Personally, I doubt writing a letter would do any good. It takes more than a few letters to get these people in gear. I think Mattel is the only one that can solve it.

i think i have an idea...give a kid five bucks and tell him what to say!

Easy, how long are you willing to 'talk' to the retailer? I've called Target and TRU with 1-800 numbers from looking on their sites and receipts and stuff.

I've actually talked to some of our retailers here in the Philippines.

(Which is what Mattel said)

Here are sample responses and concerns they answered me with:

1) They wanted to order more Mattel DCSH but th case ration made it impossible. He didn't want getting stuck with more Superman variants. This is why he doesn't reorder stuff anymore. The RETAILER hated the shortpacking and it prevents him from ordering.

*THIS IS ALSO WHY DCSH SHORTPACKED FIGURES ARE ALMOST AWLAYS ONLY AVAILABLE IF YOU BUY A WHOLE SET HERE IN THE PHILIPPINES.

2) He WANTS to have more Mattel DCSH but he says "They just aren't arriving. I've been waiting fo the new Batman themed waves but they were never even available for order."

3) They are ALSO wondering why they don't get all the JLU Waves. They said "Mattel just isn't making it easy for us to order. We want to order more JLU. But they just aren't available for order. We ONLY skip waves with Mattel. It never happens with the other companies." (Although HASBRO gets delays)

4) The case ratios are determined by the retailers in the US. We hate the case ratios but we have no choice. Mattel DOESN'T LET US ORDER more of certain figures. (This was during the Azrael and Luthor shortage)

5) And a popular response. We don't know, we've put in an order for more JLU and DCSH but they just aren't getting here. (And here they compare Mattel with other Superhero products which they have no problem ordering)

6) "We've been waiting too. It's taking forever."

*retailers I've talked to: ToyKingdom, Bestoys, KidStation, ToyTown, Bankee Representatives at several department stores and several smaller toystores.

===

I doubt that Mattel is serious about fixing case ratios and distribution because if even the retailers are being given a hard time, and they keep asking us to talk to the retailers... if even retailers are complaining about case ratios and distrbutions and they keep telling us that retailers make the decision with regards to case ratios...

I do believe we're being given THE RUNAROUND.

Hi JamesJesse,

I also talked to some retailers from Toy Kingdom and Toys R' Us and its really not their fault that the figures are not coming, its just not there. From extensive discussions with them, we concluded that Mattel's JLU and DCSH figures are just not available.

Its not the retailers fault and they certainly dont have the power to get these figures to us consumers. Mattel's advise for us to talk to retailers is just a load of BS (here in the Philippines)

I mentioned before that there is a huge demands for some figures and if web-based stores doesnt even have these then the problem is in the supply. Mattel is just not delivering PERIOD!!!

There are tons of Marvel Legends peg-warmers here but we still regularly get new figures and they are reliable figures we can easily (relatively) get them! Mattel's figures are simply inaccessible to us Filipino fans!

So Mattel, what about us?

Now really what is Mattel’s problem with not delivering these figures on retail? Where are your figures Mattel????!?! Where are our JLU and DCSH figures!?!?!?

You give us tons of stupid Batman repaints and then you don’t give us the new sculpted figures? Your just EVIL!!!!!

As promised, here is some updated information on the Corporate offices & officers...

K-Mart is now part of Sears Holdings Corporation. Their address is:

Sears Holdings Corporation
3333 Beverly Road
Hoffman Estates, IL 60179

(847) 286-2500

The following are the corporate officers that would have input on toys:

John C. Walker
Executive Vice President, Chief Customer Officer

Peter J. Whitsett
Senior Vice President Services/Department Stores

Corwin M. Yulinsky
Divisional Executive Vice President for Strategy & Customer Input


At Target Corporation the following corporate officers would have input on toys:

Michael R. Rancis
Executive Vice President, Marketing

Troy H. Risch
Executive Vice President, Stores

Patricia Adams
Senior Vice President, Merchandising

Gregory J. Duppler
Senior Vice President, Merchandising

Gina Sprenger
Senior Vice President, Merchandising

Kathryn A. Tesija
Senior Vice President, Merchandising

Mitchell L Stover
Senior Vice President, Distribution

At Wal-Mart Corp., the following officers have responsibility for toys:

S. Robson Walton
Chairman of the Board of Directors

Johnnie C. Dobbs
Executive Vice President, Logistics & Supply Chain

John e. Fleming
Executive Vice President, Chief Merchandising Officer/Wal-Mart Stores Div.

