Mattel has released some images on their MattyCollector website showing off the packaging for the new MOTU Classics line. The packaging will be classic styled blister cards.

 
 

This news is about a week old, but I held off because I wanted to see the fan reaction. Read on for more including a side-by-side comparison.

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Show Notes:

You can see some design notes on this figure and a few other Toys R Us Exclusive repaints released around the same time at this url:
Design Notes for Spring 2008 Toys R Us Exclusive Releases

Powerglide, Storm and Hot Spot Images from TFU.Info.
Erector images from TFWiki.net.

There seemed to be a lot of hype around SDCC about Mattel’s new online-only exclusive Masters of the Universe Classics line. The first figure, King Grayskull, sold out in a relatively short span of time. We saw our first glimpse of He-Man and Beast Man. We were also told Merman, Skeletor and Zodac were on the way. The He-Man.org forums were abuzz with delight at the relaunch of their long desired property.

Many of the other online toy forums, not so dedicated to a single property, were not so keen on what was seen. While it was said that the character choices could come from any line of the He-Man property, we wouldn’t be seeing any of those other lines for at least a year. It was also stated that all figures would match the chunky retro style of the original 80’s toys. Even if a character was chosen from a different line with obvious style disparities from the original show such as New Adventures of He-Man or the 2002 version of Masters of the Universe, the sculpting style would remain in the classic chunky look of the 80’s figures.

This disparity among collectors has a lot of people wondering what will happen to the line now that these details have come to light and those not a part of the ‘hardcore 80’s audience’ is turned off by what they’ve seen thus far. Will the sculpting style change to match the style the character is originally from? Its certainly with in the sculptors’ capability since its none other than the Four Horsemen at the helm on that end. Ultimately though, its Mattel’s decision.

He-Man.org is running a poll to try and determine what fans think of the new line and I think its highly important for all fans to respond. The choices basically ask if you would collect the line, if you would collect the line if certain figures showed up from different series, or if you would not collect the line because of the classic sculpting being used for every figure. Go here to vote and be heard.

Image courtesy of Figures.com.

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.
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Tomorrow at 11am PST, Mattel’s collectors’ website, MattyCollector.com will go live. They will have up for sale the exclusives offered at SDCC. Included in those is the first figure in Mattel’s new Masters Of The Universe Classics (MOTUC) line; King Grayskull, which we first mention here.

The next two figures in the line will be He-Man and Beastman. Both are listed as coming soon this Fall.

From Mattel’s collector’s site for He-Man:

The most powerful man in the universe is back as a highly detailed, fully articulated action figure in the new Masters of the Universe® Classics series. He-Man® comes complete with power vest, axe, shield, the Sword of Grayskull as both a full sword and the light half of the Power Sword®. A must have for any MOTU fan! Coming this fall only on MattyCollector.com. While supplies last!

  

Beastman:

Skeletor’s right hand, um, Beast, will soon be available as a highly detailed, fully articulated figure in the new Masters of the Universe® Classics line. Comes complete with classic armor and whip. Check back soon for availability. While supplies last!

  

In a move sure to aggravate fans of the two highly anticipated waves of Hasbro’s Marvel Legends, The Red Hulk wave will be a Target exclusive wave and the Nemesis wave will be a Wal-mart exclusive wave. Just the thought has already given me twitchy flashbacks to the scarce availability of Toy-Biz’s Wal-mart exclusive Giant-man wave.

The Target wave is due to hit retail in September of 2008 at US$9.99 per figure.
The wave is set to include:
Adam Warlock
Back In Black Spider-man
Silver Savage
Spiral
Union Jack
X-Force Wolverine
VARIANT: Wolverine

The Wal-Mart wave is due to hit retail in December of 2008 at US$9.99 per figure.
This wave is set to include:
Astonishing Beast
BlackBolt
Nova
Punisher
Tigra
Yellow Daredevil
VARIANT: Camo Punisher w/ painted face
VARIANT: Red Daredevil
VARIANT: Blue Tint BlackBolt

News and Images from: MarvelousNews.com

I know what you’re thinking. Botcon was weeks ago. We know everything already. Well, do you? I always found it hard to keep track of what news flowed out of Botcon because every site had a different post for each comment, picture and mention of something new. I have put together one big brain dump of every note I took during the convention with some pictures and links to more pictures and some design notes on Transformers.com. If you have any further comments, questions, or praise for the upcoming products, feel free to leave a message as a comment to this post.

Also, you can see more photos from the convention in my personal galleries here.

More after the jump!

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Mattel’s panel at NYCC has brought us some great news for He-Man fans. Mattel announced an upcoming line for MOTU spanning all previous incarnations of the property. That includes the classic figures from the 80’s, characters from the original mini-comics, the New Adventures of He-Man, the 2002 MYP MOTU relaunch series and She-Ra, Princess of Power. It was unclear if the She-Ra figures would be based on the series of the original figures.

Some quick details from He-Man.org:

• The line will be a 6″ Masters of the Universe collector’s line
• The line will be super-poseable, using high-end articulation
• It will be comparable to the DC Universe line that is currently being produced by Mattel and sculpted by the 4H
• Mattel stated this line is definitely going to be for the collectors, and not for children
• They will be shipped in even case ratios. Mattel said “You are not going to see six Skeletors and one Beastman”
• The first figure in the line will be King Grayskull, who will be a SDCC Exclusive.
• King Grayskull will have a chase variant that is colored to look like the statue of King Grayskull seen by Adam from the MYP Power of Grayskull episode.
• This collector’s line will contain “the entire pantheon of MOTU characters”, which will include characters from the classic MOTU toy line, the New Adventures of He-Man, MYP cartoon characters, characters from the mini-comics (a photo of the Green Goddess was flashed), characters from the unproduced Powers of Grayskull line (a photo of He-Ro was flashed), and POP characters (a screengrab of Force Captain Adora from SOTS was flashed)

I have included the lengthy notes from the Fan Q&A and He-Man.org’s exclusive Q&A after the jump.

I found it interesting to note that Mattel does not own the rights to any character in the Filmation series that was not a toy or in the original mini-comics.
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