The prop replicas were fantastic I’ll always be grateful to Matty for those. I only own the gb2 12 inch packs, I can’t speak for everyone but I think there’re great. The problem with the retro figures was the decision on Matty’s part to go with the Mego look. Had they made them all plastic and made them around the same size as the original rgb figures I think that line would have lived on longer than the movie line. When it comes to the 6 inch line we all can agree that Matty dropped the ball with the lack of diversity. “Ready to believe you” and the “courtroom” figures would have worked out better as box sets. Im dissatisfied that there won’t be any other character figures to be released before the end. On the other hand Im slightly happy the line is ending, I much rather would’ve had a year of Louis’s party guest figures than say gb2 construction worker peter, ray, and egon. But in the end it was Matty’s “waiting room Hell” and their choice to use Digital River as their shipping method is what drove people away.
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I really hope that the “thank you” gift is eitherDean Yeager with guy jamming out to Air Supply on walkman pack-in or]the little old lady that saw the terror dog with Ivo Shandor apartment door pack-in. Fingers are SO crossed
I thought for a long time that when Mattel signed the contracts–what, four or five years ago?–they thought they were only a couple of years away from a movie they could merchandise the everloving shit out of; the figures they released were supposed to be the warm-up for the GB3 cash machine. But of course GB3 never makes it out of “They’ll maybe start filming sometime next year” for the last four years, and the line remains a niche seller at best.
I dunno…I admit that I didn’t buy too many because the cartoon is really my first love in the GB franchise, and there wasn’t a lot aimed at that market. Yeah, there probably isn’t one, which is sad considering the show was one of the biggest hits in the 80’s. I bought up all the Retro Action stuff, and no doubt would have been there with everyone else braving the White Screen of Death on Mattel’s server for RGB figures of the quality of the 6 inch line. I did get the GB2 set, and it was damn awesome–I can’t understand why anyone who prefers the movie versions of the characters didn’t snap that stuff up.
I don’t know. I think back to the 80’s and Kenner pretty much had a similar problem: you had people complaining about all the weird variants of the four to six (depending on the set) main characters but those being the stuff that sold the best. They at least had a top-rated cartoon to drive sales, though.
I’m sad to see it come to this, but I’m really not surprised.
Well, my wife and checkbook will both be relieved. As many issues as this line had, the figures themselves were pretty good, and I always found that I liked the figure more when I got it in hand than from the promo pics. Honestly, at this point I’m just hoping for the final figure to be Courtroom Ray with Tony.
Can’t argue with not enough sales, especially when I only own 1 of each of the four guys.
I think the figures could have been better, I think the release schedule could have been more interesting, and I think that Matty could have made more effort to sell the figures outside of the states at a reasonable price; but all in all the child in me is happy to have ever gotten movie versions of these characters.
From ToyGuru’s posts at the Matty Forums, it sounds like the gift is gonna be along the lines of a small accessory for the 6" line. It comes in a bag so it can’t be that great.
Im gonna agree with AJ in that it will be something small, something cheap to produce. There is no way its gonna be Janine, maybe the unannounced fourth figure, but no way they give out a “bagged” version of a Janine figure as a freebie.
I’m not too surprised to hear this, but for Matty to blame the fans does surprise me a bit (but not too much). Too many variants too soon, WSOD and other Digital River problems…to say nothing about constructive criticism going ignored (or when Matty did listen, something still got screwed up). I still maintain that had the original four guys been released at retail they could have gotten the numbers for the sub that they needed.
I am happy to have the four guys at least (although Ray’s pixie-head does annoy me when they were able to get the others fairly close).
I’d be happy with an accessories pack (fix the goggles though!)
I agree with you about everything you stated and I can’t help but see the similarities between this line and the situations with
DC/Warner Bros. and DC Universe Classics as well the Cartoon Network scheduling issues with the Young Justice cartoon and how that effected it’s toyline, I do think Mattel is behind some of the biggest missteps of this line they aren’t the only ones to blame ; Sony as the owners of the Ghsotbusters franchise shares some of the blame as well.
Mattel went and got the rights hoping that with all the buzz regarding the 25th Anniversary of the Ghostbusters franchise and the fact that a lot of 80s related poperities specifically Transformers and GI JOE were doing well in the mainstream marketplace that Sony would be doing something similar with Ghosbusters, the video game got a lot of really good buzz and the Real Ghostbusters DVDs that Time Life did apparently were selling very well and for the first time ever all the main actors including for the first time ever Bill Murry were interested in doing another Ghostbusters film. But nothing ever happened, Sony has kept dragging their feet for whatever reasons which sadly is that they probably just want to do a remake with a “younger, hipper” cast and let’s face it with the exception of Murry and Weaver who in the cast is really that “big” a name any more. Akroyd’s is still very well known but what was his last big movie or TV role?
And I’ve wondered why has Sony never tried for a new Ghostbusters cartoon series? A new cartoon would seem like the perfect way to introduce new fans to the franchise.
I think that Mattel really thought that they could do a year or two with just the “collectors” lines aimed at long term fans, then some new form of mass-media either a new movie or cartoon would come out and they could have a retail line in stores as well as the collectors line, and as time went on and nothing new happened from Sony they just eventually said screw it and well they did.
Also I find it interesting that they always mention that it was the unslimed version of Peter Vankman that was the highest selling figure, gee the one figure with a completely movie accurate uniform and an attachable proton stream and you wonder why he was the only big seller.
You guys think they should of had each Ghostbuster come with a removable pack and a removable stream? The package layout could then have been something like the old Kenner card layout. We just may of not got any cool/big ghosts though…
