Val Staples, Danielle Gelehrter, and "Pixel Dan" Eardley are back to discuss He-Man and She-Ra.

In this episode we are joined by Tim Seeley as we discuss
Part 1 of the new MOTUC The Powers of Grayskull The Legend Begins mini-comic!

MOTUC bios discussed in this show:
(none)

MOTUC figures discussed in this show:
none

Intro/Outro info:
(none) 

Plus, fellow He-Fan josh on the forums has created this fantastic Roast Gooble Dinner podcast Appendix & Notations which contains a ton of info about the show, with all the info about the Fanart, Fansites and Collectibles of the week, along with links to sites and user profiles of interest, and also details on how to contact the show with your feedback. Be sure to check that out!

Another fan contribution are episode wallpapers and backgrounds, created by Matt Tyree also know as Tyree on the forums. Matt is commercial illustrator who you can find out more about at www.tyreeonline.com

Also, don't forget the Roast Gooble Dinner iPhone App, which is great for organizing and downloading current and past episodes. Click here to get yours today!

So pull up your chair and fill up your plate! It's time to chow down on a tasty serving of fandom here on He-Man.org's Roast Gooble Dinner!

Runtime: 1 hour, 46 minutes, 41 seconds

Direct link for Episode 071

Discussion thread on the forums

Subscription options:

Link to subscribe with iTunes
or
Direct link to RSS feed 

Welcome back He-Fans and She-Ravers (never get sick of that fan coined term!).

So King Grayskull’s success was behind us. Now what? How (and can we) do a full line of MOTU characters using these new shared parts?

Grayskull was a bit easier to green light since we already had an approved “slot” for him for SDCC (before we ever saw the Horsemen He-Man proto!). Switching him from being the “last” 200X figure to the first “Classics” figure was a bit easier (due to having the slot already for one SDCC MOTU figure). Pitching an entire line would now come with its fare share of hurdles.

The original idea from the management team was to pack MOTUC figures as two packs pairing an A list figure with a B or C list figure. Experience from other brands had shown that only the top guys tend to sell so if we could pair a top guy with a not so top guy it might help move more units. (little did we know that in time the customer base would prove almost any MOTU character would sell! A true exception in toy making and a testament to the strength of the brand and the fans!)

We knew that MOTUC needed to use heavy shared tooling and parts to work from a financial stand point. Luckily the vintage line shared this strategy so we had precedent for this tactic without looking like we were going cheap. It also made the figures feel very “MOTU” by having them use common arms, legs, and furry loin clothes! Additionally, we came up with a creative direction for sculpting (more on this in a later blog).

All figures would be done in the new “Classics style” the Horsemen so brilliantly created. Much like 200X is a (and I know fans hate this phrase) “hyper detail” interpretation of the vintage toys, Classics was a new interpretation of the same vintage figures but in a new style. Yes, there were many fans who wanted more 200X style figures, but that was not what Classics was about. We took the same starting point that 200X did (the vintage line) but created a new look and style called “Classics” that would work for any character. Essentially, this was the idea:

-All characters would be considered modern upgrades of MOTU Vintage figures from the 1982-1987 line.

-If a figure did not have a vintage counterpart from the 1982 line, we would first “imagine” what that figure might look like had he or she hypothetically been in the vintage 1982 line and then make the update into Classics style.

So for example, a POP figure that was originally a doll figure in the 1980’s girl’s line would first be reimagined as what she (or “he” for Bow) would look like had the POP figures not been in a girl’s doll line but rather were females in the boy’s MOTU 82-87 line (like Teela or Sorceress who were female action figures not dolls). Then we would update that hypothetical vintage figure into Classics using shared parts. While this meant doing away with some of the POP soft goods and rooted hair, it helped make them into female action figures, not dolls, which was the idea. (Additionally the original vendor couldn’t do rooted hair so that sealed the deal on that option).

This was also applied to NA and 200X original characters (i.e. Carnivus, Faceless One etc…) We didn’t want to do a direct 200X character with all the Spawn inspired hyper details of early 2000’s toy making. Besides, management was VERY clear that this style was to be retired. We could do 200X weapons or armor in the Classics style, but not character faces or bodies (so Beastman for example would not be larger like he was in 200X but rather in scale to all other figures like he was in the vintage line).

