I was very lucky and got Terroar and Gr'Asp pre ordered. But I HATE when there are Wal-Mart MOTU Exclusives, and I HATE how Mattel and Wal-Mart handle them. They make it so hard for everyone to easily get these figures that they want. Duplico was a nightmare, these two today caused everyone trouble, and it makes you scared of "what's next?"
Moss Man is the only one they seemed to handle fairly well. I assume Terroar and Gr'Asp will go back up on the site, but for how long. And then, will they show up in stores? If they show up fairly easily in stores, at least that will be an option and the prices will go down on Ebay. But what if they handle the 2 exclusives today and future exclusives like Duplico?
Mattel and Wal-Mart need to get this all worked out a bit better.
I really hope Terroar and Gr'Asp are pretty easy to find at retail.
That's kind of the situation of "what's worse?" Selling out immediately, but at least you had the chance to get them. Or not being able to get them at all because the companies decided not to carry them, or sell them to your country?
The whole issue with international orders is already known now for MC, but Walmart Canada for some reason doesn't carry MOTU, or the wrestling. exclusives during Collector Con. When Collector Con first started Walmart Canada didn't participate. However they started getting in on the event shortly after and now participates. However for some reason they don't offer the MOTU or wrestling exclusives from Mattel. I had hopes they would this year, but unsurprisingly they didn't once again.
Thankfully they did carry, once again, the Hasbro exclusives.
@theknightdamien Yeah I was posting on another board about the situation and how it really has dampened my desire for MOTU stuff. To the point where if they shut us out of the upcoming Origins releases I probably will call it a day on MOTU stuff.
It is becoming a chore to try and get stuff which makes it not fun anymore. So I may just bow out on MOTU and just keep an eye out for deep discounts or secondary market cheap finds after the fact. I already have a lot of stuff to get in the coming year from other lines.
So it looks like Sy-Klone will be on sale Saturday. I'll be out of town at a convention so we'll see if I wind up having to go aftermarket for him as well...
*edit* I can't math and somehow thought the 21st was Saturday. Panic somewhat averted lol
Preternia says 3/21 for Sy-Klone and the site has a countdown for three days from now. Somehow even with warning and a countdown I cannot for the life of me ever remember when these exclusives go on sale.
Definitely agree that having to chase exclusives takes a lot of the fun out of the line for me. I mean I was able to forget about and order the Masterverse Snout Spout like eight hours later so if it was always like THAT it'd be great, but the frequency of the sellouts makes it more stressful than it needs to be. Love both lines but I'm also getting pretty close to getting everyone I want. Still a more than a little sore I missed Rokkon though.
Do they accept PayPal on Mattel’s site? Sy-Klone’s a must-have for me.
Yeah, he's supposed to go up Thursday at 1:15 CST. He looks great and I hope I can grab him. I might actually add a couple Masterverse figures to my cart ahead of time to take a little sting out of the shipping. Heck, if Snout Spout is still available maybe I'll grab him, too.
Sy-Klone is a must have, as I had the original vintage figure. Same goes for Two-Bad, who is legitimately one of, if not my favorite vintage figure. Modulok is also a must have. The others I'd still want are Extendar and Rio Blast. Wouldn't be the end of the world if I missed them since I didn't have them as a kid, thus less attachment. But Sy-Klone, Two-Bad, Modulok are the ones I will try my best to acquire. If I miss them, boy oh boy will there be some strongly worded posts I'll make on this thread!
@theknightdamien Yeah I was posting on another board about the situation and how it really has dampened my desire for MOTU stuff. To the point where if they shut us out of the upcoming Origins releases I probably will call it a day on MOTU stuff.
It is becoming a chore to try and get stuff which makes it not fun anymore. So I may just bow out on MOTU and just keep an eye out for deep discounts or secondary market cheap finds after the fact. I already have a lot of stuff to get in the coming year from other lines.
This is what the MOTU Origins line is becoming now though. It is becoming online only, with smaller edition sizes for their products.
MOTU Origins was at retail for many years but has been peg-warming for a while with figures having to be sold at clearance eventually, meaning that someone earlier in the chain has lost money whenever that happens. In order to achieve your desire of the figures being easily available in the past, too many figures had to be produced, scalpers wouldn't swoop in and pick up the slack as they can't make money in this type of situation, and so the over-production compared to demand just ends up costing Mattel and the retailers money.
For the line to continue profitably, the figures need to be produced in smaller quantities for guaranteed quick sell outs with very little inventory holding costs being involved. This means that scalpers will also come in with their bots and help mop up any slack too, as there is money to be made for them now. But crucially the figures are at least still produced so the fans can still get their niche additions to their collection. However they must pay more for the priveledge and the supply will be harder to come by and the procurement of product more time consuming and stressful.
Essentially you can't have it both ways. Either there's tonnes of easily available supply, that kills the line off quick because the collector has things too much their own way, with everything being easy to pick up and cheap through discounts; or you have harder to get figures that are made in shorter supply that you have to pay more for, but at least everyone involved in getting the product to you gets paid (including scalpers), and the line can continue on until all the characters get made. I personally prefer the latter situation existing myself as I want a full, complete collection, even if I have to pay more to get it.
This is why it is never good in a macro sense when a collector manages to snag themselves a deal and they get a deep discount on something, as they are hurting the long-term life of the line when they do so.
Or you have more popular characters continuing to be reoffered, and they help sell other, more niche characters to retail along with them. IE assortments. And not every character is packed evenly, which is another problem with how this line has been distributed. Frankly, it's surprising Origins lasted as long as it did at retail. It almost got through the original lineup with essentially only the Revelations cartoon as media support.
