I don't think you can put the faults of Mattel on the shoulders of one person, but you can put the issues on him.

He was more than glad to say he was completely responsible for any positive changes or issues when they happened, but when there was a problem he acted like it was completely out of his hands he blamed the fans, the factory, or the 4 horseman, in that order.

I freely admit I never liked pay Mattel knowing it was going into his Wallet. He can spin it any way he wants. Everyone knows 2015 was the Last year for MOTU, He Lied about the Doomsday stuff, Blamed the Customers when it was really his fault, and in the end is trying to get out before the ship sinks. I'm pretty sure the Doomsday thing caused Him problems as did the MOTUC Failure and Restart.

I wonder if Scott's resignation ties in with the rumors that Mattycollector.com will be done within a year and will be folded back into Mattel's main online store website. After all, DCUC is dead. Ultra Total Heroes is dead. Ghostbusters is dead. And by the end of 2015, MOTUC is dead. Mattycollector.com won't have anything worthwhile to sell to adult collectors by the beginning of 2016. They've already got all their MOTUC figures planned and in production stages for the final subscription of MOTUC next year, so what more is there for Scott to do with Mattel? Maybe he realized his role in that company would greatly be diminished once these online adult collector toy lines come to an end, so he jumped ship to look for better opportunities elsewhere.

Was he the guy who answered all of the "Ask Matty" questions? God I hated those things. The answers were always totally pointless and whoever picked the questions was doing an equally terrible job. I started collecting DCUC and by wave 8 I became so fed up with shitty character selection I gave up. I don't care about this guy, I fail to see why he is something of a celebrity in the collector community and couldn't care less where he is off to. Now Zach Oat, that's a cool guy. He is on the minimates forums all the time and isn't anywhere near the douche "Toyguru" seems to be.

it's the Harvey Dent line from Dark Knight "Either be the Hero or live long enough to be called the Villain." I truely believe this guy knew his days were numbered with Mattel. I really wouldn't say he's Famous, I'd lean more toward Infamous. Also every may post in other places how great he was but the true measure of Greatness comes from Failures and how you handle them. My advice for Scott is "there is a thin line between Success and Failure, Never get to High when you Succeed doing so brings greater crash when you fail".

I think It's finally time to let the guy go in peace

The real success of MOTUC and DCU is due to the customers/fans passion for the property and the 4H sculpts. Neitlich was just the middle man who used devious tactics to coerce people into buying subs and whatnot. He's a narcissist and has most fans fooled which is why they think he's a great guy. Realistically, he has done more harm than good to all brands he sold as far as QC is concerned. With all the lies we've gotten from him over the years, it's quite possible he didn't resign on his own accord, but was nudged out by Mattel... but we'll never know for sure.

All the hate this guy gets always struck me as more sour grapes than anything else. Bitter "superfans" angry that they weren't the ones in charge of the line, and unable (like many adult collectors) to accept that they're not as large a market as they like to think they are, or that toy companies should be happy to lose money (or even cut their profit margins) in order to please them.

I haven't gotten a figure from MotUC yet that I outright disliked. Yeah, minor QC boo boos are annoying (reversed shoulders), but hardly the end of the world. And the QC issues were basically on what...a half-dozen to a dozen figures out of how many?

Scott doesn't get all the credit for MotUC, of course...the 4H get about 60-70%, but part of Scott's job was to pimp the line, and pimp the line he did. Love him or hate him, it was also clear that he loved MOTU. Yeah, plenty of fans didn't like "his vision" being the one that controlled the line or disagreed about certain aspects as fans are inclined to do...but that just gets back to sour grapes.

I look back on my MOTUC collection and see a great line of action figures. That's all that really matters to me at the end of the day.

Equally terrible?

First off, people gave up posting questions because of the corporate mission statements we would always get back for answers.

Secondly, after seeing what Mattel would and would not answer, I tried to send questions that would normally get a well thought out answer. When we got even more not-answers, people stopped posting questions. It was to the point where only CMIII and a handful of others would either post or bicker over how Mattel or their PR team wasn't answering anything, just responding with generic statements and "look forward to what we are coming up with next year!". Given some of the answers that we got, I don't blame fans for giving up hope in the mattycollector q & a.

