The 2011 He-Man.org Fan Polls Results!

[JVS3]

At the end of 2011, we asked fans to give their opinion on a number of polls about current topics of interest on the Org and other forums, Facebook, chat and so forth. The poll results tell an interesting tale.

First up, here is a little bit about what you can expect from these poll results. Online polls are not scientific polls in that they do not take random samples from the entire populous. But proponents of online polls point out how voluntary polling is just like voting where there are people who take the time to vote and others who let the voters speak on their behalf. So to those proponents, the standards applied to determining confidence in voluntary polling is just as valid.

He-Man.org's poll are similar. The polls are open to everyone. Plus, all of the registered members of the Org forums were notified of the poll. The polls were also advertised on the main page of He-Man.org were it receives approximately 50,000 unique visits a week and averages out to approximately 100,000 unique visits a month. Notices were posted on our Facebook and Twitter accounts as well. We feel confident that a majority of MOTUC consumers visit He-Man.org and that our online fan polls are representative of that market.

Anonymous inside info has informed us that each individual monthly MOTUC subscription figure sells on average around 15,000 units. This is on the low end of the He-Man.org fan estimate of 15,000 to 20,000 units per figure. If each figure went into the hand of one collector, that means MOTUC would have 15,000 customers.

This leads us to one of our polls that served as a check to see how many fans were in fact only buying one figure. 1146 fans votes in that poll. Out of that, 66% of those fans have subscriptions of various quantities, the exact total from this poll being 757 fans who purchase 1173 subscriptions. 27% of the fans buy them month to month or from time to time from MattyCollector. Only 7% of fans buy the figures via a source other than MattyCollector.

But for the interest of this poll, we'll still use the high end of our own estimates of 20,000 figures produced, with 20,000 potential customers.

Based on 20,000 potential customers, in order to reach a 95% confidence level with a 3% confidence interval, we need to poll 1000 fans. Most of these polls exceed this requirement. What those percentages mean is that statistically speaking, if you polled 1000 random MOTUC customers, you would have at least a 92% chance of replicating similar results.

Some may argue that we have to consider people voting multiple times and/or that they may not be actual MOTUC customers. But considering these were anonymous polls where the results were hidden to prevent any competition, and that the opinions currently have no official bearing on the line, we feel these factors would have insignificant influence on the results and that the votes cast reflect honest opinions of the MOTUC customer base.

So let's get to the poll results!

First up is,
Did your Swift Wind have the correct front legs?

745 fans voted
76% had correct legs on their Swift Wind
12% had two right legs
12% had two left legs

Given the lower number of voters, the confidence level isn't as dependable. Regardless, the number of errors is high, especially if this percentage holds true for all Swift Wind owners. QC concerns have been an on-going problem for MOTUC. Many fans would like to see this and other QC problems addressed directly to help strengthen their confidence in the MOTUC line.

Next we move to the polls about figures coming in the line or that fans want to see. For the purposes of these polls, “Indifferent” votes lean towards “Yes.” It doesn't mean indifferent fans are excited about the figure, but they don't care either way. They may keep it, they may sell it, they may store it away. But they are not a clear voice against the figure. So let's see how things stacked up.

First up is,
Are you looking forward to Draego-Man, the Four Horsemen's contribution to the 30th anniversary subline?

1104 fans voted
75% said yes
14% were indifferent
11% said no

That gives Draego-Man an 89% favorable to neutral reception. Once again proving Four Horsemen designs tapped into what most fans like.

Next up is,
Do you want Mattel to make Illumina in the MOTUC line?

1217 fans voted
57% said yes
25% were indifferent
18% said no

Illumina has been a character that has developed a fan following since her debut in the MVCreations comics 8 years ago. She was also the winner of the He-Man.org character fan poll as one of the choices in the upcoming Mattycollector fan poll to determine a 2013 subscription slot using a more obscure figure. She's also a character the Four Horsemen have expressed enthusiasm about hopefully sculpting, along with her cat beast Sleetah.
With an 82% favorable to neutral reception, she seems to be a logical choice for the MOTUC line.

Next up is,
Are you looking forward to Fearless Photog in the 30th anniversary subline?

