Month: April 2009

Ask Mattel for May 1

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PG: It could stand to reason Mattel would make more money were it to sell Gleek both at the convention and online via Mattycollector.com. What is the rationale for potentially limiting profits and risking alienating part of the DCUC collector base by making Gleek SDCC-only?

Mattel: We wanted to reward fans who come out to the show with an exclusive figure just as we have done in the past with Grundy, Keldar, Catwoman, She-Ra, etc… This year Gleek is out SDCC exclusive available only at the show! As a bonus, we are making other items available online through MattyCollector.com. In the past, all of our exclusives were only available at the show, so this is a huge change for fans who can not attend this year. (And yes, we know last year all of the SDCC items were available online but that was an exception to help promote the launch of the site, going forward there will always be items only available at the show to reward those who make it out and help continue to make SDCC special).

Any plans for display stands for Masters of the Universe Classics?

Yes.

Valo487 asks: After Batman, the Flash has the best rogues gallery in all of DC. Will we see more of them in either JLU or DCUC?

Yes.

Outburst asks: There are certain teams like the Royal Flush Gang or various shaded Lanterns that may be very difficult to market as individual figures. Should DC Universe Classics collectors consider those ensembles write-offs or can be we cling to our hope, remote as it may be?

Nothing is off the table!

Robinjr asks: In DCUC or DCIH, will we see Red Robin, and the new Batman and Robin who will have their own series in June? And will we see the different color Lantern Corps that are spotlighted in Blackest Night? And by the way thank you for all the figures you’ve made in DCUC, DCIH, and JLU. I’m a big fan!

Eventually, yes, we would love to get to the new Lanterns from Blackest Night. Toys are planned almost 2 years in advance, so new characters who are coming out now have a good chance of being in the line in 2011.

Updates from Hasbro

Hasbro sent in some tidbits regarding Transformers and G.I. Joe.

Hasbro’s excited to alert you to the first pre-sell news for its highly anticipated Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen toy line. Beginning on May 1st, fans can pre-order the following items online via several major and specialty retailers:

* Leader-class Optimus Prime
* Deluxe-class Soundwave
* Deluxe-class Bumblebee
* Bumblebee Voice Mixer Helmet
* Bumblebee Plasma Cannon

Keep checking out Hasbro’s latest Transformers toy news at www.Transformers.com!

Now that you have had the opportunity to see the entirety of G.I. Joe: Resolute – and have been wowed along with all of us – we now offer you the chance to ask its creators any burning questions about the series. Joaquim Dos Santos (Supervising Director/Art Director), Dan Norton (Lead Art Designer) and Steve Drucker (Executive Producer) will be answering a select set questions chosen from those submitted by fans via the special Q&A submission form found at http://www.hasbro.com/resolute/resolute/en_US/ask.cfm

Between now and 11:59pm on Sunday, May 3, fans are asked to submit questions to the G.I. Joe: Resolute team. On Thursday, May 7th, a special video will be broadcast on gijoeresolute.com, with Joaquim, Dan and Steve answering some of the more popular and interesting questions submitted by you, the fans.

Yo Joe!

Review > City Display (Action Figure Displays)






The folks at Action Figure Displays are still hard at work creating some of the coolest backdrops for your action figures, and they’ve made some improvements on the original design (see my review of the Alley set here). The displays are now 10 ½” tall, which is 2 ½” taller than before.

JDP was kind enough to send along another sample, this time of the City backdrop. The new dimensions are 13.5″W x 10.5″H x 7.75″D, and as you can see, even a giant BAF like Solomon Grundy can now stand comfortably beneath the top of the display.

The City display has a great Gotham look to it, complete with a misty full moon and cloud-shrouded skyscrapers. What impresses me most, though, is the way the top of the brick wall offers a fantastic 3D effect (it’s most evident in the Two-Face shot).

As Dr. Mrs. Ghostal noted to me, the City set is tailor-made for the likes of Batman and his allies, although the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and any other rooftop-loving characters (Neo from The Matrix, the Tick, etc.) would work great as well.

As much as I loved the Alley set, I have to say the City set is even better. And the added height for the same price as the original versions make for a greater value.

What’s more, JDP will soon be offering peg stands to help those wobbly figures stand better. They’ve also added a number of new designs and are looking to add many more in the near future (I particularly like the look of the Jungle base).

With a great product and a committment to improvement in both design and value, JDP is quickly becoming a major player in the action figure accessory market.

Poll Quest

As of this writing, I’ve got 272 votes on the poll in the sidebar…I’d love to get that up to 300 before the poll ends tomorrow night. If you haven’t voted, please do! If you have, please bug your DC-loving friends to do so!

The results of the poll will be emailed to Mattel (this isn’t any sort of official poll, obviously, but it could give them some ideas).

Toy review roundup (via Fanmode)

fanmode-copy Michael Crawford reviews the Mattel Masters of the Universe Classics Mer-Man Mattycollector.com exclusive figure. Excerpt: “… my favorite of the series so far, and in hand, really impresses me with it’s quality and design … But in the end, it’s still tough to say it’s worth a whopping twenty bucks plus shipping.”

Poe Ghostal reviews the Mattel Masters of the Universe Classics Mer-Man Mattycollector.com exclusive figure. Excerpt: “… the great sculpt, excellent accessories and interchangeable head make him a must-buy.”

Nathan Newell reviews the Mattel Masters of the Universe Classics Mer-Man Mattycollector.com exclusive figure. Excerpt: “… another fantastic showing for The Four Horsemen and Mattel.” Continue reading “Toy review roundup (via Fanmode)”

G.I. Joe Resolute: Poe’s Review

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(Note: this review contains mild spoilers.)

While I went through most of the other major toy fads of the 1980s–Star Wars, He-Man, Transformers, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles–somehow I never got into G.I. Joe. I often joke that even at that young age I had a healthy distrust of the military-industrial complex, but I think the more honest truth was that I liked giant robots more than soldiers (and science fiction/fantasy more than action/adventure).

And so it was with no nostalgic investment that I took in G.I. Joe: Resolute on Adult Swim this weekend. For the five or six of you who don’t know, Resolute is an hour-long animated film commissioned by Hasbro to be geared specifically toward collectors, featuring more mature themes and–gasp!–actual combat deaths. It was written by popular comics writer Warren Ellis, who’s best known for mature-themed works such as Transmetropolitan. It was directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, whose credits include Justice League Unlimited and Avatar: the Last Airbender. Continue reading “G.I. Joe Resolute: Poe’s Review”