We wanted all Classic figs to have the same style based on this new look the Horsemen created. So even a 200X character was first reimagined as if he or she had “had a vintage MOTU fig” and then updated for the Classics line. Same with NA to ensure we had the beefed up look for the Galactic Protectors and Space Mutants and not the super skinny look they had in the vintage NA line.

With this creative direction in place, we put together a proposal to management for how we wanted to do a handful of skus. 3 actually. The plan was to create 3 different 2 packs pairing a good guy and a bad guy together. By using these packs to tool the 3 main body types we would be set up for success should these sell well. The original plan was:

He-Man vs. Beastman
Skeletor vs. Stratos
Man-At-Arms vs. Zodac

Yes, yes you can argue that Zodac is not a bad guy but really this was about zeroing in on 6 characters that could use the human, reptile and beast bucks with minimal new parts. Mer Man needed more new parts vs Zodac so he didn’t make the cut.

Very late in the game the choice was made to split these 2 packs up into single figures to spread the releases out and have 6 months worth of product. This would give us time to gage success of the line and whether we could move forward with a 7th figure. (and on a personal note I am so glad this choice was approved!)

While most of “He-Man” was paid for already though King Grayskull, obviously a few additional items were needed. Originally design only wanted to give He-Man the half power sword. In one of those (not so rare) occasions of me stepping out of my marketing silo, I literally begged design to please throw in the full sword as well.

Additionally, the original plan was not to have the swappable heads or armor (which is why King Grayskull’s head and armor was not removable). As a fan, I really wanted swappable heads and armor for customization, and I extrapolated that my desires for multiple heads likely mirrored most fans’ desires. So again I literally pleaded and begged the design group to please look into this as an added feature.

While this meant a two month delay in product launch, design was willing to execute on my proposal to make removable heads and armor. He-Man was reworked to have this feature. This is why He-Man was delayed from early fall to the very end of 2008. I think it was worth it!

Packaging was also a major issue from the start. Management was pretty clear that we needed to do this on a very minimal budget and we had almost zero resources for new packaging. Actually, the specific direction from management was to slap them in a plain white box and send them out. Because this was an online toy line, management did not see why we needed full color packaging (retail needs packaging for obvious reasons). As a toy fan, again I knew many customers want to keep their figures mint in box as “art” pieces so it was important to go all the way (if we could). I was willing to fight for this too.

I sat down with packaging and pretty much begged them for any resources possible. While we couldn’t go with the red rock vintage homage concept that the Horsemen had pitched, we had the great Green Brick design from the SDCC figure already in the can. If we could use these existing graphic elements it would save a huge amount of time.

I was also very insistent that the bubble blister had the inverted belly button mark that was an homage to the vintage line. Because this was a simple addition, packaging agreed to add this even though they had little budget or resources. Essentially a few MOTU fans in the package group stayed late on their own time to make this package happen. (so while some fans have complained about the package over the years, you have to realize this was all done on spit and wax. It was pretty much reusing the green brick from the SDCC figure or having a plain white box. The option for a more elaborate package was just not available or possible).

We also knew that there was no new entertainment planned to support the line and we had no budget for mini comics (like I said, we could barely afford to create a new package!). Especially when fans voted for multiple heads over mini comics at NYCC in Feb of 2008.

To give fans some type of “entertainment” we decided to put bios on the back panel. Obviously there are tons of contradictory cannons for MOTU. We didn’t intend (and still don’t) for MOTUC to be the definitive cannon. There is no definitive cannon. The stories fans make up in their play and imaginations are just as valid.

But what we did do is take the best elements from different (often contradictory) cannons and merge them into one storyline. I’ll have more to say on this when we get to Stratos which was about the time all of the bios (beyond the first 6) were written.

The last packaging element was getting the vintage art for the shield. Luckily most of the vintage figures had art across the top. I put in a request to the archive department and pulled the 6 vintage figures that corresponded to the 6 figures in the roll out. (boy was there a lot of dust!) Cards were scanned and the art was good to go.

One quick side bar to note. All of the vintage figures also had one line of “copy” across the art. He-Man’s was something like “He-Man defends Eternia with his friends and allies” or something like that. I thought it would be really cool if the one line of copy from the vintage figures was incorporated into the bios so we made sure that the “last” line of most bios (Skeletor is an early exception) was the final line of the new bios. The idea (kinda) was “what if these bios were around for the vintage line, they just got cut down to one line on the final figure”. Now for the first time we were presenting the hypothetical “full bio” for each character as written in the vintage days (at least this is kinda how I saw it in my head, take it or leave it).

