Buy the Power of Grayskull: The MOTUC Controversy

December 1, 2008 | Poe

Few recent action figure lines have divided fans so strongly–and bitterly–as Mattel’s new Masters of the Universe Classics. The first two figures, He-Man and Beast Man, go on sale today at 12 p.m. EST on Mattycollector.com, barring any major website problems.

First, some background: in the early 1980s, Masters of the Universe (MOTU) was one of the most popular action figure lines of the time. It essentially ruled the period between the Star Wars craze and the rise of Transformers and G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero in the mid-eighties, and many kids (myself included) started with MOTU and later moved to one of those properties. Now we’re all grown up and have become nostalgic action figure collectors, and the toy companies have catered to us with a slew of reissues and revamps of toys from our childhood.

Mattel first tried to capitalize on MOTU nostalgia in 2002. After hiring former McFarlane toy designers the Four Horsemen to do the sculpting, Mattel created an updated line aimed at both kids and collectors, supported by a new cartoon and a comic book. The Horsemen took the original MOTU designs and amped them up, emphasizing the original features from the characters while minimizing their more goofy traits and making the anatomy a bit more realistic. This was arguably the first MOTU controversy, as some diehard fans of the original line were disappointed by the new designs, while more casual fans and collectors who had never owned a He-Man figure were impressed. (more…)

Poe’s Point > Top Five Saturday Morning Cartoons

March 7, 2008 | Poe

NOTE: This article was originally published on Biggerboat on 1/31/07.

I’ve often declared my life’s goal to make every day feel like Saturday morning. If there’s anything that makes me regret the linear direction of space-time and ache for the past as all mortals do, it’s that I can never truly recapture what it feels like to be a young kid on a Saturday morning.

Growing up in the 1980s following the FCC’s deregulation of children’s programming, Saturday morning offered a bevy of options for the child who, having woken at six a.m. to enjoy as much of his school-free day as possible, would down three bowls of sugar-loaded cereal while watching colorful talking animals and consequence-free cartoon violence. True, many of the shows were little more than half-hour advertisements for toys (or candy, or Mr. T). Others were genuinely entertaining. But what Saturday morning cartoons really offered children was a time when television catered just to them. No boring adult dramas or shows they weren’t allowed to watch. Saturday morning TV belonged to kids.
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The Saga of Shocker Toys

February 1, 2008 | Poe

What is Shocker Toys?

The answer is hard to grasp. Just when you think you’ve got it, it slithers out of your fingers like an eel. (more…)

TOYFARE WEEK > My Halo 3 articles

December 16, 2007 | Poe

All this week, I’ll be posting pieces related to ToyFare, the popular toy magazine whose editors have had the good graces to publish my scribblings in an issue or two. In the days to come I’ll be interviewing members of the ToyFare staff about the industry and their favorite holiday memories.

But first up, a shameless plug. A few months back, ToyFare did a “Halo Week” on their website, primarily by posting my article from issue #123 piecemeal.

ToyFare #126

December 11, 2007 | Poe

Just a heads-up, I’ve got not one, not two, but three articles in this week’s issue of ToyFare. It hits comic shops today, and it’ll be on newsstands in another two weeks. My articles are interviews with NECA about their upcoming Princess Bride and Conan the Barbarian lines, and another great interview with the Four Horsemen.

There’s lot of other great stuff in the issue, too–previews of all the major 2008 toy lines, including new photos of my personal favorite, DC Universe Classics. I’ll do a longer write-up on the issue once I’ve got it in my hot little hands.