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The following open letter is by MotuOriginsCork ( @motuoriginscork ) supporter and outstanding member of the Masters of the Universe fan community. Open Letter to Mattel and the Masters of the Universe Team Dear Mattel, in light of the recent events it feels like things have to be said. Don't worry this is not a…
We have the Power! 
Your echoing a lot of frustration with fans who don't live in the states. Nice work mate.
If you set your goals ridiculously high and it's a failure, you will fail above everyone else's success. -James Cameron
I'm lucky I don't have to go through it but it's still a damn shame what overseas collectors have to pay in mark up and shipping just to get some of the exclusives. Is Mattel ever going to do shit about this?
Great open letter @MotuOriginsCork I hope it inspires change bro!
🇺🇸 SNOUT SPOUT FOR PRESIDENT 🇺🇸
I wholeheartedly agree one million percent with every word. Well done on this excellently put plea. Hopefully Mattel will listen.
"If you feel safe in the area you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth. And when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting."
Bowie
I really hope so! And to be fair you can see some effort in their side here and there but so far it’s not with full commitment and the efforts leave a lot to be desired
Thank you but I believe I merely put in words what has been echoed all across the community for some time now
Absolutely. I'm in Ireland too and the thoughts of this becoming even more difficult than it has been to date if they don't solve the international shipping in particular is so annoying.
"If you feel safe in the area you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth. And when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting."
Bowie
Also the irony that’s Smyths is originally from Ireland and have a massive offer of Motu in Germany or the Netherlands but close to zero in Ireland or the UK^^
I guess Mattel doesn’t know that while Smyths is available in a handful of European countries, each of their country stores operates like a separate entity. There is no shipping from one store to another and definitely not from one country to another.
Also … I too am called David
I guess Mattel doesn’t know that while Smyths is available in a handful of European countries, each of their country stores operates like a separate entity. There is no shipping from one store to another and definitely not from one country to another.
This makes me wonder if they have a similar view with regards Walmart and Asda. There's a good number of people online who seem to think Asda is just Walmart in the UK trading under another name when it's just a case of past shared ownership (and I'm not exactly sure how much ownership/control Walmart now retains) and the offerings are different. The "everything under one roof" model has never really worked in British retail.
(For those not familiar with the latter, Asda is one of the "Big Four" supermarket chains in the UK and carries some non-food merchandise, how much varies by branch and the various formats with distinctions that aren't obvious to the customer's face, but a regular Asda superstore is nothing like on the scale of a Walmart or a continental European hypermarket. Walmart purchased Asda in the late 1990s but soon abandoned attempts to even add the name "Walmart" to the brand and eventually in 2021 another group acquired Asda with Walmart retaining some control. The Walmart years did see some "Supercentres" that go towards the hypermarket format with more non-food merchandise but there are only a few of them. In the superstores I'm most familiar with the toy section is invariably tiny - about a quarter to a half aisle.)
@motuoriginscork it's a cracking name reserved for the very best of people 😅
Yeah, that Smyths carry on is a joke, though I did at least get Moss Man from them here.
Do you know of any Irish collector groups?
"If you feel safe in the area you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth. And when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting."
Bowie
We can only hope and so far we haven’t given up on Mattel yet
Sold out shop carcass in creations this morning, tire tread on unsold HATMOTU leftovers in a toyshop parking lot. This Mattel is afraid of us. We have seen its true face.
The local stores are extended gutters and the gutters are full of repaints and when the drains finally scab over, all the bargain bins will drown.
The accumulated filth of all their greed and cluelessness will foam up about their waists and all the scalpers and sales managers will look up and shout "Buy our stock!"... and we'll look down and whisper "No.”
totally not Rorschach 😜
Well us in Europe still have not gottena single figure from 2018 She-Ra, New Adventures of He-Man the He-Man, Skeletor & other TRAGET exlusives is no where to be seen and there is more but ya get my point? We always get the short end of the stick... :<
Masterverse wishlist:
Catra 2018 (season 4)
He-Man 2002 (Snake Armor)
King Hissssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss 2002
She-Ra 2018 (season 5)
Skeletor 2002
Technically we in Europe got Slush Head and New Adventures Skeletor. But realistically it’s more like you said!
NA Skele was offered through HEO but they were first told that they can offer him, then had to tell their dealers that they won’t get him and then again this decision has changed leading to a very small number being available after all. So a few dealers got their original orders fulfilled by HEO.
Slush Head was offered by Smyths in a few countries. But first of all Smyths is a presence in a very few select countries. And I even among those not all countries Smyths entities offered the figure. I can’t say for sure but I think like many others people at Mattel might compare the countries of Europe like the states in the US. Which couldn’t be further from reality when it comes to distribution and many other things.
So yes Slush Head was never available for the biggest part of Europe and we didn’t even speak about other markets like South America, Asia etc. they have similar issues.
Thanks to the OP for taking the time to write this up. I agree with basically everything you said. I will add tho that maybe, just maybe, this letter would have benefited from being about 50% shorter 😉
In any case, I think Mattel can and should do better when it comes to distribution and availability of their MOTU products. It's really a shame, considering that this line was kept alive for decades by a devoted group of international fans - a sizable chunk of which is now struggling with how Mattel is releasing their products. From an internationally operating entity like Mattel, this is very difficult to accept. And don't even get me started on this "exclusivity" BS - whole-heartedly agree with the OP - we are (mostly) 40+ grown people with careers, families and other kinds of obligations. Who does Mattel think it is "helping" with these dumb timed or event exclusives. It's really infuriating and disrespectful to the community at large.
