#435408
AJ Quick wrote:The rights aren't available for Jairus... so he'll end up looking like Beyonce.
At least that's what I think Mattel was going for.

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TheRockman, joegianco, Gareee and 1 others liked this
#435436
Jimmy Miller wrote:What about Diamond Select Picking the line up? I've seen there props and figures and they seem to be way above Matty's standards also.
I wouldn't trust them after that awful attempt they made at officially licenced Ecto-1 licence plate replicas.
#435439
Kingpin wrote:
Jimmy Miller wrote:What about Diamond Select Picking the line up? I've seen there props and figures and they seem to be way above Matty's standards also.
I wouldn't trust them after that awful attempt they made at officially licenced Ecto-1 licence plate replicas.
That was pretty terrible, but Ben look at the minimates. They're very well done and Diamond Select went out of their way to even include a fairly inclusive RGB line. And look at the depth of the minimates roster. I think they only major character that was never realized was Jack Hardymeyer. Imagine if DS put that kind of effort and time into a 6 inch GB line? Having a few of their Star Trek figures as well as some from Buffy, They do a pretty good job. The figures usually have decent likenesses and very good articulation and they come with a ton of accessories.
#435447
Kingpin wrote:It was Art Asylum who put the effort into the Minimates, so Diamond doesn't really deserve the Kudos.
That's right, Ben. DS was the distributor. My mistake. But given the partnership with Art Asylum is definitely in the plus column.
#435524
My Hoverboard Horror Story:

Most are probably already aware of how the hoverboards turned out and why they are bad.

I fought with Digital River Customer support from mid-to-late December through the very beginning of February. I don't have the the date my original return request was submitted, but here is a timeline starting with Digital River's response.

December 23rd
Digital River responds to return request with instructions on returning my hoverboards. They say once a product is received, the refund should appear in 5-7 business days. The product must be returned by January 22nd. A number and email address is listed for further questions.

December 28th
I respond asking how the shipment must be returned, as no label was attached to the previous email.

December 29th

Digital River says my return is 'ineligible' for a paid return label and I will have to pay to have it shipped back.
I respond, asking why it's ineligible if the product does not match the product offered when I preordered in March 2012.

December 30th
Digital River apologizes and asks for information for my return label. The message says the label will arrive in 2-3 business days.
I immediately respond with information.
Digital River informs me the information is received and to wait 1-2 business days.

January 4th
I write back about the label because it has now been four business days and I have heard nothing.

January 5th
Digital River apologizes for the inconvenience. I am told my case has been escalated.

January 9th
I write again because I still haven't heard back. I summarize everything you've read so far.

January 10th
Digital River responds. They apologize and tell me my case has been escalated (again). I am told to wait 1-2 days for my label and to contact them if it doesn't arrive.

January 14th
I get the UPS Return Label.

???
I don't have the exact date I mailed the package back. It was shortly after receiving the label, though, because I wanted to be done with this and knew my deadline was coming up.

January 29th
Digital River informs me they have received the package and my refund should appear on my statement in 5-7 days.
...But the refund doesn't cover the initial shipping cost (which through Digital River is already far more than the actual cost of shipping these things). I ask why this is.

January 30th
Digital River cites the MattyCollector.com store policy on refunds, outlining the part on shipping being non-refundable.
I ask which part of their policy covers "bait and switch", "false advertising", and/or "fraud" because my crtl+f wasn't picking anything up (I know this was snarky. I was tired of getting yanked around by this company)

January 31st
Digital River tells me my case has been escalated and two wait 2 business days.

February 2nd
I receive the shipping cost refund and told it should appear on the statement in 5-7 days.

So there you go. I think the goggles are too expensive for what they are. I'm happy with my trap and PKE, but after the hoverboard thing I don't want to deal with MattyCollector or Digital River again.
#435556
I have gotta say, when we first learned about being able to get awesome props from Mattel, I was really excited. But it's all just gone from bad to worse.

I was one of the ones who put my name down for a Hover Board last year, and this is what happened.

Firstly - they cancelled my order without telling me, so I had to go through a right pain in the ass job of getting it re-ordered again with them.

Then, when it turned up, half the box was water damaged and had to be thrown away.

But, when I opened it and got it out most of the stickers had started to peal off and started getting air bubbles in them. Put this with the overall poor quality look of the board and it's a piece of £180 junk.

Kept asking them what they were going to do about it as I asked for a replacement, but didn't want to have to pay the £40 import duty again, and they just didn't bother getting back to me.

