King Hiss Screwjob Part 4: Age of Excuses

Mattel seems to have remembered that they have a forum where they can deliver news about their products...

I shall quote Skeletor's Love Child (aka the New Toyguru) and dissect the posts like I often did with the Original Toyguru. Right after the page break... There may be some adult language that could hurt some safe spaces...

This is going to be a long one so before you settle in make sure you have your beverage of choice and some snacks handy.

Right out of the bat we start with a lame attempt at humor, which coming from a Corporate Mouthpiece means:
Customer blaming and condescending remarks ahead.

King HssssAs of right now he will not be available until January 2016. For the reasons why please see below…  

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So, now I will be a "dirty international" and I should get him with no tracking on my shipment... If It gets lost I'm Shit out of Luck!
Get ready for the excuses...

His face can’t be seen and he’s licking the side of the blister…

NOW they worry about figures whose faces are partially obscured by the blister!? Also, he's licking the side of it!? Really!? THAT is the excuse!? Weapons warping because they're packed ON THE FIGURE'S HAND is A-OK, but the tongue of a snake touching the blister and we have to delay production!?

This awful China stamp right in the middle of his chest

NOW they want to do something about the HORRIBLE China stamps that we have complained FOR YEARS!?

There’s no articulation in the major snake head and it was glued on crooked.

The team wants nothing more than to get this figure right so we went back to our manufacturing team and gave specific instruction for the issues listed above to be fixed.

Whoa whoa whoa! You mean to tell me that you'll actually DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!? Seeing that King Hsss is now a 2016 item, will he have 2016 prices or will he be overpriced even for 2015 due to the delay?

Lord MasqueYou pointed out that his colors were incorrect and we made a note of it. Our counterparts in Asia, however, did not. Upon receiving the production models we knew immediately this wouldn’t be acceptable so we scrapped every unit and started over. That being said, expect him to arrive a little late. He’s the January Collector’s Choice figure and while he will still arrive then don’t look for him until the end of the month. 

Translation: Expect to see him come out of the Toy Chest in mid to late February, if Mattel doesn't screw me over.
Again, it's good in a way that they're better worried about QC... To avoid Mossman is not a bath toy or Fan reviewers didn't even notice the reversed shoulders kind of issues from the ♠ era.

Snake Mountain
Yes, it was displayed during the MOTU Film Festival at the Egyptian Theater. No, it was not touched or scaled down. We literally unpacked it from its SDCC box and put it in the same case that was used in San Diego. No switcheroo. No sizing witchcraft. No changes. We sent all the accessories that were originally displayed with Snake Mountain at SDCC to the Egyptian; if it appeared there were items missing that were previously on display this could be because a different team was in charge of assembly and may have forgotten/didn’t know to include them. As for the final size of SM, the only real change will be that it won’t be as tall; no other pieces have been resized and we are still working out costing to determine the final cost.

Expectations after reading post.

Wait, so they are Squashing the mountain into a possible hill!? Also, they still have NO IDEA HOW MUCH IT'LL COST!? Are they that stupid that they go in production of an item without ANY IDEA HOW MUCH THEY WILL SELL IT FOR!? Amateur night is still strong on Matty.

If the post had ended there, the only real issue I'd truly have is the resizing of Snake Mountain and my knee jerk angry reaction to King Hiss being delayed... Other than that. it seems that the New Team IS trying to do good.

On another note…
I have read most of the threads on multiple MOTU centric boards and there’s an underlying theme criticizing this team’s lack of transparency.

Well, Transparency does not equal Invisibility. There have been a few issues that needed to be attended to and The Mattycollector team has been as Quiet as well, as, uh, Quiet! (or more)

Let me be the first to say we have no problem sharing certain information regarding figures and the process to create them, but to think this entitles you to know every decision that is made the minute it is discussed…it’s not realistic. Most of you go to work every day with no clue of what’s going on in the higher echelons of your management; working at Mattel is no different.

And here's the Condescending Snark that my Spider-Sense warned me about!
Point Dread Price is now ALL The Decisions... Point Dread is roughly 3 weeks away from being sold to us and they STILL DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH IT WILL BE ON SALE! Wanting to know IF the Laser Figures WILL BE AVAILABLE TO INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMERS is not some sort of "sin". It's not like we're asking for Private information like salaries, or production numbers.

Over the course of one year I have had nine different managers, each with their own thoughts on how or IF this brand should continue. NINE. If we were to be honest most of us haven’t had that many bosses in the entirety of our careers.

This has nothing to do with the Mattycollector products. This sounds like whining. I don't care if you've had 9 bosses or 9001! Stop trying to pull the victim card... "Oh I've had 9 bosses in a year, so it's tough to be me!" crap! Also 9 bosses in on year!? That's almost as bad as working at a call center where one can see about 5 brand new different bosses in 3 months!

