Mattel: Ask Matty Q&A - JULY 16th

[JeffSaylor]

Panthor, Orko, and Keldor...

---

For a great selection of action figures and collectibles, check out BigBadToyStore.com, BriansToys.com, ToyWiz.com, SmallJoes.com, PastGenerationToys.com, Urban-Collector.com, ZoloWorld.com, MonkeyDepot.com, HobbyLinkJapan.com, and Sekaido.com.

For a great selection of pop culture t-shirts and apparel, check out TShirtGurus.com and 80sTees.com.

---

The two half swords that come with Keldor do not stay in his hands very well because of how thin they are. Is there any possibility you could release two identical full swords in a future weapons pack which will work better with the character.

The weapon packs will be repaints of existing weapons. We have already offered a full purple sword with Skeletor who will be available again at SDCC and then on Mattycollector.com later this year.

As expected, Keldor sold out in record time and many of us had to resort to the secondary market to purchase him. Based on this, will you be increasing the production numbers of future bonus figures?

We are always adjusting quotas and we do plan to reissue Keldor down the road. We can't comment on any other specifics.

The SDCC exclusive version of Orko is a great attendee incentive but every one is going to want the standard version of this character for sure. Could you perhaps allow attendees to pre-order the standard version during the show so we do not have to deal with the website traffic the following Monday?

Sorry, this is not an option we will be offering. Attendees can go online at our booth to order the 2011 Club Eternia subscription!

It's pretty safe to say that Panthor will make an appearance at Comic-Con this year. Although the unflocked version will be released first, will you be showing fans how both versions of the figure will look?

While we do have plans to get to Panthor in time, he will not be shown at SDCC.

2010 has been the best year for MOTUC so far in regards to figure releases. What additional plans/strategies are you planing to offer fans to attain their subcriptions for the All-In 2011 Club Eternia subscription?

The 2011 subscription will contain the following:
12 monthly 6-inch figures
4 A-list variant 6-inch figures (approx one per quarter)
4 large scale items or multipacks (3 at $30.00, 1 at $40.00)
A bonus subscription-only figure (covered by the $20.00 sign up fee)
A bonus map sent out with the subscription figure

The 2011 subscription will go on sale starting preview night of SDCC and will run for about two weeks. Fans may buy as many subscriptions as they want and all subs bought together will be shipped together.

NOTE: Read our story HERE for even more CLub Eternia 2011 details.


For even more Ask Matty q&A, visit SuperHeroTimes.com!

---

[agent_85]

Were these questions from figures.com??? If so, three of them were a bit of a waste imo.

Regarding the standard Orko, it's hugely unlikely that Mattel would have a pre-order in place considering they only just managed to organise a voucher system for attendees. We are yet to see how effective the system will be in practice.
I don't understand why someone would assume that a figure (in this case Panthor) will be on show at the Con. Using the same logic (ie. it'll be a repaint with slight re-tooling) I could say that Buzz-Off and Man-E-Faces will be shown at the Con. There's no guarantee.
The final question seems totally pointless. What exactly justifies the comment "best year for releases?" Firstly, the year isn't over yet and second, this year has seen the most ridiculous sell-out times yet.
In addition, why ask about "plans/strategies" for attaining the subscription, are they inquiring about payment plans like a flexpay option? Surely it will simply be the same system as before but for more figures. Digital River can barely get this system right nevermind something more complicated.

Btw, I hope whoever asked these questions doesn't take offense to my comments, I'm just jealous mine weren't asked.

[wesitron]

The answer to question one in my head sounds a lot more like, "YOU SIT DOWN WHEN YOU PEE!"

And personally, I don't really see the point in most Matty questions right now. It seems like the only property they're really willing to dish on is WWE. Which is good for wrestling collectors, but everything else is pretty staged and planned. I don't think we get a whole lot of revelations with the Q&As anymore regarding MOTUC or DCUC, but a lot of that could just be that SDCC is right around the corner so they don't really want to spoil anything.

And that's cool I guess, we do ask a lot that most companies couldn't ever realistically answer. I'd actually like to see a lot more questions about how the different toymaking processes work as those are the answers I usually enjoy the most. Everything else apparently has to do with logistics that they can't go into