So...apparently, Mattel hasn't been getting the subscription response that they want for their 2013 Masters of the Universe Classics Club Eternia. It appears that not only the sub, but the entire line is currently in jeopardy (if you believe what MattyCollector is selling). The Four Horsemen, who do all of the killer sculpting work on the MOTUC line, has even taken to Facebook to implore fans to purchase a Club Eternia sub.
I've attached their post below, but here are my thoughts on this. I've had a Club Eternia sub for the past 3 years. It's fairly expensive - this year, the sub will run you $505 over the course of 12 months. But that doesn't include shipping costs, which are outrageous...and outrageously slow (it takes over a week to get to the East Coast). With tax and shipping charges, you're paying $30.64 for a $20.00 toy. Ridiculous? That's over 50% of the toy price. And they're upping the price of each figure to $25.00 for 2013.
Then, you have no idea what characters they're going to release (The Star Sisters? Really?). It wouldn't be an issue if they actually released "Classic" MOTU characters, but there are so many new or ancillary figures that you'll probably get only 3 or 4 figures that you really want. So I am guessing that a lot of people are going to simply cherry pick the characters they want and not be locked into a subscription (oh yeah...there's no way to unsubscribe). Makes sense.
But, now, Mattel is shamefully trying to pressure collectors into buying a subscription by holding the line hostage. As can be seen by this quote from Toyguru on Mattel's Forum:
"While we are only metering DCU’s sub, all of the subs are technically on the chopping block now (including MOTUC). If we don’t receive the minimum number of orders, any figures already tooled may be released quarterly but the full year can potentially be canceled (much as we unfortunately had to do for Ghostbusters in 2012). So again, if these are toy lines you love, the best way to support them and guarantee your figures (and that the lines actually go forward) is to subscribe. Without the minimum number of subscribers, none of our lines will be able to move forward. If you are on the fence and we have a toy line you love, subscribe to see it continue! Your sub purchase is your vote for more toys. Simple as that."
And here is the text from The Four Horsemen:
MOTU CLASSICS CLUB ETERNIA SUBSCRIPTIONS!
Hey, all of you He-Fans and She-Ravers!
As we’re sure you’ve all heard by now, the number of subscribers to the 2013 Masters of the Universe Classics Club Eternia at Mattel (MattyCollector.com) has dropped drastically from last year to this year. This has put the future of the line in danger of being cancelled altogether.
We’ve seen a lot of the discussion on various message boards and blogs surrounding this issue, and many people have commented that this may be some sort of ruse by Mattel just to sell more subscriptions and that there’s no true danger of the line ending. Well, you should know by now that we’ve always tried to be as open, honest and transparent with the fans as we could possibly be, and we’re telling you now that the Masters of the Universe Classics action figure line IS currently in danger of ending sooner than expected because of a sudden and drastic drop in the number of subscriptions to the line.
Mattel has never reached out to us for our assistance about anything of this nature in the past. In this case they have, so we know this is serious and we’re 100% confident that everything you’ve heard described by them is absolutely true, but it also tells us that there are people at Mattel that are as passionate about this stuff as many of the fans are and don’t want to see it end prematurely again. They’re not trying to get subscriptions because they need the extra money. As beloved as Masters of the Universe Classics is, monetarily it’s barely a blip on Mattel’s enormous radar. MotU Classics is a sort of love letter to all of the fans of the property who’ve kept the Eternian fire alive for this line over the past thirty years, and hopefully will continue supporting the property in their usual rabid manor however they can for many years to come.
We’re not going to get into the speculation of why or how the number of subscriptions might have so drastically dropped between last year and this year. You’ve probably read all of that stuff over and over again at this point. But we will say that even with the hiccups that have taken place throughout the history of the MotU Classics line, we still feel that it’s still one of the coolest toy lines produced today (possibly ever – at the risk of sounding conceited), and it amazes us that a massive corporation like Mattel has such love for the toy line and the fans that they’d continue to make every effort to produce the figures even without any sort of media backing or any huge return on their dollars invested. What may seem like just a giant toy producing machine to many of you, is actually a large group of people that are just as excited and anticipatory as each of you are about each new MotU Classics figure’s release. When these “hiccups” within the line occur, you can bet that it upsets them just as much as, if not more than, it upsets you and us.
So what happens now? Well, at this point we’re going to beg you to subscribe if you haven’t already. And the only real reason we’re begging at this point is so we’ll all have a shot at getting all of those awesome characters that you’ve all wanted to see in 3D plastic form in the MotU Classics line since it’s inception. We want them too! Ninjor? Mermista? Dragstor? Octavia? Squeeeze? Hydron? Peekablue? Saurod? Rio Blast? Batros? Gwildor? (okay… maybe not Gwildor) Freakin TWO-BAD?!? C’mon. Cornboy WANTS his Two-Bad… Are you going to make Cornboy cry? Don’t make Cornboy cry. There are obviously many more characters we could list here, but you get the idea.
We’re not saying that any of the characters listed above are currently scheduled to be made, and we can’t guarantee that we’ll be able to get to every single character that’s been requested, but what we can guarantee is that if the subscription levels needed to keep this line alive are not met, there’s absolutely no way we’ll get to see all of the characters we’d like to see in MotU Classics.
So, the bottom line is – PLEASE subscribe, and please spread the word as much as possible to get others to subscribe as well. There’s only a little more than a week left to get your subscription rolling, so time is of the essence. You can go here http://www.clubs.mattycollector.com/store/mattycol/en_US/DisplayShopperDefinedBundlePage/OfferID.5373544308 to begin your 2013 subscription to the MotU Classics Club Eternia.
We’re not asking as a bunch of guys who’re working on the line. We’re asking as fans of Master of the Universe and this toy line. Please subscribe to the 2013 Masters of the Universe Classics Club Eternia.
Thanks!
-FOUR HORSEMEN-
