More He-Man MOTUC details

The other day I posted that He-man and Beastman would be the next two figures in Mattel’s new exclusive Masters Of the Universe Classics (MOUTC) line. I jumped the gun a little because I was pretty sure I had a scoop since hadn’t seen the info anywhere else. It turns out, they were on display at SDCC and a bunch of additional info was revealed and posted to He-man.org. Here’s some of the highlights:
– King Grayskull sold out on both MattyCollector.com and at SDCC
– Availability will be:

• He-Man – October 31st
• Beast Man – November 15th
• Skeletor – December 15th (was not on display at SDCC)
• Stratos – January 15th (was not on display at SDCC)
• Merman – February 15th
• Zodac – Sometime in 2009

– He-Man will have both a normal Power Sword as well as the classic toy half-sword
– From the 12 regular figures released in 2009, two will be characters who never were available as toys ever, and two will be characters who were released in the vintage line but not in the 2002 line
– Figures are limited to 3 per household
– Mattel produced two “Spirit of Grayskull” figures (blue translucent versions of King Grayskull). One was raffled off on Saturday at the con to a lucky fan. The other one will be auctioned in October for Dream Halloween 2008
– No Chase figures are planned right now (THANK GOODNESS!), but they are still a possibility
– Convention exclusives are being planned in 2009 for both NYCC and SDCC
– Some figures will have multiple heads, like Mer-Man
– Bios on the card will be based on the story arcs from the classic toy mini-comics and 200x line
– Mattel is currently looking into the possibility of including mini-comics later in the line
– BAFs (Build a figures) are only a possibility if the toyline is successful
– Mattel is exploring the possibility of a subscription plan for the toys
– Mattel is exploring the possibility of a comic book series available via mattycollectors.com
– No news about the movie; they are still in script developement

I have included some more tidbits from He-Man.org that came up from a Q&A outside of SDCC after the jump.

Also from He-Man.org, questions were submitted to ToyGuru, who I can only assume works at Mattel given his answers and how little information they actually reveal.

1. Since the MOTUC line is not supposed to have action-features, what will be done for characters whose name was derived from their action-feature? (eg: Extendar who’s limbs extended, Stinkor who smelled stinky, Blast Attack who blasted apart into pieces, etc)
It is unlikely we will add “stink” to Stinkor, but we will try to replicate some action features like giving Meckaneck extra snap on neck and head pieces to simulate his vintage action feature.

2. For any figures that might be in the MOTUC line that were missing from the 2002 line, is it possible they will be sculpted/designed in the 2002 style to help fans get figures never released for that line? Or is the style seen on King Grayskull the look of the entire MOTUC line?
At this time, all of the MOTU Classics figures will be in the same style. In the future we may go back and do figures in the 2002 line style, but right now we are interested in creating a brand new cohesive line look for all characters in the Classics line. This look will be revealed at SDCC, but you can get a good idea by checking out the first figure in the line – King Grayskull!

3. Do you know if Princess of Power figures in the MOTUC line will have sculpted or rooted hair?
All the figures in the MOTU Classics line will have sculpted hair.

4. Is it possible to work out a deal with Entertainment Rights to allow for figures of Filmation characters that fans have wanted for decades? (eg: Adora, Shadow Weaver, etc)
At this time, Filmation only characters are not available for the new MOTU Classics line. Adora however did appear in Mattel’s vintage mini comics so she is available for the new line, Shadow Weaver however is not. The main influence for the new line will be the look of the original toys. For characters like Adora, who did appear in the original mini comics before appearing in the cartoon but did not have their own toy the way Prince Adam did, would likely get an original uniform designed by Mattel and the Horsemen. (Don’t worry, if and when we get to Adora we will do her right. This is a collector line after all).

5. Are sculpted environments a possible addition to be included with figures? (like with Robocop or Lost figures)
One of the many advantages of offering MOTUC through our new online store is that we can change things up more frequently. If there is enough demand from collectors we will absolutely look into doing something like this.

6. Much like the King Grayskull figure exclusive, will Mattel offer the Volume 3 DVD exclusive outside of San Diego con, or do we need to make plans to obtain one via another means?
Unlike the King Grayskull figure, the DVD will not be offered online. It is likely we will sell out at the show and we do not have extra stock for sale post SDCC on the new fan website. However, it is possible that BCI may put this version out at a later time on there own. That will be up to BCI. Maybe BCIguy will have a comment after the con depending on sales.

7. Will accessories match the original classic colors, or will they be changed to be more realistic? (like Prince Adam’s magenta sword, Faker’s orange sword, etc)
The colors will match the vintage release, the sculpting and detail work will be all new.

8. Are any of the 1980s concepts that never got released possible in the MOTUC line? (like Hand-Some, Big-Foot, Dragon-Lord, etc. Also others seen in Tomarts magazine years ago)
These are possibilities down the road, but we have a lot of other exciting characters we would like to get to first.

9. Any chance of a large scale line? (10″, 12″, etc)
Not immediately, but because this line is being distributed exclusively through our new fan website, there is definitely the possibility of adding other scales in the future.

10. Is there any chance for web’toons or web’isodes to create some sort of entertainment for the MOTUC line while furthering the mythos?
Not in the immediate future, but anything is possible!

Also, some fans thought toys would be coming to stores, and were surprised by the online-store-only approach.
Toyguru posted this comment in this thread to help clear up any confusion:
“For the record, the new MOTU Classics line was designed from Day 1 to be exclusive to our new fan website. When we announced new MOTU figures would be coming to toy shelves this fall, we meant collector’s toy shelves. As in the toy shelf that you keep you new MOTU figures on at home. If fans misunderstood this comment I appologise, but to make things clear, there will be one figure per month available only on the new fan website. This has always been the plan!”