I'll disagree with you on shipping to Canada, only based on Eternia. The smaller MC stuff has been more than reasonable, but Eternia being over $200 for shipping to Canada was a complete ripoff. And now with Hasbro Pulse upping shipping on Haslabs to Canada (much less subsidizing Giant-Man is almost $50US to Ontario) I don't imagine we will see much love for shipping on the Snake Lair.
I think the price of this will be dependent on what they offer. I saw some videos where people were hoping it would be a slightly bigger playset than Castle Grayskull and Snake Mountain, and that it should be kitted out moreso as well.
Personally I don't see the need for that as that just means extra costs and a higher price. Plus I kind of want it to be in line with the Origins aesthetic set by Castle Grayskull and Snake Mountain. I'm fine with a shell and some play features and accessories for the interior with a possibility of add-ons (think Point Dread, or other pieces with Stridor, etc) as either tiers or later releases. Then of course at least one figure, preferably as part of the base offering.
As for pricing, if they go more towards that sort of basic offering I would hope they keep it to the $250US price they have had for a couple of their previous crowdfunds. Anything over that and it becomes more questionable as to whether or not it really is worth the money since it will basically be a shell with accessories (if I'm being honest).
Oh and can I also say how happy I am that they are waiting until spring next year to crowdfund this?
I was worried they would have something ready to go this week, and with all the other stuff going on (Giant-Man, Cobra Mothership, Christmas, etc) I would have been hard pressed to back it. Now I know I have lots of time to get ready for it.
@canprime I'll give you that, for sure. I actually forgot all about Eternia. I was thinking more about the figures. And, really, shipping to Canada is almost never reasonable no matter where you go. It's virtually ALWAYS more than it would be if you just had someone in the US send you the same thing (which, you know, it should literally be the opposite since large companies get pricing breaks your cousin Jeremy doesn't get).
But really, if this thing is 250 bucks then Mattel can fuck off. I wouldn't want something bigger than Grayskull here. The MOTUO line already takes up tons of real estate if you get the playsets and vehicles. I don't have the space for, or even actually want, something enormous that I -also- have no nostalgic attachment to at all. I don't see any reason a snake lair would need to be bigger than Grayskull anyway.
And Grayskull was like 90 -CANADIAN- dollars. If the snake lair isn't well under 200 dollars, they can keep it.
C'mon man you've played the game long enough. There is no way the Snake Lair comes even close to regular retail price on MC. I would love it if it did, but this is going to be a crowdfund item which means they will automatically up the price with all the usual excuses (limited production, straight to consumers, etc. etc.).
However hope does spring eternal right? So I'm with you there.
Look.. you're not wrong. But at the same time - even Snake Mountain is only what.. 80/90 USD? I just can't get behind a similar-size playset, with a similar design philosophy, being over like 120/140-ish - that's already like a 25-35% mark-up over SM. If it's up past 200, it's just easy for me to look at this thing I have no nostalgic connection to and say 'I don't need that.'
Ultimately, the price they go with is on them and I'm not even going to try to guess where they're going to land on this because I think there's arguments to be made in a lot of directions. But I'm definitely gonna stick to my guns and say whatever -they- think is appropriate, I still have a hard limit on what I'm willing to spend. Which, again, is only so easy because I just don't really care about this playset. They could cancel the whole thing and I wouldn't even really care.
And frankly, before they ever go down this road they NEED to start giving out some information on the rest of the vintage figure releases.
What is your problem man? Why aren't you accepting anything and everything Mattel releases, at any price, and quietly pretending to be happy about it?? 🤣
I was looking back at the past year thanks to the Giant-Man discussion, and I realized that the companies are starting to get out of hand with their crowdfund/big ticket items. Both in price and sheer number of offerings. Hasbro has had the Dragonfly, Giant-Man, Ghost and now a possible Ghostbusters Haslab. Mattel had the WCW ring and Jurassic Park gate, and now the Snake Lair (next year I know). Super7 had the Cat's Lair and now the Cobra Mothership. Neca has their Turtle Sewer Lair.
And that doesn't even count independent producers, or big ticket items from the big companies as well (TVC Mando N1 starfighter, any number of other vehicles that are $100+, Transformers Titan class, etc. etc.) Then throw on top of that the regular figure releases and BAM! One dead wallet.
As for MC, let's not worry about vintage Origins figures. They are coming, and the vast majority of them will be overpriced because they can't offset the tooling costs across a wave of figures anymore. So on top of a Snake Lair, we'll probably have at least a half dozen Origins releases through MC meaning probably at least $200US alone for them.
Looking just at the crowdfund items I mentioned for this year (not counting Snake Lair, or possible GB) it would be almost $3000US (before taxes and shipping)!!!!! And frankly that is a quiet year from Haslab. Then add in regular figure purchases and if someone had the money, and inclination, they could easily spend $7000US this year on mostly mainline nostalgia lines.
Good Lord. Anyone need a kidney?
2023 was the year I started a spreadsheet budget for this stuff. Because yeah, it's gotten way out of hand and I need some numbers to keep me in check. Classified has especially become extremely expensive.
Anyway, if Snake Lair is less than $150 and comes with a figure I'll probably bite. I'm in this for the figures, the cool playsets are just the extra bonus. If there's no figure I hope to be able to talk myself out of it.
