Mattel Kickstarter? ****EDIT = CRITICISMS ADDRESSED****
Jun 1, 2016 19:48:38 GMT -5
Vamp55, ellisd, and 2 more like this
Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2016 19:48:38 GMT -5
My original post is below the dotted line. Please read that first if you haven't already. Thanks.
Anyways, as I expected... A few supporters, a few open-minded individuals, and a few nay-sayers.
For the few of you who are welcome to the idea, thank you for the support. I realize at best it's a pipe dream at this point, but I whole-heartedly believe that if enough of us show interest in the idea, it could be taken into consideration (even if only briefly). Worst case scenario, we stay exactly where we're at. And where we're at is constant bitching and criticism for lineups, accessories (or lackthereof), etc. Lots of complaints. Lots of demands. Lots of questions. Buuuuut, not a whole lot in the way of solutions.
At least this is a forward-thinking solution that's potentially feasible. Again, unlikely at this point, but at least it's more productive than just complaining about Mattel's decisions and making impossible demands, or worse, questioning their effort, which, if you've been living under a rock, led to Bill going from a regularly posting member here to a cameo character who destroys our hopes every 3 weeks or so.
So again, for those that were optimistic and immediately recognized the potential, I salute you. Now, onto the open-minded and the nay-sayers. I would have responded to each of you individually, but I'm noticing some commonalities in the concerns/criticisms, so I figure I'd make one over-arching followup to address them.
1) Several of you have mentioned things like Mattel has done this before, they shut the idea down, or that it's been asked about. Well, let's start with it being done before. Crowd-sourcing is nothing new. But it's exploding like never before. As a matter of fact, it's already becoming the standard in certain circles. For that reason alone, this will ALWAYS be an idea worth revisiting at some point.
2) As far as Mattel rejecting the idea, I believe that question was about a subscription service. That's a completely different entity than what we're talking about here. Now if I'm wrong on that, that's my mistake. But it doesn't change anything for the reasons I stated above. Remember, the landscape of possibility changes pretty frequently.
3) Some people have said that they would never pay $100 for an elite. That's fine. You wouldn't have to. That's the beauty of a kickstarter. Let's say they set a baseline price of $25 dollars to receive the figure. If the figure is all you want and that's all you're willing to pay, fine. However, they could set perks at different tiers. Let's say if you pledge $75, you get a first edition run of the figure (basically you would get the figure 1-2 months before everyone else gets theirs). Pledge $100 dollars, and you get the same thing plus a poster of said figure (like those DMs) and a keychain or something. They could get even better with a major pledge like $300, in which you would get the figure signed by the wrestler themselves. Hell, if they were feeling really frisky, pledge $5,000 and you get the figure and lunch with Bill at Comic Con. The possibilities are endless.
Now, imagine if a project is close to being funded, but the campaign ends in 3 days. If people who really really wanted the figure saw that it hadn't reached the goal, they could spread the word or even pad on to their own pledge. Again, it would be a CHOICE. Worst case scenario is the figure doesn't get made. But even if a small group of us wanted it, it would have a good chance of hitting its goal because there are some pretty dedicated members here. I sure as hell would pay $100+ for any 97-98 HBK that we couldn't get in the regular line. And if one of those was in danger of not being hitting its goal, I'd either pad my pledge or convince someone else to. You'd be surprised what fans can do when they join together.
4) Someone expressed concern that people would cancel their orders during production. Kickstarter's TOS is pretty clear that once a project is funded, that's it. It moves forward. The project owner only has to refund you if the product does not get made. Either way, if Mattel doesn't want to use Kickstarter, they could use a different service that has satisfying terms, or they could even run something through RSC with terms that clearly state that pledges are 100% non-refundable once a project gets financed, with the sole exception being that the product was not made within a reasonable time span (2 years seems fair).
5) Finally, I read one rather pessimistic rant about Mattel's practices. He said Mattel is a billion dollar company that wouldn't give a crap about such a project and wouldn't want to spend the "resources and time". First of all, I'm not suggesting some huge, "all-in" operation where Mattel busts open the budget to get a boatload of these out per year. I'm merely suggesting to test the waters. For the first year, try 2 projects. 1 for each 6 month period. And see where it goes. It wouldn't take a ton of resources or time to setup a kickstarter. They could test the waters and see how the demand really is. Because once again, retail prices treat us all the same. A kickstarter recognizes that individual desire is fluid among collectors. And that's fine, because we can all co-exist so long as the quota is met.
