Per MCX team on their forums:
Jul-18th:
As I teased in the other thread, I'm currently investigating and hoping to share some information about The Distribution Problem soon. Met with our Senior Director yesterday and we had a really good discussion about it. I should have something to share next week.
On the topic of direct to consumers (DTC), I know this is something many people have suggested as a possible solution, and we are always investigating how we can make that work for us, but it's so much more complicated than it seems. Building a website that people can buy from is not the hard part. It's the logistics around it - managing inventory, shipping domestically and internationally, etc. Our infrastructure is not set up for that right now. We'd have to open another warehouse to handle that, or deal with a third-party fulfilment company. There are costs associated with all those things, which means you need a certain volume in order to make it profitable.
Currently, we're focusing on regaining lost shelf space in brick-and-mortar stores globally, and relying on online partners (like Amazon, Walmart, etc.) to handle online sales. Does this mean we'll never do a DTC online store? No. But it's not our #1 priority right now.
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It seems they are aware of the problem, but I don't get the vibe that a major solution is imminent. How the f#$% do you let yourself get edged out of Walmart? Who is the numbnuts that fell asleep at that wheel? Are they drunk? We really need Hasbro to buy Mattel and get it over with. Unless Disney decides to integrate vertically (typically not their style, they prefer to license out), it's going to happen eventually... might as well be now.