DC fans put up the good fight, and in the end, Doomsday was dead – but so was Club Infinite Earths. With the announcement of refunds coming to subscribers for 2014 , it’s official – Club Infinite Earths is dead. But to carry on the Death of Superman analogy, who knows what will spring forth to fill the void? Hopefully it’s not four all-in subs! š
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: Thanks to Kevin, who left a comment below, I checked my credit card activity and only have a pending charge for $38.15. So instead of having another reason to hate DR, I just dislike them a little more for being confusing. Please don’t let this discourage you from subbing to any of the Mattycollector subscriptions. Like I have suggested before – compare what figures you’re likely to get from the sub (pretty easy to do in case of Masters) against what you want from the line, and let that guide your decision-making. How you feel about Mattel, Toy Guru, or Digital River is just noise.
It’s more like seventy-five reasons – that’s what I was charged to pre-order the Club Infinite Earths subscription from Mattycollector. For two items that I will (potentially, if the sub actually goes through) get four and six months from now, I was charged the full price for the figures, the shipping, and tax. “Why are you surprised?” you may be asking – after all, I have subbed from the beginning. So I used the dreadful Customer Service link to find my previous orders to compare.
For reasons that are beyond my ability to fathom, the cost has gone up. Last year, for THREE subs, I was charged in the neighborhood of $150. Two years ago, for TWO subs, it was around $100. So, Digital River has found a way to increase what I’m charged four months in advance by 50% ($75 for one sub compared to $50).
But I suppose the more interesting thing here is that while this crappy practice of Digital River sitting on our money has been going on since the beginning, I didn’t even bat an eyelash before, even though the amounts were higher. I guess my dissatisfaction with Mattycollector and how Digital River handles the front end has been building up to the point where I don’t feeling good about buying from them. For someone who loves the toys, that’s saying a lot.
Anyways, time’s nearly up. What did you guys end up doing for the Mattycollector subs?
This is it, He-Fans, She-Ravers, DC (umm) collectors, and Ghostbusters! The pre-order windows for the Club Eternia, Club Infinite Earths, and the Ecto-1 close at the end of the day. At midnight (or, if Digital River runs true to form, sometime tomorrow morning) the pre-order pages will come down, and you’ll have missed your chance to subscribe and MAKE IT HAPPENā¢. To help you decide to subscribe, Toy Guru posted a few tidbits. They essentially contain the same message, with two different delivery methods – one is a traditional wall of text, and the other is a video, with an opening that is truly Cringer-worthy.
In my latest Soapbox Sunday, I outlined which Mattycollector subscriptions I’m signing up for and why. If for some reason you still haven’t made up your mind, do it today!
(Also, click on Battle Cat above for some disco lights for your dancing cat. Or don’t. I didn’t use the animated version for the main post because I didn’t want to blind any unsuspecting readers!)
Continue reading “Last Chance for a Last Dance with Mattycollector Pre-Orders”
Yes, I’m a procrastinator. I haven’t submitted my pre-order for the Mattycollector subscriptions. But when I do, I’ll be one of the guys KILLIN THE LIEN. When it comes to Club Eternia, Club Infinite Earths, and the Ecto-1 pre-orders, I’ll be saying no to Ghostbusters andĀ Masters of the Universe Classics, and giving a hesitant yes to DC Universe Classics.
When I started thinking about this post earlier in the week, I was planning on something a little different. The gist was going to be, “I’ve subbed for Masters and DC (note: I always knew I was going to pass on the Ecto-1), and now it’s up to you” – I’d present my rationale for my decisions. I wouldn’t tell you to sub too (I hate that), but rather ask you to consider how the subs line up with what you want and to make up your own minds.
For the past couple of days, I started to really put that into practice for myself. As someone on the bandwagon since the subscriptions started, it was the de facto choice to keep subbing. So I was pretty surprised to come to the decision to stop subscribing to Club Eternia.
Continue reading “Soapbox Sunday: I’m KILLIN THE LIEN (One out of Three Subs Ain’t Bad)”