The Post about Mattel’s 2009 SDCC exclusives

Well, it’s April 2nd, and Mattel hasn’t taken down the photos of their purported SDCC exclusives, so it seems to be confirmed. Here’s the list w/ descriptions, via their Facebook page.

• Masters of the Universe Classics: He-Ro. For over 20 years fans have waited, and now at long last Mattel is proud to present the first ever figure of He-Ro™, the Cosmic Warrior! He-Ro™ comes complete with magic staff and Power Sword® Complete your MOTU Classics collection today with this special figure sculpted by the Four Horsemen. Limited quantity available on MattyCollector.com after the show.
• DC Universe Classics: Wonder Twins 2-Pack. Form of an action figure! Shape of San Diego Comic Con! That’s right, the one and only Wonder Twins, Zan and Jayna, are available for the first time in Mattel’s DC Universe™ Classics line sculpted by the world famous Four Horsemen with the articulation and detail you have come to expect from this award winning line! Figures are available in special window box packaging complete with character accurate accessories as well as amazing light and sound action! As an added bonus, available ONLY as an exclusive gift with purchase at SDCC : the Wonder Twins’ mischievous monkey, Gleek! Only available at the show, Gleek will not be with the set online afterwards. Gets yours today! Available without Gleek on MattyCollector.com after the show.
• DC Infinite Heroes: 30″ Anti-Monitor. This is the 30-inch Anti Monitor. At least one handmade, hand-painted model will be raffled off each day of San Diego Comic Con. Raffle tickets will be exchanged for each 25 Anti Monitor points you redeem. Points can be found on the back of every DC Universe Infinite Heroes figure and multipack set.
• DC Infinite Heroes: 3 ¾” Anti-Monitor. Have you been saving your Infinite Heroes Anti-Monitor points? If so, bring 50 points to the Mattel booth to get a free 3¾ Anti-Monitor figure! And for every 25 points you bring (including the first 50) you will receive one raffle ticket to win an exclusive giant 30” hand-painted Anti-Monitor figure! At least one 30” figure will be raffled off each day of SDCC! – Don’t have Anti-Monitor points? No problem. The 3 ¾” figure will also be on sale at the Mattel booth and the show and is available on MattyCollector.com after the show.
• Justice League Unlimited: Green Lantern Origins 3-Pack. At long last Hal Jordan will be joining Mattel’s Justice League Unlimited collection. In this pack, you can get not only Hal Jordan (in his trademark Ferris Aircraft flight suit) but also his predecessor Abin Sur and his mentor/arch enemy Sinestro both in different versions of their Green Lantern uniforms. Plus, as an added bonus, for the first time in the JLU line, all of the heads in this pack are swappable, letting you play out Hal’s transformation from Test Pilot to Green Lantern of Space Sector 2814! Available on MattyCollector.com after the show.
• Ghostbusters: Egon & Slimer. Who ya gunna call for all your Ghostbusters™ action figure needs? Mattel, that’s who! Presenting the first in a line of highly detailed, fully articulated figures of the one and only Ghostbusters™. The first figure in the line, Dr. Egon Spengler, comes complete with Proton Pack and gun as well as a pack-in Slimer figure available no where else. Start your Ghostbusters™ Classics collection today! New figures will be available each month only on MattyCollector.com!
• CARS: Some sort of 3-pack. I’m afraid I don’t know anything about CARS toys, and there’s no description.
• Toy Story: 3 ¾” Buzz Lightyear figure. Again, no description.

My thoughts:

I’m psyched for He-Ro. For those who don’t know, He-Ro was part of a wave of MOTU figures late in the line that were never actually produced. He and his mentor, Eldor, were part of the Powers of Grayskull line, some of which made it into stores (including the awesome Tyrantisaurus, one of my few remaining toy holy grails).

He-Ro, dubbed “The Most Powerful Wizard in the Universe,” was obliquely mentioned in the mini-comic “The Powers of Grayskull: The Legend Begins” (not to be confused with Boggy Creek II: And the Legend Continues). His design is known from an unproduced prototype, seen here.

While I was a bit lukewarm on King Grayskull, I can’t wait for He-Ro. The idea of getting an action figure based on an unproduced prototype from over twenty years ago really appeals to me. The original design had a very Kirby-esque feel, perhaps owing to influence from the movie, whose design aesthetic was largely informed by director Garry Goddard’s love of Jack Kirby’s work. Of course, the Horsemen are also huge Kirby fans, so their interpretation of He-Ro looks even more Kirby-esque.

He-Ro comes with an articulated staff that’s reminiscent of the live-action film’s “Cosmic Key,” and a translucent, glittering Power Sword. I like the look of both. The glittering sword works–it looks like magical energy coalesced into a weapon, as if it were the power of the Power Sword without the metal.

The DCUC Wonder Twins pack looks excellent too. I’m not a huge Wonder Twins fan, since I never really watched The Super Friends as a kid, but that’s hardly going to stop me from getting an exclusive like this.

While the figures will be sold on Mattycollector.com after the SDCC, the online set will not include Gleek. This is a mistake. Mattel has often espoused the idea that they want to “reward fans who go to the convention,” but I just don’t think that’s a logical argument. Fans who go to SDCC are almost certainly going for more than just a single exclusive toy, so it’s not as if they’ll feel cheated if they don’t get a “reward” for having gone. The only net result Mattel gets from this practice is unhappiness and anger from the 95% of their collector market who can’t afford to go to SDCC.

It’s possible the reason Gleek isn’t included in the online sets is due to production cost issues, but I still think it would be much wiser for Mattel to simply produce more Gleeks and then charge more for the set online. But, assuming Mattel sticks to its guns on this, I sincerely hope the Gleek-less online Wonder Twins pack costs at least $5 less than the one at the show.

I’m curious about the Egon & Slimer. Egon clearly has slime on his torso, so is this a “slimed” variant Egon, or the regular figure? Either way, chances are I’ll just order Egon online, rather than asking my SDCC-going friend to get me one.

I don’t collect DC Infinite Heroes, which means I’m just relieved I don’t have to deal with that whole Anti-Monitor thing. It would drive me nuts otherwise.

I’m not sure what to make of the JLU three-pack. The description makes much of the fact that the heads are swappable, but since Hal’s not wearing a green mask, who cares? (On a side note, I’d really like to know exactly what the deal was with Holiday Hal. Why would DC force Mattel–or vice versa–into some sort of weird contract whereby they tied their hands on making a JLU Hal Jordan forever? Or maybe there is no contract, and the “Mattel executive” responsible for Holiday Hal just refuses to let them make a new one? It’s just bizarre.)

Again, I have no idea what the CARS exclusive is, or what the deal is with the 3 ¾” Buzz Lightyear. It could be the start of a new Toy Story/Disney line, or it could be a one-off exclusive. The movie-accurate packaging is a nice touch, though.