Clearing the air on Castle Grayskull

[Colossor]

It wasn't supposed to be shown, there have been a few items through the years that have been sculpted and painted and shown but never meant to be. That's why it wasn't shown at Toyfair, it is an incredible piece and I hope some day it is released, although I want it painted I don't trust myself to do it right Unfortunately we will probably never get that 200X Grizzlor head that was shown in Toyfare magazine years ago.

Yeah I think the ship has sailed on Grizzlor, and I understand, but understanding doesn't keep me from wanting it, guess I just have to buy my castle and hope it gets released later in a weapons pack. Or better yet, that some enterprising customizer/ indie toy maker out there takes notice of all the little items that get left out by Mattel, and maybe gets the idea to mass produce these wanted items and sell them like hot cakes. Just a thought but it would probably not be exactly legal I suppose but you have to ask yourself what would skeletor do?

[OptimusOfGrayskull]

Of course not. Just do the math with a 40% decrease instead of a 10% decrease:

10% decrease in height (height reduced to 90% of original height) → (100% original height − 10% less height)³ = (1 − 0.10)³ = (0.90)³ = 0.729 = (1 − 0.271) = (100% original volume − 27.1% less volume) → 27.1% decrease in overall size (object reduced to 72.9% of its original size)

40% decrease in height (height reduced to 60% of original height) → (100% original height − 40% less height)³ = (1 − 0.40)³ = (0.60)³ = 0.216 = (1 − 0.784) = (100% original volume − 78.4% less volume) → 78.4% decrease in overall size (object reduced to 21.6% of its original size)

99% decrease in height (height reduced to 1% of original height) → (100% original height − 99% less height)³ = (1 − 0.99)³ = (0.01)³ = 0.000001 = (1 − 0.999999) = (100% original volume − 99.9999% less volume) → 99.9999% decrease in overall size (object reduced to 0.0001% of its original size)

The higher the percentage, the tinier the size of the resulting object (but still non-zero, even if microscopical). It would take no less than an absolute 100% reduction in height for the object to "magically" disappear:

100% decrease in height (height reduced to zero, i.e. no height at all) → (100% original height − 100% less height)³ = (1 − 1)³ = (0)³ = 0 = (1 − 1) = (100% original volume − 100% less volume) → 100% decrease in overall size (object reduced to 0% of its original size, i.e. nothingness)

Sorry, I know this is a week old but I don't get to post as often as I'd like to.

I'm not saying your math is wrong but a 10% decrease in height only, on a three dimensional castle would be a 10% decrease in overall size -- A 10% decrease in height and width would equal a 19% decrease in overall size and finally a 10% decrease in height, width, and depth would give you the 27.1% you posted.

Not saying that isn't gonna happen, but you can't use that equation on the castle with a reduction of only one dimension.

as you said: youre not a math genius.

Come on, cut me some slack here.... My mommy says I'm smart

[Rodster6]

I'd take all accessories being cut if it made the castle bigger from the outside. I could also live without that ledge on the outside. It looks to small for any figure to stand on well and a bit pointless. Why is there a ledge just half way up the castle?

Without the new base, it does look as if the castle isn't much taller than the 80s or 200X one.

After only paying £15 for the 200X castle, approx £300 on this is just to much for me as it stands.

[46stang]

I think it looks awesome the way it is and would be happy with it. The items TG laid out will only make it that much better! I can't wait for my two in December.

[ThunDerian]

...Without the new base, it does look as if the castle isn't much taller than the 80s or 200X one....

Yeah, it does look like it... unbelievable..

[uaxuctum]

Sorry, I know this is a week old but I don't get to post as often as I'd like to.

I'm not saying your math is wrong but a 10% decrease in height only, on a three dimensional castle would be a 10% decrease in overall size -- A 10% decrease in height and width would equal a 19% decrease in overall size and finally a 10% decrease in height, width, and depth would give you the 27.1% you posted.

Not saying that isn't gonna happen, but you can't use that equation on the castle with a reduction of only one dimension.

If you decrease just one dimension by 10%, the proportions of the thing (height-to-width and height-to-depth ratios) get significantly and very visibly altered (the castle would look much "fatter", as if they had punched it from above with a giant hammer). That's not what they did. The decrease was a 10% across all 3 dimensions (resulting in a 27% decrease in overall size), because it was a scale downsizing and not a mere height reduction. You can check that yourself by having a look at the "before" and "after" values for the other dimensions (width, depth).

[Prahvus]

SO... It happens that Castle Grayskull is too small, now, and that more CG items might be cut "for budget reasosn" ? Too bad for the people who blindly pre-ordered it, I guess.

