Where was it said that it’s supposed to be purely classics? All I’ve gathered from what I’ve read is that retail gets the DCnU, while the subscription gets fan-demanded characters and characters that have been/would be difficult at retail. Why should that be limited to “classics only”? Many fans have demanded a Red Lantern Mera…should they be ignored? Do you really think there won’t be *any* pre-DCnU modern characters or costumes in the sub? They have to flesh it out somehow. I’m not sure it would last very long by running solely on classic and obscure characters only.

“However, after seeing the amazing range of characters worked into the Masters of the Universe line, I’m hoping for something similarly amazing with the DCUC subscription.”

Out of that amazing range of characters for MOTUC, I can think of one character (Chief Carnivus) that isn’t Classic and had only a few small appearances in the 2002 animated series, and a few non-classic redecos as well. And would you consider New Adventures of He-Man classic? Many don’t, but characters from that series are included in the MOTU “classics” line.

As far as playing with them goes? My daughter will occasionally ask to use some of them and it’s a very selective process for me, as I know just which figures would be OK for that and which ones will easily just come apart one way or another.

I believe that the “DC team” at Mattel is in a tough spot. As am I, trying to decide if I can justify the $ for the sub. The fact is that MOTUC still has QC issues. The DC club will be no different.

For example, we could have gotten her instead of Shark. But the brains at Matty decided to hold her off to produce figures no one gave a damn about which ultimately killed the line. They made toys they wanted personally, took advantage of the fact that they were in charge to get figures they personally wanted out first.

I’d gladly trade all of Wave 17-19 for Ivy or Huntress OR A Tim Drake Robin. Likewise we could have gotten Jay in wave 19 rather than 3-4 other characters no one gave a damn about. But this works out for Mattel because they know we want STRIPE, so we’re forced to buy a bunch of crap figures to piece him together. They know we want Jay so we’re forced to buy a sub.

It’s not rocket science to understand how Mattel works. It’s good business, just not consumer friendly and that’s why I’m not getting a sub or buying into this propaganda.

DC Direct put out a lot of product, & I love that, but only the recent Brightest Day & Darkest Night lines have produced a significant offering of figures in a consistent style. And Love DC Direct as I do, the durability of their product makes for pretty statues that you can move a bit – carefully and not too often. Oh, and don’t let them fall.

I’m not a Matty apologist, but I link to think the people who sculpt, manage, or support this collector focused line from Mattel do so out of at least moderate affection for the subject, fans & sure the dollar. The latter is why business happens.

People who complain about Matty wanting our money remind me of my father complaining about commercials on network TV: the desire for our dollars is why they exist.

If we want to resent big business and throw around words like extortion, then maybe we should direct our attention to Exxon-Mobil or GE or the Banking, Investment, and Credit Card arenas. Ever dealt with the student loan people?

I’m supporting the Subscription because I love DCUC, and no not all of the classics stuff, but enough. And hell yeah I’m looking forward to the New DCU and all the new character looks, but my love & nostalgia will have me grateful to Matty for keeping the torches lit.

How many JLU collectors here have the Legends of the League or Secret Society 2 6 packs? 50%? How many of those who DO have it bought it at retail? We must have missed it when Mattel explained that fiasco. Then the same thing happened AGAIN the very next year(albeit to a much lesser extent). There was a *6* month gap between production of the 2009 Wave 1/2 6packs. Some of the 2009 Wave 2 6packs were manufactured less than 1 month from Black Friday(and less than 2 months before Target’s toy aisle reset), and FOB shipping from Chinese factories takes at least 3-4 weeks. Was it Mattel’s transparency that got us this information? Nope, it was reported in these forums by fans.

And remember when the Cheetah/Batman beyond wave of 3 packs saw VERY limited initial distribution to targets? After flooding Targets with a new production run of Fire&Ice packs how long did it take Mattel to tell us that a factory switch occurred?

How could I forget the clarity Mattel provided regarding the fustercluck that was the last wave of 2009 singles and first 2 waves of 2010 singles? Mattel didn’t explain what happened until weeks/months AFTER the simultaneous limited release of 2010 W1&2. Even then, we didn’t get any information regarding a Volcana re-release until after Toy Fair 2011.

Mattel wasn’t completely on the up&up with fans/target with regards to DCUC either. How long did Mattel try to get over on Target by sending them cases of DCUC with strange combinations of Waves 6-8? Remember when someone here let Target know about it, and Mattel called that person and basically told them to keep their mouth shut? Telling 2 sets of customers not to share information is really transparent…

I won’t even bring up the disingenuous way Mattel handled the Apokolips MC 2 packs or JLU 2011 Toy Fair new reveals.

Transparency means open communication and accountability. Mattel’s dealings with fans and Target with regards to JLU(and DCUC to a lesser extent) were anything but. Telling us about their failings AFTER they happened isn’t transparency, it’s hindsight.

No, I don’t think anybody is trying actively trying to screw anyone over. But there are individuals involved who have made decisions that should have gotten them fired long ago. Unfortunately they’re buoyed by completist fans are willing to overlook all their mistakes and hope for the best.

Look, I’ve been collecting DCSH/DCUC since the beginning, but if I’m supposed to be voting with my wallet as I’ve heard so many say recently, I’m voting ‘NO’. If the only way to get a particular figure (potentially poorly constructed, lacking accessories, and heavily using reused parts) is to not only pay nearly $30 for it, but also pay that price for a bunch of other figures I may not want, then sorry, no deal. Having a Jay Garrick and Atroticus would be cool, I’d love to complete the Metal Men and Doom Patrol, and I’m sure a 4H Metron with Moebius Chair would be awesome. If it were possible to pick up these figures without a sub (as MOTUC and GB have been from their inception on Mattycollector), then I probably would pick them up if there were other new figures that month I wanted. But what Mattel is asking is a bridge too far. As the prices crept up, I knew that as a consumer I’d have to draw the line at some point, and I guess Mattel has finally in its asinine way stumbled upon that line.

