Mattel Creations - Jurassic World the Gates Crowdfund

[EdRegisPR]

I’m going to be honest:

I remember hearing some chatter about crowdfunds for Jurassic a few years back, and then a lot of excitement when Mattel stepped into the crowdfund arena. I suspect people believed this would help get big play sets like the Visitor’s Center made…?

I was worried that the higher prices from crowdfunds would make them inconvenient to many but went along my merry way buying Mattel Jurassic products as I always have.

Then, in mid June I saw the Mattel Creations tease about the gates and wondered what the crowdfund would entail, but I secretly groaned because we just had too many (absolutely amazing) things from Mattel in too short a timespan. They really went all out for Jurassic 30, but everything was hitting in too quick succession: the 93 Classic line, the Legacy Collection Containment Chaos and Mercedes sets, the HC Brachiosaurus, the Mamenchisaurus, plus the anticipated SDCC set which had not even been revealed yet and I wondered if I would have to buy it from the secondhand market at highly inflated prices given my luck from past years. I mean I could afford all of these things but it was just too much in too short a timespan.

Then the day came when the crowdfund was revealed and I admit I felt underwhelmed. I wanted the gates, for sure, but the $250 price tag just seemed more than what my EXPECTATION was, although I was also relieved it wasn’t like some $400 set. Still, the offerings other than the gate seemed kind of uninspired and the things that I really wanted (fences, goat) were locked behind high tiers.

Still, I did my part and I supported it because I really wanted those amazing gates and because I appreciate that Mattel has saved this franchise from extinction, not to mention the awful crap Hasbro pumped out for 20 years. I always knew the $250 price tag was for the gates and the #5 explorer and I was at peace with that, although I hoped we could at least get to the 6000 backers so we could get the plug-in fences. I did my part.

But almost immediately, instead of rallying around to support the franchise, people immediately started tearing this thing apart and putting up nonsensical pretexts for not supporting it. It was like a few bad apples who were upset they couldn’t afford it and made it their mission to relentlessly poison the well, setting to work to immediately suppress any momentum this crowdfund may have had.

I tried to support the campaign through the entire run by posting what I could and clarifying questions and information, etc. but these people were on a toxic rampage, posting laughing emojis on any post and giving nasty retorts to any positive spin anyone could give to the crowdfund. Just absolutely noxious invectives piling up one after the other, egging each other on. It was apalling!

I can understand people having valid misgivings about the crowdfund, and I already shared mine above, but I still supported the campaign because I know the designers at Mattel wanted to give the fans something special and they really did put a lot of hard work into the gates to make them a stunning centerpiece to any Jurassic toy collection. And I do think they were worth the $250 price tag, unlike the tacky 3-D printed crap that people tried to talk up as a better value. Let’s face it, many toy collectors just don’t have good taste.

Besides, Mattel’s designers have really tried to listen to the fans and give us what we want, even when they make mistakes. Habitat Defender trike, anyone? Maybe the higher ups at Mattel did hamstring this crowdfund from the get-go, but the fans are even more to blame for dragging it down and through the mud. Their disgraceful behavior, calling us crowdfund supporters shills or worse, should not be swept under the rug.

I hope Mattel doesn’t give up on Jurassic and continues to give us great things, because I don’t want to go back to the dark ages of 1999-2018. But I don’t blame them if they think this fandom is undeserving of more effort or appeasement. Ungrateful people do not deserve nice things.

[TyrannosaurTJ]

This was an excellent post and it shows you genuinely understand the situation and the complexities of it. This was a lot of my problem too and why I started to just respond so harshly and aggressively when people just refused to understand the practicalities of the situation and I was told I shouldn't be mad, I feel gaslit by aspects of the fandom still and hurt.

