Masters of the Universe: Masterverse

Yeah Target's method of selling these figures is abysmal. There's ONE peg for the line, which can barely hold four figures. So once four shelfwarmers line up, that's it. Ballgame. Nobody is going to buy a figure for $22.99 if it's $14 on Amazon.

But it's not all the manufacturer's fault; Target could give these figures unique DPCIs and clearance them out after set periods of time. The "assortment DPCI" method they've used for years is why shelfwarmers stock up even worse than normal; because people can return-swap. They need to do unique DPCIs like they do MLs. Not going to say MLs are stocked well, they're not handling it very well at all. But it's way better than this "any four toys on the peg will do" attitude of how things are now.

I always compare it to housewares. Each color hand towel gets it's own DPCI. So if you buy a $4 towel, you can get the one you want. Why are $23 toys not treated the same? It's like they have no interest in selling these figures whatsoever.
 
My Blade has already shipped. Wooo!!!

As far as shelf warmers go, the newest Keldor has been hanging at the Walmart I work at for at least a month or 2 now. Other figures might linger for a week or so, but they eventually sell. The same figure is hanging at Targets that actually HAVE any Masterverse figures. They hang out with cartoon collection Origins Skeletor at Target.
 
vicious said:
Yeah Target's method of selling these figures is abysmal. There's ONE peg for the line, which can barely hold four figures. So once four shelfwarmers line up, that's it. Ballgame. Nobody is going to buy a figure for $22.99 if it's $14 on Amazon.

But it's not all the manufacturer's fault; Target could give these figures unique DPCIs and clearance them out after set periods of time. The "assortment DPCI" method they've used for years is why shelfwarmers stock up even worse than normal; because people can return-swap. They need to do unique DPCIs like they do MLs. Not going to say MLs are stocked well, they're not handling it very well at all. But it's way better than this "any four toys on the peg will do" attitude of how things are now.

I always compare it to housewares. Each color hand towel gets it's own DPCI. So if you buy a $4 towel, you can get the one you want. Why are $23 toys not treated the same? It's like they have no interest in selling these figures whatsoever.
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Because a $4 towel with a gross margin of 54% brings in $2.16 per sale, and Target sells 1000 of them per day, for an actual gross profit of $2160 per day, while the 22.99 action figure has a gross margin of 27%, bringing in $6.20 per sale, and Target only sells 70 of them per day, for an actual gross profit of 430 bucks per day, or 20% of the gross profit they get from the towel.

That is literally how Target does their math and assigns value. When I worked at Zellers years ago, one of our highest value items was fucking shitty plastic totes. Just that Rubbermaid garbage with the lids that never stay on. Because the gross margin was like 77%. That's why, probably even still today in some stores, ANY empty section gets filled with totes temporarily. They're easy to move from location to location, they fill out space nicely, they actually sell pretty fast, and the profit margins are stupid.

But I'd also argue, based on my experience in the retail world, that this is often not actually totally the fault of the retailer. Retailers do, on some level, depend on the manufacturer to give them any details they might need to be more successful with a given product. Even for companies like Target that may have a dedicated toy buyer - that person is buying for the entire toy department and typically can't/won't be educated on every type of toy they're bringing in. They need Mattel to have the balls to call them on doing things wrong and say 'hey, we noticed you're only stocking X number of figures, so maybe we should talk about how best to make sure that your refresh assortments are getting out there BECAUSE those refreshes are actually different characters that our/your customers are asking to buy.' Etc etc.

Mattel simply does not do this, because they don't really care that much. And to be fair to Mattel - sometimes Walmart or Target will tell them to fuck off if they try. It's a constant balance of trying to catch the mistakes and then convince someone to care enough to correct them. As long as Mattel and Target are both making a billion dollars a year, neither is going to give a shit about some overstock He-Man toys.
 
Damien said:
Because a $4 towel with a gross margin of 54% brings in $2.16 per sale, and Target sells 1000 of them per day, for an actual gross profit of $2160 per day, while the 22.99 action figure has a gross margin of 27%, bringing in $6.20 per sale, and Target only sells 70 of them per day, for an actual gross profit of 430 bucks per day, or 20% of the gross profit they get from the towel.

That is literally how Target does their math and assigns value. When I worked at Zellers years ago, one of our highest value items was fucking shitty plastic totes. Just that Rubbermaid garbage with the lids that never stay on. Because the gross margin was like 77%. That's why, probably even still today in some stores, ANY empty section gets filled with totes temporarily. They're easy to move from location to location, they fill out space nicely, they actually sell pretty fast, and the profit margins are stupid.

