DCIE Failing on Matty Collector

[BigBot84]

There's also no other avenues for MOTU figures. With DC you have the new line next year and DC Collectibles. There just aren't enough people who want the 4H style of figures (or want to buy sight unseen).

[Jmacq1]

DCIE/DCUC is officially a dead brand. Retail didn't want it anymore, Mattycollector couldn't get enough subs to keep it going. Ah well. It's still the best DC toy line ever made. Fun while it lasted.

Who said DCUC failed at retail? Matty? When they said that, they were desperately trying to push their sub through.

 

I could be wrong, but I have a feeling we'll see DCUC style figures on shelves again real soon.

 

One way or another, Toy Fair is gonna be real interesting come February.

 

It doesn't take a rocket scientist: Retailers didn't want further assortments of DCU/BMU, so they were cancelled. If retailers had ordered more figures, the assortments we had seen previewed would still be making it to stores this year.

 

If you really think Mattel is going to torpedo a mass-retail line just to try to sell a few more dozen subscriptions to hard-up collectors, you really don't have much sense of the big picture with the toy business. Selling one assortment/wave of DCU to Wal-Mart would probably be at least two or three times as much product sold as all the DCIE subscriptions combined. If given a choice between getting Wal-Mart , Target, and Toys R Us to buy a couple more waves of DCU/BMU and having a successful subscription, Mattel would torpedo the subscription in an eyeblink. Mattycollector is nearly beneath-notice in the grand scheme of things at Mattel, offering niche product to niche markets. They could likely torpedo everything on Mattycollector and it wouldn't even amount to 1% of revenue lost for Mattel.

 

Meanwhile, Mattel has the lesser-articulated Justice League line and the new collector-oriented 3.75/4" DC Line to be their retail "push." They don't need DCUC/DCIE.

[FUGAYZIE]

Mattel doesn't want you getting your DCUC style figures anywhere else, so they cancel DCUC

 

sorry, i'm not a huge DC fan, but i do cherry pick some of the dcuc figures at the toy stores from time to time. has mattel officially cancelled the retail dcuc line?

[Jmacq1]

Mattel doesn't want you getting your DCUC style figures anywhere else, so they cancel DCUC

 

sorry, i'm not a huge DC fan, but i do cherry pick some of the dcuc figures at the toy stores from time to time. has mattel officially cancelled the retail dcuc line?

 

Yes, but this has less to do with evil Mattel conspiracies to sell more subscriptions (which apparently failed anyway) and more to do with retailers and collectors not being as interested after the DC Unlimited revamp.

 

Meanwhile, Mattel has a new 3.75" scale collector-oriented line coming later in the year.

[Marvel_Joe_Spider]

Looks like it's over. Sucks

 

[EvilStar]

That's it. It's dead.

 

You did it to yourselves, Mattel.

 

Let's see how long it takes for Mattel to blame the fans.

[yojoebro82]

DCIE/DCUC is officially a dead brand. Retail didn't want it anymore, Mattycollector couldn't get enough subs to keep it going. Ah well. It's still the best DC toy line ever made. Fun while it lasted.

Who said DCUC failed at retail? Matty? When they said that, they were desperately trying to push their sub through.

 

 

The funny thing here is THE LINE DIDN'T FAIL AT RETAIL! No matter what Matty wants to tell you to sell you on subs. A line lasting 20 waves which is almost always picked over IS NOT A FAILURE!

 

It's like, I can see my cat pushing his food bowl, I know he wants food. Then the Matty mascot shows up at my door with his crown and his smirk and tells me my cat's not hungry. But I know it's a lie because I can SEE with my EYES!

[yojoebro82]

That's it. It's dead.

 

You did it to yourselves, Mattel.

 

Let's see how long it takes for Mattel to blame the fans.

 

And The Wire will soon give us our fourth thread on the same topic

[Nguyen_Dragon]

DCIE/DCUC is officially a dead brand. Retail didn't want it anymore, Mattycollector couldn't get enough subs to keep it going. Ah well. It's still the best DC toy line ever made. Fun while it lasted.

Who said DCUC failed at retail? Matty? When they said that, they were desperately trying to push their sub through.

 

 

The funny thing here is THE LINE DIDN'T FAIL AT RETAIL! No matter what Matty wants to tell you to sell you on subs. A line lasting 20 waves which is almost always picked over IS NOT A FAILURE!

