Mattel MOTUC updates (No 200X Grizzlor head)

First off, it appears we won’t be getting Grizzlor’s extra Millennium face. Scott Neitlich:

He-Fans,

Many of you may have picked up the latest Toy Fare magazine (check out the cool Legion cover!) and have seen an image of Grizzlor with a second head as an accessory.

To clarify, the Grizzlor shown at SDCC was final. It was there in package. He only has one head as officially announced at SDCC.

Magazines often need images well in advance and many times the only images we have available are the first pics of the Horsemen sculpts.

Because the Horsemen sculpt more then we ask for ( a good problem to have), sometimes these PR images wind up having extra parts pictured that do not get tooled. This happened with Batman Beyond’s wings and Lex Luthor’s skirt pieces as well.

Our tooling budget is finite and we can’t always afford to tool everything the Horsemen sculpt (especially when they throw in unrequested parts not accounted for in the budget – not that we want them to stop! A lot of things the sculpt wind up getting used later. The Kandor they sculpted for Superman in DCSH wound up getting used in JLU in 2010!)

Back to the point: Because we did announce Grizzlor in full at SDCC, hopefully this image was not too misleading. But to be clear, Grizzlor has one face only. The figure is tool’d and in production so no changes are being made at this point.

Sorry for any confusion gang!

Scott

I–hmm. Well…hrm. Forget it. I’m not even going to bother.

Neitlich also posted a lengthy update on the MOTUC figures seen at SDCC. There’s some good news and some not-so-good-news.

Hey gang,

Finally through the work that piled up while I was at SDCC. I wanted to give a few quick updates to the figures shown at the con.

Battle Armor Skeletor: He will indeed have three chest plates just like BA He Man. The Horsemen just had not finished sculpting them in time for the show. He will also come with the standard “He-Man” battle axe in purple, just as fans have asked for. Finally, we will paint his feet purple with black toe nails also per fan request. I know some fans also asked for the Hordak feet, but this was not possible this time around.

Grayskull: The pain job is final. We know some fans are asking for other paint schemes, but quite frankly we really like this one. The red cape with flocking and silver highlights on the armor and chest piece really pop. The cape also references the vintage art on the package. This does not mean we can’t do another color scheme of Grayskull down the road, but for now we are set. Also, his boots will be the same as the original release. The kit bashed model for the show had the wrong boots.

Preternia Disguise He-Man: We spoke to the Horsemen and we are going to change the wrist bands to the Tri-Klops wrists to be more accurate to the comic design.

Roboto: We are looking into the possibility of making both hands removable. It my be too late on this go around, but we are looking into it.

Palace Guards: The guards will indeed have the Keldor boots as the Horsemen designed. The kit based version used for SDCC was incorrect. Also, we bumped up the gold highlights a bit on the chest piece. It looks really great! The guards have also moved to December due to the boot change.

King Hssss: His jaw will be hinged and the Snake heads will be articulated (sorta like Clayface’s arms or Plastic Man’s neck).

As far as a few other issues, I know a lot of fans are asking about the “lack of females”. While we did not show any females at SDCC, there will be more females in 2011 then we did in 2010. We just did not have any slotted for Jan – March. There are still plenty of monthly figs to go and A-list variant slots as well. A lot more of 2011 is left to reveal! Stay tuned.

Fans are also asking about “200X” elements. I will tell you that after the Marzo head, management asked us specifically to pull back on the amount of “anime hyper detail elements” in the sculpts. Also, after the second Whiplash head, we were asked to pull back on second heads that are purley 200X inspired. That “look” and interpretation” is retired.

We will continue to do second heads when there is a compelling reason (like for Mer-Man or Man-At-Arms), but we will be pulling back from extra heads simply to add in 200X elements (like with Whiplash).

The Horsemen often sculpt extra heads and accessories then asked for(they actually did three heads for Bow) but with the direction from management to move away from 200X elements and the general high cost of extra heads (due to all the paint ops) we will only do second heads when it is really compelling. You won’t see second heads just to do a 200X homage. This line is all about the “classic” vintage look. You’ll see some 200X elements (like Webstor’s arms) but not a second 200X head as that interpretation is retired.

A lot more great toys are coming, we’re only getting warmed up!

Hope all this helped clarify!

Scott

He later followed up on He-Man.org with this:

You will still see 200X characters and 200X versions of characters (i.e. Sorceress, Randor) but they will be in “Classics” style, similar to Carnivus or Grayskull (or Marzo minus the flowing hair).

We’ll also still do second heads for characters like Moss Man or Stinkor who’s vintage head was a repaint. Really, the only character to have a true “200X” head was Whiplash. So there really wasn’t a huge trend we are breaking here. A trend of one.

Predictably, some fans are upset by the fact that this news of fewer Millennium heads was dropped after the subscription deadline. It’s also already wrong, since we’re getting the Millennium Grizzlor face. I suppose, however, it means we won’t be getting any Millennium Buzz-Off or Clawful faces, as an example. Which is dumb and doesn’t make any sense to me, since those heads were different enough from the originals that you could still do them in “Classic” style, minus the dreaded Anime Hyper Detailâ„¢. (I just thought about starting my own podcast with that name, but I’d get too many angry emails from misled fans of One Piece and Cowboy Bebop.)

Who are these executives who, on the one hand, are allegedly so uninvested in MOTUC they’ll kill the line at the slightest sign of failure, yet want to micromanage it at the same time?

As for the rest of the news:

• Skeletor’s boots: I’m happy with this. It matches the vintage art and makes BA Skeletor a little more distinct.
• Grayskull: Personally I really dislike this repaint, and I think it’s a bummer for those who don’t have the original Grayskull, but that’s only my opinion.
• Preternia He-Man: This isn’t something I was concerned about, but it’s cool, I guess.
• Roboto: Getting a removable regular hand would be great, but I suspect we’re too close to production for it to happen.
• Guards’ boots: I actually don’t think the Keldor boots make any sense–those boots definitely have more of an “evil” feel, and what’s more, the shin guards don’t fit over them as well. Anyone else notice Mattel has been using the “It was the Horsemen’s idea!” CMA line a lot lately? Even if it was the Horsemen I still disagree with it.
• King Hsssss: We already knew this, but good news.
• Females: More females in 2011 than 2010? Get ready for Sweet Bee and Perfuma, folks!