My only issue with distributing the remaining original lineup via online is the one-at-a-time release pattern. All those shipping charges add up. As it is now, I'm going to pass on Syklone, as he's not super appealing to me (why doesn't he have an alternate tornado bottom half, especially as these figures are designed to separate at the waist?). If he was in a wave of 4 figures, I'd end up buying him. I feel like a couple of waves of the last remaining figures would be a better release pattern. Get them done. Then move on with whatever the next phase of the line/brand is.
I agree that the one-at-a-time release pattern on these final figures is the worst part of the online exclusivity. Offer a wave of 4 at once - so those who want them all can pay a single shipping charge instead of 4 separate costs.
Or you have more popular characters continuing to be reoffered, and they help sell other, more niche characters to retail along with them. IE assortments.
This would only work for an extra wave or two, until every man and his dog has a He-Man and Skeletor figure, and what then? Eventually the full demand of the popular characters would get exhausted fairly quickly using that method.
I agree that the one-at-a-time release pattern on these final figures is the worst part of the online exclusivity. Offer a wave of 4 at once - so those who want them all can pay a single shipping charge instead of 4 separate costs.
They could be working a bit of the product cost into the shipping charges, so charging $30 + $4 shipping for example, where the actual shipping costs to them are $2, and they make an extra $2 from you on the shipping so that they can keep the listed price lower at $30 instead of $32. This would only be workable if they collected the $2 extra in the shipping charges from you each and every time.
It's interesting seeing the schedule for the Mattel reveals day.
The MOTU Reveals are at 2:10 EST, and then Sy-Klone goes on sale at 2:15. So, the MOTU reveals panel is only 5 minutes?
It's interesting seeing the schedule for the Mattel reveals day.
The MOTU Reveals are at 2:10 EST, and then Sy-Klone goes on sale at 2:15. So, the MOTU reveals panel is only 5 minutes?
Maybe? But I suspect it's more likely that they're going to get to talking about Sy-Klone at about the 2:14-2:15 minute mark and then they'll say 'and he's available RIGHT NOW' and then move on to talking about more stuff. That's not unusual for Hasbro or Mattel's online things, as far as I recall.
But yeah, man. These one-off release windows fucking suck and are basically making it so that I'm not going to get figures I otherwise probably would. If they released Two-Bad (for example), Extendar, and Sy-Clone all at once I'd just grab the three of them together to make it worth the shipping price. But each one individually? That's just honestly an insult to every collector outside the US, and isn't exactly great for those IN the US either. Not sure what the hell Mattel's problem is and why they're approaching this in the most asinine way unless it's literally intended to 'prove' that people don't want these final characters. Like, did MOTU as a brand get taken over by someone that just hates MOTU and MOTU fans? 'Cause it really feels that way.
@toonturts Respectfully, I disagree with a lot of what you're saying. For instance, the peg-warming issue largely was not one of over-production, it was an issue of over-centralization. Masterverse has the same problem. Some areas get basically nothing, and some areas get absolutely saturated in a single wave of product. So you end up with, for example, some guys in the Midwest complaining endlessly about swimming in Webstors, while an entire other country's worth of collectors are complaining about never seeing a single figure from that wave.
Again, that's not an over-production issue. It is, like so often with Mattel, a distribution issue. And it's EASILY corrected by anyone in power that cares. They just.. you know.. don't actually care. Because Mattel is, historically, a company that hates making money so much that they will actively sabotage anything that does well if it's not Barbie or Hot Wheels.
Also, there is literally no evidence that strong supply kills lines. Hasbro has been producing -reasonably- easy to get Star Wars and Marvel Legends figures for a decade. They've even had loads of figures and waves go on clearance. As long as you keep the customer invested and keep putting out stuff they want, you can clear out what isn't moving and put new stuff in its place and just keep on making money. But then, Hasbro is much better about even distribution than Mattel (though far, far from perfect, to be clear).
You're also provably wrong about demand for main characters drying up. Ash is -100%- correct and what he's suggesting is a formula that has been kicked around for various lines by actual toy companies for decades. It's why you always see Batmans, Darth Vaders, and Wolverines on shelves. These are 'evergreen' characters that A) people will virtually always buy, and B) important enough that getting them or not getting them can influence whether someone invests in a toyline at all.
No one is going to collect a He-Man line that doesn't have a He-Man. And there's always people just starting out, for whatever reason, with a collection. Those characters that bring people in need to be out there and available. Typically you see this a lot with variants. And it kind of was the case that the Battle Armor deluxe Origins figures came out around the time the regular 1st release He-Man and Skeletor were drying up for a lot of people (but again, this was hampered by shitty distribution).
I'll also point out that Origins was seemingly at its healthiest after Mattel re-issued regular He-Man and Skeletor. And, not coincidentally, we hit another downturn (as far as we can tell) as those re-issues dried up. And oh look, the 'Cartoon Collection' is really popular right now, what with yet another release of He-Man and Skeletor right up front.
These marquee characters pull collectors in. Not making sure they're available alongside more obscure or less popular characters is a huge and obvious mistake that borders on looking like, again, intentional sabotage.
I am so excited about what looks to be a Cartoon/Filmation pack of Prince Adam and Cringer. Looks like we are also getting Evil Lyn. But Prince Adam is always a favorite of mine just because I love the colors, and then Battle Cat/Cringer is my favorite MOTU character and toy.
But we so rarely get Cringer stuff. So, I am really happy about this set.
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