 

It's like, I can see my cat pushing his food bowl, I know he wants food. Then the Matty mascot shows up at my door with his crown and his smirk and tells me my cat's not hungry. But I know it's a lie because I can SEE with my EYES!

Hopefully, now that this silliness is behind us, Mattel will get back to the business of putting cat food on the shelves so we CAN feed the @#&% cat.

 

They rather have retailers spam the pegs with those limited articulated figures...

[featofstrength]

You forget that they already had one sub "fail" (Ghostbusters).

 

at that time, there was no "meter" game to let us know how they wanted things to go. I subbed up for Ecto as I did the year before, got email confirmation, and as I remember (?) it was a week or two after the deadline before they canceled it. That's why we all got the glowinthedark slimmer apology a year later

 

it didn't really fail...they pulled it out from under the fans without warning: and with the Ecto-1 car insult, it's more like the murderers returning to rape their kill.

[JoeRhyno]

I wouldn't call DCUC a failure, look how well it did, but you have to wonder how long a line can last when almost all the key characters came and went. Walmart isn't interested in selling 5-6th string characters like Towel-Boy or Mohawk-Man... they just don't sell, you can't have a whole wave filled with those characters and expect the line to do as well as it did when it first launched.

 

 

 

Like someone said, 20 waves or something, is pretty well, not many figure lines make it that far.

[Draven79]

It was not a failure at all at retail. It just ran its course. And yes I think the new 52 style also hurt it at retail. Die hards just don't like the new revamped look a lot of times. Not enough casual and die hards bought them. I am ok with it being over. Only Ice was a must have for me that I saw next year. I have my Huntress so I am content.

Draven

[Lady Jaye]

Well for me the line died when DCUC ended at retail and it went online sales only!! So this finally ending didn't affect me at all.

 

However, this truly was the greatest DC line ever. We will never see such an all encompassing DC line ever again!! It'll be new line after new line for the 2 big guns with the rest scattered in here and there! Sad really!! But it was fun while it lasted.

[GuitarDevil]

it ended?? they still have figs at one of my local Walmarts haha......still $17 too....Samurai, Half-Nekid dude in Jean shorts(sorry I'm not a hardcore DC fan), Guy with a large Mohawk, & a crushed UMOC Toyman....they had a Black Vulcan but someone gave him a home....I shoulda bought him when he was clearanced to $11.....I bought the Demon at a grocery store and it was & still is an Awesome Fig!! I regret not paying more attention to this line......I wouldn't a minded snagging up a Containment Suit Doomsday if the sub had set sail...

[Jmacq1]

DCIE/DCUC is officially a dead brand. Retail didn't want it anymore, Mattycollector couldn't get enough subs to keep it going. Ah well. It's still the best DC toy line ever made. Fun while it lasted.

Who said DCUC failed at retail? Matty? When they said that, they were desperately trying to push their sub through.

 

 

The funny thing here is THE LINE DIDN'T FAIL AT RETAIL! No matter what Matty wants to tell you to sell you on subs. A line lasting 20 waves which is almost always picked over IS NOT A FAILURE!

 

It's like, I can see my cat pushing his food bowl, I know he wants food. Then the Matty mascot shows up at my door with his crown and his smirk and tells me my cat's not hungry. But I know it's a lie because I can SEE with my EYES!

 

Well, if you want to get technical, that's correct. The line as a whole wasn't a failure, but it petered out. Either way, retail didn't want it anymore, and the evidence is smack-dab in front of our faces with the cancellations of DC and Batman Unlimited. If retail wanted 'em...they wouldn't be canceled.

[yojoebro82]

retail didn't want it anymore, and the evidence is smack-dab in front of our faces with the cancellations of DC and Batman Unlimited. If retail wanted 'em...they wouldn't be canceled.

 

Now you get into the argument of who's to blame for a toy line that went kaput, retailer or toy company. As a GI Joe fan, I know it well and I don't think anyone here can say for sure.

 

Who told us retail wasn't interested in DC any more? Mattel?

 

I'll take your DC and Batman Unlimited example. Maybe Target wanted to order more DC Unlimited but they see the company was wan't offering any more product. They (Target) knows they have a reset coming up, they're not going to save room on their new plano for a line that they know only has a finite amount left before it's gone for good. They put it on clearance. Heck...I saw a New 52 Batgirl on clearance once. That figure is NOT a peg warmer.

