Castle Grayskull, Yo! [time-sensitive]

Chat about stuff other than Transformers.
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LKW
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Castle Grayskull, Yo! [time-sensitive]

Post by LKW »

Well, for anybody who's gotten any Masters of the Universe Clasics figures, and have found them to be generally high-quality, pretty damn cool, and overall worthy - Mattel wants to make them their own Castle Gray-freakin'-skull :eek::cool::headbang::smokin::afro: http://www.mattycollector.com/DRHM/stor ... =258165100
However, because of how expensive the danged thing would be, they are asking for pre-orders on the thing, to insure profitability/viability. While I'm hoping they'll extend their get-off-the-ground deadline a bit, I thought I'd better post something here now as a head's up to anybody 'round here who might be interested that there's really a chance - but the window for that opportunity may be closing quickly..!
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Post by Denyer »

Haven't been following much, and this is at a slight tangent, but suspect that Mattel have burnt too much of the prospective audience with the "club" model including a lot of figures people have no strong interest in, restricting supply of and jacking up prices of fan-favourite characters, etc.
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Post by Skyquake87 »

Friend of mine collects these classic he-man things, and pretty though they are (and big!), cost of the things is insane.plus,i can't honestly see the point when the excellent 2002 revamp covered the same ground.
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Post by RUNAMOK »

It looks like you don’t have to worry anymore; the goal has apparently been reached.
I’m not all that much of a fan of He-man and the masters of the universe, but I do for some odd reason enjoy Pixel Dan’s video reviews of the figures.
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Post by LKW »

[Sorry I haven't been around to follow up; start of the holiday season + the continued follow-up to "Superstorm Sandy" for some of our customers led to a busy week at work...]

Yes, thanks, RUNAMOK :) :clap: :afro: And Dan is an enjoyable reviewer, isn't he? He combines passion and enthusiasm with a nice thoroughness and some decent production values.
Denyer wrote:Haven't been following much, and this is at a slight tangent, but suspect that Mattel have burnt too much of the prospective audience with the "club" model including a lot of figures people have no strong interest in, restricting supply of and jacking up prices of fan-favourite characters, etc.
Yeah, valid points; while the goal was actually met (woo hoo!), there are definitely some divisions among the fandom over subscribing versus being a "cherry picker" of the line - some having no interest in new characters, or in concept characters such as next year's "Fighting Foe Men" (while I think those look pretty cool myself), or in the Princess of Power/"Great Rebellion" stuff (okay, me included). There was a lot of angst over the "sub minimum" being met over the summer, with some dropping out over reasons like those you mentioned, others buying extra subs to try to insure continuation of the line, and many, like myself, unwilling or able to commit several hundred dollars to a set of partially-unknown figures which would include both highly-desired and unwanted or unappreciated items. And there are divisions among "Fairness in Factions" people, those people - like me - who think Classics should be new versions of the original MOTU first, then other lines if resources allow, and who cares about Filmation - and all points in-between. But, it seems most/more than enough of the MOTUC purchasers and aware and able MOTU fans - except at least one ... um, oddball... who declared a boycott unless the design of the Castle had more Filmation influence :sick::smack::wtf: - were willing to buy in to this not-cheap, but cool, dream playset.

And I do agree they aren't cheap, Skyquake87; probably has kept me from picking up a few figs I was tempted by. But, with the size and quality generally involved, they do feel, at least to me, like a better value-per-dollar than the $10 USD Hasbro's generally charging for one 3 3/4" figure (!) now....
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Post by Skyquake87 »

I've often wondered if this isn't what all hardcore fans of a particular toyline actually want from Manufacturers. not anything new especially, just a 'better' version of what they had as a kid to justify the expense. I suppose Transformers kind of has this with Masterpiece, but its yet to reach the expansive level of Mattel's line.

Now there's an idea for you hasbro...
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Post by Denyer »

Transformers has effectively had that at retail with Classics/Generations/RTS/etc. and with better paint, etc. on Henkei imports for people who were bothered.

I'm casual with MOTU -- felt burnt when figures in the 200x line were only released as exclusives, went too completist in the first place, there was a lot of shortpacking, never quite appreciated the anime style to sculpts, etc. Only recently watched the show, and enjoyed that. The problem is that most characters (and the series in general, although POP was darker than MOTU) never received good writing originally, and the core conceits of shows such as MOTU and Thundercats felt even more like glued-together clichés than the TF animated series. TFs has narrative issues with the several-million-years gap, but I do think there's a sounder basis for writing for adults than most properties. Having said that, I've really liked the new Thundercats.

These days it's just a few figures for me, mostly ones we didn't get as kids because of availability, not being produced, or gender pigeon-holing. (eg, It's nice to get Adora or Shadow Weaver, even at a mark-up.)

Hopefully when Mattel are ready to call time they'll have the sense/maturity to do a last wave of remaining popular characters, rather than planning to go on hiatus with the hope of more in future or killing the line out of spite.

edit: Yeah, PD is entertaining...

http://www.he-man.org/forums/boards/sho ... deo-review!
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Post by Warcry »

Skyquake87 wrote:I've often wondered if this isn't what all hardcore fans of a particular toyline actually want from Manufacturers. not anything new especially, just a 'better' version of what they had as a kid to justify the expense. I suppose Transformers kind of has this with Masterpiece, but its yet to reach the expansive level of Mattel's line.