Once more, Mattel/Matty was unable to deliver what had been promised, but I guess that's just a "small detail" (a $250 or $275 detail).

Anyway, the goal has been reached : I see that now, there's a thread asking whether people would pay MORE than $250 to get a Castle Grayskull. And LOADS of "fans" are falling for it !

[Shredder]

wait a minute.. the thing increased to $300's now? I havn't been keeping up on the news..

How can i cancel? I 'll just pre order THIS and stop supporting matty all together..

[Pancho]

wait a minute.. the thing increased to $300's now? I havn't been keeping up on the news..

How can i cancel? I 'll just pre order THIS and stop supporting matty all together..

But your He-Man wouldn't fit through the entrance while riding Battlecat!

[hadley]

The price of the PREORDERS increases. If you preordered when it was $250, you're locked-in at that price.

[nuno]

He-man alone barely fits through the gate of the MOTUC Grayskull. So between that and the Icon Heroes one... both are out of scale anyway.

[bObA_fEtt_Ox]

But your He-Man wouldn't fit through the entrance while riding Battlecat!

are you kidding ?
he-man has already some difficulties to stand up at the entrance since it s too small.
Maybe they will fix it a bit but what you say is completely nonsense

[Zombihamma-AI]

i have a feeling ,Pancho was being sarcastic

[bObA_fEtt_Ox]

i have a feeling ,Pancho was being sarcastic

I hope so..

[Shredder]

i have a feeling ,Pancho was being sarcastic

i'm at my wits end these days.. and even i picked up on that little fact... way to go pancho for the joke...I got it ;o)
just so long as it's confirmed that i'm locked in at the price i pre-ordered....(why do i remember it being $200....I put in an order as soon as it was first announced to make up for giving away my original CG to my cousin in the 90s). if it goes up to $300 or more, i'm out. this will be the LAST thing i pre-order at matty though.

[Evilestwarrior]

i'm at my wits end these days.. and even i picked up on that little fact... way to go pancho for the joke...I got it ;o)
just so long as it's confirmed that i'm locked in at the price i pre-ordered....(why do i remember it being $200....I put in an order as soon as it was first announced to make up for giving away my original CG to my cousin in the 90s). if it goes up to $300 or more, i'm out. this will be the LAST thing i pre-order at matty though.

When it was first announced they said that they were hoping to keep it at around $200 but I guess costs and all that made it creep up to the $250 price point. If you pre-ordered in that first round of pre-orders you are locked in at $250. It will probably end up being around $300 for DOS I would guess though

[King Tamusk]

When it was first announced they said that they were hoping to keep it at around $200 but I guess costs and all that made it creep up to the $250 price point. If you pre-ordered in that first round of pre-orders you are locked in at $250. It will probably end up being around $300 for DOS I would guess though

I am not sure why the price is increasing at all. They said that they had to cost reduce it to get it to a $250 price point, and they still might remove more to accomplish that. So, why would other people have to pay an additional $50 for something they are effective making worth $250?

[Evilestwarrior]

I am not sure why the price is increasing at all. They said that they had to cost reduce it to get it to a $250 price point, and they still might remove more to accomplish that. So, why would other people have to pay an additional $50 for something they are effective making worth $250?

For the same reason they are charging us the higher 2013 price point for figures that were produced in earlier years....because they can It's annoying and something that I won't agree with no matter how they try to spin it. I will accept the price increase on the newer figures but not the "evergreen" figures of early access CS stock from 2012 and earlier. The $300 CGS is just a guess but since they opened pre-orders again at $275 I just figure that when it actually comes out they will milk it for all it's worth and up it another $25

[mac&cheesier]

I am not sure why the price is increasing at all. They said that they had to cost reduce it to get it to a $250 price point, and they still might remove more to accomplish that. So, why would other people have to pay an additional $50 for something they are effective making worth $250?

that's what I thought too. Why would the price go upward with more cuts off it to make it at the 250.00 price? Can matty explain? I mean if it's just for making for profits then fine. Just tell us the real truth.

[No-Ah]

It's to penalize people for dragging their heels ordering.

[Fug-Lee-Faces]

It's to penalize people for dragging their heels ordering.

They're already penalizing ALL of us with a smaller size, no more molded interior walls, cutting accessories, etc.

Just to say my piece on this whole Castle Grayskull thing and I'm going to say it as nicely as I can: I personally feel we were all duped.
I just cannot believe that the world's biggest toy company who has experience making these castles already and even makes LARGER items (Barbie Dream Houses) could get everything on the B-Sheet so wrong. I understood that certain things might change from the B-Sheet when I preordered all of mine, and I was fine with that. Unfortunately for me, I did not think they would change so drastically. For me personally, I could live with the smaller size OR the molded interior walls being nixed. However, I just cannot live with both those things being cut.