So there we had it. 6 figures ready to go, 6 bios written and we even managed to find a way to create packaging with almost no resources available What a month that was.

But I digress. Back to He-Man specifically.

So here was our flagship guy. The most powerful man in the Universe ready to kick off what could potentially be an entire line of new updated collector aimed figures. Man I hoped this worked! A lot was on the line.

The first samples came back and he looked great. A little bit too much overspray on the eyes and a few small adjustments, but the head was now removable as was the power vest. He had the half sword and the full sword that I begged for. At this point it was time to see if he would sell.

He-Man went up on Mattycollector.com in late fall 2008 and did “okay”. He was not at all a runaway success. We sold a modest number of units, but not anywhere what I expected or what Mattel needed to sell in order to green lit more figures.

Oh well. At least we got He-Man, King Grayskull and Beastman and Skeletor were already in production so we knew they would at least be sold. I had little hope after He-Man’s slow initial sell that we would ever get to another figure beyond the first 6 (well 7 if you count King Grayskull – which I do!).

One side note I should add is that He-Man was actually the first figure to suffer from the dreaded “reversed shoulder” issue. When He-Man was assembled (and actually the original King Grayskull too I should add) the male human shoulders were new to us and no one but the Horsemen caught that the shoulders were reversed. Obviously we made this correction with the second run, but man, now embarrassing. Luckily the detail that differentiated left from right was very minor. But still. A figure that wasn’t perfect was not what we wanted to sell.

Luckily (for us) fans did not have much exposure to these figures yet and no one really caught his until Skeletor came out with corrected shoulders (more on that when I get to Skeletor in this blog series). Plus, since He-Man was our main guy, we were able to get the resources to swap his shoulders for a second release later on.

Packaging and accessory issues aside, the line was kicked off. It wasn’t a run away success yet and no one (including myself) was looking or even thinking we could do more then these 6 figures ending with Zodac. At least we had 6 in the pipe and if sales picked up maybe, maybe we would get to more. Only time and fan interest would tell.

See what the fans have to say HERE!

Hey Matty Fans,

There has been a ton of chatter online regarding "canceled subs" and I want to quickly clarify the issue.

Digital River attempts 3 times to charge customers for their sub(s) every month. If it fails the third time, an automatic message generates to that customer letting them know. By not having adequate funds in your account (after 3 attempts to charge you) customers will trigger an automatic "cancelation" of their subscription and a message that (up until last week) stated "as you requested, your subscription has been canceled.” We can see why this would be confusing!

Of course we know customers are not "trying to cancel their subs" (and we certainly don't want to cancel them) but by not having full funds available in their account, in essence customers were “self canceling.” This is why the messages went out like this. 100% this is not the ideal wording we want to use to explain the situation. We have already reworded this message for the future to clarify what is happening.

We had a long conf call with Digital River and should have this issue resolved going forward. Orders will still be in limbo (inactive versus active) if your payment doesn't clear, but fans will no longer get a message telling them they "chose" to "cancel their sub." Going forward, any customers without full funds will get an email instead informing them to “contact Customer Service to get their subscription back on track”. We will reword the message so it no longer tells customers they “chose to cancel their sub” (since we know this is not what customers intended by not having funds!)

For the smoothest subscription experience going forward, we highly suggest you use a credit card with enough of a credit limit or a debit card with enough funds to cover your monthly order. Customers without adequate funds will continue to receive messages letting them know their monthly item(s) will not ship and they will be in limbo needing to call customer service to reinstate.

We will work on improving the message to make it clearer what fans need to do. And anyone who is "kicked out of a sub" due to payment failure can get back in simply by calling customer service and proving a credit card with adequate funds.

Additionally, we are rolling out a much improved method of changing credit card and shipping address information for your accounts. We've absolutely heard you on this issue and it has been looked into. We'll let you know as soon as it's online and will also send out an email at the beginning of next year reminding everyone to update their credit card information in the system.

So in conclusion, we know fans are not "opting to cancel their sub" and this was our fault for a poorly worded error message (automatically generated when funds are not available). If you're not sure when your card will be charged, we have been posting the key dates in our sale announcement stories in the News Section. We'll continue to post them there and we will also start posting them in the Fan Forums, and on Facebook and Twitter. These are the dates for February:

Your card will be charged 5 CALENDAR days before the on-sale date, so plan to have funds available before Friday, February 10, 2012. Subscription orders will begin shipping 2 BUSINESS days before the on-sale date, which is Monday, February 13, 2011. These dates apply to Club Eternia®, Club Lion Force, and MOTU 30th Anniversary Series.

