Mattel Wants Your Inputs on Chase Figures
Our buddy ToyGuru of Mattel is gathering fan inputs on the future of chase figures. The following message was posted this on the AFI forums:
Hey gang,
Got a question for fans around the world on the chase figures we are doing in the DCUC line. It is no secret that across the toy industry costs have gone up, manufacturing has risen and the overall cost to bring a 6 inch figure to market has skyrocketed in the the last year.
We are hitting a snag on our chase figures and want to run a possible direction by the fan base to keep the chase figures going.
The chase figures (because of the low quantity) are really making it difficult to keep the line at a low price at retail. We are charged a premium by our vendors for low run figures (which is why SDCC figures cost more to the customer).
One direction we have thought of to keep chase figures in the line is to put the chase figures up on MattyCollector.com about 2-3 months after the wave hits retail at a premium price (about 30.00 a figure).
While we would love to put every figure on MattyCollector.com, this is just not possible due to agreements we have with retail partners. BUT, if we put limited quanities of the chase figures only online at a premium price, this could potentially help cover the premium costs we pay to do chase figures in the line. We would still ship chase figures to stores, but fans would have a second chance to purchase them online a few months down the road.
And before fans suggest “just drop the chase figures and make every figure in the same amount” keep in mind while this is an option as well, if we did this there would only be 7 figures per wave. We would not be able to do all the variants in the same quantity as a standard figure and have 9-10 figures per wave. 7 figures or less per wave is how we maintain costs so unfortunately that won’t help us out either.
So any thoughts on this? Would fans be interested in seeing the chase figures in each wave offered on MattyCollector.com at a premium price down the road? Chime in and lets us know your thoughts.
This does not mean BTW that we are just dropping the chase figures from the line. We just want to poll fans to see what they think of this option before exploring other ways to keep the line at a low cost at retail.
Thanks and see you in the toy aisles!
TG
Click on this link to cast your vote:
http://www.actionfigureinsider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12223
I refuse to pay $30 for a chase figure! High prices are making action figure collecting almost impossible! Walmart went up on their prices on DCUC and Star Wars and Toys-R-Us is a joke when it comes to their action figure selection AND prices! I mean, who in the world is going to pay $50 for the DC Infinite Heroes “Battle for Metropolis” set??? Get real, Mattel!
UNMASKED BATMAN BEYOND!
here’s a smart idea! let’s take what will no doubt be a very in-demand figure and release it as a chase, but not just that… lets make it an exclusive chase! ya, and to top that off, lets give the exclusive to KB TOYS…a chain that has closed most or all of its stores in most of the country and whom is getting ready to clsoe the rest down soon into 2009. (from what i hear) most likely due to their rediculous prices and lack of carrying product that is less than 5 years old.
good job mattel! you turds have yet agian dropped the ball on a great license. i guess i’m dumb for being shocked at such a bad call though. we are talking about the same company is more interested in charging $30 for one chase figure on their crappy website than they are in maintaining some sort of proper distribution and quality control on the already hard to find figures.
hasbro has the shelves packed with transformers, gi joe, crappy marvel stuff and the same old star wars remakes that they have been peddling since ‘95. and guess what? … it’s all available on their website too! imagine that, what a concept!
mattel has a great license and the dcuc line has potential to be the best thing in the market right now, especially with the four horsemen on board. so why are they being allowed to get away with screwing it up?
wow… not that i got that off my chest, i think i will drive on over to a walmart or 3 to look for the walmart exclusive dcuc wave 5 (that won’t be there.)
sad, i know.
For example wave 4 Batman Beyond figure and the Kaybee (bankrupted) exclusive that shows the head you should have made only the BB Batman or make the BB Batman and made it that you could interchange the heads.
I must concur with many of the above posts. Why in the world would I spend $30 dollars on a chase figure when I can’t even find the basic sets at my locals stores? I’ve been choking on Wave 1 figures since the spring, only to find that wave 6 is out! I just recently found a GL, Nightwing and Robin from wave 3 and I feel I have virtually no hop of finding Sinestro or Deathstroke so I can finish my Solomon Grundy. Wave 2? Wave 4? Completely passed me by. I honestly didn’t even know they were available. As it stands I think I must now turn to online retailers to try and get my sets, which honestly feels like cheating. I don’t want to order boxes, I want to walk into a store and get the rush of yanking figures off the pegs. I also want to support my local retailers so they stay in business. As it stands even the online retailers can’t always offer the entire wave, with some cases of wave 4 missing one figure needed for the BAF and doubling up on another unnecessarily.
I simply don’t understand why the stores can’t stock these figures. My locals are literally drowning in The Dark Knight line. If they are afraid that a lack of tie in marketing is a detriment then they need to have impressed upon them that anything that advertises or showcases a DC character is marketing for the line!
