75 thoughts on “Powercon 2013
Armchair Coverage”

1. Updates to the MOTU Checklist will come tomorrow! One, it’s late. Two, tomorrow’s sale will see the September items move from the Upcoming to 2013 page anyway. 😉

2. Sweeeeeeeeeeet! Great article!

   My Alternate Head Pak suggestions:

   Burning / Melting Keldor
   Battle-Damaged Faker
   Millennial Buzz-Off
   Millennial Sy-Klone
   Millennial Clawful
   Helmetless Evil-Lyn (Yellow)
   Helmetless Zodak
   Hatless Orko
   Extra Battleground Teela
   Filmation Mer-Man
   Filmation Leech
   Alcala Skeletor x 5 (includes 1 “Post-Mo-Larr” head)
   Filmation Skeletor x 5 (includes 1 “Post-Mo-Larr” head)
   Man-E-Faces: Beast Man / Hordak / King Hssss

   1. 200X Clawful is my biggest want and I would literally buy the pack just for that.

      I’d also really like the more samurai influenced helmet on Sy-Klone, possibly with a thinner face that looked less like blue He-Man.

      200X Buzz-Off would be pretty cool too but I don’t hate the current head. I’d probably alternate both.

      200X Snout Spout would get massive support from me PROVIDED it was a hard plastic trunk. I barely touch my Snout Spout because I’m leery of his fragile trunk. (As is my two-pack Clayface’s arms are starting to deteriorate.)

      I’d love a helmetless 200X Man-at-Arms.

      I’m not adverse to the Roboto head but I’m relatively meh towards the Roboto we have in general.

      I wouldn’t be adverse to a fanged 200X Skeletor.

      Grizzlor I’m leery of but only because I seem to recall his face ultimately wasn’t designed to switch out. If it can be done so safely than I’m all for it.

      Besides Grizzlor, how many of these do you guys think are already done and lying around the Horsemen’s studio?

      1. I’d bet a few of them are already done in the studio. Some may not be, like Roboto because he really needs two separate figures, but I’d be shocked if Buzz-Off & Clawful weren’t done originally.

         I’m kinda shying away from the main characters, but I do admit a white Skeletor head would be kinda neat. Y’know, really if they just made some head/armor packs we could knock out a few variants ourselves.

         1. IIRC, Buzz-Off was indeed made and kiboshed after Whiplash committed the cardinal sin of being a cool figure worth our money.

      2. I’ll see your Snout Spout with a hard plastic trunk . . . and raise it with a hard plastic trunk made up of posable segments articulated on ball-and-socket joints.

         Either that, or the King Hssss-style bendy material that flexed and held a pose and DIDN’T FREAKIN’ DISINTEGRATE.

         1. An articulated trunk would rock in a perfect world.

3. Wow, that Blade is awesome. I hope that Anthony De Longis got to keep the 2-up. He deserves it for helping the line out come subscription renewal time.

   The 7th Market stuff is impressive. I never thought I’d see Crystar make a comeback alongside Adam Power. It’s a veritable Renaissance of early 80’s toy goodness.

   1. Much as I appreciate the effort, I don’t think we’ll ever see that Crystar. It’s been in development FOREVER.

      1. A little birdie tells me Crystar will be sooner than you think. 🙂

         1. Funny, that little birdie flew onto my shoulder & whispered the same thing. ; )

   2. The Blade is indeed cooler than I thought he’d be! He’s a happy surprise!

      Lots of good comebacks, we just gotta get that scale worked out! And we still need Captain Power!

4. So devastated that Blade comes with one of each sword. :/ Hopefully they change that, or at least get another weapons pack out.

   Those mini-comics characters are amazing. Easily better than the majority of the 30th anniversary sub from last year.

   1. Blade NEEEEEEEEDS two of the vintage sword. He NEEDS it.

   2. Maybe they could toss another of his swords in with the other movie figures? That’d be cool and there should be lead-time to do it!

