TG Blog #2 He-Man!

[TheFallen]

I am really enjoying these. Say what to will but this is a great read and a good insight to the behind the scenes.

[horseman1981]

I really enjoy this from TG. I don't understand some of the anger towards him though,everyone has an opinion so I guess I will leave it alone. It just seems like a few will never be happy with him no matter what.

When this line does finally end, I believe we will never see a motu toy line again,like mj.....I think this is it. I plan on enjoying it. I will still tell them what can be improved, and that is a large list.

[Skystalker]

I've always been interested to know when MOTUC became so clearly popular that they knew the line would continue. Hopefully, these blogs will answer that.

[slackrguy]

That was a cool story told from his point of view.

[JVS3]

Skystalker:

There's been a lot of seemingly dismissive and snarky Mattel comments and answers in the past. The taste of that still lingers in the palettes of many fans on forums everywhere. If all the stuff coming from Mattel moving forward is positive, friendly, apologetic and helpful, while remaining firmly concerned about the customer, it'll pass.

So I definitely wouldn't bang on any fan for their doubt. After 3 years of the previous way of doing business, the suspicion of fans and customers won't disappear over night. Just give it time. The best thing you can do if you want more positivity is to be positive yourself.

[Barbecue17]

All things aside, I definitely enjoy this feature and this was another interesting read.

One bit that interests me (and maybe we will see some more clarification of it in the future) is the fact that the line was originally given the greenlight as a 200x continuation and then as a "classics" line with a very 200x influenced character, but by He-man there seems to be such a bias against 200x. Just curious where this bias came from. I had always thought that it stemmed from the 200x era not being considered a success by Mattel and thus they were trying to distance themselves from it, but they readily moved forward on a continuation of the 200x line and in making KG the first figure.

Its interesting that with the early 2 packs it was stated that only A-listers were believed to sell well, and thus characters like Beastman, Stratos, and Zodac weren't A-list enough! For the most part, MOTUC really seems to give every character a good chance, no matter how minor they may seem. Many lines don't do this, and instead focus only on the major characters. When you operate that way, you are sort of dooming yourself to have a limited number of A-list characters, where as Mattel mostly treats every MOTUC figure as important to the property in some way.

[MegaGearMax]

Very interesting, TG. So He-Man sold "okay".

I've got questions:
1) You say that management didn't want 200X heads in the first place, but Marzo and Whiplash got through. Before August 2010, there was no problem or did management not realize that Whiplash's alternate head was a 200X head?

2) If mini-comics had won that vote at NYCC, how would that have worked? Would every figure now have original mini-comics or would there be some sort of a catch?

I can see why some would say this. However, because TG is routinely attacked for everything he says, I have a feeling that he is going to highlight how much he has done for the line in order to remind people that he is not pure evil. Unfortunately, people are still going to hate him for this. The man honestly can't win for trying, and it is sad.

TG has said alot of contradictory statements over the years, which creates a feeling of distrust. Now some of this has been some of the stupid policies created by his bosses over at management and TG has to enforce them until he could get them overturned.

Personally, I wish he would beg a little harder for 200X heads. Selling more figures isn't a convincing argument? They aren't even seen in the packaging, so how could moms and kids get confused?

[phantom1592]

i love THIS FEATURE! Love getting some behind the scenes info.

I do have one question though... What kind of Sword did the original King Grayskull come with? Wasn't that a full sword? It surprised me to read that management only wanted to give He-man the Half-sword... when KG already tooled the part for the full sword...


Either way, That was one of my favorite things... I LOVE the vintage half-swords. LOVE the original 2-parts open Grayskull story,.. but was always frustrated to never have a 'whole' gray sword back in the vintage era. This was truly a best of both worlds....

I STILL hope we can get a purple sword made like the new KG half swords...

[KUZEH]

Great read,
Very interesting insight on how the line came to be!

[snakeeyes0217]

From my own experience working in the toy industry, this story sounds both believable and truthful. In fact, many parts sound eerily similar to my own experience creating the Legends of Star Trek line of ships for Johnny Lightning.

I'm glad he's doing this so toy collectors can see what it takes to get good stuff made; the internal battles, the compromises, the immovable walls, and the work-arounds. It will help us all appreciate what we have even more.

[13977]

I'm enjoying reading these blogs and am looking forward to more, I didn't expect the second one so soon. Most of what was in these first two he has already said on episodes of RGD, so future ones should be even more insightful

[Eterniandreams]

Again, thanks for the blog.