Now, to suggest that Mattel wouldn't care to put resources into this is completely asinine. Make no mistake, if Bill likes the idea, he would pitch it (hell maybe he has already). If they've already said no, fine. But like I said, things change. Crowd-sourcing is growing year after year. If we pushed it hard enough, Mattel would have to at least lend an ear. It would be foolish not to. This would be an opportunity to please their most loyal supporters while simultaneously creating a new stream of profit that never existed before. This could even have a longer-term effect of a license renewal because the satisfaction and profits from customers would increase.
I'm going to close with this. I have seen a countless number of posts (and I've been guilty too) of complaints, demands, suggestions, etc. But 90% of those are pointless because they're suggestions that would never realistically happen in retail. Now, crowd-sourcing is pretty big on the entertainment and technology fronts. I haven't seen many toy lines entering into this space. We could help usher in a revolution. Individually, we're all just collectors with varying interests in wrestling figures. Together, we are a following that funds an entire forum dedicated to those interests. Look at some of the things this forum alone has created. All the exclusive accessories and ringskirts from RSC. Wicked Cool Toys picking up the burden of getting us elite scale rings. I don't think Mattel would have pushed Macho Man as hard to sign if we hadn't been as passionate as we had for all those years.
But those are just drops in the bucket of what we could do. If we just had some unity and stopped pointing fingers and crapping on proposals of change, the whole experience could change. So you can sit here and nay-say this idea all you want, or you can compartmentalize your doubts and do something different from just hoping Mattel will one day "get it".
Like this post. Share it. Start talking about crowd-sourcing so much that Bill brings the idea to Mattel simply to get us to shut up.
Worst case scenario: It doesn't happen. But why don't we at least just ing try.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I was thinking... I've seen a lot of famous actors/actresses and pretty popular bands do kickstarters to fund various projects.
When we make requests here, I know Bill reads them and puts forth his best effort to give us what he can within reason. But what about those things that are not so much in reason? They're typically waved off as "no chance or not enough demand". But at the same time, if there's a fringe number of collectors who are willing to pay a premium, maybe the financial costs can be met.
Obviously, a mass release is too risky or just not possible with certain figures. But with a kickstarter, they can set the minimum price they need and would only enter production if that price is met. Imagine this scenario. Let's just ballpark and say an elite costs 8 dollars to make (these are for example numbers, I don't know the real costs). And let's assume they sell 10,000 units to retail. So that's around $80,000 dollars to start production on a single figure.
Now, imagine a figure that's been asked for a lot but hasn't seen the light of day yet. We'll call that figure Prototype (and assume that wrestler is signed, I guess a specific example could be Undisputed Jericho). For whatever reason, Mattel doesn't want to make Prototype. Either retail doesn't want it or the demand is too risky. And let's say only about 1700 of us here would buy that figure. Obviously, that would only dent a mass-produced number of 10000 at retail. But, what if some people were willing to pay 5-10x retail price for said figure. They could throw in perks to entice higher pledges. Because that's the one thing that retail prices can't take account for. That is the passion of a figure. Whether it's me buying an HBK (my favorite wrestler) or some kid buying HBK not because he likes HBK but he likes an accessory he came with, we're both paying the same amount for the figure. The price doesn't reflect my higher passion as an HBK fan. It's a baseline price.
A kickstarter gives a collector an opportunity to reflect how he really feels. You get enough of those people, and then add on the people who would only pay a lesser amount (but would still buy that figure nonetheless), it could start a wildfire. If people start noticing that the budget is nearly hit but time is running out, it could motivate people to pledge more or spread word about the project. You just can't get that kind of action with a mass release figure in stores. But an internet campaign being spread around for a figure who's existence is contingent upon hitting a certain budget, that could be something.
Mattel is pretty good at digital mockups. It's one thing to talk about a figure. But actually showing us a figure and then telling us that we could have it if X Y and Z were met, I imagine the response would be pretty positive. And just like their mass releases, it's completely option. And of course, whatever extra units they have, they could just toss on Matty Collector. And they wouldn't have to stress about unsold units because the price will have already been paid directly from us. No middle retail man.
