Mattel posts profit
 

Mattel beats Wall Street on strong demand | Reuters

Well I think this is typically bad news. IMO it means they will ignore fans suggestions of better 4 inch figures & MOTUC for regular retail release(even retailers had said they want these).

You have a source for "retail saying they wanted" Masters of the Universe Classics?

Because I would be really, really, REALLY surprised if that were the case. Doubly so if that were the case and Mattel turned them down.

As for 4-inch figures...Mattel will NEVER really care about them. They know Hasbro has them beat in that arena. Mattel's bread-and-butter are Hot Wheels and Barbie. Action figures are a much, much smaller part of the market for Mattel than it is for Hasbro.

It was in Matty's own Facebook page or in one of the Q&A's.

So retail is begging for MotUC and Matty won't let them have it? Yeah, still finding that doubtful.

MotUC would be ruined by a mass retail release, anyhow. Retailers wouldn't carry the line unless it was front-loaded with tons of He-Man and Skeletor variants and it'd die the same way 200X did. Plus, you could pretty much forget any chance of the more obscure (Powers of Grayskull) or "not He-Man" (Princess of Power) material, as well as larger beasts and vehicles (at least unless by some miracle the line actually took off).

Retailers want it, as has been shown with the DC vs MOTU line. That's the only way retailers will get it for now as well.

As for the rest, it really depends on what showed those returns. I find it doubtful that DC is really reflected in those returns. As another said, Barbie, Hot Wheels, Matchbox, Cars, and their Disney forrays are the bread and butter. DC and MOTU are nothing in comparison to their other lines like those, and the toddler market they keep trying to poison.

*edit*
Yup, these returns seem more heavily geared towards the girls market, which is something Mattel has cornered now that they've basicly taken Bratz out of the equation temporarily.

That's one retailer that wants it, not "retailers." If Wal-Mart isn't buying your toys, you're not really a "mass retail" item. That, and judging from the overflowing pegs of He-Man/Superman and Lex/Skeletor, I'm wagering TRU might be reconsidering how badly they want it after all.

Yes, action figures are virtually a non-issue for Mattel. Hot Wheels and Barbie are where most of their money is at. I'm half-convinced that the main reason their 4-inch lines suck so badly is because they honestly just don't care about even trying to compete with Hasbro in the arena they basically "own."

You have to remember, your area doesn't reflect all stores. Mine has a constant flow of them in and out, and they haven't been the first store to push interest in similiar items. Just TRU got the exclusivity. You can check out ebay to see just how popular they are, or even bbts with the mark up yet still selling out. The problem is some stores are getting a lot and selling none, others are getting a ton and selling out, and some stores still haven't gotten any. TRU still needs to work its distribution among stores. As has been the issue with almost any major outlet stores shelves. Even hasbro suffers from this, and it's not hasbro's fault, it's the store itself and how they do the distro to each store.

As for the other bit, yup on the bread and butter, but their other 3.75'' forrays weren't from lack of trying. It was a good chunk just bad lining up with how fast the line went underway and diverged from who was in charge of it had wanted. That's a good chunk why they are being overhauled as we speak. Hopefully toyfair will reflect this, though, instead it's starting to sound like Mattel thinks there's no collector market for it instead. We'll see how it goes. It seems mattel's thought is that the smaller and cheaper are for kids, and collectors only want 6''.

Judging from their "efforts" with the Green Lantern line, I think your suspicion is correct, and have little faith in a revival of the DCIH line (under whatever name).

Well, it may not have any real retailer support anymore. It didn't sell, they have a ton of overstock, and just aren't ordering more. Instead of rebranding, and trying better sculpts with actual character centric accessories, they'll just assume fans and kids alike don't want it.

Or, it could just be pushed back for later with a new focus on the Young Justice cartoon. It can go either way.

personally, I'm kinda miffed about not getting Impulse, Kid Flash, among others that would have been perfect while YJ is in the limelight. While you have DC out being talked about is when you should push a comic line alongside animated or movie. Preferably covering all like Hasbro does. Heck, I'd forego YJ animated figures if it meant well articulated versions in 3.75'' scale.

Heck, I've never seen a nightwing on shelves, yet I have martian manhunter once, and deathstroke occasionally. I think they may have overdone the obscures, and not pushed the populars enough, as opposed to hasbro that keeps pushing the populars and slots in obscures when they can.

I've spotted Nightwing a couple of times (Only once in initial release, a couple times as an all-star revision), and actually I think the truth with DCUC lies somewhere in the middle. It's definitely some of the more obscure characters that tend to pegwarm the hardest, but by the same token DCUC has a pretty healthy rotation of the "All-Stars" that keep the popular folks around "just enough" IMO. They're not clogging pegs, but they're out there. I think if you push it much more you might end up with the inaccurately named "DC Superheroes" all over again, with Superman and Batman ad-infinitum.

I don't think it's any coincidence, though, that DCUC didn't get picked up by Wal-Mart as an ongoing line until Mattel started doing those "All-Star" revisions.

Sorry, my bad, I was refering to DCIH. But yeah I've noticed it with DCUC too. DCUC it tends to be the most obscure, but ML/DCUC type lines tend to play by different even more convoluted rules than the smaller figures.

Oh yeah, absolutely. DCIH's character selection was bat***t crazy. It was a very schizophrenic line...on one hand the sculpting and articulation seemed like it was "done for kids" but the character selection was so obscure that it could only possibly appeal to hardcore fans/collectors (I mean...Earth-2 Robin? Seriously?)

IIRC TRU wanted to have MOTUC, and they have shown that they are giving small collectors lines a chance, and have tinkered with preorders in-store. My memory is hazy at the moment but I don't remember the exact details, but I do remember a store in particular did want MOTUC.

I do find it believable that TRU would be willing to carry MotUC. They've got the shelf-space and as you say, are much more friendly towards collector-driven stuff (All those NECA figures aren't really aimed at kids, after all).

http://www.toyark.com/news/toyark-sp...mber-1st-3440/
Still doubtful??? :p

Yes.

I mean, doesn't everyone automatically assume that 90 percent of what any of the toy companies say in their Q&As is BS? It certainly seems that way to me.