 

I'm not saying this is what happened, before somebody replies saying, "Wow, you really have no clue how retail works, do you?" I'll tell you for sure, I don't know. Toy company blames retailer, retailer blames toy company.

[FUGAYZIE]

i remember when dcuc figures were $10 each. now 6" figures are going for $20-25! sorry but that's a little too steep for your avg collector. when they were only $10, i use to buy up some of the peg warmers for custom fodder. but at $15-20 a pop, mattel can keep'em.

 

what WOULD make for a good collector's line that people wouldnt mind spending $20-25 a figure, would be an artist's rendition line. figures made in the likeness of specific comic artists. like a neil adams batman and a frank miller batman. i'd buy into that!

[shokker]

Just give it a different name and you are good to go. As if retail would know or care how the figures look.

[Jmacq1]

retail didn't want it anymore, and the evidence is smack-dab in front of our faces with the cancellations of DC and Batman Unlimited. If retail wanted 'em...they wouldn't be canceled.

 

Now you get into the argument of who's to blame for a toy line that went kaput, retailer or toy company. As a GI Joe fan, I know it well and I don't think anyone here can say for sure.

 

Who told us retail wasn't interested in DC any more? Mattel?

 

I'll take your DC and Batman Unlimited example. Maybe Target wanted to order more DC Unlimited but they see the company was wan't offering any more product. They (Target) knows they have a reset coming up, they're not going to save room on their new plano for a line that they know only has a finite amount left before it's gone for good. They put it on clearance. Heck...I saw a New 52 Batgirl on clearance once. That figure is NOT a peg warmer.

 

I'm not saying this is what happened, before somebody replies saying, "Wow, you really have no clue how retail works, do you?" I'll tell you for sure, I don't know. Toy company blames retailer, retailer blames toy company.

 

This is all well and good...except for the part where Mattel DID have more product for the rest of the year, particularly in the Batman Unlimited line, but also at least a couple new figures in the DC Unlimited line. So that scenario you present doesn't really pass the evidence test.

 

Nobody just came out and announced "retail didn't want DC anymore." (Which is a misrepresentation anyway. DC in general is just fine...DCUC/DC Unlimited/Batman Unlimited are the lines that were cancelled, not DC in general, which has several different assortments coming in the next year). However, a manufacturer doesn't cancel a line in a vacuum. If retail was clamoring for more DCUC-style figures, the line would not have been canceled. It doesn't pass the common sense test to have a supposedly highly-demanded product that you then choose not to produce because...why exactly?

 

But then again, it's not as if adult collectors don't regularly overestimate just how much buying power they have in the grand scheme of things.

 

Generally the retailers don't comment at all when a toy line is canceled, much less "blame the toy company" for it. Retailers could care less. If it sells well, they order more. If it doesn't, they stop ordering it and the toy company has to trim the line back or cancel it, or offer new product to entice the retailers into buying instead. Adult collectors are barely a blip on retailers' radars (outside of Toys R Us who generally goes to greater lengths to cater to them but suffers due to sluggish inventory turnover), and while toys may still be big business, they're not even close to the highest priority for retailers (again, outside of Toys R Us). Wal-Mart doesn't care if G.I. Joe isn't carried in the back half of the year. They'll just fill the space with something else. Target doesn't care that there are adult collectors that are upset on the internet that DCUC isn't available at retail. You could pool all the money that every adult collector combined spends at Target (even including things outside of toys) in a year and it's probably not even 1 percent of their profits (much less their revenue).

 

If you want to get down to brass tacks, the fault lies on every involved party: The retailers for not ordering more product, the manufacturer for not making the product more enticing to retailers and consumers, and the end-consumer for not buying enough of the product to keep the retailers wanting more, but make no mistake: It is the retailers that have the most power in this circle. Target and Wal-Mart can survive as businesses without Mattel. Mattel likely cannot survive without Wal-Mart and Target.

[fettman]

retail didn't want it anymore, and the evidence is smack-dab in front of our faces with the cancellations of DC and Batman Unlimited. If retail wanted 'em...they wouldn't be canceled.

 

Now you get into the argument of who's to blame for a toy line that went kaput, retailer or toy company. As a GI Joe fan, I know it well and I don't think anyone here can say for sure.

 

Who told us retail wasn't interested in DC any more? Mattel?

