Remember a few months back there was that strange teaser about the possibility of Power Lords returning? Well, that big ol’ doomsday clock has reached zero and the curtain has been lifted. Power Lords will be making a triumphant return to collector’s shelves in 2013 courtesy of the Four Horsemen!
“The Mayan year 13.0.0.0.0 has begun. As foretold in 669 AD by the famous prophesy carved into Monument 6 in the Mayan site of Tortuguero, this date signals the return of the “Bolon Yokte Ku” — The Nine Lords of Power. It is therefore, with great reverence, that the Four Horsemen of the Toypocalypse hereby proclaim the return of the Nine Power Lords and reveal the identity of a Tenth who dwells among us and has the power to save us all.”
Four Horsemen Toy Design Studios are proud to announce the return of Power Lords: The Extra-Terrestrial Warriors action figure line.
It’s been 30 years since world-reknowned sci-fi artist Wayne Douglas Barlowe originally designed the ground-breaking Power Lords toy line released by Revell. Four Horsemen Toy Design have just acquired the Power Lords license and signed Wayne Barlowe as a creative consultant to help bring the Power Lords back in action figure form.
Getting to work with Barlowe on the much-anticipated return of Power Lords has been the culmination of a life-long dream for Four Horsemen co-founder Eric Treadaway. Four Horsemen Studios are currently hard at work creating the new Power Lords prototypes that will be revealed during the Power Lords-themed Toypocalypse 3 Art Exhibit occurring in New York at TT Underground in February during New York Toy Fair 2013.
To get updates about upcoming figures and events as well as a complete history and our ever-growing archival galleries for Power Lords please keep checking PowerLordsReturn.com!
If you head on over to PowerLordsReturn.com, you’ll find more info about the plans for Toypocalypse III (including another custom contest!), details on the upcoming Power Lords Collector’s Club, some galleries for the Vintage line, and a History article featuring the origins of the Power Lords and just how it’s come back after all these years!
I feel like I died and went to power lords heaven!
The whole Mayan thing feels very forced, and wholly unnecessary except for the timing of the announcement.
That said, I’m very happy for Treadaway getting to tackle yet another toy dream!
Considering these will feature Glyos compatibility, not sure they’ll 100% be my cup of tea, but I’m excited to see pics come Toy Fair!
I thought it was neat, tying it in with the Mayan calendar.
I don’t know about that, it appears to be a real prophesy.
http://www.philipcoppens.com/2012c_art1.html
What does that have to do with the original Power Lords line?
In the original Power Lords comic books Adam Power is on Earth and the other nine Power Lords are from different planets. On top of that there is an actual Mayan prophesy from 669 AD that talks about Nine Lords returning to earth on 12-21-12. So the Four Horsemen announcing the return of the Power Lords on 12-21-12 fulfills the prophesy. Makes perfect sense.
So it’s a tacked-on retcon, which by definition is “forced”.
Unless the Power Lords materials had specifically referenced that 669 AD Mayan prophesy than it’s totally superfluous and unnecessary beyond the PR gimmick of 12-21-12 which as of today no one will care about nor remember.
Then again, some people have no capacity for fun. Cuz if anything, this is serious business.
I have plenty of capacity for fun, I just object to something so out there, unique, and bizarre as Barlowe’s vision being tied to something so earthbound.
Power Lords already has so much wackiness to play with it just doesn’t need the Mayan thing.
i just thought it was all in good fun, didn’t think they were being serious about it.
Sadly, it’s not about Wayne or the Horsemen having fun, it’s about the horsemen’s very insecure lawyer shoehorning in his own personal tastes
Is so difficult write “propheCy”?
apparently! 😉 i noticed that, but didn’t want to be “that guy” —
and there was also a prophecy that an American Indian would be sitting on top of the Great Pyramid to replace the capstone in 2000, but Zahi Hawas c-blocked ANYONE from going near the pyramids and Sphinx the last few decades. now that he’s gone, maybe we can get some real archaeologists in there?
The 4H? Yeah!
As expected, this news turned out cooler than the actual Mayan prophesy.
Toypacalypse is gonna be sick…just like last year ha ha
Yeeeahhh… Sorry Guys, I just don’t see this being very successful. They say they want a TV show. You want a TV show? You gotta tap into the children’s market and, lets be honest, the Power Lords concept can only go so far. Plus, kids want toys to go with thier shows (Like the new TMNT), and most of ’em don’t even know what the hell a GLYOS is (I’m still fuzzy myself. I get that it’s a toy with swappable pieces, but is it technically an “Indie toy” like at my LCS?) I know when I was a kid I didn’t want toys with a bunch of removable parts, because they’d end up missing.
