Masters of the Universe Classics fans have pulled through again, jumping from 91% of the target threshold to a massive 115% in the final four hours of the pre-order window – so Club Eternia has got the green light for 2014. Sadly, Ghostbusters fans won’t be getting the Ecto-1, moving the meter just 1% to 38% in the final hours of the pre-sale.
In the same time period, DC Universe fans managed to jump 5 points from 58% to 63%, but Club Infinite Earths still could not muster enough subscribers to hit even the first tier of the exclusive Doomsday – though I suspect that the tiered system contributed a bit of the sluggishness in the pre-orders, since the first goal was a lackluster jail-suited Doomsday, when compared to the unleashed Doomsday of tier 2. While Club Infinite Earths won’t move forward with the plan partially revealed at San Diego Comic-Con, there is still a possibility of getting DC Universe Classics figures through Mattycollector in 2014 – Mattel just has to figure it out.
I’ve got to believe there’s enough fans to support a DC line – maybe this setback with the all-in approach will spur Mattel to rethink something that works better for the fans. We can hope, right?
Update: Final Count for 2014 Subscriptions and Ecto-1 Pre-Order
Toy Fans,
Who has the power? Masters of the Universe® fans, that’s who! The 2014 Club Eternia® subscription lives, and it’s all thanks to the fans out there who subbed up and blasted the meter past our goal for a truly electrifying finish!
Club Eternia
The fight was hard won, but you guys did it! In fact, since the final tally blew right past our goal we can start to think about adding a few non-sub items as well. But please be patient. Once we know what we’ll be able to offer, the earliest that we’re likely to announce anything will be at next year’s New York Toy Fair in February 2014. For now, the important thing is that the MOTUC subscription will go on, and we’ll have another amazing year packed with figures and accessories that fans have been waiting for!
Club Infinite Earths & Ecto-1 Pre-Order
Every super hero knows you can’t win ‘em all and we’re sorry to say we did not reach our goal for the DCU 2014 Club Infinite Earths subscription. We also did not reach our goal for the Ecto-1 pre-order. We’d like to say a HUGE thank you to all the fans for waging such a good, strong fight. It will take us a while to figure out where we can go from here. It may be possible to release a few DCU figures quarterly, or to release 12 figures at higher non-subscription prices. Or, we may have to say a final goodbye to this line at the end of this year. Without the sub, we just don’t know what’s possible at this point. Over the next few months we’ll be meeting internally and with all of our partners at Warner Bros., DC Comics, and Sony, and we’ll let you know as soon as we can what our options are.
A special note to all the fans: We know that some of you had to make a difficult choice about which subscription you could sign up for. Since we now know that the 2014 MOTUC sub is moving forward, we plan to reopen the Club Eternia® subscription for a short time soon to give anyone who wants another chance to subscribe. Click here to register and get a special email reminder about this. Or, join me on Facebook, Twitter and in our Fan Forums for updates and reminders there, too.
–Matty
via Matty | News.
Yes, let’s hope it’s a lesson learned. However, that one sub still went through doesn’t help completely deter the all-in stuff.
while Masters has PoP, New Adventures, and movie factions, that’s really nothing compared to the diversity of fans of DC. I think it was wishful thinking for Mattel that they could market to DC fans the exact same way they do to Masters fans.
True. Fair point. I am actually barely a DC fan/reader, but I got into collecting the line while ML was in limbo, just to have cool, 6″ scale comic figures, mainly wanting the big guns. Of course, I got in deeper, with BAFs, cool looking characters, and then team building, etc. I subbed, this past time, to help keep it alive, but I still haven’t opened Freddy or Mallah, hoping to sell them off, with no real interest in the characters.
I subscribed to DCIE and I have to say the lack luster that Matty has towards any line other than MOTUC is sad. Toyguru claims to have done the same but the feeling from around the net, people I’ve spoken to in local comic shops is that in this economy the business practices of Mattycollector have been more of the driving force for why things have failed vs the blame the customer so many collectors feel Toyguru seems to generate. Yes we all know its not that simple but my local comic shop has plenty of the subscription figures nobody locally really cares for Uncle Sam for $10 just to clear shelf space is a prime example.
I’m with Brian, kind of BS for matty to blame the fans. Poor business tactics is clearly why these subs failed. The fan will suffer to start but in the end Mattel will suffer the most. There was so much potential for money to be made with making better character choices and overall business decisions. I wouldn’t be surprised if MOTUC sub fail next year and then they are completely toast.