Mattel to send “basic” MOTUC figure to subscribers as apology for Frosta

December 6, 2012 | Poe

In what amounts to their second “apology” offering (the first being Glow-in-the-Dark Slimer), Mattel is atoning for the long delay and reversed arms of Frosta by sending subscribers a free “basic” figure with their December subscription shipments. It’s unclear what “basic” means, but my guess is it will just be a random existing MOTUC figure, not a special or unique new one.

I didn’t receive the email announcing this, as usual. Thanks to all of you who sent me a copy, and to Clayton Shackleford for this hilarious response:

Anyway, the official email text is after the jump. (more…)

Dead Link – Figma Link not coming to the U.S.

December 4, 2012 | Poe


U.S. fans who were eagerly awaiting the green tunic of Max Factor’s Figma Link to complement their red holiday bows have some bad news coming their way. I had one on pre-order, and I just received this email from BigBadToyStore:

Diamond Comics Distribution has just informed us that they have failed to secure the licensing needed to bring the Max Factory Link Figma into North America. Diamond has completely cancelled all orders for the Link Figma for all retailers and distributors in North America, including a massive order placed by BBTS. We are extremely upset with them because they are forcing us to disappoint you and so many other people on this item. Diamond officially solicited this item to us back in September and our orders have been in place with them for months, this news was shocking and extremely disappointing to us. Diamond apparently did not have the licensing deal fully worked out at the time of solicitation and in the past few months some sort of problem arose and the deal with Nintendo could not be worked out. We wanted to let you know about this as quickly as possible so you can try to secure an order with international/other vendors.

We have quickly checked with several distributors in Japan, and all of them are completely sold out, as is Max Factory. We are going to explore more options on possible supplies around the world, but at this point it honestly does not look good. We will leave all preorders open in the meantime in case we can find some sort of solution.

We again are extremely sorry about this, we did not expect Diamond to fail us on this item.

Two things: 1.) Bummer. 2.) This does give an interesting look behind the scenes at how these import licensing deals work – and how they can go wrong. There are often very cool toys available in Japan that can’t be sold here, either because there’s a U.S. manufacturer with the domestic master license or for other reasons. (For example, Tsuburaya Productions refuses to export certain Ultraman figures to the U.S. due to a long legal dispute with the Thailand-based Chaiyo Productions.)

It does raise one question for me, though. If this deal just fell apart, it would seem there should have been plenty of Links ready to ship for the American pre-orders, and they were due this month. So how could Max Factory be sold out? Where are those Links that were produced and bound for the States? Or was there going to be an even greater delay while they went back into production? The answer is either that, or Diamond and Max Factory have known about this for months.

For those of you who want a Link, he’s still available at AmiAmi as of this writing. Be prepared to pay international shipping costs, however.

Granamyr packaging and bio revealed

December 4, 2012 | Poe

I think 2012 will be remembered as the year in which the cost of collecting MOTUC increased every month, culminating in December, in which we have Mosquitor, Procrustus, and Granamyr.

GRANAMYR. I mean, holy ****, we’re actually getting a Granamyr figure!

Now, I stand by my slight disappointment that he won’t be able to stand up – which strongly contributes to my impression of him being the ideal decoration for a head shop, right next to the wizard bong* – but, frankly, how many of us would have posed him differently anyway?

Mattel released the packaging art and bio for Granamyr yesterday. Evidently Gran will be shipping disassembled to save space and shipping costs, which is fine with me.

I’ll get to the bio discussion at a later date. For now, let’s all appreciate Rudy Obrero‘s beautiful art. Click on either pic for the larger version.

*Note: Poe has never even seen a head shop much less been in one, despite living in San Francisco for a year back in the early ’00s. Yes, he was and is a total square. He assumes wizard bongs and dragon decorations are common in such places based solely on pop culture depictions of head shops and that Simpsons episode where Homer takes medical marijuana and Dr. Hibbert offers him two bongs, the “wizard or the skull.”

PGPoA Turns 5

December 3, 2012 | Poe

Quietly this past Saturday, December 1, Poe Ghostal’s Points of Articulation turned five years old. I thought about doing something to celebrate this milestone, but I just didn’t have the time to get anything together.

Still, I wanted to meditate a little on having kept up a blog for five years. I’m the type of person with a million ideas and not much follow-through, and that impression of myself has become deeply ingrained over the years, so I really have to force myself to stand back and appreciate what I’ve done here. (more…)

It’s Toys for Tots Season!

November 30, 2012 | Poe

Toy for Tots season always sneaks up on me so fast. Let’s get this out of way first: the deadline to donate to Toys for Tots is THIS WEEKEND. Well, truthfully it varies by location but most places stop taking toy donations this weekend. Anyway, after that you’ll have to just donate money, which isn’t as much fun but still just as important, if not more important!

Anyway, two different toy blogs are sponsoring Toys for Tots drives. (more…)

New Topless Robot List > Ten Terrible Cases of Toy-Aisle Trolling

November 20, 2012 | Poe

As you may know, Rob Bricken, whom I feel honored to consider a friend, recently left Topless Robot to become a senior editor at io9. But before he left, I managed to sneak in this as one of my final(?) lists – one that’s very near and dear to my heart. It’s a list of the worst examples of Toy Aisle Trolls I’ve ever seen.

Ten Terrible Cases of Toy-Aisle Trolling

Be warned – this list contains more profanity as usual, as I tend to get my dander up when dealing with TAT, as you know. Yeah, I said dander.

Happy Castle Grayskullman Day!

November 15, 2012 | Poe

Look, I get people think this site is rife with negativity regarding MOTUC, at least in the comments. But the truth is I still love MOTU and MOTUC – I’m just not the obsessed person I was a couple years ago. This always happens with me – I go through fads. I’m in more of a Godzilla mood lately, but I’m sure MOTU (and/or Batman, or Hellboy, or whatever) will come back around at some point.

All of which is to say, Castle Grayskullman is pretty awesome and goes on sale today. What’s his appeal? I think it’s that he feels both brand-new and a perfect throwback to the days of MOTU yore.

Anyway, CGM is on sale today, along with Filmation King Randor (which I’m actually rather excited about – always wanted this as a kid), Dekker (whom, I must confess, is a bit of an afterthought for me), the Club Infinite Earths Uncle Sam and John Constantine, and Courtroom Peter Venkman and Ray Stanz.

All-in-one sale page is here. And as you face the White Screen of Doom, may the odds be ever in your favor!