MattyCollector "Mattel Hoverboard" discussion

Hi all, I'm a newbie to RPF.

Here's my HB experience..It arrived on Jan 4th to my house in Ireland. I opened it like everyone else painfully with the glued down box being a joke!.

I was gutted to find when I slid out the board that the decals were all lifting.

There was an obvious crease across the main hoverboard text on the front of the board.

At that point I got writing to Mattel straight away including photo evidence from the board.
I haven't even taken out my mini HB from the back of the board as I am so sick.
There is no way I want to keep it in its current state. Mattell replied to my email on Jan 10th. looking for more info which I supplied right away. I then got an email on Jan 11th saying that I will be contacted within 72hrs...

To Be Continued.......

My Hoverboard just arrived....... Location: Sydney, Australia

Already modded it to look waaaaaay better....... Thanks spotlight (craft store)

Right on.

Show some pics when you get a chance.

I received a notification in the letterbox from Australia Post on the 12th of January informing me that I have a package to pick up from the distribution centre and I can do so on the 14th of January.

so, I finally got it, it took 6 weeks for it to arrive. delivery date was the 4th of December 2012 US Time so that's 5th of December Australian. I have to say the build quality of the hoverboard is sub par and is very mass produced, the quality is very poor and unacceptable from a large company like Mattel.

I mean where do I begin when highlighting why the Mattel Hoverboard is a sub standard product. The level of how bad the quality of this thing has already being pointed out by so many in this forum. For starters why were the Velcro hooks used and not the Velcro loops? I can't fault the decal which is a recreation of the stunt board's decal, which to my understanding is a photograph applied to the board makes it look like a prop rather then and actual product. For a movie it was supposed to look like a prop.

I like that the foot pad is embedded into the board rather then sitting on top as the one from the movie does. It all comes down to personal taste so apart from the decal (yes, it's not the lenticular decal but Clock88 has spent over $1,300 on getting the lenticular to be screen accurate, had Mattel done the same, that would have been added to the cost of the board) and the foot pad. For $168.15 which includes shipping, it's a **** poor replica and Universal Studios should revoke the license in order to save faced, this "replica" makes Universal Studios look bad. Also had a company other then Mattel made a "Mattel Hoverboard" I am sure, that no one would have had a problem paying a little extra so that royalties could be paid to Mattel for use of their logo to ensure no breach of copyright BS could be claimed by Mattel.

Clock88 said:

Right now, I can't sell it to a reasonable price to anyone without it putting me out of pocket. I want to make some money back from what I have spent, but at the moment it's costing me 50 bucks per hoverboard side (100 bucks per hoverboard). I am going to have to sell it at least for $130 total (for both sides) to make a little bit of money ($30 total profit per sale), but that is way too expensive for most people.

I am trying to get the costs down but no luck ATM.

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As for Clock88's hoverboard, I don't see why it can't be a kickstarter project so that enough money can be raised and hopefully lower production costs due to buying the materials in bulk. I am sure there are enough members in this forum that are passionate enough to back such a project because the demand is global. What would it take? 50 orders? 100? Mattel have shown us how ****ty their hoverboard is, I say that a better one needs to be available to the public since I have no prop making skills this is the only hoverboard I have.

BTTFSpencer said:

Right on.

Show some pics when you get a chance.

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Ok well I have bought the green Velcro, just havent applied it yet cos I'm not too sure what I should use to stick it to the board :wacko

But I bought some pink fur and used my non existent sewing skills to both shorten the foot strap and attach the pink fur.... I still need to attach the white material to the underside of the strap as well

I also used some black plastic which I cut to size from a DVD case and turned the pink hole black ..... That sounded dirty *wolf whistle* :eek

Here's a quick look at it so far

Mine has been delivered and the stickers are fine. I was ready to be really disapointed with it and my expectations were rock bottom I think because of that I actually don't hate it and was quite excited once it was out of it box. Very unexpected turnout!

Ill have to decide once the kits are ready if I want to upgrade it or leave it.

aussietaurus said:

For starters why were the Velcro hooks used and not the Velcro loops? I can't fault the decal which is a recreation of the stunt board's decal, which to my understanding is a photograph applied to the board makes it look like a prop rather then and actual product. For a movie it was supposed to look like a prop.

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Just a couple points: the velcro used on the prop boards was hook-side velcro, not loop. The decal Mattel used has a background pattern that looks very very different from the one used on the photo boards, which is why Roland developed his photo board graphic upgrade kit.

