BitterNews for Monday, March 15th, 2010

• Mattel Fuck Up Of The Day:

“ Hey He-Fans,

So a quick word on production and ordering before Moss Man goes on sale tomorrow 3-15-10.

When we went into 2010 production on MOTUC, it was based on the number of subscribers we had for Club Eternia plus additional stock for “day of sale”. Because we had a lot more subscribers in 2010 vs. 2009, we were unsure just how many more “day of" buyers we would have above and beyond the subscribers. The last thing we wanted to do was over produce a figure so we went with a conservative number assuming most die hard fans subscribed for the year long deal. (that is what happened to the DCUC 2 packs and JLU 4 packs and notice there won't be any more of those for now).

Well the quick sell out of Adora and Trap Jaw have clearly shown that there are quite a lot of “day of” buyers out there beyond the Club Eternia subscribers. We have therefore increased production but the first figure we could increase was the June Figure, She-Ra.

So a special word on Moss Man. First off, he is already part of the same production quota range as Trap Jaw and Adora so we do expect a fast sell out. On top of that, because we made a running change to un flock the ears, the total production available for non subscribers is split between flocked and non flocked (all subscribers are getting non flocked ears BTW). So basically, if you want Moss Man, best bet is if you get him into your cart, BUY HIM!

We are working hard on reworking the system so that if a figure sells out while you have him in your cart and are shopping for other items you won’t have to go back and re-load your cart from scratch. But this upgrade is not in place yet. So out best advice, due to the very limited number of Moss Man figures to non subscribers, if this is the figure you want, the best bet is to buy him ASAP and not try to load up other items.

Now obviously we know customers want to combine items to save on shipping, so you don’t HAVE to follow this advice. But because in the case of Moss Man his total non subscription production is split due to two versions, we know he will go especially fast.

We are constantly working with Digital River to improve the buying process. You may still see the red waiting screen simply due to the huge number of people logging on at once (similar to buying concert tickets or other high end events). If you do miss out on figures, know that figures who sell out fast will most likely go into a second run (Trap Jaw, Adora and Battle Cat are already green lit for a second run down the road). So in time, your collection will still be complete.

Let us know how things are going and keep posting on my forums. Dedicated brand managers and digital media techs are standing by to read all of your comments and make any improvements we can!

Good luck tomorrow and see you in the toy aisles!

Matty”

• Hot Toys has revealed the prototype of War machine in full. Also coming up, Iron Man 2 bust and the Predators license (this is the new Predator film directed by Robert Rodriguez).
• 3A has fully revealed the Little Shadow figure. Looks like there may be 3 versions and the sale happens Wednesday if you’re in the USA.
• Hack/Slash is leaving financially troubled DDP for Image.
• Warners is talking to PE firms about breaking up the EMI assets after an expected summer sale.
• The Power Girl team is leaving after issue twelve. As will I.
• BOOM! Will be publishing Darkwing Duck – we assume these are not new stories, but translations of the Italian DD books that have been published for years.
• Slash claims he never played guitar on Michael Jackson’s “Black or White”, calling the hook “gay”.
• Spider-woman #7 will mercifully be the last issue.
• DC is planning LOSH rings.
• One of James Brown’s kids is claiming his body is missing. That’s what you get for leaving it out.
• This week is ComicCon lodging week. Hopefully it will be a smooth process, as it is supposed to be improved from previous years. This year, you’ll need to provide a list of TWELVE (!!!) hotel preferences.
• Variety reports that “Curb Your Enthusiasm” will likely be back for another season.
• Peter Graves died yesterday at 83.
• Killing Joke have postponed their new album and tour.
• Will Ferrell is starting a sitcom on Comedy Central – he will not star of course, and frankly, we expect it to be a disaster.
• Rush Limbaugh backpeddling on his claim that the hospital care he got in Hawaii during his latest OD now that he has learned Hawaii has Gov’t run healthcare.
• Fuck-Psycho Jennifer Love Hewitt has ditched Jamie Kennedy. Clearly any of us could be next. • “American: The Bill Hicks Story” premiered at SXSW this weekend.
• Here’s the horrible pile of crap DVD & Blu Ray product that will be released Tuesday: Princess & The Frog, Astro Boy, Fourth Kind, Ninja Assassin, South Park Season 13, Breaking Bad Season 2, Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, MST3K 17, Monk Season 8. For all you fruity vampire fans, Twilight New Moon will be out this coming Saturday (?). Next week looks better.
• Powerfully weak music releases as well: Disco Biscuits, Drive By Truckers, Fred Schneider’s side project – the Superions, White Stripes live, Peter Wolf, Neon Trees and the Whigs. Again, next week looks better, although it has a Jane Krakowski album in it!
• That said, the Hoodoo Gurus have a new album out in Australia.
• In the UK, digital sales growth actually overtook physical CD decline for the first time. Is there hope that the music industry free-fall has leveled out? Of course not.
• Carol Clerk, great writer for UK mag Melody maker has died of cancer.
• ABBA will be inducted into RnR Hall Of Fame tonight. Rock writers across the US go apeshit. What did they expect? The awards are run by credibility bankrupt Jan Wenner, publisher of the abomination Rolling Stone.

