154 thoughts on “Toy Fair 2012 Armchair
Coverage Updated 2/13”

1. Dammit! I was hoping for a Bronze Age Ivy!!

   Mirror Master, Platium, & Tin are cool, Black Mask is fine I guess, when the hell did Rocket Red switch to being a diaper robot?

   1. Strange choice for Rocket Red…
      They could have gone with the first JLI member (and evil) RR#7 Vladimir (5 appearances)
      Or a popular choice, JLI member Rocket Red #4 Dmitri… (105 appearances)
      Or Generation Lost member RR#7 Gavril… (26 appearances)

      But it looks like they went with Rocket Red #1 from GL #10 “One Year Later”, Maks Chazov with 7 whole appearances under his belt!

      ‘New 52’ Rocket Red Gavril should eclipse Maks in March’s JLI #8.

      I think this suit would be my last choice, but it’s one of Geoff’s characters again, isn’t it?

      1. Yep. That’d be the GJ version of Rocket Red for sure.

         My larger concern is that, apparently, he may be one of the oversized figures. So Mattel will have made a character we wanted that warranted being an oversized figure, but instead chose a version that should’ve been normal sized.

         Will we have to pretend that there’s a normal size guy in the suit and the muscles are for show or that Russia only enlists 9″ tall guys into the RR program… we’ll have to see…

         (I hope he’s not an oversized figure)

         1. Oh, goodness, you’re right, I hadn’t even considered the scale! I was so pre-occupied with the diaper suit.

            In Gen Lost, a bunch of these show up with white helmets, and you’re right – they’re normal human-sized. Gavril in traditional RR armor is MUCH larger.

            It bothers me a little when the Iron Man suits have musculature, but this will bother me a while lot more if he is in fact 9 inches or oversized in any way!

            I don’t hate Geoff Johns, and I like that we’ll have *a* Rocket Red figure, but this suit has never seen membership with the JLI. What am I supposed to do with him? He doesn’t complete any team from any era. He’s just another Green Lantern villain in a diaper.

            It’s also too bad, because for a collector’s line like this, they could have emblazoned ‘CCCP’ across the forehead of an earlier character, and no parent would have said boo.

            …and I’d have bought 7 more for customs…

            1. I’m just hoping that we’re wrong, seeing the pics without context. Hoping…

               Seriously, though, sell this guy with a blank chest and stickers?! They don’t even have to pay me for these ideas…

               1. I was asking for Dmitri with stickers when DC Direct first started! If the old DC boards hadn’t been through sixteen “Crises”, I could prove it to you!

                  1. LOL It’s so obvious that I can’t believe they’re not doing it.

         2. He’s an oversized figure.. Scott said it a few times… that slot is gone… the choice is dumb, but the design isn’t the worst… I do wish it was Dmitri

            1. I don’t mind the design so much, just a poor choice there. But the scale is just idiotic, seriously. Let me sign an NDA and I’ll be responsible for free fact checking. Between Nekron and Rocket Red, we’re throwing away C&C slots on normal sized characters now? I’m so happy about the rest of the sub, I think that’s tamping down the RR issues, but it’s so dumb.

      2. Vladimir was #4, DMITRI PUSHKIN was #7!
         and yeah, I forgot to mention Tina! too bad Tin is a LPS. 🙁
         now we just need Do Magnus!

         Dare I hope we get ElastiGirl and Chief announcement later?

         1. Also, the current Rocket Red, Gavril, was in Generatin Lost, so he’s already ahead of the first guy. Unless you’re only counting his DCnU appearances?

         2. Elasti-Girl has to be a lock, Chief not so sure.

   2. I really couldn’t decide which Ivy I wanted more. This one looks like it’d be great repainted though.

2. I scrolled through and thought this was a little bare bones, but then I read it. Looking forward to more info from the other lines. The subscription looks pretty awesome from here, but where are the C&Cs? Shouldn’t we have seen a few bigger figures by now?

   And has Platinum always been so uh endowed? YIKES!

   1. I’ll be adding to it as the night goes on so it’ll be nice and ready for tomorrow. We were just getting a ton of traffic, so I figured I’d toss up what I had so far.

3. Hoping to cherrypick Platinum and Mirror Master only so far…

   1. No love for Jay Garrick??

4. Okay, so can we make a rule that only the Four Horsemen are allowed to make new characters? Writers shouldn’t be getting to design things… sheesh.

   1. Lazerlot has a good cartoon quality about him. I think my biggest with both this and Spector’s design is the lack of a contrast color. So much purple and blue and so little to counter it…

   2. I 2nd Heath’s rule.

      1. 3rded, it is now law. sir lazertard looks like cobra commander w/ a plume. and his weapons look like cocktail stirrers. i know, i’m unfairly comparing the motuc weapon in my head w/ the recent SMC stuff, but come on, compare his packout w/ the SMAA hand cannon or the skeleswords, and his weapons look defective. the mace thing got reused in the snake men set and it looks way cooler even in that deco.

         spikor is similarly disappointing… i kind of thought i would look forward to seeing him, but now… i just don’t care.

         the two standouts for me were the snake men 2 pack, who look cooler as army builders than the two official snake men released thusfar, and then the sorceress… i really like the all white version, and the translucent wings are triple cool.

