WTFWTK 2.33 - Ask your questions here!

[JVS3]

Rules for What The Fans Want To Know:

• Each user is limited to 1 question per Q&A.
• Posts that repeat questions from other Q&As or from earlier in this thread, or posts that contain multiple questions, will be deleted and the offending user will no longer be permitted to participate in that particular Q&A. So check to see if your question has been asked and help everyone out!
  Be sure to check the posts in this thread before you, as well as previous Q&A sessions!
• This is for question submission only; not discussion.
• We will start a new Q&A thread when it is time for more questions, approximately every 2 weeks. So please don't start new Q&A threads.

The figures that can be produced are figures that were in the original MOTU, POP and NA lines, as well as in the mini-comics for these lines.
Characters that appeared in the 2002 MYP cartoon are also fair game.
Filmation characters are off limits!
Who will be produced will remain to be seen.

We will pick up to 5 questions we feel might get answers at that time. Please do not take offense to your question not being asked.
Also, we also edit questions to make them more concise, to be more specific, etc. Please take no offense to this either, as it's only meant to help.
It's nothing personal.

***Important note: Mattel has limited the questions to 5 from each site who submits Q&As.
Mattel has also asked not to submit figure inquiries about unannounced figures (eg: When will we see [insert character name])

Previous WTFWTK sessions (questions and Mattel answers):
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5
2.6
2.7
2.8
2.9
2.10
2.11
2.12
2.13
2.14
2.15
2.16
2.17
2.18
2.19
2.20
2.21
2.22
2.23
2.24
2.25
2.26
2.27
2.28
2.29
2.30

--------------

This past round of questions were selected by Darkspecter,
and proofed against old Q&As by Uncle Montork.
Thanks to them for their help!!!

The questions that were asked in the previous Q&A & will be answered in a couple weeks as follows (please do not repeat them, or questions from previous Q&As):

1. Eternian Poet: Are there any plans to create and sell scenic Eternian and Etherian backgrounds? (eg cardboard tri-folds that could sit behind the figure stands)

2. Spectror: In a recent Matty update, we read that “In addition to the 12 monthly figures, we are also going to offer 2 - 4 'bonus' figures each year, usually at the end of each quarter. These figures will be A-list hero and villain updates”… Would you give us an extensive list of who you consider A-list characters (both heroes and villains)? Thank you!

3. masterenglish & bcrduke: Would you, or have you at all considered running another fan based character creation contest (like with Fearless Photog back in the 80s) that would be made into a MOTUC figure,
and/or a "Fans' Choice" poll for MOTUC like the one that was done for DCUC where fans could pick some of the characters they will get next?

4. ian_highful: Considering that the design of Adora's sword was so popular and the fact that it is suppose to be a clone of the sword of He, is there any chance of a larger version of her sword, without the stone, being released with Adam or a He-Man reissue?

5. radrcks & Darkspecter: For future PoP figures that have skirts/pants (ex. She-Ra), will they be designed so the girls can ride their horses and cats properly? Perhaps with slits up the sides of the skirt or a removeable skirt with an extra cloth one for seated poses?

--------------

So ask those questions!

[joseephus]

Here comes attempt #7.

Seeing how the last two Cons had you offering raffle figures like The Spirit of Grayskull and an exclusive made on the spot He-man statue for people who attended, is there any chance of giving fans who can not attend a chance to win any other "future" con exclusive raffle items through Mattycollector.com? I know these raffle items are incentives for those who attend, but many of us will never be able to attend these cons due to lack of money, no time off from work, or a physical handicap that prevents us from travelling. Please find a way to include us who can not attend.

[RocketPunch]

The finished She-Ra figure has a gold sword. Could we get a two-tone gray & silver Sword of Protection that matches He-Man's in a Weapons Pak?

[Snake Hunter]

The sculpt of Gygor is all new for MOTUC? Some people says that parts of Gorilla Grodd has been reused. Maybe you can clarify this point. Also, the Gygor parts will be reused for another figure?

[Spectror]

At the beginning of the 90’s, Mattel had plans (and prototypes) for little creatures from the New Adventures cartoon and who were called “Cleanon” and “Galactymites”… Is there any possibility that these could be produced as pack-ins with some MOTUC figures ?

[Darkspecter]

The sculpt of Gygor is all new for MOTUC? Some people says that parts of Gorilla Grodd has been reused. Maybe you can clarify this point. Also, the Gygor parts will be reused for another figure?

