Two big Masters of the Universe Classics updates yesterday.

First, some new information on the subscription service.

Well we know fans have been waiting for an update and here it the latest:

-The MOTU subscription program will be available May 18th through 22nd.
– You can purchase as many subscriptions as you want. Each subscription includes the Sept – Dec 2009 MOTUC figures
-Convention, rerelease and repaint figures are not included simply because not all fans may want the rereleases and convention figures may change in price or release date
-We will have a 2010 subscription for Jan – Dec 2010 figures in mid August with the same rules applying
-Once you purchase a subscription you are locked in (i.e. no refunds)
-Figures will continue to be revealed about three months ahead of time, so yes, if you buy a subscription you are agreeing to purchase which ever figure comes out that month even if not revealed yet
-Options will be available to be charged and have figures ship each month, or to have all figures held, shipped and be charged at the end of the year.
-Figures will also still be available to purchase each month with the standard limit of 10 (if you want more than 1 of a certain figure for example)

A few additional details will be on MattyCollector.com on the news section tomorrow and I’ll do my best to check in here often to answer any other questions!

Hope this will really help those who want a complete set!

Elsewhere on the page, in response to a question about multiple subscriptions, Mattel wrote:

[..]. if you order multiple subscriptions they will all ship together to save on shipping!

The only thing that stuck out to me was the short ordering interval–I suppose I just assumed the sub option would be available for the rest of the year, and you’d just get whatever figures were left that year. However, the ordering window makes sense if you consider Mattel wants/needs to use this as a baseline for their production numbers.

Here’s the question, though–at least Hordak, Man-At-Arms and Tri-Klops are already in the production pipeline. What happens if the subscription orders outstrip the current production numbers for those figures? Will the subscription orders “run out,” or will Mattel do a second production run on oversold figures? And if so, when would those ship? [Deleted because I’m an idiot who can’t take the time to read carefully before posting.]

In other MOTU news, He-Man.org has posted its latest Q&A with Mattel. Interesting tidbits include that the SDCC version of He-Ro will have “an additional minor difference” than the one sold online (presumably Orko). (That’s a joke, folks.)

Then there’s this:

7. Exactly how far out have you planned the line thus far? For instance, do you know who’s going to be the May figure in 2011?

We have the line “roughly” worked out for the next few years with enough space and flexibility to accommodate any changes such as fan requests and new characters that become available. This is done mostly for tooling so that we can accommodate when certain tools will become available, (such as when will we get to the claw’d hand, with Buzz-Off or Clawful first etc…). The May 2011 figure (unless things change, which they always do) will tentatively be The Faceless One.

The Faceless One? Evil-Lyn’s dad? Part of me thinks this is a joke, but you don’t joke about things like that with toy fans.

Still…the Faceless One? Really?