5. i truly don’t get the fanbase for this property more than half the time… what kind of meatbag do you have to be to complain about battle lion? KG was released, the first time, 6 years ago, and was railed against cuz he was too small… but people seem to gotten over that. or at least, when he got re-released, no one was complaining overtly that he was still undersized. so in what preposterous world did we live that we thought we’d get a “to scale” battle lion?

   firstly, if we did, he’d be flatly too huge, and he wouldn’t go with KG at all, thereby ruining the whole point of doing him…

   secondly, and more importantly, we should have learned that to make one to scale, he’d cost around 13,000 dollars according to “logistics”. seriously, remember that in the real world, mattel thinks one action figure should cost the same as a prime rib dinner with rolls, salad, sauteed onion straws, slaw and a baked potato. battle lion would cost the same as a mazda 3.

   thirdly, and it almost goes without saying, or would to sane people, that it’s a buck line, it has been since day 1, so expecting a new figure to not use at least some of the existing buck parts is beyond cosmically stupid. it’s so friggin dumb that it keeps alien life forms from landing and sharing with us their higher technology and civilization, and instead, it’s the kind of abject stupidity that invites ravaging alien hordes to conquer the world, slaughter us to the man, and then pee in our remaining fresh water and leave.

   so yeah, i see this weekend’s reveals as great for motuc fans… and bad signs for humanity as a species. 🙂

   last point… the WCV glowing creature grate is beyond grate… it’s GGGGRRRRAAAATTTEEEE!!!

   1. “remember that in the real world, mattel thinks one action figure should cost the same as a prime rib dinner with rolls, salad, sauteed onion straws, slaw and a baked potato.”

      Quote of the year.

   2. I think most of the complaints revolved around “Era Wars” and that they were promised more pink bunnies instead of green cats. 😉

   3. MOTU fans are like old jewish grandmothers…

      1. You could learn something from your elders, you ungrateful little schmendrick. Oy. Such a shonde for the neighbours to pick over.

         };D

   4. The backlash to Battle Lion has pretty much made me hate most of the He-Man fanbase (if I didn’t already). You got your vintage purists who hate anything not vintage, and then you got your fans that will never be satisfied. You’re going to be getting freaking Battle Lion to go with King Grayskull! Come on, that’s badass! Holy crap, I’m starting to sound like Nietlich…

      I’m just glad for the Millennium figs coming out. We better get better Clawful, Roboto, Syklone, and Snout Spout heads though. I’d even hope for a Rattlor head as the one he has now is too generic looking.

6. The big reason I’m down on the head pack is something you’ve touched on. The the ship has sailed on availability, and while it might be easy enough to track down some of the figs now, once we know which heads are going to be in the pack, the aftermarket on those guys will skyrocket (think of all the Big Lots figures that might be covered here). Buzz-Off, Clawful and Grizzlor will join the ranks of Whiplash and Roboto in terms of obtainability. And so for that, I’d rather just ignore it and move on.

   And count me in the disappointed camp regarding Battle Lion. He looks fine. His size is fine. But in the alleged sunset of the line, there are MUCH bigger fish to fry, even in 200X selections. We just didn’t need him. If anything, they should have included his armor in a pack so people could make the 200X Battle Cat (to help sell the Essentials Battle Cat). If there’s to be buck reuse, it should have been the horses (Charger — a personal want — or, for the once-again-slighted PoP fans, Arrow or one of the others).

   1. That…doesn’t make much sense to me, lol. Why should the figures availability have any anything to do with releasing the head packs when 1) thousands of collectors already have them and 2) at least a few of the obvious candidates aren’t hard to get on the secondary market?

      1. I don’t think everyone has researched the secondary market prices of all the potentital figures, so they may just be more going on the idea that some older figures are expensive. Scareglow is thankfully not a candidate as an example.

         1. Ah…is he on the more brutal end? At this point I’m only shy a few of the TRU two-packs (of which only BA Faker pains me) so I’m not really sure which ones command a higher after market price (besides Teela as I recall). I’m assuming though that the price on anything found at Big Lots has dropped considerably.

            1. Yeah, I saw this amazing kitbash that used a Scareglow head… and, yeah, can’t spend that much for an extra head! 🙂

               The thing is, perhaps fittingly, that the figures that should’ve had alternate heads in the first place are among some of those Big Lots dumps…

   2. I’ve kinda fallen out of judging which fish to fry because it varies so much from collector to collector. As an example, I would cancel you out because I really wanted the Lion and don’t want (but would never begrudge) the POP Horses.

      I think whichever wants we don’t get will be a “tragedy” whether they be a MO2K cat or a POP Horse, or whatever.

   3. “slighted PoP fans” ROFLMAO!!!!

      If we got a horse I’d wait ’til I had Two-Bad in my hands and cancel my credit card.

