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Mattel Speaks Out On The MOTUC Mer-Man Fiasco


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Thats cool and they said everything they are supposed too but Im not sure its all true. I mean the problem was unexpected on the 15th and now on the 16th they have a new, larger server???? As someone who has done work with servers I doubt that is the case :) However, it is cool that they are gonna get everyone a Merman. Just stand behind your stuff that's all.

 

Now I need to get my CC thing fixed from mattel.

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I will try the next week, if it fails, I quit. And I will do it after I come from work, I wont miss another day just bacuse of collecting MOTU

 

Yeah you shouldnt have to take off to get a figure.

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Thats cool and they said everything they are supposed too but Im not sure its all true. I mean the problem was unexpected on the 15th and now on the 16th they have a new, larger server???? As someone who has done work with servers I doubt that is the case :) However, it is cool that they are gonna get everyone a Merman. Just stand behind your stuff that's all.

 

Now I need to get my CC thing fixed from mattel.

 

What reason would they have to lie about it? I mean seriously. Even if its not up and running at this precise moment

it will most likely be fully functional by the time the next batch arrives, so again give them the benefit of the doubt.

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Honestly, we had the same number of units yesterday for sale as we did for Beastman, and it took 41 days for Beastman to sell out. It is always a careful game we play to produce just enough for fan demand without overproducing which would kill the line. (To paraphrase fans from a few years ago...)

 

"Sigh"............it wasn't overproduction that was pissing us off (or killing the line)........it was the overproduction of HE-MAN and SKELETOR!!! The fact that we couldn't find anybody but them was killing the line.

 

In the case of this line......some of us can't even get the figures.

 

Its funny too, cause I said a couple months back before Stratos came out that these figures would be selling out in hours......in Mer-man's case it seems like AN hour.

 

Its a great line.......a shame that the availability just isn't really there. For whatever reasons.

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Thats cool and they said everything they are supposed too but Im not sure its all true. I mean the problem was unexpected on the 15th and now on the 16th they have a new, larger server???? As someone who has done work with servers I doubt that is the case :) However, it is cool that they are gonna get everyone a Merman. Just stand behind your stuff that's all.

 

Now I need to get my CC thing fixed from mattel.

 

What reason would they have to lie about it? I mean seriously. Even if its not up and running at this precise moment

it will most likely be fully functional by the time the next batch arrives, so again give them the benefit of the doubt.

 

Its simple, you dont get a complete new server in a day. Even if you did, do you know how much that costs? I dont think they would do it for a once a month purchase.

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Each time something like this happens, speculation and interest and "scalpers" and all those other things we compete with as collectors increase.

 

First it was Skeletor selling out. Then it was Stratos selling out in three days. Then it was Faker selling out in a day. Now it's Mer-Man going in less than an hour.

 

Now everyone knows about this line, and it keeps escalating each month. It's pretty crazy.

 

We've gone from people not buying in at first because they wanted to save a dollar on shipping or wanted to see how the line would do before buying to people freaking out about not being able to get them and cursing Mattel's name for it.

 

Of course a lot of people don't want something until they can't have it, and that's factoring in some here, too. But there's still tons of interest. Suddenly everyone's a MOTU fan who loves MOTUC and can't live without it. :D

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Honestly, we had the same number of units yesterday for sale as we did for Beastman, and it took 41 days for Beastman to sell out. It is always a careful game we play to produce just enough for fan demand without overproducing which would kill the line. (To paraphrase fans from a few years ago...)

 

"Sigh"............it wasn't overproduction that was pissing us off (or killing the line)........it was the overproduction of HE-MAN and SKELETOR!!! The fact that we couldn't find anybody but them was killing the line.

 

In the case of this line......some of us can't even get the figures.

 

Its funny too, cause I said a couple months back before Stratos came out that these figures would be selling out in hours......in Mer-man's case it seems like AN hour.

 

Its a great line.......a shame that the availability just isn't really there. For whatever reasons.

 

QFT! I'm just not bothering in collecting this line. I'm sure I'm not alone.

Ironically it's the fact that He-Man & Skeletor are no longer available.

Why should I even get a figure if I cannot easily get the others too?

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Thats cool and they said everything they are supposed too but Im not sure its all true. I mean the problem was unexpected on the 15th and now on the 16th they have a new, larger server???? As someone who has done work with servers I doubt that is the case :) However, it is cool that they are gonna get everyone a Merman. Just stand behind your stuff that's all.

 

Now I need to get my CC thing fixed from mattel.

