A YEAR (AND A BIT) OF MOTU CLASSICS

This page has undergone a couple of changes since its first publication, and I thought the start of 2010 was a timely moment for an update. It presents an opportunity to discuss how Mattel and its collectors' website Matty Collector have been handling the Classics line so far. After the first full year of the limited edition Masters models, it does seem that some progress is being made and problems which have troubled the fans are being dealt with. It's not perfect, but things are getting better.

Memories of trying to get hold of the Zodac figure missing from my order last year still haunt me. Vaults visitors may remember reading here that it took two telephone calls to Mattel UK and a letter to the Customer Service Manager before I received an e-mail, and then my reply to that message was apparently lost. I did, however, eventually get my missing Zodac.

The biggest obstacle at that time was the fact that Mattel would not provide a customer service e-mail address on Matty Collector. I published the address of the person who sorted out my order on this site so other fans with difficulties might have some chance of contacting Mattel. That e-mail address is consumerservicecenter@fisher-price.com.

It took Mattel over a year to provide any sort of e-mail support on the Matty Collector site, and even now this is not satisfactory. The customer service is managed by a company called Digital River. This company oversees the sale and distribution of the Classics figures. Their e-mail address is mattycollector.cs@digitalriver.com. Judging by some of the comments on the He-Man.org forums, Digital River's customer service seems somewhat inept.

In fact it could be said that Digital River is the source of the problems rather than Mattel, but Mattel made the choice to use this company and therefore must take responsibility for errors. Ordering figures has become better since some problems early in 2009 when the website crashed and it was unclear whether orders had been submitted successfully. Many will remember the Mer-Man fiasco when he apparently sold out in the blink of an eye and another sale date had to be scheduled.

The website is still unreliable depending on which browser you use. It seems Matty Collector is not Internet Explorer-friendly, preferring Mozilla Firefox. However, it's not quite as straightforward as that, as IE does work some of the time. It all seems rather temperamental, but Firefox seems the best choice. If you haven't installed Firefox yet you can find it here.

Many fans are still reporting problems with subscriptions for figures. Supposedly straightforward matters such as changing an address or credit card are taking far too long to sort out. For a toy line which relies upon the dedication and support of fans (it is a limited edition line only available online), it is a shame that their loyalty is reciprocated so poorly. Hopefully things will be better with the 2010 subscription.

International delivery remains incredibly slow. As I write this on January 1st 2010 I am still waiting for figures I ordered on November 15th 2009. Even without the end of year postal delays, I usually find the delay between ordering and receiving to be about five weeks, which is longer than it was at the start of 2009. Digital River charges a lot for shipping and the service does not reflect the cost. In 2009 the company added a trackable international rate at nearly fifty dollars, which is ridiculous when one considers how companies such as Amazon manage to ship items internationally much faster for much less.

The Classics figures themselves are generally well-designed, and the Four Horsemen designers have put a lot of thought into capturing the themes of the characters. However, their work has been undermined by a complete lack of quality assurance at the factory. Aesthetically the figures usually look fine, but almost every release seems to have quality problems.

Regular comments are made about loose joints, poor articulation and various other issues. It began when He-Man was released in 2008 and almost every figure that left the factory had the left shoulder part on the right and vice versa. The biggest and most annoying error of all was the fact that Stratos's wings were glued in the wrong position. Mattel's response to this has been to ignore the problem or to sell a new version of the figure concerned.

Packaging remains a bugbear of mine, and the Classics continue to be packaged in obscene amounts of plastic. Inner shells, outer shells and stupid little rubber bands crush the contents into poses which damage the figures and their accessories. There is no sense of environmental responsibility in an age which calls for it. The Classics could be packaged just in cardboard boxes quite satisfactorily.

I am looking forward to 2010 because I think there will be some great figures released. The test of this year will be whether the subscription is worth having. The Wun-Dar figure will only be available to subscribers, but this is not really a true bonus because the subscription costs twenty dollars - the price of a figure. The only freebie subscribers will receive will be a folded map of Eternia - hardly a great incentive to commit to a whole year of figures.

Perhaps Mattel will be more generous in 2011 and give away a free figure with the subscription. If there is no real bonus the subscription should be free. I know fans will be monitoring the success and ease of use of the subscription carefully before committing to the same thing next year.

I am still hoping someone from Mattel will contact me and provide me with information about the Classics and the issues raised here. As a webmaster of a Masters site, I want to make as much information available to fans as I can. So far no-one has contacted me, even though I have made the request by e-mail.

So 2009 has had mixed fortunes for the Classics. Overall I believe progress is being made, but some of the problems which remain are inexcusable - little things which should be effortless to fix. Quality assurance is probably the biggest concern, and I do not want to hear Mattel staff say "we can fix that but it will be at the expense of this". Early on we were told twenty-five years of toy development meant we were going to receive great figures. Don't back down on that and let us down, Mattel! These figures have been in development for long enough to make sure they are perfect.