Mattel Unveils (Some) SDCC 2012 Exclusives

April 27, 2012 | Poe

From Mattycollector.com…

Masters of the Universe Vykronâ„¢ ($30)

If clothes make the He-Man, then this pitch prototype for the 1982 lineup is destined to be the star of the MOTU 30th Anniversary celebration thanks to a choice of three outfits: barbarian, spaceman, and military warrior! You’ll get him in-package dressed as a barbarian only at SDCC , but you can find him here at MattyCollector.com after the show packed as a spaceman or military warrior (all three outfits are included regardless of where he’s purchased). Want to know more about this multi-purpose warrior? Set includes one “buck,” or figure, with three different outfits/helmets to interchange between space, military and barbarian looks. Check back for the history of Vykronâ„¢, soon to be disclosed… (more…)

Stinkorgate, Cont’d

April 26, 2012 | Poe
Stinkor

Stinkor by soundofdesign, on Flickr

UPDATE: That discussion got way out of hand way too fast. I welcome free speech and I want people to be able to express their opinion, no matter how I much I disagree with it, but I insist on civility. I will accept any and all criticisms about being a tyrant, bully, bad journalist, head-in-the-sand-ostrich or whatever to enforce it. It’s my site and I won’t accept name-calling or general meanness.

To be fair I wiped out all previous comments, but they’re still open if anyone wants to restart the conversation.

I said I wasn’t going to get too involved in this one, and for now I’m sticking to that, though I’ll probably have my say when I review the actual figure. But I thought I’d highlight two things. First, here is the Four Horsemen’s final word, via their Twitter account:

After seeing a photo, that’s definitely not the way we’d intended the forearms to be positioned. Not sure what happened or why. […]we’ve finished it, they have every right to do so. They’re the ones assuming all of the financial responsibility & risk. The bottom line is that this is Mattel’s property. Not ours. If they decide that it’s best to alter something like that after…

I can appreciate the Horsemen’s diplomatic answer here – no suggestion of a production error. But James Sawyer at MOTUCfigures.com isn’t equivocating in his take on the situation: (more…)

Battle Beasts Concl’d – Mea Culpa

April 19, 2012 | Poe

Wrapping up the recent flurry of posts about a toy line I never even collected, the final word on the trademark issue can be found in this video of a panel from C2E2 2011:

http://blip.tv/pixelstoplastic/c2e2-diamond-select-art-asylum-minimates-panel-3517759

Here’s what DST’s Zach Oat wrote in a comment on my earlier post:

If you go to the 28-minute mark, you can hear Chuck explain how we registered for the trademark after we discovered it had lapsed. (If I said “purchased” in this year’s panel, I misspoke, but we did have to pay to register the trademark. There was a check written.  ) He also explains why we waited — we were waiting to have room on our plates, for the economy to rebound and to have some sort of media tie-in lined up. Hence the IDW series.

So there you go.

As for me: I apologize for making a mountain out of this molehill. The answer was indeed out there. I didn’t know about this video, and so when I inquired about the trademark issue to my contacts a couple months ago and didn’t get an answer at the time, I ended up thinking there was more to it than there evidently was. I also didn’t put in a new inquiry to my contacts before my most recent post, which I should have done.

I realize my recent posts may have ginned up way more “controversy” about this then was at all warranted. For that I apologize to DST, Zach and everyone else. It was never my intention to cause controversy – if anything, I was trying to tamp it down a bit.

This does prove my utter impatience for watching online videos (sorry, Pixel Dan…) is something I need to work on. But it’s tough when you’re trying to find the answer to something and it’s only available in the middle of a video – I can’t get search results for that on the Web unless there’s a transcript available, and I don’t always have time to sit through hours of comic-con footage in the hopes of finding an answer.

Battle Beasts Cont’d – Takara Beast Fight Revealed [UPDATE: Preorder at BBS]

April 19, 2012 | Poe

While Diamond Select moves forward with their new take on Battle Beasts, TakaraTomy is indeed bringing back the original Beastformers as, at least according to one site, “Takara Beast Fight.” Go here to see the pics of the various figures.

It appears to have some sort of dice game element, which makes a lot of sense. So – are you in for Takara Beast Fight, DST’s Battle Beasts, or both?

Thanks to Pixel Dan for the tip!

UPDATE: These are now available for preorder at BBTS.

What Battle Beasts Rights Does Diamond Select Have?

April 18, 2012 | Poe
battle beasts

battle beasts by toy find!, on Flickr

Phil Reed over at Battlegrip speculates on the specific rights Diamond Select Toys has to Battle Beasts. I actually discussed this on PGPoA way back in 2009, and even then it was rumored DST only had the trademark on the brand name, not the creature designs (or the rub-sign feature).

It seems obvious TakaraTomy (the Japanese rights holder of Transformers) still has the rights to Beastformers, the Japanese toy line that became Battle Beasts when imported to the U.S. and Europe. As the original name suggests, in Japan the line was tied in to Transformers (specifically the Japanese Headmasters franchise). And now it looks like TakaraTomy may be moving forward with some new product under the name Beast Saga.

(A brief aside to Phil’s main question: I suspect the confusion over whether DST “paid someone” for the trademark is due either to someone at the C2E2 DST panel misspeaking, or someone misunderstanding or misreporting what was said. I do think they simply snapped up the trademark when TakaraTomy let it lapse. Also, I believe you pay the government a fee when you pick up a lapsed trademark, so that may be what the “paid” is referring to.)

(more…)

Pixel Dan Kicks Off New Website with MOTUC Mosquitor Reveal

April 17, 2012 | Poe

Poester Power Pal Pixel Dan, who recently stepped down as Senior Editor of Popculturenetwork.com, has revealed his latest project: Pixel-Dan.com, a site that will serve both as a one-stop-shop for his popular video reviews as well as posting his thoughts on some of the latest news and info coming from the world of toys and collecting.

What’s more, Pixel Dan revealed the first teaser pic of the MOTUC version of his personal obsession, Mosquitor!

To celebrate the opening of his new site, Dan kindly agreed to answer a couple of questions about it. (more…)

Draego-Man, Thunder Punch He-Man, Ghostbusters Rookie, Yellow Lion & More at Mattycollector

April 16, 2012 | Poe

It’s yet another Mattycollector Sale Day. (This time last year, the big sale item was Sy-Klone.)

All in One Sale Page

The new items this month include Draego-Man, Thunder Punch He-Man, the Ghostbusters Rookie, and the Voltron Yellow Lion w/ Hunk. There’s a ton of other stuff too, including Tri-Klops, Orko, Man-E-Faces, Peter Venkman, Hordak, King Hssss with his reversed shoulders and so on. (more…)

Diamond Reveals Their Plans for Battle Beasts

April 12, 2012 | Poe

The new Battle Beasts website has gone live. Highlights:

  • There will be a new comic from IDW,  written by Bobby Curnow (Godzilla Legends, Night of 1000 Wolves) and penciled by Valerio Schiti (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Donatello, Dungeons & Dragons: Eberron)
  • At San Diego Comic-Con, DST will unveil the first full wave of Battle Beasts Minimates, which will be in stores in late fall of 2012. The first wave of two-packs will focus heavily on characters who appear in the comic, and will have a gameplay element, as well. DST will also have an exclusive two-pack of Battle Beasts for sale at the show.

So it looks like the figures will indeed be Minimates in the style of the previous con exclusives, and not the fully-sculpted action figures we saw prototypes of a while back. That’s disappointing, but the Minimates style is very popular with collectors and kids alike, and this will allow Diamond to offer the kind of variety and character selection the original Battle Beasts line was known for. It’s probably a shrewd move.