Simply put; if I can’t walk into a store and find even the basic figures, then there is no way I’m going to shell out the extra cheese for a chase. In fact, I wouldn’t care if you just stopped producing the chase figures all together. Some chase figures, like the unmasked Batman Begins, are just flat out unnecessary. Variant costumes are a different matter, but in my opinion the current incarnation of the characters should always be the priority. If you want to have classic or alternate costumes as retailer exclusives or as a separate wave that’s one thing, but if they are going to be so difficult to find in an already difficult to find line you’re just disrespecting your customers.
I understand that the economy is hurting everyone accross the board, but i feel like hobbiests are being punished with massive price increases lately. Everybody else is trying to maintain prices and offer a little extra to consumers except toys and comic companies. In the end, people will drop frivolous purchases to survive, and theses companies will get hit hard.
Anyway, For some figures, I would like to see interchangable heads packed in as a regular accessory. Honestly, paying for an extra figure, just because of a head is lame. Resculpts, or full paint job variants, like Captain Atom and Sinestro could be offered on Matty Collector.com for $20, like the MOTUC figs. I think the Build a Figure pieces is enough enticement for completists and collectors.
I keep asking Toyguru at the Hall of Justice forum about when we, brazilian collectors, will get the other DCUC series and they keep answering that they only ship what the stores ask. So they are telling us that if you are not able to find any DCUC figures at the stores is because the stores don’t want to sell them! I don’t know, but it does not make sense! They are losing money!!!
Picked up Robin Nightwing and Deathstroke from my local Target fro the kids for Christmas, within minutes of opening the figures Robins arm was broken at the bicep. For me that makes, Batman Beyond, Black Lightning, Amazo, and now Robin. I told my boys they wouldn’t be getting any more of this crap!
On Christmas I received the entire fifth wave. At first things were all fine and dandy, but then last night I actually started to play with them instead of just Metallo laying a whooping on Superman and Supergirl all day and lo and behold what I believed were perfect figures: Black Lightning, Amazo, and Atom all had the same problem. Their left leg had a rubbery feel when I moved it and then BL’s just broke off. How can 3/5 of them all have the same exact problem? I’m no longer going to purchase any toys from Mattel.
A couple of things guys (Don’t know if you are aware of this)
Not all Wal-Marts (as of this time) will be getting the DCUC line. Not even all the “Supercenters” will be getting the line. It is my understanding that there are “A” stores and “B” stores, based on revenue, and the “A” stores are the ones getting the figures. That would explain why I’ve been to a small Walmart in town about 30 miles away and seen the figures (very busy store) vs being in several Supercenters and not even seeing pegs on the wall.
Another thing to do: Call or write a letter to Mattel. They don’t give a rip about us complaining on websites (here, aftimes, actionfigureinsider, etc)…they want us to take the time to call and write.
For me, they have sent me 7 vouchers to date. I had to fight with them to send me the last three (got three figures in one wave with issues) and told them it was getting rediculous. I never had any issues with the first two waves…I know there have been a few, but the bulk of the issues have come from waves 3 and on.
Just keep your fingers crossed they get things fixed. This line has so much potential.
Hey Gideon I totally agree with you. When I called Mattel about my two defective figures, the rep I spoke with was not as bad, but I did ask to speak w/a supervisor in hopes that my complaints would at least get forwarded to the correct department. The supervisor was less than understanding. It was pretty much “we’re sending your two vouchers, what else do you expect us to do.” I suggested perhaps have these available to send as replacements but she said they do not do that. I had to school her on the fact that Mattel directly distributes these from their warehouse. She said I was wrong. I said no she was wrong. I told her I spoke w/a manager from Target after complaining about these never being in stock. He told me they have standing orders, its just they rarely ever get more in. she told me she was unaware of that. I told her that whoever is in charge of this problem they need to be made aware of this. If not, Mattel will start losing more customers. And after last quarter’s loss, Mattel can not afford to lose more business. I heard that the quality problems were pretty much resolved starting with the Walmart exclusive wave. Well that wave was the one where I had problems w/2 figures (read my previous post before this one). I wish there was a direct forum we could state these problems that would go straight to Mattel so they could see all these complaints first hand. But judging by how we as customers have been treated, I do not feel Mattel really gives a crap how we as customers are being dealt with.
