimes they're like

$31 .49 or $27 .99 or whatever else, but for

the majority, every regular standard MOTUC figure

on bigventoaster .com is $34 .99 plus shipping.

In total, it comes to like, I don't know, $43,

$44. Yeah, something like that. For one figure.

So I would buy here and there, you know, every

month if I had an additional $44 laying around

that I... i'd already paid everything else off

i'd be like okay cool you know i really want

this figure that's great that's great that's

great uh... in uh... uh... twenty or twenty eleven

uh... some financial stuff in the where i had

to at the time i had i had everything that would

had come out to the point of i think july uh...

I didn't have everything from 2010 and 2009 and

2008, but I had everything as far as 2011 went

because I went and got it. But in the middle

to late 2011, I was running into financial problems

and I had to then sell that entire. I had probably

maybe, I think it was 15 figures plus Battle

Cat and Panther. So I had to sell it off. That's

just what I had to do because I had other obligations

that... I needed to meet before having toys just

sitting on my desk or on my shelf or whatever.

And then my buddy up the bottom of this, who

was locked into the 2011 sub and wasn't collecting

the toys anymore, I was like, okay, well, I'll

buy the rest of them off of you. And that was

fine. So I got Leech, Manny Faces, Battleground

Evil Inn. Hurricane Hordak and then he also got

me a Keldor and another Skeletor off of Mad Maddie

Monday or Cyber Monday or whatever. Yeah, it

was Cyber Monday, right, right So I had all those

and In July July 30th. I was like, okay. Well,

I'm gonna be stupid I'm not gonna listen to everybody

who says, you know death to the clubs because

They're going to end up screwing you in the end.

I didn't listen and my idea was that I would

get two subscriptions. One to open and to display

and then one to keep mint in seal box or mint

on seal card or whatever the hell. And then get

some of those Zolo word world cases where you

could put them in a clamshell case and have them

hanging on the wall so it doesn't affect the...

the actual hanger that's on the actual Maddie

collector or the Masters of the Universe classics

boxes. So that was my plan. Well, the apartment

that I'm in is only a one bedroom apartment.

Yes, it has plenty of wall space where I could

do this, but I didn't have the extra fundage

to go to Zola World to order those MOTUC clamshell

cases. Right. So I was like, okay, well, I'm

just going to sell the second subscription because

I'm not going to use it. I'm just gonna keep

one subscription to open the figures. Right,

makes sense. And then November and December 2011

hit. Originally... Originally, Battleground Evilin,

which is essentially a repaint of the original

Evilin that they did for MOTUC, is a 2000X repaint.

So we could have her in 2000X colors. She has

her 2000X head and her vintage head, but it's

in the purple and black and all that style. It

doesn't have the actual 2000X design of the skirt,

but it has those colors. It has a purple cape.

It has a purple staff and a glow -in -the -dark

staff piece. uh... and originally she was supposed

to be in november was switched when it's now

spout they then moved her to december okay great

alright so i'm like all right well i can pay

my buddy up to bottom us off in december for

every figure you know cuz i was paying him in

payment plans uh... so i could i could pay it

off in that way when bg evil in came out i can

have it all for christmas right could have a

Masters of the Universe Classics Christmas. Come

December, two to three days before the sale,

December 12th, 2011, we're sorry subscribers,

we're having distribution problems with Demoman.

Hence, the subscribers that are supposed to be

getting Battleground Evil in are also going to

get that figure delayed. Are you fucking kidding

me? Here's the biggest issue. with that is that

why they only announced that a handful of days

before it was supposed to go on sale, when they

probably knew a month and a half ago that it

wasn't going to be here in any way, shape or

form, that is what boggles my mind the most.

And as somebody who, as I said at the start of

this, somebody who hasn't actively bought a Mattel

figure from Matty in probably close to two years,

That just, I cannot wrap my head around the fact

that they had to have known that these toys just

were not gonna get here. They had to have known

there was no way because you just don't like,

I mean, it's not like UPS. They are just not

like, well, UPS is running late. Sorry, guys.

We're talking about pallets and pallets and pallets

of these toys not coming, not getting here to

the states where they need to get to. And they

know about these things well in advance. I mean,

it's not something that just kind of springs

up on it, especially if it did maybe two weeks,

maybe two weeks before, not three days before,

you know, they would have known about that and

would have been able to go on three weeks before

and gone, Hey, sorry, just found out these aren't

going to make customs. They're not going to get

into the States in time. We're going to have

to push them. That would have been okay. But

three days before that. And then that's the only,

you know, that's the only thing you had to tell.

People who are waiting or you've already taken

their money. Yeah, you know and then well, well

the subscribers for December didn't get their

money taken because the subscribers didn't get

their money taken until the the other problem

about this is though as Demoman as certain pallets

of Demoman came in They were then charging subscribers

and saying, here, you got, you know, this set

of 10 subscribers get their figures, but this

set of 10 don't because we don't have enough.

They didn't wait till the full quota came in

to fulfill every single subscription that they

had. That's the issue. My issue is, whereas I

had already paid Octobotomus for the Evil Inn,

I don't give a shit about Demoman. He's a he's

a Masters of the Universe classics neon green

Slimer. That's what he is to me. I understand

fans love him because he's a original mark, whatever

the guy's name is, design, what Skeletor might

have originally looked like in a comic book somewhere.