Even when I was calmly going about stating the facts, my frustration with people doing the laugh reaction and referring to me with such derogative terms I refuse to repeat on this forum had me hit my limit. I got mad, I started taking my frustrations out on everyone, insulting the toxic portions of the fandom. I think what pushed me to go off and explode when I was attempting to lay out the engineering involved in the making of the gate, how the toy design process works, how crowdfunding works, and how this is a collector piece and therefore is why Mattel wanted to go all-out with the engineering for it. I've collected many toy lines over the years (Mostly Star Wars and Transformers) outside of Jurassic. I've spoken to a lot of collectors that had connections with industry people regarding how the process goes. It's intensely difficult to get something like this even past the conceptual phase even. Crowdfunding has helped open the door to things you wouldn't normally get a toy of, receiving one with a bunch of bells and whistles tied to it to make it genuinely a collector piece. A lot of the reason the gates were so high was due to the engineering involved and the electronic features where it could just sit, and endlessly play ambient jungle noises from three different modes if you had an AC adapter. It would have been tremendous in size and a marvel with all those features and so many did not have an appreciation for it or the fact that the Explorer would also be intensely detailed and feature premium parts. Some a-holes on Twitter decided to poke fun and run with my mention of it having rubber tires where normally, toys don't have that - at all.

At this point I threw out civility, I just started going off and screaming at anyone and everyone because of how many failed to realize what they were throwing away with this. I was here for the dead period after JP3, the film that essentially killed the franchise for almost 20 years. Universal used it as an out to not keep trying with it and instead blamed the franchise's failure on the "fans" for not wanting anymore and the Spinosaurus. The same thing can happen here again, the media is done for now and we have nothing new coming except the possibility of a show for pre-schoolers. Outside of this, the collector line from Mattel is the only thing that can save the fandom and keep people engaged and interested. That's not to say some adults don't love Imaginext - they are adorable some of them even! The reality though is that for media franchises and series to survive in this day and age they need to be able to sustain themselves through toy sales and the toy companies need to court these collectors to partake and indulge.

In the end, Star Wars and Transformers have survived media droughts by sustaining themselves from toy sales, and Jurassic needs to be able to do the same thing now. Unfortunately, the crowdfunding flop could send the wrong message to Mattel regarding that the toy series market for collectors just isn't there. I hope it doesn't, I hope Mattel continues and isn't discouraged, I hope Mattel decides to push more to build the collector base for the series, and I hope we get those offerings from the Gate in other ways. I would hope maybe another version, paired down, and as a kit you'd have to assemble would even come to pass. May not have all the bells and whistles, but it would be more serviceable and accessible. Outside of this, there's a rumor the HC Buck T-Rex was only offered as a Backer level because someone at Mattel falsely believes it won't sell. It will sell because we've had so many dang versions of Rexy over the years in conjunction with other character dinosaurs being requested and asked for. I would hope the HC Buck sees the light of day again and at the very least is produced as an exclusive for retail or even a Mattel Creations exclusive as it is an amazing figure with amazing features.

I joined up recently on the Mattel Creations board to try to communicate a lot of these points, let them know a collector market is still around, and that we want figures of the character dinosaurs. Hopefully, it's enough to get them to reconsider and start building the line for collectors, but in case that doesn't I plan to get a petition together to get that HC Buck T-Rex released.

[TyrannosaurTJ]

DPFAR: Since the Crowdfund failed to fund I've gone ahead and done a petition to try to get the Buck released at least as a worldwide retailer exclusive. It is my hope that we can get 5,000 signatures, but at this point, I'd be happy with just 2,000 to show Mattel. I know people are sore with me because of my attitude during the crowdfund and while I was harsh and apologize for that, I don't think it is right for these folks to take their frustrations with me out on the petition. I am trying to turn this around and do something to help the fandom even though I disagreed with the fandom's disposition and general sentiment toward Mattel over the crowdfund. If people want to take their anger out on me, I think they fail to realize that they're hurting themselves by not showing Mattel this figure is popular enough to merit its own individual release by signing the petition.

https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/rel ... -hc-figure

I really want to see this figure made as the Buck is not just our unofficial mascot here at Pedia, but also a really popular dinosaur character in the fandom circles. I really hope Mattel does eventually decide to make it either way. While I'm also angry with the fandom, right now I just want to turn my own anger and frustration into something productive and this is why the petition exists.