Toyguru actually answered this in a thread somewhere on the .org. He said Gygor is a 100% new sculpt! FourHorsemen said so too. They said they're both gorilla characters so they obviously look similar, but Gygor will be noticeably bigger than Grodd.

[Uncle Montork]

Any chance we could get both the half and full versions of the blue power sword in the weapons pak?

[Tallstar]

Can you talk to Digital River about implementing a way to update credit card information on the subscription itself? As of this post, any changes made to credit card information only impact and apply to items that are purchased directly from the site. The subscription itself keeps referring back to the original card information that was used at the time of sign up.

[Krueger]

Would a new MOTU movie have any effect on the continuation or effort put into the MOTUC line?

[Angel-T]

Will Mattel consider making some changes to the MOTUC She-Ra sculpt (specifically making her tiara closer to the style design, putting her eyebrows in the same position and shape as MOTUC Adora and defining her waist line just a little bit more)? Many fans feel something is throwing her sculpt out of balance, in perticular the tiara looks off model and too wide at the top. Lowering the position of the belt and tapering in the sides of her dress would give She-Ra a more defined waist and hip area! Many fans on he-man.org and mattycollector's forums feel the waist and hip area looks just a touch to wide, especially when compaired to the more defined and sexy waist and hip area Adora, Teela and Evil-Lyn enjoy!

[RyDell]

I remember reading in a post long ago that a weapons pack could be a free bonus to subscribers. Well the weapons pack has been revealed, are there plans to make this a bonus for subscribers or did that idea die out?

[SAMURAI36]

TG:

Will you at some point, reconsider your position on Keldor's 200X dual blades? This was recently asked about, and your answer was:

The 200X Skeletor swords are the vintage swords. The swords designed for the 200X Skeletor was the Horsemen's tribute to the original classic sword look. Since this is the Classics line, Keldor will have a double bladed classic sword (both male and female Purple swords). There will be no "200X" style Skeletor sword. They are the same thing as the vintage sword without the anime flare which is not part of the Classics line.

The "logic" on this perplexes me, because based on this line of thinking, then He-Man's 200X power sword, which was merely "the Horsemen's tribute to the original", yet it has made it's way into the line, along with numerous other aspects that were strictly 200X in design and/or nature.

For many fans, the 200X style dual blades were something that many of us were looking quite forward to with the release of Keldor, and it's really sad that we won't be able to get it.

Again, is this something that could be reconsidered?

[Patreek]

You stated in a recent qanda that we'd see improced neck articulation for dcuc soon... will MOTUC as well? We'd like our figures to be able to look up and done like other lines from other companies can.

[Master Of Eternia]

Hi,

You've already told us that you will have Battlecat and Trapjaw available again possibly in the fall of 2010. I have one request for those of us that missed out the first time. Can we get packaging exactly the same as the first run? (ie. Without the 'The Original') I love to display my packaged collection and I think a lot of us would prefer to have the packaging without the re-release package changes.....pleeeaassseee.

[zodak74]

How is it possible to have an item (let's use Battle Cat as an example) added to your cart while it's in stock only to have it magically be sold out as one is completing the checkout process? And why does the customer have to go back and manually remove the item from the cart, thus tying up the entire process, and then watch in frustration as the other item in the cart ends up being sold out too. The entire process of ordering (not to mention trying to apply a coupon code that for most of us did not even work) was insulting as a consumer who has purchased your products for the better part of the past 25 years. After the fiasco of February 16th, what are Mattel and Digital River doing specifically to ensure this does not happen to us again?

[Adam_Portugal]

With the fantastic fan demand for every thing MOTU related, would you consider to get the rights to release a CD soundTrack/iTunes MP3 Album of the Filmation He-Man and She-Ra cartoon?

[cyberv]

Can you talk to Digital River about implementing a way to update credit card information on the subscription itself? As of this post, any changes made to credit card information only impact and apply to items that are purchased directly from the site. The subscription itself keeps referring back to the original card information that was used at the time of sign up.

When I changed e-mails last year, my subscription had to be updated manually by service reps over the phone. Try that.

I'll ask again...

Is there any chance that cardbacks might be made available seperately for those who collect the bios? Especially for the likes of King Greyskull, who doesn't have one yet.

[bcrduke]

Would it be possible to create a character like Horde Prime as a "Beast" figure - as a giant type, once and if the rights to Filmation characters have been secured (I know you said you could not comment on Filmation rights at this time, when you were asked at Toy Fair, which is a decidedly different reaction than you've had in the past )? OR, would the 4H depart from that design and create Horde Prime in a completely new way?