Hope that helps!

Scott

See what the fans have to say HERE!

MOTU Fans, as some fans know, we had a production error on the 2009 Goddess figure that caused a small portion of units to break at the leg joints. While we can no longer replace Goddess figures as she is several years old, we would be happy to refund your order if you want to return the broken figure. All returns must be accompanied by the defective product. Again, we do not have additional units to replace your figure, but we are happy to offer a refund. For help, call 1-877-GO-MATTY or email MattyCollector.CS@digitalriver?.com.

See what the fans have to say HERE!

I’m a toy fan. That’s no secret. It’s pretty much the reason I applied to work at Mattel. I’m also a big movie fan (I was a film major in college, well at least one of my majors was film, I’m an overachiever sometimes). One of the things I love about movies is hearing the behind-the-scenes info and the DVD format was perfect for this because it gave us “Director’s Commentary” with insights and secrets behind some of our favorite films.

In honor of the 30th anniversary of MOTU, I thought it would be a blast to take a look back at MOTUC (circa 2008 – current) and create a blog reflecting on each figure released to date. It is rare for one brand manager to work on a single line as long as I have so I’m in a cool position to share ramblings on both the origins of the brand and a look behind each figure. I don’t remember every detail of every figure, and I’m sure as we get closer to current releases I will have more clarity. But for now, much like getting the director’s commentary on a DVD, this blog is my attempt to offer that same concept but for a fantastic collector toy line – Master of the Universe Classics!

Each entry will focus on one figure, starting with King Grayskull from SDCC 2008 and going all the way up to the current monthly or quarterly release coming out this year. I hope by the end of 2012 to be caught up with all the figures. There won’t be an exact rollout of these blog entries as I’m going to write them in my “spare” time. But look for them every so often as we take a trip down memory lane and reflect back on the greatest collector toy line of them all, MOTU Classics!

So where did it all start?

Well, back in 2007 I was new to the Action Play Marketing group. I had just moved over to the group from the Hot Wheels packaging team where I was a writer on basic cars and track sets. I was moved over to the Marketing team to help start up more robust collector lines as I was a collector myself (in addition to helping to launch the DCUC line with the WB group!).

One of the first things at the top of my list was somehow through **** or high water getting a MOTU line up and running for collectors. MOTU was my favorite line as a child and getting to work on a MOTU line (or line extension) was a dream job. Basically I wanted to make the MOTU line I always wanted, meaning highly articulated, fully detailed and huge character selection. Yes, that sounds 100% selfish, but remember, as a fan myself my plan was that if I was pleasing myself (as a HUGE MOTU fan), likely I was pleasing most fans (not every fan obviously) but I used my own “requirements” for what a collector MOTU line should be as a jumping off point.

First stop was SDCC.

We were a year off from SDCC 2008 and I really wanted to find some way to bring MOTU there. The 200X line had “ended” about 4 years earlier but we still had all of the tools and molds for this line at our factories. I was a HUGE fan of this show and the line (I remember waiting in line at SDCC myself for a Keldor and She-Ra figure and being very upset I only walked away with one She-Ra the year she came out. So much for having a second one MIB!)

A lot of folks were a bit unsure whether we could launch a MOTU line without any new entertainment and relying on collector interest only. Others were very supportive of the idea. In the end, what we decided was to try one figure using shared tooling.

There were quite a few characters that never made it into the 200X line and the original idea was to just pick up where the retail line ended and keep pumping out 200x style figures using what shared tooling we could use. Very early on, King Grayskull became the character we wanted to do as he would be a great SDCC item since he was “He-Man” but was not really “He-Man,” appealing to both hard core fans and ideally casual new buyers as well.

The original idea was to use the 200X Ice Armor He-Man body buck since it had the cape and boots we wanted. A new head would give us this figure perfect to “close out” the 200X line. King Grayskull was not originally intended to be the start of a new line but rather the “final” figure in the 200X line (or if he hit perhaps the start of a 200X collector line).

Design started looking over the concept and management approved King Grayskull as the SDCC exclusive for summer of 2008. We reached out to our vendor to dig up the old Ice Armor He-Man tool and were about to call the Horsemen to ask about creating a new head.

But then fate stepped in.

