Poe’s Point > Thoughts on the Mighty Spector & Other PowerCon Reveals

September 29, 2011 | Poe

Unfortunately there are no good official pics of the Mattel PowerCon reveals. There are a few tiny, watermarked images on Mattycollector that do the figures no justice and are really just sad. The best pics I’ve found are in this post on the Fwoosh, so that’s what I’ll be referring to in this article.

First up: Stinkor. You know, for all we’ve been told about how the designers have been told to minimize the Millennium features on MOTUC figures, we’re getting an awful lot of Millennium features on these figures. Stinkor gets a new gun, stink-tanks on his back, and a Millennium-style head (along with a repainted Mer-Man vintage head). I’m not the biggest Stinkor fan. He was a bit too goofy and gimmicky even for five-year-old Poe. But the Four Horsemen have done a great job on his design, and I won’t begrudge him his place in my collection–I have a hunch he’ll actually be one of those figures that grows on me once I have him in hand. (more…)

MOTUC Batman Custom by MasterEnglish

September 26, 2011 | Poe

I just wanted to post a bigger pic of the MOTUC Batman custom I commissioned from MasterEnglish, which was revealed at PowerCon this weekend. I’ll do a more thorough write-up with more pics once it arrives.

It’s made from parts of Bow along with Keldor-style boots and Skeletor-style arms. The head, cape, and belt are from a DC Direct Dark Knight Returns Batman.

Odds ‘n Ends > PowerCon Edition

September 25, 2011 | Poe

  • First off, the big reveals from the Mattel panel yesterday.
  • You can find pics here and here.
  • The Wind Raider has been pushed back and the price raised to $45 (from $30 $40);
  • Stinkor is the April subscription figure, and he will feature the same smell from the vintage figure (as Mattel still has the original “recipe”)
  • The May figure will be the New Adventures character Slush Head, who will have a removable helmet for those who want to fill it with water;
  • The first large-scale beast of 2011 is Beast-Man’s Griffin from the Millennium series, which is an extensive retooling of the Battle Cat sculpt;
  • There will be Snake Mountain figure stands;
  • There will be an exclusive white Sorceress variant from the mini-comic “The Temple of Darkness” that will be available at all regional comic conventions in 2012 except SDCC. and remaining stock will be available online in December 2012;
  • The latest 30th Anniversary figure to be revealed is the ToyGuru-creator “Mighty Spector.” This reveal has had quite a backlash among MOTUC fans. Here’s the pic. Your thoughts?
  • As a few have guessed, the custom I commissioned from MasterEnglish was indeed a MOTUC Batman. Pics to come!
  • Spy Monkey Creations has a PowerCon exclusive, the Blüdsaw of Carnage. SMC is hoping to mass-produce the Blüdsaw (in other colors) later on.

Odds ‘n Ends > September 22, 2011

September 22, 2011 | Poe

  • Toynewsi has links to new pics of the Square Enix Play Arts Kai Batman Arkham Asylum figures. I’m really looking forward to these. A lot. A lot a lot. All I need is a preorder link.
  • You may or may not have heard of the campaign to save the 3 ¾ Venture Bros. toy line. If they don’t hit a certain pre-order goal, Bif Bang Pow can’t make the line. So they’ve teamed up with Entertainment Earth to try and get those pre-orders through, and I heartily comment their effort. You can do me, EE, Jackson Publick, Bif Bang Pow, and yourself a solid by pre-ordering (via my affiliate link) right here.
  • Another day, another Arkham City Batman skin–this one for Sinestro Corps Batman. What interests me here is that here’s wearing the same suit as the DCUC figure, which, to my knowledge, has never appeared in the comics.
  • As I’ve mentioned  here and on Twitter a few times, I commissioned another custom from MasterEnglish, maker of 339/1. MasterEnglish is going to reveal said custom, which looks awesome, at PowerCon this weekend…but I couldn’t resist this little, tiny preview hint.
  • It appears that the Wind Raider has been delayed and will not be in the October 17 Mattycollector sale. No word on when it will be sold.
  • I’ve been messing around with some DCUC figures lately, and I have to say that losing the rocker ankles really hurts their poseability. I never knew how much I loved that joint until it was gone.

Review > Faceless One (Masters of the Universe Classics, Mattel)

September 19, 2011 | Poe

 Note: The cartoon screen captures in this review are from 200X Screen Grabs by MegaGearX.

The 2003 He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon (often referred to as “MYP,” short for Mike Young Productions, the company that produced it) added a few new characters, some quite important, to the MOTU mythos. Few were more interesting than the Faceless One, an ancient sorcerer who protected a powerful jewel called the Ram Stone in the realm of Zalesia. The show revealed that the Faceless One was in fact the father of Evil-Lyn herself.

