24 thoughts on “Ask Matty
September 15th Edition”

1. Lois, Maxima, and Mxy? SOLD!

2. why is ghost rider in a collage w/ supes characters? 😉

   1. My question is, when did Luthor get all tubby?

      1. LOL

         Another one I threw in for fun. Business suit Luthor is tubby! He only gets athletic and fit after losing his hand to kryptonite poisoning and transfering his brain into a new young clone body (with hair! – though it didn’t last for long).

   2. I thought about going with old school Atomic Skull, but I wanted to keep it somewhat fresh. Besides, we all know that Superman Legacy will be 60% Superman anyway…

3. did you guys notice the thing on infinite hollywood? their question 5 was not answered, but instead, they received a dupe answer to IAT’s 4th question… funny.

   i have to say, i don’t understand why fisto would use anything but the clawful forearm stump… anything else seems very wasteful for a line that constantly selling itself on the premise of “we have a limited budget for tooling.”

   1. I just went and checked that out. Damn odd.

      Mattel changed things up on us this round. We now submit questions via an Excel spreadsheet with swanky drop down menus and the like. They were supposed to send the spreadsheets back all filled out, but we got a paste/dump job instead. IH got hosed. 🙁

      1. yup, matty is bastards. 😉

4. I’m glad there isn’t a premium on the Legion 12 pack.

   I know that non-male non-hero figures don’t sell, but I’d love Lois, Jimmy, Maxima, and such to join my Superman display. Still wish they’d get to re-release Steel from DCSH!

5. So when something gets bitched up with a figure, does that mean we now blame this Terry person for ‘not getting the memo’ on whatever, such as the whole rocker ankle thing, and the double joints and such?

   Like how can they still be trying to figure out how to make Fisto work? How hard is it to make a giant fist plug into an existing buck part? Isn’t the very reason for Fisto his low development cost and use of existing buck parts?

   yeesh.

   1. you would think that the advantage of a buck line is simplifying the “development” process. see steve, this is where you and i are apparently in the dark here, when we think of cheap, rehash, smooth, featureless toys, we actually look at that as simplifying the figures from what they could have been… for mattel, that’s a leap forward in technology, and complicated to work out.

      for reals… they’re the “biggest toy company in the world” and they act like a pocket calculator is the god damned dendera lights. i swear to god, i’ve never seen a company make things seemingly so very simple into mountains to be traversed… toy guru isn’t the brand manager, he’s their ghod damned sherpa.

      1. OK, let’s walk through this, try and see where the hangups are.

         for common language, this is what I understand the buck to be: Head, upper and lower torso, pelvis, shoulders x2, biceps x2, forearms x2, hands x2, hips x2, thighs x2, lower leg x2 and feet x2. I make it 20 parts (ignoring that torso parts are 2-piece, right?) Development is required for anything attached or carried.

         reasonable?

         So, Fisto. I haven’t really looked at the new version or the classic in YEARS so I’m trying to show what a smarty-pants I am by going from memory. I expect to be taken to school for any mistakes.

         Fisto Development calls for: new head, new right hand, He-Man buck parts for shoulders, biceps, pelvis, hips, thighs, lower legs and feet. Unknown is use of buck part of Roboto forearm. unknown is left forearm and hand. Torso parts, I don’t know if they can re-use something or if it has to be new.

         On my extremely rough counting that’s 13 buck parts for sure and maybe 16, out of 20.

         Seems to me to be a cheap and fast figure to make. Can’t understand why they don’t have the Fist attachment thing worked out yet.

         1. I’m kinda lost on this whole track of comments. We’re asking questions about the February figure which won’t be produced until around early December. The answer to me means that they simply haven’t addressed this aspect of Fisto yet (which is good, that improves the odds of getting what we want).

            Basically, if you ask me, I’ll tell you that I’m working on next weeks reviews even though I can’t tell you exactly what they are (cause I don’t know 😉 ).

            1. I’ll make it easy, maybe kinda.

               WHERE IS RAM-MAN?!?!?!?!?!

