Episode SEVENTY-SEVEN of the AFB Podcast is live at iTunes and is now available for direct download! Download and subscribe to the podcast at iTunes now!
Join Ben and Scott for Episode Seventy-Seven of the Action Figure Blues Podcast! The AFB Podcast is a weekly look at action figures, statues and other collectibles from the worlds of comic books and pop culture.
In this bonus episode, we talk with Mattel's Scott Neitlich, aka Toy Guru, about the 2014 Mattycollector Subscriptions, and ask a few hard questions. Scott was a real delight to talk to, giving up time on his vacation to chat to us and answering every question we asked. He may just have turned us around on our decisions about subbing up!
If you can't use iTunes, you can download Episode Seventy-Seven here now! Click on the link to listen, or right click to save the file! The podcast will always be available from the “Podcast” tab here - but if you can subscribe and give us positive ratings at iTunes, that will help us greatly!
The AFB Podcast is also on Stitcher Radio!
Please note this is not an enhanced Podcast!
The AFB Podcast is also on Stitcher Radio!
Please note this is not an enhanced Podcast!
Have a listen, and please give us some feedback at podcast@actionfigureblues.com - we might even read out your feedback on the next show!
Happy listening!
4 comments:
thanks guys. really enjoyed your conversation with Scott N. appreciate that you probed deeper into his usual rhetoric and excuses.
In the end, I don't think he was successful at convincing you to sub. In the same breath he likes to tell customers how important they are but how little they are valued. He almost sounds like he has given up, the first part of the conversation was him talking himself out of a job; if he could be better utilized by mattel in another department, I imagine they would have put him there already.
As I said, I really appreciate that you probed deeper into his usual excuses, something a lot of other blogs/reviews/orgs/podcasts are afraid to do.
First time listener. As one of the folks who went "WTF" as Batzarro was announced, it was nice to hear someone stick to their guns and question the decision.
Unfortunately, I guess I am one of those "all-in" folks. After this podcast, do either of you intend to sub or not and why?
Love this ep of the podcast. I'm not an MOTUC subber and never have been, but I'm fascinated by this topic this year.
Brilliant interview- what I found funny though was how Scott said he has no input on what MOTUC characters are produced, but then said that there are only "like 3 people" at Mattel working on the line (him, the Horsemen and the packaging guys). So who IS making those decisions then? The packaging guys?
Great show guys.
Liked the interview. A couple of comments.
1. I bought two DCU CIE 2013 subscriptions - one for myself and one for my online store. I am fairly satisfied with the line, and always knew there would be months where I sold sell both figures store and not keep one for myself.
2. Being in a business and someone who produces a product more consumers myself, I totally get the "all in mentality" and you have accept one or two so-called duds for the other 10 that you like. I produce a recurring set of over 700 consumer reports on a certain industry for about 9,000 people who use those reports. There is a certain percent of those people I just cannot satisfy, not because I do not want to. But because the limitations of my process does not allow me to do it any other way. Scott's positions may sounds callous, but it not. Its frank reality. It is a challenge to make tradeoffs to between your requirements and limitations to get to your best outcomes.
3. Batzarro and Red Hood. Personally, I like both figures. They are both visually striking and very cool. I had trouble selling the selling Wally West Flash and the Phantom Stranger. But I took the Red Hood into my local comics store for sale on consignment and it turned heads. The figure sold ASAP. As for Batzarro, I think my collection looks great with an E-1,E-2, E-3, and Bizarro version of the World's Finest.
4. In the end, I am not buying a 2014 DCU CIE. The reason the flood of bootleg figures on market. Loose figures from China would appear online for less than the subscription price with free shipping months before the figures would ship to subscribers like me. A certain amount of consumers thought they would save money, not subscribe, or not get them from resellers like me. They chose to buy only the bootlegs. I'm convinced that the number of people doing that grew each year and contributed to the demise of the line. I think the problem is better than it was at the start of 2013, but I choose against continuing the subscription.
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