1270 fans voted
50% said yes
18% were indifferent
32% said no

Fearless Photog has been a figure of much debate. For a number of US based fans, he has been a must-have since Nathan Bitner's winning design was revealed in the Masters of the Universe fan magazine. But since so many US fans never had the magazine and international fans knew nothing about the figure until the dawn of the internet, there are many fans who are on the fence for Fearless Photog. 32% of fans not looking forward to this figure is indeed alarming. It's a sizable portion of the customer base.

Next up is,
Are you looking forward to the Star Sisters 3-pack?

1425 fans voted
40% said yes
40% said no
20% were indifferent

The Star Sisters are here. But, they've been a hot topic, both good and bad. There are a number of MOTU collectors who are not fond of Princess of Power or New Adventures. And the Star Sisters in particular, which were prototype characters that never made it into figure form, received a lot of criticism as a choice for the line. Their color scheme as well was the subject a lot of debate. Now that they are here, what will the 40% do with their subscription figure? We'll be watching the Org Marketplace forums and eBay to see how many turn up for trade and sale to see if they instead won folks over or if people are in fact looking to get rid of them.

Last up is,
Are you looking forward to The Mighty Spector, Scott Neitlich's contribution to the 30th anniversary subline?

1180 fans voted
59% said no
21% were indifferent
20% said yes

The Mighty Spector has been one of, if not the, the most widely debated and criticized MOTUC figure to-date. On forums everywhere the opinions expressed are very similar. From his name all the way to his design, fans have had a lot to say about the character. The figure is part of a sub-line and not the main subscription. But even still, 59% of fans not looking forward to this figure is a very unfavorable percentage.

Now we turn our attention to a figure that is highly anticipated but unavailable to non-subscribers who want one without paying a lot on the secondary market: Shadow Weaver.

How did having Shadow Weaver as the 2012 Club Exclusive impact your decision on getting a Club subscription?

1152 fans voted
57% of fans said it didn't alter their decision and they were going to subscribe anyway.
18% of fans said having her as the exclusive convinced them to subscribe.
13% said it didn't matter as they had no plans to subscribe.
11% said they wanted that Shadow Weaver figure, but having her as an exclusive turned them off to subscribing.
And only 1% said that they didn't want Shadow Weaver, so she turned them off to subscribing.

While this poll was taking place, we realized it was a flawed poll. A piece of info we needed for this poll is if people were subscribers beforehand. Without that info, we can't properly analyze this data. So we're going to hold off discussing the results until we can do the poll again.

Lastly is our Best and Worst of 2011 poll. Because of shipping delays, some of the figures didn't actually fall into 2011. But we feel the results would be fairly similar even if the figures had shipped on time.

1503 fans voted in our poll.
We're going to give you the top 5 contenders in each poll along with an honorary position.
First up is the Best of 2011

Honorable mention: Swift Wind
5th Place: Catra
4th Place: Queen Marlena & Cringer
3rd Place: Vikor
2nd Place: Wind Raider
1st Place: Man-E-Faces

And here's the Worst of 2011

Dishonorable mention: Battleground Teela
5th Place: Bubble Power She-Ra
4th Place: Zodac VS Hal Jordan 2-Pack
3rd Place: Icarus
2nd Place: Preternia Disguise He-Man
1st Place: She-Ra VS Supergirl

These results can be analyzed any number of ways. Some are no surprise, like the 2-packs which many fans disliked. Despite cool new paint ops, the 40.00 price tag did not go over well for figures with fewer accessories and packaging that many fans felt was lackluster. And Man-E-Faces, Wind Raider, Vikor, Queen Marlena and Cringer were characters many fans were looking forward to.

If you'd like to discuss any of the one figures in depth, please check out the existing discussion threads:
It's the backwards shoulder thing AGAIN, but with Swiftwind's front legs!
The "I love Draego-Man!" thread!
Illumina Support/Speculation thread
Nathan "Fearless Photog" Bitner needs our help? - Official Fearless Photog Thread
MOTUC The Star Sisters Discussion Thread...
Mighty Spector Discussion Thread
Shadow Weaver in MOTUC - Official Discussion

Have fun discussing the results!