The Horsemen showed up at SDCC 2007 a month later with an all new concept for a He-Man figure they created on their own independently. You all know what I’m talking about because we slipped it into the display case just to see what fans thought!

This was a highly detailed, fully articulated figure that used the proportions of the vintage line but updated with today’s standards (set pretty high by a certain 6” Superhero line that was legendary and marvelous).

The best part about the Horsemen’s new pitch was the figure was designed to heavily use shared parts. I can’t overstress how important this is for a collector line. Tooling is INCREDIBLY expensive. So finding a way to incorporate shared tooling from day one was the only way a line could work. AND what was great was the vintage line was based on shared tooling, so reflecting that in a collector line actually worked without it looking like the line was going cheap.

The sneak peak in the case was a huge hit with fans at SDCC 2007 and we quickly came back to El Segundo and scrapped out plans to use the Ice Armor He-Man buck and instead thought, “what if we used this new buck for a whole new line of MOTU characters?”

Now at the same time, we were starting up Mattycollector.com (my major project for coming over to the marketing group). If we could get this new MOTU shared parts line up and running it might be the perfect backbone to this new online distribution model.

We hatched a plan to use the new buck system to premier King Grayskull at SDCC 2008 as planned, with the idea that if we reflected the vintage line and created basic human, beast (Beastman/Stratos) and reptile (Skeletor) bucks, we could make a variety of characters with minimal new tooling (heads, capes, weapons, etc…).

I’ll go into detail about the first 6 characters when I get to their blog entries, but for now, a look at how King Grayskull came about.

We had very little assets and very little time. The packaging group came up with the idea of putting him in a castle-like package and even adding in lights and sounds for that extra Comic-Con affect. Yes, he would be a 100% tool, but we were looking at him as an investment that if we tooled King Grayskull, we would essentially have He-Man and the base for countless other figures.

The dice were rolled and we took a risk!

I remember getting the first early sample back and plunking him down on my desk. Wow. We did it! The first new MOTU figure in almost 5 years and boy, was he amazing! I completely credit the Horsemen with the amazing look. Keeping those buffed-up proportions from the vintage line was a stroke of genius. While the original idea was to use the limited shared tooling from the 200X line, having an all-new buck system and starting an all-new line actually made way more sense (especially to upper management) because it gave us the chance to make ALL of the characters again, not just the ones that didn’t make it into the 200X line (like King Grayskull).

At NYCC in February 2008 we announced the figure as an SDCC exclusive with the idea that there was more to come and a whole new MOTU line with “the best distribution ever” and “MOTU would be back on shelves everywhere.” This was my first experience of fans misinterpreting what I meant. A lot of fans took this to mean store shelves everywhere. I wasn’t yet cleared to announce Mattycollector.com as the distribution model (as that was a reveal saved for SDCC in a few months).

What I had intended to mean was MOTU would be back on “your” shelf. Meaning the shelf you keep your collection on at home. And by the “best distribution ever” what I meant was anyone in any country could order these online. (As opposed to a retail-exclusive line. If MOTU was, for example, a TRU line, if you lived in a country without a TRU you were out of luck!). Online distribution really meant the widest distribution possible. I honestly never intended to mislead fans and customers and this was a good key learning to watch what I say as everything I say will be picked apart and possibly misinterpreted! A lot of fans were upset when they learned at SDCC this would be an online line, but I think over time it has worked out. Not having to rely on retailer interest has actually been a great move for this line and what has allowed us to do items without thinking about retailer shelf space.

Anyway, regardless of a few early communication issues, King Grayskull was off to a great start. We even came up with a concept for a “chase” version at the show to help generate more PR and noise by doing a bronze statue version (for the record, this was the suggestion of some of the web masters at He-Man.org who have been a great resource, especially in the beginning when we were getting out feet wet!).

The figure and package really came together nicely. We no longer had rights to use the actual voice from the 200X series in the toy, but luckily we had a recording from a talking figure from 200X that was a sounds-like voice that we owned. The sound studio deepened the “I have the Power” call from this toy to make it more “King Grayskull” and the package was set.

We brought King Grayskull to SDCC 2008 and he was a huge smash. This was also the show where we announced Mattycollector.com itself and that there would be more MOTUC figures coming later that fall. (I’ll get more into that in the next blog entry.) We also made sure to produce a few additional units to sell online to kick off the website. Unfortunately, due to not thinking holistically, the electronics we used in the package prevented us from shipping King Grayskull outside of North America. This was never something we did intentionally, but when you are trying to make a cake sometimes you break a few eggs. This was a big one. We really wanted to cultivate an international audience so it killed me that we had this restriction.

