Mattel's response to me

[LOU]

It has never been about liking and disliking the stuff. It was always about the vicious tone of many of the posters that didn't like them. It never was enough to just say they didn't like them and move on. They viciously ranted over and over and OVER again thread after thread after thread.

I said I didn't care for the GL variants then and I don't now. Many of the character choices don't appeal to me. But I was never rude or vicious about it. I was happy for the people that did like them and bought the figures, like Wondy and Cheetah, that interested me.

Indeed Werewolf. No need for viciousness, I agree, they're just toys. Just so you know I was specifically referring to the people who were raving about the GL's. Saying things like "great choices", "I don't care who they make" and the like. Whether they admit it or not now, they're surely not too happy with what is apprently going to transpire now. That's why I said I hope those people are still gushing with love for their 6 GL's because exactly as I predicted, the creation of those characters is not without cost...in this case the cost being Robin, Joker, etc, etc. But yes, viciousness is not necessary although I must say that even though my Retro line predictions were met with much adveristy back then, I truly can't say anyone was "vicious" to me for having an opposing view so I have no complaints there. Just good spirited debate really. I must have missed all the viciousness.

[Werewolf]

I must have missed all the viciousness.

Consider yourself lucky. I remember one poster went as far as saying the people that worked on the line should kill themselves.

In my opinion, It's also easy enough to monday morning quarterback on the line on what they hypothetically should or should not have done, but when all is said and done they did manage to release 21 Retro- Action heroes in a rather shakey economy. I think that's one heck on an accomplishement.

[Timothy2251]

I always assumed (yeah, yeah, I know) it was Mattel and DC calling the shots as to what figures they wanted made. EMCE was on board as consultants/advisors/some prototyping. Besides, we did get a lot of popular/classic characters in the Retro line: we got the big 7 of the JLA and most of their arch enemies, including the figures most of us fans wanted Mego to have made way back when (Luthor, Flash, Green Lantern, etc.). After those guys, there's a bit of a drop off in popularity outside of the comic/Mego fanbase - the general public would zero in on buying a Batman as opposed to buying a Nightwing, for example.

Also, everyone was thinking long term at the outset - nobody knew the line would die in 2011 when the whole thing started in 2009. Figures like Joker and Robin were (are?) on deck during the proposed 3 year commitment, Hawkman (I think?) had reached the drawing board - if we got an exclusive GL wave to tie in to the movie, I'm sure there would've been a Bat-wave to tie in to Dark Knight Rises next year. Besides, The Dark Knight had been out about a year and Two-Face was popular for a bit there, and most of us Mego collectors have a Joker or two already, so Two-Face was a new and exciting choice to go with. Joker would show up later - at least that was the original plan.

I honestly don't see any problem with any of the characters chosen, save for the Sinestro variant, and even that one I could see as the Blackest Night/Brightest Day storyline was going on in the comics, hence there might be additional fan interest in a figure like that.

Availability seemed to be the issue here - lots of reports of Toys R Us stores not getting figures, but that holds true for a lot of action figure lines nowadays. If villains were short-packed, I'm sure folks would be gnashing teeth over the glut of Superman figures on shelves, and collectors would be railing how we need more Luthors (see the new Captain America movie/comic line for an example. I've only ever seen one Red Skull figure and that was at last week's Zoloworld show. I go to a Toys R Us or Wal-Mart, and there's plenty of Caps in all sorts of outfits, warming pegs).

Main point of this is I don't see any reason to blame anyone for the line cacking out early - EMCE did their job, Mattel did theirs, and I'm grateful. If I was going to Monday morning quarterback (tip of the hat to Werewolf!), I'd question why there needed to be a Retro Ghostbusters line as opposed to an additional wave of Retro Heroes, but what do I know? Ghostbusters was popular for awhile last year.

[LOU]

Consider yourself lucky. I remember one poster went as far as saying the people that worked on the line should kill themselves.

Are you kidding me??? Someone actually said that? I guess I did miss some viciousness. That's just ridiculous to say something awful like that. No excuse.

[trekman101]

Who said Mattel was making the character choices? It seemed to me it was EMCE who was deciding the character picks. From the beginning they stated we would tell by the figures released that fanboys were picking the characters to produce. I mean Two Face over Joker was the first major mistake. All the foes were Super Friends based instead of more well known characters. Mego made popular characters thats why Mego's line lasted several years. EMCE made less known characters to fill voids Mego left out. Some were great choices (Flash and Green Lantern) others were very bad choices and no surprise why Mego didn't touch them. Wave 4 was the biggest mistake of all letting only Shazam be the major player and the other 3 be minor characters. Robin,Joker,Supergirl and Hawkman should have been released long ago. Yes Mattel is bad on many levels but not all the fault lies there. This line was not taken seriously enough by all involved. It seems to me they were more concerned with filling voids than making a hit line. You can't build a toyline with more 4th string characters than 1st and 2nd string characters. Too many bad guys was another problem. I hope these guys learn from this and if they are ever lucky enough to get the chance to produce figures for a major toy company again...what you may like to see made (Dr. Fate,Spectre) may not be what the majority of buyers will fork money over for.

DC and Mattel made the choices not EMCE....Doc actually found out a few minutes before the wave 1 announcement at SDCC that two of the characters were being replaced with new choices

[jacoblb]

DC and Mattel made the choices not EMCE....Doc actually found out a few minutes before the wave 1 announcement at SDCC that two of the characters were being replaced with new choices

Yep. This has been stated in many types of media. I held off replying because I thought a lot of MM members would pile on and correct the person you've corrected. Surprisingly that hasn't happened.

