Ask Matty 8/15/09

Mattel took time out their busy schedule to answer some questions.


1) On the Masters of the Universe art book, there was supposed to be a limit of 2 books per person, but there are numerous reports of vendors, at SDCC, were able to buy more than 2 copies. What happened there & what are you planning to do to rectify this situation? There are a lot of upset consumers out there.

The books were very tightly controlled, with a limit of two copies per person. Some buyers had additional friends in line who also bought two copies.. We did make one exception: two members of He-Man.org were allowed to purchase 10 copies each to distribute to other forum members.

2) There multiple comments from people who bought the Wonder Twins set that ended up with more than one Gleek. Reports are that the employees working at the booth just threw the Gleeks in there without paying attention. Some customers bought 2 Wonder Twins and ended up with 5 Gleeks. I realize this is human error, but it seems actions like this lead to running out of Gleeks. While you did deny this happening on your Facebook page, there are just too many reports of it happening.

As you said in your question, humor error does occasionally occur. Gleek was on a first come first serve basis and as announced on our Facebook page multiple times before the show, we did have more Wonder Twin sets vs. Gleeks.

3) You mentioned better distribution with the new Wal-Mart wave. When I last spoken to Wal-Mart (http://pendragonspost.blogspot.com/2009/05/attention-fanboys-how-to-find-dc.html) they told me that only 1800 of their 7000 stores carry this line. So a lot of consumers are extremely nervous their local Wal-Mart will not received the product. Is there anything on Mattel's end that you can do to reassure the consumers?

Distribution for Wave 10 has increased compared to Wave 5, but it is up to Wal-Mart to decide how many stores carry the line.

4) Is there a chance that the Ghostbusters and Dark Knight Movie Masters lines could get a membership subscription similar to the Club Eternia 2010 Membership?

Yes, this is possible down the road.

5) Is there any plans for a preorder system to be put in place? It seems to be a very sensible move to allow people to preorder the figures prior to sale date and produce the number preordered with a slight surplus production run as well. You would be guaranteed the sales for the preorders and everyone who really wants a figure should be able to acquire it without having to resort to 3rd party sellers.

No.

6) Is there any chance we will get a second chance to purchase Black Lightning, Atom and the Metallo C&C that barely made pegs in Wal-Marts? Could they be added to the World's Greatest Heroes part of DCUC?

It is possible that former figures could be reissued as All Stars in future years or wind up in multipacks.

7) What will the price of "The Dark Knight" Movie Masters be? Any chance of having a subscription for them?

The price will be $20.00 each., There will not be a subscription.