         as for the dc stuff… um, did platinum always come w/ the christina hendricks’? cuz i’m a dirty old man and those are some far out sweater puppies. the rest look dudish to me. i actually agree w/ noisy, rocket red is one of the DC characters i like most, but then they mixed the under-sized design w/ the over-sized slot… this is not a version of double R that i was looking forward to. black mask is excellent looking, but he’s just not one of my must-have bat-villains. but kudos to those who like him, he looks spot on modelwise. poison is not my fave either… i was hoping for something… prettier, to be honest. she’s one of those characters that i don’t think translate well to the very cartoony aesthetic of dcu. jay looks ok, mirror master i don’t really care, tin i don’t care, and metron… man, he looks nice. too nice. i hold it against all of you. 😉

         1. But at DC the artists are busy doing all the writing, so the writers have to do something…

5. I love the Snake Men!! King Hsssss needs friends!
   Spikor is awesome.
   Snake Man-At-Arms is better but still not really a good addition to the line.
   Frosta looks like a dude. Why do so many of the POP figures look like queens?
   Sir Laser-Lot is kinda cool. He looks like he’s form the cartoon.
   And Keldor swords!! Awesome!!!

   1. I do wish the Snakeman had had articulated jaws, but this works! Saves me money because I won’t need two like I did with the Palace Guards.

      And I’m excited for the Keldor swords! Just curious to see where they pop up.

      1. Supposed to be packed in with Snake Man-at-Arms (along with that little blue flashlight canon-thing).

         1. That’d certainly help that figure.

            1. Well, that was wrong info… cannon not with SMAA, not sure about the Keldor sword…

               1. There’s always a lot of weird info flying around. I watched PD’s MOTU walkthrough, it sounds like both will be coming with a figure before the end of the year, but that Mattel isn’t even sure who – plus, with Horde Prime and Spector losing accessories, I have no idea what they’ll do.

6. I am underwhelm.

   1. I thought it was I am disappoint.

7. Spikor looks like he’s deep in thought. Frosta looks great. Lazerlot needs a better name, but I like the fig. Snakmen armybuilder is awesome too! All around pretty decent.

   1. Spikor is contemplating why he’s not as mean looking as he should be.

8. gosh I hope that snake man 2 pack is part of the sub!!

   1. It should be, the subscription noted the 4 add-on items: “4 Beasts/Variants/Multi-packs (1 each at $60, $30, $40, $40 = $170”

      That’s the Star Sisters, Griffin, the Snakeman, with one item to go. Possibly another two-pack or an oversized figure?

9. Pretty nice DC reveals! Hopefully they won’t be a pain to get day-of.

   MOTUC reveals are pretty lackluster.

   I guess I should expect most figures to be boring vintage redos, but Spikor had the potential to be one of THE “heavy hitter, badass” type characters, and he looks like he was sculpted sleepwalking.

   1. I wasn’t really wowed by the sculpting as much as I expected to be, but perhaps the Toypocalypse Show set the bar really high? Ironic…

      1. Yeah, I mean going from seeing “4H Unleashed” sculpts to “back to the 80’s with you!” definitely has a bit of shock inherent. 🙂

         But if that were a hard and fast rule, I wouldn’t like the DC stuff all that much by comparison either.

         So in conclusion, Spikor is underwhelm.*

         *See Carlos’ above post. 😀

         1. Why does it seem that the more monstrous villains suffer the worst?

            1. If you’re bringing all characters down to a common cartonified, neutered level, then the baddies have a lot further to fall compared to our smiley, good-natured heroes.

               1. Very true. Still, I think some meaner sculpts could come in?, no?

10. Sir Lazer-lot? Seriously? For this we don’t get Ram-Man or, you know, ANY character from the actual original line, or cartoon? Or is he someone super obscure from the files of Filmation?

    Because otherwise, friends, that’s TWO ‘vanity’ figures eating up that oh-so precious development. I don’t care if he’s 80% existing parts, or even 90%, that’s still money that could be spent on something more fun or productive. I wager this and the other figure wouldn’t have gotten made at all if they had been ‘outside sub’ optional figures where there would be a risk of selling poorly. Nope, you got a sub, you’re getting him no matter what.

    Do I hate the idea of original figures in the line? Not at all! But they should actually fit, look and maybe, you know, have some relevance. Like how about some female Royal Guards? A Major Domo for the Royal Court? a ‘good’ version of Beast-Man? (or does Moss Man count for that?)

    *sigh*

    1. To be fair, the 30th line is budgeted separately so those two figures have no more impact on Rammy than Poison Ivy or Draculaura.

       I do think they just need to pop out Ram Man though. If I ran the brand and this was the first year of sluggish subscription sales, Ram Man would be on the schedule for Jan-Mar 2013. We’ll see what they do…

       1. That’s the official explanation which doesn’t hold water IMO.

          If they could “request” a separate budget for the 30th subset, then they could request a special “make Ram Man before fans flee en masse” budget.

          Or just have Ram Man as the figurehead 30th figure, saying “The 30th is celebrating ALL aspects of MotU history, from the earliest characters like Ram Man, to fan created characters because the fans have always been the lifeblood, to brand new characters to keep the line evolving!”

          That’d be a bingo. 😉

          1. It holds water, there had to be more money flushed into the system to add six figures and Mattel would certainly count it separately.

             The problem is in the reverse, Ram Man is being held, not penny pinched. It’s the same as Martian Manhunter, Elongated Man, & Mekaneck – the collectorbase flips out over a certain character, Mattel uses it as a possible future tentpole. There’s no budget issue here; check out the Snakemen 2pk or consider Ram Man could’ve been an SDCC exclusive at anytime, y’know? Personally, I wish they’d just make Ram Man so we can all move on. We’ll snatch up our Ram Man’s and be clamoring slightly less for “character x” and Mattel can hold off on them instead. 😛

             1. But there are the CONSTANT rumblings of “gee, you know, if the subs don’t meet goal…” and veiled threats of cancellation, we may well end up Ram-Man-less.

