Scott Neitlich, a.k.a. ToyGuru, has been pretty chatty over on the Mattycollector forums lately. Here are a few tidbits:
Responding to a question about the card art for Wun-Dar and Trap Jaw, and whether we might see a re-release of the minicomics:
The Wun-Dar art was new, the Trap Jaw art came from a vintage source.
We are looking into way to re-release the old mini comics, but not as pack-ins with the figures. Stay tuned.
If it turns out to be a trade paperback edition of 5,000 copies sold only at SDCC, I will not rest until I have made Mattel dread the name “Poe Ghostal.”
In answer to a question about whether the DC vs. MOTU 2-packs will show up at TRUs in Canada:
This is up to TRU. The product is exclusive for the TRU chain, but how they distribute it and to what stores is up to TRU. Once the product leaves our distribution center we have no control over where it goes.
Regarding the modern DCUC Cheetah:
A quick word on the upcoming DCUC Cheetah figure in Wave 13.
As many of you know, their will be two versions of Cheetah, split 50/50. The first version will be the classic Cheetah with hood over her head and deep v-line neck. The second will be the modern Cheetah head with black halter top and pants deco added as shown at NYTF.
We do have plans for the non-black halter top version as well, so completist fans can rest. I’ll get images up of Wave 13 and Wave 14 on Facebook later this week so fans can see all the versions which will be out on shelf.
And don’t forget Wave 12! It will be on sale as a box set on MattyCollector.com in mid March!
And boy are their some great things coming for later in 2010. We will have Wave 15 to reveal in May with more coming at SDCC and beyond!
See you in the toy aisles (or on MattyCollector.com!)
Regarding the Keldor swords not being the 200X versions:
Okay, quick insight into Keldor and his now infamous swords.
A lot of fans are asking why we will do 2002 style Doomseeker, He-Man electronic sword, Marzo cape, Hordak staff etc… in the Classics but not a “2002 style” Keldor sword. As usual, the answer is simple.
The 2002 Keldor/Skeletor sword was based off of the vintage sword (in shape and ability to split into two halves). The Doomseeker, electronic sword, Hordak Staff and other items don’t have a vintage counterpart. If an item existed in the vintage line, we will do the vintage version. If an item only existed in the 2002 line, we will do a “Classic” version of it (like the electronic power sword that came with Man-At-Arms and will come in the Weapon Pak).
We won’t be doing any anime styled anything in the Classics line. 2002 items (like Marzo or Hordak’s staff) in the Classics line have been based off of a “vintage look” (as if these items or characters had been made in the vintage line using vintage shared parts as needed). Any hyper style art details these items had in the 2002 line have been toned down. The 2002 anime look is retired. Everything in Classics will have a Classics look, even if it has 2002 influence (like Webstor’s extra arms).
So you ARE getting the “2002 sword” with Keldor. That sword was based on the vintage sword and this is the look the Classics line is based on. See? It is a fun little circle of life.
Oh, and speaking of Keldor, we should have a release date and packaging to show later this week or next!
I think this argument is specious. The fact is, Mattel decided not to make the two-part sword into the official Power Sword for 200X. They just became distinctive, bad-ass swords for Skeletor. So the “the twin swords were the 200X sword” argument holds no real merit.
Why can’t they just say, “the swords would cost too much in new tooling right now, but maybe down the road if fan demand remains high”?
To be frank, while I liked the sculpting of the hilts of the 200X twin swords and the snap-together feature, I never liked the way the blades were angled and had a space between them. So this isn’t something I particularly care about that much. I just think Mattel’s argument for why they’re not making them is weak.
Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but haven’t all the pics of Keldor we’ve seen so far show him holding two purple half-swords? Shouldn’t one be gray and one purple? And wait–based on the 200X storyline as well as MOTUC canon, why should Keldor even have the Power Sword?! He never got his hands on both halves–as Keldor or Skeletor! This makes no sense!
Finally:
So a lot of fans are asking why She-Ra has a “hole in her head” when not wearing her headgear.
Very simple answer. She isn’t designed to be displayed with her headgear off.
We wanted to do two heads for She-Ra. One with her vintage toy look and one from her 2002 figure look, both in the Classic style.
Well. The thing about the vintage toy is it’s mask was a bit upside down. The way the toy was designed was for the eye holes to go down over the eyes. But in early testing with girls they wanted to see She-Ra’s pretty face. It was too late to redesign the mask, so it was simply turned upside down! This is why you see early cross sell and mini comic art with the mask over the eyes but the figure was packed out with the mask eyes up!
To pay tribute to both ways the mask could be displayed, it was designed to be reversible through a peg hole. We could not afford to tool three different heads, and the mask was not working as a “clip on”, so we went with a reversible mask/peg hole option to give fans not just two but three ways to display their She-Ra.
