If Preview Night was a deluge of info, day one seems like a trickle. Hasbro held major panels for Joe & Transformers today, but those panels focused more on the upcoming future of the properties overall than the toys themselves. There are still plenty of good galleries to check out though, including some we missed last night…
MOTU Classics: The MOTU panel is tomorrow, but Matty had some MOTU news today. On Facebook, Mattel announced the sale of limited MOTU prints. The images are available in this album, but here’s the scoop:
Are you ready for an exciting MOTU announcement? You’ve seen the art prints, now here’s the scoop…At SDCC, four limited edition (only 500 of each made) Masters of the Universe art prints for $60 total, being sold and signed by one of the artists each day for one hour only at SDCC! And if you are one of the first 25 people on the artist’s signing days to purchase the art prints you will receive a free limited edition Masters of the Universe Classic art print (only 100 made). The original artists will be selling and signing the prints during the following times only:
Bill Benecke — Thursday, 7/22 4:30-5:30 PM
Brandon Sopinsky — Friday, 7/23 5:00-6:00 PM
Scott Derman — Saturday, 7/24 4:00-5:00 PM
Ruben Martinez — Sunday, 7/25 1:00-2:00 PMThe pack of art prints contains 4 prints by the 4 artists listed above. One artist will be signing each day. If you have friends at SDCC who are MOTU fans, be sure to let them know!
In addition to the art prints & the Silver She-Ra, Mattel also has another giveaway – Moss Man Deodorant!
DC Direct: If you don’t mind scrolling past some pics of hot women and Marvel toys (tough choice for a DC fan, right??), CriticalMess has a comprehensive look at the DCD booth. So far, it’s pretty much all been solicited, but one thing caught my attention: Brightest Day Deadman. I didn’t know that he he included an alternate Boston Brand head w/ mask accessory, but he also includes a 1:12 scale White Lantern! Yes, I’m ashamed to admit it, but I’ll buy that for the lantern. But at least it’s comes with a cool DCD fig!
Speaking of DCD’s that will later grace my home, AFP has a spotlight up on DC Direct’s Red Lantern Mera and the upcoming Batman: Arkham Asylum figures.
Do any of you guys buy Ame-Comi figurines? I kinda want to, but I don’t know. The first ones weren’t that well done. I’m liking a lot of the newer ones – like the previously released Wonder Girl and Wonder Woman v2, the upcoming Joker’s Daughter, and the SDCC-debuting Raven. Well, I’m in-between on if I like Raven. Anyway, check out more Ame-Comis and some strange Blackest Night mini-lantern and ring sets towards the end of this ToyArk gallery.
Transformers: Transformers was the subject of one today’s panels, but with Botcon so fresh there wasn’t much to it. TFW2005 has a live microblog and a few images from the panel, but as I read through the names I heard next to nothing new. The push for Powercore Combiners is still going strong, but I’m just not feeling them. I like the idea of Combiners at a lower price point, I just wish the limbs were more than just spring-loaded vehicle/limbs. TFW2005 has a small gallery of the wave 3 PCC which look to be mostly repaints.
It wasn’t all humdrum though. Hasbro also had a panel on the upcoming Transformers: Prime series. TFW2005 has a round up of the news and images that came out of that panel as well.
Four Horsemen: ToyArk has a great Four Horsemen Gallery up. Fans can find images of Alluxundra, Scarabus, The Outer Space Men (including the final versions of the Alpha Phase exclusives), MAGMA Corps, and Symbiotech. For Symbiotech, we get a nice upclose shot of Oxx & Levia-33 in particular.
Michael Crawford also spent some time in taking in all the 4H Product. It’s the next to last picture that breaks my heart – I don’t know if I could be in the presence of MAGMA Corps Atrophus (both versions) and not get arrested for trying to smuggle them home…
Marvel: As I mentioned above, Critical Mess has some great Marvel photos up, but they also have a quick update on the future of Marvel Legends too. Click the link for the exact details, but it sounds like the brand manager would like to bring Marvel Legends back to its former glory. Couldn’t hurt to try, right?