                I think that’s why Scott greenlights the vanity figures. He might be out of a job in a year or so but gosh darn he got HIS figure made.

                ‘Tentpole’ figures only work if one assumes there’s going to be a tent. That means long term commitment, which just seems to not be in Matty’s plans. Right now we’re at the ‘Lean-to’ stage I would say. 🙂

                1. Honestly, all the sub sales pitches are bullcrap and we all know it. Those are about Scott & co selling the sub ineffectively (though, admittedly, there is a portion of the fanbase which has no effective sell-to method). MOTU Classics will go through the low sales of Club Infinite Earths and the death throws of Ghostbusters before there is any talk of it outright ending.

                   You know me, I don’t create an adversarial nature between company and collector because I know it’s not really there. We’re two groups with conflicting interests, but the same goal. When/if Mattel is really worried about subscription sales, Ram Man will pop up, it’s really that simple. The lack of Ram Man, an ace card they’re not ready to pull, means things are going just fine in the world of MOTUC. Yeah, there’s the possibility of ultimate collapse that leaves us Ram Manless, but the subscription/online nature protects us somewhat from that. MOTUC is a line that will wind down and – honestly, no matter what anyone’s opinions on Scott are – does anyone really think he wouldn’t break his back to get Ram Man in there before that happened?

                   Like I said, I think all this hoopla over Ram Man is overdone, we’re collectors that love revisionist history, if they had made Rammy already, we’d just be bitching about someone else. So, I say pull the Ram Man chute and let us all start bitching about Mekaneck. Let him be the ace in the hole.

11. Frosta doesnt look too great to me Spikor looks prett decent but Sir Lazer lot or whatever wtf really kind of regretting my 30th sub at this point

    1. I’m okay so far… but I really hope Terry and the winning entry can pull that line out.

12. DCUC – I recently sold off all but two of my DCUC figures (Deathstroke and Catman) so I’m not too invested in what’s shown this year, but I do like Poison Ivy. In that AFI pic, she looks like a recolored Giganta. I wonder if she’ll share some body parts, just scaled-down.

    MOTUC – I like Sir Laser-Lot. I like knights in general, and he looks like a background character from the Filmation series. But holy crap, if you read the responses from HeMan.org, you’d think Mattel had made a figure of the man who murdered your dog. Those guys HATE him.

    And–WHOO! Keldor swords!

    STAR WARS – I’m glad we’re getting a “realistic” style Clone Wars Obi-Wan.

    GI JOE – Looks like Hasbro’s fully embracing the new peg-in-foot rocker ankles; a good amount of the figures use them, from what I can tell.

    1. MASS EFFECT PLAY ARTS KAI. OH GOD YES.

    2. The initial reaction to Laser Lot was going to be bad, even I kinda want to hate it (because I firmly believe GJ has no business receiving this honor), but I don’t think it’s that bad. I just wish there was more color variance to him.

       Excited about the Vintage Clone Wars figures, might have to pick up a few more SW than normal this year. More than next to none, that is.

13. I love the DCUC reveals. Good stuff all over. Poison Ivy looks good though it may not have been my costume choice. Good to see more Metal Men too.

    1. I was curious, so I whipped this up real quick (i.e. excuse the crappy photoshopping):

       

       1. Looks nice. Maybe later on they’ll do a flesh-toned repaint with gloved hands, green legs, and the elf-shoes.

       2. hmm, it would be easier to paint a flesh one green than vice versa. I like the green, though. I have to stop looking at ivy, red and lazerlot, thinking of how I’ll repaint mine…

          1. Laserlot could certainly stand to use some paint.

14. Suddenly Spector doesn’t look THAT lame anymore…
    This is what the “Great” Goof Johns was going to deliver? The bar has been set… Maybe Terry Higuchi’s character won’t suck as much as this guy…
    Wait a minute!? First Deadpool, now Cobra Commander… Terry Higuchi’s character will be a NOD to My Little Pony!!

    Is it me or does Frosta look a bit off?

    1. Terry really needs to help save the line. I’m not Anti-Spector and I do find some things to like about Laser Lot, but I wish the figures had more going on, very bland, monochromatic figures.

       1. Recently I’ve become less of an “anti-Spector” but more of a “Spector tolerant”. (Assuming he’s a comedic minor character and not a Gary Stu trying to out Mary Sue Bella Swan…)
          But SLL was OVERHYPED due to the Excess hype his creator has.
          Positive things about Sir Mixx-a-Lot
          He likes big butts and he cannot lie, Sorry wrong Sir…
          He COULD work as Draego-Man’s Nemesis.
          He has a name/appearance/(theoretical) action feature connection.

          1. My main thing on SLL is it just looks like a mediocre custom.

             The translucent stuff isn’t working, and the parts recipe is boring been-there-done-that-too-many-times.

             1. He’s too simple, that’s for sure. Neither Scott nor Geoff really came back with a design/aesthetic approach to their figure.

          2. Everything about GJ is overhyped. It’s in his contract. 😀

15. MOTUC: AND STILL no Ram Man! Or Jitsu. Spikor is much welcomed and better than nothing, but I’m sick of getting non-vintage line figures line NA, PoP, more concept figures, or these various “vanity” projects.

    DCUC: I have no use for that version of Rocket Red. Worse news still is that the Super Powers Penguin was a retailer exclusive of some kind and has since been cancelled.

    Tin of the Metal Men reminds me of the “Baby Cringer” pack-in. Don’t expect much articulation there, but at least all we need now are Lead and Doc Magnus.