Mattel could even set stretch goals for certain accessories. There's so much potential. I don't know how complicated it would be on the business end to set something like that up. But if it's feasible, what would Mattel have to lose by trying it out? Because if it worked, it could be a ing game changer.
Anyways, as I expected... A few supporters, a few open-minded individuals, and a few nay-sayers.
For the few of you who are welcome to the idea, thank you for the support. I realize at best it's a pipe dream at this point, but I whole-heartedly believe that if enough of us show interest in the idea, it could be taken into consideration (even if only briefly). Worst case scenario, we stay exactly where we're at. And where we're at is constant bitching and criticism for lineups, accessories (or lackthereof), etc. Lots of complaints. Lots of demands. Lots of questions. Buuuuut, not a whole lot in the way of solutions.
At least this is a forward-thinking solution that's potentially feasible. Again, unlikely at this point, but at least it's more productive than just complaining about Mattel's decisions and making impossible demands, or worse, questioning their effort, which, if you've been living under a rock, led to Bill going from a regularly posting member here to a cameo character who destroys our hopes every 3 weeks or so.
So again, for those that were optimistic and immediately recognized the potential, I salute you. Now, onto the open-minded and the nay-sayers. I would have responded to each of you individually, but I'm noticing some commonalities in the concerns/criticisms, so I figure I'd make one over-arching followup to address them.
1) Several of you have mentioned things like Mattel has done this before, they shut the idea down, or that it's been asked about. Well, let's start with it being done before. Crowd-sourcing is nothing new. But it's exploding like never before. As a matter of fact, it's already becoming the standard in certain circles. For that reason alone, this will ALWAYS be an idea worth revisiting at some point.
2) As far as Mattel rejecting the idea, I believe that question was about a subscription service. That's a completely different entity than what we're talking about here. Now if I'm wrong on that, that's my mistake. But it doesn't change anything for the reasons I stated above. Remember, the landscape of possibility changes pretty frequently.
3) Some people have said that they would never pay $100 for an elite. That's fine. You wouldn't have to. That's the beauty of a kickstarter. Let's say they set a baseline price of $25 dollars to receive the figure. If the figure is all you want and that's all you're willing to pay, fine. However, they could set perks at different tiers. Let's say if you pledge $75, you get a first edition run of the figure (basically you would get the figure 1-2 months before everyone else gets theirs). Pledge $100 dollars, and you get the same thing plus a poster of said figure (like those DMs) and a keychain or something. They could get even better with a major pledge like $300, in which you would get the figure signed by the wrestler themselves. Hell, if they were feeling really frisky, pledge $5,000 and you get the figure and lunch with Bill at Comic Con. The possibilities are endless.
Now, imagine if a project is close to being funded, but the campaign ends in 3 days. If people who really really wanted the figure saw that it hadn't reached the goal, they could spread the word or even pad on to their own pledge. Again, it would be a CHOICE. Worst case scenario is the figure doesn't get made. But even if a small group of us wanted it, it would have a good chance of hitting its goal because there are some pretty dedicated members here. I sure as hell would pay $100+ for any 97-98 HBK that we couldn't get in the regular line. And if one of those was in danger of not being hitting its goal, I'd either pad my pledge or convince someone else to. You'd be surprised what fans can do when they join together.
4) Someone expressed concern that people would cancel their orders during production. Kickstarter's TOS is pretty clear that once a project is funded, that's it. It moves forward. The project owner only has to refund you if the product does not get made. Either way, if Mattel doesn't want to use Kickstarter, they could use a different service that has satisfying terms, or they could even run something through RSC with terms that clearly state that pledges are 100% non-refundable once a project gets financed, with the sole exception being that the product was not made within a reasonable time span (2 years seems fair).
5) Finally, I read one rather pessimistic rant about Mattel's practices. He said Mattel is a billion dollar company that wouldn't give a crap about such a project and wouldn't want to spend the "resources and time". First of all, I'm not suggesting some huge, "all-in" operation where Mattel busts open the budget to get a boatload of these out per year. I'm merely suggesting to test the waters. For the first year, try 2 projects. 1 for each 6 month period. And see where it goes. It wouldn't take a ton of resources or time to setup a kickstarter. They could test the waters and see how the demand really is. Because once again, retail prices treat us all the same. A kickstarter recognizes that individual desire is fluid among collectors. And that's fine, because we can all co-exist so long as the quota is met.