But in the end, despite a few missteps, we had a hit. King Grayskull wound up being the perfect figure to kick off the line since, as I said above, he “was He-Man, but was not He-Man”. He was a figure that was not in the vintage line, but was being done in the new Classics style as an interpretation of what an updated hypothetical vintage King Grayskull would be as updated through the new “Classics style.” Just as the 200X line was a reinterpretation of the vintage line, so was the Classics line. All characters would be in the same Classics look, regardless of where they were from, the vintage line, 200X, POP, NA etc… One all-inclusive line for all figures in a new style. How awesome.

King Grayskull sold out pretty fast online and it was soon clear that we could proceed with a whole line. But how to do them? Singles? Two packs? What would the packaging look like? How deep in character selection could we go?

The future was wide open and no one at Mattel was more excited then I. A skinny little kid from Connecticut who played with MOTU when he was 4 was now helping to make figures. Wow. A dream come true no matter how you shake it. For the very first time, MOTU had actual MOTU fans running the line. We were in for one heck of a ride.

SdN
(AKA Toyguru)

See what the fans have to say HERE!

MOTU Classics fans,

Toy Guru here. Last week I posted an update covering many of the recent issues on the MOTUC line. A few (okay, more than a few) customers have written to me to clarify issues about quality control (QC) that were not addressed and explain how we will be improving on this. I am happy to address this and to do so, let me go back and cover some previous issues we have had to shed some light on why certain figures have turned out less than perfect.


1: Green Goddess – Breakage Issues on the Torso

Despite constant rumors, this issue had nothing to do with “cheap plastic” or even the use of translucent plastic. A small percentage of Green Goddess figures did have issues with the lower torso cracking. This was the same issue we had with retail DCUC Wave 3 and Wave 4 produced at around the same time. The sonic welder used to fuse the joints together was causing microscopic tears in the plastic which would later lead to breakage. We quickly tried to inform customers that this was a joint issue and not a plastic issue (although for some reason many didn't believe us and cusotmers continue to rail about cheap plastic which I assure you is not the case as noted above) What is key, is as you may have noticed, this issue has not come up in ANY other figure since then. Fans and customers like to use this as a bell cow for QC issues, but it only happened to one figure and we quickly resolved the issue by recalibrating the sonic welder. So it hasn't and won't happen again. ISSUE RESOLVED!


2: Backwards Shoulders on Roboto and King Hssss

Okay, this one we messed up. Both figures were assembled wrongly from Day 1, but the catch is that not a single member of the team noticed this issue. I am 100% to blame just as much as design and engineering as I personally had both figures on my desk for weeks and never noticed this swap. As a frame of reference only, this issue was so minor in the details that it was missed by the Horsemen and all of the fans at NYTF, as well as by all the reviewers who received a PR sample. Not that that is an excuse, it is just a point of reference for how easy it was to miss this issue! Yes, the shoulders were attached wrong and it kills me that we missed it. We now take extra care with any new parts to ensure it is assembled correctly. It hasn’t happened since King Hsss almost a year ago and shouldn’t be an issue going forward. ISSUE RESOLVED!


3: Inverted Legs on Swiftwind and Missing Missiles on the Windraider

While on the surface this seems like a similar issue to the shoulders on Roboto and Hssss, it is actually not. For Roboto and Hssss, Mattel was sent early samples to review and we (myself included) completely dropped the ball and didn’t notice the fine detailing that differentiated the two shoulders.

For Swiftwind and Windraider, a very small number (but just as important) of customers received horses and vehicles with errors. All of the pre-production samples we received at Mattel were assembled correctly. So this is not a case of us missing QC problems with review samples. This is purely a case of human error at the vendor.

What looks like happened is a small batch of Swiftwind figures was hand-assembled incorrectly against our review instructions. The same for the Windraider, a small number were shipped without both projectiles. This was a case of human error. It does happen sometimes.

I know that is not an excuse, it is an explanation. All MOTUC figures are assembled and painted by hand. Sometimes (ideally rarely or not at all) mistakes will happen.

We do have a return policy where any product may be exchanged free of charge (for 30 days) for a correct product. But you do need to return the defective toy to get a new one. So in a sense, this issue is resolved. There will always be that small percentage of human error in any product line. It is regretful when it happens, but it does happen some of the time. To compensate, we have a return policy in place to ensure customers get a corrected figure. We can’t stop human error, but we can compensate for it with a return/exchange policy. HUMAN ERROR.