 

I'll take your DC and Batman Unlimited example. Maybe Target wanted to order more DC Unlimited but they see the company was wan't offering any more product. They (Target) knows they have a reset coming up, they're not going to save room on their new plano for a line that they know only has a finite amount left before it's gone for good. They put it on clearance. Heck...I saw a New 52 Batgirl on clearance once. That figure is NOT a peg warmer.

 

I'm not saying this is what happened, before somebody replies saying, "Wow, you really have no clue how retail works, do you?" I'll tell you for sure, I don't know. Toy company blames retailer, retailer blames toy company.

 

This is all well and good...except for the part where Mattel DID have more product for the rest of the year, particularly in the Batman Unlimited line, but also at least a couple new figures in the DC Unlimited line. So that scenario you present doesn't really pass the evidence test.

 

Nobody just came out and announced "retail didn't want DC anymore." (Which is a misrepresentation anyway. DC in general is just fine...DCUC/DC Unlimited/Batman Unlimited are the lines that were cancelled, not DC in general, which has several different assortments coming in the next year). However, a manufacturer doesn't cancel a line in a vacuum. If retail was clamoring for more DCUC-style figures, the line would not have been canceled. It doesn't pass the common sense test to have a supposedly highly-demanded product that you then choose not to produce because...why exactly?

 

But then again, it's not as if adult collectors don't regularly overestimate just how much buying power they have in the grand scheme of things.

 

Generally the retailers don't comment at all when a toy line is canceled, much less "blame the toy company" for it. Retailers could care less. If it sells well, they order more. If it doesn't, they stop ordering it and the toy company has to trim the line back or cancel it, or offer new product to entice the retailers into buying instead. Adult collectors are barely a blip on retailers' radars (outside of Toys R Us who generally goes to greater lengths to cater to them but suffers due to sluggish inventory turnover), and while toys may still be big business, they're not even close to the highest priority for retailers (again, outside of Toys R Us). Wal-Mart doesn't care if G.I. Joe isn't carried in the back half of the year. They'll just fill the space with something else. Target doesn't care that there are adult collectors that are upset on the internet that DCUC isn't available at retail. You could pool all the money that every adult collector combined spends at Target (even including things outside of toys) in a year and it's probably not even 1 percent of their profits (much less their revenue).

 

If you want to get down to brass tacks, the fault lies on every involved party: The retailers for not ordering more product, the manufacturer for not making the product more enticing to retailers and consumers, and the end-consumer for not buying enough of the product to keep the retailers wanting more, but make no mistake: It is the retailers that have the most power in this circle. Target and Wal-Mart can survive as businesses without Mattel. Mattel likely cannot survive without Wal-Mart and Target.

But there are times when little joey wants a batman figure or certain character and the employee has to tell him or the parent we don't have that character because it is discontinued or is not in this line. I have seen this happen wink wink. But it does not happen very often. Remember the parents look at the toys also. If they don't see the value or what little joey wants they say save ur money little joey or lets buy some legos.

[fettman]

retail didn't want it anymore, and the evidence is smack-dab in front of our faces with the cancellations of DC and Batman Unlimited. If retail wanted 'em...they wouldn't be canceled.

 

Now you get into the argument of who's to blame for a toy line that went kaput, retailer or toy company. As a GI Joe fan, I know it well and I don't think anyone here can say for sure.

 

Who told us retail wasn't interested in DC any more? Mattel?

 

I'll take your DC and Batman Unlimited example. Maybe Target wanted to order more DC Unlimited but they see the company was wan't offering any more product. They (Target) knows they have a reset coming up, they're not going to save room on their new plano for a line that they know only has a finite amount left before it's gone for good. They put it on clearance. Heck...I saw a New 52 Batgirl on clearance once. That figure is NOT a peg warmer.

 

I'm not saying this is what happened, before somebody replies saying, "Wow, you really have no clue how retail works, do you?" I'll tell you for sure, I don't know. Toy company blames retailer, retailer blames toy company.

 

This is all well and good...except for the part where Mattel DID have more product for the rest of the year, particularly in the Batman Unlimited line, but also at least a couple new figures in the DC Unlimited line. So that scenario you present doesn't really pass the evidence test.

