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…)

Happy Tri-Klops Day

August 17, 2009 | Poe

P4017_TriClops_fullsizeimag

Unfortunately, today is not the end of the Red Screen of Doom for those of us who subscribed, as there are no doubt bonus figures, Battle Cats and stands in our future. But at least I’ll get September off.

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…)

The effect of inflation on action figure prices

August 14, 2009 | Poe

He-Man.org member Mermisto has written up an interesting post examining inflation and it’s relation to the action figure industry. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do but never got around to it, and I think Mermisto did a better job anyway because he had access to the old Sears Wish Book catalogs.

I’m not going to blockquote what he wrote (it’ll screw up the page after the “Read More”). His post starts with the quotations.

“When the MOTUC series was first announced, I thought the $20 price tag was a little much for an action figure, but since I have been collecting vintage toys over the past decade, I am used to paying over $20 a piece for dolls and action figures anyways, so it did not bother me too much.

However, I was recently curious as to how expensive the toys I grew up with really were. I know a lot of times nowadays I tend to look at prices at Target and Wal-Mart with vintage goggles on, as I remember back to the 1980’s when I could get She-Ra or Catra for $6.99 at K-Mart back in 1985.

So, using a handy price inflation converter, I looked up all the prices in my vintage Sears Wish Books, and converted them into current prices. (I rounded the current prices to the nearest dollar, or five dollar increments if they were over $20.)

1985

Toy / Original Price / Price If Sold Today

Castle Grayskull / 29.99 / 59.99
Snake Mountain / 44. 99 / 89.99
Night Stalker / 8.99 / 17.99
Spydor / 24.99 / 49.99
Bashasaurus / 13.99 / 29.99
Fright Zone / 28.99 / 59.99
Hordak / 5.49 / 10.99
Thunder Punch He-Man / 6.99 / 13.99
Modulok / 7.99 / 15.99
Land Shark / 11.99 / 24.99
Crystal Castle / 32.99 / 69.99
She-Ra / 6.99 / 13.99
Enchanta Swan / 17.99 / 34.99
She-Ra with Swift Wind / 14.99 / 29.99
(more…)

Mattycollector to refund “tax” on international collectors

August 14, 2009 | Poe

I know a number of fans were concerned about the $3 tax that they received with their Mattycollector subscription orders. Mattycollector has posted this on their website:

Oops!

Lots of you have asked and we’ve finally gotten to the bottom of the $3 tax on international customers who purchased the Club Eterniaâ„¢ subscription for 2010. Turns out it was a tax coding error on our part. My team has identified how the error happened and is processing refunds to all customers who were mistakenly charged. You should see it on your statement within the next two to three weeks

Sincere apologies for all the confusion.

—Matty

Review > He-Ro (Masters of the Universe Classics)

August 13, 2009 | Poe

Poe’s note: You may have noticed I’ve started using larger photos in my reviews. I thought people might enjoy the higher resolution and detail, but if they’re proving to take too long to load or see all at once on your screen, please let me know in the comments.

he-ro_artSpend any time reading various toy-related blogs and forums and you encounter a lot of complaining, nitpicking and so forth. It’s easy to lose sight of the bigger picture: we finally got He-Ro! (Oh, and movie-based Ghostbusters figures.)

In 1987, Mattel’s Masters of the Universe, once master of the action figure boys’ toys aisle, was on its last legs (due as much to corporate mismanagement as any true waning of popularity). Mattel’s designers tried to inject some life back into the brand with the Powers of Grayskull concept, set in a prehistoric “Pre-Eternia” (nicknamed Preternia by fans) long before He-Man’s time, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and evil stalked the land in the form of the Snake Men.

Some of the Powers of Grayskull toys made it into stores, such as the incredibly awesome Tyrantisaurus Rex (which I owned and, later, painted red to make it into Devil Dinosaur…man, I wish I still had that thing), but none of the human figures made it to retail, including the main character, He-Ro. However, photos of these figures did appear in product catalogs, which eventually made the rounds among fans, and thus He-Ro passed into MOTU legendry.

According to the licensing guide for Powers of Grayskull, He-Ro’s real name was originally “Gray,” and as a teenager he was granted mysterious sorcerous abilities after an adventure in a cave (paging Dr. Freud!). There was also some hints among the various materials and from interviews with designers that He-Ro was intended to be He-Man’s ancestor, a role that was changed to King Grayskull in the 2002 cartoon series.

The brand managers at Mattel are slowly developing a new canon for Masters of the Universe Classics, incorporating bits and pieces from every incarnation of MOTU to date. To make his story fit–particularly when the mythos (muthos?) incorporates the very similar King Grayskull–they created a very different bio for He-Ro. (more…)

Mattycollector update on Club Eternia

August 12, 2009 | Poe

He-Fans,

The 2010 Club Eternia subscription ends this Friday at 12:00 noon eastern time. This is your only way to be guaranteed the Jan – Dec figure of the month plus the exclusive Club figure Wun-Dar the Savage He-Man which comes complete with removable battle armor, black Power Sword, half black Power Sword, ray gun and Eternian meal. This figure will not be sold in any other way. You must be a member to get him.