[Darkspecter]

Very interesting info! I figured as much for the Star Sisters. I always said it was about 50/50 love vs hate for them. 40/40 with 20 indifferent is pretty close. Once the 20% have them in hand, I'm sure their opinion will no longer be indifferent...but I could be wrong!

The Best and Worst lists did surprise me. Happy to see Catra and Marlena on the Best list and am actually shocked to see Man-E-Faces take the #1 BEST spot! He's a good figure and everything, I'm just surprised.

I'm also DEVASTATED that Icarius/Flipshot, Bubble Power She-Ra and Battleground Teela made the WORST list! BP She-Ra and Icarius are two of the best figures of the entire line, in my honest opinion. FLOORED me to see them here. BG Teela was highly anticipated by many too...shocking results for the worst list!

EDIT: Also, I think further polling on the Star Sisters would be interesting/helpful. I forgot about this when I first replied, but I've noticed that people's opinions greatly differ on the individual sisters. Some like all but one sister, so they skipped buying the set...or ONLY like one sister. So, it would be interesting to see how well liked each individual sister is. Also, (as mentioned in the description), the colouring of the MOTUC sisters was a hot button issue for a lot of people. None of this info really tells us how well liked the 80's prototype colours are. They're pretty dark (especially Tallstar's) and seem to fit in flawlessly with MOTUC's mainly darker than 80's figures paint scheme. There also was a great deal of more support for the 80's proto coloured Star Sisters vs the magazine/poster ones. I'm not saying there needs to be an official .org poll that collects this data, it's just some interesting points to note.

Right now there IS a "Who's your favourite Star Sister" poll in the poll section (based on the MOTUC figures), with Tallstar and Starla pretty close. Jewelstar only has two votes.

[BergerKing]

I'm also surprised about Battleground Teela, I didn't want the figure, never campaigned for her, but would have bought her anyway because I buy everything. Once I got her, I loved her, and I would never peg her as one of the top worst half of 2011.

Glad to see so much support for Draego-Man! He is awesome. I am tempted to buy 5 and repaint 4 of them in the D&D chromatic Dragon colors, to have one red, black, blue, white and green.

I voted no for spector and indifferent for star sisters. I will end up with both cus I have both subs. I will keep the star sisters. I don't know what I will do with Spector. he might end up staying MOC in storage with Hurricane Hordak.

I voted No for Photog, but I will open him and display him and would have bought him regardless of the sub because he is such a legendary character with all of his history.

Man-E-Faces was my favorite of 2011 as well. I am glad to see he was such a well recieved figure.

I would have bought the 2011 sub regardless of Shadow Weaver, and I have gotten the sub every year.

[markatisu]

Man E Faces was the best and Flipshot was one of the worst, totally invalidated how honest those polls are for me

Man E was nice and all but there is no way he was the best figure last year, nostalgia glasses for many must have been on full blast

[JVS3]

Or maybe you need to have your glasses fixed! ZING!

He ranked high for everyone on the RGD podcast, and he was the overwhelming winner of the Org poll. IMO, skin tone aside, he's one of the gems of 2011.

[Tallstar]

EDIT: Also, I think further polling on the Star Sisters would be interesting/helpful. I forgot about this when I first replied, but I've noticed that people's opinions greatly differ on the individual sisters. Some like all but one sister, so they skipped buying the set...or ONLY like one sister. So, it would be interesting to see how well liked each individual sister is liked. Also, (as mentioned in the description), the colouring of the MOTUC sisters was a hot button issue for a lot of people. None of this info really tells us how well liked the 80's prototype colours are. They're pretty dark (especially Tallstar's) and seem to fit in flawlessly with MOTUC's mainly darker than 80's figures paint scheme. There also was a great deal of more support for the 80's proto coloured Star Sisters vs the magazine/poster ones. I'm not saying there needs to be an official .org poll that collects this data, it's just some interesting points to note.

As always, you make excellent points.

[Darkspecter]

nostalgia glasses for many must have been on full blast

I agree. They have so many features to them, too!

[oulala]

This can't be right. I mean, EVERYONE seems to love BG Teela. And I thought BP She-ra was super popular too. Weird. I thought BOW got super high satisfaction rate and he's nowhere in those votes. That really surprised me. Man-E-Faces??? Really?!!! That's it, I'm quitting the line!

