Bastards of the Universe > “Game of Bastards”

August 24, 2011 | googum


There’s a reason Conan never gets to sit in Bill’s chair: between the loincloth and the fur-cape, he really can’t.

I haven’t read George R. R. Martin‘s books yet, but I liked Game of Thrones on HBO. I wanted to make an Iron Throne, but didn’t want to break or bend up all the toys I had, so I made a paper one! Mine, and some really vague instructions, are here, and I want to try another one if I ever find a Lion-O and the Sword of Omens for it.

Odds ‘n Ends > August 24, 2011

August 24, 2011 | Poe

  • Here’s the first comment I’ve seen from Mattel on the DCUC subscription results: “The final tally was around 60-62% (I’ll need to ask the DC team for an exact number). We are literally reviewing the numbers to see if their is anyway to go forward now that we are under 100%. It may take another week or so before we will know an answer. Fans have been so passionate, but in the end it comes down to whether their are enough of them to move forward with this program!” I had been beginning to suspect late last week that a non-100% subscription rate might not mean an immediate cancellation of the sub. One idea a poster on the Fwoosh had was to raise the price of the non-sub sale day figures from $15 to $20 (while subscribers still pay $15). I think that’s a good idea. Had I not subscribed, I’d have happily paid $20 for Poison Ivy and not thought twice about it.
  • Mattel also posted a lengthy explanation for Battleground Evil-Lyn on their Facebook page. I’m still not sure how I feel about BGEL. Initially this was exactly what I had expected a Millennium Evil-lyn to be (proof here and here). I had been expecting more only after this post by ToyGuru last year. So without that post by ToyGuru, I might not have been disappointed at all. I can certainly see why a lot of fans are unhappy. And I’m a bit confused by the tooling explanation: “[…] we felt that it would be better to go with this simpler version rather than sink a lot of tooling into a version that didn’t have waist articulation, better hip function, etc. If we used up the tooling now, it may have killed the chance to do a version that 100% satisfies all of the fan requests. Now that the 2.0 body has been created and worked into the line, the door is open to do this version in the future.” Which I think raises a significant question: why do a Millennium Evil-lyn now at all, instead of waiting to use the 2.0 body with new tooling? What’s the rush? I’d happily have taken, say, a minicomic Trap Jaw instead.
  • Here’s a fantastic NECA-style Dutch from Predator custom using NECA Duke Nukem and Terminator parts.
  • I need to get more into Minimates–check out the Previews-exclusive Knight Rider KITT with Super-Pursuit Mode parts.

Odds ‘n Ends > August 22, 2011

August 22, 2011 | Poe

  • I’m (finally!) on vacation this week, and my hope is to finally get to some of those reviews I’ve been promising you guys forever. The pile of unopened toys has only gotten bigger, though, including the NECA Robocop, which I found at TRU over the weekend.
  • One thing I learned during this move is that I have a LOT of toys. More than I realized, and that was after selling off a bunch of stuff to a local comic shop. If you stop by Comicazi! in Somerville, MA any time over the next few months and buy a loose figure, there’s a good chance it may once have been mine.
  • Club Infinite Earths put up a good fight, but as of right now it’s still 40% short of its goal. I’ve said since the beginning that whatever the goal was for this sub, it was just too high. That suggests either Mattel didn’t do the due diligence on testing what the market really was, or they always knew it was going to be a long shot. At this point, even without all the QC issues, historically terrible distribution, and Gleekocalypse, I’m not sure the Club could have hit the needed subscriptions. The only hope now is that it did well enough that the brand managers can convince the higher-ups to do it.
  • Notable reviews from around the net: Pixel Dan reviews Vigo the Carpathian & MOTUC Leech; Wesitron reviews the 6″ Modern ThunderCats Lion-O

Guest Review > Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Raiden (Mortal Kombat 6″ Series 1, Jazwares)

August 18, 2011 | Doc Thomas

When Jazwares announced a new line of Mortal Kombat action figures to premiere alongside the new release, I was ecstatic. A lifetime fan of video games from the fighting genre, I love my SOTA Street Fighters to death and have always felt there was an unfilled hole in my collection where the Mortal Kombat fighters should be. With the recent revival of the fighting genre, beginning with the excellent Street Fighter, the news that Mortal Kombat was returning in a big way pleased me to no end.

When the game finally came out I was ever so pleased to find my expectations met: with a balanced and interesting new engine, sensational graphics, a fully realised story mode and some of the most despicable gore ever seen in a video game, Mortal Kombat was back! About the same time Jazwares revealed images from their first series of 6″ figures based on franchise favourites Sub Zero, Scorpion and Raiden, and subsequent images from a 3 3/4″ scale series. Fans were torn, prefering the look of the smaller figures to the seemingly less-detailed 1/12 scale toys. How do the final releases fare? Let’s find out! (more…)

Mattel Updates > MOTUC, DC subs, Draego-Man costs

August 17, 2011 | Poe

Lots of Mattel-related stuff to discuss today. First up is this addendum to Monday’s Q&A:

3.) Gasha168 asks: Does the 23″ Voltron contain any diecast metal components at all, or is it pure plastic except for the springs and pin joints?

The Lions that combine into the 23″ Voltron do not have any die-cast parts.  At the scale that the lions are being offered, if they were die-cast, the overall weight of the combined Voltron would be too much for it to be secure or stable.  However, we do understand that die-cast is a big fan request so this is something that we’re looking into for the future.

Next, we have a bunch of updates from Mattel regarding the MOTUC and DC subs. There’s a lot to cover here–this appears to be one of those times when Mattel comes surprisingly clean with us. I’ll reply bit by bit rather than a long speech at the end.

First off is this post from the Mattycollector forums:

Hey He-Fans and She-Ravers,

With so much talk over the DC Sub (and if we have enough subscribers) I wanted to check in with all of you on the MOTUC sub.

First off, as expected we have well passed our min sub order to keep the line going. (MOTU fans are committed!) BUT, I do want to let you know that we are actually at our lowest sub sale yet. Which unless we get a huge bump in sales this week, this means Shadow Weaver will likely be the lowest produced figure in the whole line! Wow.

(more…)