From the mouths of the Four Horsemen themselves.
Trouble is brewing in Mattel. One, if not, their biggest properties might be ending once again. Seems that the subscription based Masters of the Universe line might be S-Canned by the company due to, well, a lack of subscriptions.
Recently, the Four Horsemen, sculptors of the awesome 2002 MOTU line and this new line that’s been available to the hardcore He-Man fan. Let’s read what they have to say first:
As we’re sure you’ve all heard by now, the number of subscribers to the 2013 Masters of the Universe Classics Club Eternia at Mattel (MattyCollector.com) has dropped drastically from last year to this year. This has put the future of the line in danger of being cancelled altogether.
We’ve seen a lot of the discussion on various message boards and blogs surrounding this issue, and many people have commented that this may be some sort of ruse by Mattel just to sell more subscriptions and that there’s no true danger of the line ending. Well, you should know by now that we’ve always tried to be as open, honest and transparent with the fans as we could possibly be, and we’re telling you now that the Masters of the Universe Classics action figure line IS currently in danger of ending sooner than expected because of a sudden and drastic drop in the number of subscriptions to the line.
Mattel has never reached out to us for our assistance about anything of this nature in the past. In this case they have, so we know this is serious and we’re 100% confident that everything you’ve heard described by them is absolutely true, but it also tells us that there are people at Mattel that are as passionate about this stuff as many of the fans are and don’t want to see it end prematurely again. They’re not trying to get subscriptions because they need the extra money. As beloved as Masters of the Universe Classics is, monetarily it’s barely a blip on Mattel’s enormous radar. MotU Classics is a sort of love letter to all of the fans of the property who’ve kept the Eternian fire alive for this line over the past thirty years, and hopefully will continue supporting the property in their usual rabid manor however they can for many years to come.
We’re not going to get into the speculation of why or how the number of subscriptions might have so drastically dropped between last year and this year. You’ve probably read all of that stuff over and over again at this point. But we will say that even with the hiccups that have taken place throughout the history of the MotU Classics line, we still feel that it’s still one of the coolest toy lines produced today (possibly ever – at the risk of sounding conceited), and it amazes us that a massive corporation like Mattel has such love for the toy line and the fans that they’d continue to make every effort to produce the figures even without any sort of media backing or any huge return on their dollars invested. What may seem like just a giant toy producing machine to many of you, is actually a large group of people that are just as excited and anticipatory as each of you are about each new MotU Classics figure’s release. When these “hiccups” within the line occur, you can bet that it upsets them just as much as, if not more than, it upsets you and us.
So what happens now? Well, at this point we’re going to beg you to subscribe if you haven’t already. And the only real reason we’re begging at this point is so we’ll all have a shot at getting all of those awesome characters that you’ve all wanted to see in 3D plastic form in the MotU Classics line since it’s inception. We want them too! Ninjor? Mermista? Dragstor? Octavia? Squeeeze? Hydron? Peekablue? Saurod? Rio Blast? Batros? Gwildor? (okay… maybe not Gwildor) Freakin TWO-BAD?!? C’mon. Cornboy WANTS his Two-Bad… Are you going to make Cornboy cry? Don’t make Cornboy cry. There are obviously many more characters we could list here, but you get the idea.
We’re not saying that any of the characters listed above are currently scheduled to be made, and we can’t guarantee that we’ll be able to get to every single character that’s been requested, but what we can guarantee is that if the subscription levels needed to keep this line alive are not met, there’s absolutely no way we’ll get to see all of the characters we’d like to see in MotU Classics.
So, the bottom line is – PLEASE subscribe, and please spread the word as much as possible to get others to subscribe as well. There’s only a little more than a week left to get your subscription rolling, so time is of the essence. You can go here http://www.clubs.mattycollector.com/store/mattycol/en_US/DisplayShopperDefinedBundlePage/OfferID.5373544308 to begin your 2013 subscription to the MotU Classics Club Eternia.
We’re not asking as a bunch of guys who’re working on the line. We’re asking as fans of Master of the Universe and this toy line. Please subscribe to the 2013 Masters of the Universe Classics Club Eternia.
Thanks! -FOUR HORSEMEN-
Ok, now that being said, I don’t think the finger should be pointed at the fans. Mattel has LONG history of fucking up their action figures. If it ain’t Hot Wheels or Barbie, they seem to be running around with their head cut off. Now, strides towards improvements have been made, but if the 2002 He-Man line was an example of them doing their best, well, the property will never stand a chance like Transformers and G.I. Joe have.
Problem is that Mattel took their figures off of store shelves and went directly into the online business. Why take the figures off the shelves? Because they weren’t selling well. Why? Because for every wave of figures that were released with a Beast Man or a Zodak, THERE WERE 5 DIFFERENT HE-MAN AND SKELETOR FIGURES! Guess what? NOBODY WANTS THAT MANY HE-MAN OR SKELETOR FIGURES!
Thus the creation of Matty Collector and the subscription service that seems to be all the rage today. But it’s far from perfect. Sure, through this service Mattel has acquired lines like Ghostbusters, Back to the Future and Voltron, but they’re selling these things on a collectors market and they’re in on the game. A damn Cy-Clone figure is $22 bucks! $22!! How do you justify that. Let’s bring in the fact that figures have been getting pricey, but you could still buy something akin to the size of a Cy-Clone figure at a Toys R Us for under $10 bucks. Add the less than stellar service that has plagued Matty Collector. Why would anyone want to pay DOUBLE for what a normal action figure should cost.
Look, Mattel seems to have their head up their ass about what to do with He-Man. They can’t seem to understand that it’s more than a figure line. They should be doing with it what Marvel has been doing with their properties: Blanket it. A TV show, comics (which is happening BTW), and figures ON STORE SHELVES. I hate that a major company like this is so damn incompetent with what is a sure fire money maker. Masters of the Universe has a rich history to it. There are classic characters and stories that have come out of it and can be told still. Just everytime some one attempts to, Mattel cock blocks them.
As for subscription services, I think that their original intentions have been mangled into something akin to an Ebay reseller. Cutting deep into someone’s wallet for a toy.
