Pic: The top most valued Masters of the Universe (MOTU Classics or MOTUCs) according to the polls held in most He-Man collector forums.
I was inspired to write this piece after I saw how a MOTU Classics collector paid almost USD200 for Shadow Weaver over eBay (yea, that floating witch-chick from She-Ra). In today's turbulent economic conditions it simply means that a Malaysian collector (like your truly) would have to fork out an astonishing RM860 (using 4.30 as the Ringgit to US Dollar conversion point) to get the figure into our collection. Just like what the American paratroopers had said to the Germans at Bastogne in 1944, I think it's just simply 'Nuts'!!! You can already get a brand new Hot Toys 1/6 figure with that kind of price!!!
I consider myself a hard-core MOTUC collector although I tend to skip the non-essentials and concentrate on the core line-up (definition of core and must-haves might defer from one collector to another ya know) but somehow I found myself with a little over a hundred of the figures. Please don't do the math. It's gonna balloon up to one nice sum that's gonna make me squeal both in delight/horror.
But the point is, I bought every each of these MOTUC figures at retail price. Well, more like the actual ridiculous online price set by Matty plus the even more ridiculous shipping charges. And even back then I was not oblivious that we were obviously overcharged by Matty (yay capitalism!!) But we jumped in anyway.
I am clearly aware that not everybody was priviliged to get the figures that they wanted at the point of release. Some might even resorted into buying from a reseller since they don't wanna go through the hassle of transacting through their credit cards online. Whatever the reasons may be, a lot of collectors bought from resellers thus their chances of getting every single one of their desired MOTUCs remains in the balance.
MOTU (let alone MOTU Classics) might not be the 'bee's-knees' in a couple of years' time and the generation who originally adored the Filmation cartoon series might eventually fade away. Therefore it is important for us to pass this knowledge of the MOTUC lore to young ones. I know my better half and I are doing our part. Our son now loves watching the He-Man and She-Ra series on DVD while holding on to his favorite MOTUCs on hand (although he prefers them baddies than those no good goody two shoe good guys!).
Where am I heading with all these arguments you asked? My point is exactly this: MOTUC is catered for the close knit collector community. As a community we are obliged to help each other out and that includes finding the desired action figures for those who really need it. Scalping should be a no-no. Sadly there are people out there who are not even collectors of MOTUC but jumping in the bandwagon to take opportunity of marking up the prices at the expense of true collectors. And because of the imbalance in supply-demand plus Matty's stupid decision to offer 'subscription only' figures, we are at what we are right now. Don't believe me? Try going on eBay and you will see what I mean.
The 7 or 8 MOTUC figures in the picture above are those which some collectors are willing to crazily splash their hard earned moolah for. I now know that Shadow Weaver can fetch as high as USD200 and possibly some of the figures will eventually breach that mark sometime soon. Sure, Matty's gonna give us the Filmation line next year but not all of the 'mini-comic' characters appeared in the cartoon series. They even look different than their on-screen counterparts.
Which makes them even more valuable soon.
So what do you guys think....should we succumb to the secondary market i.e. ballooned up prices for our MOTUCs? Or do we simply resign to the sad pathetic fact that some of us might never get to complete our collection? Are you willing to give an arm or a leg just to fill that hole in your collection?
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