Odds ‘n Ends > MOTUC Toy Fair News Edition

February 14, 2012 | Poe

  • The Four Horsemen tweeted the following regarding Frosta’s face: “Please spread the word. Paint job was a quickie so we could show her at Toy Fair. Tweaks are being made DDR.” I don’t know what DDR is…down da road?
  • To establish just how much I wanted a MOTUC Spikor, back in 2008 I was the one who started the official thread for him on He-Man.org. Four years later I finally get him. Note my concern for QC issues–and this was before we even got He-Man or Beast Man!
  • For the record, it has not yet been confirmed what figure(s) will come with the MOTUC-ized Keldor swords and Man-At-Arms Millennium-style arm cannon. There was speculation one or both would come with Snake Man-At-Arms, but Scott Neitlich shot that down.
  • But speaking of weapons, there will apparently be a third Weapons Pack in the fall. It’s possible the Keldor swords/arm cannon will be included in that (along with Draego-Man’s shield), though we’ve never seen original sculpts in a weapons pack before. If those three items were included, would certainly make for a bestselling pack.
  • The Wind Raider will return sometime around SDCC. I guess the hope is they sell well enough to convince management to greenlight something like the Battle Ram. Two thing on that: 1.) Fans will already be spending money on the SDCC exclusives, so, like last year’s Christmas release, people will be low on money when this expensive item comes out. Why not re-release during a month where, I don’t know, hardly anything is coming out–like mid-August, maybe?

Review > Queen Marlena (Masters of the Universe Classics)

February 10, 2012 | Poe

When He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was on the air, the series often followed a pattern: a new character would be developed as a toy, then added to the cartoon. It was rare for it to work in the opposite direction, though it occasionally did: Prince Adam, Cringer, Orko, King Randor, and the Sorceress were all characters that were either created by Filmation or were best known through their depiction on the cartoon. It seems unlikely that Mattel would have created a Prince Adam or Randor figure–or perhaps even the Sorceress–without the character’s popularity on the cartoon to sell the toy; and Orko was created by Filmation, so he wouldn’t have existed at all.

There were a few glaring omissions from that list, though. One was Adora, from sister show She-Ra; and the other is Queen Marlena. Wife to King Randor, mother to Prince Adam, former astronaut and queen of all Eternia, Marlena appeared in many episodes of Masters of the Universe, yet she didn’t get an action figure until last summer’s San Diego Comic Con exclusive. (more…)

Odds ‘n Ends > Futuretro, Toy Fair, Matty Subs, Snout Spout/Stay Puft QC Problems, & a Plastic Granamyr

February 9, 2012 | Poe

  • Just a heads-up–for a variety of reasons, I won’t be attending Toy Fair next week like I did last year. I will, however, be offering my usual armchair coverage, and I will have someone representing PGPoA–JediN8–who will be taking photos and tweeting from the Mattel and Hasbro collector events, as well as the Fair itself.
  • I also won’t be able to attend the Four Horsemen’s now-annual show, this one called Toypocalypse II: Futuretro, on Friday night at Toy Tokyo in NYC. It’s looking to be quite an event, though. In addition to the Horsemen and Outer Space Men creator Mel Birnkrant, there are three visiting artists: Sucklord, who may already be familiar to many of you; Abdi Farah, who won the first season of Bravo’s “Work of Art: The Next Great Artist,” and Kymia Nawabi, the winner of the same show’s second season. As I understand it, all of them will be presenting their own Outer Space Men customs. Speaking of OSM, they will also have a set of four OSM with new paint jobs designed by OSM creator Mel Birnkrant himself, signed by Mr. Birnkrant and the Horsemen, as well as a print of the above painting by the superb Nathan Baertsch (you can get the whole shebang–figures and print–for $125). It looks like it’s going to be an awesome time, and I’m hatefully envious of everyone who gets to go.
  • Speaking of Toy Fair, Paul Nomad of the blog Idle Hands is doing his usual thing where he gets all the pre-Toy Fair scoops through whatever mysterious black magic (or maybe just blackmail?) he employs. There’s lot of interesting stuff there, so be sure to check it out.
  • Mattycollector.com has added the long-awaited subscription manager to their website, though be aware that it won’t really work yet, since–as was explained months ago–February subs can’t be combined. Be aware that (as far as I can tell) you actually shouldn’t have to take any action to combine your subs. That should happen automatically. However, if you want them separate, you have to adjust that in the settings. You can also update your credit card info for each subscription from this new section.
  • It seems that Snout Spout‘s foam trunk may have a tendency to break or tear. Of course this is unsurprising, and again, I don’t get why Mattel couldn’t just use the hard rubber from the vintage figure of twenty-five years ago.
  • In addition, it sounds like the foam giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Men are turning yellow. Mattel’s response was “Yes, totally aware of this issue and we have the CPI team looking into it. We hope to have an update soon.” This, after they just answered in December that “[a]ll of our figures, no matter what the material, go through extensive internal simulated aging and humidity testing. If product does not pass, we do not ship it.” Nonetheless, I give credit to Mattel for admitting to the problem, though I have no idea what they can do about it. Unless there’s a really easy fix for it, the only thing they could do would be to offer a refund, and I have a hard time seeing that happening.
  • Anyway, all of this QC/foam stuff led fans to create a thread on He-Man.org pleading for Granamyr to be made of plastic and not foam, to which Scott Neitlich replied that Granamyr would not be made of foam and would be made from the same plastic as Tytus and Megator. So, some good news there.
  • He-Man.org has posted the first part of an interesting interview with Nathan Bitner, the boy who invented this month’s MOTUC 30th Anniversary figure, Fearless Photog.