I agree with Gideon about not overspending on these figures. Not only that, whenever you do pick these figures up, make damn sure that all of their limbs are intact, in the right place, and that the BAF part is included in the packaging. I found a “Black Lightning” and an “Atom” today, I purchased the BL, but passed on the Atom because the BAF part had not been included in the packaging. At first I thought that someone had ripped into the package and stolen it or something, but I inspected the package closely and it was definitely factory sealed. I’ve heard that if there is something wrong with your figure, you can contact Mattel and they will either replace it or give you some kind of voucher or something. Not buying their stuff may simply kill the line altogether, but contacting Mattel and complaining about all the problems with this line might just get their attention. So I would urge anyone who has issues with this line (and I can’t imagine any collector who doesn’t) to make some noise. Who knows? Maybe they actually read forums like this? It is amazing to me how much demand there seems to be for this series, but there is so little hitting the shelves. But I’ve also heard/read that toy companies do this kind of crap on purpose before Christmas, knowing that Parents will have to shell out money for toys even if the ones that their children really want can’t be found. This will help eliminate some of the toy companies overstock and move other products off of the shelf that are not in such great demand, then after Christmas, when all the gift-giving is over, the toy companies know that parents will still go ahead and purchase the toys their children originally wanted in the first place which are now “mysteriously’ in abundance on toy shelves. You remember “Cabbage Patch Kids”, “Tickle-Me-Elmo”, how about “Sony Playstation 3″…I wonder how many Sonay Playstation 2’s were sold last year simply because 3 was not available. In the end, Toy companies are concerned with making money, not pleasing customers. But it seems to me that they would make more money if they would simply try to please customers.
Consensus is chase figures arent going to make it. After hearing just endless complaints about this line, I went to Mattel’s customer service #, Tuesday. The girl who answered was not only rude but incredibly incompetent about the DC Universe line! I thought the problem with distro had to be somewhere at the factories. No. This company has no idea what its doing. When I brought up “wave 5″ she had no idea what it was. She then went on to say the whole “series” grouping was up to the individual stores, not Mattel. Shocked, I read to her right off the box and she got frustrated. She went to her supervisor, came back with the same story: Mattel has nothing to do with selling these figures. I was flabbergasted- I asked her you mean to tell me Mattel takes the time to make these things, but doesnt sell them? Then how do they end up getting sold? How does Mattel see a return profit?? Dont you understand I’m trying to BUY your product, that is GIVE YOU MONEY??
I’ve spoken to a number of Targets and Wal-Marts and their answer is the same: they recieve the DCUC shipments and they stock them on the shelves. In comparison to say the Dark Knight or the Hulk line (you’ll see tons of these things languishing in the aisles), they never recieve a comparable amount of DC universe classics. So its not that they fly off the aisles- the retail stores only recieve a small supply to begin with. And yes, some stores NEVER recieve the lines.
Best solution: no matter what, dont buy these figures for more than $14.00. Send letters and make calls to Mattel notifying them theyre losing your business. Lobby action figure mags to do a scathing denounciation of the company. Ultimately this will get resolved.
I’d also like to know just what “exclusive” Wal-Marts are selling these? I live in close proximity to about a dozen W-Ms and have only found DCUC at one. And even in that case it was series 3 which had already been released much earlier this year…Guys you really need to fix your distribution problem or YOU WILL LOSE CUSTOMERS ALTOGETHER! When you can’t meet demand, kids (and I mean little kids) can’t even get their favorite hero, scalpers yank up every figure they can find and sell them at exorbitant prices on the secondary market, and you lose credibility with the public…people like me begin to really lose interest in your product. I have decided not to get the entire waves anymore, only the characters that I really want. I’m starting to care less about the “Build a Figure” concept, that selling tool has lost it’s magic as it is getting harder and harder to complete one. What’s even worse is that when you finally do find a DCUC figure, it’s all jacked up…the paint sucks, the limbs are attached at the wrong place, there’s scuff marks, gouges…just fill in the blank_____________ and I bet Mattel has done it. This is all very frustrating for anyone who collects these. FORGET ABOUT CHASE FIGURES, FORGET ABOUT EXPANDING EACH BAF SERIES TO MORE THAN 5 FIGURES, AND JUST FIX YOUR DAMN PROBLEMS WITH THIS LINE.
You have to learn to crawl before you can walk.
What the heck?! How about mattel works on the quality control first! I found some of the TRU two packs and couldnt even bring myself to buy them. If it wasn’t a horrible paint job it was a horrible building job. I, like bunger, have to travel 50 miles to the nearest city that sells them and then to find them in this condition really stinks. I also think Mattel should slow the pace down a bit. Take your time, do it right; let stores stock their shelves for awhile, giving us a chance to find and complete a wave before doing another.
Thanks, to the kind collectors who are selling at price on ebay for the folks who dont have access to the figures, your non greediness is very appreciated.
Why not make a full gift box of each wave with the respective Collect and Connect figure available at retail?
You solve the scarcity problem and have a large profitable item for sale.
Well I opened up Black Lightning and low and behold, he has 2 left arms instead of one right and one left…this is a complete mess. Everyone be sure to inspect the figs throughly before buying. I did not do so only because I was so excited about finding the complete wave.