Now, to suggest that Mattel wouldn't care to put resources into this is completely asinine. Make no mistake, if Bill likes the idea, he would pitch it (hell maybe he has already). If they've already said no, fine. But like I said, things change. Crowd-sourcing is growing year after year. If we pushed it hard enough, Mattel would have to at least lend an ear. It would be foolish not to. This would be an opportunity to please their most loyal supporters while simultaneously creating a new stream of profit that never existed before. This could even have a longer-term effect of a license renewal because the satisfaction and profits from customers would increase.
I'm going to close with this. I have seen a countless number of posts (and I've been guilty too) of complaints, demands, suggestions, etc. But 90% of those are pointless because they're suggestions that would never realistically happen in retail. Now, crowd-sourcing is pretty big on the entertainment and technology fronts. I haven't seen many toy lines entering into this space. We could help usher in a revolution. Individually, we're all just collectors with varying interests in wrestling figures. Together, we are a following that funds an entire forum dedicated to those interests. Look at some of the things this forum alone has created. All the exclusive accessories and ringskirts from RSC. Wicked Cool Toys picking up the burden of getting us elite scale rings. I don't think Mattel would have pushed Macho Man as hard to sign if we hadn't been as passionate as we had for all those years.
But those are just drops in the bucket of what we could do. If we just had some unity and stopped pointing fingers and crapping on proposals of change, the whole experience could change. So you can sit here and nay-say this idea all you want, or you can compartmentalize your doubts and do something different from just hoping Mattel will one day "get it".
Like this post. Share it. Start talking about crowd-sourcing so much that Bill brings the idea to Mattel simply to get us to shut up.
Worst case scenario: It doesn't happen. But why don't we at least just ing try.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I was thinking... I've seen a lot of famous actors/actresses and pretty popular bands do kickstarters to fund various projects.
When we make requests here, I know Bill reads them and puts forth his best effort to give us what he can within reason. But what about those things that are not so much in reason? They're typically waved off as "no chance or not enough demand". But at the same time, if there's a fringe number of collectors who are willing to pay a premium, maybe the financial costs can be met.
Obviously, a mass release is too risky or just not possible with certain figures. But with a kickstarter, they can set the minimum price they need and would only enter production if that price is met. Imagine this scenario. Let's just ballpark and say an elite costs 8 dollars to make (these are for example numbers, I don't know the real costs). And let's assume they sell 10,000 units to retail. So that's around $80,000 dollars to start production on a single figure.
Now, imagine a figure that's been asked for a lot but hasn't seen the light of day yet. We'll call that figure Prototype (and assume that wrestler is signed, I guess a specific example could be Undisputed Jericho). For whatever reason, Mattel doesn't want to make Prototype. Either retail doesn't want it or the demand is too risky. And let's say only about 1700 of us here would buy that figure. Obviously, that would only dent a mass-produced number of 10000 at retail. But, what if some people were willing to pay 5-10x retail price for said figure. They could throw in perks to entice higher pledges. Because that's the one thing that retail prices can't take account for. That is the passion of a figure. Whether it's me buying an HBK (my favorite wrestler) or some kid buying HBK not because he likes HBK but he likes an accessory he came with, we're both paying the same amount for the figure. The price doesn't reflect my higher passion as an HBK fan. It's a baseline price.
A kickstarter gives a collector an opportunity to reflect how he really feels. You get enough of those people, and then add on the people who would only pay a lesser amount (but would still buy that figure nonetheless), it could start a wildfire. If people start noticing that the budget is nearly hit but time is running out, it could motivate people to pledge more or spread word about the project. You just can't get that kind of action with a mass release figure in stores. But an internet campaign being spread around for a figure who's existence is contingent upon hitting a certain budget, that could be something.
Mattel is pretty good at digital mockups. It's one thing to talk about a figure. But actually showing us a figure and then telling us that we could have it if X Y and Z were met, I imagine the response would be pretty positive. And just like their mass releases, it's completely option. And of course, whatever extra units they have, they could just toss on Matty Collector. And they wouldn't have to stress about unsold units because the price will have already been paid directly from us. No middle retail man.
Mattel could even set stretch goals for certain accessories. There's so much potential. I don't know how complicated it would be on the business end to set something like that up. But if it's feasible, what would Mattel have to lose by trying it out? Because if it worked, it could be a ing game changer.