Honestly... I'm already souring on Origins a bit because I got locked out of Lady Slither. Really wanted that one and missed her go live time and so no luck. If the stuff I'd be interested in is all going to be on the MC web site and all in limited stock instant sell outs like Slither I'm all the way out on the entire line.
2023 was the year I started a spreadsheet budget for this stuff. Because yeah, it's gotten way out of hand and I need some numbers to keep me in check. Classified has especially become extremely expensive.
Anyway, if Snake Lair is less than $150 and comes with a figure I'll probably bite. I'm in this for the figures, the cool playsets are just the extra bonus. If there's no figure I hope to be able to talk myself out of it.
Somebody made a good point during the GDL livestream last night. To date Mattel Creations has not had a crowdfund that was under $250US. That is a worrisome idea to think of what they might try to ask for the Snake Lair.
Man-E-Faces arrived from Amazon, and that was anticlimactic. Glad I didn't try to get this figure on the secondary market or something, because it's pretty basic. Just strangely annoying to acquire. When my original PO at Amazon got canceled, I couldn't find other options. I could have lived without the figure, but it would have always bugged me. I'm glad I have it, the faces look cool, but there are parts that aren't painted on his hands and legs that seem cheap.
Easy pass on the Snake Lair. I have a feeling most would feel this way and the ballots were either stuffed or it's another case of Sota R.Mika, where everyone voted for something with no accountability in actually having to buy it. Only way for these fan votes to actually work would be to place down pre-order money alongside your vote so whichever wins, you're charged instantly and you can't back out.
I honestly wasn’t taking it that seriously. I don’t think I would have backed any of the options. I buy this line because it’s affordable nostalgia. If they have an offering that fits neither of those bills, then it’s not for me.
I had people over for my 44th bday last week. Not something I normally do on bdays since I had kids, but this year I figured what the heck. One of my buddies asked me if I was still passing on Moss Man. "Yep, I love it but it's too much. I'll get him if I seen him on clearance but it probably isn't happening" was my reply. 15 minutes later he gives me my present which was one of the two Moss Mans he bought a few months ago. What a guy! The figure is great.....that much was never in question.....and he's always been a favorite. That was a great bday gift!
Easy pass on the Snake Lair. I have a feeling most would feel this way and the ballots were either stuffed or it's another case of Sota R.Mika, where everyone voted for something with no accountability in actually having to buy it. Only way for these fan votes to actually work would be to place down pre-order money alongside your vote so whichever wins, you're charged instantly and you can't back out.
The problem is that 90% of customers are going to tell you to fuck all the way off with that unless your project is way further along than a rough sketch and an idea. If you want a 'vote' where you're collecting money at the end, that's basically a crowdfund already. Which means you'd better have a prototype and final pricing. No one is voting, knowing their money is being taken at the end, if they don't even know how much the thing costs.
And Mattel can't know how much it costs until they've done significantly more work on it than 'here's an idea and a sketch of what we're talking about.'
The bigger problem is that the tiered voting is great for something like politics, but kind of bad for this. Particularly because in order to get ANY vote, we had to have TWO votes. But there's a possibility that lots of people didn't even have a second thing they really wanted enough that they'd pony up money for it. And if the fans were extremely divided on what they want MOST, then what you end up with is MANY 'secondary' votes for what a lot of people don't really want all that much at all.
It's a gamble. Maybe most of those votes are legit and people really want that item. OR it was their throw-away vote after voting for the thing they actually want. And you won't know which it is until you do a lot more back-end work to put together a prototype and pricing. At which point Mattel is now invested in this thing that they can't know if anyone even actually wants. Although I'd argue it's still more certain than just making something and hoping people buy it at the store, so... you can argue it from many directions.
There's no way the ballots were 'stuffed' though. That's silly. Mattel doesn't need to hold a vote just to make the thing they want to make. They could just make it. There's no deception necessary for this. And since they've already promised to make all the vintage stuff, if they were going to 'stuff' the ballot box, it would make way more sense to have the winner be the thing they've already said they were going to make anyway. Easy.
@canprime I don't think previous crowdfunds can tell us all that much. Realistically, Mattel can do pretty much whatever they want. They're not beholden to 'the price point we've used before.' Particularly if some of those crowdfunds have failed, proving that the price point can be a determining factor in whether it gets funded and that not every item can fit into an umbrella price.
I guess what I mean is 'first time for everything.' I could argue Mattel's only crowdfunded MOTU item was Eternia so far. That doesn't make the Snake Lair is going to be a thousand dollars or whateverthefuck that ridiculous thing was priced at.
Very true, they aren't beholden to any price point. I'm with others in hoping it is below $200US.
However I will say that they didn't seem to have much of an issue asking $250US for those gates from Jurassic Park. It seems that it was almost universally panned as not anywhere near worth that price, but still they went with it. I don't put it past any decision maker at MC (executive/bean counter/whatever) to stick with a price point that doesn't work for whatever reason.
Hopefully since the non-MOTU crowdfunds were not properties Mattel owns, and have to pay a licensing fee for, that contributed to the price, and since they own MOTU they can keep the price down with Snake Lair.
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