Though I’d heard Gygor was completely new tooling and not a DCUC Gorilla Grodd re-use, I wasn’t sure and wanted to get it straight from the (Four) Horse(men)’s mouth. So I did.
Gy-Gor is indeed 100% new tooling. He’s much larger than Grodd, so none of Grodd’s tooled parts could be used to create him.
So there you have it. As I suspected, the similarities between Grodd and Gygor–and Cy-Gor II, for that matter–are simply due to stylistic similarities in the way the Horsemen sculpt gorillas.
The question is, did Shane Dittsworth–the Fifth Horseman–sculpt Gygor’s crotch?
Fallen Eldor
As I said, the 4HM's Gygor is a great looking toy. I dare anyone not to buy it! I just hope you are right dayraven, I hope we do get to everyone…I have my doubts but fingers crossed…
PrfktTear
well put DR!
dayraven
@fairplaythings: you know, if you "i'd rather see the tooling dollars spent on something else" guys would hesitate just a moment… this IS the tooling dollars being spent on something else!! they easily could have fallen into the 2 dimensional vision of motu you boys have. instead, they are listening to the horsemen, who as fans of motu, want EVERY character made, and are willing to innovate and manipulate to get cool NEW characters as well.
in other words, i don't see this as "we're getting gygor instead of ram man," cuz i know the horsemen and we're getting the coolest ram man ever produced, when mattel gets to him in the roster… but looking at the line as a whole, i'm getting ram man AND gygor! best of both worlds baby! this gives me hope that when they get made, ram man will have cool stuff he needs, king hsss will have the cool stuf he needs, etc… and w/ these in play, i can still look forward to cool surprises like maybe geldor or lord dactys because they're willing to surprise us!
i take no small amount of joy knowing that when needed, a character gets the tooling dollars they deserve… gygor would have been pathetic as grodd, grodd was too small and not designed to accomidate the added bulk of the armor… gygor clearly remedies these problems AND provides conceivable base body for shadow beasts later… that's 2 birds for 1 stone gents… that's the kind of innovation i trust the horsemen for, and the ONLY reason i stick w/ this line after all the crap mattel puts us through to get the damned things.
the motu line, i think, held as it's greatest strength an operating vision where anything goes… you want ninjas and ghosts fighting laser cowboys and flying ape-men? sure, no problem! so why NOW when we're supposed to have loved this concept for 20+ years, are we turning our back on NEW ideas and NEW possibilities? didn't he-man and man at arms both warn us against judging a book by it's cover? "get to know people and give them a chance… you just might make a friend." learn from them!
fairplaythings
This made more sense when it was a modded version of Gorilla Grodd. A new sculpt? I agree with Fallen Eldor – I'd have rather seen the cost put into something else.
Thomas B
Well I have to say that even though he doesnt have the long and illustrious history as say Tytus I still love him and will be buying him.
I bet they try to reuse the mold for shadow beasts.
I have a weak spot for crazy apes
Fallen Eldor
Gy-Gor is unimportant in the scheme of things. He isn't like Tytus who WAS produced (in limited numbers for the foreign market in 1988). He is not like He-Ro who was planed, designed and ADVERTISED to come out (yet never did!) and was even featured/mentioned on packaging (Dinosaurs & Giants) and one mini comic. He-Ro also had a bio that surfaced on the internet in the late 90's, (that Mattel ignored and contradicted for his new backstory!) and we found out the Powers of Grayskull was going to be a whole new sub/spin off line of MOTU! Getting He-Ro at last years SDCC was literally a dream come true for us who remembered and dared to imagine an alternate 1988 where MOTU never ended! Gy-Gor isn't like the Star sisters/King Grayskull/Zodak because they actually made an appearance in the the cartoons & comics…
Gy-Gor was an idea that was shot around the design team and abandoned before a single He-Man toy hit retail in 1982…In fact Gy-Gor's purpose; (a repainted "big Jim") animal mount for He-Man evolved into Battlecat making him completely unnecessary! He has no back story. He made no apperance in any MOTU story ever! He was mentioned (in name and discription only)by a pissed off ex-Mattel employee in his own tell all book just a few years ago…Only recently (NOV 2009) have pictures surfaced on He-Man.Org…Gy-Gor was the least likely toy to ever be made under the MOTUC banner, and had little fan demand to see that happen…
As a fan of all aspects of He-Man (including NA, Gwildor, Energy Zoids and the movie!) even I'm not interested in this guy! Tooling dollars are precious according to Mattel, why waist it on this gorilla when we could have had Stridor, Swift Wind a deluxe King Hiss, Ram-Man or any number of high profile MOTU toys?!?!! The only reason I can think is that the tooling will be reused for DCUC as Grodd 2.0 or Monsieur Mallah. But even if that is the case, I ask why? We already had a great looking Gordd that could be the base for Mallah? It just feels like Gy-Gor (Who's name is stupid IMO) "stole" some other, more important MOTU toy's spot…As a fan of MOTU it seams an expensive and waist full gamble that us He-Fans will buy anything!
