Falling out of Love With Masters of the Universe Classics

Masters of the Universe Classics, a line that has granted the wishes of so many MOTU fans. Incredibly wel-sculpted figures from the Four Horsemen, great bio cards for each figure, and a plan to release the bulk of the MOTU, POP, NA, and even 2002 series. It was PERFECT, until it wasn't.

I was on board day one. I refreshed the hell out of multiple browsers desperately trying to get through the checkout screen on Mattycollector for my prize. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it did not. For quite a few years I cherry picked my favorites and had no buyers remorse. I finally had incredible versions of my favorite Masters of the Universe figures that I remembered so fondly from my childhood! As they say though all good things must come to an end.

Over the last year I have abandoned the line. It is not because I did not want the figures, far from in fact. The real issues were elsewhere and I am not the only one in the fan community to feel this way. MOTUC had three strikes, they are as follows:

Strike 1

Product Defects

One figure comes to mind, Roboto. I was ecstatic about Roboto as he was one of my favorite figures from the old line. Then he was released with a defect, backwards shoulder. While this may not seem like a big deal I was not pleased to be getting a figure that cost $30 shipped that was defective. The reversed shoulders ruined the are sculpt and felt genuinely sloppy, as was Mattel's handling of the situation. 

Roboto was not the only figure to have defects. Others include The Green Goddess, King Hssss, Fearless Photog and a few more all for their own reasons. Between factory errors and paint defects it gets hard to have faith in the production of the MOTUC line, especially when the typical response to fans is "U mad bro?".

Strike 2

Price Increases

The line started off at a pretty high price point ($20 per figure + shipping) but was acceptable. Then came the $2 price increase which was not a huge deal. Recently though it was announced that in 2013 there would be a "dramatic price increase" to the line.

This price increase has yet to be released in exact numbers but fans are expecting around $25 per figure going into 2013. The problem is this number is a guess and others have speculated $30 per figure is something of a possibility. So even at $25 per figure you are well over $30 each with shipping, that hurts. This combined with the number of defects we have seen does not instill confidence in a collector.

EDIT: Found that the price of each figure will in fact be $27 each, wow.

Strike 3, I'M OUT!

The 2013 MOTUC Sub 

The MOTUC 2012 subscription plan, you may have heard about it. This was the nail in the coffin for me, the day I quit the line entirely. Basically it came down to this; buy the 2013 subscription for a total of $505 plus taxes, shipping, fees and other BS reserved for infomercials. So that is over $500 for a subscription where half of the figures at this time are completely unknown, you're taking a gamble that you will actually want everything. Everyone buys the sub (up to a certain number) or the line is getting the axe in some fashion, whether it be low runs or an all out funeral for MOTUC.

Heavy handed? You bet. Telling supporters of toy line to pony up that much cash for an unknown product is ridiculous but telling them they either buy it or else is completely over the top. The situation was handled poorly and in the end may have pushed out a LOT of cherry pickers like myself in the process. We aren't going to beg you to take our money Mattel.

So in the end I have opted to remove myself from collecting MOTUC and spend the money elsewhere (hello TMNT Classics). I am excited to hear about a possible release of Ram Man and Castle Grayskull but those are not even 100% in the works. In the case of Castle Grayskull you still need to pay $200 for a product that wont even have an actual product image before purchase, so yeah there is that.

Have you collected or are collecting MOTUC? How do you feel about the line with all that has happened?