Answers to WTFWTK 2.9!

[phantom1592]

I'll be honest, I think the question was pretty rude and accusory. If I was ToyGuru I would have been a bit offended.

He comes out and says that All six of them have been Lifelong fans and everyone seems to call them down on it, like THEY know more about the world and the toys then THEY do. As a massive fan myself, I would be offended by that.

Truthfully like Shadow and others say, nobody will ever be 100% happy and no real fan has the same vision as another. The way the have been combining the Filmation and original Minicomic storylines with 200x story shows me that they are true fans and doing as good a job as possible.


Of the answers up there, the one I personally hated was #8. The hand was open because the old hands were open?!?! That was always a FLAW back then, they shouldn't repeat it now. The old He-man had a straight hand so he could hold his shield. The old Skeletor had a curved hand... but came with a sword that had that extra little hand guard on the powerswords... So he COULD still hold BOTH the sword AND the staff at the same time. If we have evolved past the extra little straps on the weapons, we should evolve past the NEED for them.

Think how cool a pose it would be to have Skeletor holding BOTH halves of the sword and slowly bringing them together! I seriously hope this "philosophy" is rethought for future Characters/ varient skeletors

I LOVE the looks of the new figures, but I want them to Celebrate the originals, not be tied down by the flaws. He-man got two usable hands, I think THAT should be the new standards.

Naturally I'm not talking about the oddballs. clawful, jitsu, fisto, TrapJaw... I'm just talking about the "normal" guys

[JVS3]

Toyguru knows without a doubt that the question wasn't meant to be rude,
nor was there any ill intention behind it.
So let's please stop with any discussion of that.
There's no reason to paint a picture of a horse that isn't there.

The whole point of that question was to address fan consulting.
It's a line that was and still is touted as being for MOTU fans and collectors.
If it's for the fans, having fans involved seems logical.
So asking about fan involvement is a natural inquiry.

[Agostinho]

Toyguru

3. What can Mattel do to ensure that the bright bold colors we're always shown on press photos are what we're actually going to get when the toy is in our hands? Even King Grayskull's colors in person are drabber than what was shown on mattycollector.
We are always looking for ways to improve paint ops on figures. Many times early paint masters look a bit different (and sometimes it is due to the resolution on various computer screens) but we are very committed to producing the best product possible and believe me when we say every single day we are making changes to make collector figures better!

Computer screens? We saw the prototypes in person at Comic-Con. I guess my eyes were playing tricks on me and the Four Horsemen didn't paint them beautifully.

[King Kahn]

I would suggest applying for jobs at Mattel if you wish to work on their products. I swear to you, my friend, I am not trying to be mean. I am just being realistic here. Remember, just because someone has worked on MOTU in the past does not mean they are entitled to work on it in the future. Business is business. Would you have done a good job? Most likely, you are a good artist. However, perhaps it was just not in the cards at this time.

Emiliano did an AMAZING job on the recent Ghostbusters boxset!!! :hmgrin


working in the past doesnt entitle anyone to anything but it DOES give the more experience with the property. the fact they love the property doesnt hurt either.

[Agostinho]

But what fan should Mattel listen to?

Short answer? Me.

I'll be here all week

[Darkspecter]

I would suggest applying for jobs at Mattel if you wish to work on their products. I swear to you, my friend, I am not trying to be mean. I am just being realistic here. Remember, just because someone has worked on MOTU in the past does not mean they are entitled to work on it in the future. Business is business. Would you have done a good job? Most likely, you are a good artist. However, perhaps it was just not in the cards at this time.

Emiliano and Val worked on NECA's packaging and it's beautiful. Just imagine what they could have done for MOTUC's packaging? I bet it would be better than a few pieces of what's LEFT of Castle Grayskull.

The back of MOTUC packaging is pretty nice, but all I like about the front are as follows:

- lightning (stellar effect!).
- Names and titles.

The design, layout, package size and, more importantly, COLOUR are all wrong!