    1. except they can’t call Lead “Lead”!! Maybe Plubinium or whatever the “proper” name is? oy….!!

       Where’s my ElastiGirl and Chief?!?!?!?!????

       1. I think we’ll see Elasti-Girl as the last slot in 2012 or possibly one of the 2013 figures. Chief… you might just be better served to buy an extra Black Mask…

          Here’s a question – why can’t they do a “Boring guy” figure that comes with different jackets and heads. Basic body has a white shirt and black pants, then heads for Bruce Wayne, Lex Luthor, Will Magnus, etc and then recast the one jacket and arms in the right colors to match and boom.

          How many of us wouldn’t buy multiples equivalent to the character options?

          1. I would buy multiples for sure. Don’t get me wrong I can understand that an action figure line wouldn’t necessarily have characters like Lex Luthor (not in power armor), Bruce Wayne, Will Magnus, Perry White, Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane, etc. but those characters are important for me in the DCU. Even Eaglemoss hasn’t done this sorts of “civilian” style characters though and there customer base is exactly the older collector type too, so I don’t hold out hope for a company like Mattel.

             1. I always hate you company excuses. There job is to sell it, not to retreat to what sells on its own.

          2. JAKKS did this with various redecos on their “suit” figures to varying success. the main problem with those is that they don’t mesh well with other lines, being 7″ tall vs 6″ and smaller. the basic buck is too beefy to even use one for a Clark Kent, even that cartoony over-buffed look he had during Emperor Joker era.

             but yeah, I did pick up enough of them to custom my own Blues Brothers (2k), add to my Heroes collection (Nathan, articulated Matt), and other “civilian” characters.

             1. I just don’t see why they don’t try it out. The tooling cost is minimal and you can release it multiple times – a black suit for a variety of characters, blue for another variety, – each time all the development goes into the heads.

    2. I thought the MOTU reveals were pretty decent, but they really do need to finish up Ram Man and be done with it. That said, I didn’t (and won’t ever) expect Ram Man to show up at NYTF. That’s a SDCC reveal, saved for when subscriptions are being sold for sure.

       Crappy news about the Penguin. They need to get him done. Wonder if it was Target or TRU that crapped out on the exclusive. And I agree on the Geoff Johns version of Rocket Red, that’s bullcrap.

16. Was there any word on the consolation gift Club Ecto subscribers are supposed to be receiving?

    1. Still nothing.

       It might just be that we’re no longer locked into buying Dana. 😀

17. MU Puck – I saw one report saying that w2 this year would be single Puck, then w3 would have White Owl Snowbird?

    ML – waiting on more confirmation on w3, but we really don’t need Sam/Fury AGAIN. and it looks like the Avegers’ comic versions will be ULTIMATE? I saw Ult.Hawkeye and ult.Thor in the display.

    DC sub – SOOOO disappointed in Rocket Red. Classic RR Brigade was 90% there with Freeze/Lex armor! I guess it’s time to go buy some of those pegwarming Freeze’s (LOL) and get out the white and red paint…
    I hope they don’t start getting Bat-heavy in the DC sub, or I’ll just dump that, too. Black Mask I can only hope his head comes off fairly easy so I can put Lex’s bald dome on that body. Ivy looks good, tho, and LOVE the Metron Chair! Not too thrilled about the new head for Red Lantern, I mean Atrocitus, but ototh, I can’t wait to get Blue Kyle and SinCorps Hal, despite the fact a splash of yellow paint on his mask finishes off the Hal headswap from Bat-SinCorps figure and I paid $30 for an extra Kyle to redeco him in blue…

    JLU – I can live without Guy and Mongul (who I already customed). $30 is pushing it for the 3pks, tho. I’m glad the others are all mostly new figures, so i don’t feel totally ripped off. (Savage Time needed that Bat-variant, tho!)

    GB – Dana looks good. Not sure what the “surprise” is yet? Proton Pack acct kits? Janine? Janosz??? “I’ll believe anything for a paycheck”/suit Winston? RGB 4pk?

    MOTUc – uh, who’s Captain Laser Lot? Frosta looks ok, tho. Fisto sale is Tuesday, right?

    1. Not sure on the Puckfront, I only heard about one release.

       Ultimate Hawkeye was leaked/teased at NYCC or last year’s SDCC I thought?

       The DC subscription reveals seemed decent enough, none where I was like “oh yeah!”, but this whole Toy Fair hasn’t really gotten me that excited about any one thing yet, so maybe it’s me.

       I’m just hoping the Rocket Red is not an oversized figure though, that’s crap.

       Not sure what’s going on with GB. I don’t understand Dana’s articulation still. Her amrs have to move because they wouldn’t look right on the other legs. And I kinda hope the legs come off the base? I don’t know… I can’t even be sure I’m buying that one anymore since my sub was cancelled.

       Laser Lot is Geoff John’s contribution to MOTU Classics! Exciting, isn’t it?! We’ve progressed to the point where writers design toys and artists write comic books! It’s the future! LOL

18. I get a lot of the disappointment with MOTUC, but the Snake Men 2-pack and Frosta left me pretty happy. It may be a troop builder pack, but those two Snake Dudes are so awesome they’re worthy of their own character profiles in my warped mind. As for Frosta, I know I’m in the minority (which is nothing new, since I’m Filipino) but I think she looks plenty pretty.

    That said, Hasbro’s offerings did leave me a bit disappointed. Most sobering was the news that the last waves of DOTM figures would be dropped just like the Prime First Edition waves. I really wanted that Human Alliance Soundwave.