[Werewolf]

Are you kidding me??? Someone actually said that? I guess I did miss some viciousness.

No joke. It was honestly that bad. It was really ugly there for quite awhile.

[LovethoseMegos]

Well, you certainly deserve all the credit, sir! You must be some kind of soothsayer! You were the only one that posted that the line would die!

Wait, no you weren't. It seems it was posted every 5 minutes so when the inevitable happens, they can gloat how right they were. Congratulations.

Are you mad bro? I'm sorry my post hurt your feelings.

[CrimsonGhost]

Are you mad bro? I'm sorry my post hurt your feelings.

That's cute. No, I'm on your side. You're the guy that called it early. You deserve all the credit.

[MegoMark71]

Well i for one am very happy for the figures we have received.

[megocrazy]

Who said Mattel was making the character choices? It seemed to me it was EMCE who was deciding the character picks.

I think you are incredibly misinformed. Perhaps this came to you in a dream.

Two Face over Joker was the first major mistake.

When's the last time you saw a two-face hanging on a peg hook?

All the foes were Super Friends based instead of more well known characters. Mego made popular characters thats why Mego's line lasted several years. EMCE made less known characters to fill voids Mego left out.

Mattel felt the "RETRO" tag made it worthwhile to make figures from the Retro times. Hence the reason John Stewart has the 70's motif. It's also the reason they centered around the Super Friends theme. It was 70's - 80's based.

Some were great choices (Flash and Green Lantern) others were very bad choices and no surprise why Mego didn't touch them.

As much as we all love Mego figures they did pick Tarzan and Mr. Myx while passing on Flash and Green Lantern.

Mattel is bad on many levels but not all the fault lies there.

Body design, emblem design, character selection, and distribution and pricing. What else was there to mess up?

I hope these guys learn from this and if they are ever lucky enough to get the chance to produce figures for a major toy company again...what you may like to see made (Dr. Fate,Spectre) may not be what the majority of buyers will fork money over for.

Again the major toy company was the one that made these decisions. By the way. BBP made the Venture Bros decisions, Diamond makes the Trek decisions, etc. They are the license holders and the ones that have the control over what is made. Realize also that even with this catastrophic event from Mattel, EMCE has had more influence on the 8 inch action figure market than all the other Mego-like toy companies combined. Count the number of figures they've either produced or consulted on in the past 8 years and all others fall by the wayside. Nothing against any of them but EMCE being told "they need to learn from this" by you is pretty ridiculous to say the least. You should research the licensing and marketing sides of toys and perhaps you would understand better how the ball rolls.

[ODBJBG]

Do we know this for a fact? DrMego stated that it doesn't make sense for Mattel to pull down a figure from the website if it didn't really sell out. Yet so many are making that claim. Others are stating Mattel do this because they keep a supply to exchange on returns, which doesn't speak well on their quality control or the shipping fiasco Mattel finally fixed after several waves of complaints. As these retros appeal to a collector market niche surely someone should have realized mailing inside an envelope wasn't good for the customer, brand, or product. I'd love to see Mattel offer all the exclusive GLs on Mattycollector.com so I can buy them all at once and save on shipping.

Yes we know this for a fact. It's what Mattel does. Check some of my earlier posts, this was explained.

DrMego did say it didn't make sense and it doesn't, but that's irrelevant, because whether it makes sense or not, that's what Mattel does.

The supply for exchange is actually much smaller and has little to do with them pulling them from the website. Mattel is doing a "Mad Matty Monday" coming up where they are giving away extra stock of figures at cut rate prices. I expect RA figures to be a big part of that, because of leftover stock.

[THE FALCON]

I'm just hearing about the cancellation of the Retro line. I was really getting into these figures. Sadens me deeply to hear the line is dead. Hopefully we'll still see some surprises at SDCC. Still hoping for a Robin & Joker.

[jayraytee]

Speculation doesn't equal fact.

One thing we don't know is manufacturing quantities. My brother and I produce CDs for a couple of bands and sell them on their websites, we print them in quantities of 1,000, which is the minimum required quantity. If we put up an album for sale after printing, for example 5,000 and they sell out, we will put "sold out" on the website until we get a new batch of however many we have reordered.

We don't know if Mattel does this with figures now do we? Its entirely possible that they run a small quantity for the MattyCollector site and sell that quantity out and then later order another smaller batch.

We do often take the CDs down and put "sold out" on the site when we are down to less than 10 copies, in case we have to resend one that got damaged in shipping or something. But its not like we hold back 1,000s, its usually a handful.

There are many scenarios of how this type thing could happen.

[MEMEGO]

In a way , I am sad the line is ending and in another way I am not, some of the figures well nicely done, some were not. I hate the bodies, I hate the legs.I hate the decals crumbling up and falling off as soon as opened. I think mattel should have invested a few more dollars into the development of the figures. and perhaps done a bit of advertising. I look forward to the dr who line, which from what i see, also is not perfect (yet) Even EMCE Trek line had problems, Bands of a different colour, scotty's head being red. Hard to imagine and believe a small company like Mego who was known for cutting costs made such a wonderful and well done figure which have indured for over 30 yrs, one would think with todays tech a better Mego could be made. We all deserve better for our hard earned money. What ya all say?