The history of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe is a constantly changing story. This documentary confronts some of the conflicting stories from those who take credit for the franchise’s origins. Having read a bit about the history of Mattel and grazing over this period of their history, I can’t say as that I am surprised by the conflicting stories. Mattel’s corporate culture did nothing but breed this type of in-fighting. I look forward to the release of this documentary.
One of the surprise announcements out of SDCC 2011 for Mattel was the discontinuation of DC Universe’s distribution to retail in the form of connect n’ collect/build-a-figure waves. No more build-a-figures would be offered at retail and instead the line would shift to more popular character selections shipped on a unique schedule. That left a hole for MattyCollector.com to fill by selling the figures of characters the line had not yet gotten to along with the more obscure character selections that tend not to do well with retail, but are popular among collectors.
In theory, this wasn’t a bad idea. Mattel set up a 9 month subscription that would feature nine monthly figures starting in April of 2012. There would also be three quarterly oversized figures and one club exclusive oversized figure as well. The latter, of which, would be decided by online fan poll based on a selection of revealed characters including, but not limited to, Black Lantern Swamp Thing and Shaggy Man.
The linch pin of this subscription, though, was that a specific number of subscriptions would need to be sold to make it viable. Mattel setup a thermometer to keep track of the relative number of subscriptions on MattyCollector.com to give people an informed view of how close they were to the goal.
This was the big one for a lot of those following at home. Mattel had some big announcements to make including Ghostbusters, Voltron, DC Universe and most especially Masters of the Universe (MOTU). ActionFigurePics actually got video of the whole presentation (seen above). I will not attempt to summarize in neat bullet point form the contents of the panel after the jump. Get ready because there were some big announcements!
Mattel posted the above video on youtube to show off the features and transformation of the new lions, pilots and accessories they plan to offer on MattyCollector.com.
There were a few nice items on display that we had not seen before for Mattel’s Ghostbusters line, available only on MattyCollector.com. The new prop replica, following in the footsteps of the PKE Meter, is a ghost trap, available in Fall of 2011. Also on display was Vigo the Carpathian, whom we have not seen before. You can see more photos over at the Fwoosh where these photos originated.
The title pretty much says it all. This non-subscription item is the MOTU Classics vehicle for 2011. While we all thought it would be the Battle Ram after its appearance last year in the Four Horseman’s case, it appears Mattel opted for something slightly smaller to start off the vehicles. The Wind Raider was a pretty ubiquitous vehicle in the original series so I wouldn’t be surprised if some collectors tried picking up more than one when it goes on sale in October.
Just a reminder to all you collectors that at noon EST, MattyCollector will have several new items up for sale. This includes MOTU Classics Clawful, JLU S.T.R.I.P.E., and some DCUC Super Powers stands. Today also marks the beginning of the All-Star sale where you can pick up what appears to be overstock of some very popular items including each of the four Ghostbusters figures, Walter Peck, MOTUC He-Man, Skeletor, Battlecat, She-Ra, Trapjaw, Panthor and much more!
MattyCollector.com updated their news page with some news that there will be a Voltron line coming to MattyCollector.com in 2012. It will be based on the classic 80’s series. A subscription to the line will be made available in the same fashion as the Ghostbusters (Club Ecto) and MOTU (Club Eternia) subscriptions. The new subscription will be called Club Lion Force and will include an exclusive figure for subscribers.
The update also mentioned that all subscriptions ordered at the same time, no matter the combination of lines, will all be able to have their shipping charges combined. Additional announcements and details will be made at SDCC 2012 later this summer.
Read the full news update from MattyCollector.com after the jump. [Read the rest of this entry…]
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