But I'd also argue, based on my experience in the retail world, that this is often not actually totally the fault of the retailer. Retailers do, on some level, depend on the manufacturer to give them any details they might need to be more successful with a given product. Even for companies like Target that may have a dedicated toy buyer - that person is buying for the entire toy department and typically can't/won't be educated on every type of toy they're bringing in. They need Mattel to have the balls to call them on doing things wrong and say 'hey, we noticed you're only stocking X number of figures, so maybe we should talk about how best to make sure that your refresh assortments are getting out there BECAUSE those refreshes are actually different characters that our/your customers are asking to buy.' Etc etc.

Mattel simply does not do this, because they don't really care that much. And to be fair to Mattel - sometimes Walmart or Target will tell them to fuck off if they try. It's a constant balance of trying to catch the mistakes and then convince someone to care enough to correct them. As long as Mattel and Target are both making a billion dollars a year, neither is going to give a shit about some overstock He-Man toys.
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I don’t work at target so have no idea how true this actually is but one time a guy that worked there was telling me that like the NECA section was actually stocked by a rep. And that would make sense as it has seems like it has a lot more refresh than the regular figures.

Not solving this probably hurts sales. I’d buy a lot more retail… if I could find it
 
NECA at Target IS stocked by someone that works for a company hired by NECA, not Target. Think of it like the people that stock the greeting cards. It's not the store employees that do it, there's a rep that comes in and does it. The freight is shipped to the store, is put in a specific location in the back, and the rep comes in to stock it.
 
TENIME said:
Still upset about Webstor... :cautious:
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Same. I got into this line fairly late, and he's still the one I've never managed to get a hold of. I overpaid for a couple, not exorbitantly, but this guy is just un-gettable.
 
I don't even think that Webstor is that much of an upgrade or change from the vintage and MOTUC versions. Battle Armor Skeletor I get, because he is insanely upgraded and just next level but Webstor is pretty basic. It must just be a rarity/underproduced thing with him vs him being a "must have" figure.

The MOTUC version got pretty pricey too, so maybe Webstor is just a popular character? He's one of the few figures I distinctly remember getting as a kid. I got him for Christmas and remember hooking his zipline from the Christmas tree to the doors of my Dad's hunting rifle cabinet and letting him zip down. I've always been a pretty big fan of him just for the zipline feature.
 
Justice said:
I don't even think that Webstor is that much of an upgrade or change from the vintage and MOTUC versions. Battle Armor Skeletor I get, because he is insanely upgraded and just next level but Webstor is pretty basic. It must just be a rarity/underproduced thing with him vs him being a "must have" figure.

The MOTUC version got pretty pricey too, so maybe Webstor is just a popular character? He's one of the few figures I distinctly remember getting as a kid. I got him for Christmas and remember hooking his zipline from the Christmas tree to the doors of my Dad's hunting rifle cabinet and letting him zip down. I've always been a pretty big fan of him just for the zipline feature.
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I imagine you already have Masterverse Webstor? I mean, you know how it feels when you DON'T have something that you want, but it's unreasonably pricey to get? Webstor may be pretty straight forward, but I'd want to know first hand in my own collection. And really, he may be straight forward, but he ain't basic. The glass eyes are what bump him up for me, but the rappel line and the now-standard back talons do give him a cool factor that makes him stand out against guys like Stinkor or Spikor. I'm very relieved I have him.
 
It is extra bizarre how parts of waves disappeared almost immediately. Maybe it had to do with case loadout? But, yeah Webstor and Prince Adam disappeared very quickly but you can still buy Clamp Champ and Skeletor from the same wave off BBTS. Similarly, in the wave with Faker and Buzz-Off, two figures that were hard to find, you can still order Grizzlor and Merman. Heck, I got Grizzlor the other week for $13 on Amazon (he's great after matte sealing his glossy head).

I'm bummed that I missed Webstor and Buzz-Off, but in the grand scheme of things, they're not nearly as important to my display as what I do have.
 
I took Webstor's availability for granted and never got him. He was available for a decent amount of time on bbts, iirc.
SalemCrow said:
NECA at Target IS stocked by someone that works for a company hired by NECA, not Target. Think of it like the people that stock the greeting cards. It's not the store employees that do it, there's a rep that comes in and does it. The freight is shipped to the store, is put in a specific location in the back, and the rep comes in to stock it.
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I'm not sure if this is common, but my Target ropes off the area around trading cards when the vendor is scheduled to arrive. People hang out waiting for him.
 
I'm glad I held off on buying her in Origins. I think she will suit the aesthetic of Masterverse so much better.

I stumbled across a vintage collection Faker today at an out of the way Walmart I traveled to for a pick-up order. They were loaded with him, meanwhile my preorder still says July. I cancelled that when I got home. Silly Walmart.
 
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