I also don't understand the need to cut anything. ToyGuru has stated that they originally wanted to sell this at $200 but made it $250 so they wouldn't have to cut anything. As well, he said we blew the sales for this out of the water. With all of that, I just don't understand why ANYTHING had to be cut.

What I saw revealed is not worth anywhere close to $250.

I love the figures, I love the Wind Raider, and for the most part, I feel I get my money's worth on all those. But this whole castle thing just grinds my gears.

[Evilestwarrior]

I do understand where the frustration comes from with MOTUC and Mattel at times but really with something like this, the torches and pitchforks should be reserved until after SDCC. One thing that drives me crazy with the fandom is jumping to conclusions and the mass hysteria created by a few people stating their concern over something. It then gets blown way out of proportion. I've seen several instances where people are angry and ranting on blatantly false information and it gets a little out of control. I am not pointing fingers or trying to give anyone a hard time, I just feel that sometimes people go a bit overboard with the hatred and criticism of this line. For instance a few posts back someone mentioned prices increasing on the Castle during the second round of pre-orders and people started to worry that the price was just going to increase on past pre-orders. That being said, I do feel that the Fans need to be vocal about what they want and what they don't want. I was impressed by the decision on Matty to listen to the fans about the black plastic ordeal. In turn we have to pick and choose our battles or risk being too whiny and ignored in the future (ie Snake Faces Feet)

Believe me if SDCC rolls around and this thing is a shadow of what it was supposed to be I will be pretty disappointed. I did like what I saw at NYTF but I won't be OK with too many accessories being cut. Not because I care about having thousands of accessories, but just the principle of being told what we would get at that price point. Personally I knew the size they had on the B-sheet was too ambitious and would be reduced. TG did say the size was an approximation so I am OK with that, I would like the Jawbridge to go into the base though so it would be a tad bigger just because I think it would be awesome to have it that big. I don't really play with my toys I usually just set them up in a cool battle scenes on a shelf so just having He-Man/Battle Cat and Skeletor/ Panthor fighting outside in front of it will be good for me, I mean the thing is massive! Ok end of rant and I hope I didn't offend anyone. When I first joined the org I have to admit the negativity ****** me off and I tried to argue it out instead of sit back and realize that this is small toy line targeted to a specific collector market that are very passionate about MOTU. Tempers are going to flair on all sides because each and every one of us has our own ideas on how this line should be run. Some of the problem may be that Mattel gave us too much of a say at first and are now kicking themselves

[Pancho]

are you kidding ?
he-man has already some difficulties to stand up at the entrance since it s too small.
Maybe they will fix it a bit but what you say is completely nonsense

Someone doesn't understand the concept of sarcasm. Maybe if I had ended my post with a cute little face like this?

- - - Updated - - -

The $300 price point for CG was announced when the pre-orders started. Or at least somewhere around that time.

[Fug-Lee-Faces]

Believe me if SDCC rolls around and this thing is a shadow of what it was supposed to be I will be pretty disappointed. I did like what I saw at NYTF but I won't be OK with too many accessories being cut.

But, it already is a shadow of what it was supposed to be. That's cool if you liked what you saw at SDCC. If this castle were only $150 I'd be happy with it too. But for $250 we're getting a clamshell that really is not much larger than any other castle they have ever released. We were SUPPOSED to get Molded Interior Walls and a much larger castle overall.

As far as I'm concerned, this thing already is just a shadow of what we were promised. It still boggles my mind that more people aren't upset about the molded interior walls being cut. To me, that was the ONLY thing making this worth the price tag. I really hated the original castle. Even as a kid I remembered being disappointed with the interior walls just being the reverse of the outside and thinking how cheap the whole thing felt. So when Scott said this was going to have molded interior walls I got excited. And now to be told this is back to being just a clam shell?? I just cannot understand how a clam shell can justify the price of this thing.

I like the sculpt, but a $250 castle this is NOT. I'm waiting for the final reveal, and if I'm not blown away, Mattel can kiss my preorders all goodbye. I'm not hopeful of being blown away...I am NOT impressed with what I saw revealed to date. The sculpt is good, but not $250 good.

[scott metzger]

I'm a bit puzzled about the logistics of the increase in pre-order prices. We already had the minimum to make Grayskull viable plus some. The more orders, the less per unit Mattel is actually spending to make it. It does seem it was simply punitive; that, or they realized that they would likely be getting some significant cancellations when the prototype came in being less than what folks were led to believe.