Poe’s Point > A Reviewer’s Manifesto

February 17, 2009 | Poe

che_skeletorRecently, I was taken to task in the comments section of one of my figure reviews. The commenter believed I am generally too lenient on the figures I review, and that my grading system did not reflect the actual quality of the figure. In my response, I explained I review figures based on the idea that I’m reviewing it for those who would be interested in this particular figure, not objectively against every action figure ever made.

The analogy I used was movies: can a movie like Finding Nemo be objectively compared to Citizen Kane? One could try, but if I wrote a movie review where, in my head, I’m constantly thinking to myself “Would someone who thinks the Citizen Kane is the greatest film ever like Finding Nemo?” the end result would be pretty damned weird, and probably unreadable. No matter how great a film it is, Finding Nemo is a film intended for a young audience, while Citizen Kane is not, and trying to review one based on the other for the purposes of making a recommendation to someone strikes me as silly.

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Mattel mid-February Q&A Roundup

February 16, 2009 | Poe

mattel logoI’m not planning to do any more of the monthly Mattel Q&As for this site. There are enough out there, and too many repeated questions. I think it would make more sense for Mattel to sort through the questions from everyone and post one large round of answers on Mattycollector.com, but hey, that’s me. In any event, I’d rather focus on getting you more interviews with the Four Horsemen and other Mattel designers and staff.

However, you can still come here for your one-stop shopping for all the Mattel Q&As around the Web. Here’s the roundup for mid-February:

Also, don’t miss this great interview with the Four Horsemen at Kastor’s Korner!

Toy review roundup (via Fanmode), 2/11/09

February 12, 2009 | Poe

fanmode-copy Jeff Parker reviews the Enterbay Fist of Fury Bruce Lee 1/6-scale figure. Excerpt: “Both the heads are sublime sculpts …”

Corey Tincher reviews the Mezco Toyz The Spirit The Spirit 7-inch figure. Excerpt: “… I’m glad that I picked it up.”

Erin Snyder reviews the Wild Planet Skeleflex Aliens Akafly and Dinos Spinosaurus sets. Excerpt: “These guys are pretty cool.” (See also.) (more…)

Toy review roundup (via Fanmode), 2/7/09

February 9, 2009 | Poe

fanmode-copy Sanjeev reviews the Onell Design Buildman Ranic (Standard and Reverse versions) figures. Excerpt: “… equal parts action figure and building toy.”

Thomas Wheeler reviews the Hasbro Star Wars The Legacy Collection Clone Trooper (with Cip-Quad) figure. Excerpt: “… he certainly comes with an impressive piece of weaponry that goes way, way beyond the usual blaster pistol these guys tend to be issued.” (See also.)

Scott Rubin reviews the Mattel DC Universe Infinite Heroes Crisis series Starfire, Captain Boomerang and Raven three-pack. Excerpt: “… a diverse and motley mix of figures.” (more…)

Toy review roundup (via Fanmode), 2/4/09

February 5, 2009 | Poe

fanmode-copy Poe Ghostal reviews the NECA Bionic Commando Nathan “Rad” Spencer figure. Excerpt: “… a great action figure.”

Shocka reviews the SOTA Street Fighter Revolution Zangief figure. Excerpt: “This will be the only Street Fighter Revolutions figure I’m reviewing for OAFE because the others all had the misfortune of breaking before I got them out of their boxes …” (more…)

Ask Mattel, 2/3/2009

February 3, 2009 | Poe

mattel logo

Better late than never!

1.) Please pardon this extremely pedantic question: starting with DCUC Wave 6, online retailers can order solid cases of figures to be sold as sets. Are these specialty cases packed at the beginning or end of the production run, or is it done randomly?

They are produced as orders come in during production and are not necessarily always at the start or beginning of the production run.

2.) Matty’s Facebook page appears to be quite a success. How does it fit in with Mattel’s overall online marketing and PR strategy?

Matty’s Facebook page is just an additional way he can communicate with fans. We will still continue to do Q & As and Toy Guru will post on websites. We found we were getting many of the same questions every month submitted by different websites, so Facebook will hopefully act as a central place (along with MattyCollector.com’s news section) to get information straight from Mattel.

3.) One thing collectors have often requested for Mattycollector is weapons packs. Are these financially feasible at this time, and if so, would they be more likely for DCUC or MOTUC?

The trouble with doing a weapons pack is it costs the same amount to tool a new weapon as it does a new head. So doing a weapon pack of all new weapons would be expensive as each accessory would need to be tooled and that winds up being a lot more expensive then a single figure costs. So if we did offer this, it would likely include previous accessories bundled together.

4.) There are some characters, such as Galatea, the Justice Lords or the Gray Ghost, who were created just for the DC animated universe and have never appeared in DC comics. Does your license agreement allow you to create DCUC-style figures of these characters, if you wanted to?

Well, we did do Batman Beyond in 6 inch, so anything might be possible, but all of the figures in every line is handled and approved on a figure by figure basis and in the end we work with our license partners at DC and WB to find the best line up possible. If there are enough fan requests to do Gray Ghost or Galatea in 6″ we could look at that, but it is likely we would choose to do Power Girl over Galatea first in 6″.

5.) What’s the status of the proposed DCUC two-packs, such as Lex Luthor/Supergirl and Superman/Brainiac?

We are waiting for retail customer’s to place orders for these before we can go into production on these.