To be fair I think that Marvel has better characters/teams than DC that translate better to the big screen.

But not in the singles. Putting the two most likely selling characters in the same package is a BAD marketing decision. Separating them increases sales.


But Robin was missing from the first 2 waves of singles. I'm talking about like the Toy Biz Xmen line where Wolverine was in every wave.

Putting Batman and Robin in the 2 pack instead of the singles meant fewer sales of the singles overall. Mattel had to know this.

Then again, putting 2 figures in a multi-pack at over twice the cost of 2 single figures was not a great idea either.

The multi-packs should have been used to sell more obscure characters. Batman and Artemis or Superman and Miss Martian.

Both of these are absolutely true. A two-pack should NEVER be more than the MSRP of two basic singles, and collectors should accept that two-packs allow for obscure characters to be produced with sales of the bigger character making that possible.

So what I want to know now is, if we have all this information and apparent understanding of how things work, then why doesn't Mattel?

How is it that these things are obvious to us and the manufacturers are apparently oblivious to these facts?

There has been a lot of interesting back and forth in this thread that when examined at a cursory glance, makes a lot of sense and seems to fit past experience in the arena of toys and what helps make a line prosper, so why doesn't Mattel do these things?

Maybe Mattel needs to evaluate their staff and bring on more experienced brand managers, marketing persons or whatever. Somewhere along the chain of command at Mattel there is a pretty big disconnect and its been obvious to most collectors for a while now. It seems to me that this is the route problem overall is that the people in charge are making bad decisions and while we can pontificate all day about why the line failed, its because at the root, the people making the decisions are lacking in understanding of the market in its most basic form.

I think that is what really needs to be addressed with Mattel, the people making the decisions that ultimately affect what happens with the line aren't very knowledgeable about what they are doing. I wont even get into the packaging design issues creating brand confusion, cause that's a whole other issue completely.

What we have is opinions.

This is true, but as someone who has actively collected action figures for over 30 years, I can sit back and read these things and they make sense in the context of my experience as being part of the food-chain of action figure collecting.

I have seen first hand time and again how the things people are saying are in fact true via my own experience as a collector so that experience leads me to believe that there is something behind those opinions.

While I know there is more to the equation than simple anecdotal evidence, when that evidence rings true time and time again, things start to add up to it being more of a reality then just an opinion.

Not saying this is all fact, just saying this is my experience and apparently the experience of others so why is it so hard for the manufacturers to understand these simple concepts and put them into action?

That line of thought brings me back to the idea of weak or unskilled management, or management by committee that isn't focused enough cause too many chefs have their hands in the pots.

Just something to think about.

But some of us also have experience in Manufacturing, Cost Analysis, R&D and Business and Product line management-- just because they are opinions doesn't neccessarily mean we are talking out of our butts.. Unless people are trying to say toy lines are an entirely different concept than all other business models that exist.. True we dont know exact facts (required profit margin, exact sales figures etc..)-- but we can make educated assumptions based upon our own life and current work experiences.

I don't think they are talking out of their butts but I think alot of collectors look at toy collecting with rose colored glasses on. The best thing for a collector is to have the company get kids into their products. This is where Hasbro has done alot better than Mattel and that IMO is why we have alot of Marvel products and not as many DC.

Kids are key and you get them on the big screen. They need customers. All that other stuff doesn't matter if you don't have people that want your product in the first place.

I think Ian has a great point! The collector market is just not big enough to carry something at mass retail.

Bingo.

But a vocal minority on here will NEVER admit that.

Agreed.

I also think at the end of the day all we keep hearing is how "bad the economy" is. Even if you don't believe it, that's the mass statement these days.

So with money tight, the better bang for your buck argument is going to come out on top, a lot.

I think Mattel has failed miserably at this the last few years. What we pay for what we get (IMO) isn't worth it.

Justice League figures going from 4.99 to 8.99 (and 9.99 in some places) overnight was just stupid. To double the cost of something withouth adding to it? What reason is there for it.

DCUC was great, but I think 18 bucks is too much for a retail toy like that. Not to mention the widely acknowledge QC issues.

I don't buy a lot of marvel stuff because it isn't my cup of tea, but their 3 3/4 inch figures look awesome. If I was going to buy for the sake of buying, they'd be getting my money.

And by overnight, you mean over a year later because that's how long the gap was.

In my area, there was no "in between" price. They didn't go from 4.99 to 5.99 or 6.99, etc.

One day they were 4.99. The next time I went by it was 8.99/9.99. Not sure how you can have a year gap on a price change. It was "X" price one day, and "Y" price the next.

Yeah PLCs usually happen over night and are instantaneous.

And I don't know how it was done regionally.

All I know is at that time I was living in the Region (NW indiana, chicago area). I had picked up like 3-4 figures one week.

I went back the next and saw 3 others I wanted. I didn't even notice the price change. The lady rang me up and it was almost 30 bucks. I asked her if she rang a few of them in twice and she showed me the price they rang up. I said thanks and took them back to the shelves and hung them up.

I never recall seeing any price in between 4.99 and the 8.99 prices except when they were on sale. At that point in time I was an avid completist and collecting all the JLU stuff.