I don’t know how well the 3 3/4″ Spider-Man line fits in with MU, but ToyArk has a gallery of some cool figures like Carnage and this crazy Venom – and look! Leg articulation! And since when are symbiotes clear blue?
Star Wars: Star Wars seems to be the one line I’m having trouble keeping track of at SDCC, but that’s because I haven’t been keeping tabs on it before hand. I’m not sure what is new and what’s not. After I post this article, I’ll be heading to Jedi Temple Archives. Their focused Star Wars coverage has been broken up into specific sections like The Vintage Collection, Geonosis 2pks, Hoth battles, etc.
DST: Long-time IAT fans might know that minimates are always on the cusp of my budget. While my heart lies in 6″, I would love to have a huge minimate collection. In CoolToyReview’s DST section, they’re showing the Universal Monsters ‘mates again (use CTR’s next button to see all 4 images). I may not buy them all but I could never pass on a Minimate Sarcophogus. While you’re there, expand out to the CTR’s DST gallery for more pics of those cool Battle Beasts, a sexy pirate statue, and some scary Trek Megos.
Ghostbusters: If you head over to ToyArk, you can see a small gallery of the upcoming Ghostbusters 4pk. I know it’s done on the cheap (Winston’s head is inaccurate), but I kinda want it. I’m still not happy with the GB line and this display says it all. Yep, just four guys on a roof shooting at nothing. And hey… proton streams? What’s up with that?
NECA & Mezco: AFI has a sideways, but still unbelievable shot of an upcoming Neca toy. It’s cool, but don’t we buy toys so we can look at them??
Big Bang Pow!: I don’t watch Venture Bros (I’m a busy guy…), so I didn’t totally understand all the controversy that surrounded these figures being made like Megos (this was before my beloved RGB suffered the same fate). AFP takes a look at the Mego styled Venture Bros figures. Looking at the AFP pics without knowing the characters, I’m intrigued by Phantom Limb. At least I think that’s him…
Voltron: This is from ToyArk’s Voltron feature. I can’t afford a $200 one, so I’m counting on Mattel to make one (sooner or later). I have little more than a passing interest in Voltron, but I had some type of “vehicle Voltron” as a kid and I miss it dearly…
Funko: Michael Crawford took pics at the Funko Booth and there’s some interesting things to see including a shelf of bobbleheads – Sauron, Gollum, the Wicked Witch, and… Sarah Palin? What’s that trying to stay? The more interesting thing in the Funko booth though is at the bottom of the page – some small “Wacky Wobblers” of characters from the Batman family and Hal Jordan. I’ll say it. They’re cute.
Tron: AFI has almost 50 images of the upcoming Tron: Legacy toys, but most of the talk is revolving around the The Tron: Legacy Trailer was shown today at SDCC. I thought it’d be fun to compare to the original trailer…
Special thanks go out to the great sites beaming back coverage from SDCC: ActionFigureInsider, ActionFigurePics, Articulated Discussion, BattleGrip, Cool Toy Review, CriticalMess.Net, Hiss Tank, Jedi Temple Archives, Marvelous News, Mattel on Facebook, MWCToys, Open Your Toys, Pixel Dan, Poe Ghostal, Raving Toy Maniac, TFW2005, Toynewsi, & ToyArk.
Right now, the only remaining two figures I really want are Battle Armor Skeletor and Panthor. I doubt we’ll see them, but I’m really leaning towards getting the Club Eternia sub. Someone talk me out of it!
No, you must suffer with it like the rest of us. 😛
Bow! Vikor!!
How am I doing? 😛
Someone on another site mentioned something about how it seems Mattel is betting on a lot of people getting the sub this year which is why they held off on A-list characters like Ram Man and Mekaneck
I would absolutely HATE it if the sub incentive figure is someone “necessary” like Panthor or Man-E-Faces.
