1.) Elvis8Batman asks: DCUC. Do you plan on completing both the young sidekick versions of the Teen Titans team and the older Perez era version of the team as at the moment they are half and half?
Ideally, in time, we’ll get to both.
2.) RM asks: As a huge Shawn Michaels fan, and a fan of your fantanstic Elite-style WWE figures, I’ve been very much looking forward to adding a Mattel Shwn Michaels to my collection. One thing however has prevented me from doing so; the complete lack of chest hair on every Shawn Michaels figure to date. Shawn’s chest hair (and stubble) are trademark aspects of his “look”, and his figures just don’t look right without. Is there any chance that future Shawn Michaels figures going forward may have paint applications to correct this, to give fans the accruate figures that they desire?
In recent years Shawn Michaels tended to focus more on the details of his costume than accentuating his chest hair so we chose to have the deco on our figures reflect that. As we develop figures of Shawn from earlier in his career when his chest hair was more prominent we will be much more likely to include it on the figure.
3.) kitchen-viper asks: The newest wave of wrestling classics was amazing! My question is, what happened to the bases and name cards?
Unfortunately, due to rising costs we are no longer able to include figure stands with our non-Defining Moments assortments. Given the choice, we opted to eliminate the stands rather then lower the quality of our figures. However we are looking into making the stands available on MattyCollector.com as they are for other Mattel brands.
4.) Mysterious Stranger asks: While the implementation of CAPTCHA on the Mattycollector web store seems to have helped with some of the problems on sale day there are still reports of issues with pages like the payment screen automatically refreshing before the CVV code can be entered (I had this happen twice in January). The CAPTCHA process is a nice step towards a “perfect” sale day experience however there is still some work to be done. Will these auto refresh issues be addressed any time soon?
Yes, we are CONSTANTLY working to improve the process. The CAPTCHA was just one step towards this with more on the way.
5.) Both Mattel and DC Direct will be putting out action figures based on Arkham City in 2011. This is happening at the same time as Mattel is putting out Blackest Night/Brightest Day figures, even as DCD continues to produce toys based on those lines. Why is there so much overlap occurring between Mattel and DCUC, considering that both lines are targeted toward collectors?
Nothing too complicated about this. Both Arkham City and Blackest Night are very popular stories/games and both companies are interested in tackling them.
nerdbot
Yeah… All I know is that I'm tired of feeling nervous when opening DCUC stuff (and being a little bit nervous even when carefully handling DCUC figures that seem fine). To have Mattel relate costs to quality – even indirectly and inadvertently – made me wish for them to consciously up the quality on the line. But of course, they should be doing this already. Cutting out the CnC to facilitate improvements? That was crazy talk.
Valo487
No worries, I wasn't upset by the suggestion, just stating my thoughts, because I honestly wouldn't be shocked if Mattel did try that.
nerdbot
@Valo487: Good point. You're absolutely right. I don't know what I was thinking. Some sort of Stockholm syndrome-esque affliction temporarily had me in its grips.
Valo487
@Nerdbot, no I wouldn't. Considering the constant reuse on DCUC, I refuse to pay the inflated price for just the figure when they go out of their way to avoid new sculpts as often as possible. They should improve the quality of DCUC because they're responsible for not releasing defective figures, it's not our job to give up what is often a major selling point of a wave and the only newly sculpted(usually) figure from a series because they can't figure out what QC stands for.
nerdbot
"…Due to rising costs we are no longer able to include figure stands… Given the choice, we opted to eliminate the stands rather then lower the quality of our figures."
So… What are their options to "lower the quality" to reduce costs? Have they ever acknowledged this before? Usually they only talk about limiting accessories or whatnot. Is he hinting about using cheaper plastics? If so, would anyone else be willing to give up the CnC, for instance, if it meant they could 'improve' the quality of the DCUC figures?
americanhyena
@toyman2581:
I believe early on all the Sinestro lanterns were that odd bell shape and then a decision was made that all the lanterns should look relatively uniform.
Check out the little lead Sinestro statue. He has the same odd lantern design.
dlia
Try asking Matty in his forum and you probably won't get an answer. Dozens of unanswered questions dating back for many months. Guess this really is a weekend sort of thing for Scott.
And lets not keep 'twisting the truth' when revealing which characters are or aren't in development yet either. I can understand trying to keep the element of surprise however for the MOTUC lineups. Just skip the questions or "we can't comment on you know what". No need to raise of deflate hopes with misdirection.
Seriously sometimes Kenneth Starr has nothing on Scott.
Valo487
Poe, do you choose the questions or do they pick from our submissions?
Mike
I'm looking forward in getting me that "Clawful" Masters of the Universe Classics figure.
toyman2581
Good questions. I still want to know what's up with those damned odd yellow lanterns though. Does anyone know why they aren't just green lanterns painted yellow? Look at the DCUC Sinestro (classic and SC) or the Retro Action Sinestro (classic and SC). Weird.
Andy
Yea thanks for the Titans question. I have them all together and it's a mess
The Flash III
I hope they do a late teen Kid Flash similar to the size of Robin, because the Kid Flash figure is terrible–bad paint & ugly yellow plastic.
I wonder if the LOSH Timber Wolf will have chest hair? 🙂
Mark
The Shawn answer has got to be one of the worst answers LOL. Its not as prominent. Rregardless of how prominent anythig is its still there and should be included.
Oh well I gues this explains why some of the face sculpts like Triple H's are crap, the face isn't as prominent as the tight decals. 🙂
dayraven
@Henry: there were times shawn would shave his chest, usually to signify a heel/face flip, but it wasn't consistent, and it wasn't so much part of his character as it was used to illustrate a change in the direction of the character (cuz no matter how he worked, it grew back)… in other words, their answer is about 50% bullshit.
Henry
Yeah, the Shawn michaels thing is indeed odd. So jut bacause it isn't as prominent, it gets the cut? I'm not terribly up to date on my wretling knowledge, but if it's still there a token effort should really be made.
Lemonjuice_McGee
That Shawn Micheals answer borders on the odd. Good to know they've completely planned out the body hair ratio throughout his career. 🙂