We could one day do a third maskless head, but for now we picked the two head options which allowed the most variety!
A lot of fans on He-Man.org are getting pretty up in arms over this. Most are arguing that it shouldn’t be that hard to make the parts clip on without the hole in the forehead. I’m no toy designer, but I tend to suspect that’s true and this is simply another cost-saving measure.
That said, this is not something I care about at all. Would you really want/need to display She-Ra sans tiara/mask?
i don't see the point in displaying she-ra without any head gear either
Why would you want She-ra without the headgear? Maybe this is my lack of he-man fandom knowledge speaking here, but I don't get why you would want or expect that. It seems akin to expecting skeletor's hood to come off (okay, that would be kinda cool). Kind of a neat feature, but not really a deal breaker.
That flippable mask head is something I don't have much use for anyway. I'm fine with the other one.
*slow claps for Newton Gimmick*
Finally. Finally someone's saying what needs to be said.
And why not just swap an Adora head for the She-Ra one if you want to show her without a mask? Do the female figures not have removable heads?
I agree with diego. If I wanted she ra with no head dress I'd just display Adora
I hope they're truthful about Cheetah and getting three versions of her.
I don't really care about any of the MOTUC stuff, but it wouldn't be MOTUC if people didn't complain loudly about everything big (which may deserve it) to small (which sort of hurts the complaints of big things).
Quote:
Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but haven’t all the pics of Keldor we’ve seen so far show him holding two purple half-swords? Shouldn’t one be gray and one purple?
The power sword is magic, it changes color with the user. That is why Faker's is orange, Wun-dar's is black, and He-Ro's is all cosmic-y.
Faker's sword is not actually "the" Power Sword, right? But yeah, it changes color.
But this get's me confused. If the Power Sword is only one, and it's split in half, neither He-Man nor Skelletor should have a "full" power sword. Nah, who cares?
I'm gonna agree with ya Poe…
Keldor's swords… If you're needing the 200X swords THAT bad, just use the existing 200X swords. They still fit in the MotUC hands.
As to She-Ra… Again, no biggie. If it's THAT big a deal to you, get an extra Adora, and an extra She-Ra so you can combine the She-Ra hair on an Adora face. (You'll need a customizer to do it, if you can't customize yourself.)
I'm mildly amused at all the fuss over these two things.
Yeah I definitely want the uh…naked version of modern cheetah. I don't like the painted on outfit at all.
The She-Ra thing is meaningless to me and I honestly only planned on displaying Keldor with the acid anyway.
The problem with just using the 200x swords is that they are overly detailed. It sounds silly, but I want to see the 4H classicize Skeletor's sword the same way they did He-Man's.
And, honestly, for me, it's became the principal of the matter. None of the explanations hold up to any water. If TG would come out and say "we don't want to make it, and we're not going to" that would be a ton better then these lame, flimsy excuses.
I also don't understand why TG would even choose this battle. It seems so dumb.
As for She-Ra, I don't understand the whole thing myself. I'm not that excited for the figure, but she should have the tiara or the mask because that's the look. I don't mind that Randor's crown can't come off.
i still think that:
A. the cheetah figure was repainted do to a "perceived" nudity issue
and
B. keldor's swords were not made because it would have cost to make a new sword. All the talk about they were a classic homage and blah blah blah is crap.
if they didnt have the tooling dollars for his swords just say so.
I don’t like the hole in the head for She-Ra, but I never owned a She-Ra before and I could care less. I’m guessing that a lot of the people on the org did, because well, you know a lot of the folks on the org have an alternate lifestyle than I do. Nothing wrong with that, but they have a bigger attachment to She-Ra than I do.
I am almost certain we’ll get another She-Ra at some point, so all this bellyaching is for nil. She has three looks all are pretty good. They could have simply sculpted the mask to her face. Never look a gift horse in the mouth.
I’m really getting tired of the 200Xers complaining about every little thing, but the explination for the sword is pretty stupid.
Ultimately, to me, WHO CARES!? I’m tired of everyone getting up in arms about little things. All this does is weaken the credibility of the fan base as a whole and when something comes along that truly needs to be fixed, the community will have squandered it’s power worrying about She-Ra’s mask or Keldor’s cod piece or something equally as stupid.
Can’t wait til those mini-comics hit SDCC though. All 15 copies.
I'm mildly interested in the whole power sword thing, but it quickly becomes a headache if you try to think about it too much.
I've actually tried posing MOTUC Skeletor with the MOTU2K swords and they always fall out of his hands. If anything, maybe the pics we've seen thus far have just been mockups, and Keldor will have two classic halves one with a purple hilt and the other with a bronze hilt. Though I’d prefer that he’d come with two whole swords because those halves never really did much for me. Regardless, I'm not going to get my panties in a twist over it.
