Twice a month the gang from Mattel are kind enough to answer five questions from AFi readers.  The Mattel marketing and PR team, have replied with the answers to our latest round of questions that AFi readers have posted in our forums.

If you have Mattel  questions make sure to post them in the thread for the next round.

Today is also the 15th of the month so Mattel has another round of brand new figures on sale over at MattyCollector.com.   The DCSC Golden Age Flash and MOTUC Stinkor have already sold out, but you can still get Slush Head, The Mighty Spector and the snake mountain stands.

Let’s get to the questions and the answers!

Q1.  With the retail restrictions limits removed, can we now see the possibility of larger BAF type characters over the average 8″ size into maybe 10-12″ scale? Maybe even see a limited release of the ultra rare gigantic Anti-Monitor.

A1. Yes, there will be 3 oversized figures as part of the CIE subscription on 2012 that could potentially be of any larger size but that will be based on tooling as well. There will not be any 100% tool’d figures in 2012 due to the low sub sell in rate.

Q2.  In the past there have been some pieces/accessories that are exclusive to people buying the exclusives at the show.   Are there any SDCC bonus’ for buying this the exclusives at SDCC instead of after the con?

A2.  There will be a non toy item as a free gift with purchase for Vykron.

Q3.  Do you have release dates or the order of release for the JLU 3-packs that we’ll be getting later this year?

A3.  This will be confirmed at SDCC. The first pack will go on sale in July and will be Mongul. After that it is every month until they are done! Future Static is in Aug.

Q4.  I’m going to do my best to not turn this into a rant, but I’m a VERY Unhappy Ghostbusters fan.  Today’s reveal shows Dana as Zuul is now a SDCC exclusive. I signed up for the 2012 edition of club Ecto-1 only to have it unceremoniously droped while all focus was on saving the DC superheroes subscription. At SDCC 2011, Dana as Zuul was announced as part of this subscription. When the Sub died, Dana as Zuul was directly stated as being the 3rd figure of 4 for this year.  Now today, she has gone from being the $22 regular release to being a $25 exclusive that extra hoops have to be jumped through to obtain.
So  is the SDCC Exclusive Danna as Zuul now counted seperately from the “4 Ghostbusters figures being released in 2012″?     After the Rookie figure, what Ghostbusters figures are coming?     The Rookie figure went from being the Club exclusive figure, to being a regular release…why was he not held back as being the SDCC exclusive?
What is the status of the “Thank You” for the 2012 club ecto-1 subscribers?
I am hoping for some positive sign out of this, but Mattel has to realize that this is not the news Ghostbusters fans were hoping to hear.

A4.   At the end of the day, it all comes down to sales. If Ghostbusters had sold in the vol. of MOTUC or even DCU CIE we would be able to continue it. The only figure that performed at expectations is movie 1 Peter (with proton stream). We simply can not make figures for a line that is not selling, as much as we are all GB fans!

Beyond the four movie 1 figures, it is hard to find a market for secondary character. Even Vigo, one of the most demanded characters did not sell to expectations. There are a million factors and fans/customers can point out many things that can be done different, but at the end of the day, with the current system, MOTUC and DCU can go on as they have enough customers, GB can not. We can’t produce figures at a loss, no matter how much we like the property! Perhaps in a movie year a larger fan base will come forward and we can start up again.

But for now, GB has met it’s demand and there just are not enough customers to keep the 6″ line going past 4 figures (including Dana) in 2012. The final 2012 figure will be revealed at SDCC.

We still have a “thank you” item to those who bought a sub and had it canceled. But it takes 12-14 months to go from concept to production. We started the “thank you” item in Aug of last year when the sub was canceled and are still in the middle of the development cycle. Once it is done we will share with former subscribers all the details!

If you’d like to ask a question for the  June 1st submission then feel free to post your questions in our Mattel Q&A question submissions thread!   Remember they can be about any Mattel product including MOTUC, Ghostbusters, WWE any of the Mattel DC lines, Voltron and Cars. Twice a month we draw our submission question directly from the ones that AFi readers post.

You can submit new questions in this thread.

You can find our past Q&A’s here.  And you can discuss the answers on our Mattel board.

Thanks again to the team at Mattel for taking time to answer our questions!