Mattel on the cancelled DCUC9 orders

September 17, 2009 | Poe

From their Facebook page:

A lot of fans have written in about some canceled DCU Classic orders for Wave 9.

Mattel always does its best to fulfill product on shelves and we’re currently working on shipping as much of Wave 9 as possible. We will work with all of our customers to fulfill as many orders as possible. It is also possible we will go back into production of Wave 9 down the line due to greater demand. But nothing is set in stone yet. Still working on this.

In the future, we will be working even more in advance with retailers and online e-tailers to get orders in early for DCUC to ensure all orders can be filled.

Doing all we can do on this – you have my word!

And to clarify, we will not be selling Wave 9 on Mattycollector.com. Although we reviewed this option a few months back, because online and brick and mortar retailers needed Wave 9 product, we released what we had hoped to sell on Mattycollector to these customers. We’re hoping that by Wave 11 we can indeed offer DCUC on Mattycollector.com and fill all customer orders too. We’ll have more details if they are available and if this goes forward. Again, nothing set in stone right now.

I know many of you aren’t happy about this, and that’s completely justified. Not too sure how much promise there is here in terms of fulfilling those canceled orders, other than “we’ll try” and saying they might go back into production on Wave 9 (which seems unlikely). But at least they made a statement about it rather than ignoring the issue.

I’m curious–have any of you been directly affected by this, i.e., you haven’t had your pre-order filled?

Ask Mattel for September 15

September 15, 2009 | Poe

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1.) Does MOTUC Trap-Jaw’s robotic arm have a hinge joint at the elbow and a ball joint at the shoulder?

Yes. Trap Jaw’s robotic arm has the same articulation points as a regular He-Man arm. However, some of the characteristic sculpt details on Trap Jaw’s robotic arm limit some of the range of motion on his shoulder. We felt that it was important to keep those details, despite having the effect of limiting the range of motion.

2.) Finkrod asks: Does Mattel plan on doing re-issues of all previously released MOTUC figures?

That’s to be determined.

3.) Dayraven asks: Will the re-release King Grayskull get some re-engineering (like closed shoulder socket gaps or a removable harness/cape)?

That’s still to be determined as well.

4.) Fallen Eldor asks: How Many Bonus figures (not including deluxe offerings like Battlecat) do you have in mind for 2010?

It all depends on fan demand.  We’ll see!

5.) Captainzero asks: What’s the status of the DCUC Golden Age Hawkman/Hawkgirl 2-pack and the DCUC Lex Luthor/Supergirl 2-pack?

The Hawk pack is still in development. The Lex Luthor/Supergirl pack will hopefully be out in early 2010.

6.) George asks: The Walmart 5-pack was suppose to be out during Christmas, then I saw it at Walmart a couple of weeks after SDCC. Now it seems like they pulled it off the shelves. What’s the deal? Will there be more in Christmas?

This 5 pack will continue to ship through the holidays.  Shelf dates are a retailer decision.

7.) Mario asks: Now that DC has re-acquired the Archie Super Heroes (The Shield, The Fox, The Sting, etc…), is there any chance we’ll get them in DCUC form? How about the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents?

While DC has acquired these characters, they are not part of our agreement with DC.

8.) Joel asks: Will there be a civilian DCUC character released in 2010?

Possibly. We know there is demand for characters like Gordon, Lois and Alfred and others.

DCUC12 Images

September 15, 2009 | Poe

Mattel sends along these press shots of DCUC12.

These are images of the original sculpts. Actual product may vary.

Spectre (with glow in the dark skin!)
Eclipso
Dr Mid-Nite
Iron (with real metal parts!)
Copperhead
Mary Marvel (with white chase version, image not available)
Desaad
Collect and Connect Darkseid

Wave 12 will ship in Spring of 2010.

Review > Deadshot (DC Universe Classics)

August 31, 2009 | Poe

deadshotI’m now cherrypicking DCUC, sticking mostly with Batman-related characters. Between his nominal status as a Bat-villain and his badass outfit, Deadshot was the only figure I planned to get from Wave 9.

Of course, what were the chances I’d ever see one at retail, especially here in Boston? It usually takes months before a wave shows up here–if at all–so imagine my surprise when I came across both Deadshot and Guardian at my local Toys ‘R Us. For some reason they’re the only two I’ve seen so far (at a couple different TRUs). It’s already quite evident Guardian will be a pegwarmer of Cyborg-like magnitude.

To escape the memories of a family altercation that left his father paralyzed and his brother dead, Floyd Lawton moved to Gotham City where he began his career as a criminal. In the process he trained himself to become a highly skilled marksman and adopted the name Deadshot. During one of his many stays in prison, Lawton was offered amnesty for past offenses if he would accept a potentially fatal mission on behalf of the U.S. government as a member of the Suicide Squad. Since then, Lawton has worked both on his own as a criminal, and occasionally as a member of the Squad. (more…)

Fwoosh has 6″ Public Enemies and Webstor first looks

August 18, 2009 | Poe

supesbats1

The well-connected folks at Fwoosh have posted first looks of Mattel’s 6″ Public Enemies and Webstor. First off, Fwoosh–and I think I speak for all toy collectors, but particularly those of us who wile away our time writing blogs about toys and secretly but arrogantly think we deserve some sort of compensation for all the free publicity and yet are ignored like–wait, where the hell was I going with this? Oh yeah, Fwoosh: you go to hell. You go to hell and you die for getting all these weeks-early free samples to taunt us with.

There, now I feel better. Moving on… (more…)

Ask Mattel > Mid-August Edition

August 17, 2009 | Poe

ask_mattel

Before we begin the Tri-Klops Day festivities, here’s my mid-August bout–er, round of Q&As with Mattel. –PG

DC Universe

1.) Emerald asks: Can we now be assured that the remaining Matty JLU 4-packs (Shazam, Doom Patrol, and Justice Guild) will in fact be released, and if so, what are the approximate release dates?

Yes, both Doom Patrol and Justice Guild will be coming out, but we do not have release dates yet. The future of the JLU line on MattyCollector.com will depend on sales of these remaining packs. (more…)

DCUC Walmart Imperiex Wave packaged images

August 13, 2009 | Poe

Man, just can’t keep up today…Mattel has posted in-package photos of the next Walmart wave on their Facebook page, along with assurances that Walmart has ordered more this time around.

They’re calling it Wave 9 for some reason…maybe it was supposed to hit stores in force before the Chemo wave?

Rumor: DCUC 2010 SDCC Exclusive is Plastic Man

August 12, 2009 | Poe

PlasticMan2

Blue Canoe Stew, the poster at RTM who’s been pretty accurate with his DCUC leaks so far, says the 2010 SDCC DCUC exclusive will be Plastic Man:

Plasticman with various attachments and shapes that wouldn’t normally fit on a single figure card. He’ll be the last figure needed to complete Mattel’s re-making of the SUPER POWERS
collection. (The others will come in waves announced prior to Comic Con).

Is he right? We’ll find out next April.