MOTUC Q&A's From Around the Net (9/15/2011)

**Darkspecter** · September 17, 2011, 07:09pm

Originally Posted by DJ Force

True, but that totally wasn´t my point.
Gygor was 100% new tool. The cat buck has been used twice, with another two being Clawdeen and King Grayskulls Battle Lion still possible down the road. If they wanted to make Gygor a 100% new tool, they HAD to find possibilities to reuse the buck. And they did with the Shadow Beasts.

Oops, Battle Lion completely slipped my mind and I really want him too! *embarrassed*

I understand, I was just saying it would be great re-use of the cat buck. Mattel likes re-using things.

And who knows what else could be made of the Gygor buck? As Toy Guru said in various interviews: As soon as they have the molds, they can use them.

About more re-use for Gygor...there IS more potential re-use for him, like that crazy thing He-Man fights to save the Green Goddess and another mini-comic monster. Personally...I wouldn't be big on that because they would be $30 figures. If they were $20, I wouldn't care so much.

And they have the wind raider tool, so they could even make "a stealth Wind Raider" ;-)

I think more people would want Illumina and her cat than the Stealth Wind Raider.

Pure guess, though.

Oh come on. You aren´t on this forum for just some weeks now. You pretty well know what MOTUC is about, and that the smaller Clawdeen as well as the impressivly larger Battle Lion will share the same buck as Battle-Cat and Panthor.

I only said possibly, because they might make a new cat buck for Catra's cat form/more adult Cringer...so they might make Clawdeen out of that one. I know Mattel's all about re-use.

Oh, Magicat is new to me, never heard of her before. Is she of the same race as Panthor, too? Illuminas Cat is an Albino "Panthor". If Magicat wasn´t, Mattel could potentially make this one a proper new figure with bejeweled saddle, rather than just including it with Illuminas Cat, because she would propably need a unique headsculpt.

To my knowledge, Magicat is only in 2 Princess of Power Golden Books. Not sure if he was in any colouring books or other media. I have a LOT of different POP books and only seen the cat twice. Not much is known about him other than the name and Catra made his paw prints glow-in-the-dark so the path could be followed!

I would be 100% happy with Illumina's cat coming with the two sets of armour to allow for both. The cats are too obscure to really have separate releases. I seem to be the only one who knows of/remembers Magicat from my childhood and in general.

I'm going to go pull out my Golden Books and scan them for more info though!

EDIT: Magicat is a male. "His tracks glowed in the dark." is a sentence from the page in my book I posted!

So:

He's Catra's steed, male, and she "spelled" his footprints to glow in the dark so her army could follow them to Angella's castle. He's a good means of escape. When Catra's plan was foiled, she jumps on him and retreats in a hurry!

The other time he's shown is in Light Hope's pool as Adora remembers "the bad things The Horde had done" and the image is Catra atop Magicat. Magicat has a collar in this picture though.

**Emiliano** · September 17, 2011, 07:38pm

Just a note about Gygor.
The original idea by Eric was to just do the Shadow Beast reusing Gorilla Grood mold.
It was me suggesting to reuse it also for Gygor. Mattel liked the idea and made an entire new mold for both, but they had been planned together since the beginning (or, better, since we submitted our ideas to them)

Unfortunately that makes the reason for not doing Illumina even less valid: She'd be a tolal of 3 new pieces: head, dress and weapon. All the rest is already a reused mold. So the "new tooling that can't be reused argument" doens't really stand up

**Penny Dreadful** · September 17, 2011, 08:14pm

And yet the possibility of super obscure characters like the Wind Raider Pilot from the model kit are "what this line is all about" according to an old Q&A?? Is there more demand for a character like that with absolutely no known backstory? At least we know something about Illumina.

IMO, she would be totally awesome as a figure. She would not need any major new tooling and she'd look cool. She could even be done as a quarterly figure.

**bcrduke** · September 17, 2011, 08:52pm

Originally Posted by Penny Dreadful

And yet the possibility of super obscure characters like the Wind Raider Pilot from the model kit are "what this line is all about" according to an old Q&A?? Is there more demand for a character like that with absolutely no known backstory? At least we know something about Illumina.