 

Nobody just came out and announced "retail didn't want DC anymore." (Which is a misrepresentation anyway. DC in general is just fine...DCUC/DC Unlimited/Batman Unlimited are the lines that were cancelled, not DC in general, which has several different assortments coming in the next year). However, a manufacturer doesn't cancel a line in a vacuum. If retail was clamoring for more DCUC-style figures, the line would not have been canceled. It doesn't pass the common sense test to have a supposedly highly-demanded product that you then choose not to produce because...why exactly?

 

But then again, it's not as if adult collectors don't regularly overestimate just how much buying power they have in the grand scheme of things.

 

Generally the retailers don't comment at all when a toy line is canceled, much less "blame the toy company" for it. Retailers could care less. If it sells well, they order more. If it doesn't, they stop ordering it and the toy company has to trim the line back or cancel it, or offer new product to entice the retailers into buying instead. Adult collectors are barely a blip on retailers' radars (outside of Toys R Us who generally goes to greater lengths to cater to them but suffers due to sluggish inventory turnover), and while toys may still be big business, they're not even close to the highest priority for retailers (again, outside of Toys R Us). Wal-Mart doesn't care if G.I. Joe isn't carried in the back half of the year. They'll just fill the space with something else. Target doesn't care that there are adult collectors that are upset on the internet that DCUC isn't available at retail. You could pool all the money that every adult collector combined spends at Target (even including things outside of toys) in a year and it's probably not even 1 percent of their profits (much less their revenue).

 

If you want to get down to brass tacks, the fault lies on every involved party: The retailers for not ordering more product, the manufacturer for not making the product more enticing to retailers and consumers, and the end-consumer for not buying enough of the product to keep the retailers wanting more, but make no mistake: It is the retailers that have the most power in this circle. Target and Wal-Mart can survive as businesses without Mattel. Mattel likely cannot survive without Wal-Mart and Target.

But there are times when little joey wants a batman figure or certain character and the employee has to tell him or the parent we don't have that character because it is discontinued or is not in this line. I have seen this happen wink wink. But it does not happen very often. Remember the parents look at the toys also. If they don't see the value or what little joey wants they say save ur money little joey or lets buy some legos.

Unfortunately, the collectors are in the minority unless one of the parents is a collector. But usually the retailers have some pull with what kind of toys get put in their stores. Not always caring about character selection. But they might want popular characters over second characters in the first wave

[carrowsboy]

What killed the line for me was not enough villains.

 

Wave 1: 5 Figures, 1 Villain

 

Wave 2: 5 Figures, 2 Villains

 

Wave 3: 5 Figures, 2 Villains

 

Wave 4: 6 Figures, 1 Villain

 

Wave 5: 5 Figures, 2 Villains

 

Wave 6: 6 Figures, 2 Villains

 

Wave 7: 7 Figures, 1 Villain

 

Wave 8: 7 Figures, 2 Villains

 

Wave 9: 7 Figures, 3 Villains

 

Wave 10: 7 Figures, 2 Villains

 

Wave 11: 7 Figures, 3 Villains

 

Wave 12: 7 Figures, 3 Villains

 

Wave 13: 7 Figures, 1 Villain

 

Wave 14: 7 Figures, 1 Villain

 

Wave 15: 8 Figures, 0 Villains

 

Wave 16: 6 Figures, 0 Villains

 

Wave 17: 7 Figures, 2 Villains

 

Wave 18: 6 Figures, 2 Villains

 

Wave 19: 6 Figures, 1 Villain

 

Wave 20: 7 Figures, 2 Villains

DCIE Year 1: 14 Figures, 4 Villains

DCIE Year 2: 13 Figures, 5 Villains

That is 113 Heroes vs. only 42 Villains.

Where is Granny Goodness, the Flash Rogues, Wondy's villains and Batvillains like Mad Hatter, Firefly, Talia, etc...?

[SincroidX]

On a separate, but related note. Have any CIE subscribers received there refunds yet?

[SlushyFrog]

Frankly, it was pretty amazing that the lined survived for so long at retail. That was already a major achievement, given the eclectic character selection. Because they were able to get us thus far, I almost can't fault Mattel for the eventual decline of the line. I'm sorry DCIE didn't go through for you guys. I personally couldn't justify paying almost $30 a figure (after tax and shipping) and not even have a choice as to which figures I wanted to buy. Although what puzzles me is how DC Direct can still produce figures at a similar price point and not rely on large retailers, while Mattel can't.

[Draven79]

I got my refund in 3 parts today @loll@

Draven