Club members will also get a poster-sized map of Eternia. This is all-new art shown postcard sized at SDCC. The poster will also feature secrets of the Power of Grayskull and the Elders printed on the reverse. These will be never before revealed secrets to help complete the storyline behind MOTU Classics for the true fans.

There may be a few other bonus items thrown in during the year for members only such as coupons and other MOTU schwag.

To become a member and sign up for a year of figures, visit my site MattyCollector.com today! Hurry, offer ends this Friday!

PS: The Jan figure will be Adora, the Feb figure will be Trap-Jaw/Kronis and the March figure will be Moss Man, most likely with partial flocking. Still working on this one…

Odds ‘n Ends for 8/11/09

August 11, 2009 | Poe

Odds N Ends

  • As you can see, I’ve brought back the original Odds ‘N Ends picture. The newer version just never grew on me. Further bulletins as events warrant.
  • I noticed in the poll that a good number of people have listed “Other” for toy message boards they visit regularly. Just curious, what are they? What did I miss, or what am I missing?
  • In case you missed it, Mattel’s going to have flight stands for DCUC in early 2010. The post would seem to indicate they’ll work for MOTUC too.
  • As you may have heard, the Walmart DCUC 5-pack is popping up here and there. It retails for about $55, and in case you didn’t know, you can get the de-mulleted Superman and black-and-gray Batman separately.
  • Received my He-Ro. Review forthcoming. In case you’re wondering, I got a green gem, not that it mattered much to me. Although I didn’t really want red.
  • I beat Ghostbusters: The Video Game last night. It’s a great game, with what’s easily the funniest dialogue I’ve ever heard in a video game (slight spoiler: there’s a scene where the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man is climbing a building to get at them, and Peter looks over the edge and says, “I’m impressed with his agility, considering his complete lack of bones.” Murray nails the line and I had to pause the game until I stopped laughing). I initially beat it on the easy difficulty, and now that I’m on normal, I see why one reviewer referred to it as a “medic simulator.” The other ‘Busters go down every few seconds in the middle of a tough battle. Still, it’s a blast, and if anyone wants to try some multiplayer ‘busting let me know.
  • I can’t keep up with all the conventions. Seems like SDCC just ended and yet WizardWorld Chicago is already over, and now Joecon starts Thursday. Anyone going? I imagine this will be a pretty momentous one.
  • Is anyone else watching Warehouse 13? Have I asked this before? Well anyway, Dr. Mrs. Ghostal and I have added that and Eureka to our viewing pleasure. We have a lot of catching up to do on the latter, however. Anyway, regarding Warehouse 13, I like the new cast member they added, the computer chick–though is it me, or is that show becoming more about Saul Rubinek than the Scully/Mulder surrogates? Am I talking to myself here?

Flock of Moss

August 9, 2009 | Poe

More from Mattycollector on the Moss Man problem:

Thanks to so many fans for chiming in over the weekend on the Moss Man issue. As you know, those damn laws of physics just won’t let the flocking work on a figure that is so articulated. We did see some cool fan photo-shopped images of a partial flocked Moss Man and a repainted Moss Man with more paint ops to the face and hands. Both are interesting options. Remember these are fan images, not official images from Mattel of actual product.

Let us know what you think here on my Facebook page and on fan sites such Actionfigureinsider.com, He-Man.org and Fwoosh.com (among others). We’ll check back on Monday to see what everyone has to day! [sic]

Evidently we’re just not going to be able to get the figure fully flocked. I think the partial flocking is the best solution, as long as it can be done well–that is, the flocking sort of fades at the edges, rather than looking like a thick piece of topsoil glued to his thighs or whatever. That’s probably my preferred choice at this point.

Thoughts everyone?

Clusterflock

August 7, 2009 | Poe

Mattel appears to be having some trouble flocking the new Moss Man.

Hey He-Fans,

Just to let everyone know, we are working out some of the kinks with Moss Man right now. The flocking on a highly articulated figure is a bit tricker then we expected. There is a chance Moss Man may get pushed out to April and the “as-of-yet-unannounced” April figure will get bumped up to March (see why we have bonus figures in tow, stuff like this happens a lot!). This is not confirmed yet, just want to keep you all in the loop.

And along those lines, would fans be interested in Moss Man if he was not flocked? Or is this a make or break deal? We are doing everything we can to keep him flocked, but just curious what fans think?

If the only way to flock him would be to limit the articulation would that be okay also? Curious what you all think?

We want to hear your feedback!

Matty

Personally–and I know this may be sacrilege to some–but I can do without the flocking. Never cared for it, like cloth on smaller-scale toys. It can wear off and look shabby after a while. And I definitely don’t want to lose any articulation.

I’d be happy with a Moss Man made using the Beast Man body with a few newly tooled pieces to reflect the moss (similar to how ToyBiz built Man-Thing around a Sasquatch body–or maybe vice versa, I don’t remember).