I don't care. I care about show accuracy. And

that's pretty much it. I have never, ever liked

the original Evil In Toy. Even even as a kid,

I never liked it because it was not she was not

yellow. in the in in the film Asian cartoon I'm

sorry she wasn't so I've never liked that toy

so the battle ground evil and I really like that

because it's show accurate wherever else and

you know so I've already paid off to bottom is

for this and I'm not saying anything against

that you know I've already paid for I don't care

whatever but it's still delayed right well I'm

the type of person where I'm very impulse if

I pay for something and it's supposed to come

out on a certain time or it's supposed to get

to me on a certain time I want it now yeah I

went on Maddie and I ordered a second Battleground

Evil Inn because that was the other biggest thing

is like oh sorry subscribers this is delayed

but we do have the Battleground Evil Inn for

cherry pickers that want to buy Day of Sale.

Right the what the people that were guaranteed

the figures when they signed up for the subscription

Are the ones end up getting screwed because the

ones that make it to the states? They actually

have to turn around and put on Maddie collector

to sell or else it'll be an even bigger mess

Which I understand the logistics behind that

they're like, okay, these people are guaranteed

their figures. We're getting these figures They're

going to get their figures They are guaranteed

them these other people who show up month -to

-month and just buy this stuff Going to show

up at the site and we're not going to have anything

to sell them So these the ones that we're getting

in we need to put those up for sale I understand

the logistics behind that I don't agree with

them I understand they were trying to put out

fires and it you know, but that fire has grown

now into a Larger fire. Oh, yes. I'm gonna get

into that in a second. So, you know, I You know,

I I had my my evil in or every time I've gone

on Maddie even on sale dates Right because I've

only Trying to remember I've only bought two

things off of Maddie collector comm Everything

else I've bought third party whether it's through

friends or whether it's through other like big

bad toy stores where I normally go or Amazon,

right? The other thing I bought on Maddie one

time was I bought the Great Wars Sortment the

the second weapons pack that they did the one

that came with the Shearer sword and all the

different Not the sheer assort the Adora sword

the right second silver sword. I think it's great

wars to or Whatever that that Experience of being

on the site. It wasn't a sale date. It went fine

Now I knew on the December sale date that of

course because everybody wants battleground evil

in That obviously I was gonna get the five four

three two one Power Rangers in space Matty Collector

white screen of death, I finally got in. What

really kind of pissed me off and I almost thought

I wasn't going to get the figure was as I'm going

through the checkout, every step of the checkout,

like after I entered my information or whatever

else and blah, blah, blah, blah, after each of

those steps, I got a white screen for like one

countdown. And I'm like, really seriously? You

know I can see like if you first go to the site

and there's so many people and you have to even

have the countdown to get into the site but once

you're there and you have something in your cart

and They're you know and of course they have

a big disclaimer of well We can't even though

you put this figure in your cart We can't get

we can't guarantee you that you'll actually get

it until you actually check out So they're actually

promoting people to snipe the figures from others.

Yeah And it's like, are you friggin' serious?

So I finally got through the checkout, I got

the confirmation, I got the shipping thing and

whatever else, and I did get it. And you know

the shopping cart thing, I don't even think that,

I don't think that's necessarily, that's something

I think isn't necessarily under control because

I don't think anyone has written or created a

shopping cart program to that degree that is

able to track what is in your shopping cart.

before you check out. I mean, I just don't think

that it's possible at this time for them to create

such a program that tracks what is in people's

shopping carts, especially when you have a couple

million people at once all trying to buy the

same figure. That's just, you know, a mathematical

equation of hell, you know? I mean, that's something

that's not within their control. But yeah, I

mean, I understand that, you know, suddenly...

You you shouldn't once you're in the site you

shouldn't have to reload every fucking time you

go to a different screen And that was always

my biggest complaint. I remember When battle

cat around that time when battle cat first came

out there were actually People actually discovered

back doors into the site that would take you

right to the order page You never got the white

screen of death they literally would go to the

order page order their stuff and be done and

that's how a lot of these scalpers were able

that's why battle cat went so quick because these

scalpers suddenly had this back door and they

were able to go in you know multiple people at

once and buy these up with no problems and suddenly

no one had battle cat because it was like well

what what the fuck happened all the battle cats

and then suddenly you know they start showing

up on all these third party sites and you know

all over ebay and stuff and it's like you know

people wanting 100 for him you know 125 and it's

like how is this happening and then suddenly

it came to light oh there's back doors to the

maddie collector site Every month this is the

address you go to to get in through the back

door. Well, they you know To Mattel's credit

they once that was brought out to light because

you don't know until somebody starts talking

about it Really in that case once somebody actually

opened their big mouth and people were like,

oh really, you know Well Mattel sealed the back

door up and there's been no real issues like

that again But you know, it goes back to the

server issues where there's just not enough serving

power to run the site properly I don't think

it's ever going to change. I think it's just

going to continuously be much of the same crap

until Maddie Collector goes down in a fiery death.

Yeah. Now, I mentioned earlier about July 2011.

Right. July 30th, 2011, I went on there and I

got two 2012 Club Attorney subscriptions. Right.

The total came to with shipping... came to $90

.55. Now, I understand what their policies are

and everything else. However, I'm the type of

person that if I order something from somewhere,

I want them to charge me all at once. If I have

the extra money right then and there, I want

them to charge me all at once. That way, I don't

have to worry about it anymore. Say you go to

Walmart and you buy a $100 iTunes card or any

denomination of gift card. You're not going to

sit there and buy $40 of a hundred dollar gift

card, you know what I mean? Yeah, so they on

August 1st 2011 They charged me $40, which is

the unit the cost of the initial 2012 January

figure I Then had a remaining balance of $50

and 55 cents. Well as you said a second ago From

demo man on the problems have increased right

they came out and basically said that Sorceress

isn't going to be able to meet quota. And seeing

as how we had such a screw up on Demoman, we're

actually not going to sell her until the full

quota does come in. So that way some subscribers

are getting her and some aren't. We're not going

to go through that again. So I do commend them

on doing that. However, what they did originally

in January was supposed to be, and I'm not counting

the 30th anniversary stuff. I don't care about

the 30th anniversary stuff because it's figures

I just don't. Just don't care about right here,

but fearless photog something that was supposed

to win a contest 30 years ago, you know It's

a cool -looking figure. It has no Has no meaning

for me though so you know I'm thinking all right.