[JVS3]

I'm indifferent to BG Teela. While I wouldn't have voted her as the worst, she must have really not connected with some fans.

[Darkspecter]

The sell out info is interesting too. BG Teela sold out in 20 hours and Man-E-Faces took 2 days, 22 hours to sell out. I think that's kind of funny.

[JVS3]

I dunno, I think that one is pretty obvious.
BG Teela was a gamble. She is a new character with a fan base of an unknown size, who had cosmetic changes that made her a bit controversial.
Whereas MEF is a classic vintage character that is popular with a lot of fans and has been in demand for a long time.
So I think Mattel produced a much smaller overrun on BG Teela, and a larger than usual overrun for MEF.

[Whiplash7]

I'm also DEVASTATED that Icarius/Flipshot, Bubble Power She-Ra and Battleground Teela made the WORST list! BP She-Ra and Icarius are two of the best figures of the entire line, in my honest opinion. FLOORED me to see them here. BG Teela was highly anticipated by many too...shocking results for the worst list!

Man E Faces was the best and Flipshot was one of the worst, totally invalidated how honest those polls are for me

Man E was nice and all but there is no way he was the best figure last year, nostalgia glasses for many must have been on full blast

Agreed. These results for 'worst of' are utterly laughable. But to be expected on here.
I can't disagree with the figures on the 'best of' list--there are so many great ones--but I don't feel Man-E is even close to being the best of the year. Good, but not that good.
BG Teela, Icarius and She-Ra 2.0 all stand proudly at the forefront of my shelf.

[bcrduke]

Agreed. These results for 'worst of' are utterly laughable. But to be expected on here.
I can't disagree with the figures on the 'best of' list--there are so many great ones--but I don't feel Man-E is even close to being the best of the year. Good, but not that good.
BG Teela, Icarius and She-Ra 2.0 all stand proudly at the forefront of my shelf.

Totally agreed!!

BG Teela, Icarius, and BP She-Ra seemed to be well-liked.

This is weird.

That worst-of list just seems off.

King Hssss didn't make that list? With his backwards shoulders, inability to sit without damaging the legs, & all-too-tame snake form?

Man-E-Faces is nice but I got the feeling from the people here, and on the Matty forums and on different MOTU Facebook pages that people were more into figures like Bow, Sy-Klone, Panthor, and BG Teela.

BP She-Ra got a LOT of very positive feedback.

Well whatever. I give up. I guess no one wants NA or POP. I'm so over all the "fans" who have no love for those characters. I understand a lack of nostalgia, but let's move on and welcome them into the fray for Pete's sake.

[Whiplash7]

How does She-Ra 1.0 get listed in the org's top 5 best of 2010, but her upgraded 2.0 buck gets voted top 5 worst of 2011?
I know people don't like the Bubble-Power stuff--I don't either--but that's a weird contradiction.

[MegaGearMax]

I'm indifferent to BG Teela. While I wouldn't have voted her as the worst, she must have really not connected with some fans.

She didn't, as some of my debates with Mr. Shokoti have shown. He says the tomboyish Teela that he knows would never dress in a bikini. Some fans know Teela as a redhead, since she was that way in Filmation and most media. I think the old MOTU school fans from 1982 and all around barbarian fans would appreciate her the most.

You have the Original Teela versus the Iconic Teela. Iconic will win, especially with this line.

[JVS3]

Agreed. These results for 'worst of' are utterly laughable. But to be expected on here.

Totally agreed!!

This thread is slowly starting to sound more like the Sour Grapes Thread.

You have the Original Teela versus the Iconic Teela. Iconic will win, especially with this line.

I'd say that's a given for most iconic characters.
Heck, take He-Man as an example. Still today, most fans don't like the 200x harness symbol or the sword. Even in MOTUC, you don't see them doing that with He-Man. They took the original Vikor development concept of He-Man and made him a new character rather than calling him Battle Ground He-Man. Some fans even suspect the original savage He-Man from the mini-comics is being transformed into a separate character called Oo-Larr.

