Another great global brand trashed by the clueless corporate drones.
Had occasion to read some blogs on the subject recently (Matchbox Cars), could not find any with regular posters from the US, mostly Europeans and Australians. Which of course is part of the problem at Mattel, they see it (Matchbox) as a competitor/cannibal on their Hot Wheels (HW) product, rather than as a complementary brand that has ALWAYS outsold Hot Wheels in the Rest of the World (RoW); So Domestic (US) Hot Wheels gets the investment, and the RoW is supposed to be converted to HW; Minimal support or development of the Matchbox product.
Well, it does leave a market niche for Maisto, Siku and others.
Mattel doesn't care (about Matchbox), as several posters remarked. Yes, it is a "Different" world; Part of it is how you present the issue, corporate interests want a license fee for any vehicle. What about the free advertising benefit of having Corvettes and Mercedes Benz in the three year old hands? Sure it is a deep, long range investment. So? Not everything produces a profit in the next quarter.
Why is this relevant? I was in Walmart #1 idly checking out the toys, specifically the Matchox. Very disappointing, nothing but "Non-Prototype" product on the hooks, with about ten times (or more) space devoted to Hot Wheels. Then another adult came in obviously searching for collectibles. He spent about ten minutes browsing the Hot Wheels and Johnny Lightning, then briefly glanced at the Matchbox, then went back to searching the (overfull) Hot Wheels Pegs. As far as I could tell, he didn't buy anything either. Now, if EITHER range had contained something appealing, we both would probably have spent a couple of bucks.
Prototypes (Licence) Product folks. Persuade the auto firms to licence for a token payment, it is FREE ADVERTISING for their brands.