    Only two new Legends revealed, but I guess it’s understandable since that stuff almost always gets left to SDCC and the first wave is only hitting right now. I was hoping they’d announce a vintage Plo Koon in the Star Wars line but I knew that was a reach, and I tend to tune out any announcements of SDCC Joe stuff…the Zarana scars are still bloody and deep.

    1. On the Frosta thing, I can get it if she’s one of your favorite characters and you had a specific look in mind for her that you wanted to see.

       But I 100% agree that everyone calling her “ugly” are way out of line.

       It’s also more than a little funny that if that Frosta were a real life female, she’d be out of all of these complainers’ league by a factor of, oooh, about a billion. 😉

       1. I’m a little disappointed in Frosta because I was expecting something different. A little more… uh, “Treadaway” if folks get what I’m saying.

          I think the sculpt is perfectly fine other than it just not being what I expected, I’d like to see the eyeliner toned down a bit fore the final release though, none at all across the bottom of the eye for sure.

          1. So you DO want the MOTUC ladies to look like sisters! 😀

             1. LOL Not really, I just put Frosta together in my mind (as one can do in this line) and the Treadaway would be prettier in this case. 😀 Many of the other POP girls could be unrelated and I’m good, but Frosta I preferred look like I’m used to.

          2. Yeah, I don’t have a problem with Frosta, but they do need to lighten up the heavy/dark make-up. Even Hedwig knew when too much was enough.

             1. The 4H said on Twitter that she’s still WIP.

    2. I was a little surprised by the lack of Legends reveals because we’re seeing wave two in package online, so it seems like a long wait until wave three?

       Hasbro is screwing me with the SDCC exclusive yet again this year. Sarge wasn’t too bad since I didn’t particularly care for the figure, I let Zarana slide by, but a 30th Jinx as the chase exclusive? That’s just mean. Mean!

       1. White Jinx is a SDCC exclusive? Oh, that sucks! I thought she looked pretty good, but actually getting her is going to be painful now. At least the “female ninja” body will see retail release with the main movie line. On the other hand, I’m glad the exclusives will be red and white, which means an all-black repaint is still a possibility for a store-exclusive or something.

          1. Yep. The mountainside Jinx is a normal fig, white is the SDCC exclusive, and Red is the chase SDCC exclusive.

             1. Dang that sucks! The “classic” Sarge command ridiculous prices on eBay! 🙁

                1. He as a fair bit cheaper before BBTS 7pk, but yeah – he’s at too bad prices.

19. Overall, I liked the Mattel reveals at NYTF this year.
    Can’t wait to get Black Mask and Poison Ivy into my collection..
    Sad part of being an international customer is that you tend to miss out on a rare awesome 2 pack of Catwoman and Batman in black and white..
    Spikor looks completely like his vintage self! Sadly no upgrades ala Fisto/Kobra Khan..
    That aside, SA-MAA looks much better and with the arm cannon coming this year, he seems much more bearable than the original reveal.
    The face sculpt of TMS seems to have improved and if this indeed the final figure, it seems well done..though doesn’t exactly delong to MOTUC world..
    SLL screams of a Roboto custom for me..I am gonna get rid of that plume first up and work on getting a better, non cracked torso Roboto..
    The snake men 2 pack looks stunning, but why do I have a feeling we’ll end up with more bunny fang snake men. If that is indeed the case, then we’ll have to get a snake armor mo-larr! 😀

    1. Good point, we need to ask for no bunny fangs.

       And I always say, I don’t know how international collectors do it. That’s commitment right there.

20. JLU! JLU! JLU!

    1. LOL 😀

    2. I’m gonna be SOOOOOO pissed if they put Mongul up first and get low sales because no one wants to pay $30 just for him. Knowing Matty, they’d use that as an excuse to try and pull the rest of fudge it up somehow.

       and personally, I would pull the Savage 3pk Batman and replace him with Aquaman (orange, short hair) if they couldn’t do the armored version.

       1. That Batman is pretty extraneous. I just want that oen Superman though, so even Vandal is extraneous to me. But, hey guess who doesn’t have a DC Classic? 😛

21. So… the reveals on the Matty site mention a 4.5″ YJ Miss Martian (in a 2pk with Martian Manhunter) – does this make us more hopeful for a 6″?

    1. I am hopeful. I just hope we don’t get to far into a round of second decos on the others. Ideally, she’s next!

       1. I don’t get why they need to shoehorn another 6″ Batman into the line. Pull him for Megan, Savage, or J’onn, at least!

          There’s also a 4″ Artemis, coming, paired with GL???
          I don’t know about that Amazo? He was shown among the 4″ 2pks, so…?

          1. I worry that Batman is there to prop up sales, but recent waves seem to be doing better than the first one. While I have about zero concern over getting Ram Man, Megan is in the hands of consumers and retailers – Mattel really needs to get here done in 6″. I promise I’ll buy some Arctic & Night Decos after!!

             Amazo is a C&C for that scale. I think you have to get four of the 2pks with each one containing a piece to build him.

22. I agree that they really need to get Miss M in the next wave and show her at SDCC. I am sure they could give her a nice enough base or some really nice accessories like Artemis to make her more enticing to buyers if that is their issue. That Superboy base looks very small, maybe there is more too it that was not shown? Will anything new come out this week or was Sunday the big day?

    I hope they get us some more Villains (like a Black Manta alone or vs Aqualad(Stealth Suit) 2 pack…

    1. It looks like both Guardian and Superboys might have some type of cardboard backing. (Superboy is backwards on his if that’s the case.)