               That is all. 🙂

         2. you’re very close… most figures have three pieces below the knee, and upper piece that connects knee to boot, boot, and then feet, so there’s two more pieces that you’re counting standard (22) for the average fig… discounting pegs and discs, etc… and then the pee flap is a separate piece, and the heads are usually 2 part affairs… so i’m counting 35 pieces for the average motuc sans accessories.

            for for fisto, there’s the two heads (heads are usually two pieces, a hair piece, and a skull) and fisto has one skull, but two scalps. 3 new pieces above the double neck ball. then the right arm below the elbow (if they don’t use the clawful bit, the roboto bit looks too machiny for fisto) and the cock knocker itself, 2 more new bits. the two pieces of the armor, and the buster sword then add 3 more new pieces, and the 200x belt finishes him out for a total of 4 new pieces, at most, for the figure itself (4 more new pieces to cover unique accessories) so he rehashes 31 body pieces… and at 20 bucks a pop, they’re not making a killing on this line… right. any more killing, and the UN would come knocking w/ peace keepers and unilateral sanctions.

6. Why do Draego-Man’s wings need so much extra deco? I’ve never understood the “wargame miniatures” approach to figure painting — painting the highlights and shadings on, when a perfectly good sculpt should allow natural light to do that work. Do his wings in red plastic, paint the thumb-claw on it black, and you’re good to go. Make the wings thin enough, and light will diffuse through them to make them look paler without resorting to another layer of paint which will probably end up sloppy, anyway.

   As for Fisto’s fist, what was so wrong with the old way of doing it? Okay, maybe make the peg-and-socket arrangement go the other way around to allow for elbow articulation, and there you go.

   This ain’t rocket science.

   1. that’s how clawful’s arm works, the forearm piece just below the elbow has a nice mushroom peg on it, and the claw just pops on… why that exact piece can’t be used for fisto i just don’t understand.

      and yes, they act like draego man’s wings are like lighting an airport tarmac. it shouldn’t actually require that much paint work, especially if they follow their own trend and cast the bloody wings in red plastic… a dark red spray for depth in a few key spots, and the black claw tips… two whopping paint aps. it’s not like this line is known for their extensive paint aps in the first place.

      1. Well, DR, they’d probably make a new forearm piece for Fisto (and, at the least, Jitsu) because they wouldn’t want his arm to look all warty. But, as you say, it’s been done on Clawful, so how hard could it be to replicate without the dermal scutes? I would say not very.

         From the prototype pics, it looks like they were planning to cast Draego-Man’s wings in pure red like the rest of him, painting the wing’s thumb-claws black, painting the vast area of the wing membranes a lighter red, and then painting the highlights where the wing-fingers go a yellowish highlight. Meaning all that would remain the original colour would be the arm and first finger supporting the outside of the wing. Now, it looks impressive on the hand-painted prototype, but with that amount of paint, there’re going to be mess-ups on the production samples. If my Man-E-Faces ended up with a few of the fingers on his left hand stuck together by ridiculously thick paint (amongst other paint QC issues), how much slop could be on a “canvas” the size of those wings?

         So, in case anyone from Mattel happens to run across these posts, I reiterate:

         1) Less can be more.
         2) Keep It Simple, Smartguy.
         3) Don’t make mountains out of molehills.
         4) And Greedo sure as %#&* did not shoot first.

         I know that last one has NOTHING to do with MOTU Classics, Mattel, or toy production in any way at all. I just can’t stress it enough.

      2. I’m at work so I can’t look, but doesn’t Clawful have a specific forearm to match the bumps on the other side? Either way, what I really want is the interchangeability to be as broad as possible. Clawful should’ve been worked in to the Roboto Trap Jaw system too!

         1. he has some scales just as the end of that elbow piece, where the arm plugs into the claw, but i would sure think we could pull the fist gauntlet back the millimeter is would take to cover those.

7. I mis on the legion 12 pack a phantom girl and a bouncing boy….

8. The answer to the Legacy singles question said 4 2-packs this fall, while TRU.com says there will be 6.

   The TRU site does a better job of leaking upcoming characters, as well:

   Product Description
   Celebrating one of the greatest superheroes of all time, the Legacy 2-Pack action figures takes its inspiration from Batman™ films and the Batman: Arkham City video game. Multiple versions of Batman and legendary villains like The Joker, Catwoman and Ra’s Al Ghul are included. Released in three waves, a total of six 2-packs will be available for fall 2011.

   http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11531832

9. U$180.00 for a 12 pack???? Why doesn’t Mattel take my soul away?!!!
   Each figure should cost about U$10.00…

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