Matty from MattyCollector.com and ToyGuru, have replied with the answers to our latest round of questions that AFi readers have posted in our forums.     

 

Q1. Why is Evil-Lyn’s head cast in navy blue plastic and then painted yellow and not just cast in yellow like her arms and legs? Teela and the Goddess were made with all their skin pieces cast in their skin colour, and as Evil-Lyn a different character, the figure is basically a repaint of those figures, so why the change in the production of her?
Also, is their a chance the re-issue could be made with the head cast in the same coloured plastic as the limbs?

A1:  No real secret, it is just how it was created logistically. We can pass along this suggested change to our vendors. If we have a potential re-issue of her we’ll be sure to address this if possible.

Q2.  What exactly are the "rules" for success on Matty.com?  Now, I’m not asking for, "we will produce X amount and Y customers have to buy the Z% in blah-blah-blah amount of time." I know you can’t and won’t be able to offer up information as specific as that. I understand and it isn’t the issue.  BUT, what EXACTLY do you need us to do to make a line "successful" on Matty.com? 

Does every collector need to agree to buy every release regardless for a year to be considered viable? If so, why don’t you offer subscriptions for every line?
Do you need to sell through 50% of stock on opening day with another 25% the following day and 100% by the end of a week?Month? Or do we really need to see complete sell outs in a matter of minutes ala MOTUC (which to be honest turns away more customers than it brings in I guarantee you)?
If everyone knew the rules going in I am certain it would be a much healthier relationship between fans and Mattel.  If the response is going to be something along the lines of "we can’t comment on specific numbers…" or "It is now up to you to vote with your wallet…" then I don’t think you read the full question and understand what fans are asking for.

A2: We do get what you are asking for, such as how many units we need to sell on day one, week one, etc.? Or what the sell-out time needs be, but this is simply not information Mattel provides to the public.

What we can tell you is that for a line to continue on Mattycollector.com (such as MOTUC or JLU packs) we need to hit a certain overall baseline of sales for any, or all, items in a line (like JLU four-packs) without having a “sale” on that item/brand at a reduced price. Obviously some SKUs will sell better over others based on the character(s), but every item in a brand has to have at least a certain minimum number of customers at the original price to continue. MOTUC was able to hit this, JLU four-packs were not.

 

Q3.  Will you be making product for the upcoming Young Justice animated series or did the line get picked up by another company as is the rumor?  If you are making product can you make sure they are in scale with the JLU line?

A3: Sorry, we can’t comment on any unannounced toy lines!

 

Q4.  You scared a lot of DC Infinite Heroes fans last month with your grim answers about the line continuing.   Will we know the fate of the line by the end of Comic Con?  Or sooner?  Could that like be picked up as an exclusive line for a retailer like the JLU line?

A4: By SDCC we should know about the future of the Infinite Heroes 3 ¾-inch scale line.  At this point (like with all our lines), it is up to retailers whether or not they want to carry a line. Mattel can only produce toys when we have a customer, whether it’s fans on Mattycollector.com or at retail stores.

 

Q5. DCUC – If a figure has been released as a "Collect and Connect" figure, is there still a chance that a scaled-down version of the figure will be released as a DCUC figure? For example, is there any chance that Giganta will be released as a regular-sized (6") figure even though Giganta has already been released as a "Collect and Connect" figure?

A5: Since there are characters with growing/shrinking powers who would make sense at two scales (like Giganta or Atom Smasher), a 6-inch version is not out of the question. It is doubtful we would scale down a giant monster like Solomon Grundy to make him 6” as that would be out of scale!

The next round of questions have already been turned in, but if you want to get in on the NEXT round we need your questions by May 28th.  Remember they can be about any Mattel product including MOTUC, Ghostbusters and Cars. You can submit new questions in this thread.

You can find our past Q&A’s here. And you can discuss the answers at our Mattel board.

 

Monday be sure to check out Part I of our exclusive Mattel/Justice League Unlimited interview right here on AFi!

Share:

Posted by JuliusMarx