      1. I display vintage. If I want to display heads from the 200X pack, I need a second figure. Some are cheap now (as mentioned, the Big Lots figures like Clawful, Sy-Klone and Buzz-Off) but when the heads in the pack are confirmed, any of those cheaper figures will rocket in price due to every collector in the same predicament going after one. (Already I’ve seen people talking about buying King Grayskull on eBay now that BL has been revealed.) Of course there are 200X fans who will just swap heads on their display figure, but mostly the norm in this line is to display multiple heads on multiple figures.

         The horse I want is Teela’s mini-comics steed (Charger). I PERSONALLY don’t care if we see more PoP horses. But I can see that PoP is a faction that has a lot of horses/critters in its vintage line that have not been represented. Exactly one so far.

         If this was my own personal fish fry, mini comics repaints of Stratos, Beast Man, Trap Jaw and Tri-Klops would be on the menu, main course would be Nightstalker and Stridor, with a side dish of toy-colors Man-At-Arms and an ultimate Teela 2.0.

         1. Oops. I thought Charger was a POP horse. Shows what I know. 😉

            And you are right about the price of Clawful going up once we know. Heck, it probably already has… I’m not sure if I need two versions – Buzz-Off & Snout Spout I would want both out maybe. Clawful not so much.

            I’d love to see those Mini-Comics repaints. Most of your list actually. I should come up with my own “fish fry” list…

         2. I dunno if we can call that the guaranteed norm. Out of the three local friends I know that collect the line I’m literally the only one of the four of us who double dipped on a figure and those were the two army builder sets. Don’t get me wrong I’m sure there are people that WILL get a second to display both heads, but to call that the NORM? I dunno. I’m not really a fan of one era over the other, I tend to just display the head I like best.

            And it’s not like you can’t snag an extra now while they’re still cheap. If the heads don’t get released just flip the figure to someone else.

            1. I would most definitely agree that displaying multiple heads of one character is not the norm. The resources (Both Shelf Space and Money) are high factors in this line, I just don’t see how the majority of fans (who complain about both shelf space and cost of figures) are then going around and buying two of each character to display twice.

               I don’t think the prices will go up nearly as much as you think. If at all.

7. Love the new reveals and am so glad the sub went thru. Blade is a top 5 MOTUC of all time for me. The 200x heads is a great idea and it would be awesome to get Snout Spout and Clawful at least. I am not familiar with Battle Lion, but he is one of my favorites cause he looks so darn cool. I am not as into the He-man lore as some, so can someone explain all the hate I have seen on toy boards about battle lion? is there another beast people would prefer to see in this slot? Seemed like a good choice that uses an existing sculpt with a few new additions.

   1. It’s just typical fan bellyaching over their favorites. The older, nostalgic vintage era will always reign supreme for some fans and the newer material will receive some derision. Hydron hails from the NA era and he took the brunt of the whining back at SDCC I think. So the MO2K Battle Lion is just the newest pinata.

      I tire of it, but I will give the caveat that the vintage fans were promised 2014 being more “A-list” and Battle Lion may not quite make the cut. That said, almost nothing left really makes the “A-list” cut either. 😉 And I’d rather have Red Beast or Gladiator than some of the vintage figures that haven’t been produced yet.

      1. Vintage fans are mad Battle Lion’s being included, 2002 fans are mad that he’s so small. I think he looks great for what he is, and I understand that this is a buck-based line, but a to-scale Battle Lion is one of those fanboy wishes I have that I know will never come true.

   2. Blade’s only in the top five? He’s in my top #1! I can’t wait to get him fighting up against Fisto!

8. OK, somebody get out the Matty Quote time machine.

   I seem to recall that several times over the years the idea of a ‘head pack’ (stop laughing, DR! 🙂 ) was quite impossible, just totally impossible, because of no good reason whatsoever.

   I think the idea of swapping heads around to create new characters or to change the looks just for fun was seen as somehow violating the existing figures. It was a ‘play pattern’ that wasn’t really anticipated because, ya know, you’re not SUPPOSED to play with the MOTUC toys.

   Now, me being the evil person I am, I might suggest that regardless the suggestions sent in we’ll get the heads the 4H had already sculpted, ones that got cut because LOGISTICS.

   Saying that, I suspect we NEED at the bare minimum a new head for poor Snout Spout and cartoon-a-riffic Clawful, yes?