I hope this sheds some light on some of the issues we have had. Of course we are committed to eliminating all QC issues, but at the end of the day, when you are running a very small online collector line, there will be QC issues on occasion. I hope the fact that the breakage issues with Goddess and the shoulder swap issue with Roboto/Hssss has not repeated itself is a sign that we are working on things. We can never fully eliminate human error, but we can put a policy in place to ensure returns and exchanges are possible on the occasional -- but hopefully rare -- human error.

Nothing is more important to us than our customers and delivering the high end product you expect and deserve. We are committed to constantly improving QC issues and hope to continue to deliver the highest quality figures possible!

For the role I have had in maintaining or dropping QC, I personally and humbly apologize. Things like the swapped shoulders are absolutely my fault as well, as I had those figures on my desk with the wrong assembly and never noticed. Other issues like human error in China are hard to control from my desk here in El Segundo. They do and will happen from time to time, but we will do all we can to prevent or correct them.

I know fans continue to bring up QC issues a lot. But really, to take a step back, except for the repeat of the reversed shoulders on Roboto and Hssss, other issues such as the pelvis breakage have never repeated themselves. Even smaller issues like tighter joints, softer loin clothes and better paint ops have improved over time. Ideally the fact that customers have not seen the same issue pop up again is proof that we are addressing issues. But we can certianly solve one issue and another unrelated one does pop up.

Yes, QC issues will always be there (as with ANY consumer product line) but we are working around the clock to fix things and improve things. Human error (like what happened with Swifty) does happen from time to time and is unavoidable. But as I said, we have a policy in place to replace items at our cost if this happens.

The future is nothing but bright for all of our collector lines. We are committed to eliminating as many QC issues as possible and will keep working to bring you the best product possible.

Scott Neitlich

See what the fans have to say HERE!

Packed out in the same pose as his vintage counterpart! Kobra Kahn will ship in March 2012 as the monthly club figure (with some limited day-of stock)

Draego-Man - Evil Fire-Breathing Menace
Real Name: (Renounced his given Dragonian Name)

During the Great Wars, the Dragoons of Darksmoke fought in many epic battles against King Grayskull and the Snake Men. A magical half human/half dragon creation of the Great Black Dragon Wizard, Draego-Man was shunned by Granamyr and allied himself instead with the Free People of Eternia. After the truce of the Three Towers, Draego-Man became so disgusted with the humans that he isolated himself from all civilization, living as an outcast in the Caverns of Rakash. After several millennia of bitter retreat, Draego-Man discovered Skeletor's plans to enslave his dragon kin and use them as weapons against the Royal Palace. He returned from hiding to join Skeletor's Evil Warriors seeking revenge against all who betrayed him. Draego-Man uses his flame breath and ability to manipulate fire to battle for the side of evil!

Draego-Man really filled out the package. The wings are detached as is the tail to fit inside the blister, but they all easily snap in. He comes with the flame on sword. We are working on finding a home for the unreleased sword and whip accessories, perhapes with a future figure. The massive wing span and all the deco hits he needed forced us to reduce a few accessories to keep him as a $20.00 figure. We would rather remove the shield then have to remove the wings or tail!

The all new bio based on the Horsemen's backstory! The shield art was also supplied by the Horsemen from their concept sketch sent to our design team! Draego ships in April as part of the 30th sub (not the main Club Eternia Cub) with some limited day-of stock for non sub holders.

To see what the fans have to say bout the new bios, go HERE!

To read other the Bios for the other characters, go HERE!

Unfortunately for He-Man fans who want a good MOTU video game, video game website IGN reports that video game publisher THQ issued a statement today that it will leave the licensed kids' games market and focus its efforts on core gaming franchises like UFC, Warhammer and Saint's Row. THQ President and CEO Brian Farrell specifically cited the success of Saint's Row: The Third as the major reason behind the change. He revealed that the adult-themed open-world romp has sold close to 4 million copies.

Thanks to .org member Count Marzo for breaking this news.

To read the article in it's entirety, go HERE!

See what the fans are saying about this news HERE!

