Blackest Night did big numbers for DC and DCD it made perfect sense for Mattel to jump on board but by the time they can get around to it no one really cares anymore. This is a case of DC should be working closer with their retail partners so they can get these things out in a timely fashion.
However where Mattel did screw up on the BN wave, they did the deputy lanterns, they should have done Saint Walker, Indigo 1, Larafleeze, Atrocious, and a couple of re-paints slight re-tools. Having 2 Hal Jordon figures just ruined the wave.
As much as the podcast likes to say mattel learn from their mistakes and yadda yadda this is a case where I say I don't know what Mattel was thinking. Were the obscure characters fun and made the line what it was? Yes Does a wave that features all obscure characters have any place at retail? No, Mattel kept sending the wrong messages about this line, It's a collectors line designed for collectors, the availability of DCUC at retail depends on the parents buying these toys for their kids.
So what was it Mattel? If it was all about collectors then what the hell is it doing at retail? This should have been sub based all along. If it was for the mass market for the collectors and kids alike then why the bizarre choices in later waves.
The Superpowers figures and the Superfriends figures seemed to vary from location to location some areas reported they flew off the shelves others they were peg warmers. Either way Mattel certainly loved these figures.
There a lot of things they neglect to mention in that Podcast while I agree with some of what they said. The line at Retail was all on Mattel, the fact was since day 1 distribution for this thing has been horrible, finding it was a nightmare and what happened was most people started going to online stores like BBTS but Mattel didn't really give two craps about them they were busy kissing up to Wal Mart with exclusive waves same for Target with the public enemies line. Instead of working with online retailers fully knowing they were where most people got their figures from they choose to continue with the poor distribution at brick and mortar stores.
Now as far as this sub goes, oh boy it's a mess. Let's look at what Mattel did wrong.
-Announced it at SDCC a formal announcement should have been made earlier giving more people time to ask questions and get an idea of exactly what Mattel's plans were considering DCU 6 inch figures
-Announced 3 figures at SDCC and then 1 more a week later, you're asking people to commit to 300 dollars worth of figures without knowing what's in the pipeline. It's just stupid.
-Gave people 1 week (changed to 2 weeks) to sign up. I understand how this works for normal Subs, however since there is a magic number of subs needed to go forward with this line we should have had more time.
-Gave really poor info on what this meant as far as 6 inch figures are concerned. Does this mean that the 2012 retail line will be like DC Superheores? Or is this going to be DCUC without a BAF and based more on the new designs and only with popular characters. This confused people so they assumed they could just continue buying the line at retail and moved on.
What did the fans do wrong?
-To many people based on the initial offerings decided they would not go all in and just cherry pick what they wanted and ignore the rest. The problem with this way of thinking is that the line only goes forward if there are enough Subs.
But then Mattel should have given two thresholds for the sub they should have made say the 80 percent mark the number they need to go through and just do subs no extra figures on sale. And state that if it got to 80 anyone who ordered a sub would get the figures but no more would be offered for sale. And if they got 100 percent commitment then and only then would extra's be made for sale after Subs went out.
-To much complaining and not enough buying. Does committing to 300 dollars worth of figures that you may or may not like suck? Yes it does, but does never getting these figures suck even worse? Yes it does. I didn't want the sub its 11 dollars to ship each figure here and it takes nearly a month for them to arrive then I'll have to pay the tax and duty on it. It brings my total to nearly 30 dollars each. But I bought one anyway because if I didn't then I won't have these figures.
So in the end it's on Mattel that this line has come to a sub based system and they handled the flow of information about it very poorly, and confused way to many people. So while it's on the fans who don't buy subs that the line won't continue its because of Mattel that they are not jumping on board.
I hope that a miracle happens and that by Sunday were at the magic number but at this point I think its a lost cause. Mattel was a poor choice on DC's part for mass market partner.
) Really? 
...Its called the Fathers THREE! The Gentlemen ghost issue, the uniboob Starfire, the weird 2 pack character selection (why couldn't the fans have voted on those?!?!), the sudden move to themed waves, the reluctance to finish teams, the head aching Wal-Mart waves, THE DIGITAL RIVER MESS...more like a digital swamp, and they still haven't got the shipping cost down (how do you ship out thousands of items every month and you can't broker a deal with UPS or Fed Ex for some cheaper rates?), etc, etc.
