Mattel,

The burden of storage of any Matty product is not the responsibility of anyone who decides that they wish to purchase said product. Nor was the decision to have to pay a warehouse to store product anyone's fault outside of Mattel.

Sold out is sold out. Success is success, no matter ho long it takes to achieve it. Ten hours, ten days, or ten weeks, sold out is sold out. What, is selling inventory to fans and collectors, kids and scalpers a race, or is it a business? I'm a consumer, and I'll buy what I wish at the pace at which I care to purchase it. And collectively, so will the fanbase at large. Tortoise and the Hare, Tortoise and the Hare, Matty. You want to be the Hare, and you want to win the race. Well, that's not how the story goes. Just ask the Tortoise.

If it's speed you wish, Matty, then get to crankin' out more Hot Wheels to whoosh around little soft plastic tracks. Don't play games. If storage of yet-to-be-sold JLU(for example) costs you money, then I think it's time to put a Band-Aid on the cut, or a tourniquet on the appendage. Or go and find a cheaper warehouse.

*This post that you have just read is what happens when yours truly is both tired and slightly agitated. This has been Howard the Duck's preemptive(is that really a word? it looks so odd and my spell check didn't say anything) rebuttal to Matty's inevitable 'loud but not numerous' explanation for why the current JLU offerings on Matty Collector weren't successful.

Totally agree. I have picked up multiples of the passed matty JLU offerings, and I know that if they were on the site till they truly sold out then theres a strong chance that I'd be picking up extras of things like parademons just because they were there and I had a bit of spare cash. Like I said, I've picked all these up when they hit, but not being able to be a casual repeat buyer is really frustrating.

The product is stored with Digital River's warehouses. Taking it somewhere else would probably incur more cost (transportation back and forth between their outside storage and Digital River's fulfillment center).

I don't think they'll be chomping at the bit to incur more costs.

Sigh, really this again?

No one here knows the inside workings of Mattel, and the thought of things should be this or should be this. or that its easy for mattel to do this or to do that.

The bottom line is they do not sell the amount of JLU figures they want on Matty's site. They do not sell toys to be nice, the sell toys to make as much money as possible. And if JLU figures do not hit that number, it dies. Its not a personal choice, its money choice. Too many look at toys from a personal side. Its all about the green, its business.

Why would they keep the line going if they are not making the money they want. And its not just as simple as changing the warehousing costs. As Momoney pointed it out, DR does the warehousing and right or wrong Mattel is in bed with DR for the long haul. and on that note, how do you know they are not with DR b/c they ARE the cheaper warehousing choice? You dont.

And yes, Howard, "preemptive" is, in fact, a real word!

Sold out does not mean the product actually sold out. Haven't we learned this yet?

It seems the best way to determine if something sold out is if it actually hits the "Almost Gone" stage first instead of instantly disappearing.

I wish they'd go back to using "Temporarily Unavailable" instead of the phony "Sold Out".

Seconded. While we don't know the interworkings of the company, it is misleading for them to say something is sold out when in fact it has just been pulled from the roster for whatever reason

We already know that everything else Mattel does is below industry standard. Maybe their computers only run DOS?

CCC.

Yeah, they only made profits of $684 Million last year up from $528 Million in 2009.

They clearly have NO CLUE what they are doing....rofl.

I don't know the exact numbers, but I'd bet that about 50% of that comes from Barbie, another 40+% from Hot Wheels, and the rest from other toys. I don't believe that Mattel has ever had the greatest of track records when it comes to action figures.

Howard, regrettably -having agreed with you most of the time- the numbers are not there anymore. Those 'loud but not numerous' are no longer loud, and due to the line's cancellation, no longer numerous enough to make noise. The best we can do is hope that the remaining figures will get a Mattycollector.com release so we can all close this chapter, and wait patiently for the next. As people have pointed out, it doesn't really matter what you do, how or why, it's only a matter of how much money it makes. Yeah, it's a sick society and Mattel is an perfect example of it functioning. They don't make toys, they make money, cause that's all that matters in life. Producing something for the sake of filling a need, providing a service or satisfying a want... what idiot thought of that flawed business model? You don't become the #1 toy company in the world by doing any of that...

Sarcasm aside, we all know the reps. that Mattel appoints to keep us updated are not the most efficient, in fact they're extremely incompetent in some cases, BUT believe they are doing an exceptional job BECAUSE they make money. Digital River is probably the cheapest and, by their standards, easiest way to get product out to somewhat 'satisfy the consumer' at a low cost for their business. They have been improving at a glacier pace; regardless, we have no say on the matter. So, don't get frustrated and be patient. Otherwise, we'll be having this conversation ad nauseam and you will ALWAYS GET THE SAME ANSWERS FROM THE SAME PEOPLE. So, yeah. Let's just do our best buying the last offerings and wait for GLAS to start... we might be in for a nice surprise.

Yeah Howard, I agree with you, but this is a losing battle. Whenever this is brought up, the same people always come in with the "Mattel is in the business of making money, not holding your hand and making you cupcakes and giving you free toys" or something to that effect. Always, over and over again.

I don't think anyone really knows exactly, but the way I've had it explained to me is they have this 2 storage situation where items for sale are in the DR facility until it's time to move them somewhere else when they are off sale and stored for returns or whatever. It really doesn't matter--they could be stored on the moon--because it works for them. It doesn't always work for the customer but apparently it works for them and I'm happy for them I guess.

Those who say "Sorry bud, the DCUC 2 packs didn't sell well" seem to ignore that there is always new people jumping on to the hobby. Old DCUC and DCSH go for a lot on ebay. I didn't start collecting DCUC until late 2009. Those who say "sorry dude, full waves didn't sell well" seem to ignore that Wave 13 was available at retail months before Matty put them up on the site. Not every collector is tuned in to Mattycollector's bizarre timeframes for sales and sellouts. In this screwed up economy, I buy stuff when I'm ready to buy stuff not by Mattycollector's deadlines. I don't know how JLU sells because I don't buy that stuff, But judging from retail, it doesn't seems like new customers were jumping on.

I'm glad that Mattel makes a lot of money selling girls toys, it doesn't prove that Mattycollector.com is a masterful website of business excellence.

Don't forget about Fisher Price; that's their other cash cow. But as far as I'm concerned Mattel has never been an innovative/proactive company. They are #1 because of what they do outside the toy aisles instead of within. They bought Fisher Price. They lucked out on Matchbox having some economic issues in the U.K. back in the 80's. So they became the 1# toycar company by default rather than competition (they were #2 at the time.) And we all know that they maintained their dominance in the doll market by suing the beejeezus out of Bratz. So to put it in terms my drinking buddies can understand... being the WWE Champion doesn't make The Miz, the best wrestler in the world. The luckiest, maybe. But not the best.

you really think that Mattel just fell into to being the worlds largest toy company? really? I read a lot of dumb things on toy boards, but these is one of the dumbest statements I have read.