Mattel - Prob one of the worst companies I've ever delt with.
#435829
A great editorial AJ. I had suspected that Matty may have been talking with or at least looking at GBFans for reaction and input on their pieces. It makes good since to get it right the first time, not like that mess that began to develop when the Slime Blower was first revealed. I believe that input from you and the overall voice of the community probably helped shape the line into the best of what we got. All in all, I'm happy with the products since they're something I've always wanted, though I do share in many of the horror stories of making these purchases and dealing with Digital River.

As a production manager and working with licensing, I think that Matty Collector is actually more just an offshoot company under the Mattel Flag. I've always been under the impression that they've had their own budgets to meet and profits to make while something akin to a Lion's share went to Mattel for use of various brands ie. DC, He-Man etc. So I'm not sure that total profits for Mattel translate to Matty Collector. Either way, from my point of view, the failure of the line rests with management. As Digital River started becoming a BIG issues, it should have been dealt with. They aren't the only ones that do that sort of work. There's many other examples that we all know of, but that was just disaster form the start. The over all, it just wasn't managed/handled well.

Matty Collector has, to me, seemed like a group of fans that wanted certain toys and found a way of doing that in an official capacity. They wanted to do Ghostbusters and it seemed like a third film was coming so they could translate the license to the main Mattel line when it hit ala Dark Knight, Superman and when it didn't hit they did their minimum and cut their losses. He-Man is what Matty Collector has always been about. Without that, they don't exist. Everything else is for $hits and giggles.

In the end, I never wanted them [Mattel] to hold the license after I saw what they did with the Dark Knight Rises toy line; articulation, over-all execution. The Man of Steel line isn't looking too awesome either. Matty Collector = poor management and Mattel is just behind the times. Hell, Playmates has done a great job with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line. A Real Ghostbusters line from them would be incredible not to mention a movie line. They could share the license with Neca who could do "movie masters" and everybody wins. Even the Fans.
#435874
Speaking of lines going down the tube, have you seem the iron man 3 toys ...... Terrible, they look like the batman toys, like a cheap two paint color scheme Mexican knock off..... I know the price if plastic and such is rising but toy lines are getting worse and worse all over, that being said the turtle line is being handled well by playmates
#435898
The Iron Man 3 toys are just terrible right now. I'm thinking what's warming the shelves right now are preview figs with, hopefully, something much better coming down the pipe around movie time. However Iron Man 2 figs never really got that much better. I haven't collected any of the new Turtles line save for one giant playset which is under going some mod work at the moment, but that line is one of the best out there right now. Plus they have OOZE now! I'm going to cave on that for sure because I want to see how close it is the stuff we had back in the day with Ecto Plazm and late 80's ooze.
#435921
Price is exactly one of the reasons why I never bought into the action figures. I only purchased them when they had the big clearance sales. The props, however, they got me on just because I always wanted props but lack time or skill necessary to make my own. I had chatted with some GBs I met after one NYCC about how much it cost to make said props, and found out it was actually cheaper than what Mattel charged for theirs.

The toys themselves, though, there's no reason for action figures to be the prices they are, regardless of what company and quality. I'm old school, I still remember the days when the 6" Marvel line was the price of a comic today, or buying 3 figures for $10 from KB Toys. Hell, even the 10" figures were cheaper than the GI Joe-sized ones of today. Now we've got an 18" Batman that's over $100 because it's "solid plastic, not hollow." So the hell what? It's PLAS-TIC. If I'm spending $100 for an 18" anything, it better be a goddamn statue.

Honestly, I don't know who's more at fault in this: collectors who've made it impossible for people to buy toys just to be toys, or companies for recognizing they've got cash cows on their hands thanks to them. Because of this collector's market, companies produce less to increase scarcity and charge more. Honestly, if kids today are anything like kids were then, the scarcity would come by itself after a few rounds with those tiny Godzillas.

As for the line itself, as others have said there were plenty of other characters, or even GHOSTS, to choose from from the movies, or, hell, even the video game since they went and made the Rookie. And while we're at it, no vehicle love? An Ecto-1 to fit these guys would've been the icing on the cake.
#435924
I've worked with Mattel for years through the Batman brand for another website of mine and this treatment of fans is NOT a new situation. Years ago we had a glory time of fan interaction and communication...lots of good treatment..and then the axe came down. Certain people left..new ones came in and its been total garbage ever since. They can't keep a toyline going anymore, because they're such jerks.
#435946
gbcollector.com wrote:... Years ago we had a glory time of fan interaction and communication...lots of good treatment..and then the axe came down. Certain people left..new ones came in and its been total garbage ever since...
Seems like the "Axe" came down in 2011. I will have to look back on the Matty site, but if I remember correctly: Pre 2011 most everyone was happy, questions on the Matty site were given answers, the Slimeblower figure was saved from being a mess and we got a PKE Meter, life was good.