You may think that I did an "equally terrible" job picking questions but I damn well tried to do something right and tried to get good answers. I went as far as to reword some questions as to pry more information out of them. Hell pry ANY information. I don't get paid for this but I still put in the effort to try and get anything aside from corporate mission statement responses. No one likes hearing "we take all your criticism and responses into account when designing these toys, look forward to our new lineup for next year for more " when someone asks if a certain character will make it into MOTUC, DCUC or whatever mattycollector was offering. Hell my example was longer than most of the answers they gave back to us.

Honeslty Shin I feel you did a good job from some of the questions we posted, from Downright insulting to Legit good questions. The problem became was all we got was the same tired Cookie Cutter answers every single time. "Good Idea but we can't." , "With out 100% we cannot give you that and we only got 63%" . or "No set Rule." Honestly I got banned from Mattels board because I finally got so pissed at Scott I finally said he was an Indignant liar who had no respect for the DC Universe or it's Fans, and intentionally did what it took to end it (Please note I am only saying what happened not really calling the guy names). But seeing how he was even Shin can Admit at times this is the way it felt.

Jmacq let me ask you this.. IF producing something would Bring in some money is it better then not producing anything at all and not making any money. I think in a Business setting it is better to make a Dollar then not make any. What Mattel did with the DC Universe likely cost them more money then they made. I am willing to bet Scott know the DCSS figures this year sold better then the DCTHU figures sold the same time and Scott suddenly realized he was wrong and then knew that he was going to be (or was) asked to leave.

I'm willing to bet that whether the DCUC line got to continue or not without making the minimum wasn't Scott Neitlich's call in the least. ToyGuru had to answer to the bean-counters like everyone else that works in a corporate environment.

And I'm willing to bet that the DCUC and DCTHU both sold relatively poorly this year. Of course, DCUC also likely had small production runs, and even then the figures have lasted a few days on Mattycollector.

I think it's hard for fans to accept that they're not a larger buying market than they are, and it's easier for them to craft conspiracy theories rather than simply accept that demand for the product they love simply wasn't high enough for Mattel to feel like it was worth their time.

Even if Toyguru DESPISED DCUC (which is doubtful), if there had been a massive push of demand for the product, then it would have gone through whether he liked it or not. Hell, if there was a massive demand for the product it never would have left mainstream retail toy shelves in the first place.

Try to remember that it costs money to develop and produce product. If Mattel didn't feel like they were going to get a return on their investment, then axing the DC subs was the right move from a business perspective, and Mattel ultimately answers to its' shareholders, not to us.

... so exactly how much of the clusterf*** that was MattyCollector was actually his fault?

Depends on whether or not he was the guy that got to OK the contract with Digital River.

Though KEEPING with Digital River through all the problems was probably a bean-counter/legal department thing (Breaking a contract isn't the easiest thing to do, and for all the complaining, products were still getting sold, which probably meets Digital River's end of the contract).

I'd say things Scott could definitely bear significant blame for include:

Character Selection - He probably had final say on this, with a bit of bean-counter influence as far as tooling budgets and such.

Sub-line Choices - No doubt the ideas for the mini-subs were largely all him.

Public Perception/Public Relations - For whatever reason the guy rubbed a significant number of people the wrong way. I'm not sure he could've done much different and still been doing his job, though, as he was really the only "pitchman" for Mattycollector.

You can't blame Digital River on Scott. A ton of companies use them because of how cheap they are. Square, TCM, Mattel, etc.

He was in charge of Mattycollector.com so no matter what it was his fault weather he was responsible or not. That doesn't change the fact that MOTU really didn't get the minimum in the time allotted. To the DC Fans he really did lie and we all saw it his word could not be trusted and eventually the truth did come out. I'd love to meet the person who took and posted those Doomsday photos because I would love to thank them for Shutting this guy down. Only thing is now DC will have to Eliminate or Rename a character in the Red Lantern Corps I cannot Imagine DC Will be able to use Neit-Likk without having an issue

I'll give you an example of one of Scott's finer answers that did not answer the question asked.... I asked "Why is there so much secrecy with these Subs?" His answer was "I have been Completely honest with you about these subs". I never questioned his Honesty in anyway but the answer was not what was asked. The better one was "what ever happened to the Black Costume Supergirl, Steel, and Flashpoint Plasticman? Will they every be released?" he answers "Why they are not 'cannon' anymore?" I replied "A cannon is an object used in warfare to disable enemy forces. IE a 12 pound Mountain Howitzer. A Canon is a Universe(s) associated with a Character(s)." adding "Why do you produce MOTU toys if there is no TV Show(s) anymore? BTW you just minimalized everyone who worked ad created DC's Universe from 1938 - 2011"

Oy vey. You do realize that Toyguru was not the CEO and Chairman of Mattel, right? You do realize he probably had over a dozen "bosses" he had to answer to?