Now there's an idea for you hasbro...
Denyer wrote:Transformers has effectively had that at retail with Classics/Generations/RTS/etc. and with better paint, etc. on Henkei imports for people who were bothered.
Problem is, it's not usually a sustainable model. Mattel tried it with both He-man and DCUC (which was just a larger, more articulated rehash of the 80s Super Powers toys) and both died at retail when they started pumping out entire waves of toys that no one but adult collectors had ever heard of. I think Transformers gets more leeway in that regard because even the nobody characters still turn into cool cars, tanks, planes, etc. that kids might want to play with, so Tracks or Sunstreaker or Thundercracker will always sell better than Whiplash or Stinkor (or Jemm or Red Robin).

Another big difference is that Hasbro does a lot more to ensure that Optimus, Megatron, Bumblebee and Starscream are always available, just varying the supporting cast around them. Whereas Mattel's DCUC stuff didn't do a very good job of keeping Batman, Robin and Superman in circulation, so the only ones buying their stuff were grown-ups who wanted a Red Tornado, Zatanna or Golden Pharaoh.

[EDIT] I had lots of He-Man stuff growing up, but I just can't get into the newer lines. Dunno why, there were a lot of gorgeous character designs back in the 80s. I'm glad they're making a new Greyskull, though. I always loved the one I inherited from my cousins when I was a kid. Snake Mountain, not so much.
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Post by Denyer »

Warcry wrote:I think Transformers gets more leeway in that regard because even the nobody characters still turn into cool cars, tanks, planes, etc. that kids might want to play with, so Tracks or Sunstreaker or Thundercracker will always sell better than Whiplash or Stinkor (or Jemm or Red Robin).
Bingo. There isn't the market gap for as many additional adult collector pieces, and most people are used to being able to pick up things at retail and probably wouldn't buy into a MOTUC type arrangement -- at least IMO. Plus with the domestic releases of less kid-oriented pieces, a lot of people won't touch them until they go on discount. Quantity seems more a concern (people like being able to get an entire cast of core characters where when they were younger would only have had a few) and at the moment, Hasbro's keeping things viable by using less plastic and lowering quality on paint apps.

Largely the retail TF releases work for both the majority audience and adults.
there were a lot of gorgeous character designs back in the 80s
Not much characterisation for a lot of them, though. A decent comic and passable bios really helped TFs, to the point some lousy original toys (particularly later stuff) are very collectable due to the associations.
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Post by Skyquake87 »

It's just interesting to me that He-Man only survives now because it is an adult collectable range, the figures aren't available at regular retail (at least not over here in the UK). I'd agree that it's an odd business model, but it seems to have had much more longevity than I expected, to the extent where characters from the spin off lines POP and NAOHM are getting a look in.

Did sales on the 200x line really drop off so sharply? The line really did seem to come to a sudden halt (the last season of the supporting cartoon seems to suggest as much, with a lot of stuff crammed into the final 13 episodes - Snake Men, the Evil Hoarde, various origins and backstory stuff hastily crammed in etc).

You're both right, that this probably wouldn't work for Transformers (especially given the engineering involved) and the emphasis is a bit different with the 'cast building', as stated and there are various collector exclusives and whatnot - but they're just not especially unified. Does this make sense? I guess what I'm getting at is why not make Classics (for example) a continuing collector line? why have Hasbro felt the need to chuck a series of similar 'modernised' classic characters and sling them around different brandings like Reveal The Shield and so on? Would they really loose out on sales by releasing classics based figures in packaging that's different to whatever the main line is this week?
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Post by Denyer »

Mattel also had licensing issues with some of the material they planned to use IIRC -- the toy rights are separate to the rights for characters featured only in the cartoon, for instance and it took a while for negotiations to get friendly -- but yeah, the Snake Men re-branding seems to have been the last throw of the dice for the reboot.

I suspect the behaviour of retailers plays a large part in Hasbro's tactics with TFs -- switching things around is another opportunity to get them to pick things up. Equally, too many concurrent lines means that some won't be carried, so it's more effective to provide a mix of figures within a line. Hasbro have also gone with a very broad "it's all canon" approach to fiction, realising that they have enough bankable character recognition (and the trademarks to match) to rehash every few years for another generation of kids.
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Post by LKW »

I probably should've thought to post this sooner, but, in case anyone who might care can see this in time - Matty Collector.com has brought many figures back for their "Black Friday" Sale, which has expanded to even more discounts for "Cyber Monday". For - at least another hour forty five? - almost all figures are $6.60 USD off, the cats about $10 - the Wind Raider $15.... - Plus an added discount the more that you order - There were some brief figure appearances which we've all missed out on at this point, but still some good deals - and the prclaimed last chance at any remaining 30th Anniversary Figures... Well, hopefully anybody with interest was already aware of this sale, but, before I make one more purchase myself, figured I should post a head's up, since I brought up MOTUC here recently....
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