There IS no kid’s market anymore. There are no Saturday Morning Cartoons, there is no Monday-Friday afternoon kidvid timeslot, there is no Toonami weekdays, both Viacom (Nick) and Warners (Cartoon Network) concentrate on in-house development (because they then own it and can exploit it in the ‘New Media’ world)…
*sigh*
Regarding kids not caring a lick about action figures anymore, MWC summed it up nicely in his latest review:
“Great articulation and fun designs make them the greatest toys kids will never play with.”
So, no need for any TV shows to pimp figures to kids who won’t wanna buy ’em.
(Besides, if we’re talking 4H and TV/video game/whatever deals, I’d infinitely rather see the 7th Kingdom or Gothitropolis universes tackled!)
Agreed — the days of coming home after school, or getting up on Saturday mornings to watch cartoons are over.
Video games and the internet out-competed pretty much everything else for kids well over a decade ago. Heck, it’s going on 15 years now. Kids today start with iphones at 3 years old, a recent survey said… no wonder there’s no room for anything else. 😉
It’s sad but true. I think it’s a poor reflection on society. Five year olds do not need cell phones or iPods. Nine year olds don’t need Instagram. I know times they are a changin’, but if a kid is handed everything all at once they won’t appreciate anything and they’ll have nothing to look forward to.
I take a kind of twisted pride in not knowing what an Instagram is.
haha… you’re not missing anything.
Actually, not to be boring, the problem is actually ad Dollars and the FCC. Local stations used to make HUGE money from cereal and toy makers buying ad time during kidvid hours (6-8 AM, 3-6 PM M-F), and of course the Networks did the same on Sat. Morning.
Then came the pressures. “those cartoons are too violent! They need to be tamer! Those cartoons are nothing more than commercials for toys! they’re programming young, innocent minds to want want want! Those cereals are nothing more than sugar in a box! It’s not healthy! BAD BAD BAD!”
And so, advertising pretty much dried up as various rules were enacted over the years. Regulations made things annoying and tricky for the stations. Then infomercials came into being (due to other regulations) and that killed the weekend monster movie, and heavy barter (i.e. mostly free to the stations) programming, what I refer to as ‘chick chat'(Judge shows, Doctor shows, Jerry Springer and Ellen and Oprah and so on) took over that all important afternoon time slot.
It’s all just a sea of anger and bad manners now instead of heroic people fighting for right. *sigh*
This is a world-wide change in kid habits, not just some localized USA phenomenon. Trust me, I live in Sweden. 😉 It was the same here with our ad-free TV channels.
Action figures and related cartoons are a quanit, nostalgic thing, and will go the way of other fads of the generations that came before us, like model trains or chemistry sets. There’s nothing sad about it, it’s just how the world works. Action figures had a pretty good run, 1978-2000-ish.
Well, it’s really a ‘chicken or the egg’ thing, isn’t it?
Wiki does a decent job discussing Fox Kids, which as a weekday thing died about 2002.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Kids_Network
It notes in passing that pretty much all ‘traditional’ Sat AM kidvid vanished by 2008.
I’m not interested in talking about cable or internet or any of the alt. delivery systems,the BIG money was always local TV stations.
See, there’s so MUCH going on that works against toys nowadays. No cartoons, no advertising, NO RETAIL STORES SELLING TOYS (again, forget internet. Brick Stores STILL do the big business) and prices are just crazy.
Yes, I know. Walmart. Toys R Us. Target. K-mart. maybe local chains like Meijers in Michigan. But that’s it. Not even a drop in the bucket compared to the ’80s.
and seriously, prices. $10 for a Star Wars or Marvel figure? TEN DOLLARS?! Ten bucks is serious money. That’s not casual ‘shut up and let me shop’ money. Hot Wheels does that still.
And yet Imaginext is pretty damn amazing. It’s full on ‘razors and razor blades’ with all manner of pricepoints. It’s got some super cool design stuff going on and they seem to be durable. It would likely be a bigger thing for Mattel if there were only more stores to sell it in.
arrggh. I tell ya, when I become Emperor of the United States there WILL be changes made. 🙂
Not boring… thats pretty interesting, actually — and is a pretty solid explanation.
This is Glyos:
http://onelldesign.com/
Click around, but beware: these are awesome fun toys that quickly become a slippery slope for any monies that you hold dear! 🙂
That said (and maybe I’m limited in my thinking), it seems like Power Lords demands a more intricately-detailed figure than Glyos articulation can bear.