Well, that's that's cool So January was supposed

to be originally sorceress fearless photog if

you count the 30th anniversary and the star sisters

correct The star sisters Something that was in

mock -ups and maybe five minutes of a Shira episode

three characters and Now I I did comment on pixel

Dan's video review of these and he's like, oh,

well, they've been talked about on He man org

for years now and I'm like, well I don't care

if they've been talked about on human org for

years now. I've only seen them entirely once

I barely remember them And they are the most

expensive piece in the 2012 subscription. They

are $60 for three figures that, to my own personal

knowledge, no one gives a shit about. Right.

What happened was they now moved the Sorceress

to February. And they put the Star Sisters in

January. Originally, they moved the Star Sisters

to February to ease people from, you know, Christmas

costs and whatever else and we're just gonna

have Sorceress and Fearless Photon in January.

Because of the Sorceress not being able to meet

full quota of them getting them all at once,

they're like, well, let's move her to February,

we'll put the Star Sisters in January and basically

screw everybody. This, for me personally, had

caused a huge fucking issue. because at the time

and I don't mind saying this at the time I had

$73 .19 in my bank account so as far as I was

concerned looking at my invoice on mattycollector

.com or as Ender likes to say matty scalper .com

It's you know, it's at 90 55 and I as I said

before a second ago I already had the $40 taken

so the 50 55 was what I had budgeted out Mike

like I've heard it's not like I'm spending more

than I Then I'm then I get a month So like I've

already taken care of all my bills and I had

this extra money left over To take care of this

this charge, right? Well now that because of

the suit the the the Kel Marzo who was a PCN

board member and a friend of mine on Twitter

actually said something very funny He said the

SS and the first thing I thought of was oh great

the star sisters are German Nazi spies because

that's what they are to me really honestly I

That's just really what they are. They're a German

curse So they put the star sisters in January.

I have two subscriptions to matty collector that's

120 dollars before shipping after shipping i

think it's like 130 55 guess what i had to do

all those figures i had just bought from off

to bottomist from august to december including

the battleground evil end that i had bought myself

off of matty scalper i took them all to the pawn

shop had to sell them all to get additional money

to cover the charge for the fucking star sisters

oh but it's not over there guess what happens

two days after i do that tell us mike i get a

fucking email from matty collector saying because

of this huge issue and because they cost so much

we're gonna split the costs up you're gonna be

charged x amount of dollars on the third on the

thirteenth and then you're gonna be charged the

rest of it on the twenty they're basically splitting

up the payment To ease the pain that doesn't

ease the fucking pain I've already sold are like

the only thing I have left right now is the 1982

Castle Grayskull that I've had since I was three

years old in 1983 I have currently I have no

Masters of Universe classics figures whatsoever

because I had to sell them all just to make sure

that My bank account wasn't gonna go into the

red and I talked to Octobotimus about this He's

like well, can't you just call the bank and have

them put like a stop payment or have them? You

know for you know, not not allow the charge.

I looked into that The bank told me because if

you give your information, you know, you've give

your credit card information out to a third party

which you know all Excuse me all websites and

services or third parties You know they then

directly can take from your bank, right? And

the only way that we can the only way the bank

can stop it is to put a stop payment on it But

my bank charges $33 per stop payment. Jesus.

So, yeah. So, it's either spend... Okay, so...

So basically, you were going to get raped either

way. Right, $33... That's my advice to you would

be just go dead in the eyes and just let them

have what they want. Well, right, right. But

the thing is, okay, you take $33 and you multiply

that times 12 months because it's 12 months of

figures. That's $396 of stop payment fees. Jesus.

Okay, so there was no way I was doing that. So

I'm to the point now where I give a shit. The

figures are great. I don't, you know, I'm not

saying anything bad about the actual design of

the line whatsoever. The figures are awesome.

but i'm to the point now where i'm actually done

toy collecting i'm actually probably going to

end up so i'm probably going to end up taking

my castle gray skull that i've lugged around

with me for the last 25 years i'm probably going

to take that and go sell it somewhere because

i don't mattel maddie collector digital river

have all basically given me the fuck you attitudes

towards towards toy collecting whatsoever i'm

now instead of keeping one subscription i'm selling

them both I'm selling every single figure in

both subscriptions this year. I've got several

buyers for several different ones at this point.

I don't want anything to do with it. So as soon

as Matty Scalper takes my money every month and

as soon as they send me figures, I'm getting

the money back by reselling. And the way that

I'm reselling them is I am, instead of doing

like a high overhead charge or a high, you know,

price hike, Like a lot of the online things are.

I'm charging people what Matty Collector has

charged me so far. Single -figure sorceress.

They charge for the shipping that I get, because

I usually get the UPS ground, you know, three

to seven day ground shipping or whatever it is.

They charge $28 .70. So Sorceress, Fisto, Cobra

Khan, whatever, those figures are all $28 .70.

For the multi -packs and bigger items, I am charging

the actual price, but I'm not charging a shipping

cost on that. So the Star Sisters is $60 shipped.

