One of the Chain Retailers exclusive ? ................. Very very glad to see Wal-Mart on the list because it was always one of my favorite stores to find MM in !! Target always seemed to come in second ........................... Would have liked to have seen the Hobby Lobby stores also / Always had a nice endcap of JL and MM !! ............... Below is the MM section of the Newsletter:

Muscle Machines Arrive in Fontana - EXCLUSIVE MCC PHOTOS:

And now we have a few topics on the new kid in town, Muscle Machines. When, where, and what's up with the pricing are all addressed.

Pretty exciting stuff - we received our first shipment of Muscle Machines in from the factories. We weren't the first shipped, however. That distinction goes to Sam's Club Mexico, which purchased 1:18 scale and was shipped in May. We were pretty happy with our shipments though, as everyone has worked their butts off since the deal was finalized in January to get this stuff into production. Let's think about that for a second. The deal was finalized in January. No tooling moved from "their" factory to ours until February. We had Chinese New Year in there, which closes the factories for 3 weeks. Then we had to design products based on what we thought we had received. But with over 900 molds, it proved be a little tough to find what we were looking for. So then we had to design different titles. And get licenses. Packaging. Marketing. And here we are, 5 months later with release 12.1 and 12.2 in 1:18 and 1:24, and 12.1 in 1:64 sitting in our warehouse."

Here are some photos we took of the first shipments on the floor.




Where to Buy - EXCLUSIVE INFO DELIVERED TO MCC MEMBERS FIRST:

So you are saying to yourself, "Great, Maisto has their Muscle Machines. Where am I going to get MY MUSCLE MACHINES? I WANT MY MUSCLE MACHINES!!!"

OK, ok, ok. First off- deep breaths. 10 of them.

Ok, better? Good. Now, let's discuss.

Where to buy can be a tough thing when you are dealing with a new product line. Mass market retailers set their departments at different times throughout the chain. Distributors will also get their products at different times. As of this writing, most of the initial shipments should me met and made by end of June.

As far as majors, the supporters of Muscle Machines will be WalMart, Toys R Us, and Walgreens. That's a lot of locations. Target, which has basically gotten out of collector die-cast, will be carrying some product on-line. Click on the link to check out the official where to buy list, and check back often, as we will be updating it regularly.


"Didn't I buy 1:18 Muscle Machines for under $20 when it was out before?"

This has been a little bit of discussion about pricing as we have proceeded in the development process of re-launching this once heralded brand. A lot of effort and energy has gone into every aspect of this line, but there are some economic factors that just hit you square in the face that cannot be avoided. For each of the last 5 years, labor costs in our factories in China have gone up 20%. Each year! That's a lot of wage increases that one cannot avoid. In fact, our overall costs for manufacturing have risen by about 10% a year on average for the last 6 years. Again, that is an amount that is impossible to absorb. So yes, unfortunately, the retail price points have had to rise. 1:18 scale is the most obvious suspect, primarily due to the original manufacturing process which had the finished product weighing so much. We anticipated the retail price point early on, and in viewing what was going on in the world of die-cast, we had always planned on emphasizing 1:24 and 1:64 scales. New tooling will happen in those arenas first. 1:18 is still a favorite among the hard core collectors, and we have no intention on abandoning the scale, but the real world economics will have us looking in other areas as we expand the brand.


Randy

Last Edited By: Randy1501 Jul 10 12 3:26 PM. Edited 1 times.