So at the SDCC Mattel Panel there was ONE thing they said that made me thing "Mattel still doesn't get it!"

It was regarding the SDCC Exclusive Albino Man Bat.

The reason given for the white deco was something along the lines of "the brown would not show up as clearly in the package."

Now my problem is that this seems to take the stance that packaging is more important than the toy it contains. Something I disagree with.

So my question is what's more important? Toy, Package, or equal.

By "important" I mean which in general should be compromised in favor of the other.

For example: Should a package be redesigned to accommodate a toy (i.e. larger/irregular blister on a card a la Star Wars Ephant Mon) or should a toy be scaled down or recolored to fit a package (DCSH Doomsday or Albino Man Bat.)

Obviously there has to be some degree of compromise, you can't cram a 10" Giganta on a 4" figure blister.

But I think you know what I mean.

While I will go ahead and say that I think that the toy is the most important part of the total package, when something is part of a regular assortment it's going to have to fit within the packaging standard for that assortment. Cases would end up changing size to accommodate unusual cards or bubbles and peg space might not be able to hold an entire case worth. Normally retailers will balk at anything that doesn't stay keep to the same dimensions within an assortment. I think the main reason Hasbro got away with Ephant Mon and Bacta Tank Luke and their irregular bubbles is that the cards still managed to fit with in the same peg space *and* that both of them shipped in very limited quantities so they weren't expected to stay on those pegs for very long. Special packaging normally requires a seperate assortment or the product would have to be an exclusive.

As for the albino Man-Bat showing up better in the package, I really think that they wanted to showcase the figure in a dark box to make the best use of the electronics and that's how he ended up white. I also believe that they may have gone with the white so that they could leave the door open for a brown one at retail in some form or another down the road, maybe as a BAF, maybe as an exclusive, maybe just a regular figure...

I expect the DCUC packaging to change, at least the bubble, in order to hold a figure and the BAF pieces, especially something as large as Grodd's torso.

Half of us are throwing the package away. It is a way of getting your product out there. Use all your marketing brains to make an attractive package that will catch shoppers eyes. Then if people want to keep them they can and the rest of us will toss them in the trash no matter what.

Although the packaging is important from a marketing perspective, it's what's inside that should count.

lets see, within 5 minutes of getting home the package is ripped apart and tossed in the garbage, so me it's the toy that counts. However I have heard that some people pin their figs to the wall in the original package so I guess it all depends on if you open your toys or not

Toy gets the vote for me. But then again, I collect the card art from the old GIJoes and have a set of the 25th Joes still sealed simply because of the packaging. So I guess it depends.

Just do what they did in the TB Manbat, it was stuffed but it worked

I don't care if the figure comes in a trash bag as long as it's awesome and a character that I want. Packaging is not nearly as important as the toy.

My brother used to say "Never buy a toy whose package looks better than the toy."

I prefer to have a bad or poorly designed packaging.

Makes it that much easier to take it out of the package and not feel bad about it.

I usually open toys in the car while I'm driving away from the store...I can't wait until I get home...

I open mine in the parking lot.......I just cleared out about 20 JLU,DCSH and transformers real gear packages... they've been in there for awhile