   And if we’re doing heads, how about some HANDS as well? Is that something that could be done, or don’t the hands pop off as easily as the heads?

   1. It was never impossible, just costly and potentitally morbid.

      And, as you know, when sales decline, your willingness to explore options open up. 🙂

      1. But like so many great ideas suggested by the fans, the tone was VERY negative about it every time someone mentioned it.

         It was never a “Keep the chant going and maybe someday…!”

         It was “Shut up about it already, we haven’t got my Scooby Doo characters made yet. Priorities, a-holes!!! Priorities!!”

         Lame because just like with the Keldor swords, it’s now become a Toyguru back-patting moment more than something that happened as a natural result of fan feedback.

         Eh, whatever. I’m just glad it’s happening, but it’s also like “Really? Now? Well thanks for making us feel like jerks for asking about it.”

   2. the offered logic on the heads was that the heads would cost as much as the figures would, so getting a new head would knock out a character from a development slot. that’s the logistics… and i wonder what the explanation will be for why they suddenly cost out? and how many matty apologizers will explain this away because skid guru is “a real fan”?

      and to answer the hands question, they don’t pop off as easily as the heads, but they’re a pretty damned easy heat and pop. for logistics alone, i can only imagine the response… “we were gonna give you the back half of battle ram this year, but the fans have spoken so we made fists for the male figures, available in a three hand pack for 18.95, only on matty collector. i mean, who does that?”

      1. I suspect most Apologizers will just say, “Who gives a #%$@?” and be glad a head pack is coming out to give people options.

         Not everyone thrives on finding the perceived hypocrisy in a toymaker’s every word.

         1. clearly, you haven’t been paying attention to the fanbase of this line. no one is ever universally happy for a release, save our man Noisy. even i can find myself in the role of the cynical prick from time to time.

         2. Ero is half-right. The majority of us will be too busy squabbling over which era best deserves a head pack versus reconciling the various statements over the years. 😀

            I personally never care to reconcile the statements simply because things change. If you’d asked me in 2011 if I would own a Hot Toys DX-05 Indiana Jones, I would’ve said it was too costly and I’d be better off spending the $250 on my MOTU subscription. Well, two years later, things are different and HT Indy is chilling not too far from my MOTUC figures. Thankfully, no one is out there trying to figure out why exactly I’d buy something in 2013 that I said I wouldn’t buy in 2011… or there is and I just blissfully don’t know about it! 😉

   3. Actually they were never quoted as saying that the headpack was impossible just that a) the 200X look was retired, b) that the execs thought that the idea of a “head pack” was a strangely morbid idea and that it didn’t suit Mattels marketing style and c) the said execs also didn’t feel that there would be enough actual demand for said packs based on available information, so they quashed the idea .

      1. All of which makes me wonder how people who don’t listen to customers that want to throw large sums of cash at their company manage to rise to positions of power within said company.

         LISTEN to paying customers? Who DOES that?!

9. Battle Lion sales could spill over to DC, as without the armor, that green lion would make a great but expensive animal form for Beast Boy/Changeling.

   1. That is a fantastic selling point. 😉

   2. That is an awesome idea!

   3. That was the first thing I thought of when I saw it. Good call, because that little birdy he came with is just not gettin’ it done.

      1. you mean the green bird that is the same mold as the other MOTUC birds? 😉

10. OK so 200X Heads:
    Melty Face Keldor
    He-Man: (I need a He-Mullet, Dammit!!)
    Teela: (Long Ponytails are cool)
    Skeletor: (Since we’re getting He-Man and I love the Skelefangs)
    Roboto: (No more Gizmoduck Roboto)
    Snout Spout… Trunkrot is a serious Snout Spout Disease
    Buzz-Off: No Vampire Balloon Head… (If I get 3rd party casts of Dactys hands and legs, the transformation will be complete)
    Syklone Helmet
    Crownless Randor:(Since Captain Randor may not happen, then gimme a crownless Randor head to put on the vintage styled Randor.)

    1. A lot of people are clamoring for Snout Spout. He’s 2nd or 3rd on the Org’s voting, but I hope folks know that it would (SHOULD!) be an awesome MO2K version and not simply a replacement non-bendy head.

