Last week, I suggested that Mattel is making a mistake by choosing the “bound” or “jail-suit” version of Doomsday for its San Diego Comic-Con exclusive next year. To summarize, I put forth that most people would prefer the “unleashed” version of the monster that killed Superman, and that with 2014 being the swan song for DC Universe Classics, going out on a whimper would be a disappointment to fans and Mattel alike.
And then I put it to you and asked which Doomsday would you prefer. So far, a couple hundred of you voted, and I’ve taken a look at the results – are any surprises in store?
Here’s some of the takeaways from the results:
- The results are highly skewed towards the unleashed version of Doomsday.
When looking at poll results, a normal distribution would be in the shape of a bell. The extreme answers (wanting one and only one of the Doomsdays) would have the fewest votes, and the middle ground answers (preferring one but willing to buy the other) would have the most. But here, it’s the unleashed Doomsday only that gets the most votes, while the bound version gets the least. Taking only the extremists, folks who only want one version prefer the unleashed Doomsday by a factor of nearly 8 to 1.
- Overall, respondents prefer the unleashed Doomsday over the bound version by nearly 5 to 1.
This is calculated by adding the folks by preference – people who prefer bound made up 17.3% of the votes, while people who preferred unleashed made up 82.7%. This result probably surprised me the most. I would have thought a lot more would prefer unleashed – but one factor that may be lifting up the bound version is that we’ve had the Mattel DC Super Heroes Doomsday (even if he’s shrimpy) and some DC Direct / DC Collectibles Doomsdays in the unleashed variety before, while this would be the first bound Doomsday ever made.
- Mattel is leaving a lot of money on the table making the bound Doomsday.
On the poll we offered the choice of preferring one version but being willing the buy the other one. We know Mattel is making the bound version, but this choice allowed us to see who wanted unleashed but would go along with Mattel’s plan regardless of their preference. So, adding up the three groups that would buy the bound version, that totals up to 48% – nearly half of the respondents. This was also surprising to me – of the people that preferred the unleashed version of Doomsday, nearly 2 out of every 5 would buy the bound version anyways.
But the flip side of this is pretty telling. When we add up the three groups that would buy the unleashed version, it’s 93.4% of the respondents. That’s the 82.7% that prefer the unleashed version plus the 10.7% that prefer bound, but would buy unleashed anyways.
Comparing the 93.4% that would buy the unleashed version versus the 48% of the respondents who would buy the bound version, that is nearly a 2X difference. In other words, if the poll results mirror the actual market, then the market size for the unleashed Doomsday is nearly double that of the bound version.
Now here’s some disclaimers. A couple hundred respondents is a pretty small sample size. There’s a statistics term called “significant sample” – it means that even though you’re not polling everyone, the results can still predict the overall sentiments give or take some small sampling error. I used to know how to tell if the couple hundred that responded to the poll here qualified as significant. But Statistics 101 was a heck of a long time ago, and I think you have to know the total number, in this case, of folks who are in the market for Doomsday. And Mattel would never share that number.
So while I’m fairly confident this backs up my assertion that more people want an unleashed Doomsday than the bound Doomsday, I don’t have any way of knowing how close or far off my assertions about market size really are. And, as Thomas suggested in the comments last week, maybe this is all just a ploy to sell us a bound version of Doomsday before they unleash the real Doomsday on us a some point down the line, maybe as a convention exclusive or as a relaunch Collect and Connect in 2015.
However, I believe Mattel when they say 2014 is the swan song for DC Universe Classics. And if that’s true, then I maintain that a bound Doomsday is a horrible finale to the SDCC exclusives for the line. But hey – I also believed Grant Morrison when he said Batman was dead, just like I believed Ed Brubaker when he said Captain America was dead…
Here’s the Doomsday poll again. It’s still open in case you haven’t had the chance to vote – but I’m pretty sure there won’t be drastic swings in the results at this point. And now that I’ve said my piece, it’s your turn. Do you believe that Mattel is missing out big by not making the unleashed version of Doomsday? Leave a comment below.
Overall, I like the idea of both the “bound” & “unbound” versions. I just think the size scale is way off. It’s the “Goldilocks & the 3 Bears” scenario. They’re wayyy too big compared to DC Universe Superman. On the other hand, the previously released DC Superheroes Doomsday was too small. We just need a mid-sized Doomsday(s), somewhere in-between, that’s JUST right!.
wally2974- totally agree with you – I think these Doomsdays are both too big – https://www.actionfigurepics.com/2013/08/soapbox-sunday-sour-grapes-club-infinite-earths-doomsday-was-too-big – but in the past many years, a lot of the “big” characters have received size upgrades from the artists who followed the ones that originally designed them.
I’m thinking of guys like the Thing or Sabretooth, or many others, that were stocky or even normal-sized, but got beefed up for dramatic effect. Doomsday went through this too, so I can live with the extra big version.
Missing the “I already have the DC Superheroes version so why should I care about the CIE Doomsdays?” option in your poll.
That one was all kinds of not-too-small. It’s the size I remember from the Death of Superman story. They were about the same size. It’s like when DCUC did the Bane and Darkseid BAFs. “Already have these (DCSH)… no thanks!”.
@StopSplittingHairs My problem with the DCSH version (besides being too short, he’s not supposed to be shorter than Superman) is that Doomsday has something like a 90″ chest and 32″ waste. Doomsday needs to be a stocky figure, and although this DCUC figure is too tall, he at least has the correct proportions.
Mattel really screwed up by even offering the bound Doomsday. Had they just left the Unleashed version as the club exclusive figure, they may have hit their number. Otherwise you have a lot of people who probably would have subscribed, except now they won’t because they’re worried they just committed to $300+ worth of figures and won’t even get the Doomsday they want.
I voted for the “I want the bound but would settle for the Unleashed version.” option. I did not subscribe. I waited until the last day to see if the numbers were even going to be close. I didn’t want to give Digital River another way to screw up with my Credit Card information. I’ve never had any problems with them, but I have read so many stories of them messing things up. I hope the people who did subscribe receive early access to the figures being released next year as well as a pre order option for Doomsday or even all the figures and Doomsday. Wishful thinking, but I feel it’s only fair.
I believe the Sub would have went through with flying colors had Unleashed been the only option and at least two other characters fans had been asking for were previewed. They should have did another final reveal at NYCC and left the Subs open until a week after.
I still believe that Unleashed Doomsday will be released. They have to have some idea of the market size for the figure. They can’t be that near/far sighted can they?