23. The Spikor figure DOES include a New feature. Apart from both an “extended” and “retracted” version of his Original Toy Trident (to resemble his old “Action Feature” without actually HAVING it :^D), he also looks to have a swap-outtable (?) functional Left Hand, as seen in exactly ONE episode of the TV show!

    I’m pretty pleased with all the MoTUC Reveals, even Sir Laser Lot isn’t all THAT bad! :^)

    1. That’s true! I’m actually happy about that extra hand, I never liked his weird trident arm! And, no, Laser Lot isn’t that bad at all. The fact he was designed by Geoff Johns is worse than his deco.

    2. I’m guessing that was more than likely a reversed animation cell and not intended. It would be awesome if we could have that though.

       1. No, in “The Games”, Spikor is seen with Two good hands at the same time. It is Odd, but it is canon (for FILMation, anyway, and Now for MoTUC!). :^)

          1. Right, but this was probably done for “flipping cel” ability to save cash in the animation.

             This is the reason almost every character in Filmation was designed to be symmetrical (ie. no “mismatched” bracers on He-Man like the action figure, etc).

             1. Yes, I get that, too. But in all his Other FILMation appearances, Spikor DID have a Trident in place of his left hand. In “The Games”, the tournament in which Spikor was entered required him to climb a ladder at one point…

                I think I’m getting too “Bogged Down” in the details here. [^) I’m just glad that the awesome forthcoming MoTUC Spikor will have a wealth of display options!

          2. Cool. Mine is definitely getting two hands. I don’t get the trident hand thing.

24. On OAFE’s ustream yesterday Mattel confirmed Rocket Red as 8″ oversized.

    1. If they used the Freeze/Luthor armor as a classic armor base, I could understand, but that looks more like a standard 6″ buck with a vest and diaper. Dude is almost laughable. He’s also basically a random trooper, as neither the original guy/Manhunter plant, Dmitri, nor Gavril have worn that armor. That’s too much to ask for an exclusive when there are better known versions fans have been BEGGING for for YEARS.

       (personally, I never did like the Apokolips armor Dmitri wore (adapted to JLU), and slightly glad we didn’t get that version!)

       1. I dunno, to me it somehow looks like a reuse of the Adam Strange design from the JLU line.

       2. Rocket Red was a boneheaded move on their part. I could forgive the 7-appearances Geoff Johns version if he were at least the right size, but to choose this flash in the pan and make him way out of scale? Complete fail.

          1. Joe Acevedo brought this up on their FB page and I had to agree, noting I expected the Freeze/Lex body idea I mentioned above.

             We are WAY past needing Scott out of there and getting someone who is above cherry-picking his/her personal favorites first, or letting his buddies sway him. I know Scott Rogers was really the only one campaigning for Killer Moth and we should have realized what was happening then, but we laughed it off and lauded Scott for getting his dream figure.

             And yes, I’d still be saying this if we had Will Payton, gold Power Girl, and Ambush Bug figures before Wally, FA Kyle GL, J’onn, Super Amigos, or Skittles Lanterns. Were there any unique characters besides the Super Amigos and part swappable R/Y/G Lanterns in the last year who hadn’t already been done by DC Direct?

             1. I don’t much care about the DCD aspect, because I don’t think one company making them should factor into the plans of another, but the last year of character selection was a turn for the worse (and I wasn’t majorly opposed to the Skittle Lanterns and I downright love my Super Friends). While I wish her well on the Superman film line, I don’t miss Fangirl 2.0’s tenure one bit.

                The All-Stars line up makes 2011 look good in comparison though, I wanna shove FP Plastic Man in limbo and recuse the SP Penguin…

    2. @#$%.

25. Ghostbusters is depressing as f*ck. I’m still pissed they cancelled our subs to force us into the new ‘day of’ pricing bracket. I could see letting people out of subs with a change in schedule, but if you are still making figures anyway, even if its less, giving people the option to keep the subs would have been the right thing to do. Unless you just want to scam people out of an extra $2. Just cancel the line and put it out of its misery, give up the license and hope someone else does it better. 🙁

    1. speaking of which, any news coming from DST about Real Ghostbusters Minimates? Or is the line done?

       1. Last I heard – They have no plans for this year, but that could change.

          1. cause I really want some Peoplebusters; those honestly couldn’t be dramatically difficult to tool compared to the ghosts they’ve done.

             1. I’d love to see those too.

          2. Hope they do!

       2. I have all those. I keep meaning to at least do a spotlight, if not a full review on those… love those lil’ guys.

    2. anyone else would too.

    3. I’m feeling pretty much that way too. I bought RTBY Peter for the Ghost and I’ll get the Rookie, but beyond that… it’s hard to justify $30+ on the figures in the line.

       1. the sad thing is, you know they blame the ghostbusters fans “well, they talked a good game, but when product got made, they’re talk went away without purchase.” at no point has it occurred to them that we might have had a standard in our collective consciousness that they fell short of. like, you know, likenesses that look like the actors, rather than a cartoonized caricature of them… look no further than NECA’s rocky stuff for proof that precise likenesses can be captured on a 1/12 scale line. holy CRAP that mr t is spot on, and dolph is spot on though not as well painted. sly is very good, though not as good as the other two, but the resemblance certainly makes the mattel GB line look like dollar store figs.

          1. OTOH by all indications the role-play toys blew out the door like nobody’s business. Which might be why they’re making the BTTF Hoverboard that doesn’t hover but seems to use ‘furniture glider’ technology (and I can’t WAIT to hear about the lawsuits from people who broke a limb doing something stupid with this) to try and give some kind of action to it.