Well, it’s He-Man… does that count?? 😀
Ya know, I don’t understand why Battle Armor Skeletor hasn’t shown either. All the parts are there, it would be a high profit margin item, IIRC it shouldn’t need ANY new tooling, the major change being paint app on the changeout plates, right?
Even then, if that seems to obvious a money grab, Panthor is another no-brainer.
Maybe they’re waiting on sculpting some twin swords for BA Skelly. Wouldn’t that be just like Matty…
An edit function is something I can look into. 😉
Skeletor’s battle armor is different from He-Man’s and the plates were sculpted, not printed. So he would need those 4 new pieces, but that’s not a huge investment. I still think we’ll one one as a quarterly figure in 2011.
Thank you, I’m sure others would be happy as well!
Now, consider, if it was a choice between having the ‘correct’ sculpt for Skeletor’s BA (and maybe not getting it) or re-popping the He-Man parts in proper Skeletor colors which would allow it to be produced super cheap (and thus, it gets done), how would you feel?
It’s one of those things that keeps a person up at night, innit? 🙂
I honestly wouldn’t mind the armor being the same (though I selfishly want the Skelly armor so we can get it in Faker colors), but the plates gotta be new. 🙂
I can’t believe Mattel put that list out! That is hilarious!!!
There’s a million things that have to go in those booths. The only sure bet was for it to not exist or for Scott to keep one copy safe with him. The hired help is exactly that…
On Poe’s site, do you see that the Grizzlor doesn’t have that stupid tribal loincloth in package? Thank HE, it’s removable!!!
lol, HE sure is good to us.
As long as HE isn’t Matty.
Or is Matty on one big ego trip?
Retro Wonder Woman looks junky.
Some of the action league stuff looks good on the poster, but are we realyl going to get it when the main line is going south?
Well, no offense to those fans, but that whole line is somewhat junky.
I love the line for exactly what it represents and what they are achieving with it. I suspect that any one younger than me can’t understand that and I’m fine with it. Makes it easier for me to buy the figures.
Must have Starro Action League!
Also, I might be the only one who cares, but Diamond seems to be going a new direction with their Battle Beasts now. It’s definitely not Minimates anymore. I kinda like the stylized look.
I just like the Octopus.
What I think is more exciting about the Ghostbusters shown is that it says it’s a TRU boxset on the display card. Holidays 2011 here I come!
I’m just hoping it has a nice low & comfy retail price point! 😀
why do you have hypertext reading “blue winged zoar” that leads to a picture of a blue winged stratos? brain fart?
I meant top left not top right. I’m on auto-pilot. 😛
@Dayraven
Blue Winged Zoar is on top of Castle Grayskull!
@Steve Harrison
With a phenomenally successful line that sells out in moments and was initially priced with much lower volume in mind, I refuse to hear as many tooling excuses, especially when eacg character can be reissued and sold out again.
From the revealed list, we’re seeing a bit more ambition that way, we know Roboto will have gears of some sort. King Hiss won’t be very reuseable either. I want a Battle Armor Skeletor, he was one of my favorite figures ever! I’d want him done right, not with a repainted “H” on his chest. I’ve got a Skeletor, so I can wait.
Thanks, FakeEyes!
I can’t wait for Battle Armor Skelly. It’s silly how excited I am for it.
Fake, I agree with you. I do. MOTUC can be a paradigm shift for the entire concept of action figures. There is really very little risk and reasonable rewards Vs. the crap shoot of licensing.
Call me crazy but I suspect the Avatar (blue space cat people, not airbending) line didn’t give a good ROI.
As DR has said in the past and you echo, the line was priced out with the expectation of being low production run, probably on the order of under 5k a figure (which would be the norm for other lines sold via comic shop) and I think, again no hard numbers but gut feeling, I think they’re way past that, which means there’s sweet, sweet money coming from the line.