As if that weren’t already a challenge we also contend with a limited amount of resources since Matty Collector is niche and the priority lies with core brands like Hot Wheels or Barbie (example: core brands receive anywhere from five to ten designers, Matty Collector currently has one who btw works on four other brands).

We've heard that story before told by a man in Purple tights who now works at Jakks.
Here's the thing: Whining how you have it tough or how other departments have it better than yours is UNPROFESSIONAL. That's not tackling the attacking the customers bit. Yes, Customers can be a pain in the neck. Having worked as a Call Center Representative in the past, I KNOW how Customers CAN BE A bitch to deal with, but one thing that is rather obvious is: Do not bitch and moan about customers WHEN YOU ARE ADDRESSING THEM!

Yes, we know you love and are passionate about MOTU. Yes, we know you are paying your hard earned money for these figures so you are entitled to have an opinion. However what you don’t seem to realize is that your angry, profanity laced posts do not display you in the best light of the eyes of Mattel management, and it’s extremely difficult for my team to fight for the brand when screenshots of some of your “opinions” have been brought into meetings. I’m not here to wag fingers or spank anyone’s hands behind the comments that have been posted over the past few months, but I do want to remind you of a few things:

Here's the thing: WE ARE THE ONE PAYING FOR THE PRODUCT. That part you don't seem to have an issue with. Now I'll repeat this very slowly, so you can understand: This is a niche toyline catered to Nerds from the 1980s. Whenever someone is dealing with a property with a hardcore fanbase and SCREW UP, you should expect some NERD RAGE... It comes with the territory.
I should know since most of my side business (The House of Rants) is MOSTLY about NERD RAGE!
Then again, I wasn't the one Throwing Neitlich under the Bus at SDCC and Promising High Quality product and delivering Sub-Par items. Yes, People get fed up and angry when they are paying TOP Dollar for SUB-PAR Product. "Transparency"

It's funny that it's only the colorful "opinions" to use SLC's term are the only ones used and focus on the "color" part of the color commentary. Look beyond the tirade and read the REAL MESSAGE... Which it often is: Mattel done goofed!
People ARE BEING EXTRA TOUGH on the new team THANKS TO THEIR ANTI-NEITLICH Presentation.

Now with that said, there will always be troll posts "go die in a fire" or "take giant He-Man and stick it up your..." kind of posts should be ignored. Posts that complain about Mattel goof ups, like Ugly as sin Point Dreadful Teela (who is somehow NOT BEING DELAYED) are valid... EVEN IF THEY ARE PROFANITY LACED.

My issue with this part of the topic here is that it FEELS LIKE she's chastising ALL customers for complaining. YES there are better forms for the Customers to express themselves, but there is that pesky "Customer's always right" that they will LEAN ON even when they ARE WRONG. Just because there's a certain group of assholes on the Internet, does not mean that ALL customers ARE Assholes!

1. We are on top of things to the best of our ability even when you think we’re not;

Problem is that when "Transparency" is the word of the day and we get the same old " ♠ Shady" moves, people get worried. Heck! This Silence during Subscription Selling Time made you seem like you guys simply do not care.

2. Everyone on the team is human and when you’re human there’s always a chance that mistakes will be made. None of us can control every aspect of things such as quality control, and since no one on the team is moving to Asia to supervise the painting and assembly of every single figure (and let’s be honest, neither are you lol) there will always be the possibility of a product not meeting expectation. There is no god on my team who knows all, sees all and can be everywhere handling everything simultaneously. It’s cool to be angry, everyone is entitled to their emotions and far be it from me to tell anyone how to feel. But some of the acts of disrespect we’ve seen on the boards because a figure didn’t turn out exactly how or when you thought it should? Not cool at all. Please show us the same patience and respect you would like to receive.

I dig this, well I was until...

(and let’s be honest, neither are you lol)

Dude, you HAD to pull a Neitlich there, didn't you!? If Mattel pays me for the relocation and makes me the official Figure Checker and gets me a Chinese/English interpreter I'll do it!
Keep the snark going with the whole lack of god on your team remark... All we need is Pin the Blame on the Customer and we get a Bingo! And there it is... Again, THERE ARE ASSHOLES ON THE INTERNET. Also, remember that Ask Matty is a desert now... At least when Super Kami Toyguru was around answers were given and the forum didn't look so barren.

Let me be very clear: the team loves what we do and we love the brands we work on. We are doing the best we can with what we have to get you the best product possible, have a little faith in us.

We want to believe but every case of derp-eye, Point Dreadful Teela, the King Hiss Screwjob, and lack of information, like not knowing the price of Point Dread are things that make people lose faith in you.