This DCUCs deal is one of trust. They have simply spent their customer service capital with what appears to be most fans. It’s like going to a restaurant and getting an insect in your food. Will they refund your money? Probably. Will they beg for your forgiveness? Probably. Will they apologize to no end? Most likely. Will they offer you some freebies? It’s probable. Will you likely EVER eat a meal at that particular establishment again? Highly unlikely!
Mattel has served up a many plates of defiled foods…so to speak. Distribution and character selection aside, they’ve made promises like the modern red tornado, all gold dr. Fate, all yellow shazam, light blue superman, classic guardian among others. Let’s not forget the whole Gleek incident, the wave 5 issues and the show stopping Gentleman Ghost/Giganta problems. That’s to say nothing of the wave 9 fiasco, the exploding ankles Robin, crappy hips and a sh!t ton of other QC issues and Digital Rivers “stellar” service these last few years.

Now all these issues in and of themselves probably doesn’t do much damage…kinda no harm, no foul. But you compound them all together hitting back to back to back, and you start losing the bandwagoners, then the casual collectors and eventually the hard core completist fans. And you know it only takes one miss to stop a completist cold in his tracks! Ask Gentle Giant about their 1/6th Star Wars bust line. Sure it’s still popular but no where near what it was before they started those Asian commander exclusives. They served up the fly in the soup for their fans with that one.

Unfortunately, Mattel has served all five courses complete with all manner of creepy crawlers.

Most fans just aren’t choosing to stick around for dessert!

I’m sure there are pics out there…I have one or two but I’m sure you guys can get info from the source.

Mattel could have given us an Ivy 4 waves ago but they didn’t. They held out on purpose for this very reason. To extort more cash from us and fanboys and Mattyapologists are falling for it. I swear it’s Stockholm syndrome with some of you.

And what on earth leads you to believe that the people at Mattel have ever been “completely transparent?” They are liars, spin-doctors and corporate suits, and very little else.

Again. I do think mattel is TRYING to give us the figures we want. But while we are suspecting them of screwing us over, we fail to realize that DCUC isn’t as big a seller as we think it is. And hence, they have to resort to all sort of things to hit their margins and sales targets.

It must be tough being the Mattel DC guy. You have bosses trying to force you into hitting sales targets, SLOPPY distributors who don’t buy your product, and fan who complain about how you handle things yet get insulted when you are completely transparent about how the business works.

(This happened with both JLU and DCUC)

They NEED to hit targets guys and they are openly asking for our help. Otherwise, they WON’T be allowed to make DCU figures because the company will not profit from them.

Some people seem to think of Mattel as just ONE entity with one purpose. But as in any business, they have divisions.

I imagine that the Mattel beancounters wanted to cancel JLU (for example) years ago but the DC team (who WANT to help fans) kept trying to keep it going. My friends who are toy store owners say JLU stopped being a profitable order for them years ago. They TRIED to keep JLU going through Matty Collector but that didn’t work out. They still managed to squeeze out a few this year but that’s it. JLU is over. They even tried to beg JLU fans to order enough STRIPE figures because if they get a good number, they can convince their bosses to let them make more. They failed.

Now the same is happening with DCUC. And the fans are reacting the same way. So I expect DCUC to end pretty soon and despite them being transparent about proceedings, fans will still complain that Mattel killed the line (and yes, they did make plenty of mistakes like that horrible Rainbow lantern line and the frustrating scale issues) but here they are trying to save it so let’s give them credit for that.

I’m a bit more confident that the SUBS will give us better figures because

a) they no longer have to worry about wal*mart and the rest and…

b) they have a good track record with GHOSTBUSTERS. A line whose license they don’t own, yet they’ve maintained strongly and they were even able to get a Bill Murray figure out despite everyone else failing to get an approval from the guy. Also…

c) the range of characters they’ve given the MOTU fans is promising.

My only problem with the subs is that it doesn’t seem international collector friendly.
I’m not going to want to pay shipping and customs over and over again, without knowing what I’m going to get.

Now, my only question is- to any guys living OUTSIDE the USA, will there be a way to make it easier for us?
Because we will be paying close to DOUBLE the amount listed after shipping, taxed and customs duties.

I stopped buying DCUC figures when I came to the realization that, out of every wave, I was buying two or more characters that I didn’t even want in order to complete the one figure I did want: the C-N-C figure.

It’s JLU 3-packs all over again. Soon they’d be releasing heat vision Superman and telling us we need to buy it if we ever a Conner Kent.

No other company does it but Mattel and yet fans are dumb enough to fall for their ploy. We have the cash, we have the power. We dictate what Mattel makes. For once they should listen to us and not jerk us around and manipulate us, which is what they’ve been doing for years now.

I will say if they had shown Quadrex or Phantom Stranger or Silicon (i.e., a character on my personal wishlist) I would have subscribed in a heartbeat. But Mattel’s execution has left me with zero confidence in them, and I can’t muster the blind faith to buy at least 4 figures I don’t want in hopes that somewhere I’ll get 1 that I do. I believe Mattel really does have the best intentions here, but 8 years down the road is too long for them to still be having “learning curve” issues.

PS Reading their latest posting, does it sound to anyone else as if the DCnU line might not be by the 4 Horsemen?