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Quote:

Originally Posted by Sean C

Mattel went this route because the major retailers wanted major characters. And Mattel wanted brick and mortar to keep buying Origins.

To-may-to, to-mah-to?

I should clarify. I don't disagree with the fact that retailers primarily want popular characters and that Mattel wants to sell a variety of characters. Whether Mattel can sell them successfully at the rate that selling at retail stores requires is the issue.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sean C

I mean, do we think Slamurai, Snake Trooper and the Rulers of the Sun are more well known/popular than Rokkon and Extendar?

No, but I think what we're seeing now with Mattel's move back to DTC is a result of what's happened the last few years with retail sales (including those figures you mentioned). There's such a high volume of product that needs to be moved for the line to be successful at retail stores, and there needs to be a lot of kid-appeal, too. After seeing how things have gone, Mattel probably decided it'd be more economical to go back to the direct approach.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sean C

Though, I fail to see how a case can have a reissue Zodac (a guy who is really not a major character) and not a Rokkon...but whatever.

I missed out on Zodac the first time, and I definitely wanted the reissue more than Rokkon. Same with the Tri-Klops reissue I just picked up. Zodac's a major character in that he's part of the 1982 wave, and he's more important (and recognizable) to me than a Rock Lords wannabe (even though I ended up ordering him, too). One character's part of the iconic first wave from my childhood. The other came along as the original line was fading and many of us had already lost interest in MOTU. But I can only speak as a middle-aged man fueled by nostalgia, aka, the main consumer this line is targeting...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sean C

But this again about a series partially kept popular by artificial scarcity, too. That doom case of Sorceress, Stratos, Jitsu and Buzz-Off...could've been any other case, maybe. Early on wave 1 He-Man and Skeletor were everywhere in the USA. I almost decided to skip the series because I didn't think it would amount to anything if that's all that shipped to stores.

Is it so much about using artificial scarcity to boost popularity, or that demand at retail isn't strong enough? See: the Mattel Classics run from 2008, which was made to order because the line wouldn't have been profitable or even survived at retail, or the death of the 200X line due to poor toy sales.

MOTU isn't like evergreen properties such as Transformers or Star Wars. It can't consistently move product at the level of those other franchises. I'm surprised that Mattel didn't go back to the DTC approach sooner.