Unless they’re doing them “retro feel” which I’m sorry to say I’m a bit over in general.
I can honestly say Glyos does nothing for me, and the simpistic, retro designs are not what I buy 4H figures for. If they’d done this “4H style,” at a 6″ scale with tones of detail and modern toy stylings, I’d be all over it, and I don’t even remember the original line. But as puny retro-styled figures with simplistic sculpts that could have been pulled off by any toy company’s in-house drones, like the Outer Space Men? No thanks.
Don’t really feel it’s fair to say anyone could’ve done the OSM. Remember, those are sculpted to 1:1 scale, which is pretty damn impressive considering how teeny those are!
That said, I largely agree with your POV, and sadly I think “tons of detail and modern toy stylings” are kind of a thing of the past. NECA still tries (and succeeds more often than not), but beyond that . . . ?
I love OSM. I don’t own any, but I think they all look fantastic!
Love the painted “normal version” (Infinity) ones and so wish they could come out more often. They’re just well-designed, well-sculpted, and tons of fun.
The upcoming Infinity Cyclops is so cool it should be on pretty much any collector’s radar, OSM buyer or not!
The clear ones are cool too, but a bit too tough to keep up with for something relatively unessential IMO.
“Modern toy designs are a thing of the past” has got to be some kind of Zen koan.
Always best to wait and see prototypes before judging… 😉
Who’s judging? :p
Agreed… I asked them what scale this will be in on their FB post, not sure if they ever got back to me. They probably want to wait until the launch. I’m hoping its 6″ scale, but thats just me. It would probably make more sense (not to mention drive sales) if they were in scale and compatible with Glyos system.
“They plan to bring back the line in all its glory, starting with a 3-3/4 inch scale line that will include a mix of traditional articulation & Glyos-compatibility.”
LOL… must have missed that part! Oops!
I remember the Power Lords vaguely. I think I had a couple of them (Adam and the reptile guy?), but they were pretty odd with the whole flip-around-body gimmick.
If, as others are saying, these are Glyos-compatible toys, then most likely this will be an easy pass for me. If they’re nicely-sculpted 6-inch figures akin to their DCUC work (with bodies to match), then it might be tougher for me to pass them by.
We shall see…
As opposed to nicely-sculpted 4-inch figures like the Outer Space Men?
I’ve not bought any of those figures, so I can’t comment.
I just commented, but I hope they are 6-in. scale. If they are OSM scale/Glyos compatible, thats cool, but just won’t be of any interest to me. I have nothing against Glyos like some people seem to, its just not what I’m interested in.
Likewise. I prefer the 6-inch figure offerings myself.
Zero interest in this. Now if they want to track down rights to Crystar, then we’ll talk.
I’ll definitely be looking out for these. The original line was probably the coolest 80’s Action figure line ever in terms of design, but sadly way too fragile and expensive at the time…
Can’t afford the space or money for all or many of these things, but I look forward to the reveals with interest. Always up for more weird alien or robot figures if I can sneak them in with my existing lines.
3 3/4″ Meeeeeeeeeeeeeh. I was hoping for some MOTUC-Power Lords compatibility. (Especially the blue guy with the pincers and the reflector in his chest. He worked for Skeletor at my house.)
Really? They’re going to be in Star Wars scale? That might make a difference . . . .
I don’ t begrudge the horsemen their vanity projects, but for my tastes and my budget, I’m beginning and end all 4H Studios purchases with 7th kingdom and gothitropolis. Those are just what I like in scale, style, and articulation.
I don’t think anyone begrudges them of their “vanity projects” (and I love that term, it fits well) — although some people (I don’t mean you) seem to be getting negative, really for no reason.
I can’t decide if they are just being trolls (especially the guy who comments almost the exact same post verbatim at two different web sites, that I have seen, at least) or if they’re just being negative nancys.
I don’t think the 4H expect everyone to gobble up everything they touch — Just like with OSM, 7th Kingdom, and Gothitropolis, these are very niche markets. Obviously they’re hoping for some cross-sell on the compatibility with OSM and Glyos, but thats just good business planning. I love their work on MOTUC and other brands, but I do not own a single Store Horsemen item. Its all very cool stuff, but just not my cup ‘o’ tea.
I would like nothing but the best for them and to see this and all their “vanity projects” do well — I don’t think they’re looking to make millions, these are just labors of love, and for those who DO have some great nostalgic attachment to Power Lords or OSM, like I do with MOTUC, its a dream come true!