Sometime during late 2010 and early 2011, sales figures and projections were crunched and it was determined that the Ghostbusters line was not profitable. The 4 Horsemen went on to other sculpting jobs, Toyguru went off to manage some other toy line and the ineffective and often absent Girl Wonder stepped in to take his place. These are the only player changes we can account for. After a period of non communication on the board, it was announced in September that the 2012 subscription was cancelled. Later in October, the great Matty Halloween Firesale took place and mostly all figures were going for $8.00 each.

From September on, Matty had five (?) figures in various stages of production, the Ghost Trap at the ready and I'm making an assumption that they also had the Goggles lined up for production being that they were made to interact with the PKE Meter (maybe even before the Trap, but who knows).

Yeah, Digital River sucked and only added to the trouble, but hind site always being the best, if Matty had kept the communication open, been honest about ending the line back in September and kept the sub going as a short version, I think they could have kept most of the customers that bailed out on them during 2012. Sadly, that doesn't seem to be their style.
joeghostbuster, Kingpin liked this
#436102
You may have been happy at first, but that's because the Mattel guys hadn't revealed their true colors to you yet. We had already been through the ringer with them by then with Batman and seen how it was going to be. The true axe was back in 2006, sadly. All things looking good for GB at first was just a smoke screen by a nice group of fakers.
#436104
AJ Quick wrote:I think that's a good way to look at it Capt.

2010-2011 (mid) was pretty good, and the line had a good start.

Middle of 2011 everything went downhill and 2012 fully sucked.
The truth is that when the gentlemen who designed the PKE meter left Matty they lost the only person who approached the line with a passion rather than as a way to make a quick buck. He left shortly after the PKE was released and that really was the last great thing to come from the line. He is literally the person who convinced Matty to attempt making a prop in the first place.

The Ghost Trap was pretty well done but it was also far more expensive than the PKE, I feel strongly that if he had been involved we'd have seen a significantly smaller price tag.
#436106
gbcollector.com wrote:They can't keep a toyline going anymore, because they're such jerks.
They really are. I can't count the amount of times I've wished I could punch Scott in his whore mouth for his snarky comments and/or flat out lies. Even their mascot looks like such a smug pompous a-hole, I mean does this guy really make you want to buy from Matty?

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He's the perfect embodiment of their company. You take one look at him and you know exactly what you're gonna be dealing with. I think Matty realized he wasn't helping their image, which is why he's no longer on the website.
#436240
I fully agree with the comments made about the mascot, everytime I looked at it on Matty Collector I thought that Matty had a pompus expression. It really is too bad that Mattel had so many changes with the people working on the Ghostbusters line, if things had worked out differently I can only imagine what we might have seen.
#436720
The BTTF Hoverboard thing is popping up again with the Castle Greyskull.

They took pre-orders at something like $250 a pop promising one thing... and now the mock up is done and it's not the same as what they promised.

Here is an image. Not sure if it is exactly accurate. Can anyone verify? (I know ToyGuru posted a video with all the dimensions recently).

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With it the way it is... the figures can barely fit though the doorway. I think they are bragging it is larger than the one released in the 80's... but I think the one in the 80's was done with 4 3/4 height toys.
Jimmy Miller liked this
#436839
I just read about this on another site and couldn't help but laugh. How do they continue to get away with this crap? A pre-order is a great idea if you're unsure about the market for a particular product, but it only works if you fulfill your end. I don't know how for the second time now they've managed to screw up a pre-order. Is it really that hard to not make promises you can't keep? I want to know how Scott still has a job despite one blunder after another. I think Matty should have ate the costs of this screw up and delivered what was promised for the sake of their reputation. Instead they continue to burn bridges, and you can bet your ass that no one in their right mind is gonna trust a Matty pre-order after this debacle.
#436841
I just read about it as well, and can't believe the cuts they are making. for the price, the damned thing should be made of gold.

And they are supposedly cutting down on the accessories as well now.

A quote from Darth Vader comes to mind, "Perhaps you feel you are being treated unfairly?"

Then comes the force squeeze to the balls.

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