would a JLU BAF be possible? would that fix things?

I don't think writing the companies is useless. I have already fired off two letters and am working down the list. I simply don't like the flippant attitude that is conveyed by the canned reply provided in the Q&As. It projects the attitude of, "Well, we indicated that we knew there were issues, but now we think we're fine. It's your (the consumers') fault for not telling the retailers what you want." In all honesty, it comes across as very arrogant & smug. I'm certain that was not ToyGuru's intent, but that's how I read it. Very disheartening.

That's certainly the impression I'm getting. Then again, I'm not sure that any answer would have been satisfactory.

E-mail isn't an option. It's too easy for someone to sit at a keyboard, type up a message and hit send, that makes it easy for the recipient to just dismiss it as someone who cares but not enough to make any real effort. If you take the time to write a physical letter and take it down to the post office and spend your 41 cents to send it and have a mail carrier deliver it, that gets a lot more attention than any e-mail or online petition ever will. I spent five years working as a customer service manager at Wal-Mart and like bnjmnrlyr said letters from customers to corporate mean a lot more to the powers-that-be than any comments passed on from store level. We've got to let them know that we're out here and that we have money to spend if the right product is on the pegs and we have to do this politely and intelligently. We've got to let them know that we want to see better case ratios and we should let them know (again, politely) how we feel about the chase variants -- the retailers are the ones that want this stuff to keep *us* coming back into the stores over and over looking for them in hopes that we'll buy something/anything on each trip if we don't find what we want. Yes, we're a very small part of the general toy buying public but our numbers are growing and the retailers really need to learn how to service us without ticking us off continuously. You guys can blame Mattel all you want for the state of DCSH and JLU but the reality is that the retailers are the ones that have made 90% of the decisions that have caused this mess.

Not for nothing, but the huge silence coming from Mattel while we rant and rave doesn't help either, especially for JLU...the worst times on this message board have been where there are no replies or information to match the avalanche of questions.

I think it's about time that it's explained just HOW the new animated line will satisfy every one of our concerns...as was promised when nothing was shown at SDCC. I'm not asking for specifics...just statements as to the approach they're taking. I doubt any of that information is 'trade secret' level.

Peace,

Chip

I dunno.



That would've worked for me.

Everyday I just find myself caring less and less about all of this. Am I alone? It's really a never ending circle of futility and absurdity.

No, unfortunately, you aren't alone.

I wish I was a kid collecting JLU and not an adult. Looking at things from an adult perspective, it's easy to get mad, to try to solve the problem, to try to speak up and get somebody to listen because I'm an adult. If I were a kid I would just be happy with what I got and move on. There were so many toy lines that ended while I was a kid that I never got to fully collect. Like Ghostbusters, Darkwing Duck, Biker Mice from Mars, early Toy Biz X-men, early Kenner Star Wars, Batman:TAS, and so on and so forth. But as a kid I worked with what I had and created fun stories and adventures and was happy. Now it's like, "Why can't I find Stargirl, I'll never have the Seven Soldiers if I don't get her. And why does that bother me so much?" I don't know. I'm depressed now.

Ya know what though, it's easy to think like that being an adult. Hindsight being 20/20, rose colored glasses and all. But, I gotta tell ya, my kids get just as annoyed, if not more annoyed, when they walk through Toys R Us or the toy aisle at Target and find nothing new. While they aren't completists by any means, young or old, seeing the same stuff over and over wears you down and bums you out.

Well I see what you mean. But for me a trip to the toy aisle usually meant things I may want, but not get. I was never rich, my parents got us new toys maybe 3-4 times a year growing up. I still have a lot of toys, but I wasn't entirely spoiled in that sense, plus had I huge imagination, so if I didn't have a toy I wanted I'd make a toy I had fit that personality or make up an entirely new character out of an old toy. Any time I got a double of a figure it would get a new name and personality. Remember those McDonald's Power Ranger figures for the first movie? They were basically in scale with Star Wars, and I really wanted a Boba Fett, but my parents wouldn't(couldn't) get me the toy, so the white ranger became Boba White, a distant relative and just as evil.

Oh, don't get me wrong, they don't get everything they want. Even if there's cash to blow. That's just not how I roll. And they both have imagination to spare. But they still like just seeing new things in the stores. It gives them something to hope for and want. Not seeing anything new just deflates that.

Well being the children of a toy collecter probably means visits to toy stores and aisles are probably more frequent than a normal kid. Plus as a kid I wanted the store to have the same stuff so that it wouldn't go away so my parents could buy it. It was like visiting a friend, the worst part was when I really wanted a toy and would already have a backstory ready and include him in the adventures of my current toys in prepartion, like a little script in my head ready to be played out when I got the figure, but then for some reason or another I would never get the toy and then the stores wouldn't carry it anymore, that would always get me down.

Not so much...especially now that it is almost pointless. The only time we really hit toy stores/aisles is when the wife is shopping for clothes and we get bored, which isn't very often anyway.

That's what i would like Chip. I would like Mattel to say anything to reasure us this line will be ok .... well anything besides "dont worry" "we're looking into it" or "wait and see".