I'll take care of the shipping cost. I don't

care about that because I just want to get rid

of those fucking things. The Griffins, which

I've already got two people who want to buy those,

those are $30 shipped. You know, so, because

the thing of it is, is I want to be able to,

and I'm not putting this shit on eBay. Fuck that,

I ain't dealing with that. You know, I'm posting

on the Matty boards, not the Matty boards, the

Matty Facebook page, and I'm posting on the PCN

forum saying, hey, who wants this, who wants

this, who wants this, and I'm doing it to where

I get the most amount of money without, you know,

fees from eBay or PayPal or whatever else, and

so it's one of those things where I need to recoup

the most amount of money as possible. Because

I want nothing to fucking do with this line anymore

nothing, and I'm not getting obviously I'm not

getting a 2013 subscription fuck this you know

it's you know it's funny about all that is that

you're in the minority when it comes to people

who have literally turned their backs on Masters

because of the way Mattel is running or Not even

you know that they're running Matty and the way

the digital river handles business. I mean I've

seen a majority of people go I'm done. I'm done

with the line I'm gonna sell all my shit and

nobody ever does they just continue to We'll

see they continue to hobble down in front of

you know their lord and master and let them Beat

them senseless with a nine tails. You know, but

the difference is though The difference is though.

It's not just oh, sorry We couldn't mail your

subscription figure out, but we could put this

online first for people to actually buy Cherry

Pick. The difference is, is though, because of

this quota thing and having to rearrange the

schedule, they fucked with my money pretty much.

Because I had to, no, I've got a picture on Twitter

where someone said that I won't, a friend of

mine on Twitter said, ah, you won't sell the.

the figures that you're going to be buying. You

won't resell them. I said, want to bet? And I

took a picture of my desk where all is this.

There is my castle gray skull. That's it. Yeah.

I don't care. I love the line. I love the toys,

but I'm done. I'm not buying anymore. I'm serious.

I could put that money every month towards something

else more important, you know, than, than toys.

I just don't give a shit anymore. I've seen the

reviews of Sorceress and Star Sisters and Pixel

Dan just put up his review of Shadow Weaver on

BlipTV. I was ecstatic for Shadow Weaver because

it's the first ever Shadow Weaver figure we've

ever gotten, I think. And I saw Dan's review

of Sorceress and seeing her up close and the

way that her wings work, I don't like her. I

just don't. Having her maybe just stand there

with her arms out and but you know and just looking

at her from the front is fine, but if you're

like wanting to pose her and You know maybe take

images where you're showing he man and facing

her and she you know you see her back and it's

like Those protrude and I I understand it's an

engineering thing where that's how they had to

do it So the wings would work, but she is too

giant protruding things coming out of the back

of her shoulders because that's how the wings

plug into it or whatever else I just I don't

like the way the figure looks I Just don't I

Just I don't give a shit anymore. You know, it's

it's it's sad that you know Mattel has started

to turn off their own fans because of this stuff

I mean you you talked about how you literally

had to pawn the figures that you had to cover

the cost of the Star Sisters. They knew when

they made that announcement that they had screwed

things up. And even though they had already said,

we're moving the Star Sisters back to help with

after Christmas. And then suddenly they're like,

well, we lied. We're going to do the Star Sisters

anyway, because we screwed things up really bad.

But then on top of that, the very next day, they

sent out an email saying, oh, by the way, we're

going to break those payments up. You guys should

have known that that day you sent out that email.

That should have been part of that whole plan,

not look at this, you know, look at this fire

that started. Now we have to put out this fire

and turn around and try to save face on all this.

Well, it's too late because people like you and,

you know, people are going to use the argument,

oh, you should have put your money aside and

all this other shit. No, no, no. And that's what

I'm saying right now. No, no, no, no. It isn't

even about putting my money aside. They had already

taken back in August when I... Had the money

available because I again I budgeted out for

it They had already taken the initial fig the

cost of the two subscription initial figures

for $40 I was under the impression that this

month in January The sorceress was coming out.

This is before all the announcements of oh, sorry

sorceress isn't you know? We're not gonna get

it in time, but it was before that right I was

still under the impression that the $50 55 cents.

That's what I budgeted out for the January cost

so no one should be commenting on this episode

post saying, oh, well, you should have budgeted

your money out better. No, no, no. This is not

my fault. As I said before, this isn't me overspending

something and then not having the money. This

isn't me buying something. This isn't me going

to, you know, Target and buying 20 DVDs and not

having the money to cover this charge. This is

me having the money to cover a certain amount

of the charge that was originally told that I

would have. And now, because they have to move

all this shit around, they put the most expensive

figures in its place. You know, we've seen in

-packaged pictures of Fisto, and I don't know

how long as far, you know, I don't know anything

about Mattel's workings, but I don't know how

long it usually takes them to get quotas in,

but they could have put Fisto in that place.

They could have put Cobra Khan in that place.

They could have put any single figure in January.

They could have put any single figure in January.

And I would have been all right. I would have

been fine. Because it would still be the same

amount. I mean, that was the point I was headed

towards, is that, you know, there are going to

be people that are like, well, you should have

put your money aside. You should have budgeted.

