Last week, I looked at the Cyber Sale compared to the 2010 Club Eternia.  Today, let’s take a look at the Cyber Sale in  relation to the 2011 sub.

The 2011 sub included 12 monthly figures, 4 large beasts/multi-packs, and 4 character variants.

Of the 12 monthly figures, 7 were available: King Hssss, Faceless One, Clawful, Man-E-Faces, Bow, Vikor, and Catra.

Of the 4 variants, 2 were available: Battleground Teela and Battle Armour Skeletor.

Of the 4 large beasts/multi-packs one was available:   Megator.

So, let’s look at the main three hypothetical options for potential sub-buyers*:

1. Buy a sub – get all 16 figures, 4 beasts and a Preternia Disguise He-Man.  No white screens.  No wondering about availability.  All the figs and beasts plus Preternia Disguise He-Man.  Done.

2. Buy the figures and the beasts on a monthly basis.  Show up the day of the sale each month, battle the WSOD and purchase the available  figures and beasts, but not get Preternia Disguise He-Man.

3.  Buy Battleground Evil-lyn, Hurricane Hordak, Leech, Demo-Man, Panthor, Icarius, and Swiftwind via MattyCollector when they’re first released.  Purchase King Hssss, Faceless One, Clawful, Man-E-Faces, Catra and Battle Armour Skeletor during the Cyber Sale and save about $61.75 (the difference between regular price plus individual shipping and the sale prices with combined shipping). Battleground Teela, Bow, Vikor and Megator can be picked up for half-price on Monday for a savings of $73.80.  Total savings – $135.55.  But no exclusive He-Man (currently available on ebay, however, for $29.99 plus shipping).

This one’s more difficult than the 2010 sub.  $135.55 is a nice chunk of toy money, the wait isn’t quite as long, and the quickest sell out was Catra who was gone by Friday afternoon.  Being upset over this one is more understandable.

How would fewer choices for option #1 in favor of #3 have affected the sale?  I don’t know.  Not getting the sub, however, the only non-sale item with a “quick” sell out was Panthor at just under 3 hours so most figures should have been findable the day-of (and the Cyber savings should have allowed an easy purchase of Panthor on the secondary market).

So, what are the pros of the sub? Guaranteed figures.  Non-final sales allowing for the return of defective figures.  The map.  Not having to chance the completion of your year of figures on a few days.  Getting sub figures earlier than day-of buyers.  Plus, not only getting the figures early, but not having to wait months for a figure either.  An exclusive He-Man.

Are these things worth $135.55?  For some, the convenience/perks the sub offers is.  Me, I’d probably roll the dice.  But then again, the 2011 figure selection doesn’t really interest me so missing some wouldn’t be a big deal.

* Prices were estimated based on individual shipping on each item with the Wind Raider being used to estimate the price of a large item’s shipping cost.

**List of figures and sell-out times thanks to He-Mangar from the .org forum.

The December 15 Matty Q&A contained a couple of questions concerning the Cyber Monday sale affecting sub sales – basically, why should people buy a sub if the figures are going to be offered for a discount later on.   From perusing the forums around the time of the Cyber Monday sale, I saw this before.  Thing is, I don’t quite get the hate for the Cyber Monday sale.

Let’s just say in summer 2009, Matty knew this sale was going to happen when they announced the 2010 Club Eternia.  The 2010 Club was for twelve monthly figures and the club exclusive Wun-dar.  At the time, the full line-up wasn’t announced, but let’s say it was and Matty basically gave potential sub buyers three main choices to get all 12 monthly figures*:

1. Buy a sub – get all 12 figures plus Wun-dar.  No white screens.  No wondering about availability.  12 figs and Wun-dar.  Done.http://toynormous.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=1605&action=edit&message=10

2. Buy figures on a monthly basis.  Show up the day of the sale each month, battle the WSOD and purchase the available  figure, but not get Wun-dar.

3.  Another Wun-dar free option.  This choice, however, is to buy Evil-lyn, She-ra, Count Marzo, Chief Carnivus, Roboto, Grizzlor, and Buzz-off when they are first released.  Then wait about 11 months (after Buzz-off, the final 2010 release)  to buy Adora (23 months after her release), Whiplash (19 months after his release), and Optikk (21 months after his release) for $18 a piece during a sale that will start at 12:00am Pacific Time.  Whiplash, by the way, will sell out in about 10 minutes (at about 3:10 am for East Coasters).  A couple days after that, you can buy Moss Man for $10, but only the unflocked ears version.  Then you can finish off the 12 figures with a $10 Trap-Jaw who will only be available during a two hour window on a work day afternoon.

So, let’s sum this up.

Option #1: Guaranteed all the figures plus Wun-dar and no waiting.

Option #2: Potentially all the figures, but no Wun-dar.

Option #3:  Potentially all the figures, but a lot of waiting and no Wun-dar.  If, however, you get all the figures you can potentially save about $47.20 (figure discounts plus money saved from combined shipping).

In hind sight, I can see how this sale looks awesome.  Pocketing $47.20 for another day would have been nice.  If this option was announced in 2009, however, it probably would have had many more naysayers than takers with talk of making people jump through hoops to save a buck and all that.  They want me to wait two years to save a measly $2 on an Adora!?  Wake-up at 3:00am to battle for Whiplash?  They must be crazy!  Matty‘s “killing teh lien”!

So, what do you think?  Would trying to save $47.20 have been worth it – even if it meant perhaps missing Whiplash?  What about being awake at 3:00am for the start of the sale?  For myself, if I had to choose, I’d have just gone with the sub.

*Of course, just to note, this is all hypothetical.  How many left-overs would be available to sell if the sub numbers went down?  How quickly would the Cyber Sale figures have sold out if “sub” buyers had chosen option #3?  There are a lot of variables in this.

**List of figures and sell-out times thanks to He-Mangar from the .org forum.