Yes. Yes, it's another JLU thread. Oh no, but not just any old thread mind you.

See, here's my problem with Mattel. They make a product(oh, let's use the latest JLU seven pack as an example here) IT. SELLS. OUT! Sold out. As in, no more product to be ordered from Matty. No more turning on of the machines to produce more. Save for the obligatory 'small amount of stock held back for quality control and the like'...It's as gone as Ralphie's Old Man's Christmas turkey.

So answer me this...someone. Anyone? Why in bloody hell is a product that sold out not a success? 'Sold just as much as the Doom Patrol', blah, blah, blah. First of all, that mythical and secret sales number is not public knowledge. It could have sold ten sets or ten thousand sets. Who cares, really? It didn't sell out for a long while, did it? Yet, Lobo sold out completely. As did S.T.R.I.P.E. As did the Fan Demanded Collection Seven Pack. So, if the Seven Pack sold just as well as the Parademons or the Doom Patrol, IT STILL SOLD OUT! Relatively quick if I recall. I don't really give a lick about the sales numbers if I don't have them in front of me. I don't need them anyway, because all I can see at home on my laptop is that it SOLD OUT.

A sold out product is a successful product. You want a product to sell out on Matty Collector, correct Mattel? Well, the last three Justice League Unlimited items did just that. They sold through their production run. And if they did not, you yourself Mattel listed them as 'Sold Out'. By anyone's definition, that means they are no longer available for purchase because they sold through. If Matty held some product back for whatever other future reason, it is not anyone's fault or decision to do so but Mattel's, and the fans should never shoulder the burden of blame for that.

Whatever, Mattel. whatever.

Why do you think it sold out?

How many times do we have to have the conversation that "Sold Out" on MattyCollector does not mean "Sold Out And We Have No More Left; We Checked Everywhere And We're Completely Out"?

The only JLU item that sold out on Matty was Lobo. Everything else was pulled. Unless something is marked "Sold Out" in a week or less, it hasn't actually sold out. And even if it's marked "Sold Out" within that first week, it's a crap shoot. That being said, there is far more indication that these items did not sell out than there is that they did. Look at all the bulk orders that were placed for those four-packs. If all that was left was "customer service stock," don't you think they would have sold out? Or at least been downgraded to "Almost Gone"?

Seriously. The only JLU items that sold out in 3 years were Giganta and Lobo

Giganta was up there for months.

No. It DID NOT sell out. It sold roughly as many as every other JLU thing they have sold on line. They pulled it to put up other stuff. It will be back at some point.

Do you have an off switch?

Unfortunately 'Sold Out' on Matty can mean any of the following:

Sold Out (For real)
Have a discount sale coming up and we don't want this product to be included
Pulled for the next month's sale for the 15th

I'm sure there's a couple more...

It's not coincidental that the products are listed as 'sold out' a day before the next sale. They just don't have a computer program that will put in a more definitive word (Gone would be acceptable).

I hear what you're ranting about Howard, and I agree with the information that's been provided to you by Mattel. Unfortunately, that information is not correct. The JLU stuff didn't sell out. Would be nice if it did.

Guys, we have to remember that not everyone is as 'in the know' on the inner operations of Mattel and how they handle their sales. It took months if not years for all of us to come to grips with the insanity that is the engine behind the sales of our favorite toys. Can we really blame someone else for coming to a conclusion such as this with the limited information provided to them by toy companies?

I'd agree with you if not for a thread that Howard himself started on September 17:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=22911

It became a graduate-level course on how to interpret "Sold Out" on MattyCollector.

Yea it's not like this post came from an uneducated Mattel toy buyer

I want the 3-Packs at a reasonable price as much as the next person, but at this point, if Mattel is losing money with JLU, it needs to end. The biggest mistake here was showing off new 3-packs at SDCC10 & Toy Fair 11.

I don't think the 7-pack sold out. However, I do think that STRIPE and the other 3-packs did pretty well. And that's why Mattel carefully limited their sampling and commenting to how well the 7-pack and Doom Patrol pack did.

I think they are making their case for a $50 dollar price tag. However, what little information they did provide, only shows that demand for JLU is no different than demand for the Infinite Earths Subscription.

This graph would illustrate their "bare minimum" as being 100%.




This graph would illustrate how well the 7-pack/Doom Patrol did in terms of reaching that bare minimum.



Which coincidentally illustrates how many Infinite Club Subscriptions were sold the first time the sub was available.


And this graph illustrates the final amount of subs sold in order to get the DCUC sub going, as well as to trigger a $5 dollar price increase per standard figure.


Mind you that when it came the Infinity Club Sub, the $5 dollar price increase (per standard figure) is still being applied towards a new character. In the case of JLU, there are re-issues involved. But even if we were to pay a $5 dollar "tax" per figure (regardless of whether or not the figure was a re-issue), the price tag shouldn't ascend to $50 bucks.

I feel kind of bad for my snarky post but Howard is the king of Beating the Dead Horse. I had just had enough of it. Every single thread he starts is just whining about Mattel's business decisions while completely ignoring the explanations he was given in the last exact same thread he started. I had hoped this would have ended after the Hal Jordan thing had been "resolved" but I was kidding myself.

Howard, enough. We all love JLU and very few of us are completely happy with the way Mattel ran it. But your rants were getting old two years ago and they haven't improved with age. I don't want to sound mean. I still like you. But it's time to let it go.

Did someones Wheaties taste funny today?

I'm probably overreacting but I'm also pretty fed up right now. Not an excuse, but an explanation.

Ok do you just try to be annoying? those graphs are %s, the 60% of the needed DCUC subs, could be 10 times or hell even 100 times more than they sell of a JLU item.

You are not comparing apples to apples, you and a couple other people living in a dream world are trying to make the point that JLU sells well. I LOVE MY JLU figures, but they do not sell, its a fact. Let it be already.

And on to Howard, for god sakes man, everyone knows that Sold out on Matty is not sold out, unless it happens within the first 24 hrs. after a week, if it comes down, its pulled.

Did you not see how many JLU items they still had for that crazy JLU sale? you could get a 4 pack for $8 if you got enough, that should tell you every thing you guys need to know.