Poe Ghostal

3.) Dark Angel asks: The thigh piece for the female buck first seen on Battleground Teela is apparently being reused on two of the Star Sisters. This piece lacks the very important upper thigh POA that is really integral for posing, balancing, and allowing female figures to “ride” the various critters of MOTUC. It is also particularly important, if I may say, when one wants their female figures to stand a bit more demurely than the average action figure). Is the use of this solid thigh piece going to be limited (or better yet, eliminated), or are we on the road to permanently losing this POA from the female buck?

This is something decided on by the Horsemen and design on a figure by figure basis. There is no specific “rule.”

He-man.de

1) Surprisingly, the Bionatops was renamed Bionotops in the new Minicomic. I wonder what the reason was for this and how it will be called onwards?

Simply a legal issue. No bigger story!

2) The text in the minicomic is actually printed pretty small. Will this be equal in the forthcoming two minicomics?

Yes. But their won't be as much text per page as their was on page 1 of issue 1. This page was a lot of catch up and exposition.

3) The inclusion of the "Thunder Punch" energy ball is a welcome addition to the line. Would it be possible to include a kind of "transformation lightning" for the power sword with the next He-Man variant?

A very cool idea but nothing is in the works like this right now. Who knows what the future will bring!

4) The following question will definetly qualify for the nerdiest question ever asked: What kind of fur are the furry shorts made of? Do people like Stinkor dye their furry shorts orange or what strange colored animals are the shorts made off?

That is a closely guarded secret to be revealed one day in the distant future.

5) I remember the overall roadmap was planned till 2017 at one point. That was way before the inclusion of Filmation, Jetlag etc. characters. Can you tell us how long the roadmap currently is planned?

We have it thought out for a few more years at this point, but that in no way means the line is guaranteed to go that long or that the current team will still be running the line. But it is at least good to have a roadmap to ensure each year has a robust mix of characters and we don't run our of steam to quickly.

Kastor's Korner

Kastor's Korner: The first vehicle in the MOTUC line appeared to have a misprint on the shipper box, labelling it as a different vehicle… was this a typo/ miscommunication over a production note, or an easter egg to fans?

Matty: Names found on shipper boxes are there for legal reasons. They are not intended as an Easter Egg or to have any other hidden meaning.

Hordak.de

1. Draego Man's shield... wouldn't it be a nice accessory for Snake Man-At-Arms?!

It would be cool but not something we can afford in the cost of the figure. But we are looking for other ways to get it out eventually.

2. The fan response for the Wind Raider was awesome and no doubt this item will sell out and there will be more vehicles (these questions have been sent before sale-date). Will the design team concentrate on vintage vehicles first? No doubt, not everyone out there would want a bubble carriage or butterflier...but most of the NA vehicle concepts have been amazing! An updated Shuttle Pod and Terrapod would be an incredible addition to the line... so, are those eventually mentioned higher on the list than others?

The Windraider actually only did "okay" for us. While there is no vehicle planned for 2012, we are still reviewing if future vehicles are possible. This is entirely due to the high cost of tooling and the one time use. Vehicles do not have shared parts the way beasts or figures do.

3. A question directly to Scott: Would you mind showing us some pictures from your office/ toy shelf? It wouls be nice to see how you display your figures!

From toyguru:"I don't have any right now but will see what I can do. We have reasonable security levels in our buildings and I can't just snap pictures without approvals from management."

4. Without telling us any name or bio- do we fans know any of the fighting foe men yet- without knowing that he belongs to that group? Just give us a hint!

Yes, but they may not be who you think.

5. In the 200x cartoon Squeeze had short arms he could elongate. So, when you get to this character, how would you prefer to make him? Rubber arms with a wire inside like on the vintage figure or arms with clip-on-parts like seen on Tallstar, only longer?!

We tend to leave these choices to the Horsemen. We'll have to see when and if we get to him!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The sites listed below are the sites who want to participate in the Q&A round-up in these threads and on the He-Man.org homepage news entry.
Be sure to check out their sites! There's a lot there to see in addition to the Q&As.

http://www.planeteternia.de/
http://www.popculturenetwork.com/
http://www.figures.com/
http://www.superherotimes.com/
http://www.kastorskorner.com/
http://experiencethewonder.com
http://www.motucportal.com/
http://www.facebook.com/hordak.de
http://www.maitresdelunivers.org/
http://www.poeghostal.com/
www.kittyspryde.com
http://www.infinitehollywood.com/
http://www.motucfigures.com/
http://www.he-man.de/
ElkkThunders Toy Room
The Ultimate She-Ra Guide
MOTUClassics.com

See what the fans have to say HERE!