[roshan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pravus Prime

Worst. Business. On. The. Internet.

Have they fixed their ordering system? They've modified it extensively over the years, it still sucks. It just doesn't suck as hard as it first did.

The shipping cost? I thought you said they were flying in the face of every economic profit model. Why wouldn't you maximize your profit levels by pushing off money into shipping and handling when you're the only game in town. Finding the price point that is palatable to the consumer in the face of no competition to the point that they still stay with the product is very sound economic thinking. The fact that it sucks for us doesn't mean it's not stupid on their part.

I was creating websites in 1997. Take your hyperbole elsewhere on this one, it is not applicable.

We are the retailers on this line. If Mattel brought a product to Toyfair this year and tried to sell it to retailers and they couldn't get any advance orders, they wouldn't make the product. They structure their product based on a yearly budget when it comes to tooling and cost. The Ram Man is only $35 and 100% new tooling because of the other figures that use 50% new tooling the rest of the year. The same happens with Marvel Legends or Star Wars or GI Joe. So they can't commit to bringing a Two-Bad or a Modulok or a Ram Man each year without order commitments on the entire line. Without a retailer that falls on the collector base. It's not a threat, it's a reality.

Other the first King Grayskull, which MOTUC figures can't you purchase for near retail price or cheaper a year out from original production? Next to none, and why? Because they monitor demand after initial release and reproduce more of that figure and put it back up on their website. The Horde Troopers and Two-Bad's I can understand because those who are short sighted and can't find them currently like to bitch about such things. But Teela? Who's been re-released at least 10 times? When the line first started, they had figures that would sit for a couple of weeks without selling out. They modified their numbers to reflect demand and made sure they came as close to satisfying demand as they could before selling out to maintain the image of a hot product and not one that becomes a virtual peg warmer. So they've done pretty much the opposite of what you've accused them of.

They've maintained an action figure line at a profit for almost 7 years selling that product solely on the internet. I may dislike Toyguru and a lot of his decisions with the line, but I gotta respect the fact that he's kept this train rolling for so long. No other toy line has ever been successful doing it like this for this long.


TLDR If I was an economics professor I would flunk you on the spot.