Well, it's not about budgeting. And just like

you said, it's not about budgeting. It's the

fact that Mattel royally screwed people who had

already budgeted the money and now suddenly are

like, I don't have this extra money. I've got

money budgeted for this and that's it. And now

you're telling me I have to have more money budgeted

for that? That's not how commerce works. Maybe

that's how it works in North Korea. With the

death of dear leader, I can imagine things are

a little crazy over there too, but Mattel's just

like, well, let's see. Here's a table. Here's

a guy. Let's bend him over the table, pull his

pants down, and then see what happens. You know,

I mean, it's it's it's a sad sad state of affairs

and I tweeted you know when they tweeted that

They sent out a tweet saying that you know, hey,

you know, the star sisters are gonna be January

now, you know sources was pushed back I literally

tweeted look the Titanic I mean That that is

where that in my mind is where they're heading

because there cannot be They're starting to get

into territory now that they've got the filmation

license, and now that they're doing these figures

based on concept art, which some of them are

okay, I'll take that. I get they're trying to

branch out, you know, that's understandable,

but there's still key characters that have never

been made. Mechaneck, Ramman, you know, you've

got a bunch of key characters that have never

hit the shelves, and now they're just... from

outward appearances, they appear to be a sinking

ship. And not just because of Masters, but they've

fucked up Ghostbusters. Ghostbusters is completely

screwed and on its way out. You know, they've

got the license for Back to the Future. They're

gonna jack that up because they're gonna do,

you know, so many versions of Marty and Doc because,

I mean, yeah, you can do, well, you can do versions

of Marty, Doc, and Biff, but who else are you

gonna do? Are you gonna do Lorraine? Are you

gonna do, you know... They're not going to do

a DeLorean. They're going to jack that line up

because people are going to buy the first Marty

and Doc, and then no one's going to give a shit

because it's going to be like, Marty and Doc

are cool. That's all we want. We don't care about.

People will probably buy Back to the Future 2

Marty to get the hoverboard, I imagine, but that's

it. They've screwed up the 12 -inch Movie Masters

line because they did these three Superman figures,

which were great, but they're just odd 12 -inch

figures. You know, they they've screwed up they've

screwed up their their movie masters line, you

know They're screwing up DC Universe because

with DC relaunching. I Don't want to get into

that with DC relaunching their universes Mattel

was like, well, we got to make new figures So

we're gonna cancel DC Universe classics in the

stores and do this new DC Universe All -Stars

figures that have these revamped, relaunched

versions of the figures. So everyone's going

to have to buy new figures of figures you've

already bought. And we're going to take DC Universe.

Online Nomadic Collector and then we're going

to show off the worst fucking figures that we

can show off to make you not want to buy this

line and then suddenly we're begging you to subscribe

to this line because the subscription figure

is a figure we've never made in DC Universe which

is Poison Ivy which pissed a lot of people off

who didn't buy the subscription because they

didn't announce that figure until after the subscriptions

were closed that figure was announced after they

were like well we closed it off here's the subscription

figure for DC Universe and that just set people

off they're like If I'd have known that, I'd

have bought them, but you didn't tell us that.

You didn't tell us who was the subscription figure.

You didn't tell us who. You didn't show us any

pictures of who was going to be in that line.

You literally said at San Diego, these are the

figures that are going to be a part of the DC

Universe Classic subscription, the DC Infinite

Universe, or whatever it's called. And that was

it. They didn't get pictures or anything. And

it's like, how far in advance did you plan this?

you know, going back to Ghostbusters at Comic

-Con when they announced what the subscription

figure was going to be for, you know, it was

going to be the rookie from the Ghostbusters

game. Look, I like the Ghostbusters game. That's

great. But you couldn't, you know, you couldn't

do Azul. That couldn't be your subscription figure.

You couldn't do one of the ghosts from the real

Ghostbusters in the movie style. You know, you

couldn't do Sam Haim or the Sandman or, you know,

any of those figures. In the style of the movie

really you you pick the rookie a figure that

Just judging from you know, and I felt bad for

the gal who is toy guru's right hand I guess

she does a lot of conventions with him. I don't

even know her name but I know she presented that

and everybody just booed and that you my heart

went out to this gal because She didn't she had

no idea what to do because she thought oh, it's

gonna be great The fans are gonna love this,

you know, she hyped it up and then she said it

and people went Basically they were like, you

know, suddenly they're in New York with guys

going fuck you, you know What can you you know?

It was one of those things where your heart just

goes out to this poor gal because you're like

Well, welcome to you know You you you can do

everything you can to please your fans and the

moment you start screwing things up Your fans

are gonna turn your backs on on you and that's

literally what they did at that moment is when

the Maddie collector ship started to sail slowly

down that horizon And since then, you've just

seen this build up. Now, whether or not, everything

I say is speculation. It's my opinion. I'm an

opinionated guy. Just from being on the outside

looking in, this is what I see. I see this great

beast that should have been being just eaten

alive by parasites. And I'm not talking parasites

as a fan. I'm talking about parasites from within.

I mean, they're literally being dismantled piece

by piece. And one of the saddest things is that

people always blame Toy Guru for everything.

They always immediately turn on Scott. And it's

one of the things people don't understand is

that Scott is doing his job. I mean, that's literally

his upper management telling him, this is what

you need to tell. And since he basically made

himself the face of Mattel and Maddie Collector,

people think he is the end -all, be -all. And

they just vehemently attack this poor man. And

it's like, you know, Dave and I have talked about

it on David Neville's and the fact that, you

know, we have nothing against Scott. We have

nothing against Mattel. But the fact is that

you're obviously not running Matty Collector

like you run Barbie. I mean, look at the way

that Mattel runs Barbie. Barbie is their cash

cow. And they run that like, you know, I mean,

it's their golden child. That is what makes them

the most money is Barbie. and they run that with

an iron grip. I mean, there is stuff that comes

out in Barbie and stuff sells because Barbie

fans are so, you know, crazy and they don't screw

up, you know, there are certain stores that get

certain high dollar exclusives and they make

so many of them and they tell people ahead of

time and those people know where to go. And I

mean, they run it just like a well -oiled machine.