Yeah, Mattel can stop bitching (and penny-pinching) about tooling costs with MOTUC. You see them finding any way to repurpose any of that Avatar stuff? Not me.
(saying that, were I a 3 3/4 Joe collector I would buy up as many of those gunship toys as I could because that rocked)
The estimates on the initial six figures (remember the line was only planned to last from He-Man to Hordak [& Faker doesn’t count]) was 10k for the main two and 7500 for the rest. And yeah, if the guesses are true and they’re more than double past that, there’s money to be had. We’re seeing it in things like Battle Cat and Gygor, but not as much in the regular figures. Kinda weird.
Well, using some guesswork and assumptions…Battle Cat sold huge because he’s part of the ‘core cartoon heroes’ group. He-Man,Battle Cat, Man-At-Arms, Teela, Orko, Ram-Man, that’s the main cast. Gotta have them.
(which means Mattel is being REALLY DUMB in not getting Ram-Man out there. I can come up with a number of excuses other than tooling costs for them but screw it, just do it already!)
Gygor, I figure that has to be mainly scalper bait. The legends of ‘unreleased in America’ toys fuel all manner of insanity and tho Gygor never got past the proto stage back in the day, I’m sure the thinking is how ‘valuable’ he’s going to be, specifically to the Italian collectors market via eBay.
Ah, what do I know. I’m just a crazy man.
(were I in charge? Part of my task right now would be looking at all existing tooling and playing with creating some new, original figures as well as cranking out the classics. Why not Faker Teela? )
faker teela? now you’re just talking silly… that’d be like… i don’t know, like scareglow getting a battle cat or something! crazy talk! 😉
i can give some small leeway on ram man cuz if you have all your must-haves, why would you keep buying? i actually think king hsss is hitting a little premature, based on that reasoning… that said, i’m not exactly passing on him!
i completely agree though, it’s time to quit cheap dicking up around. to me, i look at the fact that the toys haven’t already been attempted to be pushed at retail as solo figs as a failing… BUT, let’s say we take it slow. motuc is selling VERY well. it’s time then, to invest in something a little bigger. he-man is out there, but let’s advance the position… license he-man out to like marc ecko or whoever’s hot in clothes right now and do a new official line of gear, shirts, jackets, trucker hats… things that can be done fairly cheaply, and yeild a fast return. school is going to be back soon, new he-man stuff for kids should be hitting NOW! folders, pencils, light up sneakers, stuff like that. some would say, kids are not aware of he-man cuz there’s no cartoon.
really?
cuz last year, i did a little market research. on a rainy day, we took the boys to a burger king w/ an indoor play area. the wife brought her laptop, i brought tri-klops. i set him up next to her laptop. no joke, 5 kids, the only five that weren’t half mine, in the place, stopped by to ask me who he was. the boys all said he looked cool, and so did one of the girls. they violated STRANGER DANGER for tri-klops. it’s just a matter of putting the toys out there, i promise. you know why? cuz despite no media, there’s NOTHING like these available right now, NOTHING. these would immediately catch the eye of the kid in the toy aisle. especially if we could get the price point down a bit. if they could market he-man at 12 bucks a pop, he’d be back on the top of the market be christmas. i promise. cuz he’d have NO COMPETITION!
plus, i’m a dad… my kids have watched TONS of stuff from my childhood w/ me, not all of which went over, but some did… and he-man wins baby. they like the new adventures, they like millenium, they’re a little less enthused on vintage, but they still watch it from time to time. they know what i’
ve exposed to them. if i were in the aisle buying them school supplies, sure they might get a hulk thermos and a ben 10 backpack… but it wouldn’t even take convincing to get them masters of the universe hand sanitizer or folders. parents do still make decisions for kids, and i’d still buy that stuff for mine. and mine would dig it… and surely, i’m not alone.
Now who’s talking the crazy talk? Market Research? MADNESS!
