harry wrote:
petemodsquad wrote:
What happened to Johnny?
Draw a line straight back to the purchase of Playing Mantis by RC2 - that is when their downfall started. That many people correctly called this out as bad for the brand in many aspects including drop in quality, never ending hikes in prices and as Kevin pointed out MISERABLE DISTRIBUTION. And still through all of this decline the brands phonies and shills did all they could to protect and cover - so long as they were given the freebies and given (almost mock) honorable mention and status by the brands current owners.
Too bad.

-Peter


couldn't agree with you more modsquad ...i never understood how they always had lots of stuff at the warehouse sale in Iowa, and yet it never made it to any of the stores.  i wish they had really made a bigger push into Canada. I was buying up as much as i could, sadly now it doesn't even come up here anymore.
  That Playing Mantis always had a problem with distribution of sorts (geographically in my opinion, as it seems some parts of the country had plenty of stock while others went dry), RC2 at the helm made the problem worse 100 fold. 
Add into this the bizarre marketing strategy RC2 had decided upon taking over and it is no surprise they are where they are today.

 During RC2's first LightningFest the year following the 2005 company sale (as part of the original LF group I went to nearly all of these events),  I recall sitting in the main dining room of the Oak Brook, Il Ramada LF dinner listening to the presentation/ Q&A from the 'then in control' group panel from RC2 including Tom Zahorsky and Mac Ragan if my memory serves). Their planned strategy was explained as to how they were going to continue on with the brand:

1) Far less product produced (going from say 20,000 per car/series to between 5-7000 cars produced

2) ... far less series produced (many, many favorite series slashed)

3) Far less chase cars produced 

4) less brick/mortar retailers with a preference of more online only retailers (this got quite a angry response from the crowd)

5) A 1 YEARS ABSENCE OF THE BRAND (from both retailers and online). NO new items produced as time needed to both put their plan into action and purge their current inventory - the OakBrook Learning Tree store selling all (old stock) JL cars for a buck each and there were literally thousands and thousands of cases from their warehouses (Harry, probably one of the reasons why you and I never saw any cars in the stores!) 

6) a general feeling of not to expect too much -  to be "patient" and "understanding" as the company went through it's "growing pains"

7) Price hikes announced (explained/excuse as the cost of raw materials going up in price in China)

8)...but hey, far worth the price increase it as they announced new JL product would come in "cool plastic clamshells"



All the above peddled and cheered by RC2 as "good for the brand and good news for the collector!!!!!" (even some within our own LF group even giving their nod of approval on this - while they browbeat and frowned those us who were unhappy and critical as not going along with it). Too much "negativity" they said...

 As I recall the dead silence of the room soon followed by a half hour mutiny of sorts (a not so happy crowd) by at least half of those in attendance. The expressions on their faces was priceless as folks scratching their heads, talking with each other trying to figure out if what they heard was correct. The Q&A session afterwards a challenge to the RC2 folks sitting at the head table on stage with some of the most entertaining (pathetically) song and dance moves I have ever seen. It was not going over well.

That should have been a warning sign to their marketing team right there plain as day - that they had a large group of core collectors from all around not happy with their approach. 

That RC2 took a very successful (profitable) brand and re-created and restyled it with a chainsaw and a butcher knife.

2004 was the brand's 10 year anniversary, as I remember seeing silkscreened on a Fest TShirt also with the words "the end of an era". Yes indeed it was.


Peter

 


Last Edited By: petemodsquad Mar 30 12 2:22 PM. Edited 7 times.