Man, I’m makin’ up for lost time today! Here’s the latest round of Q&A with Scott Neitlich, a.k.a. Mattel’s “ToyGuru.”
POE: I’m sure you’re going to get asked this more than once, but why is Sinestro so short compared to Hal? Was this by design, or was there an error in the production process? In the comics, Sinestro is said to be 6′ 7″–five inches taller than Hal.
SCOTT NEITLICH: Sinestro is the correct height and size as approved by DC comics. Keep in mind that over the many years different artists have interpreted DC characters very different. (just look at Solomon Grundy). The DCUC line is Mattel and the Four Horsemen’s interpretation of the characters.
There seem to have been some significant quality control issues with at least the early shipments of DCUC wave 3. Given that Mattel stated at SDCC that the reason for the delay of the figures was dissatisfaction with the previous vendor(s), what happened?
When factories produced hundreds of thousands of figures some inconsistencies are bound to appear. We will pass this on to our design team to work on improving paint ops in the future.
In our last Q&A, you stated that the ten-figure cases would contain extra “All-Star” figures such as Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman. Will these be identical to earlier releases (such as the DCUC1 Batman, DCUC4 Wonder Woman, and a classic Superman), or could there be some variation (for instance, a black-and-gray Batman)?
They will be the same versions as released earlier. A second chance to get an A list character. Though this doesn’t mean we won’t re-release these figures with different decos in other ways down the line…
Mattel has suggested there might be special case packs for online retailers in 2009. Would these exclude the “All-Star” figures, and if so, will this cause any problems completing the C&C figure?
The special cases for online retailers will be solid case packs of one figures. If retailers want the All-Star Figures they can order those case packs as well.
On what day will He-Man go on sale on Mattycollector.com, and how soon after will he ship?
We are waiting to release this until we work all the bugs out of the system. We had a few issues with opening day at MattyCollector.com and we are holding off on new product releases until we fix everything. It won’t be long.
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I’d like to thank Scott for yet again taking the time to answer a few questions!