But instead of doing that with Bikini Teela, they essentially changed her iconic look by leaving her the same character. There's always exceptions and some give-and-take. But I stood there looking at the SDCC case display for over half an hour, while listening to what fans had to say about their Bikini Teela model. I think almost everyone walking up said "Hey, it's She-Ra!", "Look! She-Ra!", etc. I'm fairly positive that continued all weekend long. Next to no one outside of MOTUC consumers recognized her as Teela.

I don't think most folks like the core elements of familiarity tampered with.

[13977]

I'm also surprised to see Icarus placing, he was one of the best figures of the year IMO.

[JVS3]

One influence on voting for a favorite or least favorite is how you feel about the character itself. A few other fans said early on how they hoped fans would vote purely on the aesthetics of a figure. But the reality is that's an impossibility. Name changes, visual updates, the bio, how you feel about a brand itself, etc. All of those play into how many folks feel about a figure.

[Lookie]

Val, do you find it funny that Mattel is against the 200X looks as it confuses people (their words), yet they release variants of the figure where the look is completely different. Seems to be mixed signals being sent.

[JVS3]

The only thing I can guess is while cool, 200x is considered a failure at Mattel. Not because it was bad, but because Mattel really did put a lot of time and money into that brand and it under-performed in all areas: toys, cartoon, licensing (except for the comic, I'm proud to say), etc. I doubt they got close to making their money back. There are probably people still at the company who were involved in the 200x line who want to bury any mention of it because they view it as some sort of tarnish on their reputation. But, as I said, this is all a guess.

Logical? No. But someone higher up the chain probably says "no" on principle when 200x's mentioned to them, even though I'm fairly certain they probably wouldn't even recognize the 200x elements of a character in MOTUC.

[TheFallen]

I didn't vote because the outcome was rigged from the start

[MegaGearMax]

But instead of doing that with Bikini Teela, they essentially changed her iconic look by leaving her the same character. There's always exceptions and some give-and-take. But I stood there looking at the SDCC case display for over half an hour, while listening to what fans had to say about their Bikini Teela model. I think almost everyone walking up said "Hey, it's She-Ra!", "Look! She-Ra!", etc. I'm fairly positive that continued all weekend long. Next to no one outside of MOTUC consumers recognized her as Teela.

I don't think most folks like the core elements of familiarity tampered with.

There's a Teela vs She-Ra thread in which there's a ongoing poll and debate over who is the leading lady of the brand is. Although Teela has been there from the start and is in every incarnation, the name of She-Ra is infinitely more known. However, casuals might not be able to distinguish the two from each other. I think most casual people will think ANY female standing next to He-Man as She-Ra, even though it might be Teela.

The only thing I can guess is while cool, 200x is considered a failure at Mattel. Not because it was bad, but because Mattel really did put a lot of time and money into that brand and it under-performed in all areas: toys, cartoon, licensing (except for the comic, I'm proud to say), etc. I doubt they got close to making their money back. There are probably people still at the company who were involved in the 200x line who want to bury any mention of it because they view it as some sort of tarnish on their reputation. But, as I said, this is all a guess.

Logical? No. But someone higher up the chain probably says "no" on principle when 200x's mentioned to them, even though I'm fairly certain they probably wouldn't even recognize the 200x elements of a character in MOTUC.

Yeah, that's my feeling on it too. Maybe someone who worked on 200X back in the day was terribly burned by it's failure and is now in a position of power over at Mattel. I'd think management wouldn't care who is made into a figure either, but Toyguru says that he has to explain who characters are to management before their figure can be made, as evidenced by the Illumina threads.

[Tallstar]

There's a Teela vs She-Ra thread in which there's a ongoing poll and debate over who is the leading lady of the brand is. Although Teela has been there from the start and is in every incarnation, the name of She-Ra is infinitely more known. However, casuals might not be able to distinguish the two from each other. I think most casual people will think ANY female standing next to He-Man as She-Ra, even though it might be Teela.

These young girls know what's up. It's some of the older folks who sometimes get confused.

[Berserker79]

I agree with the worst figures lists...

Though I have other faves, I have none of the worst listed characters in my collection.

It's nothing new, that some eras are more popular than others!

[zodak74]

Eh, in the end I don't really care about the Worst Of list (which contains some of my favorite figures of 2011!)... after all, every single one of those figures sold out on Matty- so SOMEBODY somewhere out there loved 'em. Money talks, and all that.