(more…)

Mattel Subscriptions Open Again (+ MOTUC Anniversary)

September 16, 2011 | Poe

Just a reminder, the MOTUC, MOTUC 30th Anniversary, DCUC and Voltron subscriptions are now open. Again. Except for the 30th Anniversary One. (Side note: Why no second shot at Ghostbusters? I was actually considering adding that one.)

FYI, subs ordered separately will ship separately in January, then ship together after that.

Ask Mattel > Answers for September 15

September 15, 2011 | Poe

1.) Chrissy asks: Could the next Skeletor variation (Terror Claws, Dragon Blaster, etc.) use Kobra Khans forearms and shins? This would alleviate some of the fatigue of getting another standard Skeletor body with new gear. And it would look great with Demo-Man’s freaky Alfredo Alcala styled Skeletor head.

This is something we have discussed with the Four Horsemen. Only time will tell!

2.) Wally2974 asks: Is there any chance with the Batman Legacy line being so popular that we might se some sort of re-release of BatSignal Batman? At the very least I’d love another crack at getting my hands on a working Bat Signal. (more…)

Odds ‘n Ends for September 15, 2011

September 15, 2011 | Poe

  • Mattel has announced they’ll be re-opening the subscriptions for two weeks, from tomorrow, Friday, September 16th at 9 a.m. PT through Monday, October 3rd at 11:59 p.m. PT. If you don’t get the Club Infinite Earths subscription, the regular figures will cost $18 instead of $15 on sale day, and the oversize will cost $45(!) instead of $30. The 50% markup on the oversized figures is probably where they’re making up most of the 40% shortfall on the subscriptions. (I realize some of you may prefer to interpret it as Mattel being an evil money-grubbing monstrosity. To each their own.)
  • What struck me was the fact that apparently the prices on non-sub, sale day MOTUC figures will also be going up in 2012. That’s the first price increase we’ve seen on MOTUC since 2008. While a lot of people have been expecting this for some time, I suspect the excrement will still strike the propeller, at least marginally.
  • There will also be a new subscription for the MOTUC 30th Anniversary figures. It’s a standalone sub you can purchase whether or not you purchase the standard MOTUC sub. The good news is it looks like they’ve managed to squeeze Fearless Photog into it, which at one point was questionable.
  • I doubt I need to recommend that my readers visit ItsAllTrue.net, as I suspect they already do, but I did want to highlight Noisy’s review of the SDCC Classics Lion-O. It’s a good read for those of you who are curious how these figures stack up against MOTUC.

Happy Leech Day!

September 15, 2011 | Poe

“Leech Day”? Yuck.

Anyway, Leech and his pal Hec-Tor “Hurricane Hordak” Kur (35-7-2; 24 kayos) are on sale at 12pm ET today, along with Chief Carnivus, a Retro-Action Kyle Rayner (sad to see that line limping to its doom…wish we could have gotten a Joker) and two JLU three-packs, JLU three-packs. Here’s the link to the all-in-one page.

Leech was easily one of my favorite He-Man figures of all time, and like King Hsss, my fondness for his figure outlasted my fondness for the line as a whole. I’m curious to see how his MOTUC figure turned out.

Odds ‘n Ends > September 6, 2011

September 6, 2011 | Poe

  • Without going too much into it, my reviews on PGPoA are going to be a little different from now on. I’ve come to recognize, like the man who invented Mr. Phipps Pretzel Chips (I think it was Mr. Phipps) that my favorite part of the pretzel, er, the review, is the part where I discuss the character or history of the toy or toyline rather than the paint & sculpt stuff. The photos tell most of that story, and I’ll point out the articulation. For those who want a true breakdown, you can find more traditionally-formatted reviews on other sites–there is no shortage of toy reviews these days. While some of you may be a bit disappointed, trust me when I say it was either this or no more PGPoA at all. (Seriously–it was this close |–|.) I have over seventy unopened toys at the moment, going back to before Christmas, and the thought of having to do a standard review of each one makes me want to quit the blog and never look back.
  • So, in essence, moving forward I’m writing what I want to write about, not what I feel obligated to write about. This blog has felt way too much like work lately. It’s odd how that can creep up on you.
  • You’ve probably all seen Mattel announced that Club Infinite Earths (CIE) is indeed moving forward. I’m happy I get my Poison Ivy, but as a Bat-fan I do hope I get at least one more Bat-character, preferably an oversized Killer Croc. Also, Metron unsurprisingly won the fan vote contest. They’re also considering briefly re-opening the subscription window, which of course led to a round of MOTU fans wondering the MOTUC sub should also be re-opened. I suspect this has to do with the opt-in option that will be offered for the anniversary figures–since that’s already in the works, maybe they’ll just re-open CIE at the same time.
  • Diamond Select will be expanding the Minimates world even more with a new line, Maximum Zombie. The first figures will be a NYCC exclusive set featuring a Biker Zombie & Surgeon Zombie. I’ll be at NYCC this year, so you’re damned right I’m getting these.