IMO, she would be totally awesome as a figure. She would not need any major new tooling and she'd look cool. She could even be done as a quarterly figure.

Yes... this... all of this...

I think I have my question ready for Power Con

Truly, if Mattel made an exclusive 2-pack of Illumina and her cat for Power Con, or SDCC, or NYCC, it would sell incredibly well, and it would make Scott look amazing in the eyes of the fan/customer community.

I hope he understands that.

His answer about Illumina, when considered with answers to similar questions about the Wind Raider pilot, Demo-Man, Strobo, etc. just makes him sound a bit upset by the question in the first place

A good portion of the fan-base wants Illumina... the parts exist. She just needs a new head, a spear, and a bodice. Plus, even if people don't know much about her, she'd look super-cool. She'd sell.

The cape from Battleground Evil-Lyn would work perfectly. The Warrior Goddess boots would work perfectly as well.

Catra's pony-tail would also work (in White). If you want to get really cheap, then re-make the Spear of the Elders that came with The Goddess and cast it in dark blue or silver.

The cat is an albino version of Panthor... so use the same head, and just make him/her white with grey/blue or reddish eyes.

It's a win-win for everyone.

Please, Scott? I know you're reading this

**Darkspecter** · September 17, 2011, 09:32pm

How gorgeous would a two-pack look with the background from this picture?

**marndt8448** · September 18, 2011, 12:59am

Originally Posted by Penny Dreadful

And yet the possibility of super obscure characters like the Wind Raider Pilot from the model kit are "what this line is all about" according to an old Q&A?? Is there more demand for a character like that with absolutely no known backstory? At least we know something about Illumina.

A perfect rebuttal to TG's Illumina response.

....you've got to give Scott credit though. He's trying really hard to let us down easy (well, at least those us of us who want an Illumina figure).

Best case scenario is Scott truly does like the look of this character as much as he's said he does and can change upper management's stance one day.

How long is the 'road map' for figures now? 2017? 2018? 2019? If he's already started wearing them down, maybe Illumina could be sneaked in somewhere towards the end of the line. I'll be buying figures right up till the end anyways. I'll wait.

**Hosed Ovor** · September 18, 2011, 01:23am

I find it hard to believe that Mattel's upper management is calling the shots on character selection. I doubt they even know who Illumina is, let alone who created her.

One of the answers in WTFWTK 2.65 sheds some light on character selection:

"The MOTUC line is much more of a river vs a mathamatical formula. Luckily fans have been posting Filmation request lists for years so we have a very good idea of who they want. Essentially marking, design and the Horsemen all say down for dinner and discussed fan favorites, personal favorties, character that would make "great toys" and a few wild cards to keep fans on their toes. Then we split the list over the next several years to ensure each year had a great offering from the Filmation bucket!"

**JonWes** · September 18, 2011, 02:22am

If Mattel thinks Illumina will sell and make money... they'll make her. So we keep mentioning her. We keep requesting her. We keep making fan art. We keep mentioning her on other toy boards. You spread the word and keep people excited... and eventually she'll get made. I truly think that.

A lot of it might be about timing though. I have seen comments from fans that they wouldn't mind her but she's lower on their lists of wants. I totally understand that and respect that. My thing isn't about making her tomorrow... just keeping her in the mix of desired characters.

**Ionus** · September 18, 2011, 02:46am

Originally Posted by Toyguru

To try and calm some fires guys, when we say we see limited support for Illimina it is true. 117 people and or about 250 people who hang out on this board is not enough to justify a figures based on one concept cover (as awesome as it is!!) and I think the background of a few panels in that Faceless One issue. She is cool, but we don't see more widespread interest.

How is this different than any other obscure characters we've gotten that you've heard about us wanting. If anything more people have asked for her than any of these other obscure characters we've received.

The bottom line is for us to allocate a slot to a character as obscure like this (and therefore away from someone else) we would need to see several thousand people interested, not several hundred.