 

What reason would they have to lie about it? I mean seriously. Even if its not up and running at this precise moment

it will most likely be fully functional by the time the next batch arrives, so again give them the benefit of the doubt.

 

Its simple, you dont get a complete new server in a day. Even if you did, do you know how much that costs? I dont think they would do it for a once a month purchase.

 

I never claimed that a server did take a day to put up, and as far as cost goes, this is a toy company we're talking about and considering the

fact that highly sought after figures are on the way within the upcoming months, getting a new server to accommodate the potential traffic

makes perfect sense. However that still doesn't negate the question, why do you think they're not completely being truthful when they didn't

even have to make the statement to begin with, its like you believe some ulterior motive is prompting them to lie about something as trivial

as a sever which would benefit them anyways. I was just curious as to why thats all.

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Thats cool and they said everything they are supposed too but Im not sure its all true. I mean the problem was unexpected on the 15th and now on the 16th they have a new, larger server???? As someone who has done work with servers I doubt that is the case :) However, it is cool that they are gonna get everyone a Merman. Just stand behind your stuff that's all.

 

Now I need to get my CC thing fixed from mattel.

 

What reason would they have to lie about it? I mean seriously. Even if its not up and running at this precise moment

it will most likely be fully functional by the time the next batch arrives, so again give them the benefit of the doubt.

 

Its simple, you dont get a complete new server in a day. Even if you did, do you know how much that costs? I dont think they would do it for a once a month purchase.

 

I never claimed that a server did take a day to put up, and as far as cost goes, this is a toy company we're talking about and considering the

fact that highly sought after figures are on the way within the upcoming months, getting a new server to accommodate the potential traffic

makes perfect sense. However that still doesn't negate the question, why do you think they're not completely being truthful when they didn't

even have to make the statement to begin with, its like you believe some ulterior motive is prompting them to lie about something as trivial

as a sever which would benefit them anyways. I was just curious as to why thats all.

 

You guys a little behind on the technology here. Have you ever heard of cloud computing? Not only can they do this in less than a day, it doesn't cost them that much money either. They just rent the resources when they need them.

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You guys a little behind on the technology here. Have you ever heard of cloud computing? Not only can they do this in less than a day, it doesn't cost them that much money either. They just rent the resources when they need them.

 

Thats cool and they said everything they are supposed too but Im not sure its all true. I mean the problem was unexpected on the 15th and now on the 16th they have a new, larger server???? As someone who has done work with servers I doubt that is the case :) However, it is cool that they are gonna get everyone a Merman. Just stand behind your stuff that's all.

 

Now I need to get my CC thing fixed from mattel.

 

What reason would they have to lie about it? I mean seriously. Even if its not up and running at this precise moment

it will most likely be fully functional by the time the next batch arrives, so again give them the benefit of the doubt.

 

Its simple, you dont get a complete new server in a day. Even if you did, do you know how much that costs? I dont think they would do it for a once a month purchase.

 

I never claimed that a server did take a day to put up, and as far as cost goes, this is a toy company we're talking about and considering the

fact that highly sought after figures are on the way within the upcoming months, getting a new server to accommodate the potential traffic

makes perfect sense. However that still doesn't negate the question, why do you think they're not completely being truthful when they didn't

even have to make the statement to begin with, its like you believe some ulterior motive is prompting them to lie about something as trivial

as a sever which would benefit them anyways. I was just curious as to why thats all.

 

There you have it. No reason why they would be lying with either scenario.

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They should limit the amount purchased per customer/address to 2.

 

It has to be scalpers. There's no other explanation. A huge spike between Beast Man and Mer Man with the same amount of stock. Both are villains and Beast Man is arguably more well known amongst the general public and would sell out faster. Scalpers. Nothing more and nothing less.

 

Also, I guess some Heman.org "fans" told Mattel not to "overproduce" several years ago. So they are listening to these "fans". I'm not sure about the details but they probably took early research into account (Toyguru, whoever on the board does that thing). So again, you can't always satisfy everyone and in the case, the listening to the fans was probably an ill-inspired thing to do! @firedevil@

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Thats cool and they said everything they are supposed too but Im not sure its all true. I mean the problem was unexpected on the 15th and now on the 16th they have a new, larger server???? As someone who has done work with servers I doubt that is the case :) However, it is cool that they are gonna get everyone a Merman. Just stand behind your stuff that's all.

 

Now I need to get my CC thing fixed from mattel.

