- Toyfinity’s Mordles are now available to the public at large. I’ve got my sets, and they’re pretty cool. Highly recommend for minifigure collectors.
- Check out Joe Amaro’s T-Fett : Intergalactic Soldier of Fortune. Joe’s website says, “All Hail Our Sacred Drunken Wookiee: a Chewbacchus Art Show. An art exhibition that celebrates fandom in all its glory with pop culture mash-ups at the Big Top. This show will be juried by the Overlords of Chewbacchus and the Board of The Big Top.” <– To paraphrase Lisa Simpson, I know those words but that last sentence makes no sense.
- Some fans are expressing disappointment at the production versions of Star Wars Black 6″. You can see what they look like on Amazon: Luke, R2D2, Sandtrooper, and Darth Maul. You can see a comparison someone made of the R2D2 prototype and production version here. I do have to admit, side by side the production version doesn’t look great. I know it’s common to see a noticeable drop in quality between a prototype and the production version, but for R2D2 at least, there seems to have been a reduction in the number of paint applications. I don’t really participate in any communities that would be discussing these toys, so I have no idea if no one really cares or if everyone went batshit.
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Mario
Ad nauseum…
Megatherium
Hooboy, I know all the star wars fan boys are going insane over that R2D2. I am frankly sick of all the complaining about action figures everyone seems to do lately. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it! Simple as steel. Toy companies make the products for people to enjoy, they don’t owe you anything, they don’t cheat you. Hand painted Prototypes always look better than mass produced figures.
_RZ_
"Toy companies make the products for people to enjoy, they don't owe you anything, they don't cheat you."
That's not really a fair statement to make. A *lot* of people put in preorders based soley on the prototypes, they were afraid to miss out, and there's some pretty clear differences between this R2 and the mass produced piece, as well as the paint on all of the toys except the Sandtrooper. This was advertised as a "Collector's Line" and many don't really realize there are a lot of interpretations to those words. Toy companies do owe you something, to deliver on what they say the product is, buyers keep their word by paying for it . When you're buying online or preorder it's not the same judgement you can make at a store with it in front of you. I agree that you vote with your dollar, but it's not that easy when in February one thing is shown and there's a difference to what you get in July. You can see the fatigue in collectors over this issue with preorders and "honesty" because all us vets know "subject to change" means just that, as does "show paint sample"- but not a lot of new or casual collectors think about those things. Two very prominent recent examples of this same issue would be from Mattel, with the Castle Grayskull and BTTF Hoverboard. Both used tricky legalese to justify some pretty major differences between what was offered and what was ordered. The (very) few people talking online are justifiably angry. There's actually more people complaining about the complaining than those who are actually upset, which I find telling. :/
monkey boy
i think what bugs me about that picture is the text "WHAT HASBRO PROMISED US"…the idea that a toy company "promises" anything with their prototypes is kind of unrealistically naive. i do see an obvious difference with the R2 D2, but you know what? it doesn't really bug me. i'm on the fence about R2 anyway and this isn't really a deal breaker. it's just missing a wash to bring out the lines. if your production figures match the prototypes you've seen every time, you're one very lucky action figure collector. i'm still geeked out on the fact that we're finally getting 6" star wars figures, and i'm still a bit mystified at the negative response these have been getting from the get go. time will tell i suppose.
stack32
I agree that it's unrealistic to expect actual product from Hasbro to look as good as the prototypes but they set themselves up for this. They've given the impression that these would be "premium" figures and now it looks like they are essentially scaled-up versions of the 4" offerings. That's still pretty good, but with the price tag I wouldn't blame people for feeling disappointed.
_RZ_
I think it's more the head sculpt, the eyestalk, and the huge mold seam on the head of R2 people are complaining about, than the wash. There are 6-inch collectors who don't regularly collect Star Wars, and they're used to a level of quality in the sculpts, like Four Horsemen, or NECA- top notch stuff. And then there's Star Wars guys who don't regularly collect 6-inch, who were expecting something far superior in quality to the 3.75 inch line, which were already pretty great. What they got is a little subpar to the last few years of 3.75 inch stuff, so understandably people who preordered long ago are going to be a little miffed. In Star Wars land for some uberfans, if it's over $5 it's too expensive, there's a lot of short tempers, and perfection is expected- it's not really that many people hugely upset anyway.
_RZ_
Some Star Wars fans are going a little crazy about it, but it seems more to be about the price of them than the changes to the figure, and that's nothing new.
I think there's a lot of unrealistic expectations, as this is going for the 6-inch crowd, and their expected level of quality for the price is a bit higher, and rightly so. People are comparing this line to NECA offerings, which is fair on one hand- how does a smaller company do better at this scale- and unfair on the other- this is wave one of a new line and scale, and there's always going to be first series issues. There's also a few I see who are new or casual to the hobby and aren't used to the concept of prototypes and how they can often differ from what arrives at your house in the box. I've been collecting Star Wars forever so to me it's a drastic switch, but not a 100% deal killer- I'm kind of used to the whole missing paint thing as a MOTU collector. 😉 The ugly seam and the changed eye stalk are pretty bad for the scale, especially when compared to various 3.75" R2s from the last 5-10 years; the missing paint kills the look, as the robots in Star Wars are supposed to be dirty.
Misterbigbo
That T-Fett looks awesome. I wish I had any bit of sculpting talent.
Gotta say, I don't get the whole Mordle thing. I love minifigs, art figs, and nostalgic pieces, but these things just escape me. I am glad they are well- received by their fans; the more the fan community can produce the better.
As for SW Black, I only preordered Luke and Sandtrooper, and they don't look bad to me. Prototype figures are always soooo much better than production (I'm looking at you, Matty, for still featuring the friggin prototype He-Man on your sales page), and Luke, Sandtrooper, and Maul are all a tad softer looking than I thought they'd be. Maul's head spikes, both in sculpt and paint, are really bad, but I guess they were in the prototype shots as well. But jeebus, that R2-D2 is unforgivably bad.
monkey boy
i'm with you on the mordles. i like minifigs, nostalgia and arty figures, and i don't get the appeal of these guys at all.
doctorkent
Mordles is pretty simple.
Imagine you collected a line as a kid and it went away and everything was incredibly expensive to get again as an adult. That could describe a lot of toylines! But for as much as anything in MOTU/Joe/Transformers is labeled "rare", Rocks and Bugs and Things are legitimately rare. There aren't 10,000 of them sitting around somewhere waiting to be discovered – what's out there might be it. So a Mordle was $30-$100+ depending on the style.
Now, you can get as many Mordles as you want for a fraction of that cost. That's the collector-based appeal.
The toy-based appeal is easy – Mordles can fit in with anything! A bag of Mordles gives you enemies for He-Man to battle, strange creatures for Optimus Prime to come across in a Matrix Quest, or even an all-new threat that Destro has cooked up to kill Duke. Or you can just use them as cool little goblin monsters.
That's Mordles in a nutshell.
ridureyu
Yay, Mordles!
Fengschwing
Not loving that R2. Well, that's saved me a few more ££ then!
ridureyu
But can't you always stand to lose a few more pounds?
Fengschwing
Have you been hiding in my bathroom again…?
ridureyu
Nope, just watching through the window.