Matty from MattyCollector.com and ToyGuru Jr. sent us the answers to our latest round of questions.that AFi readers have posted in our forums.
Q1. In the SDCC panel, you stated that all product shown for JLU should be in stores by the end of the year. However, many Targets are currently undergoing their fall reset, and no peg space is available for JLU singles or three packs. This is not isolated as it has been reported from Targets in several areas of the country. Will these be returning in the winter reset? If so, how do you plan to get all three remaining waves in stores in time?
A1. They may not be in every Target, but those stores taking the JLU line for the rest of the year should ideally get all the figures shown at SDCC.
Q2. Will we see a price increase with DCUC waves 11 and 12 at retail stores like Wal-Mart and Target?
A2. Yes.
Q3.Why don’t the new 6-packs have any ads for mattycollector.com on the boxes? Why don’t you include a checklist of JLU items available online in all JLU products?
A3. We will have an on-line JLU visual guide soon. We’ll actually have one for all our Matty.com products. As for the logo, it is indeed featured on most DC retail products. We may have missed one or two, but it is out there!
Q4. THANK YOU for the Justice Guild in the JLU line…!!! Can a few key JSA figures be far behind????
A4. If there is enough support for the line in 2010 we’d love to get to more JSA characters. That goes for the Matty sets too. If we are going to keep them going in 2010 we’ll need to see a bit more fan support!
Q5. Are we any closer to vehicles or playsets showing up in the DCIH line?
A5. Not in the immediate future but it has been discussed and prototypes have been created. All of the fan polls run in 2008 showed very little interest in vehicles which is why we stopped development. If this changes, and fans show more interest we’d love to get to them!
Q6. Will we see any more sub-lines to the DCUC line, like the upcoming "Public Enemies" line?
A6. We’ll have to see how Public Enemies does first.
LOTS MORE Q&A AFTER THE JUMP
Q7. I heard a comment that female characters would not appear in the Batman: Brave and the Bold line because it was aimed at boys.
a. Is this true?
b. Is it true for both the BBB line and the Action League line?
c. If it is true for the Action League line, can you please make it untrue?
A7. We will get to females in the Action League minis, but not in the 5". This is a kid-focused line and females just are not popular enough with kids right now. Check out JLU for great animation styled females. Almost every pack has females in it (Amanda Waller, Supergirl, Tala, etc.). There are lots of cool females in that line!
Q8. The SDCC reveal for JLU was really great, but there were no oversized characters shown this time. Will we be seeing some of the fan requested larger characters like STRIPE, Kalibak and Clayface make it into the line, and if so will they be released as the ‘big figure’ in future six packs or on Matty Collector as exclusives?
A8. We have some ideas for oversized figures in 2010, but nothing is confirmed. We’ll have to see if the line can continue on Mattycollector.com based on the sales of the next 4 pack first. The future of the line really is in fan’s hands.
Q9. Does the ‘Inspired by Mego’ line have Women & Children in its’ future? I would love to have a set of Teen Titans with a never-before-made Teen Titans scaled Robin!
A9. Yes and yes.
Q10. Thanks for the cool reveals at SDCC, and all of your hard work behind the scenes. Anyway, on to my question:
A10. With the apparent doubtful status of JLU for 2010, just what kind of timetable are we facing here? All of your JLU reveals at SDCC are targeted for release by the end of 2009. We are less that two weeks away from August. The fall Toy Fair is where the 2010 JLU Target deal will be made or broken(right?) August to October is a very small window to allow for a line to be judged as worthy or not to carry at retail, especially since it’s well before the Christmas buying season.
Simply put: What is the absolute cutoff date for the JLU line’s success? By what specific date will it’s fate be decided based on sales of the new/upcoming product.
We understand the passion for this line - because we have it too! While we can’t give out a "date" like this, one of the best ways we’d love to keep the line going is on MattyCollector. This is a big reason we started Matty, specifically to do action figure lines that don’t work at retail (Ghostbusters, MOTU, etc…). If we are going to keep the line going it really is in fansÙ hands to support it. The Shazam family pack goes on sale on Aug 17th!
Thanks to ToyGuru and Matty for all the answers.
Do YOU have a question for the gang at Mattel? 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.
BUT THAT’S NOT ALL!!!
As a BONUS- here’s a FAQ that Matty just posted to his Facebook page clarifying a few points–
Hey toy fans,
We’ve had a lot of very similar questions in many recent Q & As, so to simplify, I thought I’d post a few quick answers here for everyone to read:
Q: Why are MOTUC and Dark Knight Movie Masters 20.00 on Mattycollector.com when a DCUC figure is less at retail?