I could have sworn I saw some ‘retro’ lunch bags and backpacks for MOTU a year or so ago, along with vintage Hot Wheels branded items. Didn’t seem to be doing well.
I think the problem is, Mattel seems to believe that a ‘toy’ cannot be a ‘collectable’ and vise-versa. Yet they constantly blur that line with Hot Wheels. Remember a couple of years ago when they tried to re-introduce ‘Sizzlers’ to the marketplace in totally vintage packaging? MAN, seeing the ‘fat track’ set filled me with tons of nostalgia (and I still have mine!) but they sat and sat and then went on clearance and vanished. What happened?
Oh, Zero advertising for one. Pricepoint was another. Limited car selection and from my experience back in the day? the ‘gas pump’ charger just never did squat, only the plug in electric one did the job. And, sadly, I think the retro packaging was a turn-off for today’s kids.
But it’s about getting the toys into the HANDS of kids. Your own experience seems to prove that. Even without seeing the cartoon.
But the thinking seems to be circular, doesn’t it? We can’t sell these toys without a cartoon. WE can’t justify making a cartoon without more interest. Without national exposure we can’t sell these toys. Hey, I know, we’ll have a big national roll-out with a new He-Man movie! But we can’t get the movie going without more awareness of the brand. (and then there’s the “we can’t do THAT, that makes the movie like a toy commercial! We have to be dark! edgy! Radical! EXTREEEEEME!”)
*sigh*
So much that could be done. Ah, well, let’s get ready for that Teela/Power Girl 2-pack that’s bound to hit TRU. 😉
I was secretly kind of hoping the Retro Action Real Ghostbusters would be cool, but I see that Mattel dropped the ball again. At least they have traps, but, man they look lame. I am unreasonably disappointed in the neutrona wands being movie-styled instead of cartoon-styled, too.
Well, more money to keep, I suppose.
They’re like a tease. The colors, the blue accessories, and the somewhat likenesses all combine to get you excited, but the overall package is disappointing.
Not ragging on ya, just saying, many of your links to TNI are now broken. Looks like they’ve moved things around more in their gallery thus breaking your earlier links.
Darn that Jay Cochran! I ran through and double checked all those links before I went to bed this morning!! LOL
Thanks, TSR! That’s the first thing on my to do list…
Okay, I think I got ’em all. I did something a little different and tried updating as I found stuff, but it was wrought with problems…
you know, i’m of mixed feelings on king hsss. i LOVE the character, and very much look forward to him… but to be honest, it seems a little early to release such a heavy hitter. one, i certainly would have finished out the horde before i did any snake men, but hsss tends to be the motu line killer. vintage released one wave of product after him and died, millenium released one wave of product after him and died. while motuc seems to be rolling along well, it does scare me a bit.
LOL Hsss kills the line?
I think holding off on Snakemen would probably have been a good idea. They should have tossed Kobra Khan out there like a teaser.
Noisy, we’re doing some on-the-floor coverage at Critical Mess from SDcomics. Among other things, SD has also conducted an interview with Scott Neitlich (to be seen Monday or Tuesday, after Mattel okays the final transcript). He says Scott was very forthcoming in his answers.
(Here’s the board link to the news as we get it, and we’re doing article recaps at the end of each day: http://www.criticalmess.net/index.php?board=17.0)
Anyway, one of the pieces of info SD got today was confirming that Ted Knight Starman’s cape IS in fact just a placeholder– it’s a green version of Obsidian’s cape– that was their best option available to them for display this weekend. His cape WILL be correct on the final release. Scott wanted to make sure that info gets out on the net. Don’t worry JSA fans!
Thanks, Rod! It didn’t occur to me check you guys out over there. Oops! I’ll keep apprised and have your links in the Day One Coverage tomorrow!
And glad to hear the cape was just a display issue. I’d thought as much but you never know with Matty.
That PKE Meter is too cool.
If it came in a 2pk with a giga meter, I’d be screwed.