The internet ralies to beat on Mattel & Matty today

Mattycollector.com, Mattel's broken online retail site is getting the crap kicked out of it today by angry fanboys all over the web. On Facebook, in collector forums, on blogs and all over Twitter. Deservedly so. With the launch of several new exclusive products the site was once again overwhelmed and crashed, ran slow and was full of check out errors for everyone stupid enough to once again line up to get fucked by this madding monthly process. Us Bitter Geeks included.

From the minute it began, figures were reported sold out as you attempted to check out only to minutes later be in stock again. The list of errors go on but I don't care enough to list them all out.

Mattel contracts a Minnesota based ecommerce company named Digital River to run the tech of the site, distribution and handle customer service. To date, I don't know how Mattel's folks can say the partnership has been anything but a complete failure. A failure that is truly something to witness month after month. Like ecommerce is a new wonder for any firm to figure out how to execute. Two monkeys with a PC and a warehouse full of toys could do a better job.

And since this is the week of the New York Toy Fair, we've all been watching Mattel's Toyguru bask in the glory of showcasing new 2010 Matty.com exclusives that we all get the pleasure of suffering to obtain at least every month as long as this shitty website is utilized by these jokers.

We've posted this before but it needs to be said again: "Hey Mattel & Toyguru! Stop showing off new product when your priority is fixing a broken retail process and website!"

I would not let Scott and his teams even talk about new toys until this problem was completely and permanently resolved.

SDCC 2009 Screw ups - Runner Up, Mattel

By our reckoning, Mattel Comic-con exclusives were the second most in demand of the event behind DC Direct’s Green Lantern 5-figure set (which also suffered major foul ups).

To their credit, at least Mattel learned a valuable lesson from last year’s show and moved the sale of their exclusives out of their show booth and over to a separate sale booth. However, they greatly underestimated the crush of the crowds everyday that wanted to buy their merchandise. The booth and the aisles all around it were a zoo from the moment the door opened on preview night. From the start, every Mattel employee told everyone that was turned away daily the same lie…”not to worry, we have rationed out new inventory to arrive everyday of the show. So you’ll have plenty of opportunity to come back and try again.”

It was complete bullshit or they simply changed their minds on Friday and decided to sell through everything they had. By Thursday morning they had sold out of the He-Man artbook. By the end of Friday, they had completely sold out of several of the most in demand figure exclusives including Wonder Twins sets with Gleek, from the Masters of the Universe they had sold the ’09 He-Ro exclusive along with He-Man, Beast Man and Skeletor. Aside from their purchasing limit of two copies per customer of the He-Man book, they never limited the number of toy exclusives one could buy.

We know the Mattel staff couldn’t give a rip but how about some consideration for the poor bastards that could only purchase single day tickets to the con? If one could only attend the show on a Saturday or Sunday and Mattel kept telling people stock would be there but lied about it, that’s a screw job. We call the Mattel Toy Shop or Matty Shop or whatever the hell they call themselves, the second biggest f*ck ups of the 2009 Comic-con.

Hey Mattel, next year, shop limit should be 2 figures per person, per day. Weeds out the scalpers in line loading up. Second, figure out how to reprint the He-Man book. Comic Book companies do this all the time. Add new content, change the cover, add a figure as a bonus, whatever, but figure it out.

And by the way, as we write this post, we noticed MattyCollector.com still has not listed any of the Mattel SDCC exclusives (left over) on it's site as promised. In comparison, the Hasbro Toy Shop has had it's con exclusives up for sale since the Monday after the show ended.