             I think, with Ghostbusters, they got caught up in the hype for the GBIII ‘vaporware’ and figured they’d be positioned to cash in on a BIG HIT movie, which didn’t happen, so that taint trickled down to the line which suddenly had lost its ‘heat’.

             And oh yeah the figures were somewhat phoned in but shhhh, that can’t have had ANYTHING to do with sluggish sales, right?

             1. but, the sluggish sales came after the less-than-impressive debut. and yes, the prop stuff sold much better, but it’s also made a lot better and actually looks like the piece from the movie, kind of proving my “if the toys had looked like the movie” theory.

                and yes, i think it’s pretty obvious they were banking on the zeitgeist of a new movie that didn’t happen… but that’s what happens w/ licensed goods, sometimes they win, sometimes they lose. you think NECA prospered from the disaster that was jonah hex? hell no, they rolled the dice and came up snake eyes… that’s why new original properties are part of any successful business model for toy makers. they create a chance to win without the opportunity for a shitty media property to jank things up for them. onell seems to be doing fine without licensed product, for example.

                and god help us all, that hoverboard is trouble. for me, it’s far too little far too late, they couldn’t pay me 79.99 plus shipping to take it, but there are some tards just waiting to eat marty mcfeces out of a BTTF bowl… so good luck mattel.

                1. Here is the dichotomy that seems to exist now in the toy biz. Licensing is all. Creating an original property is hard. As in Barbie “Math is hard”. A company would rather throw the dice on licensing a supposed BIG HIT movie, with all that tooling and development that generally can’t be re-used or repurposed, than take a risk on spending money on something that doesn’t have a Hollywood or TV tie-in.

                   Even if that property is in some way linked to another property, everything is in its own watertight, airtight, thoughttight compartment.

                   Yet in-house properties can be made evergreen. Hasbro can whip out MLP every once in a while because the concept is simple and the tooling exists. GI Joe has its ups and downs but Hasbro is slowly figuring out that keeping SOMETHING called GI Joe on the shelves can be a Good Thing. There’s no denying that Hot Wheels and Barbie are evergreen. But all of that is OLD and there’s always someone in Management who gets to thinking “why do we sell all these OLD toys? can’t we make something NEW and EXCITING and cashes in on a current fad?”

                   I recall the common thinking, the action line in the biz was “a line lasts 3 years, if it’s solid” but some see that as a rule, not an observation.

                   Original lines don’t get made because of the fear of failure. Yet somehow that is never considered when it comes to multi-million licensing. Mattel can’t do a thing with the Avatar tooling (unlike what Hasbro was able to do with Jurassic Park toys), and I tell you, I weep, WEEP when I think of the money spent on tooling and development for those Green Lantern Movie toys. The vehicles! Who the hell gave the O.K. for that huge transforming jet?! (I love it because it’s completely insane and may get one when it gets cheap but man, that’s something I sure wouldn’t have done were I brand manager). I can’t help but wonder if all those dud Green Lantern toys are the real reason for the moratorium on vehicles in MOTUC.

                   Yet an in-scale Ecto-1 could have been a big hit with Ghostbusters.

                   arrggggh.

                   1. I don’t think a NEW in-house property can match the heights of the old ones. The addicts of old don’t want new stuff and the next generation addicts itself to different things.

                      That said, Mattel’s rolling in it over with Monster High. They tooled up three new buck bodies for those dolls this year…

                2. I don’t get the complaints on the Hoverboard really. Mattel bought that license for the car (which they’ve milked plenty in the die cast aisle). I think the Hoverboard just came about because of all the talk around Mattel securing the license and the Boys division wanting to take advantage of it. It got a TON of press too, going beyond the normal toy news channels onto mainstream sites. You’d think it was the only thing Mattel showed at Toy Fair…

          2. That Rocky line… ugh. I don’t even like Rocky all that much!

26. Echoing thoughts on Sir LOLZ-alot:

    For me, I think he would have been saved by an action feature, like a LED behind the chest triangle with a lightpipe to his visor. Or an embedded LED in his hand that feeds a lightpipe in the sword, shield and a lance. A ‘laser lance’ would really help the figure. Of course, there’s the problem that there’s no horse for him to ride…

    Mind, we don’t get no steeeking action features in MOTUC.

    1. seriously, is it me or do his weapons look cheap?

       1. I honestly can’t judge. The Shield looks like it has a fancy tampo over clear blue plastic, the sword looks like generic sword.

          I think he does need a laser lance. Maybe Spy Monkey can take care of that. 🙂

          1. the sword in particular looks garbage, but i don’t like the shield either. and the mace thing looks so much better in the snake man 2 pack decor.

             BTW… the new guy gets three new accessories, a giant plum thing, a unique head, and retooled chest armor, and draego got stripped down to one weapon, wings and a new head? really?

             plus, we finally get a brand new 100% tool and it’s a generic snake man, not ram man, not two bad, not extendar… generic snake man. ok… not gonna say anything. what i will say is… why could we get that snake men scaleyness for draego, rather the hsss ripple? that snake man deco, which is already pre-destined for rattlor i’m sure, would look tit tizzy lizard pits on draego… that is all.

             1. holy crap i’m bad at the proofread, eh?

                this: “why could we get that snake men scaleyness for draego, rather the hsss ripple?”

                should say “why couldn’t we get that snake man scaleyness for draego, rather than the hsss ripple?”

                1. Even when you type it out right, I still don’t think I could say it five times fast.

             2. That is what you get for being Geoff Johns…
                Seriously the 30th anniversary line is being held together only by Draego Man.