I know the proton pack is the “it” piece, but the trap would be the coolest thing to have as a replica piece methinks.
Mostly interested in the King Grayskull reissue and the deco isn’t some Battle Damage variant. And if King Hiss is shown, that would be great but at 8 months to March 2010 it is a long time to wait.
I mean March 2011..duh.
I hope the KG deco isn’t bad/really different… my worst fear is that I will still have to go back and get the original. I’m pretty sure we’ll see the March figure tomorrow.
What I’d like to see tomorrow is the six figures (up through March) and then a teaser for May (if it is indeed the Faceless One).
BTW, for those of us who are WWE fans… the future of the elite legends looks mighty fine to me OOOOHHHH YYEEAAAHHHHHH!! i’m PSYCHED!!!!! we got mach AND warrior AND the rockers AND demolition AND hillbilly jim AND mr wonderful… some of which jakks gave us, some of which were not the best versions or particularly easy to find, so color me a happy WWE fan. now, if only we can get a harley race, a gorgeous george, a freddie blasie (from his wrestling years) and dammit, i want mr hughes!! i want a giant gonzalez and a great khali too, along w/ my ANDRE THE FRIGGIN GIANT!!!… and WTF is going on w/ current WWE champ SHEAMUS? still nothing for sheamus!! nothing last year, nothing this year. WTF is that?
Macho Man was the one hold-out I was waiting for to see if I’d finally buy any WWE Legends; so Mattel finally has my money there.
I also hope we get Uncle Elmer, Nailz, a decent Big Boss Man figure, the Beverly Brothers, Ludvig Borga, Johnny Polo, Slick, the Steiner Bros, Big Poppa Pump, Paul Ellering, a decent Jeff Jarrett, Owen Hart, and the Smoking Guns.
They do those, and I’m pretty much set; I got everything else I could possibly want from Jakks.
i think you’re SOL on the genetic freak and the master of the stroke… they just got toys under the TNA license w/ jakks, so i imagine they’ve verboten at mattel… the rest of your list though i like. the jakks BBM really kind of sucked, didn’t it?
OOH, i forgot, owen is out barring a big shift of heart (no pun intended) from his wife, she’s suing them right now for mentioning him in some DVDs. apparently, she’s still pissed about them kind of killing her husband.
i would think, if we’re getting hillbilly jim, uncle elmer has to be in the cards eventually. i hope. but yeah, nailz… ah nailz… and we just got the road warriors, ellering should also be in the cards.
MOTU is the best line ever!! The figures look gorgeous!!
genetic freak? Master of the stroke? Um…could you be more specific? I’m guessing one refers to Johnny Polo…….
genetic freak is yet another sobriquet that scott steiner wrestles under, as is the big bad booty daddy. the “master of the stroke” refers to jefff jarrett, who’s finisher is the stroke.
johnny polo would be fun, but it was mainly a jim cornette rip off. i much prefer his work as raven (though to have figs of both characters would be sublime!)
Those streams better be in an accessory pack. I don’t want to have to buy guys again for them (But we all know I will).
Winston’s head emphasizes Mattel’s cheapness. (no wonder they didn’t sculpt the mustache) As does RGB figures being mego style. (can’t get away with reusing bodies… hmmm… oh wait!)
BUT. $50 PKE meter… well, that might make up for everything.
the very suggestion that ML might be due for a comeback makes my loins quiver.
I thought it might.
I will kill for that LSH 12 pack. I mean it. As long as I don’t get caught, I will kill for it.
And then they MUST do a set of all the gals. yes they must.
With that roll call, that sure sounds like ’70s Legion to me, which makes me all tingly. I can’t help it.
DCUC wave 16 looks brilliant Riddler and Creeper looks great.I dont like that Hot Toys didnt show any of new figures but I really need to get Ezio from AC 2 hes gonna be my first Hot Toys figure I loved the game.DC Direct Batman AA toys looks fantastic!=)