[TV8]

Given the fantastic result of the 16 February MOTUC sales and the fan response, will Mattel persist with its scarcity marketing tactic for future releases?

[ForTheHonour86]

How far will the other lines of MOTUC (PoP, NA 200x) venture out? Will you stay within the main characters or give the fans extended characters such as Huntara?

[beyond the legends]

Hi there, this is my first time ever asking a question. Who-hoo, here goes.

Deep breath...

What I am currious to know is, why, at the begining of this line, was it stated that the entire line would be based off of the original 80's toy designs? (This coment was a responce to a question about the P.o.P. figure update) Stating that She-Ra and the rest of the P.o.P. characters would look like their 80's toy counterparts.

Enter manly men reactions here and rants about only wanting the cartoon style of P.o.P. or they won't be purchasing them. Now all of a sudden we get Adora and low and behold we hear, Looks like in researching through rights and things you have the control over her style guide design,. Nowhere stating that this means all charaters will be style guide based at this point.

Then comes the BIG She-Ra reveal and BAM!!! Style guided design again?

I understand the men want tough ladies so they don;t feel like they are buying dolls and all. Thusly you deciced no rooted hair and plastic all around for the costumes.

Im sorry, but to me, if this is aimed at the collectors of a toy line, then this should stay based off the toylines designs they came from. I think the manly, brutt, powerhouses of the M.o.t.U line look like big, tough men and seem full of great strength the way the line was designed from the packaging art through to the actual figure. The P.o.P. line, to me, was the same extreme only on the opposite side of that, and that is what I personlly loved about the toys. The art work for the P.o.P. line in particualr was absolutely breath taking. So whimsical and full of fantasy, not unlike the artwork for He-Man's products.

I guess I just don't understand why, if she costs more to produce in said style, she wasn't just put off until she could be made to reflect the original toy design. I personaly will buy her, but will be cutting off her dress and making one from scratch to mimic her vintage toy and sculpting a crown to try to capture the look of the old artwork, including the bang tendrils that hung out the fromt. They don't have the beautiful wedged heels they should have or the pretty hand poses that made them so graceful in the artwork either. And if Adora and She-ra are any indication, they will all have filmation type faces aswell.

If it isn't completely obvious, I am (along with many of my friends, who by the way loved my fan styled update on the P.o.P. line) are just frustrated that you stated they would be one way, and then seemed to find a way to please all the ranters who wanted the Filmation style designs, but are forgetting about (it would seem almost on purpose) the vintage fans who have waited how many years for a newP.o.P. line of toys that captured the essence of those old beauty goddess princesses? To me and many others, the style guide designs don't cut it.

Sorry if this seems like alot, I just have been currious about this as soon as I saw the She-Ra reveal and have been itching to know what to expect for so long it had to all be stated.

This is what I personally would kill to get my hands on, style wise!



Thanks so much for your time and please keep up all the awesomeness you make every day. I would still hope one day to say I work for such an amazing place, even though I know this question probably doesn't make me sound like I would feel that way. I collect Barbies and lots of other products from you guys too and am a huge Mattel fan all around!!!

[Lookie]

Is the plan still to include stands with future figures, similar to how the DCUC figures come with stands? If not, why not?

For reference, according to Toy News International, it was stated this would be the case starting in spring: http://toynewsi.com/index.php?itemid=14786

[king.of.grayskull]

In SDCC you mention something about Armybuilder-2Packs! Referring to your Plans about the "All-inn" Subscription, there was no word about them anymore! Are they discarded?

[VaultsofGrayskull]

Bearing in mind

a) you have told us you are planning at least a year in advance (and you actually have a pretty good idea beyond that),

b) fans are after figures whenever they arrive and the potential slip on release dates is not a big deal to most,

c) over 70% of fans who voted on the Matty forums and over 90% who voted on the He-Man.org forums are in favour,

d) a pre-order system tells you exactly how many figures to make just as a subscription does,

e) you are constantly reminding us that you pay attention to fan requests (unflocked Panthor won with only a 60% vote), and

f) the proposed 2011 subscription with several items packed together is going to hammer international fans with Customs charges

why are you persisting with this obstinate refusal to set up a pre-order system for Classics figures?

[ByThePowerOf...]

Will Orko have a similar prodution number to the monthly figures so all motuc fans have a shot at getting the little flying magician or will his production be a very limited number?