The Third Annual PGPoA Four Horsemen Interview

December 6, 2010 | Poe

PGPoA’s anniversary was December 1, and you know what that means–another interview with the Four Horsemen!

As always, I want to thank the fabulous Foursome Horse-some for taking time out of their extremely busy schedule to answer a few questions. In case you haven’t been following it, the Horsemen have been updating their website, FourHorsemen.biz, with frequent shots of the next Fantastic Exclusive, Scarabus. He’s looking incredibly awesome, and he might just be the best FE since Xetheus! (Not a knock on the other FEs, I just love Xetheus…like, a lot.) –PG

POE: For those who may not know, what is the concept behind Symbiotech? Do the figures work together in some way, or does the “symbiotic” aspect have it more to do with the “world” behind the toys?

Eric Treadaway: Symbiotech has been an ever-transforming property story-wise since it’s inception. We originally wanted to create a world where the characters that inhabited this world could look like nearly anything you could possibly imagine, and they’d be set up in pairs that would depend on each other in many ways.

Chris Dahlberg: Then, over over a decade ago now – before we even began making prototypes of the figures, we decided that it’d be cool to not only make an awesome action figure line of this property, but to also incorporate a game into those figures.

Jim Preziosi: That’s where the “tech” part of the Symbiotech name came in. The large characters – the Goleth – would have removable armor that would connect them to the smaller characters – the Pygma – to create a symbiotic link between the two. There were also various weapons and accessories that you could attach to the armor and other weapons and accessories to prepare your characters for battle. A spinner dial connected to the armor would decide movement and battle stats during the game portion, and the armor and accessories would have various values that would allow a character to become more or less powerful during battle.

Cornboy: Since so many other action figure/game hybrids have come along since then and most have failed, we’ve decided just to approach Symbiotech from the “awesome action figure” standpoint for now. If demand is there, once it’s released, who knows, maybe the gaming aspect will make a return in some form or another. There have been LOTS of technological advances since those early days that would allow us to have a lot of fun with that now.

ET: Wait… what was your question again? Haha… (more…)

SDCC 2010 Odds ‘n Ends

July 23, 2010 | Poe

This was definitely the year for me to go to SDCC. Shoulda tried harder.I’m terribly jealous of everyone’s who’s there. Crowds, stink and all.

Anyway, the big Mattel fan panel, which will reveal all the new MOTU & Ghostbusters figures, will be at 4pm ET. I’ll have my thoughts up, hopefully w/ pics, soon after.

In the meantime, here’s a list of the things I’ve found interesting that has come out of SDCC so far:

  • Guillermo Del Toro’s first post-Hobbit project is…a Haunted Mansion reboot? Rustin Parr: “Why can’t this man stay away from everything I love?” (Rustin is one of the few people I know who dislikes everything GDT’s done, including Pan’s Labyrinth). Personally I like GDT’s work and am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe Mignola will do some design work for it (frankly that’s almost a certainty, if he has the time.) Still, though, has there ever been a reboot of a movie franchise this soon after the previous movie?
  • The Tron Legacy trailer is awesome. I wasn’t quite as amorously invested in it as Rob at TR, but it looks great. I’m starting to think this could be something of a Wizard of Oz for the 3D revival. Anyone not rooting for this movie to be good is a registered Commienazi.
  • Though I haven’t played the game in six months, I can’t wait for NECA’s Claptrap from Borderlands.
  • OK, Mattel…I’ve been iffy on your Ghostbusters stuff lately, but I may have to get that PKE Meter. Then I’m going to walk through the streets of Boston with it prominently held out before me, occasionally stopping near high-traffic public buildings, waving it around, and then rushing off with a worried expression.
  • Lots of Magma Corps on display at the Four Horsemen’s booth, along with the expected Symbiotech and OSM. Scarabus is still looking great…hope we get to own that guy soon.
  • It’s cool that The Walking Dead is getting a TV series, but holy crap, if it’s at all true to the book, that show is going to give Battlestar Galactica a run for its money for Most Depressing Show Depicting Humanity At Its Nadir Lifetime Achievement Award.

SDCC News > Rustin Parr’s SDCC Report, Day 1

July 22, 2010 | Rustin Parr

Wednesday – 7/21

Preview night is always the worst and best day of the con. The first hour is being reminded of why you hate this place and how much better it used to be. Every company has a massive line for figures, the crowds are bigger than the Saturday horde a decade ago and all you can do is fight to survive. But once you find that first purchase (Batman and Joker Nlammoids for $3 each, in my case) the whole thing starts turning around. You get into the fun of the hunt once perusing seller booths and by gum you’ll see some really cool reveals at big companies. (more…)