       1. and THAT is what I’m personally clamoring for… a more Awesome looking head for him. The staction head made Snout-spout cool. (I’m a Vintage Snout Spout hater)

          1. I would consider tracking down Snout Spout if a new head is cool enough, but truth be told that figure is one of the blandest of the line, the lame head aside.

11. I like that Lion and I’m not even an MOTUC guy.

12. Count me among those happy to see Battle Lion. I’m fine with the size (Classicizer machine, am I right?) and I think the sculpt is beautiful.

13. Okay, something that’s been bugging me: On Millennial Grizzlor, is that a yellow face-mask with brown rivets, or just a really ugly, angular, hyper-anime face?

    1. Facemask

       1. Yep, the 4H’s take was he was like Hordak’s hunter/tracker/attack dog who was kept in check by the magically-bound face mask and collar (check your Stactions, people…it’s there!!! 😉 ).

          1. I’ll take your word for it; I never bought any of the inaction figures.

14. BLADE!!! BLADE!!! BLADE!!! BLADE! BLADE!!! BLADE!!! BLADE!!! BLADE!!! BLADE!!! BLADE!!!! BLADE!!!!

    1. Also, SCORPIA DOESN’T TOTALLY SUCK!

       And . . . BATTLE LION ROCKS!!!

       Great reveals! 😀

       1. hrm… you’re uncharicteristically optimistic… what have you done with the real Lay Ze-Man? 😉

          they’re all great reveals. blade is my #1~!

          1. Hey!!! I just call it like I see it!!! 😛

             And credit is waaaay due on those reveals.
             The work the 4H put into each of those really shows.

             That, and Blade has been in my top 3 wanted MotU figures since the 200x days, and was one of my favorite figures as a kid, so I’m way biased in that dept!

15. Honestly, I’m happy about Battle Lion (and will still be happy if the other $38 item is a horse, POP or not) mainly because we’ll go through this entire year without a single “beast” unless you count Kowl and that little pack-in beasty with Shokoti.

16. Man.. i never thought the day would come when we get a Battle LION for King Grayskull to Ride .. UNREAL !!!
    Obviously i wish both the lion n Grayskull were in scale to the MYP cartoon, but it’s never gonna happen.
    Yaayy.. KG will ride his Bada$$ lion into Battle.. !! this si why i love MOTUC.. now get attack track Made !

17. Hey Noisy, you asked about the custom cat figure(s) at the end of your armchair coverage? Those are Scare-D-Cat and Cat-A-Mount, the steeds for Junk-E-Tor and Health-E-Man, created by a customizer Peter Valenzuela. You can find out more about the characters them in the character list at http://www.chewniverse.com. The second Champions of the Chewniverse mini-comic is about to be released (as soon as Edcomics finishes coloring it) hopefully in the next couple weeks. And the third comic is being drawn up by Frank Stone as we speak.

    1. Oh yeah! I get a % on that cat, right? 🙂

18. Only if I get a very large percentage of your percentage. 😉 The history of that particular cat stems from when I saw one of those fiberglass horse sculptures that roadside businesses use to advertise with. It was painted up for Halloween all in black with a skeleton drawn over it. I posted a picture of it at FanEx saying Scareglow should have a black steed with bones on the outside which inspired someone to make a photoshop mockup of said steed using Panthor as a base. I then stole my idea back, modified it and created Scare-D-Cat, Junk-E-tor’s steed and commissioned a custom.

    1. Haha. Panthor in Scareglow deco? I’m pretty sure only Mattel is getting that percentage. 😀

       1. Scare-D-Cat isn’t really Scareglow deco though. The raised bones on the custom and the bone mask look fantastic and they better mimic the photoshop I did based on the horse Iz found back in 2009. The customizer did an exceptional job!!

          What I really want to see is a GITD Battle Cat though with a skull for a head. That’s Scareglow deco and that’s the one any of us would’ve been clamoring for as wee tots.

19. http://s179.photobucket.com/user/azlawcat/media/IMG_6158.jpg.html

20. 

    Horror Cat! lol

21. Just an FYI – they did say that they are hoping to engineer the Battle Lion armor so that it can be removed and work with Battle Cat, giving you a 200x Battle Cat, if you want. So, where most people see Battle Lion, I see Battle Lion, 200x Battle Cat AND Clawdeen. ^_^

22. PS – Regarding Crystar, I was a Kickstarter backer, picked mine up at the show, and I lurvs it, precious!

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