Why can't they not run Matty Collector the same

way they run their Barbie division? That is the

biggest thing that I literally just have so much

trouble wrapping my head around is that you're

in this business to make money. You're in the

toy business to make money. It's hard to make

money in the toy business because toy aisles

are not like they used to be in the 80s. The

toy business is not like it used to be in the

80s where you used to have, you'd walk into a

Toys R Us and you'd have, you know, 30, 36, 40

foot long toy aisles for boys action figures,

for girls toys, where it was just aisle after

aisle of toys, toys, toys, toys, toys, peg box,

everything. You know, you don't have, now you

fight for, each company fights for so much real

estate on the shelves. I mean, go into a Target,

go into a Walmart. They don't carry shit anymore

because their toy departments are so small. nine

months out of the year and then Christmas time

they over expand and suddenly they carry all

the stuff they didn't carry. But nine months

out of the year starting at toy fair when they

do their best to lock down buyers for their lines.

Everyone's fighting for the same amount of real

estate or less I mean look at look how much real

estate Bandai gets for Thundercats which Thundercats

should be a really well -received line and it

has been but you can't find anything half the

time because no one's carrying it because it's

just so small look what happened to GI Joe from

Hasbro, I mean they literally it was a big line

and then suddenly Walmart's had a peg of GI Joe

figures and that was it and it's like where the

hell all the joke stuff goes if there isn't a

movie or an active television series to push

that or something well known like Star Wars or

Power Rangers or Ben 10 You literally are not

going to get on that shelf. I guarantee you,

I don't know who made Redakai, the card action

figure game, and I can't think of who did that.

I guarantee you that company threw so much money

at these stores in order to get as much real

estate as they have because that damn game has

as much real estate as games like Beyblade and

Toys R Us. Well, not Beyblade, but Bakugan. I

think that's exactly why, when you're talking

about toy real estate, not only is it just because

of the 2000X failure, that's exactly why Mattel

has gone to do the online line, to do the subscription,

to sell them through Matty Scalper. And that's

a smart way to go, because that's where your

consumer is at. I mean, that's where all of these

collectors are. I mean, look at companies like

Sideshow. Well, Sideshow in particular. Sideshow

is, I mean, they have a retail presence and,

you know, if you go to Toys R Us and Times Square,

they have sideshow stuff there. If you, you know,

most comic book shops and mom and pop toy shops

and these, there are, you know, certified sideshow

dealerships. And, but sideshow's mainstay is

online. They are an online business. their toys

are low numbered, high dollar, and sell out every

time they offer them. And that makes you look

at a model like that and go, well, why the hell

can't Mattel take something like that and do

the exact same thing and not have these issues?

Because the thing is that if Mattel would just

offer pre -orders on their toys, and once they

sell out of the pre -orders that aren't subscription

figures, that's it. you wouldn't have to go to

Matty every month. You literally could just go

pre -order your figure. The pre -orders would

be open from this time to this time, and once

they're gone, they're gone. And then you would

never have to go to Matty on a sale day to fight

these crowds to buy these toys. That is what

Sideshow does. Every release, they offer up,

first they offer up their pre -sale to their

collector's club. And then they offer it online,

where you can pre -order. And they offer things

like FlexPay, where you can pay, you know, if

you pre -order a Hot Toys figure and it's $300,

you know, you pay $75. And then you don't pay

another $75 for four months. And then you don't

pay the last of it or whatever for three months,

like, or two months before the toy comes out

or right before it ships. And if Mattel would

take that type of business model and embrace

that type of business model... I honestly and

truly believe we wouldn't have these issues.

We wouldn't have issues where people like yourself

have been so burned in such a short amount of

time by Mattel that they're literally ready to

give up all of toy collecting because of this

one incident, one line. We wouldn't have that

issue if Mattel would just listen to what people

are trying to tell them and not go, it's just

crazy masters fans. They're going to buy our

shit no matter what we do. We don't care if they

would just stop and listen to the rest of us

and to the majority of Masters fans and go, I

think these people have it right on the nose

if we offer pre -orders. And that's what they

think the subscription club is. But the subscription

club is so jacked up now that now you're locked

in for every figure and a lot of people don't

want every figure. If they would just do pre

-orders, get rid of the damn subscription figures.

Get rid of the subscriptions. Get rid of it.

It's a failed process. People hate it. They'll

say they love it. But people are literally spewing

flames right now because of the whole Star Sisters

thing right now. My perfect world would be get

rid of subscriptions. Do away with them. The

only thing people care about is subscription

figures. two shitty subscription fig - well,

yeah, two shitty subscription figures and a good

one with Shadow Weaver. Because, well, we never

got a Shadow Weaver figure and she was a mainstay

character in, you know, in She -Ra. And that's

a good thing to use a subscription figure for.