As for the comparison for Gygor, he had heritage and buck reuse behind him. Photog, Draego, and the 30th figures are part of a whole program, offering brand new characters cullminating in a fan created character. A whole different ball of wax!

Illumina is easy buck reuse too, and it gives you an excuse to release her stead which is battlcat/panthor in white. Plus as you have stated many times, because of the sub you've already sold enough of whatever figure you decide to include. At least these two are easy, cheap, yet interesting and dynamic redecos that would please a lot of hardcore fans (aka all in sub buys) and as she's an awesome character once people see her everyone else will be on board too. I love the idea of release her and her stead as a set for a con or something if not in the sub. Especially for powercon, since she wouldn't have many new part and would make for a cheaper exclusive.

Sure we could get to her one day, we just really not in a rush compared to so many more fan requested characters like the vintage line, more POP girls, and now Filmation, all of which is more is comig in 2012!

Honestly its the fact that we've gotten SO many obscure characters that makes us all confused about this issue. We've only gotten 2 NA characters in 3 years, but we have Vikor, Battle Teela, Preternia He-man, Wundar, Gygor, DemoMan, and this whole 30th aniversary line. If the concern is to get to the important characters then do that and give us more NA and POP but if you want to do obscure characters great but at least maybe listen to what we ask for. There has been a lot more support for Illumina than any of these other obscure never done before in toy form characters.

In closing honestly I think you guys are doing a GREAT job with this line. But there are a few things that I'm amazed you can see us salivating for that are relatively easy/cheap to do and hold out on. Keldors swords (though you came around THANK GOODNESS) and Illumina are the two biggest examples of this for me, well and then the whole 200x heads thing :-(

**THINKOR** · September 18, 2011, 03:29am

If I can support super obscure characters such as the Wind Raider Pilot or The Warrior in Yellow Who is Participating in Tug of War (please Mattel!

) than yes, please make Illumina. As others have noted, she would not require too much new tooling and she is cool

**Staff Of Ka** · September 18, 2011, 03:31am

Originally Posted by Ionus

Honestly its the fact that we've gotten SO many obscure characters that makes us all confused about this issue. We've only gotten 2 NA characters in 3 years, but we have Vikor, Battle Teela, Preternia He-man, Wundar, Gygor, DemoMan, and this whole 30th aniversary line. If the concern is to get to the important characters then do that and give us more NA and POP but if you want to do obscure characters great but at least maybe listen to what we ask for.

Bravo! Post Of the month!

**mick4metal** · September 18, 2011, 05:41am

Originally Posted by Toyguru

To try and calm some fires guys, when we say we see limited support for Illimina it is true. 117 people and or about 250 people who hang out on this board is not enough to justify a figures based on one concept cover (as awesome as it is!!) and I think the background of a few panels in that Faceless One issue. She is cool, but we don't see more widespread interest.

The bottom line is for us to allocate a slot to a character as obscure like this (and therefore away from someone else) we would need to see several thousand people interested, not several hundred.

As for the comparison for Gygor, he had heritage and buck reuse behind him. Photog, Draego, and the 30th figures are part of a whole program, offering brand new characters cullminating in a fan created character. A whole different ball of wax!

Sure we could get to her one day, we just really not in a rush compared to so many more fan requested characters like the vintage line, more POP girls, and now Filmation, all of which is more is comig in 2012!

I can't believe I am about to say this. I am not sick or have gone insane yet anyways. I agree with Toyguru. My god I actually said it. I personally could give a rat's hindquarters about this chick or her cat. Here we go again with these off the wall characters when we have so many realistic characters left to do. It has gotten so bad a separate section was created for these nobodies that everyone was asking for. The numbers are in that it is a couple hundred at the very, very, best that want her. The Warrior in Yellow has more followers.

Those are the facts jack.

**marndt8448** · September 18, 2011, 08:37am

Originally Posted by Hosed Ovor

I find it hard to believe that Mattel's upper management is calling the shots on character selection. I doubt they even know who Illumina is, let alone who created her.

An old quote from TG is the reason why I wrote upper management in my post:

The whole deal with "Illumina" is not something I have control over. The bottom line is she is off the table per upper management for many reasons.