Toys R Us is now a privately held company and the only information on them is:

Gerald L. Stoch
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer


I am not saying that a letter writing campaign will change anything, but it can't hurt. Someone in the company will eventually have to address the issues raised in the letters, especially if they are receiving more than just one or two a week.

I would suggest that you don't "go off" on the individual, but write a professional, respectful letter that gives your views and recommendations on what you see as a problem and a solution to it. If you help these people with a solution then they don't have to think of how to fix it themselves. . .

I believe consistency is the name of the game. You have to dedicate yourself to writing regularly, be it once a week or once a month, but you have to keep it up.

Right now is an excellent time to get the attention of the retailers because the manufacturer's are on the proverbial ropes with the lead-paint issue. The retailers will be able to garner concessions from the manufacturers who are worried about sales this holiday season.

AND don't just write and complain. If you have an idea for something by all means share it with them. I wrote to Target repeatedly about the Doomsday boxed set exclusive and recommended a follow on with Grodd. I even went so far as to send them a picture of Casmir's Grodd (which I forgot to get his permission to do so before hand). I'm not saying that the decision on Grodd exclusive at Target was because of anything I did. Far from it. At the time Boy Wonder was pitching the idea from the other end at Mattel. But, Target did get feedback from a consumer asking for more exclusives. It can't hurt.

Glenn

Why do I have to do Mattel's job for them?

Sell your product to the retailers, Mattel. It's not my frakkin job. It's yours. If you don't want my money, fine. If you want my money, do your job.

I agree!!!! We never had to to talk to retailers to get our Marvel Legends and Transformers toys and we're perfectly happy with the distribution/accessibility of those figures.

MATTEL get your act together!

This is quite incredible and makes me worry about whether or not mattel is doing anything about this. could anyone make a letter template that we all could print and mail to Mattel and maybe even a few retailers to try and shake things up? I know we can do this!

While I agree that we should try writing (it can't hurt, right?) I honestly think that a lot of the problems we're having now will begin to be corrected after the holidays. With all of the re-branding that's going to happen I'm sure Mattel is changing the assortment numbers for DCUC and whatever JLU is going to be called and any items left after the holidays will be clearanced out making space for the new SKUs to take their place. Hopefully case pack-out problems and the like will be better handled next year so that product moves through the system without getting clogged up like it did this year with Superman and Bizarro in DCSH or the Zatanna/Shining Knight, Superman family and Trinity packs in JLU... Wal-Mart has already clearanced out everything they had for DCSH and JLU and Target will after the holidays, hopefully TRU will do the same with whatever they have left. I know some of you are probably thinking that the stores still have yellow cards from last year, but the assortment number didn't change and the purple cards continued on that same SKU, DCUC and the new Timm-verse line should have a new SKU number allowing the old stuff to get clearanced out without affecting the new stuff.

Exactly. I can understand writing a letter to get a TV show back on the air (you NEED to convince people saving the show is worth the money) but Mattel needs to be sorting out the case ratios themselves. I've been thoroughly unimpressed with Bus Accident Guy shifting the blame to the retailers and to a lesser extent US for thinking that constantly talking to a grown up at Target in charge of toys doesn't lead to you being looked at as if you have three heads. Because it does.

And I'm going to CONTINUE to complain until it gets fixed. I'm not going to say "Oh well, when the line is rebranded things will get better." We've been promised bigger and better things for YEARS now and at this point it's up to MATTEL to deliver them. Not me.

Ya know, I'd like to believe that and was believing that based on all that has been said by ToyGuru and the panel at the con (yea, a lot of it was regurgitated boilerplate "We'll look into it" crapola, but it still gave me a string of hope to dangle from)...until I read the aforementioned response to the latest Ask Mattel questions. If they're going to do a complete about face and instead of addressing the problem, start blaming us for not speaking up to the retailers, that tells me they aren't looking into squat and gives me no hope for an easier 2008. I hope they prove me wrong.

I think the point that might be lost on some people here is that large retailers (Wal-Mart and Target, specifically) have a history of not believing in the collector market. The "please tell your retailer" line is the Mattel team doing part of their job. Asking adult consumers to remind retailers of collector interest can only assist in helping to make that sale easier, you know? Especially the one for a case that doesn't come with 37 Batman and Superman figures.

On the other hand, I'd like to see an explanation from Mattel on why Big Bad Toy Store can't get new JLU product. They've obviously placed orders, because they have been accepting pre-orders on their web site.