Friday, May 9, 2014

Update on Dice Masters


WizKids sent out the following update on the DiceMasters situation:


MDM Reprint #1 (Starters):  The starter reprint is arriving as we speak. We took the opportunity to split the air shipment between a west coast warehouse and a mid-west warehouse, to speed our time to market.  It looks like we will start shipping orders late next week , with some trailing orders hitting the beginning of the follow week.    Additionally, there is a portion of this reprint that went by boat and should be arriving in a few weeks.  However, due to the chance of custom holds and other delays, we are unable to project when this portion will be available.


MDM Reprint #1 (Boosters):  The first reprint for the boosters is scheduled to hit in July.  We’re looking into options to expedite this shipment due to the continued high demand.  We’re going to have to send another update out when we have more clarity on the shipping.

The reality of the situation is that even with these inbound shipments, we are still far short of the back order demand.  We placed this reprint last March and the numbers had just started to ramp up at that time.

MDM Reprint #2 (Starters and Boosters):  This reprint was issued before launch and should infuse a good amount of supply into the channel.  I am confident it will make a significant dent.  The problem is that this shipment is not slated to arrive until the end of August.  Again, we’re looking at options to expedite the delivery, but I won’t have clarity on that topic for a few weeks.

A short aside:  Air shipping is very costly.  As most of you know, we’ve been aggressive in our pricing for this product. Instead of raising the price we are trying to find the right balance between supplying the market and keeping the price where it is.  Air shipping all of the product would require raising prices across the board. Nobody wants that.

MDM at Origins Game Fair 2014:  As part of the belt tightening leading up to the launch of MDM, we released all of our reserved product to the distributors. This means that we have no starter product for our scheduled events at Origins.  Instead of peeling off product from the reprint, we’re going to cancel any MDM events at Origins that require the purchase of sealed product.   I’m confident this is the right decision in the long term and for the good of the business.

MDM Set 1 Collation: We always receive a lot of questions on this topic.  Given the Quarriors DNA of the MDM, many people are asking about the cost to collect an entire set.  As a policy, WizKids will not comment on collation, nor do we guarantee collation of a randomize product. It is a long-standing policy, one that we have proven out through experience, and one that we’re not going to change.  However, based on feedback, we’re going to tweak the next set, The Uncanny X-Men.  First of all, we’re going to move to a HeroClix sized Gravity Feed unit which will fit 90 MDM booster packs.  This should allow for a little more space for the packs to lay flat.    Also, we’re going to change the insertion rate to target one or more Super Rares per gravity feed. As always, we do not guarantee collation; it is simply a target we strive for.

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