Mattel Gets Positively Chatty

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Scott Neitlich, a.k.a. “ToyGuru” of Mattel was posting quite a bit on the Mattycollector forums last night.

First up is this new “director’s commentary” on the Masters of the Universe Classics line, starting with King Grayskull. This seems like a neat, fun idea. There’s no real new info here–most of this has been hashed out before in interviews and so forth–but I’ll be interested to see the discussions of later figures.

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Odds ‘n Ends > Draego-Man and Kobra Khan Pics & Bio, S.H.MonsterArts Updates, DC Direct Dark Knight Rises figures

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  • Mattel has posted pics and bios of Kobra Khan and Draego-Man on their Facebook page. Who’s the Great Black Wizard…? Scott also added this commentary: Draego-Man really filled out the package. The wings are detached as is the tail to fit inside the blister, but they all easily snap in. He comes with the flame on sword. We are working on finding a home for the unreleased sword and whip accessories, perhapes with a future figure. The massive wing span and all the deco hits he needed forced us to reduce a few accessories to keep him as a $20.00 figure. We would rather remove the shield than have to remove the wings or tail! The all new bio [is] based on the Horsemen’s backstory! The shield art was also supplied by the Horsemen from their concept sketch sent to our design team! Draego ships in April as part of the 30th sub (not the main Club Eternia Cub) with some limited day-of stock for non sub holders.
  • Bandai Japan’s S.H.MonsterArts line is my new obsession, so I was happy to hear the latest news that Moguera will be released in late May, and the SpaceGodzilla special effects pack featuring crystals and an articulated Baby Godzilla will ship in June. The Moguera will cost $87, which is more expensive than any SHM figure to date (lots of theories as to why, but it’s probably just due to all the accessories). Given this line’s obsession with accuracy and devotion to depicting these kaiju as fully as possible, I strongly suspect it will be able to split, especially since, to the best of my knowledge, no previous Moguera toy has been able to do that. The crystal/Baby Godzilla set will cost $44, which is actually cheaper than any accessory kit thus far. The better news is that there may be a U.S. distribution for one or both items, which should bring the prices down.
  • DC Direct is doing 6″ Dark Knight Rises figures, meaning that they will once again be competing directly with Mattel; first the Arkham games, now DKR. DCD pretty decisively won the Arkham battle, but if the Four Horsemen are behind the DKR Movie Masters and Mattel actually puts a little money into the production side of things (a big if there), they could win this battle…especially since the DCD figures appear to be pre-posed a la DC’s World of Warcraft and God of War figures. (Via Toynewsi)
  • In the same article, DC also announced series 3 of Arkham City, due in September 2012 and consisting of a regular Batman, Ra’s Al Ghul, Clown Thug, Azrael, and the Penguin.

Odds ‘n Ends Contest > And the Spoils Go To…

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Y’know, I hate it when I do these contests where I have to pick the winner. I thought about pawning the duty off on Dr. Mrs. Ghostal, but she was watching TV, so no help there. Not really fair anyway, since it’s my site. Then I thought about asking Doc Thomas to decide, before I remembered he was clinically insane. So in the end, I had to decide myself.

This was not easy. There were a ton of excellent submissions. I knew you guys were awesome, but I guess I didn’t realize just how awesome…if I’d thought about it, I would have had more prizes.

First, the runners-up:

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Toy Aisle Trolls > Ultronmatum

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Toy Aisle Trolls is a feature highlighting acts of vandalism to in-store toy items. If you find a ruined package, a stolen figure, a swapped-out figure, or any other such acts, take a photo (cell phone photos are fine if they’re not blurry) and email them to poe@poeghostal.com.

Submitted by: Meister Shake

The Problem: The Ultron has been replaced by a Titanium Man. Which actually wasn’t as blatant as some other TATs–they’re both green, and robotic looking–but the lack of a head is a dead giveaway.

Karmic Payback: I hope you swallow an umbrella and it opens up inside you.

Cool Toy-Related Videos Trifecta

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OK, so I’m willing to bet most of you have already seen these. But I’m posting them anyway, because I like them.

 

This amazing recreation of the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark (right down to the chin rub) was done by Jeff Gurwood.

 

I’m not sure if this is safe for work or not. It’s gross and incredibly immature. Also, it’s funny.

 

This ad was filmed entirely using the new Bandai S.H. MonsterArts figures. I’ll be reviewing them at some point, hopefully in the near future.

Identify the Toy Contest #1

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Welcome to a new feature here at PGPoA! Every other week or so, I’ll post a photo of a small part of a toy. Your job is to identify the toy. Send an email to poe@poeghostal.com with the following:

  • Name of the toy
  • Line the toy comes from (if any)
  • Manufacturer of the toy
  • Year the toy was produced

The first person to email all the information will win a Poe Prize! If no one gets all 3-4 pieces of info, the person with the most wins. If no one guesses correctly, there’s no winner.

The nature of the Poe Prize will vary, but it will be a small toy of some sort. The first set of Poe Prizes will come from this batch of 1980s UFO vending machine toys. The toy really isn’t important–what you get is bragging rights.

I’ll announce the winner on Friday each week.

This contest is open to everyone, including international readers. Good luck!