With all that said it's a barbarian gorilla with a red cape and battle Ax sculpted by the 4HM…You would have to be stupid not to see the appeal of that! The 4HM could sculpt vomit and dog poo and I'd want it. There supernatural talent to make anything inherently awesome is either God's 2nd beast handy work (the first being woman) or the result of a deal inked in blood written on the hide of a demon!
Lets just hope Mattel's "Writers" don't screw up as bad they did with "wun-dar's" bio…Story concepts like that make me embarrassed of my devotion to all things He-Man…They have a blank slate to do a great bio. Heroic? villainous? Eternian? Alien? Modern? Ancient? Sky's the limit…I just hope they don't make him Beastman's uncle (who's real name is harry) that aids the heroic warriors to defend the Rqazz family honor…
monkey boy
ok i buy that they're not the same sculpt, but the fact that he's much larger than grodd shouldn't be an issue. toy companies take the same sculpt and upsize it (or downsize it) all the time. computers can scale up and scale down mold toolings, that's nothing new.
Chris
Good to hear and nice to know it will be an all new sculpt.
dwaltrip
@Poe:
I mentioned this to you as well on the 15th Poe. 🙂
http://www.poeghostal.com/2010/02/poes-point-spec…
I look forward to this figure. This line still is yet to disappoint. Can't wait to get Battlecat and Trapjaw delivered.
DankOne
Whats wrong with googling here? Ha ha
Newton Gimmick
@Matthew K: The .Org isn't really a good basis to judge anything. There are large portions of them up in arms about anything and everything at any given time.
Matthew K
Weird, I would have thought orgers would be all over Gygor as he is based on obscure concept art and MOTU toyline developement history. SOmething you find a lot of over at…He-Man.org.
I'm not that versed in that sort of thing, I got into the line because of 4H fandom and nostalgia. Part of my hesitation to sign up for a subscription was my fear that I didn't have the nostalgia for the more obscure stuff, so would I like it. I figured, the 4H make cool stuff, so I'll probably dig it anyway.
Gygor is definitely a good illustration of that. Optikk and Marzo, too. Very cool stuff I had no idea I wanted until toy fair.
Newton Gimmick
@Poe: Ah, fair enough. I got my confirmation from Scott (AKA TG) a while back. He said that it was all new at ToyFair.
Then again I wouldn't trust a guy who Googles his way here daily, either.
clark
@Dead Man Walking–I'm with you, don't limit Mattel to only the figures that were originally released, if we did that then this line would be over with next year. If you're going to whine keep it directed toward the ordering process, because I've been very happy with the figures that I've been able to get.
I'm very happy that Mattel is willing to give us really off-beat figures like this, these are the characters in which I'm most interested. The main characters are always the most boring, figures like this really spice up your collection. I'm also really surprised that this is new tooling, had it been Gorilla Grodd it would not have bothered me too much, but for $30 I'm glad to know that he will tower over the regular figures.
Dead Man Walking
Gy-Gor looks AWESOME. I can't believe how many people on the org are whining about this figure, particularly how "he's not part of the original line" so Mattel shouldn't have made him.
It's not enough for these people that he was actually planned for the line, just never released. And people whine about He-Ro, Tytus, King Grayskull, Zodak…
Seriously, this is the same mentality that make all these people whine about how "awful" the 200X designs were. Someone on there actually said they hated the 4H version of Snout Spout because his eyes looked "too angry." When people say shit like that I know it's not the design they hate, it's change.
Poe
@Newton Gimmick: Well that's just it–I didn't disbelieve you or anyone else specifically, but I hadn't seen this quoted by the Horsemen or anyone from Mattel, and I wanted to get it from the source.
That's just being a good journalist. No attempt to impinge your trustworthiness was intended.
Newton Gimmick
Dude I told you this weeks ago. You must learn to trust me!
Then again, I don't have the 4 Horsemen on speed dial…
Actually I do, but everytime I call Barry Windham answers.