I'm a little annoyed with the whole Cheetah thing. She is one of the only ones I'm planning on collecting from Wave 13 along with Blue Beetle. At first I was keen on the Classic version, but I've grown to like the modern version better, but I really don't want one with the black haltar… so I guess I'm curious now if she's another variant for that wave, or they're planning to release her for WGSH or something down the line or in some sort of Wally exclusive 5-pack or 2-pack.
My 2 cents on the whole Keldor sword issue: I think its the same thing as the He-Ro sword shown in the prototype pic which was black with gold stars. Maybe Matty should stop showing promo pics from now on?
Also Hole in the Head She-Ra:
She only comes with one head? I was under the impression it would be 2, based on the multiple figures they showed at Toy Fair? How they can do 2 heads for Teela, but some reason can't get another one for a major figure like She-Ra is just plain confusing. Looks like another unfortuante skip…Matty seems to do that with me for the majority of their female figures.
She-Ra has 2 heads. On one of the heads the tiara can be placed up or over her eyes. SO there are 3 ways to display her.
You know what bothers me the most? People who think there opinion is the only one that is valid.
Why can't I say that I want a removable mask without a hole in She-Ra's head, or I'd like Keldor to come with more then a head & cape without another person telling me I'm out of line? You don't agree, fine I get that it doesn't matter to you. But give me the courtesy I'm giving you by not belittling my opinion on the matter. Sure, certain people could be more constructive in how they express their opinion, but how are you helping the situation by telling those people they need to stop expressing that opinion? All that leads to is flame wars. Just let it go, all this bickering of what is and isn't helpful helps no one…
i notice they conveniently avoided mentioning the additional inclusion of whiplash's "200X" style alternate head in the whole "200X is retired" post.
@Newton Gimmick: I could not agree with you more. These "fans" are always griping about the stupidest, most inconsequential shit, & it really irks me, as a lover of toys, to be associated with their ilk. They're worse than schoolyard teens.
You don't like it, don't FUCKING buy it. PERIOD.
I don't really like how Skeletor's 200x swords were made. They're two rubbery and fiddly for my taste. They are sculpted well and it's a pretty cool concept,but they didn't come out as well as I would have liked.
The logic behind the swords is full of holes…
As for She-ra, didn't she remove her headpiece on occasion in the cartoon? Might have something to do with it. That, or people might want a "classic" Adora figure, which if memory serves amounted to removing the headpiece from the original figure.
I thought it was rather ridiculous how some PoP fans literally tore apart the She-Ra figure when it was shown.
"Her tiara's not shaped correctly, her legs are too fat, her hair is too short, her boobs are too small", you get it.
I even dare to predict that there won't be too many fans who actually would display She-Ra's 2nd head without the mask.
However, it is kinda weird that Mattel wouldn't be able to fit the mask on the head without screwing a hole. But after all, this is the company who first wanted to attach all armor to the bodies via a large hole in the back.
Concerning the Keldor swords, I'm quite bummed about not getting it, but I understand when there's not enough tooling money left after the new head, cape and acid vial.
But getting an answer that not only has a flawed argument but bases its argument on false information? Come on, this sounds as if
A – Toyguru (or Mattel Legal or Mattel PR or some Mattel trainee depending on who is actually doing which answers) really thinks that He-Fans are plain naive and stupid, or
B – it's another one of many instants where we get aware of his actual lack of MotU knowledge.
With responses like that, it's no wonder that fans are annoyed.
5,000 copies? I would expect that they would produce 500 copies of a mini-comics trade. 7 to be given to toy websites as prizes, 100 for Mattel staff, and the rest to be sold to scalpers and dealers 5 minutes before the "official" release.
Instant sell-out! Success!
@Philip Reed: don't forget the case of extras they discover after the con and give to the fwoosh…
@Fallen Eldor: dude, i totally get your point… if you're cheesed about the swords, or she ra's bullet wound, you DO have the right to gripe… but you have to give us here, there are some he-fans blowing things WAY out of proportion and giving the fanbase as a whole a bad name w/ the over-the-top outrage and kneejerk hystrionics they're displaying. having an opinion and expressing it are fine, but there are certainly ways of doing that that work and get a reasonable response, and ways that don't work and get a shut down from the guys who make a difference.
i would end this post w/ a thought… w/ keldor, we're getting a new acid vial, a cape, and a head… those are the new parts. for re-use parts, we're getting armor, chest, ab, hips, pee flap, shoulders, biceps, elbow pins, forearms, hands, hip balls, thighs, knee pins, upper calves, boots, ankles, feet and swords… i think we could have safely tossed in some new swords there and not been crossing a reasonable boundary w/ the "new tooling."