You know, make the subscription figures, you

know, have people, you know, pay 25 bucks a year,

30 bucks a year. You know something like the

GI Joe Club does where they pay, you know They

pay a membership fee up front every year and

then they get first dibs at product they get

you know if they're Enrolled within a certain

time of the year they get the exclusive figure

basically enrollment pays for the exclusive figure

So you'd have you'd have a Masters Universe Club

you know, kind of like the subscription, you

know, basically the same idea of the subscription,

but without all the hassle and all the mess,

you basically have Masters fans pay you 50, 55

bucks a year for this membership. And then you

get the subscription figure, which, you know,

you get that figure, you get first access to

pre -order your figures. So, you know, you get,

you know, they could throw in a bunch of extras

that... preferred seating at Comic -Con for the

panels or front of the line passes for Comic

-Con. I mean, there's so much that they could

do that is so logistically... So logistically

possible that why they're not doing stuff like

that and still going with this... piss poor business

model of here the subscription figures are locked

in for all these figures you cannot cancel we

won't let you cancel if you cancel you're basically

in maddie prison and you can never come out you

know that is I actually called them the other

day right and this is before I got the email

about the split payments cuz By then, I didn't

care. I already have the money in my account

to cover it. But I had called them the other

day saying, hey, look, I no longer want this

because of the fuck up. I didn't say this to

the person I was talking to, but I no longer

want this because of the fuck up that has happened

with moving these figures around. I don't have

the money to cover it. And they're like, well,

blah blah blah blah I was like okay well can

you either cancel it or can you get me to someone

who can cancel it and I know it says on their

website that they don't allow cancellations I'm

sorry if I've already paid you the forty dollars

part of you know the initial shit and you haven't

even sent me anything yet because it doesn't

start until January and in January like I don't

know what is it When did all this come out? Earlier

this past week correct you know like let's say

seven days before the sale All this news about

switching around happened seven days before the

sale, and I don't want my stuff anymore You're

telling me I can't cancel and I'm basically locked

in for five hundred and ten dollars of money

for an entire year in my case thousand and twenty

dollars because I have two subscriptions right

for the entire year you're telling me I can't

cancel that I don't I don't care if that's what

it says in your terms of terms of service or

whatever else that's bad business practice and

I literally I had my finger on the pulse to call

the Better Business Bureau on mattycollector

.com because that is fucking wrong if you're

going to sit there and screw it you know and

I know toy guru is just the messenger but I you

know he's like well the message now is that he's

been given to give everyone is it doesn't matter

what you know you're gonna get all the figures

but it doesn't you know we decide what month

they're gonna be yeah we can announce it and

say it's gonna be this month this month this

month but if shit happens well then whatever

you know what you know what while you were talking

I was thinking um what they should have done

is is They should have pushed Shadow Weaver up

to January. Shadow Weaver at this point is coming

out in February. They should have just pushed

her to January, not had a subscription figure.

Just release her in January. That'd be the only

figure. I wouldn't have had to sell all my toys

that I had. Right. And then you could have Sorceress

and Fist Stone. Granted, that's going to make

February a huge month, but I don't know. And

the other thing that I brought up to several

other people and I actually commented on as I

said I commented on pixel Dan's video about the

studio star sisters review I said You know, I

said the whole thing about no one cares. Well

while he replied and then I said well You know

what? They should have put this three pack out

later in the year and they could have given us

another multi pack this month or whatever else

or Let's see not do these figures this year save

them for later down in the line when no one is

gonna care at that time and Do something like

a three pack of horde troopers or a three pack

of twiggets from Secret of the sword those little

midget twig it people from from the movie, you

know They could have put anyone in that big three

pack They didn't have to put the star sisters

in there and from watching Dan's review. I hope

to God and I I'm sorry this happened to Dan but

Dan's figures have a ton of problems with them

like his his tall star the joint there's something

wrong with the joints and you can't I believe

his tall stars like right leg just as soon as

you touch it it just falls off Wow yeah So while

I'm sorry that happened to Dan, I'm hoping that's

not the case on everyone's figures because, as

I said, I'm not opening these damn things. I'm

leaving them in the white mailer and whoever

wants to buy them can buy them. But I'm not one

of these people at this point where I'm saying,

yes, I'm going to sell it all, but then I'm going

to buy it all. No, no, no, no. I'm done. I'm

done with Matty. I still love Masters of the

Universe, I still love Masters of the Universe

classics for what the toys are, but I'm done

dealing with it and I'd rather put my money in

other things, you know, than toys right now.

It's just soured me so much that I, you know,

as I said before, Toycast will still have, you

know, episodes that will do, but, you know, it'll

probably be me hosting and I'll probably have

two other people talking about toys that they

want to talk about or something like that, you

know, whereas it just... Oh God! Well you know

what's funny is that Voltron starts in February.

Yeah, yeah. The good thing is that it's literally

five figures. Five lines, five figures. They're

packaged together, one price, and that's it.

They might do other stuff beyond that, but that's

the core that they're doing. And they look great.

I've seen the first... I don't know if they're

in hand reviews but I've seen a lot of the open

box pictures and stuff of the figures and you

know they look like they've they're really well

done and you know Voltron deserves a decent you

know to have a three -foot Voltron is pretty

damn cool But you know I wanted the subscription

and I never never bought it never paid for it

I didn't have the extra money then they extended

it and then some other things came up and you

know We we I had some other things that that

I wanted to get into and I was like I just don't

have the extra 70 some bucks to give them for

them to give me back You know 60 of it and keep

15 or whatever for the subscription right now.

I'm like, I just don't have it I'm like, I'm

just gonna let it go So I've had to go to other

routes and basically talk to some friends who

run an online retailer that's like, hey, did

you guys buy Voltron subscriptions? Would you

sell me one of the subscriptions? And they're

like, hey, we'll work something out with you.

So I'm going to get a Voltron subscription, but

it's like I'm not going to Matty to get it. I

refuse to go to Mattel, to Matty .com, to try

to buy these as they come out. I would rather

find alternate routes that aren't eBay and help

somebody else out who's already buying them to

get them than Deal with Maddie because like I

said, I literally have not dealt with Maddie

What was the last figure that I actually physically

went to Maddie and bought? You know probably

My extra orko and Prince Adam that comic -con

that's probably the last figure two years ago

That I went to Maddie collector on sale day to

buy The last figure that I bought was whiplash

and I bought that off pixel Dan because it was

an extra figure That's literally the last Masters

figure I bought. And I didn't even buy all of

them to begin with. I didn't buy Count Marzo

and I didn't buy, you know, I can't even think

of some of the other ones that came out during

that period. Vaker and Web Store. I bought all

those but a lot of like the second tier, third

tier, the 2000X figures. I didn't buy a lot of

them because I'm just like, I really don't want

them. Yeah. But you know, like I said, I've had

to go to other routes. to get Voltron, because

I really like those figures. I love Voltron.

I think it's, you know, if they only do the five

lions, that's great. If, you know, if the lions...

