You are probably right about that. They were starting make make strides in the area of generics in the last few sets, and personally I loved it. Though the argument could be made the other way (not by me) that they started adding too many generics, as it seems a few were not in favour of that either.

Pure speculation here, as I don't have any evidence/proof myself, but the C/U/R system was probably a streamlining move by WK to be able to sell all of the product they produced at the distribution level, so that they didn't have massive amounts left at their warehouse. Supply VS demand concept. For example:

10,000 cases under the old R/E/V system would be 480,000 boosters/1,920,000 figures. Sold at $8.00-9.00 per booster = $3,840,000-$4,320,000

10,000 cases under the new C/U/R system would be 240,000 boosters/1,200,000 figures. Sold at $11.00-12.00 per booster = $2,640,000-$2,880,000

Obvioulsy that is the cost/profit at retail. But if Wk has 2x as many boosters to sell, and they don't sell, they are stuck with unmoved product collecting dust in their warehouse = lost money. Take into account the cost of producing those extra 720,000 figures, the extra cost of packaging for 2x as many boosters, and I'd be willing to bet that their profit margin was pretty much the same, perhaps even more, under the C/U/R system, as it was under the olde R/E/V system, even moving less product.

Product of an existing game with all the development, design, production, shipping, distribution and other factors set in stone probably should be a "given."

"Launching" a new product is a different story.

Out of curiosity, how many products have you brought to market? How many "launches" are on your resume? Can you really give a discerning criticism based on your own real world experience?

I run an event each year that draws over 5,000 people. When I took it over it was drawing less than 300. It is an enormous success. Each year I get a few people who are critical, but as my wife explains, "most people who are critical couldn't organize a dog fight!"

If we just want to raise Tuttle up on the big screen for an Owellian "10 minute hate" for some sort of catharsis (as an earlier post suggested), fine.
Just know that's what it is.

Again, not his biggest fan, just tired of baseless, unsupported criticism.

Product on the shelf is a lot of things - but never a given. From inception to cases shipped to the retailer, there are a million things that could get in the way. If it hits the shelf, its a successful launch.

And, that tends to be one of the metrics that CMG/CCGs use to gauge success.

I've worked on, and run traditional SF Cons for years. Over the last three/four years, I've pulled back from it and will probably be out of it in another year or so. In part, there are other things I want to do, but a big part of it is having to listen to people b***** and whine about how things are being run. Everyone working on the Convention is a volunteer, and have spent hours upon hours working on the Con. Then some fanboy/girl comes along and screams about how there's no "diet slurm" in the Consuite.

Didn't want to post in this thread initially because (as you can see by my unchanged signatures) I've been seen as a rabid supporter/kiss-up for Mark Tuttle and I didn't want to waste my time getting into yet another extended argument with people about my "kissing-up" to the guy and being on WK's payroll like I have been accused of multiple times. So to keep it short and simple:

I liked a lot of what he did or what was done on his watch. I didn't like everything but most of what I didn't like wasn't anything close to a deal-breaker. I know that he's "lied" about various things but the guy's a salesman and I expect that. It's silly to think that someone in his position wouldn't do as such.

I haven't had the contact with him that some people obviously had but I had one instance with him and he seemed quite down to Earth, calm, and civil. He seemed like a nice enough guy to me and it was pretty cool that he approached me and not the other way around.

Everyone's entitled to their opinions but the outright hatred that the mere mention of his name brings out is just plain scary sometimes. Especially since a lot of those people obviously don't REALLY know what the score was and blame him for things that more than likely had nothing to do with him. Makes me uncomfortable to be in the crowd when people start shouting for his head like a pitchfork mob. I definitely agree with others in this thread who basically say that you don't have to like the guy, but it would be nice if people could be fair to him or at the very least, civil as opposed to rabid dogs.

That's pretty much it from me on the subject.

My opinion on the matter is largely based on the fact that tuttle is one letter removed from turtle.

I mean, everything else is kind of peripheral.

As soon as I saw that you had posted on this thread, I knew you were going to go there.

I think Jack hit the nail on the head this time.

Well, he did do a lot of that, turtling that is.

This is a suppositious claim to make. How can you say many? What is your basis for this claim? My attendance had no ill effect from a switching to cardboard prizes. Some people just enjoy playing the game regardless of the prize.

Tuttle's failures are not the major big deal for me.

It was his actitude. and nobody can deny his bad actitude, all the rest make it even worst.

He could had been tie up from hands and feets in front of "bad news" from up or things that could not be solved (maybe) but if he could had been with another actitude we would have a better image of him.

He make himself his image. and I dare to say that maybe he enjoy it (and that make it again even worst).

I guess as long as we collected them from WizKids they met their goals.

So you are trying to tell me you couldn't sell the contents of a booster for more than 50 cents? C'mon...I think you are exaggerating a tad there.

The value was in the boosters. He actually took it away from eBay pirates as far as I'm concerned. Since I buy it by the booster I would rather have the "value" be there...not on eBay.

I can deny his bad attitude. I never had much interaction with Mark. A small group of us did meet for dinner on the last night of GenCon 2 years ago and Mark was there. He was anything but a jerk. The guy was actually pretty nice. And this is even after he had been attacked on a regular basis online by folks like you.

Is it that Mark had a bad image or that you view him through bad image glasses?

It wasn't Mark's job to get people to like him. It was his job to sell HeroClix and he accomplished that mission very well.