Spirit of Hordak is still confusing me.

Yes, I'm going on Part 3 of the Spirit of Hordak Rant... No he hasn't come back yet. His appearance still perplexes me.

I've already mentioned that his appearance goes against the whole "Subscribers are the lifeblood of the line" and Mattel "Reducing Day of Sale Stock" stuff... I've already rambled about how going Sub Only can be pretty bad, in the long run.



Here we have Neitlich trying to justify the sub-only model... But here's the thing: Spirit of Hordak is an obvious attempt to get site hits, like the Two-a-day SDCC Reveals. Isn't this confusing?

Day of Sale customers bring hits to the site Monthly, but Mattel wants to reduce Day of Sales to the point of going Sub-Only.

Now Reducing the Day of Sales to the point of making them non-existent... (as seen with the "sub-Lite" campaign) makes the site get LESS HITS... Hence these "stunts". I'm sure they started it with MOTU Classics since it's Matty's best seller line. I wouldn't be surprised if DC Universe gets a surprise repaint as a "stealth sale" item.

I get it, the subs make it easier for Mattel and reduces a lot of the guesswork on how many figures should they make. At the same time I'm not ignoring the fact that their Website needs a certain number of hits monthly.

Again, this has to do with Kool-Aid-Hordak cause he's a simple gimmick.
-Easy to make.
-Generates Free Publicity (Bad Publicity is still Publicity seems to be Mattel's Mantra).
-Generates site hits for people in the "want him need him frenzy".

The only problem with this Gimmick is that it disappoints customers who missed out.
A little heads up would have gotten the same amount of hits and less angry customers, whose rage is justified.

Just because NEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRD RRRRRRAAAAAAAAGEEEE!! Can be used as a source for Free Publicity, does not mean it should be used ALL THE TIME!!

Sometimes Good Publicity can do wonders!!

There's lots of ways to gather those hits, problem is that Mattel doesn't seem to want to do anything that requires any effort on their part. 

Seriously, an e-mail with a heads up was the simplest thing ever. There's also dropping hints on the site mentioning the Year of the Horde. (In Reference to Mantenna, Octavia and The Fighting Foe Men being all Horde) Heck even a webcomic using the MOTUC Figures talking about Hordak's plan to invade Earth. The Final Comic would be the Spirit of Hordak being revealed with him stating a challenge to all Earthlings to face him on Mattycollector in the date of the Figure's release. After the Sale is over and we "held off" the Horde Invaders, Mattel could have Hordak swearing revenge on us and that "he'll try back soon enough because Earth will be his!" or some other "you will rue the day" speech!

But the "stealth sale" is what they chose... Can't get the hits if we don't know the item is on sale... Sure they're getting a couple of hits now, but there's been a bunch of people who are choosing going to the Scalpers ($100+ per Hordak) instead of playing Matty's Game... That's money that Mattel is not getting...

Mattel's reps often mention that they cannot cater to all of their customers buying habits... Well, they can't have it both ways either. You want sub-only, you can't expect Day of Sale hits if you go sub only.

Only 12 MOTUC Products are available as their "evergreen" items. The rest are Ghostbusters remaining stock, or the failed Mego-esque DC toys. Perhaps random discounts on some of these "perennial" items would drive more traffic to the site... Perhaps rotating some items... Kinda like they do for the Early access stuff, but not tied to the Early Access. (Giving Subscribers a heads up about said sales would be like an "Early access" to the info regarding that Sale... Kinda like a "Shopping Sense" that tingles)

In any case Spirit of Hordak strays from the "Shifting the line towards a Subscription-Oriented Line".
The more people complain about the questionable manner that this was done will hopefully tell Mattel to  stop these "Customer Enraging" Ploys. Seriously, they Take the Fun out of collecting!


UPDATE! That SNEAKY DEVIL!!!

Not in May's monthly sale, but he will be in Early Access at some point in the year. Although we can't guarantee their will be enough for every sub holder for every sub. If you happen to be lucky enough to find him however, I wouldn't suggest waiting or passing!

Freaking Kool-aid Hordak will be for sale Today! (Early Access) @#$%!! Oh well... Guess who's most likely to NOT get him cause Logistics? Something something too soon... Freaking Foe Men... *grumble grumble* Jell-O jokes that will not be made...