Well, the five lions and the pilots. I mean,

the pilots are coming with the lions. Right.

So, I mean, it's not like... It's actually ten

figures, if you think about it, but yeah, I know

what you're saying. Right. And, you know, I mean,

I have these great hopes that they'll do... It'd

be great for them to do a vehicle force in the

same scale, but I know that'll never happen.

Oh, shit! Yeah, I mean, that'd be spectacular.

That'd be a giant... Vehicle force sucks. Well,

a lot of people think vehicle force sucks. It's

one of the coolest vintage toys I own, though,

is that vehicle force. It never got the pro...

Actually, the one Voltron that really sucks is

the Gladiator Voltron, which was the red, the

black, and the blue robots that literally sat

on top of one another and formed a big six -armed

robot. That one I've got two of those robots

I still need to find a blue one, but that one's

kind of that one's a pretty cheesy Voltron figure,

but uh you know I I guess I guess in closing

for me because You know like I said I People

are gonna listen this podcast and whether I've

made new enemies or whether people agree with

me or disagree with me Don't care. We live in

America. We have freedom of speech. It's it's

like I said I'm a very opinionated guy if you

listen if you listen to Dave and of all you know

I'm very opinionated and I like I said, I'm not

actively purchasing anything from Maddie collector,

so I don't feel as Venomous towards them as a

lot of people do right now, but I still look

at things that they've done But having bought

figures from them in the first couple of years

and seeing the way things went down have gone

down since then and You know I feel like I have

a decent opinion on the matter. You know, Matty

will never change. You're more objective than

I am because, as you said, you're not actively

into it. Now, this was obviously going to be

my first year into it, and this is a hell of

a way to start. And, you know, I want to stop.

And I'm going to stop. It's just one of those

things where I don't know they you know you mentioned

earlier about Ramman and Mechaneck and everything

else the probably you know what I've come to

realize Even before all this debacle if if if

the sorceress had actually have an engineer,

you know There should happen the way they said

it was supposed to I Would have been fine. Yeah

You know and I would have loved the line and

I still do love the line of toys But I would

have loved dealing with it and not you know not

having to worry about it But you you mentioned

earlier about Ramon and Mekanek thing about them

is though they have to They have to carry a year,

you know sorceress shadow weaver Fisto stink

or everybody was Ecstatic to see stink or right,

you know Those are figures so far up to this

point that they've revealed that are going to

carry the 2012 line, right? When they get to

2013, maybe Ramman might show up, maybe a Mechaneck

might show up, but they have to save those tier

one figures, those tier one characters for marketing

that year's line. I don't mind secondary tier

characters at all. You know, I mentioned to someone,

you know, if this three pack was Glimmer, Queen

Angella, and Hunga the Harpy, I would have loved

the hell out of it and I would have been fine

with it. But because it's characters, I... barely

remember and I don't have any connection to I

just don't care yeah I mean you know the the

star sisters there are a lot of fans out there

and you know I'll give them their props you know

for for it always seems to go that way with with

people that are fans of of very shortly seen

or short -lived characters you know they they

become very ravenous because that's that's all

they get is that one shot and they're like well

I always wanted to see more but never got to

see more I get people are some people are excited

some people are just and whatever some people

like you are like I really don't give a flying

fuck about these figures and That's that's kind

of shitty To be all in on a subscription like

that and to be like well. I have no choice. I

have to get these figures So I don't know brother

in in closing for me because I got to get to

bed We're gonna take a quick commercial break

and then back to close the show, but I wanted

to close now No, commercial first then we'll

close. Why do you make it so hard to love you?

Shut the fuck up. We'll be back after this. Hey,

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when you register. So there you have it, ladies

and gentlemen. Yet another Toycast episode, special

episode, basically. I would do my crazy Kermit

arms for you, but I'm tired. For me, at this

point, I am a Matty Collector Digital River hater.

I still like the products that Mattel produces.

Yeah, see, it's fucking late. Mattel produces,

but at this point, I am just a seething, raging...

Hater at this point, you know, you know flames

on the side of my face and just burning and just

Whereas you're more of an objectionable person

because you're not dealing with this shit. So,

thank you for joining us here on ToyCaster. So,

we're just getting in contact with us to leave

feedback for the show. You can visit the website

geekcasteradio .com and comment on each episode

post. You can also head over to toyworldorder

.com to see what the hell that crazy crew is

doing on over there. That's where I'm from. Yeah,

see Deval and his stupid rucks brony. Session.

Hey, don't don't don't mock me sir. Don't mock

me All right, you don't want to unleash this

venom. You can't handle this you can handle the

truth I will bring down the bronies and all they

stand for upon you and you shall suffer and Quake

and fear of us powerful bronies Right leave the

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Call our voicemail line tell us to show you leaving

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We hope you enjoyed this rage -filled hate -fest

of Maddie Collector here on Toycast. I wish you

would join us next time when we will be joined

by Pecan Court Michael and he and I are going

to be talking about the love that is the 1986

line of Transformers The Movie Toys. Ooh, there

weren't a whole lot of those. Well, there was

a whole year's worth of line. Yeah. Cobbler,

Rekgar, Hot Rod, Rodimus. There was a whole bunch

of stuff. Calutron. That was a different time.

Those things, they didn't spin those out over

a year. They literally came out and then set

on shelves for a year and you never had any trouble

finding any of them. Hear that, Mattel? That's

what you should be doing. Those were the good

old days. For now, I am TFG What Mike With. I

am Jason Duvall. Thank you for listening, until

next time. Peace out. Hey you guys, this is The

Mask, and you guys are listening to the Geekcast

Radio Network. And you know what? You are smoky!

Do not grieve. Soon, I shall be one with the

Matrix.