September 20, 2011 | Poe
- Mattel has cancelled the Ghostbusters subscription for 2012. The announced figures will still be sold on Mattycollector, but they won’t be shipped to subscribers. Bummer, but is anyone really surprised? In an ideal world, each Ghostbuster would have had a unique body type and a head sculpt by the Horsemen (and every figure in the line should have been fully sculpted by the Horsemen); each Ghostbuster would have come with a proton stream; there would have been more cool ghosts and fewer repaints; and Mattel would have added 6″-scale Real Ghostbusters figures by the second year. I suppose that all would have been too expensive, but I don’t know that they really tried, either–Mattel always seemed to treat Ghostbusters like an afterthought (with the exception of Stay-Puft). I suppose it’s just as well they’re not doing Back to the Future figures. (Thanks to Action Figure Blues for the tip.)
- DC Direct finally announced their Arkham City figures, due to arrive on the shockingly early (for DCD) date of December 2011 (April 2012 if you factor in the standard DCD delay). They look pretty good but a.) Batman had better come with an alternate cowled head, b.) Bruce Wayne looks like Archer, c.) Harley had better have a ball jointed neck this time, and d.) there’s too much gloss on Robin’s hood.
- Don’t forget that Power-Con/ThunderCon is this weekend. Should be interesting–I really do wish I could have made it. Are there any Poesters going who would like to report back on what they find?
September 20, 2011 | Poe
September 19, 2011 | Rustin Parr
“Retro Cloth Figures” have made a surprising come back in the last few years. I’m not sure if it’s because fans of them are now working at toy companies, they’re easier to produce with minimal tooling costs, or that there is a substantial market for them, but most lines can get a couple waves out before disappearing (which is better than a lot of Action Figure lines do these days). The fascination all began back in the sixties when toy manufacturer Mego introduced what was essentially Barbie for Boys – a generic body with cloth clothing and different heads. The twist was ample articulation and a wide berth of licenses, so basically this is what you collected before Star Wars came along and changed the toy industry. (more…)
September 19, 2011 | Poe
Note: The cartoon screen captures in this review are from 200X Screen Grabs by MegaGearX.
The 2003 He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon (often referred to as “MYP,” short for Mike Young Productions, the company that produced it) added a few new characters, some quite important, to the MOTU mythos. Few were more interesting than the Faceless One, an ancient sorcerer who protected a powerful jewel called the Ram Stone in the realm of Zalesia. The show revealed that the Faceless One was in fact the father of Evil-Lyn herself.
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September 19, 2011 | Poe
For more on these figures, check out this post.
September 16, 2011 | Poe
Just a reminder, the MOTUC, MOTUC 30th Anniversary, DCUC and Voltron subscriptions are now open. Again. Except for the 30th Anniversary One. (Side note: Why no second shot at Ghostbusters? I was actually considering adding that one.)
FYI, subs ordered separately will ship separately in January, then ship together after that.
September 16, 2011 | PrfktTear
I have never been been much of a SpongeBob SquarePants fan. At most Ican only admit to having seen just a few episodes. The show itself is the only surviving Nickelodeon cartoon from the ’90s, having made its debut in May 1999 and is still in production today. I am however a huge fan of Mr. Potato Head, a passion that was reignited in my early adulthood and since then I have on and off collected all things spud. (more…)
September 16, 2011 | Poe
September 15, 2011 | Poe
1.) Chrissy asks: Could the next Skeletor variation (Terror Claws, Dragon Blaster, etc.) use Kobra Khans forearms and shins? This would alleviate some of the fatigue of getting another standard Skeletor body with new gear. And it would look great with Demo-Man’s freaky Alfredo Alcala styled Skeletor head.
This is something we have discussed with the Four Horsemen. Only time will tell!
2.) Wally2974 asks: Is there any chance with the Batman Legacy line being so popular that we might se some sort of re-release of BatSignal Batman? At the very least I’d love another crack at getting my hands on a working Bat Signal. (more…)
September 15, 2011 | Poe
- Mattel has announced they’ll be re-opening the subscriptions for two weeks, from tomorrow, Friday, September 16th at 9 a.m. PT through Monday, October 3rd at 11:59 p.m. PT. If you don’t get the Club Infinite Earths subscription, the regular figures will cost $18 instead of $15 on sale day, and the oversize will cost $45(!) instead of $30. The 50% markup on the oversized figures is probably where they’re making up most of the 40% shortfall on the subscriptions. (I realize some of you may prefer to interpret it as Mattel being an evil money-grubbing monstrosity. To each their own.)
- What struck me was the fact that apparently the prices on non-sub, sale day MOTUC figures will also be going up in 2012. That’s the first price increase we’ve seen on MOTUC since 2008. While a lot of people have been expecting this for some time, I suspect the excrement will still strike the propeller, at least marginally.
- There will also be a new subscription for the MOTUC 30th Anniversary figures. It’s a standalone sub you can purchase whether or not you purchase the standard MOTUC sub. The good news is it looks like they’ve managed to squeeze Fearless Photog into it, which at one point was questionable.
- I doubt I need to recommend that my readers visit ItsAllTrue.net, as I suspect they already do, but I did want to highlight Noisy’s review of the SDCC Classics Lion-O. It’s a good read for those of you who are curious how these figures stack up against MOTUC.