No, I'm getting the impression you don't. You're basically just mad that DC got canceled and can't accept that in its' current format it simply wasn't popular enough to continue.

Oy vey....

Yeah, I'm not touching this one. Your beef sounds like it needs to be with Time-Warner, who probably told their buddies at Mattel that they wanted DCU to focus on their gigantic New 52 launch and the upcoming "Injustice" video game.

I'm willing to buy that Scott didn't necessarily care about DCU all that much. It was basically dropped in his lap after the retail line died. But imagining that he somehow had malicious intent behind the cancellation of CIE is just plain silly.

And getting angry that we're getting action figures that Scott said we wouldn't get is even sillier. The people crying about buying "Prisoner" Doomsday from SDCC when the Unleashed version was coming later are just as bad. You know what's more awesome than having the Unleashed Doomsday? Have both an Unleashed and a Prison Suit Doomsday. Seriously...Prison Suit Doomsday is a cool figure.

Don't forget that Scott IS the reason we got Question.

You can say I am a bitter DC fan, But I am going to say that you are only kissing Scotts butt for the MOTU stuff. You cannot Blame the Failure of Mattycollector.com on Bryan Stockton (Mattel's CEO) you can spin it every way and you won't be able to do that. Managers are held accountable for failures in their department thats the way business works, It's an ugly truth but thats the way it is. Blaming Bryan Stockton would be like blaming President Obama for a local politican using Town Money to take a Vacation. In the end the guy is gone Like it or not.

I'm not blaming Bryaon Stockton. I'm also not kissing anyone's butt. I'm pointing out simple business realities: There are probably multiple levels of management between the "head" of Mattycollector.com and Bryan Stockton. Many of the failures could likely fall squarely just about anywhere in those multiple levels.

Tell me, how is a manager supposed to make something a success if, hypothetically speaking, that manager's bosses are not giving them the resources (Effectively unlimited tooling and production budgets) required to achieve that success?

You have such a simplistic view of how business works that I have to question if you've ever actually worked in a corporate environment (If not..good for you). Higher level managers and bosses screw over lower-level ones every single day. A lot of the time it's not even intentional...just a side effect of someone making a decision that pads profit margins and/or helps the "bottom line" without serious regard for how it might affect segments of the business under them.

And yeah, the guy's gone. Congratulations. Guess what? DCU is still gone too, and now even less likely to return anytime soon in a form you seem to want.

when they (Mattel) announced that MOTU was ending. I knew Scott's days were numbered at Mattel

It's the same old song and dance on every forum. Somebody calls out Scott for being the charlatan that he is, and someone else throws the ole, "I guess you've never worked for a large corporation before." or "Scott has at least a dozen bosses to answer to." etc. etc.

Neitlich was the founder and manager of mattycollector. Regardless of anyone that was above him, he was the one running the brands and he is responsible for the shortcomings of the brands sold. This includes price increases. ways to cut costs, selling the product any way he could.

The thing that makes him unique was his interaction with fans. His interaction was not because he is a fan like us, but a tactic to make people think he was --- thus gaining their trust --- thus fans believing EVERTHING he says --- thus selling more subs. It's called being calculating. This is why there is a vast amount of fans on various forums who constantly white knight the guy, they are all under his Sith Lord mind trick. ;)

Everything caught up with Scott. He pissed off customers in a Customer based industry. And he Doomed what came next.

This wins. Thread can be closed now.

The Funny part is I work for one of the Largest Corporations in the Country. (I will not say who). The even Funnier part is that I was saying exactly what Kitt said and some people do not want to hear their Favorite person did this and that when the Evidence is in front of them.. It's like watching Pro Wrestling in the 90's when Hulk Hogan went nWo and nobody would believe it. That was all Fake..

Scott's done some good, he's done some bad, but if anyone thinks that he HIMSELF was running the DC and MOTU brand, then have I got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you! I have no doubt he had some big pull on those lines, but there is NO WAY Mattel and DC/WB would let one guy run an entire toyline, that'd be unfathomable! By that logic, Scott could've made "Chocolate Lava Scuba-Diving Superman" and "Fishnet and Keyboard Necktie Batman", and no one would've stopped him. DC/WB have an interest in making sure their characters are represented well, guys!