                1. I’ll enjoy the other two, but yeah Draego’s holding the line up on his shoulders.

          2. I’d be more interested in the shield if I could make out what it’s trying to display.

             1. Not too sure why there are two pairs of fangs on the edges or a “Bio-Hazard” sign in the middle, but the largest icon on the shield is a pair of eyes, firing lazers into an explosion at the bottom.

                If Sir Lazer Lot had been in the ’80s line, he would have had light up eyes like Rom The Space Knight! [^)

                1. I can see that now. I still don’t “get it” though.

    2. Lack of horse aside, a Lance would be cool! And yeah… light up too… I need to page Dr. Nanite…

       1. Doesn’t Hasbro have some Star Wars 3 3/4″ figures with working light-up Lightsabers coming out? Cripes if they can do that, a ‘laser lance’ could be self-contained.

          That’s something for the Spy Monkey folk. Make lance parts when they finally do a pole arms set. Really, just need a cone that a handle and a pole can plug into, and a pointy tip. Could also make wacky blasters. 🙂

          1. I believe they do. Mattel couldn’t afford the LEDs though…

27. There’s some My Little Pony news, too. Not much on the homefront (I guess there’s a wedding coming up or something) but if you want a cartoon-style toy your best bet is… McDonalds.

    http://www.mylittleponynews.com/2012/02/new-mcdonalds-toys-coming-to-us.html

    I guess I’m a’ginna have to get some kids meals. 🙂

    (yes, I know, you can buy them separate but hey, I like McNuggets so no pain)

28. I was flabbergasted by Mattel’s decision to make this version of Rocket Red. I appreciate that they acknowledged that there’s demand for a Rocket Red figure, but what on Earth made them think people wanted *this* one? That’s just… tone deaf in a way the people behind DCUC usually aren’t.

    (Well, except for the Rainbow Lantern wave.)

    I hope that thing hasn’t been tooled yet. I’d like to believe there’s time for Mattel to fix their mistake.

    I was thrilled with Platinum/Tin, Mirror Master, the Snake Men two-pack, Spikor, and Frosta. The classic Poison Ivy someone Photoshopped above made me realize what a missed opportunity this version represents.

    And Black Mask? Really? I needed to be thrown another bone (maybe Changeling or Perez Zatanna) to get me to stop regretting the DC subscription, and Black Mask just isn’t the figure to do that. I didn’t hate Mattel’s offerings, on the whole, but I wasn’t given a lot of reason to think I’d want to re-subscribe to this line.

    On the upside, the 80’s X-Men and Alpha Flight Minimates that were shown filled me with collector glee. Thank you, DST!

    1. Rocket Red is a horrid screw-up to me. The irony is that it seems a decent chunk of the unsure subbers were actually happy enough with the other five that complaints about Red have been downplayed it seems. Hopefully, the Ask Matty’s that get submitted tomorrow will bring it up. I know we’re going to…

       I need to check out the minimates. Been a busy weekend!

29. the Jazwares’ link leads to DCDirect which is also nice to walk through..thought just pointing that out 😉

    1. Darn it!! Thanks for the heads up…

30. I’m not surprised at the vitriol backlash incessant whining constructive criticism everyone has towards the MOTUC reveals. I think Spikor came off 100% perfect. He’s a nice mix between the Filmation and vintage figure design. Sir Mix-A-Lot is a little wonky looking, but I dig it… I love the colors. I hope SMC comes up with a lance for him! 😉

31. I’m not surprised at the vitriol backlash incessant whining constructive criticism everyone has towards the MOTUC reveals. I think Spikor came off 100% perfect. He’s a nice mix between the Filmation and vintage figure design. Sir Mix-A-Lot is a little wonky looking, but I dig it… I love the colors. I hope SMC comes up with a lance for him! 😉

    1. I don’t like Spikor’s head, but I’m not a Spikor fan in the first place, so my protest is taken with a grain of salt (expect a Vault review that month, folks). I wanted to hate on GJ’s figure, but Laser-Lot isn’t too horrible – he just needs a little work, maybe the new crotch piece will help the figure out.

       And an SMC Lance sounds great!

32. Hey, over at Poe’s site there’s a blurb that the Wind Raider is going to be re-issued! Wadda ya know!

    Oh, it’s going to happen during SDCC.

    When, you know, lots of people’s money is going to be tied up trying to get all those RARE!! COLLECTABLE!! exclusives.

    Kinda wish I could embed the Price Is Right ‘Oh dear, you lost!’ music sting here. BWAP BUM bum ba bum WAaaaaaaaaaa.

    1. I bet it’ll sell well there though. It’s the fervor of SDCC! Ideally, they’ll have leftovers for the site after the show though.

       1. In a Rational world Matty would send everyone who returned a Wind Raider a special email “Dear Friend! We’re so sorry about the defective Wind Raiders, and you’ve probably heard we’re going to have a second issue at SDCC. Have no fear! You won’t be left out! If you still want to buy Wind Raiders, go to this special page and enter this specific to you code. We regret that we have to limit you to (x) number but if there’s overstock we’ll be putting them up for sale at Mattycollector. ”

          Never happen. NEVER. That’s admitting a problem existed and making an extra special effort to regain good will. If I were running Mattel I’d sure as crap do this. Well, if I were running Mattel the problem wouldn’t have happened in the first place… 🙂

33. OK, I’m too lazy to poke around everywhere. Who got the John Carter (Warlord of Mars!!) toy license? I assumed Mattel due to existing Disney/Pixar connections. Movie comes out in March, shouldn’t they have been shown at Toy Fair?

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