A: The answer is simple. When we produce a small run of figures Mattel is charged more by our factories. In the case of Dark Knight Movie Masters, we offered them to online and retail stores but no on was able to commit to a large enough order to go into standard production. Seeing as how cool these figures are, we wanted to get them out to fans and the best solution was to do a smaller run and offer them on MattyCollector.com. We have to charge a bit more due to the smaller production run.
Q: Will Mattel be bringing back 6" Superfriends?
A: While we don’t have plans for any new figures quite yet, we will be offering Hawkman and Robin on MattyCollector.com in the Winter. If these do well, we’ll look at new figures in the future.
Q: Will Target be getting more JLU figues? Why can’t I find them?
A: New figures are shipping! We are doing all we can to get all the 2009 figures out this year. Right now, the best place for the future of this line is on MattyCollector.com through the 4 packs since these packs do not need retailer support. They do however need fan support. The best way to keep JLU going is to support the Matty.com 4 packs. Shazam family goes on sale this Monday at 12 noon eastern!
Q: Why isn’t Battle Cat and the "bonus" figures included in the Club Eternia Subscription?
A: At this point, we don’ know now well a second figure as well as a larger beast figure will do yet. Once we can gauge sales we can look at including these in a 2011 subscription. We also don’t know how many bonus figures and larger beasts we will be doing in 2010. Again, we can make a better call once we see how Goddess, Zodak and Battle Cat do. The only thing we know we are doing for sure in 2010 are the 12 monthly figures. This is why they are part of Club Eternia and other figures are not.
If the bonus figures and larger scale beasts do well and we can lock in how may we will do per year, then we can look at including them in 2011. Additionally, many times figures run late for one reason or another. (such as the case of Mer-Man). The bonus figures are our insurance police to make sure at least one new figure goes on sale each month.
Q: Why can’t my Club Eternia subscription be linked to other purchases I make to combine shipping?
A: Each purchase is sent seperately to our distribution center. It is not possible to link two purchases after the fact. What we hope is that if the bonus figures and large scale beasts do well in 2010, we will know how many we are doing per year and can offer them in 2011 in the subscription.
Q: Why was Gleek offered only at SDCC and why did he sell out faster?
A: We announced before the show that we would have more Wonder Twin sets at SDCC then Gleeks and like all SDCC items they would be offered first come first serve. Gleek was offered only at SDCC to reward fans who came out to the show now that most SDCC items are also offered on Mattycollector.com after the show. Keldor, Manbat, She-Ra, Grundy and others in previous years were only at SDCC with no Mattycollector.com sales. So we’ve been doing this for a while now, things really haven’t changed year to year. We always have had product only at the show. This year it was Gleek, SDCC stamp He-Ro and chase "Andy foot" Buzz. Next year we will do something similar but different. SDCC is a special convention and we will always have special product at this show.
Q: Will sold out MOTU figures be available again?
A: Yes. Starting with He-Man in Nov and Skeletor in Dec. Others may follow in 2010 based on the sale of these two. All of the reissues will have a small package change and ideally as few other changes as possible. (in the case of He-Man we wanted to fix some errors such as too much red around the eyes and the fact that the shoulders were reversed. Skeletor’s right hand will also be corrected to the tight grip). Ideally we want to make as few changes as possible.
Q: Why does Mattel offer waves of DCUC figures only to Wal-Mart? Will wave 10 be easier to find compared to wave 5?
A: Offering customized or exclusive product to major retailers is all part of an overall marketing plan to bring mainline product to these stores. This is very common with all major brands in today’s market.
Wal-Mart is VERY aware they under ordered Wave 5 and have greatly increased there orders for Wave 10.
Q: Why doesn’t MattyCollector.com offer email support?
A: Coming this fall! We’re working on it.
Q: Will Mattycollector.com offer retail product?
A: Yes. We have some Batman Brave and the Bold product on sale now and will offer DCUC starting next year at the same price as retail.
Q: When will new Ghostbuster figures be out?
A: Ray in both 6" and 12" is coming Oct 15th. 12" figures will follow once per quarter and 6" about every other month. We’ll be posting the next few figures with avail dates soon.
Q: What conventions will Mattel be at in 2010?
A: We will be at Chicago Comic Con in April and SDCC in July. Chicago Con however will not have a retail booth. This is the first time we have gone to the show and we need to check it out first before looking at a retail store and or exclusives. SDCC will have a retail store again with exclusive product. And we are already hard at work to improve the buying process from this year!
We will not be at NYCC Comic Con 2010 due to conflicts with Mattel internal presentations in Oct. Oct is just not a month we can commit to going to any show. If NYCC moves back to the Spring we can look at going again.
Keep posting those questions and we’ll do our best to keep all of our fans in the loop.
Matty
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Posted by Daniel Pickett |