Red and blue Mattel! RED and BLUE! Everytime I see the orange it's like getting smacked in the face with a frozen bat! I think 80's Mattel was more with it than today Mattel. Hasbro is doing a better job with their classic G.I. Joe and Star Wars lines...almost EXACT copies of the cards. That's how you get the collectors REALLY interested. Bring them back to their childhood...with better sculpts!

[JVS3]

There's things on the MOTUC package I like,
but the lightning on the front is one of the things I dislike the most.
It looks like tree roots to me.
Trying to pull of graphic representations of lights of any sort is always a challenge IMO.

[Darkspecter]

There's things on the MOTUC package I like,
but the lightning on the front is one of the things I dislike the most.
It looks like tree roots to me.
Trying to pull of graphic representations of lights of any sort is always a challenge IMO.

Awwww.

To be fair though, MOTU has gone back to it's roots with the sculpts/figure design...so it's kind of fitting if you see them as roots.

[Old Bolty-Neck]

Aha! It's Evilseed. He managed to reduce Grayskull to ruins with his roots of evil! That's why the package looks that way.

[JVS3]

To be fair though, MOTU has gone back to it's roots with the sculpts/figure design...so it's kind of fitting if you see them as roots.

Yeah, but not back to its roots on packaging, so I say phooie balooie on your theory!

[Zodac101]

All I can say is that lightening looks awefull to me. But I haven't seen them in person yet. Mine will be here on thursday so I will have a better look at them.


Some of the answeres just sounded not like answeres. Like staying away from it. But I could be wrong.

[Lord Anubis]

Why are people so worried about the paint color anyway? The paint apps are what aren't good IMO.

As I stated in another thread, my He-Man must have been painted by Hellen Keller...... its just that bad.

Sure sure, the color is upsetting for some, but hey... at least their not trendmasters figures with 10 thousand missles. It can always be worse.

[Zodac101]

Ouch!!! Man Lord Anubis, that sucks. Sorry bout that.

[Bosskmr]

"10. MOC collectors like to buy figures in person to get the best condition possible. Having to order sight-unseen through a website worries MOC collectors. How well are these carded figures going to be packaged before they are sent out to avoid damage while getting to collectors?"


I could care less about mint condition cards WHAT ABOUT BAD PAINT APPS!!!!

The He-man sent to me looked as if someone took a green marker to his face (nose) It looked ridiculous!!!

I snapped the arm off and sent it back broken in order to get a new one...PAIN IN THE ASS

[Kalidor]

Yeah, that one sort of irked me a bit as well. Mine were just tossed in a box and 2 of the 4 cards were hammered with the bubble detaching.

Even the good 2 were barely C-8.

I'm not as anal as some people about card condition,b ut they should really address that. Obviously they aren't appyling the same standards across the board.

I am NOT a MOC collector...and I only ordered 2 figs (1 of each right now...so far... ) BUT, mine were perfect; I have to say.
I couldn't be happier with the condition and the figs. Paints, sculps, packaging, etc...
I eagerly look forward to the rest of line...boy, the months won't come fast enough.

Also...they should release 2 figs each month.

That may appease my impatience.

[Lord Anubis]

Ouch!!! Man Lord Anubis, that sucks. Sorry bout that.

LOL its cool bro, not your fault, unless you work for Mattel, in wich case..... im gunna hunt you down.

[Eamon]

There's things on the MOTUC package I like,
but the lightning on the front is one of the things I dislike the most.
It looks like tree roots to me.
Trying to pull of graphic representations of lights of any sort is always a challenge IMO.

Aye, the lightening ain't to my tastes either. KPT Lightening filters rarely give good results.
But that scroll on the back is what really shows up the level effort that went into the packaging.

I've already shown examples of what could be done which is keeping the same over all look and colour scheme but just with some added elements like weapons and skulls and better rendered bricks, lightening and scroll:
http://www.he-man.org/forums/boards/...86#post2009986

The packaging does say "adult collector" but you wouldn't think that looking the packaging.

[Lay Ze-Man]

*RANT ALERT*

As for the 200X, I agree that Mattel made some mistakes, but I feel that He-Man more-so just did not pick up with kids as much as it needed to in order to survive as a property.