Whoever it may be that is higher up the food chain than Scott may not know who Illumina is, but I think it's safe to say they know her creators.

**Niki** · September 18, 2011, 09:05am

In my opinion, it´s not important if anyone knows who she is.

She was created for MOTU just like Demo-Man, Gygor or Vikor. Her whole looks screams MOTU to me. She looks vibrant, appealing and she has a cool weapon plus a cat steed.

I don´t get the problem why not releasing her or welcome her to the Classics line.
Of course i want more POP ladies, more NA characters(Mara, Slushhead, Flogg, Sagitar, Crita...) but as a concept character she simply deserves the same chance to be made, no matter she was invented 30 years ago or 10(or less).

But that´s my opinion.

**MegaGearMax** · September 18, 2011, 10:13am

Originally Posted by mick4metal

I can't believe I am about to say this. I am not sick or have gone insane yet anyways. I agree with Toyguru. My god I actually said it. I personally could give a rat's hindquarters about this chick or her cat. Here we go again with these off the wall characters when we have so many realistic characters left to do. It has gotten so bad a separate section was created for these nobodies that everyone was asking for. The numbers are in that it is a couple hundred at the very, very, best that want her. The Warrior in Yellow has more followers.

Those are the facts jack.

You also have "legitimate 80's characters" who were in MOTU who were taken to that section as well, so it isn't just "nobodies" in that section. Any character who isn't announced gets put in that section, no matter where they are from.

I've just added Figures.com's questions to the mix!

**Staff Of Ka** · September 18, 2011, 10:26am

Originally Posted by MegaGearMax

You also have "legitimate 80's characters" who were in MOTU who were taken to that section as well, so it isn't just "nobodies" in that section.

I totally agree Max, but I hafta say that I had Personally had no problems with Support threads for 'Legitimate 80's Characters' in fact I enjoyed looking at them wether they be for Spikor,Two bad, Frosta, Castaspella or even Lookee.

But it was the endless stream of obscure one episode extras that bugged me , and Im sure others as well.

I dont Count Vikor and the upcoming December figure with the stupid name as Vital to the line, but God Im glad I Have them! and I feel the Same about Illumina, Im sure I will love her if she comes along, admittedly I dont think much of her at the moment but thats because I dont know anything about her......If she turns out to be Keldors Mother I will be over the moon!

but My 1st and foremost wants from MOTUC are now and always will be New versions of vintage TOYS (MOTU,POP,NA) everything else is gravy!

ka

**Emiliano** · September 18, 2011, 10:33am

Originally Posted by Staff Of Ka

......If she turns out to be Keldors Mother I will be over the moon!

Unless Mattel changes that, Illumina is not, and has never been, Keldor's mother!

**Darkspecter** · September 18, 2011, 12:46pm

4. Now that we are getting Photog and Strobo seems possible... what about Illumina?

All are possible. Time will tell. We would really need to see much more mainsteam support for a character like Illumina. We have done testing and outside of a small but loud set of fans on hard core MOTU fan sites she has very little recongnition or demand. We'd love to get to her but we would need to see a lot more support

Same answer basically, but it's just so ridiculous. Illumina is more fan-demanded/supported than Strobo...yet his picture gets put in the SDCC slideshow and Mattel's excited that they CAN make his figure now. Any other figure seems to need 10 people to say "Yeah, that would be cool." but Illumina needs THOUSANDS of people to say they want her? I mean...come on. Thousands of people have never spoke up on anything. Mattel's being unreasonable. In the end, they just don't want to make her regardless of HOW many people want her or how well we all know she will sell. It's so petty.

Sacrificing possible profit like that is bad business.

**Super He-Man** · September 18, 2011, 01:49pm

They're not "sacrificing" profit while there are plenty of other figures to put in each monthly slot. They're just not in a rush to do her, for which I don't blame them.

