Poe’s Point > Seriously

November 18, 2010 | Poe

In my original plans for this blog, I hoped to be able to offer insight into the action figure industry. I had dreams of insiders dropping me juicy tidbits, behind-the-scenes information, gossip–sort of a Bleeding Cool for the toy industry.

So far, that hasn’t happened. Frankly, I don’t have the contacts for it to happen, plus I have a day job, so I don’t have time to be going to conventions and making contacts and so forth. And apparently I’m not likeable or famous enough for people to just start emailing me tips randomly. Which is fine; I’m OK with me.

Nonetheless, once in a while something industry-related does pop up that seems worth highlighting. In this case, it’s a blog post on Action Figure Insider by Jason Lenzi, a self-described “seasoned television producer” and owner of the Bif Bang Pow toy company. (more…)

Poe’s Point > Bleh! I don’t vant Dracula to suck

November 1, 2010 | Poe

Halloween may be over, but there’s still plenty of horror to be had.

For instance, here’s some rather bumming news from Diamond Select: according to their latest edition of Ask DST, they haven’t secured the likeness rights to Bela Lugosi. However, they’re still going to do a Dracula figure…just without any specific actor’s likeness. (more…)

Poe’s Point > On the return of 6″ Marvel Legends

July 26, 2010 | Poe

Marvel Legends close 1

Marvel Legends close 1 by Carls Life

At their Marvel SDCC panel, Hasbro said that 6″ Marvel Legends would be returning “in full force” in 2012. I started to wonder why that would be, given how strongly they’ve been pushing Marvel Universe, and I’m wondering if it’s the success of DCUC that has them reconsidering. (more…)

Poe’s Point > List of Suspect

July 23, 2010 | Poe

With Mattel’s “leaking” of the MOTUC list through March 2011, there are some fans–mostly on the He-Man.org forums–who are harping on the fact that “changes were made” to “the list.” This also happened last month when everyone was so sure the September figure was going to be Roboto and/or Man-E-Faces, and then were shocked–SHOCKED!–when it was Carnivus. Now some of them are getting mad about the fact that the figures they were expecting weren’t announced (specifically Catra, believe it or not). (more…)

Poe’s Point > Demo-Man Revisited & Retconned

July 7, 2010 | Poe

Just a thought I had while reading the comments on the Skeletor bio discussion: how could a future bio retcon the Skeletor/Demo-Man merger concept everyone so loathes?

Let’s assume we’re writing the bio for a potential Demo-Man MOTUC figure. Here’s my version:

DEMO-MAN
Real Name: Carcharius
A mindless demon of the dimension of Despondos, Demo-Man spent his life wreaking havoc upon the denizens of Etheria. After his banishment to Despondos by King Grayskull, Hordak attempted to recruit Demo-Man into the Horde, but finding the creature too difficult to control, he locked it away. When Keldor was mortally wounded in battle, Hordak sacrificed Demo-Man to gain the power to turn Keldor into Skeletor, the Evil Lord of Destruction!

Just for fun, here’s the other bio I toyed with:

Ages ago, a young Eternian shaman mated with a demon, resulting in the hideous Demo-Man–a rage-filled hybrid of man and monster. To save his village from the beast, the shaman banished the creature to the dimension of Despondos, where it wreaked havoc for centuries before being captured by Hordak. When Keldor was mortally wounded in battle, Hordak sacrificed Demo-Man to gain the power to turn Keldor into Skeletor.

Ultimately I decided the shaman-mating-with-a-demon thing was a bit too salacious for a realistic bio, but the idea that the shaman could have been a young and foolish Eldor is appealing.

Any other ideas on how a future bio could retcon the whole Demo-Man/Keldor merger without obviously contradicting the Skeletor bio?

Poe’s Point > Why Tytus?

May 10, 2010 | Poe

Rob Bricken of Topless Robot, a Masters of the Universe fan who’s nonetheless on the record as being disappointed in the MOTUC style here and here, issued me a challenge this weekend.

You have one week to try and convince me why I should pay $50 for a figure without a ball-jointed neck or shoulders.

He’s doing this partly because I talked to him into getting the Weapons Pak.*

First off, I have to ask: why the hell would I want to encourage any competition for what will probably be a ten-minute sellout? I should tell him–and you all–that Tytus sucks and you should avoid him like the plague. But I would be lying, since that’s not my opinion, and I’m nothing if not self-defeatingly honest. (more…)

Poe’s Point > Variants & Variations

April 5, 2010 | Poe

As someone who writes about toys frequently, one thing I’ve often puzzled over is what to call figures that are of main characters in multiple outfits. I’m talking Battle Armor He-Man, Arctic Batman, Undercover Donatello, that sort of thing.

Calling them variants is misleading. I think most collectors think of a “variant” as the result of a production error or a running change in production. An example of a production error is “Party Angela,” a figure in McFarlane Toys’ Spawn line where the factory infamously neglected to paint her panties on. An example of a running change is the recent flocked-ears & unflocked ears Moss Man. So while some collectors do still use “variant” to describe the likes of Battle Armor He-Man, I’ve always wanted to come up with a separate term. (more…)

Poe’s Point > Club Eternia & Bonus Figures

March 29, 2010 | Poe

Scott Metzger, one of my favorite He-Fans, posted this fair question over on the Mattycollector forums:

Okay, the uncertainty with Keldor’s release brought up a question that I thought had been answered:

If a regular monthly figure misses it’s release date, one of the bonus figures is supposed to be plugged in for that slot on Matty. But we have been told numerous times, especially when the issue came up as the 2010 subscriptions were being hawked, that such a substituted figure would not be part of the subscription.

So, if Keldor had to take the place of, say, the September figure, there would have been no subscription figure for that month, if I’m interpreting the above right?

Here’s TG’s reply (text after the jump). (more…)