[Prahvus]

I really think that with this blog post, Toyguru is trying to "put some balm" on people's wounds after he came to blame them of the last sub cancellations (since he basically said that people who had had their sub cancelled was because THEY didn't have enough money or their account !).

It's like trying to caress a cat or a dog after your antagonized it and rubbed it the wrong way... Not sure if this is gonna work out at all. TG did this many times around now, and I guess his trick is getting old...

[chuc98]

Another cool blog post. I'm glad TG decided to do them.

[NorthCoast]

Good read! Keep 'em coming!

[Slave2Evil_Lyn]

Much like the KG blog, I really enjoyed reading this new one about He-Man. I find it very interesting how the line came to be and each figures journey to the fans. I very much looking forward to the blogs about some the more unique figures like Teela as the female and Battlecat.

Wasn't it stated by TG before that Hordak was supposed to be the 6th figure of the 2-packs?
True, Zodac makes more sense in the context of shared body parts, but still it sound strange to me.

I think your getting the Toys R Us 2-packs confused with what Mattel was originally planned for the line to be. It has been mentioned that had the Toys R Us 2-packs continued the next one that was planned was in fact Hordak.

[Skystalker]

Skystalker:

There's been a lot of seemingly dismissive and snarky Mattel comments and answers in the past. The taste of that still lingers in the palettes of many fans on forums everywhere. If all the stuff coming from Mattel moving forward is positive, friendly, apologetic and helpful, while remaining firmly concerned about the customer, it'll pass.

So I definitely wouldn't bang on any fan for their doubt. After 3 years of the previous way of doing business, the suspicion of fans and customers won't disappear over night. Just give it time. The best thing you can do if you want more positivity is to be positive yourself.

That's a good word!

[Kowl]

I think this is a good behind the scenes view of the whole MOTUC process... I hope TG continues.

[Skystalker]

TG has said alot of contradictory statements over the years, which creates a feeling of distrust. Now some of this has been some of the stupid policies created by his bosses over at management and TG has to enforce them until he could get them overturned.

That's really all I have been trying to say. Scott does not always help himself when he speaks, but he has to put on a good face for the company even if there are things there he disagrees with. He is never going to come out openly and say as much if he things something is really wrong. He has a family to feed. It's simply not as easy to be the mouthpiece for a brand that has such a devoted following. And I would say, compared to other properties, the Masters fanbase is far more dedicated and nitpicky just because it is, by nature of the fact that He-Man has not been a big pop culture hit since the mid 1980s, a much smaller fanbase than, for say, Transformers. That's not meant as an insult, after all, I'm part of the fanbase. Just an observation.

There are times when he could do a better job in the way he phrases things. He'd probably do better to say less, but then I'm afraid he'd get criticized for that.

On a positive note, these blogs are cool. Colored a bit by his perspective? Probably. But the accounts would be similarly colored no matter who wrote them. It's part of fallen human nature to overemphasize ourselves whenever we can.

[Eterniandreams]

He also has had the tendency to "rewrite" history and I hope he will not do that in these blogs.

[nato]

Wasn't it stated by TG before that Hordak was supposed to be the 6th figure of the 2-packs?
True, Zodac makes more sense in the context of shared body parts, but still it sound strange to me.

I remember him saying that too, in a post. And no, it wasn't the TRU 2 packs......this was said well before those even came out.

[NastyNate]

[/QUOTE]...I STILL hope we can get a purple sword made like the new KG half swords...[/QUOTE]

we DO! The 2nd release Keldor came with purple half swords that fit together just like the 2nd King Grayskull

[Tallstar]

Wasn't it stated by TG before that Hordak was supposed to be the 6th figure of the 2-packs?
True, Zodac makes more sense in the context of shared body parts, but still it sound strange to me.

I believe at the end of 2009 it was said that one of the Packs would have been Zodac vs Mer-Man and that Hordak was an additional figure they made, in the hopes that the line would take off. Faker was an easy repaint for New York Comic Con.

[Jyrki]

Again thank you, Scoott for sharing us inside look of MotU Classics line.

[oICEMANo]

I do have one question though... What kind of Sword did the original King Grayskull come with? Wasn't that a full sword? It surprised me to read that management only wanted to give He-man the Half-sword... when KG already tooled the part for the full sword...

See what I mean...