Ask Mattel > July 1 Edition

July 1, 2009 | Poe

mattel logo

1.) Valo487 asks: The Legion of Doom has been fairly well represented in both JLU and DCUC with a few left to finish the team in both lines, however Toyman is currently missing from both. Is he in the works for either line? Also, any chance for a non-armored Lex Luthor?

Both are a possibility, but nothing to announce quite yet.

2.) He-Dan asks: Given the recent announcement in Toyfare that key figures (like Joker and Power Girl) will be part of the Wal-Mart exclusive line, what assurances can Mattel offer that the line will be available more widely and in greater quantities at Walmarts than Wave 5?

It is up to Wal-Mart (and any other retailer) to decide which toy lines to carry, not Mattel. If you are not seeing your favorite DC or other Mattel line at your local retailer, ask for it by name!

3.) Ed asks: Some collectors have reported their DCUC figures (wave 3 specifically) developing a strange coating of white film that doesn’t seem like normal dust. I myself have seen it on my DCUC figures and even some of my old Batman figures from the original Horsemen line. A collector on Fwoosh had speculated that it’s probably just mold release working itself out of the plastic. I was wondering if Mattel had a take on this to help clarify the mystery?

An interesting question. If you have photos of this to post we’d be happy to review with our safety department and get a more complete answer. At this time we are unaware of this particular issue.

4.) How much of the Question figure, revealed recently in ToyFare, is new sculpting/tooling?

The Question is based on the DC Superheroes suit body used for Clark Kent, The Riddler and Two Face with a new head, coat and arms.

5.) Given the success of the Movie Masters Batpod, is there any possibility of similar smaller-size vehicles (such as a Batcycle) for DCUC, perhaps as a Mattycollector exclusive or a Collect-and-Connect?

Nothing is planned at this time, but if there is enough fan interest it is something we can get to in time!

Paul’s Peg > Slave Leia!

July 1, 2009 | Paul

While cruising around the internets I recently ran across a picture of a upcoming Star Wars figure, or at least it’s a rumored figure at the moment.

slaveleia

It’s funny that I was just thinking the other day that they should do an updated Slave Leia. My old one is too tall and doesn’t have enough articulation. Well, it looks like I’ve got what I wanted! Maybe next time I’ll dream about bikini girls washing my car…

…anyway, Leia here looks great (despite the crappy picture), but she is the perfect example why super articulation doesn’t always look the best on female characters. You see, horny dudes usually design female characters so they are nearly nude, which makes the cuts where the points of articulation look very odd. It’s easier to hide articulation on characters with plenty of clothes, like figures of dudes.

I also like the sitting position add on. How else could you get a figure to look good laying around on a throne like Leia does in the film? If this is the real deal, I can’t wait for this figure to come out.

He-Man Goes Bollywood

June 30, 2009 | Poe

I always like to start the day with a little surrealism, so please enjoy “Chahiye He-Man He-Man,” a song from the Indian film Nafrat Ki Aandhi, apparently.

Try not to ask yourself whether the main woman is supposed to be Teela or Evil-lyn, or why Orko is wearing a shiny red muumuu, or why this is still 37% better than the 1987 American movie. These are things man was not meant to know.

Thanks to MisterBigBo for the tip.

Show and Tell > Custom M-Wrestling Ring by Newton Gimmick

June 29, 2009 | Poe

[Poe’s note: Custom figures and toys are fair game for Show and Tell. Just FYI.]

It’s weird the stuff that makes an impact on you. For my Show & Tell item I’ve ended up with a toy that I basically made. The toy itself isn’t that special, but it serves as a good gateway to what was one of the best times of my life both in terms of action figures as well as fun.

Before you is the M-Wrestling ring. What is that? Well back when I was starting to grow out of playing with toys I had a large collection and wasn’t sure what to do with it. For whatever reason, when you start reaching a certain age it becomes harder and harder to sit down with Batman/Superman/whatever and play a plot. I still loved toys, but I just couldn’t seem to get into voicing characters and sounds. It just seemed to disappear from me one day.

Now remember, this was all before the internet was common place, there was no Ebay to buy things or digital cameras to make comics with toys. You either played with your toys, or you didn’t. I’m also a big wrestling fan and things were just starting to get interesting to me with wrestling. So my best friend (Who was also suffering from Growing up-itus) decided to try our hands at something new… Wrestling with toys. (more…)

Paul’s Peg > A Truly Great G.I. Joe Custom

June 29, 2009 | Paul

GIJoeFatalFluffy

The above monster figure is an example of one of the coolest ideas for a custom toy I’ve ever seen and it’s based on something that I hold near and dear to me. You see, the above figure is from an part of a series of episodes of the G.I. Joe cartoon entitled Pyramid of Darkness. In a sort of rip off of Gremlins there are these little furry animals that are suddenly changed into the horrific whip cracking aliens you see here. They’re never really explained in the series and they pretty much sums up why the G.I. Joe cartoon was stupidly awesome.

They also represent something that I thought was weird when I was a kid. Why didn’t they make figures of them? Of course as I got a bit older I realized that it was best that they didn’t, but when Pyramid of Darkness came out I was still pretty little and I embraced all the super weird over the top sci-fi elements found in the cartoons. Now that I’m older, I’m more into the military element of G.I. Joe, but I like that it can be fluid and sometimes incorporate the more fantastic.

Kudos to the customizer, for perfectly capturing something that might otherwise shrugged off as stupid or not worthy of being in the G.I. Joe universe.

Thanks to: HissTank.com

Roundup Review

June 29, 2009 | Poe

Sadly, the editor of Fanmode has decided to stop compiling weekly toy reviews. I know from experience that this is a time-consuming task, so I certainly don’t blame him.

However, this means I have to decide what to do for PGPoA. I’m not inclined to write my own roundups because, again, it’s time-consuming. So there are basically three main options:

1.) I can continue to throw in reviews among the other news articles in the news aggregator on the sidebar (or post only reviews on the aggregator)

3.) I can create a second aggregator with just toy reviews

4.) I can see if some enthusiastic Poester is willing to pick up the slack and create a more in-depth roundup of reviews (like Fanmode’s) once or twice a week.

Frankly, the real question is: did any of you really find the roundups useful? They rarely had any comments, so I’m not sure how much you were interested in them.

DCUC9 packaged pics

June 26, 2009 | Poe

I’ll let y’all get back to arguing about Transformers 2 in just a second…first I wanted to make sure you’d seen the DCUC9 packaged images Mattel just posted on their Facebook page (note the odd “First time in 6 inch!” on Guardian’s blister…funny!).

Enjoy! (more…)