JakeBluesZombie said:

They suck, and I want to see them crash and burn because they deserve to go out of business. They need to go out of business so that GOOD toy companies can produce toys/props from these licenses they now control. With their unreasonably high prices (and going higher), poor customer service, fan abuse, and with their lying ****bag of a spokesman Scott Neitlich, I don't think they will last too much longer.

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I couldn't agree more. I am also a collector of MOTUC and have been dealing with Scott's lies and bull**** for awhile now. He has been building up bad karma at an alarming rate, so I am hoping it will bite him on the ass sometime soon.

What'll really do them in is if they screw up Greyskull as bad as they did the Hoverboard. These QC/Communication issues on a $250 on a playset instead of a $130 "Prop" wouldn't go over any better.

Vinz said:

What'll really do them in is if they screw up Greyskull as bad as they did the Hoverboard. These QC/Communication issues on a $250 on a playset instead of a $130 "Prop" wouldn't go over any better.

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That's a given they will screw up Grayskull. Wasn't the Matty Voltron twice the price of Grayskull? And look what happened with that. I wouldn't keep your hopes up on that Grayskull.

mcabrera1275 said:

That's a given they will screw up Grayskull. Wasn't the Matty Voltron twice the price of Grayskull? And look what happened with that. I wouldn't keep your hopes up on that Grayskull.

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Voltron was a lot more expensive, becuase they sold each Lion separately. $30 for 2, $40 for 2, and $60 for the Black lion, if I remember correctly. Plus shipping each time. It's not without it's flaws, but it's not a bad toy.

I think they've got a bigger thing going down with Grayskull. They've got the PR nightmare they've created with the Hoverboard, and the Hoverboard was mostly a "One-Shot" in that it's their first BTTF item and they don't do a lot of "Prop Replicas".

MOTU is just about the biggest thing MattyCollector has going for it at this point (Now that Ghostbusters is done), so having a similar situation
with what's gone down with the Hoverboard, wouldn't play well. Especially since most MOTU collectors have already had issues with DR/Matty by this point.

Hello everyone
I'm Alan, i'm from italy and i'm new to the forum tho i've been reading and following it for months now looking mainly fo back to the future related stuff.
First off i'd like to thank everyone of you for the amazing job you do with your research and commitment to this "hobby" i've learned a crazy amount of stuff thanks to you.

i got my hoverboard yesterday and tho i'm not impressed i'm still happy with it...
Can't wait to see Roland's finished "update" sets! might be interested in a deluxe one

Anyone have a good suggestion on what to use to fill in the velcro areas?

cnickle1 said:

Anyone have a good suggestion on what to use to fill in the velcro areas?

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I used thin sheet plastic to fill mine in

Anyone else still waiting for there's?

I am in Melbourne, Australia and still not got it

I got one and i really love it . I know there are much more accurate custom made boards but for the money it was a no brainer for me . The inner box has cool graphics to.

Kramerjc said:

Anyone else still waiting for there's?

I am in Melbourne, Australia and still not got it

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when did you order mate? did you preorder in march 2012?

i received my orders 7 or so days after they shipped.

id be contacting matty, or ups with your tracking number.

i havnt recived mine yet im in uk although they had issues with my card which was there fault

There customer service is tragic instead of speaking to one person i think ive talked to every one that works fro matty,

Im not exspecting much of this board after reading this thread all i can say is how can a company that actually put here name on the one in the film get it so wrong and they worked bob gale!! :unsure

I love how the matty forum has near enough ignored all hoverboard related posts since matty have peoples money.

Hasslein Blog: Exclusive Interview With Back to the Future Scribe Bob Gale
Rich Handley from Hasslein Books talks to Bob Gale about the appeal of BTTF movies, the TellTale Game, BTTF 2 predictions, Mattel hoverboard and more.


"HANDLEY: Finally, it's no secret how disappointed you were with the quality of Mattel's hoverboard replica. Given the company's hype over the product, why do you think such an inferior product ended up being released, instead of what you'd anticipated Mattel producing? Would creating a screen-accurate hoverboard replica be too expensive, or did Mattel simply cut too many corners in order to maximize profit?

GALE: I don't fully understand what happened with the Mattel hoverboard replica. Clearly, they bit off more than they could chew, but rather than admit it, they pretended like the product they released was what they had promoted. Sadly, this is typical corporate behavior.

The tragedy here is if they had come to me and/or the fan community when they were having problems, we all would have tried to help them solve those problems. And again, I apologize to everyone who bought one based on my involvement. It's certainly not a bad product, but it's not what it was supposed to be, and I think it's overpriced for what it is."