 

they prob have a new server but they prob mean they bought a new one but it isn't up and running. that's how i am reading it anyway. either way it is good the are actively admitting and fixing mistakes.

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azrael23 do you also believe when Matty says production numbers for Mer-Man were the same as Beast-Man? Personally I don't. What's the advantage to lieing about that? To falsely reinforce the fact to fans that they are "handling" the business side of things. Honestly I think they had a low production number to begin with, it's the ONLY way to explain why they have more Mer-Mans coming in a next shipment.

 

Using very basic numbers, they probably had 10k He-Man & Beast-Man made initially and probably ordered 7k units of Skele, Stratos, and Mer-Man (remember these things are well in production months before going on sale, so orders need to be placed and factory workers need to have targets).

 

Someone above gives them credit for market research but I don't think Mattel even considered how huge the demand would get, so you have Skele selling out in a week, same quantity of Stratos selling out in three days, and finally same quantity of Mer-Man selling out in 1 hour.

 

They didn't - couldn't - make the quantity adjustments until Mer-Man (hence the upcoming second shipment) and the rest (Zodak, Hordak).

 

That's what I believe.

 

To me, Mattel is lieing to save face in the fact that they under-prepared for this toyline, and they're coming up with all the excuses they can to deny it.

 

He-Man might be Mattel's property, but let me tell you, it's the 4Horsemen who've added value to this product.

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To me, Mattel is lieing to save face in the fact that they under-prepared for this toyline, and they're coming up with all the excuses they can to deny it.

 

To each his own, and obviously no one outside of Mattel can know for sure, but I don't see the need to even lie about being under prepared.

 

I think they produced what they needed to come out ahead. They had to be conservative.

 

Why produce less if a sellout wouldn't even mean you turned a profit?

 

Why produce more if you might end up getting stuck with unmovable leftover stock?

 

Why not produce exactly what you needed so then you know exactly where you stand when sales are done (sell all and you know you're doin' good; sell barely any and obviously you know the line won't have enough support to succeed)?

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Once again I am glad I'm not collecting this line. Really sold out in less then an hour and people still didn't get the figure after all the hype talk from Mattel about uping their order numbers, blah, blah, blah. With me it's not even so much the fact that these figures are selling out or all the other problems they've had to date, it's really about how Mattel responds to it. I think they really need a new PR person because frankly I feel talked down too and condescended every time they put out a press release or do a Q&A, it all becomes a lot of hype machine rhetoric and some times don't even answer the questions being asked of them, they just spout out some PR feel good line that has nothing even remotely to do with the question. There's no empathy and defiantly no remorse for any of the problems we've faced as a collector, instead they counter genuine collector concern on issues like QC of paint apps, online availability, or store distribution with the same line of "Look how great we are! We have an online collectors line, we rock!" and damn if their arms don't hurt from patting themselves on the pack so much. Hey I give them props for starting the He-Man and Mattycollector in general and just because I don't agree with how they've made some business decisions or response to their consumers doesn't mean I'm going to go crazy and swear off all of Mattel (I love DCUC!) but I'm not going to drink the Kool Aid and collect everything, because with the He-Man classics the headache to get, hurt on my wallet, and uncertainty of being able to get missed figures just isn't worth having another cool figure on my shelf. Seriously Matty, a little empathy and humility goes a long way.

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But that's just it - they don't know exactly what they need, at least they have admitted to that ~ "trying to find the right level"

 

So they have to fluctuate the quantities to get it just "right", and we all know they couldn't do that to Skeletor or Stratos, and production increases would only start at Mer-Man and onwards. That's all fact.

 

It's true we don't know what goes on behind closed doors in Mattel and I'm quite surprised in this day and age of the Internet that nothign has "leaked" out about order quantities yet. But I find it quite odd that they never once disclose the actually production numbers, leaving everyone to guess.

 

I firmly believe they had low production number for Mer Man equal to Skele and Stratos to start with, they admitted that they had to put in a second order based on sales. So WHY did Matty have to state that Mer-Man's numbers were the same as Beast-Man's? Dollars to Donuts I bet you Beast Man had more units than Mer Man. It doesn't add up to me, and in the grand scheme of things it seems so trivial but honestly it speaks volumes for the type of people running the company.

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azrael23 do you also believe when Matty says production numbers for Mer-Man were the same as Beast-Man? Personally I don't. What's the advantage to lieing about that? To falsely reinforce the fact to fans that they are "handling" the business side of things. Honestly I think they had a low production number to begin with, it's the ONLY way to explain why they have more Mer-Mans coming in a next shipment.