Review > Clawful (Masters of the Universe Classics)

February 2, 2012 | Poe

Clawful has always been my go-to guy for terrible Masters of the Universe names. Along with Two-Bad, nothing reminds you more that this is was a toy line aimed squarely at young children than a name like Clawful.

I never owned Clawful as a kid, or even knew anyone who did. The character could have been pretty cool but for one glaring problem: a ridiculous, cartoonish head. (more…)

Ask Mattel > Final Edition

February 1, 2012 | Poe

Here’s PGPoA’s final (for now) edition of Ask Mattel.

Barbecue17 asks: What does Mattel consider a legitimate QC issue that would warrant figures to be delayed or exchanged in mass? For some figures who customers have perceived as having problems, these have been responses from some Mattel reps: “Mossman is not a bath toy.” “It’s not a big deal! Reviewers didn’t notice the backward shoulders.” “The figure is not defective, it just is not working as perfect as we will like.” Recently, we have seen widespread QC problems with Swiftwind’s legs. How defective or “not working as perfect as we would like” would a figure have to be for Mattel to take action on a QC issue? Missing limbs?

We don’t have a specific rule for this but we do replace any defective product so if a figure is assembled incorrect you can return it for a corrected item.

Mysterious Stranger asks: What is the future of the “Action League” line? I’ve been collecting all the Green Lantern related characters and am only missing Kyle Rayner. What are the odds of him being released? (more…)

MOTUC Bio Discussion #45 > The Faceless One

February 1, 2012 | Poe

Inspired by He-Man.org’s Roast Gooble Dinner podcast, welcome to PGPoA’s latest MOTUC Bio Discussion!

The Faceless One Bio

Real Name: Nikolas Powers

As the ruler of Zalesia, Nikolas Powers was entrusted by King Grayskull to guard the city’s great magical objects – the Havoc Staff and the mystical Ram Stone. Powers was a core member of Grayskull’s Council Of Elders, great mages from across Eternia who had the wisdom to tap into the planet’s hidden magical secrets. But by marrying and having a daughter, he broke the Elder’s treaty with King Hssss to not produce any heirs. Powers was stripped of his humanity, condemned to never leave Zalesia and forced to watch his beloved city destroyed by Serpos. Now called “The Faceless One,” he asked the wizard-warrior He-Ro to use the power of Central Tower to send his daughter Evelyn into the future. There, with his immortality, he hoped to raise her away from the terror of the Great Wars.

In this one biographical sketch, we get far, far more than we ever got about the character from the cartoon. In fact, it strips him entirely of his mystery, even giving him a first and last name (“Nikolas” is most likely a reference to Nicolas Flamel, reputed researcher of the Philosopher’s stone who became much better known thanks to Harry Potter–the Philosopher’s Stone being analogous to the Ram Stone).

I find this bio more interesting for what it leaves out. We were at one point promised an origin for the Havoc Staff–a mystery I wouldn’t mind being explained–but this isn’t it; the Havoc Staff and Ram Stone evidently predate the Faceless One. All the stuff about King Hsss and Powers being a member of the Council of Elders comes from the third volume of the MV Creations Millennium-era comics (which, sadly, I’ve never read, and have never been collected).

Ultimately this bio doesn’t make me any more excited for what was possibly my least favorite MOTUC figure of 2011. I really wish he’d been somehow involved in the creation of the Havoc Staff–it would have added a lot of value to the character for me.

Review > Panthor (Masters of the Universe Classics)

February 1, 2012 | Poe

Continuing my effort to catch up on the MOTUC reviews…

Mattel was nothing if not thrifty with the original Masters of the Universe line in the 1980s. The mold for Battle Cat was borrowed from a Big Jim playset from the 1970s, and Panthor was obviously a repainted, flocked Battle Cat. Mattel is just as concerned with saving money through mold re-use with Masters of the Universe Classics today as they were in the 1980s (if not more so), so there’s not a whole lot to say about Panthor that I didn’t say about Battle Cat. (more…)

Review > King Grayskull (Reissue) (Masters of the Universe Classics, Mattel)

January 31, 2012 | Poe

The second version of King Grayskull was released on November 15, 2010, making this easily my most-delayed review of a MOTUC figure. I didn’t even get around to opening him until I started this review. That’s mostly because I prefer the original King Grayskull (my review) and I wasn’t I even wanted to keep this version (but ultimately, being a completist–aside from the DC vs. MOTU sets–I have).

With the upcoming Temple of Darkness Sorceress convention exclusive with the pedestal for the Orb of Sparkle Crest, I decided it was time to open up ol’ D’Vann. (more…)

Mattel Gets Positively Chatty

January 27, 2012 | Poe

Scott Neitlich, a.k.a. “ToyGuru” of Mattel was posting quite a bit on the Mattycollector forums last night.

First up is this new “director’s commentary” on the Masters of the Universe Classics line, starting with King Grayskull. This seems like a neat, fun idea. There’s no real new info here–most of this has been hashed out before in interviews and so forth–but I’ll be interested to see the discussions of later figures. (more…)