The Sub should NOT BE the ONLY WAY

Buy the sub or MOTUC dies! Yes, I fell victim to the promotion. I DID NOT BUY a sub (Logistics, no guarantee on getting my items) now I'm going to try and ramble about the system, it's pros and cons (in my eyes) and why sticking to this system as the only solution will be the downfall of the Line!!

Now, how did the sub came to be?
 Back on its first REAL year of the line, 2009, Super fast Sellouts, Red Screen of Death, Server issues were plaguing Mattycollector... This made getting product Hard. Luckily Mattel thought of a way to SOLVE the issue until they could upgrade their servers for those who wanted ALL of the MOTUC figures available. A Subscription. The first one went into effect for the latter figures of 2009 (Tri-Klops, Teela, Scareglow and Randor IIRC) and one for 2010 (where you'd have all the 2010 figures delivered to you and as an added bonus you got an extra not really free figure delivered for you... Wun-Dar, the Wonder Bread He-Man... cause the sub Membership costs the same as a 13th figure.) This was meant to complement the sales on Matty every 15th. Matty still wanted traffic to their site, hence the additional items like Variant slots, Weapon packs and Beast Slots. The first beast was Battle Cat... who sold out pretty fast, cause it's FREAKING BATTLE CAT!!

 People missed out on Battle Cat and wanted an option to add the "bonus Figures" and "Beasts" to the subscription. So, Mattel did this by incorporating the beasts and variants into the 12 figure sub... They claim that they couldn't and STILL CAN'T DO TIERED SUBS... They couldn't have made the variants and beasts their own sub for people who want all, buy both subs, people who only want beasts and variants could have bought the  B&V sub, people who want the 12 figures, no beasts or variants could have bought the normal sub. Mattel couldn't do that it was "ALL" or Nothing... even though it's never ALL-IN cause Weapon packs, vehicles and some figures (SDCC exclusives, KG 2.0, BP She-Ra) were non-sub items. Cause they need people to visit Mattycollector (and hopefully buy other stuff while they;re there.)

So, 2011 had its all-in sub and so did 2012... He-Man's 30th anniversary. Mattel made 6 additional figures to celebrate this anniversary. (I've talked about them in the past already. Photog, Draego, Spector, SLL, Cy-chop and Castle Grayskullman) Fans asked for a separate sub for them and guess what? MATTEL ACTUALLY DID an EXTRA Sub... what they couldn't do for variants and beasts when implemented was now doable...

 Mattel became complacent with the sub-system... What was meant to be a "MacGyver" to fix the server issues transformed into Mattel's main focus. Less risk for them if everyone is locked in for 12 figures Beasts + variants. Little effort on their part, cause everyone is locked in and there is no fear of "left over stock" aside the "small percentage" kept for Day of sale. Now having the Day of sale is very important. People who collect the line and did not subscribe for whatever reason SHOULD BE ABLE TO GET THE PRODUCT (preferably from Mattel). Now Mattel wants to ELIMINATE the DAY OF SALES... cause there is even LESS risk for them.

This MAKES SENSE in a way. For Mattel, but at the same time is a double-edged sword. Eliminating the Day of Sales is basically eliminating old customers who cannot subscribe (due to whatever reasons) new customers who could be potential subscribers AND Current subscribers who'd like to have an extra of some characters and/or beasts. Now how can the customer base grow when the only chance for it is in 2 weeks during July? Eliminating the Day of Sales Eliminates the Need for the SHOP on the Mattycollector site. (Which is the main reason for the site to even exist...) A store that's only open for 2 weeks a year? that makes no sense!

The Sub only works for the Completist. Not for the person who wants some figures, because there's the extra hassle of selling "the unwanted ones". Selling the Product is Mattel's job, not mine. It kinda feels like Mattel is passing the risk factor on the customer... and that's not cool... turning fans into resellers. Why this is bad for Mattel?

Let's pretend that I'm a MOTUC collector and subscriber but my main interest is Vintage MOTU and I want Granamyr.
I don't want the Star Sisters, Slush Head, Shadow Weaver, Griffin, Snake Men  2 pack, Frosta, Dekker, Procrustus, Horde Prime, SMAA, and Filmation Randor.
To move the Sisters I'd have to take a hit... Maybe Sell them at $40+ shipping to be able to get rid of them.
Sure I could recoup SOME of those hits with Shadow Weaver but that's 10 items I'd have to sell cause Procrustus comes in December... That's $270 out of $510 (without shipping) Roughly HALF of the total cost of the sub that I MAY or may not recover by reselling. I could buy almost 4 Granamyrs had I not been forced to buy these characters that I don't want. Here's the thing: If they DO eliminate DoS and stick to sub only, I'd be forced to buy stuff that I DON'T WANT in order to get what I WANT... or pay a lot more from resellers... which means even LESS of my money for Mattel.


Sub Pros:
-You get to order all 12 figures,  the Beasts & Variants
-Subscription exclusive figure
-Extra stickers (if available)
-slightly lower price on items  vs Day of Sale customers (difference is very small once you factor in the Sub Exclusive. and non-existent if they go to Sub-Only)
-chance to Pre-order some non-sub stuff (NEW)

Sub Cons:
-If you're not a completist, you're forced to buy stuff that you do NOT want.
-If you want extras of a said character or beast you MUST DO a separate order (You're screwed if they go Sub-Only and Kill Day of Sales)

I know that there are more pros to getting a sub than there are cons, but that is not the issue. The issue is he feeling that the Non-Subscriber Money is not good enough for Mattel.
There was a time where Mattel wanted the items to last for a few weeks so "every collector could get them". Now items are a failure if they don't sell out in 10.seconds.flat? How does that make any sense?

Eliminating the Day of sales will be a step in the wrong direction and could end the line sooner than expected, which is something we don't want as demonstrated on the save the line for 2013 where fans got Saurod and Blade's actors to chime in (and beg for MOTUC versions of their characters)... no not THAT Blade... the one from the MOTU Movie...

Again, if you can subscribe and are happy with getting ALL the figures, then do so. That is NOT what I'm complaining about. My rant is more on "How Mattel painted themselves into a corner by making a temporary solution The only way to buy their product".  To further understand their logic would mean that we'd need to speculate about sub numbers vs production numbers and a bunch of statistics and economics info that I don't have or want to deal with if I had the info. We'd need to figure out WHY the subs dropped and that's another topic for another rant (that I hope I don't have to do)

Sorry for the lack of pics or video distractions, but this is a more serious topic to rant about.