 

That's what I believe.

 

To me, Mattel is lieing to save face in the fact that they under-prepared for this toyline, and they're coming up with all the excuses they can to deny it.

 

He-Man might be Mattel's property, but let me tell you, it's the 4Horsemen who've added value to this product.

 

But what does that have to do with getting a bigger server? I mean just look at it from a different perspective and

give them the benefit of the doubt for once. It would be totally understandable and logical if they actually

did that, especially considering what's in store in the upcoming months. Granted I'm not naive to take everything

at face value but I'm not going totally think their lying especially when they didn't have to address that particular issue.

 

As for being under-prepared, I can totally agree with that, they just under estimated the fan response, but at the same

time its not like Mattel had to do this, period. I think a lot of people comes down to hard on Mattel at times, not

saying that they don't sometimes deserve it, but at times it just gets downright ridiculous.

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They should limit the amount purchased per customer/address to 2.

 

It has to be scalpers. There's no other explanation. A huge spike between Beast Man and Mer Man with the same amount of stock. Both are villains and Beast Man is arguably more well known amongst the general public and would sell out faster. Scalpers. Nothing more and nothing less.

 

Also, I guess some Heman.org "fans" told Mattel not to "overproduce" several years ago. So they are listening to these "fans". I'm not sure about the details but they probably took early research into account (Toyguru, whoever on the board does that thing). So again, you can't always satisfy everyone and in the case, the listening to the fans was probably an ill-inspired thing to do! @firedevil@

 

Why? They've already stated on numerous occasions that 1-3 figures is the majority of what

people tend to buy and that 10 is but a small minority. Sell outs aren't intrinsically because of scalpers.

Its not hard to fantom that perhaps the vast majority are being bought by actual fans and collectors.

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Mattel should just use Ebay to sell their items...

 

at least that damn site won't crash and I'd be able to bid.

 

Yeah Then I could even pay by paypal :P

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I think it's a combination of everything we're talking about.

 

The servers at Digital River couldn't handle the pressure and collapsed. They're telling us that problem has been corrected in one way or another.

 

Mattel is having trouble calculating the amount necessary to fill demand yet not have an overage of inventory. It's the problem of all business and hopefully Mattel is fixing this with future orders for Hordak, Man-at-Arms and Zodac. I can see Mattel tinkering with production figures for a little longer simply because they're trying to get things right. Look at it this way, they could sell out Mer-Man/Stratos/Faker and just tell us, "oh well too bad so sad". The fact they're talking to us at all tells us they want our money and are trying to get things right.

 

To me there is one way to fix this that would make it easy for Mattel to judge production numbers and make sure we get what we want. Mattel posts on their Mattycollector site how many they need to move to sell at $20 per figure. We then place a pre-order of sorts, putting 10% down which is non-refundable. Each time an order is placed a counter indicates how many more need to be pre-ordered to ensure a $20 price. Since we're seeing figures selling out in less than an hour this seems like a good idea to guarantee consumers get a figure and Mattel can get a good idea up front of how many are needed. It may take longer to get us the figures but if you were guaranteed a Man-At-Arms, for $20 wouldn't we all be happy?

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Thats cool and they said everything they are supposed too but Im not sure its all true. I mean the problem was unexpected on the 15th and now on the 16th they have a new, larger server???? As someone who has done work with servers I doubt that is the case :) However, it is cool that they are gonna get everyone a Merman. Just stand behind your stuff that's all.

 

Now I need to get my CC thing fixed from mattel.

 

What reason would they have to lie about it? I mean seriously. Even if its not up and running at this precise moment

it will most likely be fully functional by the time the next batch arrives, so again give them the benefit of the doubt.

 

Its simple, you dont get a complete new server in a day. Even if you did, do you know how much that costs? I dont think they would do it for a once a month purchase.

 

I never claimed that a server did take a day to put up, and as far as cost goes, this is a toy company we're talking about and considering the

fact that highly sought after figures are on the way within the upcoming months, getting a new server to accommodate the potential traffic

makes perfect sense. However that still doesn't negate the question, why do you think they're not completely being truthful when they didn't

even have to make the statement to begin with, its like you believe some ulterior motive is prompting them to lie about something as trivial

as a sever which would benefit them anyways. I was just curious as to why thats all.

 

You guys a little behind on the technology here. Have you ever heard of cloud computing? Not only can they do this in less than a day, it doesn't cost them that much money either. They just rent the resources when they need them.

 

 

I dont think we are behind mattel actually said the got a new server. :)

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