**mick4metal** · September 18, 2011, 04:06pm

Originally Posted by Darkspecter

Same answer basically, but it's just so ridiculous. Illumina is more fan-demanded/supported than Strobo...yet his picture gets put in the SDCC slideshow and Mattel's excited that they CAN make his figure now. Any other figure seems to need 10 people to say "Yeah, that would be cool." but Illumina needs THOUSANDS of people to say they want her? I mean...come on. Thousands of people have never spoke up on anything. Mattel's being unreasonable. In the end, they just don't want to make her regardless of HOW many people want her or how well we all know she will sell. It's so petty.

Sacrificing possible profit like that is bad business.

The numbers are just not there for her to get a figure and I don't think she would sell. Then you compare her to Strobo? I have been hearing and seeing people wanting him for years. A great many people at that. He has a large fan base. No comparison at all. Remember I was the one who asked about the Warrior in Yellow if he was possible and I got the same response that unless they see support he is not happening. I never got personal and I even made jokes about it. There are going to be characters that are not going to get made. It sucks when it is someone you really want but you have to move on.

**Super He-Man** · September 18, 2011, 04:48pm

Seriously, is this all over a one page drawing that never made it to publication? There are reasons for Vikor and Demo Man to be included considering their conection to the original He-Man and Skeletor concepts. Plus, those are owned outright by Mattel with no red tape (and, no, I'm not 100% up on the Illuminia rights). Considering the headache this has been causing already, I don't blame Mattel for wanting more support than acceptable for those guys to make Illuminia worthwhile.

**Emiliano** · September 18, 2011, 04:53pm

I think it's fair to fan to let them keep askign for her. Clamoring for a character is the only way they have to let Mattel hear their voice

Originally Posted by Super He-Man

Seriously, is this all over a one page drawing that never made it to publication? There are reasons for Vikor and Demo Man to be included considering their conection to the original He-Man and Skeletor concepts. Plus, those are owned outright by Mattel with no red tape (and, no, I'm not 100% up on the Illuminia rights). Considering the headache this has been causing already, I don't blame Mattel for wanting more support than acceptable for those guys to make Illuminia worthwhile.

I don't think she's causing more headaches than what, let's say, the Star Sisters, casued recently

She's just one more characters a few fans want, there is no reason to get upset at people asking, as long as the discussion si kept civil and we don't start going in circles on the same topic over and over

BTW, Mattel has full rights or her, there are no red tape on my end or Val's

**MegaGearMax** · September 18, 2011, 04:54pm

Originally Posted by DJ Force

And having said this now - can we please just move on?

Mattel will NEVER admit anything of the above, even though it would be the absolute truth of the universe. No need to force them or Scott, as this would only result in more excuses everybody´s going to be mad about. If Mattels habit changed, we will get Illumina eventually. No sooner. No matter how often we keep asking.

We kept bringing stuff up like how ridiculous their policy toward Keldor's swords was and it got changed. Keeping quiet does nothing but make people forget about the issue.

However, I think the discussion should go to the Illumina thread.

**cbomb23** · September 18, 2011, 04:59pm

I think Illumina is an amazing looking character, very eye-catching and I would love to have her. I would want her before getting many of the POP and Filmation characters. She just looks like a bad-ass bounty hunter reminds me of an Aurra Sing type.

**DJ Force** · September 18, 2011, 05:05pm

I´m sorry if I worded my statement poorly. Of course everybody shall be allowed to ask for his and her favorite characters, be they as obscure as the Time Demons from the Temple of Darkness minicomic (of which I´d buy two in a heartbeat!)
What I find sad are the insults people are throwing towards Mattel or Scott, like "this and that is bull", "you are lying to us", "your poor excuses are so lame" and so on. This won´t help anybody. As a matter of fact, I think this behaviour is even very much to our disadvantage.

For all we know, Mattel might already have plans for making Illumina the September figure of 2012 or the Power Con 2012 Exclusive. Literally telling them how to do their job on the other hand is pretty insolent, I think.

Originally Posted by MegaGearMax

Keeping quiet does nothing but make people forget about the issue.

Normally, I´m with you on most topics, but here I need to just say that there are far more important issues we already forgot about. Like the wrong shipping costs for Battleground Teela that Mattel promised to investigate. Or did I just miss the results?

Thread: MOTUC Q&A's From Around the Net (9/15/2011)

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