Gothitropolis – Poe Ghostal's Points of Articulation

Review > Scarabus (Gothitropolis, Four Horsemen)

On November 26, 2013

It’s taken over two years for me to review this figure. There are a lot of reasons why, but “sheer procrastination” is probably the most honest one.

For those who don’t know, Scarabus was made and sold by design-studio-turned-toy-company The Four Horsemen. They started out as sculptors for McFarlane Toys in the mid-1990s. They were responsible for many fantastic and memorable figures. In 1999, they left McFarlane to form their own design studio and were swiftly contracted by Mattel to revamp the Masters of the Universe toyline. The result was Millennium (200x) MOTU. Mattel not only gave the 4H credit for their work on the line, but – in stark contrast to McFarlane – actually used the Horsemen as a selling point to collectors.

Tons of Four Horsemen News

By Poe

On September 16, 2013

In News

There has been a metric crap-ton of Four Horsemen news over the last week or so. Where to start?

I guess I’ll start with Power-Con, since that’s just wrapped up. For those that don’t know, Power-Con is the Masters of the Universe / Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles / Thundercats convention, run by many folks that anyone familiar with He-Man.org and the Roast Gooble podcast would know. It happened over this past weekend, the Horsemen were there, of course, and they brought goodies!

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First up are their Power Lords exclusives, the Power Soldier (black) and the stormtrooper-like Elite Power Soldier (white). These figures are 4″ tall and sell for $10, which is a better price than I expected for these figures and is competitive with mass market 4″ figures. I’m not sure whether that will be the standard price for the regular Power Lords figures – only time will tell. Both figures will also be made available at the Four Horsemen shopÂ sometime today.

Odds ‘n Ends > CollectionDX Summit, Club Eternia goes through, Poe’s Ravens pledge, the return of toy magazine

By Poe

On August 20, 2013

In Odds 'n Ends

For any New England-based Poesters, I’ll be attending the CollectionDX Summit this Saturday afternoon in Dracut, MA. If you’re interested in attending, you can check it out here (and please RSVP if you decide to go).
The 2014 Club Eternia subscription went through at 115%. Now we can all start gearing up for next year’s panic. (I predict that will be a “One Final Year!” campaign.)
For the curious, here’s what I got in the Gothitropolis Ravens Kickstarter: one Raven with the battle pack set, one set of black wings, Quetzalcoatl, and two stands.Â Quetzalcoatl is the real stand-out among the variants, both for its colors and because it’s more of a lizard than a bird, which makes it a bit more distinctive – in my opinion anyway. Looking forward to adding them alongside the Keeper of the Black Labyrinth.
Speaking of the Ravens Kickstarter, here is a coolÂ behind-the-scenes video, along with some photos.
Does a defleshed necromancer stares at you while you sleep? If so, you’re either deeply mentally ill, have some strange friends, or you’ve got the life-sized Skeletor bust from Pop Culture Shock Collectibles.
Phil Reed of Battlegrip is experimenting with the idea of making the site into a magazine. This comes on the heels of Brian of CoolandCollected will be trying a magazine as well. I find this an intriguing, if slightly counterintuitive, trend. Phil’s reasons are that he misses working in print and having the ability to play with and control graphics and presentation. That’s actually a very good point, I think – websites, especially popular ones, tend to be pretty stripped-down and minimalist and can’t really offer much in the way of variety of content presentation. Obviously, a website that presents its content in a way that’s too visually “busy” is not only a strain on bandwidth for both the site and reader but also tends to be difficult to read online, but perhaps an online magazine can represent a middle way. That said, didn’t ToyFare originally try something like this and it didn’t work?Â Brian, for his part, acknowledges that magazines aren’t exactly a growth industry right now, but he just thinks it would be fun to make one.
The 1966 Batman figures are starting to pop up at stores. I’m not planning on collecting the line, but if I see Batman himself at a store I’m sure I’ll be unable to resist picking him up.

The Gothitropolis Ravens are go

By Poe

On August 13, 2013

In News

So, the Four Horsemen‘s Kickstarter campaign for their Gothitropolis Raven and its many variants closed at just over $300,000. As the Horsemen wrote in their note to backers,

It’ll definitely be a jumping off point for the way we’ll promote and pre-sell our action figure lines in the future. We’re certain that others will feel the same way, so prepare to see a flood of new action figure concepts and designs from all over the toy industry hitting Kickstarter soon – including some new things from us.

I find myself wondering how this success compares to what the Four Horsemen invested themselves into, say, Scarabus. If every single Scarabus figure had sold, would they have made anywhere near as much as they did on this project? I’m curious whether this high-profile Kickstarter campaign brought in a lot of people who might not ordinarily have ordered these from the 4H’s own website. There’s no question the 4H were very savvy to keep up interest will all the extras they kept adding, too (although that may partly have been a result of just needing to offer something for all the money that was coming in).

A few observations about the Ravens Kickstarter

By Poe

On August 2, 2013

In News

NoisyDvL5 from IAT does already did something like this, but while his statistical analysis is great, he didn’t really discuss the stuff that interested me.Â For example, the Minotaur the Duck variant is far and away the most popular figure after the regular Raven. I think this says something about this campaign.

Four Horsemen’s Raven Kickstarter to Begin Friday at 12am

By Poe

On July 10, 2013

In News

The Four Horsemen’s long-awaited Kickstarter for the Gothitropolis Raven will begin this Friday at 12am. Obviously I’m on board with this project, what with my name and all. (I only wish we could get a variant head with a pair of red goggles on.)

Details after the jump.

Scarabus Pre-Orders tonight at 9pm ET

By Poe

On March 19, 2011

In News

I know I really haven’t been covering the FANtastic Exclusive stuff nearly as much as I should be, but part of that is because the Horsemen have been doing such a good job of it on their own blog, Twitter, and Facebook.

Still, there’s a major pre-order tonight, so I thought I’d pass the info along. I’m in for the 3-pack.

Pic of the Day > “Hellboy vs. Grom, War Monster”

By Poe

On July 13, 2009

In Photos

Hellboy vs. Grom, War Monster by Poe Ghostal

Tag: Gothitropolis