You're right, but what is that if not another example of Mattel being out of touch?
It's as if they just assumed that kids would like MotU better than collectors.

Even to this day (go watch that documentary on MYP DVD Vol. 3) Mattel employees are STILL talking about how cool it was to make a line that appealed to kids and collectors both, and how the Mattel-created vehicles and variants blended seamlessly with the 4H's work. WRONG, WRONG, oh so WRONG!

There's a passage in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein where the Doc is so focused on each individual part of the monster's anatomy, that he neglects to make sure it all comes together properly, thus resulting in a stitched-together monstrosity when finally viewed as a whole.

In the music industry, a frequent practice is to bring in someone to mix and/or master the finished recording at the end, someone who's never heard any of the music up to that point.

If you see where I'm going with this, it's objectivity, and fresh perspective.
WE are the only ones who truly "experience" this line.
Not its creators, designers, retailers, or financiers.
So if too many of us are saying "Bah!" to the paint apps, the lack of bold colors, the underwhelming packaging, or the questionable slavishness to the Classic line's figure parts re-use, then IMO it's not Mattel's place to be able to question that.

But so far, IMO their response has largely been an indirect feeling of "Our way, or the highway."

Since the start, the elephant in the room with MOTUC has been the sort of dropping of it in our laps without any prior fan consultation.
The fanbase doesn't exist in a vacuum. Just because a handful of fans at SDCC thought that initial prototype was pretty cool doesn't mean that's the kind of line the majority of MotU collectors wanted. Go back and read the threads dedicated to "Would you buy a line like this?" and you'll find a lot of diversity.

But like the gist of Baena's post, lucky for me!
Lucky for me I dig the concept Eric Treadaway had for the line.
Lucky for me that I'm a huge fan of the Classic toys.
Lucky for me I can "fix" stuff like paint apps and wig hair.
Lucky for me I can afford $28 a figure.

Now someone's gonna say: "Lucky for ANY of us that we have new MotU figures, period!" Absolutely! Also true.

And of course I more than understand that this kind of line is the only way we're even getting new figures.
I just feel that with a little more consistent, honest feedback between Mattel and the fans, there wouldn't be as much of a sense of antagonism that I feel has been slowly creeping up since this line was announced.

And again, watch the docs on the DVD. Look how much thought and effort, planning, and trial and error the 4H went through to "perfect" the hip joints on the MOTUC body. And for what? For Mattel to botch the plastic on the loincloths making the hip articulation heavily compromised.

But what was the response way back on September 6 after fans gave Mattel the heads-up on this?

This is something we are looking into. Grayskull’s loincloth is longer then the standard figures so this shouldn’t be a problem for He-Man or Skeletor.

Sorry, it's still a problem.

I'm still left wondering what the point is, because if it's just to give fans the illusion of involvement, it's not that convincing.
And if Toy Guru's hands are tied, and his Mattel bosses are responsible for that kind of thing, then it's the same old Mattel of old, and nothing's as fundamentally changed as they would have us believe.

Either way, consider me kinda confused.

[Pravus Prime]

Toyguru has once again provided answers to your questions.
Check out his answers to your Round 9 questions!


8. He-man and King Grayskull feature a fully usable left hand (to hold accessories with), while all of the pictures of upcoming figures like Skeletor appear to have a uselessly open hand. Will all the figures be "ambidextrous" like the upcoming He-man, or will certain figures only have one (usually the right) hand that can hold an accessory?
You’ll have to remember that even in the original line, He-Man only had one gripping hand. Skeletor was designed to hold his Havoc staff close to the top, so his right hand is a little more open. Some figures will have two closed hands, others might even have a closed fist. It will all depend on the specifics of the figure. Often this is a choice made by the Horsemen when they sculpt a figure and we are proud to follow their lead.

Shouldn't that have read left hand? In the preview pictures, back of the box, and the early product on the Fwoosh, it's all the left hand that's open, save for the reversed image on the back cover of the last Toyfare (Which sports an open right hand and an accessory ready left hand).